Hammad Farooqui

Nielsen is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA

Associated with Consumer Insight & Innovation division of the company focusing on managing end-to-end operations for United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. It includes managing field operations, call center operations, data processing and quality control.

Previous Roles in the Company:

Operations Support & Initiative Leader - MENAP
Associated with Consumer Insight & Innovation division of the company focusing on improving and supporting the core CI Operations team for Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan region. The objective is to help drive efficiency, growth, improve quality and work on new initiatives to drive innovation and digitization within the region. As part of the role I am also responsible to work closely with client service team to develop Finance & Public Sector business and operations. Managing Regional Quality Function, Regional Translation operations and Key initiatives on Digitization, Growth and New Capabilities.

Global C-DAR RMS Program Leader
Representing RMS (Retail Measurement Service) globally within C-DAR Program. Responsible for managing the program within RMS globally (110+ countries) and ensuring all the required RMS requirements are taken care in the program, Change management process, UAT and deployment across the Global.

DA RMS Panel Manager - Middle East, North Africa & Pakistan
As part of the Data Acquisition function, actively involved in maintaining the health of Retail Measurement Service Panel across MENAP.

Cupola Teleservices (CTS) practically invented the concept of outsourced contact centre services in the Middle East region. CTS, is a UAE based company offering high quality services to both regional and international clients. Operating out of its world class facility in the Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ); CTS employs over 800 staff from 26 countries conducting business transactions in more than 10 languages. Today CTS is the preferred Contact Centre partner for a large number of multinational Blue Chip corporations and Fortune 500 companies.

Responsible for all Business Solutions for Outsourcing function of the group and responsible for new services, business ventures and sales revenue.

Managed the Business Process Outsourcing and Customer Support functions, overseeing USD $8 million budget and thirteen technical support centres of over 500+ staff across the nation. Some of the key achievements:

- Increased sales from USD$ 1.6 Million to USD$ 4.1 Million
- Expanded client base by 55% in the first year by consistently delivering goal-surpassing marketing results and ensuring complete client satisfaction
- Acted as a Program Manager in the deployment and setting up of the call centre and associated support departments for the call centre (HR, Training, Quality Control and Audit & Compliance)
- Acted as a Project Manager for the numerous deployments of DSL, RF, Fibre, Wimax, P2P connectivity, iDirect, Desktop Support, Network Operations Centre and others support services provided by Cybernet to their client.
- Acted as a Project manager in the deployment of Alcatel IP Telephony Solution and Siebel CRM for the Contact Centre.
- Managed the multiple teams of network engineers to manage the NOC - Network Operations Centres of multiple banks and financial institutions including Standard Chartered Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank and Central Board of Revenue.
- Developed IT Managed Services product portfolio which includes: SaaS, Network Managed Services and Desktop Management Services
- Developed Market Research product portfolio “CATiSights” in collaboration with MEMRB (Middle East Market Research Bureau)
- Managed an extremely successful call centre operations of over 300 seats and 13 multiple technical support locations across the country for all levels of support.
- Decreased complaint ratio from 15% to 0.06%a
- Increased customer satisfaction from 75% to 93%
- Increased staff satisfaction from 65% to 97%
- Designed and developed processes as per the ITIL guidelines to improve Service Delivery.
- Successfully deployed and managed the Contact Centres for McDonald’s, Domino’s, Augere Telecom and Express News Channel at the same location.

- Increased revenue from USD$ 200, 000 to USD$ 2.4 Million / annum and Operations growth from 30 seats to 170 seats
- Gained many large clients and achieved rapid and consistent growth in line with investment plan, attended meetings with investors to present the company and business plan.
- Created and implemented account development strategies that significantly enhanced business growth.
- Developed, presented and executed business development plans / business reviews.
- Working closely with the marketing & sales team to produce marketing campaigns, travelled across UK and US to visit in person, the Directors of the target group.
- Managed an extremely successful call centre of over 125 seats.
- Managing team of IT Support Engineers and System Admins to ensure that agreed targets are met and appropriate qualitative standards are achieved and ensuring uptime of IT systems for 24/7 operations.
- Coordination with vendors and third party service providers to ensure availability of services and equipment as per agreed SLA.
- Close coordination with clients, planning business strategies with clients in order to boost their products alongside ours (Co-Branding), small business units, deploying CRM techniques.
- Implemented ISO standards and procedures that ensured output objectives were achieved in accordance with the business plan
- Successfully managed multiple technical deployment, process improvement and call centre projects with the budget size from £0.5 million to £3 million

Clients Managed:
Toucan / Pipex Broadband (UK), 3G Telecom, Orange Telecom, Vodafone, O2, HR Logica (UK), Spectrum UK Ltd, Autobuyer UK Ltd, McDonalds, Eli Lilly, Abbott Nutrition, Green Star, FM91 and Colgate

- Successfully managed IT Software projects of CRM application for the Contact Centre, HRMS (Human Resource Management System), Sales Tacking Application, Hazards Control and Tracking Application and Asterisk based Telephony Solution at the Contact Centre.
- Provides “top level” technical and project management expertise and support to Market Research and Call Centre department.
- Managed an extremely successful call centre.
- Created and implemented Standard operating procedures to run successful call centre.
- Utilizing project management skills whilst controlling budgets.
- Demonstrated success in managing projects resulted in savings on numerous occasions.
- Utilized technology in order to deliver enterprise solutions that meet requirements of the business
- Planning and introducing improvements, motivating and retaining staff
- Created and implemented reports and smooth operations guidelines.
- Close coordination with the managers of all the brands of the company for all brand related activities.
- Special recognition by Head of HPC (Home & personal care) on services provided during Lux Style Awards 2004
Brands:
Lifebouy, Sunsilk, Lux, Supreme, Lipton, A1, Walls,

- Collecting, understanding, and transmitting the business requirements for the project, and translating these into functional specifications and detailed plans. Analyze and document business processes.
- Document workflows and results of business analysis and obtain sign-off from client on the specifications.
- To provide the link between the customer, development team and any third party regarding software functionality, throughout the development lifecycle.
- Day to day management of change requests in relation to the project plans to ensure agreed deadlines are met.
- Responsible for the development of web-based application for Canadian based clients.
- Successfully managed following development projects:
o Development and Deployment of CRM Application (Classic ASP Platform with Oracle)
o Development and Deployment of E-Commerce websites
o Development of E-Testing Application and rollout to nationwide testing programs by Skill Development Council (Government of Pakistan)