Meeting Title: Brainforge x Ascendion Consulting Strategies Discussion Date: 2025-07-25 Meeting participants: Arvind, Uttam Kumaran
WEBVTT
1 00:02:22.360 ⇒ 00:02:22.920 Uttam Kumaran: Hello!
2 00:02:26.510 ⇒ 00:02:27.950 Arvind: Here it was quick!
3 00:02:27.950 ⇒ 00:02:31.249 Uttam Kumaran: Yay, how are you sorry about the delay?
4 00:02:31.250 ⇒ 00:02:36.560 Arvind: Oh, no, fine! I also joined a minute or 2 late. I was running late.
5 00:02:36.560 ⇒ 00:02:36.960 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
6 00:02:36.960 ⇒ 00:02:38.779 Arvind: If you join and you left. So yeah.
7 00:02:38.780 ⇒ 00:02:47.309 Uttam Kumaran: No, no, no, I was running late, and we just I just been in like 5 HA meeting. So I’m just like, but it’s Friday. So like days, days ending soon.
8 00:02:48.000 ⇒ 00:02:50.200 Arvind: Yeah, sorry my kid is here.
9 00:02:50.200 ⇒ 00:02:51.040 Uttam Kumaran: No no problem.
10 00:02:53.000 ⇒ 00:02:55.150 Arvind: 6, walking. Yeah, okay, yeah.
11 00:02:55.150 ⇒ 00:02:57.420 Uttam Kumaran: How’s everything great to meet you?
12 00:02:57.630 ⇒ 00:03:06.279 Arvind: Yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you, too. Yeah, everything’s good. Yeah. Work is crazy here. But yeah, that’s good. Good. How about you.
13 00:03:06.280 ⇒ 00:03:10.327 Uttam Kumaran: Tell, tell me about it. Yeah, I saw you’re kind of you’re doing like more like
14 00:03:11.010 ⇒ 00:03:15.410 Uttam Kumaran: just like broad Gcp, like data systems.
15 00:03:16.300 ⇒ 00:03:19.416 Arvind: Yeah. Gcp data engineering. So
16 00:03:20.160 ⇒ 00:03:25.047 Arvind: yeah. Migrating their legacy warehouses. To Gcp,
17 00:03:26.194 ⇒ 00:03:50.469 Arvind: I can’t reveal the customer name of the largest healthcare, you know, healthcare and retail. So so they are moving. That’s a multi year. Right? So 1st they had an hadoop system. They migrated that as part of that. Now, Teradata Benicio, all the legacy ones migrating over to Gcp. So I’m getting involved there. And yeah.
18 00:03:50.470 ⇒ 00:03:50.910 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
19 00:03:50.910 ⇒ 00:03:54.939 Arvind: Representing. All right, we are trying growing there. Yeah, yeah.
20 00:03:54.940 ⇒ 00:03:59.940 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, great! That’s awesome. No, I I just saw your profile and wanted to say, Yeah, I’ve been running this
21 00:04:00.410 ⇒ 00:04:02.435 Uttam Kumaran: this business now for about
22 00:04:03.270 ⇒ 00:04:13.700 Uttam Kumaran: 2 years. My background is in data engineering. I worked in data. Engineering led some data teams, for a lot of startups in New York. But I’m here in Austin now last 3 years.
23 00:04:13.800 ⇒ 00:04:14.520 Uttam Kumaran: Alright!
24 00:04:14.520 ⇒ 00:04:15.230 Arvind: Okay.
25 00:04:15.230 ⇒ 00:04:23.672 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so, but it’s been interesting like I. My background is not in consulting. I worked at, you know, in inside the product org. But
26 00:04:24.140 ⇒ 00:04:24.610 Arvind: Okay.
27 00:04:24.610 ⇒ 00:04:40.259 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, we’ve been growing a lot. You know, we, we’re about 15 people. Now, we’re doing projects around data, both data and AI, you know, we did a lot of stuff in Snowflake. But now we sort of work Snowflake, Gcp, and then we do all a lot of Dbt data modeling
28 00:04:40.360 ⇒ 00:04:46.110 Uttam Kumaran: some bi stuff, but a lot of also strategic. So kind of like full full stack data work.
29 00:04:46.110 ⇒ 00:04:47.770 Arvind: Yeah, yeah.
30 00:04:47.770 ⇒ 00:04:52.600 Uttam Kumaran: And then we’re also starting to do AI projects. So llm workflows, rag workflows.
