Midwest Health Company
CEO
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
2005 - Present
I started this company to provide infusion therapy services to patients in the Oklahoma City area. Rhea Health also provides industrial nursing and other corporate health services to goods transportation and other companies in Oklahoma City. The agency is licensed and is partnering with some of the largest providers in the country. With five employees and a competent executive staff in place, the company no longer requires my participation.
Midwest Communications Company
Organizational Development Consultant
Director of Information Technology
Reporting to President and CEO
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1999 - 2005
I started working with this medium size ($120M revenue) telecommunications company in 1999 as an information technology (IT) and organizational development consultant. In 2000 the President of the Company asked me to join as the Director of IT, replacing three levels of IT management. At that time the Company was one year and $1.2M dollars into a failing enterprise software project. After a comprehensive evaluation, I terminated the failing project and led a complete rewrite of the company’s Operations Support System. This project was completed in eight months for a total cost of $800,000. Due to the efficiencies gained from the new system and improved management of the IT group, annual IT costs were reduced 57% to $1.2M by 2004. The staff size was reduced from 30 workers to 17. Even with the cost savings and staff reductions, IT production throughput increased 16% while errors were reduced from one major customer impacting error every month in 2000 to none in all of 2004.
IT spending per company employee was $6,482 in 2004 (surveys typically report an average $11,000 to $21,000 for US companies). This low rate of IT spending is maintained despite an aggressive schedule of IT projects. Two recent projects required the development of an order entry, customer support and billing system for complex, new products – each project was completed in less than four weeks.
My contribution to the company extends beyond technology leadership. Some examples of the initiatives I have led include:
• Billing initiatives that reduced billing costs 45% to $14,000 per month for 105,000 customer bills.
• An “early warning” system that highlights potential problems in the public telephone network based on a statistical analysis of traffic patterns.
• Development of a tax reporting system that saves the company $150,000 per year in tax consultant costs.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives.
• A comprehensive review of operations processes that has served as a blueprint for system, process and staff improvements.
• Implementation of a Web based agent management program.
• Development of computer-based employee development and job satisfaction programs.
• Development of a Web based customer account self-management system.
• Security audits and improvements.
• Systems that guide Customer Service Representatives with minimal training through complex ordering processes. As a result, errors are reduced, customer acquisition costs are lowered and products are more quickly brought to market.
Although my responsibilities continued to increase, the continuing revenue declines of the company, consistent with the industry, and four changes in company control in the last three years prompted my resignation.
SOFTWARE A.G.
Health Systems Minnesota
Business and Technology Consultant
US and Canada
1997 - 1999
Software A.G. is a large vendor of software applications and systems. I was a part of the consulting group that assisted Software A.G. customers with IT projects. Representative clients and projects included:
• Health Systems Minnesota – led teams for technology and business process analysis.
• California Department of Social Services – business process and trading partner analysis.
• State of Oregon – inventoried and organized chaotic systems environment.
• Nabisco – audited IT projects and suggested improvements.
• Time Warner Trade Publishing – led analysis team to specify IT project requirements and develop remediation plan.
• MCA/ Universal Studios – turned around delayed IT project to complete on time and under budget.
• Canadian Government, Department of International Trade – conducted date analysis and developed solution.
• Inco – designed and developed automated tools to significantly improve analyst productivity.
• State of Colorado – managed technology proof-of-concept project.
• Polygram – led teams to develop business continuity plan.
• Speaker - National Association of Computer Professionals. Miami, Florida. Topic: 10 Most Common Systems Implementation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
INNOVATIVE COMPUTING CORPORATION
Director of Applications Development
Reporting to CEO
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
1994 to 1997
This leading vendor of distribution logistics, mobile communications and business management software recruited me to Oklahoma after they secured two multi-million-dollar software development contracts. Starting with two workers and no infrastructure, I built and managed the group that fulfilled the contract requirements. I recruited 48 workers to Oklahoma in 4 months and built the infrastructure and systems required to support the software development group.
An additional 50 developers worked remotely, most offshore, reducing resource cost to as little as $16 per hour. This “global software factory” was managed with rigorous process controls and an automated work management system that allowed a 24-hour a day operation with essentially no management overhead. Rigorous quality control was built into the entire process resulting in only two significant errors reported by the beta sites. The requirement to keep costs low and the ambitious project goals required innovative management approaches and a rigorous worker development process. The result was a quick ramp-up of a highly productive group, located in diverse locations and producing at a fraction of typical costs.
FRIEDMAN & ASSOCIATES
Director of Research and Development
Reporting to Vice President of Operations
Northbrook, Illinois
1988 to 1994
I started working for this leading vendor of manufac¬tur¬ing, distribu¬tion, and financial software as a Project Manager. In that role I developed an automated system for implementing the company’s complex software package (21 application modules with more than 3,500 programs). This system guided customers through an analysis of their business, automatically configured the software package and generated customized project plans. The program lowered the average implementation project cost 60% while ensuring consistent, high quality service delivery.
After promotion to Director of Research and Development, I adapted Just in Time production principles and statistical quality control to the “manufacture” of software. All software projects in this group were completed on time and within estimated cost. I supervised a staff of 15 developers, quality assurance personnel and a technical writer.
