'It’s not About What You Build, It's About What People Need' Says Ajay Sakhamuri, MyClassboard
Technology and Education go hand-in-hand these days and educational technology can not be seen as a separate entity or two different terminologies, rather an inseparable combination believes Mr. Ajay Sakhamuri, the young entrepreneur, who has been formulating ways to transform education through technology. The manifestation of technology in the present era is apparent says, Ajay, recollecting the old days of how and when the seed was planted in his heart to build a technological product for schools.
It was in 2007 when Ajay who was in his final year of graduation undertook a project on "Campus Express - An online onboarding site for all students at Penn," was the thought conceived to build a software for schools. Motivated by his father to work on the project, who himself was a business professional, influenced Ajay to dig deep into the technology. However, the project could not sustain due to lack of revenue clarity. Meanwhile, Ajay got recruited for Deloitte Company as a part of campus placements before he could finish his B.Tech. He joined Deloitte as an SAP ABAP consultant and worked there for almost 2 years.
With the seed still alive in him to build a school product, Ajay during his tenure in Deloitte, correlated the SAP technology to the educational stream. When SAP can help large businesses in growing by giving a global exposure, why not schools be enlightened with the same formula? This strong conception further persuaded the young entrepreneur to perform a market analysis on schools that are using technology. The outcome was that not many schools were into technology, and if any, they were using only excel sheets.
The aftermath revealed that when using technology in schools there was a huge scope for technology infused products in the educational sector. Initially, there was Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model for schools to curb the need, despite which, schools were using offline methods. Ajay was strongly convinced that there was a dire need to solve the problem in the educational space and there was no key player to work on the same lines and develop a product that illuminates the schools. This triggered the determination in Ajay and he felt it was a good opportunity to think of the same in the vertical and bring out a solution becoming the first in the market to develop a school software.
“It’s not about what you build, it's about what people need,” says the entrepreneur while speaking about the impact of technology in an Educational realm and the obligation for a school software. Continuing further, he says, the reminiscing history of Indian Education system has seen a gigantic transformation over the past decades. Starting with the ancient Educational system comprising the Gurukula system of education to the modern education system, the education system in India had witnessed a revolution.
Stressing on the technological transformation in the educational sector, Ajay says, “India has become the second largest market for e-learning after the US. This depicts the changing face of education in India with technology becoming the most important ingredient in the field of education.”
The enthusiastic entrepreneur set out on a mission to build a product for schools that would pull them out from the intricacies involved in the school chores and also contribute to the technological development and educational metamorphism. The initial 2-3 years was focused on product development. After a series of strenuous efforts and unceasing groundwork from the Resource and Development team for two valuable years, the MyClassboard school management software product was carved out. During the construction phase, the team managed to build a strong product by cracking large school chains.
Good marketing efforts and working with reputed school chains formed the basis to develop MyClassboard by giving it a frame. In 2009, MyClassboard stepped out of the ring to exhibit its product by offering a free pilot project in those selected large chains of schools. The bold step finally did pay off receiving valuable feedback from the associates following which the R&D team scrutinized the series of feedback collected, worked on them and further implemented the necessary changes and developed the product into a complete software. Only after that, Ajay shifted his focus to scaling product and schools.
MyClassboard was now a finished product that attracted the eye of many. It did captivate the pilot clients to try the engineered software and become serious clients to MyClassboard. “This was the first and major step to our success path where our clients elated by our product services referred us to their peers,” says Ajay. "Our pilot team then took our product to all those referred schools and no sooner they too became our clients by embracing our product."
In a very short span of time, MyClassboard could make 100 clients only through a reference from its existing clients. The journey of MyClassboard towards a successful beginning started then by exposing the product to all schools across the nation starting with Hyderabad, Bangalore, North India, and North-East.
It has been 8 years since MyClassboard began its steps towards the field of education and now here it stands with head held high in a business relationship with more than 1200 schools, benefiting over 9 lakh students through its value added services. Enabling its services to all schools, MyClassboard walked an extra mile by making its modules available as per the requirements of schools. The module-wise sales have put MyClassboard in the limelight.
When many start-up companies or organizations struggle to make their survival during the initial phases, MyClassboard not only survived the competition but also made its existence known by setting up a province for itself in the market and becoming India’s most widely used software. For all those willing to have a foretaste of the software, MyClassboard entertains them as well with a free trial service encouraging prospective clients to discern its unique services from others in the market.
Making technology as the hub, MyClassboard has been constantly upgrading its software in tune with the emerging technologies to meet the global standards. Every year, MyClassboard has come up with a new version of the product making it user-friendly and perfectly feasible. Slowly yet consistently, MyClassboard could make a stand in the market simultaneously expanding its territory to Middle-Eastern countries as well.
MyClassboard offers modules that every institution needs like Admissions module, Gradebook, Parent Teacher communicator, Attendance Tracker, Reporting Tool, Transport management application, Fee management application and many other feature rich modules.
Apart from efficiently managing the school operations of all departments, MyClassboard goes much beyond than just being a school management software. It offers a suite of solutions that helps the school administrators in running the school efficiently and hassle-free.
Ajay’s MyClassboard has made a phenomenal progress since its birth in the field of education and has been equipping schools to reach their desired haven.
