Scrutinizing different industries, we keep a keen eye on outperforming ventures as well as their respective leaders. And this time also, we came across a remarkable company that is being propelled towards greater heights by its CTIO. Yes, it is none other than 6D Technologies. Being the Chief Technology and Information Officer of the company, Nikhil Paul always strives to run the business efficiently. He supervises the tech policies and aligns the company’s functionality as per the envisioned model. He is in charge of creating, implementing, managing, and assessing the company’s technological resources for the new advancement in Telcom industry and roadmaps. He constantly makes strides to assess both immediate and long-term requirements while employing cash to make investments that help the company achieve its objectives. In a virtual interaction with our team, he shed light on his overall journey, job responsibilities and vision for 6D Technologies.

The Career Trajectory

In 2000, Nikhil Paul started working for a company as a software engineer. He joined to a start-up with a 20-person team in 2006 after gaining five years of experience working for two of the largest MNCs in India and internationally spanning banking domains and establishing Core Banking products. The product organisation now includes 1800+ team members that are deployed throughout 80+ countries, 120+ clients, and 3BN+ end subscribers. He has been involved with 6D technologies since 2006 while serving as the organization’s CTIO at the moment.

Throughout his career, people couldn’t help but notice his mettle, commitment, hard work and passion for technology to persevere his set goals.

Company Overview

6D Technologies is a tech-focused company created by ambitious technocrats, was incorporated in 2002.

With clients in more than 80 nations on six continents, 6D is a multinational company with an Indian DNA. We have a motivated group of experts with a wealth of real-time, highly available, and scalable platform engineering experience.

As a pro-active technology partner, 6D collaborates with its clients to comprehend market trends and corporate goals in order to create the solutions necessary for success in a constantly shifting environment. The organisation is basically directed towards the functioning of the telecommunications industry.

The telecommunications industry is rapidly evolving. It applies to all corporate functions that have undergone digital transformation. The fundamental transformation that the telecoms industry, and operators in particular, are going through is redefining themselves from being merely enablers of communications services to being digital value creators. Any telco no longer has the option of surviving solely on the sale of voice or data services.

All major markets are stepping up their 5G deployment efforts as they recognise it as one of the biggest telecom transitions in history. There will be more to telecom than just increased speed and bandwidth. With nearly everything connected thanks to 5G, intelligence and computing power will increase.

Powered by its dynamic innovations and R&D, 6D Technologies provides an entire stack of necessary solutions to support a person’s journey.

Apart from Telecommunications, they also provide solutions to Enterprise, Governance and Digital Financial Solutions.

The Guiding Principle

When asked what motivated him to become a tech leader, Nikhil responded that since the beginning he always knew that he wanted to create products and inventions that would benefit society as a whole and make it possible for us all to nurture a better social system. And he strongly felt that banking and the communication space were two of such influential domains. Hence, his goal has always been to improve these environments through developing and innovating the way businesses function in the present scenario.

Dodging The Obstacles

No journey to success is a cakewalk. One has to cross the hard roads. For Nikhil, leaving a stable career to start a business was a challenging task. Taking over product delivery, and developing innovations that add value in the telecommunications sector was a tedious task due to its high competitiveness. In India, the growth of the service sector predominated between 2003 and 2006, with very few businesses concentrating on product creation and development. So, as an Indian firm producing products, innovating, and spending in R & D, persuading their partners and customers was a difficult barrier to expand through. But today, Nikhil can proudly say that they have progressed a lot from that time and that they are true product organisations. It has been crucial in bringing this culture within the company and instilling an entrepreneurial skill in the engineers, but with time every fell into place owing to their holistic approach.

Proud Accomplishments

Nikhil is proud to convey that he has become recipient of many accolades and awards. Observing his overall journey, we could say that he is a born leader for sure who has definitely created a huge magnitude across his targeted industries and inspired many people towards their path to success. This is something that has been observed by several publications and media houses as well and brought Nikhil under the showlight. A few of the noteworthy ones are-

●       “Top 10 inspiring CIOs of 2022” by one of the leading media groups in India.

●       He also received “Hybrid Cloud Champion Award for 2022”.

●        He has bagged the “CIO of the year 2022” award by Outlook Business Magazine. 

