Business Program Manager

Allen Mecum

Laguna Niguel, Ca LinkedIn *******@*****.***

WORK EXPERIENCE

Dexian McLean, Virginia

Business Strategy Consultant Aug 2023- Current

As a Change Management and Business Strategy Consultant at Microsoft, I lead transformative change initiatives within the SMC and Digital Sales organization. My role involves crafting effective change management strategies, streamlining communications, managing vendor partnerships, and facilitating cross- team collaboration. I actively participate in key strategy meetings and ensure successful execution, promoting open communication and stakeholder engagement for organizational success.

• Lead Change Manager for the internal launch of Copilot within my organization.

• Project Manager for organization’s strategic initiatives. Manage anywhere from 1-6 projects at one time.

• Develop and execute change management strategies for the SMC and Digital Sales organization, aligning them with the company's objectives and goals.

• Apply a structured change management methodology, processes, and tools to facilitate the successful adoption of project and initiative-driven changes.

• Oversee the design, development, delivery, and management of critical communications related to change initiatives, ensuring effective messaging.

• Collaborate closely with Communications and Strategy Execution pillar owners to streamline messaging and project execution, enhancing reporting, discussion, and decision-making processes.

• Prepare and create various materials, including agendas, presentation decks, scorecards, and other relevant documentation to support change management efforts.

• Manage the performance and work of vendor partners contributing to change management initiatives, ensuring clear communication of expectations regarding timelines and work quality.

• Actively participate in key strategy meetings, identifying opportunities for cross-team connections and linking strategy to execution.

• Effectively record meeting minutes, distribute action items, and track and report progress to relevant stakeholders.

• Proactively identify and address issues impeding cross-group success, offering well-thought-out solutions and recommendations for mitigation.

• Listen attentively to feedback from stakeholders, partners, and associates, identifying opportunities for information sharing and engagement.

• Facilitate the successful implementation of Strategy and Business Management team plans through regular meetings and periodic off-site workshops.

• Craft clear and impactful written and visual communications, including project briefs and plans, to ensure progress tracking and stakeholder engagement. Microsoft Sammamish, WA

Business Program Manager Mar 2019 – Dec 2022

As a member of the "Internal" Business Process & Support team at Microsoft, I have supported over 65,000 field users and partnered with the Organization leadership to develop and execute the support strategy. Key accomplishments include:

• Driving and implementing the strategy to move 55,000 users from an email-based request system to a virtual agent, creating a single point of support for field users and streamlining the support experience. Coordinated all project activities, communications, and training to all stakeholders as the Project Manager

• Partnering with the Content Lead to shift user-education based inquiries to self-help, resulting in cost savings by reducing ticket volume.

• Developing and executing the strategy for Complex Deal/Account support, initially focused on top tier accounts, and subsequently scaled to manage all complex queries for the organization.

• Building a strategy and managing a high-performance team of 25 specialists who solve complex business and technical problems and provide insights to senior leaders on key areas for improving tools and processes. Develop OKRs and business processes to manage the team’s performance and meeting targets.

• Billing and Invoicing subject matter experts for enterprise services organization. Identify and resolve issues related to billing and invoicing. Working with partner teams to resolve issues; such as ESAP Exceptions where the need to create mirror IO in Mercury was needed. This was a Boeing IO issue where we removed 15 million (3yr 5M/yr) delivery blockage.

• Acting as a Scrum Master, providing guidance and support to the team, removing obstacles, and promoting continuous improvement in the Agile development process.

• Incorporating Scrum principles to enhance project efficiency, track progress, and deliver high-quality solutions within tight deadlines.

• Collaborating closely with stakeholders, including product owners, developers, and testers, to prioritize tasks, manage backlog, and ensure alignment with project goals. LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Business Program Manager / Delivery Lead

• Accomplished the transformation of the Support team to its current model, resulting in a more streamlined virtual agent process that supports self-help. This was measured by the successful migration of 55k users from email-based request submission to the new virtual agent process.

• Developed a new business processes and team to support Complex Deals, which led to the successful implementation of the Support Operations Coordination Service (SOCS) program. This program provided the foundation for the new Support Team Tiering model, which included a dedicated Tier 2 Complex Team that I led to solve complex problems.

