Project Management Manager

SAM KAZMI

Prosci CMP CSM ITIL ISTQB-QA PMI-ACP

Cell: 416-***-**** Email ad5qot@r.postjobfree.com

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

A Federal Reliability Cleared Certified Change and Project Management Professional with over 8 years’ experience working on large-scale enterprise programs, multiple projects, technologies and infrastructures, applications, and systems implementations. Cross-industry experience includes Healthcare, Item Processing, and Financial Services.

Over 8 years of diverse functional expertise in the following areas:

Change Management

Stakeholder/Relationship Management

Project Team Leadership / Coaching

Project Management

Learning & Development

Waterfall & Agile Methodologies

Vendor Management

Implementation & Deployment Services

Roll-out Strategies and Plan

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Essential Health Solutions Brampton Ontario

Project Manager Dec 2022 – Present

Scope of Work: I am currently assisting the VP of Operations in the Business Transformation Initiative, with our main objective being the enhancement of Essential Health Solution's capacity to deliver crucial business services to our customers and promote effective team collaboration through the implementation of an operating model. It is imperative that this model aligns with standardized global processes, systems, and architectures. We have already deployed the model on a scalable technology platform, and we are actively collaborating with various stakeholder groups, including vendors like KROLL, Fillware, and Accuro.

Additionally, we are planning to upgrade the hardware based on the assessment, as the current computer systems do not meet the minimum requirements of the CRM being deployed. To facilitate this upgrade, we will source vendors and work closely with the IT team to obtain quotes. Once we have collected all the necessary information, we will present it to the leadership for their approval. In the event that the medical or pharmacy department intends to open another location, the Project Manager will take charge of sourcing contractors and securing IT support to oversee the entire process from start to finish. Once the required team is assembled, we will establish a deployment framework based on the Statement of Work (SOW) and diligently monitor the project scope.

Challenges: Working with Sponsors to meet their expectations and complete the deliverable within signed off requirements while preventing scope creep and change requests that would impact the time budget.

Risk Mitigation: Deliver solutions on risk-associated problems; create and implement emergency and contingency plans (SWAT, Full Rollback) to ensure quality deliveries. Set up communication plans based on the expectations of the sponsor while keeping the sponsor in the loop of all milestones achieved.

Project Management and Team Leadership: Integral participant as Release Management (RM) Prime (Lead) in cross-functional troubleshooting of Release Project and all related software, applications, and programs; deliver recommendations for solutions and improvement; keep teams focused and motivated to achieve project goals.

Accomplishments: Delivered projects within signed off parameters by mitigating risks as required to keep project on track. Defined the project objectives, scope, and deliverables, identified key stakeholders and determined there roles and responsiblities and level of engagement with the deliverable. Shared status reports with relevant stakeholders, keeping them informed about project performance and any deviations from the plan. Discussed project status and address questions or concerns raised by stakeholders during status update meetings or presentations.

Tools Used: MS Project, Visio, Jira

Implementation/Customer Success Manager April 2021 – Dec 2022

Scope of Work: As an Implementation and Customer Success Manager in the Pharma and Health Space, I managed the application development life cycle (planning, discovery, design, configuration, testing, deployment, and post-launch support). Deployed and completed functional change for CRM and Network. (Medical and Health client’s systems KROLL, Fillware, Accuro, Oscar )Wore different hats to determine customer requirements, identified solutions to meet documented customer requirements, and configured solutions to meet those requirements. Assessed risk, communicated issues with the project and sales team, and provided guidance to the team during the course of the project. Engaged with assigned accounts daily to identify opportunities for improvement, highlighted best practices, and built trust.

Was in charge of hiring and training new hires and setting up the onboarding process ( Training material, HR Policies )

Strategy Leadership: Planned and executed project strategies alongside Major Account Managers.

User Support: Developed and maintained ongoing client relationships to assist in on-time, budget-oriented delivery of projects.

Challenges: The challenges were with schedules and time constraints, as each deliverable had different time lines based on the scope of the project. The time needed to be compressed to go live sooner than that which is usually required due to a request of the sponsor.

Accomplishments: Implemented crashing techniques to accommodate compression by mapping out tasks which could be done in parallel and by setting up milestone checkpoint meetings. Managed and resolved issues as they arise, including logging them, tracking their status, and escalating when necessary.Implemented the change control process to assess and manage changes to project scope, budget, and schedule.Ensured quality assurance by reviewing project deliverables before acceptance.

Dell Canada

Senior Credit /Fraud Analyst (Part Time Oct 2014 to September 2022

Scope of Work: Scope of Work: Adjudicate Canadian online credit applications, review for fraud, and validate client authenticity with ID and bill verification. Take action on credit alerts and coordinate with fraud detection teams when needed. Critical role in protecting the institution and applicants from risks and fraud.

