Past Key Projects
Hybrid-Cloud Transformation Across Region: Adopting Microsoft Office 365, Azure, Intune, and Exchange Online
This project marked a pivotal shift in the IT strategy for our organization, transitioning from a traditional infrastructure to a fully integrated hybrid-cloud environment. Spanning six offices across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India, the initiative leveraged Microsoft Office 365, Azure, Intune, SCCM, and Exchange Online to drive cloud adoption, enhance security, and improve scalability. The migration from Exchange 2019 to Exchange Online and the integration of Azure for identity and access management were key elements of this transformation.
My leadership role in this project focused on delivering a seamless cloud strategy, aligning with the organization’s long-term vision of digital transformation and operational efficiency. The project’s success positioned the company for future growth, flexibility, and scalability while ensuring the highest standards of data security and compliance.
As the IT leader, I spearheaded the hybrid-cloud transformation strategy, working closely with senior leadership and business units to develop a roadmap for cloud adoption. This strategy included a phased migration of critical services to the cloud, while maintaining an efficient on-premise infrastructure for certain regional needs.
I ensured alignment between IT strategy and business goals, emphasizing the importance of future-proofing our infrastructure. My role involved presenting a clear case for the hybrid-cloud approach, showcasing how it would drive scalability, improve security, and reduce costs while providing flexibility for future business growth.
Key elements of the strategy:
- Cloud-based email and collaboration using Microsoft Office 365 and Exchange Online.
- Azure-based identity management for seamless single sign-on and multi-factor authentication across the organization.
- Integration of Intune for Mobile Device Management (MDM) and endpoint monitoring, ensuring secure access to corporate resources.
- SCCM implementation to streamline software deployment, patch management, and device compliance across all offices.
One of the critical phases of the project was the migration of corporate emails from Exchange 2019 to Exchange Online. Leading the project team, we planned and executed a zero-downtime migration that spanned across six countries.
This migration involved careful planning, including:
- Pre-migration assessments to ensure compatibility and user readiness.
- Phased migration to ensure business continuity, with critical users and departments migrated first.
- Real-time collaboration with regional teams and business leaders to ensure smooth transitions and minimal user disruption.
Through this migration, we improved email accessibility, enhanced security with built-in Office 365 threat protection and Microsoft Defender, and provided greater flexibility for users to work remotely.
Key Results:
- 99.9% reduction in email downtime.
- Enhanced email security with Office 365 advanced threat protection.
- Significantly reduced IT overhead for on-premise email maintenance.
Another key component of the project was the integration of on-premise Active Directory (AD) with Azure Active Directory (AAD), creating a hybrid identity solution that enabled seamless user authentication across both cloud and on-premise environments.
This integration provided:
- Single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, improving the user experience across multiple devices and locations.
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enhance security and safeguard corporate data.
- Centralized identity and access management, reducing the administrative burden and improving governance.
By designing a hybrid identity model, we ensured the flexibility to maintain on-premise AD for certain regional offices while leveraging Azure for cloud-based identity management. This approach future-proofed our infrastructure, giving us the flexibility to move further into the cloud as business needs evolved.
To enhance security and streamline device management, we deployed Microsoft Intune and System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) across all six offices. This enabled us to manage devices, monitor endpoints, and enforce security policies from a centralized platform.
Intune Implementation:
- Enabled Mobile Device Management (MDM) to secure corporate data on personal devices, ensuring BYOD policies aligned with our security protocols.
- Implemented conditional access policies to ensure that only compliant devices could access corporate data, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access.
SCCM Implementation:
- Centralized software deployment and patch management across all offices, reducing manual efforts and ensuring all systems remained up to date with the latest security patches.
- Automated compliance reporting and device configuration, improving overall endpoint security and reducing the workload on IT teams.
This unified approach to device and endpoint management enabled us to proactively monitor and secure all corporate devices, ensuring a secure and compliant IT environment.
A critical aspect of the hybrid-cloud strategy was ensuring the security and availability of corporate data. To achieve this, I led the implementation of Barracuda Cloud Archiver as the primary backup and archiving solution for emails and other critical business data.
