Published: Fri 08 December 2023
By Dan Germain
In misc .
Digital and Agile Transformation | Process Improvement and Optimization | Team Building and Leadership | M&A Integration
Technology and product development executive who drives development and execution of strategies that advance organizational objectives, stabilize technology infrastructures, and support revenue growth. Performance improvement champion and trusted business partner adept at leading best-in-class development operations, growth-focused product development roadmaps, and customer-centric technology offerings. Significant experience in software as a service (SaaS) organizations, offshore environments, and high-growth companies. Talent developer skilled at building and leading high-caliber teams.
Germain Consulting, LLC 2019 – Present
Principal
Guide clients in transforming their people and processes into lean, high-performing, and self-sufficient teams that deliver business value.
Mentor start-up technology companies to help them create superior products that solve business problems.
Assess product discovery and delivery processes including 1) Responsiveness of the organization and the ability to adapt to change; 2) Collaboration across teams and visibility into the impact of work completed; and 3) Utilization of all resources through prioritization, tracking, and productivity.
Manage and coach teams and individuals to deliver complex engagements.
FiscalNote / CQ Roll Call (Acquired by FiscalNote 2018) 2010 – 2019
SVP, Research & Development (2018-2019)
Led the ten-month due diligence for the $180m acquisition of CQ Roll Call by FiscalNote and the subsequent post-acquisition integration of the product and technology teams.
Designed a new organization that included product management, usage analytics, and strategy; user experience research, design, and engineering; architecture, web, mobile, and data engineering; DevOps and quality assurance; data science, analytics, and visualization; and information security.
Created a 100-day “Agile Reboot” initiative to turn around an under-performing and dysfunctional team. Provided training, coaching, and incremental steps to build confidence and demonstrate how to set goals, measure, and learn in an environment of norms, trust, and collaboration.
Partnered with internal and external stakeholders to create a $30m five-year product and technology strategic plan that was presented to and approved by the Board. The plan included accelerating improvements to current products, consolidating and eliminating legacy products, and creating new products to expand the total addressable market. It supported immediate and future revenue opportunities and the business goal of 30% year-over-year growth.
Communicated the vision and drove execution by building high-performing autonomous teams and measurable goals, ensuring accountability and learning.
Drove alignment and collaboration between departments by involving all stakeholders in the creation of goal-oriented roadmaps that forged a shared understanding of goals and priorities. Defined clear roles and responsibilities, workflows, and operational-level agreements (OLA).
SVP, Product & Technology, Chief Digital Officer (2016 – 2018)
CQ Roll Call provides essential intelligence and grassroots advocacy resources and publishes the nonpartisan newspaper Roll Call, which covers a variety of Congressional topics.
Led the product and technology team (60+), which included product management, user-experience design, engineering, quality assurance, IT operations (systems and network), information security, help desk, and facilities.
Planned and executed a $7m three-year business and technology digital transformation program that modernized products and processes to better serve customers.
Eliminated outdated software, retired legacy products, improved the user experience, and began the migration of applications to a cloud environment.
Introduced offshore development capabilities with the addition of 40 engineers, which accelerated the delivery of major projects by 14 months.
Migrated applications to the cloud and realized annual savings of $3.5m through the elimination of data center and maintenance costs. Increased customer satisfaction and retention by 2%.
Built a DevOps culture of continuous improvement with a disciplined approach to learning (root cause analysis, lessons learned, and sprint retrospectives), action-oriented goals, and measured outcomes.
Provided leadership through coaching, feedback, development goals, and performance management. Worked behind the scenes to create a highly energetic and motivated team.
Managed the drafting, evaluating, negotiating, and executing of contracts, including non-disclosure agreements, sales/purchasing agreements, sub-contracts, consulting agreements, licensing agreements, master agreements, statements of work, addenda/amendments, and change management forms.
