Seshail KamannaDigital Transformation
Partner, Digital Transformation · BDO India · Mumbai

Technology decisions that show up in the P&L.

For nineteen years I have advised boards and CXOs on where technology earns its keep: the revenue it opens, the cost it holds down, and the risk it takes off the table. Seventy-six engagements, twenty-four sectors, three continents.

19
years in technology advisory
76
engagements delivered
24
sectors served
55+
engagements led end to end
Advisory

Three questions a board actually asks about technology.

Most technology conversations stall because they stay technical. Mine begin with the number that has to move, then work back to the system, the contract or the operating model that will move it.

Growing revenue

Transformation is only worth the investment when it ends in an order. I help organisations choose and stand up the platforms customers transact on, and redesign the processes behind them so demand does not leak between the click and the delivery.

  • E-commerce platform selection for a leading tyre manufacturer
  • Digital transformation for a luxury retail group
  • CRM evaluation for a pharmaceutical client
  • Advisory on a national payment system, Bhutan

Managing cost

Technology cost is decided at the contract, not the invoice. I run sourcing and vendor selection, review the agreements that lock in a decade of spend, and establish the vendor management discipline that keeps a good deal from quietly becoming a bad one.

  • Turnkey managed services contract review, South African telecom major
  • Strategic IT outsourcing for an FMCG conglomerate
  • Technology sourcing advisory for an NBFC
  • Vendor management office for a financial services firm

Reducing risk

Large programmes rarely fail suddenly; they drift. I do the diligence before the deal, the assurance during delivery and the control design after go-live, so exposure is found by the review rather than by the regulator, the acquirer or the customer.

  • IT due diligence across cement, road infrastructure and skincare
  • Segregation of duties tooling for a manufacturer
  • Technology policy drafting for a power transmission company
  • Post-implementation ERP review for a process manufacturer
Practice areas

Eight stages, from the first strategy conversation to the benefit landing.

Technology value leaks at the joints between these stages, not inside them — a strategy nobody sourced against, a system nobody reviewed after go-live, a solution live but unadopted. I work across the whole sequence, and clients engage me at whichever point they are stuck.

01Create Digital Strategy

Digital Roadmap · Digital Strategy · IT Strategy · IT Roadmap · IT Operating model · IT Policies and process

Initiative identification and create a custom roadmap for the organisation to achieve business objectives optimally through various digital interventions.

More on this stage
02Review system and architecture

System review · System architecture review · Network architecture review

Identify improvement in architecting components (services, data, app, compute, storage and network) to enable most optimal landscape which helps in composability, open standards, in enabling speed of change

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03Enable tech led processes

Tech enabled business process engineering · Process improvement

Ensures end to end processes are optimised to benefit from various technology interventions

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04Source solutions

Contract performance review · Evaluation · Sourcing · Tech spend optimisation

Ensure right product and system integrators is selected. The work also involves reviewing existing partner work

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05Program manage implementations

Program governance · Project management · Project monitoring office

Ensure initiative business case and value is realised for end client.

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06Implement the solution

Execution · Support · License reselling

In some specific cases like Tax technology and others we may take up implementations. Alliance led development is also possible

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07Review the system

Post implementation review

BDO services may be leveraged for assurance on the solution

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08Enable adoption

Value realisation

BDO services may be leveraged for further helping with enablement of solution

More on this stage
Engagement index

Seventy-six engagements, described by industry.

Clients are identified by sector rather than by name. Discretion is part of the work, and the pattern matters more than the logo.

    Experience

    Grown through the ranks, in the same trade throughout.

    From writing code to advising the board — with the intermediate steps that separate advice from advice that can actually be implemented.

    2023 — Present

    BDO India

    Partner, Digital Transformation. Building a new practice area, leading pursuits and delivery across digital services.

    2009 — 2023

    PricewaterhouseCoopers

    Joined as an intern and left as Director. Digital and IT strategy, sourcing advisory, enterprise architecture and programme management across fourteen years.

