BALAKRISHNA SARA

551-***-****

acy34f@r.postjobfree.com

career profile

A Certified Project Management Professional and ERP Specialist with 21 years of industry experience, nearly 16 years of ERP Consulting & Project Management experience, and expert level skills in architecture and implementation of ERP & Web applications. Playing a critical role in enterprise applications technology group, working closely with senior level management and stakeholders to ensure thoroughly articulated project benefits and solutions, emphasizing the importance of managing risks and developing solution-focused designs. Liaising with cross-functional department executives to identify customer needs and implement appropriate solutions. Managing and orchestrating IT investments & service offerings such as Enterprise-wide IT solutions implementations, Global Production Support assignments, large scale automated & functional testing engagements, enterprise applications up gradation & Migrations. Experienced in Software Development Cycles, leading and participating in teams to design, configure, and test functionality in accordance with customer’s needs and requests.

areas of strength and expertise

Project & Program Mgmt.

Organizational Leadership

Stakeholder Management

Change & Release Mgmt.

Process Re-Engineering

Staff Development

Supervision & Training

SDLC Management & Documentation

Acquisitions Integration

Strategic Planning & Analysis

IT Operations & Planning

Data Integration and Architecture

Business Operations Support

IT Strategy/Roadmaps

C-Level Collaboration

Vendor Management

Relationship Building

Technology Consulting

Team Management

Onsite/Offshore Model

Conflict Management

Education and Training

MBA, Information System, MG University, Delhi, India

Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Bangalore University, Bangalore, India

Project Management Professional Certification, PMI (PMP #871702)

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Certified Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB)

Oracle E-Business Suite 12 Supply Chain Certified Implementation Specialist: Oracle Inventory/ Oracle Order Management/ Oracle Purchasing

Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD)

Technical Skills

Oracle E-Business Suite 11i/R12 – Supply Chain Management, Financial & CRM (Order Management, Shipping, Advanced Pricing, Inventory, Quoting, iStore, Purchasing, iProcurement, Service Contracts, Sales Contracts, Bills of Materials, Quality, Warehouse Management system, Trading Community Architecture, Channel Revenue Management, Accounts Receivables, iReceivables, Accounts Payables, iExpenses, General Ledger, Fixed Assets, Advanced Collections, Enterprise Planning and Budgeting, Incentive Compensation, MDM, XML Publisher, OBIEE & SOA

MS Project, Visio, Smartsheet, Jira, Trello, Autotask, Remedy Force, Alfresco, ServiceNow, Zendesk & MS Office

Professional Experience

C &S Wholesalers Inc., Edison NJ FEB 2015 to Present

Sr. Manager, PMO - IT

Leading ERP operations & services across the company in a Functional & Project Manager role for various Oracle EBS, Web services implementation & business transformation projects. Liaisons with IT cross functional and technical teams, Business & PMO. Key person in managing and coordinating with stakeholders and C-level executives for all project related activities, production support & responsible for maintaining SLA.

Responsible for Oracle EBS implementation at C&S warehouses replacing current legacy systems (OMS/WWCS/TRICEPS/MAIN FRAME & Home grown apps) for the following projects.

Project Venus - AHOLD Warehouse EBS R12 Implementation (CAPEX – 2.5 million)

Project Grocers Supply Warehouse EBS R12 Implementation (CAPEX – 4 million)

Project DMW (UI) – C&S Deals Management Workbench (CAPEX – 5 million)

Project AWI Warehouse EBS R12 Implementation (CAPEX – 3.5 million)

Project Quoted Pricing – NH Warehouse Buyers/Merchandisers Workbench (CAPEX – 0.5 million)

Project Manager and SCM Functional lead managing a team of 20 (onshore 7, 3 nearshore and 10 offshore) and other cross functional teams involved in P2P, Finance, Supply Chain Execution, HCM, SOA, OBIEE, DBA, Operations & Development tracks.

Planning and executing in integrating C&S warehouse acquisitions by planning phase wise implementation in transitioning and migrating legacy systems into ERP.

Governing and facilitating all project meetings between IT cross functional, Development, Business (Internal & Customer) and PMO.

