Project Manager Management

GARY MERLONGHI

SUMMARY: Proven Senior Program / Project Manager with extensive experience in Fortune 500 companies managing support and delivering large scale enterprise-wide support and IS implementations, rollouts, transitions and upgrades with a strong focus on Change Management and the Change Management processes from adaptation to adoption.

Served as Program / Project Manager on 10+ large scale SAP implementations ranging from “Big Bang” to phased implementations.

Served as Project Manager on multiple support projects in moving to managed services support model

Excellent communicator at both the project and executive stakeholder level. Well versed in Microsoft Project, project tracking and delivery of projects on-time and on-budget.

Trusted advisor to Senior Client Leaders on selling and positioning through program planning and scheduling, program risk assessment and mitigation strategies to insure quality and on-time and on-budget program delivery and support

KEY SKILLS:

Problem Solving – able to identify and resolve problems in a timely manner; Gathering and analyzing information skillfully and succinctly.

Project Management – Extensive track record with Coordination of projects; Communication of changes and progress with a wide stakeholder audience

Technical Skills – Hands on approach that works towards continuously building knowledge and skillset.

Customer Service – Deftly rto requests for service and assistance; Consistently meets commitments.

Interpersonal Skills - Maintains confidentiality and professionalism.

Judgment – Displays a willingness to make decisions; Known for making timely and informed decisions.

Motivation - Measures self against standard of excellence and sets out as a role model for others.

Planning/Organizing – Efficiently sets goals and objectives.

Professionalism - Approaches others in a tactful and caring manner; Reacts well under pressure; Treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their role or position; Accepts responsibility for own personal actions; Follows through on commitments on a consistent manner.

Innovation - Generates suggestions and ideas for improving work and work towards implementing in a continual improvement basis.

Outstanding track record for delivery excellence on key multi-billion dollar Life Science accounts

Expert in project analysis, scoping, planning, scheduling, testing, change management, risk management, resource management, and financial management

Proven track record in handling Client Relationship Management at all levels of organization. Able to position offering through sales and mobilize resources to work together towards the common goal particularly in a Managed Services Model.

Experienced in Organizational Change Management

Experienced Project Manager Order to Cash, Requisition to Payment and all Supply Chain processes in a regulated environment

Extensive experience managing GxP-related application implementations

oImplementations centered on extensive Computer System Validation and stringent quality requirements in an FDA regulated environment throughout the Software Development Lifecycle

oFully integrated SOPs with validated testing results

Thorough adherence to Software Development Life Cycle via Installation Qualification, (IQ), Operational Qualification, (OQ) and Performance Qualification, (PQ)

EXEMPLARY DUTIES & RESPONSIBLITIES PERFORMED:

Demonstrates complex business acumen through analysis of needs presented by the user community and/or clients and recommends technical solutions.

Supported existing applications by creating, maintaining, and enforcing standards/procedures for implementing technical solutions.

Produced detailed timeline for planned application releases- demonstrating effective project control by monitoring the progress of the software release and reporting the status on a timely basis

Directs and prioritizes the work load of subordinate personnel and helps to eliminate bottlenecks.

Reviews design artifacts, code and unit test plans in a timely manner – applying “best practices” and “lessons learned” where applicable.

Ensures a thorough approval process is maintained surrounding business requirements prior to the technical solution.

Participates in hardware and software evaluations and maintains vendor contracts.

Represents the IT function at customer review meeting when appropriate.

Manage the deployment, monitoring, maintenance, development, upgrade, and support of all IT systems, including servers, PCs, operating systems, telephones, software applications, and peripherals.

Provide expertise and support during systems upgrades, installations, and conversions and file maintenance.

Oversee systems development and enhancement and the integration of new systems with existing systems leveraging extensive “lessons learned”.

Communicates regularly with executive management and all users of information services and systems.

Develops standard operating procedures and best practices, including providing written protocols and guidance to IT staff and to end-users.

Ensure the creation and maintenance of all written documentation, including system and user manuals, license agreements, and documentation of modifications and upgrades and storage in appropriate repositories.

Oversees the provision of end-user services, including help desk and technical support services.

Leverages extensive experience and future trends - Keeping current with the latest technologies and determine what new technology solutions and implementations will meet business and system requirements.

Able to manage financial aspects of the IT Division, including purchasing, budgeting, and budget review.

Responsible for the development and implementation of all IT policies and procedures, including those for architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing, and service provision.

