Ragavan Rajan on The MVP Show

[mark]: 5:17
today's guest is from auckland new zealand my home country he's a solution architect at down in new zealand he was first awarded as m v p and twenty twenty two so nice and fresh he's a group leader for the auklanpower platform user group he's a blogger a u tube you can find links to all his social media and bio et cetera in the show notes for this episode welcome to the show

[ragavan_rajan]: 5:40
my yeah thanks monk thank you for having me here i'm really like excited and absolutely love connecting with you because it's i feel personally it's great privilege for me and having you on over show definitely like it it's really like a exciting thing for me because it was like the happy moments i would like to share with the community especially when you live in new zealand it's really like joyful journey

[mark]: 6:12
it's awesome man it's awesome and it's awesome to see your journey and all the contributions you have done to the community over the last couple of years you know your your profile as you know been increased more and more and great to see you get awarded the v p before we talk about it a bit about your journey and how you you became an n v p and kind of what air of technology you focus in can you tell me a bit about food family and fun what does regavin do when he's not at down doing his day job what do you do outside of that

[ragavan_rajan]: 6:45
yeah sure sure so actually like i'm a kind of well wild explorer i would say recently on i think i would say for the last five years it was really quiet within new zealand i would say before that i was like like a world traveler so i used to travel a lot and then i was in scotland for a while like around five years i used to for a company british telicompso was a solution architect there and it was a really joyful journey and then i had a chance to visit europe and then mid last then some of the area on europe which was really really cool that was like that is my key thing so i'm like a travel explorer and then on the last five years because land is kind of far away i would say though the rest of the world like so it is like quite disappointing but still you know like because due to different things i'm still exploring within new zealand i take always the new route when when the summer up comes so we explore the luis which is really good and my wife is such like she's adapting and she used to she's also enjoying the journey what i'm doing so we both used to travel a lot down our summer time so that's that's the thing and also i prefer like we as a family we have two boys so we as a family we explore all the reserve within new zealand and then go for a long walk and then find something really interesting which is really cool

[mark]: 8:26
that's th that's incredible so where did you originate from what country you're from originally

[ragavan_rajan]: 8:30
m i am from india but the south india especially like the modern term is madras so everyone it's actually china so it's madras it near to stalin it's very like that's how i used to tell everyone you can file still like just below that there is a gap so yeah that's a south indian part

[mark]: 8:54
well well it's definitely still on my list of countries to visit the closest i've been istra anchor industry anchor but i haven't been to india i've flown over india on the way to the middle east to do work in the middle but not not not landed there or you know explored the country but it's going to happen one day favorite food in new zealand

[ragavan_rajan]: 9:17
favorite food in new zealand i'm still like indian based person but i quite like a malesian actually i don't know for some reason there teach and i and i'm like i'm a vegetarian but still i mean never minded anything about different foods but still go with the vegetarian foods some reason i tried all the papa rich and then best meltin restorants within new zealand or those are like hawker roles those things but again again trying the same vegetarian dishes like that's the favorite food i would say

[mark]: 9:57
i'm going to ask you lots of favorites being that you know i always find it intriguing when someone comes to new zealand to what what stands out and what strange you know in their perception so if you think of all the places you've travelled around new zealand what part of new zealand do you like the most

[ragavan_rajan]: 10:16
i think it's a south part which is not been up to queenstown so far but still we had good journey last year on a summer time which is from christ church to lake tikapol and

[mark]: 10:31
beautiful

[ragavan_rajan]: 10:31
then up not through nelson enticement which was super beautiful to cause a like so lowly south part is really good but not is also it's quite merely there at south part as i would say it's beautiful place

[mark]: 10:48
agreed majestic right the mountain ranges and then the incredible lakes and rivers and the south island is just magical

[ragavan_rajan]: 10:58
and totally agree for that's great part in me

[mark]: 11:00
i like it i like it and are your family all happy with living here or do they wish they were back home

[ragavan_rajan]: 11:08
no and happy like my wife uharinishe's like super happy and the boys were like loving it because the decision we made is stan right because people prefer different locations but i think personally for life style i think newsland is the right place because the boy as i want my boys to enjoy and as well let's learn everything so it's a bit of low pressure here in the education system but i want them to learn and play rather than always learn because i used to come from the learned background completely so i don't want that for my voice

[mark]: 11:50
how much does cricket feature in your pastime

[ragavan_rajan]: 11:54
always always

[mark]: 11:58
classic

[ragavan_rajan]: 11:58
yeah because you you know the background like like yeah we still we have been forced to watch create a limp it's to play cricket so that's that's how we actually kind of i would say the way we grown up everyone in india so you know we were bit disappointed with the welcome last against rile still okay still find good pray actually yeah excited for the the upcoming matches in the tour of new zealand have booked few tickets

