Career Portfolio

SUMMARY

Welcome.

This is my showcase page for my career in Information Technology and more specifically working with SaaS applications and cloud-hosted systems.  My work experience here of nearly 27 years shows all the details of all the major companies that I have either worked a contract for or worked directly for that for longevity’s sake I could not include in a resume. 

In previous roles, I have managed teams of developers and architects that ranged from a small team of 6-7 to a large team of over 30 people. Developing skills and career paths for each of my reports that are tailored for their success.  My goal as a manager is always to help people move into my role in various departments across the company and even beyond. Personalized coaching and intrapersonal support is a key element of success as a manager.  You must know your people, not just from a career standpoint but from a personal one. 

I am most passionate about enabling collaboration through the tools provided by Microsoft 365, Google Suites, Amazon Web Services, and more.  In my current role, I serve as the National Practice Technical Lead for the Productivity Practice at Catapult Systems.  I have built several service offerings from the ground up around Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint, Digital Modern Workplace, and Adoption and Change Management with Microsoft 365. 

Thank you,

Maria

WORK EXPERIENCE

Please click on the company that I’ve worked for on the left to review details of the work I did for them.

Catapult Systems, Inc.

Title: Managing Consultant / National Practice Technical Lead for Microsoft 365 Dates: December 2019 – Present
Jeff Dalton, Practice Manager, Productivity
Tim Cone, Practice Director, Productivity		 Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: National Practice Technical Lead and Sr. Solutions Architect
  • Executive production and management of the entire Microsoft Teams Service Offering stem to stern, with 4 unique offerings that could flex across a digital journey with clients: Teams QuickStart, Teams Foundations, Teams Advanced, and Teams Elite.
  • Executive production and management of the entire Microsoft SharePoint Service Offering stem to stern, with 4 unique offerings that could flex across a digital journey with clients: SharePoint QuickStart, SharePoint Foundations, SharePoint Advanced, and SharePoint Elite.
  • Executive production and management of the entire Microsoft 365 Adoption and Change Management Service Offering stem to stern, with 2 unique offerings that could flex across a digital journey with clients: ACM Project QuickStart and ACM Program Elite
  • Provided consulting services Architectural Oversight team for all our project delivery objectives as the lead Senior Architect and former MVP for our practice for over 100 different projects and clients.
  • Developed a Complete End-to-End Training Program for Microsoft Teams as a Certified Microsoft Trainer that covers End User Training, Champion Training, and IT Administration and Help Desk Training.
  • Designed, Wrote, Recorded, and Production Edited Training Modules for our clients that have their branding and objectives at the forefront using Adobe Captivate, Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Animator that included a quiz and test materials.
  • Served as the National Practice Technical Lead (PTL) for all Microsoft 365 Platform Services providing our consultants with advanced training, guidance, and coaching to better their consulting skills and facilitation skills.

CA Technologies, Inc.

Title: Principal Director, Enterprise Collaboration Dates: April 2014 – Present
Heather Dyson, Principal Product Owner, Enterprise Collaboration
Chrystie Seidl, Sr. Director of IT, Enterprise Collaboration		 Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: GIS SharePoint Migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint Online 365 (2013)
  • Managed customer support queues and delegated tickets to business partners and administrators as needed for escalation.
  • Worked through tickets that require user training and/or simple tasks that can be done without tenant administration access.
  • Created and managed the SharePoint Online Help Center site (built on SharePoint Online) that included walk-through guides, videos, training, education, and learning events such as Lunch N Learns and Webinars to increase our user adoption and employee engagement.
  • Worked tirelessly to document the Production Support operational process to be able to cross-train our support personnel and provide a method of operation for our team.
  • Established a deep understanding of business processes in conjunction with our departmental business partners.
  • Worked to establish a connection with business owners to create a partnership for our team in both project delivery and support models.
  • Worked with the business on creating a backlog of enhancement and defect stories utilizing Rally Project Management software to capture Business Requirements within the Agile Methodology.
  • Assisted to prioritize and separate stories into workable sprints alongside our project delivery team.
  • Established working sessions or focus groups with business owners to attain a better understanding of how they work within this environment.
  • Provided solutions to problems and issues that required a direct working relationship with our development leads and our business users.
  • Created a viable Migration Plan and concurrent Migration Task List for getting our users off SharePoint 2007 and only SharePoint Online 365.
  • Assisted in the creation of a Central Document Repository utilizing the Document Center feature of SharePoint 2013. 
  • Architected the deployment of the Records Management Archive using the Records Center feature of SharePoint 2013 for the R&D department’s document archives. 
  • Architected an information architecture that is clean, robust, expandable, and functional for all intranet users.
  • Established good UX/UI best practices for SharePoint utilization for the ECM product.
  • Created VISIO documents for all departments’ information and solutions architecture.
  • Created WIREFRAMES and storyboards for SharePoint applications and UI design elements.
  • Assessed current off-shoot environments not part of the main One CA to evaluate business needs.
  • Established baseline plan of migration for any off-shoot environments.
  • Trained and managed BSA team as primary Subject Matter Expert.
  • Organized and established standard methods of operation for our BSA team and the team overall.
  • Provided guidance and support for our team as needed as former MVP in Information Architecture and Solutions Architecture for the SharePoint Platform.

The Last Prophecy Gaming, Inc.

