Rama Krishna Pothala
Overland Park
Summary
Dynamic Program Manager with extensive experience at Tata Consultancy Services, excelling in risk assessment and stakeholder management. Proven track record in delivering Cisco’s eCommerce platform, optimizing processes, and leading cross-functional teams. Expertise in Agile methodologies and financial analysis, driving significant improvements in project outcomes and ensuring compliance with international standards.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Program Manager
Tata Consultancy Services
10.2012 - Current
- Platform Program Manager for Cisco’s eCommerce platform handling Cisco’s ~$50B business
- Responsible for define the Program’s goals and objectives, ensure alignment with the organizations strategic priorities
- Developing detailed Program roadmap, outlining timelines, milestones, and deliverables
- Establish a governance structure for decision making
- Develop frameworks, processes, and tools for monitoring and evaluation
- Coordinate projects to ensure they compliment one another, monitor progress across the portfolio of projects and ensure right resource allocation.
- Maintain Program RAIDD using Jira Dashboard and provide Weekly updates Program health
- Ensure IT Timelines in alignment with Program Plans to support overall organizational objectives
- Identify, assess and manage risks across the program
- Develop mitigation strategies to address interdependencies and challenges
- Identify stakeholders and understand their needs and expectations
- Communicate program progress, risks and success through regular updates and reports
- Optimize the use of financial, human and technical resources. Ensure the Project Managers have what they need to achieve
- Manage changes to Program scope, timelines and resources. Ensure teams adapts to changes with minimal disruption
- Ensure Program delivers intended benefits and value and Measures outcomes post-implementation to assess success
- Mediate conflicts between projects or stakeholders. Ensure alignment when priorities or expectations clash
- Responsible for backlog management, value-based prioritization, stakeholder negotiations
- Leading various global teams focused on different Programs and Offers including task-allocation, hiring and mentoring
- Expertise in scaled agile and scrum frameworks and the application in product development and delivery
- Conceptualize and Built Opportunity-Quote-Ordering-Contracts-Renewals eCommerce process for Product Subscriptions and Services (Impacting $15B worth of Bookings)
- Built efficiencies in processes and tool-integrations between Cisco and its B2B Partners and Distributors through customer feedbacks, proof of concept and Agile and Hybrid methodologies
- Leading a team of Product owners to transform Cisco’s CX Offers and design innovative features for customers
- Leads a team of multi-vendor contractors and Full Time Employes guiding their functional roadmap and ensuring the team's growth and development.
- Converting traditional annual revenue of Services offers of Hardware Support and consulting to XaaS-based recurring model with consumption and billing alternatives
- Collaborating with customers, Partners and Services Sales teams to clearly define and document project scope, requirements and integration points for solution implementation.
- Identify the Return-on-Investment (ROI) and prioritize scope based on their corresponding business value case
- Successfully executed the rollout of Cisco’s new Hybrid cloud-as-a-service offering, enabling customer-centric consumption models (Full Stack Subscription, Full Stack Usage Based, Full Stack Enterprise Agreement). This Program facilitated 80% of IT Infrastructure bought on a Pay-as-You-Go basis, Consumption based procurement in datacenters.
- When requested perform analysis of customer RFP and Service Requirements with the Sales teams in Pre-Sales Stage to help create a solution offering to the customer.
- Creation of Statement of Work Documents outlining Service Requirements ensuring the agreed upon scope of services within the SOW are being completed on time and on budget.
- Managing Supplier agreements and relationships along with Business Continuity Management, Operations security managing systems.
- Actively involved in SOX control management, ensuring compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements.
- I am actively involved in External Audits for ISO 9001 - Quality Management Systems, ISO 14001 - Environmental Management Systems, TL 9000 - Telecom Quality Management, and ISO/IEC 27001 - Information Security Management Systems, as part of Business Assurance and Certification activities. My role includes ensuring compliance with these international standards, facilitating the audit process, collaborating with teams to address findings, and maintaining a robust management system to uphold certifications and continuous improvement.
- Drive scope specific downtime requirements in collaboration with Portfolio Management & Enterprise Release Management Organization (ERMO) during the Transition phase
- Managed and supervised a team of vendor Business/IT Analysts and Project Managers and responsible for their task allocation and reporting
- Act as a single-point-of-contact to stakeholders, Product Owners, Release leads, Cross functional teams and Change Management teams
Project Manager
Cisco Systems INC
10.2012 - 09.2016
- Accountable for steering the entire end-to-end Enterprise Release Management process.
- Accountable for the management of diverse release schedules, encompassing Quarterly, Monthly, and Point Releases
- Collaborating and coordinating with multiple cross functional Infrastructure teams throughout release process, as well as addressing critical issues and urgent tasks to deliver business outcomes on schedule.
