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Mindlogicx adds intelligence to exams, counts its revenues per studentCHENNAI, Jul 14, 2011 (The Economic Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Why on earth would Bangalore-based Mindlogicx be happy when a student, say from Uttarakhand Technical University, sits down to write an exam? The simple act of someone from the university writing an exam means revenues for the company. Mindlogicx, founded nine years ago by Suresh Elangovan, runs software that takes care of everything related to an examination process - from question paper setting to issue of final certificates. And it counts its revenues per student. Elangovan targets universities with a student base with 50,000 to 1 lakh students. "Ours is a volume game," he says. "We get paid similar to a banking transaction, where someone gets paid per transaction." So, of the 400 universities in India, about 240 universities could be on his radar. And that's why, "I would prefer something like a Madras University or an open university as my clients, rather than an IIT (even though it might be a prestigious client to hold)," says Elangovan. "More number of students brings my cost down and increases the revenue." The engineer-turned entrepreneur seems to have laboured over the details of this money-spinning software, having worked on it since 2002. It may now be payback time. Institutions such as Anna University (Coimbatore), Bangalore University, Visvesvaraya Technological University and Nagaland University, apart from the one at Uttarakhand, are his clients. Mindlogicx says it has about 1 million students in the process. More such tie-ups are on the anvil, he says. After a sedate start, things got positively stirred last September when serial entrepreneur Kalpathi Suresh took over a fifth of the shares in the company. Suresh, who refused to elaborate on his plan, now has a significant presence in the education space - from e-learning company EdServ to exam-manager Mindlogicx. Suresh has the reputation of backing a rapid scale-up of projects in which he has a significant investment. "I see a huge traction now," says Elangovan. His company plans to make a big leap in revenues - to Rs. 100 crore this year. That would be about four times what it reaped last year. This is Elangovan's plan: use the 'software as a service' model to tap its monies. "From delivering question papers just half-an-hour prior to commencement of examinations to digital evaluation of answer scripts, the software takes care of everything," Elangovan says. That's through proprietary software called IntelliExams. Further, he promises an end to long-standing problems such as question paper leaks, tampering of certificates and malpractices in exams. But, he says, that's not the only reason why universities would be happy. The Mindlogicx process crunches the time between setting of the question paper and declaration of results from 5 months to a mere 20 days. This is how the business works: Mindlogicx undertakes to invest in the required IT infrastructure upfront and manages a project for six years on a build, operate and transfer basis typically for six years. For a university with 100 colleges and 1 lakh students, the company would need to spend Rs 6 crore on setting up the IT infrastructure. Besides, it incurs an operational cost which is capped to 25-30 percent of the revenue. "We look for return on investment in the second year," says Elangovan. "This would be 30 percent profit after tax. We operate like a long-term private equity players on projects. Each project is a cost and profit centre for us." To see more of The Economic Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://economictimes.indiatimes.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Economic Times, India Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |