JAMES C. SHERER

Lake Zurich, IL *****

224-***-****

adb2yq@r.postjobfree.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimsherer

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

A seasoned dynamic Corporate Executive within the operations and information technology arena. Technological leader seeking innovative ways of providing operations support to a variety of stakeholders at all organizational business levels. Imaginative thinker having the ability to plan strategic and tactical directions in accordance with business, product or customer need. Effective communicator with the unique ability to articulate messages to all levels of an organization or directly with a customer.

With successful integrations of new technologies for efficiency or automation, development of new operation strategies, business transformation initiatives and improvement of overall systematic processes that shape a World Class organization. A focus on solutions that add value, support a value proposition and deliver measurable business-oriented goals that are barometers for success. Key leadership role in the development organizational strategies with the ability to build dynamic collaborative teams for a high-performance organization with a relentless focus on improving the existing operation, building for the future and enhancing the customer experience through success management.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Customer Focused Call Center/Help Desk Management

Technology Architecture, Design & Integration

Cyber Security/Privacy Best Practices

Hosting Center/Co-Lo Business Transformation

Crisis & Situational Escalation Management

Cross Organizational Relationship Management

Business Effectiveness and Productivity Efficiencies

LEAN Business Methodologies/Best Practices

BC/DR/Risk Assessment and Analysis

Process Automation & Business Integration

Omnichannel Customer Experience Unification

Strategic & Tactical Planning

Change Management & Agility

Program & Project Management

Customer Experience (CX) Transformation

Operations Management

Process Adaptation/Automation

Business Assessment & Analysis

Global Business Services (GBS)

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Incorporation

Knowledge-Centered Services (KCS)

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2015 – 2019

VP of Support Services

Cengage

Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. We create learning experiences that build confidence and momentum toward the future students want. Confident students are successful learners, so we design tools that keep them moving toward their goals.

Responsible for overseeing and coordinating operations efforts across the Support Services organization including resource planning, strategic vision, call center retrofit, human resources, service experience and customer success management

Developed operational leadership teams to engage and interact with day to day operations to effort new thought process for providing services, training, workforce management and staff augmentation

Led the Technical Support organization of approximately 80 associates in providing outstanding post access product support and service to our customers in all EdTech markets.

Assumed leadership for the administration of an additional 200 individuals across the US providing all levels of Customer support for a variety of student, instructor, institutional and career educational services in support of digitally delivered platforms, applications and educational resources

Collaboratively worked with cross functional teams to automate tools for improved customer experience, implementing new operations services tied to business metrics and employed solutions providing proactive and predicative support services to customers significantly reducing resolution times

Management of B2C/B2B/B2E transactional operation for distribution of products and services globally utilizing a variety of platforms for delivery, fulfillment and support of customer

Partner with industry leading technology solution providers for seamless integration of tools to customer facing solutions that directly impacted customer support and service experience such as:

oExecutive sponsor for full implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud as a case management replacement, integrated LiveAgent chat environment and internal system integration for seamless agent information flow into a “single pane of glass” interface containing all customer information

oDeployed Intelligent Voice Recognition (IVR) platform to handle customer call routing and perform call avoidance. Currently the system is avoiding more that 15% of our daily total call volume

oIntegrated BOT and AI technologies into call centers, case management systems and Service Bridge, which is a service experience environment tailored to the needs of the customers Executive stakeholder for team that architected, designed and implemented a knowledge portal and web-based customer interaction platform that utilizes existing information to expose problem management tactics and call avoidance techniques

oArchitectural design of Customer Interaction Model to allow the customer to select their preferred method of interaction, not forcing them into our model for support services

Developed standard operating procedures and departmental processes to ensure standardization, consistency and repeatability of support operations

Implemented a culture that utilizes Personal Emotional Connections (PECs) and Emotional Hot Points (EHPs) that drive improved customer experiences through meaningful interactions developing an endearing customer support strategy

Management of 250 resources utilizing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to provided core support services year-round as well as seasonal staffing for peak utilization periods

2013 – 2015

VP of Customer Success

Cleversafe

Cleversafe solves today’s growing big data storage problem. Cleversafe delivers limitless object storage. Leveraging information dispersal technology, Cleversafe has created a dispersed storage solution that gets better as it gets bigger.

