Praveen Rajora
Senior Director - Business Development & Client Engagement
New Delhi
Summary
Strategic-thinking leader experienced in turning low-performing organizations into top revenue producers. Offering engaging and pleasant personality with expertise in improving customer relationships. Collaborative leader with dedication to partnering with coworkers to promote engaged, empowering work culture. Documented strengths in building and maintaining relationships with diverse range of stakeholders in dynamic, fast-paced settings leveraging my knowledge of innovative hi-tech skills like Gen AI, AI governance, RPA, SFDC, AWS, Azure to offer an effective solution to address client pain points.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
6
6
Certifications
4
4
Languages
Work History
Director – Public Sector Engagement (North America)
R Systems International
10.2023 - Current
- Worked closely with organizational leadership and board of directors to guide operational growth strategy for company's products and services portfolio / consulting services in North America Public sector.
- Developed Public sector sales pipelines worth US$ 20-25 Mn for Digital Transformation and Legacy modernization opportunities in State of California
- Formed strategic partnerships and connected with potential clients to drive business development.
- Cultivated and strengthened lasting client relationships using strong issue resolution and dynamic communication skills.
- Review documents from commercial, compliance and legal perspective and working with Legal teams in drafting the requisite Teaming agreements and government contracts as well as negotiating contract T&C
- Agree & manage engagement scope, resources, timelines / budgets to deliver timely deliverables and achieve requisite revenue and profitability targets including solutioning
- Setup a network of Channel partners across varied geographies for Reselling/cross selling
- Responsible for responding to Government & Private sector RFP/RFI/RFQ across verticals
- Performing gap analysis in company's product & services v/s latest market offerings and competitive pricing & features
- Connecting the dots across global BU functions
- Interview the BU heads and capture the Client Pain points and to streamline the Account mining process with the help of Client Engagement Directors from different geographies
- Lead generation via marketing events/conferences, presenting at events the company's products & service offerings
- Mentor the Sales Teams on Capture Plans and Pre-Solicitation phase for predictive opportunities in Public Sector
- Establish a robust Sales and Presales workflow and remove impediments for the team for smooth operations
- Responsible for providing the Hi-Tech teams BU with the latest market demands and aligning company's product performance & features
- Good knowledge of embedded AI, SFDC and Cloud computing architecture.
- Managed daily operations while overseeing multiple locations to foster increased productivity.
- Assisted with sales and marketing strategies to foster achievement of revenue goals.
- Spearheaded innovative approaches to resource allocation and strategic planning by screening good technical profiles.
Director – Global RFx Sourcing & Client Engagement
Exela Technologies
04.2021 - 07.2023
- Establish go-to-market / growth strategy for company's products and services portfolio / consulting services in North America & EU (Public and Private sector)
- Developed Global sales pipelines worth US$ 10-15 Mn for Digital Transformation across verticals
- Establish and nurture c-suite client relations exploring new opportunities and Account ownership
- Review documents from commercial, compliance and legal perspective and working with Legal teams in drafting the requisite documentation as well as negotiating contract T&C
- Agree & manage engagement scope, resources, timelines / budgets to deliver timely deliverables and achieve requisite revenue and profitability targets
- Setup a network of Channel partners across varied geographies for Reselling/cross selling
- Responsible for responding to Government & Private sector RFP/RFI/RFQ across verticals
- Automated the Lead sourcing process from Federal and State governments in USA & Canada
- Performing gap analysis in company's product & services v/s latest market offerings and competitive pricing & features
- Connecting the dots across global BU functions
- Interview the BU heads and capture the Client Pain points and to streamline the Account mining process with the help of Client Engagement Directors from different geographies
- Provide Lead Generations ideas and participate in marketing events/conferences, presenting at events the company's products & service offerings
- Mentor the Sales Teams on Capture Plans and Pre-Solicitation phase for predictive opportunities in Public Sector
- Establish a robust Sales and Presales workflow and remove impediments for the team for smooth operations
- Responsible for providing the Hi-Tech teams BU with the latest market demands and aligning company's product performance & features
- Good knowledge of embedded AI and Cloud computing(AWS & MS-Azure)
- Travelling to client offices globally.
Head of Presales & Business Development – Blockchain Smart Contracts & IoT
Block Gemini
12.2020 - 03.2021
- Establish go-to-market strategy for company's Blockchain based solutions / consulting services in Europe, Middle-East & Africa region
- Won US$ 1.9 Mn SaaS deal from Pharma sector
- Establish and nurture c-suite client relations exploring new opportunities and Account ownership
- Lead overall proposal making process, functional scoping of RFP / RFI across various verticals
- Prepare scope-of-work and proof of concept/case study documents on block-chain platform
- Global client interaction involving client systems study and understanding their business processes & technology needs to offer a more secure Hyper-ledger-based solution
- Provide relevant Pre-Sales support in marketing events/conferences, including presenting at events for the solution, developing reference customers, competitive positioning and analysis
- Travelling to different client locations globally
- Review documents from commercial, compliance and legal perspective and working with Legal teams in drafting the requisite documentation
- Capturing analytics data from our Global Webpage and measuring the Customer Experience ratio by each BU / division globally be it a grievance or a sales enquiry or a vendor or Legal.
