Systems Analyst Project Manager

Resume of Fred A. Kirsch

**** ***** ****

Medina, Ohio 44256

********@**********.***

Qualifications Profile :

•Proven senior mainframe systems developer and supporter with over 30 years of experience working multiple times for multiple Fortune 500 companies as a contractor.

•Proven senior mainframe systems developer and supporter with 24 years of experience working for Ohio Edison (now First Energy Corp.) as a full time employee.

•Information systems professional specializing in all aspects of system life cycle.

•Experienced mainframe system developer, systems analyst, requirements analyst, team leader and IT project manager.

•Strong engineering, math and science background.

•Very detail orientated.

•Extensive insurance, medical, electric utility and manufacturing company experience.

•Proven problem solver, management advisor, system designer, program designer, and program coder.

•Specialist in large mainframe projects for both new applications and improvements to existing applications.

•Developer of special reports for department managers, vice presidents and the board of directors.

Computer Hardware : IBM and similar mainframes (most models) and personal computers (most makes).

Computer Tool : CICS, Batch, COBOL, DB2, TSO, ISPF, MVS JCL, VSAM, IDMS, SQL, QMF, XPEDITER, DEBUG, TELON, Endeavor, Changeman, Teams, Agile SDM, HP ALM, SAS, Tablebase and many others.

Personal Computer Tools : Microsoft Project, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, VISIO, Excel, Word, SharePoint, and many others.

Previous Employment :

Baystate Health System, Springfield Massachusetts.

Senior Mainframe Engineer working on their Patient Financial System.

October 2021 to February 2023 (17 months).

A fully remote position.

Completed a major documentation project for one of their largest mainframe systems for the second largest hospital chain in the state. Management was planning to out source parts of their Patient Financial System but it was so poorly documented management did not fully understand all of the existing processing. My assignment was to completely document the entire system which contained 400 mainframe jobs (some of them containing up to 5000 lines of mainframe JCL and 750 different reports). Documentation also included 500 report writer programs (some of them containing up to 10,000 lines of COBOL code) with the file names in and out, reports out and any exceptional logic. The project was completed on time and ahead of schedule. Tools used were DB2, VSAM, COBOL, CICS, TSO, ISPF, MVS JCL and Microsoft Word and Excel.

Progressive Insurance, Campus I, Mayfield Village, Ohio.

Corp IT / Financial Systems / Statistical Reporting Department.

April 2018 to June 2020 (28 months).

Senior Mainframe System Developer – Stat Reporting.

A fully remote position.

Completed two major projects and many smaller ones for the Stat Reporting Department on my fourth assignment with Progressive Insurance.

Progressive is required to report various claim related data to the Independent Statistical Service or ISS for short. The claim data is then distributed to every state where Progressive does business. This data includes counts for new claims and existing claims. It was known for some time that the claim counts produced by the existing mainframe system were not accurate. They were too high and some of the states complained about the errors. ISS has published documentation describing how the claim counts should be calculated. Most of the ISS procedures were not being performed in the existing mainframe system. Also, the mainframe system counted every claim as being new since there was no way to determine if a claim had been previously counted. No claim history was being used. This project eliminated those errors by creating history files and using them to identify if a claim had been previously counted. Also new data fields were used to help with applying the ISS rules that previously were not used. A major redesign of the system was started in 2018 to correct the claim counting errors. It was the largest Stat Reporting project completed in the last ten years.

Over 1500 mainframe computer jobs were run to create the needed history files going back to the fourth quarter of 2018. Over 1000 lines of new COBOL code was required. Over 40 COBOL programs were changed some extensively. Completely new COBOL programs were written. Many mainframe computer jobs, procs and copybooks were modified and tested. The ISS procedures were successfully applied for the first time, and the claim counts produced are now correct. The project was successfully elevated in May 2020.

