Tech Unplugged | DataArt's Innovations | Alexei Miller, MD & Sheetal Kale, Head of DataArt's R&D

🎥 Dec 01, 2023 📺 MobileAppDaily ⏱ 18m 👁 22381 views

Join us for an exclusive interview on MobileAppDaily, diving into the world of technology with Alexei Miller and Sheetal Kale from DataArt, a global technology consultancy at the forefront of innovation and excellence! In this enlightening session, we explore DataArt's standout achievements, including their recognition as the best IT employer in Ukraine with an impressive 87% retention rate. We delve into the current employment landscape amidst global disturbances and discuss DataArt's recent expansion into India. Discover the insights into the Indian tech ecosystem, uncovering how innovati...

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Transcript (15 segments)

Alexei Miller0:00

The truth is DataArt is a decent-sized company at this point, with almost 6,000 people, of which India is a very small part today. But our ambition is to be many times larger, serving many times more clients, and to be a truly global player. And India absolutely has a key strategic place in our vision of global growth.

Tanvi0:28

DataArt, a very warm welcome everyone. Welcome to another insightful episode on Mobile App Daily. Today we have the pleasure of hosting two distinguished guests from DataArt, a global technology consultancy at the forefront of innovation and excellence. Please join me in welcoming Alexei Miller, managing director and a key figure in strategic sales and client engagement efforts at DataArt. So Alexei, a very warm welcome and thank you for being here.

Alexei Miller0:59

Thank you so much. Good to be here.

Tanvi1:01

And alongside Alexei, we have Shail Khali, the accomplished managing director and head of DataArt R&D India. Shail brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table, especially in fostering flexibility, work-life balance, and professional development within the organization. Shail, we are delighted to have you on the show.

Shail Khali1:22

Thank you, Tanvi. And thank you for having me here.

Tanvi1:29

Well, pleasure is all ours. And so together we'll delve into the world of technology strategy, system development, and the innovative strides that DataArt is making in the industry. So again, a very warm welcome to both of you. So Alexei, let's start with you. Your company is ranked as the best IT employer in Ukraine with 87% retention rate. First of all, that's impressive, so congratulations. Now, based on the current disturbance with Russia, how is the employment affected in your company?

Alexei Miller2:05

Now, well thank you for acknowledging our past successes and for the concern for the disturbance. Indeed, situations like the war in Ukraine affect companies such as DataArt with operations in Ukraine and another country significantly. As you probably know, DataArt has over 25 years of experience operating in different countries, most recently in India, which we will discuss and which we're very excited about. But prior to that, the roots of the company have always been between New York and Eastern Europe, which included broadly speaking Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Armenia, and a host of other countries over the years. Obviously, once the current events started, the company made a decision to exit its business in Russia but double our commitment to Ukraine. That was a painful period and it continues to affect us. I'm grateful for your note that we've had for years actually and in several countries been recognized as one of the better IT employers. It was always based on this notion of culture of taking care of our people, of doing good work, and prioritizing interests of individuals, whether they are employed by DataArt, whether they're shareholders of DataArt, or clients of DataArt. Individuals, their human needs and human priorities. I think that's in large part what allowed us to earn these high marks. We continue to strive for the same or similar level of recognition. We're very far from it in India, which is our first steps obviously. But I think it's fair to say that we have emerged post our sort of exit from Russia and despite the terrible toll that the conflict in Ukraine has on some of our Ukraine, many of our Ukrainian employees, I think as a whole as a company we continue to lean on culture and try to maintain these standards. Not always easy, not always possible perhaps, but so far we're holding up pretty well.

Tanvi4:16

So now, since you've mentioned that you've recently expanded your global footprint in India, so Shail, let's come to you. So this recent expansion and launching a new Excellence Center in India, how has the experience been so far? Do you find any specific benefits of working from India?

Shail Khali4:36

So let me just take this question in two halves. Coming to setting up in India and how the experience has been: of course, as you rightly said, Tanvi, we are quite new in India. Having said this, operationally, strategically, and planning-wise, we are doing excellent in all spheres. When I look at how we started maybe sometime in the month of April, which is really new, and today, it has been operationally very satisfying. I would like to add that the satisfaction level, the level of positivity that I see in this area of business or in this location of DataArt has also primarily been because we have a very extensive global association with our global colleagues. I wouldn't have been here or maybe my small little center here as a location wouldn't have been what it is today if not for our extensive global team that has supported us a lot. It started with just one person, now we are reaching about 12 people. So it's small, steady, slow, yet operationally a wonderful journey till date and it continues. We work with some very good third-party partners here in India who are supporting us in our legal requirements, our accounting requirements. So all in all, it's been very satisfying how we are doing today. Now coming to your second question on what makes us look at India and the benefits of working in India. DataArt had this vision and we've always been very organic in our growth, number one. Before I talk about benefits, we never pushed, rushed, or jumped into doing anything just because the markets demanded or maybe some wise man demanded that it has to be done. It was very organic. So happened our coming to India, expanding this location, expanding into this geography. Even when it comes to India, automatically it's a no-rush, no-push kind of a mechanism that we would have in this country to grow this location as per the location dynamics, location necessities, location laws. We will have our entry or grow into this location as per the need, yet it's going to be organic. What benefits are there? Of course, this I'm going to generalize. We see these benefits even for DataArt India or DataArt Global. We are here to utilize the diverse IT pool that India brings in without doubt. You and me and even Alexei agree that we have the numbers in India and that's where we would like to focus on. We would like to focus on the diverse IT pool, we would like to focus on the emerging technologies that India is again throwing up to us globally in numbers, whether it comes to data science, whether it comes to AI/ML, and so on. So that is one benefit we see in India. Secondly, of course, is also cost efficiency. We feel that in comparison to certain other locations, we are cost efficient. When I say cost efficient, we are efficient when it comes to both labor and operational costs. So we are looking at cost efficiency models when we look at DataArt as a whole. Of course, being on the Eastern Asian side of the globe, we also are able to bring in the time zone advantage. Maybe our customers would be in the United States or in the United Kingdom, yet we are able to service them 24/7 by opening up Asia as a whole, by opening up India. We would like to service our clients 24/7 right from where the sun rises in Japan and sets in Hawaii and all the countries in between. So this time zone advantage is what we are looking at at DataArt. Of course, the cultural diversity that India brings in and the collaboration that India brings in are very pivotal to our expansion plans for DataArt because this cultural diversity fosters how we as a global company can work in diverse work environments, how we encourage collaboration amongst teams who maybe having perceptions, maybe having some myths, maybe having some preconceived experiences. All these kinds of things could be broken into one DataArt by working in India.

