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Siri Karya offers software for publicity

International marketing was never cheap, given the conversion rate of the rupee. And in a market where it takes a long time to get known the Bangalore-based Siri Karya Pvt Ltd has found a cheaper publicity option -- the Internet.

The company was set up by two professionals who had hoped to sell software products worldwide. If the high cost hadn't proved a deterrent. The company shelved its ambitions for the interim and set about doing projects for software companies abroad. But employees were still encouraged to

T O D A Y

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develop products.

According to Srikant Machikanti, director and promoter, the company has seven technologies, all developed to meet in-house requirements, all ready to be converted into products.

And till such time as the customers come in, the products are being given away free on the Siri Karya web site.

This, the company hopes, will give it some free publicity. But side by side, at least one product -- a software project monitoring tool -- is to be shrink wrapped for sale in the US and European markets.

Other Siri Karya products include a log analysis system for the Internet, which records how much time was spent on which site on the Net, a mail informer and a Java-based archive enquiry system. All of these are still being refined into commercial products.

The company also has products focussing on the backend of the banking system and also put together a package to simplify operations for large organisations like as banks, telephone companies and electricity boards. And Siri Karya offers a payback period of two years for a telephone company in Bangalore, said Dilip Panicker, director and promoter, who says the company hopes to have a quarter of the staff devoted to products that bring in half the revenue.

It hopes to move to the Electronic City next year and become a public limited company two years later. But till then, it will be free software and, hopefully, free publicity on the web for Siri Karya.

-Compiled from the Indian media

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