Mobile: 0879632620
Email: richardoconnell@gmail.com
Senior Manager with 12 years experience in the High-Tech industry. 7 years management consultancy experience in IT, Financial Services, Telecoms & Education industries with
Accenture. 1 st Class BSc. Computer Applications. Six sigma and ACCA certified. Msc. in progress. Excellent skills in project scoping & estimating, process engineering, quality and risk management. Strong leader with excellent communications, influencing, negotiation and interpersonal skills. Core competencies: Deep knowledge of digital consumers, expertise in digital product development and e-learning; user experience and user centric design.
Career History
2010 – present Houghton Mifflin Harcourt : Program Manager
 Managed the development of digital products worth $970 million.
 Created 25+ products used by 10s of millions of students, teachers and parents in the U.S.
 Provided vision and strategy as thought leader in digital product development and e-learning
 Financial Ownership: Proactively managed the Business Case and budgets.
 Understanding the stakeholder expectations, and participated in appropriate steering committee and status reviews with the stakeholders. Developed a shared set of objectives and expectations that enables successful partnership between the teams.
 Maintained consistency between the baseline scope and estimate by following an agreed and documented change control process and attending the change control board.
 Provided standardized status reports every period, managing metrics, risks and issues, communicating across the leadership team, and escalating where necessary.
2009 – 2010 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt : Project Manager
 Own overall project management for assigned projects.
 Lead, motivate and manage cross-functional teams to maximize effectiveness & efficiency; deliver on key project metrics, and mitigate risks and issues.
 Vendor selection and management. RFP, SOW & PO creation.
 Setting and managing budgets. Florida Math had a spend of $800,000.
2008 – 2009 Accenture : Manager Clients: VHI, Qinetiq
 Collaboration with and influencing clients at Director Level.
 Managed all aspects of the project during the entire project lifecycle.
 Managing teams of up to 20 people across multiple locations.
 Data collection and analysis to enable data driven decisions.
 Managed the success of metrics defined by the project and the organization.
 Identified, clarified and resolved issues and risks, escalating them as needed.
 Negotiated changes to commitments/requirements.
 Developed project team members and conducted performance reviews.
 Part of Accenture account management teams at Microsoft and VHI. This involved collaborating with global Accenture teams to creative solution offerings and drive sales; due diligence reviews of contracts; service level agreement management; financial management; setting account goals; representing Accenture with key client individuals.
Significant projects included
 Managed testing and deployment of largest custom claims management system in Ireland for VHI. Resulted in savings of €3,000,000 per year.

 Off shored the SAP application management team from UK to India for Qinetiq (UK defence technology and security company). Resulted in savings of £700,000 per year.
2004 – 2008 Accenture : Management Consultant Clients: VHI, Microsoft
 Operating model design and process (re)engineering.
 Created a number of sales proposals. This involved reviewing Requests for Proposals, solution scoping, design, team structuring and pricing. Presented the solution to clients.
 Ran recruitment campaigns in Irish Colleges and career fairs.
Significant projects included
 Defined new operating model & portfolio management processes for VHI.
Worked on-site in Microsoft for 3 years on a variety of different projects including:
 Redesigned business processes to ensure Irish and US divisions had matching operations.
 Managed project to cross-train 200+ resources in Accenture managed service to allow for more flexibility in team composition. Resulted in savings of €1,000,000 per year.
 Managed testing of large customer rebate system. System processed claims from 2000+ customers in 45 countries paying in excess of $45,000,000 per year.
 Transferred order management operation from Germany to Prague. Resulted in savings of
$2,000,000 per year. Project was used as proof of concept to sell a $100,000,000 deal.
 Created new pricing models for entertainment products. Results included increased customer satisfaction (based on annual survey) and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
 Updated software development methods and processes to increase focus on customers during design and development stages. Worked with Senior Microsoft Directors to shape and implement their vision. Led to creation of new customer service division in Microsoft.
2003 – 2004 Accenture : Analyst Clients: Vodafone, BTIreland
 Developed a solution to allow Vodafone optimise project selection based on strategic goals and resource availability. Resulted in savings of $2,000,000 per year.
 Developed custom (VB, Java, C++) and packaged (Siebel) solutions for BTIreland.
2001 – 2003 3TL : Software Developer & Web Designer
 Programmed software products and website using visual basic, C++ and ASP.
 Administered office network, web servers and intranet.
E D U C A T I O N A N D T R A I N I N G
Course
Msc. Cyberpsychology
Diploma in Financial Management
Six Sigma Green Belt
BSc. Computer Applications (1.1)
College/Institution
Dún Laoghaire IADT
ACCA
SQT Training Ltd
Dublin City University
I N
H O U S E T R A I N I N G W I T H A C C E N T U R E
 Communication, presentation and active listening skills.
 Influencing, negotiation and conflict resolution skills.
 Business process analysis and design training.
 Financial management, Ethics and Compliance training.
Year
2012
2008
2005
2002
Leisure Interests: Scuba Diving, Movies, Reading, Golf, Hill-walking & Travelling.