[mark]: 12:33
nice

[ragavan_rajan]: 12:33
along with i think you know a very well so he lives very near by like a neighbor labor to us we are all going to matches and then see if you could get players which is really like a dream for us always

[mark]: 12:46
nice that's so good that's so good what brought you to new zealand did you come because of work because you landed a job is that the reason you came here or another reason

[ragavan_rajan]: 12:55
no actually like yeah so a long story short uh yeah i missed my residency in UK due to personal reasons and then i thought okay there is no point of going back to ukateand then wait for another six years

[mark]: 13:11
exactly

[ragavan_rajan]: 13:12
and anyway always i had a dream of like studying masters in a broad i applied in u k as well but it was this continued due to the same personal reason and then i thought i want something i wanted to do my masters and then explore what is actually happening because i was always in the mike soft world i wanted to come out and then see what is actually happening in the open sores world then for that i want my career like a little bit like going up up skilling my education as well so i thought okay i can't my study masters but i want english speaking country rather than european countries because quite good in learning different languages i can read and write five languages currently

[mark]: 13:58
wow wow amazing

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:02
still you know i thought okay i take that pressure so i don't want to learn language first and then read again so i thought the k on new zealand because they both have the similarity s never been to new zealand so okay let's give a try in new zealand and

[mark]: 14:19
nice

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:19
then i did my masters here so that's the thing very happy with that

[mark]: 14:23

and did you did you do that at aukland university or massy or where

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:28
no i did my masters an inversity of wit cato because a really good

[mark]: 14:31
i guess wow wow very good very good

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:35
journey good professors and complete new learning life stale that was like super awesome super awesome

[mark]: 14:43
did you live in the wiketo for it

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:45
yeah i was there for around two years and hamilton yeah peaceful city is a student city

[mark]: 14:52
you're very brave

[ragavan_rajan]: 14:53
i would say thank you thank you

[mark]: 14:58
classic a lovely part of the country tell me my my father actually lives in in that region actually now is just outside and hawks bay probably more or the bay a plenty i can't even remember their region anyhow tell me about how did you originally get into technology where did that start where did you decide you know this is my type of thing technology and what was it and kind of what's your journey been up to what you're doing now

[ragavan_rajan]: 15:29
yeah i think i would say i'm still in the quiet right part from the beginning so all my background is from information technology bachelors and i already hold one more masters and computer applications and then masters in information technology which is and that is a inversity of a cato everything is later to information technology and from the beginning started like when i started at my career at two thousand seven till with the same technology but always in the microsoftworld for a long period more than educated was always a microsoplike three sixtyfiand then share point then so that's why i wanted a break okay maybe yeah it was also like dynamics we were doing quite heavily when i was at k share point and dynamic together but it was on premise and then i thought okay maybe i need a break because i wanted to see what is like open source is doing and then i desired to step down after my masters and then had a very good journey with hill laboratories based on hamilton ed my intent ship and then part time and then it's a very long journey here

[mark]: 16:48
hill hill laboratories you know why i'm like surprised at like i used to work for them before i got into my it career used to do work for them here

[ragavan_rajan]: 17:01
really so all some guys there and then dan hawks in from k so he was with a chief technology officer he gave me a very good opportunity and even before when i was studying desired to give me okay so you wanted to do frintand development are you crazy like you not from micro soft background really wanted to do this and then i said yeah yeah that's fine it's okay and then he trusted me and then he gave me an opportunity to work on frontin development so i learned a lot about how to actually design the website beautifully so two different frameworks angular react on then i built some good the order management system for them which was super excited and then did my intent ship with hillabertris again it was super cool or like i thought okay i'm satisfied in the it career because not always in the microsoft world so i stepped out and then stepped down as well learned something which is really cool like what other guys are doing why they are doing so that was the point i wanted to actually learn why these guys are like microsopt is providing awesome set offs suit and the tools set and why like people other side they prefer open source that was my always in my mind i wanted to see why they are actually doing what is the reason behind that i got that answer like why people prefer open source development why people prefer like the microsoft set up tools

[mark]: 18:40
and the answer is

[ragavan_rajan]: 18:41
the answer is when you want like a rapid development you don't have enough resources mad you are like a corporate enterprise you will always use the microsoc because you have big scale and you wanted to you are not supposed to wait because you have a large resource already you wanted to make the application up and running immediately within a short span of time so that's where like big enterprise company will choose that and then if you are like a start up or a small company you can't actually afford the license cast they will go with that home and source and then they will build their own products

