As we accept the increasing presence of women in the workplace, even in fields such as finance and technology, the focus is shifting from gender inclusive to gender neutral. Even the fast-paced and innovation-driven information technology sector has no numbers to fuel the ?weaker sex? debate. Not only do more women enter the IT industry each year, there are some who dare to branch out on their own. Diksha Dutta speaks to five women entrepreneurs who have set the trend in a profession known for its long hours, constant travelling and juggling different time zones of international clients. These women took up the challenge of striking out on their own and emerged winners

Sarada Ramani

Computer International

At an age when women are supposed to be fighting middle-age crisis, Sarada Ramani began her career. After 14 years of marriage and a 12-year-old daughter, Sarada returned to books when she was 35 years old. Having acquired a post-graduate degree in computer applications, she went in search of a job as an IT programmer, only to be told that she was too old! Undaunted, she thought of her own enterprise and launched ?Computer International?, a small computer education unit, in 1996. Beginning with just six employees, today her firm has transformed into an outsourced product development company that employs 150 people.

Along with success came awards that were constant morale boosters. She won the ?National Award for Small Scale Entrepreneur-2003? and ?Best Woman Entrepreneur of the Country-2004??certainly a huge leap from ?rejected? status.

Apart from her love for programming, Sarada believes relationship building is her strength, which has contributed immensely in making her company grow. ?My company is my third child and I have nourished it in a befitting manner,? she says.

Her quest for achievement seems insatiable as she now aspires for a Ph.D in entrepreneurship after having acquired an MBA degree recently.

At the same time, she says she feels no different than the housewife next door. ?Entrepreneurship requires no great degrees, no solid financial back-up, but just determination to face all the challenges,? she says. A simple truth!

Sangeeta Patni

Extensio Software

?Made in India, made for the world? is the mantra for Sangeeta Patni?s ?Extensio Software?. In her 15 years of corporate IT experience, Sangeeta worked for various companies, but always wondered why Indian firms bought technology developed abroad.

Her combined desire to shift from technology implementation to technology building?and build technology in India?to be more specific, led to the creation of Extensio Software. ?Today, we build technology in India at Extensio and sell it to the rest of the world,? she says proudly. The company also boasts of SAP, IBM, Astra, Zeneca, ACC and Ambuja as its major clients.

Born into a traditional Marwari community, Sangeeta chose to be a career woman. ?In a community where women are not professionally inclined, I was at par with my two brothers,? she recalls. Sangeeta is the engineering brain behind Extensio Software, while her siblings handle marketing and sales.

It was not easy for her to start a company while mothering her two-year-old daughter, but she has never regretted her decision. ?No matter how good a job I did, I was not generating revenues as an employee. With Extensio, I am the decision maker,? she says.

Multi-tasking seems her forte as she perfectly manages a 10-employee company, a household and her daughter, now 12 years? old. Mother and daughter even find time to indulge in sessions of classical dancing. Perfect tuning, one must say!

Anu Acharya

Ocimum Biosolutions

Anu Acharya always knew how to make money. She believes she was born with the art. As a child, she would even negotiate with her father to pay her for small household work like ironing clothes and painting chairs. ?Those were some of my first entrepreneurial ventures,? she laughs.

As a student at IIT, Kharagpur, she realised her inclination towards entrepreneurship. Along with two batchmates, she toyed with the idea of starting a biotech company and launched ?Ocimum Biosolutions? in 2000.

However, the real challenges were yet to follow. The going was tough as there were very few people with a background in life sciences and IT in India, she confesses.

But she fought on with the right strategies, as she explains, ?Entrepreneurship is not glamorous. The first few years are always very difficult, and it requires extreme grit to deal with that phase.? Today, Anu can breathe easy. With three international acquisitions, Ocimum currently has over 2,000 customers worldwide. The worst is, obviously, over.

Following her graduation at IIT and prior to founding Ocimum Biosolutions, Anu took all the right steps toward building a business. She acquired experience by working for a start-up in the telecommunications space, Mantiss Information. She also learned the ropes at a consulting firm, SEI Information, where she helped create a social networking site for entrepreneurs. Notching up on the academic front, she worked at a post-graduate degree in management information system.

Anu continues to innovate in Ocimum and advises other women to ?be dedicated, look for financial backing and take the risk. It?s better to do and fail than to have never done at all?. A motivation mantra, that!

Anupama Arya

Mobera Systems

If an engineer is excited working in a garage, he is on the right track. Anupama Arya?s Mobera Systems justifies this. The company started in 2003 with six people in a garage and each new product developed made the bunch of youngsters euphoric. Today, Mobera Systems caters to global clients and has 70 employees. ?We do nerdy stuff, but it?s enjoyable. I love to play and experiment with technology products we develop,? says Anupama.

Family responsibility drove Anupama back to India in 2003 from the US, where she lived and worked in Silicon Valley. While in the US, she co-founded two companies?a B2B company that was acquired by a global Internet major, and another that was a roll-up of technology services. It would have been very difficult for her to come back to the corporate job environment, she confesses. So, she chose to launch Mobera than take up a job in India.

As an entrepreneur she has always followed one rule. ?You have to succeed if you are putting all your eggs in one basket.? She feels it is an added advantage to be a woman if you are an entrepreneur, as you learn the trick of doing more with less money and time.

This serial entrepreneur is also an angel investor and wants to see more women in IT at each Nasscom meet. Several awards have followed in her ten years of entrepreneurship, the most notable being the ?Award for Excellence?Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007-08? by Software Technology Parks of India, and ?All India Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur for the Year Award? by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. Risks are surely rewarding!

Rakhee Nagpal

DVS

Rakhee Nagpal?s interest in the family business spurred her on to dream bigger. Even when she was busy acquiring degrees in economics and marketing from Kingston University, London, her focus was on starting her own venture.

In 2006, Rakhee conceptualised Dynamic Vertical Solutions (DVS), an ERP solution provider for retail and hospitality industry. ?IT was an element that created an opportunity for me to learn and create,? she says. Her experience abroad and her familiarity with different cultures and international teams in the IT space translated into tremendous growth for the company.

DVS today has centres in India, the US and Dubai and has 50 employees. Its list of major clients includes D?damas, Lilliput, Devyani Group, among others. Bigger plans are on the cards. ?I want to have an empire of international professionals to facilitate IT consulting and people development,? says Rakhee. She also plans to expand the company across different verticals?hospitality, retail and even entertainment.

As for being a woman, Rakhee feels the challenges are more internal than real. ?Women need to believe that the world will change, and they have to bring this change themselves,? she says. It?s a woman?s world, after all!