Business Analysis
Business Intelligence Implementation
Business Intelligence Software Selection
Business Process Improvement
Consulting
Customer Resource Management
Data Warehouse
Documentation
Data Analysis
Enterprise Resource Planning
Business Analysis
Financial Reporting and Budgeting
Integrating Technology
Project Management
SQL Server
Business Analysis
Technical Writing
Training
Business Intelligence
- 10 successful new full cycle Business Intelligence software implementations for various industries including two hospitals, a clinic chain, two heavy equipment manufacturers, a university consortium, a clothing retail chain, two grocery chains, and a non-profit.
Corporate Performance Management
- Corporate Performance Management Consolidation and Reporting implementations for industries ranging from micro-electronics to heavy equipment manufacturing, insurance, medical & health care, legal, and retail sales industries. Leading teams from requirements gathering to implementation.
Analytical Application Architect
- Guided 4 fiscal year conversions; and implemented complicated automated load and consolidation processes including designing formulas with custom drivers for 5 companies.
- Developed custom sales reporting for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, with automated distribution resulting in sales figures emailed out to international sales staff 1 hour after final daily figures reported.
- Increased visibility into patient care, prescribing patterns and profitability for 2 hospitals and a clinic using QlikView as the front end delivery for custom data warehouses combining data from multiple source systems and using different data warehouse databases.
- 3 robust data warehouse designs and implementations including one with a unique calendar-weeks-in-month reporting calendar.
- Architect new solutions for budget creation and control in major version software upgrade for book retailer, including requirements gathering, server recommendations, installation, integration, formula translation, automation of ETL and report distribution.
- Expert in Analysis Services and MDX, I have designed 4 soup-to-nuts systems architecture, managed application development life cycles and data modeling to deliver BI applications to clients with Analysis Services for the data mart delivery.
Consulting
- Helped a client resolve a significant reconciliation issue between their transaction system and General Ledger by identifying and quantifying the issues, fixing the problem, and putting the controls in place to ensure the errors would not happen again.
- My career path as a consultant has allowed me to gain multiple perspectives strengthening my innate ability to see the big picture and has provided me with a diversified foundation of knowledge in Business Intelligence and Analytics.
Enterprise Resource Planning
- 3 successful ERP software implementations tied with BI implementations. Strong understanding of Financial Reporting requirements and SOX requirements for reporting integrity.
- Supervised staff of 25 to 30 employees. Responsible for staffing, scheduling and training for safety and efficiency. Worked with two union contracts including grievance procedures. Developed reports and coordinated planning with other supervisory staff.
Integrating Technology
- Realized the Chief Financial Officer’s vision of a Management Dashboard opening with four quadrants leading to detailed information – first person to integrate Comshare and SharePoint websites to realize this vision.
- Implemented a programmatic data consolidation and extraction for the annual partnership contribution reporting reducing the report preparation time from three weeks to three hours.
- Recognized gaps in processes and designed solutions then persuaded stakeholders to adopt those solutions becoming the ad-hoc systems integration specialist. Integrated Microsoft applications, Lotus Notes/Domino, intranet applications, SQL Server and iSeries (AS/400).
- Creating transaction to reporting solutions with Analysis Services and SQL , SAP BPC, Infor PM, Microsoft BI suite, and SAS FM; including phase 2, upgrades and customization. Installing, migrating and ETL programming in SQL, Talend or SAS.
Business Analysis
- Helped a debit card provider client resolve a significant reconciliation issue between their transaction system and General Ledger by identifying and quantifying the issues, fixing the problem, and putting the controls in place to ensure the errors would not happen again.
- Analysed inventory accounting processes for a recycling manufacturer proving out the accuracy of their inventory processing.
- Recognized gaps in processes and designed solutions, then persuaded stakeholders to adopt those solutions.
Project Management
- 5 recent sucessful projects – on-time and on-budget – including two upgrades, a fiscal year conversion, a data warehouse implementation and a BI software implementation.
- Led teams in group projects from planning to implementation of business applications
- Other relevant work experience includes conducting focus group interviews, phone interviews and follow-ups. Outlining class requirements, structure lesson plans and quizzes, deliver lectures, and guide small group lab work and essays.
Customer Resource Management
- Rescued a client implement of a CPM package after the client had tried and failed twice previously without assistance. Instrumental in understanding why the previous implementations had failed, developed a more reasonable approach, and utilization of the software for the client implementation to be successful.
Data Warehouse
- 4 robust data warehouse designs and implementations including one with a unique calendar-weeks-in-month reporting calendar. Use of SQL Server, Sybase IQ, Oracle 11, and iSeries DB/400.
- Responsible for gathering and assessing business information needs and preparing data and reporting requirements. Perform analysis, development and evaluation of data mining in a data warehouse environment which includes data design, database architecture, metadata and repository creation.
