Nashik-based Winjit Technologies helps industries of all kinds to get into the digital orbit of operations, promotion and marketing.

Sandesh, one of the leading regional newspapers, wanted to increase avenues for advertisements along with a way to connect with an audience operating in the ‘mobile first’ world. They got in touch with Winjit Technologies, a Nashik-based technology solutions’ provider with clients in about 45 countries to create a platform that would make this happen. The digital publishing division of Winjit analysed the strengths of the newspaper and came up with a mobile app solution that was present across all platforms, viz., iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 8 and J2ME, making mobility an important media. This included a customised notification engine, wherein the editorial board could push content based on the readers’ interest along with regional language support, a robust ad engine that facilitated alternative revenue sources for advertisements, strong social media connect and clever use of analytics.

This is just one of the many case-studies that Winjit uses to drive home the fact that any industry, and especially the MSMEs, now needs to create sustainable and profitable solutions to have a presence in the digital world. The company was established by Ashwin Kandoi and Abhijit Junagade, the former a chartered accountant by profession and a technology evangelist by heart, and the latter an engineer and MBA who decided to turn entrepreneur. Working at their respective companies, the duo’s first project was creating flash animation. This led to more projects and ultimately they decided to devote themselves full-time to Winjit from March 2003. As a typical IT services company, Winjit witnessed steady growth for many years till a fresh challenge came in the form of mobility solutions.

“Smartphones started selling well from 2009 when BlackBerry became a hit. This is what prompted us to enter the segment,” says Kandoi. They got a small team to work on an app called ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ for BlackBerry phones, which got more than 50,000 downloads in a fortnight from across 65 countries without any marketing. Their big break came when they started building apps for music companies, including Times Music. The company has also diversified into other sectors with enterprise mobility a key area of expertise, and has worked with companies like Phillips, 3M, and Levi’s, etc. Winjit has solutions and products which help enterprise organisations transition to the mobile platform.

Meanwhile, using technology for social projects is also a priority with the company. “One of our several such apps is ‘Jeevan Paani’ that has been designed to help citizens save water,” says Junagade. With this free app citizens are able to report water wastage by taking photographs of the instances and putting them up on a blog. The app is also informational. “For instance, a user has access to information about the average usage of water in the city per day. You could then alter the usage and calculate how much you save. The app runs in Marathi and also gives users credit points for having saved water, which can then be shared on social networking sites,” informs Junagade.

Catering to the needs of the retail, education, industry, banking and financial sectors, some of the company’s products include: Area Manager, a one-stop enterprise app solution for retail store management that facilitates standardisation of stores with real-time data on performances of individual stores and its staff; EduBeacon, which helps preserve students’ attention in the learning area while providing teachers with advance notifications whereby teachers can upload custom files for students and embed their user experience while using iBeacons; and apps for financial services to serve the varied needs of microfinance, reinsurance, automotive finance, banks and accounting firms.

The company now has ambitious plans for expanding its operations in Africa. “The continent is transforming into a vibrant technology market and Winjit is optimistic about connecting, engaging, designing and serving the valued African enterprises with its disruptive solutions,” Kandoi states. In this region, the company’s solutions cater to verticals such as manufacturing, energy, mining and ‘smart city’ projects. It is also developing solutions for Internet of Things (IoT). With its experience in both hardware engineering and software development, the company aims to provide end-to-end solutions for third party developers to create easily deployable and scalable IoT applications. “There are exciting times ahead,” the founders say.

– HUNED CONTRACTOR