professional

** I do not maintain this space any more**

** Please visit www.nikhilkulkarni.com for my updated online identity **

** Visit www.nikhilkulkarni.in for my blog **

Professional Work Experience

Keywords: IT Architecture, Information Systems, Business Process Controls, Banking, IT/ITES, Telecom | Experience - 5 years

I work in the management consulting space in the area of Information Technology. My work involves a variety of themes relating to technology ranging from IT strategy, IT operations, organizational and business processes, management and information systems, change management and project management.

Does that sound a little wide? Indeed, in my 5+ years of work-life I have done work from IT Fraud Investigation to SDLC Reviews to review of spreadsheet based Financial Models. I have been fortunate to work on such variety of engagements, functional areas and geographies. Presented below is my experience in the IT advisory world till date.

Financial Services Industry

The FS Sector (also called BFSI - Banking and Financial Services Industry) has been my primary forte. I have worked extensively with some of the leading Indian Private sector Banks, Multinational Banks and large PSU Banks in India as well as abroad. I have worked across domains and service areas.

For more details on my experience in the FS Sector visit this page.

Telecommunications Sector

Applications Review for India’s leading Telecom Operator

This has been a great learning experience in understanding the workings on the Telecom industry and its systems landscape which supports complex processes from Call Routing to VAS and data transfer; and Customer Billing to Revenue Accounting and Assurance.

We performed a comprehensive IT Application review covering more than 35 business and operational applications for India’s leading Telecom Operator. The activities involved a review of:

• Mapping of business requirements to the application functionality

• Identification of processes not supported by the application

• Systems requirements specifications and Application Architecture

• Existence and adequacy of controls on input, processing and output of data

• Application interface controls / data synchronization controls for offline data interchange

• Application configuration and access controls on master files, parameter files

• Adequacy and upkeep of system documentation and operating manuals

The deliverables of the project also included providing the client with an overall assessment of weaknesses and improvement areas across applications and processes in the organization.

Software Services Industry

Business Process Review of multiple service providers

This has been one of the most rewarding engagements for me in terms of my understanding of the software services industry. I was involved in reviewing multiple aspects of offshore delivery of 5 leading software service providers in India for a US based multinational banking client.

We reviewed all process from recruitment and onboarding of new associates on the client's projects, software development, ongoing project management upto final deployment. We also reviewed support processes like IT infrastructure management, Business Continuity, Data Protection, Problem Management and Incident handling, Legal and compliance management processes, Financial monitoring and finally Audits and Certifications.

The review spanned across 5 service providers and multiple locations. We developed a detailed work program based on requirements from the client and the Industry best practices; against which each service provider was evaluated. In addition to documentation of issues, the work product included statistical and graphical reports based on the issues discovered, their impact, ease of resolution, domains, root causes etc. The deliverables of the project also included providing the client with a comparative assessment of Risk Governance at the Service Providers. The Assessment was based on a predefined set of parameters based on COBIT 4.0.

The engagement apart from providing domain knowledge of the software industry, also helped me develop project delivery discipline of my own thanks to the tight timelines, frequent deliverables and even more frequent status updates. More so, acting as a liaison between the services providers, the client and my own internal project managers - I was able to develop further upon my interpersonal skills.

Intellectual Property Services

I got exposure to the area of Software Asset Management during my 6 month stint with KPMG-UK. I was involved in a software license review program with KPMG’s Intellectual Property Services, UK to conduct software license reviews for one of the world’s leading enterprise software and hardware vendor. During my stint in UK I was also responsible for development of Project management and analysis tools.

I also developed a framework for a Software Licensing Review Program for a leading software products vendor.

Assistance in SAS70 readiness

One of the earliest engagements for me in KPMG, I assisted a leading software company in south India to standadize, realign and document their internal processes in order to ready the organization for a successful SAS 70 attestation. The processes covered were spread across the organizations business namely:

• Application development and SDLC

• Sustenance and Support projects

• Information security, Network and IT Infrastructure

• Access control methodology

• Change management procedure

• Backup and disaster recovery management

• Human Resources and Physical access control

** I do not maintain this space any more**

** Please visit www.nikhilkulkarni.com for my updated online identity **

** Visit www.nikhilkulkarni.in for my blog **