3 Advantages of Skynet Placement Automation: Use Cases from IIMs, IITs, XLRI and ISB

The short answer: placement automation gives business schools three main advantages. It generates clash-free interview schedules and tracks students in real time on placement day. It keeps student profiles and application data error-free through checklists and integrated systems. And it gives the placements office analytics it can act on during the season, not after it. At IIT Bombay, Skynet scheduled interviews for 900 students across 40 companies on Day 0 with zero clashes.

Below, we walk through each advantage with examples from IIMs, IITs, XLRI and ISB.

How does digitisation improve the placement process?

Anyone who has been on a placement committee knows the feeling of Day 0: dozens of companies interviewing at once, shortlists changing by the hour, students running between rooms and a WhatsApp group that never stops. Most of the stress comes from not knowing, in real time, where everyone is and what happens next.

With a digital placement infrastructure, data is captured throughout the process. Data from connected modules can be analysed at short intervals to see how each activity is progressing, and the committee can act before small delays become big ones. Here are three use cases of end-to-end digitisation and automation.

Advantage 1: How does Skynet track students and generate Round 1 schedules?

This applies at institutions such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, ISB, XLRI, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode and IIT Bombay. During placement week, anywhere from 10 to 60 companies may be interviewing at the same time, with 250 to 1,500 students taking part on a single day. At premier business schools following the day placement process, that means planning and running roughly 1,000 interviews on average.

Why interview scheduling is so complex

• Students rank their preferred companies.
• Recruiters rank their preferred students and issue shortlists accordingly.
• Popular students appear on many shortlists, and every interview they attend affects the next one.

Skynet manages this with matching algorithms that create schedules based on student and panel availability, across multiple rounds. At IIT Bombay, this meant scheduling 900 students across 40 companies, with shortlists ranging from 40 to 500 students each, and coordinating 200 volunteers, with zero interview clashes on Day 0. Read the IIT Bombay case study.

What process coordinators need on the day

• Monitoring of interview durations and delays.
• Real-time tracking of interview status and student location.
• Management of students who have exited the process.
• Prompt resolution of issues through SOS protocols.

With this level of detail, top business schools in India have digitised the planning and conduct of interviews and concluded their placement process within a week.

Advantage 2: How does automation keep student and application data error-free?

This scenario is especially relevant at IIM Ahmedabad and ISB. Placement coordinators spend their time on:

• Engaging potential recruiters.
• Communicating placement information across several channels.
• Mentoring students through profile validation.
• Handling placement queries.
• Planning, scheduling and running placement-day events.

Where the bottlenecks are

• Information does not flow between volunteers when the process is only partly digitised.
• Gathering and preparing data takes too long and invites errors.

End-to-end automation, supported by Skynet's Zero Error Checklist, frees coordinators to focus on work that matters. They can engage more new recruiters, increase the share of recruiters who visit, plan clash-free interview schedules quickly and give extra support to students with fewer shortlists.

ISB shows how far this can go. In 2023, ISB replaced its legacy placement platform with a customised Skynet deployment serving both its Hyderabad and Mohali campuses. It automates 16+ placement workflows, including student master profiles, automatic CV generation in ISB's format, pre-placement talk management, dream offer workflows and interview scheduling, and it has reduced manual work by 80%. Read the ISB case study.

"Over the past two years, the Edtex team, led by Anil and Arun, has collaborated closely with us to facilitate a successful transition from traditional physical recruitment processes to a fully online, digital platform." Uday Virmani, Senior Director, Careers Advancement Services (2021), Indian School of Business

Advantage 3: What analytics does the placements office get?

This applies at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, ISB, XLRI, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode and IIT Bombay. Day-wise process data gives the office up-to-date insight for taking corrective action mid-season, which improves the experience for everyone involved.

Who uses the insights

• The placements chair
• The placements office team
• The placement committee (placecom)

What the data tracks

• Students' domain interests.
• Company participation, job descriptions posted and shortlists issued.
• Validation of student profiles.
• Applications segmented by prior work experience and domain.
• Shortlist sizes and offer status by domain.
• Progress of the overall recruitment process.

What the office can act on

• Cohorts of students with fewer applications and shortlists, who may need mentoring.
• Companies departing from the agreed process on interview days.
• How students apply across industry domains.
• Students' participation, success and rejection metrics.
• Industry domains with high student interest, so the placecom can reach out to more recruiters in those areas.

ISB's deployment includes more than 50 custom reports and dashboards for exactly this purpose.

"Skynet was proactive in terms of understanding the data requirements and their use cases to present them in an easy-to-consume format." Prof. Rajesh Aithal, Placement Chairperson (2019), IIM Lucknow

What about virtual and hybrid placements?

When the pandemic moved placements online, the same infrastructure made the switch possible. XLRI, which implemented Skynet in October 2018, ran its Summer Internship Process entirely online through Skynet's virtual placements module. IIM Lucknow onboarded 500 students onto virtual hiring platforms before placement day, with round-the-clock support through every batch run. Read the XLRI case study.

"The implementation of Skynet at XLRI has been a tremendous success. The automation of our placement processes, coupled with the innovative virtual solutions provided during the pandemic, has significantly improved our ability to manage placements effectively." Prof. Rajiv Misra, Placement Chairperson, XLRI

Why does customisation matter?

No two premier institutions run placements in the same way. Dream offer rules, pre-placement talk formats, CV templates and access controls all differ. Some premier institutions have stopped using non-customisable placement products even while still paying for them, because the product could not follow their process. That is why Skynet is configured around each institution's workflows. IIM Trichy, for example, runs 12+ tailored workflows on its own single-tenant cloud environment.

Frequently asked questions

What is placement automation software?

Placement automation software manages the campus recruitment cycle in one system: student profiles and CVs, recruiter registration, applications and shortlists, interview scheduling, offers and analytics.

How does Skynet avoid interview clashes on Day 0?

It uses matching algorithms that consider student preferences, recruiter shortlists and panel availability, and it adjusts the schedule dynamically at company and panel level throughout the day.

Can Skynet support virtual or hybrid placements?

Yes. XLRI ran its Summer Internship Process 100% virtually on Skynet, and IIT Bombay has used it for virtual and hybrid placements since 2020.

Which institutions use Skynet?

Skynet is used by institutions including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Lucknow, IIM Trichy, ISB, XLRI and IIT Bombay.

Related reading

• 7+ key insights every placements team needs
• Skynet for virtual and on-campus placements
• Skynet Scheduler for Day 0 and Day 1
• Skynet Placement Automation

To discuss digitising and automating placements at your institution, write to us at skynet@edtex.in or request a demo.