--- title: "2019 AWARD FINALIST SPOTLIGHT: Somendra Jayaram, Cognizant Technology Solutions - Finalist in Operational Excellence Outstanding Leader of the Year Award Category" description: Read this article about Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of our finalists, in the category Operational Excellence Outstanding Leader of the Year Award! --- [Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Insights](https://insights.btoes.com) # [2019 AWARD FINALIST SPOTLIGHT: Somendra Jayaram, Cognizant Technology Solutions - Finalist in Operational Excellence Outstanding Leader of the Year Award Category](https://insights.btoes.com/2019-award-finalist-spotlight-somendra-jayaram-cognizant-technology-solutions-finalist-in-operational-excellence-outstanding-leader-of-the-year-award-category-0) Written by [BTOES Insights Official](https://insights.btoes.com/author/btoes-insights-official) | Mar 25, 2019, 11:00:00 PM   Read this article about Cognizant Technology Solutions, one of our finalists, in the category Operational Excellence Outstanding Leader of the Year Award, selected by the [independent judging panel](http://btoes.com/judging-panel), for the 2019 Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Industry Awards program. [Click here to read articles on other finalists.](https://insights.btoes.com/2019-btoes-awards-finalists)          Somendra Jayaram (Som) leads all the Operations Excellence programs and initiatives in CDO. Som has been able to drive immense change in CDO over the past three and half years since taking over the Process Excellence function. He has brought an End to End perspective to Operations excellence in CDO - from Transitioning the business process, set up, scale up and finally digitally transforming the business process to ensure world class delivery to the customers.   Som has an excellent array of qualifications and certifications. He is an engineer from Osmania University and has done Masters in Business Administration from XLRI - One of the top Institutes in Asia. He is also a certified Master Black Belt and is a key note speaker in several prestigious events all over the world.   Prior to Cognizant, Som was Senior Vice President at GE, the alma mater for most Process Excellence professionals in the world. He is well experienced in setting up global shared services centers for Fortune 500 companies over the past 12 years.   Som  in his role as Global Transformation and Operational Excellence leader for Cognizant Digital Operations was responsible for conceptualizing and deploying various Transformation initiatives under the Digital First transformation program. He leads a global team of over 600 Transformation and Operational Excellence professionals across US, Latin America, Europe, APAC and Australia.      | **Area of impact** | **2016** | **2017** | **2018** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Cost of Delivery optimized** | $ 188 mn | $ 500mn | $ 519mn | | **FTE saves achieved through CDO** | 1200 FTE | 3245 FTE | 4100 FTE | | **Transitions** | - Led approx. 25000FTE transition in the last 3 years with average VOC of 4.6 on 5 from customers across 75 different locations globally | | | | **Risk Management** | - Developed Transcient- Inhouse Transition Risk and Project management tool, which is unique in the industry - Pioneered the concept of “Shift Left within Cognizant” Catching Risks early within the Project lifecycle to ensure minimal impact on downstream processes. - Leading the global risk management programs to ensure that Cognizant is compliant with the latest Risk and Compliance guidelines globally | | | | **Delivery Excellence** | - Successfully led the adoption of Zero Surprise operations culture within Cognizant Digital Operations.- Led to Zero end client escalations over the last 12 months | | | | **Strategic**  **Thought Leadership** | - Part of the Core Team that created the proprietary ProcessOne Framework for Cognizant. - Built the Digital First Framework for Cognizant to ensure Digital tools and methodology adoption upfront in the transition life cycle to drive early productivity | | |   The journey required organizational changes including establishing new governance models and capabilities like Robotics, Operational Analytics, Smart Automation, Conversational AI and Machine Learning. The adoption of these newer capabilities required significant change management including cultural shift towards looking at these capabilities as more synergistic to operations instead of being seen as tools for job elimination or revenue cannibalization.   While the impact across CDO has been both qualitative and quantitative, some key metrics, feedback and testimonials to capture the extent of transformation have been given below   ## **About the Awards** The **Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Awards** have been established to showcase globally the most outstanding organizational achievements through the application of Operational Excellence programs. Click here to view the Press Release. The winners for all categories and for The Platinum Awards will be announced at The Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Summit & Industry Awards on Wednesday March 20th, 2019, from 6.30pm, in the Venetian Ballroom at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando Resort®.  The Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Awards are open to all organizations, both private and public sector, across the globe, which have implemented Operational Excellence programs to deliver outstanding business results. The 2019 Awards will be held in conjunction with the Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit on **March 20, 2019** in the **Venetian Ballroom** at the **Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando™**   ## **BTOES.com** ## **The issues in this article are just one of topic areas that are going to be discussed at the** [**Business Transformation & Operational Excellence World Summit & Industry**](http://btoes.com/) **(BTOES19).** March 18-22, 2019, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando Resort® BTOES is the industry’s biggest and best, senior-level, cross-industry gathering of Business Transformation & Operational Excellence industry leaders and senior executives. It also hosts the [**Business Transformation & Operational Excellence Awards**](http://btoes.com/about-the-awards)**,** which showcase globally the most outstanding organizational achievements through the application of Operational Excellence programs. The summits hosts a number of [private forums for C-Level & Global corporate-level leaders](http://opexpf.com/) as well as business unit heads. With over 150 speakers, over 100 sessions, 12 Keynotes, 9 Track Themes, 5 parallel tracks, 60+ track sessions, 50 roundtable discussions, 20 Interactive Workshops, 6 Thought Leader Panels, 5 Leaders Boardrooms, 5 co-located events, the Industry Awards Program, Site Visits, 20+ hours of social networking including 2 gala cocktail parties, dinners, numerous group activities, this is the ultimate event to benchmark, network and drive Operational Excellence to the next level.   Quick Links [Speakers](http://btoes.com/speakers) [Agenda](https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs653lLdW2zht3s3LP-NWW2zhqcR56dBWjf2R9rYC02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fbtoes.com%2Fagenda&si=5539428416225280&pi=b768a3d4-552b-4535-e2c4-3c00510f9d57) [BTOES19 Awards](https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs653lLdW2zht3s3LP-NWW2zhqcR56dBWjf2R9rYC02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fbtoes.com%2Fabout-the-awards&si=5539428416225280&pi=b768a3d4-552b-4535-e2c4-3c00510f9d57)   There is a strong focus on Cultural Transformation, Customer Delight, Sustaining an Operational Excellence program, Need for end-to-end Business Transformation, [Keeping up with new technologies/impact of digitalization](http://techx.live/) and Leadership Buy-in & Understanding. We dedicated two tracks to advanced technologies, such as AI, Machine Learning, RPA, Predictive Analytics, Blockchain, Cloud infrastructure etc. The agenda is designed to encourage active **meaningful conversations** though all day enhanced networking and interaction opportunities, including - All-day Refreshment & Themed Breaks - 1¼ Hour Hot Breakfast Networking Sessions - 1½ Hour Hot Plated Networking Lunches with Topic & Industry Sector focussed tables - 1½ Hour Roundtable Sessions by Topic & Industry Sector. - Keynote & Themes Panel Sessions - Hosted Welcome Receptions from 5.30pm - Expanded more lavish Awards Program - Newly launched Night Summit for attendees to meet after dinner For more information or to discuss the summit in more detail please schedule a call below, [Click here to schedule a call.](https://app.hubspot.com/meetings/robin-sutton)  [View full post](https://insights.btoes.com/2019-award-finalist-spotlight-somendra-jayaram-cognizant-technology-solutions-finalist-in-operational-excellence-outstanding-leader-of-the-year-award-category-0) ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "BTOES Insights Official" }, "dateModified" : "2019-04-04T16:59:38.831Z", "datePublished" : "2019-03-25T23:00:00Z", "headline" : "2019 AWARD FINALIST SPOTLIGHT: Somendra Jayaram, Cognizant Technology Solutions - Finalist in Operational Excellence Outstanding Leader of the Year Award Category", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 1205, "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/480025/Cognizant_Technology_Solutions%20%281%29.jpg", "width" : 1149 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://insights.btoes.com/2019-award-finalist-spotlight-somendra-jayaram-cognizant-technology-solutions-finalist-in-operational-excellence-outstanding-leader-of-the-year-award-category-0", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 60, "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png", "width" : 60 }, "name" : "BTOES Insights" } } ```