[mark]: 19:25
yeah your opinion i'm going to ask for do you think that limits the start up company potentially in time because in my mind i've got a client that we are currently supplying sixty staff to there i start up and they are doing everything to react and and i'm wondering like because i know this business and know that they're running into now issues around scale you know doing all that velopment and stuff for the but what's your opinion then how does that start up company and i know why diverging here how does that start up company transition then be as often you get the start ups they do well they get funding then all of a sudden they get lots of funding and so now they're now what was maybe a small business there now definitely mid market roaching on into enterprise because of the money that's involved in their in their business do you think that then they can sometimes create because obviously the way i'm loading this question i do believe they create a risk profile for them and that if they build everything very developer center can they been they got to stay develop a centric unless they go you know what we actually need to repivit and go to an enterprise platform like micrsoft and of course i'm going to get haters for saying that that all these open source are not necessary enterprise hey we know they are like facebook runs on it so you know we know it's enterprise scale for sure but you get meaning from a business perspective

[ragavan_rajan]: 21:07
so i would say again it's their call like as long as like they got a good funding and they wanted to go with like no j s i'm kind of messaging if they are happy with that approach yes yes they can take it but parallel the other side yes we have micro soft which is already like up and running away a very good trusted provider i would say and it's you know like all the governments based on every country they trust microsoft so they have to consider that point as well because as sure is super awesome and they have all the facilities when compared to all other competitors so instead of spending their time in building their own products i think they can also consider these facts then desire wisely like this is the thing he is why why we need to spend time and then they go to market time which is really important like how long they can actually wait on in new zealand the biggest problem is finding the right skill set on the right resource i think it is like always like you will have a big lack somewhere it's hard to find the resource here and also especially like if it is out of auckland or out of the major cities i don't think people prefer to work especially like uh hawks bay or pamisedand like people try to avoid those things like okay from i can't live here so so it is like again a big decision but they should think all these facts

[mark]: 22:42
ye so so you know you you kind of went to the dark side of the force with with open source and looking at it what what brought you back to the light what brought you back to microsoft because your obviously squarely playing in microsoft now

[ragavan_rajan]: 23:02
exactly yeah so again this is like i would say um the answer was like when i was actually looking okay no more to microsoft so i'm happy with what i'm doing with an angler in beat the front inside and then on the back inside started with a she sharp bagging not case and then i thought okay what is this the low cold no cod business is actually doing right because the power platform was evolving at the time like five years back and then i thought okay maybe because the company was also interested to see why we are actually having so many resources and then can you please go and explore because you are the guy you worked in microsoft can you go and see what is actually there and then attend some few can petomsas tend some trainings and then see what is actually that can we build something for our business which can actually give some instant productivity to the team and then that will be like super cool if you can make this happen then we can jump into this platform right so and then i built a very simple ap through power a like five years ago it was like a recorder like voice recorder kind of stuff

[mark]: 24:17
yes yes awesome

[ragavan_rajan]: 24:18
using the media and it was super cool i made that with like a couple of days that is super cool with a common data a resolution as back in data base and then it is super cool to save the thing and we didn't spend too much effort into that and then i thought okay that's the right area like what microsofpis is doing i think this will give an increase the streamline of the business and then you mentioned productivity to the business and then i thought okay let's give a trial this and then started pitching more into that and completely like all the last five years here within the power platform super happy but so many good products and the customers were really really happy they're enjoying it

[mark]: 25:05
so that's that's interesting and you work for a company right you're not working for a partner how did you you know get into i think what i've seen in some of the references to i know they're one of the biggest field service deployments i think maybe in the southern hemisphere if not further afield

[ragavan_rajan]: 25:23
that's right

[mark]: 25:24
what are you mainly working on dynamics three six five stuff now or mainly king on power platform

[ragavan_rajan]: 25:30
mainly on power platform you are right or the analysis you have done is absolutely right yes we have a large team still looking after dynamic three sixty five service and resco so that's the thing

[mark]: 25:42
hm wow risk is still in flight

[ragavan_rajan]: 25:44
yeah yeah that's still a heavy work load the all the work for they are still using efenanwisand resco so i had a chance to work for the team and then later because i work for business not for the downariet so

[mark]: 25:59
nice

[ragavan_rajan]: 26:00
so the senior management desired like okay can you explore power platform keep that dynamics aside so let that team look after what they are continuously doing and then can you look after the transport thing transport point of view and then see whether we can bring something really interesting to the community and the workforce because the first line work force was really hard to manage it's like so many in let trade but they re very good work for they don't know how to sign and it's all paper form those things like a really problem so we were looking at in a different time well and then so we we adapted into power platform i would say and the senior management is still happy and they are happy with that

[mark]: 26:47
that's so good it's so good is i feel like i want to talk about so many things with you how good has it been in n v p

[ragavan_rajan]: 26:56
i got a very good response from the senior management so far it's a well rewarded thing so they're happy and my boss is super happy es they all celebrated really well it's a really great thing for me personally like super excited an it was like extreme for journey