Roshan D’Silva

Inspired by the insect Myzus Persicae, which is known to be highly resilient in all forms of weather and conditions, Myzus Infotech is a company that shows the characteristics of a true start-up but with the resilience to survive changing economic conditions.

Started by three IIT-Bombay alumni, the company has built a basket of products around a platform that is completely device- and content-neutral.The Myzus suite of products makes accessing of data or content possible from any device. For instance, a landline user can access his e-mail through voice commands.

The business model of the company is similar to any product company: Build once and sell multiple times. The target sector is telecom and the company has developed a framework that allows telecom operators to deliver solutions that enable integration of content, messaging and end-user applications to deliver personalised solutions to the end user. In addition, operators can aggregate applications and content from a variety of sources to make them available to subscribers.

Though the telecom market is going through a downswing, Myzus is positive on all its products. The main product, MiDas (Mobile Internet Delivery and aggregation server), is an intelligent integrated content delivery platform, which delivers content according to the type of device a user has, like say a WAP-enabled cell phone, PDAs or even land lines. Based on the platform, the company has developed three potentially hot products, MiDas Mobile (an out of the box solution for cellular operators), MiDas Voice (a voice portal and directory assistance solution for cellular, landline and VoIP players) and MiDas TV (an out of the box solution for broadcasters and cable operators). The latest solution for TV allows the delivery of interactive TV applications. Viewers can interact with these applications through conventional telephony devices, the Internet or wireless data devices.

Says Roshan D’Silva, CEO, Myzus Infotech, “We believe investments made in each product line of ours can be recovered with a minimum of two clients. Our strategy is to target around 100 telecom operators. The relationship we will share with them is more like a partner than a vendor in the sense that we look to our clients for our future success and they look at us as key partners in their success in an extremely competitive market.” In a way, Myzus differs from other similar technology companies in the fact that the company sells its products directly to service providers and not equipment vendors. With an estimated 2,000 telecom carriers in over 182 countries, the opportunity undoubtedly is huge. The company has signed up four telecom operators in the Middle East and Europe. Myzus has already turned cash positive and expects to break even by March 2003. Two years from now, D’Silva says that the aim is to form strategic relationships with close to 60 operators around the globe. If that happens, it could set off a trigger that could change the course of the Indian IT industry.