Mohammad Arif Kareem

Dubai, UAE --linkedin.com/in/makareem Mohammad Arif Kareem Intellectually curious individual and management expert with 20 years of experience delivering strategy, finance, Operations, IT, Sales & Marketing, Solution Consulting, Project Management, Business Development, supplier management, stakeholder, and risk management to help the business grow. Exceptionally organized individual with strategic thinking skills and a participatory leadership style. Skills • • • • • • • • • • Requirement Elicitation & Gathering Business Travel Test Cases User Acceptance Testing Process Improvement Revenue Analysis Tourism & Hotels Travel Management Operations, Business Development Supplier Management • • • • • • • • • • Business & GAP Analysis Solution Consulting Documentation (SOW, SOR, BPD, Test Case) Project Management Risk, Vendor & Stakeholder Management Integration & Implementation IT, Sales & Marketing Strategic Thinker and Leadership Negotiations Hiring & Training Experience DECEMBER 2020 - PRESENT Business Consultant / BaronFleet - TRAAAL Group • • • • • • • • • • • • Oversee business operations and provide strategic leadership. Developing and implementing strategic plans and company policies, maintaining an open dialogue with stakeholders, and driving organizational success. Developing and executing business strategies to achieve short and long-term goals. Reporting to the board, providing business growth insights and strategic advice. Developing and implementing business plans to improve cost efficiency. Maintaining positive and trust-based relations with business partners, shareholders, and authorities. Overseeing the company's business operations, financial performance, investments, and ventures. Supervising, guiding, and delegating executives in their duties. Ensuring company policies and legal guidelines are communicated. Assessing, managing, and resolving problematic developments and situations. Building and enhancing the company's public profile at events, speaking engagements, etc. Able to excel in high-pressure situations. Excellent organizational and leadership skills. OCTOBER 2018 – DECEMBER 2020 Sr. Business Analyst / TRAAAL Travels, Qatar & India FEBRUARY 2017 – AUGUST 2017 Senior Business Analyst / American Express Global Business Travel, India • Analyze external and internal requirements, and define solutions to be provided by the most suitable technical application or combination of applications • Fully document functional and technical solutions, obtain customer approval before technical development, and ensure updated system support documentation is produced at the time of implementation • Participate in the designing, development, testing, implementation and user training of the reporting & booking systems of TRAAAL Tourism Qatar & India, Red Apple and AMEX GBT POS and backend systems i.e. Salesforce, GMAX for India and JAPA region • Report the deviations through proper documentation, investigate operational problems, and identify causes • Work closely with IT, external vendors, senior leaders and other service departments (Revenue Accounts, Finance etc.) in the implementation of the new systems/enhancements through proper implementation plans. Prepare necessary training plans for the planned releases of the systems and set up a procedure for identifying the users and their training requirements on an ongoing basis • Manage a team of 6 developers, and prepare project plans & timelines in the Smartsheet. Create user stories in Jira and keep track of the development and issues • Procurement of office supplier & equipment i.e. lease lines, computers, telephone lines, infrastructure management, hiring for TRAAAL Travels • Prepare necessary training plans for the planned releases of the systems and set up a procedure for identifying the users and their training requirements on an ongoing basis • Support existing customer migrations and new customer implementations of new systems, enhancements, and business information by providing consultancy, demonstrations, support and training as required • Dedicated Business Analyst for Galileo Smartpoint migration, LCC, Hotel POS system and Ticketing robot for India and JAPA region • Refer to the log maintained by Service Desk to identify the areas (systems and procedures) that require improvement. Discuss with concerned line-sections/external service departments for the improvement, design solutions and get implemented as appropriate Achievements • Assigned as a dedicated Business Analyst for one of the big projects of Galileo Smartpoint migration and LCC booking tool for the Indian market. Ticketing Robot and hotel booking tool for JAPA & EMEA region NOVEMBER 2011 – JULY 2016 Business Analyst / dnata Travel – Emirates Group, Dubai • Analyse external and internal requirements, and define solutions to be provided by the most suitable