John Lenz Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

Consultant providing business development and delivery of networking, system selection and hardware/software support services to SMB and larger companies. At larger companies (<$3B) conducted ERP and CRM strategy and selection, operational reviews focusing on technology operating costs, office solutions and supporting data/document retention and recovery. Program director for an ERP rescue project. Client is mid-size contract process manufacturer. They had a bad initial installation of Epicor E9 (their VAR was incompetent). They have also gone through a change in ownership with Private Equity now the majority. E9 is just a repository for excel spreadsheets. The project is re-implementing as Epicor E10 with integrated financials, shop floor reporting and capacity planning and scheduling. This was a family operated concern for many years and Organization Change Management, AKA resistance to change, is the major source leading to the project rescue effort.  Conducted an ERP readiness assessment for a Canada based $Billion+ agricultural equipment manufacturer. Their existing JDEdwards system was at end-of-life and they requested an organizational and technology review of their current state and recommendations for how to pursue an upgrade. The existing JDEdwards system was heavily customized and caused severe service level impacts of the technology organization’s performance.  Project Manager for the Modernization review of a global Manufacturers Trade Association Statistics Portal. Association Members have been inquiring about enhanced reporting capabilities, e.g. GeoCoding. The Association asked for an independent evaluation of the current environment, solicitation of future technology requirements from select member’s organizations and a review of 5 potential vendor candidates to fulfill the needs of the membership for statistical information. 

Provide strategic diagnostic assessment of technology organizations efficiency & effectiveness. Program management services for clients undergoing ERP business and technology transformations. ERP software and vendor selection services.Project executive for an ERP selection at a global automotive parts manufacturer. Conducted requirements gathering workshops in US and Europe (included South American locations). Prepared a RFP to global vendors and provided analysis and guidance to Q&A and demo scripting. Down selected to 2 vendors and was presented to Board for approval.Developed business case justification for Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution in a $800mm media services company. Conducted and facilitated joint business and technology planning sessions to drive consensus around and prioritization of key business functions in a decentralized operating model. Senior management wished to transition to a more centralized and cost efficient operating model and recognized the importance of centralized and consistent business processes managed by a single ERP solution. Established the business justification framework for organization change enabled by Dynamics ERP

Naperville Il

Completed the development of a Release Management function at a $12B global truck manufacturing company. Diverse environment of multiple platforms, ERP packages and Data Analytics appliances were in conflict during systems test and deployment SDLC phases. Introducing improved process and work-flow patterned after ITIL guidelines.

Provide strategic diagnostic assessment of technology organizations efficiency & effectiveness. Program management services for clients undergoing ERP business and technology transformations. ERP software and vendor selection services. Program Manager for an ERP readiness and vendor selection project for a Consumer Products company (Health and Beauty). This SMB Company was a well-established family run operation that brought in professional management to grow the business. The company had multiple disparate technology that was primarily Excel driven with Microsoft Dynamics (Great Plains) to drive customer fulfillment. Conducted an up-front ERP readiness strategy assessment to bring the new management group to an aligned vision of how an ERP system would support their long term business strategy & objectives. Conducted a full life cycle RFP process of requirements, discovery, vendor selection and product demonstration. Analyzed vendor proposals and developed, with the CFO, the financial cost structures of each vendor. Worked with the COO to develop the vendor requirements coverage ranking. Presented vendor scoring to the ERP Steering Team for finalist selection.Conducted a SalesForce.com usage assessment for a global travel eCommerce company. Recommended consolidation of instances and a re-engineering of dashboard processes.

Provide strategic diagnostic assessment of technology organizations efficiency & effectiveness. Program management services for clients undergoing ERP business and technology transformations. ERP software and vendor selection services.Program managed a pre and post merger system integration for a $2.1B Food Distribution company. An aggressive integration and facility consolidation business case drove the requirement for rapid system-wide inventory and distribution center rationalization. Conducted a pre-merger system side-by-side functionality and gap analysis. Determined that the acquired company’s network ERP was more suited to the combined company than modifying JDEdwards from a single to multi-site operating model. Developed the prototype system integration project plan that was keyed to external business integration events, e.g. SKU rationalization. Managed the first iteration and transitioned the plan and implementation to in-house resources.

