Candidates About

William Thomas

IT LEADERSHIP / PROJECT PROFESSIONAL

Leveraging technology to increase revenue, productivity, and compliance

An experienced and versatile information technology professional with broad industry functional knowledge who has held senior management positions in large multinational corporations as a project leader, change agent and manager of direct and matrix-managed staff. Proficient in deploying and supporting Enterprise Resource Planning and associated enterprise systems while remaining within approved budget and timelines.

Possess regulated industry knowledge and adherence to practices and mandates, such as GxP and SOX, providing guidance and alignment for internal SOP and procedure development and in support of established system development life cycle frameworks. Information Technology strategic planning and budget management execution. Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Application Delivery and Support: SAP ECC 6.0, SAP GRC, MFG/PRO, MS Great Plains, BPCS,  LabWare LIMS, Pilgrim SmartSolve. Three full ERP system deployments as Project Manager, multiple ERP upgrades and functionality extension, legacy system migration, new systems solutions implementation.

Compliance and Regulatory:  SOX, GxP, MHRA, ITIL, COBIT

Industries: Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices, Utilities, Consumer Products, Food, Aerospace, Engineered Products

Hardware: Application server and network knowledge; virtual machine and cloud computing platforms.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Informative Technology Consulting, LLC., Millstone Twp., New Jersey        July 2014 - Present      

ERP Systems Consultant – Enterprise applications project and change management consisting of system enhancements, system patching, routine maintenance, bug fixes, security design, evaluation and user access request processing in complex SAP landscapes consisting of core ECC 6.0, Solution Manager, BI, GRC 10.1 and multiple product extensions at multinational and regulated clients.

Most Relevant Client Services Provided:

Healthcare Products Manufacturer- ConvaTec Inc.                                       July 2015 – January 2017

·           Manage SAP ECC 6.0 ERP system steady-state operational support for 2,000 user multi-national healthcare products manufacturer inclusive of applications integrated through the middleware ETL tool, such as bank interfaces, EDI, HR data extracts.

·           Act as liaison between global ERP system business users and onshore / offshore technical support service teams (IBM Application Services, IBM Cloud) to facilitate helpdesk ticket and system change request queue resolution in the SCM, OTC, FIN and GRC 10.1 / Security areas. Chair ongoing support team calls and manage change request priorities. Develop training materials and provide user training as required.

·           Responsible for maintaining the overall SAP ECC system blueprint, evaluating and approving or rejecting changes requested by the user community.

·           Oversee change management process and unit, integration and user acceptance testing process, providing IM input, reviews and approvals.

·           Recommend and implement user role and security design changes to support evolving business needs and provide support for both internal and external access control audit. Construct and/or provide review and approvals for user access through GRC Compliant User Provisioning and emergency access through Superuser Privilege Management. Analyze segregation of duties and critical access issues through Risk Identification and Remediation functionality of GRC. Utilize GRC to automatically de-provision user accounts based-upon Workday HCM user status.

·           IT Lead for product migration to an alternate manufacturing facility as part of a manufacturing plant decommission project, overseeing material master data, distribution and forecasting / demand planning configuration within SAP and related third-party warehouse systems.

·           IT Project Lead for conversion from SAP T&E to Concur T&E system.

·           Provided IM support for WRICEF (workflow, reports, interfaces, conversion, enhancements, forms) modifications to the OTC, FIN and SD modules as part of expanding the SAP footprint throughout the organization and to other markets, replacing legacy systems with SAP.

·           Perform documentation reviews under GMP guidelines and assist with creating or updating IM policies and procedures. Assist with coordination of disaster recovery and data center activities with outsourced hosting partner.

·           Project Manager for HPQC 10 to HP QC/ALM 12.01 testing tool upgrade, utilizing industry accepted project management methodologies while adhering to internal client SDLC policies, procedures and timelines.

Public Utilities Company- American Water                                                                     July 2014 – January 2015

·           SAP Security Consultant providing security design, evaluation and user access request processing in a complex SAP landscape consisting of core ECC 6.0, Solution Manager, BI Data Warehouse, GRC 10.0 and multiple product extensions at a post-implementation client.

·           Configure security changes in development and quality environments, construct test script scenarios and perform unit and system testing, prepare transports and change documentation, coordinate user acceptance testing and Segregation of Duties evaluation.

GLG (Gerson Lehrman Group)                                                                             2017 - Present

GLG Council Member – Provide information technology applications subject matter expertise to enhance clients’ understanding of industry technologies, issues and trends.

ConvaTec Inc., Skillman, New Jersey                                                       October 2008 - April 2014

Associate Director Information Management - SAP ERP application project management and operations support in a multinational 2,000 user $1.8B medical device company. Project Lead, Team Lead / Coach in an enterprise systems environment.  Provided user requirements gathering and documentation and problem resolution.  Supervised project schedule development, test plan creation, software configuration.  Managed full software development life cycle (SDLC) and configuration change control.

