Katepalli, Sushma Email & Phone Number

San Francisco Bay Area

• Overall program delivery of a multiyear global SAP S4 implementation.
• Manage the overall program risk, resolve escalations, lead and facilitate discussions between various cross functional workstreams, vendors and tech and ensure all related dependencies stay on track.
• Design organizational change management strategy, end user training, and communications to ensure successful end user adoption.
• Develop cut-over strategy with detailed ramp down and ramp up plans all the while ensuring minimal disruption across all sales channels and protecting AOP goals.
• Establish Hypercare and Post Hypercare support model to allow for quick support and timely resolution of issues across users and systems.
• Responsible for the overall technology portfolio of 40+ projects supporting the global organization.

San Francisco Bay Area

• Responsible for the overall technology portfolio of 25+ projects supporting the global organization, eComm, Marketing, Supply Chain, International, Sales, Sales Ops, Product, Finance, HR, Distribution, Planning.
• Hired, coached and developed a global team of project managers and analysts.
• Introduced, designed and transitioned to Agile project methodology. Developed Ariat Agile framework, trained the teams on tools (JIRA, Confluence), processes and methodologies. Improved quality, delivery, and speed to.
• Responsible for financial compliance and integrity of IT Capex; reviewed / negotiated vendor contracts, reconciled vendor invoices, maintained / reflowed project LEs, and tallied monthly IT capex spend.
• Established framework, processes and phase gates to ensure all IT projects complied to accounting and financial standards as it relates to cost capitalization practices.
• Led exploration of new market opportunities; researched competitive landscape and developed GTM strategy, organizational structure and business plan to launch a brand new B2C sales channel.

San Francisco Bay Area

• Built the IT PMO function from the ground-up. Developed PMO framework, established processes, built templates, and trained the IT team.
• Managed a portfolio of 15+ active projects supporting the global organization.
• Led major cross functional strategic initiatives – Ariat’s foray into Retail stores, B2B eCommerce site, Direct To Consumer eCommerce site(s), PLM implementation and SAP AFS upgrades.
• Led and orchestrated several business process improvement projects. Partnered and worked across cross functional teams to identify, document, analyze and streamline processes by redesigning and implementing systemic.
• Awarded "Rockstar" by the sales organization for exceptional customer centric support, and successful roll out of the B2B platform.

San Francisco Bay Area

• Brought in by Head of Customer Success to rescue a troubled project. Coordinated all activities between cross functional teams and vendor, managed all testing activities, and cut-over planning. Project completed on.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States

• Hand-picked by VP of IT to lead implementation of ADP eTime across all unionized Dairy plants. Coordinated activities between Legal, HR, Payroll, IT, and 3rd party vendors to establish standard pay policies and.
• Led multiple new system implementations, business process improvement and system upgrade projects - Oracle Datawarehouse, Blackline, Cadec, iCiX, Muddy Boots, Marketing SharePoint, etc. for the Dairy Foods and.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States

• Conducted gap analysis of all ERP systems across the Diagnostics division and advised the IT leadership on a global ERP roadmap as part of the Global Standardization Initiative.
• Established a Mergers and Acquisition framework for IT systems and key business process integration resulting in reduced turnaround time to integrate new sites and reduced working capital by 15% over 2 years.
• Led multiple global implementations (US, Switzerland, UK, Germany) of JD Edwards as a subject matter expert (SME) and project manager for the Diagnostics division. Collaborated with a culturally and geographically.
• Managed 3rd party vendor relationships, vetted vendors, negotiated contracts, set up statements of work, tracked progress, reviewed and approved invoices.
• Led multiple continuous improvement initiatives (using Kaizen) leading to cost savings and elimination of waste. Certified Practical Process Improvement (PPI) professional.
• Worked as a business systems analyst, subject matter expert (SME), project manager, and jack of all trades over the years and supported all business functions in the organization, Manufacturing, Distribution, Planning.

Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States

• Part of the core team to support implementation of JD Edwards.
• Developed programs to migrate data from legacy system to JD Edwards, built JDE Reports.
• Great learning experience to work alongside IBM as a grad student.

Chief Strategy Officer, Strategy

Masters, Computer Science

Industrial Engineering

Education record