An entrepreneur who stayed ahead of the curve
In 1992, when people of the country knew little about computers and the internet, a woman and young entrepreneur Luna Shamsuddoha founded Dohatec New Media to provide software solution designs and development services to institutions, government agencies and corporations globally.
Luna's vision and indomitable appetite for technological advancement helped the company to grow as a leading software company in Bangladesh that has also attained worldwide glory.
Since its inception, Dohatec products and services have maintained a global and demanding client base which includes international organisations such as the World Bank, Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization and United States Postal Service in Washington DC, and United Nations Development Programme in Dhaka.
Periodic major electronic publications of the World Bank and WHO in Washington DC were developed on Dohatec software.
Competing with leading global IT solution providers, it has already built e-procurement system for Bhutan and Nepal, a milestone for a local IT company.
Since 2006 Dohatec has been in the Identity and biometric space. A key accomplishment was the Voter Enrolment Software with implementation of biometric face and finger matching Dohatec developed for the Bangladesh Army. Using Dohatec's solution and support, the Bangladesh Army implemented the project and completed the registration of over 80 million voters, capturing their photographs and fingerprints, for the first time in Bangladesh history, in 11 months.
Dohatec New Media is also a Certifying Authority (CA) and issues digital certificates, web SSL certificates and public key infrastructure (PKI) enablement tools and services in Bangladesh. It has been providing security solution for a number of government institutions in Bangladesh, including the Anti terrorism unit.
For a number of years, Dohatec has worked in many e-Governance projects, internationally and in Bangladesh.
Its Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system solution was showcased by the World Bank and other development agencies worldwide in 2005. Subsequently, the company was the nominated sub-consultant for the Public Procurement Reform Project funded by the World Bank.
Dohatec implemented the Public Procurement Management Information System (PROMiS) for the Government of Bangladesh, CPTU.
Our e-GP system along with the PROMiS management and monitoring system has been the central public electronic procurement system in Bangladesh since 2006.
Keeping in line with her attitude towards innovation, Luna formed Executive Centre in 1985, which mainly made presentations for executive purposes. It was also a new idea at that time.
"I borrowed some money from my husband and started the presentation business; but changed my mind in 1992," Luna said in an interview with The Daily Star in 2017, when the leading lady was honoured with the Bangladesh Business Awards 2016 in the Outstanding Women in Business category.
"When we started 25 years ago, the opportunity was tremendous and we tried to capitalise it,"Luna had said.
She passed away on February 17 during receiving treatment for cancer at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. She was 67.
Dohatec started with only four software engineers and it now employs about 300 people. Of them, more than 100 are software engineers.
The first confidant of Luna was computer technologist Nazmul Huda, who serves Dohatec as the CEO.
"She had a global exposure and was a very familiar face in the international tech community," Huda told The Daily Star yesterday.
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