Reporting PMO, Stakeholders and Business with up to date project statuses using various representation formats with all project SDLC phases (Initiation/Blueprinting/Development/ Testing/Go-Live/Post Implementation).

Creating various GANTT charts for project tasks, schedules and interdependencies indicating milestones to track and report the progress.

Defining, monitoring and reporting project performance measurement baselines (Scope/Schedule/Cost) through efficient channels representing on KPI dashboards.

Analyzing Earned value calculations throughout the project life cycle for Cost and Schedule variances in building Cost and Schedule performance indexes to control any variances.

Managing and coordinating project expectations by laying effective communication strategies to stakeholders and project sponsors with up to date project status reports & performance dashboards.

Involving in all phases of the project life cycle from Initiation to Go-live, preparing and presenting the artifacts within each process group & phase (Project Request, Approval & Review – Project Acceptance Report).

Maintaining the RICE tracker with clear WBS, Project schedules, Planned to Actual tasks and budgets completion in reporting the project status by laying effective communication strategies to Steering committee, PMO and stakeholders.

Monitoring Project budgets and taking necessary decisions in controlling the budget and prioritizing the critical path tasks by mitigating any risks and maintaining RAID logs and risk register.

Determining the RICE (Reports/Interfaces/Conversions/Extensions/Enhancements) objects to come up with Work breakdown structure, Project resource and effort estimates, Timelines and submitting the project CAPEX.

Preparing Project charter along Business cases and proposals for projects including Business benefits and ROI analysis.

Planning and delivering projects with Traditional (Waterfall) or Agile (Scrum) methodology approach as appropriate.

Managing and negotiating external Vendors for resource allocation on various projects and third party applications by creating RFP’s and perusing the Proposals.

Designing the solutions for the complexity with legacy systems transformation, system integrations, data migrations & cutover strategies for smooth transition without interruption of business continuity.

Designing IT architecture in integrating multiple applications and platforms across the enterprise aligning with business strategies.

Managing and closely monitoring project scope and following appropriate approvals for any scope creep.

Developing Test governance processes and methodologies in executing User Training, Unit Testing, String Testing, System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Quality, Security Testing, System load and Performance Testing.

Recruiting, develop and mentoring IS teams and consultants onsite and offshore with specific responsibilities and goals on various projects within portfolio management.

Leading and managing development and delivery of Oracle EBS SCM solutions integrated with Financial, HCM and CRM applications.

Working with Business and IT on identifying pain points and advising the right IT automated solutions with quarterly and yearly roadmaps by prioritization.

Conducting and leading Business users, IT and departmental working war room sessions & CRP cycles at various stages of the project.

Reviewing all IS RFC’s as part of Change Advisory Board for QA & PROD deployment.

Leading and coordinating testing efforts for disaster recovery of IT Infrastructure applications by documenting DRP.

Providing system operational support ensuring the accuracy and availability of systems for all users and resolving all IT Incident management process tickets within predetermined SLA’s (AutoTask).

Managing & building release cycles in each phase for successful testing and deployment.

Involving with internal and external IT audits & coordinating with departmental heads in resolving SOD conflicts and adhering to SOX compliance.

As a Functional Lead role, designed and delivered Functional design specifications (MD50), Applications Setup (BR100), Test scripts (TE40) for the following design solutions.

-High volume Order Import, Order Scheduling, Substitution, Proration & Allocation, Ship confirm, Palletization and Transportation interface (Truck loads), Item Orderability Restrictions (custom), Drop shipments, ISO, RMA, Purchase Order processing, Customer master processing, Standard Credits, Auto Invoice pre-processor & Cross docking.

-Designing critical integrations to external systems (Mainframe, Triceps, and Biceps) and EDI interfaces for OTC Inbound & Outbound flows (EDI850, EDI855, EDI853, EDI856, EDI860 & EDI810), Data feed to Teradata for SLR reporting, TMS schedule calendar, Trip and Stop details to Transportation Management System.

-Designing various User interfaces across the departments to provide the functionality of editing and processing sales orders, assigning loads to WMS, maintaining store schedule calendars, creating deals and link codes using Oracle Application development framework (ADF) & CloudIO.

-Designing bi-directional interfaces to sync data between various external systems for customer, item and supplier master and transactional data. Providing detailed conversion mapping and design (CV040, CV060).

