Mariappan Karuppasamy

Supporting Middle-East business on Pre-sales, RFP process, Bid defence, Solution building, Pricing, Compliance, Contracting, Project execution and Operations management of both IT and Application infrastructure projects

• Senior IT management responsibility for all IT functions in Middle-East which includes Strategy, Project Execution, Solutioning, BD Pre-sales support and Service Delivery
• Responsible for IT roadmap and Transformation initiatives for Middle-East
• Supporting Middle-East BD team and BFSI vertical team on Pre-sales, RFP process, Bid defence, Solution building, Pricing, Compliance, Contracting, Project execution and Operations management for both traditional and new Digital technology embedded BPO business
• Assembling skills and creating solutions with the participation of Sutherland teams from IT Infrastructure, Application development, Information security, Platform building and Sutherland Digital functions, and also External teams from identified technology and specialist SI partners to meet RFP / Project / Program requirements
• Building innovative solutions as part of Middle-East Strategy for IT Business in
o BPO allied technologies (ex. On-premise / cloud voice platforms),
o BPO automation (AI) technologies (ex. Robotics, Voice Biometrics, Speech based self-service, Digital channels, Call Steering, etc.)
o Virtualization / Cloud technologies (ex. Work at Home)
o IT Embedded BPO projects (ex. Managed IT services for BPO)
o Software Development (ex. Mobile enterprise app)
o IT Managed Services (ex. Outsourcing part of or entire IT operations)
• Creating partner ecosystem with new age technology companies such as Nuance, and SIs with proven track record to provide cutting edge technology solutions to customers at optimal cost
• Managing deliverables for ADCB WAH Managed Services IT component and ADCB Voice Biometrics support
• Leading IT Infrastructure and Software Application Consultancy projects (ex. Aramco) in Middle-East

• Designed IT service platforms for building the largest Tier III Datacenter in middle-east.
• Responsible for Operations of the Datacenter for ICT services - collocation hosting, managed IT services, and ‘Cloud Computing Services’ for IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, BaaS (Backup as a Service) and DRaaS (DR as a Service).
• Managed Datacenter operations housing 1, 600 racks and 5, 000 virtual servers
• Formulated product portfolio and charging model for collocation services, cloud services, Managed hosting & Managed IT services.
• Provided pre-sales support and design solutions for business development team.
• Developed customized solution for traditional and cloud hosting customers - equipment distribution, power provisioning, structured cabling, Cold Aisle Containment System (CACS), Voice, Video, Cloud computing, storage, Backup, DR, Mail and collaborative platforms, etc.
• Implemented framework for 24x7 operation support for customers with captive control (NSOC) room
• Built team, processes and support structure to provide the best of customer experience to be unique and niche to stay ahead as the leader in the middle-east market space.
on revenue business.

• Responsible for building and operating core technology systems - telephony, network, and systems - for Sutherland business globally distributed across 30 sites in 8 countries / 4 continents with 30, 000 employees, reporting directly to the CTO
• 6 direct management reports, leaders of 55 domain specialists distributed across USA, India and Philippines
• Managed 250-member IT team across APAC operations role prior to taking up Global Core Technology Operations responsibility after restructuring of technology operations in Oct 09
• Responsible for the following domains of operation:
o Telephony - operation of 4 x Avaya switches, 3 x Nortel switches supporting 25, 000 seat voice business
o Voice/screen recording - call centre technologies widely deployed to meet the outsourced business requirements and to meet the compliance / regulatory / security standards
o Data network - build and optimally operate approximately 1 GB of WAN bandwidth and associated equipment and site level networks
o Systems - build and administer 1000+ servers to meet the constantly expanding need for applications and storage with physical servers
o Virtualization - managed migration of strategic virtualization initiative across multiple sites to meet dynamic growth and agile operating environment
o NSOC and Service Desk - adherence to ITIL based processes for monitoring, alerting, escalating and resolving issues and implemented refined processes and documentation for incident, problem and change management and root cause analysis formulation.
• CTI-IVR-VRU platform development - managed the development of strategic in-house developed agile platform to meet the futuristic dynamic business requirements.
• Contributed to strategic initiatives on infrastructure operations in enhancing uptime, telephony platform and telephony application development for self-reliance and futuristic flexible business applications
• Standardized templates and specifications for new sites and data centres based on replicable optimized model
• Achieved IT operations budget with cost reduction objectives year after year
• Adherence of IT operations confirming to PCI, SAS70 and SOX
• Daily Operations \ Maintenance - the Global IT Operations
o Incidents Management - capture, resolve, escalate and manage incidents 24x7
o Monitoring & Reporting - processes for proactive forecast of concerns / potential issues, and reactive management to mitigate incidents
o Change Management - Comprehensive change management process automated to capture changes end to end complying to audits and certifications
o Problem Management - root causes captured during incidents and trends are flagged and followed through final remediation