Title: Board Member / Founder Dates: January 1997 – Present
Maria Espino Contact: maria.espino@tlpgaming.com
Summary: Building and fostering gaming talent across a community of over 2,000+ players.
  • Founding partner of The Last Prophecy Gaming, Inc. (known as TLP)
  • Manage all chapters of TLP in various gaming worlds and genres.
  • Manage the approval process of new chapter requests and assist in standing up new chapters with selected Guildmasters, Co-Guildmasters, and other officers.
  • Manage and grow our social media presence in Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube, and more.
  • Manage and promote our internal partnerships with some of the biggest gaming companies in the industry such as Twitch, Amazon, ASUS, Razer, Blizzard Entertainment, NVidia, and more.
  • Assist to create marketing campaigns for all chapters and verticals.
  • Manage and promote our 60+ person Stream Team on Twitch (http://twitch.tv/team/tlp)
  • Provide guidance and support for our chapters, players, and streamers as needed.
  • Manage and promote our community website (http://tlp-guild.com)
  • Creating a usable portal for our employees utilizing SharePoint Online 2016 to be able to collaborate and engage each other for projects and initiatives.
  • Manage the online administration of SharePoint, Exchange, Active Directory, Flow, Dynamics Suite, and custom development of apps, mobile games, and other useful tools for the gaming industry.
  • Managing a large team of project manager and program managers to execute on visionary initiatives that provoke thought and progress our industry forward.
  • Creation and management of an online Twitch series called “The Titans Talk Show” that addresses the challenges that streamers have in their hopes to grow their own channels and spread the word about gaming.
  • Working with charities such as Doctors Without Borders, Extra Life, and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals to promote philanthropic progress for those in need.
  • Organize and establish methods of operation for all areas of our business endeavors.
  • Educate and guide our thought leaders to promote and innovate our gaming industry.
  • Provide an avenue in which members feel comfortable and appreciated for their efforts and contributions to the community by means of rewards, recognition, and encouragement. Manage in stock merchandise and partner merchandise for our TLP Game Shop.

CA Technologies, Inc.

Title: Information Architect, PMO Dates: August 2013 to March 2014
Douglas Carabe, Director, IT Enablement Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: Contract for SharePoint Site Planning Roadmap and Information Architecture Design
  • Assess current site structure.
  • Reach out to stakeholders, establish a communications plan.
  • Architect a functional information architecture for GIS.
  • Establish a baseline migrations plan.
  • Write the Information Architecture Design Document.
  • Create VISIO document of a visual IA for business stakeholder buyout.

FEEZ, Inc.

Title: Director of Intranet Services Dates: November 2012 to May 2013
Sharon Worthington, SVP of Technology Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: Contract for Migration from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013
  • Managed a team of 2 business analysts, 6 administrators, 2 project managers, and a development team of 8 that is both on premises and off shore.
  • Exclusively managed and implemented an Agile methodology where one was not previously enacted; Waterfall was the traditional project management methodology of choice for the company.
  • Implement a Rally Software instance that would help manage agile projects for the team.
  • Established a method of operations for this team post-deployment, standing up a production support escalation path and service delivery model.
  • Architected and designed the systems architecture for a full-scale development of SharePoint 2013 intranet with custom development.
  • Planned for an Extra-Large server farm deployment with a full development, QA, staging, production, and DR systems for a failure proof run-of-business model based on a service delivery of 5 9’s uptime across various regions.
  • Scaled redundant design for added security requirements per the financial industry standards.
  • Met with marketing department to acquire branding guidelines and corporate identity specs.
  • Created the Creative Brief document based on marketing decisions.
  • Gathered business requirements and document design objectives.
  • Gathered end-users to develop design concepts; document results.
  • Held end-user brainstorming sessions for navigational taxonomy design; document results.
  • Sketched outlines of design concepts with desired navigational taxonomy.
  • Created the wireframes required for the sections presented in the requirements.
  • Created the visual design compilations for various departmental sites and sections of the intranet in high definition.
  • Created the information architecture and navigational taxonomy for the new design.
  • Created the Information Architecture and Design document.
  • Garnished support from departmental managers to establish a governance council.
  • Documented the governance council structure, frequency, process in the Governance Design Document.
  • Met with SharePoint Administration team to deliver all documentation and review as needed.

United Trust Bank, LLC.

Title: Sr. Solutions Architect and Team Leader Dates: June 2012 to October 2012
Alfred King, Technical Delivery Manager Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: Contract for SharePoint Online 2013 Branding and IA
  • Meet with marketing department to acquire branding guidelines and corporate identity specs.
  • Create the Creative Brief document based on marketing decisions.
  • Gather business requirements and document design objectives.
  • Gather end-users to develop design concepts. Document results.
  • Hold end-user brainstorming sessions for navigational taxonomy design. Document results.
  • Sketch outlines of design concepts with desired navigational taxonomy.
  • Create the wireframes required for the sections presented in the requirements.
  • Create the visual design compilations for various departmental sites and sections of the intranet in high definition.
  • Create the information architecture and navigational taxonomy for the new design.
  • Create the Information Architecture and Design document.
  • Garnish support from departmental managers to establish a governance council.
  • Document the governance council structure, frequency, process in the Governance Design Document.

Amplified Technologies, Inc.

