• Alliance Initiatives: Setting alliances with OEM’s like Aruba Networks (HP Company); Tableau of USA for Business-Intelligence & Analytics; WizIQ for Virtual Learning, 3rd-party Finance & HR Modules from Companies like ESS and KRAYONS to plug-in with NYSA’s DigiUniv ERP clients
• Delivery-capability & Knowledge Partner Creation: ASSET Infotech (Uttarakhand) for delivery of LOBA (Learning Outcome-based Assessments) Projects, ACTUNiv for English-language Communications Skills (Language-Labs)
• Nurture relationships with Public-sector: Manage EdCIL, ICSIL & TCIL to acquire domestic & international Projects
• Manage Operations of All Existing DigiUniv ERP Clients: Led a team of 60 Software developers (onsite & offsite), Team Leads, Analysts and Operations Head for day-to-day operations, crisis-management as well as deployment of customized ERP modules across 15 Indian Universities.
• UP’s Skill Development Mission (UPSDM): Allocated 9K candidates for training across 5 Districts, in Moradabad District on BFSI Course (Insurance Sales Advisor, Banking-&-Accounting) groomed for Banking Sales Representative via Franchisee Centres. Course Duration: 250-to-280 Hours; Course Fee @Rs. 27/Hr.; Project Value: Rs. 6.30 Crore.

1. Revenue Assurance: US$ 38 M; Collections: US$ 52 M in 30 months; UIDAI’s AFPC (Aadhaar Field-Performance Coaching) Roll-out: Spread across 4 states, Project entailed capacity-building of poorly-performing operators preparing Aadhaar Cards; SIIDCUL LoI for delivering Certified Courses for ITI & Polytechnic students of Uttarakhand.
2. Customized VE&T Solution for ESL’s Dubai-based subsidiary Educomp-Global FZE: Project involved sourcing of 8K (8th-level pass) Eng.-speaking Nigerians from Rivers State; Training & certifying them in Bangalore; Post certification, they were to be employed in Dubai (via Educomp’s partner). Blue-collar training skills viz. Carpentry, Plumbing, Masonry, Electrical and House-keeping based on MES curriculum. For Project-delivery, formed alliances with an ITI in B’Lore to outsource their infra (9 training rooms, Labs for Hands-on sessions, Language-Labs, Trainers etc.), local Facility Management vendors for logistic services (Hostels, B-&-L’ing & transportation), designed a 575 Hrs. (6-month) curriculum covering IT, Business English speaking and Entrepreneurship skills. Certifications by NCVT (via DGE&T of MoL, GoI), Pearson, MS, and NIESBUD.
3. Taming Operational Crisis in Bihar’s 600 School ICT Project:
   1. Online Monitoring Tool (OMT) Deployment: Details mentioned below.
   2. Leadership in Resolving Faculty Agitations & Office Lockouts: Crisis created due to absence of timely payments received from State Govt. of UP-& Kar’taka. It was successfully negotiated with the Faculty Associations that led to lifting of lock-outs of Branch Offices of Lucknow & Bangalore and resumption of business operations. Simultaneously, successfully interposed between Educomp’s Board, their lender Bank officials and State Govt. officials. (Consortium of 26 Banks had funded most of Educomp’s 5-year long ICT@Schools PPP Projects of MHRD).

