Read my CV

For those interested, you can download my CV here

(Sorry about all the ads on the page)

It's worth a little trouble - it's a gripping read!

A brief overview of my skills and experience

I am currently looking for a London based role in eCommerce and digital marketing programme management: Strategy, implementation and delivery management.

I have extensive experience working with large (Fortune 100, FTSE 100) clients working through their product offerings online, with broad mandates to drive / increase online revenue. In this respect, I’ve led and participated in projects that define the online webtools that customers interact with to improve convergence and other key metrics. An example of this is work I did with a large computer and electronics major to implement a new categorization and search within search (assisted navigation) tool that allows site visitors to drill down into search results by adding search parameters to reduce the result set in real time (without page reloads, for eg). This resulted in a ~5% jump in convergence and product sales within a three month period.

I have also worked on large scale site revamp / redesign projects – 30-40K pages across webstores, segments and languages, working to update and enhance end user featuresets, streamline usability and buy-path navigation; all with a very metrics driven aim to drive increase in convergence and track project costs and ROI using six sigma methodologies.

Having worked with multiple client stakeholders across functional divisions and geographies, I understand the stakeholder approval processes, and how to plan / budget for this time in a project plan. I am also comfortable leading and working as part of an interdisciplinary / cross functional team, having led large teams of project managers, web developers, merchandisers and designers in the past. (for over 5 years, I managed the eCommerce programme for my organization – a professional services and delivery firm; this was 150 staff and ~7.5mm USD of revenue).

Finally, having worked with very demanding clients, I thrive when challenged, and am able to respond very well under pressure. In the past, I have had to manage several projects and deployments simultaneously across time zones (for the UK, EMEA and the US), and have been able to successfully divide my time and structure quick responses / solutions to changing project specs.

Please feel free to get in touch with me. I would be happy to meet with you or set up a telephonic discussion to explore opportunities further and provide you with any additional details or information.

Sunil Malkani

078523 88644

psunil@gmail.com

Technology - There's Always a Flip Side

Something I came across on a wall at the Southbank in London. Clever commentary on the changing legislation that would (theoretically) allow TFL and/or the government to track citizens' movements across London's public transport network based on their use of the Oyster travel card. It's a big issue  - TFL claims that this helps them administer the system better - I can understand how statistical analysis of travel habits and patterns can make for a better system. But there's a flip side; the theoretical ability to track individuals' movements - very creepy. The classic example of technology that can be used for good or evil.

My two bits worth - EITHER:
human beings are inherently good, and if structured and incentivized correctly, systems like these can help the collective
OR:
eventually human nature / greed / whatever will cause this to be used in an inappropriate way

 Personally, I subscribe to the former - at least it gives us hope for a better tomorrow.  What do you think?

New Template Gives Blog a Fresh Start

This is a test toast... er.. post. A toast, to the new template, courtesy of the fine folks over at Blogger Templates. Obviously, you never saw this blog in its original avatar, given that I changed the template in the first hour. But, believe me, the standard Blogger templates just take the fun out of blogging. There's no demotivation quite like the demotivation of same-ness. So come, rest, pause a-while, and revel in the (relative) uniqueness of my blog's "fresh look".

Lazy Sundays and Online Prints

My Sundays are lazy. Things move slowly and my perception is groggy. This is usually fueled by sleep-deprived Saturdays spent desperately cramming a week’s worth of chores, social obligations and general fun into one 24-hour period. And every alternate Saturday, I play a late-night, low-stakes poker game with some friends. This makes things worse, because I end up getting home on the wrong side of 4:00am. I usually lose at poker. So every alternate Sunday, I’m not just extra lazy, but extra grumpy as well.

What’s all this got to do with anything? Well, read on, because this is how it started. So I’m in bed again, on one such Sunday, having sorted breakfast out. Since my mind is not at its usual sharp best, I’m lazily sorting through my email, tossing out the junk – folks in Mongolia (so it seems) offering to enlarge certain parts of my body and/or sell me a Rolex for about $100. Innovative! There’s another bit of junk from someone called Zoom.In. And that’s the subject of the post today.

Apparently these folks will print and ship my digital photos. OK, big deal, this is hardly a new or path breaking business model. But I will admit that I haven’t really seen an Indian site do this before. And the “starting at Rs.4 per print” makes me raise an eyebrow. I cringe (thinking I’m going to regret this) and click the link (www.zoom.in) on the emailer….

Cheesy pun on the Zoomin’, and the zoom.in aside, I’m surprised by a very clean, very Flash and AJAX, very Web 2.0 site that actually looks very impressive. Hmmm. So what’s it do? Well, it’s got the usual – you can upload photos (unlimited storage) and share the link with friends. It’s got the interesting – you can import photos from your Picassa or Flickr account. And it’s got the store, where you can order prints – starting at four bucks a pop for the 4 x 6 on Kodak Royale photo paper. And it’s got some interesting touches – prints on metallic paper, on mugs, t-shirts and other such. Very nice. And the killer feature – just email photos directly from your phone to an @zoomin.com address and they get added to your online album. Neat, no?

Must test, I think to myself. Perfect little zero-energy project for my Sunday afternoon. So I sign-in and upload a few photos. An excellent experience given that you can select multiple photos together, and not have to go through the tedium of doing this one at a time!

I decide to order some 6 x 8 prints, and try the metallic paper, then I do a photo-mug. Cute. I also pick up my 15 free 4 x 6 offer (available to everyone when you first set up your account with them). And finally, clever boy that I am, I enter my coupon code for a free 2 GB pen drive with orders over Rs.250 (I found this on their blog). By the way, there’s also a flat shipping charge of Rs.25 anywhere in India.

The ordering process is fantastic, and a dream to use. You can preview each print separately, or all together, crop images, and select the optional touch up service (supposedly they will clean up your photos before printing).

Two not so good things happened – first, my order was delayed – it arrived 3 days after they said it would, and second, they printed my mug up-side-down!! Maybe they were playing poker the night before as well! In any case, this allowed me to test their customer service, and it was pretty good. Someone called my back within 24 hours of my grumpy email, and they shipped me a right-side-up mug right away (took another 3 days to get to me). Walk across to my desk to check out the mug!

Now, I did a bit of looking around, and they do have some competition in India. In fact, it seems that this space is pretty crowded already. There’s Snapfish (http://www4.snapfish.in) powered by HP, who offer 4 x 6 for Rs. 2.95, and 30 prints free when you set up an account. Then there’s iTasveer (http://www.itasveer.com), 10 free prints at sign-up and Rs. 2.90 for 4 x 6. They also have a ton of options for photo gifts, like mugs, tees, mousepads, mounted (framed) prints and so on. There’s also Picsquare (http://www.picsquare.com/), Rs. 2.99 for 4 x 6, and 10 free 6 x 8 prints on sign-up.

So, was it fun? You bet; though I’m still not convinced that a photo-mug is absolutely essential. What I really need is a photo mousepad, or a photo keychain (not!!). So next Sunday, I’ll try out iTasveer or Snapfish!!