India's Top Software Projects 2012

The whole world recognizes India as a software super power, with our software exports market having grown by leaps and bounds to more than $60 Billion last year. And yet, the real brains behind this achievement go by unnoticed, because they work behind the scenes. These are the Indian ISV and developer communities. They're the ones who've spent sleepless nights on software projects and delivered them successfully for their clients all over the world. They're the ones who have really innovated, and therefore deserve the accolades.

So in an effort to recognize this achievement, PCQuest has instituted this year, "India's Top Software Projects 2012”. It's an initiative to recognize the accomplishments and innovations being done by the Indian developers and ISVs communities.

Who can participate?

Anybody can nominate a software project, be it a software development house, an ISV, a software vendor, system integrator, or even an individual developer. In fact, we encouraged people to nominate more than one project. The only thing we really asked for was that the software project should be an original/unique idea, or a very innovative idea. Moreover, in order to encourage the Indian software developers to participate, we put a clause that the software project must have its roots in India, i.e. it could be an Indian software company or individual developing custom software for foreign clients, or a MNC software development company developing projects for Indian clients. Software projects developed by a foreign company for foreign clients will not be considered.

Software project or implementation?

This is clearly an initiative to recognize achievements in the software development field, so we only entertained software development projects or even products developed out of India. The software project could have been developed for any client, whether in India or abroad. Moreover, the software project must have been completely developed and ready. We didn't consider projects that were still under development. In fact, we only invited projects that were developed between Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2011 to ensure we get the latest developments.

The top software projects initiative is not to meant to evaluate IT implementations, i.e. it should have been custom developed by a team of software developers, and not a product implemented by an IT team for a client. In fact, this is also the reason why we didn't consider software products that are used as platforms for hosting or creating other software products, e.g. an Operating System, a database, software development tools, CMS platforms, virtualization platforms, large scale business apps, etc.

The process

The winners of this initiative would be determined via a four-stage process. The first stage is a public nomination process, which we conducted online on a separate microsite that we created just for this--forums.pcquest.com/itsp. At this stage, we received about 40 nominations this time, out of which about 15 were eliminated after doing a preliminary audit. The remaining nominations have been presented in this issue.

In the second stage, the PCQuest team asks the valid nominations to submit a detailed audit form to help us understand what they've developed a little better. The audit forms we receive would be moved to the third stage, wherein the PCQuest team will do all that's required to do a thorough validation-phone calls, personal visits, secondary research, etc.

In the fourth and last stage, these validated entries will be presented to a panel of jury members, who'll decide the winners. The jury would comprise of eminent personalities from the software industry.

Software projects permissible

There was bound to be confusion over what can be considered as a project and what can't be. We gave some examples in our public nomination form to avoid this confusion.

So we considered any kind of application that has been developed, be it for the desktop, server, mobile, or even the cloud. It could be an online portal, a workflow automation solution, or even a unique web based design. It could even be a Rich Internet App (RIA), or something developed for a social networking platform. It could be an e-commerce application, or apps related to networking and communication, multimedia, security, or even e-learning.

So presented here are the nominations we received this time. We wish all of them the very best. For the rest of you, we'll keep our nominations open for the next year starting now to ensure you all get plenty of time to participate. So please visit our microsite and submit your nomination for next year.

L&T Finance - Automation of Commercial Vehicle Multiple Loan Booking Process

L&T wanted rapid roll-out of an automated loan processing system across all its branches so as to support the company's plan for rapid business expansion. With manual system in place, there was a lack of an efficient mechanism for tracking loan processing/disbursal status, and L&T Finance faced challenges such as high process turn-around-times and lack of process-visibility.

Newgen solution has been rapidly rolled across 106 branches within a short timeframe of 3 months, for automation of commercial vehicle multiple loan booking process comprising following products -OmniFlow, OmniDocs and OmniScan, addressing the client's end-to-end document processing needs and ensuring seamless integration with core applications. The implementation resulted in enhanced operational agility, reduced operational costs, improved process control, improved customer satisfaction, reduced end-to-end loan processing time, and efficient process tracking.