31 00:04:52.600 ⇒ 00:04:53.949 Arvind: Okay, things like that.
32 00:04:53.950 ⇒ 00:04:54.510 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
33 00:04:54.510 ⇒ 00:04:58.399 Arvind: Yep. Yep. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah.
34 00:04:58.400 ⇒ 00:05:01.459 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, how did you kind of get into this world.
35 00:05:02.794 ⇒ 00:05:23.709 Arvind: Like, I have like, total, about 19 years of it. Experience. Okay? So I started my career as a Java developer. Okay? So back in 2,005, right? So 2,007, I came to States. I was, you know, back in India at that time when I started my career so.
36 00:05:23.710 ⇒ 00:05:24.820 Uttam Kumaran: We’re in Chennai.
37 00:05:25.060 ⇒ 00:05:26.519 Arvind: I was in Chennai. Yeah.
38 00:05:26.520 ⇒ 00:05:29.787 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay. My, my dad is from Mother A.
39 00:05:30.150 ⇒ 00:05:34.119 Arvind: Oh, yeah, yeah, we are also based out of Madurai.
40 00:05:34.120 ⇒ 00:05:40.230 Uttam Kumaran: My mom is. My mom is from Tanjugor, but then I was born. I was born here in the bay in the Bay Area.
41 00:05:40.420 ⇒ 00:05:41.740 Arvind: Oh, really. Okay.
42 00:05:41.740 ⇒ 00:05:42.089 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
43 00:05:42.090 ⇒ 00:05:51.500 Arvind: Okay, nice. Nice to know. Yeah, yeah. So yeah. I was in us like 2,007, 2,004, 1314 ish?
44 00:05:51.660 ⇒ 00:06:07.019 Arvind: So that time it was pure Java. So first, st like, maybe if I have to break my career 10 years was purely Java right? And it was the same customer. So out of 19 years I’ve been traveling with the same customer like about 17 years, so.
45 00:06:07.020 ⇒ 00:06:07.690 Uttam Kumaran: Wow!
46 00:06:07.690 ⇒ 00:06:28.138 Arvind: Healthcare. Primarily right? Okay, so then, I thought, you know, I want to go back to India for good. I went back there, and that’s when I got an opportunity to transition over to the data engineering, right? So I started working on the Hadoop side and for the same customer, in fact. And
47 00:06:28.510 ⇒ 00:06:41.859 Arvind: then the you know this particular customer. They wanted to modernize all of their data warehouses. Initially they were considering aws. But then they decided. Gcp is what they want to go.
48 00:06:41.870 ⇒ 00:06:50.239 Arvind: So yeah, I kind of you know, I’ve been training along myself. Java, Hado, Tcp engineering python pyspar. All that right.
49 00:06:50.240 ⇒ 00:06:50.590 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
50 00:06:51.080 ⇒ 00:06:57.049 Arvind: It’s not dedicated training or no one to train. So it’s all I learn by myself. Basically, right?
51 00:06:57.560 ⇒ 00:07:02.969 Arvind: So then, like, I worked in India for maybe 4 or 5 years.
52 00:07:03.310 ⇒ 00:07:10.299 Arvind: and I got an opportunity to come back to States again. I thought, why not? Yeah. Why not come and explore, right?
53 00:07:10.490 ⇒ 00:07:15.239 Arvind: So I’ve been here in Dallas just about a year. Now, yeah.
54 00:07:15.500 ⇒ 00:07:16.186 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Great.
55 00:07:16.530 ⇒ 00:07:18.330 Arvind: Right? Yeah, that’s.
56 00:07:18.330 ⇒ 00:07:18.990 Uttam Kumaran: You like it, though.
57 00:07:19.533 ⇒ 00:07:20.620 Arvind: Yeah, yeah.
58 00:07:20.620 ⇒ 00:07:21.959 Uttam Kumaran: How do you like it in Dallas.
59 00:07:22.560 ⇒ 00:07:30.319 Arvind: Dallas is good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of folks. It’s warm. But earlier I was in, you know, near Philly, Hartford, Chicago.
60 00:07:30.320 ⇒ 00:07:31.550 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay. Okay.
61 00:07:32.960 ⇒ 00:07:38.630 Arvind: Yeah on the. But it’s typical, like Chennai, kind of you know, whether. So I’m not finding.
