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ConsultingJan 2018 — Apr 2020 · 2 yrs 4 mos

Senior Architect, Client Advisory & Pre-Sales

Pitney Bowes

Pre-sales lead and solution architect for Pitney Bowes' Spectrum data platform. I took clients and partners from first workshop to working solution — data governance, master data management and regulatory compliance — for financial services, professional services and retail organisations.

EY KYC partnership, end to end
RFI → live
EY KYC partnership, end to end
Person team delivering GDPR compliance
5
Person team delivering GDPR compliance
Industry conferences presented at
2
Industry conferences presented at
Global financial services clients advised
3
Global financial services clients advised

Context

Clients were under growing regulatory pressure, with GDPR and KYC chief among the drivers. They needed to turn fragmented data into something governed, trusted and compliant.

My role spanned the whole journey: shaping the opportunity, proving the solution, winning the work — and then delivering it and enabling the client's own people to run it.

Role & scope

Role
Pre-sales lead and solution architect
Clients
HSBC, MUFG, Broadridge, McDonald's; retail and public-sector-adjacent markets
Partners
EY — joint KYC solution built on Pitney Bowes Spectrum
Pre-sales
RFI/RFP responses, estimation, proofs of concept and go/no-go decisions
Data
Data governance, data quality, ETL and operational master data management
Platforms
Pitney Bowes Spectrum, Neo4j and GraphQL

Milestones

  1. May – Oct 2018

    KYC solution partnership with EY

    Took EY from RFI/RFP through a proof of concept at their workplace to implementation, then trained EY's professionals to deliver the solution themselves.

  2. 2018

    Pitney Bowes conference, Dallas

    Presented how Spectrum and GraphQL power operational master data management.

  3. Nov 2018 – Jan 2019

    GDPR compliance for McDonald's

    Led a five-person team through data standardisation, iterative cleansing and an analytical single view of employees.

Key achievements

KYC solution partnership with EY

Challenge
EY wanted to add a Know Your Customer capability to its own service offering.
Approach
Led the full lifecycle on Pitney Bowes Spectrum: the RFI and RFP, a proof of concept at EY's workplace, presentations to stakeholders, implementation, and training EY's professionals.
Outcome
EY gained a KYC capability built on Spectrum, with its own people trained to deliver it.

Spectrum data integration for HSBC and Broadridge

Challenge
HSBC and Broadridge were evaluating Spectrum for their data integration needs.
Approach
Led the RFI/RFP process, ran discovery workshops and proofs of concept, and designed the ETL integration using Spectrum.
Outcome
Carried both through to implementation, and led the post-implementation work.

GDPR compliance for McDonald's

Challenge
Employee data had to be brought into line with GDPR.
Approach
Led a five-person team to standardise the data, run multiple iterations of data cleansing, and build an analytical single view of employees on Spectrum.
Outcome
A GDPR-compliant system with a trusted, analytical single view of employee data.

Smart city architecture, enabled by IoT

Challenge
A Saudi Arabian smart city programme needed an architecture to connect IoT-enabled city services.
Approach
As Lead Architect, built the smart city capabilities on Pitney Bowes' own Spectrum platform and AWS, designing the IoT-enabled architecture to bring devices, data and city services together.

Data governance by design

Challenge
Clients needed a practical strategy for data quality and governance, not just a product.
Approach
Led due-diligence workshops to shape each client's data governance strategy — data quality and ETL transformations — and trained client teams on Spectrum and Neo4j.

Winning the right work

Challenge
Every RFI and RFP needed a credible solution, a realistic estimate and a clear bid decision.
Approach
Led RFI/RFP responses and estimation, and took part in go/no-go decisions so effort went into the opportunities worth winning.

Highlights

  • Led the EY partnership for a KYC solution on Pitney Bowes Spectrum — from RFI/RFP and an on-site proof of concept through implementation and training EY professionals.
  • Led a five-person team delivering GDPR compliance for McDonald's: data standardisation, iterative data cleansing and an analytical single view of employees.
  • Led RFI/RFP responses, estimation and go/no-go decisions, and ran data governance due-diligence workshops for clients.
  • Presented operational MDM with Spectrum and GraphQL at the Pitney Bowes conference in Dallas and a Neo4j conference in London.
  • Led RFI/RFP, workshops, proofs of concept and Spectrum ETL integration for HSBC and Broadridge — through to post-implementation.
  • Lead Architect building IoT-enabled smart city capabilities on Spectrum and AWS for a Saudi Arabian smart city programme.
  • Client-facing architecture adviser to financial services clients including HSBC, MUFG and Broadridge.

How I led

Leaving clients self-sufficient

The situation
A data solution only delivers value if the client's own people can run it once the project team has gone.
What I did
Alongside every implementation, I trained client teams — and EY's professionals — hands-on in Spectrum and Neo4j, until they could own the solution themselves.
What changed
Client teams became self-sufficient, running and extending the solutions without us.
  • Bid on the right work: pursue opportunities aligned to our target market, our product capability and our professional services strength — with an honest assessment of the competition.
  • Prove it before you sell it: proofs of concept on the client's own ground.
  • Shape the strategy first: due-diligence workshops before solution design.
  • Enable, don't create dependency: train client teams until they're self-sufficient.

In their words

“I was particularly impressed by Srini's ability to handle even the toughest clients.”
Sr Director Professional Services, Manhattan Associates · Managed Srini
“a great person to help clients understand and surface their requirements and support them in developing their architecture and strategy”
Retired Director of Professional Services, Freelance | Self-Employed · Managed Srini
All testimonials →

Lessons

The best bids are often the ones you choose not to chase. Qualify hard on fit, capability and competition — then go all in.

A sale isn't finished until the client can run it without you.

Technology & domain

  • Pitney Bowes Spectrum
  • Operational MDM
  • Neo4j
  • GraphQL
  • Data quality
  • ETL
  • Data governance
  • GDPR
  • KYC
  • IoT
  • Smart cities
  • AWS

Contact

Let's talk.

I'm based in London, UK. Whether it's a leadership role, an advisory engagement or a transformation that needs shaping — my inbox is open.

srini.vankee@gmail.com
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