2023 Women Leaders in Technology: Vandana Viswanathan

Vandana Viswanathan is the CIO Advisory Leader in Cognizant's Technology Modernization consulting practice. She has over 20 years of experience in the United States, Europe and Asia providing advisory and strategic program leadership services for fortune 100 clients. Vandana specializes in Digital Strategy, Operating Model Transformation, Product Management, Intelligent Automation, Cloud transformation, Cost Optimization and Regulatory Compliance services. Her consulting industry experience spans across Health Care, Life Sciences, Financial Services, Energy & Utilities, and Insurance. Vandana has a proven track record of high sales performance, consulting client impact, thought leadership, practice development and people leadership skills. She has designed Intelligent Automation and Machine Learning solutions for large corporate clients and pioneered best in class frameworks for validating cloud and COTS systems. She is a trusted advisor for large corporate clients in the Health Care, Biotech and Energy and Utility sectors. Vandana is a speaker in several industry conferences on topics such as Intelligent Automation, RPA, AIOps, Cloud and Continuous Transformation. In addition to her role as a technology industry consulting partner, she serves on the board for educational institutions enabling future technologists

What has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

I attribute my success to my learning agility and strong client and team relationship development. In this fast-paced technology industry, thought leadership is key and it is essential for consulting leaders to continuously pursue advanced learning and be five steps ahead of the industry: When cloud technology was new to the industry and global cloud service providers were starting to define a go to market strategy, I had already completed by training and arrived at a framework for cloud hosting. Was an industry pioneer in partnering with Amazon in successfully hosting the first regulated cloud workload for a health care client. I conducted a webinar and published a blog around this success story to share knowledge with industry peers. Subsequently, several industry clients started reaching out for cloud technology consulting services and as a go to person, this established my personal brand name and enhanced the Cognizant corporate brand. For hi tech areas such as RPA, Machine Learning and AI, I developed subject matter expertise several years before industry solutions were formalized. I built an Intelligent Automation practice within Cognizant Consulting and innovated an automation implementation framework, defined solutions that enabled 60% reduction in processing time.

The numerous examples of key strategic client engagements that led to multiyear projects are a testament to the strong client relationships that I have built. I have also formed, led and enabled cross-functional teams to design and engineer modern businesses through cutting edge technology solutions for clients.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

Two things I most enjoy are working with global diverse clients across industries to solve the most pressing business problems, and leading and developing cross-functional teams.

With the increased pace of digital, clients are posed with challenges not only to engineer modern businesses but also provide a digitally enhanced user experience while maximizing the ROI. I have a passion for technology and innovation and derive immense pleasure in having breakthrough conversations with clients on the current state of business, technology barriers and proposing next generation solutions. Every day in Consulting, I meet new clients and the discussions are unique. There is never a dull moment, the challenge motivates me to stay ahead and provide futuristic advisory solutions on operating models, agile/DevOps ways of working, product redesign and automation. It has been an enriching experience to transform businesses and technology through Robotics Process Automation, Machine Learning and AI across industries such as Health Care, Biotech and Financial Services.

Cross-functional teams are a key in digital technology transformation initiatives. I have formed some of the best, high performing cross-functional teams at Cognizant leveraging my people leadership and relationship building skills. I have drawn upon team members from versatile technology groups and together we designed and implemented innovative, scalable, best in class solutions for clients.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

My proudest achievement so far has been giving back to the community and making lives better through technology transformation initiatives. Growing up, the value of serving the community was instilled during my student years. My mother was a Lady Lions President who raised money and led charity projects for rural areas in India. The outreach programs she conducted and the lives she touched inspired me to "make a difference" and contribute to global technology initiatives to make the world a better place.

As a Technology Consulting Leader with Health Care domain expertise, I was approached by the client executive leadership team of a top 5 American Health Care, Pharma company to solve a key business problem "to accelerate the clinical trials process" and enable speed to market. I led the business process model development for integrating 80 different corporate systems, designed a SaaS cloud platform model that enabled cloud computing and analytics. The next gen platform accelerated the clinical trials process by 10X, thereby enabling faster time to market and the patients were able to get their medicines faster. This initiative not only benefited the client but also the larger global patient community including friends and family to receive faster care. I was featured in client video interviews for the uniqueness and impact of the technology solution created. To summarize, I am proud to have contributed to technology transformation solutions that have enabled patient wellness and benefited the community.

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

The best advice I have ever been given is from my Sponsor to "pursue my career passion, be fearless and genuine." As a Consulting leader, I have been pursuing my passion for technology, learning, and implementing cutting-edge solutions and accelerating digital for my clients. This has made me a front-runner in the technology consulting space and helped me achieve great heights in my career. I speak my mind and share pros and cons/options of specific technology solutions with clients and provide recommendations on the best fit to maximize business outcomes. There have been times when I have advised clients not to invest in certain technologies as it would not provide the expected benefit. This has gone a long way in building trusted relationships with clients. Sharing my experiences and success factors with fellow women leaders has enabled them to build strong relationships with their clients and be successful.

What does this recognition mean to you?

As a Women Leader in Technology Consulting and a career consultant with global expertise, this recognition is a validation of my philosophy to "lead with a purpose" and in my case to innovate, transform and improve everyday lives of clients, family and friends. My hope would be that the technology transformation work that I do would serve as an inspiration to women technology leaders across the world. This award would further emphasize the fact that successes are meant to be celebrated. Focus and discipline are part of a woman's DNA and channelizing our energies, "driven by purpose" toward technology transformation and innovation will benefit the community as well as enable individual and team career development. I am immensely thankful to my Coaches/Sponsors who helped shape my career, acknowledged my loyalty and commitment not only to Cognizant but also my clients and provided me opportunities to lead from the front and excel. They set the stage and fueled my growth, and I would hope to be a role model and further enable the development of the future generation of technology consultants.