Customer Service Project Manager

Catherine Longo

TELECOMM PROFESSIONAL - ** YEARS EXPERIENCE

Belleville, NJ

***********@*****.*** - 201-***-****

Program/Project Manager / Operations Manager / Billing Expert

Results oriented program/operations manager and strategist with over 20 year's leadership experience

in highly competitive IT and Telecom markets. Extensive expertise in service delivery, project/program

management, and customer services, including strategic planning, negotiations, customer and employee

management. Highly skilled at improving teams' performances and exceed customer expectations. Passionate

leader with a strong ability to motivate and retain employees while securing customer loyalty and forging

valuable relationships with internal and external partners.

Career Highlights

● Executed the first Wireless Upgrade in Latin America for the "Trilogy" Properties located in Haiti, Bolivia and

Dominican Republic. Very challenging due to the Earthquake but still succeeding. (On-going 2010-2012)

● Simultaneously lead and successfully delivered over 100 complex Prepaid Wireless Billing related projects

ranging from $1.5 Mil to $6+ Million for Alltel Communication (2007-2009). (Comverse)

● One of the key contributors toward Alltel communication's decision to Select Comverse as the "Strategic

Vendor of the Year Award for 2008".(Comverse)

● Participated in the Professional Services Contract with Alltel communications, that resulted in customer

signing of multiple contracts worth over $30 Million dollars in (2007).(Comverse).

● Executed the first "Converged" Platform in the EMEA's consisting of both software and hardware rollout for

a "Greenfield" supplier located in Warsaw, Poland. Project was successful, on time and within budget (2006).

(Comverse)

● Major participant in the annual SAS70 Audit for Project Management for the past 4 years with a result of

0 findings.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Sr. Project Manager -Product Development

ABOVENET TELECOM - January 2011 to July 2013

Researched and implemented tools to automate processes to further the product team agenda and get the

job done in a timely, professional manner.

● Collaborate with product team to understand scope for new product/feature development, market expansion

projects, product tools, product & technology roadmaps, product marketing projects, and any other product

team led initiatives.

● Created and executed project plans & timelines and revised as appropriate to meet changing needs and

requirements of the product initiative.

● Effectively applied AboveNet's product development blueprint/methodology and enforced project standards.

● Identify cross-functional organizational resources needed per project and collaboratively assigns individual

responsibilities.

● Track & review deliverables prepared by all stakeholders on project team in collaboration with product

team member, who is ultimately responsible for the any project scope changes and content accuracy of the

deliverables.

● Identify & minimize Above Net's exposure and risk on projects by ensuring all aspects are considered

appropriately and managed day-to-day operational aspects of a project and ensures scope integrity.

● Holds ultimate responsibility on establishing & meeting timelines of a product launch/project per scope

defined by the product team member.

Program Manager

COMVERSE Technologies - Mount Laurel, NJ - January 2006 to January 2011

● Plan, oversee, execute, and supported the installation and client acceptance of capitalized equipment,

enterprise software systems and system integration projects or engagements.

● Gathered requirements from customer and documented. Translated business case into a technical

document for my R&D team to explore and provide effort estimates before signing off on the agreed content

to avoid scope creep.

● Planned and directed the cross functional teams and their schedules for the project kick off, Initiation through

delivery and post launch support while monitoring budget/spending and reporting to executive mgmt.

● Serve as an R&D liaison to provide back office support to regional PMO and Deployment teams.

● Monitor and track project to ensure timely deliverable s and customer satisfaction.

● Extensively interacted with sales, service delivery, systems engineering, product development, and other

members of cross-functional teams focused on the delivery of new or existing products to clients.

● Manage complex solution deployments and help resolve issues during and after deployment.

Wrote the QA test scenarios for all projects for certification of the software or equipment.

● Prepared presentations to customers in an effort to assist Sales with the closing of new business.

● Prepared and presented weekly dashboards for on-going projects to customer and upper mgmt to ensure

timeliness of the project and mitigate any potential issues that may arise.

Billing Operation Manager

EUREKA NETWORKS - New York, NY - January 2002 to January 2006

● Lead a team of 5 billing analyst to ensure the accuracy of data going into the monthly billruns.

