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Saxon Global

Readiness and Deployment Lead

Saxon Global, Chicago, IL, United States

Program Overview:

ABC Supply inc. has embarked on a multi-year business transformation initiative principally in the form of two major ERP / point-of-sale migration projects. Ultimately, the Agility Program will impact the day-to-day activities of approximately 16,000 employees at 850 branch locations across the U.S., re-envision the accounting and finance function of an $18 billion company, and help mature the infrastructure, processes, and internal procedures for the ABC Supply IT department.

As of the end of 2022, the Agility Program has deployed the integrated Agility eco-system to more than 220 locations (and 4,000 employees) at a division of ABC Supply called L&W Supply and is now focused on enhancing and extending the solution in preparation for deployment to the remaining 650 branches of ABC Supply (the parent company).

The Agility Program is comprised of five major components, 1) business process definition (Order To Cash, Procure To Pay, Inventory, Record To Report) and related ERP configuration, 2) data conversion and migration, 3) technical integration with 40 external applications (the "eco-system"), 4) change management, training, and deployment activities (to the branches and back office), and 5) adherence to the Agility Program Governance Methodology and Project Management Toolkit.

Role overview:

The Readiness and Deployment Workstream Lead is responsible for ensuring that ABC Supply (IT, back office, and field) is prepared for the new ERP ecosystem and for the successful deployment of the Agility ecosystem to ABC Supply branches and NSC. This role encompasses the creation of readiness and deployment checklists and playbooks, validation of those checklists and playbooks across the Program team, and coordination of the execution of readiness and deployment activities themselves, leading up to and through the deployment weekend. It also may include coordination of activities during hyper-care and coordination and communication during a stabilization period after deployment.

The R&D Lead is responsible for the management of three (3) other team members, two focused on creating and validating the various checklists and playbooks, and one focused on Release Management.

Responsibilities

  1. Oversee the construction of a comprehensive readiness and deployment checklist and playbook.
  2. Manage a team responsible for building the readiness and deployment checklist and playbook.
  3. Oversee the execution of readiness activities across ABC Supply for deployments, inclusive of the back office, the field, and IT.
  4. Oversee the execution of deployment activities over the deployment weekend, coordinating teams from the Program (master data migration and validation, configuration updates, back office and field communication, smoke testing, roll-back, if necessary, etc.), the back office, and the field.
  5. Ensure a comprehensive roll-back plan exists for individual components of the deployment as well as for a deployment as a whole.
  6. Communicate progress on both readiness and deployment activities to the Agility Program Manager and broadly to the Agility Program Team; communicate progress at various Agility reporting events, including to the ABC Executive Team.
  7. Build a project plan for readiness and deployment activities.
  8. Track risks and issues in the Agility Program RAID Log; serve as escalation point for project teams dealing with conflicts, risks and impediments related to deployment; work with program, project, business, and IT leadership, as needed, to drive resolution
  9. Maintain a RACI for readiness and deployment activities
  10. Operate with transparency
  11. Facilitate readiness and deployment workshops and walk-throughs
Key Phases of Responsibilities
  1. Preparation
    1. Preparation and leadership to deploy the Agility ecosystem to 650+ branches
    2. Preparing infrastructure, back office, field and communication and coordination across the Program Team
    3. Capture and conduct several walk throughs containing complex steps to ensure a successful deployment
  2. Deployment Weekend
    1. Responsible for the oversight of the deployment
    2. Responsible for fielding questions, issues, and any missteps
    3. Must be available for all any challenges during deployment
  3. Hypercare after deployment
    1. Responsible for organization of hypercare
    2. Involved in monitoring chat rooms, email support, etc
Required Skill Set
  1. Previous experience being held accountable for the execution of one or more large, complex deployments at a multi-billion dollar company
  2. Previous experience with field deployments is a must
  3. Must have keen understanding of the nature of dependencies that exist across a large, complex Program (300+ team members)
  4. Must have a broad understanding of IT, as well, inclusive of IT Operations and Infrastructure
  5. Must have a "hands-on" approach, i.e., is willing to build project plans and spreadsheets, lead and facilitate meetings, create presentations, validate the quality of deliverables, etc.
  6. Ability to communicate effectively with IT and business management and executives across many mediums including email, report, verbal, and presentation formats
  7. Excellent overall written/verbal communication and facilitation skills for communicating at all levels; including strong presentation skills
  8. Demonstrate expert skills in team leadership and conflict management
  9. Knowledge of waterfall, Agile, and hybrid methodologies
  10. Knowledge of both theoretical and practical aspects of project management
  11. Solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications: Project, Visio, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; experience using JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
  12. Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
  13. Ability to learn, understand and apply new technologies
  14. Ability to conform to shifting priorities, demands and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities
  15. Strong organizational, analytical, communication, planning, presentation, and customer service skills
  16. Ability to effectively work independently and across teams, functions, and departments
  17. Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously
  18. Business acumen, conflict resolution skills, and critical thinking
  19. Accountable for delivery of large enterprise-wide projects
  20. Understanding of master data and processes
  21. Experience delivering integration projects with internal resources and 3rd party vendors
Nice to have:
  1. Deployed a major ERP and/or point-of-sale solution to multiple customer-facing locations, although ERP specific deployments are not a strict requirement
  2. Experience deploying a POS system
  3. Project Management Institute (PMI) Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) is preferred, but not required
  4. Minimum of 7-10 years of direct work experience in a project and/or program management capacity, including all aspects of system development life cycle
  5. Minimum 7-10 experience in delivering solutions for both the front office and the back-office stakeholders


Required Skills : At least 7-10 years of experience with application deployment, ERP or POS deployments, project management
Basic Qualification : - PMP - MS Project, Visio, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; experience using JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
Additional Skills : - PMP - MS Project, Visio, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint; experience using JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom
Background Check :Yes
Drug Screen :Yes
Notes :
Selling points for candidate :
Project Verification Info :
Candidate must be your W2 Employee :No
Exclusive to Apex :No
Face to face interview required :No
Candidate must be local :Yes
Candidate must be authorized to work without sponsorship ::No
Interview times set :Yes
Type of project :Other Project Type
Master Job Title :Misc: Technical
Branch Code :Chicago