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Leadership and Mission-mode Teamwork to Resolve a Contractual Dilemma and Payment Crisis under ICT@Bihar_Project by Successfully Identifying-&-Deploying an Online Monitoring Tool (OMT) Software Application across 600 Government Schools
In 2010, Educomp had inked a Rs. 52 Crore (US$ 8 Million) ICT Project with BELTRON (Govt. of Bihar PSU) implemented on a BOOT model under MHRD’s ICT@Schools PPP Scheme in 600 Govt. Schools spread across 25 Districts. Out of 600 schools, 400 did not have Electricity. Project SoW involved delivery-& implementation of ICT infrastructure-&-services incld. Servers, Desktops (dual-boot on N-Computing and Microsoft OS platforms, Scanner-cum-Printer, Internet-connectivity, Online Monitoring Tool (OMT) software, Online UPS, Genset-&-fuel, IT Faculty (1 per school), Courseware, Assessments for classes 6^th to 12^th and Helpdesk. There was a 12-member PM team headed by a State PM and 11 Coordinators covering Patna and 24 other District HQ’s.
Context: As per the Contract - at Project kick-off stage, Educomp was to deploy a Client-Server based OMT in 600 ICT Labs i.e. on 1200 Servers. OMT was to enable real-time & remote monitoring and reporting of the ICT infrastructure & faculties, from BELTRON’s HO. OMT was supposed to log the Server boot-up time every morning, shut-down at noon and actual usage in between for the purpose of (a). Monitoring Faculty attendance, (b). Usage & SLA-monitoring of ICT infrastructure, & (c). Gauging learning effectiveness. Reports generated from OMT were to be the basis of approval of Educomp’s Quarterly Invoices submitted along with OMT Reports (Rs. 4.25 Crore was Billed every Quarter).
Crisis: Before my taking-over Operations, for 1-year Educomp unsuccessfully tried various Applications including an in-house PMS, but failed to satisfy BELTRON. OMT’s shown did not meet their expectations w.r.t. OMT functionalities. After sending several reminders, they stopped payment of invoices worth Rs. 20 Crore.
Solution: In Nov.’12 I took over to resolve this crisis. I started a pilot across 50 Bihar schools on LogMeIn Application - a NASDAQ-listed US Company. But, soon realized that the basic architecture of LogMeIn had inherent inadequacies as an OMT. In Jan.’13, an Ahmedabad-based Company called Tectona Softsolutions (Pvt.) Ltd. (OwnyITEE Application) was identified and evaluated. It looked to meet 70% of client’s technical requirements, and remaining features were found to be customizable. TECTONA application tested first on 10 Computers of Educomp’s Gurgaon HO; This pilot was successful, and thereafter a pilot in 50 schools was initiated.
Challenge in OMT’s Deployment:

Starting Feb.’13, next 4 months saw extensive testing & fine-tuning of the OMT Application as deployment of OMT across 600 schools was a mammoth operational task. This exercise involved Genset-repair (since >400 schools did not have electricity), Server-repair (incld. System Clock replacement), provisioning Genset-fuel (diesel), replacement of Genset’s Batteries, providing stable Internet connectivity via Dongles. 35 schools were in areas where that had no ISP present! HONDA Gensets & WIPROs Servers were out-of-warranty so had to identify local Vendors to do repairs. Thrice-a-day Project monitoring of entire operation was done personally with Bihar’s Project team. All Vendor Contracts were vetted, re-negotiated and new ones signed.

Thereafter, there were continuous Reports’ customizations as BELTRON’s Project Consultant (IL&FS) was Educomp’s competitor in K-12 space and they frequently changed their requirements. There were broad guiding principles w.r.t. OMT’s technical parameters mentioned in Project’s RFP. But BELTRON MD (Sh. Atul SinhaITS) had his own ideas w.r.t. OMT Reports. Both BELTRON & IL&FS’s expectations were to be managed very deftly, without antagonizing any of them.

In May’13, we were finally able to satisfy all stake-holders and obtain in-principle OK from BELTRON’s MD to deploy OwnyITEE in rest of Bihar schools. Aforesaid activities continued in mission-mode till 12th Oct.’13, when we finally showed a live demo of 756 Servers across 452 schools, connected concurrently to BELTRON Patna HO’s OMT Server. We generated all Reports as demanded by BELTRON’s MD and IL&FS.

Business Outcomes: Both Beltron and IL&FS approved customized OMT Application and all the Report formats. After a 1-year embargo, BELTRON MD cleared Educomp’s Payments of app Rs. 20 Cr. Relationship with BELTRON MD improved to such an extent that in Feb.’14 he asked Educomp to submit an ICT Skill-Development Proposal to train 6 Lac Class-X students across 150 of those schools where Labs were functioning perfectly.

1. Uttarakhand Open University – Signed-up multi-year MoU for plugging two 6-months EnglishEdge Courses to be taught across 200 Study Centers of UOU. Project included delivery of Train-the-Trainer by Liqvid's Master-Trainers, Courseware; Project was valued at Rs. 9.5 M PA incld. Train-the-Trainer (T3).

