Vijaya Vardhan Panthagani

PowerSchool

Senior Director - Technical Support

Technical Support Site Leader for a 200+ team of technical support staff. Direct span of 3 senior managers and 2 Associate Directors. Indirect span of 15 managers. 

Accountable for technical support delivery, quality and customer experience for NA, EMEA and APAC regions from Bangalore site. Responsible for developing and growing India COE in partnership with India Site Leadership Team.

Director - Technical Support

SaaS Labs

As the head of our global customer support operation, I oversee a team of 40 engineers, 3 team leaders, and 2 managers responsible for customer support across the globe.

EFFICIENCY: 
• Implemented automated conversation snoozing, resulting in a 30% reduction in first response time and a 40% improvement in subsequent response times.
• Introduced response automation through an AI bot (FIN), with AI participating in 30% of chat conversations and achieving a 20% answer resolution rate.
• Streamlined our training plan, reducing the go-live time by 50% through live training sessions and a phased approach to handling initial customer chats.

SERVICE GROWTH:
• Introduced 4 support offerings aligned with our pricing packages, spanning both chat and email channels
• Implemented weekend US shift support for 10 DLC returning and new customers, as well as our priority customers.

SERVICE ENHANCEMENT:
• Significantly improved the refund and cancellation flow, resulting in a more than 50% reduction in refund approval time.
• Enhanced the SDR process, achieving a 30% reduction in response times for 70% of our lead volume.
• Improved help articles, leading to a 23% case deflection and a subsequent improvement in support capacity.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:
• Expedited customer issue, feature, and bug prioritization by 30% through a monthly Voice of Customer (VOC) report shared with the global leadership team.
• Developed and executed a Customer Support and Customer Success handoff process, leading to a 30% improvement in ticket response times and positively impacting customer retention.

PEOPLE GROWTH:
• Implemented a consistent performance and promotion criteria in partnership with the HR team, mitigating the perception of unfairness and appropriately rewarding top performers.
• Invested in technical upskilling of L1 engineers and cultivated a 6-member L2 team through a dedicated technical trainer and a 3-member lean QA team.

Director - Customer Support

Atlassian

Responsible for technical support delivery, escalation management, customer experience for our Select and Priority customers. Operations and people growth for a 14 member team of senior technical support engineers supporting our Confluence suite of products.  

Over the last 2 years, while being 100% remote,

•	Built trust with my team through regular team bonding, right feedback, removing roadblocks and being an enabler.

•	Drove team success in technical specialization moving the needle from 10% to 70% while onboarding 5 new hires in the last 2 quarters

•	Stabilized the Confluence Select team across 
  - Customer orientation (improved NPS & CSAT by 27%)
	- Internal process/tools adoption (improved by 36%)

•	Leading the hiring effort for FY22 (Jul - Jun 2022) and achieved 100% senior engineer hire calls over the last 3 quarters 
 - Enabled trust and collaboration between a 6 member Talent Acquisition team, 9 peers, 4 senior management execs and 20+ senior tech interviewers  across BLR and Amsterdam
 - Defined strategy and execution. Solved for volume forecast, operational code red situation and a sub-optimal candidate pipeline

•	Leading the weekend staffing planning and execution for EMEA region during FY21 AND FY22
 - Enabled trust and collaboration between 30 senior support engineers, 4 peers and 2 senior management execs across BLR and Amsterdam
 - Defined strategy and execution. Solved for for volume forecast, regional holidays, technology upskilling and weekend compensation policies across BLR and Amsterdam.

Enterprise Support Manager

Citrix

Responsible for technical support delivery, critical escalation management and customer experience for our Priority and Priority Plus customer program. Operations and people management of a 15 member team of senior technical specialists supporting our Virtual Apps Desktops and Citrix Cloud suite of products. 

Actively engaged in support improvement programs with global stakeholders (TRMs, Account managers and Customer Success Managers) to improve our priority customer experience:

•	Reduced Average speed of answer on the call queues by 60%
•	Cross-skilled 80% of the engineers on 70% of VAD products and 100% of Cloud technologies
•	Expanded the team by 25% to accommodate the tech support for growing priority customer base @ 20% Q-on-Q
•	Executed a Rewards & Recognition program to improve priority engineer experience and retention

Senior Manager, Priority Support Program - Virtual Apps and Desktops

Responsible for technical support delivery, escalation management and people management of a 15 member senior technical specialist team for our Virtual Apps and Desktops products.  Maintained a superior customer experience with an NPS >=75.

Technical Support Manager III

Responsible for technical support delivery, operations and people management  of an 18 member team of technical experts supporting the XenServer suite of products at Citrix. Additionally, I spearheaded the below initiatives as part of my role:

•	Net Promoter Score improvement initiative which resulted in NPS moving up from 60 to 65 within 6 months.
•	Advanced Customer handling skills interventions that reduced voice-based customer escalations by 40%

Technical Support Manager II (XenServer)

Talisma

Transforming Customer Experience to over 300 Higher Education Enterprise Customers globally, in the current role as off-shore program manager of a cost center. Leadership role in scaling up release management program to 24x7. Revenue generated from the off-shore cost center - US $ 200,000 per year. Additionally, built and managing a 24x7 technical support team, to cater to Middle East and Africa geographies.

