Pradnesh A Kulkarni

(Mobile)+91-9881728080; Email [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kulkarni-pradnesh-pradnesh-65271122/

Dynamic leader with management background and diverse experience in Technology Solutions( contact center), Customer
Success, Program management, Solution delivery & vendor management, Partner enablement, Presales with proven success
across Asia in the Digital communication, Collaboration apps, Cloud & managed services. Extensive experience in RFP, RFI
support, Account Management, Presales, Business Development, Technical Sales, Solutions strategy and Sales support.
Trusted adviser working for Customer Success, Client advocacy & technical account management.

Establish and nurture strong cross-functional relationships with Sales Leaders, Account team, business and technology
partners, to establish a value differentiation, enable pipeline growth and increase win ratios.

Customer segment- BFSI(Majorly), ITES, BPOs, Telecom, Manufacturing & Retail.

SKILL SET PROFILE SNAPSHOT

Service delivery, RFP,
 Seasoned Professional with approx 18 years of experience in Service delivery ,Program
RFI ,Vendor management &
management, Technical account management, Partner enablement/Vendor mgt, Client
Stake holder management.
advocacy, escalation management, Solution Consulting, Presales & commercial
management.
Customer Success, Program  Exceptional skills in communication, presentation with demonstrated abilities with an
management, Technical ability to relate to the people at all levels of the organisation.
account management &  Customer Experience: Assess customer journey maps and expectations, benchmark
Partner enablement practices for enhancing customer experience (internal & external), new business and
revenue models.
Cloud & Analytics  Driving partner enablement program enhancing partner experience. Reviewing their
certification status, resolving onboarding issues, process improvement initiatives etc.
Unified Communications  Business acumen and understanding of current and future technological trends.
Articulating technology strategy and value propositions to maximize business benefits and
Contact Centres Applications improves operational efficiency. Business process study, gap analysis, & business case
preparation.
Enterprise Mobility & IOT  Proficient in discovering the business requirements and proposing the solutions, architectural
design and presenting the same to the customer, identifying pain areas & challenges in their
Solution Designing business operations and recommending viable solutions.
 Comprehensive knowledge enterprise applications for ITES & BFSI Vertical
RFP, RFI, RFQ, BOM  Demonstrated skills in handling EMEA and APAC clients. At ease in working multi-cultural
& cross ethnic markets & possess sound knowledge of Industry, Product, Consumer
Behaviour & Technology Trends.
Customer Experience
 Team player with exemplary interpersonal, analytical & influencing skills having a proven
Management
track record of customer success, wining customer delight & C-SAT.
 Success in revenue protection by up sell and cross sell product & services and managing
Solution Selling relations with key clients to establish large volume, high profit accounts with excellent
level retention and loyalty.
Channel Management  Achievement-oriented professional with excellent people management skills, establishing
networks, streamlining workflow to create a team work environment to enhance
Cloud & Managed Services productivity.

Services Sales

ORGANISATIONAL EXPERIENCE-

Nice Ltd, Pune

Sr. Technical Account Manager/Client Success/Partner enablement ( Global & Strategic)
Since- Jan 2016

Partner enablement-
 Work with customer support(post sales) & sales/services organisation to further work on partner enablement program
initiatives.
 Periodically review partner certifications & assess skills pertaining to professional services & support.
 Managing regional projects within stipulated timeframes. Implement, strategize project initiatives to meet organizational
objectives.
 Manage project/support resources optimally during different projects.
 Run Quarterly business review/ Monthly operational review with certain strategic partners.
 Bridge gap between partner & customer facilitating and working towards Csat/NPS initiative.
 Work on account plans along with business partners etc.
 Ability to handle clients/business partners for few Key strategic Business Partners across the APAC region, understanding
their needs, analysis and strategy.
Driving relationship with key partner accounts like NTT communication, IPC, VIS N/w, Selindo & British Telecom.

