Gaetano Catacchio

Senior IT Business Partner | Generative AI Program Governance | Enterprise Digital Transformation

"I contribute to bringing Generative AI initiatives from whiteboard to production. So far I've managed an IT portfolio of over €100 million, with 95% on-time releases and zero critical incidents over the last six years."
Gaetano Catacchio
€100M+
IT Portfolio Managed
95%
On-Time Releases, Zero Incidents
GenAI
In production: Salesforce Einstein GPT & Azure LLM
C-Level
Trusted Advisor to CIO and CFO
ABOUT ME

I brought Generative AI from pilot to production at Sky Italia: two live initiatives on Salesforce Einstein GPT and Azure LLM, in real use on Service Management and customer operations. For over 15 years I've led large-scale CRM/BSS transformations in Telco and Media (Vodafone, Sky Italia): a portfolio of over €100 million across 15-20 workstreams, 95% on-time releases, zero critical incidents at go-live. I'm the person CIOs and CFOs turn to when strategy needs to become execution without losing control of the details.

Areas of Expertise

Generative AI Adoption & Governance

From pilot to production in complex ecosystems.

IT Business Partnership

Strategic alignment between IT and Business.

Program & Portfolio Management

Complex multi-stream delivery, over €100M.

C-Level Stakeholder Alignment

Executive communication and trusted advisory.

CRM / BSS Transformation

Enterprise architectures for Telco/Media.

Governance & Risk Management

Rigorous control over execution and budget.

Professional Experience

Nov 2019 — Present

Senior IT Business Partner

Sky Italia s.r.l. — Milan

Managed an IT transformation portfolio of over €100M across 15-20 concurrent workstreams, 95% on-time releases and zero critical incidents in 6 years; brought Generative AI from pilot to production on Service Management and Customer Operations.

More details
  • Portfolio Management >€100M: Responsible for end-to-end delivery across 15-20 concurrent IT workstreams (CRM, BSS, Sales Platforms, Identity, Payments, Data Lake).
  • Generative AI in Production: Led pioneering GenAI initiatives from zero to production in Sky's CRM, including the Operator Advisor Buddy supporting phone operators and a Service Management initiative that cut defect resolution time by 30%.
  • Digital Prospect Channel (+80% speed): Conceived and rolled out from a blank sheet a new prospect acquisition channel, cutting order completion time from 5 to 1 minute.
  • Core Commercial Catalogue Rebuild: Cross-functional redesign of Sky Italia's entire commercial catalogue (Billing, CRM, Catalogue), still in force today.
  • C-Level Governance (CIO & CFO): Weekly executive steering for CAPEX/OPEX balancing and alignment of the IT roadmap with business priorities (+5 NPS points).
  • FIDO2 Security Benchmark: Directed the passwordless FIDO2 authentication rollout for over 13,000 users across 16 core sales applications, becoming a security benchmark for Sky Group.
Salesforce LightningEinstein GPTAzure LLMFIDO2 IAMJira / ConfluenceSAFe 6
Oct 2016 — Nov 2019

Senior IT Solutions Specialist — BSS Transformation

Vodafone S.p.A. — Milan

Led the BSS Rating & Billing transformation, cutting maintenance OPEX by 25% and releasing a payment gateway processing over 5M transactions per month.

More details
  • BSS Transformation: Replaced legacy Rating & Billing systems with a modern architecture (-25% maintenance OPEX).
  • Flagship Payment Gateway: Delivered the top-up portal and enterprise payment gateway for 5M+ monthly transactions across cards, direct debits and wallets.
  • Revenue Assurance & Fraud Management: Designed a cross-system order-to-cash framework that cut revenue losses by ~€4M/year.
  • Cross-Department Coordination: Interface between IT, Commercial and Operations to monitor conversion, order fallout and efficiency KPIs.
BSS Rating & BillingPayment GatewayRevenue AssuranceSAP IntegrationFraud Prevention
Feb 2011 — Oct 2016

IT Functional Analyst — CRM & BSS Consulting

Sytel Reply s.r.l. — Milan

Produced business cases that unlocked over €8M in CAPEX for enterprise CRM/BSS integration programs.

More details
  • >€8M CAPEX Unlocked: Prepared Business Cases and cost/benefit analyses for BSS transformation at a Tier-1 Telco client.
  • Multi-Vendor & SOW Management: Negotiated supply contracts with software vendors to guarantee SLAs and performance levels.
  • Functional & Technical Design: AS-IS/TO-BE analysis for Rating, Billing, Charging and SEPA-compliant payment systems.
Siebel CRMBSS ChargingSEPA PaymentsAS-IS/TO-BE Analysis
May 2010 — Jan 2011

Business Analyst & Tester

Accenture S.p.A.

