Independent Consultant Implementation Specialist
Resume:
Principal SAS® *.* & Viya Cloud Systems Engineer
(Windows & Linux)
Renée A. La Forest
*****.********@************************.***
www.linkedin.com/in/reneelaforest
Job History
Independent Consultant February 2021 - Current
Avalon Technical Solutions, Inc
Independently and in collaboration with:
SAS® Alliance Partners
SAS® Implementation Specialist for 15+ years with a development background and focus since 2007 centered on architectural assessments, implementations and administration in the SAS® Risk, Fraud and BI (Business Intelligence) Products. Training comes directly from the SAS® Institute both as an employee and as a prior SAS® Alliance Partner.
Implementation Services:
Possible solutions may include but are not limited to SAS® 9.4 or Viya 3.5 pre-installation requirements, software upgrade plans and migration to current releases. Interfacing with the Client’s integral desktop and server infrastructure teams, validation UAT players, and storage/archive groups is the goal for optimal client interaction and successful implementation.
Experienced with Windows Server and Linux (thru RHEL Ootpa) Server environments, using one and often both to implement and configure reporting and analytics tools, BI services used with java applications, middle tier, and web/client-side applications. PostgreSQL, ODBC, SQL, MySQL, Oracle, and SAS® datasets, are just a few of the data sources used with these products and identification/resolution of connection and performance issues during implementation is included.
Administration Services:
Ongoing administrative support is made available and provided by assisting the client IT teams in understanding system usage and upkeep, as well as planning for future upgrades using a proactive over reactive approach. Regular interaction with users assists with report writing tools and use, data source connection, usage and interfacing with the vendor to troubleshooting unexpected issues.
While most client contracts begin with architectural assessment and implementation at the client on-site, most elect to continue services post-install with continuing administration contracts arranged as a telecommuter with a max of 25% travel for major maintenance patches SAS® Administration is provided in versions 9.2, 9.3 and 9.4 thru M7 (GRID in 9.3 and 9.4).
Now working on direct SAS® Implementations with a focus on Flash/Flex Upgrades-in-Place, Promotion and Migration for customers who did not make the change before Adobe Flash/Flex end of life on 12/31/2020 Currently working with D4t4 & Celebrus.
Principal Systems Developer (SAS® Implementation in AWS/Azure) 2016-2021
Team Lead, MAS Hosted Environments Promotion Initiative (de-Flash)
SAS® Institute, Inc (Remote and Apex, NC)
Analyzed, acquired, installed, modified, configured, and administered SAS 9.3-9.4M7 and Viya 3.4-3.5 on Windows and Linux (RHEL) operating systems in the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Cloud and Azure Clouds.
Provided software support for assigned products, including installation, maintenance, documentation, customization, and utilization of product features.
Consulted with customers, internal business partners, users and system administrators pertaining to system design, programming, and administration issues.
Wrote and/or modified system software routines and programs.
Diagnosed and resolved user and operational problems with software.
Prepared and conducted system and programming tests requiring interfacing of hardware and software.
Developed and reviewed operator and control instructions.
Modified, maintained and updated software, such as compilers, link editors, assemblers, macros and subroutines.
Engineered, architected, and configured operating systems and complex system software.
Served as department/division expert in various areas of technical knowledge.
Evaluated software and hardware systems and offered recommendations to management on the applicability of these systems.
Worked on significant and unique issues where analysis of situations or data required an evaluation of intangibles
Exercised independent judgment in methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining results.
Created formal networks involving coordination among groups
Acted independently to determine methods and procedures on new or special assignments.
Last major Project:
Worked as Team Lead of four to UIP/Promote/Migrate sixty-four customer environments prior to the end of life for Adobe Flash/Flex, including a project directly assigned and solely successful for migrating a major bank in the U.K.’s Production environment of a SAS® Risk Governance Framework with Model Risk Management from SAS 9.4 with Adobe to the 9.4M5 HTML5 version using the SMU tools All work was completed in AWS or Azure.