-Developing business critical reports with explicit data mining and extracts from various applications on a daily/weekly/monthly wise reporting on sales, groupbuy and receipts to generate EDI852 and EDI 867 Cross Road report sent to AP vendors detailing which Chain has consumed their products.

PR Newswire LLC, Jersey City NJ SEP 2006 to JAN 2015

Project Manager, Financial Systems

Delivering full range of implementation and support services to drive enterprise applications maturity, business process management, and information technology practices from strategy to project execution. Successfully deploying ERP application globally & managing operational support of global ERP – Oracle E-Business suite system with operations in US, Canada, Mexico, India and UK consisting of 16+ global applications supporting Financials, Supply Chain and CRM business functions while enabling innovation, promoting business growth and dramatically reducing costs.

Planning, directing and coordinating activities of multiple projects ranging in value from $0.5m to $8m in the areas of ERP implementations replacing current legacy systems (PIVOTAL/QUICKBOOKS/EDITORIAL SYSTEMS/LOTUS NOTES/CMS & Home grown applications), Systems Integrations, Business Process Management and Re-engineering for the following projects managing a team of 9 (4 onsite/5 offshore).

Project PRNE – PRN Europe Oracle EBS (R12) Implementation.

Project CNW – Canada Newswire Oracle EBS (R12) Implementation.

Project Ecuador – PRN Mexico Oracle EBS (R12) Implementation.

Upgrade Projects – 1. Oracle EBS 11i ver 11.5.7 to 11.5.10.2 2. Oracle EBS 11i ver 11.5.10.2 to R12 Ver 12.1.2

Acquisitions – Oracle EBS (R12) roll out to MultiVu, Vintage Fillings, Virtual Press Office(VPO) & USN.

Integrations – SFDC, Marketo & D&B integration for customer onboarding and data wetting; Zuora for subscription contracts; Apptus for customer agreements; NSA for third party invoice printing; GLWand;

Extensions – Purchasing, iProcurement, iExpenses, iRecievables, Advanced collections, Enterprise Planning and Budgeting, Incentive Compensation.

Data Center Move – Production and DR data center move to third party hosting service (Savvis).

Playing a critical role as Project Manager within the enterprise applications technology group, liaising with CXO’s and senior executives to drive strategic corporate initiatives in leading business development efforts focusing on requirements, project benefits, estimates, and risk management.

Planning, Budgeting, Creating Business plans with SWOT analysis for various projects across company wide.

Leading the functional and technical resources in delivering the monthly releases on different projects in Project Manager Role. Planning, Coordinating and Allocating work to offshore team.

Creating entrance and exit criteria project documents at each phase of SDLC from Initiation to Go-Live –

-Initiation (Project Request, Approval & Review/ Business Case & Feasibility Study/ Resource & Financial Plan/ Capital Expenditure Request/ Project Kickoff Presentation/ Initiation Phase Checklist)

-Blueprint (Project Plan/ Function & Business Process Specification/ Acceptance Plan/ Risk Mitigation Plan/ Training & Test Plan/ Blueprint Phase Checklist)

-Development & Testing (Technical & Report Specification/ Test Script & Sign-off Template/ Development Phase Checklist/ Cutover Plan/Pre Go-Live Review Checklist)

-Go-Live (Project Acceptance Report)

Creating Critical Path Analysis Chart (Network Diagrams) with all project activities, sequence and dependencies along task durations in identifying critical path.

Defining and establishing roles and responsibilities and clear measures of quality and success of the project teams by establishing clear expectations and goals.

Resolving and assisting in the resolution of conflicts within and between projects & cross functional areas.

Building coalitions among various stakeholders and negotiating authority and consensus in completing the project by mitigating the risks.

Managing vendor relationships including negotiating, developing and controlling contracts.

Controlling project variances through root cause analysis and correction and escalate to appropriate authorities in resolving any bottlenecks.

Developing completion criteria for each deliverable and developing acceptance plan.

Escalating to and resolving issues affecting any variances to project baselines

Identifying and resolving issues and conflicts laying effective conflict management strategies without effecting project deliverables.

