Yvonne E. Loscher

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Objective

 

Information Technology applications or tools evaluation, selection, and implementation including infrastructure development, customer liaison, vendor relations, proposal generation, project or program management, or consulting

 

Technical Summary

 

-  MS Project for project management of all projects

-  Word and Excel for all budgets, RFIs, Statements of Work

-  Dreamweaver and MS Front Page to create HTML WebPages

-  Photoshop

-  ‘C’ programming

 

Experience

 

2004 to Present

Consultant

Belmont, CA

 

Computerized the billing and scheduling system from a manual process so that Marriage Family Therapist (MFT) could schedule appointments for private, Medicaid, and victims-of-crime patients.

 

-  Responsible for the selection and installation of hardware for home office of MFT.

-  Responsible for the installation, implementation, and maintenance of scheduling and billing software including training staff for ongoing support.

 

2003 to Present

Child Abuse Prevention Center

Palo Alto, CA

 

Trainer

Develops PowerPoint presentations for Training Workshops covering Child Abuse Identification, Mandated Reporting, and Parenting for Success, in conjunction with Marriage Family Therapist.  Conducts the training for Children Personal Safety at homeless shelters and elementary schools.  Conducts the training in English and Spanish at colleges, schools, museums, and humane societies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2001 to Present

Child Abuse Prevention Center

San Jose, CA

Case Worker (Volunteer)

 

Manages the safety of children removed from their homes by court order and placed with relatives, in foster care, or in shelters. Documents interactions and conversations and recommends resolutions of open issues through the agency. Develops PowerPoint presentations for Training Workshops covering Mandated Reporting, Child Personal Safety, and Parenting Success. Makes cold calls on San Mateo County organizations to offer training courses. Conducts the training in English and Spanish at colleges, schools, museums, and humane societies.

 

1998 to 2001

Cisco Systems, Inc.

San Jose, CA  

Project Manager, Advanced Technologies Group

 

Evaluated information technology development tools for use internally to improve application developer productivity company-wide. Selected tools which became the company standards.

Surveyed vendors and gathered information through Gartner Group, Meta, Giga, Patricia Seybold, and the Internet. Spoke with product-independent experts to gain an understanding of the variety and functionality of tools available. Gathered requirements from business experts in Finance, Sales, Data Warehouse, eCommerce ICIT, Extranet, and Manufacturing areas. Managed  technicians to evaluate, install, and test new systems under evaluation. Developed technical requirements and functional test cases working with IT Applications developers and business clients. Contracted with Subject Matter Experts to provide implementation support, Attorneys to write the contracts, Buyers to purchase the software tools, Trainers to teach developers how to use the new tools productively in the Cisco environment, and post installation Technical Support. Activities and achievements:

 

-  Established a cross-functional team made up of application groups from IT and business areas that would benefit most, infrastructure members to support installed tools, and subject matter experts.  Developed a democratic decision-making process with each group contributing resources, requirements, and use cases. Guided the tools selection process to achieve rapid deployment of solutions to meet business objectives.

-  Managed Vendor Relationships including initial contact, RFI, product demonstrations, proof of concept, pilot, contract negotiations, and training phases.

-  Managed vender selection, contract negotiation, and performance phases working with a contract team made up of attorneys, buyers, and senior management. 

-  Interviewed and contracted Field Engineers and wrote statements of work for each project.  Provided status reports and presentations to the Executive Staff. 

-  Managed a budget for each project between $500,000 to $3.5 million depending on the scale of the project and the number of users. Managed groups of 20 to 50 people during project life cycles.

-  Established and carried out a Technical Evaluation Process for each project from Engagement to Close Out, including detailed Engagement definition, Preparation of project plan, Evaluation of vendor products, Vendor solution Alternatives, Tools or Applications Roll Out, Exceptions to Standards, and Close Out. 

-  Evaluated Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing products including Business Objects, Cognos, Ardent, MicroStrategy, Sterling Software, Brio, Viador, Hummingbird, Advantage Completed the Technical Evaluation Process in 5 months.

