Nikki Smidt

Experience

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  U S WEST

  Jan 1994 - Jan 1997

  Director Software Development/Test Organization

  Directed all-computing systems and databases that support the billing systems for approximately 12M customers. Led a team of 12 managers, with a total of 175 employees.• Led development, coding, testing and implementation of upgrades successfully, taking approximately 40,000 hours of work every 3 months with no major impacts to business. • Led a team of technical and functional architects to plan the graceful transformation from our legacy billing enviornments to a more efficient technology platform increasing time to market for products and services.• Developed multiple partnerships with vendors that provided contract consultants, hardware, and software, negotiating lower rates for staff augmentation. • Developed strategy to test early and often, creating test criteria that improved quality of code turnover by 20%, by implementing a string test of all components before turnover to system test• Delivered eight releases a year with tested code with no sev 1 trouble tickets into production.• Implemented entrance and exit criteria for all phases of the development life cycle, including production, resulting in more quality code, and allowing time for more test run throughs, enabling early issue resolution• Developed an automated function for bill compare validation eliminating the manual process checks, and providing more accurate validation with fewer errors to production Show less

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  U S WEST

  Jan 1998 - Jan 1999

  Director Program Management Office

  Established and led the program management function in U S WEST IT, for all major cross functional IT projects. The staff included 15 program managers, requirements management function totaling an additional 10 people, and a technical architect. • Directed a staff of fifteen program managers, a requirements management staff and a technical architect• Managed portfolio of 25 simultaneous projects that were business critical which included implementation of over 35 systems in ordering, provisioning, repair, billing, financial, and data management areas.• Managed partnership with AMDOCS to build a usage rating engine enabling in-house rating and additional costs savings. • Managed all number expansions for over $100M, requiring changes to 60+ systems; new product launch for the DSL product, including new development for provisioning, ordering, repair and marketing systems as well as updates to legacy environments resulting in the sale of internet connectivity for our customers• Implemented new process for Commitment and Delivery Management for all development projects, including 600+ projects with a portfolio of more than $900M increasing customer satisfaction and improving on time delivery. • Enacted process for issue, risk, and escalation management and created and implemented post production processes within three months, enabling staff to better manage projects with a defined, process implementation for all IT projects. Show less

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  Qwest Communications

  May 1999 - Dec 2001

  Director Service Delivery - IT

  Directed all-computing systems and databases that support customer ordering for Retail Markets. She had oversight for systems that support 25 million access lines and all associated service order activity for 110,000 orders a day. • Directed an organization that consisted of 145 professionals, with nine direct reports. • Selected technology, developed business requirements, network requirements, and budget for the sales and ordering platform to support 4000 desktops for small business and consumer customers with a delivery turn around of three months.• Led team as primary client interface to deliver 29 releases on time and on budget over a 3-year period.• Led organization to achieve process performance standard CMM level 2 in only 9 months reducing development life cycles by 20 % and reducing project costs by 20 %.• Managed development for address and telephone number assignment for all 12M Qwest customers. Led the project around to an architecture that could handle the necessary volumes, while keeping the project team focused on delivery. • Negotiated refunds with vendor and a no-cost contract for the delivery year.• Established the disaster recovery plan for the new ordering environment, resulting in protection of a tier one application for the business. Show less

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  Business Edge Solutions

  Jan 2002 - Jan 2003

  Director Program Management

  Director of large cross-functional billing replacemnet at a tier 1 carrier in the United States

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  InCode Wireless

  Feb 2003 - Nov 2008

  General Manager/Director Integration Services

  Directed the sales, pricing, and delivery of all professional service engagements for the integration services organization. Built organization from eight to 70 people in 18 months to support a global presence, including EMEA, APAC and LATAM. • Managed the P&L, SOW preparation and delivery of sold solutions increasing revenue and customer satisfaction• Implemented reporting tool to support network intelligence allowing customer to implement changes increasing their network quality. • Led and put in place the PMO to support the billing conversion at a tier one carrier. Created an integrated plan that included over 60 systems, new development of billing components, migration, and new production enviroment. This allowed for the effective execution of a large complex and cross-functional program with no interruption to existing operations.• Trained technical skills to operational support personnel both internally and for vendor partner, increasing personnel’s ability to support their customers and increasing revenue for our business unit. • Defined order to cash system strategy to support the launch of a wireless product to add to a tier one carrier product bundle enabling customer retention• Developed new business partners to support product implementations, increasing our revenues 50%. • Managed 70 personnel globally on approximately 25 projects a year with 70% utilization rate, and a 30% gross margin. • Managed creation of four joint service offerings to increase sales opportunities creating $4M in annual revenue Show less

