An app to make residential societies 'smarter' (Tech Edge)

Now a software and an app can help both residents and their housing societies to keep track of basic functions like security, plumbing, power maintenance, tracking visitors, legal paperwork and even online voting for elections.

That's what ApartmentAdda promises - easing the stress of managing a modern housing society.

Founded in 2009 by engineer-duo Sangeeta Banerjee and husband Venkat Kandaswamy, both of whom have experience in ERP consultancy and web solutions, the company by the same name services some 7,500 societies across India.

"ApartmentAdda has an online directory of all residents and any information that is sought to be kept confidential can be masked. Homemakers can find a list of common service providers in the area with a rating of the quality of service of each vendor," Sangeeta Banerjee said.

"For particularly sticky issues of a society, anonymous polls are also possible," she said.

Besides, the app manages a host of services like member accounts, income and expense statements, while also offering billing, and online payment gateway. Residents can also schedule messages for delivery at a later date. Housed on an Android OS platform, it also aids visitor-tracking.

The company, which has nearly 60 employees, earns its revenues based on subscriptions from housing societies in cities like Gurgaon, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.

"The best part about this app is that it is available free to download and can also run offline. The data is synchronised and can also be saved in an excel sheet for future reference. Staff at an apartment complex can also be tracked with this app," Banerjee said.

When asked about the company's growth, she said: "We have grown three times in the last financial year and we expect to grow five times in 2015-16. For our expansion, we are now looking at series 'A' funding from investors."

(Anirban Ghoshal can be reached at anirban.g@ians.in)