ANOTHER round of acronyms is doing the rounds. This time, it's URM for B2B2C. Shorn of the jargon, Universal Resource Management for companies that cater to business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions on the Web. Whoa! What next?

Let's get to the point. This is about the Ahmedabad-based company Net4Nuts which has pioneering designs on the URM space. Founder Chirag Patel earnestly promises you that this is where the future lies. His software, Avtaar, allows a user's handheld device (a mobile phone, & laptop or a PDA for that matter) to collect information from various sources - email, mailing groups, company intranets - integrate it and deliver it to the user without manual intervention.

It works at two levels. Imagine that you're driving. With Avtaar working at the back-end, your calendar's scanned and you are alerted of a 3:30 appointment. You've also asked it to alert you if Ranbaxy’s scrip dips below Rs 800, which it does. It goes right ahead and places a buy order with your broker after checking with your bank if the finances are in place. Meanwhile, it notifies your CA on his PDA of your purchase decision. Sounds nice? At another level, it integrates seamlessly into a company's supply chain allowing it to communicate with operators at the back-end.

These are difficult times for Net4Nuts. IT spends are low and selling in a sceptical market is difficult. But they've hung around through the recession. Hope ought to be just around the corner.