It Service Vendor

Gopinath Sathyanarayanan

**** ****** **, ********, ** 75071 *******@*******.*** 310-***-****

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gopinath-sathyanarayanan-195a7515/ IT VENDOR MANAGER

Experienced IT Vendor Manager with 9 years of proven expertise in IT Service Provider Governance. Highly skilled in contract management, SLA tracking and IT forecast & spend analysis under managed services contracts with leading Tier 1-4 outsourced IT service providers. Proficient in facilitating collaborative relationships between stakeholders and vendors to ensure alignment with organizational objectives. Demonstrated ability to implement effective governance frameworks, drive vendor performance, and mitigate risks effectively.

• Vendor Optimization and Cost Savings: $13.1M Technology Third Party Savings Target Achieved. Global Operations and Technology (GO-Tech) awarded 200 Bravo! points for contributions to achieving the savings target. Worked closely with internal stakeholders and 3rd party outsourced IT vendors on SOWs to adjust onshore/offshore ratios, convert T&M to fixed bid arrangements, and support re-negotiation activities.

• Streamlining Vendor Portfolio: Worked along with Procurement and Finance to review 800+ vendors and identify active ones vs. obsolete ones. All 39 active vendors underwent a seamless tiering process based on identified risks, IT service volume, and complexity. Performed thorough vendor risk reviews (VRR), applied lean management principles to cleanse Vendor Portfolio, and categorize Tier 1-4 vendors. Vendor consolidation process lead to efficiency, in terms of performance and financials within 12 months of implementation.

• Addressing Contract Inefficiencies: Workshops were hosted by VMO to instill Vendor Management Framework processes for internal and external stakeholders to understand IT Managed Services contractual deliverables and obligations (D&O) laid out in contracts. Quarterly reviews of vendor performance, service defaults, and service credits helped to revisit and clean up metrics defined in contracts. Contract Change Requests (CCRs) were advocated during the contract renewal cycle incorporating metrics relevant to the contractual services and eliminating counterproductive metrics. Performance service credits, and volume discounts touched average annual savings of

$3MM and above.

• Negotiating Improved Vendor Agreements: Efficient Telecom Expense Management (TEM) was a failure with the vendor Brightfin due to huge gaps between what was proposed as cost savings and optimization in RFP Vs. steady state. Quarterly cost optimization reviews and vendor performance reviews exposed wastage in both wired and wireless expenses with global telecom service providers. Renegotiated contracts with Brightfin and siphoned potential optimization regions to Prelude Solutions, another 3rd party vendor that eliminated service providers with non-negotiable rates. A significant 30-35% cost savings was evident in 9 months period.

• Mitigating Risks and Ensuring Success: Security breaches and malpractices by certain non-tiered 3rd party vendors were suspected during monthly vendor audits of Invoices, billed resources. Reviewed all T&M sow and identified ghost positions off-site that posed a risk to business operations. Promptly escalated the issues to senior management, also a 3-way intense validation process between SOW/ PO / Invoices was put in place to close any gaps in the ProcuretoPay life cycle. Half-yearly and Annual Resource Onboarding reviews, Knowledge Management reviews and Operational review assessments were put in place via Risk tracker to track, follow and close such breaches both on- prem, off-prem.

KEY SKILLS

IT Managed Services Contract Negotiation Contract Redlining IT Procurement Vendor Governance Contractual Agreements D&Os IT Service Providers Governance Tools SNOW GovernX Enlighta PowerBI KPI Performance Vendor Risk Mitigation Stakeholder Management Relationship Management Matrixed Organizations IT Solutions Delivery Project Management Staff Augmentation PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Adient Plymouth, MI / Remote June 2022 - January 2024 IT Vendor Manager

Worked alongside procurement, finance, Legal Risk and Compliance, and various IT stakeholders to assist with developing/monitoring master service agreements (MSAs), statement of work (SOWs), with Tier 1-4 vendor contracts.

• Facilitated and maintained relationships between the vendors and internal resources, including IT stakeholders and executive leadership.

• Defined governance cadence for each tiered vendor falling under my portfolio. Ensured reviews (contract, business, risk, etc.) occurred by the agenda, participants, and cadence defined.

• Measured vendor performance and ensured operational governance of vendors.

• Managed escalations and arbitrations of operational issues/service breaches resulting in penalties/service credits.

