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Alex Merkher Mobile: 215-***-**** E-mail: acg1vl@r.postjobfree.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/merkher

Executive Leadership: Information Technology, Operations

Goal-oriented, entrepreneurial technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in leading technical projects

and teams in companies ranging from start-ups to global industry leaders. Emphasis on setting up structured technical

cultures that promote best-in-class quality and productivity.

Summary

Vice President of Release Management for Cloud services for the leading Banking and Wealth Management Company:

developed release, deployment, and testing processes for a one of the largest implementations of Salesforce.com CRM

application for Financial Advisors. Through improving the efficiency and quality of the delivery team, and aligning

release, testing and support processes to the Enterprise model, have significantly contributed to the improvements of

the end-user experience, and a 20% increase in the adoption rate.

Director of Web Operations for a leading E-Learning company: oversaw the Web Delivery and Hosting operations for

our SaaS learning platform. Selected, and managed the transition to, a new Hosting provider. Implemented Content

Delivery Network solution – improved performance by 30% and reduced hosting resources by 40%. Implemented Web

Performance monitoring. Oversaw the deployment of the NetSuite CRM.

Engineering Manager (VP level) for a leading Business Hosted VOIP provider: managed the Applications Development,

Networking and Systems Administration groups. Managed two data centers - accountable for maintaining 99.999%

systems uptime. Set the strategic direction, established priorities and led the development of the internal Ops Support

Systems, customer facing applications development, and advanced solutions.

Director of Technology and Operations for an Expertise Management ASP company: developed, implemented and

managed the company’s operational infrastructure, consisting of multi-vendor hosting (two outsourced and one in-house

data centers), blended in-house and outsourced (offshore) development, and two contact centers.

Professional Experience

Merrill Lynch/Bank Of America, Hopewell, NJ 2009-Present

VP/Release Management – GWIMT Cloud Services

BAC/ML Domestic Advisory has one of the largest and most complex implementations of Salesforce.com’s cloud-based

CRM solutions for Financial Advisors. As a VP of Release Management, I am responsible for:

Developing, improving, implementing and managing the Release strategy, process, tools, and methodologies for

deployment of internally developed modifications for the Salesforce CRM system.

Planning CRMS Release deployment roadmap. Collaborating with internal teams and the vendor to reach

consensus on the scheduling conflicts. Day-to-day management of the entire release cycle, from requirements

through design, code drop and testing, to production deployment.

Planning and coordinating all the testing processes for QA and UAT cycles, including schedules and resources.

Working with development teams to schedule off-cycle products, improve pre code-drop process, and help

coordinate test alignment with a number of internal BAC/ML systems, which interface with Salesforce.

Since joining the CRMS Platform and Delivery Service team, I have:

Helped extend the planning horizon for the Release schedule from 4 months to a year.

Improved the efficiency of the Release Management team by introducing weekly off-cycle releases, allowing CRMS

to deliver a significantly larger number of products to business.

Enhanced the release process: established clear entry/exit criteria for each stage for the release process,

developed and standardized a number of forms, templates and checklists to assist development teams in preparing

for code drops.

Helped on-board a new QA testing team and trained them in CRMS functionality, environments and tools.

Proposed and piloted Agile development methodology, successfully delivering 16 products within 2 months.

Managed the development of the Data Warehouse of key compliance data.

Received numerous awards and recognitions, among them a BAC Global Recognition Platinum Award, and a

personal recognition from CIO of Technology and Operations.

Achieve 3000, Lakewood, NJ 2007 - 2009

Director of Web Operations

Achieve3000 is a leader in web-based differentiated learning, serving K-12 Schools in over 30 states. While at Achieve

3000, I oversaw the Web Delivery and Hosting operations for its SaaS learning platform (LAMP).

Managed the day-to-day operations of our hosted data centers to ensure 100% availability during business hours.

Driven by the aggressive growth and need for more robust scalability I oversaw the selection of a new hosting

provider for our infrastructure and managed the transition of the environment. Designed and implemented

infrastructure changes for scalability and redundancy requirements.

Selected and deployed Akamai CDN solution for Web performance enhancement – Improved end-user

performance by 30% and reduced hosting bandwidth requirements and number of servers by 40%.

Implemented Gomez Web Performance Monitoring and Analytics– received Gomez Web Performance

management certification. Introduced a number of enhancements to performance resulting in 80% better web

performance.

Implemented a Release planning and deployment processes:

- Hired QA Lead and implemented a QA process

- Implemented Version Control tools and provided training to development team

- Created short term and long term release schedules

Implemented a series of development lifecycle process improvements: Source Control, Release Management Life

Cycle, Integration QA testing, etc.

Designed and implemented several external utilities integrated with NetSuite (ODBC, Webservices via SuiteTalk,

.Net) to support company’s unique requirements. Received NetSuite certification.

Developed ETL for migrating of Salesforce.com scheduling and CRM data.

Designed and implemented a Business Intelligence framework for marketing and financial analysis (SSIS).

Led the implementation of NetSuite CRM into the organizations. Assisted with designing NetSuite-based

operational processes for all areas of the business – Sales, Implementation, Accounting, etc.

Researched and proposed the next technology direction for supporting streamlined content publishing processes.

M5 Networks Inc., New York, NY 2006 - 2007

Engineering Manager/VP

M5 Networks Inc. is a leading Hosted VoIP company and a provider of “Voice as a Service” solutions. While reporting

to CTO, managed the Engineering department, including operations, service delivery, network and systems

infrastructure, monitoring and alarming, applications development, and support.

Managed the day-to-day operations of two Data Centers: improved monitoring capabilities, power footprint, failover

capabilities, and bandwidth utilization. Accountable for maintaining 99.999% systems uptime.

Responsible for establishing strategic direction, prioritizing and delivering solutions for all support systems (sales,

provisioning, technical support, billing and reporting), customer facing applications, and advanced solutions.

Implemented a series of development lifecycle and release management process improvements: through

establishing regular development schedule, integration testing and QA procedures, significantly reduced downtime

of support systems and improved the quality of delivered applications.

Managed the Engineering department, including hiring/firing and employee development.

XpertUniverse Inc., New York, NY 2001 - 2006

Director of Development/Director of Operations

XpertUniverse Inc. is an Application Service Provider that offers Internet-based, real-time expert location, collaboration

and business intelligence solutions. As a member of the executive team of XpertUniverse:

Participated in the initial planning stages of the business inception: product definition, marketing strategy,

operational infrastructure, scalability plans, competitive analysis, etc.

Conceived, designed and implemented the technical infrastructure of the organization to support the Application

Service Provider (ASP) operational model, consisting of multi-vendor hosting (two outsourced and one in-house

data centers), blended in-house and outsourced (offshore) development, and two contact centers.

Developed and deployed: staffing plan, business requirements, development needs statement, Technical and

Customer Support functions, Release Deployment processes and vendor relationship procedures. Established the

operational processes for all business Operations functions: customer support, production support, provisioning and

configuration, systems monitoring and alarming, etc.

Previous Experience

HNC Software, Cranbury, NJ - Manager of Software Development

AT&T, Bridgewater, NJ - Product Manager, Project Manager, Systems Engineer

Federal Reserve Bank, New York, NY - S/W Dev. Manager/Senior Systems Analyst

Grumman Aerospace Corporation, Bethpage, NY - Software Engineer

Educational Background

Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ MS Technology Management

Polytechnic Institute of Technology Brooklyn, NY BS Computer Engineering

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