Title: CEO/Principal Consultant Dates: June 1998 to December 2012
Maria Espino, Owner Contact: maria.espino@tlpgaming.com
Summary: Self-Employment, Business Owner
  • Running multiple million-dollar contracts with a team of 17 consultants that I would deploy out on project bids we’d win over bigger, wealthier consulting agencies such as EMC and Accenture.
  • Resource management and team-to-project allocation.
  • SharePoint (from 2000+ onward) technologies became a huge part of our company’s project portfolio and service offerings.
  • In 2003, reshaped our practice to be exclusively focused on SharePoint platform technologies beginning with the SharePoint Portal 2003 version.
  • Achieved Microsoft Partner status from inception with our consultants’ talent alone.
  • Specialized in bringing Information Architecture to our projects and stressed the importance of it in intranet deployments.
  • Managed payroll systems through ADP.
  • Managed finance through Intuit with Payroll Management.
  • Managed health insurance and benefits options for all our consultants.
  • Interviewed new candidates, applied exam testing to qualify requirements, and on boarded those that made the cut.
  • Hired, fired, and everything else in between for my firm.

Phoenix House, LLC.

Title: Information Architect Dates: May 2012 to June 2012
Pat Esposito, Account and Project Manager Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint Online 2010 Redesign and Restructuring
  • Create a new Information Architecture for intranet.
  • Create the wireframes required for the sections presented in the requirements.
  • Create the visual design compilations for various departmental sites and sections of the intranet.
  • Create customized master pages and content layout pages to suit the approved visual design.
  • Develop the governance policies and principles to ensure structured growth.
  • Document the Information Architecture, Visual Design, and Governance Plan.
  • Provide training to end users in various areas of use-case scenarios — administration, site managers, power users, situational users.

Bank of America

Title: Sr. Manager / Program Management Dates: October 2011 to December 2012
Robert Thomas, Technical Program Manager Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 Migration and Custom Development
  • Managed a team of 3 business analysts, 4 administrators, 3 project managers, 1 information architect, 1 solutions architect, and a development team of 12, one which was our development lead, that was both on premises and off shore.
  • Stood up the main project as an Agile Release with 3 Release Milestones.  Each Release had 3-4 sprints that were 2 to 4 weeks each. 
  • Utilized Rally as the primary Agile Project Management tool.
  • Architect and design the systems architecture for a full-scale extra large server farm, international deployment of the SharePoint 2010 on-premises platform that was FULLY customized in almost every aspect.
  • Deployed a server farm with a full development, QA, staging, production, and DR systems for a failure proof run-of-business model based on a service delivery of 5 9’s up time across various regions.
  • Scaled design for added security requirements per the financial industry standards.
  • Created the branding guidelines and corporate identity specs alongside with marketing department stakeholders.
  • Created the Creative Brief document based on marketing decisions.
  • Gathered business requirements and document design objectives.
  • Gathered end-users to develop design concepts. 
  • Held end-user brainstorming sessions for navigational taxonomy design. 
  • Sketched outlines of design concepts with desired navigational taxonomy.
  • Created the wireframes required for the sections presented in the requirements.
  • Created the visual design compilations for various departmental sites and sections of the intranet in high definition.
  • Created the information architecture and navigational taxonomy for the new design.
  • Created the Information Architecture and Design document; personally authored as well.
  • Designed and solutionized custom developed webparts and apps for the internal communications across all departments.
  • Created the Technical Specifications Document alongside with the Solutions Architect on our team.
  • Garnished support from departmental managers to establish a governance council.
  • Documented the governance council structure, frequency, process in the Governance Design Document; personally authored as well.
  • Established a method of operations for this team post-deployment, standing up a production support escalation path and service delivery model.
  • Met with in house newly-created SharePoint Support team to deliver all documentation and review as needed.
  • Architected and developed the road-map for the next 5 years on how the intranet can expand and grow.

Towers Perrin

Title: Business Analyst Dates: August 2011 to September 2011
Scott Leadham, Account Manager Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: Lotus Notes to SharePoint 2010 Migration; Fresh Install
  • Oversee the test migration of Lotus Notes databases to SharePoint 2010.
  • Use of the Metalogix SharePoint Migration tool.
  • Assess database structure and map to SharePoint 2010 site templates.
  • Identify non-transferable databases and recommend solutions on the SharePoint 2010 platform.
  • Project cut short; project skill sets re-assessed.

Something Digital

Title: Technical Analyst Dates: February 2011 to April 2011
Greg Steinberg, Co-Owner/Principal Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2010 Assessment for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. ; Fresh Install
  • Assess the current systems architecture of the client on behalf of Something Digital.
  • Create technical documentation on recommendations for a SharePoint 2010 deployment for the client on behalf of Something Digital.
  • Recommend points of consideration for a full-scale deployment that may not be part of the minimum standards but proven important by experience and expertise.

