Andrea Christina Howard

Business Improvement Manager/ Agile Scrum Product Owner

Alpharetta, Georgia, United States

About

Over 20 years of business analytics and project experience, enabling startup and established companies to increase their analytical footprint. Enthusiastic problem solver and dedicated employee with high integrity, strong work ethic and great leadership skills. Areas of expertise include: ● Project management exposure ● Operations analysis ● Problem-solving and analysis skills ● Data management ● Team liaison ● Interpersonal communication skills ● Quality assurance ● MBA

Experience

  • Ally (Hybrid)
    • Digital Product Experience Product Owner
      Feb 2022 - Present · 4 yrs 5 mos

      Gather, document, and provide business requirements, system requirement specification reviews, analytics requirements, and user acceptance testing for projects and releases that impact the digital channels. Own enhancements and improvements to products along with ensuring an optimal dealer experience for the Ally Business Vehicle Finance application. • Spearheaded the improvement of products, ensuring alignment with business objectives, reflecting a commitment to identifying and addressing root problems for operational optimization. • Collaborated across teams to design and implement compliant and complex programs, ensuring stakeholder needs were incorporated for successful program delivery. • Initiated and led regular meetings with cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment on project milestones and targets, fostering a cohesive approach toward program delivery.

    • Commercial Services/ Auto Finance Business Analyst
      Sep 2015 - Feb 2022 · 6 yrs 6 mos

      Responsible for providing sales support to Commercial Services Team and Southeast Regional Business Center. Duties include collaboration with internal stakeholders, cross-functional teams and outside resources to define business needs and design solutions. Role includes leadership of Inside Sales Team, Project Management, and Product Management. through development and management of Reynolds and Reynolds AppOne platform. • Provided pivotal leadership to the Commercial Services Team, exhibiting proficiency in defining business needs and designing solutions that led to a 170% year-over-year increase in new asset class sales. • Led Inside Sales Team, effectively driving project and product management initiatives, aligning with the objective of improving operational efficiency. • Conducted in-depth market analysis and competitor benchmarking to drive strategic decisions, resulting in the successful launch of a competitive product line.

  • Manager, Finance Business Analytics Team at Cox Automotive Inc.
    Sep 2014 - May 2015 · 9 mos

    Responsible for providing reporting and data analysis gathered from Cox Automotive marketplace. Duties included collaboration with internal stakeholders, cross-functional teams and occasionally outside resources to define business needs and design reporting solutions. • Worked at Digital Data SME for million dollar data project, overseeing requirement approval for 30% of data terms. • Updated work queue portal to accommodate 80% of all request to better monitor and manage stakeholder support. • Coached, mentored and supervised analysts team; influenced them to take positive action and accountability for assigned work.

  • Manheim (7 yrs 7 mos)
    • Marketing Analytics Manager
      May 2013 - Sep 2014 · 1 yr 5 mos

      Responsible for providing reporting and data analysis gathered from Manheim marketplace. Position involved leading team of Analyst to help drive business results for the automotive organization. Responsible for managing and coordinating stakeholder analysis and providing results. Worked directly with IT, communicating timelines and facilitating solutions for data projects. • Coordinated and fulfilled requests from 20+ internal and external teams. • Fulfilled 3000+ requests yearly by managing team of eight analysts with diverse technical backgrounds. • Provided User Acceptance testing on multiple million dollar projects as data SME. • Improved team efficiency 40% by working with other internal teams to automate routing of requests.

    • Senior Business Analyst
      May 2011 - Apr 2013 · 2 yrs

      Responsible for providing reporting and data analysis gathered from Manheim marketplace. Position involves collaboration with internal stakeholders, cross-functional teams and occasionally outside resources to define business needs and design reporting solutions. Additional duties include responsibilities as data systems "subject matter expert" for Data Warehouse project and lead business contact for design, build and testing of new data Cube and subsequent Data Warehouse.

    • Business Analyst
      May 2009 - May 2011 · 2 yrs 1 mo

      Managed personal queue of reporting requests efficiently and in a timely manner. Developed a deep understanding of and ability to communicate BI reporting capabilities. Worked closely with stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of a project – requirements gathering, scoping, development, user acceptance testing and production rollout. Converted raw data into applied, specific information and suggestions that add value to business planning and creatively analyzed data to identify immediate business improvement opportunities.

  • IT Cordinator & Project Manager at E*TRADE
    Oct 2006 - Mar 2007 · 6 mos

    The IT Staffing Coordinator is a member of the technology team with specific responsibilities in helping with the administration and project support for IT recruiting activities at E*TRADE. The IT Project Manager is a member of the infrastructure technology team with responsibilities in delivering complex and valuable application components on time to specification. Responsibilities include working with teams to estimate project duration, cost and resource requirements and defined project scope and deliverables with the Product Management department. Managed day-to-day project activities and organized and ran project meetings. Reported project status to the director of Infrastructure IT department.

  • One Call Center Manager at Colonial Pipeline Company
    Mar 2002 - Aug 2006 · 4 yrs 6 mos

    Led operations on the implementation of the centralized One Call ticket management initiative for Colonial Pipeline Company's Right-of-Way team. Supported and participated in various multi-million dollar projects within organizations and served on cross-functional teams inside and outside the company. • Reduced overall One Call ticket costs 20% yearly for 13 states by negotiating software rates for ticket management system. • Managed day-to-day operations of Video Surveillance Camera system, developing procedures, scheduling routine maintenance for 45 locations, resolving technical issues and handling training issues surrounding Surveillance console.