Konnect App, connecting the student community at IIM Kozhikode -By Karthika J Sankar

Apart from knowledge building and networking, one valuable takeaway for any B-School student from an MBA program is learning how to manage a busy schedule. The hustle between classes, group assignments, case competitions, and placement sessions are inevitable and the struggle is real. In addition to this, students also have to keep track of their personal expenses, check bus schedules to travel to the city, comprehend the daily canteen menu and find restaurants to explore when they need a good food break.  

It is while being a part of this hustle that the members of the Students’ Product Management  Committee (SPMC) at IIM Kozhikode came up with the idea of an application to help students with their daily schedules and activities on campus. An idea that was put forward as a suggestion during their junior year soon materialized into a full-fledged app that almost every Komrade has on his or her phone. 

An idea worth the hustle

Any B-School student would know that working on such a project is not easy given their busy schedule, which does not leave much free time for them at the end of the day. But for the  SPMC, this was not the only roadblock. Convincing their seniors and the college authorities that the idea was worth implementing was difficult. They also did not have a professional coder to work on the application and therefore had to present a solid plan to get approvals.  The team initially came up with a wireframe with the most desirable features integrated into it and roped in two developers through an online platform to help build the app. With this, they were able to showcase to the administration a minimum viable product that could be built at a decent cost. This formed the foundation for the application and within two months’ time, the Konnect for IIMK app was launched for IIM Kozhikode students. 

Konnect, a one-stop app to manage daily tasks

With Konnect, students can view their daily session timetable and emails, browse the canteen menu, check bus schedules, access important contacts, and use many such features to manage their daily tasks on campus. In addition to this, students could easily access the phone numbers of auto drivers for hiring an auto whenever they had to go out of campus. The app received positive feedback from the student community and the SPMC  team has plans of incorporating some of their suggestions like integrating the students’ mess wallet with the application and a better visual representation of schedules. They are also thinking of bringing a developer on board to make future modifications to the application. 

The successful launch of the Konnect app by the SPMC at IIM Kozhikode is a perfect example of how perseverance and a ‘do whatever it takes’ attitude can help bring about positive changes. In spite of having numerous roadblocks along the way, the team was able to realize their objective of helping the student community manage their schedule with an application. With just a few months left for the senior team to graduate, they hope that their legacy is carried forward and that such innovative ideas would continue to help students sail through the programme smoothly.