1. Product Portfolio: Consulting, Learning Technology Platforms (SumT & CLiKS), eGovernance roll-outs, Assessment Practice (On-&-Offline), ElementK eLearning Courses, Voice-&-accent Trainings, VocationalEducation, Product-Application-&-Process Roll-outs, Learning BPO and Helpdesks.
2. NIIT’s JV with GENPACT in 2008: Critical role in setting-up a Learning-BPO (acquisition of Genpact’s Training Academy by NIIT) that later transformed into UNIQUA- a Company offering total Training Outsourcing Services (TOS) to industries specializing in business processes, knowledge-&-technology services.
3. Led the Online Assessments BU - called Litmus, and logged the first order from Convergys BPO and these initiatives finally led the NIIT-Prometric consortium to nag the rights to conduct first online CAT in 2009
4. Revenues, Collections and Profit: Across all Practices, during the 5-year stint; Revenues Billed: INR 76 Cr.; Collections: Rs. 65+ Cr.; EBITDA: 15%

SUCCESS-STORIES: Globally celebrated, Enterprise turnkey eGovernance Project Comprising of Change-Management and Capacity-Building & Training via Application-&-Product Roll-outs based on Blended-Learning Pedagogy using a Technology-enabled Platform

1. Change Management & Training Project of CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES (Directorate of Income-Tax, under Ministry of Finance) in Oct.’08: A 2 year, US$ 1.55 Million BOOT Project won in 2008 via public RFP in competition with TCS and a US-based eLearning Company. Led from the front w.r.t. Bidding-Winning-Operationalization-Delivery-Vendor-&-Client-Management. This Application Rollout Project’s Scope of Work comprised of the following:
   1. Roll-out of Trainings on TCS’s Income-Tax Processing Application Modules viz.
      • Assessment System (AST)
      • Assessee Information System (AIS)
      • Online Tax Accounting System (OLTAS)
      • Tax Deduction System (TDS)
      • Individual Running Ledger Account (IRLA)
      • Central Information Branch (CIB)
      • Management Information System (MIS)
      • Annual Information Return (AIR)
   2. Institutionalization of e-Learning & Knowledge Management System
   3. CLiKS - Learning Management Software (LMS) Application Licenses
   4. Customized Training Content Development hosted on LMS as well as in hardcopy for the Trainers & Trainees
   5. Change-Management Workshops delivered to 900 of the senior-most ITD officials by NIIT’s consortium partner Hewitt Associates (nka AON Hewitt Associates)
   6. Training-administration and Helpdesk with 10 agents for DIT employees.
   
   This was NIIT’s biggest, multi-practice Change-Management-&-Training Solution Project ever undertaken globally. Involved training of >13K DIT officials on above IT Processing Software Applications via blended-learning pedagogy, delivered across 35 ITD training locations by a pool of 45 CA’s with IT skills - acquired via 3rd party vendors. This pool of trainers was approved by Commissioner, DIT (Systems). Our consortium-partners i.e. Hewitt-AON conducted Change-Management Workshops for 900 senior-most IT officers across 19 DIT locations by their top-notch CM practitioners.


