Rahul Pandhi, CEO, CollabraLink Technologies, Inc.
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For Rahul Pandhi, 2019 has been a year of personal achievement: This past spring, he finished an Olympic-distance triathlon.
“Finding ways to intentionally push myself into areas of discomfort is something I try to do each year through some sort of specific event or endeavor,” he said,
As CEO, Pandhi leverages such personal milestones for professional growth.
“These experiences teach me a lot about myself . . . and create resiliency as I navigate life as a CEO,” he said. “I’ve come to learn that for me as a CEO, professional achievement is inextricably linked to my personal growth. I’m a much better CEO and we tend to hit our CollabraLink goals when I’m pushing myself to achieve on the non-CEO front. CollabraLink is just one, albeit important, facet of my life.”
These extraordinary experiences outside the workplace have helped Pandhi to shape CollabraLink into an exceptional organization.
The firm had a unique start, running out of Chicago with a commercial sector base before moving to D.C. to become 100% federally focused.
“As a Beltway outsider, I fundamentally believe we tackle problems differently and we think about our business differently,” Pandhi said.
The commercial-side experience taught Pandhi the to deliver rapid ROI around emerging technologies.
“These qualities are now baked into our DNA as a firm, as is a general culture of noncomplacency,” he said. “This heritage in commercial forced us to maintain agility and lean into emerging tech back when it was in its infancy stages.”
Today, he brings that same vision to the federal sector, delivering real, quantifiable, digital modernization programs that meet specific agency needs. In particular, the firm focuses on intelligent automation using low-code application development platforms.
“We are using tools like Appian and RPA coupled with DevOps to deliver modernized case management, grants management and acquisition lifecycle modernization, among others,” Pandhi said.
Why Watch
CollabraLink has set up a technology office focused specifically on continued exploration of emerging technology to further support its customer missions. The company’s latest research has yielded insights on effectively using cloud coupled with Serverless Computing (AWS Lambda) to drive cloud infrastructure savings.
“We are close to securing our first pilot to modernize a major cabinet-level agency mission application using utilizing serverless technology,” Pandhi said. “What I love about CollabraLink is that our technologists are truly ‘geeks’ for this stuff — they love playing with technology and finding new ways of implementing truly groundbreaking advancements.”
In 2020, the company plans to continue seeking out those agencies that exhibit a strong appetite for intelligent automation and low code. Pandhi is looking to align himself with federal chief information officers seeking to drive enterprise-wide modernization programs, those who have embraced the digital services playbook and mindset.