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Mr. Richard Tesmer Consulting, Coaching, and Speaking

Summary of Richard Tesmer's Project/Portfolio Management Skills

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Strategic Project/Program Planning

Created measurable KPIs for the accountability of the enterprise programs for SAP, Salesforce, and SAP eWMS to drive decisions, exceeding budget targets by 20%.
Documentation of management strategy through SWOT and GAP analysis.
Support the creation of the project or program charter, project initiation documentation, project planning documents, and business processes aligned with expectations.
Skills in talent management through recruitment and strong relationships with developers (on and offshore), IT professionals, security specialists, logistics, and procurement resulting in teams with the lowest turn over rates in the companies history.

Budget Management and Cost Reduction

Expertise in increasing sales targets by 10-20% through creating and using collaboration platforms.
Managed five major programs simultaneously, ensuring all deliverables met timelines and quality
standards; established effective feedback loops with clients, improving project alignment within
strategic direction by over 30%.
Highly skilled at managing active projects portfolio valued at $15M annually, with medium ($500K
to $1.5M) to large-sized projects/programs ($1.5M to $5M).

Team Leadership and Development

My plan to overcome resistance to Agile, was overcome by creating a hybrid approach called ScrumFall. This allowed an iterative approach while working within the project's triple constraints.
I am a specialist at implementing new technologies, improving projects, automation, customer engagement, customer relationship management, and performance.
I lead local and global project teams as shepherd leader, a servant leader, and a mentor.
I have built PMO teams of twelve senior-level project managers, paired with six junior project managers, four business analysts, and onshore/offshore development teams, elastically sized to high of 90 programming resources.
I excel at leading self-organized, agile, high-performing teams with a hands-on approach to building relationships, supporting end-to-end customer success stories, and resolving real-time issues.

Silos and Collaboration

With technology changing so quickly, Agile's use of Kanban and Scrum was added to replace most Waterfall projects, which led to smoother collaboration between matrixed teams.
I take pride in the development of global multicultural staffing of project resources with a high cultural empathy and sensitivity, which contributed to a 90% year-over-year retention rate of clients.
Through the combination, I was able to lead the combined efforts of Professional Services with Project Management teams. Resulting in an improved environment for custom applications, business units breaking down silos, and collaborating for improvement in communication.

Change Management

Custom solutions using COTS and/or customized Power Apps for data warehousing, defining and executing infrastructure plans, and working with projects leads to controlling scope and maintaining business priorities.
I place emphasis from day one on a project that Project Sponsors and stakeholders will need to create a Change Control Committee.

Risk Management

Balanced all project crises and, as needed, escalate executive leadership.
Using historical data analysis, complex project risk registers are part of project coordination, management, data integrity, directory services, business processes, mitigation strategies, and escalation points.

Stakeholder Management

As a leader filled with intellectual curiosity, on top of customer risk management, I led the teams to keep all project timelines under control.
Meeting business needs with solid customer feedback loops to build upon user experience and create alignment with strategic direction.
Managed teams in a matrixed environment using cross-functional collaboration to build and maintain various projects and technologies.

Center of Excellence

I dealt with daily prioritization by monitoring the PMO dashboard: a pipeline of 300 NGO, NPO, and For-Profit clients with an average of 65 active projects.
I ensured all team members, especially project managers, continue developing skills with additional training.
I analyzed workflows and established priorities for daily operations.
Commercial software such as Nintex Workflow and Microsoft Power Platform tools in Microsoft 365 are used for continuous improvement and future-proofing.

Richard Tesmer's Biographical Resume

01Oct

RTAZ Consulting Services: Owner / Applicaiton Development Manager

The owner of RTAZ Consulting Services, Richard Tesmer, has led the company to excel in helping small—and medium-sized businesses succeed.

Details

Title: Owner of RTAZ Consulting Services
Start Date: 10/1/2001
End Date: 04/20/2006
Reason for Leaving: Sold Company to Astoundry and went to work for them.

After all those years with LMS, Burger Kine, and PPI prepared me for starting my own company. I took my savings, and my partner and I sold most of our belongings, and the rest we packed up in the UHaul and moved to Miami Beach, FL. This was shortly after 9/11. Oh, and our two furbabies- Houdini and Zappa. We arrived and settled into our condo three blocks from Miami Beach and the Atlantic Ocean. It is a very tourist area. There are lots of bars with huge parties on the weekends (which means do not move your car). The dogs loved walks in such beautiful weather. And we got to enjoy movies on the beach! My partner (now over 23 years old) became a US citizen while we lived there.

Starting your own company, something you've never done before is an exciting time filled with risks and unknowns. But we quickly discovered that just through word of mouth and a very short period of teaching with the local universities, I had gained a solid reputation even before our first client call. We quickly grew from a handful of clients to a roster filled with nearly 500 clients. Almost 80% of our work was in some form of online presence. We took great pride in delivering quality work at reasonable prices.

With such a large portfolio of web work, we decided to become license agents with First Data, a major credit processing company. Adding this to our program portfolio was a no-brainer. After completing the training in California, when we came back to Miami Beach, we were fully engaged with First Data and sold the gateway to over 100 of our immediate clients.

So we are turning out websites using Content Management Systems (in their very early stages), using eCommerce with First Data services, able to provide monthly maintenance, and so much more!

Living in Miami Beach was a total dream most of the time. The problem was Hurricane Season. Newscasters must get paid extra for every hour they spend on the TV yelling, "The storm is coming, get prepared, leave now!" And that was a week or two before the hurricane arrived. It frayed my nerves every single time. Then, the final straw—there were hurricanes in a row all in a short period of time—Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Yes, Katrina was more famous after hitting New Orleans, but it wasn't the hurricane that hurt them; it was the broken system of levees. But I was done with Floriday. So we packed up and moved the business and us back to Houston!

We were doing so well when we purchased our first office space. With a permanent staff of 10 people, it was a significant period. Before the move, I had received a call from Mr. George Ali, the same Mr. Ali I worked under at Asurion, looking to see if my team and I would take on some contract work with a new company that he was now at Astoundry. We jumped on the chance to reduce sales and increase billable work. It was a fantastic partnership that we continued into our Houston days.

Things were probably moving too soon and fast for us to keep up with, so in April 2006, Goerge met with us to buy our company and merge it into Asurion. The price was right, but it did mean I would have to let all my full time staff go, they were only interested in my skills and services full time. That was the most challenging part of my job- saying goodbye to a team that was loyal and very talented. But the opportunity was too good to say no to. So we closed the book on RTAZ Consulting Services, permanently closed our offices, and dropped our online presence.

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