• Monitored portfolio performance including financial, execution, and value realization within the organization.

• Worked closely with internal risk and compliance team to ensure timely review of risk artifacts such as SOC reports, Bridge letters, COIs to comply with the contractual terms.

• Built scorecards using PowerBI and Excel Pivot charts for executive leadership based on vendor assessments around Knowledge Management and onboarding processes.

Verizon, Irving, TX March 2019 - January 2022

IT Vendor Governance Analyst

Worked with IT governance team to create processes, manage, and govern contractual components defined around Application Development, Maintenance & support services (AMS) with strategic outsourced vendor under Managed Services agreement.

• Assisted Verizon Central PMO team with ongoing vendor governance activities around Contract Management, Demand Management, Performance Management & Financial Management.

• Utilized Govern X as governance tool to track SLA Performance Indicator (PI) metrics – Critical PIs, Key PIs, General PIs. Called out breach of SLA’s and associated penalties for CPMO approvals. Power BI dashboards, 30-60-90 forecast charts built through SQL queries, pivot tables for stakeholder meets and Account Business Relationship reviews.

• Provided guidance, hosted workshops & road shows for Internal and External stakeholders (including 3rd party vendors) to operationalize managed services model as defined in AD and AM/KTLO SOWs of Contract MSA and Services Agreement. True value evidenced by executive leadership on both Verizon and top-tiered vendor sides.

• Prepared and shared weekly, bi-weekly / monthly reports and Vendor scorecards on performance trends, health checks etc. with Verizon leadership and vendor leads besides risks/issues tracking to closure. Western Union, Montvale, NJ April 2015 - March 2018 Sr. Manager – IT Vendor Governance

Worked closely with IT procurement, service providers, and participated in executive management discussions, conducted stakeholder interviews, reviewed RFPs/RFIs with vendors, and performed contract negotiation and contract redlining. Obtained contract approvals and formal signoffs.

• Developed and maintained procedures, tools, and templates for Contract Management processes in line with MSA and Services Agreement. Also, developed D&O Tracker and established a process for tracking, assigning D&O responsibilities using Enlighta (Governance tool) to align WU and service providers to service agreements. Seamless transition of contractual language in laymen's terms for both WU and its stakeholders.

• Made recommendations and provided effective input to stakeholder financial goals and plans as it relates to assigned sourcing assignments. Developed, managed, and measured key supplier relationships as assigned.

• Reviewed and approved requests for contractual changes and deliverables for compliance with the Agreement.

• Verified that processes were managed by the contractual documentation (i.e., the Service Management and Governance Manual).

• Managed overall compliance with contractual terms & conditions.

• Managed the end-to-end lifecycle process of Contract Change from development through to execution, including obtaining the relevant stakeholder approvals.

• Ensured that all terms and conditions of the agreement were satisfied, contractual constructs were fit for purpose, and risks were mitigated.

Cognizant Technology Solutions, Teaneck, NJ April 2003 - March 2015 IT Manager – Projects

Led project management, program oversight, project scheduling, project tracking, and resource management activities. Effectively managed program oversight responsibilities in Client PMO. Demonstrated domain knowledge expertise in areas including Banking and Financial Services, Retail, Insurance, Manufacturing & Logistics, and managing IT Infrastructure Services. ADDITIONAL RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

DXC Technology - Hi-Tech Building, Chennai, Tamil Nadu IT Programming Lead - Performed IT project planning, execution and control. Allied Informatics Inc., Knoxville, TN

IT Programmer Analyst - End-to-end IBM Midrange Application Development and Application Maintenance & Support Services.

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

ITIL® 4 Foundation Certified

People Cert (AXELOS), 2021

Scrum Master Certified (SMC™) / Scrum Fundamentals Certified (SFC™) SCRUMStudy.com

Robotics Process Automation training, RPA17 Summit International Association of Outsourcing Professional NYC NY, United States Yellow Belt Certified, IT Governance

Governance-Academy.com

Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP), Master Class Training International Association of Outsourcing Professional Chicago, IL, United States Certified AS400 / RPG Programmer, IBM Midrange Systems Penta four Software Training Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Bachelor of Science (BS) in Applied Sciences (under Faculty of Engineering) PSG College of Technology & Science, India

Contact this candidate