2. Tax-Returns Preparer’s (TRP) Project for Department of Income Tax (The Project is seen on Govt. of India’s portal http://www.trpscheme.com/): For NIIT Ltd. between 2006 & 2009
   TRPS was a unique, specialized skill-development based employability-generation Project awarded by CBDT’s Department of Public Relations, Printing Publications & Official Language and CBEC (Ministry of Finance) in 2006-‘07. Hon’ble FM P. Chidambaram announced TRP Scheme in Lok Sabha in Nov.’06. NIIT’s revenue was US $ 2.75 M across two Project cycles executed between 2006 & 2009.
   Project Goal for Cycle-I (CBDT): To create a talent pool of well-trained & certified 5K (BA/B.Sc./B.Com) graduate entrepreneurs who can successfully file Indian citizens’ Income-Tax returns. Phase-I of TRPS was kicked-off in Nov.’06.
   Project Goal for Cycle-II (CBEC): Involved creation of 3K graduates skilled in filing of Service-Tax-and-TDS Returns for SME businesses. This Project created an honorable avenue to earn livelihood via self-employment for country’s highly talented graduates.
   Selection of students was done via same-day conduct of a nationwide Public-Exam conducted across 100 locations in 25 states. A massive marketing-&-publicity campaign using electronic-&-print media and FM channels etc. was undertaken. 49K students were selected for all-India Exam from app. 1 Lac applications.
   Taxmann – leading publishers of books on Tax, Corporate Laws, Accounting-&-Auditing was NIIT’s Knowledge Partner for brining core domain knowledge & subject-matter expertise w.r.t. Income-Tax /Service-Tax/TDS and Master-Trainers. Train-the-trainer (T3) sessions were delivered by renowned CA’s. 100+ NIIT Trainers were trained. Class-room sessions for learners were of 72 hours delivered in 110 NIIT Centers across 81 cities.
   Custom eLearning content was uploaded on NIIT’s CLiks Learning Management Software portal and all learners accessed it using their Log-in and Passwords. This learning content created by NIIT’s specialized Content-writers. Hardcopy courseware was delivered to students prior to ILT sessions. A dedicated Helpdesk via a Toll-free number was provided for learner support. HD executives were given specialized training.
   Post the 1st-phase of TRPS Project which concluded in May’07, Top-100 successfully certified candidates received Certificates from the Hon’ble FM of that time i.e. Shri P.C. Chidambaram at N. Delhi’s India Habitat Centre. Post-training, all the certified students were provided work-desks within Income-Tax Office premises across various Indian cities, along with a local DIT official identified by the Department to mentor & monitor them.

1. Spearheaded all-India GTM Campaign to push Cheque-Truncation Solutions (CTS) in all Indian Public-Sector, Cooperative and MNC Banks: Led the GTM initiative for promoting Newgen’s image-based Cheque-Processing Business Process Management (BPM) Solution in 79 Banks. RBI’s Payments-&-Settlement Division was implementing a critical pilot under the Delhi Clearing House. Newgen - a Rs. 300 Cr. Company, carried a boutique portfolio of BPM and Document Management System (DMS) Software Solutions.
2. Led a team of Account Managers and Pre-Sales to sell BPM and Back-Office Centralization Solutions covering processes like Account Opening & Loan Processing under Trade Finance, Retail Banking and Governance-Risk-&-Compliance (GRC) Solutions to BFSI sector as well as Central & State Government Departments.
3. Bagged CMC DMS deal of Rs. 2.0 Cr.; Ceaseless efforts (later) led to the successful deployment of Newgen’s CTS Solution in Indian Bank, United Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Bank of America, HSBC, ING Vysya, Kotak Mahindra, Dhanalaxmi Bank and Bombay Mercantile Bank Ltd.

1. Pan-India Sales & Operations to promote Artemis Enterprise Project Management Software, Dialogic CTI IVRS and DMS (Document Management Software) Solutions
2. Established alliance with world’s biggest Project Management Software Company-Artemis International Solutions Corp.-NASDAQ OTCBB, a 30 year old US Company present in 45 countries; world’s leading provider of Enterprise Investment Planning & Control, Project-portfolio Management, Resource collaboration Solutions & Consulting Services to Global 500 Organizations.
3. Positioned Artemis as premium PM Solution in India targeted across domains like Telecom, Software Development, Plant Shutdown & Maintenance, Ship MRO, Aviation, Defense, Project Forensics and Pharma. After receiving training at Singapore, conceptualized its launch and formulated Business Plan, Marketing & Sales campaigns; Clients: C-DoT, Min. of Program Implementation, Escorts; Revenues: US $ 0.25 M.