Able to oversee and manage servers, security solutions, network hardware and equipment.

Able to manage telecommunications infrastructure and development plans, projects, policies and procedures.

Able to negotiate and administer vendor, outsourcer, and consultant contracts and service agreements as it relates to IT spend.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:

Process Industry / Life Sciences / Pharmaceuticals

Process / Chemical and Specialty Chemicals

High-Tech

Consumer Goods / Retail

Entertainment Industry

EXPERIENCE: COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS 3/2010 – Present

Industry: Entertainment Company that produces film, television and music entertainment. As one of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California SAP Version: SAP R/3 ECC6.0, SAP SRM vs. 7.03

Duration: 01/15 – Current

Role: Associate Director/ Program Manager

Responsible for managing implementation of upgrade from SAP SRM 4.0 to SAP SRM 7.03 for the Warner Brothers Company along with integration with IBX Catalogue Management Software and fully integrated through entire supply chain and Finance and SAP HR.

Industry: Biopharmaceuticals

Client: ENDO PHARMACEUTICALS, a $3.5B Life manufacturer and distributor of generic drugs and over-the-counter products (tablets, capsules, liquids, suspensions, creams and ointments) and diversified supplier of medical devices and procedures for pelvic health.

SAP Version: SAP R/3 ECC6.0, Atronix

Duration: 01/14 – 12/14

Role: Associate Director/ Program Manager

Responsible for managing implementation of warehouse-enhanced functionality for the Liquids Division fully integrated through entire supply chain and Finance.

Industry: Biopharmaceuticals

Client: MERCK, Global health care company headquartered in New Jersey. It is the second largest global healthcare company in the world with worldwide sales of $46.0 billion in fiscal year 2010. Merck operates in the Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, Consumer Care and Alliances segments.

SAP Version: SAP R/3 4.7

Duration: 3/10 – 12/13

Role: Associate Director/ Program Manager

Responsible for managing and delivering 4 major SAP initiatives throughout entire project lifecycle in Regulated Environment employing strict adherence to rigorous GxP validation requirements along with the SAP Support of the Schering Plough acquisition.

Highlights include:

Managed and delivered on-time and on-budget a Fixed Price $1.7 million SAP WM project. This project replaced dated legacy inventory management system with SAP Warehouse Management Module offering integrated RF technologies across the Managed Care Distribution Center.

oProject was showcased in 2012 ASUG regional conferences by Client

Managed and delivered $1.5 million integration of the Quality Management Integration System and harmonization / integration with the Global Client Footprint. The team is co-located in the US and India.

Managed and delivered $1.2 million retirement of one of the enterprise solutions and integration into the Global Client Footprint.

Managed and delivered $700k ticket reduction project.

Managed and delivered 3 year $3.8 million dollar support project for integration of Schering Plough into Merck

Paving the way in an integrated fashion and responsible for the harmonization / integration of the enterprise in a consistent framework under a single harmonized client instance global strategy.

Taught Program Management fundamentals across Cognizant Enterprise for resources learning the fundamentals of Project Management, leveraging extensive SAP Program Management experience.

Performed as an overall Cognizant lead in the delivery of worldwide Merck multi-year support project and managed transition to managed service with staff of 70+ resources across multiple regions. Support contract is over $7 million per year. Responsible for management of resources, staffing, year-end appraisal process, development of all value propositions, task orders, purchase orders as well as overseeing the budgeting, invoicing and customer payment process.

Managed and delivered $700k Strategic Ticket Reduction Program. Results include decrease in tickets from 4,300 per month to 3,300 per month over 4 month period. Additionally, responsible for average time to resolve ticket reduction in top 4 functional technical areas by 10% to date with goal of reduction of time savings of 20%. Additionally, responsible for defining and implementing lessons learned surrounding upcoming major releases in order to reduce overall tickets generated during hypercare and after. Project has been so successful that Gary has been asked to leverage key learnings in rolling out key learnings, targeted areas, method of measurement, methodology to obtain buy-in across the enterprise and geographies.

INFOSYS TECHNOLOGY LLC 2/2007 – 2/2010

Industry: Biopharmaceuticals

Client: ASTRAZENECA is a global, innovation-driven, integrated Biopharmaceutical company. Customer is responsible for discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing prescription medicines for six important areas of healthcare, including some of the world’s most serious illnesses: cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, and respiratory and inflammation. Company employs over 62,000 people (47% in Europe, 31% in the Americas and 22% in Asia, Africa and Australasia).

