StepStone steps on IT

StepStone. Smooth. Directive. All the way from Norway and now in India, StepStone India Pvt Ltd is an online recruitment company, with 30,000 registered candidates and over 264 customers. StepStone, which started operations in India early this year with Chennai as its regional corporate headquarters, has opened offices in Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad and would be looking at Pune and Calcutta in its next phase of expansion. StepStone, which specializes in high-end recruitment, is currently looking at catering to the career needs of the student community as well, by roping in prestigious foreign universities.

Handling the mammoth business of catering to candidates and customers in this very demanding job market is made easy with StepStone's IT initiatives. Having invested a whopping Rs 5 crore in IT and related infrastructure, StepStone is plush and distinct from other run-of-the-mill recruitment companies. Equipped with 60 Compaq systems, StepStone employs IT at every stage of business, right from when the candidate walks in, to maintaining candidate logs and customer logs. StepStone also files CVs and uses the Key Word Search to narrow down potential candidates for customers and vice versa. "We use computers for our entire recruitment process," said A Sudhakar, Managing Director, StepStone India Pvt Ltd. The software that StepStone India uses has been custom made in Norway and customized to Indian standards.

The Compaq systems comprise of an assortment of TowerTops and EN Series -- PIII, 64 MB and 20 GB machines. StepStone has invested in four servers: The application distribution server is a Compaq Proliant (ML 370R), 512 MB and 733 MHz machine. The exchange server is a Compaq Proliant (ML 370R), 512 MB, 700 MHz machine. The file and print server, and the exchange connector bridgehead server (a Compaq DL 360 PIII model), complete the list.

The four printers comprise of 3 HP laser printers and a dotmatrix printer. Scanners, fax and other gizmos complete the IT picture at
StepStone.

When asked to comment on future plans with regards to IT infrastructure, Sudhakar said, "We've just started with a huge investment and the best technology. We're not thinking of any specific investment at the moment. We'd do that on a year basis."