Global Head - Product and Operations Cybersecurity

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Ralph Aboujaoude Diaz

Corporate solution:

- First, schedule endless meetings with every stakeholder so we can debate the emotional backstory of the mud.

- Adding more horses would solve the problem too fast. Instead, we will form a strategic innovation task force to design an overcomplicated failure.

- After six months of unconstructive workshops, the overwhelming conclusion: the horse is lazy and needs inspiration, not help.

- Load even more executives into the cart so the horse has additional leadership support.

- Meanwhile, we will stand up an entire new department dedicated to mud research, whose findings will be ignored while we continue sinking.

#technology #workplace #job

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Global Head - Governance, Risk, and Compliance for Digital & Tech @ Haleon

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Brutal career truth in the age of AI.

Pure specialists risk being automated (a Narrow AI is learning your niche faster than you did) and shallow generalists risk being irrelevant (an LLM already sounds smarter than you on every topic).

So what is left if AI eats specialists and outperforms generalists? In other words, what is left when knowledge is dead?

Soft skills. Your emotional intelligence, creativity, empathy, critical thinking, and authentic human connection become your ultimate job security.

You will not win by knowing more but by being more human.

(picture source: Pejman Milani)

#technology #ai #workplace

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And what about?

Prompt: always asks AI before responding and then plays the expert.

PowerPoint: only writes the future and waits for someone else to build it.

(picture source: The Language Nerds)

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We will not modernize our broken legacy technology, that is way too complex and costly. 

Let’s just bolt some AI on top and call it transformation.

#technology #transformation #ai #workplace

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When your bring the new AI agent to your team meeting.

#technology #ai #workplace

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I feel very seen to be honest, and I don’t like that.

Imagine carrying all the knowledge in the universe and still having people try to debate and challenge me. Believe me, it is not easy being the single source of truth and final authority on everything. A heavy burden, but someone has to do it.

And by the way, AI believes it is teaching me something and this is just so adorable.

#technology #ai #workplace

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And a cancelled full-day workshop provides more serotonin than massage therapy.

#technology #ai #workplace

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graphical user interface, text, application

There are two types of AI in this world.

1. Those that can confidently predict the next word.

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ReadyWorks

In this role, Mark oversees and manages the Professional Services organization of ReadyWorks. This team is responsible for ensuring the successful deployment and servicing of our software platform for Fortune 100 and Federal Government clients. 

In this role, Mark's primary duties include:
• Leads Professional Services engagements and coordinates activities across organizations, including objective alignment, milestones, roles, and responsibilities.

• Managing and bringing Best Practices to the ReadyWorks Support Team to better service the client base.

• Establishing a ReadyWorks Learning and Training Services offering with enablement programs to support continuous skills development within our customer base, as well as integration of materials in our Support technologies.

• Monitoring and Managing key metrics that reflect our Customer Experience

• Mark’s leadership had the following impact when comparing Q1 vs Q2 2023 performance:
	➟	Average Time to Resolve down by 25% vs Q1
	➟	Average First Response Time down by 33% vs Q1
	➟	Urgent support requests resolved 52% more quickly vs Q1
	➟	Service Requests Reopened by the Customer down by 67% vs Q1

Director of Professional Services

As a Senior Technical Program Manager, Mark is a customer facing representative of the ReadyWorks Professional Services team, and responsible for the engagement of Customer Resources, as well as managing Technical SMEs to support the onboarding and automation of Customer processes through the ReadyWorks platform.

His role includes discussions with Customer Resources about the Process(es) being onboarded including the design of the configurable databases.  These discussions include Design and architecture conversations, and Logistics and Planning discussions in order to carry out the configuration of the ReadyWorks platform.

Senior Technical Program Manager

-Independent Consultant-

Leveraging his previous experience, Mark broke out to independently consult for various businesses looking to drive revenue, streamline branding and expand their presence in growth markets.  

Running this practice Mark leverages his specialties in business situation analysis, process and technology solution design and value proposition/sales strategy development.  In addition to business focused engagements, Mark consults to various professionals with their own personal technology needs.

Organizations that have relied on Mark's experience and expertise include:
•  RFPMD – Consulted with this Chicago based provider of Proposal design and development services in order to expand into the technology RFP market.  Provided market research and intellectual property.  www.rfpmd.com

•  ATA Solutions – Aided in the planning and development of this start-up professional services firm. Crafted sales proposals and engineered solutions for engagements with the US gov't including the EPA and Dep't of Homeland Security.

