Reginald Mazana

Responsibilities

• Evaluated hiring, firing, and promotions requests.
• Managed large-scale projects and introduced new systems, tools, and processes to achieve challenging objectives.
• Brainstormed and developed sales strategies to achieve short and long term sales revenue objectives.
• Developed and implemented new filing systems to improve organizational efficiency and productivity.
• Provided strong leadership to enhance team productivity and morale.
• Executed appropriate staffing and budgetary plans to align with business forecasts.
• Held monthly meetings to create business plans and workshops to drive successful business.
• Developed proposals and presentations for internal and external audiences.
• Conducted performance evaluations, compensations and hiring to maintain appropriate staffing requirements.
• Consolidated vendors and renegotiated contracts to optimize costs.
• Implemented and developed operational standards, policies and procedures.
• Boosted team member productivity by enhancing performance monitoring and instituting motivational approaches.
• Identified cost improvement changes and cost savings plans to increase company savings.

Project Name: Project Phoenix

Scope : Digital Transformation Project.

Role: Project Director

Team Management : Onsite

Industry: Public Sector

Budget : U$10 million

Duration : 36 months

Activities

• Planned out the blueprints for software projects, including defining the scope, allocating resources, setting deadlines, laying out communication strategies, and indicating tests and maintenance.
• Participating in and supervising each stage of the project using hybrid project delivery methodologies ( Agile and Waterfall)
• Participated in pilot tests and revised programs based on feedback and results.
• Ensured the each project stayed on schedule and adheres to the deadlines using Microsoft Projects and daily check in meetings and weekly EXCO Meetings
• Created a project budget and ensuring the project adheres to the budget as closely as possible.
• Determined and oversaw consistent testing, evaluation, and troubleshooting of all products in all stages of completion.
• Tracked milestones ( using Kanban), deliverables, and change requests.
• Used Scrum methodologies together with the scrum master, developers and product owner to efficiently adapt to the needs to the client and product.
• Engaged and worked alongside cross-functional stakeholders to manage strategic initiatives.
• Planned and coordinated the product ( features ) and client migrations.
• Performed post migration tracking activities

Achievement

• Project is currently in progress and expected to be closed in March 2023
• Phased approach on the used to deliver the project
• Oversaw large portfolio of projects to support teams, report progress, and influence positive outcomes for key stakeholders.
• Maintained schedules to meet key milestones at every project phase.

Responsibilities

• Developed project plans and managed project scope using methodologies to guide projects from conceptualization to implementation and maintenance.
• Directed changes to project scope and cost and implemented appropriate change management processes to keep project on track.
• Built and maintained relationships with vendors
• Ensured that MTN quality methods and standards are applied and maintained in project implementations.
• Prepared, agree and obtain acceptance sign-off.
• Providing accurate and timely information on operational status and reports to management.
• Provided accurate and timely information on operational status and reports to management.
• Performed pro-active risk management, to identify and remediate risks in early stage.
• Acquiring resources required by MTN , client, or external supplier to successfully complete project(s).
• Managed, organized, guided and directed 5 external Service Providers during project implementation.
• Monitored project progress against plan and address any project shortfalls.
• Managed Change Management Process for Project.
• Manage and support multiple internal and external departments during project lifecycle.
• Escalating unresolved issues within MTN to a point where they are satisfactorily resolved.
• Coordinated project related activities between various Internal and external vendors.
• Worked with different vendors with multiple culture teams
• Liaised with MTN Senior Management on project/client issues to ensure satisfactory conclusion.
• Determined and oversaw consistent testing, evaluation, and troubleshooting of all products in all stages of completion.
• Tracked milestones, deliverables, and change requests.
• Supplied MTN Senior Management with Forecasts/Budgets within agreed timeframe.
• Acted as Single Point Of Contact (SPOC) for customer and developed project plans and project documents for Project Execution
• Participated in presales/sales activities to understand and agree feasibility of contractual undertakings prior to signing of contract.

Achievements

• Successfully deployed retail and charging releases as per request from business and regulatory frameworks.
• Delivered successfully migrated deployments on Charging Systems and Retail Systems.
• Managed to successfully deliver project under pressure from stakeholders.

Projects Delivered

Project Name: ZSmart Integration

Scope : Customization and migration of customers from Eppix Platform to ZSmart.