Independent Consultant 2012-2016
Avalon Technical Solutions, Inc (Fishers, IN)
Collaborating with:
SAS® and SAS® Alliance Partners
Contracts included:
SAS® Architect/Implementation Specialist
CloudOne 2016
Engaged to as a SME by this company to guide in a migration from an AWS SAS® Visual Analytics a new Cloud Solution featuring SAS® Distributed VA, Sentiment Analysis, and QLIK (Permissions as root (Linux))
SAS® Architect/Implementation Specialist
Federal Reserve Bank for the United States Treasury 2015-2016
Engaged by SAS® as a partner to work with the infrastructure and business user teams to implement a SAS® GRID environment for the U.S. Treasury A large part of this endeavor has been performed at the SAS® EBC due to the classified nature of the environment (Permissions as root (Linux))
SAS® Architect/Implementation Specialist
Department of Health and Human Services (CMS) 2013-2014
Engaged by SAS® to assess MIDAS (the Affordable Health Care (Obamacare) Marketplace SAS® Reporting System) with the goal of optimizing connectivity to Hadoop and resizing the environment Tasked with managing the project and performing the implementation of the four-environment solutions stack to a new Virtual Data with permissions as root (Linux))
Senior Programmer/Analyst
SAS® Administrator/Implementer 2007-2012
Sallie Mae (Fishers, IN)
Initially assigned to the Business Objects reporting team and assisted the main technical lead with upgrade from 6.1 to XI Collected Business Requirements and developed individualized Project Plans to create universes as well as add/manage users and permissions in the enterprise administration portal Created Dashboards, Universes and ad hoc reports then migrated between Dev, Test, and Prod using an SDLC methodology
Migrated from Windows to Linux in 2009 Installed, configured, and validated several Windows 9.1 and 9.2 SAS® proof of concept configurations (server/client) between 2007 and 2011 Continued as Platform Administrator maintaining the SAS® Management Console metadata and Security components, applying maintenance and hot fixes and supporting 50 users, and engaging SAS® when necessary to analyze and correct defects SAS® Product stacks involved business intelligence with a goal of Marketing, Credit Assessment and Fraud Prevention.
Programmer /Business Analyst 2005-2007
Business Objects Administrator
Flagstar Bank (Troy, MI)
Programmer/Analyst responsible for engaging business units to assist in creating customized reporting solutions to prevent redundancy in workflow for all business units in support of mortgage sales and servicing using Oracle, Crystal Reports, and the Business Objects Enterprise interface Utilizing the SDLC process, worked with the business units to identify needs, present solutions, design, test, implement, deploy, and maintain/enhance the product when creating universes and dashboards The value added was well worth the effort as it eliminated redundancy in processes and services while allowing queried results to display in a predictable format with accurate results.
HRIS Business Analyst 2004 – 2005
OtterBase Consulting
Borders Books and Music Corporate Offices (Ann Arbor, MI)
Responsible for creating a Waterfall Project Plan for the purpose of analyzing the current process and generating a more effective method of data collection, processing, approval, and submittal of the entire HRIS compensation program for Borders and Waldenbooks Successfully replaced an MS Access/Excel error-riddled process with an automated macro-driven application using PSHR Workforce and Scala object-oriented code to create a user-friendly interface This project saved the company $20K monthly in erroneous bonus payouts and shortened the bonus payout process from three weeks to 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks) for both subsidiaries.
EDUCATION
University of Maryland
European Campus, Sigonella, Sicily IT
Oakland Community College
Farmington Hills, Michigan
MILITARY EXPERIENCE
USN-Retired
TECHNICAL TOOLS & EXPERTISE:
Microsoft Office 365 and Thick Clients
SQL
Oracle
MySQL
SAS® 9.1.3-9.4M7 and Viya 3.3-3.5
(Certified by Pearson - Expert Implementer/ Administrator, Intermediate User 2007 - current)
Sizing, Planning, Installation, Configuration, and IQ/OQ Validation using SAS® Methodology acquired thru
SAS® Partner Opportunities, SAS® On-Campus Training, and applied experience in varied environments
oPlatforms: Windows Serve through 2016, RHEL thru Maipo
oPre-installation/upgrade sizing and architectural assessments
oPre-installation Requirements Documentation (PIRD)
oInstallation, configuration, & validation with and w/o GRID load balancing
oInstallation, configuration, & validation of single and multiple middle tiers
oIQ/OQ Plan, Execution, Result, and Summary Report Preparation
oPost Installation STIC doc and Run Book Preparation
oInstallation, configuration, & validation of clients (laptop, desktop, VM, VDI)
oMetadata Migration (using both SMU tools and manual promotion)
oSAS® Customer Intelligence: Marketing Optimization and Automation, Real Time Decision Maker (Exclusive SAS® Partner Training)
oSAS® Data Surveyor for SAP
oSAS® Enterprise BI Server installation/user/administration
oSAS® Enterprise Guide installation/user/administration
oSAS® Enterprise Miner installation/user/administration
oSAS® Fraud, AML and Security Intelligence installation/administration
oSAS® GRID & w/Platform LSF (Load Sharing Facility) installation/administration (formal GRID Training)
oSAS® IntrNet 9
oSAS® Life Sciences – Clinical, Pharmaceutical, Including all IQ/OQ and Clinical Standards Toolkit validations
oSAS® Management Console installation/administration
oSAS® Model Risk Management
oSAS® Risk Stratum with various content package updates
oSAS® Visual Analytics
oSAS® Workflow Manager
Server Administration/Security:
oCloud Implementation with AWS and most recently, Azure
oWindows Server thru 2016
Active Directory and LDAP experience
oLinux (RHEL through Maipo – sudoers role)
Cygwin
IBM SFTPPlus
MobaXTerm
PuTTY
WinSCP
oMiddle Tier Administration/Security:
Apache 2.2 & 2.4
Gemfire
IBM WebSphere
JBoss
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