Syed Ariffin Abu Thahir

Syed Ariffin bin Abu Thahir (Jawi: سيد عارفين بن أبو طاهر ; lahir 9 September 1980) ialah Presiden Persatuan Generasi Bersekutu Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. Beliau juga merupakan Pengerusi Putra Port Dickson FC dan Kelab Futsal Teraju. Bukan itu sahaja, malah Syed Ariffin juga merupakan Ketua Cawangan BERSATU Pekan Port Dickson Sri Tanjung, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. Beliau adalah presiden sebuah pertubuhan bukan kerajaan di Negeri Sembilan.

 Biografi 
 Kehidupan Awal 
Syed Ariffin dilahirkan di Hospital Port Dickson dan mendapat pendidikan awal di SRK Port Dickson. Beliau melanjutkan pelajaran di Sekolah Tinggi Port Dickson untuk Tingkatan 1 sebelum berpindah ke Subang Jaya. Keluarga Syed Ariffin telah menetap di Port Dickson sejak sebelum merdeka di mana arwah datuk menjalankan perniagaan kedai runcit. Ayahnya pernah bekerja di Shell sebelum berpindah ke Kuala Lumpur. Setelah menempuh perjalanan panjang menuntut ilmu dan bekerja, beliau berkahwin dengan seorang yang tinggal di Port Dickson iaitu Siti Habibah dan dikurniakan 3 orang anak.

 Pendidikan 

 Sarjana Ekonomi 
 Universiti Malaya - Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
 Major : Ekonomi
 PNGK Keseluruhan : 3.43/4.0

 Sarjana Muda Sains Komputer 
 Universiti Malaya - Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
 Utama : Sistem dan Rangkaian, Mei 2003
 PNGK Keseluruhan : 3.39/4.0

 Kursus Teknikal Dihadiri 
 Kursus Java dan .net yang dikendalikan oleh Guidance View Sdn Bhd
 Kelas Oracle 9i yang dianjurkan oleh Dell
 Kursus pentadbir ALUI oleh ORACLE
 Kursus ALUI Weblogic oleh ORACLE

 Perwatakan Termasuk Kecekapan Dan Kemahiran 

Syed Ariffin sentiasa aktif dalam organisasi dan program komuniti serta membantu masyarakat. Beliau sangat mudah didekati dan berbudi bahasa kepada masyarakat serta mesra dengan semua pihak. Dia juga seorang yang perfeksionis yang tidak akan berhenti melakukan sesuatu sehingga pekerjaan itu terasa sempurna.

 Kedudukan dan Pengalaman Politik 

Syed Ariffin Abu Thahir ialah Presiden Persatuan Generasi Bersekutu, yang sentiasa aktif dalam organisasi dan program komuniti. Beliau juga memegang jawatan Pengerusi Putra Port Dickson FC dan Pengerusi Kelab Futsal Teraju. Dalam pengalaman politik, Syed Ariffin aktif dalam arena politik dan menjalankan tugas NGO atau Aktiviti Komuniti sejak tahun 2013.

 Ringkasan Profesional 

Pemimpin Teknologi Maklumat 
berorientasikan hasil. Berpengalaman dalam perancangan strategik dan taktikal, penyediaan dan pengurusan belanjawan, analisis dan pelaksanaan projek, penilaian dan pemilihan produk, rundingan vendor, pembinaan pasukan dan kepimpinan dengan tumpuan berterusan pada perkhidmatan pelanggan.

 Professional Experience 

 Brilliant Group 

 Assistant Vice President, PMO Department (October 2013 – Present) 
 Successfully led and managed uCustoms project worth 378 million comprising 150 members and 120 external agencies.
 Periodically update Finance Minister on the progress and way forward as uCustoms is one of the National Agenda projects on revenue collection.
 Establishing a strong and solid PMO team to improve quality and project management process.
 Establishing proper governance and standard in managing and handling project.
 Responsible to define the scope of the project in collaboration with senior management that establishes the project way forward and efficient framework so that project will be delivered on time.
 Created a detailed work plan which identifies and sequences the activities needed to successfully complete the project.
 Determine the resources (time, money, equipment, etc) required to complete the project.
 Develop a schedule for project completion that effectively allocates the resources to the activities so that the project could be completed within the allocated budget.
 Review the project schedule with senior management and all other staff that will be affected by the project activities; revise the schedule as required to minimize the delay and ensure the overall costing did not burst the allocated amount.
 Determine the objectives and measures upon which the project will be evaluated at its completion.
 Execute the project according to the project plan.
 Develop forms and records to document project activities.
 Set up files to ensure that all project information is appropriately documented and secured.
 Monitor the progress of the project and make adjustments as necessary to ensure the successful completion of the project.
 Establish a communication schedule to update stakeholders including appropriate staff in the organization on the progress of the project to ensure effective communication and minimize any miscommunication that dampens the project's progress.
 Review the quality of the work completed with the project team on a regular basis to ensure that it meets the project standards.
 Ensure that the project deliverables are on time, within budget, and at the required level of quality to ensure there is a surplus budget.
 Evaluate the outcomes of the project as established during the planning phase.

