Sapient global markets meet our people working on dot net

Avijit Samanta Senior Associate

Hello, a bit about me: I work in Sapient Global Markets as development lead for one of the major hedge fund clients in the US and leading their business in China and the UAE market.

Introduce yourself and explain your current Role & Responsibilities.

I work as development lead for one of the major hedge fund clients in the US and leading their business in China and the UAE market. I take full ownership of delivering the solution right from requirement analysis, design, development, Unit Testing to final official build. I have also been involved in initiating Design Thinking methodology and Scrum process in our team. It has been a great learning experience and value journey to work in such a collaborative and competitive environment.

Tells us about the client problem you are solving these days?

My team is currently working on a critical business delivery where we need to support two different exchanges from the same application. It is very critical and significant from business point of view. It needed great understanding of product, business and technology to efficiently make the solution. We make use of best practices of WPF, Prism, C#, OOPs and strong Multithreading concept.

How do you see yourself growing professionally in Sapient?

I aspire to grow in the technology as well as business domains, and SGM is the ideal place with the kind of complex work opportunities it offers. I am proud that the company invests in training us on emerging technologies. Besides domain training, there is a focus on developing all aspects of our professional personalities. For instance, I was recently asked to deliver a technical session for a large team that included many senior colleagues. I was skeptical about performing well but in fact, I ended up being well appreciated.

Such exposure on a regular basis really boosts one’s confidence as a client-facing technologist.

Give us one example of your creative thinking or an innovative solution to a client problem.

The whole log management was quite outdated requiring a lot of manual effort. The support and development team always used to spend a huge time on analysis and resolve issue, and sometimes for urgent production Environment issue. We proposed a generic and automated solution, which itself can be big project and huge money saver for the client. The solutions was highly appreciated and given a go ahead.

How do you balance personal priorities and project commitments?

So far, I have not faced any work-life balance concerns. The nature of our work is such that it will never be a purely 9-5 role; there will be times when you would be expected to stretch. But what is important is that at SGM, everyone is conscious of building a balanced work place. For instance, in a recent release on my project, we were having long calls regularly. After a month, we got an awesome team outing to a nearby resort.

What is that one thing which drives you to come to office every day?

All work and no play makes us dull technologists and my team truly believes that! We engage in a lot of fun activities, something new to look forward to almost each day. For instance, during the World Cup we had the bidding brackets; we had a big screen TV in our area where all the matches were screened. We have team gettogethers and outings on a regular basis, as well celebrations of all major festivals are organized by the company. If you are a good time manager you also have enough time to benefit from self-growth sessions (online +classroom) on technology, business knowledge and soft skills. I also invest my time well on selflearning.

What message do you want to give to people joining Sapient?

Slow and steady do not win the race. Today’s market mantra is “Fast and adapt winds the race.�

If you follow the mantra, Sapient Global Markets is the one. As a Core .NET technologist, you will get to work on the latest technologies and frameworks. You will also have the flexibility to move across technologies.

Unlike other organizations and especially captive organizations where you are restricted to a particular technology/platform, here you also have the ability to switch across accounts. Also, SGM spends a huge amount of time and money, in grooming people, both in technology and business domain. Some of the popular online technology and business training partners like Pluralsight, Lynda, Safari have already tied up with Sapient and also Sapient has a huge offline and online training facility on Business Acumen. So, If you are serious about career and growth, this is the place to be in.

Rajesh Rengasamy Senior Specialist

Hello, a bit about me: I joined Sapient in 2008 as a Specialist in Microsoft Platform and currently am a part of the Microsoft Capabilities team in Sapient Global Markets

Introduce yourself and explain your current Role & Responsibilities.

I am currently part of the Microsoft Capabilities team in Sapient Global Markets. I consult for delivery teams that use Microsoft technologies – performing architecture reviews, creating interesting solutions and coding some complex strategies and pieces of work. My team comes up with the right delivery accelerators, toolkits and raining kits to support delivery teams. I also help the hiring & staffing teams by providing the right inputs on technology trends.

Tells us about the client problem you are solving these days?

I am part of a team which is building a product that helps improve over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives reporting and communication for asset managers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), central counterparties (CCPs) and custodians. The solution is built on top of a standard (Clearing Connectivity Standard) built by Sapient Global Markets which is now adopted by ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association).