Challenge: Introduction of a new CRM and Fraud Adjudication Process During the first phase launch, we integrated Sales Force, DocVault, and Creditfy to improve our CRM and fraud adjudication processes. However, this initial rollout encountered some issues that require attention in the next phase. Additionally, I took on the responsibility of learning and training new hires and the team on the new credit and fraud adjudication process.

Accomplishment: Accomplishment: Achieved proficiency by collaborating with the vendor and acquiring comprehensive documentation on CRM functionality. Developed customized training modules by condensing the vendor's training materials, facilitating seamless onboarding for new hires.

Grand HVAC Leasing

Sr Credit Analyst Commercial March 2019 to Dec 2020

Scope of Work:

Performed debt syndication, credit underwriting, and transaction structuring. Assessed credit risk through financial analysis and Excel modeling. Prepared detailed credit reports. Monitored portfolios, identified risks, and initiated corrective action.

Collaborated with stakeholders for smooth transactions. Interacted with clients, understood business models. Managed commercial clients with up to CAD $10 million credit exposure. Provided financial solutions and underwrote lending proposals.

Challenge: Challenge: Establishing Credit Rules and Policies To address the absence of credit rules, I took the initiative to create and implement comprehensive credit and Accounts Receivable (A/R) policies. This involved setting up credit rules and conducting training sessions for new staff members to ensure uniform understanding and adherence.

Additionally, I proactively familiarized myself with the risk associated with lending in the US market. To secure collateral, I sourced a reputable company for collateral protection and established General Security Agreements (GSA) both in the US and Canada.

Accomplishment: Self-taught through extensive research on security and risk in the US market. Established credit rules and developed comprehensive training materials for the team. Conducted presentations to C-level leadership, addressing high-risk deals and proposing risk mitigation strategies to protect security. Engaged with leadership from publicly traded Canadian companies, conducting equipment needs assessments and analyzing their financial reports in detail.

Change/Project Manager

Recruitment Arm Toronto Ontario Nov 2019 – April 2021

As a Project and Change Consultant, I was responsible for providing overall executive direction, management, supervision, and coordination from end to end of the Project and Change. I was responsible to the C-Level Leadership with a Budget ranging from $500k to $3.5MM. Handled the Project in different phases from early initiation to closing phase. I would execute and deliver within scope. The domain for these deliverables was Telco, Manufacturing, Retail & Heating and Air Conditioning.

Fieldglass Implementation (Budget $2.5 Million)

Scope of Work: Lead the project to deliver a business process improvement under PMO that involved migration and conversion of all Legacy processes and manual processes into Fieldglass automation. Assessed the manual process and assimilated it into automation by adding the process within Fieldglass.

Challenges: My role was to identify manual processes like for example paying contractors and work with the vendor to act on verified inputs so that the existing duplication via manual processes could be eliminated. For paying contractors there was a team of 10 people completing the end-to-end process but after implementing Fieldglass they were no longer required. There was push back on engagement from stakeholders as they didn’t want to engage on this project as it would result in job loss.

Accomplishments: Successfully completed the change by arranging team hall meetings with key leadership and went over the SOW and the benefits that Fieldglass would bring to the departments by simplifying and hastening completion of processes. I showcased the Fieldglass process step by step for onboarding new contractors and paying them. Once they understood the benefits of the change and the training that I would provide in partnership with the vendor I got their sign off for engagement. When Fieldglass was implemented, it brought value by simplifying processes. Developed the project charter, including the project's purpose, objectives, and high-level plan.Obtained approval for the project charter and secure necessary resources.

Tools Used: MS Project, Visio, Jira

Risk Assessment Project 1 (Manufacturing Domain) (Budget $350,000)

Scope of Work: Completed the current state of their credit policies.

Challenges: As there was no documentation on the processes, I needed to deep dive by completing an analysis of the credit which they had underwritten and the mitigation they had evaluated to extend credit.

Accomplishments: Conducted comprehensive credit appraisal comprising financial and business analysis, evaluation of capital structure, project risk, peer analysis and sensitivity analysis. Then, rewrote the credit policy and rules based on the risk appetite of the organization. Analyzed current A/R cycle and set up policies for collection.

POS Deployment Project 1 (Pharmaceutical Domain) (Budget $3.5 Million)

Scope of Work: Conducted Operational Reviews and worked with clients to analyze Current Systems, addressed new Proposals and Gaps relating to the software being implemented, and properly facilitated Change Management.

