Saritha Sakthidevan

Background

About Saritha Sakthidevan

To me, project management is not about perfect project plans and ahead-of-schedule implementations. The true success of a project is in a customer achieves improved efficiency in operations, higher productivity, and better utilization of their resources. And that can happen only when the Project Manager listens to the customer, understands the business requirements, keeps them informed about challenges, and handholds them to use the application in the best manner. Starting my career with Wipro in 2005, I was fortunate to be the single point of contact for clients across the globe like Verizon and Friends Provident UK. After my master’s program from BITS Pilani, I moved to the Middle East to be with my family and joined the Emirates Group IT in 2010. I could lay my hands on the entire suite of IT products across Emirates Airport Operations from Passenger Services to Cargo. My success in identifying requirements, converting them into project plans, and supporting the testing of new applications brought me recognition from the Chairman of the group. In my next role as Resident Portfolio Manager for core IT Systems within the Cabin Crew Training function of Emirates Airline, I donned various hats like Data Analyst, Business Analyst, and Project Manager. I worked closely with the SVP-Training interacting with vendors and stakeholders in Finance, IT, and Enterprise Architecture. Excelling in this role and saving around 1.8 million AED earned me the coveted Najm Appreciation Award in 2015. Virtual Reality (VR) Feasibility Research Project and the Resource Automation solution for the Cabin Crew Training Function mark my timeline with Emirates. Both of them accentuated my ability to own an initiative right from inception, visualize a solution, and see the implementation through. While the VR solution mitigated the need to develop a new, 150 million AED training facility, Resource Automation Solution saved around 18 million AED per annum. I took a sabbatical for family reasons in 2020 and joined as Product Manager at D14 AI which enables automated & integrated healthcare records management and provides customized solutions. When businesses operate with integrity and leadership dares to envision the future, it translates to exponential growth opportunities for professionals. I am excited about how agile methodology helps to develop robust products and how organizations adopt it to provide value to customers. My interests in music and dance help me be in touch with the artist in me. I will be happy to exchange thoughts and ideas with like-minded professionals!