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  VeriSign

  Dec 2008 - Nov 2009

  Director Account Management-Commerce Products

  Managed the customer relationship for the commerce division billing and wireless picture mail product ensuring customer satisfaction and product delivery as requested and committed.• Realized customer business strategy by driving new requirements, problem solving to clearly define those requirements, implemented the technical solutions resulting in high level of customer satisfaction.• Directed a team of 8 program managers for delivery of new product enhancements enriching the customer experience and retention• Identified and presented product needs to product management for inclusion in subsequent product releases enabling customers to increase customer acquisition and revenue. • Supported sales staff with new leads, closing deals, and managing customer expectations, resulting in customer functions delivered as agreed and increased sales revenue.• Led engagement to analyze all operattional processes and provide improvement recommendations and plans to obtain ITIL standards. Show less

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  ISoftStone

  Oct 2009 - Jul 2011

  Sr Program Manager

  Supported the Business Architect in HR IT systems for planning fiscal year budgets and formed an HR data governance board.• Managed a data governance leadership team responsible for all data requests to ensure they meet standards for project implementation to prevent duplication of data and unnecessary overhead for processing• Defined and documented the long range planning for the IT related scope for projects such as data re-architecture, implementation of HR processes to SAP to support the critical systems future for MSFT.• Collaborated with the business to obtain industry best practices and turn them into requirements for estimations with the technical teams• Coordinated domain architects to obtain estimates, risks and assumptions for program planning and prioritization• Presented the final package to the business to obtain the necessary funding and approvals enabling enhanced HR processes to attract new talent Show less

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  Clearwire

  Nov 2009 - Nov 2010

  Sr Program Manager-LG Consulting

  Led a development team through a major infrastructure upgrade needed to support future growth and scaling of the business for order to cash processes. The project included end to end integration with the new Amdocs ordering and billing system.• Defined testable requirements, scope and delivery steps for middleware components providing clarity and structure for the development team to execute more effectively• Created stories and defined sprint schedules and managed 20 middleware developers using PHP, JSON, XML, Soap technologies with a successful delivery on committed date.• Managed build schedules and code deployments decreasing build issues by 30%• Managed off shore test team for all defects to enable quick turnaround of code• Collaborated with the business teams to ensure all requirements and scope was included to meet the business needs to support the expected growth in retail Show less

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  Ericsson

  Jul 2011 - Jul 2015

  Director Operational Governance

  Managed the operational KPIs/SLAs for the performance management for a tier one carrier network. Established the governance and customer relationships to enable effective communication and reporting on performance goals. • Led a team of program managers to create a program management playbook based on PMBOK to enable the effective delivery of large cross-functional programs• Collaborated across functional domains to gather requirements and map to application capabilities enabling creation of the required designs to support planning and delivery for implementation.• Retained revenue of 4M a year in risk assessments with effective mediation and results management both internally and externally• Directed the fulfillment of contractual obligations for a software development delivery solution meeting all committed dates• Managed, obtained and recorded all Purchase Orders for work preformed to enable milestone billing meeting SOX compliance• Awarded e-Star for management of performance targets and revenue protection Show less

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  T-Mobile

  Aug 2015 - Dec 2015

  Program Manager via Covestic

  Solution Owner and delivery manager overseeing the implementation of the Enterprise Document Presentment. The solution provided the capability to present digital documents used during the sales process eliminating paper processing. Duties included, ensuing the solution was delivered to meet the business requirements, delivery of operational requirements, triage of test issues, managing legal document requirements and implementation activities to production.

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  Netcracker Technology

  Dec 2015 - Mar 2020

  Program Director

  Successful Delivery of billing solutions and migration of customers to the new solution. Manage and direct a team of solution architects, business analysts, technical managers, project managers and development resources. Manage customer expectations and ensure solution meets the desired business requirements. Establish program management office to facilitate clear communication of program status, risks, mitigation and ensure collaborative resolution with the business partner.

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  Covestic at T-Mobile

  Mar 2020 - now

  Portfolio Manager
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  Telecom Jobs

  Jan 2022 - now

  Retired