CYBERSCAPE MULTIMEDIA LTD. is a limited company incorporated under the Company's Act 1956 on 1st JULY 1996 as a Private Limited Company and later on converted into Public Limited Company on 23rd February 2000. The main objective of incorporating the company was for the business in Information Technology in a corporate form of business organization. Earlier, the business was carried out under the following firms; namely ACES TECHNOLOGIES and ACES CONSULTANTS registered under the Partnership Act on 1st August 1989 and 1st April 1991 respectively. The above companies in order to synergise the efforts and for consolidation of nationwide activities have decided to convert into a limited company for the corporate governance, the absolute transparency of financial status, accounts etc. which is required when dealing globally. The company has plans to enhance its activities by opening offices in Singapore and USA to cater to the far east and western markets.
IPO Vision
With a wide range of products and project capabilities in the Indian scripts software area, our company is well poised to deliver the unfulfilled demand in the years to come. Moreover having handled the technical issues of complex Indian scripts, we are among the few Indian companies with the expertise to address the multi-lingual computing requirements globally. We intend leveraging our expertise in all non-English markets accross the world and be a global leader in the area of multi-lingual software development for both products and services.
WIth 125 ISPs being licensed in 2000 year, we also anticipate a boom in Internet penetration and usage in India. Drawing a parallel to the TV and traditional media where the highest growth in viewership and circulations are being recorded by the vernacular TV channels and publications as compared to the stagnancy in the English media, we are quite confident that a similiar trend will be seen in the Internet and Multimedia content creation area. To address these emerging demands we already have our "AKRUTI" range of products ready for delivery.
The funds being sought by the company are primarily to consolidate the products developed so far and to speed up the pending developments and create the much needed suite of Indian language applications software and for effectively marketing it across the length and breadth of the country. Also as stated earlier to expand into the global markets we need to open offices abroad starting with Singapore for Far Eastern markets and USA for the Western markets.
The company also intends to tie up with Microsoft as Solution Partners using the Windows platform and products. Talks regarding this have already been initiated. This will enable us to use the Microsoft "Made for Backoffice" logo in all our products and give a boost to the saleability of the products. We also plan strategic tie-ups with leaders like IBM and Sybase as Developer partners for the non windows platforms now becoming popular like "Linux".
The company intends to revolutionise the usage of computers in India by launching in end 2000 a novel concept of "AKRUTI Business Center". This product will enable any STD/ISD Booth owner by investing a small amount in a PC and our software to add on a complete business center service by offering, e-mail, fax, photo copying and photo printing facilities in Indian languages to all his customers. We expect at least 5000 booths across the country to use this from year 2001 resulting in about Rs. 2.5 crores revenue for us from this segment alone.
The company's software is already in use by Sun TV group including Udaya TV, Gemini TV, Surya TV and Doordarshan for titling their Video productions in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. We expect to launch the Akruti Video Titler to cater to the thousands of small and medium video producers accross the country and expect about Rs. 2.0 crores revenue from this segment in 2001.
History
In 1989, ACES TECHNOLOGIES was started to cater to the requirements of PC based phototypesetting terminals used by the English and Indian language printing & publishing industry.- ACES CONSULTANTS subsequently was started in 1991 to address the upcoming requirement for laser printer based DTP software as an alternative to phototypesetting machines again mainly catering to the vernacular printing and publishing industry with its flagship "AKRUTI" range of products. With the establishment of MS Windows as the dominant GUI based OS for the PC's, a huge opportunity was waiting to be plugged in the Indian language office automation area which was catered to by "AKRUTI OFFICE" a MS Office compatible product which enabled users to use the popular WORD, EXCEL, PowerPoint etc in Indian languages. ACES CONSULTANTS rapidly captured a significant portion of these markets with the Govt. and Public sector institutions with Maharashtra and Karnataka State Govt. departments and IDBI, SIDBI, RBI as their major customers. ACES was the first to have Windows 95 compatible products.
- CYBERSCAPE MULTIMEDIA PVT. LTD. was formed in 1996 to extend the use of the basic Indian language software to create full fledged packaged application software like the first ever Indian Language Financial accounting software on Windows called "SHUBH LABH". Later CYBERSCAPE was the first to develop the first complete portal in Indian Languages called www.indianlanguages.com way back in 1997 when these concepts were new even in the USA.
- A number of products and project/service capabilities have been developed between 1997 and 2000 and these are poised for a launch in April 2000. We expect the turnover from all these various products and services to dramatically grow with the inflow of funds from the capital markets playing a key role in accelerating the marketing/delivery and development infrastructure which is crucial for takeoff.
