Christopher Benz Email & Phone Number

Bellevue, Wa, Us

Bellevue, Wa, Us

Seattle, Washington, Us

Provide leadership for program and project planning and execution. Advise clients on strategic thinking, risk management, change management, and continuous improvement

Redmond, Washington, Us

Supporting Microsoft's global retail footprint through delivering system solutions to Merchandising and other Headquarter groups to support consumer expectations in both Microsoft Experience Centers and Online channels globally in an engineering TPM role. Toolset: Blue Yonder Category Management/Demand/Fulfillment, Azure, SAP, Azure DevOps, ChannelAdvisorKey ResponsibilitiesDefining and Delivering Merchandising Technology Solution Roadmap:- Shaped the technology roadmap for merchandising. Identifying key technology solutions, understanding business needs, and aligning them with the overall strategy.- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure that the roadmap addresses critical challenges faced by merchandising teams.Leading Onsite and Offsite Engineering Teams:- Agile software delivery emphasizing flexibility, collaboration, and iterative progress. - Ensuring all deliverables met Accessibility and Developlment Microsoft principlesTechnical and Non-Technical Backlog Management:- Creating & defining both technical (development-related) and non-technical (business process-related) backlogs.- Prioritized, clearly communication, and aligned with business goalsChange Management Development:- Developed strategies to minimize disruption and maximize adoption- Ensured global change delivery with both onsite & offsite teamsDriving Vendor Backlog and Statement of Work (SOW) Processes:- SOW processes involved defining project scope, deliverables, timelines, and costs. Oversight ensured successful collaboration with vendors delivering against Microsoft software development standard

Seattle, Us

Create a merchandising roadmap for retail and technology innovation and presented to C-Suite for executive buy-in. Interview, hire and support product owners against committed roadmap. Create a Source-to-Pay ecosystem in an agile environment to improve operations and build for future capabilities. Plan releases over a 16-month roll-out with the integration of 5 key elements: contract management, document exchange, vendor management, invoice, and procurement. Toolset: Ariba B2B Suite, IBM Fulfilment, SAP, TXT Retail, ConfluenceKey Responsibilities:• HR support for team of Product Owners delivering against Merchandising strategic roadmap • Vendor relationship ownership with SAP Ariba, ensuring resources, commitments, break fixes and enhancement commitments are driven while partnering on REI future roadmap• Define the approach and strategy through team workshops including scope management and change management• Create resource model, business case and secure funding through executive leadership for program deliverables• Monitor and provide resources for on-time, budget, risk analysis, and analytical cost modeling• Deliver cross divisional support, monthly review with the CFO, CTO and the heads of merchandising and supply chain

Seattle, Washington, Us

Ownership of item management, price execution & enterprise distribution, purchase order functional areas. Scope of program ownership included Online, Nordstrom Full Line, Nordstrom Rack & Nordstrom Canada. Key Contributions• Continued engagement with Oracle’s development and product teams, to directly influence the Oracle Merchandising road map incorporating Nordstrom best practices• Provided pre-project scoping and critical requirements to ensure technology solutions align to business initiatives in both Waterfall and Agile methodologies • Designed, created, and presented cross divisional engagement materials for next generation Off Price initiatives• Influenced critical technical solutions and decisions for merchandising system design• Full ownership of business requirements for areas of assigned responsibility in both waterfall and agile formats• Leader within the retail community for Nordstrom Technology best practices and Oracle development lessons learned through Advisory Board and Retail Special Interest Group• Drive technology development for associated products through collaboration with engineers and architecture in a large enterprise setting• Managed Oracle/Nordstrom Merchandising Product roadmap relationship in support of Nordstrom Rack next generation releases• Created and delivered process flows for areas of responsibility within Merchandising• Thought leader during pre-project technology and business best practice discussions

Seattle, Washington, Us

Senior Business Analyst that supported Nordstrom’s first international expansion in company history. Defining scope, business requirements and implementation strategies for: purchase order, price execution & enterprise distribution, cross border inventory movement, data exchange and selling system interfaces. Key Contributions• Created and owned all requirements for Order Management, Price Management & End-to-End System Integration• Drive development for upstream and downstream development teams during enterprise build activities for associated products• Collaborated with developers to accurately scope and communicate issue impacts during development and test• Ensured all engineering deliverables met business requirements and business sponsor expectations• Communicated the status of responsible track to the Project Management team • Developed and executed test case scenarios for areas of ownership as well as end-to-end testing periods • Delivered successful product demos of Oracle functionality to multiple stakeholders within the organization • Provided leadership to fellow business analysts coaching best practices • Managed the project’s issue log throughout the life-cycle of the project • Primary representative to the Planning Technology team to provide Merchandising requirements for development, testing and roll out of an integrated purchase order tool • Collaborated Education teams to develop materials to evangelize the new multi-market Ordering processes

Seattle, Washington, Us

Integral Business Analyst within the Production Support Team that was responsible for on boarding analysts, resolving the most impactful system issues, and managing small to medium development projects. Identified and implemented multiple business and technical efficiencies in the bi-yearly Nordstrom Physical Inventory process. Key Contributions• Led Nordstrom Physical Inventory (P.I.) for Technology for two years (two cycles per year) • Implemented workflow improvements and technology gains for P.I., resulting in reductions of 35% processing time (identifying clear checkpoint owners, streamlined signoff & systematic thresholds) for a 6 year established process• Tracked business analyst work plans to ensure team deliverables are meeting Merch Business SLAs • Provided training and support to business analysts for multiple enterprise systems • Implemented workflow improvements and technology gains for P.I., resulting in reductions of 35% processing time (identifying clear checkpoint owners, streamlined signoff & systematic thresholds) for a 6 year established process

Bachelors Of Science, Communication Studies

Minor, Management Information Systems

Minor, Business Administration