Interview Times 
Saswat Mishra holds a bachelors in technology degree and has 16 years of experience in Information Technology Enabled Services in the Property & Casualty Insurance space. He has worked as a domain lead and has been responsible for building the Insurance practice across tier one organizations of the world like Atos, Birlasoft, DXC Technologies & Capgemini. In various global regions, he has successfully completed a number of projects.
He is known for having a strong business acumen and is currently working as the CEO & Co-Founder of Qalibre Software Solutions. Since the inception of Qalibre, he has been dealing with very high-level strategic decisions & has been responsible for the growth of Qalibre’s client base which has led to the incremental growth of organization in terms of revenue and workforce.
Qalibre’s core mantra has been to make the digital transformation of Insurance Carriers less hectic and seamless. Qalibre works on multiple COTS platforms including Duck Creek and other Microsoft technologies as well.
Saswat is a strong promoter of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. He is a very easy person to work with and is popular amongst the employees for his friendly & jovial nature. He was the ex-president of Kiran – The Ray of Hope NGO, and is closely associated with multiple causes like better healthcare, destitute and animal welfare.
Saswat belongs from the Silver City of Odisha – Cuttack and has completed his early education at the same place. He is married to Dr. Ruby Moharana who is an eye surgeon and is blessed with a 6-year-old daughter Eva.
Sir Can you first tell us more about yourself and the journey you took before founding your own company?
Hello all the readers, Namaskar! My name is Saswat Mishra. I did my early education in Stewart School and Ravenshaw college in Cuttack, and did my BTech in ICFAI Tech Hyderabad where a lot of valuable management lessons were provided along with the technical courses. I started my career as a Software Engineer in erstwhile Syntel (Now Atos) where my inclination towards P&C Insurance started.
Fortunately, I started working in a very niche tool called Duck Creek which creates custom software solutions or the policy admin systems for P&C Insurance carriers. Duck Creek is one of the most popular COTS tools in today’s era. I then switched a few companies and spent significant time working on CSC’s Point In which used to be another popular Insurance administration software.
My last stint was in Capgemini where I delivered a few critical projects across different geographies. I started my career as a techie and slowly found that my passion lies in the field of business analysis. So, I pursued that and always worked as a SME or functional lead in all the assignments. Most of the customers I worked for were in the USA & Australia.
I was very passionate about the work I was doing and understood the ins and outs right from sales to delivery, hence I decided to start on my own which gave birth to Qalibre Software Solutions.
1: What is the best and the worst part of being a CEO?
Being a CEO is all about being responsible and accountable. You are responsible for all the good and bad decisions of the organization and accountable for success and failure. This is obviously my first stint as a CEO or a founder of an organization. I kept my inexperience aside and started working on my strengths. As a CEO, my primary responsibility is towards my employees and customers.
It’s a big job and the thought gives you enough energy and motivation to do your best but sometimes the results are beyond control, which makes me disappointed a bit, but it is important to start fresh every morning and keep moving towards your goal. If one has strong intentions, a clear goal, and the passion to keep moving forward, then temporary setbacks won’t matter much.
2: The software industry is becoming more saturated, therefore I’m curious: Sir, what motivated you to establish a company of your own, especially considering the increasing level of competition?
We are living in a digital era. Without technology, it will be difficult for the world to progress and sustain. We all acknowledge this and COVID taught us a lot on how to embrace technology. There is an ever-rising demand for the advancement of software technology as it makes our lives a lot easier.
As long as the demand is there and availability of the right talent in the Market and the customer inclination towards adapting niche technologies which helps them run their businesses smoothly, the software industry will grow and keep delivering.
Keeping all these points in mind and being focused on a niche domain/technology and relying heavily on innovation, I decided to take the plunge and it has not disappointed me so far. Yes, the competition will always be there but that gives you the motivation to perform, innovate, stand out with your offerings and be the difference which the customers can’t ignore.
3: Do you believe that the startups are unique in comparison to its competitors?
India is a land of opportunities and with these opportunities there are many avenues as well. We just need to be aware of the exact requirements and have solutions ready to meet the requirements. The only few things that make the startups unique are the energy and passion to perform, innovate, solve real world problems and the zeal to prove. Big companies have proved over the period of time, but they were also startups at one point in time. As long as healthy competition exists, India will keep progressing digitally and will become a superpower very soon.
4: In your opinion, what are the most serious challenges that the software industry will have to address in the coming years?
The biggest challenge Software Industries have always faced is the need to Innovate & Automate. With newer technologies emerging in the market, clients are inclined towards embracing it because of the time and cost factor. Developing custom solutions using these technologies gives them the desired product in a lesser time and at a lesser cost. Software industry needs to find ways to be aligned to this demand and keep producing solutions which will remain in line with these expectations.
5: Sir, what sets your company apart from others in the same industry?
Qalibre Software Solutions started with an aim to provide custom software solutions to P&C Insurance Carriers plagued by their legacy systems. We are here to make the digital transformation journey of Insurance Carriers as less hectic as possible and in fact an enjoyable one and have years of experience put together to ensure the smooth digital transformation of the insurance carriers.
We work on Duck Creek and other COTS platforms and provide custom software solutions, data-driven marketing, and cloud-based services for all types of insurance companies to help grow their businesses. Our objective is to create custom software solutions for the offshore clients providing quality work and within their budget. We believe in collaboration with our customers, understand their needs and calibrate accordingly to deliver. No matter what, we always work around our core values -Quality, reliability, continuous upgradation and have a customer centric focus.
6: What are your thoughts on this specific topic as many people believe that there are no jobs available in the software industry and that those that are there do not get good pay?
It is a misplaced theory. When there is a huge demand the need for good talent will always be there. As engineering students or graduates, we need to understand the demand and skill ourselves accordingly. Once you have the right skill sets, you would land up in a very good job that pays well but after finding a job, one shouldn’t just run after higher packages, instead they need to find a company which would help them learn, which will help broaden their professional outlook and help them evolve & become better each passing day. Stability & patience during that phase holds the key in being successful professionally.
7: Tell us more about your company, sir and how it operates.
Qalibre Software Solutions operates with the highest ethical standards where we focus on life work balance and if you notice, we promote life first theory to all. Yes, we do have the biggest priority for business and customers but the well-balanced life of everyone working here is still a bigger priority. We embrace equity, and always strive to provide gender equal opportunities and work tirelessly to provide a healthy workplace for our employees. We have many learning and development initiatives, employee friendly policies in our organization.
Regarding the business operation, we have small to mid-sized P&C Insurance carriers as our customers located in Canada, USA and Australia. We have also partnered with some big IT companies and work in the staff augmentation mode as well. We have the best talent available, and with our flexible and cost effective business strategies, we have become the preferred vendor for our customers.
8: When it comes to entrepreneurship What advice would you want to provide to entrepreneurs?
For the new age entrepreneurs which also includes me, the only advice I would give or would like to share from my experience is to first find your calling, then follow it, work relentlessly and then have the patience and perseverance to achieve success. Nothing happens overnight, so keep toiling hard.
Disappointments will be plenty but hope that tomorrow will be better and keep moving. Giving up is the worst thing an entrepreneur can do in the first few years of entrepreneurship.
Once you have managed to achieve some level of success, then help & guide the other new age entrepreneurs so that the ecosystem becomes healthy to strive and grow. The last thing to remember would be to have the attitude to give back to the society in whatever means and ways once you are successful. Thank you and all the best to the Interview Times team.
