Atif Chauhan

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER

PROFESSIONAL

PROFILE

IT professional with 20 years of progressive experience including operations and projects in enterprise environment. Proven record of managing day to day operations of corporate and remote IT infrastructures and Service Desk ensuring high availability of core systems. Expert in planning, implementation, and management of diverse technology solutions in support of business objectives. Extensive background in coaching, counseling, and developing employees in enhancing their productivity and performance in a measurable fashion. Proficient in budget management and forecasting. Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to collaborate proficiently at all levels within the organization.

MAJOR COMPETENCIES

§ Coaching & Training

§ Enterprise Deployment

§ Infra & Desktop Ops

§ ITSM, KPI, RCA, SLA

§ Asset, Contract & Vendor Management

§ Budgeting and Forecasting, Documentation

§ Incident, Request & Change Management

§ Technical & Performance Evaluation

§ Project Management

§ Process Improvement

§ Strategic Planning

§ Trending & Forecasting

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCIES

§ Backup, Disaster Recovery

§ MS Workstation & Server

§ System Administration

§ TCPIP, LAN/WAN

§ Cisco, T-1, VMware, VPN, Wireless

§ HPSM, Remedy, Service Now

§ Imaging, QA, Test, Troubleshooting

§ Printing: Business & Production

§ Active Directory, SCCM

§ App. Server Support, ERP

§ MS Office, Project &Visio

§ IIS, Web Design, WS_FTP

PROFESSIONAL

EXPERIENCE

Independent IT Consultant

Houston, Texas

July 2017 - Present

Function in a consultant capacity with small businesses to provide solutions and services in various technologies including Microsoft Infrastructure, Routing, Switching and Security.  Responsible for leading projects from planning to design, implementation and testing. Collaborate with customers to ensure alignment with business objectives.

§ Provide IT consulting and services tailored to the business requirements which include hardware and software upgrade and Windows migration

§ Place Data & Network Security solutions such as firewall, anti-virus, spyware and spam controls to protect business, network and sensitive data to minimize threats

§ Design and implement IT architectural improvements for server and storage to ensure optimal performance

§ Implement Data Backup & Recovery solutions to restore business-critical data to ensure business continuity

§ Create documentation and provide training

IT Infrastructure - Service Manager

Sadara Chemical - Saudi Arabia

Jan. 2015 - June 2017

Sadara Chemical (Dow Chemical and Saudi Aramco Alliance) expatriate brought onboard as a service manager to oversee deployment of new infrastructure, processes, procedures and day to day operations for corporate headquarter, 26 petrochemical plants, and remote locations.  Led development and implementation of various processes, protocols, and solutions pertaining to business & production printing, workstations, mobility and conference room (150) enablement.  Responsible for overseeing a team of direct and indirect employees and supporting corporate wide users. Successfully demonstrated ability to work alongside teams with backgrounds and work styles.

§ Managed various IT teams and projects over $5M+

§ Spearheaded planning, development, testing, standardization of IT procedures and asset management in conjunction with audit standards

§ Ensured successful hardware and software deployments

§ Reviewed and evaluated proposals for production critical systems and solutions for headquarter and plants including requirement, product, vendor selection and contracts

§ Built vendor relations and negotiated on proposed solutions

§ Established, administered the annual budget and manage expenditures in order to operate within the approved budget

§ Managed stakeholders’ correspondence, official corporate reporting and communication of the project milestones and key deliverables to the PMO

§ Developed strategic roadmaps and KPIs

§ Participated in the Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

§ Reviewed, approved changes and scheduled outages as a member of the Change Advisory Board (CAB)

§ Interfaced and consulted with other functional leads within IT Services to coordinate planning and activities

§ Successfully meet aggressive timelines and budget constraints

§ Trained staff, completed mid-year and annual performance evaluations

§ Created, maintained documentation and service request catalog

§ Coordinate office moves, build outs and relocations

IT Infrastructure and Desktop Operations Manager

Emerson - Houston, TX

Jul. 2012 - Dec. 2014

In charge for planning, budgeting, directing and coordinating the operations of Infrastructure and desktop operations. Responsible for operational efficiency and high availability of production servers, applications and end user uptime. Led various critical and time sensitive projects including network upgrade, SharePoint implementation as well as deployment of IT processes and procedures. Managed staff for optimum performance.

§ Successfully managed various IT teams and projects over $1M+

§ Managed the evaluation of product, services and negotiated on proposed solutions

§ Rolled out various migrations for Windows 7, Infrastructure, Applications, network, SharePoint implementation and participated in BPCS (ERP) - IBM AS400 to Oracle migration

§ Ensured compliance with IT policies and procedure including documentation requirements and security procedures

§ Functioned as a liaison between executive management and technical team bridging communication gaps on deployment of new projects and procedures

§ Created Windows OS images, Disaster Recovery plan, knowledge-based documentation and KPIs

§ Collaborated with IT directors and VP in developing short and long-term goals based on business objectives

§ Performed lunch and learn sessions for users and management; created new hire/on boarding procedures

§ Managed SLA, expectations and facilitated communications

§ Assisted in troubleshooting complex issues, developed and maintain best practices

§ PC life cycle management: provisioning, de-provisioning, refresh and repair

§ Directed staff in the compliance with IT policy, standards procedures, documentation and security policy

IT / Engagement Support Manager

Ernst & Young - Houston, TX

Oct. 2003 - Dec. 2012

Primary responsibilities included managing day to day operations of staff members, overseeing metrics for service delivery agreements, escalations of customer service related issues, management of workload and staff related duties.

§ Provided connectivity/network, server, workstation and VPN support for offsite engagements in the SW region

§ Maintained and enhanced open lines of communication with the BU, Office and Area leadership to ensure proactive successful support

§ In charge of coordination and implementation of T-1, DSL, server and wireless setups for various sites

§ Trained and mentored staff in their problem solving and customer service skills

§ Americas Assurance and Advisory (A&A) SME Lead: Managed team of 15 IT personal to analyze A&A application issues, trends, escalated them to the product owners and deployment managers as well as enhanced knowledge of applications in the Americas support personal by knowledge sharing while building relationships with key stakeholders

§ Offsite Support Peer Group (OSPG) Lead: Managed a National team of 13 specialized technical individuals to develop best practices and processes to affect positive change and consistency in offsite support

§ Windows 2003 Server Migration: Performed analysis of Business impact, identified benefits and risks associated with migration.  Managed and led Windows 2000 to Windows 2003 server upgrade of 50 units at the client site. Worked with the BU for the procurement of required assets, created training and reference manuals. Successfully completed the project meeting project requirements within established timeline

Technology Support Specialist I – III

Ernst & Young - Houston, TX

Dec. 1997 - Oct. 2003

§ Escalation point for challenging technology issues; provided remote support while on call 24x7

§ Administrator to create network accounts, reset network passwords and troubleshot connectivity issues

§ Set-up and deployed IBM, Gateway, Dell and Compaq laptops, desktop and printers

§ Used existing standards of Ghost utilities to assist with data migrations and workstation setup

§ Deployed hardware & software to clients including the testing, repairing, installation and configuration

§ Identified sources and trends of technical problems to prevent future occurrences

§ Performed asset management activities and assisted office moves, build outs and relocations

EDUCATION

&

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Information Systems Technology (BS)

University of Houston

Managing Projects

George Washington University, School of Business

ITIL® V3 Foundation Certified

IT Service Management - Certificate Number: 03094011-02-FWEC

REFERENCES

Available upon request