Role : IT Project Manager

Team Management : Remote / Virtualised

Industry: Telecommunications

Budget : U$500k

Duration : 30 months

Activities

• Planned out the blueprints for software projects, including defining the scope, allocating resources, setting deadlines, laying out communication strategies, and indicating tests and maintenance.
• Participating in and supervising each stage of the project using hybrid project delivery methodologies ( Agile and Waterfall)
• Participated in pilot tests and revised programs based on feedback and results.
• Ensured the each project stayed on schedule and adheres to the deadlines using Microsoft Projects and daily check in meetings and weekly EXCO Meetings
• Created a project budget and ensuring the project adheres to the budget as closely as possible.
• Determined and oversaw consistent testing, evaluation, and troubleshooting of all products in all stages of completion.
• Tracked milestones ( using Kanban), deliverables, and change requests.
• Used Scrum methodologies together with the scrum master, developers and product owner to efficiently adapt to the needs to the client and product.
• Engaged and worked alongside cross-functional stakeholders to manage strategic initiatives.
• Planned and coordinated the product ( features ) and client migrations.
• Performed post migration tracking activities

Achievement

• Project is currently in progress and expected to be closed in March 2023
• Phased approach on the used to deliver the project
• Oversaw large portfolio of projects to support teams, report progress, and influence positive outcomes for key stakeholders.
• Maintained schedules to meet key milestones at every project phase.

• Directed changes to project scope and cost and implemented appropriate change management processes to keep project on track.
• Developed project plans and managed project scope using methodologies to guide projects from conceptualization to implementation and maintenance.
• Worked with third-party vendors to streamline appropriate processes for data Extraction, Transformation and Loading.
• Gathered project requirements through interactions, meetings and walkthrough with potential application users and to develop business requirements documents (BRD), functional requirements documents (FRD) and user mockups.
• Performed data analysis and mapping where necessary and document the output in terms of format and content that allows the development resource to use this as a working document
• Identification and documenting system and process inter-dependencies to highlight these for project stakeholder consideration
• Scheduled and conducted JAD sessions/workshops to discuss and agree potential solutions for business problems and document the outcome
• Prepared findings, conclusions and recommendations based on logical, analytical thinking taking into account time, cost and performance parameter
• Performed regular project reporting to the PMO for the purpose of monitoring the project progress
• Ensured the proper execution, verification and recorded results against IAT and UAT test cases by the relevant testing resources.
• Managed 5 project teams in Agile environment, realizing success through application of SDLC methodologies and exceptional leadership skills.
• Outlined work plans, determined resources, wrote timelines and generated initial budgets as part of project scope determination.
• Oversaw large portfolio of projects to support teams, report progress and influence positive outcomes for key stakeholders.
• Supported and executed simultaneous delivery of various e-commerce and mobile projects.
• Monitored contracts and service level agreements to identify potential risks and implement mitigation actions to protect development process from unforeseen delays and costs.

Project Delivered

Project Name : Flexipay_AccessBank Fintech Integration

Scope: Extraction and migration of clients from Mercantile to Acessbank ( formely Growbank)

Role : Program Manager

Team management : Remote / Virtualized

Industry : Banking ( Financial Services )

Activities :

• Business Scope ( Agreements )
• Technical integration Scope ( Mastercard <> AccessBank<>Flexipay)
• Software Development Scope ( Customization of Reporting Files for SARB)
• Payment Stream Integration ( Card, POS, EFT, SWIFT, SEC )
• Training Scope ( Fraud, Risk , Compliance, System )
• Infrastructure ( IPSec , Fiber Server room configuration)
• Marketing Scope ( Go-to Market)

Project Name : Upgrade SIS Loan module File

Scope : Upgrade the regulatory reporting module in-line with the South Africa Reserve Bank ( SARB) framework

Role : Project Manager

Team Management : Remote / Virtualized

Industry : Banking ( financial Services )

Activities

• Managing Software Requirements process ( Requirements analysis, specification, validation , Change Management and Tracing )
• Software Design Process ( key Issues Design, User Interface designs )
• Software Construction ( API, GUI Builders , Unit Testing Tools )
• Software Testing ( code based Techniques, fault based techniques , usage based techniques )
• Software Maintenance ( migration )

Responsibilities

• Trusted and managed $5miilion portfolio.
• Being Single point of contact for internal and external vendors in Sub-Sahara Africa.
• Built and maintained relationships with customers
• Managed, guided 3 Project Managers and 4 virtual located teams across world in different time zones
• Developed project plans and managed project scope using methodologies to guide projects from conceptualization to implementation and maintenance.
• Prepared cashflow projections and collections for all African projects with 80% success rate.
• Managed team members to achieve results.
• Handled multiple regional projects and with 80% travel time into Sub-Sahara Africa.
• Developed, monitoring and executing project plan using data and tools.
• Involved in technical account management and providing pre-sales and post sales processes.
• Identified solutions to support costs, analyze customer's needs and upgrades through and effective change management process which supported sales processes and increases portfolio revenues.
• Prepared and deliver presentations for senior management that may include feasibility analysis, business case studies, and project estimate.
• Increased portfolio revenue by 20% through cross selling, relationship building with stakeholders.
• Successfully Managed 5- integration projects and 13-Data Migrations across Sub- Sahara Africa with value of $20 million in 4 years.

