Kevin Yang had been working in the United States for 10 years as a software architect in Oracle Corporation when he noticed that there was a market for business process automation software. Returning to Singapore in 1997, he started Hello Technology and started exploring software applications that dealt with business process optimisation and disaster scenario management.
After securing venture funds in 2000, the company started the software development proper and a product was ready within two years. Since then the company has been doubling in size and revenue year-on-year.
The premise for the company's business is simple: it views each enterprise or organisation as a group of people performing their job based on a set of business rules and processes. At the same time, it recognises that people are often the cause for process inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
The company's software and services help overcome this bottleneck and mobilises people more reliably. "What we mean by mobilisation is having the right people at the right place at the right time doing what they need to do," said Yang. "We translate business processes on paper into efficient results in the real world by reducing the margin for human error."
The company's software enables large enterprises or organisation to implement reliable, seamless and secure delivery of real-time mission-critical information to their customers and partners. They can also deploy this internally to their staff across different delivery media. A separate product enables scalable and secure mass mobilisation of the public, mobile workforce, or consumers in real time. This would be used typically in military or civil defence agencies where disaster process mobilisation is required.
Yang signed on as a partner with Sun Microsystems in 2001 under IDA's Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme (iLIUP) and received training classes and privileged access to technology and expertise. A dedicated iLIUP manager was assigned to the partnership and put in charge of facilitating the cooperation. "iLIUP has proven to be a firm foundation for a technology partnership," said Yang. "It creates an effective channel for a start-up to approach and work with an MNC."
The tie-up was so successful that Yang forged another iLIUP partnership with InfoTalk to work on the new Voice XML industry standard for interactive voice response systems. This allows callers to respond verbally to audio cues over the phone instead of pressing numbers on a keypad. InfoTalk provided developers to help integrate their technology with Hello's. "It was a software development project that entailed significant amount of work," said Yang. "It would not have been so easily accomplished without both our companies being partners under iLIUP."
Besides product development, the iLIUP partnership with Infotalk has opened the way to regional sales for Hello. Business deals may soon be inked in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Their penetration into the region will be helped by their strong line-up of A-list customers that include Singapore's Ministry of Defence, Singapore Civil Defence Force, Port of Singapore Authority, Fuji-Xerox, Nokia and the Development Bank of Singapore. "It also helps us in terms of co-branding, being so closely associated with Sun Microsystems and Infotalk."
Yang's advice to budding entrepreneurs: "Focus on the business fundamentals. Try to find ways to "incentivise" your partner's staff to invest in your success, even those who are not directly involved with iLIUP but may be of real help - for example the sales staff. Create a win-win proposition for you and your partner and translate that into a win for the customer as well."