62 00:07:38.630 ⇒ 00:07:38.950 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
63 00:07:38.950 ⇒ 00:07:41.230 Arvind: I think that’s fine, but it’s good, good, nice place.
64 00:07:41.230 ⇒ 00:07:44.169 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah lot of space. And you know, it’s nice.
65 00:07:44.170 ⇒ 00:07:47.569 Arvind: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
66 00:07:47.570 ⇒ 00:07:50.910 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, I I you know, I just interested to hear a little bit about like.
67 00:07:51.100 ⇒ 00:08:01.510 Uttam Kumaran: kind of like, how, what do you think about like sort of the whole, it consulting world as a whole. Now that you’ve been in sort of many different firms, I’m kind of curious to hear, like.
68 00:08:01.880 ⇒ 00:08:09.390 Uttam Kumaran: you know, and to give you like a little sense of where we are. So we have about like 10 or 15 clients right now. But we’re just now building like
69 00:08:09.500 ⇒ 00:08:23.129 Uttam Kumaran: started to work with some bigger clients. Right? So we’re working on building our project management office, working on our delivery side of our business. I don’t think we’ve ever had challenge hiring, you know, like, because I’m an engineer. So
70 00:08:23.670 ⇒ 00:08:27.039 Uttam Kumaran: I try to build a great environment for smart engineers.
71 00:08:27.530 ⇒ 00:08:32.789 Uttam Kumaran: I’m not like an Mba or a business person. So I’m not even a really consultant. I’m just like.
72 00:08:33.299 ⇒ 00:08:35.169 Uttam Kumaran: and to do doing this. So yeah.
73 00:08:35.179 ⇒ 00:08:57.069 Uttam Kumaran: this would be a nice place. But I we’re starting to try to deliver and try to build processes for larger clients. And so I’m just like interested to hear, like, you know, ascendion. And you know these are much larger than us, sort of interested to hear about your reflection on like what it’s like working at these companies, and also hearing about, like the project management side of things. For these, like technical projects.
74 00:08:58.650 ⇒ 00:09:23.010 Arvind: Yeah, what I’m seeing is earlier. It was only like, you know, when we say consulting, it was only about, you know. You know, bidding for projects, and just placing people. That’s it. Right now the trend is changing. It’s not, you know, anyone can staff. So the competition is among. There are too many consulting companies. When I look at from a
75 00:09:23.010 ⇒ 00:09:33.490 Arvind: customer standpoint, if I am a customer, there are 10 or different vendors. Right? So what is the value that I will get from us, and beyond fee, cognizant right.
76 00:09:33.490 ⇒ 00:09:34.090 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
77 00:09:34.090 ⇒ 00:09:44.790 Arvind: You know, they’re looking at cost. Everyone wants to minimize their cost, right? So what is in makes them interesting is, how can we reduce their cost
78 00:09:44.990 ⇒ 00:10:10.759 Arvind: if they want to migrate something out or, you know, even come up with a new pipeline directly on cloud. How can we help, you know, build it instead of placing 10 people can we use now? The agentic AI is kind of, you know the boom right now. So how do we use all the latest AI Llms to accelerate and deliver it
79 00:10:10.940 ⇒ 00:10:16.810 Arvind: a faster pace and cheaper cost? Right? That’s what I think is gonna define.
80 00:10:17.110 ⇒ 00:10:28.660 Arvind: you know, who will sustain if there are 100 consulting companies. Yeah, who is gonna reach the top is what you know. They they should definitely have some differentiator. Right? So.
81 00:10:28.660 ⇒ 00:10:35.619 Uttam Kumaran: The cost is always something right. But you know, typically people they do like they do cost because they want to go offshore right? And but.
82 00:10:35.620 ⇒ 00:10:38.269 Arvind: That was like 5 years back. Right? Yeah.
83 00:10:38.270 ⇒ 00:10:48.029 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, so, but now it’s still like, there’s also something where, like, because we work with a lot of middle mid market companies. So 20 to 100 200 million dollars in revenue.
84 00:10:48.180 ⇒ 00:10:50.470 Uttam Kumaran: right? So kind of in the
85 00:10:50.690 ⇒ 00:10:54.189 Uttam Kumaran: in the middle of the middle market. But for them, you know.
86 00:10:54.606 ⇒ 00:10:59.189 Uttam Kumaran: They a lot. One of the times want a partner like a true partner. There they.
87 00:10:59.190 ⇒ 00:10:59.720 Arvind: Exactly.
