What makes a successful
Netrepreneur? What fuels their passion and what do they want? Some of this
year's nominees for the Netrepreneur of the Year awards talk to JASON HAHN.
"The passion must be there. And you need to be tech-savvy; you must know how to make use of technology to advance the interests of your company," Kwa Kim Chiong, CEO of JustLogin Pte Ltd
If there
is one word to describe Mr Kwa Kim Chiong, it is that he is an enabler. His
whole professional life has been dedicated to leveraging technology to enable
better and faster work processes, to make computer applications, and
correspondingly people's lives, easier.
Armed with an engineering degree
and an MBA from NUS, Mr Kwa, 43, spent 11 year with the then Defence Science
Organisation (DSO), eventually rising to the position of head of its IT
department. Although he trained as an electronical engineer, software was always
his passion.
During his tenure, he and his team developed software to
simplify work processes. He oversaw the eventual transformation of the DSO into
a paperless office.
"It took us many years to develop that technology,"
Mr Kwa recalled. And rather than have other people reinvent the wheel, he wanted
to share the fruits of that development with the community.
This desire
led him to found JustLogin Pte Ltd, of which he is (just) the CEO.
The
company is essentially an applications service provider, renting out its
applications via the Internet.
Said Mr Kwa, "We help companies automate
their work processes so that the sharing of information is smooth. Basically, we
can convert an office into an intelligent environment within a few days.
"For example, we can set up staff directories and electronic folders,
research online and post and tabulate the results online."
According to
him, the beauty of the applications offered by JustLogin is that there is no
need to invest in hardware and software, thus saving a lot of physical space.
All the applications are available through the Internet at a cost of around $15
per user per month.
So what does the CEO of JustLogin believe it takes
to become a successful entrepreneur? "The passion must be there," he said. "And
you need to be tech savvy; you must know how to make use of technology to
advance the interests of your company."
"I enjoy seeing other people
benefit from the results of our R&D! The thing is, we're not in the business
of attracting 'eyeballs'. We provide solutions and these solutions are
valuable."
"Eyeballs" in Internet speak is the number of times a website
gets viewed.
"The Internet is an enabler," he continued. "It links
everyone in the world. It opens up the world, which is why we can offer the same
suite of services to any company in the world."
Mr Kwa is not daunted by
the dot.com crash last year. He remains enthusiastic about the Internet and
believes that its potential is far from realised despite the recent spate of
negative press.
He said, "The Internet's real value has not yet been
shown. There is capacity to generate a lot of revenue. But the timing is another
question. Right now, the Internet is really cost-heavy. So even if you make a
lot of revenue, it's swallowed by costs.
"To be profitable, you would
need a significant increase in revenue, enough to compensate for the heavy
costs."
As for his nomination as a finalist in the Netrepreneur of the
Year Award, Mr Kwa is philosophical.
"I don't know who nominate me and
why. Maybe it was because we've made an impact on the industry. But whether I
win or not is not important. What's more important is that I make the business a
success."