BharatSync Technologies-BharatSync

BharatSync is a mobile service that provides Push Mail and PIM Sync services on your mobile handset. Push Mail service provides email connectivity for multiple email accounts from different mail service provdiers, at the same time, PIM sync provides over-the-air (OTA) synchronization of your contacts, calendar, notes and tasks.

The aim of BharatSync is to provide an India-compliant solution to the existing users of push mail services in India who are worried about the disruption of this great service that is gradually becoming the mobile communication backbone of corporate India.

BharatSync service on a compatible handset ensures connectivity to your email and contacts through the servers hosted in India. The biggest USP of BharatSync is that it is mobile-independent and telecom-operator independent service.

Hence, BharatSync services can be used with any normal mobile and with any mobile operator.

Mphasis (an HP company) - Control M Schedule automation

The Project has been developed for a reputed telecom service provider in India to reduce or remove the manual work of updating Control-M schedules while performing testing of telecom services in various test environments. The project has been devised to reduce the effort taken by the Test Analyst and Environment teams within organizations to be able to fulfill more requests in less time.

As part of the Project, a tool has been developed using REXX script and ISPF panel, developed judiciously through the efforts of the design team, to automate the process of Control-M Schedule creation.

This has resulted in reducing the effort of 8 hours work to 2 mins, resulting in efficient time management. The total manual effort Test Analysst saved is 1440 hours/ year. This resulted in increased productivity of Test Analyst running the Bill Cycle and quicker turnaround time of Test Analysts to Bill Cycle schedule creation.

Indian Oil Corporation- eDARE

Anti Adulteration Cell is one of the key departments of Indian Oil Corporation, whose core function is to ensure delivery of right quality & quantity of product (Petrol/Diesel/LPG Gas) to customers. This software helps Anti Adulteration Cell to effectively carry out their business processes to ensure strong monitoring and bring in much needed transparency. The major business involves: Conducting surprise inspections on Retail Outlets/ LPG Distributors/ Other Consumers as per guidelines issued by Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MOP&NG), Govt of India. Petrol Pumps/LPG Agencies are required to conduct business as per directions set by respective Oil Companies and Ministry and serious deviations may lead to termination of petrol pump/LPG Gas Agency. Reporting to concerned functions for any discrepancy observed during inspection. Compliance Report Submission by the concerned functional Department (Managing Petrol Pumps/LPG Gas Agencies) on action taken against errant dealer/distributor. LAB samples submission and reporting. This system is also used to evaluate performance of inspection officer, and use reports for future planning.

Wipro - ESIC

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is a government-owned corporation under the Ministry of Labor and Employment, touching the lives of some 150 million workers with its health insurance schemes. ESIC's central headquarters oversees operations at 27 state directorates, 50 regional and sub-regional offices, and 620 branch offices working with 150 hospitals and 1,400 dispensaries. This project was aimed to overcome following challenges by automating process: Access to information was limited, making the process of getting and paying for healthcare cumbersome in the best case scenario and a nightmare at its worst for a worker insured with ESIC.

At the individual beneficiary's level, ledgers had to be opened and maintained for every single Insured Person who was seeking the benefits. There would have to be manual submissions and processing of claim forms and the relevant information from the employers on the wages drawn by the workers. All this would take as much as three hours each time someone sought a payout.

The result was delays, long queues, and ultimately, frustration for the end beneficiary.

Flexi Templates- Flexi Print

Flexi Print (www.flexiprint.in) is a Web to Print Project where in user can Archive / Store their corporate identity & promotional material like Business Cards, Letterhead, Envelope and Brochures.

So, all important corporate information can be securely stored through this solution. They can Login Edit / make minor textual changes see the cost and order for Printing. All, these important tasks are generally ignored but this tool lets you take care of these with elan. Both Printing & delivery of important corporate material is taken care of through the use of this solution.

This project is launched as services and is available for others to start online printing service for their company. As for individual starting a new venture one can even design their card or stationery online free of cost. So, you can save a lot of money by coming up with innovative designs and taking care of this mundane task. Plus, you get the satisfaction of being your own designer!

