The HSBC Young IT Entrepreneur Awards is an annual competition aimed at cultivating students? interest in entrepreneurship and technology. doctorjob catches up with Team Mobility whose team members are all computer science students and finds out more about their business idea that won them the Bronze Award earlier this year.

Derek Chan Mun Hoe, Tan Yew Teck and Sarah Choong Shiow Yen are second-year computer science undergraduates at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). They decided to join the competition after much encouragement from their lecturer. Besides, as they revealed after the competition, the time was just right as they weren't too busy with their coursework at that time.

doctorjob Tell us about your business idea.
Team Mobility With the help of our lecturer, we came up with a new business IT idea ?the Walking Yellow Pages service. This service allows customers to search for products, companies or services using their mobile devices. Besides that, they can also use an integrated map service built into the Walking Yellow Pages which gives them the direction to their desired destination from their current location.

doctorjob How did you come up with this business idea?
Team Mobility We came up with this idea after seeing its business viability and the rise in mobile technology usage. We are confident that this product will be profitable as there are 15 million mobile subscribers in Malaysia alone.

doctorjob Which part do you like best about your business idea?
Team Mobility It has to be the use of IT in the idea. We did a lot of research, thus we learnt quite a lot about IT, especially in mobile technology.

doctorjob What was to you the most difficult part of the competition?
Team Mobility We find writing the business plan the most difficult part. As computer science students, we didn't have any prior knowledge in business related matters like financial planning and revenue projections. Fortunately, HSBC organised a business plan writing workshop for those who were short-listed to enter the second round of the competition.

doctorjob If you were given the chance to do things differently, would you?
Team Mobility Product-wise, we wouldn't change a thing about it. However, we could have done more in the presentation part. We felt that the Gold and Silver teams prepared well for their presentation. They came up with a more eye-catching multimedia presentation and they certainly fared better in the Q&A session.

doctorjob Do you think having three members in a team is more advantageous than having two members?
Team Mobility Definitely! With three members, we were able to brainstorm for more business ideas and arguments for our business plan. It also helped during our presentation practice as we gave each other feedback on how to improve our presentation skills. Overall, it was also more fun to work in a group of three.

doctorjob What were some of the lessons that you've learned from the awards?
Team Mobility We learnt that the business world is really competitive and challenging. Writing a business proposal alone took us almost two weeks to complete. We also learnt that it requires a lot of effort to convince people about a product, especially if it's a new product!

doctorjob Do you have any advice for future participants?
Team Mobility To win this competition, you need to work hard and do a lot of research. However, don't just focus on winning. In fact, being able to get into the second round was really great for us because we learnt how to write a good business plan.