Mumbai-based DiTech Process Solutions, an end-to-end publishing and content management services company, launched educational e-bookstore StudyeBuddy on February 8. StudyeBuddy is a digital home for books, reference materials, worksheets and other resource materials created by leading publishing companies for Indian and international colleges and institutions of professional studies.
For DiTech CEO and founder Nizam Ahmed, the idea for StudyeBuddy is simple. “More is better, that is the watchword today. More is available, and therefore more is wanted. In the competitive environment where the limit of education goes beyond textbooks, StudyeBuddy aims to be the one-stop best-of-its-class content for the student. By leveraging on StudyeBuddy’s enterprise capabilities, an institution can provide its students with easy access to additional and essential resource materials from Indian and global publishers. These materials, customized to the course taught, are seamlessly integrated and accessible.”
Friday night’s launch at the Lalit New Delhi hotel was attended by director general Sunit Tandon of the Indian Institute of Mass Communications (IIMC), and D.R. Saini, founding principal of Delhi Public School (India’s premium chain of schools) and a member of 34 advisory board of various institutes and organizations. Representatives from Tata McGraw-Hill, SAGE Publications, Wiley India, Elsevier, Scholastic India, Wolters Kluwer, Cambridge University Press, World Book and Dreamland were also in attendance.
“These publishers consider StudyeBuddy as a much needed education methodology and a step towards the future of content dissemination,” said Ahmed, pointing out that the platform does away with heavy textbooks and reference books while at the same time, further promotes digital publishing. “It feeds the technology and content needs of students, making their studies easier, smarter and more effective.”
“StudyeBuddy is the pioneer in the field as there is no other product available in the current Indian market to fulfill students’ digital academic needs,” said Saini. For sales director Elsevier (India) Vikas Kapoor, StudyeBuddy will be a boon to students pursuing specialty and professional studies. Vivek Mehra, managing director and CEO of SAGE India said that “StudyeBuddy is a unique product for the Indian educational market needs at the right time to fulfill digital academic needs.” Marketing manager at Cambridge University Press Preeti Hingorani, observed that “with most educational institutions looking forward to go digital and students constantly downloading e-books, StudyeBuddy has a huge potential market.”
The next three months will see Ahmed and his team acquiring more content and working on product packaging to suit different customers. Then, from May onwards, the beta version of StudyeBuddy will be released for retail and institutional sales. By the end of this year, Ahmed sees a team of more than 100 people deployed to meet the needs of the vast Indian market.
For those interested to learn more, please contact info@studyebuddy.com.