 Ernst & Young 
 Senior Associate 2 (February 2011 – Sept 2013) 
 Engagement Lead for an external audit engagement on ERP applications for various industries which includes banking, telecommunication, Oil & Gas, consumer goods, construction, and plantation. The areas of review include IT General Controls and application embedded controls. Assess the control design effectiveness. Obtain pieces of evidence and access the adequacy of operating effectiveness. Propose recommendations based on the industry best practices
 Provide value-added IT advisory and consultancy services to clients via an in-depth understanding of the stakeholders’ business areas, anticipating the needs of stakeholders, and continuously keeping abreast of the latest applicable technology to support the various business areas
 Engagement Lead on a SOx ITGC review for a multinational manufacturing company. Assess the controls design effectiveness which includes the area of computer operations and automated inventory costing. Assess the visibility of implementing the proposed recommendation based on the client’s environment.
 Assisted in recommending improvements of security standards, controls, and services for all levels of application (including OS and DB) for various clients. The review included a technical security review of the associated servers
 Managed a diverse resource pool (multi-cultural team) including coaching and supporting for remediated controls
 Acted as a compliance QA for controls knowledge transfer (KT) prior to eventual handover to relevant stakeholders
 Team Lead on a JSOx ITGC review for a global barcode and RFID technology company. Areas of focus are Access to Programs and Data, Change Management, and Computer Operations. Assess the client’s control design and test its effectiveness. Report findings to client’s management and to Japan counterpart.

 Bank Negara Malaysia 
 Senior Executive (Acting Manager) (January 2007 – January 2011) 
 Primarily responsible for formulating, designing, developing, and implementing IT projects that deliver quality IT solutions, within stakeholder expectations, and according to agreed timeline and cost.
 Manage the availability, reliability, and performance of the system. To ensure maximum system uptime and optimal system response time, with minimal business disruptions, according to the established service level agreement (SLA).
 Provide value-added IT advisory and consultancy services to stakeholders via an in-depth understanding of the stakeholders’ business areas, anticipating the needs of stakeholders, and continuously keeping abreast of the latest applicable technology to support the various business areas
 Gather and analyze business requirements, taking into consideration the immediate and future business needs and conceptualize the requirements in order to surface the required functionalities, inter-linkages with other dependent processes, issues and concerns, and stakeholders’ coverage
 Manage the support and maintenance activities for applications in the production environment, which includes performing application health checks, preparing impact analysis, performing trend analyses on reported problems/issues, making recommendations, and implementing fixes and change requests to enhance the application software
 Ensure implementation of software infrastructure and system enhancements are done according to change management standards and best practices
 Manage and provide support services to stakeholders: To ensure that all reported incidents, problems, and issues are resolved conclusively in the shortest possible duration, with no disruptions to critical business operations.
 Successfully undertaken and implemented the Enterprise Portal project where the appointed vendor failed to deliver within the specified timeline.
 Translate current and future business needs into IT solutions that support the achievement of business objectives and strategic results.
 Undertake continuous system and process improvements by benchmarking with industry standards or models, best practices, and methodologies, and ensuring they are in accordance with BNM’s guidelines and stakeholder expectations.
 Manage relationships with stakeholders ensuring that IT services deliver value-add and stakeholder satisfaction.
 Established a complete Customer Relationship Management system where it stores the history of all customers and transactions in order to serve the customer better
 Managing Contact Centre business process to enhance responsiveness and effectiveness in handling multi-channel public inquiries as well as optimal usage of the infrastructure and continuous service availability
 Initiate and successfully implemented Bank Negara e - payment system called e Spick
 Established a complete solution and knowledge repository for application for future reference
 Report to management on weekly basis on the progress of each project and issues
 Awarded the most outstanding award by Governor for the past 2 years

 Dell Asia Pacific 
 IT System Analyst (July 2005 – January 2007) 
 Primarily responsible for supporting Dell's factory
 Established a complete solution for application for future reference
 Submit weekly report to management on availability of application
 Weekly bridge call with US counterpart on issues

 MayBank (Malaysia) Berhad 
 Information System Division - Apploan (October 2003 – 2005) 
 Primarily responsible for programming and maintaining the commercial loan system called “MEAA”
 Maintained the database of clients through oracle
 Assisted in support and maintenance of system and hardware
 Troubleshoot daily encountered problems and maintain the list through the mainframe
 Structured and created a program to notify the approving party through e-mail whenever a new loan application is created

 British Telecom, Cyberjaya Malaysia 
 Industrial Training - Internship (January 2002 – May 2002) 
 Primarily responsible for programming in Java
 Established a complete database for users and maintain the record
 Developed British Telecom’s mail service called easy access
 Created virtual database using MySQL