Built the billing data module to accommodate other functions such as A/R, Finance, Sales and Customer Care

● Responsible for the building of services and rate plans in the company's RevChain Billing software

● Maintain and continuously update services/features and rate plan as business and product matrix change

● Hold weekly conference calls with Viziqor to address open issues related to the Revchain software

● Work with switch ops, customer care, provisioning and finance to script process as it relates to the billing

system

● Prepare/present status to senior management

● Document requirements and resulting process flows utilizing the new system

● Design and document business logic for data conversion

● Document and resolve requirement gaps

● Managed change control related to the migration of billing systems.

● Provide direction to trainers for Methods and Procedures updates.

● Design/document test strategy and oversee test execution.

● Reconcile data elements for each test conversion and final conversion required for sign-off

● Document specifics of the software to train other departments such as the billing analyst, help desk, etc as

they are directly related to specific functions

● Provide direction to trainers for methods and procedures updates

● In addition to the project management of the integration of systems, manage the billing processes and staff

simultaneously

● Prepare schedule of 3 monthly bill runs for 2 separate entities

● Manage departmental budget and make recommendations to the CFO where budgeting should be adjusted

● Direct the coordination between the help desk, operations team and technical staff to ensure a seamless

and timely flow into the bill runs

Regional Order and Retention Manager/Project Manager

CONVERSENT COMMUNICATIONS - July 1999 to November 2001

● Hired and directed a staff of 15 service coordinators with 5 direct reports.

● Developed training classes to bring my newly established organization up to speed with entire corporation

● Directed and coordinated field customer service throughout the Metro NY region

● Maintained several product databases including CRM and that enabled me to export data into Excel

spreadsheets

● Managed project to support the conversion of legacy billing systems to new platform.

● Participated in the structural reorganization of the company to produce a more efficient workflow.

● Developed processes to reduce redundancy and provide timelier end-of-month procedures.

● Duties included billing reconciliation and cost allocation, problem analysis and resolution.

● Signed off on all orders for local, LD, Internet, DSL to ensure pricing and tariffs were correct.

● Assured effective customer services and relations by implementing processes to deliver quality products

and services on schedule.

Senior Analyst/Customer Service Manager

BCI, INC. / CITIBANK - March 1997 to July 1999

● Managed a team of 12 employees in NY & VA, which consisted of billing managers, CDR, PBX, MAC,

customer service and telecommunication analysts.

● Duties included billing reconciliation and cost allocation, problem analysis and resolution

● Designed and implemented a process flow organizational system that was adopted by the firm as its front

end process to accurately analyze telecomm expenditures

● Appointed by Citibank as the liaison to Citibank in an effort to effectively communicate and resolve customer

billing issues on a weekly basis

● Created Task Force to resolve issues that included disconnect, credits and MACs between Citibank and Bell

Atlantic resulting in ● Customized operating systems to track requests for detail of Voice & Data worldwide

charges.

● Created reports to measure staff performance.

● Built and maintained several product databases (Access) & Product Reporting System (Oracle)

● Ran monthly reports from multiple platforms, including Citibank's User Based Billing System (CUBBS)

● Reported and provided detail of $35MM monthly voice & data telecommunications.

● Efficiently assimilated data and generated charts and graphs to track activity, variance, & Full year Forecast

Customer Service Manager

NATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS - March 1994 to January 1997

● Hired and directed a staff of 280 customer service representatives with 12 direct reports.

● Managed weekly staff meetings to address customer service issues and keep an open dialogue between

employees and upper management

● Directed and planned all activities related to employee incentives, productivity and time management

● Trained staff in the local and long distance marketing strategies, customer service skills, fiber optics and

telephony

● Directed staff on all inquiries regarding billing errors and credits

EDUCATION

PMP Certification in Project Management

PMI Institute - Mount Laurel, NJ

2006 to 2006

SKILLS

SW Installation and Delivery, Project/Operations Management, Organizational Leadership, Strategic Planning,

Contract Negotiations,Service Delivery, Risk Analysis - Client Management & Retention - Staff Management

- Efficiency Improvement

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