Consultant/Solution Architect - Data Center Solutions

Role:

(Specific tasks and the role that the person will undertake)

Day to day responsibilities:

- Supporting the Solutions Sales Specialist in Solution Selling and Positioning Dimension Data offerings

- Participates in client account planning, preparation of material and leading client workshops

- Leading and deploy Proof-of-Concepts with structured approach and ensure a defined set of closure criteria

- Gathering of client technical architecture information and proposing a solution to solve clients business needs

- Creation of Bill of Material (BoM) and pricing

- Work with Professional Services Architects and Consultants to prepare Statement of Works and effort planning

- Proposal ownership

- Supporting Solution Sales Specialist in Vendors and 3rd Party Product and services in negotiation and iterations of BoM

- Drive and lead services to support Dimension Data’s Professional Services and Managed Services offerings

- Owns Proposal development and responses to RFP/RFIs

- Participates in Project Kickoffs and facilitate handover to Professional Services or Managed Services business units

- Positioning Uptime services for Dimension Data

- Positioning Consultancy services for Dimension Data

- Attends sales calls with relevant clients to identify and analyze and influence design architecture for potential opportunities

- Lead Technical Presentations in a pre-sales engagement

- Ensures technical compatibility between the client’s requirements and the products and Data Centre Solutions offered by Dimension Data

- Builds relationship and credibility with technical lead within client community to influence and foster confidence in Dimension Data solutions

Business Alignment:

- Plan, Design & Build high quality deliverable solutions that meet client requirements & defined objectives.

- Develops personal rapport and professional respect with field sales and professional services, managed services business units.

- Prioritizes his/her time to focus on highly qualified, larger opportunities with target prospects.

- Enumerate and articulate TCO and ROI supporting investments

- Delivers high quality, technical expertise in the pre-sales process to help close sales opportunities with the client.

- Engages with clients facilitating workshops to jointly develop understanding of their environment, synthesizes findings, draws and presents conclusions.

- Propose assessment services and lead assessments for client environment to articulate findings, analysis, solution

- Propose best practices on technology Process & policies

- Engage effectively with clients and OEM’s with clearly defined functional & non-functional requirement

- Develops professional proposals and estimates and pricing for Dimension Data client

- Develops, monitors client relationships and status of ongoing engagements for Professional Services, Managed Services and vendor pipelines and projects.

- Actively participates in industry groups and forums.

- Development, creation and release of white-papers, best practices

- Complete vendor certification requirements (e-learning, Instructor led, tests and exams)

- Pipeline development and management with Data Center Solutions Sales Specialists

Experience:

(Relevant experience the person must have)

- 6 - 10 years in the above mentioned capacity specifically as a solution architect or consultant with a large solutions integration provider

- Proven track record developing solutions around the following

- Virtualisation, storage, data center facilities, disaster recovery, backup and recovery, data center consolidation, migration and relocation, cloud, data center build and facilities, virtual desktops, business continuity and understanding application workloads

- Business acumen with an understanding of key business processes

- Strong background in the development of technology-based business solutions

- Effective communicator; verbal, written and presentation skills creativity, flexibility and openness to alternative technical and commercial approaches to pre-sales and consultative led work

Essential / Desirable:

Job-related Skills:

(Technical and professional skills that the person must have to be effective)

- Certifications on Server, Storage & Virtualization technologies

- Excellent interpersonal skills – ability to interface with Senior IT Management and technical engagement with clients

- Understanding of key infrastructure applications – Active Directory, Exchange, Sharepoint, Databases

- Experience in providing consulting and assessment services and proof of concepts in following:

- Server consolidation and virtualization using VMWare

- Design and Architecting of SAN solutions in storage, backup and replication in EMC or Network Appliance solutions

- Design and Architecting of Backup solutions (i.e Symantec, Avamar, Datadomain)

- Working knowledge of Operating Systems – Windows and various flavor of Unix – Solaris, AIX, HP Unix etc

- Experience in hands-on delivery of Data Centre solutions projects will be preferred

- ITIL foundation certification

- Understanding of Networking Concepts - LAN/WAN, VLANs, Routing, Networking is an added advantage

- Data Centre build and operations

- Data Centre facilties and components that make up a whole Data Center facility fit-out

- Datacenter Consolidation and Relocation, Migration

- Experience in creating project plans, recourse plan, estimation and project cost, (man-day efforts)

Management / Personal Skills:

(Non-technical and managerial skills that the person needs to have)

- Excellent communication and negotiation skills

- Conflict Management

- Leadership - Coaching and Mentoring

- Self-driven and team work

- Sense of responsibility and ownership

Educational Qualification:

(Basic educational background that the candidate should possess)

- Good tertiary education in engineering and computer related technologies.

- Advanced skills relating to Datacentre Solutions Architecting will be preferred.

Tests, Certification:

(Specific tests that must be applied to candidates; prior certification that they may need)

- Server Technologies

- Storage Technologies

- Virtualization Technologies

- Backup Technologies

- Data Center Facilities

- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

(Please provide certifications in the above mentioned areas)

(sample: VMware VCP, Cisco DCUCD, NetApp NCDA, CDCP)

Training, Support:

(Job-related training and support that you will provide the person in first 3 months)

- To be assessed during interview phase and formulate when required.

Personal Goals and Measurements of Success in Role:

- Service led engagements

- Identify and maximize business opportunities for all Dimension Data business units

- Professional Services

- Managed Services

- Training Services

- Development and closure of vendor solution offerings (EMC, NetApp,VMware, Cisco UCS)

- Development and closure of professional services engagements

- Positioning of Uptime services for aligned vendors (EMC, NetApp, Cisco)

Ram Krishn
8376914761