Tech two

Roopa Prabhakar successfully heads a company with two distinct identities, online technical support and web design. She shares her 12-year journey.

March 13, 2014 08:24 pm | Updated May 19, 2016 08:25 am IST - Coimbatore

Roopa Prabhakar, Managing Director and CEO of Amulya Infotech  in Coimbatore. Photo:K.Ananthan

Roopa Prabhakar, Managing Director and CEO of Amulya Infotech in Coimbatore. Photo:K.Ananthan

“If Windows were to launch a new version today, I would learn all about it so that I can face the queries of my clients tomorrow,” says Roopa Prabhakar. Her company, Amulya Infotech Private Limited, provides technical support to web hosting companies as well as those who do web designing and web development. Its clients are mostly in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany and Australia, and some in India.

In her mid 30s, Roopa is a gold medallist in Physics. She says she chose this business segment based on her instincts. She clearly remembers the moment when she bid for an online project on elance.com “My instinct told me that it will work. And, here I am today providing technical support to clients across the globe,” she says with pride.

It was a failed PhD dream that led Roopato take up the job as a software consultant with Advance Computer Team in Texas. When she moved back to India, Roopa and her friend Sathish Saravanan started ACT Software Coimbatore Private LTD, a subsidiary of the same U.S. Company. “Later, they asked us to wind up as projects were hard to come by. That’s when we started bidding for online projects,” she recalls.

Roopa attributes her success to her middle-class upbringing. Her father was a constable, a man of principles, she says. “Finance was always a problem. He took loans to sponsor education of his two daughters. During my graduation, I took tuitions to provide extra income. Right from my younger days, I wanted to contribute financially to support my family.”

Roopa says she is at her best while facing challenges. “When I was in Class VI, I was punished for bad handwriting. The very next year I won the top prize in a handwriting competition. Your approach to a situation makes all the difference,” says the award-winning entrepreneur.

It’s this confidence and fighting spirit that fuelled the growth of her company. While actsupport wing (www.actsupport.com) looks into technical support, the actmedia (www.actmedia.net) designs websites.

“It was not easy in the beginning. We raced against time and worked 24/7. Handling finances and attrition was another challenge. But, a positive feedback on technical forums earned us more clients. Money started flowing in. From a 200 sq.ft. space at PSG STEP (that serves as an incubation centre for start ups), we moved to a bigger office space and hired more people.”

Today, her 150-strong team is her strength and her family. “My company is technology-driven and the credit goes to my team that works round-the-clock.” The learning curve is the driving factor for our employees, says Roopa. “A lot of our ex-employees come back to us hungry to learn more. That is an achievement.”

The young CEO says it’s her strategy to take the road less travelled that helped her taste success. “Opportunities are immense as the clientele is spread across the globe. We also have the advantage of a cordial work atmosphere, courteous staff and a flexible work culture where employees work after office hours to deliver on deadline.”

As the ISO-certified company gears up for the Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification, Roopa has set her eyes to set up an office in the U.S.. “We share and laugh together, and ensure that workplace is a family-like atmosphere. It’s not just about doing good work at office, but also leading a quality life.”

AWARDS

Indian Achiever’s Award for Women Entrepreneur

Global Indian of the Year

Indira Gandhi SadBhavna Award and Gold medal for Excellence

VIRTUAL SERVERS

The company helps clients build a virtual cloud environment through virtualisation. shares the details “What we do is create space virtually from a single hardware server. It’s like drag and drop, where you pick the CPU, processor, build storage….virtually. The role of Amulya is to help clients create a virtual network, build the infrastructure, install firewall and back up data, design the network, and offer disaster recovery service too.”

D. Vasanthakumar, Principal Engineer

WEBSITES and APPS

A 30-member team designs and develops responsive websites. The same website can be viewed in multi formats such as mobile phones, tablets, iPads and laptops. In the last 10 years, they have designed over 5,000 websites.

They have designed iPad apps for five star hotels in the U.K. that give a panoramic view of the rooms, the restaurant menu and a map to navigate within the hotel.

Enterprise mobile applications are the future. There is also a demand for gaming apps and utility apps such as e-commerce.

S. Rajkumar, Chief Creative Officer

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