Dhinakar Poomal

• Brought a new vision to digital production, evangelizing and promoting Lean and efficient methods to digital delivery. Provided digital inspiration to the team, coached, and mentored team members towards profitable and high-quality outcomes for clients.
• Created strategic solution architectures, designs to solve client challenges and roadmaps, and execution plans for delivery. Serviced well-known New Zealand brands such as ASICS, Chelsea, Competenz, Delegat Wines, Pfizer, Roche, and Heartland Bank.
• Managed and delivered high-quality outcomes across a multitude of digital agency projects, including digital marketing campaigns, SEO, analytics, A/B and multivariate testing, marketing automation, web design and development, and new features and enhancements.
• Liaised between client services directors, account directors, creative and technical teams in planning and forecasting a production pipeline, understanding project value to aid in prioritizing work for the production team, and arranging optimal resourcing to achieve targets
• Developed staff skillsets, utilizing freelancers and outsourcing partners when required to meet project and client requirements.
• Ensured projects and jobs were delivered within approved budgets, timelines, and met GP targets.
• Provided reporting and analysis on business metrics, spearheading business process improvements.
• Presented digital solutions, proposals and costs, demonstrated working prototypes and final deliverables, and trained end-users.

The objective of the program was to create a scalable platform using Sitecore to meet Bupa’s digital aspirations, in line with Bupa’s future technology vision.

As a seasoned project manager, I ran the most critical and complex projects within the program and also worked with account leadership in shaping, finding solutions, and pricing new projects. The program delivered fully responsive websites that provided seamless user experience on desktops, mobile phones, tablets, and catered brochureware content, world-class health information, the ability to browse products and service information, the ability to buy products, and renew memberships.

Establishing and fostering long-lasting client relationships across various levels within the client business organization included:

• Running discovery and design workshops, creating program roadmaps, product backlog, staffing plan and budget.
• Planning and managing Business and Technology Change transformation.
• Driving continuous process improvements and efficiency through reusability.
• Rolling out a new and improved process for introducing continuous digital optimizations to already launched websites and apps.

SLi Systems is an intelligent, personalized search product that can be integrated and deployed on any eCommerce website or app. We recently released the latest version of the search builder. It needed to be deployed to clients using an older version of the software. This was a massive project that required careful planning, communication, coordination, and the involvement of multiple stakeholders. The result was a successful and streamlined upgrade with minimal to no downtime.

Through this project, we completely migrated the Bupa site to the Sitecore platform on a new AWS. New functionalities such as A/B testing, multivariate testing, analytics tagging, live chat with sales support, and web forms for marketers were also delivered.

I was responsible for running the discovery and design workshop, product backlog, staffing plan, and budget. This was followed by full-scale development, testing, and an implementation phase, which involved multiple Scrum teams for which I performed Scrum of Scrums.

Key Learnings and Achievements:
• This project utilized the majority of Sitecore’s CEM features and offered significant learning.
• Integration with a multitude of back-end applications like CRM, Point (email partner), Swift (pricing engine), and Bankwiz added to the complexity.
• The large team consisted of UX, VD, front end and back-end developers, and testers from Bupa, Sapient, and Endeva. Managed dependencies with content editing, compliance, and other interdependencies with Bupa’s teams.
• Grew digital insurance domain knowledge.

The program was aimed at improving the online experience for the council’s residents and businesses.

Key Achievements and contributions:
• The success of the discovery phase ensured that we created a shared vision among client sponsors, stakeholders, business drivers, and KPIs that drove the entire project.
• Delivered user personas and journeys, wireframes, information architecture, High-level requirements, and solution options.

Key Roles and Responsibilities:
• Planned and executed the discovery workshop, creatied program roadmaps, product backlog, staffing plan and budget.
• Provided a coherent set of managed AEM environments.
• Established a software engineering practice around the design and implementation choices for various styles of an AEM-based application.
• Enabled Aviva to make appropriate choices around resourcing for future AEM projects and specify the quality benchmarks for all work using this technology.

Key Learnings and Achievements:
• Used Agile and Scrum methodologies on a project that was aimed at delivering non-software outcomes.
• Managed client expectations and relationships in a politically charged client environment.

Responsible for (a) running the discovery, design and planning workshops, (b) capturing project goals and objectives, (c) creating a product backlog, (4) creating the program roadmap, project timeline, staffing and budget plans.

Key Learnings and Achievements:
• Completed the interactive development project involving experience design, usability, graphics design, HTML and JavaScript development.
• Managed client expectations and delivery, working directly with the client’s marketing function.

As the Agency of Record (AOR) for Chrysler, we executed the model of the year projects annually to get the next year’s line-up of vehicles on to their digital marketing channels such as web and mobile. This project’s scope included the Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited models of vehicles under the Jeep brand.

I was responsible for (a) running the discovery, design and planning workshops, (b) capturing project goals and objectives, (c) creating the product backlog, (4) creating the program roadmap, project timeline, staffing plans, and budget plans.

I managed the end-to-end project with creatives, wireframes, front-end and CMS development, analytics, SEO, and creative and functional QA until Go Live. Created and maintained project plans and schedules, RAID logs, and quality management.

Key Learning and Achievements:
• Agency experience and automotive industry digital marketing KPI driven by CTAs.
• The importance of pixel perfection and creative QA.

Delivery Excellence was a program with the objective of establishing and maintaining a consistent approach to project management and delivery across all projects in the offshore delivery center. Various Delivery Excellence teams were formed to provide coverage to different account groups at various locations. The program added value to the projects by facilitating the project set up through initiation support, tool setup, thought leadership on the project management process and tailoring and ensuring the project teams comply with defined processes, standards, and procedures through Integrated Delivery Excellence reviews. In addition, it provided visibility to AG leadership on the risks and challenges in troubled projects.

Led several discovery workshops (called Fusion) aimed at aligning stakeholders, creating a common vision, developing a product roadmap, arriving at MVP and action plan based on key business and technical considerations.

A few examples of discovery phases managed and delivered:
• ASICS NZ – Mobile eCommerce app.
• Bupa UK – Digital Transformation three-year roadmap; web and mobile.
• Bupa UK – Health information migration.
• Barclays Corporate – Redesign and replatform of a responsive web app to drive lead generation.
• Delegat Wines – Brand sites for signature wines from Delegat.
• Fiat China – Redesign and replatform.
• Heartland Bank NZ – Banking app; web app and mobile app.
• New Plymouth District Council – Digital transformation.
• Roche NZ Cancer care informational website – responsive website.
• Schroders UK – Investment IQ; web app to drive engagement and lead generation.
• Scandic Hotels – Responsive web site and mobile app.

During these assignments, I identified and hired team members, created the discovery phase plan and budget, facilitated and executed the workshops that delivered user personas and journeys, requirements backlog, MVPs, technical solution design, made technology choices, created the information architecture and the wireframe of the interface, developed mock-ups of the application, and reviewed the blueprint and roadmap.

Below are some examples of large scale migration projects executed:
• JPMC - migration of digital documents, files, and assets from MS Sharepoint to third-party software solution called Fogbugz. This was on-prem to on-prem.
• Chrysler - migration of content, data, and assets from team site 7.1 to 9.2.
• A large UK insurance provider migration of accounts, folders, documents, assets, emails, meetings from MS Outlook to MS Teams - on-prem to cloud.
• A multi-national retail giant - SharePoint on-prem to MS Teams.