Vice President, Information Technology (2010 – 2016)
Led the strategic planning and management of IT infrastructure, processes, facilities, and help desk support services to support 400 employees and more than 4,000 corporate, non-profit, and government customers.
IT Infrastructure and Support. Managed 480+ servers, 100+ network devices, 75+ technologies (including MarkLogic, Oracle, MS SQL, SUN, NetApps, and EMC), communication networks, and a broadcast studio in a multi-site environment that included two office buildings and four data centers.
Organizational Redesign. Restructured IT department to maximize costs and operational efficiencies. Reduced staff from 20 – 10 EEs, saving department $1million. Resulting systems are stronger and leaner
Staff Development. Created IT mentoring program and continuing education agenda which contributed to a highly retentive, motivated, technically competent, forward-thinking technology support group.
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning. Directed enterprise-wide DR & BCP resulting in DR data center and high-availability systems and applications. System implemented during power loss, building evacuation, and earthquake, allowing continuity of publishing.
Financial and Budget Management. Managed $11 million budget forecasting future infrastructure needs while identifying opportunities for cost reduction. Determined cost-effective investment in IT systems and resources, including staffing, solutions sourcing, purchasing, and in-house development/implementation.
Service desk implementation. Transformed a traditional IT help desk into a one-stop service desk answering a variety of employee questions related to facilities, computer break-fixes, parking, and payroll. Established industry best practice processes based on ITIL.
Facilities Management | Office Build-Out. Led IT build-out of 72,000 sq. ft. of new office space. Consolidated two offices into one space without losing a single business day.
Data Center Move and Virtualization. Led planning, build-out, and migration of 154 customer-facing servers to new data center with less than an 8-hour planned outage. Virtualized 85 percent of servers, saving more than $90,000/year in space, electricity, and cooling costs.
Leadership. Recognized opportunities to improve people and processes, rallied people around the opportunity, and guided individuals and teams through the change.
Designed a continuous improvement plan that improved site reliability by 90% through a continuous improvement process focused on redundancy and high availability.
Created and executed a multi-year cloud migration strategy. This phased approach delivered business value while reducing risk. Initial phases included the consolidation of data centers and the virtualization of 154 physical servers. These steps reduced annual costs for space, electricity, and cooling by more than $90,000.
Championed technology changes to build business advantages that included increased use of AI to deliver innovative solutions that not only predict but prescribe solutions.
BroadSoft, Inc. (now part of Cisco Systems) 2007 - 2010
Senior Director, Information Systems and Technology
Responsible for the strategic planning, acquisition, and maintenance of infrastructure support systems, VoIP telecommunication systems, and business support systems for a $1 billion, 500-person technology company.
Mergers and Acquisitions. Successfully completed three acquisitions, including due diligence, on-boarding, systems rationalization, and office consolidation; eliminated redundant systems and saved more than $20,000 per month in IT costs.
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance. Implemented a full set of policies and procedures required for a successful IPO. Created ITGC narratives, control objectives, and activities for key financial information systems.
Business Analytics | Big Data. Enabled enterprise budgeting and reporting through Cognos Enterprise Planning and Business Intelligence. Led a comprehensive review of BI and enterprising planning solutions including Cognos, Oracle, Hyperion, and SAP.
Business Process Improvements. Led cross-departmental projects to drive business process improvements and implement new systems in HR, Professional Services, Sales Operations, Legal, and Finance. Resulted in streamlined processes, process documentation, and implementation of new systems.
Partnered with department heads to select and implement business support systems, including Salesforce CRM, Abra HRIS, Microsoft ERP, and Cognos Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A).
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Co. (Freddie Mac) 2006 - 2007
Technology Consultant
Led a cross-functional matrix team that included internal audit, information security, network, and application development organizations to remedy Sarbanes-Oxley control deficiencies in data security and access.
