I am now off the market. I accepted a six month contract as a report developer/programmer with the PMO of Central Technology at M&T Bank. here is a possibility of it being extended and hopefully, made permanent. For now, one step at a time…one day at a time! I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who have helped me, provided support and good word of wisdom. I’ve learned a lot in the process but most importantly, the need for 3Ps (see The 3Ps) – Persistence, Perseverance, and Patience.
Jan 212010
Following is a small sample of the more comprehensive report development efforts. These would be in addition to the standard bricks and mortar reports that I have developed. All told, I probably developed over 1000 reports in my lifetime.
| Report/Solution Description | Problem being Solved | Company Type |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Financial Report – a compilation of over 20 reports in one, completed with a hyperlinked table of contents. Reports included financial statements (Bal. Sht., P&L, Cash flow, Budget vs. Actual), graphs/charts, operational statistics. | Facilitated management review – all required reports in one file. Efficiency – all reports created as PDFs, merged, and emailed to selected individuals with one process. | Internet/ecommerce retailer and wholesale distributor |
| Monthly Operations Report – a compilation of approximately 15 operations reports, graphs/charts. | Facilitated management review – all required reports in one file. Efficiency – each report represented a tabbed worksheet in one Excel file emailed to selected individuals in one process. | Home Health Agency |
| Daily NOC/Helpdesk Metrics Report – a series of performance measurements. | Information was being stored on a hosted SharePoint platform. The information had to be validated/corrected. This was achieved by populating and MS Access database and reporting off of that. The reports were emailed to selected individuals daily. The entire process was managed within MS Access and triggered by a VB script. | Network Operations Center/Helpdesk Service Organization |
| HHA Supervisory Visit Due Report – an exception report which identified patients that receive Home Health Aide services and, who have not yet had a visit from the HHA Supervisor. | Compliance – patients receiving HHA visits are required to be seen by an HHA Supervisor every 14 days. The application did not have functionality to perform this requirement. Efficiency – eliminated the need to manually review every patient’s schedule to see if there is an HHA Supervisory visit. | Home Health Agency |
| Accounts Receivable Reconciliation Process – the sales records and the receivables were on two different systems. Both systems were manually reconciled and the appropriate entries made by journal entry. | Efficiency – eliminated the need to manually match transactions and prepare daily journal entries. Journal entries were prepared as part of the matching process, below. System overhead – because the transactions were never reconciled, they were considered “open”. This prevented the records from being archived and caused the database to grow. Eventually, performance suffered. Using a MS Access database along with VB, matching using common information between the two systems was performed. Those records that matched were marked as closed and the archive process moved them from the production database to storage. | Internet/ecommerce retailer and wholesale distributor |
| Eight Day Appointment Calendar – each clinician’s schedule for the next eight days. | Efficiency – eliminated the need to log onto the application, run the scheduler and print. This was an automated process that ran overnight, created the calendar in PDF format and emailed to each clinician. | Home Health Agency |
| Sales by Category by Brand – for a user defined date range, the primary level is the product category. Drilldown on that gives the next level which is the brand. Drilldown on the brand gives a listing of all of the transactions for that brand. Those brands that had a profit margin less than a user defined (prompt) number were color coded. | Facilitated management review – because there were over 700 brands within five categories, management was not only interested in the “big picture” but also wanted to see those that did not meet a certain profit margin level. We were able to achieve two objectives with one report. Efficiency – the color coding allowed for a quicker identifying of sub-par performing brands. | Internet/ecommerce retailer and wholesale distributor |
| Insurance Enrollment file – before there were formal EDI standards, insurance companies were requesting benefit information in a file format they defined. In some cases, the information had to be manipulated. | Efficiency – using an MS Access database, mapping tables were created to convert the data. This kept us from having to constantly revise the program code every time something changed. Innovation – the client was the pilot for what eventually became the insurance company’s EDI system. | Technology company |
| Financial Flash Report – a cross-tab report (spreadsheet) with dynamic rows and monthly columns based on a revolving twelve month period. | Efficiency – the user never had to run this report. It was triggered monthly using the task scheduler. The row information was updated automatically as new financial codes were added and the columnar information was based on the last twelve months. The report was rendered into a spreadsheet. Innovation –the organization had multiple locations, some on an older legacy system and others on the new system. The challenge was to extract the information from both systems directly. This was achieve through the use of sub-reports. | Home Health Agency |
| Cash flow Report – a highly complex report which not only reported actual cash flow but based on “what-if” scenarios and rules which were maintained in a table, projected future cash flow. | Facilitated management review – the rules were established by management and reported. The “what-if” scenarios were also controlled by management. All of this was controlled by prompts that management could update and save under their own user name. Efficiency – time saved by not having to maintain spreadsheets. Accuracy – this report was based on a single set of data that was verifiable and auditable. | Consumer products manufacturer |
| Report cards – a local school district did not like the canned report cards. | Consistency – the existing report cards not only had to be formatted accordingly but graphics and other information not available in the system had to be included. Different graphics had to be shown for the various school buildings. In addition, there was certain non-mandated information which had to be reported that was part of a separate system. Efficiency – due to the large volume of students (7,000), the report cards were mass produced from a central location and forwarded to printers at the appropriate school building. | School district |
| HIPAA 270 – in order to determine if a particular patient is eligible for Medicare, information must be transmitted using a 3rd party clearing house. This was a temporary solution pending the long term solution which would be built into the new system. The file was created in the appropriate format for uploading through the 3rd party system. | Efficiency – eliminated the need to manually input information into the 3rd party’s system via web browser. Cost savings – eliminated the need for customizations. The application vendor was scheduled to release this as an enhancement in a future upgrade. | Home Health Agency |
| HIPAA 271 – this would be the response from the HIPAA 270 transmission. If denied, the file contains various codes and explanations. | Compliance – full compliance with Jenkins Act. The appropriate information was reported in a format that looked similar to an invoice (in PDF format). As part of the process for creating the report, the scripts read a user maintained table that indicated whether the documents should be printed on paper or transferred to a CD. | Internet/ecommerce retailer and wholesale distributor |
| Invoices – The “out of the box” manual process was very inefficient. Invoices were generated daily but batched and mailed weekly. In many cases, they were misplaced. And the monthly batch that went to the sales reps. was also incomplete due to missing invoices. | Efficiency – eliminated the need to print the standard 4 part invoice and manually separate each part. Created a cover sheet (statement) that supported the batch of invoices. A new process of allowing the customer to choose hard copy by postal mail or PDF by email was implemented. 90% of the customers chose the PDF by email option. In addition, the sales rep copies were sent to them this way on a monthly basis. Cost savings – eliminated the need for four part invoice paper; reduction in postage; estimated 50 man-hours per month. | Consumer products manufacturer |
Dec 102009
My background is predominately in Business Intelligence (BI). Business intelligence is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. BI applications include the activities of decision support systems, query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting, and data mining.