Challenge: This change was failing so I took ownership of the Execution phase. There was scope creep, and the budget was not within assigned parameters. Had to request additional resources and budget as this deliverable was behind, and it was time sensitive. Used different techniques, for example, crashing techniques to deliver the project successfully.

Accomplishments: At the first point of contact after I had completed my assessment, I requested contract outlining based on the Statement of Work. Went to leadership to re-baseline the budget as I needed to bring this deliverable back on track and then went to the sponsor of each pharmacy to get their confidence and showcase the framework of deployment. I got extra resources and instead of doing 10 clinics at one time, I began with 5. Thereafter, when a certain clinic hit a critical milestone, then I would onboard another clinic. By ensuring that the critical phase had passed before bringing on another clinic, I was able to avoid adverse impact to this deliverable.

Project Manager: TurnKey Lender Project 2 (Automotive Domain) (Budget $500,000)

Moving from a paper-based system to a completely automated loan origination system. Making system lean by eliminating processes and helping employees spend less time and resources filling out Computerized loan origination forms, printing and assembling to make a loan file for a consumer. This gave an expanded proficiency, and the ability to track applications through the whole advance endorsement framework while enabling staff to figure out whether moves should be made at a specific level while evaluating credit. Developd a comprehensive budget by estimating costs for all project activities and resources.Tracked actual project expenses against the budget on an ongoing basis. Identified and analyze budget variances, understanding the reasons behind them.Prepare regular budget reports, highlighting variances and their impact on the project.

Communicate budget status and variances to relevant stakeholders, seeking necessary approvals for budget adjustments when required.

Rogers Communications Brampton Ontario

Senior Incident Analyst Integrated Control Tower (Project X)

October 2018 – November 2019

At Rogers Incident Management 'Impact x Urgency', Priority Matrix analysis and prioritization by levels of impact and criticality was done based on “Productivity, number and types of users, systems or services affected and geographical location across all verticals of Rogers Internet, Fiber, Phone Lines, Wireless infrastructure/Application services. Managed all Incident (P1-Low, P2-Medium, P3-High) escalations for timely completion. Managed Incident and Outages communication horizontally and vertically to (VP, Executives, Contact Center Users, Technical Operations Manager, Management and cross departmental functional managers) as per the Power/Influence stakeholder Matrix.

Tools: Servicenow, Jira, MS Project

Business Consultant –

Rogers Communications December 2017 – September 2018

At Rogers I was acquiring and managing B2B business relationships with responsibility for all verticals under the Rogers Full Suite of services with a holistic and solution based selling methodology.

Established and maintained positive and growing relationships with business executives, IT consultants and industry leaders nationally. I was top tier performer for wire-line, wireless & solutions sales - including multi-product offerings including customized Hosted/Cloud PBX (UCAAS), SBM, UNISON, WAAS, CCAAS, Google and Microsoft’s suite of services over 270% of quota, outperforming on all KPI’s.

In addition developed strategies that minimized the competitive threat, retained existing clients and increased revenue.

One of the reason for my success is my ability to think outside the box and develop alternative lead generation strategies

Change Consultant/Project Manager

Head Start Solutions Toronto Ontario Dec 2014 – Oct 2019

Lead the Implementation of the TSYS, Sales Force and Paymentus. I was entrusted with the role of Project Manager and Change Manager, and I had to develop and maintain long term business relationships by serving as an internal client liaison and by meeting customer expectations with the help of my team.

Solutions Management & Delivery: Leveraged subject matter expertise to guide and consult technology team and partners; create solutions and define opportunities for process improvements and recommendations.

Client Service and Team Leadership: Liaise between client, Business Unit, and ITS to set and meet client expectations; assist teams on necessary steps for project completion; ensure adherence to Standard Project Management (PMLC), Software Development (SDLC), Release Management, and Configuration Management practices and procedures.

Project Lead- TSYS Implementation Project – (Financial Domain)

Scope of Work: Led the change management work stream for the implementation of a large-scale enterprise-wide credit risk program in a global environment (Canada wide) impacting over 4000 business users at all levels of the organization.

Challenges: Based on the size of the stakeholders and scope of this deliverable there were constraints on getting feedback on the deployment

Accomplishments: Set up testing group where key stakeholders were engaged with via meetings & emails to get feedback on any roadblocks or challenges. In turn, this helped in getting sign off and adoption of the change because of training material created with vendor partnerships for each vertical within the organization. Example Contact Center, Branch etc.

Change Consultant Sales Force Upgrade Project 3 (Financial Domain)

Scope of Work. Salesforce was deployed within the defined scope parameters by leveraging another resource. It was signed off by the sponsor as it was within scope.

