Digital Team Profile: Meet Ravi Kumar

In the eighth of our series profiling the Digital Marketing Solutions’ Team meet Ravi Kumar, Associate Information Officer for Platform Operations.

Ravi oversees digital marketing platform IT operations, including minor enhancements. He is also leading the application migrations to the Adobe AEM platform for the Tridion Decommissioning Project.

Q: What is your educational background and professional experience in managing digital marketing platforms?

A: I have a Bachelors’ Degree of Technology and Electronic Communications from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, India. I worked in India, Jamaica and Singapore before starting to work in the US. Primarily, I worked in Internet and JAVA-based platforms prior to joining AIG. I have been with AIG for nearly 15 years during which I worked as a consultant for the first eight years and became an employee in 2010.

Q: What is the Tridion Decommissioning Project and why is it so important to AIG?
A: Tridion is outdated technology, which has been used to support and manage AIG websites for a number of years. With the introduction of the new Adobe AEM platform, we are completing the final migrations of all the AIG websites from Tridion to AEM. This new platform provides significantly more advanced features, functionality and integration capabilities. Once the migration is complete, we will decommission the Tridion platform and reduce expenses by eliminating the need to support the operational costs of running two platforms.

Q: What are the greatest challenges in platform operations – the ones that keep you awake at night?
A: I think it’s just the diversity of our global reach, extensive product lines, and 24/7 support demands. Our ability to keep the platform up-and-running and to respond to problems is well developed. The other consideration is the difficulty in coordinating with data center teams and external vendors managing our services, servers and networks. We own the platform but depend on so many other teams to keep the platform stable. The data center has many teams supporting AIG’s infrastructure. With the pace of new functionality it is our challenge to maintain the stability of our platform.

Q: When the unexpected arises on the platform, how do you maintain focus under pressure?
A: It all comes down to prioritization. Our priority is to keep the platform stable, secure and available. It is a higher priority to run the platform safely and securely than to add new functionality. Clarity around prioritization is the key.

Q: How do you explain to AIG stakeholders the value of your work in AIG’s Digital Marketing Platform?
A: Two points come to mind: the first point about our value comes from having a centralized team running a shared platform, which gives us the ability to make a positive impact as a company building new digital marketing features. It’s difficult to have scattered teams across AIG and make progress on new digital features: it works better when one team launches innovation. Secondly, we bring AIG the cost savings of having only one shared platform.

Let’s Get Personal:
Q: Do you enjoy a favorite musical genre?
A: I would say that I do like the melody of Indian-language music as well as music from the 1970’s and 80’s.

Q: How do you build the quality of your life outside AIG?
A: I have a family with two kids. I like playing tennis in the summer. I enjoy watching movies and follow the general interests of the news.

Q: Where are your favorite travel destinations?
A: Typically, I prefer the beach destinations and, for example, all-inclusive resorts like Cancun as well as cruises. My son is two years old, which has slowed us down a little in the last couple of years. I probably don’t take enough vacation.

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