Laura Townsend Email & Phone Number

Managed all aspects of IT Procurement for Domestic and International locations. Reviewed and negotiated IT maintenance contracts for both hardware and enterprise software licensing, hardware & software procurement, financial anaysis, asset management, developed procedures, and built effective vendor relationships. Implemented and managed hardware leases and terminations.

Oakbrook, Il

Strategic Consulting, supporting existing solutions and/or providing solutions to meet the user's needs in IT and coordinating with business, technology, and finance teams at McDonald's Corporate office. Generate Analysis reports collecting actual data vs budget and reviewing forecast, including cost reduction strategies.

Schaumburg, Il

Served as a liaison between the business units and the IT organization, in order to support existing solutions and/or providing solutions to meet the user's needs. Coordinated with business and technology teams, ascertaining system requirements and procuring and managing all IT Infrastructure Hardware, Services, and Maintenance and various Software licenses; Hardware Lease Management domestic and global, including negotiating buyouts and extensions; Invoice Validation,Verification, and Processing; Procurement of Servers/Storage units; creating Capital Accounting requests; Vendor Management, creating hardware/software processes and procedures; training personnel; and generate Analysis reports collecting actual data vs budget and reviewing forecast; cost reduction strategies.• Created and implemented effective procurement, purchase-order, and lease management procedures, enabling improved lease and procurement processes within the company.• Managed hardware/software maintenance, identifying opportunities for reduction of $300,000 in total existing infrastructure hardware/software annual maintenance costs

Schaumburg, Il

Managed all aspects of IT Software Procurement and Asset Management. • Created an inventory database of all new standard and non-standard software licenses, establishing a baseline of the licensed software for the organization.• As a major cost savings, volume purchasing of certain software was offered as a one-time purchase for the organization. Evaluated, upgrading wherever possible, all existing licenses, purchasing licenses required, resulting in a cost savings of $99,963.20.• Performed analysis of the software acquisition tasks, discovered a need to develop consistent and streamlined processes in acquiring software licenses.

Sunnyvale, Ca

A key member of Lockheed’s Solar Array Program for the International Space Station, establishing first ever cooperative project involving Russia, Japan, France, Italy and other international partners. Tracked overall compliance of RFP requirements and contract deliverables.• Created and maintained Solar Array material budget for building the first element launch of the Space Station.• NASA Programs “Team of the Month Award”. Recognized for meeting the challenge of contract changes and project team reorganizations, effectively supported management goals, and achieved cost reductions of $1.6M per year

Education record

Graduate Work

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.)