Senior Technical Support Manager - Release Management

In this role, I managed release management delivery to 300 premier US customers across all US timezones with a team of 12 technical experts.I developed skill-gap analysis for all resources and charted a proactive technical training program in-line with new technologies in the future product versions – reduced customer escalations by 50% post new product version releases.

Technical Support Manager - Release Management

In this program, I managed a profit center having 16 premium customers having one technical Talisma on-site support consultant/expert onsite, per customer, pan India.  All the remote on-site support experts were full -time employees of Talisma reporting to me. The size of the business was INR 2 crores per year. I was responsible for customer contract renewal, annually. I also managed AMC renewals of Bangalore region customers having standard support contracts, as an additional responsibility. Achieved 100% AMC renewals. Used innovative cost savings techniques to achieve 50% profit margin.

Technical Support Manager - Expert Services

Managing Customer Experience to over 100 Talisma CRM Customers in APAC & Europe region. Responsible for 24x7 product support delivery with a team of 15 technical support experts.Additionally, planned and managed delivery of two Talisma CRM upgrade projects & one server migration project with existing resources. Overall, revenue to company was INR 10 lakhs.

Technical Support Manager - Product Support

I was the Technical Escalation SPOC for a profit center (Expert Services) having around 16 premium customers across India. Quarterly travel to customer locations to review resource/system performance with customer IT/BU heads.I also assisted with finalizing Expert Services annual support contracts for existing and new customers. Additionally, I anticipated and converted a customer’s reporting business requirement into an SOW worth USD $ 10,000 and managed delivery with an existing resource – zero additional cost to company.

Technical Lead - Expert Services

Managed a USD $30,000 SQL Server reporting services project for a marquee customer of Campus Management - Career Ed Corporation, Chicago, IL. I traveled to customer location in US for requirement gathering and project planning for 4 weeks. In a short period of 2 weeks, I formed and trained a 3 member off-shore team (including myself) to meet customer's business requirements.

Technical Lead - Reporting Services

I led a team of support escalation engineers to provide solutions for high priority product bugs and Support escalations via the Sustain Engineering Program. I influenced customer oriented decisions by liaising between Support and Development as a customer advocate.

Technical Lead - Sustain Engineering

I provided Premier Application Support and was SPOC (Single Point of Contact) for Talisma CRM implementation at Microsoft. I managed a complex Talisma application installation of 10 database servers (SQL cluster), 6 IIS servers (cluster), 4 Application servers (cluster) and 20 Windows 2003 terminal servers. Provided technical mentoring and process-orientation for a team of 5 support engineers based out of Bangalore, India.

Senior Technical Support Engineer

My job was to troubleshoot and resolve Talisma product technical support cases and ensuring high customer satisfaction rates. I also did process-orientation and technical mentoring for L1 support engineers.

Technical Support Engineer

My job was to write and execute test cases for the assigned modules in the Talisma product. I was the Feature Owner for Talisma CRM Sales Module and Offline Client. I researched on the Higher Education vertical and submitted a case study on implementing Talisma CRM in a University based setup.

Software Test Engineer

National Informatics Center

This was my first internship-cum-job straight out of college. First experience with a real time programming language and databases. Developed & supported a module in VB 6.0 and Oracle 8i as part of the Land Records Management Information System maintained by the Govt of AP. The cool thing about this project was I used language API's to be able to show the front end UI for my module in TELUGU (local language).

Software Engineer

I help managers demolish self doubt, get clarity and become promotable | Transformational Leadership Coach | Technical Support Leader

Over the last 20 years, I've built and scaled technical support teams ranging from 10 to 200+ staff across both Fortune 500 companies and startups. My speciality lies in setting vision and following it up with ruthless execution to achieve people and business outcomes. I prioritize progress over perfection and problem solving over innovation. I believe perfection and innovation are achieved through relentless focus on moving forward.

Director of Customer Support

Busy building the best customer service team on the planet. Hit me up if you are passionate about elevating customer experience through employee experience. I promise you won't regret the time spent :-)

Association of Continuity Professionals

Director of Information

Wells Fargo

Orchestrated and facilitated high priority tabletop and functional exercises to enhance organizational cyber resiliency, systematically capturing gaps and lessons learned. Leveraged insights to drive continuous improvement and maturity of processes, ensuring robust incident response capabilities and proactive risk mitigation strategies. 

 Mobilized multiple technical teams across the organization on short notice to participate in functional and tabletop exercises, ensuring comprehensive testing of incident response plans and bolstering organizational readiness against cyber threats. Demonstrated adept coordination skills and a proactive approach to assembling cross-functional expertise for successful exercise execution. 