technical application or combination of applications • Fully document functional and technical solutions, obtain customer approval before technical development, and ensure updated system support documentation is produced at the time of implementation • Participate in the designing, development, testing, implementation and user training of the systems required and implemented by dnata Agencies, dnatatravel.com – B2C, dnata Agent Desktop – B2B, iTravel web-based B2B system for dnata Iraq & Dubai • Prepare test plans for user acceptance testing, perform the testing, report the deviations through proper documentation and ensure the system delivery as per the Specifications Investigate operational problems, identify causes and support the testing and implementation of corrections • Work closely with Emirates IT, Verchaska external vendor, Line sections and other service departments (Revenue Accounts, Finance etc.) in the implementation of the new systems/ enhancements through proper implementation plans. 2 • Prepare necessary training plans for the planned releases of the systems and set up a procedure for identifying the users and their training requirements on an ongoing basis • Provide product support and demonstrations of the products to dnata Business line managers/Units • Support existing customer migrations and new customer implementations of new systems, enhancements, and business information by providing consultancy, demonstrations, support and training as required • Participate in the project of dnata Front Office System Enhancements, dFO2, ProTas System Upgrade, Tariff Maintenance, Tour Operating System, Management Information Systems, dnatatravel.com, dnata Agent Desktop (B2C & B2B), iTravel dnata web-based POS system for Iraq & Dubai • Refer to the log maintained by Service Desk to identify the areas (systems and procedures) that require improvement. Discuss with concerned line-sections / external service departments for the improvement, design solutions and get implemented as appropriate Do system administration tasks for the dnata Agencies systems (dnata Front Office, ProTas, etc.) by maintaining the reference data and the user access control accurately, regularly monitor the system performance and initiate corrective measure if required Achievements • • • Join as Commercial Technology Officer in November 2011 and was promoted as Subject Matter Expert Front Office – Air within a small period of 2months Najm Merit in September 2012 in recognition of significant efforts that resulted in the smooth implementation of a new release of dFO across UAE, Fiji and India in August Najm Appreciation in May 2013 in recognition of my dedication and drive to perform to the best of my capability in ensuring the successful release of dFO in UAE, India and KSA, in April 2013 In April 2014 transferred to Travel Republic’s development team, dnata’s B2C & B2B domain and independently managed the B2C enhancements, new developments and other projects OCTOBER 2009 - SEPTEMBER 2011 SME Air Ticketing, US / American Express Global Travel Center, India • • • • As part of the ticketing team, accountable for managing the ticketing queues, quality checks, research on CSI and ADM, and training needs of the team, with an emphasis on creating awareness of new fares, fare rules, company policies, communicating the benefits and building a relationship with clients in line with the company's and client's policies. Assist with developing, implementing and reviewing team productivity; analyze and monitor performance. Provide support to the Manager, Asst Manager and Training team in working out training needs and material for the team and new joiners. Manage and motivate, developing, training and assessing the team with an emphasis on instilling a high-performance culture to achieve outstanding business results Education APRIL 2020 Certificate in IATA NDC / IATA E-Learning Training Certificate in Distribution and Airline Retailing with NDC JUNE 2018 Certificate in Digital Marketing / DICC, India Certificate in Digital Marketing, Google AdWords, Google Analytics 3 MAY 1999 Bachelor’s in Art / University of Delhi NOVEMBER 1997 Certificate in Air Ticketing / Sita Travel Academy, India JUNE 2005 Certificate in KLM Process / KLM Learning Campus, Netherlands Certificate in Around the World (Geography) & KLM rebooking Process, Corda Codeco & Pars SEPTEMBER 2006 Certificate in GDS & Business Travel / American Express, India Certificate in Business Travel Email Servicing, Galileo, Sabre CRS, Atrexis, Unisys Learning Activities Emirates Aviation University - Effective Email Writing, Business Email, Project Management Essentials, MS Office Overview, Project Management for Success, Lynda Online - Visio 2016 Essential Basic, Excel 2007 Essential Basic, Microsoft Project 2013 Essential LinkedIn Learning – Scrum the Basics HubSpot Inbound Certified 4