Pranay Pandey, An open source enthusiast and an expert in implementing retail business automation solutions that covers B2C E-commerce, Omnichannel Order Management, CRM, B2B, WMS, SCM, CMS completes 11 years of his professional life, out of which he gave his 10 years to implement ERP(B2C, B2B, CRM, OMS, WMS, SCM, CMS) Solutions and spreading awareness about the Open Source movement. The hunger to make software on open source platforms has kept him moving and has brought him incredible success in his professional life. Along with working on exciting ERP projects, he has also worked for clients like United Airlines, Anytime Costumes, Moxii, IEEE computer society, Scarpa, Plastic Jungle, CardFlo and Able Engineering.
An active learner in his field, he has participated in many Industry Institution Interaction programs organized by different engineering college and has given more than 50 guest lectures to Engineering and MBA students so that they get a practical exposure to ERP platform. He has written more than 50 blogs on various platforms like Linkedin, Apache Blogs and Hotwax Systems Blog which includes topics like book reviews, time management, open source software and philosophy, team management and ERP Software.
When I joined Hotwax systems as a Technical writer in July this year. He was the first person I was introduced to, as he was the one who was given the responsibility of training new joiners. Though I was shifted to new office within a few days so wasn’t fortunate enough to train under him. But gradually as I spend days there, I learned a lot more about him during various brainstorming sessions and during documentation sessions, I would always see him giving his valuable inputs. And as I started observing more, this man was everywhere and made his presence felt wherever he would go, be it in our office cafeteria cooking food on community Saturdays for his colleagues, be it writing blogs on various platforms or be it running three marathons successfully. This man is living a 360-degree life. As I was a newbie on the subject of open source and our company’s ERP product HotWax Commerce, I would always refer to his blogs to gain some insight into the world of Open source and Hotwax commerce. It was during one of those community days, I got some free time with him and could strike a genuine conversation. I asked a lot of questions and expressed my desire to have a long chat with him. It was then he revealed that on coming 28th of September, he would be completing 11 years of his professional life and that’s when it struck me, why not celebrate his 11 years by asking him to share some of the wisdom he gathered in all these years. And because I am on a spree taking interviews of men who inspire me to do better at the professional front, I thought why not shape this conversation into a proper interview. So I prepared Seven questions, sat with him last evening and this is all that he said, here we go:-
Me - As you complete your 11 years today, how do you feel, what are your feelings on completion of 11 years of your professional journey, how do you remember your job, share some memories of it?
Pranay - I would say it’s amazing and I feel so honored to get so many amazing opportunities to work through all these years, I feel grateful. I still remember the first time I got a job offer, there were tears in my eyes. It was in the year 2006. I had to relocate to Mumbai and I was determined within that whichever company I would work for, I would give my 100%, it was my commitment I did to myself. When the Reliance Communications opportunity came my way, I felt so humbled even though I could clearly see that the package was too low to go to Mumbai. Relocating to Mumbai at a meager salary of Rs. 6500 was a tough decision which turned out pretty well. I got to work with so many Industry veterans and learned a lot from them and in fact, I would love to say that first year of my career was a major milestone in my life because whatever I learned there has stayed with me to this day.
Me - What is the difference you see when you started and now after 11 years? How has the world changed and what is the change you see in your mindset?
Pranay - I remember 11 years ago, I had a Yahoo Email id and I would send my resumes to different companies using it. I wasn’t aware of the technology that time, whatever I learned, I learned from attending lectures in college. I was an electronics graduate who decided to go for Masters in Computer applications because I realized my love for computers quite late in life. It was all new to me and I had to focus on each and every part of it. I remember I would practice even the basic DOS commands and enjoy the whole learning process. Though my classmates would ridicule me at times when I would practice those DOS commands because they had already learned them during their BCA days and I would be the only one, the odd one who was an electronics graduate amongst them. The world of computers was quite fascinating for me and it was my natural calling, For the first time when I got a computer, I was so excited to test all those commands I had learned. For me to use DOS and then Windows, I would relate things. Like in DOS, I had to create a directory, in windows making a directory was just one click away.