88 00:10:59.720 ⇒ 00:11:16.450 Uttam Kumaran: Getting hit by companies like we have 10 people here, 20 people. But it’s like, I need someone to come and own the problem and give us, like the strategic, what are the outcomes? And can you achieve those? Not just. I have 10 people they don’t. They don’t have. They don’t want to go, dictate one by one, by one, by one.
89 00:11:16.450 ⇒ 00:11:16.840 Arvind: Exactly.
90 00:11:16.840 ⇒ 00:11:17.260 Uttam Kumaran: They want.
91 00:11:17.260 ⇒ 00:11:17.590 Arvind: Exactly.
92 00:11:17.590 ⇒ 00:11:27.100 Uttam Kumaran: So that’s where we work. As we sell into the sea level, we come in. And we, we basically become their data team. And so they give us sometimes even a budget to work with.
93 00:11:27.100 ⇒ 00:11:28.400 Arvind: Yeah, yeah, I know, we.
94 00:11:28.400 ⇒ 00:11:34.039 Uttam Kumaran: We bring on and we execute. But we’re a partner like I. We’re not a staffing firm at all, you know. Every exactly.
95 00:11:34.230 ⇒ 00:11:53.009 Arvind: Same same as us, meaning ascendion. We are not like a staffing firm, right? So same principles like we are also like kind of partner with the customers understand their pain areas first, st before even talking about any solution, anything. What is that? They are kind of struggling with right? We try to understand that. And.
96 00:11:53.010 ⇒ 00:11:55.350 Uttam Kumaran: Is it all focused on healthcare? By the way, ascendion.
97 00:11:55.796 ⇒ 00:12:11.579 Arvind: We have, you know, all, all different verticals, banking retail whatever. Right? So I’m primarily focused on the healthcare side, meaning my client is on healthcare. But you know, I focus on Gcp data engineering, right?
98 00:12:11.580 ⇒ 00:12:12.040 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
99 00:12:12.040 ⇒ 00:12:13.119 Arvind: Yeah, yeah.
100 00:12:13.670 ⇒ 00:12:24.189 Arvind: so yeah, correct. As you said, yes, definitely, being a partner would definitely help and helping them solve their problem in the shortest possible time.
101 00:12:24.390 ⇒ 00:12:27.080 Arvind: Innovation. Yeah, definitely will drive.
102 00:12:27.460 ⇒ 00:12:30.999 Arvind: Yeah, growth and revenue definitely. Right? Yeah.
103 00:12:31.790 ⇒ 00:12:57.450 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And how like, you know, even, I think the one thing is because of the AI piece. You know the way I got into the AI world is I was using AI to build my business. So I’ve been using AI for 2 years purely because I I need to. I don’t. We didn’t raise any money for this business, right? So it’s completely constrained. So I was using it. So then when finally I started to build my own AI team. Then I realized, Oh, we can start to go offer this as service as well.
104 00:12:57.450 ⇒ 00:12:58.180 Arvind: Yeah, yeah, but.
105 00:12:58.180 ⇒ 00:13:01.159 Uttam Kumaran: We’re getting AI clients, this brand new world.
106 00:13:01.160 ⇒ 00:13:02.059 Arvind: Right so for.
107 00:13:02.060 ⇒ 00:13:04.679 Uttam Kumaran: For them. It’s almost like they they need
108 00:13:04.910 ⇒ 00:13:20.349 Uttam Kumaran: the data piece, you know. Data has been here for a long time, and yes, it’s changing, and there’s different. There’s not Gcp, but same flavors of sequel. It’s performance is better. But it’s it’s not like it’s it’s actually just getting easier. I feel like. But it’s the same stuff
109 00:13:20.500 ⇒ 00:13:33.630 Uttam Kumaran: in the AI piece, because it’s so new a lot of these clients they want. They really need someone who can explain, like, what is their AI strategy and actually come up with tangible proof of concepts that work that isn’t like 9 months. It’s like.
110 00:13:33.630 ⇒ 00:13:34.929 Arvind: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
111 00:13:34.930 ⇒ 00:13:38.169 Uttam Kumaran: Couple of weeks I’ll get you something that we’ll vibe code and give it to you.
112 00:13:38.750 ⇒ 00:13:53.649 Arvind: Yeah, yeah, and have a clear vision on what they want to do. Sometimes. Right? They have a lot of ideas. But yeah, that’s where we like to go and help them, saying they may not even know that something is possible. Right? So we call them and show something, you know. Do a quick.
