{
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  "basics": {
    "name": "Dr. Muhammad Umar",
    "label": "Enterprise AI & Digital Transformation Executive",
    "image": "https://muhammad-umar.com/assets/img/portrait-9536a92690/720.png",
    "email": "info@muhammad-umar.com",
    "phone": "+965 5777 4930",
    "url": "https://muhammad-umar.com",
    "summary": "Technology executive with 18+ years in IT across India and the Middle East, with cross-industry depth in fashion, food and pharmacy retail, FMCG, healthcare and manufacturing. Leads IT strategy, infrastructure, operations, cybersecurity and AI & Automation at Kuwait-based Alyasra Group through a 20+ person multi-regional organisation and a $5.1M+ budget. Advises C-level leadership on AI and data strategy, and architected AIVA, the group’s enterprise AI service hub, while delivering ERP and cloud transformation at multi-country retail scale.",
    "location": {
      "city": "Salmiya",
      "countryCode": "KW"
    },
    "profiles": [
      {
        "network": "LinkedIn",
        "username": "mdumarp",
        "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdumarp/"
      }
    ]
  },
  "work": [
    {
      "name": "Alyasra Group",
      "position": "Head of IT Infrastructure, Operations & Security",
      "location": "Kuwait",
      "startDate": "2024-03",
      "summary": "Kuwait retail group with two business units: Alyasra Fashion (220+ stores, 30+ international brands, 6 countries) and Alyasra Foods (FMCG and foodservice distribution in Kuwait, KSA and Iraq). IT organisation of 20+ staff across the region; annual IT budget $5.1M+.",
      "highlights": [
        "Enterprise AI: Built and leads a 4-person in-house AI team that delivered AIVA (Alyasra Intelligent Virtual Assistant): a 30-module AI operations platform across sales, procurement, finance, quality, logistics and field operations, connected live to Dynamics 365 in English and Arabic, and a governed conversational BI assistant on Microsoft Fabric (Entra ID, row-level security; Teams, web and mobile) built over 12 months.",
        "Document AI: AI reads customer purchase orders from e-mail and PDF, matches each to the right customer site and creates the sales order in D365, cutting order-entry time 70%. Supplier proformas, packing lists and bank import notifications run through the same intake behind dry-run and human approval.",
        "Field & Approvals: Replaced third-party van-sales and merchandising tools with offline apps, AIVA Sales and AIVA Merchandiser, saving $80,000 a year in licences. Approvals from RFAs to credit limits run from a Microsoft Teams bot or the native iOS/Android app.",
        "Workflow Automation: Retired 15+ legacy apps and spreadsheets across finance, sales, procurement and supplier processes with approval workflows integrated with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and Microsoft Teams.",
        "Quality & Compliance: Paperless, PIN-signed product inspections and AI-supported complaint handling, with 31,000+ legacy inspection records and the full complaint archive migrated at go-live.",
        "Agentic AI: Cut manual intervention 35% with an Agentic AI Automation Framework; deployed HR Onboarding and Store Readiness agents and drives group-wide AI adoption from pilot to daily operations.",
        "ERP Programmes: Directed the Dynamics 365 Retail ERP and POS rollout across the store network; core migration team member for Alyasra Foods’ move from Oracle ERP to Dynamics 365.",
        "Cloud & Resilience: Led migration of core services to AWS and Azure (25–30% efficiency gain) and designed cloud-native disaster recovery for Alyasra Foods’ Oracle ERP, reducing system downtime 40%.",
        "Analytics: Modernised Power BI and Azure Synapse analytics, lifting system performance 25% and enabling real-time decision-making.",
        "Information Security: Directs group cybersecurity and data governance under an ISMS, from vulnerability management and incident response to identity security and regulatory compliance."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Nobel Hygiene Pvt. Ltd.",
      "position": "Senior Manager, IT (Head of IT)",
      "location": "Mumbai, India",
      "startDate": "2023-01",
      "endDate": "2024-03",
      "summary": "Hygiene and healthcare FMCG manufacturer (Friends, Teddyy) with 2 plants and 1,100+ employees, retailing through 200,000+ outlets across India. Headed IT across manufacturing, distribution and digital channels.",
      "highlights": [
        "Supply-Chain Integration: Improved supply-chain visibility and reduced order cycle time by integrating the Distributor Management System with SAP HANA (RISE with SAP).",
        "Digital Commerce: Improved digital sales operations and customer engagement by integrating e-commerce across Shopify, Shiprocket, RecurPay and Zoho CRM.",
