Muhammad Asif Iqbal
IT Infrastructure Professional
Prague,10
Summary
Experienced technology leader with a proven track record of driving IT transformation, pioneering innovative products, and reshaping digital infrastructure for industry-leading manufacturing organization. Proven ability to optimize efficiency, scalability and security while fostering a culture of continuous innovation. 20+ years’ experience covering business and infrastructure aspects of IT, 12 years’ experience in pharmaceutical group of company (Novartis) operations and manufacturing, specialized in IT infrastructure, multi-cloud solutions, manufacturing applications, Business Intelligence, IT strategy and Design Thinking.
Highly organized and self-motivated professional experienced in project management, team development and process improvement. Skilled in developing and implementing strategies to increase efficiency and performance. Passionate about driving business growth and creating positive work environment.
Overview
26
26
years of professional experience
6
6
years of post-secondary education
6
6
Certifications
Work History
Associate Director Infra Service Delivery – Cloud Infra Services
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
01.2022 - Current
- As a trusted Business Partner, enabling innovation, timely delivery and evolution of IT services to meet the business function demands with close partnership, governance and integration of Technology & Infrastructure services
- Responsible for infrastructure and platform solution engineering translating application and business technology needs to underlying components
- Serving as the common solution, performance, and reliability engineering to handle large and critical business projects, escalations, and issues
- Accountable for review of technology solutions and design patterns in partnership with enterprise architecture, application architects and infrastructure engineering to connect the dots and evolve next gen roadmaps that can be integrated into application lifecycle programs including IT budget reviews
- Lead management of day-to-day technology service delivery activities and drive collaboration within IT team inside complex matrix to ensure services are being delivered to the stakeholders per agreed expectations
- Align with customers to proactively drive continuous service improvements
- Manage optimization of existing systems to ensure non-functional requirements perform to agree upon standards while under edge conditions
- Proactively predict and prevent disruptive events and improve the availability of the systems
- Ensure common tooling and best practices are practiced ensuring higher reliability and performance of the business platforms
- Lead and support critical incidents impacting the organization and provide guidance and expertise to quickly resolve critical incidents
- Proactively sharing knowledge of technology risks with business partners to ensure continuous improvement of IT services, application rationalization and efficient management of existing systems and operations
- Align solutions with security and compliance expectations in partnership with the IT security function
- Support and ensure compliance to defined IT Governance controls, standards, and practices
- Projects Completed:
- Data center exit strategy planning
- CloudFirst project for evaluation of manufacturing applications as candidate for Cloud hosting
- Data visualization for manufacturing sites (applications & their underlying infrastructure)
- AAA and Avexis sites infrastructure integration
- Corporate Trainer for Cloud Technologies, DevOps and Design Thinking
- Led teams of up to [Number] personnel, supervising daily performance as well as training and improvement plans.
- Established strong relationships with key industry partners, creating mutually beneficial opportunities for growth and collaboration.
- Maintained compliance with industry regulations while adapting to changes in legislation or best practices as needed.
- Reduced operational costs by identifying inefficiencies and implementing cost-saving measures in various departments.
- Oversaw annual budget planning processes, ensuring financial goals were met while maintaining optimal resource allocation across departments.
- Managed cross-functional teams for multiple large-scale projects, successfully completing each on time and within budget constraints.
- Implemented data-driven decision-making strategies, leading to more informed business choices and positive outcomes.
- Trained and developed department leaders and management staff for specific projects and ongoing operational needs.
- Fostered a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging staff to share innovative ideas and providing resources for professional development.
Global Service Integrator / Operations Manager
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
06.2019 - 12.2021
- Accountable for Service Integration manufacturing for Novartis group of companies across all IT functions
- Supporting most demanding manufacturing site portfolios on the team (>63 sites in 30+ countries)
- Oversee end-to-end integration of Applications & underlying Infrastructure services delivered to Partner organizations including Operations, Projects, Application Infrastructure Portfolio and Demand Alignment
- Collaborated and communicated with TOQIT Site teams to align infrastructure related priorities and ensure smooth service operations and execution
- Supports one of the top strategic TOQIT projects – Digital QC Program, SpotOn
- Sustained the strong partnership, governance, and integration activities with TOQIT and NTO Engineering and Automation, supporting the completion of Control-Layer Nutanix pilot and driving the PAS-X task force to improve MES operations stability
- Supported IDA, capturing demand for Applications and Infrastructure service, by engaging early in TOQIT projects
- Broadened the understanding of and contributed to the complex TOPAZ security service design and readiness
- Collaborated with TOQIT and SPE teams on Digital QC planning and design, as well as MES performance engineering
- Coordinated the TIS Audit Support for all manufacturing sites, resulting in no infrastructure observations
- Identified opportunities within SI team and driving ongoing service improvements for Central Projects Impact Assessment, Demand management visualization, and planning Team Projects & Initiatives visualization
- Projects Completed:
- NORA (New security design) infrastructure Deployment for manufacturing applications
- Nutanix Hosting expansion on multiple sites
- WLAN Enhancement Project – multiple sites
- Digital Quality Lab go-live ITTA – backend infra in GDC
- New NTO site onboarding
- SpotOn – A cloud based IoT solution for manufacturing data
- Conducted regular performance reviews, identifying areas for improvement and developing action plans to address them.
