On April 18th 2015, I completed 20 years in the IT industry having ventured in 1995. As a technocrat, the journey has been highly satisfying for the Technologist in me and very challenging for the entreprenuer in me.
Passion in technology has been the driving force to continue innovating and providing some of the most difficult solutions which we have been able to design and deliver ahead of anyone else in the market. I could go on listing several challenges, pleasures of acheivement and firsts to our credit, but below are some of the unknown ones which gave me the highest satisfaction.
– The first website which I built by own hands for MADITSSIA with the help of a friend.
– The first Online Order tracking system for a reputed export house on their website ( 'portal' was not yet coined )
– Seeing the passengers use our implemented Touch screen information kiosk for the first time at Madurai Railway station providing interactive live PNR enquiry
– The challenge to implement a Motorola Vanguard Router at an engineering college against a monopolised brand product.
– Our first HDSL extender implemented at Indian Railways which we sold at 100 times the current price of a far superior DSL technology product
– Our first telemedicine project which we implemented in Dibrugarh ( 4 full days of Rail journey from Madurai )
– Travels across rural parts of India – North East, Madhya Pradesh, AP, and other places – for exploring Telemedicine and ending up learning that there are other more basic needs required.
– Doing a demo for two way video Communication in between the tracks at Madurai and Koodal Nagar Railway station for proving our solution for Accident Site communication across Railway offices.
– The first ICU interactive solution developed for a dynamic Hospital head of a Union Territory to provide value add to the patients relatives in a Government set up – who says Government officers don't think out of the box ?
– Completing the supply and implementation of the entire RAILNET infrastructure at Kolkotta Railways in a record 100 days.
– Arranging a Video conferencing between from the middle of the famous 100 year old Pamban railway brdige on the way to Rameswararm over a temporary wireless network to the Madurai venue from where Mrs.Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the revamped cantilevel bridge.
– The collaborative Multimedia Classroom project at the Indian Institute of Science using an obscure niche product which we won against the more pronounced and branded products ( over a period of 5 1/2 months and 6 full fledged demo sessions), going back to school in learning a lot from the learned professors questioning some difficult technology, ….
Along the way, I was helping people use technology to succeed for themselves. I believe in collaboration and I believe People's success is my success. The biggest acheivement however are the people – who worked under A & T and are today in highly successful positions and remembering their professional alma mater.
All this was possible bcoz of People – People at A & T, People at Customer sites, People on the way whom I met, and I realise that only People Matter. Against all odds few stuck with me, few left with friendly goodbyes, few customers just reposed thier unbinding faith in me. But for them, A & T as an organisation could not have acheived some of the technological breakthroughs. I salute and thank all these wonderful partners in my journey.
And across these years I learnt being an enreprenuer and the nuances of running an organisation. The challenge of running a technology organsiation against all odds from a city like Madurai. Organisations moved to Chennai to grow, I took this in my stride. When in 2001 I went to Delhi to talk about Video Conferencing technology, people there asked how come you are form Madurai, today people in the industry across the country recognise A & T as a innovative solution provider but then even now people do ask the same question….
The journey continues… every day is a new direction, new learning, and new success.