It was almost serendipity at work. What started off as an exercise in academic planning turned into an actual concrete business venture. When a group of NUS graduates submitted their business plan for the National Techno-Venture Business Plan Competition in 2000/2001, it became a clear winner, garnering the championship spot and the award for Start-Up@Singapore. With subsequent interest and funding, the winning business plan was put into motion and FriarTuck was born.

With the objective to develop technologies that promote innovation and creativity, FriarTuck develops and markets turnkey software solutions and consulting services for the scheduling of complex events. Its products meet advanced scheduling needs for optimised workforce scheduling, course and examination scheduling, sports scheduling and other markets which are reliant on efficient optimisation of event schedules.

Sevugan Alagappan, Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer of FriarTuck

For example, when NASA needed a software system to manage the complex schedules for scientists and engineers for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission, which successfully landed on Mars on January 4, they turned to FriarTuck. Using FriarTuck's manpower planning software FTStaffRosterer, which was designed to handle the most complex scheduling requirements and preferences, the company was able to optimise the schedules, despite mounting challenges, resulting in increased productivity, reduced fatigue, and ultimately a more cost-effective mission for NASA.

Mr Sevugan Alagappan, co-founder & Chief Operating Officer of FriarTuck, attributes some of the company's success to the partnerships and relations developed through the Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme (iLIUP) by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). "As a start-up, we were able to work with MNCs, such as IBM and Fujitsu, to leverage their network and expertise to open up new channels and to provide a more complete solution to our customers," said Sevugan. "I am glad IDA helped to endorse these partnerships, or else it would be very difficult for us to do the same as MNCs are approached by start-ups all the time."

The company has since grown from strength to strength, gaining international recognition through awards such as Startup@Asia 2001 championship, the National Infocomm Award 2004 by IDA and qualifying as one of the 8 finalists in the prestigious Wharton Business Plan Competition 2003, which drew over 180 student teams comprising of more than 350 participants.

Sevugam has nothing but admiration for the iLIUP managers tasked to facilitate the communications and cooperation between partners in the iLIUP programme. "The iLIUP managers have a strong interest in seeing local SMBs do well in the market," said Sevugam. "They were willing to sit down and listen to our needs and work closely, as part of the team, to achieve buy-in from the MNCs."

Sevugam has some words of advice for local technopreneurs looking to replicate the kind of success that FriarTuck has achieved. He emphasised the importance of forming strong, mutually beneficial business partnerships when the opportunity arises. According to him, "partnerships are key in any start-up company", as they help to open up more marketing and distribution channels that will have been hard to reach otherwise. These partnerships bridge the gap between MNCs and start-up firms, allowing them to communicate and tie things together on a more strategic level.