The Sync Up: Talking Tech with Chief Technology Officer Madan Divaker

1WorldSync’s Chief Technology Officer Madan Divaker has led the organization’s technology team for the past 3.5+ years with extensive expertise. He sat down recently to discuss his career and team at 1WorldSync, what makes the company a global leader and how its technology enables customers to succeed. Learn more about Madan’s background and the technology at 1WorldSync in this interview…

What major career highlights are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the work my team has completed over the past 3+ years at 1WorldSync to deliver value to our customers by extending the capabilities of our platform. I’m proud to provide customers with a full lifecycle set of solutions that helps them identify content gaps and take action to succeed throughout their buying journey.

My experience across product management, software development and enterprise application design over 25 years has enabled me to blend technical, business, and management aspects in my role as CTO with a focus on delivering long-term value for our customers. It has also enabled me to leverage the power of teamwork through effective communication by highlighting the importance of nurturing every individual’s unique gifts and talents.

Prior to joining 1WorldSync, I guided product direction, strategy and development at LANSA, a leading low-code application development tools vendor that was used to build Data Sync Direct, our Product Information Management (PIM) that was acquired by 1WorldSync in 2019. My experience with application frameworks and solutions has allowed me to understand and appreciate challenges our customers (both suppliers and retailers) face across the globe in multiple industry verticals – CPG, FMCG, DIY, Healthcare, Consumer Electronics.

Coming from LANSA (Data Sync Direct), acquired by 1WorldSync in 2019, can you talk a bit about the strength of 1WorldSync acquisitions?

1WorldSync acquisitions have all been strategic in nature to complement our platform from content capture to syndication. We are focused on being the leader in end-to-end product content solutions. Each of our recent acquisitions (Simplus, CNET Content Solutions, Snap36, Swogo, Aligntrac) has given us greater reach across multiple industry verticals which allows us to provide brands and retailers the most comprehensive content solutions in the marketplace.

One of our most popular solutions is our PIM, Data Sync Direct. Can you describe what a PIM solution does and how it helps 1WorldSync customers succeed?

Product information management (PIM) is the process of managing and enriching product information and related digital assets across different teams to provide an engaging product experience and successfully sell the product across multiple sales and marketing channels. 

Data Sync Direct as a PIM helps both brands and retailers ensure the right product information is presented in the right way across every channel. Accuracy and speed in product attribution require organizations to employ streamlined systems to aggregate, validate and communicate product information which is what Data Sync Direct as a PIM delivers to our customers.

With an expansive background across product management, modern software development practices, database and enterprise-grade application design, how does 1WorldSync compare to the industry in terms of tech?

Our 1WorldSync suite of applications has been serving our customers for multiple decades as technology and software development practices have evolved. Over the years, 1WorldSync has leveraged enterprise-grade tools and technologies ranging from development tools, cloud services, databases, modular architecture and design across our applications that provides flexibility and scalability while ensuring the security and performance that our customers expect from our applications. 

All our applications leverage modern software development practices as part of our digital transformation journey. We continue to add new capabilities that leverage cloud services for AI/ML and OCR capabilities while continuing to upgrade our platform and frameworks to cater to evolving business and customer needs in the marketplace. Our Engineering team is also focused on improving our tools and processes with automation as we update our applications to use the latest technology stack and trends where applicable. 

How would you describe the technology team at 1WorldSync?

Our technology team is composed of a few key roles that sit between product management on one side and the operations team on the other. The engineering team is comprised of a few key roles and functions, namely product owners, business analysts, software engineers and quality assurance.

The product owner (PO) is a member of the agile team responsible for streamlining the execution of product management initiatives and priorities—all while maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of application features. 

User Experience (UX) analysts are responsible for the definition of everything that the user touches and interacts with on the platform. Software architects and engineers are computer science professionals who use knowledge of engineering principles and programming languages to build software products and applications that meet business and functional requirements while keeping security best practices in mind.

The quality assurance team ensures that the final application adheres to the company’s high-quality standards by leveraging automation tools. In general, these detail-oriented professionals are responsible for the detection and resolution of problems and quality delivery into production for our customers. 

Product owners and business analysts work seamlessly with product managers to gather business, functional and technical requirements with input from software and testing engineers on defining use cases, technical design/implementation and acceptance criteria. The engineering team packages and delivers software artifacts that are deployed into production by our operations team to ensure compliance with our ISMS security program. 

As we continue to improve and enhance our applications within the 1WorldSync platform, our organizational success is driven by the 3Ps: people, product, and process. Continuous discussion and feedback loops between our product management, engineering and operations teams are the keys to quality and successful releases that meet both product timelines and customer expectations. Our people, processes and constant feedback loops align with our corporate values of humility, integrity, teamwork and continuous improvement.

What does it mean to you to be a 1WorldSync leader?

I am thrilled to be a leader at 1WorldSync as we continue to grow our application portfolio and capabilities to serve our customer’s needs. It goes without saying that any leader must be able to listen, observe and be willing to change course when necessary in addition to trying to think outside the box. I am extremely blessed to have a very passionate and dedicated team around me that is committed to the growth and success of 1WorldSync. Successful leadership involves the knowledge that success comes with a willingness to change how things are done by bringing a fresh set of eyes to inspire new ideas and improve existing processes as we constantly strive for progress over perfection.