Devon Watkins

Project Manager, Information Technology and Services

Devon Watkins - Senior IT leader in Atlanta, GA.

Devon Watkins's Bio:

Devon Watkins's Experience:

• Sr. Technical Project Manager - Infrastructure at Axis Capital

  December 2010 - September 2011

  Engaged by Axis to serve as project manager for all Axis IT Infrastructure projects. Responsible for all phases of project life cycle. Partnered with application program managers to determine needed infrastructure changes to support application changes and roll-outs. Served as point of contact to the business on service changes and outages. Provided team leadership in a matrixed management role. Key Achievements: Managed Primary Data Center expansion. Data center presence was doubled. Responsible for movement of all QA and DEV environments to new expansion cage, as well as implementing new networking technologies. Managed IT aspects of 3 office moves. Initial office build out including network, server, SAN (Netapp) capacities were designed and installed as part of the projects. Managed Patch Management Initiative. Product evaluation and selection, installation, configuration and production roll out. Entire environment brought up to date with OS patches in a 9 week period

• IS Relationship Manager at Sage

  January 2009 - December 2010

  Promoted to serve as primary point-of-contact between business units and IS for all technology issues; reviewed and channeled all requests / escalations and facilitated technology and business improvement projects. Partnered cross-functionally with Business Services, Portfolio Management, and Program Management groups to define requirements, prioritize, and implement enterprise-wide and internal IT process improvements. Promulgated service-level management objectives and plan to stakeholders. Provided robust team leadership in matrixed and direct management roles. Oversaw request and incident management reporting integration for newly acquired business division. Advise customers of available NAIS provided services and other alternative options Facilitate kick-off meetings and complex issue resolution Bring the key NAIS individuals and customers to the table to explore options and identify solutions Identify opportunities for future NAIS services Provide comprehensive management of the NAIS/client relationship by coordinating cross-functional NAIS activities for customer Learned about customers’ business initiatives and worked with them to see how IT service would assist them. Helped influence their direction.

• Senior Business Analyst at Sage

  February 2007 - January 2009

  Analyzed user / business needs and service level agreements to business case documents, including business requirements, business cases, project functional scope / specifications, and use cases. Teamed with IS Architects, Engineers, and Application Support teams to assess business processes and verify alignment with enterprise architecture standards. Forged strong relationships across the hierarchy and gained expertise in business processes to contribute to demand management process and improve prioritization and delivery.

• IT Director at AQUAGERBIL

  January 2001 - January 2007

  Led, mentored, and motivated 3- to 5-member team of technology professionals supporting IT infrastructure and operations. Leveraged expertise to provide project management for multiple, concurrent projects; advised key stakeholder and project teams on requirements, scope, timelines, costs, resource planning, and pricing. Ensured projects met quality standards. Key Achievements: Wrote and enforced formal IT Operations procedures and policies to establish firm standards and expectations. Provided visible corporate presence on significant opportunities; served as executive representative at meetings and for issue escalation for projects valued at $100K+. Managed multiple customer engagements including: integrating five AD domains into one for a 2000+-member organization; SSL VPN implementation; and VMWare ESX implementation.

• Principal Consultant at BROADWING IT CONSULTING

  January 1999 - January 2001

  Represented consulting services for Network Infrastructure and Network Security practice areas. Managed client engagements and expectations. Acted as project leader with responsibly for negotiating and managing timelines, cost efficiency, resource planning, pricing levels, quality assurance, and project close. Facilitated meetings with colleagues to review client needs. Provided training to junior colleagues on methodology programs.

• B2000 - Senior Consultant at Bridgestone Americas Holding

  1999 - 2000

  I worked for the company that eventually became Xerox Connect and was deployed as a consultant to Bridgestone/Firestone USA for as part of their Business 2000 program.

• Principal Consultant at Xerox Connect

  1998 - 1999

• Consultant at Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corporation

  1997 - 1999

  I worked for the company that eventually became Xerox Connect and was deployed as a consultant to NMMC for a network implementation project. I continued at Nissan for two years and was involved in many network related projects.

• Network Engineer at CNA

  1995 - 1997

• Systems Administrator and Programmer at State of Florida

  1993 - 1995

  Designed and developed an Appellate case management system. Gathered requirements and implemented using DB IV and Dataflex. Designed and implemented a 100 seat Novell 4.x data network. Prior to this, the office had 3 stand alone PC's.

• Senior Project Manager at HD Supply

  September 2011

Devon Watkins's Education:

• Aspen University

  2011 – 2013
  MBA
  Concentration: Project Management

• Trevecca Nazarene University

  1998 – 2000
  BACHELOR OF ARTS

• Bartow Sr. High School

  1986 – 1989

Devon Watkins's Interests & Activities: