Daniel W. Manella, PMP

 

 

Cellular: (312) 213-4304                                                       E-Mail: dmanella@aol.com

 

I have been an IT Professional for over twenty-five years, the last eighteen as a Project Manager, Program Manager and IT Executive.   I have managed a variety of projects specializing in: IT Security Risk and Issue Management, infrastructure, software development life cycle and business continuity projects.  I have managed projects and programs with budgets exceeding $20,000,000.  I have worked as a Senior Project Manager and Senior Program Manager having also established Project Management Offices (PMO’s) for clients.  I have worked within a variety of methodologies depending on my clients’ needs.  I have managed projects from their inception and I have taken over fledgling projects and steered them back on track. I feel equally adept in either situation.  I possess organizational, negotiating, communication and interpersonal skills and a strong sense of professionalism and leadership. I have lead reorganizations of departments regarding policies, procedures and personnel changes.  I have been able to make the tough decisions regarding staffing changes.  A strong combination of respect, empathy and patience with stakeholders and project team members alike leads me to a very amicable and strong working relationship with those involved in the project.  I possess and utilize the ability to get everyone on the same page, excited about the project and focused on a successful completion. 

 

Northwestern Mutual                                               December 2014- August 2015

Remote and On Site Senior Program Manager (Cyber Security Initiative)

 

     Hybrid Methodology                 Budget of $19,800,000                             Team of 15 FTE’s & 13 Consultants

·   Management of Project Managers for a five-track program.

·   Keeping uniformity of reporting between multiple projects.

·   Part of the team to choose the proper solutions and vendors.

·   Coordinating, scheduling, prioritizing and managing the planning, execution and support of all tracks in the cyber security initiative.

·   Responsible for defining roles, objectives, vendor relations and budgeting.

·   Creation of a detailed project plan for the entire initiative consisting of five tracks.

·   Managing resources and timelines for the successful completion of this initiative.

·   Responsible for the allocation of financial and human resources, including vendor resources.

·   Weekly progress reporting to Senior Management for project and all tracks, ensuring uniformity between the different tracks.

 

Community Health Systems                                                                  March 2014 – December 2014

Remote and On Site Program Director (Athena AMR Implementation)      

 

Waterfall Methodology              Budget of $16,500,000                               Team of 5 FTE’s & 11 Consultants

·   Coordinating, scheduling and managing the implementation of Athena AMR.

·   Working to change over the AMR for newly acquired market clinics throughout the United States.

·   Responsible for the allocation of financial and human resources

·   Weekly progress reporting to Senior Management for projects and the entire program.

·   Kickoff meetings, go-live meetings, weekly status presentations/meetings with each market.

·   Markets are crossing over from different AMR system, making each market a separate project.

·   Management of Infrastructure, Hardware, Build, Compliance, Training, Go-Live and Support Transition.

·   Vendor management to plan, execute and support the implementation.

·   Tracking budget, schedule, resource allocation, change controls and information utilizing MS Project, Project Web Access and Share Point.

 

McKesson                      January 2013 - January 2014

Remote Senior Project Manager (Active Directory Upgrade)

Waterfall MethodologyBudget of $2,400,000                 Team of 9 FTE’s & 4 Consultants

·   Managing the identification and communication with application owners.

·   Coordinating, scheduling and managing the compatibility testing and validation of all applications with an Active Directory 2008 R2 Domain.

·   Working with Microsoft and other application vendors to mitigate issues.

·   Responsible for the allocation of financial and human resources

·   Weekly progress reporting to the team for the migrations, testing status, server migrations, etc.

·   Presentations to Application Owners regarding project status, testing and processes.

·   Semi-weekly presentation to senior management regarding project status, budget, testing, etc.

·   Scheduling and managing of all users upgrade to Active Directory 2008 R2.

·   Co-ordination and execution of promoting new servers and the demotion of obsolete servers.

·   Procurement of hardware, software and resources necessary to execute the upgrade.

·   Managing of internal and external teams to plan, execute and support the upgrade.

·  Tracking budget, schedule, resource allocation, change controls and information utilizing MS Project, Project Web Access and Share Point.

 

Rockwell Automation                     December 2011 - December 2012

Global Senior Project Manager (Active Directory Migration)

 

Waterfall Methodology     Budget of $3,900,000          Team of 15 FTE’s and 22 Consultants

·   Managing all aspects of an Active Directory Migration Upgrade Global Initiative to version 2008r2. 

·   Creation of new domains and the creation and moving of over 25,000 users and workstations.

·   Managing deliverables from four vendors, twenty-six consultants and fifteen inside resources. Located in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

·   Adhering to strict PMO regulations and policies.

·   Tracking budget, schedule, resource allocation, change controls and information utilizing MS Project, Project Web Access and Share Point.

