The marketplace of new ideas

Managing a school is a fairly cumbersome operation. The school needs to maintain attendance record of the students, the performance reports for students and teachers, class routine, the curriculum for each grade etc.

To help schools bring all such complicated operations under a single platform, Spate Initiative Limited, a Bangladeshi software company has built School360 – an online platform that provides institutional management system for educational institutes.

Built in 2015, institutions such as Noorani and Model School and Wisdom Lab. School and College of Jamalpur, and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman High School of Brahmanbaria, have already started using the software.

Currently on display at the 16th BASIS SOFTEXPO 2020 at the International Convention City Bashundhara, the software has been attracting a lot of visitors.

The four-day-long expo is also showcasing over 300 local and international companies, 18 new projects, as well as seminars and roundtables.

Spate Initiative Limited is currently trying to introduce some additional features on School360 which can aid in empowering students and teachers. The new features include IT professionals who can help train individuals at institutions in operating computers.

The company is also working on bringing a pool of teachers under its platform which can allow schools and colleges to employ teachers as and when they require. Simultaneously, it is also empowering students by allowing them to display their unique ideas and products on an e-commerce platform and help them sell it worldwide.

Among other attractions at the Expo, a group of final year students of United International University's department of computer science and engineering came up with the idea of building a platform that can help consumers compare options prior to making an online purchase on local e-commerce websites.

Inspired by the concept of global hotel search platform – Trivago, this group of individuals are working on a search engine that can track keywords through a wide range of e-commerce websites such as Bagdoom, Pickaboo, and Ajkerdeal.

There were a number of other interesting products on display including one where eye glasses can carry out the function of a PC mouse and a sun-tracking solar panel.

The exhibitors were spread out through Hall 2-4 of the International Convention City Bashundhara. The exhibition was divided along different categories such as education, women empowerment etc. 13 zones were set up through the halls.

"Software Showcasing Zone" was the largest segment of the expo followed by "Digital Education Zone", "Women Zone", and "Digital Commerce Zone."