When Sandy Kistas stepped into the role of Professional Services Director at OneKloudX this September, it wasn’t a move she’d planned.
“It wasn’t by design to step back into a leadership role, but I’m genuinely grateful for the opportunity,” she says. After almost two decades in NetSuite consulting, the work still holds her. “I’ve always loved consulting, and NetSuite consulting has been my bread and butter for almost 20 years.”
A career built on enablement
Sandy’s path runs through finance, delivery and technical leadership, with senior roles at Fronde and Infinet Cloud before OneKloudX. Ask her what connects those chapters and the answer is immediate: enablement. “Giving people the confidence and understanding to shape the processes they’ll actually be the ones sustaining.” It’s a view that treats business as people and systems together, never one without the other.
That perspective is unusual. Few consultants pair hands-on finance management with technical delivery leadership, and it’s this dual lens that shapes how she guides complex ERP projects.
What separates good from great
Sandy is clear on where the real difference lies. “A good implementation maps requirements to a system process correctly. A great one goes further. It’s built by a team who understands where each process sits within the broader business, and how it actually drives value.” The rest, she says, comes down to fundamentals: “setting the right expectations, and doing what you say you’ll do.”
It’s a standard she’s held throughout her time as Principal. Rather than point to a single project, she’s proudest of consistency. “Every client project gets 100% from me, and I treat every outcome as if it were my own.”
Where professional services is heading
Looking ahead, Sandy sees AI reshaping how the practice works. “AI is already delivering real time savings on manual work, which frees us up to invest that time in more meaningful, higher-value work.” Identifying and capitalising on those opportunities is her focus for the practice, alongside building foundational processes that can scale as OneKloudX grows.
Beyond the desk
Sandra’s approach to leadership is informed by an interest that took hold after she completed her MBA: endurance sport, and the science of performing under pressure. She has since cycled the equivalent distance of once around the Equator. The lesson has carried into how she leads. “Evidence-based changes lead to hugely rewarding outcomes. Things don’t always go exactly to plan, but having a plan and the evidence to show what worked tells you what decision to make next.”