 

Rockwell Automation

Global Senior Project Manager (IT Security: Change Approval, Risk and Issue Management)

 

Agile/Scrum Methodology     Budget of $1,500,000          Team of 6 FTE’s and 12 Consultants

·   Creating PMO regulations and policies for identifying, documenting and mitigating IT Risks and Issues.

·   Instituting a uniformed policy and process in N. America, S. America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

·   Made decisions regarding staffing additions and removals in the reorganization effort.

·   Created and worked with a board of SME’s, managers and programmers to make software and hardware changes to increase the IT Security levels.

·   Creation of a new Change Approval Board.  Instituting of change process and policies.

·   Tracking budget, schedule, change controls and information utilizing MS Project, PWA and Share Point.

 

Kohl’s Corporate Headquarters               May 2011 – October 2011

Program Manager Google Mail Migration

 

Agile/Scrum Methodology     Budget of $3,600,000          Team of 15 FTE’s and 40 Consultants

·   One of the Program Managers for a corporate wide conversion of 25,000 mailboxes and 200 forms and applications from Lotus Notes to Google Cloud.

·   Managing schedules, internal resources, vendors and budget.

·   Co-ordination of Vendor creation of Forms and Applications.

·   Scheduling and assisting of the QA and UAT testing.

·   Leading daily meetings for the purpose of communication between vendors and internal resources to insure the execution of these pieces of the project.

·   Tracking budget, schedule, resource allocation and information utilizing MS Project and Clarity.

·   Working closely with leaders from all groups and regions.

·   Worked with Google representatives, as this was the largest Google Cloud Conversion to date.

·   Managed teams and vendor teams all across the United States.

 

Alexian Brothers Health System                                                          June 2010 – May 2011

Senior Project Manager Active Directory\Exchange Migration

 

Waterfall Methodology     Budget of $13,000,000          Team of 15 FTE’s and 28 Consultants

·  Took over fledgling project with a budget of over $1,700,000 per month.  Within the first two weeks reduced the budget nearly 40 percent.

·   Formulated a new plan for the remainder of the project.  Created new criteria for application testing, conflict resolution, information gathering from department directors, staffing and scheduling.

·   Kept application developers on the same page with each other and vendors resolving conflicts and issues, optimizing user functionality by bringing them together with select stakeholders.

·   Established timelines and worked with application development team and application vendors to deliver applications on time and in working order.

·   Closely working with the Citrix team to ensure applications were available and functioning in their farms.

·   Reassessed existing staff, eliminated unnecessary roles and added new staff where it was advantageous.  Renegotiated terms with vendors.

·   Coordinated the conversion for 5 large locations, 30 smaller locations and a total of over 5,000 devices.

·   Successfully brought together 28 contract resources from 5 different vendors and 15 Alexian employees.

·   Directed daily status meetings and bi-weekly town hall meetings with directors and the user base.

·   Delivered successful delivery of the Active Directory conversion early and under budget by increasing productivity by 800 percent. Completing over 4,000 devices in 6 months as opposed to less than 1,000 devices completed in the 12 months prior.

 

Alexian Brothers Health System

Program Manager Meditech 6.0 Upgrade from Magic

 

Agile/Scrum Methodology     Budget of $2,600,000              Team of 5 FTE’s and 8 Consultants

·   Re-tooled existing upgrade plan to get it back within schedule, scope and budget.

·   Assessed program staff and acquired more appropriate resources.

·   Established weekly updates communications for all stakeholders including executive level management.

·   Scheduled appropriate meetings and addresses to all stakeholders as their department and modules were being developed and readied for implementation.

·   Working closely with staff to identify internal resources that should be utilized and determine what additional external resources would be necessary.

·   Working closely with staffing vendors we acquired external resources necessary.

·   Worked indirectly through internal resources with Dell/Perot Systems to define and purchase necessary hardware and supervised the installation and initial implementation SAN build, virtual servers, VPNs, etc.

·   Began gap analysis for dictionaries along with dictionary clean ups.

·   Worked directly with Meditech for answers to issues that were not yet identified or documented.

·   Worked directly with help desk to establish Meditech 6.0 “experts” to support users as converted.

·   Worked directly with training department to set up training sessions and Webex sessions.

·   Assessed training, working with physicians, nurses, staff and administrators to refine later training sessions for each department and the modules they utilize.

·   Worked closely with developers on a daily basis regarding progress, obstacles and conflicts.

·   Oversaw developers in the creation, development and conversion of libraries and specific modules.

·   Received daily reports from implementation specialists regarding modules, data transfer and conflicts.

·   Consulted directly with the CIO and her staff in an effort to align Meditech 6.0 with corporate strategies.  Including the ultimate decision to utilize the Meditech 6.0 ED module over other vendors.

·   Constant testing working directly with physicians and nurses to ensure optimal utilization.

