Brett Howard Email & Phone Number

Santa Ana, Ca, Us

Orange, Ca, Us

Responsible for the technical architecture of Word & Brown’s Health Insurance Exchange platform with hands on responsibility for enterprise architecture, system architecture, solutions architecture and application architecture. The solution includes custom application development and the integration of numerous applications including Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains, Electronic Document Management System, Online Payment Processing, Business Intelligence, IVR, Call Center, Identity Management, Single Sign On and EDI. The Exchange solution is a highly available, multi-tenant, scalable and configurable SaaS platform built to support State Based Health Insurance Exchanges in compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).Manage an organization of over 50 resources responsible for Architecture, Application Lifecycle Management, and Health Insurance Exchange developmentPrimary technical interface in partnership with Xerox Government Healthcare Solutions to implement the State of Nevada Health Insurance Exchange and the Florida Health Choices MarketplaceParticipated in demonstrations and sales presentations for the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and IllinoisAuthored technical responses for numerous state Health Insurance Exchange RFI and RFP documentsDeveloped and implemented an intellectual property strategy for the Exchange platform which includes code copyright, code escrow, software architecture and application deployment designPartnered with IT executive management peers to manage the IT organization through a hyper-growth mode from 100 to over 225 staff resources within six months. Strategized and coordinated recruiting, onboarding, space planning, resource management, organizational structure and development strategy.Collaborate with senior business executives, product management, project management and IT management for strategic planning and implementation

Orange, Ca, Us

Responsible for all aspects of the development and delivery of six Word & Brown private Health Insurance Exchange applications. These systems enable the business functionality in the largest revenue generating divisions at Word & Brown. The applications include user website portals as well as business modules used by organizations such as sales, marketing and business operations.Managed two IT divisions with over 90 resources responsible for the ongoing design, development, testing, delivery and support of six Private Exchange applications.Implemented the expansion of the offshore strategy to multiple vendors in both India and ChinaResponsible for the turnaround of a failing Ancillary Benefits Exchange project. Performed a technical review of the project, then implemented new processes and procedures, re-organized the IT team and partnered with business sponsors to prioritize issues resolution and feature development.Lead the IT organizations in a switch to an Agile SCRUM SDLC methodology. Formed development teams utilizing Scrum Masters, Business Analysts, Developers and Quality Assurance resources. Teamed with business sponsors to created product roadmaps and product backlogs.Lead an effort to implement a dual technical and management career path for IT staff, standardized new job descriptions and teamed with Human Resources to create competitive salary bands for the IT organization

Orange, Ca, Us

Directed all design, development, testing, delivery and support of the Word & Brown General Agency business products. These applications enable Health Insurance Brokers to more effectively sell insurance to both individuals and small businesses. In addition to broker websites, the systems also included business modules for internal users.Managed multiple teams with over 20 resources responsible for all technical aspects of the products including websites, backend business services and databases.Interfaced with other groups including business users, the Project Management Office, IT operations, business operations and executive managementLead the effort to begin the migration from the company’s legacy system to a new Microsoft .Net based system. Successfully delivered a new .Net application to support the business objective to expand the General Agency business into the state of Nevada.Successfully developed and delivered an online CRM application platform which allowed the broker community to manage their business activity online. This application was used to recruit new brokers as well as enabled strong broker retention.Developed and implemented a consulting and offshore strategy which was the first in the history of the company. Identified a strategic onshore and offshore agency to partner with to implement the strategy. Was able to increase the delivery capacity of the IT organization at a lower cost by utilizing both onshore and offshore contractors.

Santa Clara, California, Us

Responsible for software Quality Assurance, Application Certification, Sustaining Engineering, Release Engineering, IT Operations, Technical Publications and Provisioning Services.Managed the integration and consolidation of resources and projects across multiple organizations in multiple national locations resulting from acquisition activity.Responsible for Engineering and Project Management of Vertical's MultSite Reporter application which consolidated and reported business intelligence from a network of IP PBX systems.Successfully lead and implemented a Business Intelligence reporting solution for large distributed telecommunications networks which lead competitors and was a key factor in sales wins over competitor’s products.Managed outsourced offshore development projects consisting of both local and offshore development teams.Aggressively steered the Quality Assurance organization with an investment in equipment and resources to focus on automation of test suites for Vertical’s products and applications. Resulted in improved resource utilization and faster Quality Assurance cycle times

Santa Clara, California, Us

Responsible for the Management Products organization which consisted of the Remote Administration development team, Vertical’s MultiSite Applications development teams and Technical Publications.Engineering teams developed and maintained the Remote Administration and Diagnostics application for the InstantOffice IP PBX, a web application for initial Configuration and Provisioning of the InstantOffice as well as the MultiSite Manager and MultiSite Reporter applications. Additionally, team provided Database Services for these applications and the InstantOffice system.Successfully lead and implement a CTO sponsored initiative to develop and implement the first centralized management application for a large distributed telecommunications network in the industry. This initiative was instrumental in the company’s largest enterprise sales win.Key customer liaison during installation and rollout of first MultiSite Manager deployment managing over five thousand InstantOffice systemsInstrumental in improving the project management processes and procedures used for development projects in the company.

Santa Clara, California, Us

Managed the Remote Administration development group responsible for the Java based Remote Administration and Diagnostics application which provides customers with a web based remote interface to administer and diagnose the InstantOffice IP PBX communications system. This was the first integrated communications platform with remote management capabilities.Built and developed a team which led the company in improving development processes, schedule accuracy and application quality.

Munich, De

Managed the initial and ongoing development of Siemens sales, configuration and polling tools for US PBX products.Teamed with Microsoft for initial development and deployment of Siemens quoting and configuration infrastructure/landscape using Windows 95, Windows NT, Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Visual C++ and Visual Basic technology. This was a key initiative for Microsoft in the telecommunications industry and a subject of a Microsoft Case Study.Responsible for a combined team of 25 contractors and regular employees.