Arif Ahmed Khan

OBJECTIVE: To work for a global company where learning and growing is a continuous process and where work revolves around interesting projects and prestigious clients.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Senior Management Executive with good leadership record, inspires/motivates people to embrace change

Excellent Client and People Management Skills with a proven track record. I believe in developing leaders at all levels

Ability to work collaboratively with people - at all levels of the organization

Strategic thinker constantly focused on shaping the company to meet and anticipate both near and long-term business issues and objectives. Able to clearly communicate Corporate Strategy to Business Units and Teams to successfully achieve results.

Ability to analyze situations, find/define problems and develop and present recommendations and solutions.

Outsourcing domain expert – currently manages 10 customer accounts in 3 continents i.e. USA, Europe and Australia. Can assist in achieving sustainable growth with significant cost savings via technology changes like endpoints, automation, offshoring, etc..

Good knowledge of travel related software’s, operations and businesses.

Ethical, honest and a team player with an aggressive attitude towards work.

Proven ability to work well with high visibility and with excellent written and verbal communication

Professional presentation skills - with both individuals and groups.

CAREER PROFILE

July 2010 – till date

Organization: Open Destinations Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Company Details: Open Destinations is a developer of travel software and technology solutions for tour operators and travel suppliers worldwide. We currently employ 450+ staff working on software development, provide 24x7 support to our customers and manage outsourced back office operational contracts at our Goa office.

For more details please visit our website www.opendestinations.com

Position: Vice President - BPO

Reporting to: CFO, UK

Address: House No. 27/1, Khursa Vaddo, Assagao Bardez Goa, India. Pin code: 403507 Mobile no: (0091) 9823391851 / 9881716180 Email: amigosarif@rediffmail.com

Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning: Ensuring a consistent and consolidated approach to ensure alignment of day to day operations with the long term organizational goals.

Risk Management: Ensuring proper internal controls are set up and a culture and environment of risk mitigation is cultivated.

Change Management, particularly from a growth environment perspective.

Service Management: Driving a robust control environment, mitigating risk, developing & adhering to standard operating procedures and most importantly maintaining high quality levels of service delivery. .

Financial Management: Ensuring appropriate employment of financial practices, administering functional cost base. Driving business productivity and cost effectiveness

Creating agility, flexibility & capacity building to support constant change whilst maintaining business growth.

Client management, Business Management & Administration, Talent Attraction and Development

Overseeing key customer accounts

Conducting sales presentations: converting leads/prospects into new business/customers

Managed all other responsibilities as the BPO Manager until 02 September 2012

Achievements:

Triple the outsourcing business in the 2014. Currently managing 200 plus staff (3 BPO Managers and 10 Team Managers) and 12 customers across the globe.

Changed the culture of the organization to Learn & Teach, Innovate and Collaborate

Worked with The Travel Corporation Group - Cullinan Holdings, South Africa Travel Corporation Asia and Creative Holidays, Australia,

Customer base includes Stella Travel Services (now owned by DNATA), JacTravel UK, Destinology, Travel Counsellors, Travalco, Letsgo2, Lusso Travel. Overall working experience of 50+ customers

Transitioned work for 6 customers via online trainings – the customer till date has not met us in person.

Best in customer retention:

o We had Bales Worldwide for more than 7 years (now part of Virgin Holidays)

o JacTravel, Destinology and Teletext Holidays for more than 5 years

Trained and developed Operational Executives (entry level position) to manage large operations BPO Managers, Assistant BPO Managers, Team Managers, Knowledge Management Managers, Trainers, Subject Matter Experts to manage rapid growth and big projects. This meant huge cost savings when compared to recruiting candidates outside Goa.

Documented all processes from recruitment to exit interviews and presented a career path at ODL BPO

Achieved best attrition rate i.e. 3% for 2012 and 2% for 2010/11.We have 6 staffs who are with us for more than 7 years, 21 staffs who are with us for more than 4 years, 9 staffs who are with us for more than 3 years

Introduced workflow and project management tool - JIRA and Confluence for Knowledge Management

Helped smooth movement into bigger and corporate offices at minimum costs to manage 500+ staff.

Introduced professional training programs – Lean Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, Kaizen Process of root cause analysis, Leadership Development

Aug 2009 – June 2010

Organization: Open Destinations Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Company Details: Open Destinations is a developer of travel software and technology solutions for tour operators and travel suppliers worldwide. For more details please visit our website www.opendestinations.com

Position: BPO Manager

Reporting to: Operations Director, UK

Responsibilities:

Managing Operations and Work Environment o Strategic Operations Management – get the right people in the organization o Client Satisfaction Management Practices and Techniques – engage the customer

with a view to process improvement / feedback on process performance. o Client Process Establishment – review current processes and reengineer and deploy

proactively o Productivity Planning Techniques – raising all expected challenges/issues at step 1

and ensuring that deliveries are on time

Quality Management o ODL Standards – 99%+ accuracy levels o Establishing & Propagating Client's Quality Standards o Monitoring service deliveries to Quality Standards and Processes as per SLA and

Procedure Manuals o Quality Improvement Strategies, ensures working on right Processes & Tools o Minimizing Quality Variations and Divergences

Team and People Management o Team Recruitment, o Workgroup and Participatory Culture Development o Building Empowered Teams o Top Performers Retention o Training & Career / Professional Development o Absenteeism Management o Feedback and Coaching o Mentoring and staff development o Stress Management Practices o Workforce output and optimization

All other responsibilities remained the same as mentioned for the position of BPO Coordinator

Achievements:

Increased total headcount to 35 staffs (0 non billed staffs) during tough economic conditions by increasing headcount from an existing account.

