James Prater Email & Phone Number

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Greater St. Louis Area

St. Louis, Missouri

Instruct classes communicating features, functionality, operation, and user interaction with Microsoft software and hardware products such as Windows 10, Windows 8, Office, and the Surface Pro tablet as well as Apple products such as the Apple iPhone and Apple iPad to students, faculty, and staff that enroll in Continuing Education courses.

St. Louis, Missouri

I worked for the college in a technical support role supporting the instructional and operations systems and users. I support systems that are used by students and faculty to help facilitate an effective learning environment. I utilize the Footprints ticketing system to monitor, track, and service issues at my campus and travel around the district (4 campuses and 3 remote sites) to work tickets at other locations. I develop virtual images regularly and adapt these for deployment to physical hardware. I build virtual machines images with various operating systems such as: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Linux (Ubuntu), and Linux (Debian) - these virtual machines are utilized in the classrooms for instructional purposes. I work projects as assigned that can be very technical in nature such as developing a script to automate some functionality, or troubleshooting, researching, and developing a solution to a difficult problem. I worked on the team that developed and deployed via SCCM the Windows 7 image to the administrative computers across the district. I take it upon myself to include newly hired personnel in tasks that I work to aid in training. Routinely I am consulted by other technicians to get advice about or find the solution to problems they cannot solve. I utilize various remote tools in my daily work routine to efficiently work with clients or complete various tasks. Some of the hardware I repair and/or utilize on a regular basis includes the following: desktops, laptops, virtual servers, virtual desktops, tablets, VOIP phones, servers, printers, scanners, copiers, digital projectors, Windows tablets, iPads, iPhones, iMacs, and Macbooks I utilize various utilities including Active Directory, Group Policy, Casper, and SCCM routinely to accomplish a variety of tasks and to aid in the solving of problems that may arise. I am also extremely well-versed in all versions of Windows and Office.

Chesterfield, Mo

A large part of my duties involve all stages of project management from conception through to implementation and closure. I manage the engineering team with duties that include interviewing, hiring, training, workload/time management, reviews, and terminations. I support our VMWare cloud environment wherein we host about 200 virtual servers for our clients. I routinely work with Windows Server 2003, 2008, 2012, and 2016 working with AD, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, Print Services, File Services, Terminal Services, and Exchange. I've utilized several backup products including VEEAM, Vembu, and Acronis Cloud Backup. I routinely work on WAN and LAN network configurations, implementations, and support for routers/firewalls/switches/WAPs. I've performed many Office 365 migrations from Exchange and CPanel email environments. I support and administer many Office 365 tenants for multiple clients. I work with several hosted spam filtering and email archiving solutions as well. I'm very adaptable with supporting applications in a business environment - this is a huge asset given the multitude of various applications that our clients use in their business. I work with the sales team to assist them with client acquisition by assessing environments, attending sales meetings, taking calls, and responding to emails with any questions that the staff or clients may have. I perform evaluations of the IT environments of existing and potential clients in order to build assessments that detail hardware infrastructure, their domain environment, their network performance, and identify potential security issues. I use these assessments to help guide client towards IT best practice their future business goals. After completing assessment reports for potential clients I also build proposals for the sales team that detail the items found to be of concern in their potential clients’ environment as well as detail the projects to remedy those issues.

Greater St. Louis Area

Together with a partner founded the company. Performed all needed business startup paperwork at the State, Local, and Federal levels. Business model consisted of a store front conducting retail sales and service, as well as performing dispatched service to clients across the area. Sold interest in company to partner. Business is successful and still in operation to this day. Performed day-to-day business activities such as daily closings, tax calculations, payments, etc. Established clientele through various marketing strategies. Maintained client loyalty with superior service, pricing, and client relation skills. Created competitive project bids for organizations. Maintained shop retail inventory levels. Serviced and supported desktops, laptops, servers, and peripherals in a variety of configurations and environments. Developed, implemented, and managed upgrades of hardware and software roll-outs for clients. Troubleshot, diagnosed, serviced, and supported server, desktop, and laptop computers on Microsoft and Apple platforms. Serviced and supported various brands of mobile phones and tablets. Installed, serviced, and supported client wired and wireless networks. Researched equipment, developed bids, and performed installation jobs of various audio/visual jobs such as Home Theater installs, TV Wall Mounting, Overhead Speaker installations, and Security Camera with DVR equipment installations.

Greater St. Louis Area

Responsible for servers, computers, and LAN networks in main office and 4 remote locations. Utilized SonicWALL firewalls in all locations linked via VPN for intra-site connectivity and management. Built and serviced all computer systems across company. Aided in developing IT policies while addressing company's needs. Supported and trained staff virtually and in-person. Desktop and network troubleshooting and problem diagnosis.

St. Louis, Mo

Responsible for billing out over $4 million in A/R a monthResponsible for company’s relations with largest, multi-site clientsTracked payroll hours for hundreds of therapists to ensure accurate pay and billingProvided friendly, knowledgeable answers and solutions to customer’s problemsSupervised and trained staff to ensure proper policies and applicable procedures were followedDeveloped training regimen for newly staffed contracts to enable them to efficiently and effectively transition into the company

Associate’S Degree, Network Engineering Aas With Academic Honors, 3.67 Gpa

Activities and Societies: Phi Theta Kappa Honor SocietyI received an Associates of Applied Science with Academic Honors in Network.

Business

Activities and Societies: Delta Chi Fraternity

High School Diploma, College Preperatory, 3.75 Gpa

Activities and Societies: Student Government, Basketball, National Honor Society, Mu Alpha ThetaGraduated a semester early College.

High School, College Prep

Activities and Societies: Basketball, Student Government

Bachelor’S Degree, Information Technology - Security Emphasis

Actively Pursuing a Bachelor's in Information Technology with a Security Emphasis.