Laura Giles

SENIOR INTEGRATION CONSULTING & DELIVERY SERVICES

Strategic Planning / Process Engineering / Relationship Management / PreSales Engineer

Email:

laura@lauragiles.com

Location:

Texas

Download Resume (.pdf)

A Bit About Me

For over 20 years, I have consistently achieved business and project goals. My background in business development, software development and integration, enterprise platform management, technical project management, security compliance, and business process management through a variety of industries including US & international government agencies, represents a unique combination of disciplines in workstream automation. I am committed to professionalism, am highly organized, and am able to see the big picture while paying attention to smaller details.

Implemented a global feedback loop with instant insights that quickly impacted product strategic direction & set the standard across all Cisco offers
- https://blog.webex.com/team-collaboration/webex-community-members-bring-linux-support-for-webex-to-life/

Rapid Crisis Response (COVID-19)
- https://blogs.cisco.com/healthcare/connecting-families-more-than-video
- https://video.cisco.com/video/6159851778001

Rebuilt two projects and associated client relationships that had fallen apart. Large fixed price
CRM project for an international convenience store chain and a custom software project for a large
wireless provider were abandoned by prior teams. Rewrote statement of work, negotiated changes with client and re-baselined scheduled. Restored both customer relationships and turned failures into
business reference projects. Received employers and client’s highest honors for turning around both
accounts and continuing client growth.

Upgraded an impossible situation, early. Two previous attempts to upgrade a Fortune 500 healthcare customer’s on-premise installation failed and each previous attempt dragged on for over a year. Rewrote statement of work, worked with client PM to lay out dependencies and schedule. Project completed three months from start date and finished a week early.

Critical player in winning largest accounts in company history. In jeopardy of potentially losing a bid for a Fortune 500 cable, internet, and telephone provider. I was brought in two days before the final demonstration to prepare several solid business cases totaling in $2.6M in ROI and deliver the proof of concept demonstration. Client has realized $30M after the first year. I was frequently brought in to deliver the same proof of concept performance that resulted in a company-wide sales strategy makeover.

Built & standardized account insights & management. Company could not assess status, reliable source for account documentation or financial health of ongoing projects. Launched collaboration site, business operating standards and a project management template. Centralized scheduling and planning. Introduced dashboards for rapid, accurate reports.

November 2020 - February 2023

August 2015 - November 2020

January 2009 - August 2015

January 2005 - April 2007

2001 - 2005

1999 - 2001

ZOOM COMMUNICATIONS ISV Channel Operations Manager A blend of operations training, operational process design and execution, reporting and KPI’s, and alignment to shared goals across the global ISV partner ecosystem. I also provide data insights to our internal business stakeholders driving and supporting strategic decisions, am the primary point of contact for the ISV route-to-market and work cross-functionally with internal stakeholders to resolve issues, understand the business and data challenges, and respond to escalation and exception requests. Accountable for the operational readiness of quote to order capabilities, the user experience, and systems, tools, and processes necessary for our partners and internal teams.

CISCO SYSTEMS Sr. Innovation Business Development Manager, Worldwide CTO Sales Assist customers and solution partners with workflow optimization as well as build out differentiated offers using customer, partner & Cisco technology via bots, APIs, SDKs, widgets, data integration and analytics. Manage strategic partnerships such as Salesforce. Design and build proof of concepts and demo application workflow for customers as well as for partner sales teams to re-deliver and use in customer workshops and tradeshows. Deliver customer and partner workshops to educate and evangelize on Cisco cloud technology. Design and implement a process, toolset & cross-functional team to streamline customer, partner, sales product feedback loop for collaboration which is now the gold standard for all architectures at Cisco. (15+ feedback channels of input now funneled to one repository.) Work directly with product engineering teams to add datapoints in products to enable automated hardware trial reporting. Lead an API Sales Tiger Team for APIs to build new Cisco on Cisco concepts, partner strategy, and provide industry and customer insight back to product and engineering. InfoSec stakeholder for Cisco APIs. Lead sales integration efforts with Tropo to help implement more formal sales and delivery processes including, setting up and rolling out Salesforce, creating and delivering service provider, contact center, internet of things (IoT), CPaaS, sales content as well as real-world use cases for delivery to global sales team, partners, customers and Cisco’s DevNet. Repeatedly recognized by Cisco & customer executives as a relationship builder, customer advocate, influencer, and overall creative ninja.