How do you see yourself growing professionally in Sapient?

I resigned from my previous organization and joined Sapient Global Markets to learn more about being an architect and work on the forefront of technologies.

In a course of seven years, I now lead the SGM Microsoft Capabilities Team - a team that trains budding architects; a team that creates opportunities for aspiring technologists to work on cutting edge technologies; a team that decides what bar to set for achieving the right quality; a team that and guides the .NET interviewers.

Give us one example of your creative thinking or an innovative solution to a client problem.

The Clearing Connectivity Standard Solution that we are building recently required utmost flexibility. Since this would be a product that could be sold to multiple customers, the solution had to accommodate varying input schemas/formats, data transformations at will, and be emitted into varying output formats/schemas.

We built a meta-data driven product that is completely configurable at run-time by the Business Analysts.

How do you balance personal priorities and project commitments?

I have mostly been an 8-5 person. I tend to communicate this every time I join a new project and account. This expectation setting works most of the times. Teams slowly understand these non-negotiable expectations across members and adjust their schedules accordingly. There are times wherein this wouldn’t work, firefighting for instance. That is when maturity kicks in and I tend to adjust the play. Nevertheless, ‘longer days’ have been ridiculously low in my career.

I was able to move to Chennai while continuing to work for Sapient Bangalore. Thanks to the flexibility offered, I mix and match working from home/office depending upon the need.

What is that one thing which drives you to come to office every day?

I am a firm believer in the saying- “One cannot do the same thing again and again, expecting different results every time”. In Sapient, experimentation is encouraged and not frowned upon. The fact that I don’t have to repeat what I did the previous day makes me feel afresh every day.

What message do you want to give to people joining Sapient?

When I joined Sapient, there were certain things that made me very nervous – open office space with no cubicles, a team roaring their team cheers at 9:00 AM, whiteboards everywhere with little empty space to write. In a span of 3-6 months, I couldn’t imagine working in a workplace that wouldn’t have any of these.

For those who are joining us - Future awaits you! Come & Rejoice!

For those who are still exploring – Good Luck! Hope to see you soon!

Aman Arora Specialist

Hello, a bit about me: I joined Sapient in 2009 and currently working as a dot net specialist for a leading hedge fund company.

Introduce yourself and explain your current Role & Responsibilities.

I am working with Sapient for close to 6 years now. This has been one memorable journey filled with lot of challenges and fun. This is the story of ambition meeting the opportunity. I joined as Senior Associate L1 in the year 2009. When I started my stint with Sapient, I went through Sape Start (5 Day Orientation Program) and heard people talking about Core Values, Strategic Context etc. There are many things that are still with me from that program. The famous phrase “You Own Your Own Growth at Sapient� in Sapient is engraved in my memory forever. This has really helped me move on leaps and bounds. There is lot of value associated with the phrase for people who indeed are ambitious, who want to grow and on the way share knowledge.

For them it is a place where you get wings to fly.

Tells us about the client problem you are solving these days?

I am currently working on a task to calculate the net Present Value on a pre-closure of Repo contracts. This involves calculating the future value of contracts keeping in mind the loan value and rate on the contract, also trying to post the calculated cash to counterparty on successful closure.

How do you see yourself growing professionally in Sapient?

After first few months of my joining, as part of quarterly review I had conversations with my Manager to set goals, path for the coming few months to years. These conversations helped me in visualizing, how I can be involved in different activities at organization level (apart from delivery). I became part of GMI (Global Market Institute) where fresh grads from different esteem colleges join Sapient. I started delivering business sessions to these grads on Capital Markets, Equities, and Risk Management etc. I already had a lot of passion towards Capital Markets; this activity channelized my knowledge to the right people, eventually ended up getting the Best Facilitator award multiple times from there on. I have been part of several activities since then for GMI.

Give us one example of your creative thinking or innovative solution to client's problem.

On one of my onsite visit I met the business users to understand their roles, activities during a day. I noticed that user used to perform an activity through excel which was painstakingly time consuming. It was error prone too as it was done manually through excel. I came back to my counterpart from client end and discussed the complete process and suggested him to move on to .Net application and C++ on server side to which the client agreed. Eventually the process which used to take 1.5 hr. of user’s day is now taking only 15 min and is also not exposed to any manual mistakes.