Provided the strategic, functional, and operational direction to the selection and deployment of a hardware solution to 1100 databases in less than six months. This project included researching industry best practices and the latest technical solutions in data security, initiating a proof-of-concept with leading vendors, selecting the vendor, and working with the procurement and contracting teams to comply with company requirements.
Led a team to remedy major weaknesses found in compliance of Sarbanes-Oxley data security, access, and monitoring requirements
Introduced formal project management methodology including project plans, business requirements, lifecycle phases, and formal phase gate reviews to uphold strict quality criteria for deliverables
Led efforts to research industry best practices and latest technical solutions in data security domain; Initiated a proof-of-concept with leading vendors; Selected vendor and worked with procurement team through the contract process
Managed resources, shaped priorities, coordinated day-to-day planning and kept the project team focused on the right goal
Created and gained approvals on key project artifacts including project charter, organization chart, communication plan, requirement specifications, test strategy, and project management plan
Worked with key stakeholders including internal audit, information security, network, facilities, and application development and testing teams to gain project acceptance and support
Managed the implementation of the solution to secure and monitor databases with automated auditing processes that will enforce polices and prevent unauthorized activities
Provided strategic, functional, and operational direction to the execution of infrastructure technology projects including: Selection and implementation of database fault and performance monitoring (Quest products) on Oracle, Sybase, MS SQL, and UBD platforms; Obfuscation of PPI data; Re-engineering of corporate data warehouse and data marts; Upgrades of MicroStrategy, ERwin, and Sun Grid Engine.
Developed and implemented IT general controls (IT general controls) for tools and applications to ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley internal control requirements
Documented internal controls processes and procedures, including control activities mapped to CobIT control objectives, narratives, and flowcharts
Performed detailed testing, analysis, and validation of systems, processes, and controls; Reported findings to management and managed remediation plans
Equant (Orange Business Systems / France Telecom) 2002 - 2006
Head of Marketing and Sales Business Systems (Director)
Equant provides global communication services to thousands of the world’s top companies. Its network spans 220 countries and territories, with local support in more than 165 countries. Equant’s total revenues were $2,914 million in 2004.
As head of an 80-person IT development group with a $16 million annual budget, responsible for building and supporting Equant’s corporate marketing and sales tools, including opportunity management, contracts management, pricing and order processing systems, business intelligence/reporting, and intranet and external portals.
Technical and Programmatic Management. Led 80-member globally dispersed team which provided project management, business analysis, development, quality assurance, and support for all sales and marketing business systems. Total annual budget $16 million.
Captive Offshoring. Saved more than $5 million by planning and executing major cost restructuring programs, including migrating development activities from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to India in less than eight months, creating an offshore development center to leverage low labor costs.
Strategic Business Cases. Justified $16 million business expenditures for strategic IT projects. Secured quarterly endorsements from Executive Committee by rationalizing business case and measurable results.
