Desktop Engineer / Technology Specialist

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ALLYN JACOBS 847-***-**** (GOOGLE VOICE)

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST: RECENT FOCUS IN K-12 EDUCATION

APPLE CONVERTED, MICROSOFT WINDOWS RAISED, IT PROFESSIONAL THAT EXPERIENCES JOY IN BRINGING STREAMLINED AND EFFICIENT

SOLUTIONS TO ALL. PERSONALLY MOTIVATED TO SOLVE MUNDANE REPETITIVE TASKS VIA AUTOMATED ROUTINES WHENEVER POSSIBLE. WELL

VERSED IN THE ART OF TURNING A USER’S FROWN UPSIDE DOWN. OF TRANSFORMING A FRUSTRATED AND STALLED TECHNOLOGY USER, INTO AN ONE

THAT IS NOW EMPOWERED THRU THE KNOWLEDGE TO SELF RESOLVE, AND AN ENHANCED CALM THAT COMES FROM FEELING IN CONTROL OF THEIR

TECHNOLOGY, INSTEAD OF CONFUSED BY IT.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

● END USER SUPPORT AND EDUCATION: ● TROUBLESHOOTING / BREAK-FIX

DESKSIDE, PHONE, EMAIL, CHAT.

● ● CUSTOMER SERVICE

LEARNING: I AM ALWAYS SEEKING OUT NEW KNOWLEDGE TO

BENEFIT MYSELF AND OTHERS.

● ● STREAMLINING WORKFLOW / AUTOMATION:

HELP DESK MANAGEMENT: TRAINING, TICKET

MONITORING, QUALITY ASSURANCE FOLLOWUPS, LOOKING FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO PRODUCTIVITY

ENSURING RAPID RESOLUTION, AND LIMITED AGE ON ISSUES, EVERYWHERE.

DOCUMENTATION BUILDING.

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES:

PLATFORMS: WINDOWS 3.11, NT, 95, 98, ME, XP, 7, 8, 10 / MAC OSX / IOS / ANDROID

USER MANAGEMENT TOOLS: MICROSOFT ACTIVE DIRECTORY (AD), MICROSOFT GROUP POLICY (GPO), APPLE PROFILE

MANAGER, GOOGLE APPS FOR EDUCATION (GAFE), GOOGLE APPS FOR WORK, END USER

EDUCATION

DEVICE MANAGEMENT TOOLS: GPO, APPLE PROFILE MANAGER, GAFE (OR WORK), MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER

CONFIGURATION MANAGER (SCCM)

OPERATING SYSTEM DEPLOYMENT / MICROSOFT DEPLOYMENT TOOLKIT (MDT), DEPLOYSTUDIO (OSX), SCCM, MUNKI (OSX)

APPLICATION MANAGEMENT:

MISC SOFTWARE PLATFORMS: CONNECTWISE {PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AUTOMATION (PSA)}, LABTECH {REMOTE

MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT (RMM), MAXFOCUS (RMM), PARCC, NWEA, APPLE

REMOTE DESKTOP (ARD), RAPTOR {SCHOOL VISITOR LOGGING AND VERIFICATION},

TEACHEREASE {SCHOOL INFORMATION SYSTEMS (SIS)}, BLACKBOX {DIGITAL SIGNAGE},

HAPARA {CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT EXTENSION TO GAFE}, EVERNOTE {DIGITAL CLOUD

NOTEBOOK}, LASTPASS {CLOUD BASED PASSWORD KEEPER}, UNRAID {USB BOOTABLE

NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE SOFTWARE}

MICROSOFT CERTIFIED TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST: WINDOWS 7 AND OFFICE 2010,

CERTIFICATIONS:

DEPLOYMENT

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

NET56 - DEER PARK, IL

? - APRIL 2015 TO CURRENT

I WAS RECENTLY TRANSFERRED OUT OF HARRISON, AS NET56 BELIEVED THAT MY SKILLSET COULD BE LEVERAGED MORE EFFECTIVELY FROM A

DIFFERENT LOCATION. I CURRENTLY WORK A SPLIT ASSIGNMENT, WITH 3 DAYS A WEEK PROVIDING DESKTOP ENGINEERING SERVICES TO A

NET56 CLIENT, THE SPECIAL EDUCATION DISTRICT OF LAKE COUNTY (SEDOL), AND ADDITIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES AS NEEDED.

ON THE OTHER TWO DAYS A WEEK, I AM WORKING THE DAY SHIFT ON OUR HELPDESK, WHERE I AM BEGINNING A PROCESS OF STREAMLINING

THE WORKFLOW IN CONNECTWISE TO IMPROVE OUR RESPONSE TIME, AND DECREASE THE OVERALL TICKET COUNT, AND DURATION THAT

TICKETS REMAIN IN AN UNRESOLVED STATE. IN PARALLEL, I AM RESEARCHING THE ENTIRE ACTIVE TICKET DATABASE, AND FOLLOWING UP ON

STALE TICKETS, AND VERIFYING IF THEIR STATUS CAN BE MARKED AS RESOLVED, OR FOLLOWING UP TO ENSURE ACCURATE RESOLUTION OF

ISSUES IN THE SYSTEM.

