Aijaz Ahmed Rather
Navi Mumbai
Summary
Senior SAP Release Manager with 15+ years of progressive experience across SAP Release Management, System Refreshes, Cutover Management, and Global Change/Problem Management. Proven expertise in leading enterprise-wide release cycles, orchestrating complex cutovers, and ensuring governance across SAP ECC, S/4HANA, BW, PI/PO, and integrated landscapes. Adept at driving transport compliance, risk mitigation, and business readiness while partnering with cross-functional teams. Recognized for building ITIL-aligned processes, designing SharePoint-based documentation platforms, optimizing release workflows, and delivering stable, high-quality production deployments.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Manager SAP Release Management
Capgemini India Pvt Ltd
Navi Mumbai
10.2014 - Current
SAP Release Management
- Lead full SAP release governance across ECC, S/4HANA, BW, PI/PO, and Fiori landscapes, ensuring smooth delivery of major, minor, and emergency releases.
- Manage the transport lifecycle through ChaRM, CTS+, and TMS, ensuring quality checks, dependency validation, and compliance with release policies.
- Drive release sequencing, risk assessment, cutover alignment, and Go/No-Go decisions through CAB forums.
- Collaborate with Basis, Functional, Security, Integration, and Business teams for end-to-end release readiness.
- Improved release stability and reduced transport-related defects by establishing automated checks and standardized workflows.
- Own planning and execution of end-to-end SAP System Refresh cycles across DEV, QA, Pre-Prod, and Sandbox systems.
- Develop refresh Blueprints, checklists, validation sheets, and post-processing plans for Basis, Security, Functional, and Data teams.
- Optimize landscape refresh activities, reducing post-refresh issues and enhancing environment readiness for testing.
- Plan and execute cutover strategies, runbooks, task sequencing, dry runs, and hypercare readiness for major projects.
- Lead cross-functional cutover war rooms, ensuring real-time coordination across technical, functional, data, integration, infra, and business teams.
- Handle business cutover communications, including checkpoint updates, downtime schedules, deployment notices, and stakeholder alignment.
- Ensure smooth go-lives through risk identification, contingency planning, and proactive dependency management.
- Led a global team responsible for governing change and problem management for SAP and non-SAP environments.
- Oversaw 2,000+ annual changes, ensuring adherence to ITIL, SOX, and audit guidelines.
- Conducted risk analysis, change categorization, and conflict resolution across technical towers.
- Improved change success rate by reducing repeat incidents via enhanced root-cause frameworks and preventive actions.
- Led weekly CAB meetings and established standardized governance procedures.
Global Change Management Expert
Atos
Pune
07.2013 - 07.2014
- Develop and execute change management strategies, ensuring seamless transitions during organizational transformations.
- Lead and mentor a team of change management professionals, providing guidance and support.
- Collaborate with senior leadership to define change objectives, communicate the vision, and secure buy-in from stakeholders.
- Identify and assess potential risks and obstacles to change, developing mitigation plans to minimize disruption.
- Create and implement communication and training plans to ensure employees are prepared and equipped for change.
- Foster a culture of change readiness and adaptability within the organization.
- Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of change initiatives, making adjustments as necessary to achieve desired outcomes.
- Stay updated on industry best practices and emerging trends in change management.
Reliance Globalcom
Change Management Lead
Navi Mumbai
04.2009 - 07.2013
- As a key member of the Operations and Services Support Unit, the main responsibility is to manage, control, and drive service quality and availability through the Change Management Process.
- Ensure change management activities are executed within the customer portfolio to ensure that the changes are effectively managed, and successful outcomes are achieved.
- Define, document, and continuously improve the change management process.
- Ensure that potential change implementers have a sound understanding of change risks and have ensured that appropriate mitigation of those risks is in place.
- Collaborate with executives and management to address issues impacting the performance of the initiatives.
- Maximize the potential of the Change Management Team by leading, coaching, and inspiring the team to consistently deliver excellent service and continuous improvements in the change management framework.
- Identify potential people-side risks and anticipated points of resistance, and develop specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns.
- Hold multifaceted responsibilities, such as business and system use case documentation, using the BMC Remedy ticketing tool for working on change requests, Remedy Inventory, and root cause analysis (failure).
- Deal with reputed global clients such as Hilton Hotels, IBM, Lloyds, MAB, Ford Motors, and Bacardi.
- Played a pivotal role as part of the implementation team and successfully implemented the BMC tool.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Commerce
Periyar University
Salem02-2011
Skills
- SAP Tools & Platforms: SAP ECC, S/4HANA, BW, PI/PO, Fiori, ChaRM (SAP Solution Manager), CTS, TMS
- ITSM & Release Tools: ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, ITSM, JIRA, Azure DevOps
- Content & Workflow Tools: SharePoint (Document Libraries & User Portals), Drupal, WordPress
- Reporting & Monitoring: Excel, Power BI, Solution Manager Dashboards
- Other Expertise: ITIL Governance, CAB Operations, Process Documentation, Automation Initiatives
Affiliations
SAP Release & Deployment Management
SAP System Refreshes (End-to-End)
Cutover Strategy, Runbooks & Hypercare
Business Cutover Communication
Transport Management (ChaRM, CTS+, TMS)
ITIL Change & Problem Management
CAB Leadership & Governance
Risk, Dependency & Issue Management
Agile, Waterfall
Environment & Landscape Coordination
Stakeholder & Vendor Management
SAP System Refreshes (End-to-End)
Cutover Strategy, Runbooks & Hypercare
Business Cutover Communication
Transport Management (ChaRM, CTS+, TMS)
ITIL Change & Problem Management
CAB Leadership & Governance
Risk, Dependency & Issue Management
Agile, Waterfall
Environment & Landscape Coordination
Stakeholder & Vendor Management
Timeline
Manager SAP Release Management
Capgemini India Pvt Ltd
10.2014 - Current
Global Change Management Expert
Atos
07.2013 - 07.2014
Reliance Globalcom
Change Management Lead
04.2009 - 07.2013
Bachelor of Science - Commerce
Periyar University