Generating Resource, Schedule and Financial plan on basis of breaking project WBS to manageable activity/task level to attain realistic schedule and cost estimates.

Creating various dashboards in representing CPI and SPI with estimates on completion.

Creating Project/Product backlog items and decomposing to manageable realistic user stories task lists assigning story size points, prioritization and task durations (Agile).

Facilitating & leading daily scrum calls and Scheduling Sprints for a release cycle and monitoring the progress on a daily basis representing and maintaining sprint task boards (Agile).

Evaluating and updating the sprints by generating Sprint burn down charts (Agile).

Maintaining IT Service Desk – Incident, Problem, Change & Release management using ServiceNow tool in resolving and assigning the tasks without breaching SLA’s.

Utilizing ServiceNow tool for Project Portfolio & Resource management

As a Functional Lead role, delivered following design solutions:

-Implementing and managing applications in Order-to-Cash (OTC) and Procure-to-Pay (P2P), gathering business requirements and identifying gaps that cannot be handled by Oracle ‘out of the box’ and writing functional specifications (MD50s) to address those gaps and Use Cases.

-Designing data architecture framework to automate in integrating various boundary systems (SFDC/D&B/Data.com/MARKETO/IRIS/WISE/ECHO/GREAT PLAINS/QUICKBASE/PRIME/PAYMENTECH) for bi-directional synchronization of data master’s/business processes and customer facing web portals.

-Designing key KPI reports and analyzing product/product category sales revenue across different customer bases and data feed mechanisms to SFDC KPI dashboards.

-Developing various ETL designs to extract and model MDM data elements from various applications.

-Championing the Order Management/ Advanced Pricing /Inventory /Service Contracts/Install Base/Accounts Receivables applications in designing and configuring draft to firm sales order fulfillment processes, complex, critical discounting scenarios with multi-currency price lists.

-Working with sales and marketing executives and account managers to understand customer agreements and standardizing and optimizing business processes LOA templates.

-Participating in Change Advisory Board and System Audit to study change requests prior to deploying changes in the production environment.

-Designing Master data management for customer, suppliers and product masters with data cleansing and wetting strategies.

-Customizing a work-around solution in reporting actual usage of services in Order Management against the contracts created in Service Contract module.

-Creating and implementing a wrapper program to infuse the pricelist data (Price Book) for the online pricing catalog customer interface and customer online web portal.

-Designing interfaces for customer contracts & pricing data bi-directional sync to IBM FileNet.

-Playing a key role in successfully migrating in-house data center to third party hosting services. Implement and test proof readiness of Disaster Recovery data centers.

-Improving sales and marketing team’s productivity with the implementation of custom reporting dashboards and updating sales professionals with regard to service contracts.

-Proactively developing IT helpdesk strategies in interacting with department heads & core users on regular intervals to identify pain points and designing system enhancements in resolving and improving user productivity.

iGTL Solutions (USA), Inc., New York, NY FEB 2004 to SEP 2006

Oracle Sr. SCM Functional Lead for PR Newswire, Jersey City, NJ

Implementing Order Management, Advanced Pricing, Inventory, and Service Contracts as the functional lead on project implementing Oracle EBS 11i for PR Newswire – USA utilizing Oracle Aim Implementation methodology, ERP: Oracle Applications Release 11.5.7, and RDBMS: Oracle 9i.

Implementing and managing applications in Order-to-Cash on client engagements and defining functional designs for mapping industry-leading practices to client’s unique requirements and processes.

Identifying opportunities for process optimization, process redesign, development of new process/policies.

Analyzing Order-to-Cash process, including process design, mapping, and re-engineering as well as process/software gap analysis and resolution.

Presenting solutions to senior client management via whiteboard and PowerPoint and working closely with the technical team in developing technical specifications.

Leading the project team in managing the deliverables within project deadlines.

Designing unique business logics with a transformation layer on Order Import process to import the sales orders into Order Management interfaced from external systems.

Developing custom OM workflows to handle various sales orders behavior and data flow into Accounts Receivables for customer invoicing.

Configuring Advanced Pricing module with complex discounting scenarios using custom Pricing /Product /Qualifier attribute management.

Configuring Inventory module with multi-org structure (US, UK, CAN & MEXICO) and designing the unique requirement for Item master, catalog and categorization.

