IT Project Management/Implementation

Nancy Cruz

Staten Island, NY ***** 347-***-**** *********@*****.***

Project Manager

Motivated and results-focused project manager with experience spearheading complex and effective projects at large enterprise organizations. Possesses a combination of project management, team leadership, and business analyst skills. Demonstrates ability to generate innovative results while complying with budget and time constraints. Seek to benefit organizations by improving performance, return on investment, and quality through project implementation. Proficient with Microsoft Office Applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Project).

Program Management ~ PMI Methodology ~ Budgeting & Cost Reduction ~ Cross-Org Stakeholder Communication ~ Lean Process Improvements – Waterfall & SDLC Processes – Financial Integration

Professional Experience

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY, New York, NY 2015 - 2018

Project Manager – Program Services Office (PSO)

Primary project manager for the newly formed Student Services sector for the Program Services Office (PSO) created to attain short and long-term student, financial, and operational goals that improve the student experience. Implementation and launch of project within the programs included change management documentation of “to-be” business workflows and training documentation and website tutorials, Accomplished by understanding critical industry metric thresholds and the execution of multiple diverse projects by performing the following responsibilities:

Examined as-is business processes to document needs analysis and formulate recommended solutions, timelines and resource needs for the to-be business process

Prepared project plans with waterfall process delivery schedules including development milestones, communications plans, change management processes, testing and training

Identified key stakeholders and designed communications plans

Conducted weekly status meetings with key stakeholders and project owners – review risks the impacts and strategies for mitigation

Collaborated with in-house IT developers to oversee the SDLC of customized application solutions.

Issued Requests for Proposals (RFPs), evaluated vendor selection, reviewed and negotiated legal contract terms for software implementation, post launch support and SLAs

Key Projects:

Student Success Initiative Project: Developed a project plan to implement a vendor application (Starfish) providing functionality that improved first-year student retention and graduation rates. Negotiated a 5-year $1MM contract for phased predictive analytics development

Academic Program Review Tracking and Workflow Project: Expedited the vendor selected to implement a software application (Leepfrog) to automate the electronic intake and tracking process for new or revised academic curriculum or programs in compliance with the mandated NYS Dept. of Education regulations for accreditation.

Restricted/Donor Funding Project: Developed process improvements to facilitate cash flow and budgeting initiatives that benefit financial aid scholarship programs. End-to-end process touchpoints starting with donor solicitations via University Development and Fund Raising to Accounting for cash flow to Budgeting allocations based on sponsor agreements to ultimately awarding Financial Aid Scholarships to students

CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, New York, NY 2008 - 2015

ERP Implementation Functional Lead

Led all aspects of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions ERP implementation project for Student Financials where the overarching goal is standardization of procedures and practices to stabilize student revenue and collections; create a uniform and consistent student experience across all University institutions. As the Subject Matter Expert, partnered with the vendor to confirm relevant business requirement conversion into functional requirements, prepared statements of work, and developed project plans used to track and report progress.

Key Accomplishments:

Mar 2008: PeopleSoft ERP Functional Lead for Implementation – Accounts Payable and Travel & Expenses modules of the Finance Pillar for 23 institutions – Procurement Supply Chain processes. Configured the application to accommodate the NYS and NYC Comptroller competitive bid contract and vendor procedures. Filtered and cleansed vendor databases during contracts and vendor management phases.

Oct 2010: PeopleSoft ERP Functional Lead for Implementation - Student Financials module of the Campus Solutions Pillar for 20 core institutions and satellite schools of specialized studies (11 Senior Colleges, 2 Honors & Professional Schools & 7 Community Colleges) supporting over 450,000 students and 35,000 staff. Providing systems with functions in student bursaring services: tuition and fees calculations, billing, cashiering, payment plans and financial aid administration which interfaced with General Ledger for financial reporting

Led and conducted Fit/Gap sessions effectively representing the business requirements and needs of CUNY to the Systems Integrator and vendor developers and systematically rank needs for functionality customization proposals and budget baseline adjustments.

Project plan tracking and monitoring for milestone completions and risk assessments throughout the project phases. Policy and procedure documentation established to deliver change management through learning and adoption.

Conducted hands-on training and testing sessions with end users, extensive documentation development for the college end users - student and administration. Documented pass/fails and any defects for remediation and change orders submission to Change Control Board.

Analyzed the security needs for both existing functionality and design of security for customizations and enhancement made to the application.

Prior Experience

Capital Budget Director / Senior Business Analyst, Department of IT and Telecommunications, New York, NY

Financial Services Consultant - Data Industries Consulting, Inc., New York, NY

Systems Engineering Manager / Business Process Analyst / Tech Writer – Qwest Communications Intl, Inc.

Documentation Specialist / Treasury Manager / Banking Analyst / Loan Clerk - Continental Grain Company

Education ~ Certifications ~ Skills

Bachelor of Science in Finance - St. John’s University, New York, NY / Master of Business Administration - St. John’s University, New York, NY / Six Sigma Green Belt Certification / PMI Member – PMP certification prep / MS Office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Project

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