Responsible for overseeing and coordinating security efforts across the company as it relates to the product and customer interface including departments such as information technology, operations, human resources, legal, finance management and sales

Direct management of more than 75 individuals globally in four different countries providing all levels of customer support, sparing logistics, installation and training services to customers for deployed dispersed object storage solutions

Performed pre-sales engineering, solution design tailored for customer business need and post sales customer success of object data storage environments in local and geo dispersed configurations

Partner with industry leading technology solution providers for seamless product integration and support of unique storage solutions such as filers, gateways and cache appliances

Full engagement in the deployment and integration of technologies into customer data center or hosting environments with full change management

Collaboratively worked with teams to automate tools, implement service monitoring and deploy phone home services from storage solutions providing proactive and predicative support services to customers significantly reducing action/issue resolution times

Developed standard operating procedures and departmental processes to ensure standardization, consistency and repeatability of support operations

Architected, designed and implemented a hosted service move of colocation service providers including floor design, planning, network services, procurement, contract negotiations and vendor management

US Patent holder for dispersed object storage and task processing unit that delivers high availability in a geocentric deployment maintaining data read and write integrity

2011 – 2013

VP of Information Technology and Product Support Operations

Firstlook and MAX Systems

Firstlook and MAX Systems produces disruptive innovations that are transforming traditional businesses. It starts with a vision—a break away vision for a deep-rooted problem. From there, we reimagine and reengineer conventional business practices creating groundbreaking new products.

Accountable for the development of strategic security policy, technology plans and investments in Information Security Technology

Responsible for the overall direction and management of more than 60 Product Support Specialists, IT Professionals and Database Engineers delivering quality products, people and processes to end users

Integral executive leadership role within a growing startup type environment providing world class helpdesk support, data center management, system implementation and integration

Advisor to the executive leadership team by recommending and prioritizing security investments and projects that mitigate overall risks, strengthen defenses and reduce vulnerabilities for development and internal and client facing systems

Created enhanced Key Performance Indicator (KPI) measurements to report critical business indicators focussed at how well customers were being supported and cared for

Development, Implementation and Maintenance of a company-wide information security infrastructure to ensure best practice control objectives are achieved for system integrity, availability, confidentiality, and information security.

Partnered with sales organization during customer solution design to clearly articulate support expectations and services

Managed the SaaS hosted product to include all virtual and physical environments, cage space, database operations, network services and enterprise storage components

2009 – 2011

VP of Customer Support

HUB International Limited

HUB International Limited is a leading North American insurance brokerage that provides a broad array of property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, reinsurance, investment and risk management products and services throughout offices located in the United States and Canada.

An integral strategic leadership role as part of the transitional direction to move the organization into a Shared Services and Support model

Performed an overall companywide security assessment at the information technology, network, operating system, application, database and physical levels to identify risks and vulnerabilities

Responsibility for developing, leading and motivating a team of 75 Help Desk professionals to deliver excellent technical/non-technical support with outstanding customer service and satisfaction

Developed a high performing security team by providing strategic leadership and vision, and professional development of technical and business management staff Create and implement the Cyber Security strategic roadmap ensuring that it is strategically aligned to mitigate current and future security risks

Frequent contact with customers, business leaders, executive management, sales teams, direct reports, peers and independent vendors in support of the overall strategic vision, company mission, and service direction

Lead Cyber Security strategic and operational planning efforts and ensure full integration into multi-year financial planning, IT strategic planning and regional planning efforts

Key contributor to reducing internal competition, restructuring team interactions, increased relationship building and cross organizational development of high-performance teams

Developed and instituted a change management and control process to support consistency, quality and accountability of IT environment changes in accordance with ITIL best practices

Established a new standard set of business metrics and measures in order to accurately manage expectations of the support organization utilizing industry standard ACD metrics, incident closure rates, performance analysis, customer survey scores and quality review processes

Key contributor to the design and implementation of datacenter services that were key to the deployment of the shared services model which included network, Citrix farm and core applications to support business

2005 – 2009

VP of Technical Support

CCC Information Services

CCC assists companies to improve claims management processes through better decision-making. Maintaining a singular focus on integrated claims management and providing industry-leading software solutions, analytical tools and comprehensive data do this. The technology-based solutions optimize efficiency throughout the claim’s management supply chain, facilitating communication among approximately 21,000 auto body collision repair facilities and 350 insurance companies.

