Brabantine City Row
Strategic business development and product expert with 25+ years of experience in service and support functions. Architected product requirement definitions and support policies to align with market needs. Leveraged a deep understanding of pre- and after-sales dynamics to drive key deals and influence product development lifecycles Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt certified professional with extensive experience in the service, repair, and maintenance of diverse industrial and commercial systems, including Dataterminals, Barcode printers/readers, PLCs, SCADA, servo drives, and smart luminaires. Possessing strong analytical skills with a proven track record of performing comprehensive hardware and software failure root cause analysis and advanced troubleshooting. Experienced in translating customer use cases into effective functional testing protocols and designing robust solution architectures. Expert in optimizing technical support operations through meticulous incident recording, knowledge base management, and the efficient prioritization of time-critical, multidisciplinary issues across global engineering teams Experienced technical communicator proficient in writing and editing product documentation, technical newsletters, and knowledge base content. Expertise extends to developing and presenting audio-visual training materials and practical product demonstrations, leveraging a keen eye for graphic design to ensure clarity and professional presentation. NOTE: I'm located in Lommel, Belgium but had to set my location to Luyksgestel in order to get job offers in the Netherlands, apparently this is how LinkedIn works. (I focus on the Eindhoven area)
In this role I drive comprehensive management of custom product lifecycles, from initial definition and quoting based on specific customer requirements to final production and documentation. Key activities include close collaboration with regional sales managers throughout Europe and the Product Management team in China. I'm also responsible for securing all necessary customer- and financial-approvals, production planning and creating essential product documentation such as labels and datasheets, end set-up these custom products in SAP and Salesforce.
Providing pre-sales and after-sales technical support to customers, partners and internal salesteams, as well as developing and deliver training to internal teams. Handling custom product requests (Specials) and projects, from request to product delivery (5-6 month cycle). Implement and enhance service related processes, and introduce knowledge management and sharing. Contribute to expanding in Smart Lighting systems.
For Delta Electronics Industrial Automation I handled everything that has to do with warranty of SCADA/DCS equipment such as AC motor drives, Servo drives, and PLC's etc. and the out of warranty repairs. This includes accepting and validating warranty claims, repair quotes, root cause analyses of products for which warranty is claimed, and consequent warranty replacements and quality management. I also look after the Authorized Service Providers, their training, spare part provision and product repairs and some operational aspects, like warranty claims through ASP's and the logistics behind all of that. This was a temporary contract, to bring the service organization back on track, with proper and efficient processes, and maintain service levels until the removal to Helmond.
As PAE I am primarily involved in analyzing and resolving all technical support issues with bar code scanners and embedded scan engines, that usually cannot be resolved without engineering help. As PAE I also technically assist account teams in larger deals. I'm also acting as the gateway for spreading knowledge into the EMEA teams, providing feedback from both those teams as well as customers to the engineering teams, product managers, and strategic business units. As PAE I play a predominant role in new product development, by in the early stage translating the voice of the customer into functional product requirements and specifications, and while the product is under development in validating the practical implementation of the requirements, with various project deliverables and sign-offs. When Honeywell was about to discontinue the aftersales activities in the Netherlands I left.
Joined Hand Held Products just after the merger between Welch Allyn and Hand Held Products. Introduced a simple technical support database. Developed from Application support specialist to a similar role as PAE Honeywell with along the way 2 side projects; Network administrator for the AVAYA phone system and Solution Architect for DPD project (8000 PDT's). Responsible for Customer Application Center and demonstrations, where products are presented in real world applications and in an environment that mimics real world as close as possible.
Shortly after Comtec moved to the UK it was taken over by Zebra. In the UK I was responsible for the technical support en service on the (Comtec) mobile printer line with an emphasis on supporting Wallmart in Europe,(Germany and ASDA-UK) and (TJmaxx sister) TKmaxx UK through service contracts. Leading the repair engineers and logistics of this small scale repair-shop. Repair quoting and invoicing, spare part pricing and supply chain management/ stock keeping as well as warranty and quality where part of my role. When Zebra early 2001 consolidate the former Comtec repair shop with the relocated High Wycombe Zebra service center in Preston, I left the company to start with Hand Held Products.