- Developed and implemented strategies to maximize customer satisfaction.
- Empowered employees to take ownership of their responsibilities, leading to increased accountability and improved performance outcomes.
- Increased profit by streamlining operations.
- Enhanced customer satisfaction by establishing clear communication channels and addressing concerns promptly.
- Analyzed and reported on key performance metrics to senior management.
- Analyzed data trends to identify potential bottlenecks in operations workflow, implementing strategies to mitigate risks accordingly.
- Managed budgets effectively, consistently delivering projects on-time and within financial constraints.
- Identified and resolved unauthorized, unsafe, or ineffective practices.
- Oversaw facility maintenance, ensuring optimal functionality of equipment and infrastructure at all times.
- Spearheaded process improvements, resulting in increased productivity and reduced operational costs.
- Led successful change initiatives, ensuring seamless transitions during organizational restructuring efforts.
- Reduced turnaround time for project completion through effective resource allocation and team management.
- Championed safety protocols to maintain a secure working environment, reducing workplace accidents significantly.
- Assisted in recruiting, hiring and training of team members.
Service Delivery Integration Manager – UX
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
05.2017 - 05.2019
- Accountable to the Global SD Lead – User Experience & Design for the service integration across all IT functions
- Focal point as integration management to all stakeholders, including country and regional business partners, technical and service teams and 3rd parties for user experience
- Support UX team to design and implement a holistic user experience process across all IT Enterprise Applications
- Support IT Leadership team to define and design “4D Design Thinking Framework”
- Integrate the new UX strategy and processes within IT organization
- Responsible to integrate the new UX deliverables with global and regional teams
- Work with multiple IT teams within organization (ex
- Infra, hosting, BSMs) to integrate the UX changes and fixes
- Developed Service Catalog for “Design Thinking” services and integrate them in the Novartis Global IT Operating Model to go live in ServiceNow
- Supported “Data and Digital” global initiative by developing interactive dashboards (Tableau) to support Projects, reducing manual efforts for data collection and analysis to 90% and automation
- Performed Qualitative User Research for 3 global projects to identify real user needs, translated user needs to design and deliver prototypes by conducting Design Thinking Workshops
- Developed and maintained Application Performance and Monitoring framework with respect to User Experience, eliminating all manual efforts to zero, by automating the end-to-end process with Aternity tool on Novartis Global Infrastructure for Enterprise Applications
- Leading IT Innovation Council in NGSC Prague, conducted 3 workshops with overall ~ 50 participants resulting 121 pain-points and 10 discussed key pain areas
- Resulted in 11 concrete ideas raised, 2 ideas submitted to region EU Innovation Cluster for evaluation
- Supported Service Delivery Managers’ community, Global IT Governance CoP, and Global IT Innovation Council in NGSC Prague
- Won “Extra Efforts Award” for business related achievements that required some extra effort by exhibiting strong demonstration of dedication and commitment
- User Research & Design Projects:
- Xpend Analytics 2.0 – Design Thinking
- O2P Chatbot – Design Thinking
- Global Enterprise Application UX Workflow Simplification Project
Global Site Infrastructure Manager for NPhS
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
05.2015 - 04.2017
- Accountable to the Global CIO (NPhS) for the day-to-day performance of all infrastructure services used or hosted by NPhS Basel & Rep Office Countries (40+)
- Ran strategic IT operations, executed the IT Transformation plan by replacing local IT applications footprint to Enterprise application cross-divisional
- Led as IT business partner in a strong matrix environment with regional and Country SPOCs to prioritize resulting 30% improvement in customer satisfaction survey scores
- Managed successful Global projects roll-out including IT Transformation, budget consolidation and IT infrastructure upgrades ahead of timeline
- Managed 7 million CHF budget for IT services across 40 countries
- Maintained Global KPIs to satisfactory levels for continuous 2 years
- Maintained SLAs of IT service provisioning and support with 3 different business units, resulting overall 20% savings in IT spent
- Won “Extra Efforts Award” for Process Automation achievements that required some extra effort by exhibiting strong demonstration of dedication and commitment
- Developed multiple dashboards using Tableau to support Service Desk operations, Video Conferencing, Software Compliance and other support teams to pro-actively monitor the use of technologies, growth trends, KPIs, resource utilization and help future planning, resulting the elimination of data gathering from different systems and analysis
- Developed and maintained Global Tableau Expert Center in Analytics CoE, developed & drive the strategy and manage the Tableau environment in Novartis including capacity management, release management, life cycle management & proactive monitoring and developing best practices
- Worked in team-driven environments and communicated effectively with stakeholders.
