Jayaprakash Rao

About Jayaprakash Rao

I am a senior technical/customer support and services leader with 20+ years of experience building and scaling global technical support organizations across enterprise technology environments. I specialize in transforming support into a strategic business function—one that drives customer trust, partner success, operational efficiency, and long-term retention.Currently, as a Senior Manager at Microsoft, I lead Asia delivery for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, overseeing multi-tier (T1–T3) support operations across APAC. I have built and scaled high-performing teams across geographies, managed complex partner ecosystems, and led highly visible executive escalations while maintaining strong customer satisfaction and service reliability.My leadership strengths sit at the intersection of people, process, and platform. I have designed scalable support models, implemented automation and AI-driven self-help solutions, and driven KPI-based operational excellence across workforce planning, service delivery, and escalation management. I partner closely with Engineering, Product Group, Customer Success, and Supportability teams to improve readiness, reduce ticket volume, and ensure customer insights influence product direction.I am known for building strong leadership benches—hiring, mentoring, and developing managers who lead with accountability, empathy, and data-driven decision-making. My teams consistently deliver through change, ambiguity, and scale, while maintaining a strong culture of ownership and customer advocacy.With deep experience across cloud platforms, infrastructure, networking, and voice technologies—and a strong foundation in ITIL and service management—I bring both technical depth and business acumen to executive decision-making.I am passionate about leading large-scale support transformations, strengthening customer experience at scale, and helping organizations turn support into a competitive advantage.

Experience

1. Technical Support Engineering Senior Manager

   Microsoft

   Jun 2021 — Present · Bengaluru, IN

   Technical Support Delivery: Leader for Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program Technical Support Asia team which includes FTE & Delivery Partners supporting APAC region. The team delivers exceptional support from T1-T3 level for our Asia partners onboarded to the Parter ProgramPeople Management: Hiring & Onboarding, Team Structuring, Performance Management through Goal Setting, Skill Gap-Analysis, Recognition & Rewards, Team Events, Career Pathing, Conflict Resolution & SupportOperations Management: Workforce Management through Scheduling & Forecast, Workload Balancing, enhancing efficiency of service delivery by focusing on customer delight and employee productivity, measured via KPIsExcellence Management: Framing vision, concepts for projects that will lead to operational excellence at business level and opportunity for team to innovate. AI Assistant initiatives, Workflows created through Power Automate are few examplesCustomer Management: Managing partner/customer relationships, engage in highly visible LT escalations to recover the situation, Build relationships with Key Enterprise Accounts/Customers, Collect and relay feedback to Engineering teamsEscalation Management: Triage & Prioritize Escalations, Cross-Functional Collaboration with Engineering and Product Group, RCA Analysis, identify recurring issues and reduce ticket volumesCollaboration: Triage calls & Monthly Supportability review meetings with Engineering & Product group, close cross-group collaboration with other Support teams, Partner with Customer success team to help retain customer, Engage closely with Supportability teams to ensure support readiness for any new launches

Education

• Welingkar Institute of Management

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business Administration, Management and Operations

  2014 — 2016

• Sri Ram Polytechnic College

  Diploma, Electronics and Communications Engineering

  1999 — 2002

• Anna University Chennai

  Bachelor of Technology - BTech, Information Technology

  2006 — 2010

Skills

• Telecommunications
• Cisco Technologies
• Ethernet
• IT Infrastructure Management
• Switches
• Ip Pbx
• Acd Management
• Unified Communications
• Legacy Systems
• Networking
• Outsourcing
• Call Centers
• Siebel
• Isdn
• IT Service Management
• H.323
• Crm
• Itil
• Management
• Avaya Technologies
• Service Delivery
• Technical Support
• Avaya Communication Manager
• Project Management
• Avaya Ip Telephony
• Avaya Aura
• Itil V3 Foundations Certified
• Vendor Management
• Operations Management
• Routing
• Sla
• Solution Architecture
• Telephony
• System Administration
• Process Improvement
• Team Management
• Software Installation
• Contact Centers
• G3r
• Acd