Blaine Wolff Email & Phone Number

Ravenna, Ohio, United States

Reporting to the Executive Vice President, in the role of Senior IT Manager, responsible for the Information Technology function including WAN, LAN, desktops, servers, application software, disaster/recovery, project management, vendor management, etc. Some key initiatives I delivered are:• Total upgrade of the IT and communications infrastructure and support model leveraging virtualization, outsourced service partners, improved offsite backup strategies and upgraded service management tools.• Upgrades/implementations of key processing components including; the core banking system, on-line banking, collections, loan processing, loan administration, payment servicing and business intelligence. • IT disaster recovery plan overhaul coupled with a successful test of the plan, recovery capabilities and timeline.

Established and managed this consulting firm focused on providing senior level IT leadership services to the small and medium business market leveraging an engagement model customized to meet the needs of that market.

Led 45 member software development team with members located in Ohio and Moscow, Russia. Team developed, implemented and supported custom software products leveraging multiple technologies. The products are used by customers in the US and internationally. Drove the definition of a unified product vision and began the evolution towards that vision. Key contributor in defining and implementing a standard software development life cycle which led to ISO 9001 certification. Improved the project management, incident management and problem management disciplines and improved upon key metrics such as Complete On Time, Defects per Million Opportunities, Incident Backlog and staff allocation to revenue generating projects.

Led a software development and support organization with 150+ staff in several US and international locations and an operating budget of $25MM. Managed the transition to an outsourced staffing model and was the primary point of contact for the outsourcer. Product portfolio included over 100 custom and commercial products utilizing a wide spectrum of technologies. Under my leadership the team developed and executed project plans that completed knowledge transfer and transition of responsibilities to the outsourcer on schedule and under budget. During and following this transition the team continued to meet all support SLA’s and improved upon key support metrics.

Established and led new organization accountable for delivering quality projects on time and within budget while evolving enterprise application architecture. This fifty person team was organized into four tightly related disciplines; project management, application architecture, enterprise application integration and business analysis. Realized incremental improvements while meeting existing commitments.• Established application architecture roadmap by developing “as is” and “to be” models and designed solutions to leverage existing assets and evolve the enterprise in alignment with the roadmap. • Implemented an Enterprise Application Integration layer and leveraged the EAI to spearhead evolution to a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) while retaining legacy assets.• Dramatically improved product quality by defining and implementing an improved requirements gathering process to solidify scope and expected results to ensure development of solutions that met business needs and improving software testing processes including; mapping test cases to requirements, automating test execution and simplifying results verification.• Developed dynamic, highly effective project management organization by setting high expectations, leveraging PMI/PMBOK processes, implementing PM training initiative resulting in PMP certification for 80% of project management team and improving project/portfolio management tools.• Annually improved project delivery metrics (quality, schedule and budget) while delivering over 500,000 hours project work effort over a three year period. • Improved project governance processes and reporting enabling smoother project execution.• Enabled business re-organization by on-time/on-budget delivery of concurrent multi-million dollar infrastructure separation and conversion/integration programs consisting of LAN/WAN, servers, mainframe, DBMS, gap analysis/closure, data mapping/migration, process re-engineering, testing, etc.

Selected to define and develop an application service provider (ASP) line of business to address emerging opportunities with new entrants in the communications industry. Researched the needs of these emerging businesses, mapped those needs to current capabilities and identified gaps. Architected improvements to existing applications to strengthen their capabilities and fill some of the identified gaps. Developed and distributed a RFI to vendors to explore the possibilities of securing a partner to address the remaining gaps in the ASP offering. Selected a vendor and negotiated a Master Service Agreement for the ASP partnership. Interviewed and selected talented, outside-the-box-thinking individuals to join this new business unit. Developed cost models, pricing models, marketing collateral, sales presentations, etc. to support the marketing and sales process. Marketed the ASP offering to six prospects and closed one sale prior to being promoted to a new role.

Led the program to upgrade the communications division’s proprietary application software, third-party software and hardware platforms to Year 2000 compliancy. Successfully completed this multi-million dollar, multi-location, multi-technology program on schedule and substantially under budget with no major incidents following January 1, 2000.

Managed a team of more than thirty employees in the implementation, support and enhancement of a comprehensive customer care and billing system.