Harsh Arora
Vice President - Program And Project Management
Singapore
Summary
Strategic Information Technology Program Manager with 23 years of experience in aligning systems with business requirements, policies and regulatory requirements. Accustomed to driving efficiency and effectiveness by developing, delivering, and supporting strategic plans, with proven ability of handling multi-million-dollar projects, coordinating with a diverse inter-continental workforce, innovative & profit-oriented with demonstrated success in increasing revenues, achieving cost reductions, and delivering stakeholders satisfaction.
Dedicated professional with exceptional management, leadership, communication, planning skills and strong ability to contribute to strategic plans seeking for a Program/Project Manager position.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
12
12
years of post-secondary education
10
10
Certifications
Work History
Vice President - Enterprise Projects & Platforms
OCBC Bank, Singapore
2022.12 - Current
- Leading Enterprise Payment Platform Transformation program with targeted delivery across 19 countries while consolidation of monolith legacy applications and improving total cost of ownership for bank.
- Prepared the final recommendation including project feasibility study, development model, cost-benefit analysis and business proposals for senior management approval.
- Delivering Phase 1 of the multi-year program with transition of real time payments into micro services-based application developed from scratch by inhouse development team.
- Heading the end-to-end design and delivery for the MVP rollout for Stand-In payment processor which will enable contingency payment processing for the bank.
- Ensuring architecture blueprint and target operating model is future ready with ability to drive business growth and assist in consolidating banks position in payment market.
- Establishing project plans, resource plan, budgets and time-frames, and assigning tasks to various delivery squads.
- Identifying, tracking and communicating project progress, milestones, deliverables changes and dependencies within schedule, costs, issues and risks.
- Managing team’s performance of project tasks, providing advice and guidance, scheduling assignments and required trainings.
- Delivering payments platform on cloud native technological infrastructure using Agile framework.
- Managing vendor relationship and deliverables.
- Evaluating and recommending purchases of software packages, hardware and service vendors.
Vice President - Technical Delivery Manager
United Overseas Bank
2019.09 - 2022.12
- Leading End to End delivery of multiple projects across Customer Management and Compliance division of the bank.
- Managing all the phases of data migration program for Credit and Compliance domain for the newly acquired entity by the Bank. Entire program is being executed using Agile framework.
- Delivered standardization of credit origination and risk management application across the region leading synergies across market and cost optimization of S$30 mil.
- Implemented new Decisioning and Credit Risk Management system leading to growth in market share and total productivity lift of 13% by practicing prudent credit controls.
- Delivered digitalized solution for seamless customer journeys for selling and buying HDB flats by collaborating with HDB leading to upliftment of business revenue by S$48 mil.
- Managing all activities for projects from ideation to -project approvals, functional specifications to development, implementation, testing and post go-live support.
- Leading team of technical leads, developers and analysts to implement and integrate new age solutions as per target roadmap that meet business requirements in alignment with organization's strategic vision.
- Managing technical solution from design phase through build phase, in close collaboration with enterprise architects and software engineering functions.
- Developing, executing and controlling all the four quadrants of projects. Managing critical path of the project and controlling variances impacting schedule and budget.
- Tracking project deliverables, milestones and required activities and tasks.
- Defining technical phased implementation approach aligning to target roadmap.
- Delivering all IT solutions and enhancements, ensuring highly available and scalable system with capabilities to accommodate business growth.
- Managing 3rd-party product vendors and integration partners to ensure application deliveries are timely and good quality.
- Vendor management – Negotiating cost and SOW's, budgets, invoice approvals and managing governance through regular governance meetings.
- Managing overall project risks and issues, tracking risk aging, work through escalations, change governance and implementing robust risk mitigation plans.
- Planning & collaborating across different application teams to manage technical dependencies and defining a comprehensive implementation plan.
- Implementing project communication plan and reviewing status reports prepared by project personnel and modify schedules or plans as required.
- Project Reporting: Measuring, monitoring and reporting progress to stakeholders at various levels of organization across enterprise with right quality, consistency in content.
Senior Project Manager
Integro Technologies Pte. Ltd.
2015.06 - 2019.09
- Successfully delivered regional implementation of corporate lending origination and risk management system for second largest bank in Malaysia.
