Future belongs to true-touch technology: SMART

Pretty much,and we expect it again. Because I think our price-mark is more attractive,than others in India.

The customers are very price sensitive and the prices of the boards all across have not really gone down that much yet.

Tell us about your new launches and latest plans for India.

We are gonna be signed to some concept trials for SVP2AD,our new launch. We shall be giving 10 boards each to a 4 or 5 states and install them in the schools.

We will also provide training to the teachers as to how to use the boards,and how to use the software to create engaging and meaningful lessons.

The training which you intend to provide,will it be free of cost?

Yes,the initial training is for the end user. It shall be free of cost.

So when you say you will provide training to the teachers,I mean,which teachers are you talking about?

The idea is to go to the public schools. For the start we shall be giving it to State schools.

Why just the State schools?

It could actually have to be driven by the State schools. They will tell us which are the schools which we’re gonna put the boards in. I think this has to be in certain type of schools. It’s a decision which rests with the State Govt.

Is there anything which has not gone according to your expectation levels?

No,not really because another fact is you know as far as the user interface is concerned or the user experience is concerned,we provide the Smart notebook software which is identical in both the products.

So the teachers,the end customer is actually using the same software that they would be using in the Smart boards area as well.

Last time we met,you spoke about you introducing the Smart boards in the schools,mostly in the urban areas. So this time can we expect you to go to rural areas as well?

No,not at present. We are still not at that kind of point where we can go to the rural areas.

What stops you from going to the rural areas?

I would say it’s like we haven’t gone into the urban areas fully,so it’s a natural progression starting from the big cities leading to the smaller towns.

Why can’t you have a parallel start in both the urban and rural areas?

If State Govt tells us to put them in the rural areas,we will definitely put them in the rural areas.

It is not our intention to just stick to the urban areas. I think it’s just a lack of bandwidth like you know they just working on the bigger cities and towns. But,we do look forward to it,when we go to the State Govts and when we do the POC.

What is the PoC?

Proof of Concept is like you know we are saying that ok here’s the board which can replace a standard whiteboard ok,so they want to see it so how does it work? So we put the board into the classroom.

With the PoC,we let the user experience our product and actually use it.

Have you seen any reluctance on part of the establishment,when you introduce them to your POC? I mean is there any discomfort?

There reluctance is like,you know,they don’t want it to be like a disturbance in something which they are already doing.

So how do you convince them that the teachers will adapt to this technology?

So,there are like case studies all over the world. Like we introduced the worlds first electronic white boards in 1991. We are of the firm belief that future belongs to true-touch technology.

When the founder of this company created this product he thought like this product will be for the corporate environment. Very early we realized that education actually adopted our products whole heartedly.

We also tell them that we have worked with Govts like UK where their were zero interactive boards in their classroom and in about 5-6 years from zero 100% of schools have got interactive boards. 72% of all the classrooms in UK have got interactive boards.

How would India be in a more advantageous position than US and UK in terms of using this technology?

See,the biggest advantage is we don’t have to reinvent to be there. The other advantage is that India would be buying the board at half the price of US and UK because over the period of time the price of technology has gone down too.