Fazirul Abdullah

23 years of Telecommunication and Technology leadership experience in Asia and Australia region working for large multinational organizations such as HP, IBM and Ericsson focusing on Technology, Telecommunication, Customer Facing, Revenue Assurance, Business Outsourcing, Project Delivery, Transformation, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and Big Data Analytics.

Engaged with Malaysian Government as Technology Advisor for Technology, Telecommunication and Business Transformation. Spearheading and leading projects in assisting SMEs to embark into Digital Business, developing IoT for Smart Monitoring/Health Care and collaborating with international Institutions to implement Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Big Data Analytics and Diagnostics.

Reporting to the Company Board of Directors and Sarawak State Govt for technology and telecommunication related planning, implementation and business profitability including nation building and providing technology solution/access across Borneo & Kalimantan.

Business Achievements

Stakeholder Management – Engaging stakeholders both Government and Company Board Members to manage the State and Federal funding for the roll-out of technology driven projects with an average portfolio of RM500mil 

Business Leadership – Crafting and designing technology driven business blueprint to ensure profitable investment by improving technology capabilities and optimizing business profitability achieving Gross Profit targeted margins of 65%

Technology Capabilities – Re-using over 20years of technology experience acquired from Ericsson, Hewlett Packard and IBM for the implementation of technology driven projects with expedited implementation of Cloud Data Centre, Smart Telecommunication Towers, Network Operating Centre and various other mega projects.

Asset Management & Expansion – Over 2,000 Telecommunication Towers, 11,000km of Under-Sea Submarine Cables and On Land FTTX spanning the entire Borneo, expanded further on each of these portfolios and included International Gateways for IPX and Satellite Connectivity. Improved average yearly revenue to RM200Mil

Business Optimization – Involved at all levels of technical and business operations using vast amount of learned experience to optimized and improve CAPEX & OPEX resulting in allocating cash reserves of RM200Mil as well as savings of RM300mil in CAPEX/OPEX

Team Structure Alignment – Re-organized Company team structure from Network Driven structure to Sales and Customer Driven structure using business aligned technology to solve customer and government pain points, resulting in multiple projects awarded by the state government increasing business revenue and stake holder satisfaction. 

Reporting to the Board of Directors with overall responsibility for company growth with full P&L responsibility. Built 300 Own Built Telecommunication towers and 90 MCMC towers along with technology transformation, 5G enablement, IoT and partnering with Cloud Service Providers and Data Centers.

Business Achievements

• Business Strategy – Head of Technology Vertical for Naza Group generated additional revenue by introducing PMO & Professional Services supporting Telecommunication Infrastructure. Growing skill sets and capabilities to support technology evolution and support customer business needs.

• Company Growth – Expanded Company footprint in the Technology & Telecommunication industry implemented 300 Telecommunication Towers to bring Mobile & Data Coverage across Nation and currently transforming to hybrid towers supporting IOT and Big Data Analytics.

• Revenue Stream – Created multiple revenue streams by carving out various regional projects, solution & product development and setting up Project Management Office to track and control actual deliverables and milestone completions. Yearly recurring revenue increased from 8Mil to 20Mil.

• Team Management – Enhanced team work and skill levels by re-aligning required skills against technology deliverables and outsourcing where needed to support customer demand. Cost Optimization further reduced Cost of Sales and Operational Cost. Established Project Management Office nationwide for support and monitoring.

• Customer Management – Engaged customers at both C-Levels and working levels at various stages of project progress to ensure expectations and scope of work are aligned. Aligning with State and Regulators improved time to market by speeding up approvals and licenses.

• Partnering – Lead the 3rd Party Partnering program to bring together vendors and solutions providers to build up capabilities, solutions, and services to optimize time to market and optimize revenue generation window. Team play to enhance solutions with other license holders and distributors. Naza became the one stop solution centre for technology delivery.

Reporting to Ericsson HQ and Regional Office with P&L responsibility for growing the Professional Services revenue and profit margin including growing the required skill sets and cross border resource management.

Business Achievements

• Axiata International – Successfully accomplished agreed milestones and led the Ericsson task force in collecting revenue and handing over the completed milestones to customers with additional revenue for Managed Services. Continuously engaged with CTIO and VPs to ensure alignment of project deliverables and continued business.

• Celcom (Malaysia) – Implemented & Supported Business Intelligence Project for Celcom and was selected by Axiata management for re-use of best practises within Axiata international group of companies.

• Telkomsel (Indonesia) – Headed and Managed the expected phase by phase implementation of Indonesia nationwide Business Transformation and Next Generation OSS enhancement projects (liaising with C-Level, VPs and working level for end-to-end governance and management)

• Indosat (Indonesia) – Invited to sit in the Steering Committee for OSS/BSS/Security expansion and forward planning. Generated additional revenue streams for Ericsson with direct awards.

• AIS (Thailand) – Scoping and implementing trial runs using live customer data for AIS solution requirement, transformation and Proof of Concepts. Automated tasks using python and selenium improving productivity by 40% 

• SMART (Philippines) – Lead role for SMART Next Generation Service Assurance Project using Ericsson and 3PP combined solution to cater for customer business needs. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction Index.

• Telstra (Australia) – Ericsson EEA Live Trial run PD and advisory role in support of Telstra Business Goals, Use Cases, KPI, Big Data Lake and Analytics. Secured project for Ericsson over multiple competitors.

• Mobifon & Viettel (Vietnam) – Various projects for local Ericsson Business Unit covering Delivery, Operations Transformation, Solution Life Cycle Management and assisting Key Account Manager during customer engagements

 
Reporting to IBM Global Services Head with overall responsibility for the APAC region optimized customer satisfaction, involved in customer transformation planning roadmap and generated multiple revenue streams. 

Business Achievements 

(Telekom Malaysia, Celcom, Maxis, XLT, Indosat, Telkom) - Project Director on behalf of IBM.

• Celcom Malaysia - Project Director for Celcom Enterprise Business Intelligence project and Celcom Next Best Action project running simultaneously in parallel with interdependent critical paths. Major achievement completed planned payment milestones.

• Telekom Malaysia - Client & Partner management at CxO level addressing various business objectives and growth planning with supporting delivery & support strategy for business optimization and enhancement

• XL, Indosat, Telkom Indonesia - Monitoring and guiding various projects in Indonesia together with team partners in implementing OSS & BSS solutions, including Business Intelligence, Network Monitoring, Campaign Management, Loyalty Programs, Managed Services, Billing and CRM

• Indonesia & Vietnam - Business Transformation of various Telecommunication business transformation projects covering OSS & BSS business critical data sources in line with business objectives and goals.

• Regional Customers - Stakeholder management and CxO level interfacing with periodical updates on various project movements and dependency check and balance

• IBM Customer Satisfaction index improved with documented sign off from customer VP meeting all pre-set KPI & Performance Index

Customer facing & consulting services focusing on Managed Services and Outsourcing at CxO level with industrial exposure in Telecommunication, Finance, Oil & Gas, Banking and Manufacturing.

Business Achievements

HP Projects successfully implemented covering IT, OSS & BSS:- 

• Vodafone Australia – Data Centre Implementation, Business Transformation and Large Data Lake (Data Mining) for Business Intelligence. Including Planning, Implementation, Handover Support & Maintenance

• Telstra Australia – Managed Services, Application Development & Maintenance including Solution Life Cycle Management, Revenue Assurance and Campaign Management 

• Telenor Group – Group wide identification and consolidating of assets to improve business ROI, Support & Maintenance including Optimization of Business and Operational Support Systems

• Ooredoo Group – Business Transformation for group wide subsidiaries involving Business Process improvements, Tools enhancements and People up skill

• Maybank Malaysia – Business Process Improvement, Disaster Recovery Infrastructure, Security Enhancements, Transformation of Bank End Supporting Systems aligning to Business Goals and KPI for daily monitoring and measurements

HP Regional PMO Head

• Managing & Guiding various regional HP mega projects with regional project directors and stakeholders

• Final team reviewer for various proposal, project scope and commitments to customer aligning HP Best Practises and ways of working

• Creating new business opportunities and up-sell within the install base (regional customers) by promoting upgrades, enhancements, capacity expansions and support & maintenance.

                             
Plan, implement, manage, operate and support large telecommunication and billing projects including Time nationwide Fibre optics roll out.

Business Achievements

• Time Data Centre Implementation 

Planning, design, implement, manage and operate Time Telekom Data Centre distributed internationally and commercial equity sharing with international organizations

• Time Telekom Call Centre Implementation 

Planning, design, implement, manage and operate of Time Telekom Call Centre in collaboration with Accenture

• Head of PMO (Fibre Optics Nationwide project implementation)

Customer facing and Stakeholder management include Program Management (multiple concurrent projects), business planning and pipeline management for new business launching and promotion. Successfully implemented Time Nationwide Fibre Optics Network with International partnering

• Time Telekom Special Projects 

Management of special projects initiated at BOD level for international partnership and equity sharing. Status update, reports and recommendation and BOD Level (chaired by the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office representative)

• International Business

Brought in foreign investors & Solution Partners to participate in the implementation of Nationwide Fibre Optics by way of Equity Share holding and lead the implementation of Surrounding Support Systems 

Lead responsibility for the planning, deployment, implementation support and enhancement of multiple telecommunications, OSS and BSS projects for South East Asia, with valued at USD$100 Million 

Business Achievements

• Telekom Malaysia CRM Project Implementation
• TM Touch Prepaid Billing System implementation
• Telekom Malaysia Data Centre Implementation
• Built & grew the Security Audit Team for periodical Security Audit
• Telekom Malaysia Nationwide Network & ISP Implementation
• Telkomsel Indonesia Data Centre & Telco OSS/BSS implementation
• Telekom/Celcom/Maxis VAS Project management
• Management Consulting on new initiatives and R&D for Telco Solutions
• Overall P & L responsibility for Project Delivery & Services 
• Customer Management and Client facing at South East Asia Level 
• Development of Core Competent Technical and Customer Facing Team

Overall responsibility in managing the production, delivery and installation of Unix Servers for the South East Asia region together with procurement of peripherals and devices on project basis. 

Business Achievements

• Regional head for Technology Solution and Project Management 
• Project Director for South East Asia Telecommunication production and procurement 
• Project Coordination with third party solution providers and vendors
• Business Development and Pre-Sales Consulting for High End Storage Systems
• Project Director for Systems Integration, Telecommunication and R&D
• Guiding the Board of Directors in new business solution and R&D initiatives 
• Vendor selection for project integration and deployment
• Ensuring project completion according to time, budget and manpower
• Resource coordination for South East Asia Projects
• Project progress reporting and client facing
• Coordinating subcontractors and project team players for client deliverables
• Business Development for Data Centre Outsourcing and Project Management

Plan, design, implement and support IT-Telecommunication Data Centre for Sapura Adam PCN1800 which was eventually sold to Time Telekom while maintaining Data Centre as an outsourcing business

Business Achievements

• Planning & Procurement of IT and Telecommunication equipment
• Data Centre Management and Operation of Telecommunication solutions
• Security Audit, Testing, Hardening & Forensic including Security implementation for Royal Malaysian Air Force Asset Tracking System
• Project Managing Telecommunication, Systems Integration and R & D
• SMS Technology Innovation for real-time automated alerts with KPI
• Overseeing the manufacturing and delivery of Telecommunication equipment 
• Committee member at Sapura Group Level for Technology related matters 
• Involved in PM’s Management Consulting group for MSC related project
• Fine-tuned KLIA-TAMS project for PM’s department

Masters Computer Science, UK