1. Carlos J. Sousa
Solutions Delivery Professional
A passionate, versatile and results oriented leader with 25+ years experience ensuring
investments in products, processes and technology align with business strategy and deliver
the most business value
What value can I bring ?
My fundamental beliefs
My professional experience - Summary
My Detailed Experience
My Education
2. What value can I bring?
• Do you need to define or improve your strategy in aligning your technology
investments, product development and operational processes with your business
objectives?
• Are you encountering challenges in managing these project portfolio
components?
– having consistent processes to manage your project portfolo
– modelling to determine which projects should be on the portfolio and measuring ROI
– consistent and ongoing governance of project prioritization
– capturing status reporting which is reflective of the real project status
– having project sponsors who understand their role and are committed to the success of
their projects, or
– negotiating the realignment of project resources when; priorities change, there is an
unbalance between resource demands and resource supply or projects go off track
Over the last 25 years I have experienced these same challenges and addressed
them successfully with different teams, different products and with
organizations which were at varying process maturity levels
3. My Fundamental Beliefs
• All programs/projects must deliver revenue generation, expense reduction or risk mitigation
• Clarity on the project goal, project deliverables and business value of the project by all project team
members is critical
• Project delivery methodologies may need to vary depending on the project team composition and how
variable the project scope is
• Project executive sponsor committees play an ongoing critical governance role in directing the project
portfolio based on business and project priority changes and committing as a team to resource re-
allocations
• Technology innovation and stability can be a key differentiator but must be supported by a clear business
strategy and clear tactical delivery plan
• A balanced approach to Clients, Financials, People and Processes is important to managing the success of
projects
4. My Professional Experience
Summary
• 15+ years of experience in aligning business strategy, business tactical objectives and client requirements
with product, process and technology roadmaps and project portfolios. Experience in modeling project
value to measure revenue, expense and risk mitigation
• 10+ years of experience working with National and Global executives in matrix organizations to establish
project portfolio management which ensures project status transparency, business oriented reporting,
project governance and project portfolio flexibility
• 25+ years consulting to large corporations, crown corporations and not for profit organizations on
outsourcing of benefits, pension and employee communications products and services and process
improvement
• 25+ years leading people. Have managed teams responsible for project management office,
program/project management, product management, architecture, development, business analysis,
quality assurance, employee communications consulting, IT infrastructure, knowledge management and
process management.
• 20+ years of experience in developing policy and implementing processes on Project Management,
Systems Development Lifecycle, security, privacy, business continuity and other ITIL and ISO worldwide de
facto standards in service management
5. My Professional Experience
Detailed 1 of 3
Senior Director – National Solutions Delivery
Mercer
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; MMC; Human Resources industry
July 2007 – November 2011 (4 years 6 months) Toronto, Canada Area
Clients
• Key point of contact when meeting with clients on technology related services, products and processes. This also included addressing critical RFP/RFI
questions, meetings with client auditors and representing the business on internal security, privacy and business continuity audits
• Delivered new and enhanced product and technology solutions to clients in support of Pension, Benefits, multi-employer plans and call centre
services. Products and technology included: , DB Pension systems, Flex Benefits systems, Total Benefits Web portals and SSO integration, Data
Management platforms, multi-employer systems, workflow management, imaging services, computer telephony integration and Knowledge
management products.
