| Revolutionalizing E-learning. |
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| Written by Amit Bhagria | |
| Friday, 06 June 2008 20:21 | |
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E-learning comes of age 2001 was the year of the dotcom bust. That was also the year when Bangalore-based techies, KS Karthik & Anil Chhikara launched their e-learning co. THE aftermath of the dotcom bust in 2001 was a tough time for technology entrepreneurs to start a venture as investors, customers and potential valuations suddenly vanished into thin air. So, when techies KS Karthik and Anil Chhikara came together with a startup dream, the path ahead was doubtless going to be thorny. But, unlike other techies who put together quickrich dotcom businesses and went down with the web world collapse, the two Bangalore-based techies eyed the potential for training college graduates to be jobready for the software outsourcing industry and other sectors. In a city where giants such as Infosys and Wipro were beginning to hire vigorously, the two entrepreneurs sensed a growing need for structured corporate training. Thus came into being 24x7 Learning with a mission to go beyond the regular definition of technology-enabled learning. “Since there are already a lot of players in the e-learning space catering to the primary and early education institutions, we decided that the focus should be on implementing our products at higher education namely colleges and universities to help them meet the corporate requirements,” says Mr Chhikara. In six years, the company has grown to have more than 120 customers across industry segments such as information technology, retail, pharmaceuticals and hospitality. Its clients include Wipro, Satyam, Patni, Aditya Birla Group, Bharti Airtel, Ashok Leyland, Convergys, Accenture, JPMorgan and ING Vysya. But, the ride was not smooth for the fledgling firm. “The internet bubble had just burst, there was no fresh investment coming through and the economy itself was swaying. Under difficult times, a lot of companies had announced budget cuts and the first axe came upon training costs. Thus we saw our market shrinking in our first two years itself,” Mr Karthik said. The founders were quick to realise that success of any e-learning implementation was not about technology but about how e-learning fitted into the learning culture within any corporate organisation and how e-learning initiative was promoted internally within a company. “When we started, we had no plans to create a learning management system. We wanted to consult companies to implement a skill improvement system and then in due course may be look to acquire a product IP ourselves. But the initial hiccups forced us to come out with LearnTrac which now is our bestseller. Also, since we had not (received) venture funding during this phase, there was lesser pressure on us to do or die,” recalls Mr Karthik.  KS KARTHIK (SITTING) & ANIL CHHIKARA Founders, 24x7 LearningSo how did it survive this downturn? The company focused on innovation and invested in product development despite its low revenues. It also chose to let its business model be flexible. It thus evolved from being a consultancy to a product company. Once it waited out the lean period, business started to pick up. Companies and educational institutions showed openness to adopt technology and implement novel ideas in training, helping 24x7 prosper. Today, the company claims to be the largest e-learning implementation provider in India and says its learners are dispersed across 25 countries. Seven out of 10 top software outsourcing companies and six out of 10 top business process outsourcing companies are its clients. |