Candidates About

Bobby L. Hickman

EXPERIENCE SUMMARY

Twenty five plus years’ experience with insurance and financial information technology systems. Skilled in all phases of project life cycle: analysis, design, coding, testing, project management.  Proficient in various life, annuity, group, A&H and P&C insurance software packages running on IBM mainframe.

Technical Experience

Software:  COBOL II, EasyTrievePlus, BAL/Assembler, DB2, MVS JCL and various mainframe utilities; SCLM, Librarian, EndeavorLife/70, LifeComm, VANTAGE-ONE, CFO, PMS, ALIS, ABC/CDS; MS Office, MS Project, Project Workbench; training in C++, Visual Basic, Java, Joomla.

Hardware:  IBM 309x, 434x, MVS and DOS operating systems; PCs, client/servers.

EXPERIENCE

B.L. Hickman and Associates Inc., Acworth, GA                                           1994-Present                       

Consultant and President

Computer systems consultant, working with these insurance companies and financial institutions:

·     September 2012-Present: Client is Knights of Columbus in New Haven, Connecticut. Serving as lead programmer/designer on various projects for the Life/70 development team, including expanding the Anti-Money Laundering system, enhancing U.S. and Canadian tax compliance processing, automating system support for traditional life and annuity products. Tech lead role as needed. Telecommute 70%.

·     May-July 2012: NCR in Duluth, Georgia, Project manager, technical documentarian and newsletter writer/editor for integrating NCR’s acquisition of Radiant Systems into NCR.

·     September 2011-March 2012: Allstate Insurance in Jacksonville, Florida. Programmer/analyst on project to implement the PCI credit card security project for Allstate Benefits on MVS mainframe Life/70 platform using COBOL, Assembler, CICS and batch processing. Modified new business and policy administration system to accept and create PCI transactions for processing across several middle-tier platforms..

·     Oct. 2010-April 2011: IBM/Genelco, project manager supporting Group+ and GroupWeb development projects for several group insurance company clients in the US and Caribbean. Responsible for all aspects of software development life cycle, invoice reconciliation, contracts, time and cost tracking, etc. Managed resources working from remote locations mainly in Atlanta and St. Louis. Primarily COBOL environment with Seagull/GUI, transitioning to Java. All lines of business for life insurance and supplemental benefits.

·     April 1997-Dec. 1999; August 2000-June. 2010: AFLAC, Columbus, GA. Programmer supporting A&H and life products in new business, policy administration, claims.  Major projects included designing and coding COBOL/DB2 system to support GLB and HIPAA privacy legislation annual reporting; client call center upgrades in online and batch environments across multiple applications platforms; modifying claims, new business and policy administration systems to support new products; accounting projects to improve reporting and fund tracking; actuarial system enhancements to improve regulatory reporting. Lead programmer on Year 2000 remediation project for Life/70 system (approximately 3 million lines of code) and various in-house programs. Also numerous smaller maintenance problems to resolve production issues, enhance existing application functionality or improve operating efficiency. Various technical projects such as improving pre-elevation in-house editing system for source code and JCL; combining two separate versions of Life/70 production systems created 20 years apart. IBM mainframes: Cobol/Assembler/EasyTrieve Plus, DB2; JCL, File Aid, CA1, CA7, CA11; CICS, BMS/GT; Endeavor, SCLM, Alchemist. Telecommuted 99%. Supplemental benefits and traditional life products.

·     1996-1997: Southland Life, Atlanta, GA. Project leader/senior programmer on upgrading 20-year-old group life and health system using COBOLII. Led project to analyze business needs, compare with existing system and build needs for a new client/server-based system to replace outdated mainframe system.

·     1995-1996: Jackson National Life, Lansing, Mich. Lead programmer/designer on building a COBOL II interface between VANTAGE-ONE mainframe system and a LAN-based accounting package. Also worked on system conversion to move policies from a customized system developed by EDS to VANTAGE-ONE. Fixed and variable annuities, universal and traditional life products.