Business Process Architect – Innovation & Automation
Nielsen India Service
04.2020 - 07.2020
- Identify the opportunities for automation within existing Business processes and come up with a detailed Solution plan for the PoC and its inferences
- Present solutions / PoC to the Leadership team and expected ROI post implementation of automation projects / PoC
- Manage the project E2E from Ideation, Design, Formulation, Development, Testing and Implementation
- Use inhouse capability in terms of resources to develop the PoC
- Use Process Mining tools to identify the Gaps in the process and which would be a good fit for Automation in order to Save some FTE's
- Conduct surveys within the organization to identify potential business areas of automation.
Manager Presales & Business Development
R Systems International
02.2017 - 06.2019
- Liaising directly with C-level executives (CEO, Head of CoE, CTO, CFO) of prospective and Existing clients (account mining for Hi-Tech products / applications)
- Lead overall proposal making process, functional scoping of RFP / RFI, pricing, across various verticals in line with European GDPR compliance and regulations
- Managed medium sized team across multiple locations as Account Owner (Aprox EUR 1 Mn)
- Coordinated many PoC for prospective clients as part of their Digital Transformation initiatives and systems integrations in Banking and Financial Services / Healthcare/Pharma/Logistics
- Coordinate with Practice Leads, Onsite (Europe / USA) and Offshore (India/Singapore) Client Partners and Delivery / Account Managers /Architects to build the center value proposition for clients and also to ensure smooth and quality delivery
- Provide input to BU financials Reports / status and health (financials, pipeline, growth, delivery stability) on a monthly basis
- Travelling to different client locations globally making presentations for New Business opportunities / Account mining across varied verticals using latest disrupting technology solutions viz
- Improved marketing to attract new customers and promote business.
- Used industry expertise, customer service skills and analytical nature to resolve customer concerns and promote loyalty.
- Successfully managed budgets and allocated resources to maximize productivity and profitability.
- Cloud computing, AR/VR, Mobility, IoT, ERP(Salesforce/SAP).
- Cross-trained existing employees to maximize team agility and performance.
- Developed and maintained relationships with customers and suppliers through account development.
- Onboarded new employees with training and new hire documentation in Warsaw.
Product Development Leader – Cards & Payment products (TS1 & TS2)
Total Systems Inc. (TSYS)
11.2009 - 09.2016
- Participate in quarterly meetings regarding Innovative measures to improve the ROI / Profit Margins of the company's products and services
- Involved in Legacy modernization strategies and implement the same in incremental steps to avoid real time operational impacts to end client
- Managed a team of 21 senior and junior developers for an integration & implementation of new innovative feature in the world of Cards payments platform (Issuing Side) for banks
- Identifying Client IT Infrastructure / Application and putting a Project Resource plan in place
- Deliver E2E solutions to clients of TSYS using TS2 and improvise annual CSQ score
- Project Manage Development, Enhancement & Support of Middleware & Distributed banking products
- Developed Value-Added Services like Fraud Detection, Chip & Pin Card Management and IT output Services (Statements) on TS1 and TS2 products
- Prepare Project Metrics, Dashboard reports, Project Cost Variance report
- Follow effective Change Management, Configuration Management and Release Management practices (6 releases annually)
- Coding complex modules on Legacy Modernization projects using Mainframe & middleware tech
- Including maintaining Multiple Test Environments.
- Assisted with new hire processing and existing training programs.
- Attended industry events to represent organization and build professional network.
Program Manager cum Coordinator – Banking Applications
Royal Bank of Scotland
05.2005 - 09.2009
- Successfully implemented regulatory projects like SEPA, NICC, SOX across various applications within the bank from a compliance perspective within approved budget and timelines
- Maintaining effective communication with clients and capturing Client feedback halfyearly
- Project Manage development, maintenance & support of Mainframe based applications
- Estimation and Design of new projects in conjunction with technical Architects and developers
- Organizing Business / Technical sessions for the development team
- Liaise with Change Management teams for implementation planning and Warranty support
- Managing a team of 20-30 resources at offshore development center (including vendor team)
- Recruitment of Technical resources, project budgeting (GBP 1Mn), capturing & mitigating risk.
