SparkNet represented another
interesting phase in Spark Consultants history.
The concept of SparkNet was born
when Techno-Spark was at its peak.
Techno-Spark had created such a stir in the market that job seekers poured
into the office of Spark Consultants to register their resumes; they knew that thousands of HR
managers were looking at Techno-Spark every day and were actively using it to source their
requirement of people.
One day a job-seeker came to our
office. He wished to register. However, the issue had already closed and
was being printed at that very moment. The agony of the job-seeker was
unbearable. He was the only son of his poor parents, he said, and he had
lost his job (and thereby his income) and he wanted to featured in the
publication since it could possibly help him get a job quickly. He was
very downcast when he heard that his resume would be featured only a full
month later. (Remember that these were pre-internet days. The internet was
still several years away).
It then occurred to our CEO, Mr.
Prakash Subbarao, to investigate whether any alternate sources were
available that could disseminate resumes faster.
The fax modem had just been released
and electronic bulletin boards had sprung up in Bangalore.
A search in the U.S. resulted in the selection of a
Bulletin Board Software (BBS) called WorldGroup from a company called
Galacticomm. It cost Rs. 17,000. It required a PC with a unique bus
configuration (remember that we are talking the early 1990's here - the
386's were common and the 486 had just been released). The only machine at
that time with this special architecture was an imported Tulip Computers
486, and it cost Rs. 76,000! The machine was duly purchased even though the cost was exorbitant. All that
remained was to get a phone line. In those days, it took several years to
get a landline installed (there were no mobiles then!). The only way to
get a landline was to go in for a 'Tatkal' connection - one paid Rs.
30,000 and got a phone almost immediately.
Soon the phone was installed but
there was a lot of line noise. This created slow downs in the very slow
14,400bit modems of those days. There were two solutions to this problem:
-
Put a telephone line man on the
payroll and get him to ensure that the connections at the pole were very
tight so that there was no sparking, and therefore no noise.
-
Purchase a modem with even
stronger 'line holding" properties. Such a modem was the Zyxel 28,8
which had just been released and cost a whopping rs. 18,000!
Both the above were done and
SparkNet BBS went on line. It's slogan: "Today's resumes today".
It was India's first corporate BBS.
SparkNet continued serving South India's entrepreneurs and businesses till the advent of the Internet. By then it had become obsolete and was shut down.
SparkNet