Bridgewater Associates

Title: Project Manager and Business Analyst Dates: July 2010 to March 2011
Jeffrey Whitston, IT Manager
Matthew Foskett, Enterprise Shared Services Manager		 Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 Stabilization and Centralization; Previous Install
  • Held various user group sessions to gather requirements from users to create a responsibility matrix.
  • Worked closely with business users engaging in problem resolution to ensure customer satisfaction.
  • Planned and executed a Business Communications machine to ensure our clients were appropriately informed of maintenance and incidents that would affect their service.
  • Assisted in defining appropriate methodologies for infrastructure testing sequences (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, and DR Testing) to enhance our customer service and keep our end-users informed and educated.
  • Organized the SharePoint Services department site within the IT Central Site, to service as push content for our end users and clients and allow them to be able to self-inform about the status of our SharePoint service and be able to plan for maintenance upgrades, patches, and external team initiatives that may affect them.
  • Worked with my team to establish a SharePoint Service infrastructure that included a 4-tier environment — Development, QA/Staging, Production, and Disaster Recovery — that fit into Microsoft’s Best Practices for SharePoint 2007 environments.
  • Project managed the team’s release of the QA and DR environments as well as planned for the launch of a Development environment.
  • Represented the SharePoint Services team’s planned changes in the company’s Change Management Control process.
  • Continually met with the departmental representatives to ensure our customer service goals and service agreements are met to the best of our abilities, including departments like Network Operations Center and Core Technology.
  • Assisted with the pre-selection of SharePoint professionals for in depth interviews with our core managers and technical leads.
  • Served as advocate for the centralized SharePoint service to other departments that held individualized SharePoint deployments that lacked maintenance, governance, or current infrastructure to support those departments.

Houghton, Solomon, and Kirby Assoc.

Title: Deployment Team Lead & Manager Dates: February 2010 to November 2010
Claire Houghton, Principal Owner
Jonathan Sykes, IT Manager		 Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 Migration and Service Creation for Intranet and Extranet; Previous Install
  • Held recruitment process sessions to acquire the technical and business team with the right SharePoint experience to roll out the migration and architecture as well as assist with the business analysis needed to put together a Service Model for SharePoint internally and to external clients.
  • Put together a team of 1 SharePoint Systems Architect, 1 SharePoint Information Architect, 1 SharePoint Project Manager/Business Analyst, 1 SharePoint .NET Developer, 1 SharePoint Database Administrator, 2 SharePoint Systems Administrators, 1 SharePoint Services Manager for the various phases of the project.
  • Oversaw the business analysis project to gather requirements from end-users, putting them first and involving the users in the creation of their intranet project.
  • Assisted and led the Information Architecture and Governance Structural design so that it meets the business requirements needs of the company.
  • Reviewed and signed all documentation including the Business Requirements Document (BRD), Information Architecture Requirements Document, and preliminary requirement documentation for all systems architecture as well as governance policies and structure.
  • Engaged in the systems architecture design alongside with our Systems Architect to ensure that the infrastructure design meets the growth needs of the company and were in line with Microsoft’s Best Practices for SharePoint 2010.
  • Assisted in design sessions for infrastructure design, navigation, branding and graphical design, database design, disaster recovery, governance, and migration.
  • Reviewed and signed all documentation including the High-Level Design (HLD), Software Development Design, Database Systems Design (DSD), Branding Design, and Governance Models.
  • Oversaw the deployment of new hardware systems and infrastructure to house SharePoint 2010 Portal technologies for the extranet portal for clients.
  • Oversaw the deployment of AvePoint SharePoint Suite, both hardware and infrastructure as well as design and vendor management with AvePoint, Inc.
  • Managed the creation and/or modification of various specialized solutions packages built on top of the SharePoint platform to enhance out of the box features, create the automation of site creation and approvals, as well as a new customized IT Help Desk system built on SharePoint.
  • Oversaw the migration process from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 for the intranet.
  • Managed the User Acceptance Testing sessions for content verification after the migration.
  • Assisted in the creation of two new company departments; a SharePoint Services Department for IT and Employee Communications Department for HR.
  • Deployed various End-User Training modules housed within the SharePoint 2010 portal for both the intranet and extranets for the Employee Communication department as well as within the Client Portal for clients.

Solaris Health Systems (JFK Medical Center)

Title: Information Architect and Governance Analyst Dates: November 2009 to January 2010
Ryan Tang, Senior Project Manager, SharePoint Practice Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 Migration and Service Creation for Intranet and Extranet; Previous Install
  • Held various user group sessions to gather requirements from users to document Business Requirements.
  • Validated a client proposed Information Architecture against best practices and professional experience.
  • Demonstrated previous work done and examples of other intranets to business stakeholders.
  • Creatively designed and worked on multiple concept ideas and mockups in high-resolution to demonstrate ideas on content layout and navigation based on experience and best practices.
  • Architected a two-tiered governance model based on Microsoft best practices but adapting to the clients’ needs in where there is a general governance council that can escalate to a higher governance council.
  • Created various presentations on proper governance structure that Solaris Health Systems would oversee governing in relation to SharePoint Server 2007.
  • Worked with business stakeholders to identify a vision of where they would like to be across each of the multiple phases of the project.
  • Created a high-level SharePoint Project Road Map that could visually present to the stakeholders how their vision would be accomplished through various phases — showing what key SharePoint technologies could be deployed in phases and what the key success factors for each would be.
  • Delivered a Verification and Validation Gap Analysis document to the client as part of the Discovery cycle of the project.

Six Flags, Inc.