- Provided program management expertise in lean Six Sigma strategies and agile methods, practices and execution.
- Engaged and worked alongside cross-functional stakeholders to manage strategic initiatives.
- Built teams to address project goals and objectives for multiple projects.
- Coached employees through day-to-day work and complex problems.
- Collected and analyzed business data from various departments to prepare reports and presentations for management.
- Helping the team with coding complex modules as part of development and integration.
- Addressed and resolved technical, financial, and operational concerns by working with team members and directors.
- Met with project stakeholders on regular basis to assess progress and make adjustments.
Module Leader – Vantage
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
03.2004 - 04.2005
- Analyzing and reviewing requirements from client – Aviva Life Insurance of USA Implementation of enhancements requested in change requests (Claim Adjudication process) Coding, Unit Testing, Integration Testing, UAT support – IBM Mainframe
- Reviewed module code and troubleshot problems.
- Led technical reviews to check code quality and compliance with standards.
- Resolved issues with testing and deployment and escalated critical problems to appropriate personnel.
Senior Software Engineer
Keane India Ltd. (Now NTT Data Systems)
11.2000 - 02.2004
- Led software development initiative as subject matter expert and primary point-of-contact for project management staff.
- Analyzing and reviewing requirements from client for HIPAA compliance project
- Created Application Design documents for the PacifiCare EDI System in line with HIPAA guidelines
- Coding, Unit Testing, Integration testing, UAT support – IBM Mainframe DB2/VAX-VMS systems.
- Provided technical support using knowledge of complex technology to solve problems and support new projects.
- Managed technological issues for assigned projects, increasing customer satisfaction ratings.
Education
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) -
Amravati University
Amravati, Maharashtra, India05.2000
MBA (International Business) -
Maharishi Dayanand University
Rohtak, Haryana, India06.2013
Skills
New Business Development
Knowledge of Generative AI, CI/CD, Cloud (AWS/GCP), Blockchain, Metaverse, NFT, Mobility Applications (Android/iOS)
JIRA / Confluence / MS-Project / Trello / GitHub / IoT / Blockchain/Web3Business Process Mining using tools viz Apromore, Celonis & UiPath GoldGoogle Docs, Spreadsheet, Google script apps and Data StudiosContract Management
Strategic Planning
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
Creativity and Innovation
Strategies and Goals
Verbal and Written Communication
IBM Mainframes – COBOL, DB2, IMS, CICS, VSAM, JCL, CA7, FILEAID
People Management
Financial Management
Project Coordination
Certification
Online learning certificate in METAVERSE from Blockchain Council.
Professional Achievements
- Exela Technologies, Pune, Won 2 deals worth 2.5 Mn$ & developed Global sales pipelines of $ 15+ Mn of DX across domains.
- Block Gemini, Dubai, Secured a deal of US$1.1 Mn from Abu Dhabi Healthcare in 2021(Block chain & IoT solution).
- Nielsen Services, Warsaw, Implemented new automation tools using google script, GCP & UI Path.
- R Systems International, Warsaw, Secured sales win worth Euro 1 Mn+ from EU market for Salesforce & SAP. Successfully established New Go to Market strategies for company's Innovative range of Products and Solutions in EU and EEA.
- TSYS Inc(Now Global Payments), Noida, Won 2 ‘SHOOTING STAR' awards for resolving mission critical problems. Managed the project development of RFID modules for Mastercard in 2014.
- Royal Bank of Scotland, India, UK & Ireland, Received 3 ‘Bronze awards' for resolving mission critical problems @RBS, UK. Developed IBM Mainframe and Peoplesoft DB2 adapters saving license fee. Developed data scrambling modules for secure testing in Test Environments.
Visa Information
Valid B1 visa - USA
Timeline
Director – Public Sector Engagement (North America)
R Systems International
10.2023 - Current
Director – Global RFx Sourcing & Client Engagement
Exela Technologies
04.2021 - 07.2023
Head of Presales & Business Development – Blockchain Smart Contracts & IoT
Block Gemini
12.2020 - 03.2021
Business Process Architect – Innovation & Automation
Nielsen India Service
04.2020 - 07.2020
Manager Presales & Business Development
R Systems International
02.2017 - 06.2019
Product Development Leader – Cards & Payment products (TS1 & TS2)
Total Systems Inc. (TSYS)
11.2009 - 09.2016
Program Manager cum Coordinator – Banking Applications
Royal Bank of Scotland
05.2005 - 09.2009
Module Leader – Vantage
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
03.2004 - 04.2005
Senior Software Engineer
Keane India Ltd. (Now NTT Data Systems)
11.2000 - 02.2004
Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) -
Amravati University
MBA (International Business) -
Maharishi Dayanand University