IT Director

Michael S Higgins

*** ***** **., ****** ****** Farms, MI 48236

IT MANAGER / ARCHITECT:

Leadership • System Performance • Cost Optimization

IT Manager and Architect with proven expertise in helping businesses achieve their objectives by crafting innovative IT solutions and ensuring those solutions are implemented effectively and efficiently. Drive development and deployment process optimizations. Spearhead teams to troubleshoot and correct technical issues. Assess risk and develop actionable mitigation strategies. Build solid relationships by effectively collaborating and communicating with business and technical teams both locally and globally.

Business Development • Technical Mentoring and Training • System Architecture and Design • Risk Management • Performance Benchmarking and Troubleshooting • System Optimization • Methodology Implementation

Professional Experience

Independent Consultant

Empco, Inc (1/2009 – present)

• Develop web-based hiring system for use by Michigan Sheriff’s Association. Skills used: PHP, HTML, CSS, Linux, MySQL, JavaScript

Keane, Inc

Director – Enterprise Architecture Practice (9/2007 – 1/2009)

• Founded and led Delivery Assurance sub-practice. Developed processes and standards for assessing and improving project health.

• Provided architectural oversight on a large healthcare J2EE development project at McKesson. Defined standards and patterns for integrating with external systems using HL7. Collaborated with client to identify common components for reuse across products. Technologies used: Java/J2EE, Spring, Hibernate, Oracle, JBoss, XML, JavaSript, web services, .Net (front-end client), Rational Rose, Eclipse, UML

• Worked hands-on with offshore development team to fix performance and functional problems in a large health care application development effort. Implemented use of automated code analysis tools, Continuous Integration, and rigorous unit testing and coverage analysis. Regained client confidence in our team’s ability to successfully deliver resulting in $5M in increased business over three months.

• Developed Code Quality Dashboard using XML / XMLT to consolidate and report tool outputs.

• Conducted five detailed architectural reviews to assess a candidate architecture’s its ability to meet the stated business objectives in terms of ROI as well as ability to meet significant functional and non-functional requirements. Most were Java/J2EE/Oracle-based projects with legacy integration achieved via middleware (MQSeries) or via a SOA-based solution.

• Participated as Solution Architect on RFP responses for PBGC (Federal Government), City of Chicago, Whirlpool

Chief Architect – Keane GMAC Engagement (1/2000 – 9/2007)

• Led team of architects whose mission was to drive solution innovation and ensure quality delivery. Doubled Keane’s business with GMAC over my tenure.

• Led development of seven web and SOA development efforts. Facilitated design and code walkthroughs to ensure quality and consistency. Technologies used: Java/J2EE, JMS, MQSeries, WebLogic, portlets, Eclipse, NetBeans, Rational Rose, web services, XML, JavaScript, JAXR, JAXB, JAXP, JSP, WS-Security, Oracle or MSSQL Server, web architecture and design patterns. Documented architectures using various views (e.g. 4+1 Views) using UML.

• Represented Keane in forums with GMAC’s chief architect, as well as peers from other IT vendors, to share best practices and innovations as well as vendor and product evaluation, selection, and implementation processes.

• Led vendor product evaluation and selection efforts for both hardware and software products. Worked with vendors on Proof-of-Concept projects as part of the evaluations.

• Led Capacity Planning / Performance Optimization efforts to ensure applications met, and continued to meet as patches are added, all performance and capacity requirements. These processes and standards were adopted by GMAC for use by all vendors.

• Oversaw implementation of a mission-critical credit scoring engine requiring integration among J2EE, COTS, and legacy mainframe systems. The resulting system provided faster processing time with lower cost per credit application.

• Technical process lead for successful CMMI Level 5 assessment. Many of the processes were adopted as standards by GMAC

• Developed and conducted training sessions on topics such as Requirements Development and Management, Use Cases, Application Design, Coding Standards, Object Oriented Design

• Awarded 3 GM CIO Supplier Awards for delivery excellence

• Skills summary: Java/J2EE, JMS, JSP, XML, web services, SOAP, WebLogic, Ant, LoadRunner, Rational Rose, Eclipse, UML, Junit, MQSeries, Oracle, SQL, OOA/OOM/OOP

Regional Consultant Manager – Keane Architecture Services Practice (1/2006 – 6/2007)

• Managed and mentored Keane architects. Managed consultant performance and compensation.

• Interfaced with clients to assess their satisfaction with the services provided by the Keane architects.

Web Master – Holnam Cement (1/1999 – 12/1999)

• Administered Windows-based internet and intranet servers. Developed intranet content using ASP, HTML, and JavaScript.

• Trained internal staff on use of intranet tools

Developer – First Chicago NBD Bank (11/1995 – 12/1998)

• Member of Advanced Technology Group. Developed the first intranet applications in the corporation using Java. Developed a web crawler and search engine in Java to index and provide global access to intranet content

Electronic Data Systems (1990 – 1995)

Developer – GMC Truck Engagement

• Provided 24X7 support for critical sales and marketing mainframe applications

Education and Credentials

• B.S. Physics – Oakland University, Rochester, MI, 1987

• ITIL Foundations

• CMMI Level 5 - SEI

Technical Skills

Languages/Platforms: Java/J2EE, EJB, Struts, JSP, Spring, Hibernate, .Net, SOA, SOAP, SQL, XML, XML Schema, UML, PHP, PL/SQL, WebLogic WLS, JBoss, WebSphereMQ/MQ Series, Rose, OOAD, Portals/Portlets

Databases: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL

Operating Systems: HP/UX, Sun Solaris, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X

Methodologies: RUP, Agile, CMMI, ITIL, Team leadership

Business Domains: Healthcare, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Insurance

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