Title: Information Architect and Usability Analyst Dates: October 2009 to November 2009
Shyam Jayaraman, Senior Program Manager, SharePoint Practice Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2010 Deployment Planning for Microsoft TAP Program, Fresh Install
  • Gathered and documented requirements with business sponsors on the needs of the stakeholders for deploying a SharePoint 2010 intranet where no intranet at all was present.
  • Sat through several brainstorming sessions regarding information architecture and global navigation possibilities.
  • Met with several users to gather ideas on how information workflow was currently addressed and how we can better improve employee-to-employee communication through SharePoint 2010.
  • Helped to build a visionary road map of what features would be enabled and/or developed after the initial deployment of the first phase.
  • Designed detailed wireframes in Visio for every main portal area as an idea kickoff to brainstorm through design concepts and technical delivery possibilities.

Avaya, Inc.

Title: Information Architect and Governance Analyst Dates: June 2009 to October 2009
Shyam Jayaraman, Senior Program Manager, SharePoint Practice Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 Migration from Scattered SharePoint 2003 Farms; Previous Install
  • Gathered and documented requirements with business sponsors on the needs of the employees for consolidating several rogue server farms of both 2003 and 2007 versions of SharePoint Server for the Discovery phase of the project: Information Architecture Requirements document.
  • Gathered corporate branding guidelines to adhere to for the project and documented that in the Creative Brief provided to the client as part of the Discovery phase.
  • Met with users to explore how Avaya was utilizing SharePoint currently and discover any challenges they are facing so that we could formulate a plan to enhance the user experience going from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007 through a series of group discussions, one on one interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and other usability analysis methodologies.
  • Architected and designed the entire several options for an informational hierarchy and workflow for Avaya employees from scratch that were presented in the form of official site maps to the client who then chose the ones they felt had garnished the most support from their employees.
  • Created systematic governance policies around how users would access, request use of, and archive their SharePoint sites and files and a detailed design outline for the information architecture that was being implemented and documented its design details for the Design phase of the project: Information Architecture Design and Governance document.
  • Created a branding guideline for the SharePoint portal and team site master pages, content pages, site definitions, and template feature stapling which was documented in the style guide provided to the client as part of the Design phase.
  • Designed the layout of comprehensive annotated wire frames for all areas of the main portal as well as site templates for the departmental home pages and program home pages for the SharePoint 2007 portal as part of the Design phase.
  • Created full-color, customized design compilations in Photoshop that adhere to the wire frames previously approved within the technological limitations of the SharePoint platform.
  • Assisted in the implementation of one, centralized farm that is supported, archived, and backed up properly to satisfy how users need to find and re-use information using SharePoint 2007 by merging several off-the-cuff systems on older versions of the product.

EMC² (prior to Dell acquisition)

Title: Senior Information Architect Dates: June 2008 to December 2010
Matt Roberts, National Practice Lead Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint MVP in Information Architecture
  • As a consultant for EMC² (prior to their acquisition by Dell), I worked closely with clients in the SharePoint space as a Senior Information Architect. 
  • An effective information architecture enables people to step logically through a system confident they are getting closer to the information they require.

  • This applies largely to websites and intranets, but it certainly can apply to governance and organizational architecture as well.

  • The most common problem with information architectures is that they simply mimic a company’s organizational structure.

  • An effective information architecture comes from understanding business objectives and constraints, the content, and the requirements of the people that will use the site.

Citrix Systems, Inc.

Title: Technical Analyst and User Experience Specialist Dates: August 2006 to October 2008
Robin Paulding, Director of Employee Communications Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 Migration from SharePoint 2003 and Custom Design and Workflows; Previous Install
  • Development and customization of intranet collaboration team sites within the SharePoint Server 2003 and SharePoint Server 2007 environments.
  • Team lead for the department’s content migration project from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007.
  • Responsible for the content management and structural design of all Global Employee Communications initiatives on the SPS2003, then later MOSS 2007, intranet portal, MyCitrite.
  • Deployment of several customized team sites within the Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 and 3.0 environments to service the department’s virtual team, increasing productivity and collaboration efforts by 43%.
  • Provided technological solutions utilizing SharePoint 2007 to complex productivity choke-holds such as the development and launch of an internal communications newsletter to over 5,000 employees monthly making full use of content workflow and approval processes, which drastically improved outreach.
  • Led project management efforts for an overhaul of an already-deployed MOSS 2007 intranet to restructure and redesign the look and feel based on branding expectations and end-user input and feedback kicking off a User Experience Analysis of all Citrix Systems, Inc. employee audiences from around the globe, which included one-to-one usability interviews and small user-centric focus groups.
  • Delivered the research and analysis of the User Experience of the current intranet via a customized Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 website to business users so they could review the studies and feedback from their employees on what they feel their intranet should provide to them.
  • Training of end-users on customized team sites and portal areas of Windows SharePoint Services and MOSS 2007.

AT&T, Inc.

Title: Technical Lead Dates: February 2007 to October 2008
Andrew Palmer, Sr. Manager of Internal Productivity Development Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2007 Migration from SharePoint 2003, Custom Design for TeamSites; Previous Install
  • Merger and Acquisition migration from BellSouth to AT&T for their intranet systems on legacy SharePoint to the latest and greatest version.
  • Conceptualization and design structure for individual departmental team sites within the SharePoint Server 2007 environment.
  • Assistance with project management of SharePoint related initiatives and consultations on best practices.
  • User experience analysis of current intranet deployment which included several test groups and employee interviews.
  • Design and test internal software development projects in relation to end-user usability in desktop and intranet applications.
  • Documentation of style guides and how-to manuals for SharePoint Server 2007.

