Swathi Agarwal
Hyderabad
Summary
Finance Business Partner with robust expertise in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and financial modeling, enabling strategic decision support. Demonstrated success in collaborating with senior leadership to drive business growth and enhance operational efficiency. At GUS, spearheaded the creation of sophisticated financial models, oversaw budgeting and forecasting processes, and delivered actionable insights via Power BI dashboards for UK and US brands. Holds an MBA and CMA (ICMA, USA) certification, focused on optimizing financial processes to achieve impactful results.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Associate Manager
Global University Systems
12.2024 - Current
- Designed and developed Power BI dashboards for U.S. and U.K. brands, providing senior leadership with real-time, actionable insights into financial performance, key metrics, and trends.
- Collaborated with the central Finance and Accounts Payable team to ensure the timely creation, approval, and payment of over 200 purchase orders (POs) per quarter, reducing approval delays by 25%.
- Led and managed a team of five finance administrators responsible for supplier registration, procurement, and expense administration, streamlining financial operations, and improving process efficiency by 20%.
- Conducted a comprehensive financial analysis, including budget-to-actual variance analysis, identifying key variances, and proposing corrective actions.
Deputy Manager
Hitachi Vantara
02.2016 - 11.2023
- Manage financial performance for the Digital Solutions Business Unit, Digital Enterprise Applications, and Japan and Others as a finance business partner.
- Leverage financial insights to optimize revenue generation, overseeing the Digital Solutions Business Unit's $600 million, Digital Enterprise Applications' $330 million, and Japan and Others' $31 million in revenue.
- Support the CEO in strategic decision-making aligned with the Annual Operating Plan (AOP), actively driving annual budgeting and forecasting with detailed analysis to optimize revenue streams totaling $624 million, and manage costs amounting to $464 million, resulting in margins of $160 million.
- Analyzing historical budgets and spending patterns to create and execute future budgetary plans to arrive at margins of 26%.
- Lead financial reporting and analysis for the business unit, and grow financial performance through the analysis of financial results, forecasts, variances, and trends.
- Establish regional performance reviews in collaboration with the finance team based out of the USA.
- End-to-end ownership of headcount and utilization reporting, and proactive support to sub-practice leaders on ad-hoc requests.
- Work closely with the accounting team to ensure accurate financial reporting.
- Collaborating with the EMEA Senior Finance Manager to drive the EMEA revenue forecasting on a monthly basis.
- Enhanced overall financial reporting by identifying and driving process improvements, finance digital transformation, including the creation of standard and ad-hoc reports, tools, and Excel dashboards.
Education
Certified Management Accountant - Financial Planning & Analysis
Institute of Management Accountants
Hyderabad03-2017
MBA - Finance & Marketing
University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad05-2004
B.Com - Accounting
University of Botswana
Gaborone, Botswana05-2002
Skills
- VBA
- MACROS
- SAGE
- Agresso
- Anaplan
- Salesforce
- Oracle Business Intelligence
- Smart View
- Power BI
- Power Query
- Advanced Excel and MS Access
- Power BI Dashboard Design and Development
- Financial Planning and Budgeting
- Financial Analysis and Reporting
- Forecasting and Scenario Analysis
- Variance Analysis
- Communication and Stakeholder Management
Websites
Accomplishments
- Platinum Award of $750 for headcount tracking and reporting across India, Vietnam, and the rest of the world entities
- Streamlined procurement and expense processes, reducing approval delays by 25%, and improving the overall efficiency of over 200 purchase orders per quarter
- Reduced financial reporting time by 30% through the design and automation of Power BI dashboards, enabling senior leadership to make data-driven decisions in real time
- Designed and implemented financial models after an organizational structural change, which received high accolades from executive management
- Successfully implemented Power BI in FP&A, and various teams across GSS in Hitachi Vantara
- Identified as the 'go-to person' by executive management, thereby given additional responsibilities above and beyond regular job responsibilities
- Generated cost savings for the Trip Approvals project of more than $100,000 in a fiscal year, and earned the Outstanding Award at Deloitte
Timeline
Associate Manager
Global University Systems
12.2024 - Current
Deputy Manager
Hitachi Vantara
02.2016 - 11.2023
Certified Management Accountant - Financial Planning & Analysis
Institute of Management Accountants
MBA - Finance & Marketing
University of Hyderabad
B.Com - Accounting
University of Botswana
Similar Profiles
Neeta SachadeNeeta Sachade
Senior Sales Manager at Global University SystemsSenior Sales Manager at Global University Systems
Afreen BegumAfreen Begum
Customer Success Manager at Global University SystemsCustomer Success Manager at Global University Systems
Anindita KunduAnindita Kundu
Manager Customer Support at Global University SystemsManager Customer Support at Global University Systems