IT Project Manager

MOHAMMED MERCHANT, PMP

Ontario, Canada 647-***-**** ********.**********@*****.***

EXPERIENCED PROJECT MANAGER

Experienced Project Manager with 10 years of work experience. Proven record developing solutions that improve operational business efficiency. Diverse managerial and technical expertise derived from rapid learning and effective application of project management methodologies and new emerging technologies; dedicated to maintaining up-to-date industry knowledge and IT skills.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

IT Project Manager December 2018 – Present

Durham District School Board Whitby, Canada

‘Project for the web’ Deployment (2023)

• Managed the successful implementation of ‘Project for the web’ work management solution for IT Services using low-code no-code technology.

• Influenced PMO to adopt the new work management product using Microsoft’s Power Platform over the existing product by utilizing current licensing structure.

• Applied PMI’s Citizen Development framework to configure and customize out-of-box product by setting up automated approvals, business rules, security roles, project intake forms and Power BI reports resulting in savings of over $15,000.

• Collaborated with sponsors to draft, review RFPs, SOWs for multiple vendor services & identified items that were not aligned with organizational objectives.

• Deployed the modern solution on time within a span of 2 months by following Hyper Agile methodology.

• Provided recommendations for product licenses that can result in $4000 savings per year.

• Optimized business workflows for projects resulting in 50% faster and efficient project approvals.

• Coordinated focussed training with the vendor for IT Services staff with over 80 members.

• Established the application life cycle management to sustain maintenance and feature upgrades. Windows Server Upgrade from 2012R2 to 2022 (2023)

• Led the successful upgrade of over 120 Windows Server virtual machines from 2012R2 OS to 2022 OS.

• Created migration plans for each application configured in IIS & designed a framework for scheduled monthly security patches.

• Redesigned deployment of critical database servers to an isolated network managed via firewall policies.

• Developed automated report on provisioned and decommissioned virtual machines for stakeholders. Chromebook Distribution (2022-23)

• Led the distribution of 5,500+ Chromebooks to Grade 9 students for the 2022-23 school year.

• Liaised with vendor to prepare detailed project plans and schedules for all activities leading to distribution day.

• Onboarded, trained, and guided 6 casual staff allocated to the project.

• Developed automated communication techniques to send personalized communication to Principals and administrative staff that saved over 10 hours of manual effort per person.

• Designed and maintained a centralized location on SharePoint for accessing Chromebook delivery, distribution, and collection data.

• Developed rich Power BI reports and dashboards for key stakeholders to track project progress in real time.

• Established performance baselines and develop metrics to assess project performance.

• Demonstrated the capabilities of Power Apps by building a reusable prototype for large scale device distribution and collection.

Active Directory (AD) Restructuring (2021-22)

• Managed the deprecation of SchoolConnect system that resulted in $250,000 annual savings in licensing costs.

• Led the design of simple, flat, and flexible AD design that allows automating groups, policies, devices, and roles.

• Analyzed 11,700 generic and 86,000 redundant vendor accounts in the system and developed a plan to delete them.

• Standardised group creation for various resources in Entra (Azure) AD that aligns with industry best practices. Mohammed Merchant, PMP 647-***-**** Page 2

Citizen Development Practitioner (2021-Present)

• Designed the automation of personalized email communications to 120 schools saving 40 man-hours.

• Automated the process of sharing specific monthly ServiceNow reports to IT Services staff.

• Created the Device Recovery Power App that eliminates managing 150+ worksheets while boosting data quality by 75%.

• Developed reusable Power BI templates that provide easy, accessible, and consistent reporting to stakeholders. Deployment Lead September 2018 – December 2018

TD Bank Toronto, Canada

• Led the user discoveries for over 10 lines of businesses for the organization-wide Windows 10 migration.

• Executed imaging of over 200 Windows 7 users in a span of 1 week in readiness for the Windows 10 OS upgrade.

• Analyzed the daily exception Power BI reports for users and ensured migrations are on track with automated alerts.

