Eric Breese Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

College of Computing | Department of Information Technology and Management

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

One of the country’s 10 largest private universities with 26,000 students in nine schools and colleges that spans six campuses in the Chicago metropolitan area.Primary responsibilities include strategic planning and daily operations management of the help desk, operators, technicians, ID card services and student computer support centers supporting all areas of the university. Work closely with decision makers from around the university to ensure that Information Services is delivering high quality services to the university community. Actively participate in the change management and architecture review processes. Use technology and business process design skills to improve services to the university.Major accomplishments:• Raised the first call closure rate of the help desk to 75-80% by using a variety of staff education sessions, establishing a structured knowledge base, and improved hiring practices. This resulted in an increased customer satisfaction rating.• Merged the help desk & operators into a single support center. This resulted in an average response SLA of over 95% for the combined call center.• Assisted with the development of a new organizational structure for the Information Services division.• Regularly met with key university departments, schools, colleges and organizations such as Faculty Council and Student Government to understand their needs and tailor support services to meet their expectations through established service level agreements and metrics. • Acted as the product manager for ImageNow, the university’s imaging system to understand customer’s needs and assist them with their transition to the imaging system.

Chicago, Il, Us

Responsibilities included help desk management and imaging product management. Assisted with infrastructure services, data center planning and networks and telecommunications advising.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Responsibilities include strategic planning, crisis management, and daily operations for the telecommunications operations at each of Rush’s 27 locations with an annual budget of $4 million and a staff of 30 FTE’s that support 14,000 stations and 5,000 pagers. As part of the Information Services senior management team, spends time with physicians and staff learning the business and unique requirements for all healthcare, education, and research areas. While at Rush learned to manage managers for the first time and also learned to manage non-technical customer service staff in addition to technical staff.Major accomplishments:• Rebuilt, staffed, and trained a department from the ground up resulting in a department that is respected across the institution for its technical and customer service skills.• Reduced operating costs approximately $7.2 million over the first five years while simultaneously increasing services.• Selected, designed, and managed the complete replacement in the institution’s 14,000 station PBX utilizing in-house staff resulting in the savings of $1 million. This also allowed the staff to better understand the institutions business needs.• Designed and managed the upgrade of the institution’s copper & fiber optic backbone serving over 250 communications closets to prepare for the implementation of a new integrated clinical information system.• Negotiated contracts with all carriers resulting in improved services at reduced costs at each negotiation, including a one time credit of $950,000.• Selected and managed the installation of several database systems including a new telemanagement system and a new operator services, corporate directory and paging system to provide enhanced services and regulatory compliance. The result of the implementation of these systems was an increase in the customer service level of the staff and reduced operating costs.

Indianapolis, Indiana, Us

The country’s largest healthcare insurance company with $20.5 billion in annual revenues and 28 million medical members. Operates as Blue Cross in California, Blue Cross Blue Shield in other states and Unicare throughout the rest of the country.Managed the telecommunications staff of both outsourced and retained employees. Responsible for all telecommunications projects, including several system installations, upgrades, and workflow reengineering projects. Spent time with each department learning the business of healthcare insurance. Provided internal consulting services to the various departments and medical offices. Acted as a resource to the telecommunications staff helping them to better understand the clients needs and the system’s capabilities. Significant focus on ACD capabilities due to the critical nature of call centers in the insurance business. Performed backup duties for system administration and technical work on an as needed basis.Major accomplishments:• Designed all of the call centers including the major ones of 100+ agents taking into account the unique requirements of the various product lines including HMO, PPO, POS & self-insured employer groups.• Installation of remote equipment at medical offices throughout the Chicago metropolitan area without assistance of outside vendors. This resulted in improved customer service to the members, reduced operating costs and provided summary ACD statistics to management.• Responsible for the upgrade and expansion of the data network from a flat 10 megabit network to a gigabit switched network to provide improved throughput and reliability.• Selected and managed the implementation of a new call center quality monitoring system. This new system allowed call center management to better coach the agents on their performance and improve their skills.• Part of the merger and acquisitions team handling the acquisition of Chicago based Rush Prudential Health Plans.

See description under WellPoint Health Networks. Rush-Prudential was aquired by WellPoint during employement.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

The seventh largest public accounting and consulting firm in the country with Accounting and Tax practices focusing on the mid-sized client and Consulting practices focusing on the mid to large size client.Management consultant in all aspects relating to telecommunications with an emphasis on voice communications systems and structured cabling systems. In addition, acted as the Telecommunications Manager for the Chicagoland offices of McGladrey & Pullen which includes a five node Rolm system in a private network and a Merlin key system.Performed telecommunications consulting projects for clients all around the world. Duties covered all aspects of telecommunications management with primary focus on needs assessment, system selection, contract negotiation and implementation project management. Developed an extensive working knowledge of networked PBX systems and acted as a resource to other consultants in my group helping them design such systems for their clients. In addition, worked extensively with structured cable system design and project management. Some of the larger projects included:• Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric Company (now Mid-American Energy): A mid-sized utility company based in the Quad Cities. IIGE’s current costs and operational issues were analyzed and a networked PBX arrangement was recommended with a networked ACD arrangement to handle Customer Service calls. After the system selection was completed I was the project manager.• Mercy Medical Center -- Cedar Rapids, Iowa: I helped Mercy to determine their needs and select a new system including structured cabling.• Rush Prudential Health Plans: A large managed care organization based in Chicago, Illinois. I was the consultant in charge of this project.• Bethpage Federal Credit Union: Located on Long Island in New York, BFCU is a large credit union that serves Grumman Aircraft and many other companies.

Large provider of customer premise based telecommunications equipment serving customers in Iowa and western Illinois. Handled new telephone system sales and supported an existing account base of several hundred customers. While at Teleconnect learned how to analyze customers needs, and improved the ability to build strong relationships with customers,

A 60 year-old family business consisting of 13 NAPA automotive parts stores throughout Eastern Iowa and various real-estate ventures. As a family member was actively involved in the business serving in a variety of functions from financial analysis to various technical responsibilities. This resulted in a strong business focus from an early age and a firm understanding of the relationship of operations to profitability.

Master Of Science (Ms), Network Engineering And Security

Bba, Business, Engineering

Education record