Configuring TCA in defining the Customer-Agencies relationships and custom mapping mechanism to apply the discount modifiers.

Developing UAT scripts and conducting UAT for sign off to Production deployment.

Developing companywide User Training manuals utilizing User Productivity Kit (UPK) application and providing training to core business users.

Configuring Data Loader tool in uploading the master and transactional data.

Designing custom interfaces for the inbound and outbound data integration to external boundary systems.

Leading the Project Rollout phase to UK, CANADA & MEXICO.

Oracle Senior Application Specialist (SCM) for Hartz Mountain, Secaucus, NJ

Rolling out project, training, and refining of supply chain management processes in Oracle 11i system and supporting functional users in the Oracle EBS system.

Providing production support and enhancements and training end users on Inventory, Order Management, Shipping Execution, Advanced Pricing, Purchasing and iProcurement modules for O2C and P2P tracks.

Developing test scenarios and performing testing of SCM modules, in an integrated environment with the other Financial modules.

Designing custom processing constraints to control the order processing across different levels.

Configuring LPN/Container & Container-load setups for auto pack functionality.

Configuring pricing security with the user access privileges for price lists, agreements and modifier data.

Tuning of Advanced Pricing module for optimal pricing engine performance and mapping the complex discounting scenarios with Promotional Limits/Deal/Coupons/Formula/Freight &special charges modifiers.

Designing and developing custom reports; planning and executing data conversion activities.

Configuring the company wide Role-Responsibility matrix in providing the user access by creating customized responsibilities with various menus and functions security at all warehouse locations across the country.

Handling SEV1 service requests, escalating issues in production environments to resolve problems in a timely manner adhering to SLA.

Oracle SCM Consultant for Chiron Panacea Vaccines, Ltd., Mumbai, India

Training and refining planning and procurement processes in Oracle Apps 11i system and giving support to functional users in the Oracle Apps 11i system.

Performing requirements and process analysis; conducting business process analysis and redesign.

Resolving conceptual and detailed design issues as well as providing system implementation and application training delivery.

Conducting gap fit analysis, performance testing, assisting technical team with functional designs for lot & serial control customization, and identifying and leading resolution of process problems.

Oracle Distribution-SCM Consultant for Sharada Terry Products, Coimbatore, India

Implementing an ERP solution to increase ROI and business process enhancements by replacing existing obsolete legacy systems and customizing manufacturing, financial, and distribution modules of Oracle Apps.

Presenting services and identifying opportunities for process optimization, process redesign, or development of new process/policies.

Presenting solutions to senior level management and defining, architecting and re-engineering business processes through application build, test, and deploy activities.

Developing and testing detailed functional designs for business solution components and prototypes.

Providing solutions for data conversion from legacy systems to Oracle and functional design and design review of Oracle Applications data conversions, interfaces, custom reporting, and custom applications.

Developing test scenarios and perform testing of SCM modules in an integrated environment with the other modules.

Configuring Purchasing processes with sourcing rules from RFQ to Purchase Order and outside processing setup in WIP.

Configuring manufacturing Routings along with detailed operations and resource scheduling (BOM).

Configuring various Resource & Material Constraint based plans throughout different manufacturing units enforcing demand due dates and capacity constraints (ASCP).

Designing custom data validation and wetting logic for data collection ODS load (ASCP)

Setting up supply chain master production plans for sourcing and bill of distributions with allocation percentage and rankings sourcing from Make/Buy/Inter Org transfers (ASCP)

Configuring Warehouse Management system (WMS) with Inbound & Outbound logistics, Storage and Facility management specifically staging warehouse locations in receiving hazardous storage materials (dye chemicals).

Configuring all warehouse locations with lot control tracking system.

Designing and configuring the material handling through LPN (License Plate Numbers).

Creating the generation of Labeling for LPN contents along with Barcode per customer basis.

Configuring various Quality collection plans with inspection procedures.

Chain Sys, Chennai, India FEB 2002 to JAN 2004

Senior Application Consultant for G.E. Power Systems, Bangalore, India

Functioning as senior functional application consultant for the multi-org implementation of Oracle order management, Purchasing, Warehouse management (WMS), and Inventory.

