Saba is a seasoned technical and business consultant with several years of experience in the industry, with more than ten years of experience exclusively on building complex and large data warehouses for Oracle Business Intelligence/Siebel Analytics and MicroStrategy.
As a Practice Director at KPI, Saba is responsible for services delivery in the east coast working closely with KPI clients to deliver business value with successful BI solutions. He leverages his deep consulting background and technical skills to architect robust BI solution architectures.
Prior to joining KPI, Saba was a practice manager with IBM Global Business Services – Oracle BI Practice focusing on pharmaceuticals, CPG and retail industry solutions for sales, marketing, trade promotion and clinical trial management. Saba was also part of Siebel/Oracle implementing Siebel Analytics solutions and a principal architect with MicroStrategy. Saba received an MBA in Global Strategy & Finance from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an MS in Computer Sciences from Bharathiar University, India.
Specialties & Interests: Pharmaceuticals, CRM, retail, CPG industry solutions, running and volunteering.
1-on-1 With Saba Sugunavel
Where is your hometown? Princeton, NJ (originally from Coimbatore, India).
Describe your role at KPI... Responsible for client and KPI people success in the east coast.
Describe your professional background... Started out as a data architect and gained expertise with multiple BI platforms such as MicroStrategy and Siebel. Leveraged technical expertise to consult for IBM clients in analytics for complex functional areas such as trade management, pharmaceutical sales effectiveness and multi-channel marketing. Currently focused on providing robust Oracle BI solutions, maximizing ROI and user adoption for KPI clients.
What do you see as the #1 challenge with business intelligence? User adoption. As the consulting partner, I urge our consultants to focus on the business problem we are solving rather than delivering reports and dashboards. User education and knowledge transfer is another key area that I emphasize to our client and project teams. I believe Oracle BI is great platform that enables easy access to information and closed loop business process optimization
What do you do in your free time? Avid golfer, travel, running and volunteering in community events.
Favorite Charity: Direct Relief International (www.directrelief.org), rated 4 stars by Charity Navigator
Favorite Quote: “We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.” -- Swami Vivekananda