•  Gigunda Group – Implemented retail silk-screen operations for the client of this 'Innovation Marketing Company.'  The client was a Times Square NY concept store using stage lighting, interactive media, an on-site bakery and on-demand silk-screen operation to generate both interactive brand awareness and a truly one of a kind customer experience in a one of a kind location. www.poptartsworld.com/nyc

•  Team Gear, Inc – Planned business integration between the company and Mundi-Westport, an international importer of leather goods.  The plan established operational linkages to support sales from a new market niche. Team Gear is a local NJ provider of high-end imprinted team & spirit wear.  www.teamgearinc.com

Business Consultant - Technology Services

Rubicon Consulting Solutions

Mark lead the technical discipline for Rubicon Consulting in the development and management of a Global RFP for Multi-Function Devices (Office Copiers) including Incident and Service Request Management platforms. The bid included six (6) internationally known Vendors in the request. 

The overall engagement yielded a 25% reduction in expense year over year for the Customer, an American multinational investment management corporation based in New York City. This Customer is the world's largest asset manager with US$10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022, operating in 30 countries.

Principal Consultant - RFP Management

Swiss Post Solutions

Mark handed detailed design and implementation of document scanning and process improvements for a leading Life and Health Insurance company with $73B in assets managed which support 29MM customers.

Principal Consultant - Digitization Solutions

Interactive Intelligence

Mark was brought on-board to help manage the growth occurring at this explosively growing software manufacturer in Services Sales within the East US Region.  Interactive focuses on assisting organizations of all types move the right interaction to the right destination at the right time.  Doing this more efficiently through a completely integrated platform allows companies that run the Interactive platform to be more nimble and responsive to the needs of their customer base.

Interactive Intelligence's solutions make handing any interaction type more effective and efficient: inbound call management, SMS or Web Chat, Fax, scheduled call backs, outbound dialing campaigns (preview, power or predictive), workforce management, workforce forecasting, collections management, cloud-based or premises based.

Using Interactive's software and capabilities the Professional Services Organization which Mark represents can craft a bespoke solution that will increase productivity, reduce risk and deliver tangible savings to your CFO.

Mark supported several marquee customers in the financial services, publishing and healthcare industries.  Mark generated >$4.5MM in services revenue for 2014, ranking him second globally.  In 2014 Mark's team completed the first deployment of a new global infrastructure for a recognized name in the publishing industry.

Engagement Manager - Professional Services

Mark assisted the Knowledge & Client Solutions ("KCS") team developing the IT & Call Center business from the NYC headquarters of Swiss Post Solutions, NA.  Throughout his time with SPS, Mark helped retain and secure several marquee accounts for their new North American based Document Processing Centers (DPCs).

After two years in the document processing and office outsourcing market, Mark was eager to return to the contact center space with an up and coming company that was unheard of when he had left the market in 2008.

Lead Business Analyst - Knowledge & Client Solutions

Nuance Communications (formerly Viecore)

Mark Ward was a founding principal of the Business Consulting Services ("BCS") organization, a sales overlay team, for this leader in Speech Recognition technology which is everywhere including the Ford Sync and the voice activation on your Blackberry.  During his tenure the group grew to 15 FTE generating $4.5MM in billable services & providing significant presales support.

The BCS team focused on Fortune 500 clients where Mark utilized his mastery in the development & presentation of solutions with supporting business cases to C-level executives.  

Under his leadership the team successfully generated almost $45MM in pull-through professional services and recurring revenue (a 10:1 ratio vs consulting dollars).

His varied responsibilities included:
• Business & market development of branded consulting services.from unit inception
• Identified, scoped, negotiated & closed services and management consulting engagements.
• Designed, developed & maintained marketing collateral, standard service delivery tools & models.
• Business Case/ROI/Savings model subject matter expertise.
• Developed and Implemented the standardized delivery approach
• Focused on the client sensitivity for capex vs opex
• Supported customer experience objectives for multi-channel contact centers.  
• BCS deliverables set the standard for the industry.

Mark has deep specialization in the identification & illustration of value propositions for technology & their use to drive solutions within enterprises across many industries including Healthcare, Insurance, Banking & Utilities.

In the summer of 2008 Mark personally delivered Nuance's first in-country prof services engagement in India.  Effort rationalized and planned the transformation of application portfolio for Bharti-Airtel, India's largest wireless telecommunications provider.

This team was a part of Nuance's acquisition of Viecore in 2007.  Viecore was a contact center systems integration firm based in Mahwah, NJ.

Principal Consultant – Business Consulting Services

AT&T Solutions - Florham Park, NJ

Mark was recruited to AT&T Solutions to manage Business Development efforts with select, industry leading System Integrators in order to bring a Desktop Support Services offering to market.  

Mark's contribution included the negotiation of MSAs, the rationalization of capabilities with partner service portfolios.  He served as the liaison with stakeholders in legal, vendor management, offer management, offer development & vendor/partners teams.  

Mark aided in opportunity development as the 'Help Desk & End-User Support Services' subject matter expert within Offer Management.  He also participated as the Offer Management stakeholder in the UAT of new monitoring tools and platforms.

Partner MSAs were in place by the end of 2000 and the service was in the process of identifying an FOI client when the organization refocused on Managed Network Services.