• Delivered key client risk mitigation and service level processes such as: 99.9% Web product availability, business continuity/disaster recovery
solutions, Web services monitoring, alerting and responses, security and privacy controls, service availability and performance reporting
Financials
• Managed Product and Technology Budgets. Achieved P&L budget targets of $15M annually
• Expanded resource pool and expertise on niche technologies by hiring offshore resources. Increased resource pool by 15 individuals while reducing
the annual expenses by eliminating 4 contract positions
• Planned and managed technology expenditure financials to enable amortization of new product development expenses (SOP98)
• Negotiated new software agreements and maintenance agreements with various software vendors and partners. Resulted in cost savings below
market level increases of 5% to 10%
People
• Coached program and project managers on complex programs and projects which were in trouble. Most projects completed successfully and some
projects were cancelled after review of business value
• Managed a team of over 60 professionals, onshore and offshore, consisting of product managers, business analysts, architects, project managers,
developers, quality assurance, knowledge management and technology relationship managers
• Set department and direct reporting annual goals and conducted regular performance reviews and personal development planning sessions with
direct reports
• Developed special plans and mentored high achieving individuals to ensure continuous personal development and promotion
6. My Professional Experience
Detailed 2 of 3
Processes
• Developed annual product and technology roadmaps and acted as the sponsor for programs and projects to deliver annual roadmaps. Established
and oversaw a technology PMO. On average delivered over 15 large projects per year with most being on time and on budget
• Met with program/project managers on a weekly basis to evaluate status of project portfolio. Reported to the global executive team on status of
project portfolio and modified project portfolio based on changes to business priorities, resource availability and resource conflicts
• Acted as the escalation point on complex programs and projects in trouble and led critical response teams on operational critical service outages.
• Oversaw project management, development and technology operational processes to ensure the semi-annual CICA5970 level II audit controls, client
controls and internal controls were met. These audits s covered: logical and physical security, privacy, accessibility, business continuity, systems
development life cycle, project life cycle, change management and other technology operational processes. Result was that the CICA5970 level II
certification was maintained
Member of Executive Committees
• Canadian Outsourcing leadership executive team. This team was responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Canadian
Outsourcing business
• Global solutions delivery leadership team. Representing Canada in the alignment of technology products, services, people and processes for
Outsourcing, worldwide
• Global risk management committee. Responsible for developing and governing risk management controls across all business units
• Canadian leader’s technology committee. Representing Outsourcing in the management of all aspects of Mercer National technology.
• Canadian business continuity committee. Development of a Mercer national business continuity strategy and operational governance
• Technology offshoring leadership committee. Management of the offshoring strategy and operational governance for Outsourcing worldwide
National Operations Manager
Mercer HR Consulting
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; MMC; Human Resources industry
January 2004 – July 2007 (3 years 7 months) Toronto, Canada Area
• Delivered over 30 new and enhanced product and technology operations process policies using ITIL and ISO best practices and deployed new
processes nationally to attain CICA5970 level 2 (now CSAE 3416) audit certification. This certification provided a strategic advantage over other
competitors who did not have the certification and eliminated the need for most clients to audit outsourced operations
7. My Professional Experience
Detailed 3 of 3
Global IT Program Manager
Mercer HR Consulting
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; MMC; Human Resources industry
January 2003 – December 2004 (2 years) Toronto, Canada Area
• Oversaw global (US, UK, Canada and Australia) projects on product assessment, vendor selection, vendor licensing negotiations, program/project
management standards and governance for workflow, case management, imaging and data management products. Program managed the build,
integration and implementation of these systems and the transition to operations. All products selected are still in use and are continuing to be the
global standard across the company
National IT Infrastructure Services Director
Mercer HR Consulting
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; MMC; Human Resources industry
September 2002 – December 2003 (1 year 4 months) Toronto, Canada Area
• Managed over 100 staff in 12 locations across Canada. Delivered Mercer Canada infrastructure and processes nationally, including: network and
Internet engineering, operations and desktop support, client relationship management, network communications, change management and
helpdesk technical services nationally
Senior Project Manager
William M. Mercer
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; MMC; Human Resources industry
September 2001 – September 2002 (1 year 1 month) Toronto, Canada Area
Principal
Morneau Sobeco Deloitte & Touche
Private Company; 800+ employees; Human Resources industry
January 1997 – September 2001 (4 years 9 months) Toronto, Canada Area
VP MIS
Morneau Coopers & Lybrand
Private Company; 800+ employees; Human Resources industry
January 1990 – December 1996 (7 years) Toronto, Canada Area
8. My Education
Schulich School of Business - Masters Certificate, Project Management
2001
Ryerson University – Computer Science
1979 - 1982
Completed a number of professional development courses including:
• Agile Project Management
• Professional Presentations
• Executive Business Writing
• Enhanced Communications Styles
• Managing People and Performance Management
• Project Estimating