Flexi Templates -Flexi Web 2 Print

Web2print E- commerce platform gives customers from all over world a facility to upload their design for printing. One can also use professional quality ready to use templates offered by the Flexi Print Shop. This service also provides online valued added services to your existing corporate customer by giving them ability to upload their brand identity material and allow them to modify & re-order the same through dedicated corporate page for each corporate customer. You get a lot of associated functionality by using this product. It lets you use nifty templates offered by the solution.

All this is available online so the customer uses the power of Web for business growth. The product can also be utilized by corporate as Online Print Procurement or Digital Asset Management Module

Infosys- Infy Bubble: the Infosys enterprise social networking platform

Infy Bubble, the enterprise social networking platform, was created in order to unlock the tremendous amount of collective intelligence that exists amongst employees. It allows freedom of expression so that they can express themselves freely and responsibly. The organization uses it as a listening post to get opinions on key issues and gives employees the comfort of being heard. It acts as a stress-buster for employees during their busy day at work. Infy Bubble helps employees create their own identity, connect with like-minded people and collaborate for meaningful needs. It also has communities / interest groups which people can sign-up to collaborate on various themes. These communities range from work related ones like architect community or Java developer group to casual groups like swimming enthusiasts or music lovers. We have more than 82000 users registered on this platform with 55000 clocking in the first week of rollout. The uniqueness of the platform lies in the fact that it provides the capability to collaborate on both work as well as non-work related stuff

Atul - Integrated Accounts Payable & Digital Invoice Scanning System

Movement of the Invoice to the Accounts Payable desk through various channels was not an "IT Area" of operation. But when the persistent pain of delayed vendor payments was experienced by the Purchase & Finance team, the IT team collaborated to think about eliminating this error factor so that the organizational efficiency can be increased. The process from "Invoice receipt" to "Payment Release" traditionally comprises of physical movement of "Party's Paper Invoice" from the "Invoice Receipt desk" to the final "Payment Cheque / Draft preparation desk". When this problem of Invoice tracking was discussed & brain-stormed within the IT team, the IT team got in touch with Canon support team - wherein the plug-ins & interfaces of the Canon MFD were programmed by the Atul IT team through which the scanned image from the MFD was converted into PDF & the same was stored directly into the File Server without any intermediate intervention.

The customized system flow was developed by the In-house team - which gave in an all-round efficiency to the "Procure-to-Pay process", and simultaneously roped in Rs 3 Crores in the Working-Capital of the organization through timely CENVAT claim. Now, the "Accounts Payable" cycle is fully transparent, fast, error-free, and efficient and it works with lesser manpower/man-hours. Further, this project was attained with ZERO Capex investment.

Iomega StorCenter Plus

The solution provides superior yet economical local cloud video surveillance solutions for SMBs and distributed enterprises. The solution will be made available on all Iomega StorCenter ix and px series in India. Iomega is helping to redefine video surveillance technology by delivering a high performance, low cost all-in-one IP solution targeting small businesses and distributed enterprises. The product not only delivers on the promise of an easy to install and use security appliance but also adds business productivity tools such as loss prevention, compliance and a planning tool that businesses can use to increase revenue, improve operations and enhance profitability. Iomega's association with Tulip, leading Enterprise Communications Services provider, will enable 'Iomega StorCenter plus' to quickly reach India's top 2400 businesses, currently served by Tulip over its Nationwide Broadband Network. Further, with Tulip launching world's third largest Data Centre earlier this year in Bangalore with capacity of approx 900,000 square feet will strongly complement the product offering launched by Iomega, Tulip and MindTree together.

LoReMo Solutions India Pvt Ltd. - LoReMo

LoReMo is a mobile solution that will help retail merchants engage better with their existing customers in a friendly way as well as be a dynamic tool to draw customers to their establishment through a system of rewards and reciprocal interaction.

LoReMo opens up a two-way channel for identification and engagement with the customer. LoReMo has two distinct modules: LoReMo app - Smartphone application for the customers to experience and engage. LoReMo Bizz - Web application hosted on the cloud that will enable the merchants to provision and analyze the engagement program. Thus it uses the power of the Web.

