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October - 2002 - issue > Entrepreneurship
Webversa Connecting through voice
Monday, July 7, 2008
WEBVERSA CHIEF technology officer Ajay Sravanapudi has just acquired Semio, in San Mateo, CA. And with this, he expects to pull meaning out of large chunks of unstructured enterprise data.


Over the last couple of years, Sravanapudi has been busy innovating and developing Voice-to-Enterprise solutions. This Webversa technology would allow voice access to business applications. Essentially, this would mean users gaining access and navigating with the help of voice commands using a standard telephone and have dynamic content read back to them. The result: E-business information is made available anytime, anywhere. And what’s more, the technology integrates seamlessly with existing applications.


The solution sports an impressive array of features. For example, a user can expect instant and interactive notification of pending critical events, like system failures, or other common anomalies bound to impact enterprises. Subsequently, systems administrators can either send alerts or re-route issues to appropriate support personnel.


In an excited tone, Sravanapudi elaborates his strategy for growth: “What we have already built is an intelligent delivery engine, and what we have just acquired is an intelligent analysis engine. Put both together, and we have a powerful tool that will enable us to sense patterns and data, thereby helping us notify people who need notification.”


In October 2000, Webversa landed its first customer - the U.S. Army. With over 35,000 processes to manage worldwide, the U.S Army’s Military Traffic Management Command (MTMC) Operations Center is critical to the success of deployed army personnel and equipment. This complex setting requires continuous upkeep. And facilitating this was Webversa’s solution. Their solution has enabled MTMC to manage its IT resources centrally, and identify and address problems—all via voice command, and more importantly, before users are affected. Says Sravanapudi, “Going forward, there are still a number of applications where Webversa’s solution can be deployed. The potential the defense field offers is enormous.”


Another area where Sravanapudi foresees potential is the pharmaceutical industry. Consider this: Severn Healthcare Provider Services Inc., (SHPS), which provides home healthcare management services throughout the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. area, has used the Webversa solution to significantly increase service-reporting productivity.


During his stint at Versatility, a CRM software company, Sravanapudi picked up skills ‘full life-cycle software development’ skills. As the company’s lead architect, he successfully implemented computer telephony solutions in over 125 call centers, including customized direct sales, customer care, financial services and collection applications. He saw the company grow from 40 to 200 people and go public, before finally being acquired by Oracle.


In 1994, Sravanapudi quit Versatility to found Webversa along with two other colleagues. He jokes: “When smart guys get together, big ideas strike. And in our case too, the big idea did strike.” Since their domain expertise was telephony, they set out to develop an enterprise software product that would help communicating via voice.


By late 1999, Sravanapudi and his team had successfully developed the first version of the product. “To take the company to the next level, we had to get the management in place. We hired a CEO who promptly brought in a CFO,” he says.


In April 2000, Webversa raised $6.8 million in its first round of funding. “We were funded on an ASP model. At that time, that was the model in demand for VCs,” says Sravanapudi. However, by 2001 it was clear that this business model was not doing any good for them. “Technology was great but the ASP business was getting us no where,” he says. The company, which was 10 in size before funding, had scaled up to 50 employees. It was again time to scale down and cut costs. “We refocused. We changed the CEO. The old CFO became the new CEO,” quips Sravanapudi.


Having learnt the hard way of building the company, Sravanapudi does not want to comment on what may be in store for the future. “I wouldn’t like to see my company’s roadmap for the next two years. No one knows what will happen.”


The recent acquisition will keep his team busy for the next six to eight months. “Six months down the line, we will have a compelling product when we combine the analysis engine of the new company with what we already have.”



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