SAP Version: ECC 6.0

Representative Role: Engagement Lead / Program Transition Lead

Responsibilities:

Project Manager responsible for delivery of $10 million per annum managed services support contract

Trusted advisor to Executive Sponsors and Program Leaders for SAP transition and implementation

Provided support and direction on program leadership, project planning, program structure and governance, organizational change management, and technical and functional leadership

Directed the extended project team, including offshore and onshore delivery, through Project Initiation, Transition Planning, Secondary Support, Primary Support and Steady State through multi-phased transition from one Strategic Vendor to another

Focused on Order to Cash, Supply Chain, Procure to Pay, Financial processes including: FI/CO, SD, PP-PI, MM, PM, WM, QM, BI with major interfaces inclduing Vertex integration between FI and SD and LIMS

Achievements:

Established project management methodology and best practices consistent across all projects within the overall SAP transition program

Introduced and conducted training to business leaders, project managers, and team leads on overall transition processes, communication strategies and tactics

Guided enterprise and business leaders on development of a global template that created common business processes / planning across all phases of project

Created governance structure that increased focus on results and expedited decision making

Industry: Specialty Chemical

Client: CRISTAL is the world’s second largest producer of titanium dioxide and leading manufacturer of ultrafine titanium products with nearly 4,000 employees on five continents.

SAP Version: ECC 5.0

Representative Role: Engagement Manager / Project Manager

Responsibilities:

Managed and delivered a $3 million Functional Upgrade of Customer from SAP R/3 from 4.0B to ECC6.0, upgrade of HR from 4.6.C to ECC6.0, Upgrade of BI from 2.1C to BI 7.0.

Trusted advisor to Senior Executives and Program Leaders, during project escalation

Resourced, on-boarded, and managed team of onsite and offshore SAP functional and technical consultants and client SAP analysts

Coordinated identification of root cause system issues and resolution recommendations

Overall Team setup, onboarding and deployment

Development and ongoing maintenance of the detail project plan

Overall Planning and Guidance of Project Preparation Phase, Blueprint phase, Realization Phase, and Go-live Phase

Advised leaders on program management best practices and organizational changes required throughout the project lifecycle

Project Scope Enterprise R/3 includes: FI/CO, AM, SD, PP-PI, MM, PM, PS, WM, QM

Project Scope HR includes:

oPersonnel Administration, Organization Management, Personnel Development (Appraisals and Qualifications), Time Management, Payroll – US, Australia, France, Compensation Management, Base Benefits (for US)

Project Scope BI includes:

oBW2.1c Queries, Query Views and Workbooks would be migrated to NetWeaver 2004s

oUnicode compliance is mandatory for working of workbooks in SAP BI 7.0, Event driven process configured as Process Chains

Major Interfaces including:

oTaxware integration with FI, Faxcore integration with SD, Data Integrator Integration with WM, Upgrade of Kronos time reporting integration with HR

Conducted Initial Project Kickoff Meeting, weekly plan updates and reviews, Steering Committee Meetings and ongoing project-related meetings, as needed.

Developed overall project plan with Solution approach, Scope, Schedule, Quality assurance, Organization, Risk, Resource planning.

Managed the Blueprint phase including the following: 1) Introduce the proposed solution (SAP) to Business representatives, 2) Helped facilitate Gap-Analysis workshops to define business processes and Identify system requirements. 3) Review and approval of Blueprint documents. 4) Analysis, Review and Approval of Gaps and finalize solution for realization

Organized workshops for business process harmonization. Defining the system changes and corresponding to-be process

Guiding the business representatives for managing and ensuring business change due to Integration of Processes and Master data definition

Overall management of functional and technical teams across all processes employed

Overall coordination with technical and functional representative of unit and integration and user acceptance testing

Overall Data Migration Activities

Facilitated the overall test plan for “train the trainers” and help to ensure user training and conducting User Acceptance testing sign-off and approval

Achievements:

Project was completed on-time and on-budget

Presented recommendations on organizational structure changes and program management best practices to mitigate risks and address gaps

Tracked and reported program status to Client Senior Leadership, and identified key areas of risk and provided risk mitigation recommendations

Industry: Science / Specialty Chemical

Client: DUPONT puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.