Challenge: There was no adoption or training process set up for specific domains. As a result, there was no stakeholder interaction or adoption of the CRM.

Accomplishment: Lead a town hall where I had key leadership and stakeholders to complete my assessment on their understanding of the CRM. Then Set up specific training modules for each group based on their requirements to ensure the adoption and understanding of CRM. Broke up small training groups to ensure that there was full adoption and understanding of the deliverable.

Risk Consultant -Paymentus Project- Project 5 (HVAC Domain)

Scope of Work: Acted as a Risk Consultant for the collective corporate team to adapt to new workflow mappings, processes, and ways of operating payment collections into a new cloud solution.

Challenge: There was no set process, the organization would use manual process to track payments which resulted in missing payments and not being able to track delinquent clients

Accomplishment: Set up a payment process, worked the accounting to get an assessment of their current aged A/R list then uploaded the client list to Paymentus. To simplify the process for the client added a hyperlink on their corporate page so that the client could click on it and go to the Paymentus payment portal. Created a detailed project plan, including tasks, timelines, dependencies, and milestones. Estimate resource requirements and create a resource plan. Developed a budget by estimating costs for labor, materials, equipment, and other project expenses. Identified and analyzed project risks, and develop risk response strategies.Defined the communication plan, including how and when project information will be shared.

Obtain approval for the project plan and baseline it as a reference for project execution.

Business Advisor – Small Business Credit

Royal Bank of Canada Mississauga Ontario Nov 2007 – Dec 2017

As a Business Advisor with RBC Adjudicated Credit Applications and/or made recommendation for all types of industries, including but not limited to, construction, health, transportation, oil & gas, restaurants etc. Reviewed Financial Statements and calculated Financial Ratios to assess company’s capacity to support payments. Considered collateral, credit, relationship, and business potential before delivering the decision.

Special Project:

Scope of Work : Was the lead on Tele-conference implemenation which enabled clients to go to selected RBC Branches across Canada and complete their financial request via Tele-Conference

Challenges: Adoption was not accepted at the branch level because deployment of this new technology raised fears that this would result in job cuts . Branches were not co-operative in anchoring clients via Tele-Conference which hindered the progress in regards to testing the technology. This slowed down the entire process and made it difficult to improvise and upgrade as there were impediments to getting data from clients about their experience and technology gaps, if any, which needed to be addressed.

Accomplishment : Set up meetings with Key Stakeholders at the branch level (Branch Managers, Account Management, Customer Success Managers ) to go over the deliverable and its value to them because via this process we would not be turning away any client and retention of new clients would increase. RBC was the 1st to market this technology. Created training material in partnership with Cisco and IBM who were the vendors and gave the benefits of this new technology to leadership at the branch.

Scope of Work: Acted as a SME based on my knowledge of Commerical and Retail banking domain. Was available live to service clients across all contact centers and branches across Canada.. RBC was also offering Credit Protection on their credit products ( Operating line of Credit and Loans ) in case client was affected by a critical illness.

Challenge: In respect of this deliverable, even after passing the intial stages, was not familiar with the scope. Requested Project Artifacts, Project Charter, to get an understanding of the scope of this deliverable. Upon understanding the SOW was able to give my feedback. There was a defect of 1 cents which I noticed when calculating the premium which was out of scope.

Accomplishment: At the meeting I brought this matter to the notice of leadership and how I came to this conclusion, as a result they delayed going live by 1 day. My insight was recognized and I was awarded RBC bronze star.

Credit Specialist – Personal Credit

Royal Bank of Canada Sept 2005 – Nov 2007

Reviewed personal Credit Bureau Reports daily and addressed any issues such as late payments, collections,

bankruptcies, fraud alerts etc.

EDUCATION

Sheridan College - Finance

CERTIFICATIONS

Prosci CMP

PMI-ACP

Acuity Institute- (CCMP) Certified Change Management Professional

Six Sigma

ITIL V3 Foundation

CSM: Certified Scrum Master (Scrum Alliance)

COURSES

(Lean Business and Process Design) – Education Edge

PMP Exam Preparation Course (PMBOK 6TH Edition) – Education Edge

CPBAM Course – Education Edge

TECHNICAL SUMMARY

AML Certified (2004-2016) Microsoft Office 2013 applications, Microsoft Project, Visio, PowerPoint, JIRA, SharePoint repositories, TS2, CART. Talent link, Salesforce, Vison, ILEC, Synergy, Sales Assist, Mortgage Calculator, Nova SGI, Oasys, Casper (Credit Application Scoring Process Electronic) Reporting), ICM, Remedy, Stripe, Asonia, TurnKey Lender, Paymentus ServiceNow

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