GenSpring Wealth Management

Title: Deployment Team Lead and User Interface Designer Dates: December 2006 to May 2007
Robert Trinchet, Chief Informations Officer Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2003 Deployment, Fresh Install
  • Conceptualization and design structure for a fresh, clean intranet deployment utilizing SharePoint Server 2003.
  • Documenting guidelines and style guides for brand-compliant user interface design within the framework of SPS 2003.
  • Architecture and deployment of the medium server infrastructure that houses the company’s SharePoint intranets and extranets, including the acquisition and management of additional SharePoint experts to develop custom web parts and server installation.
  • Assisted with the customization and development of the internal scan-through Document Management System built on Windows SharePoint Services.
  • Design and concept modeling of a SharePoint Server 2007 extranet meant for clients and partners for wealth management and advisor communications.

Kaplan University

Title: Senior Interface Designer/Web Project Manager Dates: January 2006 to August 2006
Cheryl Stopnick, Executive VP of Communications
Carolina Oria, VP of Information Technology		 Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: SharePoint 2003 Maintenance, Custom Design and Workflows; Previous Install
  • Conceptualized business requirements into functional, usable designs specific for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server (Intranets) and Windows SharePoint Services (Team Sites).
  • Served as lead project management for several front-end design business models utilizing a non-traditional software development life cycle, centered on Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server.
  • Technical writing of business-critical documentation, such as Business Requirements Document and High-Level Design documents.
  • Established project management timelines utilizing Microsoft Project and Windows SharePoint Services.
  • Train employees and business personnel on how to use and manage Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services.
  • Develop customized representations of content within the SharePoint development environment, called Data Views, utilizing Microsoft FrontPage 2003.

Citrix Systems, Inc.

Title: Senior Interface Designer/Web Project Manager Dates: November 2004 to December 2005
Silvio Restrepo, Senior Manager of Web Development Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: Migration from Legacy Intranet System to SharePoint Server 2003
  • Responsible for the maintenance and updates of the internal employee website, MyCitrite, of the reseller partner external website, MyCitrix, and the Citrix Developers Network external website
  • Re-affirmed internal corporate branding in the design and launch of departmental intranets such as Internal Communications and Legal Departments to enhance corporate messaging unification and distribution to employees.
  • Created a user interface storyboard and design for a custom based internal MyCitrix application that required systems integration within an ASP.NET environment drawing from my background in usability design methodologies.
  • Assisted with the migration concepts of internal communications from a custom based in-house application into a SharePoint environment for their varying intranet portals by storyboarding ideas and working with the internal collaboration team.

IBM, Canada

Title: Team Lead for User Interface Design Dates: September 2003 to June 2004
Timothy Cromwell, Senior Manager of Information Technology Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: IBM User Experience Departmental Management
  • This was a contractual position in where I oversaw leading a large team of web and interface designers to design, prototype, and code interfaces for web applications used by IBM clients and our in-house departments.
  • Organized User Acceptance Testing focus groups for several web applications developed as well as managed the migration of internal communications into a SharePoint environment for their Canada-based operations.
  • Started a campaign for the UI department to utilize and learn to house their documents in SharePoint 2001 Team Services.
  • Created SharePoint team sites for various groups in our departments to enhance collaborative efforts.

Lens Express, Inc.

Title: Senior Web Designer/ Graphical User Interface Designer Dates: March 2001 to January 2003
Mark Sanfilippo, IT Manager Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: UI/UX Design and Front-End Development
  • Worked on in house projects that tied in to the general business model.
  • Designed and implemented successful email campaigns sent in house creating outstanding conversion rates and profit.
  • Designed, tested, and implemented in-house Web Application GUIs for our programmers.
  • Handled the interviewing process for several positions within IT, including the Internet Marketing Analyst position.
  • Used project management skills to successfully deliver projects and products for the internet alongside lead project manager, Terrence Fleming.
  • Coordinated and organized the information technology department.
  • Worked largely with HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PhotoShop and Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash.

First Data Merchant Services

Title: Senior Interface Designer/GUI Project Analyst Dates: May 2001 to December 2001
Christopher Cognetta, Lead Technical Engineer Contact: {Available Upon Request}
Summary: User Interface Designer
  • Planning, design, creation, and implementation of Graphical User Interface for a multi-million-dollar project.
  • IDS – Integrated Dispute System. A java enabled web application for internal use of merchant processing systems. This system handles all the internal investigations of reversal requests from the point of sale to the receipt of money to the various credit card merchants.
  • eIDS – Electronic Integrated Dispute System. A simplified scalable java enabled version of IDS, exclusively made for the external user as a communication liaison between FDMS merchants and FDMS internal investigators.
  • Skills used include project planning of the GUI of both projects, initializing communications between clients and programmers, implementing detailed design documentation, tracking modifications, creating Photoshop initial layouts, gathering user approval, coding HTML, DHTML, CSS, and JavaScript, implementing HTML to Java Server Pages compliance with Java programmers, and establishing guidelines for future iterations of the project life cycle.

SAMPLES OF MY WORK

Below are samples of my work that I did for CA Technologies.  These are screen shots of various internal sites that targeted our users, our production support team, and our department’s work to empower our users. 

The bread and butter to all our user training and employee enablement efforts on SharePoint Online. I built this site from scratch ON SharePoint to showcase what we can do with this platform.