- Delivered Phase 1 of implementation in less than 10 months which helped in reducing application processing time by 200%.
- Developed DataMart architecture model for effective datamining and building conceptual framework for data analytics models.
- Managed implementation of Corporate Loans Origination system for multiple banks in Asean region.
- Managed project from inception through execution, handling 50+ resources across multiple geographical locations for delivering strategic program to increase organization revenue.
- Managed scoping and planning of regional roll-out project. Producing stage plans, health reports, RAID logs and managing change requests.
- Influencing key stakeholders including program’s steering committee and different units within bank and vendors.
- Lead cohesive cross functional teams and collaborating with senior executives in improving operations and starting up new business
locations while overseeing staff and managing budgets. - Leading solution design workshops with client and internal stakeholders (business analysts, technical leads etc.) to guide business and other project stakeholders for effective design and implementation of solutions.
- Leading integration design workshops with various system vendors and internal IT teams of client.
- Leading discussions with integration middle layer (using service oriented architecture for scalable design and development of interface layer.
- Developed capability model for credit origination and portfolio
management system. - Used specialist knowledge and experience of business areas and products to guide business and other project stakeholders for effective design and implementation of project resulting in achievement of business goals.
- Managing vendors, negotiating contract and performing strategic financial analysis to increase efficiencies and reduce costs while maintaining solid rapport with stakeholders.
Vice President - International Banking Change
Royal Bank of Scotland
2013.08 - 2015.06
- Delivered implementation of multiple strategic initiatives across various key portfolios i.e. Trade finance, Payments, Lending resulting in operational efficiency of more than 100% and upliftment of cumulative revenue by GBP85 mil.
- Implemented new cost-tracking project for effective monitoring of project budget leading to reduction of 9.5% of project costs.
- Managed scoping, planning and execution of multiple projects across International Banking Change program.
- Produced Business Case for project including detailed financial estimates.
- Lead meetings and workshops with global stakeholders with diverse
backgrounds and monitored project risks and scope creep to identify potential problems and proactively identifying solutions. - Interaction with various vendors including receiving responses to RFIs/RFPs and running scenario based demos for program management team.
- Lead solution implementation discussion with technology vendor for new trade finance product MT798.
- Ensuring quality gates are met for all deliverable's during project life-cycle.
Project Manager
CIMB Bank (thru Apar Technologies Sdn. Bhd)
2011.11 - 2013.07
- Implemented new age digital innovation system for streamlining sales by corporate salesforce across various asset and liability segment banking products using agile framework which was instrumental in reducing application processing time to 30 min from 3 days.
- Developed competency center for tablet banking channel for providing support for all application and hardware related issues.
- Defined project scope, goals and deliverable's aligned to business goals in collaboration with senior management and various stakeholders.
- Developed and initiated projects, managed costs, and monitored performance.
- Used Agile methodology to deliver multiple releases of project in crunch timelines which resulted in exceeding business expectations and reduced time to market by 60%.
- Designed interface trigger architecture for smooth operation of business process without impacting transaction SLA.
- Leading integration design workshops with various system vendors and internal IT teams.
- Managing testing cycle of project i.e. SIT, UAT, Penetration and Performance testing
- Single point of contact for business including various products teams, operations teams, compliance teams, regulatory authorities, IT application teams, system owners and end users to handle project activities.
- Managed various IT and Non IT vendors and defining their scope of work and tracking progress
- Managed schedules and overall project organization to ensure requirements and project deliverable dates are clearly communicated, understood and executed.
Lead Business Analyst
Fiserv Global Services
2007.07 - 2011.10
- Successfully delivered 10 major releases of project and was awarded ‘Role Model Award’ for rapidly scaling project team from scratch at offshore location.
- Planned, directed and coordinated activities of multiple projects in areas of New Implementations, Systems Integration and Business Process Management and Re-engineering.
- Elicitation, analyzing and documenting of business requirements from different stakeholders of project and collaborating with system architects during initial stages of solution design.
- Designed and mapped business processes for supporting project objectives during new implementation projects.
- Acted as subject matter expert for professional services requests from existing clients and worked towards problem identification and analysis, options recommendation, Identification of Risks and Issues and facilitation of key decisions through workshops.
