(Hasan Ahmad is a Bangalore-based young software engineer whose company mPower has recently won the prestigious Lockheed Martin India Innovation 2008 Award from U.S. aerospace major Lockheed Martin for a software automation product called mPire. In this interview with our Assistant Editor Tariq Anwar, he talks about his company and the award.)
Q: How did mPower come into being?
A: mPower was started by some like-minded industry professionals to empower lives of fresh IT graduates through imparting high-end quality training. It was founded in December 2004 but officially it began its journey on 4th June 2005. Now our company is emerging into an innovative product company.
Q: Your company’s profile?
A: mPower is a product based software company that focuses on innovation. The company is also involved in training and services business.
Q: What is mPower’s vision?
A: The vision of mPower is to be among the top 10 respected companies in the world. Our mission is to develop innovative products and services, to maintain highest level of integrity among employees, customers and stake holders and to build an organisation with highest value system and integrity.
Q: What are mPower’s achievements since its inception?
A: We recently won Lockheed Martin India Innovation program 2008 award. We have developed over a dozen high-end portals for companies like ABB, Travelocity and Qatar Airways. We maintain a library of extremely capable enterprise components. Our innovative products have been appreciated by companies like Sun Microsystems, Yahoo and MindTree.
Q: About the Lockheed Martin India Innovation Program 2008 award?
A: The U.S. aerospace major Lockheed Martin has given us this award launched in association with the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas at Austin and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The programme has been created to enhance the growth and development of India’s entrepreneurial economy.
Q: Tell us about the product which won you Lockheed Martin India Innovation Program 2008 award?
A: It is a software product based on JAVA technology. The software helps to develop Web based applications in 1/10th of the actual time. It auto-generates 80% of the structured code, which is compatible with any operating system, any browser, any portal server. The software simply addresses the current challenges of IT industry like shortage of skilled programmers, costing, timely delivery and adhering to standards. One input file of 20 lines to the software generates 8000 lines of code in just 3 seconds which is highly robust, completely customizable, free from errors, compatible with all OS and browsers, and can be accessed through PDA/Mobiles.
Q: Who are mPower’s partners?
A: Our partners include Ionidea and Next Level Enterprise, U.S. We are in talks with Sun Microsystem for associate partnership and Liferay Inc. for technology partnership.
Q: How are you planning to take your product/services further?
A: Innovative products and high demand services make their natural penetration. However to maintain visibility, we plan to use various branding mediums like electronic mailers, marketing collateral addressed to decision makers and print media. We also plan to take part in local and international IT seminars/events and sponsor and organise relevant events.
Q: Who are mPowers competitors?
A: Our competitors include Vignette, Tenfold, IBM Websphere, BEA Weblogic, Adobe Flex and Borland.
Q: Who manages mPower?
A: mPower is managed by industry experts with average experience of 15+ years. The profiles of the board members are as follows: Rasheed Ahmed started his career in IT field in early ‘80s. For several years, he managed the service center of a large computer dealership in Southern California. He has rendered his services to IBM Global Services. Syed Habeeb, a Mechanical Engineer, has conducted workshops and training programs in India, Dubai, Malaysia and Brunei. His role at mPower is to drive vision of the organisation and build a strong value system of the company. Akbar Ali, a computer science engineer, has experience of 10 years from different industries like BPO, Software, Branding, Recruitment and Management Consulting in India and abroad. Our advisory board consists of Sheriff Kottapurath, ex-CTO, Sun Microsystems, Mirza Yawar Baig, board member, Cranes International Ltd. and Shanawaz Khan, CEO, Caravel Info Systems.
(About Ahmed Hasan: Innovation and creativity are his core strengths. A Post Graduate in Computer Science & MS in Software Systems from BITS Pilani, he is the inspiration behind mPower. With a decade of hard core technical expertise he founded mPower Labs Pvt. in the year 2005. His last assignment before taking on this vision was at General Electric. He is founder of groups like Blr Softies and Soft Breaks, which have helped fresh IT professionals. He also started inikah.com, a free online matrimonial service to help people find their life partners.)
Link:
www.mpower.co.in