Employee Spotlight - Shashank Boddupalli

In our series of Employee Spotlights, you get to meet our brilliant Unifii team members! This month we travel all the way to India to meet Shashank, who has been in the Unifii family for over a year - read below to hear about his journey!

Meet Shashank Boddupalli:

Hi, I’m Shashank Boddupalli and I joined Unifii an year ago as a Principal Consultant. I work out of Unifii’s India office in Hyderabad (it’s all been remote work for over six months now after the second wave of Covid though!). I am mainly involved in the delivery of projects at Unifii, but also help with aspects of managing the India office and leading a team of Technical Consultants. I’ve lived and worked in various countries and industries through my life so I’m not quite sure how to best describe my background; I was new to ServiceNow when I joined, and the architecture was unlike anything I’d previously seen. I've since come to love the platform and would like to continue working with it. 

How did you become interested in the industry and how did you stumble upon Unifii? 

I came across Unifii - like many of my co-workers did - somewhat by chance! I was in the process of moving to India from Uganda, and started looking out for opportunities. I was introduced to Unifii through someone in my network. I had a series of interviews just before I moved and things lined up perfectly, so I could start working at Unifii as soon as I arrived in India.

What you enjoy the most about working at Unifii? 

A few different things – one is that there’s an organisational-wide culture of working collaboratively, and most of us are always eager to help. I also like that we’re a pure-play ServiceNow provider, as it helps with staying focused in today’s world of seemingly infinite technologies where it’s easy to get distracted or want to explore more. ServiceNow is an ocean in itself, so there’s plenty to discover within it. I also like that we already have a PMO (Project Management Office) as it makes us very organised for a relatively small company. 

What has been the most exciting project you have worked on in your time here?  

Openmind Networks - we implemented ITSM, CSM and ITBM for them; this was a five-month long project with a rather aggressive timeframe for the given scope. We had a competent team on the Unifii side; we also had a good and responsive customer to work with, but there were still MANY challenges (as is always the case with large, complex projects). We were also tight on technical resources, so we had to be very efficient with our timeline and delivery. Being able to leverage the right kind of support internally while solving the problems we encountered each day was very satisfying - we also had a very happy customer when the project ended, which made for a rewarding experience overall.  

Did your working life change much as a result of COVID-19? 

A little. I enjoyed going in to the office for the time that we were open. However, I worked remotely a lot when I had lived in the Northeastern US, so I was somewhat used to it already. But we never had the quality of collaborative tools then that we have now (even though this was just five years ago – things have changed so fast!), so working from home is a lot easier now. We’re growing rapidly in India; we have about ten new colleagues here that I’ve never met in person. I believe remote work is here to stay, although I do like having the option to go into the office occasionally. 

How do you see yourself growing in the next few years? 

In addition to Project Delivery/Programme Management, I see myself getting much more involved in pre-sales at Unifii. I’d also like to be more involved in strategic initiatives, including potentially expanding Unifii’s presence into a new country or region. 

What do you do in your spare time? 

Right now, I haven’t got much spare time! I’ve got a five-month-old who keeps me extremely occupied. Things I normally enjoy – and have been able to occasionally squeeze in - are running, films (including a recently discovered sub-genre on YouTube of Sci-fi movies recapped, which sounds ridiculous but is weirdly addictive), and learning new things (mainly in the form of podcasts these days).