PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential - Chicago, IL

Procurement Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Procurement Lead for Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA), Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE), Unified Support, and Azure. Facilitated discussions with Business Owners across multiple Technology teams to determine the need for upgrading from E3 to E5 product suite alongside switching from CAPEX accounting model to OPEX. Ensured previous custom amendments applied to the new 3 year agreements. Led firm initiative to move Azure terms and billing under the SCE.
• Category and Project Lead for firm-wide Managed Print Solutions (MPS) initiative including deliverables of cost savings, fleet reductions, vendor consolidation, and future state strategy. Vendor relationships include Williams Lea Tag, Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Xerox. Managed local Service Delivery leads to collect fleet leasing and cost per click information and volume data for each office globally benchmark against RFP results. Led discussions with CIO, Global Service Delivery Director, and Associate Director of Procurement on recommended future strategy and vendor partnerships.
• Achieved cost savings of $1.6M throughout latest fiscal year alongside a recent reduction of Cisco devices at 56%. Procurement Lead for Value Added Reseller (VAR) Strategy. Procurement Lead for Global Cyber Security projects. Manage supplier/vendor relationships with SHI International, Cisilion, Palo Alto, CDW, iManage, Cisco, and IBM with a focus on ensuring cost effective spend and maximizing return on investment. Lead contract redlines and negotiations for IT and Software vendors. Collaborate with business owners and global offices on Technology requests/projects, involving awareness of local geo-political climate, legal requirements for reimbursement and delivery risks.

Confidential - Chicago, IL

IT Sourcing Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Category Lead responsible for the strategic direction and future state of MPS and VARs, with a combined $35M in spend. Responsible for new Analysts in the CIP department. Managing supplier relations with HP, CDW, Zones, Sirius, and Dell. Performed FY19 budget analysis for the entire Corporate Indirect Procurement (CIP) department on all non-salary related expenses.

Category Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Created a new spend cube and identified potential contract consolidation opportunities for CIP suppliers during the Tyson/APF acquisition. Identified over $1M in savings during contract renegotiation with American Airlines. Established a benchmark now used by the department for all consulting hourly rate cards. Led the analysis on RFP and Scorecard responses, specifically for the HR and Professional Services towers. Owned the master HR contract extract file during supplier consolidation phase.

Contractor-Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for building the Contract Research Master File by analyzing the top 80% of all CIP spend and further drilling down to the top 80% of category spend for Human Resources, Marketing & Sales, Information Systems, and Professional Services. Supporting the development of the Supplier Segmentation Tool. Assisting all CIP categories in day-to-day activities.

Confidential - Downers Grove, IL

Global Sourcing Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Category Lead for all Office Organization Product projects. Researched and defined improvement in supply chain, identified potential new and lower cost vendors. Negotiated with vendors to reduce costs and improve payment terms. Collaborated with Regulatory, Engineering, Brand, Trade, and Marketing departments on ongoing projects. Created POs in SAP NetWeaver for tooling, product samples, and safety testing. Updated source lists and info records in SAP and ensure data integrity.
• Sourcing Lead for Back to School display projects. Liaison between vendors and Packaging Engineers to meet display costing deadlines. Achieved 13% cost reduction on Pink Pearl product line by negotiating and benchmarking the current supplier against the market. Used SAP to create and update source lists, info records, and conditional pricing. Created reports on competitive intelligence and trends in commodities.

Confidential - Lombard, IL

Business Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Owned custom Private Line and MPLS product categories featuring voice services, data center, and firewall options. Presented daily to upper management financial margin analysis and recommended course of action of deals on a case by case basis. Team lead for the quote desk in addition to performing all duties and responsibilities of the Product Analyst. Managed supplier relations with Verizon, AT&T, XO, Charter, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and CenturyLink.

Product Analyst

Responsibilities:

• Reported directly to the Vice President of Carrier Relations. Supported lifecycle management of existing products, and development of new products and services. Primary responsibilities included developing pricing proposals for sales opportunities, producing product performance and profitability reports, and evaluating pricing and margins for pending Sales opportunities. Initiated and conducted vendor meetings to negotiate reduced costs for specific deals and ICB’s in competitive situations. Maintained product documentation, cost information and assisted sales personnel on an ongoing basis.

Confidential - Chicago, IL

Pricing and Procurement Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Handled multiple customer contracts with varying terms, conditions, and pricing. Handled multiple time sensitive deals. Set up new relationships with small local carriers to hit pricing targets. Coordinated projects with sales, all levels of management, and other team members. Worked with multiple telecom products, specialized in MPLS-cloud networks, VoIP, Hosted, Private Line, and IP services.

Confidential - Peoria, IL

Project Manager/Graduate Assistantship

Responsibilities:

• Managed a staff of data researchers, responsible for recruiting,, scheduling, monitoring performance, setting performance objectives, data analysis, and information consolidation.
• In-depth research using seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted data, Excel workbooks, and SPSS in order to track leading economic indicators in the Peoria Metro Area to produce and publish quarterly reports in the Peoria Journal Star.