LASTLY, ON THE TWO DAYS A WEEK AT OUR HELP DESK, I PROVIDE REMOTE SUPPORT AS NEEDED TO END USERS AND FIELD TECHNICIANS

WHO CALL IN REQUESTING ASSISTANCE.

HARRISON SCHOOL DISTRICT 36 (NET56) - WONDER LAKE, IL (DEER PARK, IL)

TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST - OCTOBER 2013 TO APRIL 2015

THIS POSITION HAD ME FULFILLING THE ROLE OF THE DISTRICT'S TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, WITH SUPPORT AS NEEDED BEING SUPPLIED BY

NET56. I WAS FULLY INVOLVED IN ALL ASPECTS OF THE DISTRICTS DAY IN AND DAY OUT TECHNOLOGY NEEDS, AS WELL AS BEING INVOLVED IN

THE NECESSARY RESEARCH TO PRESENT TECHNOLOGY ITEMS TO THE DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT FOR PURCHASE.

DURING MY TIME I VOLUNTEERED TO RUN A TECH-CLUB ALONGSIDE A DISTRICT TEACHER FOCUSING ON ITEMS OF GAME DESIGN USING PORTAL

2. ALONG WITH THIS, WE STUDIED COMPUTER ASSEMBLY AND DIAGNOSTICS WITH THE STUDENTS. ALONGSIDE TECH CLUB, I ASSISTED WITH

THEIR TECH-SHOWCASE, TO WORK WITH THE STUDENTS TO ENSURE THAT THEIR PROJECTS HAD THE PROPER FOCUS TO ACCOMPLISH THE GOAL

OF THE TASK. ALONG WITH PROVIDING AS NEEDED TECH SUPPORT.

THE FIRST SUMMER IN THIS POSITION, I ENGINEERED AN APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT SYSTEM LEVERAGING MUNKI (OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE),

ALONG WITH A NEW USER AND DEVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM VIA APPLE PROFILE MANAGER. I SUCCESSFULLY RE-IMAGED 300+ DEVICES,

PREPARED 60 NEW CHROMEBOOKS FOR STUDENT USE, WIRED TWO CARTS THAT WERE NOT PURPOSE DESIGNED FOR CHROMEBOOKS, UPGRADED

180 IPADS TO THE LATEST VERSION OF IOS ALONG WITH INSTALLED APPLICATIONS, AND DEPLOYED A GOLD MASTER USER INTERFACE AS

WELL TO ALL 180 IPADS.

DURING MY TENURE AT HARRISON, I ALSO WAS ABLE TO IDENTIFY THE CAUSE OF A VERY RANDOM AND HIGHLY FRUSTRATING USER FOR THE

BUILDING SECRETARY. FREQUENTLY IN THE MORNING, SHE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO LOGIN NORMALLY. HER LOGIN PROCESS WOULD STALL.

EVEN BEING RAN FOR OVER 15 MINUTES IT STALLED. WE UPGRADED THE THREE FRONT OFFICE COMPUTERS TO SSD DRIVES. SHE WOULD

STILL GET THIS SAME ERROR. ONLY A FORCED RESTART, AND RE-ATTEMPTING UNTIL A SUCCESSFUL LOGIN WOULD WORK. WE TRIED GOING

HARDWIRED TO SEE IF IT WAS A WIRELESS ISSUE, WE TRIED SWAPPING THE SSD INTO AN IDENTICAL COMPUTER, WE TRIED A COMPLETE FRESH

STOCK WINDOWS 7 INSTALL, AND NOTHING WOULD RESOLVE THE BEHAVIOR. AFTER SIGNIFICANT PROFESSIONAL DEBATE WITH THE NET56

SERVER ADMINISTRATOR, I WAS ABLE TO GET GROUP POLICY MODIFIED. UPON THE MODIFICATION OF GPO, HER ISSUES WENT AWAY AND

NEVER CAME BACK.

NET56 - PALATINE, ILLINOIS

SERVICE TEAM LEAD / PROJECT SPECIALIST JAN 2012 TO OCTOBER 2013

UPON THE ROUND LAKE CONTRACT NOT BEING RENEWED, I WAS TRANSFERRED INTO THE NET56 HELP DESK,AS I WAS FOUND TO BE QUITE A

VALUABLE EMPLOYEE. I QUICKLY GOT UP TO SPEED ON THE HELP DESK PRACTICES. IN COMPARISON TO THE KRAFT SERVICE DESK, THEY

WERE IN NEED OF SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT. MANAGEMENT WAS AWARE OF MY PREVIOUS EXPOSURE TO HIGH CALIBER HELP DESK

OPERATIONS AND LEVERAGED MY KNOWLEDGE.