The second major project ran from August 2019 to January 2020. The requirement was to pass a new code through the system and use it to identify Uber drivers. The new code is called the Transportation Network Indicator or TNC for short. States need to identify Uber drivers so that the correct class codes are assigned. Not all states are using the TNC yet and the ones that are use it differently. Changes were made to pass the TNC if it is available and to use the TNC to assign the correct class codes to Progressive policies.

Code changes were required in 73 mainframe COBOL programs some extensively. Seven copybooks had to be changed to pass the new TNC. Six mainframe programs required code changes to assign the correct class codes. Many jobs were tested, and the results were approved by the end users. This was the second largest Stat Reporting project in the last ten years. The project was successfully elevated in January 2020.

Progressive Insurance, Campus II, Mayfield Village, Ohio.

July 2014 to April 2017 (34 months).

Senior Mainframe System Developer – Billing Systems – ProBill.

Completed three major new development projects resulting in new income and improved fraud prevention for the company saving millions of dollars a year on my third assignment with Progressive Insurance.

January 2017 to April 2017. The 30 year old policy system at Progressive had been replaced by a newer system and was winding down with less activity and fewer policies in force. The Proteus Decommission Project was started to plan the eventual decommission for the old system. Since the old system interfaced with just about every other system in the company much planning was required. My role as a member of the core planning team was to perform initial research and analysis to identify all the components affected and the difficulties that would be caused by retiring critical jobs, files and business processing and to determine what would need to be retired, replaced or refactored.

March 2016 to January 2017. Completed the ASI California Auto Project. Progressive Insurance recently purchased an insurance company in Florida (American Strategic Insurance) that is licensed to do business in California allowing ASI agents to represent Progressive Insurance in that state and sell the full line of Progressive products. Many changes to the Agent Billing System were completed which allowed ASI agents to sell insurance and receive commissions for their sales. Many changes to CICS and batch jobs and programs using DB2 and VSAM were completed, tested and elevated to production. Extensive interfacing with other systems such as the General Ledger was required and implemented. Over forty people were involved in this project, but only three were mainframe developers.

November 2014 to March 2016. Completed the CVV2 Fraud Prevention Project. In order to reduce credit card fraud, the security code on the back of all credit cards was now required for all credit card transactions. Many changes to the ProBill Billing System and interfaces were completed and elevated. Extensive coordination with eleven different points of service apps and the billing processor (Chase Bank) were completed. Over 160 programs and jobs both CICS and batch were changed, some extensively. New DB2 batch fraud jobs and reports were designed, programmed, tested and elevated. Changes to complex billing processes were designed, tested and completed. Over thirty people were involved in this project, but only two were mainframe developers. New corporate SDM was used for the first time.

July 2014 to November 2014. Completed the Agent Code Expansion Project for the ProBill Billing System – the largest mainframe computer system at the company. Progressive sells many of its products through agents both employees and independent. Agents are identified by a five-digit numeric agent number. There are so many agents now that not enough new agent numbers were available. It was necessary to change the numeric agent code field to alphanumeric every place it was used. Over 400 mainframe programs and files (CICS and batch) were changed, tested and elevated to production. This project touched every computer system in the company and required extensive coordination with all of them.

Parker Hannifin Corporation in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

April 2013 to January 2014, Mainframe Systems Analyst / Senior Programmer.

Completed all projects at two different locations for this company on my second assignment with them.

July 2013 to January 2014. Was assigned to the Division Support Department at the corporate headquarters. Replaced an employee who was assigned to a new project. Supported five divisions located in other states for any production issues and needed system improvements. Production problems were resolved, corrected and moved to production. New enhancements were designed, coded, tested and moved to production. New programs were written in both CICS and batch some using Telon. There was heavy involvement with COBOL, MVS JCL, TSO, VSAM, IMS, DB2, Telon, Xpediter and Endeavor.

