Hemant Bhatia, Prism Technologies: Corporate training services for IT firms

YourStory caught up with entrepreneur Hemant Bhatia to know more about his venture Prism Technologies, which provides corporate training services to IT clients such as Capgemini, Wipro TechMahindra, etc.

Hemant, let’s start off with a quick introduction to Prism Technologies.

Prism Technologies is a focussed corporate training firm. All our major clients are IT firms. We provide solutions in project-specific training, mostly.

What are your flagship modules?

Prism has focussed on corporate training only and that too, only to IT clients. Microsoft, Oracle, Cognos and Informatica training are among our key strengths.

Tell us about your background.

I was good in academics, right from the beginning. My father persuaded me to choose engineering over commerce. I graduated in engineering with first class marks from BVCOE, Pune and I wanted to pursue an MBA. But I had to shoulder family responsibilities and hence, I took up a job with STG Mumbai.

STG is a pan-India IT training firm. I was handling the corporate and retail marketing initiatives at STG. In less than 9 months and after 2 promotions, I had hit the glass ceiling. So, I quit and decided to start my own corporate training business.

How did the business idea for Prism Technologies come about? How much capital was required to implement the idea?

My stint at STG convinced me about the potential of the IT business, in general and the corporate training business, in particular. There was this incident where a client called an STG office and inquired about training for a particular technology on an urgent basis. I interacted with other branch offices of STG to find a suitable trainer. After proper examination, the client even agreed to bear the trainer’s travel-stay charges. I successfully clinched the deal with a huge margin and a handsome incentive.

This convinced me of the enormous opportunities that lay ahead in the corporate training business. After I left STG, some clients continued to interact with me and asked to provide training on niche technologies. I grabbed on to some of these opportunities and capitalized on existing relationships to build Prism.

I think I had about Rs. 5000/- when I quit the job. But that did not deter me from starting out on my own. My brother Mukund, my sister Kanchan and my parents were of immense support at that juncture.

Where do you see the corporate training space and Prism Technologies five years from now?

In next 5 years, IT companies and other corporate firms will expand in a major way. Retaining key personnel and aligning to changes in the constantly-evolving IT field will be the key challenges for them. Training will play an essential role in dealing with these issues.

Prism should be present across India in the next five years. It will also have separate consulting and recruitment-staffing verticals. And if all goes well, I’ll be planning overseas expansion by then.What is Prism Technologies’ revenue model?

We charge clients for the training delivered, depending on the technology, version, trainers’ profile and project requirement.

What are the challenges that you faced while developing your solutions? How did you overcome those challenges?

New firms are not easily accepted by corporate firms. Winning their trust was more important than making profits, at least in the early days. Staying profitable without losing key relationships were other challenges.

Patience and hard work has helped me build long term relations with clients, trainers, vendors etc. Keeping oneself abreast with the changes in technology and also, thinking differently has helped. Most competitors, especially the larger ones, chased volumes while we chased margins.

Let us know about your expansion plans.

We have more than 20 clients across India. We have more than 20 clients across India. Bangalore is the biggest market in IT training in India, followed by Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. We have already seen entry of MNC training firms in India namely Dale Carnegie & Covey Institute. Prism will expand into staffing and recruitment solutions soon. Adding clients in Delhi-NCR is another strategic move.

We at YourStory wish Hemant and Prism Technologies all the very best. To know more, check out www.prismtechnologies.co.in. Also, do subscribe to our RSS feed for more such business ideas. Please share with us your thoughts about the same by writing to us at[email protected].