Testimonials

Joining the AWS, Maria learned that there was no significant relationship with the client's Car's IT/Digital, R&D and Global Manufacturing divisions. Analyzing the their business strategy, and complementing it with her insights on their processes, Maria built a tailored strategy and respective messaging to resonate with senior stakeholders within the clients organisation, with the purpose to build AWS champions. Within 8 months, Maria built net new relationships with the Chief of Architecture at Digital, VP of Engineering and Operations Digital, and Head of Global Manufacturing at the clients Corporate Offices. With the support of AWS Manufacturing Business Development, and ISV partner, Maria led a 2-days workshop at the Belgian factory resulting in the POC to enable the production facility move away from paper-based work order instructions, and save up to 10 kg of paper waste per vehicle, via digitizing all check-lists and instruction schedules, production line documents, etc. The platform will be in launch for production use in Q4, 2023, with further roll-out by Q2, 2024

Maria's technical expertise and business acumen led to a break through with a green-field Energy entity, joint venture between two major players in the Automotive power cell industry for advanced batteries), where she developed relationship with key executives. Maria collaborated with 3rd parties to integrate Product Lifecycle Management Solutions, and enabled the Customer to access real-time global data and analysis, allowing never before seen insights into their operations. While revenue impact was moderate , the strategic importance of this engagement is: 1/the solution is critical for the client to streamline their operations, so that their principle can start the production of next-generation vehicle, pure electric (starting 2026), 2/the client energy leverages insights to inform their investment and growth decisions (starting from their H2 2023 planning process).

In March 2022, Maria engaged with a green-field entity, (separate trading company owned by her major client), and identified SAP-related opportunities. After 6 months of workshops with the  IT team and AWS SAP senior stakeholders, Maria won SAP RISE on AWS. Maria continues to work with industry partnersi to deliver a first production SAP workload in Q4 2023 . Building on this success, Maria engaged with the the green-field entity's Procurement lead, (Digital) to include them into the existing  Enterprise Agreement and Private Pricing Agreement (PPA), and enabling them to spin digital platform and DevOps in AWS cloud .

In Q1 2022, Maria initiated a collaboration with a finans Bank. The situation was challenging, as the client asked for 365-day notice period, which AWS does not do. Maria worked closely with AWS Corporate Counsel AWS Platform Lead for MSFT to design a custom approach to deliver on customer expectations, and unlock migration . In June 2022, one-of-the-kind bespoke financial agreement between AWS and the client was signed, to allow for 365-day notice period, and the migration of the first  applications, Car Play and Fleet Management, started right away  “I appreciate the trust AWS puts in Volvofinans, and we respond with the trust from our side as well. We are choosing AWS as a single cloud provider” said Marianne Moberg (Client CIO).

One of the key objectives of 2023 and 2024 was to secure a major Car Manufacturer's Connected Car (C3) workload. Maria engaged with AWS stakeholders (Head WW GTM Automotive Mobility), (Industrials ISP Leader), (Sr. Partner Sales Mgr–EMEA), (Strategic Customer Engagements), (Sr. Cloud Fluency Specialist), alongside pivotal representatives from the clients: Chief of Architecture, Sr. Specialist Procurement, Sr. Product Manager of Connected Cars, Sr. Solution Architect R&D, Product Area Lead Platform, and Product Manager Platform. Maria orchestrated miscellaneous workshops, presentations, Immersions days, and Gamedays, facilitated customer C-suite executives’ participation in Partner Events held in the USA and Gent, and, during the closing months, she conducted daily synchronization calls with the Digital Architecture Manager and client's Tech Lead at Connected Cars. This led to two subsequent RFQ wins (in September 2021 and December 2022), and a 5-yr strategic PPA signed in December FY22, establishing AWS as one of the client's preferred cloud providers, and the sole provider for their Connected Cars(C3) Global Development. Notably, Maria was able to execute on the key milestones of the engagement, despite of lack of SA and CSM support (there was no CSM coverage for Volvo from January 2021 till September 2022), by leveraging her technical background (backed by her Master of Computer Science and 15 years as an engineering at an EOM), and acquired AWS expertise to deliver on Demos, etc

Building on this success, and leveraging trust with her clients, Maria initiated a collaboration on a key customer objective - their commitment for 100% electric vehicles by 2030. In February 2023, Maria built a connection with AWS VP of Manufacturing, and facilitated an executive meeting between the client's Manufacturing stakeholders (CDO, Head of Global Manufacturing, Head of Indirect Procurement/Strategy, VP Global Manufactory Engineering, VCK/Kosice Manufactory Industrialization Leader, Head of Indirect Procurement/Strategy, Head of Digital CORE Strategy execution) and AWS executive and senior stakeholders, resulting in the clients' decision to bypass the formal RFP process, and select AWS as the cloud partner for their future EV factory in Kosice, Slovakia.  “I am impressed with the level of Maryam’s focus, ownership and understanding how we work. I can clearly say, that the progress we’ve achieved would not have been possible without Maria.”, said the client representative. The new state-of-the-art plant will be climate-neutral, and will only build electric cars, underpinning the company’s ambition to become fully electric by 2030, and climate neutral by 2040, and to enable sales of 1.2M cars by 2026. To replicate the approach established for the factory in Kosice, Maria works with the client's manufacturing “tiger team” (Head of Global Manufacturing, Head of Digital CORE Strategy execution, Sr. Product Manager) to develop 1/the NorthStar document outlining their vision for Kosice in parallel with the role of AWS as a strategic blueprint, 2/the Data Platform Architecture, and 3/the Smart Facts initiative. This will be applied to set factories in China, Charleston, and Olofström (kick-off in September, 2023

Maria further researched and learned about R&D needs to better support high-performance simulations. She proactively connected with the Head of R&D, Sr. Tech lead for CFD simulations/Business, and Product Manager CFD software portfolio/IT at the clients corporate offices, and initiated a POC on Air Fluid Dynamics and Crash Test simulations in their HPC environment. With the support of AWS SA/CSM Director and his team, Maria successfully guided the customer through the POC , ensuring its completion during their summer production slowdown and scheduling production launch in Q4 2023

While Maria was not managingthe clients manufacturing site in China directly, she saw the opportunity for collaboration leveraging the experience of landing C3 platform and strong relationships with key stakeholders at the client (including the Sr. Product Manager for Connect Cars, Sr. Solution Architect R&D, and Product Area Lead Platform) to replicate the same infrastructure, architecture landscape, and operational setup within the Chinese market. This collaborative approach led to the clients chinese facility choosing AWS over Alibaba as their C3 platform provider in 2021.  Maria's role was to synergize efforts, strengthen partnerships, ensure the influencer’s support from the client's HQ in Sweden, and create a cohesive environment that propelled AWS to secure the win