My journey with computers started in the year 2003 and it was quite an enlightening journey because I was learning every possible thing I could learn. I worked hard and did everything possible to grasp as much knowledge about computers, though the grades were less than my counterparts, I was satisfied.
The difference in the mindset in all those years was that, when I had done my graduation, I was quite worried about my job and was desperately looking to be placed somewhere. I was failing to crack interviews repeatedly and when I finally passed an interview for the first time for Reliance Infostreams, I was very happy. At Reliance Communications, I used to use CRM Software as a user to track the customer requests and manage the customer service department. Now when I see myself, I am working on ERP, the core part CRM that we are making for our product Hotwax Commerce. When I started working for Apache OFBiz, I realized, I had come a long way from being ERP User to being the creator of it. That was a major shift in my thought process.
The skills I learned in my early days, they are of great use to me even today. Every time I would get a new assignment, deep within I would know that it would be challenging but what I always believe is to give my 100% so that the outcome is definitely in favor of your learning, not earnings. A shy, under-confident Pranay has grown in this 11 years to be a confident man who is clear about his thoughts and knows how he should go ahead with the responsibilities assigned to him. In this 11 years, I have grown up to be the man, I always wished to be.
Me- Why Hotwax, what made you stick with Hotwax for all these years? Never thought of switching and joining a new company?
Pranay - I did get many offers and they were quite tempting in nature but there was always a motivation that came from within to stick with HotWax. Because at HotWax, it has been an entrepreneurial journey for me. It was here I got the opportunity to learn and train people as a trainer and training people and spreading knowledge has always been my passion. Every time when fate would land up a tempting offer on a platter before me, I would always do a brainstorming session with myself. Something that always motivates me to be here is that it is a place that has given me so much, so many opportunities to learn. I get to do things here that I love the most. I would always think will the other companies offer me the same freedom, will they allow me to do things that I enjoy doing, will they give me the work I love to do. I love training people, I love sharing knowledge, I love setting up new teams. Here I have always seen things shaping up from inception and there is a deep bond that has formed with HotWax. I Have seen this company grow and I have been a part of each and everything, every procedure, every infrastructure in this company. And every time I have given my ideas and suggestions, they have always been respected, appreciated and implemented. I have been a part of this company growth, I have been with its ups and downs and it has been a learning journey which I thoroughly enjoyed and wish to do so in coming years too. It’s not a company where I am an employee, I have always felt like it's my company. I have felt as it's my very own. So the idea of abandoning it for a better offer would always go for a toss and the bond with Hotwax for all these years always weighed heavier than any tempting offer that came my way.
Me- What was your I shall “Quit now” moment and how did you overcome it?
Pranay- Yes, There have been some moments in my life where I felt I am not able to prove myself. When I would fail to prove my points before our clients and when a client would think of me as a person who doesn’t know his work. I would feel within that I am not doing justice with the responsibilities that have been assigned to me. And every time I felt that the feeling to leave and just quit and move would always hover on my mind. During those moments, I would always retrospect my life and go back in the past, focus on the current problem and would try to find out the root cause of the problem. And where do you stand in this situation, are you the creator of this situation and as a leader you always have to accept the fact that you are the creator of the situation because if someone from your team is not able to perform up to the mark, as a leader or project manager, it’s always your fault. You were not able to guide him in the right way. In all those moments of retrospection, I would realize that, Yes I am the creator of this situation, I am at fault and mistake is at my end and it's I who should do something to rectify the problem. I thank God to surround me with people who would motivate me in such situations.and I believe you should always try to face the problem rather than running away from it. There should always be a sportsman spirit within you, you have to be a part of the game to enjoy it because running away is never the solution, staying in the game and fighting back is.
Me - Tell me the most challenging phase of your life? How did you overcome it?
