An engineer by heart, Packiyanath Sivathanu (Packy), the CEO and co-founder of VueData India, started his journey in the software industry more than two decades ago, just after graduating as a computer science engineer. He was always inspired by the startup culture and was drawn by firms that wanted to do things differently in terms of providing technology solutions to address customer problems.
Initially, Packy worked for several startups in India, which provided him with enough opportunities to learn, do something challenging, and wear many hats while performing different roles. With his eagerness to work more closely with clients, Packy relocated to the U.S. and worked with organizations like Microsoft, TMobile, Amazon, Sequent, etc.
After nearly a decade of working in the U.S., a personal situation forced Packy to return back to India. Along with Muru Ganesan who is Director, and CEO, of the firm’s Seattle office they founded VueData headquartered in Seattle, WA., with offices in Chennai and Bangalore, India. VueData provides end-to-end IT services to some of the fortune 500 companies globally, focusing on Retail, Media, and enterprise markets to achieve business
transformation by leveraging industry insight and technological expertise. The organization helps its clients by using the latest technologies and solving complex problems. Outside of its service offerings, VueData has also a suite of products, ‘Tentkotta,’ an OTT platform specifically made for South Indian films, DB-DAAS, an end-to-end Database Release automation tool, and go-boss.com which is a one-stop solution to create your own white labeled streaming platform/service.
The Motivation to Create VueData
Packy feels that even though people talk a lot about innovation and leadership but when it comes to giving employees the needed room to innovate and grow, there is always a hush-hush and pushback. Often this fear of failure gets ingested, which in turn stops the proper thought process of some of the brightest minds in the business.
“At VueData, it’s always employee first. we give them the freedom to be heard. We do our best to ensure that part of our culture at VueData is reflected in everything we do.”– says Packy.
“It is imperative that not just the leadership but everyone in the organization understands why and how we do what we do. We preach and follow that top-down throughout the organization in anything that we do at work and outside.”- he added further.
Tackling the Pandemic
Even with so much negativity, the pandemic did bring in some very positive aspects for the organization. Challenged with a steep learning curve, it was during these challenging times that employees understood the importance of proactive communication not only with the clients but also within their teams to stay up-to-date. Eventually, this proactive communication led to increased trust between team members and leaders regarding how they work together and who has their back during critical times. Above all, this increased the overall empathy toward colleagues by quite a few notches.
All these together have increased VueData’s overall IT operations efficiency by up to 30 percent. However, the most challenging part for companies was retaining talent during the Great Resignation period. Packy believes that VueData failed on a few strategies, but the HR team quickly learned from the mistakes, realigned themselves, and hit the ground running to adjust to the new norms.
Current Market Situation
Packy feels the IT industry has successfully sustained the uncertainty that the pandemic bought alongside. However, despite rapid growth in digital transformation and technological innovation, there are also signs of a slowdown in business initiatives. In a broader sense, this could be seen as a measured approach adopted by the organizations to keep their eyes on the market, which has a high chance of plunging into recession.
“Positively, this might be seen as a market correction post-uncertainty adjustment rather than a market collapse. It’s a wait-and-watch game while being conservative and planning to sustain, at this point, I guess.”– he added.
Picture of the Future
As a part of its technology focus, VueData is heavily focused on enabling a few of its clients to move towards the Metaverse coupled with blockchain technology. At present, some members of the organization’s advanced technology team are focusing on creating revolutionary products to help some of its clients transition smoothly into a virtual 3D world. Packy explains that moving into a virtual world may seem fancy, but that opens up new concerns about data privacy and security, which VueData is currently focusing on to grow its practices and solutions even further. Additionally, the firm has plans to expand its team in South America and various other countries in Asia. Within India, the company has seen a lot of success in hiring talented individuals from tier II and tier III cities.