I have worked with Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services as well as a variety of querying tools. SQR is another program I have used. Types of reports I have created include, but not limited to, cross-tab, conditional, drill-down, top n, summary, OLAP, charts/graphs, scorecards, dashboards. I have even created books of reports which include hyper-linkable table of contents. The reports can be paper, views, PDF, Excel files, Word documents, files for use by other systems (EDI) or email attachments. I lost count but I wouldn’t be surprised if I developed over 1000 reports in my lifetime.
I bring an additional skill that most other programmers do not have. As a former Accountant, I understand user requirements very clearly because I have been in their shoes. I have the ability to work alongside the user to help them define the best possible solution by discussing the need and asking questions in their language. Sometimes I can help them expand on the requirements and make them even more meaningful or efficient.
I understand the need for accurate data which must be reconcilable to something. Working with the users, we determine the end result of the report and what it should equal. Reconciliations can be direct or by analysis. Direct reconciliation is where the data matches something that is readily available. And an analysis reconciliation requires that a mutually agreeable subset of data or formula be matched up, as in the case of a spreadsheet or another report. Testing plans are then developed around this.
The dynamics of the delivery and presentation of data is another area I am proficient in. Time spent in executing, collating, printing, emailing as attachments, etc. can be better utilized by developing solutions to automate these processes. In addition, these processes can occur during off-peak hours to minimize the effect on performance. And the information can be made available at precisely when the user expects it.
If you would like to know more about what I bring to the table, here are links to my resumes (will open in a new window). My email address is on them or please contact me using the Contact page. Thank you.
- Resume of Sam Spritzer – Accounting Addendum (pre 1997)
Nov 172009
I have been looking for a job for a couple of months now. It hasn’t been easy for a number of reasons with the biggest one being the economy. They say we are/were in a jobless recovery. Whatever that means, there still has to be an opportunity or two for me. The ones that are posted seem attractive but are they really there? Will they ever be filled? Some of them are in a repetitive cycle where whoever posted them, didn’t bother to take them down. Others are just simply filling up some “applicant tracking” database. but who is tracking them? It’s not fair but it is what it is.
I also think my hearing has a lot to do with it. I am sorry if I have difficulty using the phone but should that be a barrier? I am not looking for a job that requires the constant use of the phone. I am looking for a little understanding that when you reach out to me, the best way to communicate is by email. There are other options – instant messenger and webcam are two. Or, my wife can help me by doing her best Milli Vanill imitation. Heck, I am even willing to drive however far it takes just for that introductory interview that is normally done by phone.
I can do a lot of things well. I am a hard worker, dedicated, committed to excellence and I pay attention to detail. I strive to do the best job possible. I function equally well in a team setting or independently. I don’t punch nor do I watch a clock. Whatever it takes to get the job done, on time, under budget and satisfactorily is a “feel good” enough of an incentive to me.
Ok, what am I looking for? My primary objective is to secure a Programmer Analyst position with emphasis in report development and data analysis. My secondary objective is to return to my original roots as a Financial Manager for a not-for-profit organization. And, to give you a little background, my career has spanned two disciplines – Information Technology and Accounting.
If you are convinced, have an opportunity or know of someone who does, here are links to my resumes (will open in a new window). My email address is on them or please contact me using the Contact page. Thank you.
- Resume of Sam Spritzer – Accounting Addendum (pre 1997)
I hope this finds you well. I thought I would touch bases with you and make you aware that I am currently in the market looking for opportunities. I am writing to friends and colleagues whose opinions, insights and advice I value. To give you a little background, my career has spanned two disciplines – Accounting and Information Technology.
My Information Technology background consisted of many roles including, but not limited to, report development, business process analysis and implementation, application development, data auditing, integrity and conversions, project planning and management, website development and support and testing. I have worked with many different applications and programs.
My Accounting background consisted of positions up to and including Director of Finance for a major not-for-profit organization. This included internal and external reporting, budgeting, allocations, internal controls, cash management, account analysis and auditing. I am considered a self-starter with a “hands-on” management style; one who is not afraid to roll up his shirtsleeves and work side-by-side with the staff.
A copy of my resume is available. If you know of anyone who might be looking for someone with my background, please contact me at sam@samspritzer.com. Or if you have any suggestions as to where I should direct my search, I would appreciate your input and advice. If necessary, I would be willing to meet at your convenience to discuss further. Thank you.
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