Managed all aspects of projects including budgeting (resource and program level), staffing (internal, contractor, offshore), vendor management, project management, schedule management, scope management, risk management, project development, documentation, and implementation
Planned and executed major cost restructuring programs that saved more than $5 million in the first year and $4 million per year thereafter; Ensured system stability and met business commitments during transition
Developed the strategy and detailed plans to migrate development activities from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to India in under eight months, creating an offshore development center to leverage low labor costs
Implemented a hiring plan that utilized Indian recruiters to screen candidates based on profile and testing, reviewed resumes from more than 185 candidates, conducted more than 100 interviews in India, and hired a team including managers, business systems analysts, software engineers, testers, and support analysts
Planned and coordinated the knowledge transfer and training of the new team, including detailed reporting metrics
Managed morale of the existing team and continued to deliver on all business commitments
Created an outsourcing strategy and managed the RFP, vendor selection, and negotiation for outsourced offshore development, saving more than $400,000 and delivering key business projects not otherwise possible
Reviewed system maintenance and enhancement requests, prioritized changes that immediately improved operational efficiency, and saved more than $2 million by cutting projects
Created solutions that enabled business administrators to manage routine system changes, reducing their dependency on IT development
Worked with key business owners to define achievable roadmaps and design solutions to solve business needs; Provided hands-on business and technical leadership to define new release requirements and solution direction
Built multi-million-dollar business cases for strategic, customer-focused IT projects and secured the endorsement of Equant’s Executive Committee by engaging key business owners to identify achievable, traceable business value
Negotiated a creative legal settlement with a vendor, saving $2.6 million and securing two-thirds of the settlement in future services
Provided direction to project managers, solution architects, developers, QA resources, and technical specialists on application projects; Empowered project teams to make the decisions necessary to meet their objectives within the boundaries of organizational and technical principles
Implemented new processes (based on Rational Unified Process) spanning the entire SDLC, including a QA process that started with requirements and extended through implementation, to ensure consistency and work quality
Implemented organizational processes and metrics that provided project visibility to the team, the business stakeholders, and IT management
Provided risk assessment for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance; Defined remediation plan and implemented new IT controls to ensure proper compliance and monitoring; Worked with internal and external auditors to provide documentation of adherence to controls and remediation
Led data centric projects including business intelligence/reporting for sales operation and sales-to-cash teams; Designed and implemented data warehouses, ETL processes (Genio scripts), dimensional models, and report sets (catalog and report templates) based on understanding the business data and database models
Senior Project Manager, Order Management, Customer Inventory, and Reporting Systems
Managed a team of eight business analysts and project managers dedicated to defining and implementing innovative, cost-effective global business solutions for the company’s Order Entry system
Managed scope, cost estimates, requirement analysis and specifications, solution design, and user acceptance testing
Designed and implemented a requirement engineering process that introduced structured processes and document templates, including Initial Solutions Proposals and Software Requirement Specifications; Facilitated meetings to gather requirements from business stakeholders and users; performed analysis and defined detailed specifications; managed project and resources across analysis, development, and user acceptance testing
Designed and implemented workflow solutions to improve efficiencies and reduce the Order-to-Bill cycle time, resulting in millions of dollars of accelerated cash flow
Reduced cash flow and revenue leakage by designing solutions to better manage the ordering and disconnecting of circuits with local Telco providers
Improved customer satisfaction (shorter lead times and better order accuracy) by introducing data validation and automated interfaces that reduced the number of rejected and delayed orders
Peregrine Systems, Inc., Bethesda, MD Mar. 2001 – Jun. 2002
Peregrine provides enterprise software that helps companies to better manage their IT infrastructure. Peregrine’s ServiceCenter and AssetCenter product suites form a solid foundation for IT asset and service management based on industry best practices, including IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
Senior Solution Consultant
Worked with Fortune 1000 enterprise accounts in industry verticals such as healthcare, insurance, and transportation to assess needs and provide solutions for infrastructure resource management, service management, asset management, employee relationship management, and EAI
Closed more than $1.7 million in new sales revenue in the first year of tenure
Performed initial account discovery and managed responses to RFPs and RFIs
Consistently and successfully executed all phases of sales cycle from discovery through closure
Performed business and technical requirements analysis; Interpreted requirements and provided custom presentations and software demonstrations that addressed the customer’s problems and needs and demonstrated return on investment
Established account presence and built trust with accounts; Developed and maintained customer relationships; Shared responsibility with the account executive for the account sales strategy and execution
Presented and articulated advanced product features and benefits, product future directions, and overall Peregrine solutions
Exceeded customer expectations with strong customer service orientation and client consultation skills. In one case, spent 30 hours discussing a customer’s present situation and goals for the next year. Reviewed the customer’s set of licensed solutions and determined which solutions were needed and which were not. Provided best practices documents and suggestions for operational improvements.
