IKYA Human Capital Solutions

About

IKYA Human Capital Solutions is one of the fastest growing, premium, integrated HR solutions organisations. It has expertise in the areas of manpower outsourcing, temporary staffing and executive search (for senior management). It also deals in facility management which entails housekeeping and security-related services.

Headquartered at Bangalore, IKYA provides value-added services to a broad range of industry sectors through a growing network of company-owned offices across India. It has been created to enhance skills in a growth economy and to partner enterprises in identifying the right talent.

Problems Faced

Overview of the problem:

IKYA started off with minimal IT infrastructure. It hosted its e-mail with an e-mail provider. It had no other servers like firewall, proxy etc.

But as they grew they felt the need for captive server infrastructure. Being a young start-up they had the usual budget constraints and so they wanted to spend only the right amount on software. This was why they decided to opt for Free / Open Source Software.

Once this decision was made, DeepRoot Linux became their natural choice because there were also favourable referrals from within the IKYA team.

Finer details of the Problems:

  • IKYA's model of growth has been shaped mostly by acquisitions, which has not only resulted in their rapid growth, but also presented them with a host of challenges like integration of IT systems. 
  • IKYA's scale of operations is as much a challenge for them, as is an avenue for immense growth. They are in constant need of sending and receiving a huge volume of emails (primarily resumes), owing to the nature of their business. In that case handling of such huge volumes of emails became a hassle for them. They were plagued with issues of lost emails, spam-control etc.
  • There was also the challenge of maintaining 17 locations. There was a need for a central firewall / proxy server to maintain control.
  • Another issue that was of paramount importance to IKYA was that of data security. Resumes of people and specially those belonging to higher echelons carry a huge premium on them as they contain critical information. Hence, vital information needs to be prevented from leakage.

Solutions

After carefully evaluating IKYA's problem set, DeepRoot Linux offered its solutions which relieved much of their pain.

Head Office Setup

  •  The head office in Bangalore runs the core of IKYA's servers. This includes the mail server, the mail archival server and the firewall / proxy server.
  • DeepRoot Linux offered two custom-built solutions to them among other default solutions. This endeavour was generously part sponsored by IKYA.
  • We developed a solution called the Quarantine Manager. The QM allows the system administrator to devise regulatory policies, such that certain mails go to certain users only (For example, only the higher management).
    • It also ensures the creation of policies wherein one user group can exchange mails within that group only and cannot send or receive mails from other alien groups.
    • If the mails present some SPAM threat owing to their content, then they can be quarantined by the System Administrator and be released if the need be, after verification. This solution was designed to provide solidarity to the data security initiatives at IKYA. It helped prevent unprecedented data leakages.
  • Our Mail Archival solution ensures that all emails sent or received by users in the organisation are stored and archived on a separate server.
  • The solution also organises the sent / received mails according to various dates and consequently sorts them in different user-wise folders. Not only are the mails tracked thoroughly, they can be accessed conveniently at any point in time for cross-verification.

Branch Location Setup

  • We have deployed a total of 13 servers at IKYA at different locations.
  • Every location has a Firewall & Proxy server. 
  • The branch location servers synchronise their user database with the mail server in the head office. This enables users to continue to use their mail authentication credentials on all IKYA networks.
  • Internet access policies too remain consistent across all the branch location networks.

Impact

Our solutions have had a very far reaching business impact on the operations at IKYA. Not only have our solutions become integral to their day-to-day work, they have also risen to the challenges faced by an extremely fast growing organisation.

  • Cost savings are the first major impact of our solutions. Given the fact that they are based on GNU/Linux, IKYA is able to use them to the fullest without having to cater to renewed demands to purchase additional licenses as they grow.
  • The next major impact has been that of technical flexibility. IKYA runs a complex business and network with major demands on their IT infrastructure. Technical flexibility helps in rapid customisation and update of IT infrastructure based on organisational growth and user demands.
  • Our data and network security solutions have ensured that crucial and private data related to both IKYA and their clients is not compromised or leaked out. The fact that these solutions could be developed very quickly and effectively meant that IKYA was able to not only protect their business but also focus more on business growth rather than IT investments.
  • The task of integrating the IT environments of acquisitions is always a tough one. But in IKYA's case, this challenge too was surpassed easily because of the the IT infrastructure was designed as also because of the fact that it was powered by GNU/Linux.