Ayoka pushes enterprise software envelope

While the Apple iPhone was developed by

engineers in California, it was decided the new product would be made by Taiwan-based Foxconn, the largest contract

manufacturer in the world for electronics.

To keep an eye on manufacturing, Arlington-based Ayoka stepped in.

Ayoka LLC, an enterprise software services company, doesnÂ’t have the name-recognition of companies like Apple but it has played a role in developing and integrating technology in several well-known areas. The company developed supply chain management systems for FoxconnÂ’s manufacturing of iPhones and Motorola RAZR cell phones, and Ayoka was also the company that integrated systems for Terminal D getting opened up at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

By making all of its products in the United States, engaging the Arlington community and offering quality service, founder and CEO Eknauth Persaud said he would like Ayoka to someday become “the Starbucks of software – it’s where you go to get your software done.”

Ayoka was started in 2002 in San Francisco, where Persaud was living and working. HeÂ’d grown up in New York and served in the Marines, and he also had worked at various large companies and done consulting work when he met his future wife at a party.

“I said, ‘So what are you going to do with the rest of your life?’” said Kafi Persaud, “and he said, ‘I’m going to be a CEO of a company,’ and I said, ‘Great, when do we start?’”

Persaud said her remark was flippant and joking, but in 2003, just days after they got married, Ayoka was awarded the contract with the airport. Within about a month of getting the contract, they relocated the company to North Texas, near the University of Texas at Arlington campus. Eknauth Persaud also started growing the company, which reorganized in 2004, and the first person he hired was a human resources manager to ensure the company hired the right people, he said.

Daniel Vennemann, manager of human resources, started in 2005 and admits he has always loved technology. When Ayoka needed to hire people, Vennemann said he would look for a true passion for the industry as well as a commitment to being a team-player. In a small company, everyone needs to be willing to rise up to every challenge, he said.

“There’s no one person who can only wear one hat,” Vennemann said.

Kafi Persaud, who had done high-technology public relations during the tech bubble, originally joined Ayoka in 2006 to help with business development but then found herself getting pulled into project management. She said she fell in love with the intricacies of developing a product that would truly match the companyÂ’s needs and processes.

“You really learn a business – you have to,” she said.

Eknauth Persaud said learning a business and communication is key because Ayoka is the software expert and its responsibility is to offer options to people who may not even know whatÂ’s possible.

“They say, ‘I have ideas but I have no idea how to write code or how to turn it into life,’” he said.

For companies today, in-house software developers or tech support people are a “cost of production,” Persaud said; they rarely do something directly related to the company’s core business. Instead, they’re there to support or facilitate a core business, and a small handful of computer people at an oil and gas company, for example, may not be able to take care of every function that would help the company, said Mark Blaskovich, executive vice president of Ayoka.

“No one person can be the jack of all trades for all these systems,” Blaskovich said.

One of AyokaÂ’s services is handling technology for companies who decide to outsource computer staff in order to save money. Persaud said he is seeing more companies interested in outsourcing because it makes more economic sense to have a whole companyÂ’s worth of specialists available rather than a handful of computer people on payroll who may not be able to serve every need. Since the economy has become worse, more people also are interested in remotely monitoring or tying together systems to become more efficient as well, he said.

AyokaÂ’s close proximity to a university was not an accident. The company is dedicated to encouraging a new generation of software developers and started a mentorship program in early 2008. Interested students can apply for the program and get hands-on experience working at Ayoka as well as the opportunity to pick the brains of people who work in software full-time. Just as with employees, those in the mentorship program need to have a real devotion to the industry, Vennemann said.

“From that you’re going to see a lot of the other concepts fall into place,” he said, including traits such as being more open to advice, being more active in the community at the university and industry and seeking out software information or opportunities on free time.

So far, Ayoka has hired two people out of its mentorship program. But even if someone in the program decides software development isnÂ’t the industry for them, it has still been a positive experience for them, Kafi Persaud said, because the program still gave guidance and pointed a student in the right direction.

At the moment, Kafi Persaud, who is now focused more on strategic planning with Ayoka, works from home to be with her and Eknauth’s first child, son Ashwin. She plans to return to the office this year, though, and Eknauth said he’s looking forward to the prospect because they enjoy working together and challenge each other. Eknauth said he’s enjoying growing the company – since technology can help almost every single industry in some way – because it’s been as much a learning opportunity for him as for the rest of his coworkers.

“There’s a mind-shift that has to happen, I think,” he said. “It’s no longer about you, and it’s not all about your clients, but it’s also about the team members you’re responsible for.”