Chris Palmer - jobs@chris-palmer.com

Work Experience:

The Ohio State University (2010 - Present)

May, 2014 - Present Technical Analyst (Programmer)

• Primary role as a PeopleSoft programmer for Campus Solutions (CS) working on new projects and maintenance. Program mostly in PeopleCode (online and Application Engines) along with SQL, SQRs, and some COBOL troubleshooting. Work with Integration Broker (asynchronous and synchronous services), branding, Integration Hub and related technologies. Lead in web technologies like JavaScript, AJAX, web services, JQuery, HTML, CSS, W3C standards, etc.
• Asked to join the project team and lead the Integration Broker synchronization between the HR and CS databases during the "split". The two year, 20 million dollar project was near go live but critical synchronization was not yet working and consultant was rolling off early, in two weeks. Quickly learned the technologies, discovered a subtle underlying bug and worked with Oracle (the vendor) to resolve this before the project went live. Continue to be the lead on this technology, working across teams and training coworkers and business users in best practices and how to support these technologies. Active on HEUG (user group for PeopleSoft CS, see posts here).
• Implemented various new projects and support work, including several integrations between CS & HR as well as with third parties including payment and health care vendors. Worked closely with 3rd parties such as EAB to create complicated integrations (over 30 files interpreting a large swath of data queried dynamically using standard and materialized views controlled by configurable run control and setup pages).
• One of two developers that led our PeopleTools 8.53 to 8.54 and 8.54 to 8.55 upgrades including testing, working with Oracle and Middleware teams on bug resolution, helping plan the Move to Production process and implementation and validation during go live.
• Worked remotely since July, 2012.

July, 2010 - May, 2014 Senior Business Analyst

• Functional Lead (Curriculum - Kuali): led the new Curriculum workflow system through many key enhancements which the Vice Provost for Academic Programs and the Associate Registrar cited as being effective, user friendly examples of products IT should be delivering. Responsibilities included leading weekly meetings, gathering and prioritizing requirements, creating design documents and mockups, working directly with developers and leading testing and migration of all changes.
• Functional Lead (Campus Community - PeopleSoft): primary contact with various business units involved in Campus Community. Service Matter Expert (SME) for Student Health Insurance, the extensive bolt-on that OSU uses to manage insurance for 60,000 students a year. The primary business user noted, "You make my life easier!"
• Backup Functional Lead (Student Records & Admissions - PeopleSoft): led projects including implementing Student Legal Services, a process for students that includes Student Self Service and Administrative pages. Also implemented Online Payments of Acceptance Fees (integrating with CyberSource's hosted order page). Acted as primary backup for Student Records and Admissions functional leads.
• Backup Functional Lead (Admissions - PeopleSoft): managed projects including implementing Online Payments of Acceptance Fees (integrating with CyberSource's hosted order page). Acted as sole backup to Admissions functional lead.
• Mentored developers of projects that required more challenging HTML, JavaScript / AJAX or CSS. Taught how to use FireBug to debug 3rd party integrations, developed JavaScript to fix printing difficulties and wrote HTML and CSS to be W3C compliant and meet accessibility standards.

University of San Diego (2006 - 2010)

March, 2009 - June, 2010 Manager, Portal & Integration Technologies

• Managed teams in charge of MySanDiego (the University's community portal), MySDMobile, and 3rd party integrations with SunGard's Banner (the University's student information and ERP system).
• Launched MySDMobile, the smart-phone application for MySanDiego. In the first few weeks one in eight students at the University downloaded it. MySDMobile featured a GPS-enabled campus map, class list, person search, events, athletics, live tram tracking, library and more.
• Forged partnerships with other departments for cost sharing resulting in $150,000 of additional resources for our department amidst a University-wide hiring freeze.
• Asked to lead the Portal Team after the team had two issues during peak usage. Immediately upgraded Luminis (the software that runs MySanDiego) to parallel deployment, splitting one server into multiple tiers. Spearheaded setting up a Nagios automated alerting system and moving to a more structured on-call rotation which resulted in MySanDiego running smoothly through multiple subsequent peak times.
• Continued to act as Business Analyst for high-profile projects, such as integrating the Bookstore with Banner. Managed team in charge of project coordination (both BA and PM work) for other integrations such as Studio Abroad, online voting and many more.

October, 2008 - March, 2009 Project Coordinator

• Led business analysis with functional users, created specifications and worked with programmers to create interfaces between the Banner student system and other systems including Footprints, CS Gold, T2, ACES, StarRez and more.
• Created initial set of new 'Help Desk Scripts' for key systems. Trained coworkers to create their own which helped our department become the leader in IT for Help Desk integration.

March, 2008 - October, 2008 Independent Consultant

• Worked across University departments to plan, implement and document business processes and program changes during the Banner/Luminis (ERP) implementation.
• Designed and managed special Online Registration support desk including multiple phone, email and instant messenger channels to provide superior support to students during first registration on the new system. This system was re-used for the next several registration sessions until transitioned to the Help Desk. Gave presentation about this at SunGard Summit in 2009.

August, 2006 - January, 2008 Attained Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of San Diego

NSB Group - leading software solutions provider for specialty retailers (1999-2006)

February, 2006 - August, 2006 Triage Manager & Manager of Development Support

• Created processes to organize Product Maintenance by adding a structured defect identification, mitigation and resolution process. In the three months after I joined the division went from being named the leading cause of client dissatisfaction to being widely praised by clients and executives for rapid response, clear ETA's and reliable results.
• Formed the Triage Team to enforce and adapt organizational procedures that provided a buffer and escalation point for the development group in Product Maintenance.

August, 2004 - August, 2006 Manager of Development Support

• Managed the team responsible for internal MIS, future technology research, and test lab (including volume test lab) setup, maintenance and configuration.
• Hired excellent talent and turned a small internal support team in to what the Development Director referred to as, "the best technical asset in our organization."
• Helped shape strategy for the Development department including participating in weekly management meetings, preparing SWOT analysis of our products, and crafting policies to enable a relatively small company become a dominant player in POS software for specialty retailers.

March, 2001 - August, 2004 Technical Team Lead, Level 3 Support

• Guided the department responsible for the highest level support for clients including JC Penny's and Staples.
• Taught several training classes for clients as well as educating our Montreal office; was most requested trainer by our clients.
• Drafted and improved Service Level Agreements (SLA's) for a variety of clients.

Education & Certifications:

• MBA, University of San Diego (2008); 3.95 GPA; GMAT score: 760
• B.A., Computer Science, graduated with honors from Earlham College (1999); 3.58 GPA

Keywords:

• Background: Programmer, business analyst, technical manager, technical support, higher education, project management, expert troubleshooter, integration & middle ware, ERP, leadership under pressure, budgeting, team player, retail software, documentation, collaboration with diverse teams, considerate, driven, bridge builder, Help Desk Institute (HDI), Net Impact.
• Some stronger technical skills: PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, PeopleCode, Integration Broker, Application Engine, SQR, web services, Splunk, PHP, JavaScript, JQuery, JSON, AJAX, XML, HTML, SQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Visio, Project, PowerPoint).