-  Evaluated Knowledge Management products including visits to the vendors for Verity, Autonomy, 2Bridge, Hyperwave, Corechange, and Plumtree. Completed the analysis phase in 2 months.

-  Evaluated Portals including Epicentric, Data Channel, Viador (Formerly known as Infospace), iPlanet, Tibco, Bowstreet, Top Tier Software, BroadVision, Corechange, Covia, Knowledge Track, Kovair, Plumtree, Radnet, and Bowstreet. Followed the Technical Evaluation Process. In addition, participated in site visits to meet with the CEOs of the top three companies to understand future directions and financial stability.  Completed in 7 months.

-  Evaluated B2B products including Webmethods, Tibco, Netfish, and others. Followed the Technical Evaluation Process. Gained productivity in the eCommerce group.  Millions of dollars are now exchanged using B2B products, and the payment time to Cisco has been greatly reduced.

 

1985 to 1998

EDS Consulting Engagements           

 

Health and Human Services Commission

Austin, TX       

Consultant  (1998)

 

As part of the technical team, supported the assessment of the Texas Workforce Commission’s statewide-distributed systems management approach for desktop, network, and help desk operations. 

 

Hitachi Data Systems

Santa Clara, CA          

Project Manager, Infrastructure  (1996 to 1997)

 

Managed and coordinated infrastructure activities for projects needing deliverables from network server administration, database administration, data communications, technical support, and/or service request management groups. Activities and achievements:

 

-  Achieved increased productivity of service request management and technical support through development and implementation of revised work processes.  Outstanding service requests decreased from 300 to 89 per week as a result.  Achieved five-person equivalent productivity gain, allowing reallocation of resources to other projects.

-  Developed project and resource plans to support application projects.

-  Chaired the Change Control Board, which was a committee that scheduled changes for all corporate applications services EDS provides to Hitachi Data Systems.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Hitachi Data Systems

Santa Clara, CA          

MIS Manager, Professional Services and Employee Services  (1994 to 1996)

 

Ensured that contract and customer requirements were met within budget for multiple projects. Activities and achievements:

 

-  Collaborated with customer to identify HR system replacements requiring vendor evaluation and software selection.

-  Planned, coordinated and managed a ten-person two-team organization to maintain and support production financial and administration systems.

-  Administered compensation, performance evaluation, and career development for direct reports.

 

World Cup USA 1994

San Francisco, CA      

Media Center Technical Support Coordinator  (1994 to 1994)

 

Refined technology requirements, planned deployment of equipment and services, ensured that all media technology needs were met during center operation, and oversaw the de-installation of technology resources at the end of operations. Other activities and achievements:

 

-  Collaborated with the Press Operation Manager to determine required support levels.

-  Provided leadership and training to 20 volunteers to support worldwide journalists with technical needs.

 

Hitachi Data Systems

Santa Clara, CA          

Systems Engineering Supervisor  (1991 to 1994)

 

Managed a team of five people in the production support and enhancement for the HDS proprietary SPIRE Electronic Mail system in the United States. Worked with European counterparts to identify enhancements and integrate upgrades.

 

Hitachi Data Systems

Isleworth, England       

Applications Project Manager  (1990 to 1991)

 

Implemented the Hitachi Data System proprietary SPIRE electronic mail system for the United States using the VM/CMS environment, written in a proprietary language and compiler. Prior to my involvement, installation in the US was attempted twice unsuccessfully.

 

General Motors Service Technology

Rochester, NY 1990 –1990

Programmer Analyst

 

Developed programs to support the Opel-Vauxhall Technology group at the General Motors account, using C and Microsoft operating system.

 

US Postal Service

Washington, D.C.

Systems Supervisor  (1987 to 1990)

 

Led a team of 14 people to develop software, which identified missorts to reduce errors, using C and Microsoft operating system.  Provided business development support for the DC Postal Request for Proposal (RFP) in order to re-compete for the same business.

 

Detroit Diesel Allison

Indianapolis, IN           

Systems Engineer – Systems Engineering Development Phase III  (1985 to 1987)

 

Developed programs to support the World Transmission Group at the General Motors account.

 

Education

 

University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

B.A., Economics