Projects Delivered

Project Name : National Switch of Malawi integration

Scope : Integration of 13 banks to the national switch for Card and POS based transactions.

Role : Senior Project Manager

Team management : Remote / Virtualized and On-site

Industry: Banking and Telecommunications

Budget : U$4.5million

Duration : 30 months

Activities

• Issuing and Acquiring
• Card based transactions ( Debit Card, Credit Card and Loyalty)
• Mobile Money Integration
• Wallet-to-Bank

Project Name :Burundi National Switch

Scope : Integration of 8 Banks to the national switch for inter-operability

Role : Project Manager

Team management : Remote / Virtualized and Onsite

Industry : Banking and Telecommunications

Budget : U$3.8million

Duration : 18 months

Activities :

• Issuing and Acquiring
• Host-to-host ( Integration of 11 Banks)

Responsibilities

• Trusted with $2 million budgets
• Ensuring compliance with Service Management and ICT security policies and standards, technical architecture, and service level agreements.
• Devoted special emphasis to punctuality and worked to maintain outstanding attendance record
• Managed delivery team of 8 people
• Acted as single-point of contact between EXCO and IT Project Delivery Team
• Documented project requirements, own and maintain project plans (milestones, phases and deliverables) through to completion
• Assisted with financial analysis (Financial Models/Cashflows projections/NPV determination)
• Reported status across all projects at portfolio level to senior management monthly
• Took responsibility (timely resolving) for customer escalations and acting as single point of contact both internally and externally (Senior Management).
• Coordinated internal resources to ensure delivery on commitments
• Assessed completed projects to ensure deliverables consistent with project goals
• Carrying out post implementation reviews of programs / projects to ensure that original goals / requirements are being met.
• Participated in continuous improvement by generating suggestions, engaging in problem-solving activities to support teamwork
• Developed and implemented performance improvement strategies and plans to promote continuous improvement
• Successfully Implemented Standardized project ICT processes and best practices
• Successfully created Service Delivery team with customer focus
• Reduced project implementation cost through effective project scheduling skills
• Achieved 20% cost reduction through effective negotiation skills

Projects

- Upgrade of legacy systems

Responsibilities

• Monitored progress of design, installation and commissioning of various networks and systems.
• Trusted with $100,000 budget.
• Maintained relationships with material vendors to lower costs and diversify capabilities.
• Oversaw daily Business-As-Usual operational decisions, including; incident, problem, change, service request, and asset management.
• Directed and supervised , when requested by management, work of personnel and/or contractors.
• Maintaining accurate inventory of all ICT equipment for all sites, and ensure relevant Asset Management policies and guidelines are followed and ITSM databases are up-to-date.
• Developed and initiated projects, managed costs and monitored performance.
• Maintaining accurate inventory of all locally developed applications and systems and report in central registry.
• Developed plans for feasibility assessment, requirements specification, design, development/implementation,
• Managed Implementation and Engineering Department budget, formulating and monitoring budget allocations and expenditures, verifying funding and ensuring no overrun occurs.
• Ensuring Audit recommendations and actions are completed in timely manner.
• Assisting in drafting requests for proposals and reviewing support contracts including SLAs, SOPs, and OGs.
• Assisting in recruitment and development of ICT staff in accordance with business needs, budget, and personnel policies. Coordinate work of ICT staff under direct or functional (dotted) reporting lines. Identify further skills needed for field staff and end-users and relevant training activities.
• Promoting competent and motivated workforce trained to understand and use ICT facilities and who implement correct procedures and practices.
• Developed technical specifications for procurement/contractual services, overseeing technical evaluation of bids received, monitoring procurement process and managing contract service.
• Successfully installed 3.5m VSAT hub for Africom
• Successfully installed VSAT and structured cabling systems for UNHCR ( Harare), UNESCO ( Harare) and UNCEF
• Successfully delivered customer projects within scope, time and schedule
• Managed to grow market share by 20% percent annually for 2 years
  

Achievements

Responsibilities

• Managed and motivated Team members to achieve results.
• Analysed, planned, designed and implemented network projects in accordance with customer
• Requirements;
• Reviewed network configuration and plans cost-effective upgrades to keep up with changing technology.
• Prepared, under overall supervision, network backup and security policies;
• Used network management and monitoring tools to be preparing problem-analysis reports, resources
• Utilization data, suggesting measures for network efficiency maximization and provides recommendations
• And reports for management review;
• Ensured proper execution of operational of operational tasks among team members
• Designing, installation and maintenances of Broadband Internet using VPN, WiMAX, WiFi, VSAT, Optic
• Fiber, DSL, Frame-relay, E1 and Structured Cabling technologies
• Successfully configured MPLS, VOIP and WLAN on Cisco devices
• Successfully installed VSAT 1.8 and 2.4 iDirect Modems and configured Voice over IP via Satellite.
• Successfully installed structured cabling, fibre and Wireless technologies.