MoFirst Solutions- MoTrad

MoTrade is a mobile stock trading application that helps consumer to place order in stock market in an efficient manner and save money in turn. With MoTrade, consumer can place, modify, and remove trading orders, portfolio and market watch. It provides easy access to multiple exchanges and currencies, so a customer has the choice of taking his own pick from amongst the stocks and derivatives available. The robust security features give an assurance of integrity and security of all the trades. It is very user-friendly to use and accessible on virtually any GPRS enabled mobile phone that is popular today.

OfferGrid Networks - OfferGrid.com

We all know the huge rate at which online e-commerce sites are becoming popular. Every other day you see a new site being launched that is based on some unique concept. Offergrid is a shopping enabler which allows any website, blog or a mobile application to add shopping features amongst its portfolio. For example one can add following features like 'a shopping search box', 'a product comparison button', 'map based ecommerce', use our developer APIs to make relevant and in-context applications. So a lot of new features can be added to enhance customer shopping experience. Further, it allows merchants (retail), wholesale or deal suppliers to distribute their offerings to exactly the same audience who needs their products the most with minimal costs.

Pointmatrix Solutions- Palliative Care Information System

This is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients. As you know prevention is always better than cure. Palliative Care Information System can be used from your iPad and includes features like patient management, medical personnel management, user group management, and time and schedule management of para medical personnal. This system also provides patient drug prescription based on international standard of ICD codes. So, it is really quality conscious as you may know. Other key feature of this system is inbuilt internal messaging and mail, so you are constantly updated with your status.

Intelenet Global Services- Password Management Portal

iLantus Password Management Portal (PMP) for Active Directory, is a Microsoft certified, secure, Self-Service Web Portal which can streamlines Active Directory Password Management and allows the user to reset their forgotten passwords or simply change their existing passwords. Developed on the Microostf platform, it supports XP and WIN 7 desktop OS and WIN 2003 + above on the OS side.

Main feature of this package is that using iLantus users can bypass helpdesk and reset their forgotten passwords or change existing passwords themselves. Implementing this package means that you can change your password 24x7 which means negligible loss in productivity and cost saving. This package has a built in encryption system which makes password management process secure, and if used with SSL (highly recommended) adds to security robustness. iLantus package can also be helpful in forcing compliance policies which is critical in case your organization is going for certification.

With built-in auditing and activity tracking, the Password Management Portal provides the administrator a comprehensive and immediate notification of the password reset activity by the end users.

Kamtech Associates- Real CRM

RealCRM is web-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for Real Estate Sector managing all stages from pre-sales, sales to post-sales and thus integrating all stakeholders of this sector at one place. It has more than 11 modules which have been specifically designed for the Real Estate sector and are delivered individually/ in combination as per the client's requirements. The idea of this project came across as there was no process flow, no back office support & no client handling system specifically for this sector. After this feedback we developed the first version of CRM. Since then we have not only developed new modules in the software to make it a packaged mini ERP but also offer bulk sms/email, sticker/letter printing, user GUI customization features.

EMC Corporation - Saksham : EMC eGov Solution xCelerator for Documentum xCP

Saksham addresses the manual “case management workflow” process that is followed by Indian Government agencies. This is the first of its kind solution that provides a mechanism for government and PSU departments to quickly deploy, configure, customize workflows and re-deploy the solution depending on their unique needs, processes, and user interface requirements. Saksham allows configuring instead of coding, so government departments can deploy case-based applications faster, at a substantially lower cost, and with greater agility and confidence. It will help the government to offer better and faster services to its citizens and better G2G workflows can be established. Transparency within and among the departments is established and added security, makes compliance easier. All this is done without disrupting the familiar workflow of government agencies — and this is a big impact. Saksham has the potential to fully satisfy the business requirements of the State and Central governments. As a solution, Saksham penetrates into the Case Management Market i,e. mainly the government and PSUs.