113 00:13:53.650 ⇒ 00:13:53.980 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
114 00:13:53.980 ⇒ 00:13:55.650 Arvind: Proof of concept. Yeah.
115 00:13:55.910 ⇒ 00:13:59.549 Arvind: And yeah, everyone is getting famous with Chat Gpt and other things.
116 00:13:59.550 ⇒ 00:13:59.920 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
117 00:13:59.920 ⇒ 00:14:09.210 Arvind: Even our business team. They are also, you know. Can you build me a chat? Gpt version of you know the system? I don’t want to go into? Gcp query, all that
118 00:14:10.020 ⇒ 00:14:17.590 Arvind: interactive chat. Gptia, why should I go to Gcp, console and query like, let let’s make it interactive. Right? So
119 00:14:17.980 ⇒ 00:14:22.210 Arvind: yeah, everyone is, you know, coming up with innovative ideas. So that’s kind of
120 00:14:22.930 ⇒ 00:14:26.400 Arvind: sparkling the thought process innovation. Everything. Right? Yeah.
121 00:14:26.400 ⇒ 00:14:29.810 Uttam Kumaran: How, how is like the project management org there, like.
122 00:14:29.960 ⇒ 00:14:37.829 Uttam Kumaran: like what I’m just curious on, like how the delivery teams work cause are this. It’s like all agile type type engagements. And like.
123 00:14:38.090 ⇒ 00:14:48.590 Arvind: Yeah, yeah, yeah, fully like, agile, right? So some of them they have agile, but they don’t fully follow agile. It’s like.
124 00:14:48.590 ⇒ 00:14:49.140 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
125 00:14:49.827 ⇒ 00:15:05.790 Arvind: Problem is migration. We may not be able to follow agile properly, but if it’s like developing a new pipeline, yeah, it’s gonna be a agile, safe. Agile is what we follow. Pretty much right. 2 weeks, 3 weeks. Print all that. Right? So yeah.
126 00:15:05.790 ⇒ 00:15:06.110 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
127 00:15:06.110 ⇒ 00:15:09.710 Arvind: Agil has been. Yeah, yes, waterfall is almost gone. So yeah.
128 00:15:09.960 ⇒ 00:15:11.000 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay.
129 00:15:11.590 ⇒ 00:15:35.389 Uttam Kumaran: yeah. I I guess, like one of the you know, one of the where I’m just kind of curious about how like the org is structured, because for us, right now we I’m kind of leading a lot of our technical org but we also have a delivery org. And then we have sales marketing. But sort of thinking about the next level of like management. Right? Cause I’m I’m just kind of curious. If you had any opinions on like
130 00:15:35.910 ⇒ 00:15:49.549 Uttam Kumaran: how you would structure the delivery or the engineering, or in a consulting. Because I’m my background is really in product teams. It’s much different when you’re kind of associated with clients, right? So like kind of curious about like your perspective on that.
131 00:15:50.190 ⇒ 00:16:02.859 Arvind: So technically, we would have like, you know, as you said, sales team delivery team, we would also have a client partner. So who would continuously talk to the customer on the relationship building right.
132 00:16:02.860 ⇒ 00:16:05.799 Uttam Kumaran: And is that is that sale. Those guys are on the sales team. Or this is like.
133 00:16:05.800 ⇒ 00:16:29.820 Arvind: Kind of, you know. Somewhere between sales and delivery. If you can say right, they’re not fully on sales, right? The their intention is not to sell or create. You know new positions immediately. Right? It is to build a long term relationship with the customer, and we open a door with a new customer. They may already have worked with 5 different vendors, or, you know, consulting firms.
134 00:16:30.070 ⇒ 00:16:44.849 Arvind: they may all have good rapport relationship with them. So if we have to make good business with them, we definitely need a good client partner who will, you know, not talk about anything like, you know. Just build that personal rapport.
135 00:16:44.850 ⇒ 00:16:46.170 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah.
136 00:16:46.170 ⇒ 00:17:09.169 Arvind: So tomorrow, like one month down the line. If they have some need, they should be able to pick up the client partner, saying that, hey? This is what I need. Then the client partner will bring in the sales team delivery or technical team. Show a demo and then get get it to closure right? So that is one thing that most of the bigger forms that I see have have been doing right.
