Kapadia online

Nauzad Kapadia has a built-in drive — for computers. Ten years ago he started Quartz Systems, keying in its then work program of home education and basic computer literacy. Within two years it excelled in software development and consulting. "Unlike other organizations, Quartz Systems prefers to be small and niche in terms of its size but very high in terms of its standards,” notes the company’s brochure.

"My office is located in Bombay, but most of my team works in south India, as that is where all the large IT (information technology) companies are. As an organization we are only four people — two technical and two administrative staff. However we have a databank of about 25 highly experienced freelance consultants whose services we engage on a need by need basis depending on projects,” Kapadia explains. Within their window of work is onsite corporate training and consulting, design and planning sessions and public workshops.

In October 2002, Microsoft had conferred on Kapadia MVP (Most Valuable Professional) status. "It’s an annual award given by Microsoft to individuals for providing their technical expertise for non-profit activities. I have been receiving this award for five years consecutively and if renewed again in January next year it will be six years in a row,” he states. MVPs are a highly select group of experts that represent the technical community’s best and brightest… they tend to be early adoptors of new technology… help others solve problems and discover new capabilities,” notes the Microsoft website.

Nauzad Kapadia: high end IT training and consulting

Kapadia is among the few to have been given a chance to research the pre-release bits of Orcas, Acropolis, Rosario and PopFly — Microsoft’s cutting edge technologies that are due to be launched in 2008 and beyond. Kapadia has been associated with Microsoft’s .NET framework since its beta two stage, notes the Quartz Systems brochure. He is also one of the founding members and convener of the Mumbai .NET user group, and has also been instrumental in setting up India’s first BizTalk User group. He is a SME (Subject Matter Expert) for technologies like SQL Server, WinForms and Sharepoint.

In August 2007, Kapadia was appointed a member of the NABU Advisory Council of Experts. NABU stands for kNowledge Access Beyond BoUndaries. The Council is made up of leaders from academia, non-governmental organizations, civil societies, governments and corporations who provide consultation to international bodies like the United Nations (UN) and give inputs with the help of technology to promote issues like the UN Millennium Development Goals, human rights and development work, Kapadia defines the role.

Browsing through his early years Kapadia narrates: "As a student I was very much fascinated by the computer and the things it could do if programmed correctly. My parents were very kind to buy me a personal computer at that time out of the provident fund they had earned and I started exploring the subject more and more on my own.” While still in college he joined Citibank as a summer trainee to gain experience and earn pocket money. "As part of my three months there, I started guiding the employees on how to make better use of the technology and also started developing small applications to automate most of their routine tasks.” At the end of the tenure, the vice president asked him to automate their entire home loans department. "I spent 15 months developing that project and that was how I got started into commercial software development. Through word of mouth publicity I got other assignments at companies like Glaxo and Marico.” Quartz Systems lists in its brochure around 100 corporates among its portfolio of clients.

"As far as teaching is concerned, I stumbled across it quite accidentally,” Kapadia moves the cursor forward. When his computer science professor in college experienced problems in getting some difficult concepts across to his students due to lack of communication skills, Kapadia offered to help out. "I started teaching my class and actually found the experience fun.” He later started offering training services to the companies for whom he had developed software. "I would go to the homes of the company executives as they had no time to learn computers themselves and would never go to a training institute. Within a year or so, I had a team of like-minded people offering home training to industry leaders and celebrities. Over a period of years, I stopped doing software development and concentrated on high end training and consulting because it was more profitable and I had developed a very good brand image for myself.” Quartz Systems does not offer training on general technologies which companies like NIIT or Aptech would offer, he adds.

Kapadia is a regular speaker at premier IT events and has also officiated as a judge in Japan and Korea for software design finals, states his bio data.