Robert Smeaton PMP CSPO

Experience

• 

  Sutherland Global Services

  Jul 2009 - Dec 2010

  Team Lead and Escalations Team Lead - Technical Support

  • Coached front line associates on the client's key performance metrics and was held accountable for the team's performance.• Designed and delivered reports to senior levels of management.• Team was consistently a top performer.• Advocated best practice sharing within the program and other programs within the same company by participating in meetings and directly contacting managers in similar programs.

• 

  Applied Systems

  Dec 2010 - Jun 2023

  • Collaborate regularly with leaders of product management and technology with respect to road mapping to strategic success, while ensuring customer value is kept top of mind• Responsible for keeping up to date with Canadian/provincial insurance regulatory and compliancy matters then working with the entire Applied product portfolio, and its various stakeholders, to ensure timely adoption• Collaborate with the Design team to enhance the functionality and user experience of the product, in addition to planning and conducting user studies online and in person• Collaborate with technology leaders to ensure the technologies and techniques of the development team follow industry best practices• Leverage best in class tools such as Jira, Confluence, Slack, Zoom, and Figma, to create a culture of intuitive collaboration whilst planning for success Show less • Responsible for the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and successful completion of multiple system implementation projects of Applied Epic for the Canadian and American operations of global insurance leaders at an enterprise scale• Responsible for managing the execution of all implementation needs by utilizing a methodological approach to planning and careful planning of client communication strategies. These implementation needs are composed of, but are not necessarily limited to: data migration and integrity, agency/brokerage operations and finance process management, systems training, and go-live planning• Project manager of projects of immense scope when considering Applied Systems and also the insurance industry as a whole• Responsible for the coordination and execution of projects ranging from $10,000 to $850,000 USD• Responsible for the coordination and execution of programs exceeding $1M USD+ Show less Lead individual US and Canadian Epic implementation projects for a top 5 multi-national insurance brokerage in what was largest systems migration and process transformation programs ever undertaken in the insurance industry. These projects often entail various source systems and multiple destination Applied products and use a proven and well followed methodology for success.∙ Projects delivered on time and to spec∙ Manage and hold the local location to adherence to the defined project schedule and program goals∙ Completed process and systems discovery on both operational and financial considerations to identify relevant gaps and areas of opportunity for business process improvement∙ Developed local branch champions through direct interaction and education, not only for the present project but also for long term operational benefit to the local agency/brokerage; these champions are responsible for local support and enterprise wide SME responsibilities∙ Managed the data conversion aspect with the local agency/brokerage and internal SMEs - bringing multiple locations and source systems into one data destination through various data conversion activities, including internal and external QA, UAT, and workflow testing∙ Devised, co-ordinated, delivered, and fine tuned education to the client on site or via remote screen sharing technologies∙ Developed methodologies for internal processes to add additional value to projects Show less Supervisor of members of the Rating Services support Escalations team whose makeup was composed of employees within my office and an office based in Montreal, Quebec. ∙ Assisted in the successful migration from an existing CRM to a new one which delivered visibility enterprise wide - I assisted in requirement gathering, working with other groups within Applied, and end user education within my own team and others within Applied;∙ Successfully retained all members of my team after the merging of Compu-Quote Inc. into Applied Systems;∙ Successfully assisted in the bringing of Applied Epic to market in Canada by worked closely with early adopters, the implementation team, and software development;∙ Successfully assisted in the bringing of Rating Services Online/Hosted to market and worked closely with early adopters, the implementation team, and software development;∙ Empowered my team to embody a truer representation of a software escalations team by instilling a consistent and cohesive testing and reproduction of software defects and/or user workflows based in Agile methodologies;∙ Built bridges between my team and others (from software developers to implementation leads) which resulted in increased levels of customer service and client satisfaction. Show less • Conceived, designed, and developed (including programming) an employee performance management scorecard which collates data from multiple data sources to present meaningful statistics and KPIs on an individual, sub-group, and team basis.• Influenced a transition to a more process based support department which translated into improvements in all key metrics which ultimately lead to better service for both internal and external clients.• Work with developers, quality assurance teams, business analysts, project managers, senior managers, and others (internally and externally) on new product and project roll outs with a focus on the deployment stage. • Relied upon to deliver, and interpret, data to be made available to key stakeholders (including senior management).• Provide and interpret data for call forecasting and staffing levels.• As part of the deployment phase, develop and provide ongoing reporting to key members of teams internally and externally and make adjustments to this deployment based on results.• Reviewed and improved reporting to my direct manager as well as senior levels of management: results are more accurate, more relevant data is used, and the time required to complete the reporting is measurably decreased and ensured these measures are repeatable.• Supervision and training of support representatives, whether they are new hires or part of continuing education.• Coordinate changes to support processes and internal applications.• Reviewing of CSR transactions (voice, e-mail) for development feedback and quality purposes.• Lead, or co-lead, meetings several times a week (dailies, weeklies, monthlies) - found ways to make these meetings more meaningful and less time consuming.• Write performance reviews for presentation by operations manager.• Consistently praised for commitment to excellence by colleagues within the organization as well as within others.• Lead French speaking employees in remote office (Montreal, Quebec). 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  • Senior Product Manager

    Apr 2022 - Jun 2023

  • Rating Services Manager

    Jun 2016 - Apr 2022

  • Project Manager, Enterprise Services

    Jul 2015 - Jul 2016

  • Project Lead

    Mar 2014 - Jun 2015

  • Supervisor of Rating Support

    Jul 2013 - Mar 2014

  • Technical Support Coordinator

    Nov 2011 - Jun 2013

  • Junior Programmer / Auto Underwriting Analyst

    May 2011 - Nov 2011

  • Technical Support Specialist

    Dec 2010 - May 2011
• 

  HUB Customer Central (HCC)

  Jun 2023 - now

  • Director, Web Applications

    Aug 2024 - now

  • Manager, Web Applications

    Jun 2023 - Aug 2024