Comet, acquired by a Merkle in 2016, was the the customer interaction experts delivering solutions for marketing automation, CRM and customer experience worldwide.
Merkle, acquired by Dentsu International in 2020, is a data-driven customer experience company, delivering transformational work for the world's leading brands.
I provided Real-Time & Batch Decisioning expertise using Chordiant CRM suite and Pega Customer Decision Hub and Pega Platform to provide Next Best Action recommentations for Engagement, Retentions and Growth, to clients across the globe with multi-cultural cross-functional teams.
EE (now part of BT) acquired Orange and T-Mobile and transferred assets across organisations, amongst them was Decision Management.
I was involved in the design & development to transition Orange’s decision management to EE & T-Mobile using a new business model and actively involved in 4G tariff and product design, development & implementation.
As a Design Strategy Lead I,
Coordinated with Value Management, Campaign, Demand, and Product Managers.
Managed designs & issues, advised logic developers and shared best practice management techniques like support & deployment roster within the team.
Provided BAU updates and maintenance releases for Retention and Next Best Action offers.
Updated handset price book and availability information.
Performed Total Customer Value and Revenue Dilution calculations in the strategy.
Implemented Retention Products, Next Best Offers and Promotions for T-Mobile and EE.
Co-ordinated with test & release managers across SIT/ E2E & Pilot issues.
Introduced deployment roster to involve 10 team members to accept routine activities.
Created a novel logic auto-deployment process and pursued progress at every stage, cutting down deployment times significantly, over the manual process.
Became a functional expert in product compatibility for T-Mobile & EE.
Recommended for exceptional work done at EE by the Business Analyst, Philip White.
"Swapnil worked with me on our implementation of Chordiant over the past couple of years.
I have found Swapnil to be great person to work with. He has a deep knowledge of the product underlying the tool we use for managing mobile customer upgrades.
He is comfortable communicating ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences and is always able to come up with innovative ideas to solve the many business problems we come up against as we develop the tool we have further.
I would be very happy to work with Swapnil again in future."
Recommendation received on LinkedIn, 8th October 2015
Business Analyst
EE
Verizon Wireless has been keen on using Pega’s Deal Negotiator tool for managing “Other Charges & Credits” fee adjustments & as a way of customer retention.
I went in an advisory consultancy role as a Deal Negotiator specialist to create and present a working demo using Verizon’s self-styled Decision Hierarchy Matrix flow.
RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) revamped Online Banking websites across 7 banking brands to use Pega Chordiant Decisioning software for a better customer experience by projecting relevant banners & messages for online customers.
Additionally, Personalised Annual Statements, were sent in print to customers using an output from Pega Batch Decisioning.
Interacted with the marketing team on new offers and propositions.
Designed & implemented an enhanced ranking logic framework for banner advert displays.
Advised on real-time business levers and their impact on display performance.
Advised on decision logic areas in batch offer spread.
Recommended an upgrade path to a higher application version (CDM 6.3 to CDM 6.6)
Process migration from Deployment Manager to back-end Decisioning Service (JDS)
Reviewed the Business Operating Model (BOM), BAU Support and Live Proving.
Designed a Mobile Banking POC for pushing relevant sales and service messages within a container in the RBS Mobile App.
Configured logic for all 7 of RBS brands, which was a significant effort.
Performed complete conversion of the logic to make it compatible with restructured data spines, without which the Personalised Annual Statements would not have worked.
Vodafone Group was committed to using Decisioning Technology within 23 operating countries across the world. Chordiant (acquired by PegaSystems) was the preferred product.
As a Team Leader, I
Supervised 2 EDS/HP employees, seconded from Egypt, in my development team and managed work schedule.
Designed proposition management hierarchy for storing offers.
Created designs to integrate Chordiant with Recommendation Advisor using data adapters.
Supported the Accenture logic development team on all CDM technical issues.
Compared to other decisioning assignments, this was a significantly challenging role working with untrained multi-cultural teams, however, I managed to train them as well as get the work completed and handed over to Accenture.
As a Technical Architect, I
Produced Architecture & Technical Solution designs to integrate Chordiant applications and External systems for a Bundle (Deal) Negotiator platform for the Customer Retention programme.
Broad knowledge & hands-on of Chordiant Logic, Technical & Implementation areas.
Provided consulting on System Integration & RA Customization to the IBM implementation teams.
Setup & Configuration Environment and Database.
Proactively involved in hardware and software setups
Debugged logic development issues & provided technical support to development teams
Working with the IBM Spanish team was a cultural experience, where the meetings mostly happened in Spanish. I got used to this way of working eventually and was able to successfully complete the assignment.
Compared to other decisioning assignments, this was a significantly challenging role as it required knowledge of custom Java modules, which required taking a weekend crash course with a colleague to get up to speed.
O2, a Telefónica Spain brand, provides mobile & wireless services.
I joined their AIRBUS Emergency Wireless service project while filling in for a colleague on leave.
Conducted a Data Gap Analysis to migrate new data attributes into Chordiant Marketing Director required by business rules to execute Outbound Campaigns.
Learnt a new product that specialised in outbound campaigns.
Vodafone India followed an aggressive outbound marketing method with customer campaigns using IVR, Auto-Dialler and SMS.
IBM was the preferred System Integrator within India and I worked with IBM Technical teams and the Vodafone business teams to design & deliver a strategic solution for 2 pilot circles (Mumbai & Gujarat), with the aim of rolling out an integrated marketing solution across 23 operating circles all over India.
As a Chordiant Technical Architect, I helped IBM technical & Vodafone business teams.