April 2013 to July 2013. Was hired by Parker’s HFD division in Metamora, Ohio and allowed to work from home. The HFD Division had recently purchased new companies in Canada and Mexico, and the mainframe systems used by HFD needed to be set up to work at the new locations. Many programs and jobs (batch and CICS) were changed to work with foreign currency, by different users and at different locations. Printed reports were changed so they could be sent to remote servers by FTP. 200 batch jobs were modified, tested and installed at the new locations. The batch job schedule for the new locations was created and implemented. There was heavy involvement with MVS JCL, TSO, COBOL, Xpediter, VSAM, DB2 and IMS.

Western Reserve Group in Wooster, Ohio - A multi-line insurance company.

July 2012 to November 2012, Mainframe Systems Analyst / Senior Programmer.

Completed a major mainframe, batch, COBOL, VSAM / DB2 project to reduce the company mailing costs using a VS/ICCF system. WRG markets 16 different lines of personal and commercial insurance and is represented by independent agents in two states. The agents can go to the company web site and enter various codes to either allow or suppress printing the agent’s copy of a policy. This file is uploaded to the mainframe and read by policy print programs. Ten programs, copybooks and JCL were changed and extensively tested for each policy type. Test policies were generated using the company CICS policy systems. The project was completed in seven weeks - half the expected time. Four additional batch and CICS projects were then completed. Insurance score calculations were added for Dwelling Fire Insurance. Four new CICS screens, programs and copybooks were added to Homeowners new quotes and changed quotes and credit rescore renewal calculations were updated and expanded for Homeowners, Dwelling Fire and Personal Auto Insurance. All projects were analyzed, coded, tested and installed in production. Also completed one time reports to locate errors in production data.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio

October 2010 to April 2011, Mainframe System Developer – CHESS System.

Completed my second assignment on the Corporate Health and Environmental Safety System. Made major system improvements to add new capability and new functions. Designed, programmed and tested four new screens and programs using Telon, COBOL, DB2 and CICS. Added new conversion factors to change from English to metric and metric to English. Added several new DB2 tables to support the new screens. All changes were tested, approved and moved to production.

Medical Mutual of Ohio – Strongsville, Ohio location.

March 2009 to September 2009, Mainframe System Developer – Broker Commission and RX Drug Systems.

-Completed production support and enhancements for two production systems using COBOL, DB2, VSAM and QMF.

-For the Broker Commission System completed three requests needed to correct production problems and enhance system performance. Performed the analysis needed to identify production problems and designed the required changes. Modified programs, procedures, parms and MVS JCL as needed to correct these problems, coordinated testing with the system owners and installed the changes into production.

-For the Rx Drug Claim System completed an enhancement project to add two new fields to the system DB2 history tables. Developed spreadsheets to identify all the components that required modification. Expanded the history files and populated them with production data. Modified 20 COBOL programs, half of them CICS, to use and pass the new fields through the system. Updated procedures, parms and JCL as needed. All changes were made and moved into a test system, tested and approved by the system owner.

Progressive Insurance – Mayfield Village, Ohio.

April 2007 to December 2007, Mainframe System Developer – Litigation Management System.

-Completed work on a major project for the Claims IT Department at Progressive Insurance to implement a new Litigation Management System. This required extensive analysis, design and programming for two new DB2 batch programs that extracted claims data where litigation was involved from several mainframe systems. The data was specially formatted and sent by FTP to an outside vendor (LexisNexis). The vendor loaded the data into a proprietary internet based product called Counsel Link. The legal firms representing the plaintiffs and defendants used Counsel Link to access current information about the litigation status of the cases assigned to them which allowed the law firms to better manage the cases and settle them sooner. This produced a large cost savings for the company. The first program was a onetime load for all the open legal matters in three pilot states. The second program ran daily to look for and send possible new litigation cases and to send updates if there had been any changes to the cases already sent. The programs required 24 different DB2 cursors and accessed 38 different tables from multiple mainframe systems. Detailed analysis was required to determine the logic and queries needed, and there were extensive communications with other departments and the outside vendor. Many mainframe skills were used which included but were not limited to COBOL, SAS, CICS, DB2, MVS JCL, QMF, Debug and ChangeMan management tools. Became proficient with several mainframe systems including PACMan and Claim Station.