I also designed and led the development of automated systems including wireless warehouse and distribution management and systems to manage global operations including multicurrency, worldwide tax accounting and import tracking.
INTERPRETATIVE DATA SYSTEMS
Health Care Systems Project Lead
1982 to 1985
Designed, installed and imple¬mented health care management systems including financial, billing, and scheduling systems for hospitals and physician groups.
COMPUTER ASSOCIATES, 1985 – 88
As a technical support analyst I installed, supported and participated in the development of application systems including financial, distribution and practice management systems.
EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 1982
MA Organizational Development and Industrial Psy¬chology, Consumer Behavior Minor
Four years teaching including upper level personnel management and organizational development courses. Statistical analysis contributions to original research acknowledged in leading scientific journals including Science and Nature.
RECENT PROJECT EXAMPLES
Turn Around a Failing Project
The Problem: Development of a comprehensive Operations Support System for a medium size company was one year late and counting. After spending $1.2M of a $5.2M budget, the vendor had yet to make a single significant delivery. With a crumbling legacy system the Company had to come up with a solution – quick. At the same time budget constraints did not allow starting over.
The Solution: A quick assessment of the project identified the problem areas – inadequate project management, lack of management buy-in and mismatched staffing by the vendor. Negotiations with the vendor yielded a solution that allowed the Company to recover some of its costs. I took over management of the project and it was completed in 9 months for $800K. The company has been successfully using the system to run operations for three years with a significant reduction in operations costs.
Quick Ramp Up
The Problem: A logistics management provider needed to quickly meet the requirements of two large contracts. The project schedule was very aggressive and the local labor market did not provide enough skilled IT workers to meet the project requirements.
The Solution: Project staffing needs were meet with a combination of local, remote and off-shore resources. A quick ramp up to over 100 workers was facilitated with automated skills assessment and rigorous standards. Quality control throughout the development process resulted in no significant errors in the delivered systems. An automated management system tracked workers and activities across the globe and kept management overhead to a minimum. The required systems were delivered on time and within budget.
Reduce Operating Costs
The Problem: Continuing declines in a mature industry forced this company to make dramatic reductions in operations costs. At the same time, systems development productive throughput needed to remain to support new product introductions and a complex, in-house developed enterprise management system customized to the Company’s unique niche need to be supported.
The Solution: A network of low-cost local and remote workers was established to support the company’s needs on an as-needed basis, reducing fixed costs 66%. An automated management system provided a real time view into the activities of all workers and simplified management. A thorough analysis determined which functions should remain in-house and which should be outsourced. Functions remaining in-house were consolidated, optimized and automated to improve productivity. Other functions were outsourced to allow in-house staff to focus on company initiatives. Productivity throughput has remained high despite staffing reduction.
Rollout a Complex, New Product
The Problem: A Midwest communications company sought to implement a complex, new product. The new product would require new systems, new business processes and new expertise. A rapidly evolving competitive and regulatory environment necessitated a quick rollout.
The Solution: A turnkey solution was provided including feasibility study, project management, training, process engineering and systems development. Customer facing functions were kept in-in-house to ensure a high level of customer support while complex back-office functions were outsourced. The registration and support systems allowed cost customer service representatives with minimal training to support this complex communications product. As a result, the product was rolled out quickly and customer acquisition costs are among the lowest in the industry.
Registration, Provisioning and Billing: Processes, Performance Measures and Gap Analysis
The deliverables of this comprehensive business process review of a telecom company registration, provisioning and billing processes included a 102 page analysis report, presentation to executive leaders and Board of Directors and an implementation and project plan that resulted in significant operations improvements. Compared company performance to industry standards and established benchmarks to measure improvements. Documented business and IT processes, identified gaps and opportunities for improvements and recommended an action plan to improve performance.
Cost Reduction and Revenue Enhancement Billing Options
Comprehensive analysis of company billing processes and a statistical analysis of customer payment patterns resulted in recommendations that significantly reduced billing cost and enhanced revenue with changes to customer bill paying behavior.
Traffic Trends: Predicting Traffic & Early Warning System for Low Traffic
Time series analysis of historical traffic patterns identified correlates of the reduction in traffic and provided daily predictions of traffic volumes. The analysis was used to develop a system to identify carriers that were slow in delivering traffic for billing.
The Ten Most Common Implementation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Presentation to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses at their annual conference described how to avoid failure in large scale automation implementation projects.
Computer Security Audit and Remediation
Comprehensive audit of telecom company computer systems and practices resulted in project plan for security improvements, developer and user security policies and a computer based security training program for employees.
Sales and Marketing Systems Requirements and Options
Detailed analysis of company sales and marketing systems, processes and requirements resulted in recommendations included a new system architecture to support a CRM approach.
New Products Analysis and Implementation
Cost benefit analysis and implementation plan for new ISP/ Broadband product introduction including the estimated profitability of various customer populations.
Automated Technical Worker Management System
Developed a Work Management System to automate the management of technical workers, wrote User’s Manual, conducted training and wrote standards. |