137 00:17:09.170 ⇒ 00:17:33.189 Arvind: That kind of, you know, helps in the growth. So so we definitely need that one person meaning one. When I say, one person is, you know, depending on the number of, you know, client. Or you know, the director levels whatever levels in the customer landscape, right? There are multiple domains with the same. Or then we may need couple of client partners right
138 00:17:33.190 ⇒ 00:17:39.259 Arvind: to kind of, you know. Build that trust, rap, or everything right? So that will help him.
139 00:17:39.260 ⇒ 00:17:47.900 Arvind: The growth. You know. Otherwise it is gonna be customers reaching out to us right? Not only technical, but
140 00:17:48.010 ⇒ 00:17:51.140 Arvind: understanding the system. Everything end to end right.
141 00:17:51.990 ⇒ 00:18:08.090 Uttam Kumaran: And then how are you kind of finding, like great people on the the project management side or on the higher level engineering side? Are they all folks that are worked in client service before? You know or like? How are you finding like Whoa? How do you find like great talent in, in like your world.
142 00:18:09.740 ⇒ 00:18:19.879 Arvind: Yeah. So yes, we need a good talent engine. So our ascendion, our talent engine is the biggest strength, right? We have
143 00:18:20.170 ⇒ 00:18:50.120 Arvind: 600 or 1,600. I forgot the exact number. So they kind of, you know, work with, because of the size they have ties up with tied up with multiple vendors as well. Right? So today’s market hiring is very challenging in terms of not technical resource, right finding good technical in a short duration. Some customers give lead time, saying that they, you know, need someone in 4 weeks. That will give us some time.
144 00:18:50.230 ⇒ 00:18:53.460 Arvind: But some customers are saying I need someone immediately or 2 weeks
145 00:18:54.230 ⇒ 00:19:01.209 Arvind: finding someone, you know, in 2 weeks or 2, let’s say Dallas, or some Hartford location. All that find.
146 00:19:01.210 ⇒ 00:19:03.139 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, in person is hard.
147 00:19:03.270 ⇒ 00:19:30.019 Arvind: Yeah, that’s where, you know, we also tie up with some vendors so and try to get someone pick on a contract positions. They’re doing good, then we can hire them as a full time. Right? So that’s something that we do always right? So yeah, we need to have a rigorous training process, too. That’s where the to make sure we select right candidates and put it in front of our customers. Right? Yeah.
148 00:19:30.020 ⇒ 00:19:42.300 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And do you guys have any other like cross cross client like function on the engineering team where you guys are sharing insights across the company, or is it pretty isolated to the clients?
149 00:19:44.990 ⇒ 00:19:48.769 Uttam Kumaran: Meaning? Is there like a platform at all like internally, where.
150 00:19:49.280 ⇒ 00:19:49.690 Arvind: Hey!
151 00:19:49.690 ⇒ 00:19:51.629 Uttam Kumaran: Teams across. Clients are sharing.
152 00:19:51.930 ⇒ 00:19:57.860 Arvind: Yeah, definitely meaning you mean for any requirements of positions. Is that what you’re asking or.
153 00:19:57.860 ⇒ 00:20:03.999 Uttam Kumaran: No, actually, just on the engineering side, like, best practices. Yeah, like, okay.
154 00:20:04.000 ⇒ 00:20:23.410 Arvind: Oh, yeah, yeah, for the delivery side. Yes, we do have audits and a platform to track the status like weekly. We kind of, you know, track the status we call it as a rag tracker, red, amber, green, right? And also we have periodically audit that will go on. And if there is any
155 00:20:23.776 ⇒ 00:20:42.849 Arvind: reusable assets. Right? That is the document, right? So we develop something as part of one customer that can be taken across. Let’s say, for data engineering, we build something for client one, we try to make it generic and take it to Client 2 when we’re not in the sales.
156 00:20:42.850 ⇒ 00:20:44.589 Uttam Kumaran: Is that that’s a specific role.
157 00:20:45.850 ⇒ 00:20:58.700 Arvind: At offshore onshore. We probably don’t get that much time, but offshore we all, you know, spend apart from our day to day work we all spend time on innovation.
158 00:20:58.700 ⇒ 00:20:59.360 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, really.
159 00:20:59.360 ⇒ 00:21:01.220 Arvind: Beautiful. Product. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
160 00:21:01.220 ⇒ 00:21:01.550 Uttam Kumaran: Okay.
161 00:21:01.550 ⇒ 00:21:13.870 Arvind: We have our own internal product that runs from Qa to development to data engineering everything. Right? So we try to identify new use case and build and add on to it. It’s like a soup.