Promoters
- Mr. Anand Shankara Kanakanhalli is an Engineering graduate from L.D. Engineering College, Ahmedabad. He graduated in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering in 1980 and was the top ranker in the Gujarat University for that year. After a brief career in PSI Data Systems, Bangalore and ILAC Ltd. Ahmedabad, he was a Director in charge of R&D in VSS Computer Engg. (P) Ltd. Bombay from 1983 to 1989. There he designed and developed "ASTERIX" the first Indian Language Offline phototypesetting terminal based on a Z-80 processor. The first Indian language DTP Software "Asterix Publishing Software" was also developed by him and exhibited in Printek-88 in Delhi. Subsequently as a partner in ACES Consultants and ACES Technologies he developed the popular "AKRUTI" Indian Language software. He was a consultant to CDAC and help set up the Font Development Cell with the GIST group in 1991. Aged 45 years, he is now the Managing Director of Cyberscape Multimedia Ltd.
- M.S. Sridhar Joint Managing Director Cyberscape Multimedia Limited Shop #1, Manohar Park Apartments Charai, Thane (W), Thane-460 601
- Mr. Madurai Somasubramanian Sridhar is an Engineeering graduate from REC Trichy. He graduated in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering in 1980. He was Customer Support / Development Engineer with PSI Data Systems, Bangalore and then Regional Support Manager at Poona. Later as Director of VSS Computer, Bonbay from 1983 to 1990, he co-developed the fisrt Indian language offline phototypesetting terminal "ASTERIX". As apartner in ACES Technplpgies and ACES Consultants, he developed "AKRUTI". Currently aged 45 years, he is the Joint Managing Director of Cyberscape Multimedia Ltd. and stationed in Mumbai.
Anand S.K. Managing Director Cyberscape Multimedia Limited 941, 21st Main, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore-560 070
Milestones
| 1981 | Z-
80 based Offline Phototypesetting terminal The first ever indigenously designed computer with Indian script entry facility. |
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| 1983 | Asterix
Publishing System The first ever publishing system based on the above terminal for Indian script publishing compatible with the following backend phototypesetters like AM Varityper, Linotype, Monotype, Bobst, Compugraphics and AlphaComp. |
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| 1985 | PC-Mate
a Z - 80 based plug-in card for IBM PC's The first ever IBM PC compatible PC plug in card for composing Indian languages on the PC and in some senses a precursor to the GIST card. |
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| 1988 | Asterix
Publishing Software The first ever Hindi WYSIWYG Page Composing software for Ventura GEM (DOS). |
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| 1991 | Akruti
for Windows The first ever Windows (3.1) based Indian script software. |
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| 1995 | Akruti
- 95 (Publisher) The first Windows 95 compatible Indian script software for DTP. |
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| 1996 | Akruti
- 95 (Office) The first Bi-lingual Indian script software for data base / data processing. |
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| 1996 | Akruti
- 95 (Personal) The first low cost Indian script software for SOHO use. |
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| 1996 | Akruti
- 95 (Web Publisher) for Internet site creation in Indian scripts The first ever Indian script WWW publishing technology developed. |
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| 1996 | Indian
Scripts site on Internet The first ever site hosting Indian language publications on the Internet launched using Langscape technology at http://www.indianlanguages.com |
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| 1997 | Application
packages in Indian Scripts The first ever suite of application packages in Indian scripts like WINBANK, SHUBH-LABH, SILKSOFT, MAPINFO Karnataka with co-developers. |
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| 1997 | CMPL
shortlisted by Election Commission CMPL is one of the three vendors shorlisted by the Election Commission for supply of an ISCII compatible Indian Script Data Base software for electoral rolls revision. |
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| 1998 | Platform
independant browsing using TRUEDOC technology A new technology called TrueDoc has been introduced by Bitstream and Netscape and supported by a many companies. We have implemented this for our Indian scripts. |
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| 1999 | Launch
of shareware version of Akruti Freedom & Shubh Labh In order for Indian script usage to pick up we intend launching the shareware versions of Akruti Freedom & Shubh Labh, which will generate demand for the full versions. |
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| 2000 | Multimedia
Interactive TV Kiosks with Indian language interface Development is on for a multimedia Interactive TV Kiosk browser and server software. This can be widely used at public places for information and entertainment. This will have a potential in the government, travel and tourism and hospitality sectors. |
Activities
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A summary of the key products and project capabilities available in-house are listed below for reference. Indian Language ennabling software for Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP already available with us.
Indian Language Application Packages for Windows 95/98/NT/2000 already available with us
Under Advanced Stage of Development
Under Development
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