ALL PROJECTS WERE WORKED ON, WHILE HAVING TO PROVIDE REMOTE SUPPORT AS NEEDED AND REQUIRED TO END USERS VIA EMAIL AND

PHONE. IF AN ISSUE COULD NOT BE RESOLVED BY THE HELP DESK TEAM, IT WOULD BE ESCALATED TO A HIGHER TIER SERVICE TEAM

INTERNALLY, OR DISPATCHED EXTERNALLY TO OUR FIELD TECHNICIAN TEAM.

MY FIRST PROJECT WAS THE SELECTION OF A NEW TICKETING PLATFORM FOR THE HELPDESK. THE SELECTION THAT WAS APPROVED BY

MANAGEMENT WAS LABTECH A REMOTE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT THAT HAD A TICKETING COMPONENT BUILT INTO IT. THIS TICKETING

COMPONENT WAS SUPERIOR TO THE SYSTEM WE WERE USING, AND GAVE US A FOUNDATION TO BUILD A INDUSTRY LEADING SERVICE

EXPERIENCE.

AFTER SELECTION, I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT’S IMPLEMENTATION AND STAFF TRAINING. STAFF TRAINING WENT PHENOMENALLY WELL, AND

THE TICKETING COMPONENT OF IT WAS ADOPTED QUICKLY, AND FOUND TO BE A GREAT EXPERIENCE AND FAR BETTER THAN OUR PREVIOUS

SYSTEM. THE REMOTE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT COMPONENT, WAS NEVER EMBRACED BY OUR SYSTEMS ENGINEER, SO IT WAS

NEVER LEVERAGED TO IT’S FULL POTENTIAL.

SEVERAL DESKTOP DEPLOYMENTS WERE WORKED ON DURING MY TIME. I TOOK OVER ONE PROJECT FROM SOMEONE ABOUT TO LEAVE ON

VACATION, IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A WINDOWS XP IMAGE, BUT THE ENTIRE TEAM RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THAT IMAGE STABLE WAS NOT

ABLE TO DO SO. I MADE THE EXECUTIVE DECISION TO MIGRATE TO A WINDOWS 7 IMAGE.

I WAS THEN THE SOLE RESOURCE IN THE PROJECT TO BUILD THE MICROSOFT DEPLOYMENT SERVER, BUILD OUR GOLD MASTER, SYSPREP,

CAPTURE, AND DEPLOY OUR GOLD MASTER IN A TEST ENVIRONMENT. I HAD A SECONDARY RESOURCE AVAILABLE FOR A FINAL QA CHECK OF

A FINISHED DEVICE, TO ENSURE THAT NOTHING WAS MISSED. I WAS THEN THE LEADER FOR THE ACTUAL DEPLOYMENT PROJECT THAT WENT ON

OVER A SEVERAL DAY PERIOD.

I BECAME INVOLVED IN SEVERAL OTHER DESKTOP ENGINEERING PROJECTS, HAVING MY TOTAL DEVICE COUNT BETWEEN ALL PROJECTS TO

EXCEED OVER ROUGHLY 2500 DEVICES. WITH 15-20 DIFFERENT THICK BUILDS, THAT WOULD THEN BE SLIGHTLY MODIFIED LEVERAGING

MDT’S POST IMAGING WORKFLOW OPTIONS. THESE SERVERS AND IMAGES ARE STILL IN USE TODAY TO REIMAGE WORKSTATIONS AS NEEDED.

THEY HAVE BEEN USED AS TEMPLATES TO BUILD OUT ADDITIONAL SERVERS AND IMAGES.

ROUND LAKE AREA SCHOOLS CUSD 116 (NET56) ROUND LAKE ILLINOIS

ON-SITE TECHNICIAN AUG 2007 TO JAN 2012 (CONTRACT POSITION)

THIS POSITION STARTED AS AN ENTRY LEVEL DESKSIDE SUPPORT TECH. I WAS FOUND TO QUICKLY HAVE A SKILLSET THAT EXCEED THEIR

EXPECTATIONS SO MY SCOPE OF WORK INCREASED. THE DISTRICT HAS A SERIES OF LIBRARIAN’S THAT WERE TRAINED IN SOME LEVEL 1

TROUBLESHOOTING, AND SOME WERE MORE EXPERIMENTAL THAN OTHERS. I WAS PART OF A 3 PERSON TEAM, THAT HANDLED THE

ESCALATIONS FROM 9 SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND 3 SUPPORT BUILDINGS. ALONG WITH THE SUPPORT REQUESTS FROM STAFF MEMBERS THAT DID

NOT LEVERAGE THE LIBRARIANS, OR WERE LOCATED IN A SUPPORT BUILDING.

