Tell us about your current role?

At NTT DATA Business Solutions, my role as GM, Client Services is varied; heading up a team of delivery consultants across SAP ERP & Analytics; a team of customer success mangers and consultants delivering managed services and working closely with the sales team helping our customers understand their implementation journey, and adjusting the journey to that which best suits each client.

Tell us about your career journey in tech / SAP to date?

My career in tech started with a role as a developer, then moving through the ranks quickly to analyst and IT manager by age 24. Various roles in project management, analysis & business solutions design led to some university & contract teaching roles. Select roles in requirements analysis and ERP system selection & implementation for the client led to a role at Epicor (mid-market ERP) from consultant to project manager to consulting manager & then Director, Professional Services & Support, ANZ.  After introducing Epicor’s first cloud products into ANZ, I really started to understand that ‘cloud’ was not really a deployment method but a more proactive way to engage with clients, listen to them, and put them first. Thus I joined Zuora, the subscription billing company and built the consulting capability in Australia, and the beginnings in Japan. NTT DATA is my first experience working with SAP products. I was hired to bring my experience of cloud and mid-market, a smaller, more agile implementation & customer success framework to bear for our clients.

What are the main obstacles you face in your current role and how do you overcome them?

We have worked hard to bring sales and services together so that we are aligned on how to best deliver the right outcomes for the clients, by writing good proposals and contracts we are confident we can deliver on. This leads to trust with the client, with sales, and with our consulting and managed services team. It has been the carrot rather than the stick approach, with us showing the value getting consulting involved early in discussions with clients, and helping to close the deals, and then own the projects through to successful completion.

What does equality mean to you? 

Judging people by the quality of work they perform & their level of engagement -not by colour, race, gender, etc

How can we be more inclusive in the recruitment process to promote wider diversity? 

Be creative in the style and approaches used to recruit that make roles attractive to all. 

What advice would you give you to a women working in the SAP ecosystem and looking to advance her career? 

Just do the simple things well. Be diligent, be respectful, professional but never afraid of having your own point of view. And above all, be resilient.

What female inspiration have you had in your career? 

At Zuora, there were a number of woman leaders globally which really inspired me -these include Alvina Antar, Marlene Lee Summers, Tamsyn Attiwell. And several at Epicor including Lauri Klaus. Prior to these, it was a matter of simply pushing through the barriers by being professional, working twice as hard as the next person to demonstrate your skills.