SKAISTIS CONSULTING BACKGROUND

I am Bruce Skaistis. With more than 30 years of experience as a facilitator, management consultant, and project leader, I am recognized as a subject matter expert by leading enterprise IT and industry publications. I write, speak, and conduct workshops on successfully completing critical projects, optimizing outsourcing relationships, using the customer-driven, value-based enterprise IT framework to maximize IT value – and making IT a more attractive career option by making enterprise IT more fun. 

I began my career as a consultant with Arthur Andersen, where I helped companies in different industries develop strategic systems plans, drive major IT initiatives and optimize their IT resources. After leaving Arthur Andersen, I was CIO for a large bank group.  I left the bank to form my own management services firm.

My initial focus as a consultant was on helping organizations Successfully Complete Critical Business and IT Initiatives.  I have helped organizations streamline critical business processes, develop business continuity plans, create new business units and merge operations.  I have also managed major IT and systems projects for companies in many different industries. 

I had my first exposure to outsourcing when I was CIO of the bank group.  That was the early days of outsourcing and I learned a lot about outsourcing from that experience.  Since returning to consulting, I have helped many organizations Outsource Critical IT and Transaction Processing Functions.

Over time, I started focusing more of my efforts on helping organizations deal with problem projects and difficult outsourcing relationships.  Even though problems with major projects and outsourcing relationships that fail to live up to expectations receive a lot of attention, studies continue to find a high percentage of critical initiatives run into problems and many outsourcing relationships fail to deliver promised benefits or end up being terminated early. 

Building on my experience and ongoing research, I have developed methodologies for Turning Around Problem Projects and Optimizing the Performance of Outsourced Functions.  Using these methodologies, we have been able to help organizations turn around and successfully complete major projects that had run into problems.  We have also been able to help organizations salvage problem outsourcing relationships and significantly improve the performance of outsourced business process and IT functions.

With more than 30 years of enterprise IT management and consulting experience, I am convinced that getting maximum value from IT expenditures and resources is one of the biggest challenges facing many organizations today.  Several years ago, I began studying high performance enterprise IT functions around the world to see what I could learn about maximizing enterprise IT value. 

Building on this research and basic ERP concepts, I developed the customer-driven, value-based enterprise IT framework.  The framework is built on a simple premise – in today’s highly competitive environment, enterprise IT has to operate the same way a standalone business has to operate to be successful.  That means enterprise IT has to provide services that produce the most possible value for its customers at the lowest possible cost.  Using the framework, we help organization implement value-based enterprise IT governance structures to ensure IT Resources Produce Maximum Value for the Enterprise.  

Optimized Outsourced Business Processes – Helped a large electric utility significantly improve the performance of outsourced accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll functions.

Defined System Requirements – Facilitated sessions to define system requirements for Air Force system using Rational toolset.

          Managed Major IT Project – Helped a major meat processing company
          implement highly integrated systems and streamline its order processing,
          production control, inventory management, and distribution processes.

Optimized Call Center Performance – Helped a major car rental company implement speech recognition technology and streamline call center operations to improve customer service and reduce operating costs.

Maximized Enterprise IT Value – Helped a commercial construction company create value-based management structures to ensure IT resources produced maximum value for the company.   

Coordinated Building of New Facility – Coordinated building of new facility and consolidation of administrative and accounting functions for major chemical company.  

Developed Business Continuity Plan – Helped a major travel services company develop comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plans.  

Successfully Completed Problem Project – Took over a problem project from a major consulting firm and helped a large farm products company successfully complete the implementation of integrated financial management systems.

Moved Outsourced IT Functions Back In-House – Helped a major financial services organization move outsourced IT functions back in-house to improve IT responsiveness and better control IT expenses.

          Streamlined Acquisition Processes – Helped a major mining company
          streamline its purchasing and payment processing functions.  

Maximized Value of Enterprise IT Resources – Helped an electric utility improve IT service levels and reduce IT costs by implementing a value-based IT governance structure and optimizing its IT management processes.

Optimized In-House and Outsourced Functions – Helped two large rental car companies with common ownership optimize their information technology resources.  Some critical functions were outsourced while other critical functions were optimized internally. 

Successfully Completed Problem Project – Assumed responsibility for a problem project and successfully completed implementation of distributed order processing and inventory control systems for a large chemical company. 

E-mail: info@skaistis.com
570-991-2904


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