Proposed weekend overtime to manage peak period work load as opposed to recruiting new staffs thereby improving the turnaround

Changed processes for JacTravel to improve efficiency by 50%

Maintained 1% attrition, made sure no redundancies were made due to recession.

Developed strategies to double the business in the next 2 years.

Helped the organization to develop low cost reservation management system for small size tour operators – Travel Builder (http://www.opendestinations.com/travelbuilder.aspx)

Initiated participation in company’s product development life cycle plan

July 2007 – July 2009

Organization: Open Destinations Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Company Details: Open Destinations is a developer of travel software and technology solutions for tour operators and travel suppliers worldwide. For more details please visit our website www.opendestinations.com

Position: BPO Coordinator

Reporting to: Operations Director, Goa.

Responsibilities:

To develop strategies for expansion of the outsourcing business and successfully implement and transition new processes

Single point of contact for 3 clients (Cox and Kings, Bales Worldwide and Group Promotions) and 13 staffs (8 non-billed staffs)

To implement effective procedures and deliver as per BPO contract with the client

To ensure 100% transparency across both parties via clear reporting mechanism

To organize weekly/monthly meetings with the clients and BPO Team Leaders to bridge

communication gaps

Ensuring compliance to training/induction/core skills plan for all team members and self

Responsible for Performance Evaluation process by setting goals, reviewing team’s

performance, managing under performers

Presenting monthly reports to the UK management.

To help implement and design company’s new product – Fare Studio

(http://www.opendestinations.com/farestudio.aspx)

Achievements:

Doubled the customer base from 3 to 7 and the total headcount to 32 staffs (3 non billed staffs)

Managed shift operation – India and UK hours

Successfully retained all customers plus increased work volumes and staffing levels from existing accounts

Designed a comprehensive Business Process Management Process by documenting Procedure/Training Manuals and SLAs

Restructured the department to meet client business requirements and deliveries

Designed KRAs and scorecard with clear objectives and rewarding system

Developed and trained staffs for future growth

Maintained 0% attrition rate

Helped the organization to develop Fare Studio as per industry standards

July 2005 – June 2007

Organization: Open Destinations Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Company Details: Open Destinations is a developer of travel software and technology solutions for tour operators and travel suppliers worldwide. For more details please visit our website www.opendestinations.com

Position: Operations Executive

Reporting to: Programing Manager, Goa.

Responsibilities:

Worked on an outbound calling process for a UK based online seller of hotels, Travel Intelligence. The work involved converting online hotel reservation requests to confirmed bookings and managing rates and allocations from suppliers.

Built charter packages for European Waterways. A company that operates a fleet of river cruising vessels along the rivers and canals of Europe. The company takes old trading barges and converts them into "boutique" hotel barges

Worked for Talisman Holland: updated hotel, transfer, sightseeing and cruise

content/rates/allocations in their reservation database as received from their suppliers.

Jan 2003 till Jan 2005

Organization: Travelpack Marketing & Leisure Services Ltd. Goa - India.

Company Details: Travelpack is one of the biggest Independent sellers of schedule airline seats in UK, Holidays packages, cruises & rail tours all over the world.

Position: Web/Marketing Support Staff

Responsibilities:

Responsible for the entire flyer management team.

Training new recruits and updating existing staffs as per the company’s business requirements, changes and strategies.

Preparing annual marketing reports for the CEO.

UK Market promotion - special fares, sale contracts received from various airlines, hotel packages, etc. to over 5000 agents worldwide via email and fax flyers.

Designing and maintenance of company’s various websites, email flyers, brochures and other advertising materials including presentations.

Intranet maintenance.

Uploading special offers on www.traveltrust.com and www.abta.com

Also loaded hotel and airfares in Chameleon (Fare maintenance database used in UK) during less busy periods.

Nov 2001 to Dec 05

Organization : Lifeline Medical Stores Mapusa Goa.

Company Details : Retail stockiest of Allopathic, Homeopathic and Ayurvedic products.

Position : Proprietor

Responsibilities:

In. charge of marketing, sales, cash handling, customer service and maintenance of accounts

Placing orders for fresh stock and clearing of expired stock.

Reporting quarterly on narcotic drug sale to FDA.

Answerable to any queries raised by the Drug Inspector.

Recruitment of new staff.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

Executive MBA in Operations and Leadership Management (78%) from Kingster Education

Graduated from University of Goa with Science Background majoring in Chemistry in April 1999.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION

Trained on the below mentioned areas;

o Six Sigma Overview and DMAIC process

o Process Mapping

o Theory of Constraints

o Feedback and Coaching

o Project Planning and Workforce Management

o Root Cause Analysis and Failure Mode & Effect Analysis

Completed a Diploma in Software Applications

Diploma in Travel & Tourism and Airfares.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Name : Arif Ahmed Khan

Date of birth : 1st October 1976

Gender : Male

Nationality : Indian

Marital Status : Married with two kids (son & daughter)

Passport No. : J6281093

Validity : 02/06/2021

Languages known : English, Hindi, Konkani, Marathi and Urdu.

INTERESTS

Sports, Fishing, Traveling and Music. Believe in giving back to the community

REFERENCES

Can be furnished on request.