        "Cost-Efficient ITSM: Cut licensing costs and raised support efficiency by moving ticketing, device management (MDM), inventory and asset tracking onto open-source ITSM tools."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Wellness Forever Medicare Ltd.",
      "position": "Manager, IT Infrastructure & ERP",
      "location": "Mumbai, India",
      "startDate": "2019-05",
      "endDate": "2023-01",
      "summary": "Pharmacy retail chain that grew from about 150 to 300+ stores across 43 cities in Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka during this tenure. Led 24/7 IT operations: support, NOC, cloud infrastructure, ERP, procurement and warehouse IT.",
      "highlights": [
        "Store Expansion: Scaled store and network infrastructure through the doubling of the store estate, supporting 4,000+ users and a 100,000 sq ft central distribution centre.",
        "IT Portfolio: Owned an INR 200M (~USD 2.4M) annual IT portfolio across CapEx and OpEx.",
        "IPO Readiness: Led IT audit preparedness for the transition to Public Limited status ahead of the company’s 2021 IPO filing, ensuring SEBI and statutory compliance.",
        "Service & Security: Drove SLA management, incident response and company-wide security awareness, including anti-phishing drills and privacy training."
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "GINI & JONY Ltd.",
      "position": "Assistant Manager, IT Infrastructure & ERP",
      "location": "Mumbai, India",
      "startDate": "2017-06",
      "endDate": "2019-05",
      "summary": "IT infrastructure, ERP and security for a kidswear apparel brand selling through about 1,300 points of sale, including 170+ exclusive brand outlets, across 100 Indian cities and Nepal, with 2 in-house manufacturing plants.",
      "highlights": []
    },
    {
      "name": "Monginis Foods Pvt. Ltd.",
      "position": "IT Executive",
      "location": "Mumbai, India",
      "startDate": "2013-12",
      "endDate": "2017-06",
      "summary": "IT infrastructure and ERP for a national cake and bakery brand operating 700+ franchise cake shops and 14 manufacturing plants.",
      "highlights": []
    },
    {
      "name": "NIIT Technologies Ltd.",
      "position": "Systems Engineer",
      "location": "Mumbai, India",
      "startDate": "2010-11",
      "endDate": "2013-11",
      "summary": "Systems administration and IT service management for an IT services and consulting firm.",
      "highlights": []
    },
    {
      "name": "Oxyzen Technology",
      "position": "IT Engineer",
      "location": "Thane, India",
      "startDate": "2008-02",
      "endDate": "2010-11",
      "summary": "Networking and infrastructure services.",
      "highlights": []
    }
  ],
  "education": [
    {
      "institution": "Sri Satya Sai University of Technology & Medical Sciences",
      "studyType": "Ph.D.",
      "area": "Computer Application",
      "endDate": "2021"
    },
    {
      "institution": "Karnataka State Open University",
      "studyType": "M.Tech.",
      "area": "Information Technology",
      "endDate": "2015"
    },
    {
      "institution": "Sikkim Manipal University",
      "studyType": "MCA",
      "area": "Computer Applications",
      "endDate": "2013"
    },
    {
      "institution": "University of Mumbai",
      "studyType": "B.Sc.",
      "area": "Information Technology",
      "endDate": "2010"
    }
  ],
  "certificates": [
    {
      "name": "Claude Certified Architect – Foundations",
      "issuer": "Anthropic",
      "date": "2026-10",
      "url": "https://www.credly.com/org/anthropic/badge/claude-certified-architect-foundations"
    },
    {
      "name": "Certified Information Security Manager",
      "issuer": "ISACA",
      "date": "2025-05",
      "url": "https://www.isaca.org/credentialing/verify-a-certification"
    },
    {
      "name": "Project Management Professional",
      "issuer": "Project Management Institute",
      "date": "2023-06",
      "url": "https://www.pmi.org/certifications/certification-resources/registry"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lean Six Sigma Black Belt",
      "issuer": "ASQ",
      "date": "2020-01"
    },
    {
      "name": "PRINCE2® 2017 Foundation & Practitioner",
      "issuer": "PeopleCert (AXELOS)",
      "date": "2019-09",
      "url": "https://www.peoplecert.org/for-corporations/certificate-verification-service"
    },
    {
      "name": "ITIL® Foundation",
      "issuer": "PeopleCert"
    }
  ],
  "publications": [
    {
      "name": "Study of Software Retrieval Based on Semantic Properties and Its Benefits",
      "publisher": "Airo Int. Research Journal · Vol. 8, Issue 4 · pp. 148–158",
      "releaseDate": "2016-12",
      "url": "https://muhammad-umar.com/archive/patel_umar_journal_DEC_2016_paper_1.pdf",
      "summary": "Maps how concept relevance varies within a text to separate major from minor themes, then builds a semantic map so users can find relevant resources by navigating semantic proximity instead of keywords."