ADDITIONALLY I WAS INVOLVED IN DESKTOP ENGINEERING PROJECTS DURING MY TIME AT ROUND LAKE. SOME AS AN ASSISTANT, SOME AS A

PRINCIPAL ENGINEER, WITH A VERY INVOLVED SUPERVISOR TO ENSURE THAT I WAS MAKING PROGRESS, AND NOT RUNNING INTO BOTTLENECKS.

THESE IMAGES WERE MORE SIMPLISTIC IN NATURE AND WERE NOT LEVERAGING MDT, BUT WERE EITHER BEING DEPLOYED FROM WINDOWS

DEPLOYMENT SERVICES, OR FROM EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES TO INDIVIDUAL TARGETS.

I ENHANCED ROUND LAKE’S NETWORK FILE STORAGE SECURITY PRACTICES, BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GROUP BASED FILE

SHARING PERMISSIONS THAT WERE LEARNED FROM MY TIME AT KRAFT FOODS. I CONVERTED ALL OF THE PERMISSIONS AT THE CLIENT

LOCATIONS NETWORK SHARES TO GROUP BASED, VERSUS USER BASED SECURITY. THIS WAS THEN TEMPLATED LATER, AND DONE BY THE

HELPDESK AS A PROJECT I WAS A MANAGER TO BRING ALL OF OUR CLIENTS INTO COMPLIANCE WITH THIS METHODOLOGY.

SPHERION (KRAFT) NORTHFIELD, ILLINOIS

LEVEL 1 HELP DESK JAN 2007 TO AUG 2007 (CONTRACT POSITION)

THIS WAS THE POSITION THAT STARTED MY PROFESSIONAL IT CAREER. DURING MY TIME, I WAS MENTORED BY STAFF MEMBERS IN

2 DEPARTMENTS. THOSE MENTORS COVERED LESSONS IN THE VPN CLIENT I-PASS, ACTIVE DIRECTORY, GROUP POLICY,

VARIOUS TIER

SOFTWARE DEPLOYMENT, LICENSE MANAGEMENT, AND MORE I WAS QUICKLY IDENTIFIED AS ONE OF THE BEST MEMBERS OF THE TEAM AND

LEFT WITH RATHER SIMPLE DIRECTIVES. DO WHAT I COULD TO ACHIEVE FIRST CALL RESOLUTION, AND PROPERLY ROUTE ANYTHING ELSE.

MOST OTHER TEAM MEMBERS WERE REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THE VARIOUS SCRIPTS FROM SERVICE CENTER, AND I WAS GIVEN THE LATITUDE TO

WORK OUTSIDE OF THOSE SCRIPTS.

● PROCESSED CALLS IN A HIGH VOLUME FAST PACED CALL CENTER.

● PERFORMED TROUBLESHOOTING FOR VPN CONNECTION ISSUES

● RESOLVED PASSWORD RESETS IN ACTIVE DIRECTORY, AS400, MAINFRAMES, AND SAP.

● USED SERVICE CENTER 5.0.3 FOR CALL/TICKET MANAGEMENT.

● EXPERIENCE USING AVAYA AS A USER.

● PERFORMED TROUBLESHOOTING FOR GENERAL COMPUTER ISSUES

AWMTECH - HAINESVILLE, ILLINOIS

FREELANCE WORK

● INTEGRATED E-MAIL WORKFLOW FOR SEVERAL DIFFERENT CLIENTS

IMPORTED PREVIOUS EMAILS INTO GOOGLE PLATFORM

CONFIGURED UNCONDITIONAL AUTO-FORWARD TO GOOGLE.

TIED FUNCTIONALITY INTO MOBILE DEVICES.

TIED FUNCTIONALITY PREVIOUSLY IN SEVERAL DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS UNDER ONE ACCOUNT.

CONFIGURED “SEND AS” EMAIL FUNCTIONALITY THRU STANDARD GMAIL, TO WORK WITH CUSTOM DOMAIN’S VIA

FORWARDING PROVIDED BY DOMAIN REGISTRAR.

● BREAK/FIX FOR MULTIPLE PC’S

● CONNECTIVITY TROUBLESHOOTING

● LAPTOP KEYBOARD REPLACEMENT

● PART UPGRADES

● OS REINSTALLS

● REMOTE MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT LEVERAGING THE GFI MAX REMOTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR ALL CLIENTS.

● VIRUS/MALWARE CLEANUPS

EDUCATION

OAKTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

(1 YEARS - EMPHASIS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE)

ONGOING DEVELOPMENT

● CISCO CERTIFIED NETWORK ASSOCIATE AND MICROSOFT CERTIFIED SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR - VIA SELF PACED STUDY.

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