Tanvi11:00

So for both of you, with thousands of software development companies all around the world, what makes DataArt the one clients must choose? 'Must' is a strong word, I think.

Alexei Miller11:23

I think it's a good choice for many, not all. DataArt has made a name for itself primarily for two reasons. One, we already discussed, is this fairly unique culture of treating employees, shareholders, and clients as human beings. It sounds abstract and maybe not material, but it actually translates into a very specific flavor of customer service. Many clients who work with us quote a variety of this quote attributed to Warren Buffett that sounds roughly like this: 'It's only when the tide goes out that we see who's been swimming naked.' What clients mean by referring to that quote is that they thought DataArt is a partner in good times and bad. There's not a single large mission-critical project that happens without any trouble. Things always happen, sometimes bad, sometimes good. But it's important to always work together, to care about your personal needs as you develop certain projects, to not lose track of why we're doing things. Making money is not always the acceptable answer or the only answer. So at DataArt, we've developed over the years this culture of customer service and treating each other that I think is valued by customers. That's one. The second is we haven't discussed it today but we're making huge investments over the last 20 years in building what we call industry practices. That's really deep domain expertise in at this point five industry verticals, five domains. DataArt comes to clients and says we're not just tech experts, we're tech experts who understand the intricate details of that particular industry. We understand the standards, the regulations, the needs of people, and we've done things in that industry, and that makes us a lot more efficient. So we're known as experts in these five industry sectors, and that brings a lot of client interest to us.

Tanvi13:23

Okay, that's beautiful. And lastly, in five years, how would you want your company to be known globally?

Alexei Miller13:31

So 'globally' is the key word here. I think I'll go back to what Shail was describing so well a few minutes ago about this organic way of DataArt. DataArt has never wanted to be a Frankenstein, something that is jumbled together based on parts that don't necessarily want to live together. We started literally with nothing and we grew to about 6,000 employees. So five years from now, we will obviously be larger, that goes without saying. We will be known as one of the leading global players in the IT consultancy space. But perhaps equally important, maybe even more importantly, we want to be known as a company that works as one corporate culture, one team, one standard of serving clients regardless of whether they work in Armenia, Ukraine, India, or the US, and so on. I think it's valuable and it's needed by the market because there are so many stereotypes that a lot of business people have about individual countries. There are so many mistakes that people fail to learn from. There is a hunger in the industry for simple, predictable, authentic quality work that is delivered on a global scale by one company. So my fervent hope is that five years from now we will be, I don't know, 10 times larger but feel the same. That's not so easy to do. I've seen it firsthand how difficult it is to maintain corporate culture with thousands of employees. It's one thing to have 100 people and a very different thing to have 5,000 people. So that's a challenge we have, and we will work quite hard at doing that. And back to the earlier point, India for us and the investments we're making in the country is absolutely crucial on this journey for growth, for strategic capability, for cultural diversity. All of these things we're looking forward to learning, to integrate, and to work together.

Tanvi15:51

Oh, thank you so much for that. I think this is what is separating DataArt at the moment from other companies: the organic approach, going by instinct. Because usually people have very set goals, you know, five years this is our mark, this is where we have to go. And I think this is the key to expansion for you guys. And it's beautiful how even after this huge expansion, you're still all in alignment with each other.

Shail Khali16:17

And if I may, I would like to add a different perspective to how we look at ourselves five years ahead. A lot drives in DataArt on our values. We have some very strong values which dictate how we are today, how we were yesterday, and how we project ourselves tomorrow. One of our primary values is our people-first approach. When I say people-first, it all works around expertise, flexibility, and trust. So how do we as DataArt look at ourselves five years ahead? I would say we want to be one of the most trustworthy organizations globally. It sounds bombastic, but at least we would like to be trustworthy. We want to be people-oriented, we want to be customer-centric. As Alexei mentioned right upfront, we listen to people. We are more a people organization. And mind you, Tanvi, it may sound cliché in today's technology world to still be people-oriented, but we are with our customers, with our clients, with our employees, with ourselves. It's something that is a part of our fabric of DataArt. So we would like to be known as a trusted partner. We would like to work with resilience and adaptability. This has been, I think in the last 60 minutes we have talked about adaptability and resilience when it comes to technology and also when it comes to people matters, clients, so on. And of course, having said all this, we would love to be industry disruptors and we are working towards that. Even being 6,000 strong, we want to be able to be nimble and agile as a disruptor. We only talk about startups being nimble and agile, but why not look at DataArt as one company being nimble, agile, and a disruptor in the industry space we are in. So just to add on, thank you.