Pranay - It was in around 2007, working at reliance communications was a great learning experience but working there I realized my life was going nowhere. I am not moving, my career is not moving because I used to do a lot of managerial activities there. I was that person whom the Project manager could trust upon and rely on certain responsibilities. But I don’t know why I started feeling where am I moving. That was a phase of two-three months, I had done my masters in computer applications and here I am entertaining technical support calls. I would ask this question to myself several times and this situation would continue to persist each and every day. This question would haunt me every time I would go to work and I would accept the fact that those couple of months were quite difficult for me. Even at HotWax, there were months when the balance between Personal and professional life would go for a toss. But again the retrospection method would come in very handy in those stressful times. I would dig deep into the problem and try to understand the root cause of it. Connecting myself to the surrounding, to be aware of the situation around you helps you a lot to deal with life in the best possible way and I feel fortunate these methods worked really well for me.
Me - What do you think of the open source? what are your feelings working for open source?
Pranay - Open source is a synonym to freedom. We are living in a digital era and everyone is looking for Digital transformation. In this era of digital transformation when you think of automated solutions, when you think of software, you always think that it will need a big sum of money. Open source software brings in freedom at many different levels and context. If someone thinks of starting a company that develops software solutions for its clients, it would always look for open source software alternatives. Since software is a must investment and if you get a good open source software for your business, you save a lot of upfront investment. Definitely, there would be investments to be made in hardware but you save money on software because the soul of open source software lies in the fact that it is free to download, use, modify and redistribute depending on the licenses that are attached to it. If i talk in context with regard to with a student who is keen to carve a career in software development, if you train yourself in open source, then you get lot many opportunities in terms of training and working with people around the world who would love to be your mentor, ready to guide you in the work you wish to do. For me, open source has brought in a lot of learning opportunities and I have evolved a lot working on open source. I got to work with many talented people across the world who are belonging to the open source community and I am specifically involved in Apache OFbiz, I am one of the committers in the project. Being a committer in an open source project in Apache software foundation is like having a badge of honor on your shoulders and I take pride in it because of its a result of consistent hard work and efforts. My individual perspective has evolved a lot in this years working for open source, I work at Hotwax for my bread and butter but at the same time, I feel it’s like my family. When I come to the office, I feel like I am going to my workplace where I would be having fun with my colleagues. In a similar way when I work at Apache OFbiz community where I have been working since long, I know everyone by name there and they know me, so it's like working with a giant group of people who are working from different places in the world and some of them are exceptional software professionals. I learn a lot working with them, I feel lucky to understand the philosophy of open source. It has brought in a complete change in my thought process where I am not thinking of myself but of the whole group with whom I am working. So whenever I look at certain projects that need to be carried out, I feel, I alone cannot do it, I need to have a team. Having a team of like-minded people who have the same set of goals can help you achieve even the most impossible looking goals. I realized alone you cannot move mountains, when you take everyone in your team together and move with them, moving mountains is possible. I realized if you cannot appreciate the people you are working with, life stops appreciating you. Alone you cannot do big things, you always need a team to conquer long battles. If you have the support of people around you, you will definitely win the game.
Me- What would you love to advise a youngster who wishes to make an impact in the software industry?
Pranay - My advice to youngsters would be to use the technology that is around them in a good way. By a good way I mean, not just following inspiring people in your life instead find your own way. Think of the Digital transformation that’s happening, think about the startup culture, Think about How companies like Amazon, Ola, Flipkart, Uber are changing the market. This are commonly know platforms that are changing the market. If you dig out their history, you will realize they own the technology they work on. When you think of owning certain tools and technologies, it cannot be the pricey enterprise-grade solutions like SAP, Oracle or Microsoft. Owning your technology helps you in experimenting with it, modifying it and customizing it in a form that is best for your business because there can be several ways to serve your customers. The freedom to experiment and modify is not possible when you buy software like SAP or Oracle. Even if you get the freedom, you get it with a heavy price tag. If you are a follower of open source philosophy, you can use the open source tools and utilize it to build custom strategies for customers you wish to serve.
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