Performed initial account discovery and managed responses to RFPs and RFIs
Consistently and successfully executed all phases of sales cycle from discovery through closure
Performed business and technical requirements analysis; Interpreted requirements and provided custom presentations and software demonstrations that addressed the customer’s problems and needs and demonstrated return on investment
Established account presence and built trust with clients. Developed and maintained customer relationships. Built relationships with the executive sponsors and key players. Determined the compelling event initiating each opportunity. Investigated the business agendas and personal agendas of the key players and displayed sensitivity to these agendas when interacting and coordinating different stakeholders. Despite these differing agendas, worked to build consensus around a common solution to each stakeholder’s business needs. Business stakeholders included titles such as CIO; VP of Infrastructure; Sr. Customer Support Line Analyst; Customer Service Representative; Sr. Security Analyst; Manager, Information Services; Director, Customer Services; Manager, Information Systems (Financial Systems); Manager, Business Systems; Manager, Staffing North American Division; Director, Customer Quality Assurance; Manager, Applications Development; Manager, Support Services; Mainframe Director; Network Manager; Desktop Manager; Network Director; Controller; Buyer; President; Owner; Materials Manager.
Presented and articulated advanced product features and benefits, product future directions, and overall Peregrine solutions. Worked with Product Marketing Managers to discuss futures and product direction for individual presentations. Worked with Product Management Managers to examine best practices as designed into the solution. Worked with professional services in a transfer of knowledge gathered from the pre-sales initiative and provided the custom demo environments that were built.
Exceeded customer expectations with strong customer service orientation and client consultation skills. In one case, spent 30 hours discussing a customer’s present situation and goals for the next year. Reviewed the customer’s set of licensed solutions and determined which solutions were needed and which were not. Provided best practices documents and suggestions for operational improvements.
Managed responses to RFPs and RFIs.
Shared responsibility with the account executive for the account sales strategy and execution.
Demonstrated an awareness of customer needs (actual and potential) and consistently strived to match them. In one case, spent two weeks meeting with various members of an organization and presented a custom presentation and demonstration matching their needs and wishes to a solution architecture involving more than a dozen solutions.
Helped customers build business cases and realize lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and improved return on invested capital through total infrastructure management.
Demonstrated to senior managers how asset management can be used to understand how their assets support the organization from the perspective of TCO and, with that information, make decisions to ensure the continued health and competitive edge of their enterprise.
Worked with organizations to eliminate the friction inherent in disparate enterprise systems (service management, asset management, ERP, CRM, etc.) by presenting architectures of integrated solutions.
Helped organizations understand how a comprehensive employee self-service solution would leverage corporate assets to provide increased employee productivity and efficiency while enabling better fiscal management and corporate asset utilization.
Examples:
Replacement of service desk: Spent 2 weeks gathering business requirements and building relationships and trust. Spent time at the call center listening to the customer service representatives (CSRs). Observed the CSRs entering call tickets into existing help desk system and talked to them about what they liked and disliked about the system. Interviewed the lead change management engineer to understand the business requirements and build a custom demo that would meet those needs. Also spent time with the security analysts to gather their requirements, then built custom screens and integrated them into the call management screens to show how the solution could be extended to meet needs. Led a workshop of business unit representatives to define service level agreements requirements.
Management of WAN cabling for customer providing WAN services to airline industry: Analyzed the business requirements from request to telecom invoice reconciliation. Process included the request for quote from customer for a new service (i.e., new T1 line) through the development of the technical specification by the engineers, to the gathering of a quote from a local telecom company, to the establishment and signing of a contract by the customer (request is processed into an order), to the provisioning of the services. The proposed solution also included a data warehouse to be used to match the thousands of line items on telecom bills to the airline customer and initial telecom quote. Verifications were established to determine if amount billed from the telecom company matched quote (projected savings of over $1 million per annum) and to ensure airline customers were being billed correctly.
Education
M.B.A., Management Information Systems, George Mason University
B.A., Political Science and Religion (Dual Major), Syracuse University
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgermain https://www.germainconsulting.com