"We Believe in the Concept of Digital Workplace"

Prysm is a cloud hosted, license based digital content collaboration platform. Prysm digital workplace platform can be hosted on Prysm cloud or customer-hosted private cloud based on the choice of the enterprises. In an exclusive interaction with Dataquest, Kumar GB, VP-Sales and Operations India and APAC, Prysm, talks about digital workplace, acquisition of Kaybus and how did it help the company.

Q. What is so special about your offerings and how does it help your clients?

Collaboration is a widely used term. From video conferencing to a phone call, a chat tool, working together on a whiteboard, sharing an email or doing an audio conference, all of it falls under the umbrella of collaboration. Even using a Dropbox, one drive etc. can also be considered as a tool of collaboration. Therefore, there are numerous companies out there that are providing basic collaboration capability in one way or the other.

We believe in the concept of digital workplace where the focus remains on data, content, applications and customer experience for faster better decisions. This experience moves along from meeting rooms to huddle rooms to a laptop or mobile phones or tablets with the use of Prysm digital workplace platform. We provide a standardized experience across display devices, operating systems and locations.

Our platform enables you to do everything falling under the umbrella of collaboration and beyond, from video conferencing, to using diverse applications, live sources for content sharing on the same platform.

The most unique proposition of our solution is that it allows everybody to simultaneously add, edit, move and annotate content without passing controls to each other. The data gets automatically stored and one can start where he or she left off. This is the essence of true, borderless collaboration. Also, being an agnostic platform, Prysm is compatible with diverse touch display, Video and operating systems. So, all the investment that a client has already made, be it for video conferencing from Cisco, Microsoft or Polycom, our software works with it. We bring all of this together like no one else, thereby enabling seamless engaging visual workplaces across the globe.

Q. How do you plan to grow in the Indian Market?
We are delighted that customers in India have understood the kind of ROI they can provide to their business stakeholders by adopting Prysm’s digital workplace platform. .It is a cloud based software as a service solution, we are not looking at a high capex investment from Day 1, it is usually spread out over a period of 3 years term and so on. Additionally, for the organizations who have already invested into video conferencing and collaboration technologies, we provide investment protection which means that they all get seamlessly integrated into this unified Prysm Digital Workplace Platform.

For us, the focus has been enterprise customers who are multinationals in India or large Indian companies who have a base globally. In India, we have presence in key cities directly and through partners and we are expanding in a significant way. We also have a dedicated team in Delhi NCR (Gurgaon) and Mumbai for upcoming demo centers in these cities.

Q. Can you please give the overview about your latest acquisition done by the company? How will the company benefit from this?

We have recently completed the acquisition of Kaybus, a cloud-based Knowledge Automation software for enterprises. This acquisition will help us in securing additional enterprise-grade enhancements for Prysm Application Suite including, enhanced language flexibility - user interfaces and documentation in local languages to encourage adoption among end users during global implementations. This acquisition will enhance Prysm’s ability to bring innovative capabilities to market, and new functionality from this acquisition is expected to begin to appear in Prysm Application Suite starting third quarter of this year.

Here are the details of additions into Prysm portfolio:
• Security enhancements - New configuration options and flexible tools for administrators will help ensure adherence to strict enterprise security standards
• Enhanced language flexibility - New user interfaces and documentation in local languages will encourage adoption among end users during global implementation
• Robust search functionality - Enhanced search enables specific content searches across Prysm projects and workspaces, using criteria filters to quickly find data and information
• Enterprise-grade and secure single sign-on – Streamlined approach saves administration time as users leverage sign-on without sacrificing security

Q. What is your business plan for 2017?

The IT environment in India is getting adapted quickly to ever changing technologies. In this conducive environment, the industry is witnessing productivity, new applications, use cases and it has become easy for an enterprise to start with a certain number of licenses. The next wave of growth in the enterprise collaboration and employee productivity space, will come from innovation of a different level altogether. In fact, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Prysm in June 2016 highlighted that 83% of information workers want the right collaboration tools which can help them be productive regardless of location and time. Looking at the statistics, the global collaboration as a market is expected to double by 2020 and India will be an important part of this growth. It is not only about the content collaboration market just doubling, but the important point is how we can really provide the ROI from an innovation and business growth perspective to these companies. Here, we feel Prysm’s visual workplace solution has a great role to play and there is a significant opportunity for us in that space. It can help teams across the globe to create, share and save projects by combining applications, content, live sources, video and the web.

We have been very succesful in India with the global organisations whi have knowledge workers working globally. This includes Global MNCs and Indian MNCs growing globally. We are now increasing our focus on banking, finance, Smart Cities/Campus implementations and Indian top 1000 companies for delivering the benefit of Prysm Digital workplace platform.

Our long term vision for our customers is to deliver new capabilities which enable the value of a shared virtual infrastructure and the company is relentlessly focused on delivering differentiated and innovative technologies that are future ready as well as industry leading.

Q. Can you please tell us more about the company's recent Microsoft announcement?

We work with consistently with Microsoft as it is the significant player in enterprise applications, cloud computing and security. We had recently announced an integration with Microsoft OneDrive for Business API and Office 365 making it even easier to work with Microsoft Corp. tools and applications. Using the OneDrive for Business API from Microsoft, we have made it convenient for customers to connect Prysm Application Suite to their existing OneDrive for Business environments to make it a seamless experience for end users to access, search and sync with content from OneDrive for Business and Prysm cloud. Within a Prysm Visual Workplace project, users may now access, work within and download content from Office 365 using Prysm’s built-in web capabilities.

These new integrations are in addition to the previously announced Microsoft Skype for Business integration, built using the Microsoft Software Developer Kit (SDK), which created an exceptional user experience for Skype users on large display walls, a first in the industry. The Skype for Business integration from Prysm enables users to schedule or join an already scheduled Skype meeting from the Prysm Visual Workplace platform, allowing remote participants to fully engage in meetings with the ability to access and interact with all of the content loaded into the workplace. With this integration, enterprises are not only able to leverage their existing Microsoft investments but remain confident that their shared data is safe and secure.