ACPL trio to focus on their individual businesses

By Meghla Kathju

The trio Vishal Bindra, Ravi Mehra and Avneesh Das, who had set up ACPL Systems Pvt Ltd and developed the SmartDog anti-virus software a decade ago, have now decided to go their different ways. ACPL, however, will exist and continue to support its existing customers. The split and subsequent reformation came after a soul-searching exercise which pointed to the wisdom of being focused. Said Mehra, "We are just drifting with the market and our company was going in all directions."

While Bindra’s Vaikunth Informatics will continue to focus the anti virus market segment, the difference will be that it will be in the enterprise segment rather than the end user segment. This will be met through Pc-cillin, Trend Micro’s anti-virus software. Mehra has chosen to focus on the growing market for web design and development at the high and low-end of the market segment. Designthemes.com will take up development of vertical as well as horizontal portals and is at the moment developing a website on India and one on tourism. Das’ Msoft will focus on software development and exports.

The focus has indeed helped. Citing an example, Mehra said, "I have worked on about 20 websites in the last six months. I would not have been able to do it in two years, if we had been together." The trio has been working on this proposition for the past three years. While the financial aspects are still being worked out, all three are expected to get equal share of the Rs 1.8 lakh, which was APCL turnover prior to the modification.