Welcome to our August FME Community User Spotlight! Every month, we’ll be spotlighting a user in the community whose active participation and helpful contributions have been invaluable to the community. We’re excited to highlight their experiences and insights!
User Spotlight: Raghavendran Satyanarayanan @raghavendrans
What company do you currently work for?
PIXEL SOFTEK PVT Ltd.
What’s your current job role and title?
Director GIS Presales
Tell us more about what you do and how you use FME?
In my current position, as the Director GIS Presales at PIXEL SOFTEK, my role is deeply rooted in showcasing how advanced GIS solutions can address complex challenges for our clients.
A significant part of my work for the past 25 years has been leveraging FME to devise niche data transformation and integration solutions with focus on complex geospatial big data. I use FME extensively for data integration, transformation, and interoperability across various Open Source and COTS geospatial platforms and formats.
In my line of work, we also deal with 'big geospatial data,' and FME is an indispensable tool for handling its volume, veracity, velocity and complexity.
I often implement FME for real-time data processing, ensuring that critical information is delivered accurately and promptly. From connecting disparate data sources to building automated workflows, FME allows me to provide robust and efficient solutions for our clients, enabling them to gain valuable insights from their spatial data.
Why did you join the FME Community?
I joined the FME Community as early as 2002 when it was on Yahoo groups, then migrated to Google groups in 2007 and the journey continues.
I joined the FME Community primarily for two reasons: to learn and to share. FME is without any doubt, incredibly powerful, and the community is a fantastic resource for staying updated with new features, discovering innovative use cases, and troubleshooting challenges.
Over the years, it has become a vibrant platform where I can engage with other FME users and Safe Software experts. I also believe in contributing back; by sharing my experiences and solutions. I aim to help others in their FME journey, just as many have helped me. The FME Community is truly a collaborative environment that fosters continuous learning and problem solving.
What tips do you have for users on how to get the most out of the FME Community?
My top tip for getting the most out of the FME Community is to be an active participant. Do not just consume information; contribute to it. If you have a question, ask it clearly with relevant details and screenshots. If you know the answer to someone else's question, share your knowledge. The 'Best Answer' feature is a great way to recognize helpful contributions.
Explore the various sections like Community Q&A, User Spotlights, and resource hubs. Also, try to implement suggestions from others and report on your findings. “The more you connect, the wiser you grow, and the tighter our crew gets (the stronger the FME Community becomes!)." Inspired by “The Fast and the Furious” movie series.
Tell us about some of the exciting use cases you’ve built using FME.
In my career spanning over 25 years, I have used FME to build impactful solutions across diverse domains including infrastructure, defence, aerospace, public health, renewable energy, utilities, telecommunications (Broadband), and spatial data platforms.
My work has involved migrating and integrating complex datasets to support efficient decision-making and operational management.
Beyond professional projects, I have actively contributed to the FME community through my five consecutive years of participation in the #30DayMapChallenge since 2019, showcasing over 150+ creative use cases of FME including augmented reality. I have also actively engaged in “FME Hackathons” and the “12 Days of FME” initiatives, continually exploring innovative ways to push the boundaries of what FME can do.
What’s one of your favourite tips or tricks for using FME?
As the idiom goes “Beg, Borrow or Steal”, my favorite tip, which I share during my FME training sessions, is to get to the data (FME Features and FME Feature Types) of your interest as quickly as possible in your FME Workflows.
For more complex tasks, my trick is to break down the problem into smaller, manageable steps, to work small and build big. (This one I learnt from Dale Lutz during my first FME training in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in June 2002).
If you were stranded on an island and could only bring three things with you, what would they be?
As a die-hard FME enthusiast, even being stranded on an island would not stop me from contributing to the FME Community and innovating with spatial data. So, my three items would be:
- A solar-powered laptop with FME installed and licensed because FME is my Swiss Army knife. Whether I am reverse engineering a coconut-based coordinate system or building a workflow to map out the best fishing zones based on tidal patterns and seagull flight paths, I need my workspace. Solar power means I can automate data transformations long after sunset. I would use FME to process any available data – satellite imagery, historical maps, and even on-the-ground observations. I would transform raw coordinates of resources of the island into usable GIS layers, meticulously documenting every geographical feature, hazard, and potential resource on the island, identify safe zones, map water sources, and plan escape routes.
- A satellite internet connection. This is not just for checking the weather or Googling how to open a coconut with a Transformer. It is to stay active in the FME Community, answer questions on the Knowledge Center, share new Workbench tricks, and keep uploading mind-boggling articles on FME like “The Great Banana Recipe: Adding Symbols to SVG with FME”
- A data-driven survival kit: because why not? I would bring a dynamic, ever-evolving endless dataset of survival tips, island resources, and weather patterns. With FME, I would automate my survival plans, making sure I always know the best place to look for food, build shelter, or find water... all in real-time!
In short, even stranded, I would still be doing what I love: transforming data, automating workflows, and giving back to the FME Community: one feature type at a time, of course all using FME.
If you could work from anywhere in the world, where would it be?
This is an easy one for a die-hard FME enthusiast like me!
As a die-hard FME enthusiast, if I could work from anywhere, it would be Vancouver, BC. It is not just the stunning scenery or the vibrant tech scene, but the fact that it is home to Safe Software - the holy birthplace of FME, my true passion.
I will never forget my first visit in 2006 for the FME Worldwide User Conference, a trip that completely solidified my love for FME. To be so close to the heart of FME innovation, where the magic happens every day, would be a dream come true. Just walking down the street, knowing the brilliant minds behind every transformer and format are nearby, would be exhilarating. It’s not just about the place - it’s about being immersed in FME’s very essence, feeling like part of something bigger, and contributing to the GIS world from the ultimate FME hub. As a GIS professional, there is no place on Earth I would rather be, than Safe Software’s headquarters, the epi-center of FME innovation.
