Customer Service Project Manager
Resume:
H. James Benshoof
Fort Collins, CO 80528
Phone: 970-***-****, 222-5103(cell) • Email: ************@***.***
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE
IT Management / Integration Management / Project Management
Results-driven IT executive with 25+ years’ experience in Information Technology development and
management. Proven track record of increasing operational efficiencies, improving customer service levels,
and implementing and maintaining IT initiatives to support business processes. Diverse technical
background with experience in all aspects of IT including networking, programming and business systems
(ERP). Strong IT leadership with experience managing decentralized IT organizations, including International
subsidiaries. Particular areas of expertise include:
• Project Planning & Management • Team Leadership & Retention
• Work Plans, Budgets & Resource Planning • Customer Service & Commitments
• Building/Rebuilding Strong IT Departments • Strategic Planning
• International Project Management • Information Technology and Networking
• Contract Negotiations • Vendor Relations
• M&A Due Diligence/Integration • SAP Implementations & Architecture
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Independent IT Executive Consultant, Spartanburg, South Carolina June 2009 to Present(Nov 2010)
Full time IT Executive contract role focusing on project remediation/accountability within the IT organization, rebuilding
IT team, service level commitments to improve the end-user relationship with IT and Project Manager for a recent
acquisition. After the acquisition the company’s revenue will be $200M+.
United Agri Products, Inc., Greeley, Colorado 2002 to Feb 2009
Global United Agri Products is the largest independent distributor of agricultural and non-crop inputs in the United
States and Canada. UAP was acquired by Agrium, Inc in 2008. UAP was a publicly traded company (UAPH) prior to
the Agrium acquisition. Prior to 2004, UAP was a wholly-owned subsidiary of ConAgra.
Vice President and Chief Information Officer 2002 to Feb 2009
$3B+ Corporation ~ 6 Direct Reports, 45 Indirect ~ $20M Annual Budget, $2-3M Capital Budget ~
Supported Sites: 370 Retail/Wholesale locations, 3 Mfg ~ Reported to the CEO & COO over the six years.
• Directed a 3 year ERP project to eliminate a 15 year old legacy system. This included developing a project
team, defining project requirements, working with the vendor to define major modifications required for
success.
• Rebuilt the IT Management team using key leaders from within the company along with hiring new leadership
from the outside. Created a new department called “Decision Support Systems” with the charter of
developing custom analytical applications to enhance our decision making capabilities related to inventory,
customers, margins, etc.
• Coordinated the ConAgra transition project when UAP was sold to a private investment group. This included
migrating Financial and Human Resource applications, a large Wide Area Network, Data Center operations
and negotiating many new contracts with vendors.
• Daily coordination of Business Process and IT alignment. Worked with Management to define and implement
process improvements that will drive UAP towards better profitability by reducing inefficient processes.
• Directed most integration tasks associated with companies UAP acquired.
• Created an environment that helps bridge the gap between the Business and IT. Have hired key business
process experts into the IT department to create accountability with the business. This has created a
partnership with the business, on key projects, that was never in place before.
H. James Benshoof Page Two
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (continued)
Advanced Energy Industries, Inc., Fort Collins, Colorado 1991 to 2002
Global provider of integrated technology solutions used primarily within the semiconductor sector.
Vice President and Chief Information Officer 1998 to 2002
$125-350M Corporation ~ 5 Direct Reports, 33 Indirect ~ $3-7M Annual Budget, $1-3M Capital Budget ~
Supported Sites: 7 Domestic, 9 International ~ Reported to COO until 2002 (CFO)
• Integrated five acquired companies into the corporate IT systems environment. Integration not only involved
network, email and file servers but included converting their business systems to SAP. This activity included
due diligence, integration plans, budget and management of the actual integration.
• Directed an International SAP implementation for two European subsidiaries (UK & Germany).
• Managed the IT annual operating plan within budget and kept the percentage of IT expenses to company
revenue between 1.5 – 2.5%.
• Instrumental in implementing a new EMC data storage and backup architecture eliminating downtime for
certain system admin tasks and reducing SAP recovery time, due to data corruption, from 30 hours to 30
minutes.
• Developed, with the IT management and other key business leaders, a first pass IT strategy document that
supported the future direction of the company. Strategy was presented to and accepted by key members of
the Executive team.
• Implemented video conferencing at 10 sites worldwide in less than three months. Sites included international
sites in Germany, Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
• Negotiated the reorganization of all Engineering Business Systems support and development personnel to
report directly into IT. Decentralization of Engineering developers created certain problems within AE. The
new structure provided Engineering with better service and allowed IT to apply standards to certain
applications to reduce the cost of support.
• Successfully managed all phases of the Y2K project with no business impact after the rollover into 2000.
Director of Information Technology 1997 to 1998
$150M Corporation ~ 4 Direct Reports, 20 Indirect ~ $3M Annual Budget, $2M Capital Budget ~ Supported Sites:
3 Domestic, 3 International ~ Reported to CFO & COO
• Directed the design and implementation of a new ERP system. Implemented all major modules of SAP with a
“big bang” approach in January, 1997. Completed all contract negotiations with SAP and 3 rd party integrator
with a final cost overrun of 10% during times when the industry trend was far greater.
• Expanded WAN to the European subsidiaries to support the growing business in that region. This was the
first International WAN at AE and was supported by the central IT organization.
• Directed the IT disaster recovery team during a 100 year flood that flooded two out three corporate buildings,
including the data center. Besides personal computers, no data center servers were damaged and minimal
downtime was felt by AE personnel.
• Developed a compensation plan, with the help of HR, to retain key IT personnel with SAP expertise. During
times when SAP expertise was in high demand, AE maintained a stable SAP group which allowed the
company to proceed with other phases of the implementation with minimal 3 rd party contractors.
• Managed and maintained a strategic partnership with SAP and other 3 rd party integrators that were beneficial
to all parties. These relationships provided cost reductions and free consulting for AE and provided a premier
reference site for these vendors.
H. James Benshoof Page Three
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (continued)
Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (continued)
Information Technology Manager 1991 to 1996
$20-100M Corporation ~ 1 to 4 Direct Reports, 13 Indirect ~ Supported Sites: 1 Domestic, 1 International ~
Reported to CFO
• Designed and developed the first network and file server architecture at AE. Implementation included
networking PC’s, email, and file/print sharing.
• Implemented a new integrated business system called MINX to facilitate business strategies and projected
revenue growth.
• Hired and developed staff to support the new infrastructure at AE. Implemented key training programs to train
in UNIX and Microsoft operating systems. Grew staff to approximately 18 employees by 1996.
• Expanded IT architecture in Europe and Japan by implementing file servers and email at all sites. Support for
these sites was provided by corporate IT with some local outsourcing.
Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, Colorado
Programmer Analyst I, II, III
• Rapidly promoted through the HP job family for IT personnel. Custom application development in areas of
Finance, Order Processing, and Manufacturing.
• Selected as part of a corporate development team that included eight HP employees from around the world to
deliver a new Defect Tracking system for all manufacturing sites.
Technical Support Manager
• Managed a group of seven employees that supported the mainframe environment that ran all divisional
business applications. Operating systems included HP-UX and HP-MPE. Group was responsible for
maintaining a 24x7 support environment.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Business, Major: Management Information Systems
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
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