Who hasn’t dreamt of setting up their own business? Delphine Pramotton has. After 17 years’ experience in IT services, this computer engineer decided to launch her own consulting firm: Pradel Consulting.
Delphine Pramotton is the founder of Pradel Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in audits, cybersecurity, IT performance and digital transformation. Trained as an engineer with a specialization in cybersecurity, she worked for 15 years in a consulting firm, followed by two years as Vice President of Risk Management at TD. Her interest in IT goes back to her youth: she started programming on her father’s Apple 2. And since then, her taste for technology has never wavered, as she explains: “I need to be in an activity where I never do the same thing twice, where I can have a global vision and get to the heart of complex problem-solving.”
Being a woman in a man’s world? At first it wasn’t an obstacle. She says: “There are more and more women in IT, but when you reach the executive sphere, there’s a large majority of men and it’s a glass ceiling. A woman really has to be at a higher level to be chosen. If you’re at the same level, you’ll choose a man because there’s more affinity. We like to go for a drink with men in the evening, after 7pm, whereas I always have something else to do.”
The decision to set up her own business came when she decided not to accept a transfer to Toronto. She then decided to create her dream job: “I couldn’t find a job that was challenging enough, so I decided to create one for myself,” she explains. “I needed to share my values, to be in an organization that works to improve the lives of everyone, the lot of teams.”
In 2012, she set up her consulting firm Pradel Consulting. To her surprise, she found that the process was easy. “You can find a lot of help on the internet for the administrative aspects.”
On the other hand, if you’re looking for financial aid, it’s more difficult. “A lot of grants are reserved for 18 – 35 year olds. That shocked me, it’s not fair. But I went ahead,” explains Delphine.
The company has passed the fateful five-year mark. This is not the case for the majority of companies created in Quebec: 60% live less than 5 years according to the Indice entrepreneurial québécois 2017.
Her main reward is customer satisfaction at the end of a mandate. “In business, IT represents a cost center that is rarely valued,” she laments. “With my company, when we win a new mandate, it’s a direct reward for our work. It’s more gratifying.”
Pradel Consulting
Independent consulting firm specializing in high value-added IT services in audit, compliance, cybersecurity, IT performance and digital transformation. Founded in Montreal in 2012, the firm now has over twenty clients in Canada and internationally such as: WSP, Videotron, Resolute Forest Products, AIMIA, GRICS, Brault et Martineau, KPMG, EY as well as several major Quebec municipalities.
