ABOUT ME

CV

Summary of Qualifications

Over twenty years of Program Management, Business Analysis and Product Strategy/Management/Marketing experience with specific focus on the Design/Development/Organizational Readiness/Rollout aspects of new processes and technologies. Industry experience includes HRO/PEO, Corporate and International Consulting, Higher Education, Non-Profit, and Consumer Packaged Goods.  Deep technology focus includes CRM and HRIS/ERP. 

MJS Group, Inc. 

Principal Consultant

January 2011 - Present

Provide consulting services across a wide spectrum of domains, including Product & Technology Strategy, Business & Process Analysis, Product Management, Program & Project Management, and Offshore IT software development.

Key client projects include:

• Self-Service Portal Strategist/Delivery Manager – Created product strategy and associated roadmaps for a service provider’s next generation portal which integrated technologies across the client and employee lifecycle. Responsible for product specifications, management of development team, UAT, and product launch/migration. Additionally, created and delivered user training and marketing/communications plans.

• HRIS Product Strategist – Researched internal/external markets to create product roadmap supporting corporate objectives. Managed associated software development. Responsible for org-readiness, rollout of technology to new clients, and migration of technology to existing clients.

• Product Strategist & Fractional CIO – Researched sub-segments of the healthcare vertical to develop product strategy and positioning for a healthcare startup. Direct all technology aspects of the organization.

• HR Tech Reporting & Analytics Product Strategy - Researched the Payroll/HR/Benefits market at-large to understand the needs and desires of both service providers and their clients/end-users relative to reporting and analytics. Established a product strategy for an innovative product offering which supported my client's strategic objectives. Created the associated product roadmap and budget (subscription/revenue projections and costs) for developing, marketing, and supporting this new technology.

• HRO Optimization - Assessed payroll and financial operation of an HRO firm and identified over 30 projects which increased efficiencies by over 800 man-hours per month.

• CMSS - Provided product management, program management and business analysis services for a new self-service portal which increased market competitiveness, and back-office efficiencies.  Project included a geographically diverse team, utilizing offshore resources.   

• Market Strategy - Performed market and industry research for an industry leading HRIS manufacturer to define a strategy to provide additional software and services to broaden its customer base and valuation.

• System Conversion Data Analysis – Implemented a metrics-based approach to rank and prioritize clients for migrations to a new HRIS system.

Other value-adds include:

• Self-service portal reduced opex for third party software licensing and associated support volume and associated costs

• Designed web-based data entry system which led to an increase in customer self-service and reduced the amount of manual data entry by back-office staff by > 50%

• Designed a state tax form integration system which ensured 100% employee tax law compliance 

• Implemented a HelpDesk knowledge sharing culture which led to cross-training and thereby improved turnaround time of Level 1/Level 2 issues by 30%

• Defined SLAs for web system availability. Created systems to ensure redundancy and scalability to maintain and prospectively monitor SLAs thereby improving application up-time, and thus reducing financial exposure for missed SLAs

• Advise clients on methodology to create Product Roadmaps. Includes market research as well as quantification of costs of “current state processes” versus “future state processes” and presentation of ROI models.

• Provide “CIO-on-call” services to resource-constrained organizations

Campus Management

Product Strategy & Marketing / Product Management

October 2012 – March 2016

Responsible for the product strategy, product marketing and the corresponding execution of Campus Management technology solutions which serve the worldwide Higher Education market.

Major accomplishments include:

• Analyzed the Higher Ed industry and synthesized findings to predict market and opportunity movement, as well as drive strategy and development activities and support the sales pipeline.

• Defined a data-driven strategic product roadmap for time-boxed deliverables needed to maximize sales opportunities and protect against competitive threats.  Includes enterprise wide launch planning activities to support organizational and customer readiness.

• Executed product marketing initiatives for CRM and Cloud/Managed Services offerings, including positioning, messaging, and collateral creation.  Employed multi-channel marketing activities to grow the sales pipeline.

• Implemented a data-driven approach to win-loss analysis and public records requests to quantify the key reasons for sales wins and losses, correlating to revenue, and using as a basis to drive action.

• Implemented user groups and product advisory councils to validate strategy and software development initiatives, beta-test software, facilitate adoption of new software features, and create customer “champions.” Defined a data-driven client-at-risk program for the customer base at large.