162 00:21:13.870 ⇒ 00:21:16.460 Uttam Kumaran: Is there a product manager for that like whole.
163 00:21:16.460 ⇒ 00:21:20.050 Arvind: The separate product manager product development team itself.
164 00:21:20.050 ⇒ 00:21:27.759 Uttam Kumaran: And then they have like. But then you mentioned, like some people are working on this in addition to their assigned client work, so is there just like
165 00:21:27.920 ⇒ 00:21:28.750 Uttam Kumaran: there’s some.
166 00:21:28.750 ⇒ 00:21:37.530 Arvind: And then extra work they will be, you know, they they also want to learn and grow right. So we kind of encourage them to spend additional time.
167 00:21:37.530 ⇒ 00:21:38.880 Arvind: Okay.
168 00:21:38.880 ⇒ 00:22:02.240 Arvind: yeah. Work on. You know some of the innovations, all that. And you know, we take it to one customer, the current customer. For example, there’s a pain point. Okay? Then we see how well it’s received and refine it, and then take it to other teams. Right? So maybe when we are want to formalize it as a product, we take it to the product engineering team, build it as a full blown
169 00:22:02.370 ⇒ 00:22:14.739 Arvind: product or a feature and take it to all the customers. So that’s that’s when sales team will come in. And they will say that we have these many products or accelerators that can help, you know.
170 00:22:15.300 ⇒ 00:22:22.039 Arvind: complete whatever they want in lesser duration cost whatever right? That’s gonna be the sales page coming in.
171 00:22:22.380 ⇒ 00:22:27.900 Uttam Kumaran: And then so. But those engineers like, how are you change? Because they may be 40 h on
172 00:22:28.030 ⇒ 00:22:33.130 Uttam Kumaran: on a client? Right? So like? Is it just people that are working part time or like? How does it work.
173 00:22:34.590 ⇒ 00:22:52.198 Arvind: Technically, some, not not every week. We will have 40 h of week, right? So there might be a few weeks, that is, gonna be, you know, some. We might be waiting for some dependencies blockers. So we use that time. And you know,
174 00:22:52.590 ⇒ 00:22:59.560 Uttam Kumaran: But then you’re joining like the product team stand up, and then they’re like giving tickets. And or is it kind of like isolated to a team?
175 00:22:59.560 ⇒ 00:23:01.860 Arvind: The product team will be separate. Okay.
176 00:23:01.860 ⇒ 00:23:02.350 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay.
177 00:23:02.350 ⇒ 00:23:12.520 Arvind: So as we when we work for a client, let’s say there is a problem statement. Okay, we try to, you know, not only look at it manual way. We try to look at it, how we can do it differently.
178 00:23:12.520 ⇒ 00:23:18.900 Uttam Kumaran: Let’s say there’s like a hadoop to Gcp migration, and you want to build some like reusable toolkit or set up function.
179 00:23:18.900 ⇒ 00:23:43.860 Arvind: Yeah, exactly. When I was at offshore we built it. Hadoop to Gcp migration table has 1 million records on either side. How do I validate whether it got. You know, the pipeline work correctly or not. Right? So we built a reusable process or utility that will compare against Hadoop and Gcp. And it will exactly point out this particular record, this particular column.
180 00:23:43.860 ⇒ 00:23:57.919 Arvind: It’s not matching so that we built it. Now we are trying to add more sources, build it formally. Right? So yeah, something like that as an example. And we try to identify use case first.st That is the problem statement
181 00:23:57.920 ⇒ 00:24:11.939 Arvind: and then come up with a small scale solution. If it works well received, well, take it as a full blown, integrated with our formal product. This is like initially start as an accelerator, then you formalize it into a product.
182 00:24:11.940 ⇒ 00:24:20.960 Uttam Kumaran: So then, does someone from the product team like at the end of the project come and look at it. And then they’re like, okay, we find one or 2 things we can pull out or like, who is it actually like, that’s.
183 00:24:20.960 ⇒ 00:24:37.770 Arvind: If we if it’s a date, no, not at the end of the project. End of the project is gonna be too late. Right. Some of the projects go 6 months one year, so if we wait for 6 months, one year to find accelerated growth, so at least a month or Quarter Review has to happen.
184 00:24:37.770 ⇒ 00:24:38.490 Uttam Kumaran: Oh, okay.
