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An emotional encounter with a struggling farmer was the catalyst senior academic Vishy Karri needed to create an IT business so he could "give something back".

"The fruit grower was in tears … he had tried everything to make his Lockyer Valley farm flourish, but to no avail due to lack of water," says Karri, now CEO of IT firm Expert 365.

"I looked around and said to him that I didn't think he was irrigating properly and no amount of fertiliser was going to help if he couldn't get the right quantity of moisture at the right time into his soil.

"That was the turning point for me … the inspiration I needed to use my experience over years in several universities around the world to actually benefit the wider community."

Thus, Expert 365 was founded by Karri two years ago with computer science graduate John Pham. The Brisbane-based company's core activity is creating internet solutions for managing irrigation of farms through sophisticated cloud-based programs.

"Ours is a plant-centred approach to irrigation. We look at the soil type, its moisture content and electrical conductivity, the age of the plant, root depths, solar radiation and humidity to determine the precise amount of water needed to irrigate that specific site," he says.

Such precision control allows water savings of up to 10 per cent as well as increased yield.

The technology has been taken up so enthusiastically that Expert 365 cannot keep up with demand.

Karri believes his business's success is built on delivering a "pull product" rather than a "push product".

A push product is one that is marketed to an industry already saturated with alternatives, while a pull product needs no persuasive advertising because it is what customers need for their unique requirements, he says.

"Our company thinks like a farmer but acts like an engineer. When growers think they are doing everything in their experience to produce a crop we tell them it's time to start thinking that every drop of water counts," Karri says.

"They say, 'but this is how my dad did it … this is how the books tell me to do it'.

"We tell them our tools will challenge your experience and help you scientifically. While there is a lot of work being done in precision agriculture, there is an inherent fear to question experiential farming."

The company aims to be the market leader in IT solutions for agriculture.

To position Expert 365 to achieve this goal, Karri says he has created three fundamentals for the business.

"Our products must have a social-economic benefit, otherwise we are not interested in developing them.

"Secondly, everything we do must be completely sustainable – this goal is non-negotiable.

"Finally, to have an edge within the corporate sector our focus is always on innovation. In industry if we don't innovate we perish."

Collaborating with universities and technology companies is critical for Expert 365 to remain innovative, Karri says.

"When you sit on the shoulders of a giant you can see beyond the horizon."