Medical Mutual of Ohio – Strongsville, Ohio location.

March 2006 to March 2007, Mainframe System Developer, TOPPS System.

-Completed two concurrent projects on the TOPPS System (Total Online Payment Processing System).

-This was my second assignment and third project for TOPPS.

-The federal government required that a national provider number (NPI) with more digits must be implemented by year end, and many system changes were required.

-The project also included an expansion of the claims, claim history, revenue, and revenue history records to include more occurrences and additional years of history data.

-Spreadsheets were developed to identify all the components requiring changes and to track testing.

-Over 70 CICS and batch programs were changed and tested to accommodate the requirements. CICS screen changes were made, files were reformatted and expanded, old history files were converted to the new format and batch jobs were rewritten and tested.

-The existing VSAM provider file was replaced by a new corporate DB2 provider data base which contained the NPI data.

-40 programs (CICS and batch) were updated to obtain NPI data from the new DB2 tables.

-Program changes were made to process the new NPI data and passed it through the TOPPS system.

-Extensive analysis and planning was required, everything was tested and approved, and the corporate documentation was updated.

-This project involved the entire company so extensive communication, planning and problem resolution with other sections was needed.

Parker Hannifin - MSS System - Corporate Headquarters, Mayfield Village, Ohio.

August 2004 to March 2006, Mainframe System Developer.

- Completed many program and system changes as a Senior Programmer Analyst and Systems Analyst.

- Worked exclusively on the MSS System, the core business system used at Parker Hannifin.

- Performed critical production maintenance, problem resolution, program and system enhancements for the largest CICS system used by the company. Also supported 44 external divisions in multiple countries that also used the core system and along with their own custom division exit code.

- Analyzed and corrected problems in production CICS and batch programs using COBOL, IMS, DB2 and VSAM with heavy use of Xpediter and Telon. Extensively tested changes and moved them to production.

- Became the in-house consultant for anything to do with the Purchase Order, Requisitions and Inventory Systems which are part of MSS.

- Mentored new employees and supervised other contractors.

- Developed and implemented standardized testing procedures.

Progressive Insurance – Main Campus II, Mayfield Village, Ohio

September 2003 to May 2004, Mainframe System Developer – ProBill Billing System (All New System).

-The ProBill System replaced the previous billing system and provided real time processing with 24 x 7 availability using CPSM (CICS Prod Plex System Manager) running concurrently in six different CICS regions.

-Was lead developer on the ProdSim team, a group that set up and ran the prototype ProBill System in a production simulation environment for four months prior to production implementation.

-Primary responsibility was to write all the production batch jobs, procs and parms (382 jobs, 200 procs), test and debug them, set up and monitor the simulation system, resolve testing problems and to prepare the batch cycle for production elevation. Most of this work involved batch DB2 and VSAM COBOL programs and batch JCL even though some analysis of CICS program operation was required to resolve problems.

-Applied company standards to all the JCL, wrote or rewrote restart/recovery instructions for all the batch jobs and used project management tools to plan and monitor all the Day One start up activities needed to place this system in production.

-Managed an error log on an Access database that recorded all program abends and JCL errors and worked with the program developers to resolve any problems that happened during production simulation.

Medical Mutual of Ohio - Beachwood, Ohio location.

March 2002 to May 2003. Mainframe System Analyst / Senior Programmer.

Completed three major new development projects.

September 2002 to May 2003. Completed work on the Managed Care System.

-This was my third assignment on this system.

-Completed a number of improvements requested by the system users, an outside client, to CICS / DB2 programs and maps and DB2 batch programs then moved them to production.

-DB2 queries were rewritten to improve CICS performance then moved to production.