- Develop and test programs to extract, cleanse, transform and load from source systems into EDW and into data marts.
Data Analysis
- Research data from any SQL compliant source and correlate into information to create dashboards, KPIs and Balanced Scorecards.
- Perform analysis, development and evaluation of data mining in a data warehouse environment which includes data design, database architecture, metadata and repository creation.
- Traced phone records from entry into accounting system, matching to actual billing from phone company and proving out to customer re-billing.
Training
- I am recognized as a troubleshooter for difficult client engagements and have extensive experience training both client personnel and consulting staff via media, classroom and one-on-one instruction.
- Passion for learning and sharing that passion – I served as a cub-scout leader for five years where I arranged tours of multiple businesses to expose the boys to career and learning opportunities. I arranged to reserve mall space at the local mall every year for a bake sale and Boy Scout Jamboree ticket sales. With the parents help and permission, our cub-scouts (in pairs) sold tickets to the Jamboree at the mall. Our Cub Scout troop never won first in ticket sales, competing against much older boys in Boy Scout troops, but we usually placed in the top three and had the added benefit of the bake sale funds for our troop’s use.
Business Process Improvement
- While attending college, I worked as Supervisor of Distribution Operations at the U.S. Post Office in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Here I was responsible for scheduling staff to meet constantly changing mail flow and weather conditions while working within the guidelines of two union contracts. Supervised staff of 25 to 30 employees. Developed reports and coordinated planning with other supervisory staff. Negotiated work floor equipment rearrangement for better workflow and efficiency with less adaptation during the end of year holiday season.
- Rescued a client implement of a CPM package after the client had tried and failed twice previously without assistance. Instrumental in understanding why the previous implementations had failed, developed a more reasonable approach, and utilization of the software for the client implementation to be successful.
Finance Reporting and Budgeting
- Conducted Corporate and Partnership accounting. Developed a computerized double-entry bookkeeping system for automated accounting before any were commercially available. For one small corporation, filed three years of amended tax returns securing $12,000 in tax refunds.
- BA in Sociology with minors in Accounting and Computer Science enable me to communicate between the Financial stakeholders and technical staff to achieve business goals.
- Set up partnership accounting system for a cleaning service business with 200 employees and branch offices in Sioux Falls and Las Vegas. Prepared financial reports, balance sheets, and partnership tax filings. Understand the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, GAAP and IASC
- Created and maintained accounting and financial analysis programs including custom extractions of daily sales data into data warehouse for comparison of year over year and day over day.
- Budget analytics development for two extended care facilities (one based in Wisconsin and one based in Florida). 2015, worked on the IDC-10 conversion for a physical therapy business.
SQL Server – DBA, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, Visual Studio, BIDS
- Member and presenter – SQL PASS Association
- 2 SQL Server data warehouses, multiple ETL automations with SSIS.
- 4 SSAS (Analysis Services) implementations with different reporting tools ranging from proprietary software (Infor) to SSRS (SQL Reporting Services) and Excel.
Writing, Documentation, Editing
- As a project manager and BI analyst, I have been the documentation “queen” for the technology consulting firms where I have worked. I can write to length and deadline as required. Redacted Business Technical Requirements Documents available upon request. Published Author: Instant QlikView 11 Application Development (Packt Publishing, July 2013); QlikView for Finance (Packt Publishing, September 2015). Blogs for Strafford Technology, LLC: including SOX and HIPPA considerations in Cloud environments. Learning QlikView 12 – ( Video for Packt Publishing, January 2017).
- One of the best parts of getting a degree in Sociology was researching, writing and editing my writing. Many of my professors told me that they enjoyed reading what I wrote.I directed the Publications and Publicity Division of a 501(c)(3) literary corporation with an all-volunteer staff and over six thousand members. During the three years leading up to the annual conference that our team was responsible to host, we published seven progress reports, developed media kits and managed the conference website. We created and published the souvenir program book, a special guest publication, the program listings guide, and three times daily newsletters during the four-day convention, also keeping the website up-to-date, and hosting media in our Press room. I was one of three editors who reviewed each publication. Our advertising sales made us a profit center for the corporation allowing us to bring in additional guest speakers and publish a Memory book.
- I try to vary my style to fit my audience. Technical writing requires a different vocabulary than academic writing. And marketing is another vocabulary exercise. I can write to length and deadline as needed. The writing styles of Mark Twain are the styles I would most like to emulate.
Writing Examples Available:
- Informative – http://blackwood.org/SUBLIM.html
- Academic – http://blackwood.org/reading.html or http://blackwood.org/AI.htm
- Technical – https://www.packtpub.com/application-development/qlikview-finance
- Biographical – http://blackwood.org/Erving.htm or http://blackwood.org/Babbage.htm