Technology Superwoman

Shanthini Raja is a woman on a mission. She’s a devoted mum, an advocate of Bahrain’s social work and she runs a company that is set to change the way many businesses function.

“I always had an ambition to achieve something”, says Shanthini of her motivation to become an entrepreneur. “There was a point, at a time when I had small children, when running a business was impractical”, she says, but she could never have been accused of inactivity. At every stage of her life, it seems, Shanthini has had her finger firmly in some pie or other.

Her past
Her CV is an impressive blend of hard work, achievements and altruism. “I did a Masters in computer applications and I worked as a computer lecturer for two years in Bangalore. I moved to Qatar when I got married and became the EDP (Electronic Data Processing) manager for a Gulf exchange company”, she says of her early career.  “When I came to Bahrain in 1998 I was mostly into social work. I became coordinator of the programmes for ladies at Tasca, I was vice-president of the British School’s PTA and I became vice-president and then president at the Indian Ladies’ Association”.

Her present
Nowadays, however, Shanthini has poured all of her focus into one endeavour — her software company Rsquare Technologies. The premise of her latest enterprise is really very simple. “We create user-friendly software, such as cheque printing, human resource management systems (HRMS) and form printing, which is tailored specifically to suit the requirements of businesses in the Gulf”, she says.
 
“Many technology companies do offer similar software, but generally it is software that has been developed elsewhere in the world.  We pride ourselves on being one of the only companies that can really design the software with your business in mind.

For example, our HRMS software can be engineered to meet the demands of the labour law — it can take into account indemnity calculations, CPR expiry and other things that aren’t covered in foreign versions”.

“The best thing about our software is that once we hand it over to the company it is designed for, it is theirs. They can create their own templates, customise forms and more, without the need to be constantly tied to the software company that developed it”, Shanthini explains.

Her future
The response to Shanthini’s software designs has been impressive. Through a combination of good marketing and widespread recommendation, she now counts a number of big corporations among her clients, including the Ford Car Showroom, GDN and Intercol. The dream doesn’t stop here, however:

“We are trying to partner up with some similar companies in Kuwait and Muscat, to introduce this sort of software over there. We have also signed up with a few banks to start new projects, as we have just launched an Arabic form printing software”.

An entrepreneur, it seems, has always got a few tricks left up her sleeve. “My advice to other women wanting to be successful in business is very simple. You need to be ready to work. You should be directly involved in every single aspect of your new business, from marketing, to accounts, to human resources.
 
If you start delegating from the word go, you will lose sight of your business’s needs and its direction.
As women, our ability to be hands on is one of our biggest strengths”.
For more information visit www.rsquareweb.com