-Performed all the analysis, design, coding and testing for the new processing and functionality.

-Changes were approved by the system owner and placed in production.

March 2002 to September 2002. Completed work on the Cash Recovery System.

-Made revisions as needed to comply with a new state prompt pay law. This system tracks the status of all paper checks and has both online and batch processing using CICS, COBOL, DB2 and VSAM.

-Completed the analysis and design for new programs and revision to existing programs to further automate the system and reduce manual check processing.

-Two new batch DB2 programs were coded and added to the system.

Medical Mutual of Ohio - Downtown Cleveland, Ohio

August 2000 to August 2001, Mainframe Systems Analyst / Senior Programmer.

Completed two enhancements to existing systems.

June 2001 to August 2001. Completed work on the WEB Quote System.

-Performed project management functions for the Web Quote project, an Internet based system that gives insurance brokers the ability to quote policy rates for a variety of medical insurance products in any state in the country. Brokers can use the Internet to prepare detailed and accurate proposals.

-Used Microsoft Project to develop a detailed project plan, to allocate individual resources and to track progress on over 300 tasks.

-Prepared summary reports for management and helped to keep this 14-person project on schedule and on budget. Used an Access database system to record project issues and to document their resolution, as well as developed other project plans for the development of a rate calculation engine, a new business module and a renewing business module.

August 2000 to June 2001. Completed work on the Provider Registration System.

-Provided technical support, made enhancements and installed production system improvements for the Provider Registration System, a large mainframe medical information system used by MMO and several external agencies. This system maintains an online DB2 medical provider database and is supported by extensive nightly batch processing.

-Improved the process of updating this corporate database with new information sent to the State of Ohio, Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation and downloaded from the Internet.

-Designed, tested and installed improvements to COBOL programs that updated VSAM and DB2 databases.

Medical Mutual of Ohio – Beachwood, Ohio location.

October 1999 to April 2000, Senior Programmer – Managed Care System.

-Completed my assignment on an all new addition to the Managed Care System to be used by the State of Ohio Bureau of Workman’s Compensation.

-Functioned as the team leader primarily responsible for the design, analysis, programming and testing of new COBOL / DB2 programs for the batch part of this new system.

-Completed the coding and testing for eight new programs containing over 20,000 lines of code.

-Also designed and wrote commonly used COBOL routines called by the online CICS programs.

-Wrote and tested the MVS JCL for the nightly batch process, moved everything to production and completed all the required documentation.

-Team leader for the development and testing of the nightly batch process by coordinating the effort, writing program specifications and supervising the work of five other programmers.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio.

August 1997 to July 1999, Management team and consultant – Y2K Project.

-Hired by IBM who was the project manager and was a member of their management team.

-Completed the Y2K project for an 80 person project team run and managed by IBM.

-Member of the MVS Platform Analyst Team, the team that managed the Y2K conversion and testing for all Goodyear’s mainframe computer systems.

-Responsible for the design, building and updating of multiple DB2 databases required to assemble all the production system components needed by each conversion team.

-My team managed four IBM system conversion teams and multiple Goodyear and other outside vendor conversion teams.

-Assembled the complete component inventory needed by each conversion team for system testing and moved all the objects to the testing environment.

-Designed and maintained a DB2 database that kept track of what was changed, who changed it and when it was moved back to the production environment.

-Designed and wrote custom COBOL and DB2 programs, ISPF screens and REXX programs needed to build and manage the databases.

- Was head of the tools team responsible for the development of automated processes used by the entire project.

-Wrote new COBOL and REXX programs (MVS and PC) that eliminated manual tasks, helped maintain accountability and produced status reports for management.

-Served as the in-house project consultant for anyone requiring help with the TELON, MVS assembler and REXX programming languages.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, Beachwood, Ohio.

January 1997 to March 1997, System Developer – Interconnection Billing System.

-Corrected problems and improved several COBOL CICS programs that were part of the Interplan Teleprocessing System (ITS).

