Rafat Anjum

Pernod Ricard, the world’s leading premium spirits company, selected IBM as its system integrator for the implementation and support of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and NAV across more than 20 subsidiaries in Europe and Africa.

Key Responsibilities and Achievements:

• Leading two major IT programs across EMEA subsidiaries: Effectively managed a 3-year T&M Navision AMS program with an 8-member offshore team, delivering exceptional results that secured a 5-year fixed-price contract renewal valued at €1.7M, and subsequently facilitated the award of a €7M, 3-year Business Central rollout spanning 20 affiliates and 1 DMS, supported by a 10-member team for IBM.
• Accountable for the full project lifecycle: planning, stakeholder engagement, risk and issue management, budgeting, and continuous service improvement.
• Developed and executed rollout and staffing plans to ensure timely resourcing based on project milestones.
• Worked closely with regional teams to manage risks, issues, and escalations on behalf of the offshore delivery teams.
• Managed AMS delivery, including incident and service request resolution, within defined SLAs.
• Provided regular reporting to IBM and client leadership through monthly metrics and weekly '7 Keys' updates via IDCP.
• Ensured full compliance with GDPR through oversight of onboarding, offboarding processes, and DS&P documentation for all team members.
• Cost Optimization: Achieved $12K in cost savings in 2025 through automation and strategic resource reallocation (replacing higher-band resources with lower-band resources).
• Innovation Leadership: Spearheading project-level initiatives related to watsonx.ai, including the promotion of IBM Consulting Advantage capabilities to Pernod Ricard for potential adoption.
• People and Performance Management: Responsible for performance reviews, mentoring, and career development of 18 offshore team members.

• Developed processes and procedures for the team to follow in order to deliver quality services within agreed timelines.
• Oversaw day-to-day operations ensuring adherence to established SLAs and OLAs and compliance with company policies.
• Maintained open communication channels between the team members, customers, vendors, and other relevant parties involved in a project.
• Prepared periodic reports summarizing key performance indicators, such as response time, resolution rate, and customer satisfaction report.
• Collaborated with internal teams regarding upcoming product releases and ensured proper testing prior to deployment.
• Developed plans for proactive problem prevention initiatives.

• Led Application Management Services (AMS) for L1 support, incident, and problem management teams, ensuring 24/7 availability and service continuity for critical enterprise systems.
• Managed all Severity 1 and 2 incidents, driving resolution via technical bridge calls, and coordinating with global resolver teams to meet SLA commitments.
• Spearheaded resource optimization initiatives through automation and workload shift-left strategies, resulting in significant cost savings for the project. Introduced automation for ticket assignment and resolution. Reduced manual workload.
• Implemented a lean project, reducing SLA breaches by 40%. Utilized ServiceNow reports, proactive communication, and strategic meetings.
• Led efforts to reduce Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR) for major incidents, improving overall service reliability, and client satisfaction.
• Championed the digitization of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to streamline operations and improve onboarding efficiency.
• Successfully managed the transition of a 15-member project from Syntel to Wipro, ensuring a seamless knowledge transfer, and service continuity.
• Accountable for people management, including performance evaluations, skill development, and team engagement for all assigned resources.

Experienced in troubleshooting and supporting SOHO networks, resolving Windows XP to 7 system and configuration issues, managing Internet Explorer functionality, and enabling efficient file and printer sharing in non-domain workgroup environments.

Installed, maintained, and troubleshot SOHO networking devices, including wired/wireless routers (BEFSR41, WRT54G series, WRT150N, WRT160N, WRT300/310/350/400N), wireless access points, range extenders, IP cameras, and print servers, ensuring optimal network performance and connectivity.