 Developed and delivered personalized training sessions on personal development topics to cross-functional teams across the organization. Tailored content to address specific needs and challenges, fostering individual growth and team cohesion. Delivered engaging presentations that received positive feedback and contributed to a culture of continuous learning and development within the company

Lead Information Security Analyst, Cyber Resiliency & Disaster Recovery Exercise Enablement Division

Cyversity Mentorship Program

Cyversity Cybersecurity Mentorship Program Mentee

Dell Technologies

Championed the strategic development and meticulous upkeep of disaster recovery plans and procedures, ensuring organizational resilience and readiness to navigate unforeseen disruptions with agility and precision. 	Proficient in clear and impactful written and verbal communication, adept at employing strong questioning and listening techniques. Elevated to the top 3 Senior Analysts within the region for two consecutive quarters, earning recognition for a stellar 95-percentile success rate, underscoring unwavering dedication to excellence and unparalleled performance. 

 
 Foster collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, interfacing directly with engineers from Network, Database, Security, and Infrastructure domains to optimize system integrity and resilience. Collaborated in managing and orchestrating IT disaster recovery exercises, ensuring meticulous preparation and execution to validate the effectiveness and readiness of recovery plans. 

 
Analyze and mitigate security risks through meticulous assessment of Nessus, Qualys, and Rapid7 vulnerability scans, adeptly interpreting results and guiding teams towards effective remediation strategies.


Key Achievements: 
✔	Averted loss of critical information at the U.S. Department of Treasury after contractor accidentally deleted data. Prevented deletion with swift action retaining 97% of data. 
✔	Received the company’s highest recognition as one of the top 3 Senior Analyst within the region for 2 quarters resulting from a 95-percentile success rate

Senior Security Analyst, Data Protection & Availability Division

This contract position was the window of opportunity that led to me being recruited by Dell Technologies after I demonstrated the ability to be swift, committed, agile, and on-time for installations and set-ups for potential clients on test sites. I carried out nearly every installation with tact, accuracy, and extreme care. I became a valued employee as I contributed to the continued success of Dell’s mission and core values of putting the customer’s 1st.

✓ Concluded 25+ installations for Dell prospective client test sites with 98% success rates in sales conversions per week.
✓ Executed 5+ installations per day unaided, achieving a 100% installment success rate.

Data Center Lab Technican

Army National Guard

I served as a military police officer  on a part-time basis, meeting once per month; however, I was on call and prepared at any moment for deployment. My training encompassed engagement in extensive combat operations and tactical guidance. Moreover, I became highly educated on military laws and regulations, effective negotiation tactics, and diffusing and de-escalating hostile situations. Additional training consisted of a wide range of army values such as professionalism, honor, integrity, honesty, duty, respect, selflessness, servitude, and personal courage.

Military Police Officer

Lead Information Security Analyst | Ex-Military **** All connection request accepted******

I am excited to contribute my talents and proficiency in Information Security, Disaster Recovery and Compliance, to your team's efforts. As an accomplished IT professional with a proven track record in collaborating with teams to translate risk and compliance into product and system requirements, my focus on building strong professional relationships has been beneficial throughout my career.  Within my most recent role at Wells Fargo, I can go from 𝟬 (𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼) 𝘁𝗼 𝟭𝟬𝟬 within the flick of a wrist when it comes to my sense of urgency. I duly comprehend the seriousness of my role and understand the weight of each aspect at risk if I do not conduct myself accordingly.  On another note, my philosophy is that introducing fresh perspectives and new techniques allow businesses to evolve and grow. Similar to your organization, my goal is to remain on the cutting-edge of advancements.

I have worn many hats in my career to ensure organizations achieve their business objectives as displayed within my work history below. Besides my pci compliance experience,  I have been engaged in extensive combat operations training and tactical guidance while serving in the North Carolina Army National Guard.  Additionally, I have proficiency in military laws and regulations, effective negotiation tactics, and diffusing/de-escalating hostile situations. I was nominated to provide community and dignitary protection for high-ranking officials in Charlotte, NC, in 2016 amidst Keith Scott protests televised on CNN, resulting in 𝟬 fatalities. I have influenced youth in community development activities designed to build character amongst kids. Indeed, I’m always happy to provide greater detail about my skills and experience. 

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭 – Sources innovative technical solutions to uncover root causes of application issues, spearhead network improvements, and provide exclusive technical advice.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞 – I provide proven results to protect clients from vulnerability attacks, security breaches, 
and data loss prevention. My customer service skills exceed what is expected of the average IT guru.

𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 – Adept at collaborating with cross-functional teams to accomplish goals for client services to reconcile critical compliance issues. Extensive experience working with diverse customer bases has enabled me to clearly convey technical information to non-technical users.

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Vijaya Vardhan Panthagani

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