The PostX Express platform delivers high volume, personal and confidential information to each customer and is designed for scalability and reliable delivery of millions of Internet communications daily, Mr Venkatraman said. The company provides the foundation for highly personalised content and electronic branding opportunities including cross-selling and Web links. Mr Venkatraman was senior engineering manager at Apple Computer where he was responsible for the architecture and development of e-mail and messaging products. Before joining Apple he was at Hewlett-Packard (HP,) where he developed the HP-UX network file transfer and remote-file access products.

He has an MS in computer science from Iowa State University. Of his time at Apple, Mr Venkatraman said, "that was so exciting and energizing and I saw a lot of opportunities in it. And I understood it well. I could see this would boom into something. At that time, e-mail was very much within groups. Now there are a half billion users worldwide." Mr Venkatraman, who grew up in Gujarat, came to the US in 1982, joined HP in 1984 after finishing his MS at Iowa State and left to join Apple in 1987-88. After trying his hand at a start-up that was a precursor to PostX, Mr Venkatraman "decided to do something more fundamental". "With PostX we are much more of an infrastructure or platform that enables e-mail to be used for a variety of business applications.

We had to put a bunch of things together in terms of engineering and technology," he said. While nothing happens without teamwork, Mr Venkatraman acknowledges he was the primary driver behind conceptualising PostX technology and figuring how to fine tune and adapt it to emerging trends and opportunities. "We've stayed pretty steady since then because we are moving for the long-term - we are really in the business of moving communications from paper and stamps to the Internet. That requires a bunch of things to happen. You want to take the best characteristics of snail mail and combine it with what the Internet offers in terms of speed and low cost - so privacy, reliability and security are important," he emphasised. And while there were some small competitors, Mr Venkatraman said his company is the leader in enabling a lot of mission-critical applications.

When financial institutions have to send out statements and bills, "they have to have a proven software or product. It needs to be provided by a very stable and well-backed company. Yes, there are small companies that are in the business, but that is a long haul from becoming an Internet communications provider," he contended. PostX derives its revenue from charging for every message sent by its clients. It also charges for installing, servicing and maintaining the software. "Our business model is similar to the traditional mail model. But they (clients) pay us a fraction of what they would pay by regular mail," Mr Venkatraman said. "We are on the road to profitability and securing a plan to get there." Starting from just two persons, PostX now has 55 employees. One of the strategies PostX used was partnering with potential competitors like the US.

Postal Service for starters in early 2000. "We are offering the electronic postmark that provides legal protection for documents sent electronically. It's the equivalent of mail fraud if someone tampers with your regular mail," Mr Venkatraman said. As for the company's financial situation, while he declined to provide numbers, he said "significant growth in revenues is taking place."