GSL and FiiRE join hands to give a boost to start-ups

Karan Sehgal   

Typically hackathon is an event, where software professionals participate to crack a problem with an aim of winning a prize. 

However, recently, Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE) organized a hackathon, which invited start-ups to offer solutions to Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL). As opposed to most hackathons, which only have a prize at the end of the event, FiiRE’s hackathon gave a rare opportunity to start-ups to offer solutions to challenges faced by a defense sector shipyard like GSL.   

In cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai, it is a lot easier for start-ups to work with large private sector companies and even multi-national-corporations (MNCs). However, in Goa, the private sector is much smaller and the presence of MNCs comparatively lesser. But, the State is home to a number of large public-sector-corporations, GSL being one of them. By bringing GSL on board, FiiRE gave an opportunity to start-ups, which would have been impossible otherwise. 

Venugopal T.R., corporate relations manager, FiiRE, said, “We had applications from 25 start-ups willing to participate in hackathon. Of that, we shortlisted 12 applications. At the event, 9 start-ups presented their solutions to a panel of judges from GSL. 8 start-ups were from Goa and 1 start-up was from Hyderabad.”   

GSL had proposed a number of problem statements for the hackathon. Finally, it was decided that the start-ups would find solutions to two problems. First problem was GSL wanted communication between its human-resources department (HR) and employees to become a lot better so that employees have information about their training, responsibilities, leaves and pay-scales easily available.   

Second was GSL wanted an automated system so that its vendors can track the progress of purchase orders, which are made on day-to-day basis. Some start-ups offered solutions to both the problems. 

But, other start-ups suggested solutions to only one problem as there was a time constraint because they had only two days to work out a solution. Venugopal further said that FiiRE had informed the start-ups that they could bring even an existing solution to GSL’s problems. This was to ensure that they didn’t have to work out a solution from scratch. Some of these were actually mature start-ups, which have been in business for 3-5 years and their experience helped them at the hackathon.   

Intellis Engineering Services from Panaji was one of the mature start-ups, which participated at hackathon. Intellis is a research and development (R&D) company as it develops technologies used by other companies. Amit Tamba, who is a director of Intellis, informed that his company offered solutions to both the problems of GSL. 

Tamba said, “For the HR issue, we proposed we can have a chatbot, which will be a guide to GSL’s employees. It will be a ‘GSL-buddy’. From an employee’s first day at GSL, it would greet him to the company and also provide him training and track his progress. So, it is a mix of a monitoring tool and a digital assistant.” 

Intellis also offered an internal logistics solution to GSL, which will work as a single system for tracking purchase orders the shipyard places with its vendors. A hackathon of this kind allowed Intellis to show its capabilities to a potential client like GSL. 

Tamba further informed that this was the first time Intellis dealt with a PSU although it has done government projects in the past, wherein it offered e-governance solutions.   

PlanQube from Verna was another start-up, which participated at the hackathon. PlanQube offered a solution to automize GSL’s system so that its vendors know the exact stage their orders are with the shipyard. 

Ajoy Raj, founder-director, PlanQube, said, “GSL, being a defense sector undertaking, is extremely concerned about security of data. Therefore, we had to offer a solution to them, which works inside their network, as they wouldn’t allow their data to travel outside their network. We asked them what network connections they would allow and then accordingly we offered them a solution.”   

It is a testimony to the abilities of Goan start-ups that they could offer solutions to a defense PSU like GSL, which places a lot of emphasis on data security. It also shows that the start-up ecosystem in the State is becoming really mature where incubators like FiiRE are bringing IT companies and large potential clients like GSL on one platform.   

In the next few days, start-ups are waiting for GSL to decide the solutions best fitting its needs. Meanwhile, Venugopal informed that FiiRE is going to organize many more events on the lines of the recently concluded hackathon to encourage start-ups in Goa.

When start-ups interacted with Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL)   

At a just concluded hackathon, nine start-ups got a chance to interact with GSL and also offer solutions to some of the problems faced by the shipyard.   

The hackathon was a result of a memorandum of understanding signed between FiiRE and GSL.   

GSL wanted start-ups to offer solutions to improve communication between its HR dept and employees. It also wanted start-ups to help it in automizing its system to track purchase orders of several vendors.   

This was the first time that many of these start-ups interacted with a defense public sector unit like GSL. The experience the start-ups gained at the event is going to help them in future.   

Of all the solutions offered at the hackathon, GSL will decide which ones suit its needs in the next few days.