●       Received the “CXO TECH EXCELLENCE AWARD 2022”.

●       Awarded “Business Leadership Award for CIO of the Year 2022” by Economic Times group and Feather Touch.

Leadership Views

For Nikhil, Lao Tzu’s famous leadership quotes speaks the most, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

As a tech leader, Nikhil always believes in the power of innovation. He asserts innovation combined with passion becomes dynamite. He inspires people to love their jobs as this is the secret to creating wonders. He explains, “You encounter various obstacles daily in this trip. Some are very difficult, sometimes depressing, you are smacked very hard, while other times you succeed quite well. So, in my opinion, if you enjoy the work you do every day, you will be inspired to achieve your goals at the end of the day. With this, you advance day by day until you eventually achieve your ultimate objective. I firmly believe that by utilizing the things we have created; human civilization will be able to benefit from smart connectivity. So I don’t give up and keep loving what I do while concentrating on making better contributions to our human community.”

 His unwavering focus and commitment to add value to the clients has motivated teams at the company to stay put with overall objectives. Success has come to their door owing to their collective efforts to curated customer centric solutions that escalate their business growths. Nikhil claims that one could turn innovations into success only with the help of perseverance. This is the success mantra he shares with the world out there whenever asked to reveal one.

When asked whom does he look upto as an ideal, Nikhil states, “My father has been my biggest role model and I have seen him as a person with perseverance. My mother has been a very hardworking person with focus and commitment, my loving family and my great team has been my strongest supporting backbones and all these success and growth is the end result of all these contributors in my life at every stage of growth.”

Unique Work Culture

Most people look for an environment that supports their aims and values through a positive work culture when determining where to apply for jobs. Every workplace has a distinctive atmosphere that develops over time as a result of interactions among those who work there. The workplace has an impact on people, and vice versa, so it’s critical to look for a firm with room for advancement. In this article, we define work culture by outlining the components and significance of a positive workplace culture.

The behaviors of all the individuals in the business, from management to entry-level employees, shape the culture in a workplace. Through its policies, benefits, and mission, the firm leadership establishes the tone for the company culture. Managers can choose candidates whose personal vision corresponds with a positive work environment throughout the hiring process, and this selection process shapes the business culture. A workplace’s physical environment has an impact on culture as well. And the Management at 6D Technologies goes to extreme lengths to provide the employees with best in class facilities and a vibrant work environment to work in. Yet another factor that defines their success rate.

What’s for The Future? 

A proper method for reimagining customer experiences and creating whole new ones that set any business apart from one’s rivals is future-state mapping. It enables any company to foresee and arrange better outcomes for one’s targeted clientele.

Preparing the future roadmap, Nikhil conveys that as the CTIO of 6D Technologies, his primary goal is to develop team knowledge across all of the 6D Business lines’ disciplines. 6D Technologies creates technologies in the fields of sales & distribution, 5G, IoT, and M2M connectivity, as well as consumer interaction platforms, digital finance platforms, and platforms for delivering digital services. Unquestionably, this success will raise the bar for their team’s future work on creating disruptive concepts in each of the aforementioned business areas.

For 2023, they’re already witnessing Telcos’ transition from conventional CSP to digital service provider (DSP). The biggest goal for Nikhil as a CTIO is to lead his team and to carry on with this transformation process. It’s crucial that they shift from cloudifying Telco platforms to greater cloud rationalisations, cost reductions, and use enhancements. This is a significant undertaking that they want all CTIOs to prioritise as one of their primary goals for 2023. It’s also a plan for all of the market players to keep working towards security, which is still a very difficult goal to accomplish. Internally, the company has developed a strategy initiative called TAS24 (Technology Accelerate Strategy 2024), which will summarise and concentrate on all the important topics mentioned above. The goal of any CTIO or CIO is to support their customers’ and partners’ digitalization journeys. At the same time, adhere to cost economics and limit spending for 2023 and the years ahead.

The Signing Note from The Leader

“I would like to provide a message to all the entrepreneurs out there that failures are lessons to work smarter and learn to inspire yourself to do better. Love the work you do every day and have perseverance. While you focus on innovations and being successful, always try to be a humble, true and honest leader and also work in developing technology to contribute betterment to human society.”