Account management-
 Acts as the voice of the customer, engaging with external customers and translating their needs into financially viable
solutions.
 Develop, document, implement, monitor, and continually improve Customer Support methods, procedures, and processes
to achieve the desired level of customer satisfaction while attaining NICE’s operations objectives.
 Direct responsible to support a maintenance revenue base of more than 100 M USD from top Global accounts.
 Upselling & Cross selling of Nice Products & Services within the Strategic accounts.
 Develop and maintain accurate and timely reports for the NICE’s management team, including status reports, resource
management, issue status, Root Cause, and customer satisfaction reports.
 Oversee the primary activities of the Customer Support Engineering staff to ensure completion of tasks and attainment of
KPIs.
 Responsible as a key interface to the organization in understanding the business needs of the Large accounts and ensuring
the right kind of product and services are provided for the client to obtain internal business satisfaction.
 Overall responsibility for the resolution of all issues and completion of all tasks associated with NICE Support Services,
effectively and professionally interfacing with various department leaders -- both internally and within the customers'
organizations -- to optimize customer satisfaction and achieve NICE’s business goals.
 Serving as the primary technical escalation point for issues beyond the authority of the Customer Support and client
business manager, you will coordinate resolution of conflicts involving scheduling, resources, or technical issues.
 Directly manage the Customer Support Engineers and collaborate with other company personnel (Development, Quality
Assurance, Maint. Engineering) to ensure on-time and high-quality delivery of Support to Customers and Business Partners
 Responsible for driving customer satisfaction through focus on accountability and quality, including regular customer
account reviews and ensuring all their needs, be it during or after implementation of a project and the operational day to
day support are taken care of and addressed in a timely manner resulting in higher Customer satisfaction.
 Review reports, forecasts, and analyses for accounts to ensure proper staffing levels within the Customer Support function.

Highlights:
 Highest NPS & successful referenceable customer program

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

Samsung Electronics India Ltd, Pune

Presales Manager | Enterprise Solutions (Mobility) Sept 2014-Oct 2015

 Driving the adoption for Mobility Solutions (In-house / partner solutions), Digital Signage (On-premise / SaaS model) along with
Enterprise Security (KNOX MDM) and BYOD offerings to end customers and strategic partners.
 Conduct Discovery workshops in order to provide a wide spectrum of Samsung’s products/solutions portfolio. Prepare technical
proposals, demonstrations and products/solutions specific presentations.
 Pre Sales activities to contribute to digital sales pursuits, consulting offerings on IOT solutions and use cases. Responsible for
defining Digital offerings, Digital transformation Roadmap & Digital Innovation methodologies. Key role in Sales, Solution &
Delivery for Digital Business in BFSI vertical.
 Coordinate with multiple stakeholders thereby ensuring completion of POC within the planned timelines and driving presales
activities for BFSI vertical in Western Territory.
 Work Collaboratively with Product Management, Technical Marketing and Engineering during the development, launch and
continuing refinement of Enterprise solutions.
 Defining and development of deep technical go to market strategy and positioning of Enterprise Mobility offerings by maintaining
working knowledge of competitor’s product and how technically sell against them.
 Consultative solution selling on IOT use cases in Asset Tracking, Smart Metering, Predictive Maintenance, Fleet Management,
Connected Cars, Energy and Utilities.

Avaya India Pvt Ltd, Pune

Global Presales Manager Nov 2012-Jun 2014

 Primarily involved in preparing commercial offers on Complex Multi-Site IT Product & Services deals across US, UK & APAC regions.
 Involved in designing solutions for UC/CC domain which includes hardware, Software, Professional & Managed services as well.
 Building up commercials for net new business, and revised commercials for existing customers
 Getting aligned with business group in pricing decision, evaluating deal pricing, and conduct Cost modeling, understanding of cash
flows and commercial risks and answering all the commercial FAQs in response to the RFP/RFI
 Provide comprehensive pricing summary and client research necessary to support contract renewals.
 Partner Internally with relationship managers, service account managers, deal architects and contract business managers to facilitate
the renewal process with a focus on improved cycle times. Generate contractual documents needed for renewal and coordinate
across departments to facilitate the renewal process.
 Exposure and understanding of sales life cycle, global delivery models. (On-site/Off-shore)
 Build up a price strategy keeping in mind regional market conditions. Tweaking commercial solution based on target pricing,
local market conditions etc.
 Proposal is built up in such a way that commercial risks are captured with mitigation plan and related costs in risk assessment.
 Establish proper control over prices levels and models throughout the lifecycle of the deal. Secure that price and commercial
T&C are mutually adjusted during tender preparation and remain in line with the global & local guidelines, pricing strategies,
and market conditions.
 Analyze customer commercial requirements and then prepare the offer keeping in mind the target TCV figs.
 Act as a prime lead in answering any pricing related Queries aroused during the lifecycle of the deal.
 Build a commercial proposal with proper BoQ consolidation, Cost control, and Offer optimization by conducting price and
cost analysis. Responsible for final offer adjustments, discounting, Margin analysis and profit estimation thereby enhancing chances
of Avaya winning the Bid. Commercial approval to different team including pricing, payment and other terms
 Working closely with Bid managers, BDMs in building up a complete Commercial offer incl of Pricing, preparing and writing SOW,
creating Customer rate card etc.
 Performing functions like –Taking deal towards Design review, Deal review committee. Ensuring that the deal is approved at
both the levels and final pricing can be released towards customer.
 Working closely with Avaya Professional Services, Global Sourcing organisation, Global Services organisation for obtaining quotes
required to complete the commercial solution

Highlights:
 Cloud Deal- BT deal on UCAS & CCAS worth 2.1 M USD.
 Big Deal of around 14 M USD for a client in BFSI vertical.
 Small to Medium Size deal- 6 deals worth between 2 to 3 M USD.

