Sendwise

Background

In Indian culture there are many occasions throughout the year when an exchange of gifts is customary. However despite the best efforts of many members of the Indian expatriate community in the UK and the US to continue these regular practices, the logistical difficulties of safely sending traditional gifts and money to family and friends in India make it impossible for many.

Business Plan and Objectives

The Sendwise business plan was conceived in light of the problems that successful businessman Ravi Rishi encountered whenever transferring gifts and money to relatives in India. He found that the whole process was far too slow, complicated and bound with procedure.

After some greater research into the subject, Mr Rishi and his two daughters began to evaluate possible alternatives that would harness the power of the Internet. They found ways around all of the difficulties, and designed a much smoother, less complex approach, involving a UK based credit card clearance service, Canara Bank (the largest bank in India) and a number gift suppliers and distributors in India. This led them to establish the Sendwise brand, and the development of an e-commerce web site.

"We spotted a lucrative gap in the market and an opportunity to improve the quality of contact between distanced Indian communities," said Suruchi Rishi, Managing Director of AKSVM, the company behind Sendwise.com, "We saw the Internet as the solution to a real problem in people's lives."

Entity's Role

Sendwise chose Entity Group Limited to design and build an e-commerce site providing a secure online gift and financial services environment for both experienced and inexperienced Internet users. As a highly recommended IBM Web Integrator and part of the IBM "family", Entity could answer these requirements and draw upon the specific skills of other partners to complement their own.

The Solution

The Sendwise e-business solution consists of IBM WebSphere, IBM DB2 Universal Database and is written in Java. Credit card checking and authorisation services are carried out by a specialist e-commerce partner and instigated using secure Internet file transfer, complete with 128bit encryption.

Entity fulfilled the hosting requirement with fellow IBM Business Partner, Pasporte. Pasporte’s service includes a 24/7 core management system for fault logging, full 24/7 monitoring, call centre support and highly secure access to Pasporte’s data servers.

The back office solution was built using Microsoft products. The IBM Information Exchange service was integrated into the Back Office Solution to provide secure, managed and auditable transfer of financial transactions to Canara Bank. Electronic mail to customers, suppliers and other business partners was also initiated from the Back Office system, via the web site electronic mail system. All of this amply demonstrates Entity’s Business Integration skills.

For security reasons, Entity will not divulge the detailed technical architecture of the website but further details of the solution are available on request.

The Benefits to Sendwise

As a newly formed private company, Sendwise were keen to keep initial capital outgoings to a minimum. Sendwise recognised that the traditional method of acquiring, supporting and managing their own application would not only be very expensive - but time consuming.. By choosing Entity and Pasporte the solution was delivered both safely and cost-effectively to a high standard, using the latest technology.

"We are extremely pleased with every element of our website from the look and feel of the pages, to the robust and secure nature of the complete technical solution provided by Entity and Pasporte. Our IT is of the standard of a much larger company - but at a fraction of the cost." said Ravi Rishi.

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