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| Business News - Tuesday, March 27, 2001 |
VCOM Develops Web-Based Software for Managing Business Expenses
By Michael Yeomans
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
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Ashok Dhar, President of
Virtual Communications, Inc.
(Warren L. Leeder/Tribune-Review)
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For Ashok Dhar, each new opportunity has flowered into another since
arriving in North America some 20 years ago.
The native of India, gracious and hospitable with striking gray eyes, he has not been afraid to explore those new
opportunities - even when preserving the status quo might have been more profitable in the short run.
Dhar, a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, previously developed software projects for Westinghouse Electric Corp. He figures
he could be sitting on a million-dollar software consulting company - had he not been captivated by the Internet
and its possibilities for transforming the way business is done.
But his move, from designing software for nuclear reactors to designing software that lets bank customers manage
their money on the Internet, was a risk Dhar was willing to take. He is hopeful a payoff is close.
"After the second quarter, we will have an enormous opportunity to create a sizable corporation. It is an
exciting time for our company," he said.
Dhar's venture, Virtual Communications Inc. (VCOM),
of which he is president, has been built on the shoulders of his initial consulting company, Computer Sciences & Technology Inc.
Since 1996, he has invested the profits from Computer Sciences, the software consulting service that designs nuclear
plant software, into Virtual Communications. The two companies share office space in the Jonnet Building in Monroeville,
and Dhar drafted key programmers and consultants from Computer Sciences to launch his newest company.
Virtual Communications' initial product, named Web@TM®, was not the first or
only online banking software product on the market.
But it has successfully garnered a modest base of customers since its first application two years ago at Somerset
Trust Co.
Dhar credits the success at Somerset, where Web@TM® helped the bank win a "Best
in Remote Banking" award from Microbanker magazine, for
more recent sales. Those sales were to much larger banks, including First Citizens Bank of Trinidad and Tobago,
Port of Spain, and to Sumitomo Bank of Japan's New York office.
Karen Addleman, a vice president at Somerset
Trust, which serves Somerset and southern Cambria counties, said
28 percent of its checking accounts have signed up with the online banking service designed by Virtual Communications.
That number far outstrips the use of online banking for most other banks, where about 7 percent of customers are
signed up.
"It has exceeded our expectations," Addleman said. "We're signing up about 145 accounts per month."
In retrospect, Dhar said Virtual Communications might have been able to move the product to market more quickly
had he split development costs with a larger partner organization.
Now, Dhar says, it's only a matter of time before the ease of managing accounts and paying bills electronically
makes it a routine practice in a majority of households.
Dhar says his company may partner with Sumitomo Bank to distribute another of its banking products, CashMaster,
a software system that allows corporations to manage their cash. But he doesn't believe Virtual Communications
must be tied strictly to the banking industry.
On the lookout for new opportunies, Dhar thinks Virtual Communicaions has developed the first Internet-based electronic
business expense processing software, dubbed ExpenseAnywhere™.
"We are the first movers here. If you are one of the early adopters (of a market niche), it is for you to
grow and groom it," Dhar said.
Virtual Communications is testing the software with a number of local companies to get their feedback.
Dhar is looking for partners to help distribute the software. He is considering deals with large accounting software
companies which might include Virtual Communications' expense tracking software as an add-on feature to their own
packages.
Dhar is confident that Virtual Communications will be profitable this year. He hopes is may even be able to pay
back his other company, Computer Sciences, for room and board it furnished in Virtual Communciations' early years.
Images and text copyright © 2000,
2001 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
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