A knowledge hub like India needs effective collaboration solutions: Prysm

Prysm visual workplace integrates all collaboration tools like Skype, video conferencing

Being a global knowledge hub with a vast workforce of young and energetic millennials makes it imperative for India to have effective collaboration tools, according to Kumar GB, vice-president (Asia-Pacific), Prysm Inc, an IT company with expertise in cloud based visual workspace. It is the collaboration segment of the technology market that Prysm Inc is trying to penetrate globally. “Collaboration reduces distance, enables quicker and more efficient solutions and leads to success,” Kumar tells Khalid Anzar in an interview.

Edited excerpts:

How is your company positioning itself in the collaboration market, which is dominated by a number of big players? 

The Prysm visual workplace solution is a digital collaboration canvas where you bring together multiple content channels, live sources, applications, as well as video conference. It is an open platform integrating various video conferencing solutions like Cisco Telepresence and Skype for business, among others. 

Diverse content forms co-exist on the same canvas. Since you have content, application and live sources side by side, business users can take quicker decisions. We enable our customers to participate in meetings on the go, rather than a meeting room. 

Whether you are in a board room with a 15-foot display screen or using a compact hand-held device like a tablet, laptop or smartphone, Prysm provides the same collaboration experience. 

How about collaboration using virtual reality (VR) tools? Is Prysm also working on such solutions?

Yes, content for us is very diverse. It can be in the form of PowerPoint slides, PDFs, documents, or videos. When it comes to live sources, it can be different computers connected in real time and displayed on the same canvas. So, if someone wants to project VR content or an artificial intelligence (AI) application on a computer and integrate it to the collaborative environment, it is possible with Prysm.

It also integrates with legacy collaboration or video conferencing environments that a customer might have. That is how the Prysm solution works.

Apart from being a software platform, Prysm also has a hardware solution known as ‘laser phosphor display’. What is it and how does it work?

The Prysm has both – the hardware or display technology, as well as the software solution. Together they form a visual workplace that ensures the collaboration experience is unique and the best in class. In the form of Prysm solution, we have full control on the hardware technology – the display – and software.

The laser phosphor display technology is suited for large canvas sizes like huddle rooms, large meeting rooms, board rooms, training rooms, etc. These are places where you require large space for collaboration. It is a breakthrough technology invented and manufactured by us. There is no loss of pixels and it consumes up to 75 per cent less power than the traditional display technologies in the industry. It is suitable for touch-based collaboration solution as it emits negligible heat and operates at optimum temperature. Besides, the display can be customised to any size and shape. 

What is the uptake of collaboration solutions in India? What is Prysm’s market here?

If you look at India as a market, there are so many exciting things happening. And, the game is coming to us in more ways than one. We make the largest pool of knowledge workers in the world. We do not do knowledge work for India alone; we export talent globally. India also has the largest concentration of millennial population in the world. So, if we look at these aspects, it becomes very important for us to focus on ‘global collaboration’, being able to work across boundaries and borders and to experience the same collaboration experience across devices, time and places.

Prysm offers a uniform experience across Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS and Google Android devices; the solution is compatible with all and offers a consistent experience.

Most companies have their own collaboration solutions. Microsoft, for example, has Skype for Business. How do you plan to tap into their market?

We complement and cooperate with the existing collaboration solutions – Skype for Business, Cisco’s video conferencing solutions, etc. We co-exist and believe that Prysm is the platform for platforms.

In legacy collaboration solutions, there is just one content screen and the size is also an issue. That hampers content analysis. But Prysm enables triangulating the content by providing parallel content from different sources.

How are you approaching the revenue model for your solutions?

The Prysm visual workplace solution is a software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-based model of collaboration. It offers a uniform experience because of the cloud integration. The way we priced our product actually has three key components: Display, software, and cloud. These are three pieces of the puzzle. So, laser phosphor display for large canvases come with a premium price tag because they are a class-leading product offering absolute immersive experience. At the same time, we are happy to support third-party display for collaboration.

When it comes to licences, there are user-based subscriptions that we provide. Typically, we provide licences in line with what the competition is offering. 

Coming to cloud, it is actually a platform through which we deliver the whole collaboration experience.