Performing GAP analysis and resolution for Oracle PO/OM/INV and implementing multi-org and inventory organization enterprise structure, modeling sub-inventories and locators for classifying material warehouse locations.

Designing Product rationalization for optimal Item master and grouping strategies for appropriate item categorization within specific organization sub inventories.

Implementing an approval hierarchy for PO and requisition documents. Training staff on the use of SPO, PPO and BPA and auto preparation of PO’s.

Creating sourcing rules and BOD’s for multilevel replenishment for warehouses, manufacturing units & distribution centers (ASCP).

Setting up Item attributes templates specifically for MPS/MRP planning with lead times and assigning sourcing rules and BOD’s grouping by assignment sets (ASCP).

Configuring PO sourcing by defining ASL capacity constraints and processing lead times (ASCP).

Defining various subset plans with required constraints and optimization rules (ASCP).

Successfully implementing Requisitions, Standard, Releases and Blanket PO’s as well as Stock and Sale, Export Sale, Consignment Sale, Internal Order, Returns with Credit and without credit in Order Management.

Designing custom workflows for order management contract process, as well for accounting generation in purchasing, while implementing price modifiers/qualifiers for various price breaks/ discounts.

Documenting set-ups for Oracle Purchasing/ Order Management and Inventory and successfully completing two CRP’s (Modular and Integrated Testing).

Developing month end closing procedure for Oracle Receivables and Oracle Inventory and liaising with the Financials team for closing financial GL books.

Oracle Order Management Consultant at Hindalco Industries, Ltd. (Aditya Birla Group), Reenukoot, India

Overseeing rollouts of the depots implementation throughout the country and setting up Internal Sales Order Cycle, configuring OM and PO in generating Internal Purchase requisitions to Internal Sales order and moving the stock between manufacturing unit and warehouses as well as between warehouse locations across country with 15 operating units and around 50 inventory organizations.

Configuring back to back orders configuration, drop shipments process flows, ATP rules,locator control, LPN control sub inventory stocking, and receiving locations, item lot control for split, merge and bulk picking purposes.

Creating Role/Responsibility matrix and configuring the user access with specific functionality for specific regions (around 500 new custom responsibilities).

Developing sales orders processing with India localization and defining the transaction types with proper defaulting and workflow assignments

Defining and attaching the price lists using Dynamic Formula’s including Assessable price lists.

Training core users within the business process Oracle applications tasks upon roll-out.

Oracle SCM Consultant for BPL Engineering, Ltd. (Manufacturing), Hyderabad, India

Providing project support in the manufacturing plant for implementation and customization of manufacturing, financial, and distribution modules of Oracle applications.

Assessing and mapping business requirements, performing gap fit analysis, designing modules, and providing documentation (AIM).

Configuring Inventory, Order Entry, Pricing, Purchasing, BOM & WIP modules.

Designing custom Job/Position PO approval workflow processes.

Configuring OM with defaulting rules to increase the efficiency of order entry process.

Indosoft International, Hyderabad, India JUN 2000 to JAN 2002

Business Analyst

Implementing ERP solutions at S.R.M.T. (Production Plant), Mittal Engineering Works (Production Plant), and Japtech Industries.

Studying user’s existing business process at manufacturing plants and performing gap analysis and business process re-engineering when appropriate.

Providing data definition and data gathering/documentation, mapping user requirements into a proposed system of specifications and freezing customer requirement specification (CRS) document.

Mapping the Manufacturing process into proposed system specification and generate the Control plans, PAP (Production Part Approval Process), FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), APQP (Advance Product Quality Planning) and other reporting documents according to the QS 9000/ISO 9000 standards.

Preparing Master data and interfacing to load the data and designing custom reports.

Preparing user manuals and training the core users across all departments to perform the tasks in new ERP system.

Conducting seminars and white board presentations in marketing the product across the country.

Advanced Technology Labs, Chennai, India OCT 1998 to MAY 2000

Developer

Developing software packages using cutting edge technologies C++, .NET, COM/DCOM, Visual Basic

Techbay Inc.

Participating in a project scope involving vendor, purchase order, and billing management for a B2B and B2C system that is providing concurrent access to multiple users 24 hours a day.

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