Key Initiatives:
- Implemented Barracuda Cloud Archiver to back up all Exchange Online emails, ensuring secure, long-term storage of critical communications.
- Set up region-specific data backup solutions to ensure that all office data, including shared drives and critical documents, were securely backed up both locally and in the cloud.
- Developed a data retention policy that aligned with business continuity and regulatory compliance requirements, ensuring that data was accessible and recoverable in the event of any disaster or data loss incident.
This approach to data backup and recovery significantly reduced the risk of data loss and enhanced the company’s disaster recovery capabilities.
Results:
- 95% improvement in data recovery speed.
- Full compliance with data retention policies across all regions.
- Reduced storage costs through cloud-based archiving.
- Successfully migrated over 500 accounts to Exchange Online across six countries, improving email accessibility and security.
- Implemented Azure AD and on-prem AD integration, providing seamless identity management and improving security through MFA.
- Rolled out Intune and SCCM, enhancing endpoint security and compliance across all offices.
- Achieved a 90% improvement in operational efficiency and over 30% reduction in IT overhead.
- Enhanced business continuity through centralized cloud-based data backup and archiving solutions.
Transforming Traditional, Paper-Intense Legal Offices into Efficient, Paperless Workspaces
This project transformed traditional, paper-based legal offices into fully digitized, paperless workplaces, increasing productivity, efficiency, and collaboration by 80-90% across all locations. Launched in the Singapore office in August 2017, the initiative was successfully replicated across the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and India by the end of 2018. This transformation streamlined operations, optimized document management, and significantly enhanced cross-office collaboration.
Beyond automation, this initiative marked a strategic shift from paper-intensive workflows to a more agile, eco-friendly, and technology-driven operational model. One of the key challenges was driving this mindset change among users, ensuring full adoption of the new processes.
The project not only revolutionized daily operations but also laid the foundation for seamless business continuity, enabling an overnight transition to remote work during the onset of Covid-19.
As the project leader, I initiated a comprehensive analysis of existing business operations by actively engaging with department heads, country managers, and stakeholders. This analysis helped identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. By leveraging these insights, my team and I introduced tailored digital tools and process automation that reduced costs, increased productivity, and optimized workflows.
My cross-functional leadership, combined with stakeholder management, played a pivotal role in aligning different teams, securing buy-in from leadership, and ensuring a seamless transition to new processes. The ability to unite business objectives with IT strategy underscored the project’s success and its smooth execution across five countries.
Collaboration with various business functions and leaders was pivotal in automating critical operations. Key highlights of the initiative include:
Automated Letterheads & Letter Merging: Integrating CRM data enabled the generation of pre-filled Microsoft Word documents, reducing human errors by 95% and significantly enhancing document generation efficiency.
Quotation Automation: By integrating data from WIPO, IPOS, and other relevant databases with in-house fee schedules, we automated the quotation process. This reduced the time required from 30-45 minutes per quotation to just 2 minutes, greatly improving speed and accuracy. Automated integration with our billing systems further streamlined invoice generation, utilizing data directly from the quotes sent to clients.
File Transfer Digitization: We replaced the paper-based file transfer process with a digitized system within the internal CRM. This introduced rule-based approvals, including invoice checks from the Accounts department, improving accuracy, reducing processing time, and eliminating paper usage.
Inter-Office Integration of Systems: By unifying all offices within a single digital CRM space, users gained seamless access to relevant documents based on access rights. This integration boosted efficiency and productivity while enhancing inter-office collaboration by 95%.
Through these automation initiatives, the project achieved significant improvements in efficiency, operational speed, and cost reduction, while also advancing our sustainability goals.
While the technical side of the project was crucial, the success of the paperless transformation hinged on a cultural shift. To ensure the team’s adaptation to the new digital environment, I led extensive training sessions across all offices, guiding employees on using the new tools effectively and embracing the paperless mindset. This was not merely a technological change but a shift in how legal teams operated daily.
By focusing on continuous education and end-user engagement, my team and I instilled a culture of adaptability, ensuring that employees felt confident and empowered in their new, digitized work environment. This mindset shift was pivotal in ensuring long-term success.
One of the most transformative aspects of the project was the automation of the billing system, which had been prone to manual errors and delays.