-Performed the analysis, programming and testing required to correct problems that occurred during the online processing of medical claims that were received electronically from other medical insurance companies.

-Completed testing and moved changes to production.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, Beachwood, Ohio.

February 1996 to January 1997, Mainframe System Developer – TOPPS System.

-Completed a major history file reformat and expansion project for the Total Online Payment Processing System (TOPPS).

-Many system improvements were completed and installed including converting VSAM master files from RRDS to KSDS format and rewriting production MVS JCL to improve efficiency (400 JCL procedures).

-Improved batch and online COBOL programs, revised production job flow for greater efficiency, improved the CICS response time, reduced DASD requirements and reduced batch job run time by four hours each night.

-Standardized the MVS JCL for all batch jobs running to support six CICS test regions. The expanded history VSAM master files were installed in the test regions and all JCL was rewritten for efficiency, tested and installed.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio.

September 1995 to Janaury 1996 – System Developer – CHESS System.

-Completed program and system enhancements to CICS programs using COBOL DB2, and the TELON programming language for the Corporate Health and Environmental Safety System (CHESS).

-Completed a new DB2 batch program that converted any units of measure from metric to English or from English to metric.

-Completed changes to interface the CHESS system database with other company systems allowing for the automatic updating of the chemical inventory database.

Medical Mutual of Ohio, Beachwood, Ohio.

November 1994 to September 1995 System Developer – Internal Data Processing System.

-Designed and programmed an online training system used for the orientation and training of all newly hired contractors.

-Demonstrated this system to the entire department at a vice president staff meeting.

-Designed and programmed new COBOL / DB2 programs to extract medical provider data from internal DB2 databases to be used by an outside vendor system.

-Worked with the vendor to load the data into a medical database system.

-Installed this database system at Medical Mutual and helped train other users in its operation.

-Provided technical support for all the automated systems managed by the IDP Department and maintained and enhanced productivity tools used by the entire corporation.

Professional Experience as an Employee.

Ohio Edison Company (now First Energy Corp.), Corporate Office in Akron, Ohio.

1971 to 1994

-Was employed for 24 years by the Ohio Edison Company (now First Energy Corp.) in their Information Systems Department (14 years) and Project Management Department (10 years) working as a Project Manager, Systems Analyst, Programmer, Business Analyst, and team leader.

-Took an early retirement with benefits in 1994.

-Created, developed and implemented special reports for the company Board of Directors, Vice-Presidents and Department Managers. Because of their confidential nature I ran them and delivered them in person.

-Created and was responsible for many of the CICS and batch computer systems used by the company including management reporting, general ledger, inventory, accounts payable, leased vehicle management, and capital expenditures using COBOL, assembler, DB2, VSAM, CICS, Telon, Fortran and other mainframe tools. Was a team leader, trained other programmers and analysts, gave demonstrations to management and trained system users.

-Developed, programmed, installed and supported many new mainframe and PC systems by both engineering and business users.

Was responsible for the following systems, Management Reporting, Project Management, Construction Budgeting (400 million per year budget), Substation Inventory, Transmission Line Losses, Emissions and Fuel Needs, Fuel Purchase Optimization, and Special Report for the Board of Directors.

-Evaluated, selected, installed and supported both mainframe and PC project management software used companywide to help manage a construction budget ranging up to 400 million dollars a year.

-Installed complete mainframe computer systems of my design at other electric utilities (Construction Budgeting, Project Management Information, Management Special Reports), supported them and trained others in their use.

EDUCATION :

Attended the University of Akron night school from 1971 to 1979 while I was employed as a full time employee by Ohio Edison. I completed many college credits and had a high GPA. I completed every IT course that they offered. I did not graduate since they did not offer a degree in Computer Science or Information Technology at that time. My majors were Information Technology, Math and Physics.

Completed 1600 hours of company sponsored computer training.

Completed 2 week supervisor management training.

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