Vance T. Edwards

Senior Director of Dispatch Operations

Operations Management Excellence  /  Program Management  /  Project Planning & Execution

High-energy professional with proven success driving excellence in operations management, program coordination, and complex project management. Excellent history as a leader, decision-maker, and strategist delivering technology innovations and improvements on a vast scale. Demonstrated capacity to build and motivate teams that work collaboratively to provide world-class customer support and seamless business operations through skillful project and program execution. Engaging, persuasive communicator. Core competencies:

COMCAST CABLE, Voorhees, NJ / Union, NJ / Aston, PA                                                2011 to Present

Senior Director, Dispatch Operations, 2011 to Present

Lead and support 250+ dispatch and day of job personnel across three locations in Comcast’s Freedom Region.  This includes quota management; next day/same day routing; day of job support to field personnel—including technical troubleshooting; and ancillary support for escalated customer issues for New Jersey, and portions of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

TIME WARNER CABLE, Cleveland, Ohio / Herndon, Virginia                                              2008 to 2011

Promoted and transferred from the Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) facility in Herndon, Virginia, to provide strategic and hands-on operations support leadership in Cleveland, Ohio.

Director, Operations Support Team (OST), 2009 to 2011

Provide insight and direction to 120 multi-tiered team members responsible for supporting approximately 1,000 technical operations technicians and contractors in the Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania division. Plan and oversee outage event management to ensure timely resolution of customer-impacting events. Lead special projects team in identifying/escalating degraded or intermittent network issues. Identify and capitalize on new tools, applications and techniques to streamline service response times.

Selected accomplishments:

· Pioneered and led programs and projects subsequently accepted as "best practices" on a divisional or regional scale. Highlights include:

· Implemented the company's first self-populating text message templates that boosted efficiency for field personnel (adopted by multiple divisions).

· Developed a first-of-its-kind process for accurately reporting text-message response times and accurately documenting initial response, average response and completed requests (adopted by several divisions). This effort reduced average initial response times from 9 to 2.5 minutes.

· Designed an automated customer survey process that will solicit feedback from field personnel on the support provided by OST personnel (program in live testing as of November 2010).

· Initiated and project managed the conversion to Issuetrak ticketing system for all service requests to OST from residential call center, sales, and regional/corporate business personnel.

· Motivated an impressive 80% of employees to meet or exceed expectations within three months of rolling out incentive-based scorecard that tracked performance metrics for dispatch and supervisory staff.

· Consolidated quota and routing functions into a single, cohesive, centrally-managed team that applies corporate and regional best practices and methodologies for maximum productivity and efficiency.

· Eliminated service-impacting issues with key tools and applications by initiating new vendor management processes and weekly review meetings.

Senior Manager, Voice Network Management Center (NMC) / GNOC, 2008 to 2009

Promoted to manage all operations of 24-hour NMC to assist Time Warner Cable in sustaining clear, reliable services to four million voice customers. Supervised tier-2 switch engineering team in restoring service and maintaining the voice architecture. Oversaw major ("high-" and "critical-severity") events. Directed daily tasks to create a dynamic, collaborative setting for staff.

Selected accomplishments:

· Successfully trained and led personnel in fast, effective issue identification, isolation, analysis and resolution in a rapidly changing, 24-hour operations environment.

· Cooperated with corporate service personnel in creating policies, procedures and standards for implementation and acceptance by all GNOC employees.

· Improved network monitoring and expedited outage resolution by building open lines of communication with employees, internal customers, cross-functional departments, and vendors.

Network Operations Center (NOC) Manager / GNOC, 2008

Managed and coordinated 24-hour NOC tasks to provide innovative solutions for technical support and repair projects. Responded to time-sensitive outage events to minimize impact to customer service and technical operations. Partnered with the GNOC corporate training team in creating and updating content, schedules and certification processes for instructional programs.

Selected accomplishments:

· Received the Total Quality Service award for providing exceptional service to internal customer organizations, and the Dragon Award for revising the event management process and swiftly responding to outage events.

· Revamped the hiring process and created new job descriptions for all GNOC positions.

BRESNAN COMMUNICATIONS, Billing, Montana                                                               2007 to 2008

NOC Manager

Supervised and directed network surveillance, event notification, and repair management on 24-hour basis. Improved metrics and reduced downtime for residential, commercial and carrier class business lines. Defined standardized policies and procedures to expedite and enhance NOC efforts. Executed reason-for-outage (RFO) reporting to facilitate executive-level reviews. Contributed to weekly metrics reporting processes.

Selected accomplishments:

· Restructured and revitalized the NOC to catapult team and organizational performance and reduce incidences of missed alarms, events and outages by more than 75%.

· Created a recruitment plan and managed a comprehensive training and development program to meet staffing needs and continuously drive metrics for the 365 days/year organization.

COMCAST CABLE, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania                                                                         2004 to 2007

Senior Manager

Promoted to join the senior leadership team for the Local Management Center (LMC) and Network Surveillance departments. Managed NOC functions across six US states. Planned and executed telephony, video and high-speed data projects. Led and implemented projects related to changes in client agreements. Established communication strategies and devised new techniques and strategies to substantially improve performance metrics. Expertly controlled timelines, teams and responsibilities for large-scale projects, including urgent network outages, modifications and updates.

Selected accomplishments:

· Developed processes, procedures, and management techniques that dramatically reduced outage duration, heightened service quality, and elevated customer survey scores in the division (scored up to 9% higher than other areas).

· Increased productivity by 17% in 180 days by creating a positive, team-oriented environment among personnel in the LMC and Network Surveillance departments.

· Streamlined networking monitoring processes for two multi-state regions resulting in substantially improved efficiency; effectively modified workflow to double departmental capabilities while expanding the workforce by only 50%.

· Spearheaded special projects that promoted the company's vision and growth, including adding 3 new US states to geographic service areas with 17,000 additional plant miles of network for monitoring and surveillance.

THE KROGER CO. / KING SOOPERS, Denver, Colorado                                          1996 to 2004 / 2007

Service Manager

Led and coordinated a team of 60-80 employees, including 15 supervisory personnel. Served as District Auditor and Trainer for all cash accountability practices for 10-location district. Created policies and procedures to optimize customer satisfaction and retention. Controlled the department budget.

Selected accomplishments: