The annual Microsoft Partner Awards were held on the evening of 29 October, at the grand ballroom of One Farrer Hotel & Spa – a hotel so spanking new that the taxi uncle didn’t know it existed and got a bit lost trying to get there. Spiffy location aside, it was a night of honouring the many diverse partners Microsoft works with, from resellers to retailers, customers to vendors.
Of course, my obvious bias was towards the gathering of BizSpark startup partners. Clearly we were one of the tables with a much (ahem) younger demographic, and though the fried rice I was waiting for on the dinner menu was slightly dry in the end – it was a good opportunity to catch up with the goings-on of some of our brightest Singapore BizSpark stars. Here goes my shameless plug for all four of them.
Akimi Technologies
Web/mobile developers
From The Ritz-Carlton to Macallan single malt whiskey, founder Meng Kiat is no stranger to taking on various app projects for big MNC clients, also offering a suite of web and mobile development work. In Meng Kiat’s own words:
“At the moment, there are two sections in the company. One arm of the business does development for clients and the other is to roll out expandable and scalable digital projects.”
“For our business, we are predominantly in Singapore and Indonesia, and place to have a bigger reach in Indonesia and the Philippines in the next six months. Our solution are all hosted on Microsoft Azure through the BizSpark programme, which we are very proud to be a part of.”
One of their projects, Klipfit (www.klipfit.com), was a web-based CRM platform for personal trainers that helped them to manage and share their clients’ performance online.
Apvera
Deploying apps within a browser
Currently in the BizSpark Incubator Programme, the Apvera Apscent platform aims to enable organisations to deliver the right corporate-sanctioned applications to the right user while balancing business enablement, ease of access, and policy needed to maintain control and security of applications.
Their focus is around 5 key areas:
Access & Control
- Apvera divides IT management into two areas— employees and applications.
Self Service
- Employees need the freedom to choose the right device for each task and setting. With the Apscent platform, users gain on-demand access to all applications through an easy-to-use application catalogue, a single web-based workspace and secure access.
Management & Security
- IT managers gain control over user-access policies. Access management is extended to all applications housed within the platform regardless of their variant.
Application Availability
- The application catalogue is made up of pre-configured partner application packages provisioned seamlessly through application virtualisation technologies.
Analytics & Data Driven Decisions (D^3)
- New channels for understanding how applications are consumed in the enterprise by delivering reporting and analytics about usage.
Paywhere
Online retail solution
Started by founder Vincent Lau, who was previously showcased in one of our Startup Features, the flagship product of PayWhere is called TackThis™. It is an effective e-retailer solution with social commerce capabilites that empowers individuals and businesses to sell across web, social media and mobile. Individuals and businesses partner with TackThis!™ to enable social shopping experiences for customers across social networks such as Facebook, LiveJournal and websites.
Gamurai
Hairstylist’s virtualisation tool and one-stop solution (Startup Partner of the Year 2014)
BizSpark Plus startup Gamurai’s recently launched app, VEON@HairExperience, is completely powered by Microsoft Azure. This one-stop solution improves the productivity of local hair salon owners (a traditionally technology-resistant demographic) by virtualising different hairstyles on their customers with 3D face modelling technology.
The app also tracks and analyses customer information, appointments as well as staff resources. It has received strong support and media attention from industry and government partners such as A*STAR, the Singapore Productivity Centre, and the Hair and Cosmetology Association of Singapore.
Follow