Agent Portal: We introduced an Agent Portal that enabled agents to upload bills directly into the system, automatically triggering notifications for approval without manual intervention. This not only improved data accuracy but also reduced the approval time significantly.
Global Access: The portal allowed agents from different regions to track their bills, check payment statuses, and manage their finances with ease. The automation streamlined the billing process, enhancing transparency and accessibility for agents worldwide.
This project, spanning 8 to 10 months, delivered significant improvements in productivity, cost savings, and sustainability:
Efficiency Gains: Quotation processing time was reduced by over 90%, while error rates in document generation decreased by 90%.
Cost Reduction: Operational costs associated with paper, printing, and manual processing were reduced by 30%.
Consistency Across Regions: The paperless model was replicated across offices in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and India, creating standardized operations and fostering greater cross-office collaboration.
Pandemic-Ready: The transition to paperless workflows enabled the firm to quickly pivot to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within a day’s notice, employees were able to work from home, without disruption to business continuity.
By aligning IT strategy with business goals and driving both technological and cultural change, this project delivered measurable improvements that continue to benefit the firm today.
Transforming and Expanding APAC Offices: From Office Relocation to Paperless Office Designs
This extensive project spanned multiple countries and involved the relocation, renovation, and setup of key offices across the APAC region. It encompassed the relocation of the Singapore and Thailand offices (in 2013 and 2018 respectively), the renovation of the Indonesia office in 2023, and the strategic setup of a new paperless office in India in 2018.
Each project was meticulously planned to enhance operational efficiency, foster a paperless environment, and ensure seamless business continuity and collaboration between regional offices. My leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and strategic IT roadmap were instrumental in delivering these complex projects successfully while adhering to tight timelines and budgets.
The relocation of the Singapore office was a landmark project that focused on minimizing disruption to daily operations while ensuring a smooth transition. Leading my team, I conducted a comprehensive analysis of the existing office’s infrastructure and designed the new layout to meet the evolving business needs. This included planning for workstations, network infrastructure, and the server room to accommodate future growth and efficiency.
Key initiatives included the implementation of advanced conferencing solutions and the digitization of workflows. My team worked closely with service providers, overseeing vendor management, facility planning, and IT integration to guarantee minimal downtime.
Through careful planning, proactive stakeholder engagement, and effective vendor coordination, the Singapore relocation was completed without business disruption, providing a blueprint for future relocation projects across the region.
The Thailand office relocation presented a unique challenge that I led with a clear focus on maintaining business continuity. The project involved complete redesign of the office layout, network infrastructure, and server room, with a strong emphasis on supporting the company’s paperless strategy.
To ensure the success of this complex move, my team collaborated extensively with local vendors, service providers, and authorities to secure necessary permits, licenses, and internet connectivity. We digitized critical paper-based processes, boosting data accuracy and accessibility while reducing operational costs.
Despite delays from local authorities and internet service providers, the project was completed successfully, with only a slight delay. This relocation enhanced productivity and strengthened the office’s commitment to a fully paperless workplace.
The establishment of an affiliate office in India was a strategic project designed to build a lean, scalable, and paperless operation from the ground up. My leadership focused on creating a highly efficient and future-ready office with minimal hardware dependency. The entire office was designed to be portable and scalable, supporting remote work capabilities and enabling seamless growth.
The IT infrastructure was carefully planned to integrate cloud solutions, offering flexible scalability while adhering to the company’s paperless vision. I collaborated with various stakeholders, including local vendors and business leaders, to ensure that the setup of this office aligned with the company’s long-term goals of operational efficiency and digital transformation. This office became a benchmark for modern, eco-friendly workspaces across the region.
The Indonesia office renovation required a full redesign and technology upgrade. I led the project in collaboration with local vendors, interior designers, and network providers to ensure the office’s infrastructure aligned with the company’s growing needs. My role involved coordinating across multiple business functions, from IT to facilities management, to guarantee that the renovation process aligned with the business’s paperless operations strategy.
The renovation also ensured business continuity as staff worked from home while the office was under construction. Once the renovation was complete, the office operated with a newly upgraded network, seamless digital infrastructure, and enhanced operational workflows, contributing to an increase in efficiency and productivity.