During his final role at AT&T Mark supported the Offer Management activities for network managed services supporting router, DNS-DHCP, WLAN, server and LAN technologies within the Managed Application Services unit of AT&T Business Services.  His teamwork lead to the team exceeding revenue goals by 400%+

Program Manager - Offer Management

ENTEX Information Services - NYC Branch

Mark was recruited to ENTEX to serve as a Help Desk manager for the Memorial Sloan Kettering on-site help desk supporting 5500 users with a team of 16 agents and 35 field engineers.  Eventually Mark served as Project Executive on this account that generated $8MM annual revenue.

His adept abilities at process analysis and report development  led to several opportunities to provide value to his clients.  Some examples include:
• Served as the lead PC IMAC Process Analyst at Morgan Stanley to enable efficiencies in procurement, and PC asset management.
• Developed reporting and metrics packages for outsourcing clients including MetLife, Guardian Life and Morgan Stanley

His leadership led to the management of the 'Help Desk and Reporting Services' practice within the NYC branch generating $5.5M in revenue within 12 months following the division of the company into wholly separate solutions and hardware companies.

Rapid growth drove Mark's promotion to the role of National Solutions Architect for the strategic accounts pursuit team where he helped craft sales strategy and coordinate efforts to win national outsourcing opportunities.

Solutions Architect - Help Desk & End-User Support

Pfizer Inc.- CIT Help Desk / World HQ in NY

Mark was initially recruited as an agent within the Corporate Information Technology Help Desk supporting 5,000 clients answering 95,000 calls annually.  

Mark served as a Tier 2/3 resource and a point of escalation for the team.  It was in this role that Mark developed his mastery of Microsoft Office and got his first real exposure to enterprise IT support.

His mastery of the Pfizer infrastructure resulted in a role with the Help Desk management team (16 FTE) where he focused on project based work to improve and expand help desk service.

During his time supporting special projects at Pfizer major achievements included:
• Definition & documentation of internal processes and policies to support the outsourcing of the Pfizer WAN to AT&T.
• Delivery of service support training to over 500 Pfizer site administrators during the transition of WAN support responsibilities to AT&T
• Upgrade, configuration & administration of CIT Help Desk incident tracking tool (Utopia) for the Pharm business unit.
• Administration and maintenance of ACD and CTI integration with the phone system(s) 
• Serving as IT liaison with business units to document service requirements & identify expansion opportunities
• Conducted screening and interviews of candidates for entry-level agent positions
• Developed new performance reporting for IT senior management

Consultant - Help Desk & Special Projects

Process Automation Fanatic, Services Idealist

A Sales and Delivery Leader in Professional Services with >27yrs experience helping customers meet efficiency & effectiveness goals.  Mark's unique experience measuring and influencing Customer Metrics across multiple disciplines allows him to bring a powerful set of analytic & creative tools to bear on many new & challenging business scenarios.

Mark's illustration of the robust and rich solutions can be communicated at any level of the organization, from the staff impacted by changes to the C-Level suite in order to connect the work at hand to bottom line success.  As a result of any engagement, his work connects to 'tell a story'​ showing where things are today through to the future state vision including the necessary steps to realize success.

Using a unique flair for numbers & a presentation style that easily breaks down huge data sets to specific relevant points (which illustrate 'the story'​), he easily digests data sets others find formidable and finds meaningful trends that influence success.  The point throughout the 'telling of the story' is to identify relevant data points, actionable recommendations, and then cost justify them in preparation for assessment by your leadership team.  Dozens of organizations have leveraged this expertise across both geographic & industry lines:

Financial Svcs / Life / P&C Insurers
• AXA Financial / Equitable Life Insurance
• BlackRock, Inc.
• Met Life
• Morgan Stanley
• Sallie Mae Bank
• Navient Solutions

Law Firms / Lawyers
• Mayer Brown, LLP
• Wilmer Hale, LLP

Medical / Pharmaceutical / Health Insurers
• BCBS Orgs (CT, MT, NJ, NY)
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Pfizer Pharmaceutical

Media / Advertising
• Publicis Groupe / Re:Sources (shared IT services)
• XM Radio

Public Service / Utilities
• NYS Dept of Labor
• Tucson Electric Power of AZ
• Vermont Dept of Information and Innovation

Telecommunications Services
• Avaya
• Bharti Airtel
• Qwest Communications

Publishing
• Pearson K-12

Specialties: Process Analysis, Solution Justification, Request for Proposal &/or Response Creation/Assessment, Service Portfolio Management, Engagement Management, C-Level Communication, Analytics, Metrics, Reporting, Forecasting, Call Center, IVR, ASR, TTS, VXML, SOA, Office Productivity, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Scalable, Repeatable, Predictable, Inbound, Containment, Customer Experience, Branding, Enterprise Architecture, Mail, Records Management, Word Processing, Help Desk, VoIP

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