JOHN NORRIS

Successfully incorporating people, processes and information technology to make work easier and life more inventive.  

Extended Resume
Below is a non-chronological list of some of my accomplishments.
If you are interested, please contact me for a tailored resume.
Duplicate entries to allow for more complete categorical organization.

 

Technologist

Summary

Resourceful and successful manager who inspired loyalty and commitment while leading teams under challenging circumstances. Experienced in increasing the efficiency of the flow of knowledge, and its value, within a department, across organizations, and with the public. Demonstrated effectiveness in leadership with people, technology, training, and business processes.

Professional Experience

SONICblue, Inc., Santa Clara, California 1993-2002 Consumer electronics company: PC cards, VCRs, DVDs, PVRs, (Formerly S3, Diamond Multimedia, Supra, ReplayTV, GoVideo)

Manager of Support Technology 1999-2002 Responsible for the flow of information within the Customer Care department and Support oriented information to other departments as well as to the public. Supervised a database/web designer .

+ Managed knowledge engineering. Responsible for Support knowledge bases for 300 products across 4 major brands. Increased ease of access to knowledge, via the Intra/Internet, applications, custom web palette, e-mail, and phone prompts. Increased maintenance efficiency. Incorporated all knowledge into third party knowledge management application (Island Data.)

+ Developed highly successful web design for support content on the Internet. The companies sites were used thousands of times a day. Consulted as a usability expert on corporate Internet presence. Worked closely with corporate web developers and their management. Quantified value of Support's Internet presence from both an advertising as well as customer contact perspectives

+ Conducted business analyses of product returns, customer charges, and information reporting requirements. Recommended and implemented in-house and third party solutions to increase efficiency approximately 50%. Increased visibility of Support information and concerns to other departments. Advised product redesigns.

+ Directed training for customer relations management (CRM), including overseeing trainers and tools as well as personally conducting training to individuals and groups. Utilized various methods and media, including tele-learning, web conferencing, IRC, IM, CRM, Forums, web/paper documentation, email, and phones.

+ Played key role in the implementation of Great Plains, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Represented Support at a Corporate level. Quickly learned Great Plains, Finance and Inventory processes. Synthesized business processes between cross-functional groups, recommended configurations of the application.

+Played key role in outsourcing support to regional and oversees partners. Developed transition strategies, oversaw technical aspects. Result: Support Center, handling 1000 interactions a day, successfully transitioned to third parties in India and Texas.

Customer Care Supervisor 1995-1999

Managed technicians answering customer's questions via email, phone, and fax.

+ Managed up to 15 people at a time, including phone and e-mail Representatives (personnel directly answering customers), Technical Leads (Support experts for a product line), Administrative Assistants (back office staff) Web Developers (Creating support's Intranet -containing documentation, data collection and reporting, accessing third party tools. Publishing resources for Sales staff.)

+ Performed hiring and exit interviews, issued promotions, oral and written review and warnings, dealt with confidential Human Resource issues, worked with salary budget and performance metrics.

+ Dealt personally with with difficult customers and delicate corporate situations.

+ Served on the team that lead the remodeling of Customer Care with outside consultants from MCI. Worked under tight time and resource constraints to analyze and change business process, implement new metrics and goals, leading to a more efficient department that more than paid for the cost of the consultation and was an example for the rest of the company.

Customer Care Representative 1993-1995

Answered customer's questions via email, phone and fax.

+ Technical lead for Macintosh hardware and software, trained new Representatives, liaison to Engineering department, responsible for reporting and resolving the more difficult technical issues.

+ Excellent Customer relationship, troubleshooting, e-mail and phone skills. Trained others in these areas.

+ Ability to listen as well as think and learn quickly.

Education

+ Accepted into OHSU Graduate Certificate in Biomedical Informatics Program.

+ Completed "Medical Terminology and Body Systems", a three course series from Linn-Benton Community College, Oregon.

+ Master of Fine Arts, Utah State University. (Work based on notion of containers of information)

+ Bachelor of Arts Philosophy. University of California, Santa Cruz. (Work based on natural language analysis)

 

 

Specialized Training:

+ Project Management Seminar

+ Managing Difficult Employees Seminar

Technical Computer Experience

Mac OS 7.1 - 10.2.6
Windows 95, 98, 2000


Brightware (Firepond)
Island Data


Vantive (People Soft)
Silknet


Great Plains (Microsoft)


Definity Switch
Audix
Avaya


MS Office Suite
Open Office Suite
Appleworks Suite


Microsoft Exchange / Outlook
Microsoft Project
Viso


Graphic Converter
iMovie


Userland Radio
HTML


Webex
Instant Messaging
IRC

Ceramic / Art

• Awarded Ceramic Today's Site of the Week. May 12th, 2003.
  
  
• Exhibited my work on-line based on my research into containers of information.

• Created and published ceramic instruction handouts under Creative Common license.

• Created an ecommerce site for my art work.

• Developed and publishedmultiple on-line ceramic art projects.

• Developing a series of work and a theory of ceramic containers being used as containers of information.

• Began weblog in Feb, 2002, concerning information, meta-information, and containers from the perspective of a ceramic artist.

• Developed and publishedmultiple on-line conceptual art projects including numbered prints and performance art.

• Included in the collection of, Orton Cone Company, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, and numerous individuals.

• Participated in the 1994 Ceramics Virtual Exhibition; "Clay Art Gallery"; One of the earliest on-line ceramics exhibits. It was done not via the world wide web (HTML) but via gopher, gopher.sdsu.edu.

• MFA Studio Ceramics, Utah State University. Pinhole Cameras, Scroll Containers, Telescope, Orrery and other pieces. Items were made of clay (soda fired), and included hand formed copper as well as other materials.

Research Interests / Professional Development:

Blog/Internet/Communication/Community.

• Developed several popular personal planner and information carrying devices (Hipster) 2005-

• Produced podcasts featuring news for the potter Internet community. 2004-
  

• Enabled staff at two local schools to publish on the Internet, October 2003.  Redesigned web sites, provided staff training and documentation.

• Authored article for Corvallis Macintosh Users Group Newsletter, Mouse Droppings, February 2003,"Hey, you gotta look at this..." An introduction to Blogs/Blogging.

• Beta-tester for k-collector, May 2003. Knowledge management software for blogs.

• Awarded Ceramic Today's Site of the Week. May 12th, 2003.

• Created and published Ceramic Instruction handouts under Creative Common license.

• 12/2002 Registered john-norris.net domain, utilizing Userland software, began weblog. Added T-Shirt sales, gallery, free art, instructional documents, creative commons licenses, ecommerce.

• Multiple on-line art projects throughout the years. Most pieces available for free.

• Participated in the 1994 Ceramics Virtual Exhibition; "Clay Art Gallery"; One of the earliest on-line ceramics exhibits. It was done not via the world wide web (HTML) but via gopher, gopher.sdsu.edu.

• Traveled Asia, visiting 17 different countries including Japan, China, India, Nepal, Australia, and New Zealand.

• Bachelor of Arts Philosophy. University of California, Santa Cruz. Work based on natural language analysis. Thesis on analyzing the Vedic text, the Mundaka Upanishad.

Medical Informatics

• Currently enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Biomedical Informatics Program at Oregon Health Science University.

• Completed "Medical Terminology and Body Systems", a three course series from Linn-Benton Community College, Oregon.

• Contributer to LinuxMedNews, a news site focusing on open source medical software.