Member of Strategy and Change practice for mid-market clients ($100mm to $5B). Primary focus on technology strategy and Business/IT alignment.Developed a pre-acquisition technology and application assessment for a wholesale distribution company: - Analyzed mainframe distribution ERP application and EDI network - Elevated analysis framework from technical to business functions - Prepared business impact presentation for PEG, Goldman Sachs, technology partnerLed a corporate technology transformation project for a mid-size public utility- Mentored new IT leader- Developed project and program management methodology- Directed infrastructure review to position for ITIL compliance Created a business and CRM technology strategy for a Global Marketing Services company- Reviewed disparate technology architectures and platforms among acquired companies- Analyzed capabilities of newly acquired Indian off-shore development company- Created technology and services delivery strategy that created global centers of excellence

Consultant providing business development and delivery of networking, system selection and hardware/software support services to SMB companies.

Greater Chicago Area

Parter providing technology strategy and change advice to "C" level executives in SMB space Developed an aligned business-technology strategic plan for a publishing and printing company that had a diverse base of iSeries, UNIX and Microsoft server technology and complex business processes- Assessed the total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) within the company and it was three times the norm- Designed a business intelligence financial reporting system around internal Oracle financials and CRM that provided KPI driven “single-point-of-truth” for the executive team- Created three year plan for re-design of the current 45,000+ processes by 35% while providing a three fold return on a $5mm technology investment. Developed a technology strategy for a Clinical Research life sciences company (CRO) that had recent investment by a PEG. Senior management was charged with a turnaround-to-breakout objective and recognized the constraint to growth that the current technology of Linux and Dec VAX presented.- Facilitated the creation of working teams in each functional area who mapped current processes and developed technology enabled re-engineered processes- Re-engineering strategy provided a 30% reduction in cycle time within the same cost base utilizing a SharePoint document repository- Presented this technology strategy to the Board for approval and the PEG member commented that he had sat through many technology proposals but this was “the first one he ever understood” Reviewed the technology architecture for a regional franchise convenience store chain (300+locations) that was a carve-out from a larger corporation. The focus of the review was the interaction of the store POS systems and the central accounting and more importantly, marketing effectiveness.

Senior member of global Account Team responsible for initial contact and subsequent sales planning and execution at a Fortune 10 company. Leadership role in initial sales team that won $80 million in engagements over 4-year period. Directly responsible for developing and winning $20 million in sales in plant operations arena. Leadership of 50 consultants with program management of over 2,000 client contractors and staff. Leveraged successful US based engagements into worldwide activity. Engagement Director and Program Manager for a $225 million plant shop floor ERP systems modernization for the largest food manufacturer in North America.- Program spanned three years across more than 100 plants and distribution centers- Directly managed 24 consultants and indirectly oversaw 2,500+ engineers- Plant systems were architected around ORACLE MES and Wonderware- Created a customized system assessment, development and deployment methodology for engineering systems Engagement director for an eStrategy effort at a major Food Service Company. The introduction of pure Internet companies into the Food Service Marketplace was creating pressure on this client’s volume and margins.- Directed the assessment of both competitors and pure-play dot.coms to provide a benchmark of industry trends Member of leadership team that created the Accelerated Solutions Center (Build) and Accelerated Solutions Environment (Requirements). Methodology patterned after Agile and Rational principals. Significantly decreased build-to-deploy time.

Greater Chicago Area

Senior member of leadership team responsible for integrating strategy practice with KPMG systems delivery capability. I developed $10 million in strategy-implementation engagements. Created highly skilled teams of 15 seasoned strategy consultants that worked both with the clients and their KPMG counterparts. Delivery responsibilities: Engagement director for a major international confectioner ERP strategy. Identified major top line growth opportunity with a deployment of a Siebel CRM system in addition to selecting an ORACLE ERP solution. Technology lead for a global bank M&A due diligence for a financing company acquisition. Uncovered major UNIX systems development fault that led to a multi-million write down. A review of the underlying design architecture revealed a performance flaw in the C++ architecture and coding.

Bs, Mathematics

Mba, General Management

Conferred in West Germany while on active duty with National Security Agency