n cover story other HR consultancy firms to execute the ‘right match making’. The motto is to help the industry grow with right kind of pool of talent,” states Barai. Besides charging a nominal fee to the employer, Barai personally does a due diligence about a candidate’s resume in terms of the basic profile, market feedback and his or her goodwill in the market. “Been in the industry, I have a fair sense of judgment about the candidate’s perception in the market, which might not be reflected in the resume at times.” A follow up is done through a conference call with employer and employee. After many checks and balances, the candidate is recommended as per Barai.
Big ‘Profitable’ Plans At present, KayBee HR Consultancy is conducting placements of pre-sales and sales people across the IT companies but there is plan to extend it to technical employees too. “No risks only rewards” is how Barai describes this new business venture. “The investment was minimal as I introduced my foray into HR through emails and social networking site to my contact lists. We would however indulge in marketing and advertising activities soon,” he says. Attrition is a huge problem across all industries and IT world is no different. The fervent movement of IT executives across middle and top management means more business for HR firms like KayBee HR Consultancy. However Barai maintains, “I have always invested in relationships in my life and the business was always incidental.” 26
>>>Crystal Solutions
Shopping Abroad
C
rystal Solutions
within a span of a decade has launched operations to execute IT projects (services and consultancy) across U.S., Singapore and UAE. For a relatively small-size solution provider, it seems like a risky decision to compete with big established Tier 1 partners on foreign shores and simultaneously grow foothold in the domestic market. “We are now deploying additional manpower in UAE as we expect that business to grow more than 100% this year. We will soon launch operations in two South East Asian countries soon,” informs Vasant Bhanushali, Director, Crystal Solutions. Established in 1996, Crystal Solutions executed good quality service business until
Indian Channelworld may 2012
2001 for large enterprise customers. “We earned a good bottom-line from security services at that stage to help us stay quite profitable,” Bhanushali says.
The Bold Step Crystal Solutions served many customers in SEEPZ, Mumbai. In 2001, business projects were directed towards India both — off shore and on site from U.S. market. “We were a relatively small (Rs 1 Crore turnover) company at that time. But we thought that why should we stay confined to conventional business on Indian turf only?” recalls Bhanushali. The company picked one of the key persons from existing software companies who was well versed with whole modality of the overseas business. That’s how Crystal got its first manager for their first overseas branch at U.S. Crystal Solutions decided
to explore business outside Indian shores, register good bottom lines and plough back the money back into overseas business. What was the risk factor in going abroad? “There was no outside money or borrowing capital till date. The only risk was that it was our own money that we were investing in foreign locations,” he adds. By 2006, Crystal Solutions had 18 people in U.S. on our payroll who were consultants or project-based employees. “With a focused approach on services in niche areas, our aim was to make maybe small money but with good bottom-line,” he emphasizes.
A Niche Path Mumbai-headquartered Crystal Solutions has been a true believer of identifying niche areas in the technology space right since its inception. “In 2001, Siebel was the latest trend and we sent
“We clearly did not cater to ‘anything and everything’ on foreign land. The enterprises soon knew that if they wanted a skilled manpower at a good price, they would approach us. VASANT BHANUSHALI, DIRECTOR, CRYSTAL SOLUTIONS