Srikantan Sankaran
Technical Architect
Bengaluru, India
To Srikantan Sankaran, macros were magic.
“I was new to computers at the time, and I was learning Excel. Once I started working on macros, it seemed like magic that I could write code and then things happen automatically.”
At the time he was employed at a construction and engineering procurement firm and grew “quite popular” with his colleagues for his ability to make their work disappear with code.
“I had a profound sense of satisfaction when I could automate mundane things.”
Srikantan’s role as Technical Architect lets him repeat that initial success every day with new customers. He and his fellow Technical Architects help clients uncover strengths and opportunities for digital transformation that were seemingly hidden in plain sight.
For Srikantan, technology’s power to create is a consistent source of inspiration. Whether it was extra time for his coworkers early in his career, or more recently, a “last mile” financial inclusion app for a client in the banking sector. Last mile financial inclusion is a growing movement to use technology (usually apps) to grant access to financial services to those in remote areas; populations once considered “unbankable.”
One of Srikantan’s clients built a last mile app with his help three years earlier, but the user base had outgrown the current version. As all Technical Architects would, he worked with the client until discovering that their future plans to scale and add services might require an entirely new architecture:
“We had to look at things like Kubernetes services and how that would be the go-to state for them and then what changes do they need to make in the core application architecture to make it amenable to the shift. And then how to take steps towards evolving the architecture without throwing out that original investment.”
"It’s tough for a customer to step back and see the larger picture – to see what other things could be contributing to the state they are in."
After helping design a scalable architecture to meet their needs, Srikantan made sure their analytics solution would scale with it so his client could act on the insights gleaned from their newly enlarged customer base.
Probing, even provoking, clients into seeing their business with fresh eyes is a crucial part of the Hub's renowned Discovery process.
“Sometimes they come with a preconceived notion: They are in their business and a particular problem can consume their whole thought process. It’s tough for a customer to step back and see the larger picture – to see what other things could be contributing to the state they are in. We try and broach these topics and expand the discussion and throw light on things which may have been unseen. That brings a different angle to the discussion.”
Take a recent client in IoT space that creates batteries for autonomous vehicles. Awash in telemetry data from their products in the field, their current post-phase database had become unwieldy with growth and was suffering from data duplication that slowed crucial operations. “One problem leading up to another and overall, they see a lot of issues”.
“We went to the root question of why a database was required because there are other options, like putting it in a data lake and using a data warehouse, that are more conducive to success in their scenario.”
He and the other Technical Architects don’t do all of this on their own, nor do they assume those roles without significant prior experience in technology. Srikantan’s path to the Hub was typically atypical: consulting services, solution architect, engineering, and then the Hub two years ago. His 18 years at Microsoft are invaluable to broaden the experience of his equally capable team.
We try and ... expand the discussion and throw light on things which may have been unseen. That brings a different angle"
“And then we have some global black belts [Microsoft talk for deep technical specialists] for data and AI who bring a different perspective and expertise,” he explains, describing the collaborative nature of the Hub.
AI is on the verge of touching every aspect of our lives and Srikantan, along with the rest of the Hub, is working to stay ahead of its emerging curve.
“The sheer nature of that particular technology is so innovative. In its early days we at the Hub picked it up and ran with it and were able to stay ahead of the curve. That positioned us in the country as the go-to team for our clarity on the technology and what can be done with it.”
And while themes like AI are common, the Hub sees a variety of customers which keeps things fresh for the Technical Architects. “Every week we can meet multiple different customers and the nature of the discussion is varied. It’s not one topic you grind on customer after customer,” he chuckled.
“My interest is sustained. I’m able to learn a lot of things. I’m very happy with the choice I made coming to the Hub and the promise it had is showing and I’m riding that particular wave right now.”
When you’re solving problems with technology and creating opportunity where it didn’t exist before, that’s a pretty good wave to ride.