185 00:24:38.490 ⇒ 00:25:07.440 Arvind: Yeah, if we are in a practice, let’s say data engineer practice. So the leads and the practice leader, I was part of the leadership at offshore, so we would know what the team is doing. What are the pain points if we, if I was not dedicated only to healthcare? Right? So if I see an utility that is being developed in healthcare that I could use in, let’s say, retail or banking. So my job is to ensure that it’s not developed specifically for healthcare. And when in sitting in a leadership role, right?
186 00:25:07.440 ⇒ 00:25:25.800 Arvind: So it has to be a generic accelerator or a product right and then use it wherever we want. Right? So the leadership team will have to take it out, move it to other customers as needed. That’s where the leadership will come into play. Developers will not know. Basically, right.
187 00:25:26.256 ⇒ 00:25:27.170 Uttam Kumaran: Okay. Okay.
188 00:25:27.870 ⇒ 00:25:39.869 Uttam Kumaran: okay. Great. Yeah, no. That is something we certainly cause. Right now, I’m noticing that. And we bring it into case studies, or I list it out, but should make it some more of like a defined Quarterly Review, to find that.
189 00:25:39.870 ⇒ 00:25:50.819 Arvind: Yes, we need to have that review. Otherwise we’ll not know initially, when we started, we didn’t know what you know. There will be pockets of innovation here and there, right.
190 00:25:50.820 ⇒ 00:25:51.340 Uttam Kumaran: Yes.
191 00:25:51.340 ⇒ 00:25:54.319 Arvind: How how is that collaboration gonna, happen? So.
192 00:25:54.320 ⇒ 00:25:56.209 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. Never gets lifted out of the client.
193 00:25:56.210 ⇒ 00:26:12.159 Arvind: Exactly right? So yeah, so that collaboration has to happen that we 2 different teams sitting in different part of geographies or different customers. So I don’t. We don’t want Team 2 to rebuild everything from scratch. When team one has already done it right.
194 00:26:12.160 ⇒ 00:26:15.230 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
195 00:26:15.750 ⇒ 00:26:25.359 Uttam Kumaran: okay, I think that’s a lot of the questions I had. Yeah, I mean, this is like extremely helpful. I I feel like we’re we’re like, we’re only 15 people, right? But.
196 00:26:25.360 ⇒ 00:26:25.780 Arvind: Awesome.
197 00:26:25.780 ⇒ 00:26:31.680 Uttam Kumaran: We’re trying to act like we’re an assembly on size. So I’m learning like, Okay, what is the next?
198 00:26:31.790 ⇒ 00:26:36.839 Uttam Kumaran: Well, I’ve tried to hear what is 3, 4 steps ahead of us trying to build towards that goal, you know.
199 00:26:36.840 ⇒ 00:26:38.430 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, it’s really helpful. Yeah.
200 00:26:38.430 ⇒ 00:26:40.319 Arvind: Okay, okay, perfect.
201 00:26:40.320 ⇒ 00:26:47.440 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah, how can I? Can I be helpful with anything? Sorry. I’ve been asking a lot of questions. But yeah, if I can be helpful for anything. Please let me know.
202 00:26:47.940 ⇒ 00:26:54.210 Arvind: At this point. No, but it was good talking to you, knowing you. So yeah, probably will stay in touch definitely.
203 00:26:54.210 ⇒ 00:26:54.670 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
204 00:26:54.670 ⇒ 00:27:01.449 Arvind: Right now. No, I’m I think I’m good. I don’t have any questions. I just wanted to come in with an open mind.
205 00:27:01.450 ⇒ 00:27:01.830 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah.
206 00:27:01.830 ⇒ 00:27:03.640 Arvind: That’s a discussion with you. Right? Yeah.
207 00:27:03.640 ⇒ 00:27:14.360 Uttam Kumaran: Yeah. And if you’re having in Austin, please send me a message. I’d love to get coffee, or there’s some really good Indian food. Here we can go have so let me know. Please.
208 00:27:14.360 ⇒ 00:27:21.299 Arvind: Definitely, definitely, we’ll plan, come something. Yeah, summer is there? Right? So yeah, so we’ll definitely come around. But yeah, yeah, yeah.
209 00:27:21.300 ⇒ 00:27:24.610 Uttam Kumaran: Okay, okay, right? Thank you so much.
210 00:27:24.610 ⇒ 00:27:27.610 Arvind: You’re welcome. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Bye, bye.