1. A. Joined in Apr.’01 as Program Manager managing Platinum Accounts and rose to the position of Segment Manager (N & E) in their Finance, Banking & Insurance (FBI) BU in Feb.’02
2. Industry Segments Handled: BFSI, Power, Education, Aviation, FMCG, Pharma and IT Consulting
3. Bagged two of the biggest Telecom-cum-SI an VSAT Projects in 2004
   • Damodar Valley Corporation, Kolkata (under Ministry of Power) – DVC was India’s first multipurpose river-valley Project Authority created in July 1948 to counter repeated flood menace posed by Damodar river. This Project was biggest turnkey Systems Integration and Telecom
     Infrastructure Bid won by HUGHES in 2003-’04. It had a service-span of 6-years, valued at US $ 2.20 M connecting DVC HQ with its 12 (Hydel-Thermal-&-Gas) Power Plants spread across Jharkhand & W. Bengal. Project comprised supply of VSAT’s, Communication Hardware, Network links, and services incld. SCPC VSATs, Leased-Lines, Routers, Switches, Satellite Bandwidth on C-Band, Network Operations Centre (NOC) infrastructure incld. NMS Software, intra-office communications equipment like EPABX, Intercoms etc., Computer Servers, Desktops and all related equipment and Services.
   • Punjab National Bank’s Offsite ATM Network – In Aug. 2004 bagged PNB’s deal for supplying 800 TDM / TDMA VSAT’s to India 2nd largest Public-sector Bank in a bid won against Bharti Airtel
4. Bagged India first Project (Mitr) to network & inter-connect the ATM & Payment Gateway (at Switch level) Network in 2004. It was launched by a consortium of five Banks i.e. PNB, OBC, Indian Bank, UTI & Karur Vysya Bank
5. Won ATM VSAT network deals from UCO Bank, SBoP & UtBI; Logged the first order on HCIL’s VPN backbone from Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
6. Turned-around dissatisfied clients like PNB, UCO, UtBI, Allahabad Bank & SBoP and coupled customer satisfaction with recovery of huge past outstanding payments
7. As the Project Manager, successfully handled platinum accounts like NTPC, AAI, Pawan Hans, ICI, Amway, EDS-Delphi, Eli Lilly, Bajaj Hindusthan and GHCL managing Project implementations, Vendor-management, collections and repeat orders
8. • Project-delivery & Operations, Regulatory Permissions, Repeat Sales, Collections, Contract & Vendor Management, and Client-satisfaction
   • Bid-Management, Sales-&-Business-Development, Consortium-Partner Management.

1. As Dy. Manager (Marketing) headed their Earth Sciences Technology Group (ESTG). KLG Systel was an NSE-listed Knowledge Company providing Solutions in Geospatial, Process automation and Project Management domains to EPC, Power, O-&-G, Environment, Utilities, Retail, Telecom and Manufacturing sectors
2. B. ESTG’s portfolio of products consisted of disparate Hardware & Software Packages viz. Contex A0 Scanners (Sweden) for Digitization of Maps-&-Drawings, Vertex High-resolution A3-size Satellite Image Scanner, Motorola’s Global Positioning Systems, Optical Storage Solutions from Pinnacle Micro (USA), ER Mapping’s ER Mapper (Geo-processing Software for Geological applications from Hexagon Geospatial, USA), MapInfo Desktop mapping (Pitney Bowes, USA), Photogrammetric Software EADS-Infoterra, France), Primavera (Oracle Corp., USA) Project Portfolio Management and ETAP (Electrical Transient Analysis Program, USA) Applications etc. .
3. Spearheaded design of innovative Solutions like integrated Drawing-&-Document Solutions, GPS-based Vehicle&-Fleet tracking System, Geospatial data and GPS-assisted surveying services to GSM operators like Ericsson etc. helping them design their client’s mobile communications infrastructure
4. Turnkey DMS Solutions sold to Corporate like Ranbaxy; Software and Hardware sold to OEM and System-Integrators like DCM Data-Systems, NIIT-ESRI, HCL, ICIM, PCL; Other clients included Govt. bodies like NRSA, Space Applications Centres, Survey of India, DESU, IASRI, and Defense establishment like PMO-DIPAC etc.

1. Joined as Sr. Sales Engineer selling online Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Systems. Quasar was the largest OEM supplier of UPS’s in the country (upto 5 KVA capacity) supplying majorly via HCL
2. Opened several new & large accounts like P&S Bank, IOCL, MMTC, IFFCO, ENEXCO, OEM’s like WIPRO, Siemens Healthcare etc.
3. Sold their first 3-phase 7.50 KVA UPS to Bank of India Zonal office in N. Delhi.

1. A Company into manufacturing Energy Conservation equipment like Induction Motor-Controllers, Soft-Starters, Electronic Ballasts and Welding-rectifier Energy-savers
2. Joined as Sales Engineer and did extensive Energy Audits on the shop-floors of industries in Delhi-NCR region, showing the ROI if BENCON’s products are integrated with the motorized equipment in these industries.
3. Sold the first Motor-controllers and electronic ballasts.