IT Manager
American University of Beirut
Total years of experience :17 years, 7 Months
Role
Responsible for managing full IT operations for the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut, mainly focusing on developing the IT Strategy for the faculty, managing various IT Projects to cater for different needs, and leading a team of field support that is in turn responsible for supporting more than 300 users and 2500 students.
Key Achievements
Successfully migrated the current SCSM Service Desk system to a cloud based solution (TeamDynamix) in record time and with minimal cost.
Implemented VDI solutions for various functions at the faculty, and mainly for undergraduate teaching labs, resulting in huge savings in hardware and software expenses.
Successfully designed and implemented different systems to support the faculty’s needs and demands.
Revised software licensing process and implemented a system to centrally manage all licenses and report against them, resulting in 13% savings on licensing maintenance and subscription costs.
Cost Containment
Drafting and submitting budget proposals (CAPEX/OPEX), and recommending subsequent budget changes where necessary whilst regularly monitoring spend.
Negotiating existing and prospective contracts with a great focus on cost reduction and cost-effective procurement.
Optimizing purchasing activities (software and hardware) and ensure that spending is aligned with the forecasted budgets and in alignment with the IT policies.
IT Strategy, Projects, Team Leadership, and Operations activities
Working closely with executives and senior leadership teams to discuss business strategies and identify areas where IT can be a strategic business enabler.
Managing the faculty’s IT projects from initiation to closure whilst ensuring alignment with AUB’s PMO and best practices.
Support the enforcement and implementation of central IT policies.
Providing IT consulting services for the faculty, mainly leading business analysis, design, and build of new solutions.
Acting as an escalation point for all IT related concerns at the faculty and taking action against any critical items that require immediate attention.
Ensuring 100% software license compliance and acting upon non-compliant elements.
Ensuring proper IT service delivery by regularly monitoring KPIs and customer feedback and acting against any opportunities for improvement.
Leading a team of field support technicians who are responsible for providing technical hardware and software support for the faculty, staff, and students.
Managing regional IT operations for the Middle East & Africa cluster (Systems, Services, Applications, Data Center Operations, Licensing, Governance & Compliance, Procurement, Support, Disaster Recovery, Telecom, Network, etc...)
· Promoting IT as a business partner by integrating tightly with business and proactively identifying business needs/pains and providing
innovative and effective IS solutions.
· Assigned as a Country Integration Manager (CIM) to coordinate new system changes and quarterly regression testing between global and
cross functional teams within the local business.
· Acting as a solutions architect; leading the design, build, implementation, and continual service improvement of all local applications and systems.
· Leading a team comprising IT Technicians, Network Architects, and System Specialists.
· Supporting customers and users located across the Middle East & Africa region.
· Managing all IT related projects from initiation to closure, ensuring alignment with Goodyear’s global PMO and best practices.
· Managing all IT Services and supporting Business Continuity.
· Promoting and Implementing Regional IT initiatives, projects and solutions for local needs where applicable.
· Drafting and submitting budget proposals (CAPEX & operational expenses), and recommending subsequent budget changes where necessary. Maintaining annual AOP, reviewing actuals and submitting forecasts on a monthly basis.
· Negotiating existing and prospective contracts with a great focus on cost reduction and cost-effective procurement.
· Supporting the execution of the department’s strategic operation plan.
· Successfully implemented a top notch server & infrastructure architecture with a disaster recovery plan.
· Ensuring 100% software license compliance and acting upon noncompliant elements.
· Monitoring SLAs and 3rd party contractor’s performance.
Communicating and enforcing Global/Regional/Local IT policies and procedures within IT and the user community.
· Creating RFPs, and evaluating various vendors for solution selection.
· Managing relationships with 3rd party vendors and supporting service owners of regional contracts
• Working closely with customers and external stakeholders to design and build solutions that meet their business present and future requirements.
• Liaising between operations, IT, finance, and different project teams to implement effective solutions tailored to different operational scenarios and challenges.
• Meeting with high management to resolve IT business pains and identify key opportunities and enhancements to existing systems and processes.
• Managing IT project development from beginning to end and developing full scale project plans along with their associated communications documents.
• Managing external vendors and suppliers, following up and monitoring their work, and performing quality assurance on the deliverables.
• Meeting with project stakeholders for requirement gathering, data analysis, and preparing solution designs.
• Planning and scheduling project timelines and milestones using appropriate tools, and managing changes in project scope.
• Coaching, motivating, and supervising project team members and contractors, and influencing them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
• Creating post project reports to identify successful / unsuccessful project elements.
• Submitting RFQs, performing vendor evaluation, and recommending the preferred vendors to the high management.
• Drafting and submitting budget proposals, and recommending subsequent budget changes where necessary.
• Designing and leading implementations of workflows, operational processes, and technical developments.
• Collaborating on solution architecture and infrastructure requirements, leading test data analysis and collection efforts, and coordinating test cycle runs with technical team; playing key role in smooth operation of intensive testing environment.
• Directing and managing project development from beginning to end.
• Developing full scale project plans and associated communications documents.
• Defining project scope, goals and deliverables that support business goals in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders.
• Planning and scheduling project timelines and milestones using appropriate tools.
• Managing changes in project scope, identifying potential crises, and devising contingency plans.
• Coaching, mentoring, motivating and supervising project team members and contractors, and influencing them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
• Conducting project post mortems and create a recommendations report in order to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements.
• Identifying and managing project dependencies and critical path.
• Leading a team of 7 resources fully dedicated to optimizing business & system processes through various technical solutions.
• Managing and implementing all changes and customizations to existing applications.
• Maintaining senior level expertise and assisting technical and operational teams in fixing issues and completing implementations.
• Providing business analysis, business area assessment, user needs analysis, and business systems design for major projects (US DOD and UK MOD projects in Afghanistan, Dubai, and Latvia).
• Drafting and submitting budget proposals, and recommending subsequent budget changes where necessary.
• Designing and leading implementations of workflows, operational processes, and technical developments.
• Serving as a Project Manager on WMS - Microsoft Dynamics Axapta integration project & Customer Order Tracking System.
• Implementing achievable solutions to complex operational problems/issues based on technical experience and strong knowledge of the operations.
• Providing process, data, and object modeling in a variety of application and database environments.
• Proposing out-of-the box solutions and establishing close communication channels with existing clients.
• Working on technical-improvement solutions to implement more efficient and documented fixes and processes to solve issues that were previously frequent and aroused customer complaints.
• Working with analysis, design, construction, testing, and implementation of several real-time interfaces between warehouse management system and various ERP systems.
• Working on-site with clients from initial project stages through system installation and conversion.
• Working extensively with both the Customer Support and Professional Services teams.
• Working extensively with database design and development.
• Working with both 3-tier and 2-tier software architecture.
• Working extensively with Exceed / SSA Warehouse Management System.
• Experience in WMS Portal / COMS (Customer Order Management System)
• Development and maintenance of required sql, pl/sql, triggers and procedures for the integration of WMS with various ERP systems.
• Supported Nestle’s EDI Integration with five different 3PL providers.
• Installation, configuration and administration of WMS, Boomi, and SQL/Oracle databases
• Systems integration (ERP and WMS) via BOOMI Integration Platform.
• Conducting user training (Database Model and Systems Administration).
Outstanding achiever who had been academically recognized and was on the Dean's List throughout the whole program, with a final semester GPA of 3.88 / 4. Completed major courses covering all software engineering aspects, project management, communication, and databases.