James Garside

Leading a contact center through organizational transition, I broke down silos, documented critical gaps, and stabilized in-flight projects while developing a strategic vision to reorganize the department and implement a co-managed service model with an external MSP.

• Developed and deployed AI voice agents for inbound calls using multiple Large Language Models (LLM) Conversational Speech Models (CSM) and API integration; offering a new product that saves up to 80% of costs
  
• Managed strategic vendor relationships and contract negotiations across $900K technology portfolio, consolidating software licenses and reducing costs by 15%
  
  
• Oversaw critical cloud migration under compressed timeline with hard year-end deadline—delivered on schedule with zero downtime across business-critical services
  
  
• Architected enterprise data infrastructure unifying siloed systems, enabling customer-facing analytics that improved client satisfaction
  
  
• Migrated Customer Success team from Jira to HubSpot CRM
  
  
• Stabilized IT operations during organizational transition, establishing governance frameworks and service delivery standards

After finding success with scaling and developing the Support Center practice, I carved out a role at Ryan overseeing Technology Service Management. I built a talent pipeline for the department, launched organizational Change Management, and established a reporting practice for technology operations work using OAuth data streams, REST API, and Power BI dashboards.

• Managed and developed individual contributors and team leads, creating internal talent pipeline converting support staff into engineers and leaders
• Spearheaded enterprise digital transformation implementing Change Management, Incident Response, CMDB, and Asset Management—delivered ahead of schedule and under budget
• Architected automated asset management solution identifying $50K+ in misallocated capital and implementing cost recovery program
• Implimented API-driven identity verification chatbot integrating endpoint protection and MFA to prevent social engineering attacks
• Partnered with stakeholders to craft service delivery roadmap, reducing escalations by 34% and improving satisfaction
• Automated workflows and ticket routing using Atlassian and Power Automate, cutting first-response times by 28%
• Championed quality improvements: increased first-contact resolution by 22% and decreased MTTR by 31%

• Designed and implemented cross-functional knowledge base and onboarding flows to standardize user support across business units
• Served as operational lead for selection, evaluation, and launch of Jira Service Management while supporting
• Led gap analysis for digital transformation planning between Finance and Construction applications

• Directed 24/7/365 IT Service Desk and telecom verification services with team of 30+ agents and supervisors
• Drove down average handle time by 19% while increasing SLA attainment from 85% to 97%
• Architected cloud-based IVR using AWS Connect and Lambda, increasing uptime to 99.9% and reducing costs by $18K/year
• Managed RFPs for ERP/ITSM platforms and built dashboards for SLA/KPI visibility using Power BI and QuickSight

• Reduced attrition by 76% through improved training, mentorship, and recognition programs
• Delivered consistent SLA/KPI improvements including 40% ticket backlog reduction
• Oversaw teams supporting clients across finance, government, education, and manufacturing sectors
• Ensured regulatory compliance for NIST, FISMA, CJIS, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS across multiple accounts