Work from home has become the norm for people all over the world amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Given that this was a situation not foreseen by almost all companies, big and small, setting up infrastructure in such a short time frame may seem impossible for many.
In a bid to make life easy for such companies, a Chennai-based service provider FICONNET is looking to offer its bundle of solutions including providing infrastructure, wireless internet connection, to solve technological problems arising during work from home and cut capital expenditure for companies.
FICONNET was founded by Shrivatsan Balagopal, an electronics and communication engineering graduate, who was co-running an IT business vertical company started by his father until life turned over.
In December 2016, when cyclone Vardah hit the optical fiber network in Chennai, his company lost ground, soon followed by the death of his father, even as Shrivatsan was thinking of ways to restart the business. That was when Shrivatsan started FICONNECT. During his last days, Shrivatsan recalls, “My dad was only thinking about getting the internet connectivity restored to get back our business operations. That’s when I understood wireless internet, cloud solutions etc will be a major dependency in future and the direction the world will move. This motivated me to start a wireless network company.”
FICONNET, which started as a wireless intranet and internet provider in 2017, has now become a WFH solution provider. FICONNET, with a team of 10 members, offers solutions including hardware (desktop+headset), Software (OS+Antivirus) and internet to call centre or Small and Medium Enterprises.
For starting a call centre, one needs to spend at least Rs 20 lakh on the infrastructure, but FICONNET aims to cut the capital expenditure making infrastructure and other essentials free. “We provide laptop, headsets and other infra needs for our clients. So, using FICONNET, our client can log into their portal and perform their work. This will save more than Rs 20 lakh for the company,” says the CEO.
On the strategies through which he is planning to tackle the COVID crisis, the 28-year-old entrepreneur said, “I am making collaborations to provide complete end-to-end WFH solutions. We are focusing on developing a platform for customers to request their services via an automated process. Our primary focus is Business to Business (B2B) and we are also getting request from the retail segment so I will be trying to extend our service to retail segments as well.” Shrivatsan also has plans to expand FICONNET to different regions that provide complete WFH solutions.