• Prioritized the Windows 10 migrations based on team structure, project constraints and application requirements.

• Performed and communicated the root cause analyses to executives for applications not ready for the migration. Project Manager August 2017 – September 2018

Volante Systems Toronto, Canada

• Led the deployment of 100+ point of sale terminals across Canada’s largest event complex in Regina’s Evraz Place.

• Managed over 12 client servers’ migrations of with no impact to business operations.

• Implemented 30+ projects involving Google’s Kubernetes platform for running back-office services and API calls.

• Negotiated with over 10 clients to allow remote over onsite support that led to $8000 in cost savings in 6 months.

• Tracked project progress and effectively resolving issues resulting in a Schedule Performance Index (SPI) of 1.0.

• Achieved 5-star rating for analysis and resolution of post-installation issues.

• Executed risk mitigation plans at 15+ sites that de-escalated hardware installation issues. Project Manager May 2016 – August 2017

Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology Toronto, Canada

• Defined project scope, developed charters and estimated the schedule for over 10 college wide projects.

• Led the enterprise-wide deployment of a new Employee Directory using PeopleSoft 4 weeks ahead of schedule.

• Optimized Active Directory performance by 50% by successfully managing its migration to the end state network.

• Coordinated testing activities with teams of 30+ related to network installations, LAN, & IT infrastructure upgrades.

• Managed full data center shutdown and start-up activities with teams of 30+ resources resulting in better utilization and optimization of software services offered to students.

• Enhanced student experience by more than 85% by managing the seamless migration of over 300 point-of-sale devices from an external network to Seneca's secure internet network.

• Identified project risks resulting in avoiding a service downtime of 12 hours during working hours. Software Lead Engineer July 2013 – July 2015

Hella India Automotive Private Limited Pune, India

• Managed the development of Rational DOORS Extension Language (DXL) scripts for automating and importing test case entries in IBM DOORS, reducing manual documentation efforts by 50%.

• Facilitated peer reviews of test cases for 15+ modules, reducing system-level software defects by 25%.

• Trained and led a virtual team of more than 10 employees in 1 week to achieve a high level of module unit testing competency in C/C++ source files using Tessy.

• Analyzed over 200 complex functional specifications in IBM DOORS and performed model-based design, MiL, SiL, HiL, testing by simplifying them using Simulink’s toolboxes. Mohammed Merchant, PMP 647-***-**** Page 3

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE

Microsoft Power Platform: Data modeling using Power BI, Power Apps & Power Automate for automation using Dataverse, SharePoint.

Programming Languages: Visual Basic, Power Query (M), DAX, C, C++, Java, ABAP, HTML, MATLAB Simulink. CERTIFICATIONS

PMI Citizen Developer Practitioner February 2024

Microsoft Applied Skills ‘Create and manage model-driven apps with Power Apps and Dataverse’ February 2024 Microsoft Applied Skills ‘Create and manage canvas apps with Power Apps’ February 2024 Microsoft Certified Power Platform Fundamentals September 2024 Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate (Power BI) February 2022 Project Management Professional (PMP – 2043758) - Project Management Institute (PMI) June 2017 EDUCATION

Post Graduate Certificate: Project Management – Information Technology August 2016 Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology Toronto, Canada Master of Engineering: Electrical Engineering – Control Systems July 2013 College of Engineering Pune (COEP) – WES evaluated Pune, India Bachelor of Engineering: Electronics Engineering June 2008 Vishwakarma Institute of Technology – WES evaluated Pune, India AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• Awarded the President’s Honor List Winter 2016 at Seneca College, Toronto.

• Nominated for “pat on the back” award in April 2015 at Hella India Automotive Private Limited.

• Participant of COEP’s Guinness World Record 2012 for the greatest number of people (3,248) solving the Rubik’s Cube.

PUBLICATIONS

Kurode, S., & Merchant, M. (2013). Observer Based Control of Flexible Link Manipulator Using Discrete Sliding Modes. IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control (MSC), 276-281.

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