Led functional testing on Siebel CRM 8.1 for Vodafone Türkiye, tracking 250+ defects and ensuring an on-time cutover in an international delivery context.

More details
  • International CRM Delivery: Functional and regression testing on Siebel CRM 8.1 for Vodafone Türkiye (250+ defects resolved, on-time cutover).
Siebel CRM 8.1International Cutover
Jan 2009 — Dec 2009

Software Developer

Waveng s.r.l.

Developed C/C++ integration modules for IR/NIR sensors in environmental monitoring systems.

More details
  • Software Engineer: Developed C/C++ modules for integrating IR/NIR sensors and weather radar in environmental monitoring systems.
C/C++ DevelopmentSensor Integration

Main Projects

Sky Italia · GenAI

Generative AI in Production: Salesforce Einstein GPT & Azure LLM

Role: Executive IT Business Partner & Lead Impact: -30% Defect Resolution Time | +5 NPS
More details

End-to-end ideation and delivery of the first two structured GenAI use cases in Sky Italia's CRM ecosystem. Development of a virtual advisor ("Buddy") providing real-time Next-Best-Action to operators based on customer context.

Salesforce Einstein GPTAzure LLMPrompt EngineeringService Management
Sky Group · IAM Security

FIDO2 Authentication Rollout for 13,000+ Sales Users

Role: Program Lead, IAM Transformation Impact: Sky Group Security Benchmark
More details

Planning and execution of the move to passwordless FIDO2 authentication across 16 business-critical sales and contract management applications, eliminating unauthorized access risk and ensuring full compliance.

FIDO2 / IAMCybersecurity16 Core Sales AppsSky Group Benchmark
Sky Italia · Digital Sales

New Digital Prospect Acquisition Channel & Velocity Boost (+80%)

Role: Program Lead & IT Business Partner Impact: Order Time: 5→1 min (+80%)
More details

Starting from a blank sheet: roadmap definition, vendor coordination and production release of a new modern digital channel for prospect customer acquisition. Result: operator order completion time for simple orders cut from 5 minutes to 1.

Digital AcquisitionProspect SalesRoadmap & Vendor LeadProcess Optimization
Sky Italia · Core Transformation

Sky Enterprise Commercial Catalogue Rebuild (Billing & CRM)

Role: Senior IT Business Partner Impact: Core Sky catalogue still in force today
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Highly complex redesign and transformation of Sky Italia's entire commercial catalogue, with cross-functional impact on Billing, CRM, Product Catalogue and Sales Channels. Orchestrated multiple stakeholders and systems across cost logic, mass migrations, commitments and campaigns.

Commercial CatalogueBilling & CRM RedesignComplex Stakeholder LeadMulti-System Alignment
Vodafone · BSS & Payment

Payment Gateway Modernization & Revenue Assurance (€4M/yr Saved)

Role: Senior BSS Solutions Specialist Impact: 5M+ Transactions/Month | -25% OPEX
More details

Design of the new end-to-end Payment Gateway and online top-up platform for Vodafone S.p.A. Integration of a Revenue Assurance framework across the entire Order-to-Cash cycle to cut revenue losses.

Payment GatewayRevenue AssuranceFraud ManagementBSS Rating & Billing
Sytel Reply · Vodafone Italia

Multi-Vendor Integration & CAPEX Investment Unlock (>€8M)

Role: IT Functional Lead & Consultant Impact: >€8M CAPEX Approved
More details

Defined the economic rationale, AS-IS/TO-BE analysis and negotiated Statements of Work (SOW) for upgrading the Rating, Charging and Billing systems of a leading national Telco operator.

Business Case DesignVendor NegotiationSOW & SLATier-1 Telco BSS

Certifications

  • SAFe 6 Agilist Certified
  • PMI Practical Application of Gen AI for Project Managers
  • PMI Generative AI Overview for Project Managers
  • AI Prompt Engineering Specialist

Education

2005 — 2008

MSc in Automation Engineering

Politecnico di Bari
Grade: 110/110
2002 — 2005

BSc in Automation Engineering

Politecnico di Bari
Grade: 103/110
2009

State Exam for Professional Qualification

Politecnico di Bari