- Participated in the formulation of ERMO Environment refresh schedules and played a role in the execution of releases up to the Production environment.
- Supervising and overseeing the identification, assessment, and management of release-related risks.
- Collaborate with IT Release Managers in the strategic planning and successful execution of both quarterly and monthly Enterprise Application and Infra releases.
- Collaborate closely with IT Change Management teams to strategize and effectively implement change requests
- Setup and maintain user, release and project related information in tools such as PROPEL, Clarity, Remedy, Cisco Docs
Project Specialist
Capgemini
Bangalore
12.2011 - 10.2012
- Responsible for Managing Release and Deployment activities and managing a team
- Manage a team of 6 members in involve documenting the process, model and workflow for both Release and Deployment Management
- Managing various environment code migrations to ensure that they have been carried out
- Organizing and conducting post implementation meetings to collect improvement suggestions for future releases
- Responsible for maintaining Operational Release and Deployment Risk Register
- Set Tollgates on every stage to make sure proper Access review and Implementation plan review before approving the changes
- Make sure that the changes are maintained in version control after post deployment by Deployment Management team
- Responsibilities included working closely with various business groups to define the product requirements, scope and critical success factors for the project
- Define servicing principles, design contractual servicing process for smooth execution of operations
- Proactively manage changes in project scope, identify potential risk and define contingency plans
Project Lead
Dell Services (India) Ltd.
Nottingham
09.2005 - 12.2011
- Started as a Software Programmer, I enhanced my technical skills, focusing on coding, debugging, and testing software applications. This technical role allowed me to understand the complexities of software development and build a strong technical expertise.
- As I progressed to a Project Lead, I took more responsibilities, including project planning, execution, and delivery. I managed cross-functional teams, ensured projects met deadlines, and maintained high-quality standards. This role also involved strategic decision-making, resource allocation, and stakeholder management, which were critical for successful project outcomes.
- In the role of Onsite Coordinator for Experian in the UK, I acted as a crucial link between the client and the offshore development team. My responsibilities included gathering and clarifying requirements, ensuring smooth communication, and addressing any issues or concerns promptly. This experience enhanced client management skills and provided valuable insights into managing international projects.
- Throughout these roles, I developed a comprehensive understanding of the software development lifecycle, improved my leadership abilities, and gained extensive experience in coordinating complex projects, which have been instrumental in my professional growth.
Programmer
HealthLink IT (J K Infosys)
Visakhapatnam
06.2004 - 09.2005
- My first job as a Software Programmer, I was eager to engage myself in the field and gain a comprehensive understanding of the various parts of Information Technology.
- I was fortunate to work under the guidance of experienced professionals who mentored me and provided invaluable insights.
- Responsible for Design and Development of Web application, Monitoring SQL server and performing Database management activities.
- Integrated SQL traces with Performance Monitor to have better graphical analysis to find system bottlenecks.
- Involved in Performance monitor and SQL Profiler to optimize queries and enhance the performance of database servers.
- Trouble shooting SQL Server 2005 Database connectivity issues from the web applications.
Education
Master of Computer Applications - Information Technology
University of Madras
Chennai, India03-2004
Skills
- Program management
- Project management
- Risk assessment
- Stakeholder management
- Change management
- Financial analysis
- Agile methodologies
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Process optimization
- Resource allocation
- Conflict resolution
- Data analysis
- Team leadership
- Contract development
- Employee development
- Regulatory compliance
- Performance monitoring
- Collaborate cross-functionally
- Project lifecycle
- Risk management
- Service delivery management
- IT service management (ITSM) oversight
Certification
- Boston Marathon – Qualifier
- Accomplished 4 World Marathon Majors (Boston, Chicago, London, New York)
- SAFe 4 Agile certified professional
- ITIL Expert certificate in IT Service Management
- Prince 2 Project Management Certification
- AWS Certified Solution Architect - Associate
- ITIL Managing across the Lifecycle (MALC)
- ITIL Foundation V3 certified professional
- ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition
- Microsoft Certified professional on C# .net
Affiliations
- I am passionate about running and have completed the World Marathon Majors in under 3hrs. I am proud to be part of the Marathon Age Group World Championships. These personal achievements reflect my discipline, perseverance, and ability to set and achieve ambitious goals – qualities that I bring to every Program and Project I manage.
Timeline
Program Manager
Tata Consultancy Services
10.2012 - Current
Project Manager
Cisco Systems INC
10.2012 - 09.2016
Project Specialist
Capgemini
12.2011 - 10.2012
Project Lead
Dell Services (India) Ltd.
09.2005 - 12.2011
Programmer
HealthLink IT (J K Infosys)
06.2004 - 09.2005
Master of Computer Applications - Information Technology
University of Madras
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