·     1994-1995: Superior Insurance, Atlanta, GA.  Project leader on finding a new LAN-based or AS/400-based property and casualty insurance administration system to replace a PMS mainframe system. Project planning and analysis for effort to identify existing business needs and system capabilities, and develop RFI/RFP information to evaluate new systems. Automobile insurance products.

·     1994: Georgia Department of Mental Health, Atlanta: Information engineering specialist on project to streamline 25-year-old in-house reporting system using COBOL programs accessing VSAM and TOTAL databases.

McCamish Systems, Atlanta, GA                                                                                         2000

Software Development Manager

·     Director-level manager of client implementation team modifying and deploying software for Fortune 500 insurance companies and financial institutions such as John Hancock, Manulife, American General, Farmers, New England Financial. Used Progress 4GL/RDMS, Visual Basic and C++ in Windows NT and Unix environments.

·     Managed team of 25 developers and contract staff with annual budget of $3.6 million. Implemented client changes to base VPAS^â Life system that supports variable universal life and annuity products in COLI and retail markets.

ING/Southland Life Insurance Co.  Atlanta, GA                                                          1996–1997

Senior Technical Project Manager

·     Director-level position managing team of 16 programmers and contractors supporting online/real-time COBOLII and DB2 systems in a production environment. Responsible for all phases of policy and agency administration. Main system was The Administrator, plus some work on legacy ALIS and LifeComm systems, for traditional life and variable universal life.

Confederation Life Insurance Company, Atlanta, GA                                                          1989–1994

Senior Systems Programmer/Analyst and Project Manager

Supported insurance applications in varioius technical and project leader roles for variable annuities and UL.

·         As assistant manager of Individual Information Services, responsible for on-call support, program maintenance and new development for the Life/70 system and various in-house systems in all phases of policy administration.

·         Technical project director on $475,000 ABLE upgrade to Life/70 system. Work included 22 major enhancements and 800 program fixes in online and batch environments. Coordinated work of Atlanta staff and vendor staff based in Texas

·         Programmer/lead analyst on project to convert Life/70 system to CCA (COBOLII/IMS). Analysis and design for general ledger accounting, taxation, new product development, management reporting.

·         Lead analyst and programmer and team that developed company’s first client/server application. Duties included modifying Life/70 billing system, coding interfaces between PC and mainframe. Led PC front-end development.

·         Employed system life cycle development methodology to manage multiple new system development projects from conception through completion.

·         Managed both business and technical staff to accomplish the objectives of projects and the business unit responsibilities.

Management Science American (now Dun & Bradstreet), Atlanta                                   1988–1989

Systems Engineer

·     Design, coding and testing for new MSA General Ledger management reporting system using Assembler and MSA/IE, a 4GL. Wrote interfaces between Assembler and IE programs. Data dictionary design, coding, maintenance.

Sun Life Insurance Services (now SunAmerica) Atlanta                                                     1985–1988

Associate Systems Engineer

·     Supported insurance products administered in a multi-company environment using Assembler, COBOLII and Autocoder with Life/70, CFO, VANTAGE-ONE. Created interfaces from VANTAGE and RPS systems to Life/70 ledger. Implemented universal life; supported whole life, term and EIWL.

Tennessee Farm Bureau Insurance Cos. Columbia, TN                                                                1983–1985

Programmer

·     Created correspondence and billing interfaces for LifeComm system using Assembler for life company. Supported auto rating and similar applications for property and casualty company using COBOL in PMS system under DOS/VSE.

EDUCATION

BS, Applied sciences/computer sciences: University of Alabama 

Courses towards B.S.: University of Tennessee,

AS, Computer Science: Columbia State Community College, TN

Professional Certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute – 2001 (designation current through 2020)

Member, Project Management Institute, Atlanta chapter

Associate, Customer Service, LOMA -- 1994

CLU, The American College -- 1993

FLMI with distinction, LOMA -- 1987