A showcase of talents and services

Visitors look at an online service at a stall at the fair. Photo: Amran Hossain

The 10th edition of the SoftExpo, one of the biggest ICT events of country, started with the theme 'Empowering Next Generation' and promising signs on February 22 in the capital.
The fair brings good news for IT professionals especially for the freelancers. Casada Technology Bangladesh Ltd has brought alartpay.com, an online payment gateway, in Bangladesh. Through this gateway individuals, who are doing outsourcing, software developments and other jobs with foreign countries, can easily receive their payments with any bank accounts in the country.
"It has been authorised by Bangladesh Bank with all legal approvals", said Khandaker Ahsan Mahmud, general manager, Casada Technology Bangladesh Ltd.
AalartPay has officially started its operation from this month. It is a Montreal-based Canadian company and Casada Technology is its franchise.
Casada's stall is located at Mobile Content and Application Zone, one of the 7 zones at the fair.
At the United International University (UIU) stall in the IT Education Zone, a group of students are showcasing their products which they developed as university projects. One of their products is 'Online Inventory Management System', which can be used by super stores. Walton and Nokia stores in Shyamoli are using it.
However, the exciting thing comes from Feroz Ahmed Siddiky, a lecturer of the UIU. Feroze made an Intelligent Military Robot that uses machine learning techniques. His robot is contesting in the IT Innovation Search Programme organised by BASIS. He made the robot while doing his Masters at the same university.
Feroze said he used Speech Recognition System and own algorithm to make this Robot. In other words you can use voice command to communicate with the robot. "It can communicate with people easily. Even a kid can communicate with it providing the proper training."
Feroz explained, "If the sound of your baby crying is pre-recorded in the robot, it can call and notify you when your baby starts crying and you can also see with its built-in camera remotely." The robot can also receive commands from phone too. Feroz claims the robot has an accuracy rate of over 98%.
These types of robots can be used by the military for spying, for home security or for the physically challenged. The robot can be attached to the wheelchair so that they can move around using voice command.
At the e-Commerce Zone, Future Solutions for Business, a specialised IT service company established in the UK in 2003 and started its operation in Bangladesh in 2009, are showcasing their e-Commerce solutions.
At the outsourcing zone among others there is CIM Solutions Bangladesh Ltd, a new company based in Netherlands, which started their operation here last year. Official of CIM said their main objective in participating at the fair is to let people know about the company. They are already working with offshore clients. They also provide business and industry solutions.
Troyee, a company that provides integrated business solution can be found at the Business Zone. Uttam Kumar Paul, managing director of Troyee said they participate at the fair every year as they get good response.
At the Business Zone there is also DNS Software Ltd, which is showcasing two products-SMS based service and Online Payment Gateway- in particular among other services.
The company provides a variety of services such as promotional activities, greetings, special offers and more through SMS. DNS can segment the market and send SMS to the prospective targeted clients. In Online Payment Gateway, DNS provide the platform for online transaction within the Bangladesh.
Huawei is showcasing its Unified Communication products (e-Conference, e-Learning, e-Education and Multimedia conference), and Cloud computing system at the Cloud and Communication Zone of the fair. The company explains in detail how the Cloud computing-the next generation computing-actually works.
The other zones at the fair are ITES and BPO Zone.
With participation of over 140 exhibitors from home and abroad, 30 seminars and tech sessions, over 20,000 corporate visitors alone with general visitors, international business matchmaking, contest and awards, and live events this fair is believed to be the biggest than the past SoftExpos in terms of arrangement and participation.
More than one hundred new IT inventions are being displayed at the fair.