NEXIDIA (ACQUIRED BY NICE) Sr. Technical Project & Program Manager Virtually lead an average of 25-30 medium to large scale SaaS and on-premise projects for 22 Fortune 100-1,000 companies as well as US & International government agencies (w/security clearance). Agile & waterfall projects consist of global call recorder media extraction and integration into the Nexidia Speech Analytics platform from all types of sources (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Scopus, Siebel, Clarify, Mercury, Oracle, AVAYA, NICE, Verint/Witness, LiveVox, Cisco, Genesys, OAISYS, NOBLE). Prepare and present RFP, SOW and CO’s. Worked on the PreSales team and effectively and efficiently re-engineered the delivery process and shorten turn around window by 90%. Designed, implemented, and executed a repeatable agile business analysis training program for offshore analysts.

TELVISTA Head Professional Services Manager Manage an international team of approximately 30 CRM, IVR, custom application development teams, application support, as well as switch and CRM reporting teams. Program manager and client relationship owner. Vendor and License Manager. Establish business operating procedures and standards for customer and internal use. Essential member of company’s PCI data security certification team. Assist customers with PCI, SOX and Patriot Act compliancy. Responsible for implementing, documenting, auditing, and maintaining infosec & compliance for PCI, SOX, HIPPA, ITIL, Patriot Act, & ISO 27001. Prepare and present RFP, SOW,CO’s, and Service Agreements. Coordinate and participate in Customer Business Reviews with executive teams and subject matter experts. Provide application demonstrations and training.

TELVISTA Business Analyst/Technical Writer Work with Fortune 100 customers and internal business units to design and develop numerous types of SDLC documentation, specifically, project plans, functional requirements and design requirements, data dictionaries and data mapping guides, use cases, AI2B change documentation, interface design requirements and mockups, and end user manuals. Liaison between business units, technology teams and support teams. Collaborate with developers and subject matter experts to establish the technical vision and analyze tradeoffs between usability and performance needs.

COMPUSA, CALL CENTER SERVICES IT/CRM Administrator Primary technical contact for global packaged CRM applications (Clarify, Remedy, Siebel, Scopus) and home grown tools. Monitor application performance, provide 1st and 2nd level application support, provide technical expertise for application upgrades, prepare technical training and process documentation for team and end user. Coordinate with executives, software consultants, and helpdesks in a 24x7 environment. Owned Disaster Recovery and Server Backup process for entire company. Set up several data centers and participated in call center build outs, assisted with phone switch installs/punch lines, dropped cables.

Andy Dignan (Chief Customer Officer, Five9) - Laura is extremely customer and partner focused. She has an infectious, positive attitude and is adept at bringing people together to accomplish a goal. Her experience across IT, business, SaaS, software development, program management, etc. gives her a great 360 view. She's an amazing asset at any company she works for!

Paul Magnaghi (Head of ISV Business Development, Zoom) - I had the pleasure to have Laura on my team for a number of years. She is probably one of the most driven and empathetic people I know. Her ability to manage complex projects, personalities and situations had created a spot on my team to get the difficult done. Finding people that can bridge between technology, business and personalities are hard to find, I just hope I can be so lucky again.

Dave Vrh (Head of Vertical Solutions, Ecosystems & Insights, Poly) - Laura is super-talented and passionate about her work and a pleasure to work with. She's innovative, technical, and has proven ability to get new programs off the ground quickly and drive them to completion with efficiency and grace.

