Andrea Merchant, PMP, Certified ITIL Expert

Experience

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  Sun Microsystems

  Jan 2006 - Jan 2007

  Sr. Technical Program Manager

  Expanded responsibilities to include Project Management and Customer Account Manager roles for an $80M, 100-person Compute Utility project.Achieved a 50% reduction in testing cycles within 6 months by driving automation of repeatable tasks across unit, integration, quality, and operations testing for Sun Grid major releases.Realized $4M (20%) in annual savings by leading the physical and system unification of three geographically distributed data centers.

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  Verizon

  Jan 2007 - Feb 2009

  Senior Consultant, Product Development

  Deployed managed services products by leading the efforts of IT PMO, Engineering, Operations, and Marketing. Recognized with the Sr. VP Award four times in two years for outstanding performance.Established a UAT strategy incorporating detailed regression and assurance tests, enabling cross-functional teams to perform real-time verifications, reducing defect rates by 50%.

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  Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Irving, Texas

  Jan 2009 - Feb 2018

  Manager, Complex Delivery Integration (Global Outsourced Solutions)

  Verizon Enterprise Solutions, Dallas, Texas 2009 – 2018Manager, Complex Delivery Integration (Global Outsourced Solutions)Led matrix teams in deploying ITIL solutions for Fortune 500 companies across multiple industries. These solutions were pivotal in securing outsourced deals in a competitive market.Transformative Change Management & Digital Culture: Mentored multiple service management teams to adopt a standardized, automated, catalog-based change management solution that monitors customer’s SLA and KPI compliance. The platform processes 66,000 change records annually, saving 88,000 hours across 40 customers and generating $5.5M in annual savings.Automation-Driven Operational Excellence: Created a global Configuration Management Database (CMDB), providing a unified interface for Verizon and its customers to access inventory, ticket, and alarm data. This initiative reduces manual reconciliation efforts for Enterprise PMO accounts by 80% and streamlines Service Delivery processes with normalized and accurate data. Standardized ITIL Architecture: Deployed an overlay ITIL architecture across Verizon’s ordering, provisioning, and billing service profiles, cutting the onboarding process by 60%.Regulatory Compliant Billing Solutions: Successfully billed $500M with complex contract-mandated bundled product solutions, resolving intricate revenue allocations while ensuring compliance with global taxation and country-specific regulations. Show less

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  Verizon Enterprise Solutions

  Feb 2018 - Feb 2022

  Sr. Manager, Enterprise Solutions and IT Strategy

  Verizon Business Group, Irving, Texas 2018 – 2022Senior Manager, Enterprise Solutions and IT Strategy (Global Outsourced Solutions)Directed Delivery and Operations teams supporting a complex customer base across disparate systems with varying operating models. Resolved foundational issues, enabling Verizon’s growth through an ambitious change agenda that deployed a standardized service management platform.Data-Driven Decision Making: Transformed the onboarding process for 250,000 managed devices by leveraging data analytics and automation, cutting per-device cost to serve from $12 to under $6. This initiative led to annual savings of $1.5M while improving efficiency and scalability.New Product Launch & Revenue Growth: Led cross-functional teams to develop and launch a new device maintenance product, driving $5M in annual revenue at a 35% margin. Automated workflows to scale order processing from 100 to 1,700 per week. Show less

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  Verizon Business

  Feb 2022 - Dec 2024

  Assoc-Director Business Intelligence IT Strategy

  Verizon Business Group, Irving, TexasVerizon Business Group, Irving, Texas 12/2022 – 12/2024Associate Director, Business Intelligence and Transformation (Operations Strategy)Conceptualized and defined critical tasks for cross-functional teams following Verizon’s rebadging of 4,000 of 8,000 operational employees to HCLTech, driving improvements in operational efficiencyConflict Resolution & Communication Management: Effectively resolved billing discrepancies for 500,000 devices with a 25% rate variance by diagnosing product and rate definition errors. Secured HCL approval within a month, eliminating high-level escalations, streamlining processes, reducing manual validation time, and ensuring timely invoice payments to avoid penaltiesExpert Negotiator & Strategic Problem Solver: Orchestrated cross-functional negotiations with IT and PMO teams across multiple time zones to execute the seamless migration of 6,000 projects and 2.5M data points within 4 days for a global banking firm. Leveraged creative thinking to enhance data integrity, drive cost savings, and ensure the timely processing of $50M in annual invoice payments, strengthening customer confidence and securing contract renewal. Show less