Integrated Inbound & Outbound solutions (CDM and CMD) for Mumbai & Gujarat on all channels.
Supported Oracle Chordiant database (tables: Customer Spine & Product Holdings, Operator Creation, Responses, Interaction History)
Created SQL fulfilment views and reports for the business.
Setup IBM WebSphere profiles for Chordiant
Configured and Deployed Recommendation Advisor, Real Time Decisioning Service, Interaction Service, Adaptive Service, and Deployment Manager.
Executed Batch Decisioning (using scripted JDS command line)
Performed application performance optimisation by running batch decisions in 8 parallel threads.
Performed server performance optimisations, based on Java Heap Memory & CPU Capacity.
Successfully launched outbound campaigns to channels - SMS, IVR, Auto-Dialler for 2 circles (Mumbai & Gujarat) using Chordiant Marketing Director (CMD) product.
Successfully launched Chordiant Next Best Action implementation to Call Centre, Retail Stores in Mumbai & Gujarat.
Recommended for exceptional work and support by peers at the client company.
"It was a real pleasure working with a highly talented individual from Comet Solutions on the Chordiant Decision Management space.
There have been so many instances, where I have been able to pick up new learnings from my collegue to aid me do my job better.
I looked at him more like a mentor with tremendous technical knowledge in CDM and Java."
Recommendation received on LinkedIn, 6th October 2010
Chordiant Consultant
IBM India
As a Chordiant Decisioning Consultant, I
Worked closely with the Business and IT teams in Orange to deliver requirements as solutions and implement new tariffs and product offerings.
Implemented a new system for Customer Retention making use of the deal calculator to offer Mobile Handsets, Accessories and Tariffs to customers through its call centres.
The project required travelling between London (Business teams) and Bristol (IT teams) sites frequently, being part of the business team, visiting Bristol was an opportunity to bond with the IT teams for an exceptional delivery.
Shop Direct (formerly Littlewoods Home Shopping Ltd) were replacing their current system with a Chordiant-based solution built around business rule validation, to provide the best shopping experiences for 4 million customers by bringing together over 1,800 brands and flexible ways to spread the cost using credit.
Validated logic for business processes such as Product Identification, Cross-Sell, Credit Eligibility, Order Checks, and Payment Authorisation.
Documented improvements to the existing business rule logic
Interacted with the Business & Technical teams to validate the business rules and implement corrections.
My contribution and efficiency in completing validation and corrections within a month, was genuinely appreciated by the Client.
"Swapnil worked for me in his time with Littlewoods.
He was brought in on a short term basis at a difficult time for a project within the arena of CDM.
He displayed a thoroughly professional attitude and had an immediate impact in resolving a number of remaining issues.
At the end of the period I attempted to retain his services for longer but unfortunately he was already committed to another client.
I have no reservations in recommending Swapnil, he will undoubtedly serve you well."
Recommendation received on LinkedIn, 21st March 2010
Lead Business Analyst / Project Management
Shop Direct
Oct 2009 – Jul 2010
BSkyB (British Sky Broadcasting) required various functional & technical enhancements to Merlin (Chordiant Recommendation Advisor) which was BskyB’s call centre agent’s UI implementation for providing Inbound Decisioning and Next Best Action strategy.
On my second assignment to Sky, I provided both functional & technical consultancy.
Advised on upgrade strategies and planning for migration to a higher platform version
Re-implemented Sky NBA logic using a Blueprint logic on a newer version.
Provided substantial Logic & Testing support for NBA offers, sent to customers via email.
Provided logic & technical consultancy for Contact Summary and BAU functional changes.
Customised Chordiant Recommendation Advisor 6.0 for Dynamic Logic Switching.
Co-ordinated development work with the Comet GC (Merkle) off-shore team in Barcelona, Spain.
Recommended for exceptional work done by both the client manager and a colleague.
Dec 2007 – Apr 2008
“BSKYB” (British Sky Broadcasting) transformed their business strategies & capability into project Merlin.
I worked as a Chordiant Decision Consultant for inbound real-time marketing decisioning in areas of Customer Services, Turn-around (retention) and Win-back lost customers, providing functional consultancy.
The strategy was based on the business rules of Customer Eligibility, Profile, Life Cycle Management, Net Present Value, Call Context, Contributions, activity & treatments weights – driving the Next Best Action with machine learning Adaptive Models.
Worked with Sky’s Real Time Marketing (RTM) and BAU teams to implement new offers for Customer Services (Proactive Messaging) & Turn Around (Reactive Retention).
Provided insights and improvements to the working of 'Turn Around' retentions strategy.
Trained new client's employees on Chordiant Decisioning
Built and demonstrated an innovative UI simulator in Excel to help visualise the impact of changes that eligibility, call context weights and financial value will have on the Next Best Offers.
Enhanced a predictive simulator essential to Sky’s future offer strategies utilising 10,000 random customer data samples.
Introduced automation activities to significantly speed up deployment and testing, compared to manual process.
"Swapnil's technical expertise was incredibly important when developing the triggered email capability in CDM.
I was particularly impressed with Swapnil’s ability to explain the technical options in a very non-technical way and use his initiative to resolve issues.
He is a pleasure to work with."
Recommendation received on LinkedIn, 9th June 2011
RealTime Marketing Manager
Sky
"I worked with Swapnil on a logic migration project at Sky.
Swapnil is a talented professional who always applies his abilities to solving the problem at hand regardless of its complexity.
A true multi-disciplined techy able to use the talents he has to the maximum.
He displayed a thoroughly professional attitude throughout and was a pleasure to work with."
Recommendation received on LinkedIn, 2nd June 2011
Decision Management Consultant
Comet Global Consulting