Volumes worked:
 Deals ranging from 5 Million till 20 Million (USD) in TCV handled. Provided Techno commercial offers/Proposals for more than 30 deals.

Tech Mahindra Pvt Ltd., Pune

Technical Manager (Tech Lead-Presales) Mar 12- Oct 12

 Managing Telecom Projects for Tech Mahindra’s clients, and performing pricing for all the deals.
 Pricing, Estimation for telecom Projects & working on Complex RFPs, RFIs.
 Due Diligence and business analysis of Client technical, commercial and contractual environment, creation & review of TCO
for deal structuring.
  Gathering inputs from Finance, Sales, Legal and Business managers and then extracting relevant information while framing
the deal. Also, presentation of deal financials, price, cost issues and proposal of pricing model to internal leadership.
 Working on different upsell, recast opportunities through change request and then framing the effort estimates on the same.
 Working closely with internal teams like finance, Pre-sales, Bid-Management, Sales, Procurement, Supply chain management
etc. to have their views and comments for effective contract negotiation.

Highlights:
 Won a 1.3 M USD project for a Telco in UK.

Avaya India Pvt Ltd, Pune

Sales Consultant Jun 06-Mar 12

 Working on various discount mechanisms, commercial terms & payment conditions during any deal.
 Working with Account Managers for existing account business activity, liaise with existing customers to gather/reconfirm
all technical requirements to ensure a competent and deliverable techno- commercial soln.
 Providing pre sales consultancy to customers across, EMEA and APAC region for various Avaya IT telecom applications.
 Provide technical training, presentation and demonstration to Avaya Customers and Business partners showing how
Avaya Solutions can provide value to them.
 Responding to RFP, RFI, RFQ, support sales teams in RFPs.
 Delivering highly skilled pre-sales/techno commercial presentations to customer prospects and providing technical
support proposals to the sales team.
 Building the framework entailing all technical activities and communicate product value proposition to ensure successful
marketing process.
 Evaluating the feasibility of the project before proposing the techno commercial solution to customer.
 Developing BOM via creating the excel output of the proposed solution and applying Market Based packages to provide
competitive Pricing to the Customers.

Tata Consultancy India Pvt (FKA-Citi group). Ltd, Mumbai

Technical Support Engineer Sep 05 – Jun 06

 Leading technology operations and project implementation team to support all business groups operating out of
Mumbai.
 Managing a team of 20 + engineers to provide 24x7 operational support to centres in Mumbai and Chennai.
 Ensuring strict adherence to SLA, uptime, response time and delivering services the agreement.
 Building and maintaining professional relationships with internal and business teams.
 Handling critical and high priority incidents and ensuring quick response and resolution.
 Participating in ISO and security audits and ensuring compliance.
 Adherence to change management procedure as per Citi Group policies.

Reliance Energy Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai

Sr Engineer Mar 04 – Sep 05

 Planning the connectivity of all Reliance Zonal offices with Avaya Telecom Servers & Gateways.
 Taking active participation in new hardware purchase by doing a complete study, survey and giving reports to higher
management.
 Implemented process for better helpdesk management and revising them as and when required.
 Coordination with FMS vendor for ensuring proper implementation of process and improvements in grey area.

IT Source India Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai

Tech Support Engineer May 03 – Mar 04

 Providing technical Support to various clients.

 Responsible for the engineering, configuration, installation, and administration of the telecom networks including pabx
and voicemail systems.
 Troubleshoot telecom problems and work with third party providers to handle day-to-day administration of the call
centre telecom networks.
 Responsible for review and administration of all service maintenance contracts of telecom components.
 Establish proper technical documentation and troubleshooting procedures and maintain database for telecom
configuration.
CERTIFICATIONS/TRAININGS- Telecom/Cloud & Analytics

o AWS Practitioner training

o RPA training
o Nice analytics certified
o Nice WFM certified
o Nice trading floor certified
o Avaya Certified Expert

ACADEMIC DETAILS

 PGDBA from Narsee Monjee, Mumbai.

 BE in Elect & Tele Comm, Amravati University.

GLOBAL BUSINESS VISITS

 UK- Presales & Solutioning

 US & Singapore- Sales Meetings
 India- Regional customer cover (Presales and account management)
 Argentina – Setting up global support infrastructure