    },
    {
      "name": "Effect of Energy Security in the Cloud Prepared by the Loading Algorithm",
      "publisher": "Airo Int. Research Journal · Vol. 9 · pp. 201–208",
      "releaseDate": "2017-01",
      "url": "https://muhammad-umar.com/archive/patel_umar_journal_JAN_2017paper_2.pdf",
      "summary": "Load balancing and efficient resource use to cut cloud energy consumption without degrading performance, using genetic algorithms to place virtual machines across servers."
    },
    {
      "name": "Manage Energy Management Resources Effectively in Cloud Computing",
      "publisher": "pp. 346–358",
      "releaseDate": "2017-12",
      "url": "https://muhammad-umar.com/archive/PATEL_UMAR_DEC_2017_journal_paper.pdf",
      "summary": "Meeting cloud service-level agreements through effective resource management: balancing load so no host is overloaded, alongside VM migration, server consolidation and energy management."
    }
  ],
  "skills": [
    {
      "name": "AI Engineering",
      "keywords": [
        "Multimodal document intelligence",
        "Intelligent Document Processing",
        "Schema-constrained structured outputs",
        "Entity resolution",
        "Agentic coding",
        "Multi-agent orchestration",
        "Adversarial verification",
        "Context engineering",
        "Human-in-the-loop governance",
        "Task mining & process discovery",
        "Knowledge graphs",
        "LLM localisation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Platform Engineering",
      "keywords": [
        "Cloud-native, API-first architecture",
        "Event-driven architecture",
        "Real-time D365 integration",
        "Kotlin Multiplatform",
        "Server-driven UI",
        "Offline-first sync",
        "Entra ID SSO",
        "Managed identity",
        "API gateway",
        "Bilingual & RTL UX"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Enterprise AI & Data",
      "keywords": [
        "Generative AI",
        "Conversational AI",
        "Prompt Engineering",
        "LLM Evaluation",
        "Agentic AI & Multi-Agent Systems",
        "Large Language Models",
        "Retrieval-Augmented Generation",
        "Model Context Protocol",
        "LangChain",
        "LangGraph",
        "Predictive ML",
        "Voice AI",
        "Computer Vision",
        "AI Adoption & Governance",
        "Claude",
        "Gemini",
        "Copilot",
        "Microsoft Fabric",
        "Power BI",
        "Azure Synapse",
        "Business Intelligence",
        "Data Governance & MDM"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Leadership & Strategy",
      "keywords": [
        "IT Strategy & Roadmap",
        "Digital Transformation",
        "Enterprise Architecture",
        "IT Governance",
        "Budgeting & Cost Optimisation (CapEx/OpEx)",
        "Vendor & Contract Management",
        "CXO & Board Engagement",
        "Change Management"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Platforms & Infrastructure",
      "keywords": [
        "Dynamics 365 (F&O, Retail)",
        "SAP HANA (RISE with SAP)",
        "Oracle ERP",
        "POS Systems",
        "AWS",
        "Microsoft Azure",
        "Cloud Migration",
        "Disaster Recovery & BCP",
        "High Availability",
        "NOC",
        "ITSM & SLA Management"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Security & Risk",
      "keywords": [
        "ISMS",
        "Cybersecurity Strategy",
        "Identity & Access Management",
        "Endpoint Security",
        "Vulnerability Management",
        "Incident Response",
        "Regulatory Compliance"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "languages": [
    {
      "language": "English"
    },
    {
      "language": "Hindi"
    },
    {
      "language": "Marathi"
    },
    {
      "language": "Urdu"
    }
  ],
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    "lastModified": "2026-10-31"
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