Bodhtree Consulting - SCM Project

Dr.Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (Forbes 250 Company)wanted a forum to get optimization ideas in their SCM team. They wanted new thoughts on: How to decrease current rate of packaging material without decreasing quality and How to increase % of OTFA (On time full availability) of raw material.

The group wanted new ideas to be generated, discussed, voted and approved. Approved ideas would then be assigned for implementation to team. A typical approved new idea is documented with systematic workflow, tasks to be completed and milestones to be monitored. Post implementation of idea, they want to track effectiveness or ROI in their SAP BI system. Bodhtree delivered a package with all necessary features in record time.

Mission Informatics - Smile Quarto Premium

Smile Quarto Premium is an accounting and inventory management software focused for Small and Medium business Enterprises and is build with VB as front end and Mysql as backend. This package provides customers accounting and inventory solutions that can be customized; this in turn helps them save both time and money, and help in improving their productivity through efficient busines practices. Additionally this package includes a unique Formula builder and voucher designer module, while former takes care of varied bill formats across states in India, later is capable to design the bills or vouchers in any formats as required. Reports generated in this system are compatible with excel/csv/html/xml format and features data integration and backup.

Minacs - TradeFree Portal

While Trade Finance has existed from time immemorial, the technological advances in this area have been limited. Most of the banks today continue to use archaic methods of interacting with their clients. In an industry (Financial services) where technology adoption is a must to improve customer stickiness, Banks have to adopt next generation technologies (SOA/Web Services, XML, ESB, Digital signatures). Minacs sensed the gap and created TradeFree Portal to help banks onboard more corporate clients at a faster pace and help them view the status of their transaction requests (Letter of Credit, Bank Guarantee, Pre-shipment finance) in real time. TradeFree Portal boasts of 300+ screens & half million lines of code with support for multiple languages.

It has been successfully implemented at one of the TOP 3 banks of India & become the leaders in implementing

Gen Next technology offering for their corporate customers.

WHIZEL Technologies- WHIZeCargo Software for the Future of Supply Chain

WHIZeCargo is a web based comprehensive and advanced agile supply chain execution solution for freight forwarding, shipping, 3PL and fourth-party logistics (4PL) operations. WHIZeCargo's tightly integrated solutions enable users to lower costs and enhance profitability by collaborating with their customers and vendors across the supply chain. WHIZeCargo is a complete ERP system coupled with supply chain features so it offers a lot features integrated in one solution that users can use in one go. WHIZeCargo is developed using advanced service oriented architecture (SOA) and business process management technologies to provide richly configurable applications to companies with robust application and data integration capabilities, along with improved workflow. The major business driver is to help customers quickly transform their business structures and processes, and the way they do business.

Data Infosys Limited - XGenPlus Version 21

Xgen Plus is a advanced mail server and web mail client which provides fast, secure and reliable emailing along with unified mailing service. XgenPlus makes your email communication agile. Designed with in-built features like e-marketing, support management, rights management, hidden attachments, Instant & Advanced Search, virtual storage, chat, secured folders, picture gallery, shared calendars, SMS & Fax gateways etc. make it an all-in-one solution perfected to meet the requirements of most organizations, be it ISPs, Hosting companies, large enterprises, SMEs, BPOs, Colleges & schools or Government Offices. For a low monthly fee, XgenPlus provides feature rich, spam-free email for your company, without the hassle of maintaining any hardware or software. Thus, you can concentrate on your core business while XgenPlus manages and hosts your email solution.

Mphasis- MAALBS : BO Clarity Integration

There was a unique client requirement where they expected a model which should suffice the needs of light weight methodology for development as well as support their existing application in a cost effective manner. MphasiS Business Intelligence team came up with a robust framework which blends AGILE SCRUM for short term wins, ITIL framework for efficient operations and service delivery management and Lean for eliminating waste and optimized usage of resources. MAALBS team effectively plugged and played the components of development and support framework by developing business objects reports and clarity port lets in an optimized way inline with the client expectations and satisfaction by applying LEAN concepts throughout the lifecycle of the project. This is one of unique project which has integrated AGILe SCRUM, ITIL and LEAN methodologies.