    2007 — 2009

    IIT Kharagpur, VGSOM

    Master of Business Administration, 8.36 CGPA. Summer projects at Infiniti Research over two months and at PricewaterhouseCoopers over four — the second of which began the association that ran for the next fourteen years.

    2005

    Ramrao Adhik Institute of Technology

    A three-month stint immediately after graduating, before moving into industry.

    2005 — 2007

    Syntel India

    Analyst Programmer. The engineering grounding that still shapes how I read an architecture.

    2001 — 2005

    Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Technology

    B.E. Electronics, University of Mumbai. Distinction. Final year project carried out at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Anushaktinagar.

    Affiliations

    Nineteen years, three organisations.

    A deliberately short list. Depth in one trade, built across two of the larger professional services firms and grounded in engineering before that.

    Employers

    Partner, Digital Transformation

    2023 – Present

    Intern through to Director

    2009 – 2023

    Analyst Programmer

    2005 – 2007

    Education

    Master of Business Administration, 8.36 CGPA

    2007 – 2009

    B.E. Electronics, Distinction

    2001 – 2005

    Organisation names are shown as a factual record of employment and education. All marks remain the property of their respective owners.

    Sectors

    Range is what makes the second engagement faster than the first.

    A pattern that solved a problem at a port turns up again in a pharmaceutical plant. Working across industries is not dilution; it is source of effective solution design.

    Writing

    Notes from other people’s programmes.

    The same failures recur across sectors wearing different clothes. These are the ones worth writing down.

    The status is green and the date keeps moving

    Every programme that fails badly was reported as amber at worst until shortly before it was not. The pattern is structural, not dishonest — and it can be designed out.

    Read the piece →

    The ERP business case stops being true at month four

    Approved on a set of assumptions, then never revisited while every one of those assumptions changes. What it would take to keep the case alive through delivery.

    Coming soon

    Whose office is it? On client-side programme management

    An integrator's PMO reports on the integrator's progress. That is not a criticism — it is simply whose office it is. The buyer needs its own instrumentation.

    Coming soon

    All writing

    Collaboration

    A good deal of the best work arrives through someone else.

    Nineteen years in professional services has taught me that the interesting mandates rarely come from a cold approach. They come from another adviser who needs depth they do not hold, or a firm that has the client relationship and wants the method. I am also glad to mentor or advise early-stage companies. I am open to all of the following.

    Independent consultants and boutiques

    Associate capacity on ERP selection, sourcing exercises, due diligence and programme assurance — under your brand or alongside it, whichever the client relationship requires.

    Systems integrators and implementation firms

    Selection, business case and PMO work that sits ahead of a build. I do not implement, so there is no competitive overlap and no argument about who owns the delivery.

    Channel and distribution partners

    Advisory-led routes to market for enterprise software, with entitlement and renewal discipline attached to the transaction rather than sold as an afterthought.

    Sector and domain specialists

    Pairing deep industry knowledge with technology method. The domain expert frames the problem; I bring the evaluation structure and the vendor market.

    Product firms entering enterprise markets

    What regulated and heavy-industry buyers actually ask for — commercial models, security posture, references and procurement readiness — from the side of the table that says no.

    Start-ups seeking a mentor or adviser

    Early-stage founders building for enterprise buyers, where the useful thing is knowing how large organisations actually evaluate, procure and adopt. Any such arrangement is subject to clearance under my current firm’s independence and conflict-of-interest policy.

    Boards, institutes and industry bodies

    Advisory board seats, guest teaching, panel contributions and joint research on digital transformation in Indian and Gulf enterprise.

    If you have a mandate that needs a second pair of hands, or a capability gap you would rather partner on than build, I would like to hear about it — including the ones that are still only an idea.

    Propose a collaboration
    Contact

    If a number needs to move, start with a conversation.

    Telephone +91 98333 13901
    Based in

    Mumbai, India. Available for advisory mandates, board conversations and CXO-level technology roles across India, the Gulf and Africa.