Gone are the days when you just could not inform your clients of not reaching on time for an important business meeting just because the weather was bad or your flight delayed. Instead, you can now have a seamless collaborative network that works round the clock on your behalf. With the objective of exploring growing opportunities in the area of convergence technology, Net4Nuts bridges the gap with an application that can retrieve, integrate, deliver and interact cutting across all communication devices.

Says Chirag Patel, Founder & Managing Director of Net4Nuts, "Net4Nuts brings Universal Resource Management Service (URM) - technology by leveraging the internet as a key facilitator. This provides the end-user with a unique single log-in convergent interactivity and is customised to end user requirements on any platform- whether it is an individual, personal or enterprise level."

He adds, "A user specific ID and password takes an individual to the realms of his very own personalised 'information world'. The Net4Nuts application allows various online services such as e-mail, news, stock watch, calendar to any other individual information managers or sources to collaborate with each other in a completely automated, two-way dialogue in 'real time'."

To illustrate the life of a URM enabled-individual, he would receive an alert on the mobile phone reminding him of the first meeting after scanning his calendar service. His URM service provider assists him in checking his schedule, thereafter book air tickets and mark his calendar with the itinerary. While he does all this, all his schedules, instructions and updates are simultaneously registered on his secretary's organiser. His personal calendar, asset manager and expense keeper will send out an alert to his finance manager and secretary while his weather tracker automatically monitors the weather at the various cities he is about to visit.

This unique solution eliminates manual intervention that some other applications with similar functionalities require. Based on cutting-edge technology - like that of XML and Wireless protocols, the Net4Nuts value proposition will communicate seamlessly across platforms and devices like PDA's, mobiles, PC's and any other hand held device.

Explains Chirag, "The 'Activity Hub' is at the core of the Net4Nuts URM. It is a patented highly modular and extensible solution that can be customised to suit the unique needs of diverse service providers. The Hub Integrates Information from different vendors seamlessly into one personalised service for the customer, offering interactive convergence wherein the customer uses a single login to access a host of personalised information service providers. The technology is also secured to protect confidentiality. For added security to control security breaches, the servers are hosted at one of the most secure 'state-of-the-art' data centres in the world."

Given that the incremental investment ( in the ASP model) in providing the service to their subscribers is almost negligible, URM provides a risk free opportunity for service providers to expand their market space through differentiation with a pay per user model of billing to clients. The pioneering effort at Net4Nuts was started in late 1999. Getting off the ground, the company concentrated on the concept architecture for the past year and the product is all set to make its presence felt by the end of August 2001. The development and corporate functions of the company are headquartered in Ahmedabad, while the marketing and business development activities are driven out of the Mumbai office.

Apart from a strong advisory board Net4Nuts also boasts of a flat organisational structure. Says, Aneesh Sen, Vice President Marketing of Net4Nuts, "The Team at Net4Nuts is a 'meeting-of-minds'. Starting from an initial 2-member workforce, each of the 30-team members today share a common vision. Carefully selected, having the panache to create something unique and with the mission to lead technology into the next stage, Net4Nuts reflects a culture that is driven towards excellence. And, this explains for the near zero attrition rate till date."

In May 2000, Net4Nuts received its initial seed funding from Gujarat Venture Funds Ltd. (GVFL) out of the Gujarat IT fund corpus. The first round of funding was completed for USD 1 million. Avers Vishnu Varshney MD of GVFL, and a member on the advisory board for Net4Nuts, "We decided to support the start-up venture with financial support because the management spoke of a sustainable competitive edge which supported new technologies and invention." He has also been instrumental in getting together a strong advisory board which is the think-tank of the company.

So for service providers in IT and telecom, especially companies that position themselves in the consumer convenience space such as ISPs, wireless or mobile service providers, this technology is poised to be the biggest value added application.