How do you balance personal priorities and project commitments?

Sapient has taken n number of steps to bring your family closer to your company. We take our family along on team events, frequently invite families on company events like family day, children’s day celebration etc.

Based on the nature and duration of onsite engagement we can take our family along which keeps you connected with your family. Till date I am able to live a healthy balanced life and am able to spend quality time with my family along with my work.

What is that one thing which drives you to come to office every day?

If I try to explore the driving force behind me which makes sure that I go the extra mile, words like; Better Career Planning, Determination, Vision echo in my ears.

The other thing which keep coming back to my mind is Openness in Sapient, the day I joined I saw people sitting on open floors not limited by any Cabin boundaries. You can approach your team mates, people from other team, Managers, Senior Managers and Director whenever you feel the need for it. You can express your thoughts through various forums like Surveys, Open house discussions etc. I would like to share one such experience. With an inclination to do something outstanding, I went to Director (Account Lead) of the account. In that conversation we discussed several avenues and finally concluded that I should write a Whitepaper of a topic of my choice. He told me if I succeed the whitepaper would be published on Sapient’s Global Markets website. I took it as an opportunity/challenge and eventually got the whitepaper published.

It took me 18 months to get this done, but I wanted to thank the person who set the right path and enlightened me with his thoughts. This was only possible because I was able to walk up to him without any fear, hesitation, and shyness. The freedom to talk to right people on right occasions motivates me to come to office everyday.

What message do you want to give to people joining Sapient?

I am fortunate that I have spent precious years of my professional career in Sapient working along with some of the most enthusiastic, passionate, technically sound talent in IT industry. The territories I have conquered in last few years give me immense pleasure. But there are miles to go before I sleep. All has been achieved because of the organization I work with and the kind of people I work with. It has been fun filled journey so far, a one to cherish forever.

Saurabh Banerjee Senior Specialist

Hello, a bit about me: I joined Sapient last year and am a part of GM Methodology and Data analytics COE. I am passionate about emerging technologies and their impact on business, economies and our daily lives.

Introduce yourself and explain your current Role & Responsibilities.

I joined Sapient last year. Prior to Sapient, I gained experience in technology consulting and product development for various organizations in India and the US. . I am part of GM Methodology and Data analytics COE. I am passionate about emerging technologies and their impact on business, economies and our daily lives.

Tells us about the client problem you are solving these days?

I am currently helping grow our data analytics capability within Global Markets with a focus on advanced analytics. I am also leading the development of “innovation lab,� which is a platform that will help us showcase great work at Sapient, and make Sapient IP more accessible for people looking to leverage it for client opportunities.

How do you see yourself growing professionally in Sapient?

I wish to continue growing as a thought leader and architect to help Sapient power the transformation journey for our clients. My vision is to lead a practice in the future.

Give us one example of your creative thinking or an innovative solution to a client problem.

Last year, I conceived and developed a tool to generate data-driven business context diagrams for a business consulting engagement. The goal was to design a target operating model. The function model created using this tool was a key deliverable for the project. Later, I helped build an enhanced version of the tool which we used to engage with another client This tool has helped us reduce time and effort spent on current state analysis and helped us improve our ability to visualize the big picture. There is no comparable tool in the market that I am aware of.

How do you balance personal priorities and project commitments?

Our leaders and colleagues are very appreciative of our personal priorities. Many a time, I work from home to balance personal priorities. We value work-life balance. Most of my colleagues go on vacation every year to spend time with family and friends, and pursue personal interests to renew ourselves.

What is that one thing which drives you to come to office every day?

Our uncompromising focus on adding value, while solving client’s problems is great motivation to expand my horizon every day at work. We have great leaders, who make us feel valued and enable us to learn, contribute and grow in our careers. Our leaders encourage us not only to build our individual brand within the organization but externally as well. Recently, I presented at a conference on behalf of Sapient, which was an inspiring experience for me.

What message do you want to give to people joining Sapient?

Sapient is a great company to work for. Our domain focus helps us stay relevant in a world where clients are increasingly looking for deep domain knowledge and cutting-edge solutions. We value deep technology expertise. I see lot of opportunity for techies to grow as specialists where you will be valued for your knowledge and expertise. You can look forward to working with lot of smart people. I think the sky’s the limit if you have the fire in you to grow and excel.