Directed a technical support organization responsible for troubleshooting Enterprise class proprietary software applications, customer desktop issues, customer satisfaction and product deployment

Directing and overseeing security programs that promote a process orientation and foster a culture of continuous process improvement and optimization of security, including gap analysis, process reengineering and monitoring of action plans

Responsible for all personnel, operations and administrative management functions for over 450 company associates within Technical Support, Communications Services and Production Integration

Operational leader responsible for sponsorship of key business initiatives that were focused on the delivery of high quality products for the customer base and aligned existing practices to support consistent lifecycle management process, establishing a new value proposition for customer interactions and direct client sales team interactions to present product or service value

Developed goal-oriented performance objectives as a new baseline standard of measurement for the entire support organization utilizing industry standard ACD metrics, incident closure rates, performance analysis, customer survey scores and quality review processes

Delivery, business case development and conceptual use of InQuira Knowledge Management System integrated with internal systems and the customer portal saving CCC over $1,000,000 annually by providing alternative channels for support services, avoiding direct calls and improving the customer experience

Answerable to business for product quality assurance processes and customer centric feedback mechanisms for Enterprise customers such as Allstate, State Farm and USAA to name a few

1994 –2005

VP of Technical Operations and Services

ADP Dealer Services

ADP Dealer Services provides integrated computing solutions to nearly 25,500 auto, truck, motorcycle, marine and recreational vehicle dealers throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, China, Europe and the Middle East. They are the second largest business unit of Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

Promoted to build and directed a specialized team of more than 150 personnel, managing customer expectations, interacting with new opportunities, developing relationships with customers, introducing new technology, system/network administration, establishing security parameters and implementing customer centric business processes that established the highest customer satisfaction scores to date

Put into operation a managed services product for proactive monitoring and predictive analysis of system infrastructures in less than 3 months to ensure reliability, availability, and dependency of technical environment which is in support of direct service level agreements

Designed Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) environments for local and remote storage of customer data, document archiving and scanning solutions

Created and implemented an automated central backup utility for client hosting facilities that utilizes networked archive software, redundant cluster server architectures, storage arrays and custom developed applications to perform system functions with a resource savings of ~ $480,000 annually

Achieved SAS 70 Level II auditing certification for all hosting center environments

Improved the hosting services P&L business for introduction into mainstream delivery with 300% growth now generating $32,000,000 per year in reoccurring revenue

1991 to 1994

Director of Information Technology and Services

ADP Dealer Services

Director of a tier three technical organization consisting of more than 500 people responsible for troubleshooting customer issues, product development, integration services, custom consulting, managed and hosted services for more than 45,000 customers

Responsible for all personnel and administrative management functions within the organizations of ASP, Network and Client Server Operations nationwide

Develop and manage an expense budget of approximately $5,000,000 annually, including capital appropriation expenditures and the creation of business case justifications to support targeted objectives

Maintain Network Operations support of approximately 6014 routers, 6822 switches and 2351 firewalls with an annual sales number of $9,600,000 supporting a reoccurring maintenance of $1,260,000 annually

Designed system architectures for hosted LINUX servers utilizing a third-party package to support 41 concurrent virtual systems on a single hardware platform

1986 –2006

Aircraft Armament Systems Specialist

US Air Force

Retired Wisconsin Air National Guard, Madison, WI

2017 – Present

Executive Board of Directors

Lake Zurich Lacrosse Club, NFP

Lake Zurich, IL

TECHNOLOGY

Operating Systems/Software

Vendors

Products/Services/Technologies

Windows Server

Windows Desktop

Linux

MS IIS

Active Directory

Clarify

AS400

Citrix

Exchange/OCS

Oracle

OSx/MAC

Oracle/SAP

Microsoft Office

Oracle

Apple

Avaya

Microsoft

Verizon/MCI

AT&T

Vertafore

Bomgar

VMWare

VoxGen

BlackBoard

Salesforce.com

Directly

SaaS Platforms

Service/Sales/Marketing Cloud

SAS 70 Level II

High Availability

Data Warehousing

Hosting Services

Self-Support Portal

Remote Desktop Solutions

Virtualization

Object/Big Data Storage

AGILE/SCRUM

Knowledge Management

Intrusion Detection

Network Redundancy

Learning Management

Broadband Technology

ACD/IVR/CTI

Self Service Portal

Call Center/Helpdesk Tools

Cloud Services

SOA/SOAP/REST API

EDUCATION

Concord Career Technical Institute, Portland, OR – BS Computer Science

ADP University, Portland, OR – MBA

ACHIEVEMENTS & CERTIFICATIONS

GCTC - Change Leadership and Emotional Intelligence Series – 2019

Northwestern University Growth and Leadership Series - 2019

UC Berkeley – Accelerating Change Readiness and Agility – 2018

ITIL v3 Certified – 2010

Project Management Program - 2009

LEAN Enterprise Institute Manage to Learn – 2008

Managing Knowledge & Content with InQuira – 2007

Member of the Consortium of Service Innovations – 2007

Northwestern University Leadership and Management Courses - 2004

Situational Leadership I & II – 2003

Steven Covey - Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – 2000

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