As a late entrant, how do you compete in a market that is already
dominated by giants? As a small player with limited ability to
capital, how do you scale up without any limits? Startup WinHire
Technologies was grappling with these questions, as it rapidly
scouted for solutions that could help the firm take advantage of
technology and level the playing field with the giants.
WinHire Technologies had a radically different idea. Instead of
text-based resumes, the firm wanted to use videos and the reach of
the Internet to simplify and improve the process of recruitment.
“We wanted to leverage the power of the Internet and the
popularity of videos to create the world’s first video social
recruitment and networking website,” says Giri Devanur, CEO,
WinHire Technologies. On the portal, a job-aspirant can upload his
or her video profile, and increase his or her chance of getting
hired, as a video can even highlight personality attributes.
While this concept is simple to understand, executing this business
model was a huge challenge. As the firm wanted to leverage videos,
WinHire needed to invest heavily in the support technologies and
infrastructure. However, being an emerging enterprise, the firm did
not want to invest heavily in capital expenditure upfront. After
evaluating potential technology options, the firm realized that the
cloud was perfectly suited to its needs.
Cloud power
WinHire selected IBM’s IaaS solution to develop and test its
portal. The offering helped WinHire avoid upfront capital
expenditure on computing infrastructure. Using the pay-as-you-go
IaaS model, WinHire could globally deploy its application much
faster via automation and rapid provisioning to create the required
competitive edge.
The IBM IaaS solution provided WinHire rapid access to multi-tenant
shared cloud computing infrastructure that could be scaled to the
needs of the business. “Using the cloud, we could put
together a globally scalable infrastructure, with a significant
cost benefit ratio of 1:80. More importantly, it has helped us in
getting our infrastructure up and ready in just 15 days compared to
the traditional timeframe of 6-8 months,” opines Devanur.
"We are a 100 percent cloud company. We live in the cloud
and without the cloud, we will be out of oxygen"
- Giri Devanur, CEO, WinHire Technologies
WinHire’s business model is unique as the potential of
social media in the recruiting process is not yet leveraged widely
in the recruitment industry. By providing a platform for virtual
interaction between job-seekers and recruiters, the firm is on its
way to create a difference. For example, using the transformative
power of the cloud, WinHire can build and implement a shared
collaborative hiring capability which would be able to address
challenges like identity fraud in the recruitment process. It can
also replace the early stage of faceless communication with
interactive video interview capability.
The cloud gives WinHire the capability to plan and scale for the
future. “When you have higher volumes of video resumes, we
can quickly scale up without worrying about infrastructure related
issues,” states Devanur. The cloud capability also gives the
firm the ability to test out its portal on new mobile
platforms.
Breathing in the cloud
WinHire is a perfect example of a company that owes its existence
and its business model to the cloud. Without the cloud, the firm
would have never been able to launch such a business model –
especially when it had limited resources as a startup company.
Devanur sums this up perfectly, when he says, “We are a 100
percent cloud company. We live in the cloud and without the cloud
we will be out of oxygen.”
If WinHire does succeed in disrupting the marketplace with its
innovative approach, it can inspire many entrepreneurs who have a
fantastic business model, but lack the resources to invest in the
technology infrastructure. The cloud can level the playing field,
and allow startups to compete in a much more effective manner, as
it is already doing for a number of companies.