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Who's who: Abbas Sadriwalla

The CEO of Moonrise Systems is constantly thinking forward, but he moves quietly and patiently.

January 13, 2004

Abbas Sadriwalla, chief executive officer of kiosk software company Moonrise Systems, doesn't like staying still for long. He is constantly thinking forward, but he moves quietly and patiently.

It has taken five years for Sadriwalla to move his flagship NetStop Pro software out of its pigeonhole of being only for pay-for-use Internet access and into being a versatile engine for self-service kiosks. He believes NetStop Pro software is the preeminent kiosk software in the market, but he is OK with the fact that his software's capability is the "best hidden secret in the industry."

"It has taken more than five years, but NetStop Pro has proven to be a robust, stable, reliable product in several areas," he said. He noted, in particular, HR departments, hospitals, airports and educational institutions with applications ranging from logistics and information to help-desk functions. Princess and P&O Cruise Lines use the software on many of their ships, and now give guests magnetic cards that give them onboard access to cyber cafe kiosks.

How did NetStop Pro get branded a pay-for-access software only? When the product was created, Sadriwalla explained, Internet access over dial-up was the big play for kiosks. The slow speed of dial-up connectivity limited the usefulness of other tasks. But as broadband became ubiquitous, opportunities for kiosks grew. And so did Sadriwalla's software.

"From day one, my goal was to make NetStop Pro a multifaceted product. Content is robust today, and it is driven by broadband," said Sadriwalla. Now he is moving a step further to Wi-fi connectivity.

Sadriwalla sees Wi-fi as the technology that ends many limitations for the kiosk industry. And a personal goal is to use Wi-fi hotspots to bring educational kiosks to his homeland of India and to other Third World countries that do not have the financial resources to install a wired infrastructure for kiosk networks.

"That's business but also missionary work I envision," he said. "It may seem far-fetched, but so did going to the moon."

Moon rising

Moonrise started in 1997 as a cyber cafe company. Moonrise owned several cyber cafes on cruise ship routes. Sadriwalla joined four years ago as the general manager, and believed from the beginning that the company should not focus on maintaining retail operations, but rather on self-service software and the kiosk marketplace.

NetStop Pro was acquired in December 2001, back when the software was in its 3.62 version. Just last month Moonrise released the 4.0 version. NetStop Pro gave Sadriwalla the tools he needed to drive Moonrise forward.

He also started a separate company, V-Link Solutions, which focuses on high-speed wireless Internet access. Sadriwalla is also chief executive officer of V-Link.

V-Link has made 110 Embassy Suite hotels in the United States "live with wireless." And V-Link has recently been named by Hampton Inns as a preferred vendor for their more than 1,300 hotels.

A natural progression, according to Sadriwalla, will be putting kiosks into these hotels. He explained that kiosks could be placed anywhere in the hotel, providing there is a power source. And on the flipside, he would like to convert his current kiosk licenses into hotspots. "Those kiosks use DSL now. But they only earn money for the deployers when someone is sitting down using the kiosk. If it is a hotspot, the revenue pot grows."

He said the kiosk industry is not just about buying and selling technology. It's about creating value and spreading information. "Kiosks are not some special product. They are a standard PC enclosed in a shell," he said. "But they can be very meaningful, in that they solve business problems for companies. They reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction."

Starting out

Sadriwalla is trained as a research and development chemist. In his native Bombay, his family was involved in rubber products production.

"I've always had a high level of curiosity about how things work," he said.

He came to the United States 30 years ago. In the mid-1980s, he was building his own computers. He became certified in the Novell operating system, and launched several tech businesses that he merged with Moonrise Systems.