• Incorporated best practices in competitive analysis, including research, synthesis, positioning of traps/FUD, and creation of a database for tracking competitor presence and movement in the industry. 

• Created/positioned marketing collateral, including product sheets, case studies, webinars, white papers, sales decks, VITO letters, and interim customer-facing strategy and performance updates.

• Wrote and edited RFP responses, including cover sheets and executive summaries

• Presented at industry trade shows and annual users’ conferences

Publishing and research:

• “CRM Expansion in Higher Education” An overview of research, findings, and analysis regarding CRM selection, implementation and expansion within colleges and universities. Higher Ed Tech Decisions, January 2016.

• “Innovative Constituent Relationship Management for Higher Education” The features and benefits that colleges and universities need in a CRM solution in order to respond to industry pressures and be competitive in the future. Distributed across trade journals, December 2015.

AlphaStaff Group, Inc.

Vice President, Technology

March 2005 – December 2010

Responsible for all back-office and customer-facing applications supporting company’s internal staff and external clients for whom HR/Payroll/Benefit/WC functions are outsourced in a PEO model.  Additional responsibilities for EDI with client systems.  Defined strategic direction of department, including product roadmaps.  Managed both Capital and Operational Expenditure budgets.  Managed a team of project managers, business analysts, programmers as well as external consultants and vendors. 

Major accomplishments include:

• Directed IT activities supporting acquisition of a PEO which increased the net company footprint by 35% and elevated to #4 in size in the industry.

• Implemented best practice methodologies for software development allowing for more controls and a greater degree of audit support.  Led to environment stability, and supported achievement of SAS 70 Type 2 certification, which facilitated penetration into new industries such as financial services.

• Standardized EDI both within corporate limits as well as with customers and vendors. Ensured data governance and compliance, reduced integration product costs and timelines by > 50%, and trimmed the ongoing effort associated with operational support of interfaces by > 70%. 

• Managed both Operational and Capital budgets of $5MM with variances <5%.  Renegotiated vendor contracts to reduce recurring costs by approximately 15%.

• Managed the development and deployment of enterprise web application increasing customer self-service by > 50% in 12 months.  Reduced operational labor costs and improved in customer/staff ratios.  Managed offshore project teams to drive down costs while maintaining service levels.

• Directed the implementation of a client-facing business intelligence program.  Included setting strategic vision as well as software tool selection and price negotiation. The BI platform increased penetration into large complex customers.

• Delivered technology solutions which reduced payroll operational costs by 10% and increased payroll processing accuracy to > 98.5%, and which brought with it process optimization and greater staff efficiencies. Included the development of interfaces with client time & attendance and accounting systems, as well as integrated quality controls/audits

Other accomplishments include:

• Established controls to ensure compliance with state and federal agencies

• Defined company’s disaster recovery program to ensure operations maintain business continuity

• Coordinated cross-departmental process re-engineering programs, leading to not only metrics-based process models, but also to containing risk and financial exposure

• Established and managed relationships with third-party-vendors. Conducted numerous RFPs and negotiated contracts/SLAs.

• Provided support to the Sales Teams in order to ensure staff were versed on technology sales strategies, understood product feature roadmaps, and could articulate the technology value proposition.  Partnered with sales to understand market challenges and used as input to product roadmaps.  Participated in prospect visits and meetings.

• Directed upgrades of back-office and self-service aspects of ERP system. This included major, minor and patch releases provided by both software manufacturer and internal staff.

• Implemented a project management methodology based upon PMI principles. Standardized metrics-based project status reporting across the IT discipline

• Worked with CTO to define and implement a company-wide CRM strategy

Prior Client Projects Roles through March 2005

• KPMG – Managed internal and consulting team to define, develop and deploy internal applications supporting a worldwide enterprise. High profile projects included:

  • Global Knowledge Management infrastructure upgrades

  • Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance

  • Data Interfaces Standardization

• Large construction firm – Redefined key business processes. Defined/implemented measures to gauge process improvements and compliance. 

• Large non-for-profit - Managed implementation of CRM system for the largest library system supporting BVI persons.  Improved cash management, subscription pricing models, SLAs, and inventory controls. Created a data mining platform surrounding consumer behavior.

• Trade Funds Management firm - Product Manager for suite of TFM and eLearning applications.  Responsible for the "strategy" side and the “tactical” side of Product Marketing.