• As the Support Team Delivery Manager, I led the Tier 2 team through thought leadership to drive clarity, velocity, and agility. I used data analytics to derive insights and training that help identify current and future program risks and mitigation plans, as well as opportunities to streamline and optimize based on lessons learned.

• Defined the success criteria and performance measures for Tier 2, evangelize Tier 2 support across organization, and communicate program status across stakeholders and leadership. Revel Consulting Seattle, WA

Sr. Associate - Project Manager and Business Analyst at Microsoft Jan 2012 – Mar 2019

• Coordinated monthly release management for Changepoint and MRF2, and managed product release changes globally working with the development team, stakeholders, on gathering and verifying requirements.

• Create test cases and conduct User Acceptance and Business Acceptance testing.

• As the SME I conducted Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and report on findings and the need for possible process or tool changes to eliminate any future impacts.

• Coordinated the creation of new Company Codes and Billing Offices

• Created reports in Excel using MSRA as needed.

• Collaborated with partner teams (Aurora, Premier, SAP, MS Expense, Finance) and addressed possible impacts to partner systems, ensuring successful resolution of issues and positive feedback.

• Ensured Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) compliance with user access for Changepoint and managed tax configurations to ensure compliance with local government statutory requirements.

• Prepared all Business Requirement Documents and wrote and prepared test scripts for user acceptance testing, which was conducted worldwide on a quarterly release schedule.

• Participated in complete end-to-end testing to ensure successful completion and positive feedback from stakeholders.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Project Manager, Release Manager and Business Analyst

• Coordinated monthly release management of all change requests for Changepoint, and MRF2. Worked with partner teams to identify possible impacts to partner systems, and with the development team based in India to implement changes.

• Used waterfall, agile and SCRUM methodology over time as teams adjusted to new methodologies.

• Led cross-functional workshops with regional leads to gather requirements from field users. Prepare all Business Requirement Documents to define the changes requested.

• Conducted User Acceptance Testing worldwide for changes on a quarterly release schedule.

• I was the SME and high-level tier support for Changepoint, and the escalation point of contact for GESO team on any escalations. I analyzed any escalated issues that arose in day-to-day operations or month-end close and led cross-functional team until issue was resolved. Past Positions

Database Application Programmer

• Use VB/VBA/ODBC to create custom applications that are linked to AccPac (accounting software) software, Excel & Lotus spreadsheets, and other databases.

• Develop & create product applications to be sold as integrated packaged software.

• Create Demo products of applications to be marketed to prospective clients.

• Generate effective estimates to ensure profitable, on time completion of product.

• Create technical and user manuals for use by the client and by technical team. Database Specialist/Developer

• Develop/maintain a transaction database for tracking firm’s major transactions for marketing purposes.

• Build and run SQL statements to pull information from CMS (Time and billing software) as needed.

• Create and manage RFI and RFP for vendor management of software.

• Create as needed for the marketing department reports, spreadsheets, client list, time, and billing reports etc.

Database Specialist

• Develop, implement, and coordinate database-tracking system for 20,000-member conversion from commercial HMO plan to Medicare HMO plan.

• Improve and integrate several different marketing databases into one common marketing system facilitating ease of use and access to data.

• Develop budget variance report to support department policy and procedures. Medical Management

• Create/develop database system for tracking the Hedis 3.0 report data response.

• Develop Database and reporting system for inpatient hospital stay. Provider Relations

• Develop, implement, and coordinate database-tracking system for Physician recruitment, retention & satisfaction. Supporting reduced acquisition costs. EDUCATION

Chapman University Orange CA

Computer Information Systems 2009

Certifications:

Project Management Professional (PMP)

ProSci Change Practitioner

Celonis Foundations (Process Mining)

SKILLS

Skills: Business Program Management, Process Optimization, Project Management, Data Analytics, Business Analytics, Incident & Escalation Management, and Release Management. High proficiency in the full Microsoft Office Suite. SAP R/3, Power Automate, PowerApps, Power BI (Reporting), SQL, MS Project, SharePoint, MS Teams. PMP skills (WBS, IMS, IMP, Gantt, EVM Earned Value Management)

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