An office suite to suit Indian pockets

09 August 2004

CK Technologies readies to take Microsoft office head on with its desi bilingual office suite writes Venkatachari Jagannathan

Chennai: Every morning when soft spoken Vinod Reddy, CEO, CK Technologies Private Ltd (formerly Chennai Kavigal Private Ltd) steps out to jog he is reminded of a marathon ahead — the herculean task of promoting the desi bilingual office suite Shakti Office 1.72 (SO 1.72) and the associated hurdles.

Into its eighth year of continuous running, CK Technologies is part of the TeNet group promoted by Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) professors sharing a common goal of offering global solutions at Indian prices.

The city-based company has already notched up some success bagging orders from Bank of Baroda and Tamil Nadu police department. Says Reddy, "The two orders for over 1,000 licences each were bagged amidst stiff competition from bigger players. The Tamil Nadu police department is in the process of installing around 1,200 computers in police stations/ offices with SO 1.72."

That apart, SO has been installed in all the computers housed in the Chiraag chain of internet cafes operated by group company, n-Logue Communications Private Limited, Chennai. So is the case with all the computers in schools run by the Chennai Corporation.

Naturally the four young promoters — Manoj Annadurai, Suresh Subbian, Satyan, Suresh Narayanan — are upbeat.