Project Manager

Mary Kathryn Shouse, PMP

*** ******** ****** * *********, IA 52761n 563-***-**** n **********@*****.***

Professional Profile

I am a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with experience in both traditional and agile project management methodologies. I excel in effectively leading and directing system migration/integration projects with an emphasis on Accounts Receivable and Payment Processing Operations. I also have experience in managing other types of initiatives such as: rebranding, credit card payment interfaces, lockbox interfaces, AR sub-ledgers; as well as refund and transfer applications. I offer more than 15 years of experience and repeated success in interacting between business, operations and technical areas to achieve on-time, on-budget and on-spec project implementations. I am able to combine customer and user needs with business requirements, budgetary restrictions and logistical considerations to meet project deliverables.

Professional Experience

VERIZON SERVICES/MCI COMMUNICATIONS (1988 – 2015)

Program/Project Management, Finance Operations (2004 to 2015)

Managed, tested, and successfully implemented multiple Billing Transformation projects from an Accounts Receivable and Payment Processing Operations perspective. The projects, which shifted more than 115,000 customer accounts and $785M in revenue from legacy system to strategic billing and receivables systems, resulted in annual saving in excess of $3M.

Gathered and drove requirements to met business objectives while tracking progress to ensure project milestones were completed on time, on budget and with desired results.

Maintained project schedules, issue/action item logs, meeting summaries and status reports to ensure effective, ongoing communications across all stakeholders.

Collaborated with Project, Product and Program Managers to ensure project deliverables remain on track and aligned with business goals and expectations.

Resolved project issues such as resource availability, strategic matters, scope deviation, conflicting business and user needs.

Fostered open lines of communication between groups within and outside the organization.

Represented Verizon Business AR Operations by identifying, and working to retain business accounts imbedded in the 4.8M residential customer account base sold to another telecommunication company. The overall sale resulted in $8.6B in value to stockholders, as well as $250M in reduction in debt for Verizon.

Worked closely with IT, Operations, and Finance to identify the customers, establish new accounts in supporting systems.

Communicated new account number and billing formats to customers

Migrated existing AR to the new system.

Acted as a Subject Matter Expert in an initiative to develop a comprehensive billing/revenue system solution to support Verizon’s $34M contract with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Worked with other organizations; such as Marketing, Bill to Cash Operations, Customer Care, Accounting, Legal and IT to ensure the solution aligned with the Finance organization’s goals and objectives.

Collaborated with Business Process Owners to develop a manual solution while IT was designing and developing an automated long-term solution.

Managed the effort to transition from the manual solution to the long-term solution with the goal of making the transition as transparent to the customer as possible.

Mary Kathryn Shouse, Page Two

Participated in multiple initiatives to replace or change existing branding for both MCI and Verizon. Successful rebranding initiatives positively impact revenue, increased customer and employee satisfaction, and overall company value.

Worked with all lines of business to identify where branding exists and determine how to replace it with the new brand.

Communicated the rebranding to customers and employees.

Coordinated and prioritized each rebranding instance. Customer facing applications and documentation took precedence over internal only applications and documentation.

Thoroughly tested to ensure rebranding results met expectations prior to implementation.

Established multiple credit card payment interfaces by acting as a liaison between Bank Card Acquiring bank, internal IT developers and Operations. These interfaces allow customers to make one-time or recurring credit card payments either on-line or over the phone accounting for 35% of revenue.

Performed multiple test cases, provided results, and solicited approval of all functionality developed.

Verified sensitive data was secured in accordance with Payment Card Industry standards.

Ensured payment terms and options are available and clearing communicated on ecommerce sites and paper documents.

Confirmed all reporting was provided by bank and available to operations for reconciliation purposes.

Established a bank account and lockbox interface in Canada to support paper and electronic payments. These payments account for more than $3M of monthly revenue.

Created a Statement of Work providing requirement to IT to establish a new interface and bank accounts to support payments in both Canadian and US dollars.

Gathered and drove operational requirements with banking institution and IT developers.

Facilitated meetings with bank, IT and operations and reported progress to management.

Coordinated testing and acquired approval of work completed.

Worked with Legal and Billing to properly communicated remittance changes to customers.

Additional Work History

Supervisor/Project Lead, Bank Card Operations, 2000 to 2004

Analyst/Project Lead, LEC Billing and Collections, 1998 to 2000

Analyst/Project Lead, Credit Management, 1996 to 1998

Analyst/Internal Audits, Accounts Receivable, 1993 to 1996

Representative/Supervisor, Customer Service, 1988 to 1993

Education / Professional Courses and Credentials

AA in Accounting, University of Phoenix (Des Moines, IA), 2011

PMI-Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), 2013

Essentials of Project Management, Villanova University, 2013

Mastering Project Management, Villanova University, 2013

Agile Project Management Practices and Techniques, Skillsoft On-line Courses, 2014

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