Larry Shields Email & Phone Number

Irving, Texas

Managed UC / Telecommunications operations for NEC Enterprise Communication Technologies corporation. Oversaw Professional Services business for telecom and UC service opportunities from network of Solution Integrators. • Managed UC Telecommunications & Contact Center operations for NEC corporate offices in the USA. • Received, reviewed, and worked with Systems Engineering to generate Pro Services quotes. • Managed UC Solution Sales Engineering team in assisting both direct account teams, and dealer channel, to propose the best solution to meet the customer needs and support sales representatives in closing deals.• Developed and executed a mitigation plan to enable all physical office workers and contact center teams to work remotely during C19 Pandemic and maintain business communications continuity. • Collaborated with NEC Univerge Blue Cloud team to execute planned migration of in-house 3C PBX and BCT contact centers in order to streamline communications in a hybrid work environment.

Irving, Texas

Managed and led a team of network and telecommunications professionals responsible for the administration, configuration, and maintenance of the NEC Corporation of America Corporate network, telecommunications, as well as operational processes. • Managed the activities of 6 direct reports that included four Network Engineers, and two Telecom Engineers. • Managed IT & Telecommunications projects to realize maximum benefit from capital expenditures while reducing the overall operating expense to contribute to the company’s growth and efficiency. • Oversaw the day-to-day operations of BusinessConnecT (BCT) Contact Center platform, ensuring it’s smooth and efficient functioning. • Collaboration with internal stakeholders to gather necessary requirements, provide guidance, performance metrics and ensure proper alignment of BCT platform with business objectives. • Developed a migration strategy to move 700+ users from NEAX SV8500 PBX to Univerge 3C with Meeting Services (NMC). • Deployed highly available Ingate Session Border Controller to allow remote office and mobile application connectivity to our UC suite of applications via our enterprise cloud. • Managed AVST / OpenText UM8700 Voicemail System along with NotifyXpress service for dial-out notification.

Member of Univerge 3C product team, supporting technical functions of in house 3C system for both Product Management and Sales teams. Developed technical aspects of SMB 3C offering to allow 3C dealers to more easily deploy the product in a standalone windows environment. Responsible for NEC Express5800 Application Server Platform products offered both to direct and NEC channel dealers.

Led end-to-end operations for VoIP product development, overseeing five product lines encompassing SIP/VoIP Terminals, Wireless Mobility, Application Server Platforms, Digital Signage, and Layer 2 PoE Data Products. Orchestrated cross-functional collaboration with executive stakeholders spanning strategic marketing, sales, legal, planning, quality assurance, manufacturing, engineering, and customer service.

Managed Information Technology & Telecommunications operations for the Marketing and Sales Support Division.• Managed IT & Telecommunications projects to realize maximum benefit from capital expenditures while reducing our overall operational expenses to contribute to the company’s growth and efficiency. • Developed a migration strategy to move 1000+ users from MS Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 and Active Directory 2003.• Managed the in-house development of our NEC document management system (NECWorx) from ASP, VB 6 and COM, to the next generation .NET architecture that allowed more efficient document creation and delivery to dealer channel. • Reduced operation expenses and downtime by automating the deployment of workstation and system patches and updates.• Planned and managed an early migration of production environment users from legacy TDM telephony, to Voice over IP (VoIP), at the NEC headquarters in Irving Texas.• Deployed Microsoft Windows 2003 on clustered hardware In order to migrate our Sales product quotation system to a highly available and secure distributed platform

Supervised Information Technology services for the Marketing and Sales Support Division. Administered our Exchange 5.5 system and engineered the migration strategy to move the corporate group of 800 + users from Novell IPX/SPX to a TCP/IP network running Windows NT and MS Exchange 5.5.· Managed local area network, servers, and VPN access for remote users.· Configured network servers and trained local staff on standard network server support procedures, including virus protection and other security measures.· Recruited and trained network and desktop support technicians.· Oversaw deployment of servers and desktop workstations.· Configured database servers, domain name services, DHCP, WINS, PPTP, RADIUS, e-mail, Web, and ftp services.

Managed a team of Application engineers primarily focused on computer telephony integration (CTI) solutions. This roll also included AE support for unified messaging products like the Active Voice / CISCO UNITY, and a variety of NEC open application interface (OAI) solutions.· Planned and implemented migration of our corporate division to a high-speed network with seamless CTI integration to the campus NEC 2400 PBX.· Designed then deployed an application server farm which marked the migration from Novell / cc:Mail to Microsoft Windows NT and Exchange 5.5.· Supervised the installation of an ATM optical backbone to interconnect our application server farm with high speed switched Ethernet connectivity to the desktop.· Worked with the Quotation Development team to maintain quotation modules related to CTI.· Supervised large scale project to design and develop our document management system which would later evolve into the NECWorx system.

Answered technical questions about product engineering status, changes, updates and enhancements to our associate dealer channels, field staff and customers. Investigated and developed solutions to a wide range of customer application design problems, which involved problem solving with Systems Engineering and Product Development. Developed and provided advanced technical training in use of quotation tools to associate dealers and Direct Sales. Provided input to dealers regarding tactics for making key technical presentations to potential customers. Provided input to Product and Marketing Managers concerning strategies and tactics for new product introductions. Wrote technical documentation and published application notes. Presented technical material at trade shows. Provided feedback to development engineers about US market needs and future technical trends. Trained and provide technical direction to associate level Application Engineers.· Completed NEC TAPI and TSAPI certifications.· Became the primary applications engineer for computer telephony integration (CTI) support.· Developed the CTI modules for the MasterQuote sales quotation system.

Worked with the sales team to provide technical pre-sales, account development/management, solution architecture and coordination of technical resources. Identified product solution opportunities involved in RFQ/RFP processing and proposal.· Served as technical liaison between sales, customers and engineering for pre-sales issues· Involved in the development of pre-sales and marketing documents.· Worked closely with sales and marketing team by participating and supporting all sales strategies and activities

Provide configuration and pricing for the addition of NEAX 2400IMS modular and package OAI / ACD hardware for existing installed customer base.· Interface with Sales team and Systems Engineering· Determined configuration for RDS systems upgrading to MDS architecture.· Developed a configuration utility to assist in determining the best placement of interface cards within the port interface module (PIM) after an upgrade.

Responsible for the configuration and programming of customer data within the NEAX 1400 PBX prior to deployment at customer site.· Interacted with Operations, CSR, Systems Engineering and Field Engineering· Programmed numbering plan, station and terminal key data.· Programmed trunk interface ports, routes and implemented least cost routing (LCR).· Assigned class of service levels and feature access rights.· Created UCD hunt groups and assigned voice mail integration.· Programmed ACD group/splits and install PC MIS software.