Head of Business Development
Bahrain Telecommunications Company
Total years of experience :30 years, 4 Months
Responsible for executing Batelco’s complex business initiatives across all enterprise customer segments, using in-house solutions as well as through collaboration with external niche partners.
Main areas of focus in the first year included:
- Continue the growth of Batelco’s ICT/ELV business primarily in the ‘unmanaged’ Greenfield hospitality & new development real estate space
- e-health & e-learning within the Public Sector
- On-boarding and management of niche partners as required
- Recruit new ICT sales staff
Successfully achieved 143% of assigned commercial target in 2017.
Responsible for defining and executing the ICT Transformation strategy within the Enterprise Division.
Leading a team of specialised Technical Account Managers to strengthen Batelco’s position as a complete telecom solution provider with end-to-end ICT offering. Responsible for achieving sales revenue for ICT solutions proposed to enterprise customers.
Managing a team of solution design specialists and ICT consultants, to identify and position complex solutions across all enterprise customer segments, covering Retail customers on a local and international level, in synergy with the related account teams. In addition manage and control all aspects of Bid Management for bids of a complex or high risk nature from initial qualification to successful acceptance by the customer.
Consistently meeting strategic and revenue targets. Achieved 120% of the assigned revenue target for new product sales in 2015 & achieved 229% of the assigned revenue target in 2016.
Directly involved in closing major Telecom and ICT/ELV projects with many ‘firsts’ for Batelco in the hospitality, real estate, and banking sector directly contributing to achieve the highest ICT sales numbers.
Responsible for account managing Batelco’s top 35 customers classed as ‘Al Masa’ (Diamond) customers, and International Business - total annual revenue in excess of US$ 120 million. Successfully closed a number of IPLC, GMPLS (L2/L3), and SDH wholesale opportunities with international partners such as C&W, PCCW, Tata, TIS, Telecom Malaysia, and regional operators such as QTEL, OmanTel, Du, Etisalat, and QualityNet.
Responsible for managing a team of Telecom solutions specialists and ICT consultants, to identify and position complex solutions for all enterprise customer segments, covering both Retail and Wholesale customers on a local and international level, in synergy with the related account teams. In addition manage and control all aspects of Bid Management for bids of a complex or high risk nature from initial qualification to successful acceptance by the customer.
Responsibilities include:
- Manage and coach customer solutions engineering team to design telecom and ICT solutions.
- Design and propose solutions for Retail and Wholesale customers to meet customer technical and SLA requirements.
- Act as the design authority for proposed solutions ensuring they are well developed and tested, to meet the changing requirement of the existing customers and the demands of the new customers.
- Work closely with the development teams to ensure bespoke solutions have the correct processes derived to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Ensure effective coordination and support between account teams and supporting technical resources.
- Monitor every customer’s request on regular basis and ensure that the performance is in accordance with the plans and requirements.
Contributed significantly to the development of new products based on market demand and by addressing customer pain points on a commercial and technical front. Formed a technical commitee to successfully steered the development of Batelco’s NGN MPLS platform to accommodate high availability access, CoS, integrated back-up (MPLS with DSL and 3G), VPN over GMPLS etc. Played a major role in driving and closing major infrastructure projects i.e.Triple Play Services for new developments such as Reef Island and Riffa Views.
Responsible for commercially account managing the top 100 Financial customers - total annual revenue in excess of US$ 40 million. Customers include all leading financial institutes such as ABC, AMEX, AUB, BBK, BNP, CITI, INVESTCORP, KFH, GFH, HSBC, BisB, BNI, Ithmaar, and SCB. Achieved significant increase in revenue and target over achievement. Was placed on the Staff Retention Scheme by the CEO within 3 months of joining which is open to the top 5% achievers in the Group and usually has a minimum qualification period of 24 months in full time employment.
Responsibilities include:
- Achieve and exceed assigned targets on an annual basis.
- Manage an Account team consisting of 12 Account Managers and 5 Sales Support staff.
- Coach Account Managers by introducing them to Sales Excellence and Major Account Planning techniques.
- Set target and objectives, monitor, and track Account Manager performance and individual pipeline through business intelligence tools and One-to-One reviews.
- Provide support to Account team by visiting customer to retent and assist in closing major deals as required such as Citi Bank multi-million BD regional WAN infrastructure project, and BNP regional CISCO ICT project.
- Provide detailed forecasting to the product owners to ensure adequate resource planning.
- Work with marketing to ensure segment specific activities are executed such as one to one customer workshops, banker’s society meeting, and breakfast sessions as and when required etc.
- Drive and contribute to strategic projects and processes such as Finance.Net, SLA introduction, online bill payments etc. that result in better customer experience.
Responsibilities include direct sales with Key Accounts, Indirect Sales (via Sales Managers and Sales Executives), Partnership Management, Customer Services Management, Project Manager (when required).
Product portfolio includes Network Appliance, CISCO, Foundry, Microsoft, Oracle, Ciphertrust, Juniper, Fortinet, Quantum, and Bakbone.
Major achievement since joining AGIS in Q4 2003:
- 180 degree turned around of the Network Solutions Sales Division from a loss making entity to sustainable profitability in 2005.
- Direct sales with key accounts from total turn key solutions to specialised products - project values delivered in 2005/2006 up to $700, 000 per opportunity whilst maintaining 25% average margin.
- Successfully servicing the IT requirements of high profile customers such as Arab National Bank, Batelco, Saudi Arabia British Bank, SABIC, Awalnet, Kuwait National Petroleum Company etc.
Partnership Awards/achievements since joining AGIS:
- Achieved Foundry Partner of the year 2005 - Bahrain & Saudi Markets.
- Network Appliance NetCache Partner of the year 2005 - Saudi Arabia.
- Introduced Ciphertrust IronMail to the region in 2003 and deployed with most Blue Chip organisations in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Awarded Ciphertrust IronMail Partner of the year 2005, Middle East & North Africa.
Responsible for a multitude of roles starting as a Software Design Engineer, Solutions Manager, Product Manager, Business Development Manager etc. Please refer to attached CV for details.