- Secured sensitive data by establishing robust cybersecurity measures and protocols.
Site Infrastructure Manager
Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited
05.2012 - 04.2015
- Accountable to the Local CIO for the day-to-day performance of all infrastructure services used or hosted by the site
- Led a lean technical team (8 FTEs) to prioritize and coordinate IT services delivery to all sites in country including one manufacturing site and more than 10 sales offices
- Successfully delivered 5 global project rollouts, without any business disruption while maintaining customer satisfaction scores and reducing project time up to 30%
- Planned and delivered local IT infrastructure projects with zero downtime including 2 data center migrations, telephony integration within sites, Video Surveillance System for all offices and office migrations
- Migrated 250 field force associated to Cloud solution, ensuring $250k savings
- Achieved >20% savings on IT budget by better planning of IT assets and services consumption aligned with business stakeholders
- Won “Excellence Award” in recognition of contribution towards the successful launch of Global CRM roll-out on iPads
- Won “Excellence Award” in recognition of the successful implementation of Honeywell security system ahead of timelines
Deputy Site Infrastructure Manager
Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited
04.2010 - 04.2012
- Company Overview: Deputed from 3rd Party Vendor (Premier Systems)
- Responsible for the Infrastructure organization in the Country
- This includes end-to-end Infrastructure services
- Act as focal point for Infrastructure deliveries from the Global GIS, & Global Vendors
- Ensure alignment with global policies
- (E.g
- Procurement, Security, Governance, etc.)
- Ensure provision and management of local IT infrastructure and services to other business units as per signed service level agreements
- Responsible for IT infrastructure investment management
- Ensure BPOs and functions are supported during business requirement gathering
- Deputed from 3rd Party Vendor (Premier Systems)
- Won “GIS Star of the Quarter Team – Q1 2012” for early windows 7 migration Global project roll-out in Pakistan
- Projects:
- Successful Datacenter Migration to temp
- Location with Monitoring System
- Cross-divisional Connect roll-out
- Successful implementation of SIR (Global site infrastructure remediation project)
- Successful implementation of Video Surveillance System at Head Office
Cluster IT Manager
Maersk Line Shipping
07.2008 - 06.2010
- Accountable for the IT organization in the Cluster
- This includes Business Application Services, Infrastructure, Sun setting project of local systems and temporary legacy systems support
- Architected new customer support management system by engaging key business leaders and designing a software application resulting in a 22% decrease in IT budget
- Reduced the overall customer services turnaround time by 70% by analyzing the end-to-end process and using process re-engineering
- Transformed business strategy to actionable IT plan for the next 5 years
- Maintained Global and Strategic KPIs to green levels for continuous 2 years
- Rolled out multiple Global Projects including Remedy (automated help desk system), FACT (ERP system implementation for containers business) and IT Transformation Project
- Received “Blue Ribbon Award” for 30% IT cost savings for year 2009
IT Network Manager
ITIM Systems Pvt. Ltd.
03.2004 - 07.2008
- Managed the development, implementation and maintenance of IT systems, and IT procedures to support in-house applications, databases, network, web designing and user support for customer projects
- Conducted system studies to evaluate business and customers’ needs, suggested new ways of IT assets reuse in different projects to stay under budget for next 5 year
- Implemented automation in various software projects, reducing the delivery time up to 30% by analyzing project system needs
- Managed a team of 5 engineers to support project teams with IT infrastructure services to ensure projects delivery timelines are met
- Consolidated multiple database servers, resulting in reduced cost totaling $15,000 annually
Network Administrator / IT Manager
Textilers Pvt. Ltd.