·           Assumed additional responsibility for liaison role (Associate Director SAP Operations) with third party SAP system service provider (IBM AMS, IBM MAS Hosting) supporting core ECC 6.0, Solution Manager, Middleware ETL, HPQC testing tool, BI data warehouse.

·           Maintain operational effectiveness of the SAP system through regular reviews of system service level agreements (SLA’s) related to system uptime performance and user support requests with both internal and external hosting and support teams. Managed application and testing of necessary support packs or system enhancements leveraging SAP Solution Manager and HPQC.

·           Project Manager delivering the SAP GRC system utilized to evaluate and mitigate user access risk, eliminating a significant deficiency cited by external auditors and measurably diminishing segregation of duties (SoD) issues through business role design and restrictions.

·           Key contributor to the IT strategic planning process, proposing software solutions or enhancements to meet business requirements along with budgetary estimates and return on investment analysis.

·           Managed a steady state team of 6 - 9 internal and external technical resources delivering configuration changes or new system functionality and resolving user support issues within established SLA’s.

·           Oversee the SAP change management process and participate in weekly Change Review Board (CRB) meetings. Enforce adherence to IM quality policies and SOPs, perform document reviews and provide input for validation documentation content.

·           Finance / Controlling (FI CO) IM lead for $33MM SAP transitional services project during the spinoff of ConvaTec from BMS, delivering a new instance of SAP configured for ConvaTec business processes within budget and timeframe of the transitional services agreement with BMS, avoiding penalties and ongoing service fees. Led technical FI CO team consisting of 15 project resources responsible for developing and delivering a corporate Finance blueprint and migrating critical data from legacy BMS SAP and BPCS systems.

·           IT Lead for Ariba procure to pay integration with SAP ECC.

ENZON Pharmaceuticals, Bridgewater, New Jersey                      October 1996 - September 2008

Information Technology Associate Director - Information Technology strategic planning, operational budget planning and presentation to Senior Management, application software project delivery and operations management. Business transition leadership through two company acquisitions / spinoffs (Liposome Company to Elan Corporation and Elan Corporation to Enzon Pharmaceuticals)

·           ERP Project Manager Lead for the conversion from Microsoft Great Plains v8.0 ERP to SAP ECC 6.0 involving procure to pay, logistics and planning, manufacturing, quality, order to cash and financial functions (FI, CO, AM, SD, MM, IM, PP, QM, BW). Led analysis of ERP system selection and request for proposal (RFP) process. Delivered the solution on schedule and within approved budget.

·           Developed or approved Business Process Procedures mapping the legacy to SAP processes for Supply Chain Management, inclusive of direct materials inventory management, procurement, manufacturing planning, bills of material, routings, product hierarchy and product quality management; Order To Cash Management, inclusive of third party logistics services provider integration, batch traceability, invoicing and chargeback and rebate management; Finance inclusive of product costing, profitability analysis, accounts payable and receivable and general ledger functionality. Identified and resolved gaps through RICEFW object development as necessary.

·           Led deployment and integration with SAP of quality-related systems such as LabWare LIMS and the Pilgrim SmartSolve CAPA solution to support the company’s quality improvement initiative.

·           Provided post go-live operational support of the SAP ECC 6.0 and related systems.

·           Responsible for a $2MM ERP budget, the largest component of the IT application portfolio.

·           Ensured compliance with GxP and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations by understanding regulatory requirements, interacting with internal and external audit resources and configuring applications to mitigate risk.

·           Implemented Great Plains v8.0 Finance and Logistics utilized within four Enzon sites; validated the system per GMP requirements and reengineered business roles to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley separation of duties.

·           Managed 15 cross-functional individuals in four locations across the United States utilizing a matrix approach. Reported directly to Elan headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and participated in strategic corporate planning meetings.

·           Successfully delivered a complete $1MM MFG/PRO ERP solution (Manufacturing, Logistics, Finance, Quality) in a multi-site, multi-entity pharmaceutical environment (Liposome Company) on schedule and under budget. Led Project Team and Steering Committee meetings, managed project plan and budget, supervised project resources. Validated the system in a FDA regulated environment and maintained the validated state of the system through adherence to change management policies and procedures.

EDUCATION / TRAINING / ACHIEVEMENTS

Bachelor’s of Science, Engineering / Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania

Certification and Training:

SAP01 Blended SAP Overview Training – SAP Training

AC040 SAP Business Process in Management Accounting Training – SAP Training

GRC300 SAP Access Control Implementation and Configuration Training –  SAP Training

ADM940 SAP Authorization Concept – SAP Training

Communication and Interpersonal Skills for IT Professionals – American Management Association

Managing Today’s IT and Technical Professionals – American Management Association

Project Management for IT Professionals – CompuMaster

Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures / 21 CFR Part 11 – Sage Visioneering

Computer Systems Validation Workshop – VTI

MS Project 2003 – NewHorizons

MS Great Plains Installation and Configuration – Microsoft Business Solutions

SQL Server – Microsoft Business Solutions

LabWare LIMS Certified Administrator – LabWare Inc.

Presented at the 2013 SAP GRC conference in Las Vegas, NV. Member of ASUG and SAP Insider.