Pradeep Narayanan

Pradeep Narayanan is a PeopleSoft enterprise systems specialist whose two-decade career has been defined by a rare combination of product engineering depth, implementation leadership, and operational reliability in mission-critical environments. From Oracle’s PeopleSoft India Development Center to large-scale consulting programs at IBM and his current role at the University of California, Berkeley, Narayanan has consistently delivered upgrades, integrations, and platform modernizations across HRMS, Payroll, Financials, and CRM—supporting tens of thousands of users and complex compliance and security requirements across higher education, telecommunications, healthcare, logistics, and enterprise technology.

Narayanan’s early career at Oracle anchored his expertise in core PeopleSoft product development across multiple modules. As Project Leader on PeopleSoft Resource Management (releases 8.9 through 9.2), he designed and developed Strategic Capacity Planning functionality and introduced technologies such as ACE (Analytical Calculation Engine) and Verity Search, creating value for CRM and Financials verticals. As Upgrade Lead, he designed a Conversion Application Engine for Release 9.2 to improve customer upgrade pathways. His work extended beyond code into enterprise impact—supporting major implementations for organizations such as SNCF and delivering product demonstrations to senior leadership.

In PeopleSoft Project Costing (versions 8.9–9.1), his scope expanded into performance engineering and sustained support discipline. He delivered Transaction Loader optimizations that reduced processing time by 40%, decreased customer issue resolution time by 35%, and reduced manual effort by 60% through automated cost allocation. He also successfully managed multilingual deployments across French and German locales for 50+ international clients, improving project cost calculation accuracy by 25%, while establishing robust Level 2/3 support processes aligned to strict SLAs.

For PeopleSoft CRM Online Marketing Release 9.0, Narayanan spearheaded ACE-driven interactive reporting that enabled real-time, multidimensional analytics supporting campaign optimization, customer segmentation, and ROI analysis. He became the designated technical expert for ACE across Financial and CRM business units, helping drive improvements including ~20% average campaign ROI uplift while reducing technical dependencies by 40% through structured knowledge transfer. He also contributed to the broader PeopleSoft community through technical articles on Integration Broker, multidimensional reporting, and analytical tools published via Oracle Support—extending his impact beyond individual programs.

At IBM India, Narayanan’s work shifted from product development to large-scale enterprise delivery for some of the most demanding PeopleSoft environments. As Technical Lead and SME for Sprint Nextel, he managed end-to-end PeopleSoft HCM operations for IBM’s largest telecommunications client—running annual benefits enrollment for 50,000+ employees across four consecutive years with zero disruption. He led a multi-year Total Compensation implementation, executed a PeopleTools upgrade from 8.52 to 8.55 without disruption, delivered Affordable Care Act reporting, data masking, mobile access solutions, and upgraded E-Verify integration with the Department of Homeland Security. He also led capacity planning and delivery across distributed onshore/offshore teams of 9–12, building best practices that reduced technical debt within the platform.

For Allied Holdings, he supported Financials, HRMS, and Payroll and led integrations that delivered measurable operational gains—including The Work Number (TALX) integration reducing manual HR processing time by 75% and enabling 24/7 automated verification. He managed quarterly tax updates with 100% compliance and zero downtime, built a QA framework yielding 95%+ client satisfaction, and increased team productivity by 35% through standardized development processes. He provided compliance artifacts supporting IBM CMMI Level 5 and SOX audits and designed segregation-of-duties controls across PeopleSoft Financials and Payroll—demonstrating governance maturity beyond typical technical delivery.

At CVS Caremark, Narayanan orchestrated a PeopleSoft HRMS upgrade from 8.8 to 9.1, establishing an upgrade center of excellence at IBM Bangalore and building a 9-FTE high-performing technical team in three months. The program served 300,000+ CVS Health colleagues globally and achieved high test pass rates with zero critical post-production issues, including SOX compliance changes and personal data model enhancements.

In his current role at UC Berkeley as Application Programmer-V / Development & Integration Tech Lead, Narayanan is leading a multi-year Financial Systems Modernization program—enhancing 11 PeopleSoft modules spanning General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Procurement, Billing, Grants, and more, supporting 126 business processes across nine functional domains and impacting 3,500+ active users. He has executed multiple upgrades from PeopleSoft 9.2 PUM 14 (PeopleTools 8.54) to PUM 32 (PeopleTools 8.58) while maintaining 99% uptime, ensuring continued Oracle compliance and patch eligibility. His work combines modernization with operational pragmatism: implementing Ghost Card payments via US Bank integration generating incentive revenue with zero disruption, enabling Wells Fargo check printing with secure SFTP transmission to reduce operational costs, implementing randomized access codes for supplier registration to reduce unauthorized access, automating 1099 reporting and state reconciliation, integrating 55,000 vendor records, and automating AP business unit assignments to eliminate complex third-party customizations.

Importantly, his UC Berkeley work also includes purpose-driven systems engineering. He led integration of GRLN policy “lived names” with UCPath so financial card programs and approvals reflect individuals’ gender identity and lived names on official documents—translating institutional values into system behavior. He has strengthened security across 100+ file-based interfaces through PGP encryption, safeguarding data at rest and in transit. He is also spearheading a campus-wide Travel and Expense deployment expected to benefit 25,000 users, and providing technical leadership to integrate Bear Buy procurement data with PeopleSoft for real-time consistency.

Across Oracle product engineering, IBM enterprise delivery, and UC Berkeley modernization, Narayanan’s career demonstrates sustained excellence in enterprise systems: performance optimization, upgrade and compliance discipline, secure integration design, and reliable operations at scale—combined with leadership and knowledge-sharing that raises the capability of the teams and institutions he serves.