09.2002 - 02.2004
- Developed and implemented new IT strategy and best practices guide for the next 5 years
- Successfully managed IT projects like machine integration, financial reporting automation and migration to cloud services with zero downtime reducing manual efforts to 65%
- Managed and reported on allocation of IT budget, achieving cost effectiveness targets up to 30%
- Designed training programs and workshops for staff
- Conducted regular system audits to ensure all IT systems are adhered to compliance and manufacturing regulations
- Identified opportunities for team training and skills development
IT System Assistant
COMSATS Internet Services
04.2001 - 08.2002
- Developed Technical Support Department to provide first-line support to customers by implementing ITIL based ticketing system, reducing overall call resolution time up to 70% by automating team roaster for a team of 8 associates
- Implemented performance KPIs and tickets monitoring, increasing customer satisfaction to 98% by improving the customer services
- Automate the monitoring for WAN links and integrate it with SMS system, reducing links downtime to 30% to handle P1 tickets in timely fashion
- Implemented different complex IT server solutions for customers hosting their services online reducing solutions cost up to 50% for customers and with zero administrative overhead
Network Engineer
Forbes International Pvt. Ltd.
10.1998 - 03.2001
- Successfully managed $1-2 million budget IT projects and successfully achieved the project scheduled goals
- Designed and implemented different IT infrastructure projects at customer premises, reducing the overall project delivery time by 30%
- Implemented new Service Desk system in a team of 7 engineers, resulting an increase of 50% in FCR by process simplification
- Reviewed constantly the customers’ feedback and applied continuous improvement plan in IT services, which increased the customer satisfaction rate from 78% to 95%
Education
Master in Business Administration - Management Information Systems
Preston Institute of Management, Science & Technology
01.2011 - 01.2013
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Preston Institute of Management, Science & Technology
01.2002 - 01.2006
Skills
IT Infrastructure & Service Delivery Management
Multi-cloud
UX / Design Thinking / Innovation Counseling
Team building & Leadership
Pharma Manufacturing operations & integration
Project Management
Business Intelligence and Visualization
Data Centre Design & Operations Management
Team collaboration and leadership
Strategic leadership
Organizational development
Crisis management
Operations management
Project management
Accomplishments
- Achieved [Result] by introducing [Software] for [Type] tasks.
- Achieved [Result] by completing [Task] with accuracy and efficiency.
- Collaborated with team of [Number] in the development of [Project name].
- Supervised team of [Number] staff members.
- Used Microsoft Excel to develop inventory tracking spreadsheets.
Certification
AWS certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Training
- M1 – Leading at the front (Novartis)
- DevOps Engineering
- DDIT Business Partnering Base Squad Camp
- PRINCE 2 Project Management
- Business Continuity Planning (Novartis)
- Process Excellence (Mearsk)
- Interconnecting CISCO Network Devices (ICND)
- Building Scalable CISCO Networks (BSCN)
- Linux Administration (Comsats)
Personal Information
Residency: EU permanent residence holder
Timeline
Associate Director Infra Service Delivery – Cloud Infra Services
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
01.2022 - Current
Global Service Integrator / Operations Manager
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
06.2019 - 12.2021
Service Delivery Integration Manager – UX
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
05.2017 - 05.2019
Global Site Infrastructure Manager for NPhS
Novartis Pharma s.r.o
05.2015 - 04.2017
Site Infrastructure Manager
Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited
05.2012 - 04.2015
Master in Business Administration - Management Information Systems
Preston Institute of Management, Science & Technology
01.2011 - 01.2013
Deputy Site Infrastructure Manager
Novartis Pharma (Pakistan) Limited
04.2010 - 04.2012
Cluster IT Manager
Maersk Line Shipping
07.2008 - 06.2010
IT Network Manager
ITIM Systems Pvt. Ltd.
03.2004 - 07.2008
Network Administrator / IT Manager
Textilers Pvt. Ltd.
09.2002 - 02.2004
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Preston Institute of Management, Science & Technology
01.2002 - 01.2006
IT System Assistant
COMSATS Internet Services
04.2001 - 08.2002
Network Engineer
Forbes International Pvt. Ltd.
10.1998 - 03.2001
AWS certified Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS certified SysOps Admin - Associate
Certified Data Centre Professional (CDCP)
Certified Data Centre Specialist (CDCS)
COBIT 5 Foundation
ITIL V4 Foundation
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