Startup Circle: How iXceed bridged the gap between the demand for talent and the supply of human resources?

iXceed has been functioning as one of the leading end-to-end recruitment solutions in the UK for the last few years. Under the able leadership of Director Ms Yogita Tulsiani, it has become operational in Noida for the last year or so.

The USP of iXceed is to build best practices across Europe, USA and Asia. The unlocking of technology-led solutions using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has created a dynamic that is revolutionizing the way the industry looks at talent solutions. iXceed uses an efficient and robust process to develop solutions in the recruitment space.

How did you come up with the idea?

There was a huge gap between the demand for talent and the supply of competent human resources to bridge the yawning gap. The use of technology is reshaping the economy as a whole. The major players in almost every industry are dependent on technology for not only automation but also process efficiencies. Innovation is also centred on technology.

The technology skill market has the most evident mismatch vis-à-vis available talent to fit the needs of the employer. iXceed spotted a big gap in the talent market and some inefficiencies were causing huge pains to the growing businesses especially global businesses from India which wanted to expand in the International market.

The need of the hour is providing cost-effective talent solutions of high quality to the industry. We wanted to create valuable relationships for clients and candidates by providing efficient talent solutions.

The key is to connect talent with global opportunities.

So, I wanted to build a scalable ecosystem through which we could alleviate this pain area for their clients. I wanted to give the best to the Indian economy so that it could have a foothold in the International market.

How does your platform work?

iXceed is a global technology talent solution provider. iXceed uses an efficient and robust process to develop solutions in the recruitment space. The facilities are primarily tech skill-based, and customer satisfaction is always based on the best fit for the industry. iXceed has 4 major service lines:

1. Recruitment Services
2. Staff Augmentation
3. Virtual Employee
4. Digital Marketing

1. Recruitment Services:

iXceed provides end to end recruitment services to its clients (from sourcing relevant profiles to coordinating with the candidates to a successful closure of the role ). iXceed works for hand in glove, like an extension of your own team without adding any additional headcount. The Cost-effective RPO model allows you to focus on your core skills and leave the rest to us.

A. Talent Sourcing
B. Back office support
C. End to end recruitment service
D. Vendor management

2. Staff Augmentation

iXceed has been operating in the industry for more than a decade in the technology domain and has a wealth of experience in staffing key skills like Digital Technologies, SAP, Front-End Technology stack or Infrastructure Technology. As the gig economy is becoming prevalent, iXceed team is well equipped to manage critical staffing requirements in a fast-evolving talent market.

3. Virtual Employee

iXceed provides skilled resources at the fraction of the cost in offshore locations in India, Philippines or Poland. This is a collaborative workforce available for start-up organizations or scale-ups that want the flexibility to build technology solutions quickly and at a reduced cost. Through this, the clients can reduce the overheads of hiring talent which results in efficient output at high profitability.

4. Digital Marketing

We at iXceed bring in domain expertise in formulating clever digital campaigns. We not only have the capabilities but also the enablers to execute Marketing strategies for our clients with definitive ROI on their Marketing spent.

What were the challenges and how did you overcome them?

We have experienced a lot of hurdles to make this happen like managing global delivery and operations is a challenge. My offshore delivery center in India which fulfils the requirements of the clients. So, managing diverse geographies in different time zones is a major challenge.

Tech recruitment is an ever-evolving area and with changing technological landscape it's important to keep abreast of the latest developments in the technology world. Using innovative ways (AI, ML, chatbots) etc to keep pace with changing recruitment landscape to introduce efficiencies is also important.

· Marketing is very client-specific, so developing customized solutions for individual customers
· Sometime Marketing ROI is not very easy to calculate, so justifying cost can be a challenge
· Virtual employee – Need very strong operational and delivery framework, time zone differences, need to agree on a revenue model which is sustainable for business and at the same time shows appropriate ROI to clients

How did you build the core team (co-founders and initial employees)?

I, Yogita Tulsiani, CEO & co-founder, having more than a decade of experience in Business Development and Consulting across various industries in the UK, Europe, Americas and APAC. Having worked in leadership positions at top tier organizations across the globe brings a wealth of experience to capitalize on long-term growth opportunities and align the company’s sales and support organizations with key clients.

I co-founded iXceed with Pawan, who is an IIT Delhi alumnus and an industry veteran. We spotted a big gap in the talent market and some inefficiencies were causing huge pains to the growing businesses especially global businesses from India which wanted to expand in the UK market.

Under My leadership, iXceed has also increased the team size by 50 per cent, year on year. The team also includes Ritesh Yadav, Nitin Sharma, and Arun Kumar as Account Managers.

What has been your business growth till now?

The company has a 40% growth currently with over $10M in revenue. It doubled the revenue since last year. The number of consultants placed has grown exponentially. iXceed has doubled the team size and added many new clients to the portfolio, across different Geographies.

In the last one-year, iXceed has laid the foundation in terms of People, Processes, and Policies so that we can attain sustainable growth in the coming years. iXceed has also expanded in new geographies with new offerings. iXceed has recently forayed into Digital Marketing Services as well.

Headcount growth rate – 100%

What is the one thing that sets you apart from your competitors?

The USP of our company is that it uses technology-led talent solutions using AI/ML. It has a very robust and efficient process for talent solutions. These processes help iXceed in building best practices across various geographies (Europe, US, Asia).

iXceed operates in tech talent, apprehends any demand from the clients and suggests how to get the best talent. The RPO solution runs on robust processes resulting in key business outcomes for the clients. Despite leveraging offshore benefits iXceed has a very strong local knowledge and compliance with law-of-the-land.

Funding

It’s a bootstrapped company.

Future plans

iXceed Solutions is currently expanding in terms of clients, revenue, number of employees and offering set. We want to grow exponentially in terms of revenue and headcount. Growth of 2 new service lines – digital marketing, lead generation. We have added several new clients last year and intend to add many more this year

By the end of 2020, iXceed aims to be seen as an established and recognized force in the US and the Middle East market as well. We also aim to be the employer of choice across Europe and India by building an even better ecosystem for employees to grow and add value to themselves.

Ms. Yogita Tulsiani, Director and Co-founder, iXceed Solutions

Ms Yogita Tulsiani is armed with a Master’s in Business Administration from ISB, Hyderabad. The versatile businessperson has more than a decade of experience in Business Development and Consultancy across various industries in the UK, USA, Europe and APAC.

Her repertoire includes an illustrious clientele in the Financial Services, Telecom, Retail, Information Technology and Learning industries like Genpact Headstrong and HP.