- Designed and mapped business processes for supporting project
objectives during new implementation projects. - Prepared and Reviewed Project Plans, Project Estimates, Business Requirement Document, Functional Requirement Document, Requirement Traceability Matrix and other projects related artifacts.
Deputy Manager
Axis Bank
2006.03 - 2007.07
- Instrumental in overachieving yearly profitability targets by 160%.
- Responsible for achieving volumes and profitability targets of Branch.
- Managing and monitoring various channels of acquisition.
- Accountable for coherent product offerings and resolution of customer service issues.
- Regular monitoring of targets for liabilities, mutual funds, costs, revenue generation & productivity of the team.
- Collaborate to build operational efficiencies, enforce adherence to set service and operational standards, sales targets achievements, audit compliance and ensure profitability of entire unit.
Financial Consultant
Standard Chartered Bank
2005.05 - 2006.03
- Managed a base of 350 clients with a value of 250 million & Rs 200 million as asset under management.
- Portfolio management services for HNI clients spanning across various instruments i.e. Mutual Funds, Stocks, Insurance, real estate.
- Investment advisory services according to customer risk appetite, financial needs in near future and tax requirements.
- Helped individuals and corporate clients build and execute wealth management strategies based on unique goals and objectives.
Assistant Manager
HDFC Bank Ltd
2003.04 - 2005.05
- Developed loyal and highly satisfied customer base through proactive management of team customer service strategies.
- Responsible for overall services portfolio of branch and achieving high quality service.
- Ensuring internal and external compliance on all branch transactions, handling customer situations and contributing to overall achievement of business growth.
- Catering to preferred portfolio of Branch and generating business for all products in offering
Executive
Scope International
2001.09 - 2003.04
- Logical reconciliation of all ATM's of Bank (both onsite and offsite ATM’s).
- Monitoring of cash replenishment at all offsite ATM’s and cash limit of various vendors.
- Disposal of manual unclaimed accounts.
Education
Advanced Programme in Strategic Project Management - Project Management
Indian Institute of Management
Calcutta 2020.09 - 2021.07
MBA - Merchant Banking And International Business
Institute of Management Technology
Ghaziabad, India 2002.01 - 2007.06
Software Technology & Systems Management - Information Technology
National Institute of Information Technology
Delhi, India 1999.01 - 2001.07
Bachelor of Commerce -
Delhi University
Delhi, India 1997.08 - 2000.08
Skills
Project planning and development
Advanced problem solving
Budgeting
Analytical and Critical Thinking
Risk Management
Vendor Management
Stakeholder Management
Team Management
Data analysis
Business process re-engineering
Change Management
Certification
Certified Scrum Master
Timeline
Vice President - Enterprise Projects & Platforms
OCBC Bank, Singapore
2022.12 - Current
Certified Scrum Master
2022-06
Agile PM - Foundation and Practitioner
2022-05
Data Analytics - Quantitative Data Reasoning
2021-04
Data Analytics - Analytics in Industry 4.0
2021-04
Data Analytics
2021-03
Data Analytics - Data Visualization
2021-03
Certificate in Project Management
2020-10
Certificate in Risk Management
2020-10
Advanced Programme in Strategic Project Management - Project Management
Indian Institute of Management
2020.09 - 2021.07
Vice President - Technical Delivery Manager
United Overseas Bank
2019.09 - 2022.12
Senior Project Manager
Integro Technologies Pte. Ltd.
2015.06 - 2019.09
Vice President - International Banking Change
Royal Bank of Scotland
2013.08 - 2015.06
Project Manager
CIMB Bank (thru Apar Technologies Sdn. Bhd)
2011.11 - 2013.07
Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager
2010-10
Certification in Banking - American Bankers Association
2007-09
Lead Business Analyst
Fiserv Global Services
2007.07 - 2011.10
Deputy Manager
Axis Bank
2006.03 - 2007.07
Financial Consultant
Standard Chartered Bank
2005.05 - 2006.03
Assistant Manager
HDFC Bank Ltd
2003.04 - 2005.05
MBA - Merchant Banking And International Business
Institute of Management Technology
2002.01 - 2007.06
Executive
Scope International
2001.09 - 2003.04
Software Technology & Systems Management - Information Technology
National Institute of Information Technology
1999.01 - 2001.07
Bachelor of Commerce -
Delhi University
1997.08 - 2000.08
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