2012
Trainee, then junior developer
Serpent Consulting Services
First modules written for OpenERP 6.0, starting on its GTK desktop client.
About
Atul Arvind
I founded Heliconia Solutions and lead projects where many technologies have to behave like one system. I have been building business software since 2012, and I am most interested in the moment a repetitive process becomes something that runs by itself.
- Founder, Heliconia Solutions
- Building business software since 2012 (14 years)
- Vadodara, India
- hello@atularvind.com
Story
How I got here
I started in January 2012 as a trainee developer at Serpent Consulting Services, writing my first modules for OpenERP 6.0 on its old GTK desktop client. Within two and a half years I had moved from developer to module leader to team lead: listening to what clients described, turning it into something a developer could build, and teaching the people who joined after me.
In 2014 I joined OfficeBeacon, a product company, where I led a small technical team and designed the architecture that joined Odoo, a custom storefront and a MongoDB message queue. In 2016 I became lead software developer at ITIS AG, and in 2017 I started working independently for clients around the world.
That practice grew into Heliconia Solutions. My work today is less about any one tool and more about making many of them cooperate: payment gateways, shipping carriers, storefronts, document stores, ERPs and, increasingly, AI models and automation. The interesting problems sit in the joins between systems, and between the people who own them.
I live in Vadodara, India. Away from work I garden, and I photograph the flowers and birds that turn up in it.
Career
Since 2012
2013
Module leader
Serpent Consulting Services
Turned client requirements into technical designs and ran OpenERP training for new developers.
2014
Team lead
Serpent Consulting Services
Ran client communication and split work across a small team.
2014
Technical team lead
OfficeBeacon
Product company. Designed the architecture joining Odoo, a custom storefront and a MongoDB message queue.
2016
Lead software developer
ITIS AG
Built and supported modules for Community and Enterprise deployments.
2017
Independent consultant
Clients worldwide
Requirements, team management, delivery, training and support, end to end.
Now
Founder
Heliconia Solutions
Leading large projects where several technologies have to work as one system.
Expertise
What I work on
Delivery leadership
Taking projects from requirement gathering through build, rollout, training and support, with teams split across roles and time zones.
Systems integration
Connecting business software to the outside world: Stripe and Authorize.net payments, UPS and USPS shipping, Magento storefronts, WordPress, Alfresco and Google APIs.
Automation and AI
Finding the step people repeat every day and turning it into software. Lately that means working out where AI models genuinely help, and where they do not.
Business software architecture
ERP design and development since OpenERP 6.0, including high-availability setups such as Redis-backed session storage.
Principles
How I work
Automate what you keep repeating
The Odoo Debug browser extension began because switching on developer mode by hand, instance after instance, was wasted time.
Read the storyTranslate before you build
Years as a module leader were spent turning what clients described into designs a developer could build.
Teach what you learn
From running OpenERP training sessions to the tutorials archived on this site.
See the writing