The bread and butter to all our user training and employee enablement efforts on SharePoint Online. I built this site from scratch ON SharePoint to showcase what we can do with this platform.

Created Video Tutorials with Adobe Captivate to be able to self-serve our end users with

Created Video Tutorials with Adobe Captivate to be able to self-serve our end users with "bits" of information that allowed them to take 5 - 10 mins to do something that would better their team's productivity efforts.

Pt. 1 - Created an events calendar for hosting quick sessions that we called

Pt. 1 - Created an events calendar for hosting quick sessions that we called "Lunch N Learns" and then in depth more advanced Webinars and Seminars that either span several hours or days. We also offered the opportunity to have personalized training sessions with our end users as well.

Pt. 2 - Created an events calendar for hosting quick sessions that we called

Pt. 2 - Created an events calendar for hosting quick sessions that we called "Lunch N Learns" and then in depth more advanced Webinars and Seminars that either span several hours or days. We also offered the opportunity to have personalized training sessions with our end users as well.

Reference Guides were a huge part of our production release efforts. Our BSAs were in charge of writing out these reference guides for our custom development pieces where our business leads contributed to the out-of-the-box features of SharePoint Online. This is a program I designed and managed.

Reference Guides were a huge part of our production release efforts. Our BSAs were in charge of writing out these reference guides for our custom development pieces where our business leads contributed to the out-of-the-box features of SharePoint Online. This is a program I designed and managed.

The E3 Governance Council was made up of representatives (either 1 or 2 from each department) that spoke for and on behalf of their employee base. I helped to manage the production support and documentation of any requests into what is known as

The E3 Governance Council was made up of representatives (either 1 or 2 from each department) that spoke for and on behalf of their employee base. I helped to manage the production support and documentation of any requests into what is known as "User Stories" for our Agile Program Management.

To effectively migrate off of SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online we need a place to track our efforts, so I built a custom list ON SharePoint Online (it also helped to get our business leads acclimated to SPO365) where our governance team could go in and manage their responsibilities in and track our work.

To effectively migrate off of SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online we need a place to track our efforts, so I built a custom list ON SharePoint Online (it also helped to get our business leads acclimated to SPO365) where our governance team could go in and manage their responsibilities in and track our work.

To house all our project documentation in relation to our user stories for migration, custom work, and production support, I created a space for the effort we called

To house all our project documentation in relation to our user stories for migration, custom work, and production support, I created a space for the effort we called "Foundations". We also created similar spaces for our "SPOL Product Sprints", our "SPO Search Sprints", our "Atlassain Confluence Wiki Sprints", and our ECM Sprints (which was a custom onPrem system built on SharePoint 2013).

Pt. 2 - After migrations were completed we needed to move into supporting the products we were now offering. I organized, created, and documented the entire Service Desk Process for our team and managed the production support queues and metrics.

Pt. 2 - After migrations were completed we needed to move into supporting the products we were now offering. I organized, created, and documented the entire Service Desk Process for our team and managed the production support queues and metrics.

Pt. 1 - After migrations were completed we needed to move into supporting the products we were now offering. I organized, created, and documented the entire Service Desk Process for our team and managed the production support queues and metrics.

Pt. 1 - After migrations were completed we needed to move into supporting the products we were now offering. I organized, created, and documented the entire Service Desk Process for our team and managed the production support queues and metrics.

Within our production support team, we also wanted to enable our Level 1 service desk to handle common issues and frequent questions easily and effectively, so we contributed to our Knowledgebase by empowering my team members to write KB Articles. I created the KB Article Tracker to manage, upkeep, and maintain the latest and greatest information out there.

Within our production support team, we also wanted to enable our Level 1 service desk to handle common issues and frequent questions easily and effectively, so we contributed to our Knowledgebase by empowering my team members to write KB Articles. I created the KB Article Tracker to manage, upkeep, and maintain the latest and greatest information out there.

Integration with ALL our Office 365 products was something that was very important to me. I would always showcase how well SharePoint Online works with all the Office Suite products like in this example OneNote.

Integration with ALL our Office 365 products was something that was very important to me. I would always showcase how well SharePoint Online works with all the Office Suite products like in this example OneNote.

Below are samples of my documentation and diagrams throughout my work at CA Technologies and more. 

SPO365 Project Proposal for Foundations Release

This document outlines the entire Migration Project Plan for our Foundations Release and then Migration from Older Systems.

Architect: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino (with inputs by our Business Leads)

View Document

SPO365 - Information Architecture & Design Document

This document is the primary IAD for the entire SharePoint Online Migration Project, “Foundations”.

Architect: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino (with taxonomy sections by Jamie Boeder)

View Document

SPO365 - Branding - Business Requirements

This document is the Business Requirements Document (BRD) done in a simplified Excel version that makes it easy to digest and search through for our development team.

Solutions Architect:  Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

SPO365 - Development - Site Creation App Requirements

Utilizing the same template in Excel, I then created the Business Requirements Document for the Site Creation App. A custom application built to govern the way sites are provisioned. This new format was very popular with our development team.  They loved it!

Solutions Architect:  Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

Functional Design Document

Our main document for our Functional Design, which I took parts of our BRD to create. This was a business facing document that required a more traditional format.

