Global Operations Center

There is no better feeling in this world than being a proud dad, specially in this fast paced world where we (or may be just me) can’t keep up with this ever changing technology and social media buzz which apparently these kids are so good at. I am not at all embarrassed to tell that a few weeks back my daughter saw me on TikTok and almost screamed, “What??? You have a TikTok account?”! And she was even more surprised that my FYP had a few videos that matched hers ;)

Hurricane Irma

When I quit MIT and joined Everbridge in 2017, both my daughters (now 17 and 13) were hugely disappointed in me. And I don’t blame them because their dreams of getting free college education (if they could ever get into MIT) was shattered even before they had started dreaming about it.

One of my early days in Everbridge, I brought in my then 9 year old daughter to work and as we walked through the door passing through our GOC (Global Operations Center) where we have big (like really big) screens monitoring critical events from all around the world. And she saw a screen flash where we had statistics on Hurricane Irma.

As she walked along the room, looking though GOC’s glass wall, she pulled my hand, stopped, looked at me in disbelief and asked, “You guys are tracking Irma”?

Right there I knew she felt proud of my workplace and approved my decision to work at Everbridge. Although a bit late, that approval did bring a sense of relief or may be a feeling of “letting go of my guilt” of quitting MIT. These “not being associated” with “Institute of Technologies” guilt keeps coming back to me in life as I had declined my admission into IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) for masters during my young age. But now that not working at MIT was suddenly not a big deal, thanks to my daughter Aahana, it was a good life lesson to move on.

After hurricane Irma, Aahana and I, on multiple occasions, chatted about my work. Those included me bragging about our platform saving lives and helping people e.g. this young girl in new Jersey, or being part of notification platform for prestigious events like Boston Marathon or Super Bowl. Sometimes she would ask me if we were involved in notifying people during an unfortunate event she saw on news and even though the event itself would have resulted in casualties, she appreciated and understood how in critical times like these, our platform plays an important part in allowing authorities notify citizens and save lives. Oh and each of these chats usually ended up with how wonderful my colleague Bill Slack was when she went to Everbridge the first time, as he knew everything about Harry Potter which she was so obsessed with at that point in her life. In fact even today, if I not paying attention to what she is saying, she ends up screaming , “Dad, Lisa Radley is calling you”, to get my attention ;)

COVID-19 Return to Work

And then COVID happened and the entire world came to a screeching halt and everything turned upside down. Everbridge came up with Return to Campus and Return to Work solution and I was fortunate enough to be in charge of leading the team for Smart Orchestration platform which was the heart of this solution. While we were building and testing the solution, I was talking to Aahana explaining how the solution worked and had her download Everbridge mobile app. We talked about how they were tracking COVID and close contacts in their school (all manual painful process by the way) and she got all excited testing with me and explaining to everyone else in my family how our app worked.

But that aha moment for me was was when she asked me in disbelief, “Okay, so if I self-report using Everbridge app that I have COVID, mom and Anisha will get notified automagically that they were in close contact with someone who is COVID positive”?

My chest again swelled with pride knowing that I work for a company which is doing the right thing at the right time, always. I mean, think about it, Everbridge was created after 9/11 with a goal of notifying the right people at the right time when things go wrong and has been doing that very well since then.

COVID-19 Vaccine Management

Recently we worked on another creative, simple and yet powerful solution to this complex problem of letting citizens sign up for COVID vaccine shots which many states and counties like West Virginia, Indian River and Sarasota have been using successfully.

By now, Aahana probably understands our system as good as some of our clients and just like always, the proud moment for me was when she asked, “I wonder if we will soon hear from our Governor that they are using your system for vaccination, just like they are using your system for COVID related communications”.

I am so glad I got a chance to work for a company which keeps people safe and operations running (faster). I have definitely made a few great friends here. And more importantly, even though both my kids absolutely hate me for being on my computer 24x7 and have no interest in pursuing a career in what I do for living, it is definitely great knowing that they both appreciate me working for this company at the very least. Oh shoot, did I talk about Anisha at all? Well, I have overheard her conversation with her friends bragging about me being a marathon runner and she for sure knows that it wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for my ex-colleague Vinni, which she knows happened at Everbridge, so that counts as her approval as well, right? :-)