The ‘Proven Way’ to IT success- posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
By Pranz Kaeno
IT is a very competitive industry. Achieving success in this field demands vision and tremendous amount of determination. Ajit Nair, founder, chairman of the board, and chief executive of PRoV, is no stranger to IT success. Together with his chief information officer and country manager John Killion, he shared to me how his company is achieving rapid growth here in the Philippines.
PRoV International is an IT services company based in Tampa, Florida. Powered by a global workforce to provide end-to-end IT services for enterprise clients, PRoV International employs several hundreds of senior consultants in its Philippine and India Delivery Centers, and Florida headquarters. The Manila delivery center caters to more than 20 countries including Europe and the United States, and is rapidly expanding.
The company’s name PRoV came from Pro, short for ‘‘proven,’’ and Latin word Via which means ‘‘way.’’ Combine the two and we have ‘‘proven way.’’
Through Nair’s leadership PRoV has garnered recognition and awards including being named as one of the Top Businesses by DiversityBusiness.com. He was also honored as the Best MIS and IT Executive in the 2006 International Business “Stevies” award, and was a finalist for the Best Executive Award in the 2006 American Business Awards.
Nair decided to invest in Manila after being wowed by the locals’ professionalism. He was impressed by how well they dressed and communicate, and by their attitude and good tech skills. He also noted how the city is “So Americanized. When you go to a restaurant in the Philippines you would think you are in the States.” The PRoV chief executive is all praises with the suppliers as well as with the government, “I’d rate it a 10 out of 10 working with the Philippine government. It has been extremely smooth.”
One of the things Ajit enjoys doing in the Philippines is client interactions at restaurants. “The quality of food is so good. Feels like New York. Italian, Persian, Chinese, Indian, Spanish restaurants right next to each other.”
The diligent Nair spends his free time—if he ever has one—by going to the country’s beaches. “I believe you haven’t really seen the Philippines unless you see the beaches,” country manager John on the other hand goes snorkeling and scuba diving when he has time.
Perks
PRoV provides its employees with perks. According to Nair, PRoV has a good combination of work and play stressing that quality of life is very important.
John then explained PRoV’s HR initiative called “Great place to work.” At the core of the initiative is enhancing communication between management and employees. It includes presentation of business opportunities, new programs and policies, and encouraging overall interaction with the whole team. Through online surveys management learn what they can do better. It is important especially in supporting employees who go offshore to know what their employees need because the better equipped they are when they go abroad, the better they will do with their work.
Free phones with postpaid lines and financing assistance for gadgets like laptops are available to PRoV employees. At the end of the year loyal employees are given freebies. For those who love to travel, international assignments come easy, according to Ajit because of high growth.
Bootcamp
Initiated back in the States, Bootcamp has played a major role in ProV’s growth. Modified here, it deals with the whole lifecycle of an IT project. It helps newly hired employees integrate with the PRoV family and gives them a bird’s eye view of what to expect once they are out there. Ajit explains that “we need people who can live and work with us and go on international assignments. It’s not all about technology. More than half of the skills required are about dealing with customers from around the globe. And we send a lot of people to other countries. Six months into PRoV and they start to go internationally. The more they know the better.”
According to Killion, “The driver for the bootcamp is to allow us to grow as fast as we want to grow.” The bootcamp is an intensive 12-hours-a-day, three-month-long training process where graduates from IT or computer science programs are certified for certain technologies and immersed in the PRoV culture. To qualify, they first go through a screening process. It is a combination of HR type interviews, technical exams, and psychometric tests. From around a hundred they are reduced to the top 25.
While the goal is a 100-percent finishing rate, not everyone gets through the bootcamp. But those who did with flying colors usually get a significant position in the company.
Giving back
The PRoV family is growing fast. Soon they will have to move to a new home. They are hoping that by the end of the year, they would have moved to their bigger office along McKinley at Fort Bonificaio.
Thankful for its unrelenting growth, PRoV is also active with its corporate social responsibility activities. Just last year PRoV donated a television set for watching educational programs to a day care center showing how the company places importance to education. Nair also explained how hiring and training fresh graduates is giving value back to the economy and ultimately the community.