Architect: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

Departmental Migrations Management Spreadsheet

We had a similar document for all our departments. Here I showcase the RND department here because it was one of the biggest collections of sites and across various platforms too — SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010. I managed the whole migration effort for this department off this spreadsheet which was connected to the Migration List on SharePoint (pictured above). This excel sheet has custom coding to pull data into the dashboard for easy review.

Project Lead: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

Production Support Process for the Collaboration Team - Visio Diagram

This process workflow diagram shows you how to manage all our production support queues and when a ticket comes in how its funneled down to either our administrations, our development team, or our vendor.

Project Lead: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

Project Team to Production Team Deployment Process

Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.

Project Lead: Maria Espino / Heather Dyson
Author: Maria Espino

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User Story - FAQ Site Template for Business Partners

This is one of the many user stories I have written.  This story was directly sponsored by our business users in order to facilitate the creation of FAQ sections within our intranet software so that our business can easily create product FAQs for our pre-sales and sales teams. 

Project Lead: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

SPO365 - Development - Site Creation App Wireframes

For the site creation app, we needed to develop wireframes for our development team.  I created these wireframes in Visio. 

Project Lead: Maria Espino / Joseph Velliah
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

CA SharePoint Online Basics Webinar-2018

The best way to increase adoption of a new system is to offer courses and chances for our end-users to learn from subject matter experts.  I created the entire webinar series for our employees to sign up and attend through.  This was an incredible way to proliferate our team knowledge to regular users. 

Instructor: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

Video Tutorials: Working with Custom Views for Documents

To assist our employees that are looking for quick wins in their own sites or site collections, I developed a series of video tutorials that are 5-10 mins long on average that they can watch and gain very specific knowledge about SharePoint vast features.  These were in fact some of the most popular videos on our entire platform.  

Instructor: Maria Espino 
Author: Maria Espino

Launch Video

Business Lead Service Desk Reference Guide

I wrote a Reference Guide for our departmental business leads (who are members of our Governance Council) a reference guide into how operate their business queue.  The council members all had a business queue that would service our employees from those departments on simple tasks that could be easily done by our business leads.  Anything other than that would fall to our Level 2 queue. 

Project Lead: Maria Espino
Author: Maria Espino

View Document

RECOMMENDATIONS

“It’s different to even start discussing Maria’s talents as a technical leader. She is versatile and able to engage in helping teams with her leadership skills and has the technical capacity to cover a wide range of needs. Working with her on the Collaboration team she was able to assist in all aspects of the teams challenges from Information Architecture, to leading major components of systems migrations, and even being a trainer / spokesperson promoting our platform. In addition to her talents in the workplace her positive can do attitude helps drives teams to success.”

˗ Alex Geslani,
Environment Manager / Deployment Manager at CA Technologies, Collaboration Team

“Maria is a positive force of nature who excels at collaborating with others to achieve shared goals. It has been my pleasure to work with her over the past several years. I’ve been impressed by Maria’s constant availability and her desire to share her knowledge by helping when needed or by running training sessions. Her strengths of organization, consistency, innovation, and her ability to bring people together make her an outstanding candidate for any role. Maria will be an immediate impact player to any team she joins!Maria is a positive force of nature who excels at collaborating with others to achieve shared goals. It has been my pleasure to work with her over the past several years. I’ve been impressed by Maria’s constant availability and her desire to share her knowledge by helping when needed or by running training sessions. Her strengths of organization, consistency, innovation, and her ability to bring people together make her an outstanding candidate for any role. Maria will be an immediate impact player to any team she joins!”

˗ Patrick Goodwin,
Manager, Business Analysis at CA Technologies, Support Business Lead

“I had the pleasure of working with Maria as part of a company wide migration effort, shifting existing on-premise SharePoint sites to the 0365 online platform. The effort was massive – our team alone had over 3K sites – and challenging, as we had a hard deadline to meet and a steep learning curve in the process. Maria understood the needs of our site owners and worked tirelessly to help us help them cross the finish line. Maria created effective tracking tools and calmly led weekly meetings to ensure that not a single site was left behind. Maria took the initiative to create several how-to demos and posted videos and tip sheets to help both her colleagues and our end users maximize the company’s investment in O365. She is my go-to person for any questions about our collaboration platforms.”

˗ Terry Pisauro,
Engineering Services Manager at CA Technologies, RND Business Lead

“Maria is someone exceptional to work with. Her depth of knowledge is incredible not just as a Business Analyst but as a Solutions Architecture as well. She is a team player who goes the extra mile for her coworkers and employers. It was my absolute pleasure working and learning from her and would relish the chance to work with her again. I would recommend her to any future employer.”

˗ Martin Sims,
Senior Business Analyst at CA Technologies, Collaboration Team

“Like the vast majority of consultants I’ve worked with, Maria knows her stuff. But, unlike 99% of the consultants I’ve worked with, Maria listens. Already possessing what I believe to be a unique skill set – an Information Architect and Usability expert – Maria understands and embraces her role as the ‘voice of the business.’ Don’t get me wrong – she absolutely knows her craft and educates everyone she talks to. But, I’m perhaps even more impressed with what she doesn’t do. She doesn’t come in with any preconceived notions or one size fits all approach. Instead, she does exactly what a star consultant should: she marries best practices with what the business wants and needs.”

˗ Randy Marrone,
Sr. M&A IT Delivery Manager at CVS Health

LANGUAGES

English (Fluent, Primary) | Spanish (Fluent) | French (Basic) | Italian (Basic)