Delivering Business Value of IT

Michael A. DeWitt

**** *. ******** **. ********** AZ 85254

480-***-****; *******@****.***.***

E = Q x A

This little equation costs organizations billions of dollars every year. How much is it costing you?

The effectiveness (E) of any new initiative is the product of the technical quality (Q) of the solution multiplied by the acceptance (A) of the initiative by its key stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, management). Whether it’s implementing new technology, re-engineering a business process, or rolling out a new methodology, a deficiency in either component will drastically reduce your Return on Investment. And the bigger the investment, the bigger the likelihood of problems.

Unfortunately, the skills needed to optimize technical Quality are different from those needed for gaining Acceptance. And what works in one organization isn’t always the best for another (a common but dangerous assumption). My experience with a broad array of challenges, tools, and industries allows me to appreciate the big picture and design and deliver solutions that maximize both the Q and the A of technology, process, and methodology initiatives.

Professional Experience Highlights

eFunds Corporation 2004-Present

Director, Professional Services

In response to a backlog of over 300 unfulfilled development requests, key customers threatened to pull over $40 million in annual business. Management tasked me with drastically reducing this number without adding any staff. Using Theory of Constraints principles, I implemented and managed a set of prioritization, scoping, and resourcing processes that reduced the backlog by nearly 80% and allowed us to retain ALL of the at-risk business. I then designed and managed the development and rollout of enterprise-wide demand and resource planning tools that allowed all levels of management to see a consolidated list of projects and people and their activities. This led to an increase in overall project resource utilization from 71 to 84% (over 20,000 hours per month or increased productivity), and increased focus on our top 40 initiatives from 50% of all hours to nearly 90%.

Project Delivery Leader

I managed a $20 million project portfolio covering all internal functions, including finance (SAP), HR (Lawson), and Sales (SalesLogix). I developed annual budgets by negotiating with business leaders to maximize business impact of the portfolio, and oversaw delivery by individual project teams to insure quality. When priorities or project scope changed, I led the replanning effort so that we stayed within overall budget, which was a challenge, since my business customers were executive management team members with strong, and often conflicting, opinions on how to spend the money.

The Revere Group 1994-2004

Vice-President

As part of the management team that grew this technology consulting company from 35 to over 500 employees, I wore many hats over ten years. I began by selling, architecting, and managing a $10 million dollar engagement revamping every system for a major global not-for-profit, in which we delivered each component on time and on budget. I opened the company’s first branch office and grew it to over 30 consultants, hiring and managing the sales, technical, recruiting, and office staff. I built practices in custom development, business intelligence, IT Planning and change management. In each case I created marketing materials and presentations, sold business, managed projects, and oversaw the hiring and development of staff. I also created methodologies to insure consistent quality of delivery. Specific project highlights include:

For a consumer products manufacturer, designed an ITIL/CobiT-based 3-year roadmap for life cycle asset management that allowed the client to achieve all service goals while reducing year-to-year infrastructure spending.

For a life insurance carrier, I led the proof-of-concept and development of a customer information data warehouse that provided marketing strategies and leads to independent agents. This program reduced agent (and customer) attrition by 25% in its first year. For the same insurer, I worked with the marketing director and CFO to develop a business plan to increase sales in one group from under $1 million annually to over $32 million annually using innovative e-commerce technology.

For a national retailer, I reverse-engineered the undocumented analytic and run-time databases of their e-commerce system to create real-time reports for merchandising and credit managers. These tools were projected to improve profitability of the venture by nearly $4 Million annually. I still get my hands dirty when the need arises.

Interface Design Consultants (IDC) 1990-1994

Vice-President/Founder

I co-founded one of the first GUI client-server database consulting firms in the U.S. Starting from a two person operation, I led all technical aspects of the organization. I wrote code, managed projects, hired and managed technical staff, and developed standards and methodologies to insure overall quality. We achieved profitability within the first twelve months. We then decided to focus on developing software products for law firms and corporate legal departments. I designed and prototyped the applications and participated in sales efforts that resulted in commitments from customers to fund the development of the products, which are now the Lexis/Nexis InterAction CRM suite.

ROLM/IBM 1982-1990

Various Engineering, Marketing, and Management Positions

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology – B.S. Electrical Engineering/Computer Science 1982

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