Role: Engagement Manager

Responsibilities:

Manage overall Executive and team-level stakeholder management of multiple projects executing simultaneously across the enterprise

Responsible for $4 million in revenue

Periodic review with Customer and strategic vendors on support and project-related activities

Propose, deploy and manage pro-active system changes to improve functionality and efficiency of the system

Working with third party vendors for integration of new version of strategic systems designed to manage Sales Compensation across the enterprise

SLA tracking and reporting

Achievements:

Engagement was the recipient of prestigious Quality Award for outstanding customer service delivered to strategic client

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT 6/03 – 1/07

Industry: Automotive / Flooring and Cabinet Manufacturer

Client: ARMSTRONG

Duration: 6/03 – 1/07

Role: Project Manager

Responsibilities:

Project Manager for rollout of Friedman Frontier Cabinet Software for a $250M company. Responsible for the overall design, implementation and deployment of Frontier ERP version 2.1

Spearheaded the implementation of overall quality vehicle inspection program within Daimler Chrysler North America, for the launch of new Dodge Durango model for 2004. The Durango for 2004 was named by Motorweek as one of the top 10 vehicles for 2004 Model year. This marks the first Motorweek award of this magnitude for the Durango. Developed and institutionalized multi-faceted rigorous quality inspection process consistent with quality targets set by J.D. Powers

Gartner Consulting – Vice President

Industry: Pharmaceuticals / Life Science

Duration: 1/02 – 5/03

Role: Client Executive

Responsibilities:

Developed two new consulting offerings, (ERP Quality Assurance, CRM Advisory offering)

Developed a world-wide virtual SAP Competency Center to handle specific SAP-related issues and inquiries

Monitored progress of SAP R/3 initiatives on an ongoing basis

Managed 10 accounts with $100,000+ in revenue

Spearheaded Life Sciences / Pharmaceuticals vertical in 2003

PRICEWATERHOUSE COOPERS 10/99 – 12/01

Industry: Pharmaceuticals / Life Science and High-Tech

Client: JOHNSON & JOHNSON

Duration: 10/99 – 12/01

Role: Partner

Responsibilities:

Spearheaded $1 million in new revenue for 1st quarter 2001 involving the development and deployment of SAP R/3 for organizations moving towards Lean Manufacturing

Developed overall business process model, software evaluation and selection process with unique Supply Chain model with unique manufacturing and inventory management requirements in preparation for ERP implementation for High-Tech startup in 2000

Spearheaded development of SAP Competency Center of resources / expertise world-wide

Developed advanced eBusiness ERP model for large multi-billion dollar Pharmaceutical Giant intended for innovative spin-off entity

ANDERSEN CONSULTING, now ACCENTURE 11/94-9/99

Industry: Pharmaceuticals / Specialty Chemical

Client: BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB

Duration: 11/94 – 9/99

Role: Associate Partner

Managed / delivered global SAP R/3 implementation for two divisions of large multi-billion dollar Pharma / Specialty Chemical Manufacturer for all of North America 1997-1999. Modules consisted of MM, PP, FI, CO, WM, SD and radio frequency barcoding. Project team size ranged from 25 to 100 team members with revenue of $10 million

Developed strategies and procedures for the efficient implementation of the R/3 in North America with global impact.. Maintained outstanding communications, ensuring Executive Steering Committee was apprised of the progress and issues requiring prompt escalation / resolution

Developed and maintained the project plan and budget in Microsoft Project; Developed and managed project scope and schedules in accordance with approved plans

Conduct formal reviews at the completion of each phase; oversight of formal sign-off by Executive Sponsors representing their area of responsibility. Ensured the quick resolution of issues, escalating issues in a timely manner, when appropriate; communicated progress to executive leadership. Maintained oversight responsibility for ongoing multi-medium project communications with the entire enterprise along with vendors and customers. Responsible for overseeing end-user training program, post cutover help desk design, deployment and problem resolution processes along with the assimilation of new roles and responsibilities by the client organization.

The SAP R/3 implementation success led to the completion of a 5 year $30 million applications support outsourcing arrangement for SAP R/3 FI, CO, MM, PP, WM, SD as key member of pursuit / transition team for 2000/ 2001

Served as overall Project Manager for complex SAP R/3 project for large Specialty Jewelry Manufacturer. SAP modules implemented were FI, CO, SD, MM, PP, WM.

Engagement team was the recipient of Andersen Consulting Northeast Creativity Award to Andersen Delivery Team for 1996.

EDUCATION:

Bachelor of Science - University of Delaware, Newark, DE

MED – University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Recently completed Program Management Program from Stanford University surrounding Executing Complex Programs

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