 

Cornerstone Technology Solutions                                  September 2008 – June 2010

at RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland)

Program Manager for Corporate IT Initiatives

 

Agile/Scrum Methodology     Budget of $12,000,000            Team of 5 FTE’s and 30 Consultants

·   Overseeing of project managers, coordinators and technical leads to successfully deliver multiple projects on time and under budget. 

·   Projects included SAP Financial and Controlling Modules, CRM-PeopleSoft, Active Directory, IT Risk and Issue Management, Disaster Recovery, VOIP, Business Continuity and IT Staff Re-organization. 

·   Creating PMO regulations and policies for identifying, documenting and mitigating IT Risks and Issues.

·   Created new PMO regulations for project reporting and budgeting.

·   Reallocation of IT human resources to better fit the needs of the business.

·   Worked with staffing vendors and human resources to elevate the levels of competency where necessary and offset work overload situations.  Renegotiating and managing vendor contracts.

 

Northwestern Memorial Health System     June 2007 – August  2008

Senior Project Manager Active Directory Implementation

 

Waterfall Methodology     Budget of $6,300,000          Team of 15 FTE’s and 35 Consultants

·   Senior Project Manager for the Active Directory Implementation replacing Novell. 

·   Management of the entire project team consisting of: employees, third party consultants and a vendor team.

·   Responsible for coordination and presentation of change controls for the Change Approval Board.

·   Over 30 sites were implemented as part of this project.

·   Move of over 5,000 mailboxes from Lotus Notes to Exchange.

·   Development of communications for users and leadership in preparation for crossover.

 

Hub International                  March 2005 – June 2007

Senior Program Manager Establishing PMO (March 2005-March 2006)

Interim Regional CIO (March 2006-June 2007)

 

·   Oversaw all facets of IT reporting directly to the Regional CEO.

·   Completely restructured IT support group including staffing, the creating of processes, evaluated existing architecture and assessed future needs.  Rebuilt relationships between business and IT.

·   Established and staffed the PMO utilizing a mostly Waterfall model methodology.

·   Instituted policies for PMO risk and issue management policies, CAB, reporting and budgeting.

·   Formed a committee comprising of IT Support, Networking, Project Management, Business Managers and Users to identify needs and optimization of new equipment, systems and software.

·   Designed and implemented project plans from conception to completion.

·   Created guidelines for current and future upgrades.

·   Became one of the “Faces of IT” by meeting with department heads, managers and team members throughout all of the business units.  Discussing any problems, inquiries, requests, needs or wishes they might have from IT in an attempt to bring a more personal aspect from IT to the other business groups.

·   Scheduled regular meetings with managers to insure a regular exchange of ideas and a proper workflow.

·   Managed the project of implementing CITRIX and training for user base. 

·   Participated in the monthly executive committee meetings to discuss progress and concerns. 

·   Reviewed all vendor contracts, eliminating redundancies and renegotiating better terms and pricing.

·   IT representative of Corporate SOX Adherence Team and Corporate Disaster Recovery Team.

 

Durst-Insight Sales and Marketing                                 December 2003 – March 2005

Director of IT/PMO

 

·   Designed and implemented project plans from conception to completion.

·   SAP and CRM implementation, training and distribution.

·   Initial startup of Insight Food Service

·   Planned and executed merger of systems for former Insight Food Service and Durst Brokerage.

·   Responsible for disaster recovery plan and contract management.

·   Created and built the company wide PMO, establishing policies and procedures regarding IT risk management, issue documentation and resolutions, project reporting and budgeting.

·   Established PMO utilizing a mostly Waterfall model methodology.

 

Condell Health System                  January 2003 – December 2003

Senior Project Manager

 

Waterfall Methodology     Budget of $6,500,000            Team of 8 FTE’s and 16 Consultants

·   Project Manager for the Active Directory Implementation replacing Novell.

·   Over 15 sites were implemented as part of this project.

·   Move of over 3,000 mailboxes from Lotus Notes to Exchange.

·  Project had been estimated internally to take 18 months and $6,500,000.  We implemented scheduling and budget changes without changing scope and were able to deliver in 12 months and just under $4,000,000.

·  Our ability to deliver faster allowed the program to be accelerated and under budget.

 

US Bank               December 2001 – December 2002

Consulting Senior Project Manager (PMO Policies for IT Risk and Issues Management)

 

·   Established IT policies and procedures to ensure adherence to regulations and corporate policies

·   Implemented IT controls to document IT Risks and guarantee that were properly mitigated.

·   Created new policies for documenting and resolving issues logs.

·   Assisted in the validation and enhancement of management reporting.

·   Helped to define the segregation of duties and access to systems and servers.

·   Aided in the acquisition of new staff to manage the PMO.

 

Tek Systems           May 1995 – September 2001

Staff Senior Project Manager

 

IT Consultant                      January 1989 – May 1995

 

Education and Certifications

 

Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Loyola University      September 1985- May 1989

 

Project Management Professional (PMP)                   Certified through Project Management Institute

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)         Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management