David A. Simpson (Chief Product Officer, Enseo) - I am constantly amazed by the breadth of Laura's knowledge and contacts both inside and outside of Cisco. Seems like any question I ask she knows the answer or the person responsible for the answer. I also find that her colleagues no matter where they are in Cisco know, respect and truly admire her. As a new customer to the Cisco community she has helped us at every turn, quietly and efficiently making sure we found the help we needed. She's also quite good at gently reminding me if I get distracted to get back to the projects we were working on together. Finally Laura just has a lot of great ideas on how to make our products better. Please keep it up. Thanks Laura.

Damien McCoy (Director of Product at Webex, Cisco) - Laura is one of those people who gets the job done, always willing to go the extra step for the team and does so with a great attitude and professional approach. With a superb focus on customers, Laura's insights on their needs has influenced our product direction and driven improvements on how we listen, respond and deliver to the market

Alex Doyle (Executive Director, Advanced Communications Products, Verizon) - Laura is the rare breed who combines technical expertise with a discerning eye for finding solutions that will actually drive business outcomes. She and I worked together on CPaaS/API integrations with UC, which resulted in some pretty clever IOT solutions for both enterprise and public sector customers. A rock star!

Don Turnbaugh (Sr Contact Center Specialist, Cisco) - Laura is one of the most organized leaders I know. She’s able to motivate, coach, and lead with consensus. Laura’s leadership style has helped the broader team dynamics by encouraging inclusion and cross functional teamwork. Her continual focus toward team, executive, and broader Cisco goals - enabled Laura to meet and exceed the expectations of all engaged and those in her sphere of influence. She is committed to do the right thing for all customers and account stakeholders. She is technically sound, articulate and solid in her chosen technology. Laura's team members are the benefactors of her knowledge and abundant skills, and they truly enjoy her leadership, loyalty, and guidance - which enables them and supports their individual needs, goals, and growth. I truly enjoyed working with Laura and am thankful for her coaching and for listening to my ideas and acting on them. I count her as one of the many people who positively influenced my career and personal development and I am thankful for the experience of having worked with her. I absolutely believe Laura would definitely be a great asset to any team.

Linh La (Director of Client Engagement, NICE NEXIDA) - Laura got things done and she is extremely knowledgeable about technology and the implementation, deployment and management of technology. I had the pleasure of working with Laura in many capacities, first a client, then a peer, and I have learned from her every step of the way. If you need someone to manage your projects and ensure that it's delivered within the triple constraints, Laura is your woman.

Mike Marquart (Strategic Engagement Executive, Cisco) - I work with Laura helping to shape the future of a differentiated offer for a large service provider. Laura single-handedly has moved the conversation forward in a way that we were unable to do without her. She was able to communicate the outline of the "why" for our joint business propositions in a very clear, understandable way for both a technical and non-technical audience. She then followed through with a fantastic demonstration of the power of Tropo integrated into a mobile network. She put the demonstration together, drove the creation of a working demo, created documentation used by marketing that we then took to a major industry trade show. Laura has earned the respect of our customer as well as my team.

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Graham Farm

At Graham Farm, our mission is to create an enjoyable shopping experience that customers of all ages can enjoy & learn about local agriculture & homesteading. We provide our community with quality grown and crafted products made locally here on our farm. You can find our products at the Melissa Feed Store as well as the Lucas Farmers Market. We also offer a number of services to our community including homesteading classes, pasture services and host an annual countywide seed swap.

Boards & Volunteer

Collin County Child Protective Services board member
Foster Friends board member
City of Lucas Parks & Open Spaces board member
Lucas Farmers Market Committee Vice Chairman tasked with acquiring agriculture vendors and bringing to market, provide input to help drive vendor sales, as well as develop content and run all social media for the market and promote market within local and surrounding communities.
Frequently participate and lead a volunteer team for nonprofit organizations such as Salvation Army, SoupMobile, Texas Ramps, Dallas Ramps, as well as contribute time and technology services to local and statewide causes.
Legislation & Campaign Strategist: Provide policy research & analyze data for local, county & state races and current issues. Testify as expert on issues at the state capital.
Active member on several Texas legislation subcommittees and focus groups for agriculture and protecting children.

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Laura Giles

A Bit About Me