Authors

Sarat

About me

Consistently driving technology and business innovation to deliver substantial improvements in customer relationships, business growth, operating efficiencies, and performance levels, Sarat Varanasi stands out as a distinctive leader in the field of IT services and consulting, befitting his reputation is as a growth-enabler.

Mr. Varanasi’s current role as Director of IT Relations for Cognizant Technology Solutions is a clear example of his abilities, holding high levels of accountability. His scope of management includes a $6 million annual IT budget, projects as large as $12 million, and as many as 120 cross-functional staff in an onsite/offshore model. He ensures peak levels of systems performance for 70,000 users worldwide and supports $3 billion in revenues.

In addition to driving cutting-edge implementations (e.g. enterprise-wide ERP backbone) on-time/budget, he has driven continuous improvements including founding a step-by-step playbook for M&A integrations of IT, executive dashboards for operating metrics, disaster recovery strategy for entire IT platforms, organizational change management team, and Cognizant’s first helpdesk … all creating substantial bottom- and top-line impact.

Mr. Varanasi leveraged his exceptional leadership, interpersonal, and relationship building skills to turn around Drivestream in his role as Chief Solutions Delivery Officer and Director. He generated $2 million new annual revenues (plus long-term revenue streams valued at $5 million per year) by doubling portfolio of client accounts and cultivating relationships with such market leaders as Intel and Oracle. Other highlights of his tenure with Drivestream including establishing project management methodologies throughout the software development lifecycle and transforming the entire delivery organization into a highly effective offshore delivery model.

His achievements as a Senior Consultant with Oracle Corporation are equally notable. For example, as the visionary leader behind Oracle’s first successful implementation of their new PeopleSoft ESA solution, Mr. Varanasi contributed $3 million to the business growth of the corporation. Once again leveraging his stand-out relationship building skills, he personally closed 50% of all new clients for this flagship product, closing contracts with such industry leaders as Cerner, GE Healthcare, and Intel. His initiative and contributions led to recognition as Outstanding Consultant of the Year out of 2,000 consultants.

Never one to settle for the status quo, Mr. Varanasi stepped up to the plate as a strong leader for Rao Consulting, rapidly turning around this company that was on the brink of bankruptcy. He accomplished this success story within 2 months by such strategies as creating a strong niche market (generating $2.1 million new annual revenues) and transforming the training center into an efficient offshore delivery center (captured $1 million annual revenues, created competitive advantages, sped up time-to-market).

These stellar results are founded on earlier achievements as a Consultant for Sathguru Management Consultants, where he honed both his technical expertise and leadership strengths in several systems development projects that resulted in multimillion-dollar impacts to profitability and operating efficiencies for diverse clients.

Mr. Varanasi’s entire career is underscored by extensive corporate recognition for his contributions, winning several individual and team awards. He also was selected as a speaker for an Oracle conference, authored a bestpractices white paper, and is active in several professional groups. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting and Finance.

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