• Managed 85-member IT team for building systems and solutions, and operating IT applications and infrastructure to support India operations, and network infrastructure for global operations.
• Ran global IT functions to manage networks, enterprise / production applications, asset management and service desk supporting 11 sites, 8000+ employees, and 3 collocations spread across 7 countries serving customers from banking, telecom, technology, services and retail segments in NA, Europe and Australia.
• Managed Global Network infrastructure comprising of 150 Mbps of WAN bandwidth spread across 11 data centres, 9 delivery centres, with diallers, loggers, Avaya switches, Muxes, and VoIP voice infrastructure for inbound, outbound and eCRM services.
• Managed 2 build outs for new sites with 2000 and 500 seats respectively using standardized architecture and design
• Application development - CRM and Recording integration tools, enterprise applications for HR, recruitment, training, ITIL process and workforce automation
• Service Desk process management - incident, problem and change management and root cause analysis formulation with a vigilant monitoring and tracking system
• Contributed to technology annual strategies, budgets and expense projections
• Built Solution and provided technical input for RFI and RFPs as part of pre-sales support
• Reduced Operation costs with on-going quarterly exercise to evaluate opportunities and tracking the identified objectives

• Built green-field call centre infrastructure and platforms for the start-up BPO ventured into both domestic and international outsourced business in both voice and non-voice business
• Build a technology team for the new company, develop skills, implement processes and create vendor partnerships for a world class IT BPO infrastructure
• Managed development, deployment and operation of in-house CRM and HR applications, for multinational clients from banking, telecom and insurance sectors
• Built customized IT solutions for voice and back-end processing projects for leading multinational finance sector clients
• Managed an SME team of 30 engineers in telephony, network, servers, database, software development, diallers and information security along with 20+ members from outsourced vendor teams
• Directly reported to the Managing Director cum Founder to build the company’s technology strategy, tactical plans, standardized architecture and cost optimized operational plan
• Deploy WAN connectivity to NYC collocation site for voice and data infrastructure to handle outsourced BPO business from NA
• Enterprise application development - web HR application initially built for in-house and later enhanced for offering the platform as SaaS for SMEs

• Built an IT team for the new vibrant research institute and provide leadership to create an exceptional IT infrastructure with in-house developed application platforms
• Responsible for IT strategy, plan, developing solutions, system integration, implementation and operations
• Leveraged Internet technologies for knowledge and information sharing and dissemination for internal and external research / user community
• Managed in-house development of ERP system to achieve very high level of automation of the entire office functions with self-service in 1996.
• Develop IT software and solutions for variety of research and consultancy applications using engineering and numerical methods, ranging from customized software to integration of industrial control and automation
• Provide leadership to teams working in (1) information technology, (2) Internet applications, (3) knowledge management, (4) communication and outreach, (5) information and knowledge dissemination, (6) library and documentation, and (7) conventional and new media publishing.
• Manage 55 highly qualified research caliber professionals
• Design and architect IT solutions involving network, systems and applications for both in-house and client project requirements