Hi, I’m
Shermillia Edmeade
Alpharetta,GA
Summary
With over 25 years of progressive and dynamic career experience, an effective leader who consistently delivers on key business initiatives. Strong technical and business acumen, combined with leadership and problem-solving skills, strategically push the business forward. Leverage expertise to drive results and overcome challenges, ensuring success and growth of the organization.
Overview
23
years of professional experience
Work History
Cox Communications, Inc.
Chief of Staff, Product Dev & Mgmt. (Atlanta, Ga)
2023 - 2024 (1 education.year_Label)
Job overview
- Assisted in the development and execution of the organization's strategic initiatives and long-term goals
- Oversaw and coordinated major projects and initiatives across different departments, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives
- Identified challenges and bottlenecks within the organization and working to find innovative solutions
- Oversaw organizational financials and headcount to ensure alignment with long-term plans and targets
- Crafting and delivering key messages on behalf of the SVP of Product to internal and external audiences.
- Performed financial and managerial analyses to evaluate data and make recommendations, prepare financial reports and projections and conduct presentations.
- Improved internal processes through thorough review, resulting in a reduction of wasted time and resources.
- Mentored and developed junior staff members; fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration within the organization.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Director, Product Development
2021 - 2024 (3 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Established cost saving targets for all self-install activity, including new customer installs, existing customer upgrades & parts replacements, equipment returns, and operational improvements throughout the entire process from kitting to order processing to activation & account disconnect
- Achieved financial targets for cost savings, transaction volume reductions, sales take rates, customer call-in rates, and successful self-install completions
- Determined development roadmap, and work with business partners to achieve communicated commitments, including dates and investments
- Engaged with Product teams to satisfy their projects’ self-Install requirements, which often layer in additional investment & development & to be prioritized for matrix-managed resources
- Championed self-install in several Sales, Marketing and Technology forums to ensure visibility and engagement
- Represented Product Development & Management in Executive forums such as Monthly Operational Reviews and Technology/Operations/Product/Sales (TOPS) to champion self-install
- Drove process innovation to ensure self-install evolves to accommodate new products & services as evolves its business model
- Interacted with vendor partners to ensure alignment with Cox Business’ and Residentials’ strategy and positioning and satisfaction of internal and external customer expectations.
- Proactively identified potential risks and implemented mitigation strategies to minimize negative impacts on projects or business operations.
- Evaluated employee performance objectively using established metrics, leading to fair compensation adjustments based on meritocracy principles.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Sr. Mgr., Strategic Projects (Atlanta, Ga)
2014 - 2021 (7 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Supported eWFM capacity plan by providing routing strategies
- Responsible for the management of staff pertaining to design, development, modification, and issue resolution of Enterprise Call Routing
- Partnered with Technology to ensure and protect the integrity of the Avaya Infrastructure while supporting business growth and the customer call experience
- Formulated and define system scope and objectives through research and fact-finding to develop or modify complex information systems
- Anticipated industry future directions, provide leadership vision and direction for database systems to ensure support of company objectives and requirements
- Educated and negotiate with business leadership and management on broader management/ technologies to ensure successful development, deployment, and ROI of business solutions
- Conducted internal quality assurance, system testing and audits to ensure application is of high standards
- Partnered with other functional groups to develop, manage, track, and analyze operational support structures, tools, methods, and procedures, to gain maximum effectiveness, efficiencies, and a quality customer experience.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Sr. Technology Process Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
2012 - 2014 (2 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Responsible for the development, standardization, and evolution of the Project Delivery Framework (Assured) for the Technology Organization
- Responsible for training 500+ users on Project Management process and tools specific to the Technology Organization
- Developed and managed the Governance Model and Audit process of 100+ projects throughout their lifecycle
- Responsible for the alignment of Technology project delivery processes and governance models with cross-functional organizations as well as Vendors
- Develop Standard metrics and reporting structure for Senior Leadership
- Develop and standardized project-level templates to drive process adherence
- Lead organizational change management and communication for Project delivery processes and governance.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Care Technology Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
2010 - 2012 (2 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Responsible for managing Call Center enterprise desktop applications via requirements documentation, User acceptance testing, usability, and defect management
- Responsible for tool communication and training strategy
- Manage tool funding sources/ budgets
- Conduct multiple focus groups with call center agents and outsource vendors to gather feedback
- Partner with Technology, Support and Care teams on continued process improvement
- Support business strategy of multiple products and applications deployment.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Cox Business Care Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
2008 - 2010 (2 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Responsible for ensuring best processes and practices are in place within the commercial field operations environment to enable support and leadership in design of new call center technology processes and existing processes
- Develop business case in support of new initiatives, designs field engagement and manage implementations
- Partner with local and field MIS/IT, Customer Care and Operation teams to ensure prompt resolution and closure on technical operations, call center technologies, reporting inquires and CPNI procedures
- Communicate and partner regularly to ensure calibration and engagement on Corporate driven initiatives
- Designed and implemented QA metrics that increased productivity by 40% and standardized agent knowledge, skills, and career development requirements.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Project/ Process Mgr (Northern VA)
2004 - 2008 (4 education.years_Label)
Job overview
- Apply project management methodologies for initiating, planning, and implementing projects in addition to change control and risk management for all departments including HR, IT, Customer Care, Cox Business and Network Development
- Coach project team members, as necessary, to provide developmental opportunities and to meet changing market demands
- Analyze existing departmental processes and develop process improvement procedures or tools to increase efficiency
- Create or improve methods and procedures for new product and project launches for all departments.
Cox Communications, Inc.
Business Analyst (Northern VA)
2002 - 2004 (2 education.years_Label)
Education
University of Maryland - University CollegeHyattsville, MD
Master of Science from Technology Management
Howard UniversityWashington, DC
Bachelor of Science from Physiology
Project Management Institute
PMP from Project Management Professional
Aft Systems Inc.
from Six Sigma Greenbelt
Skills
25 years in Contact Centers
20 years Strategic Focus
20 Years of Strong Leadership and Managerial Experience in Highly Technical roles
Strong Relationship Building
Diverse Areas of Focus
Diverse Support Knowledge
Budget Responsibility
Performance Management
System Implementations
FTE & End-User Training
Matrix Leadership
Experience Developing & Implementing Complex Projects and Processes to completion across a Matrix Organizations
Problem-Solver
Detail-Oriented
Avaya CMS
IVR/Switch/VOIP Platforms
Saturn
OBIEE / Oracle Analytics
Remedy Ticketing / UET
Tableau
SQL
Office Suite/Office365
Chat / SMS Platforms
Cox CRMs (iNav, ICOMS)
Test Director
PPM
Project Coordination
People Management
Team Management
Operations Management
Project Management
Strategies and goals
Strategic Planning
Budget Control
Verbal and written communication
Creativity and Innovation
Staff Development
Negotiation
Business Administration
Program Management
Contract Management
Partnerships and Alliances
Budget Management
Organizational Development
Crisis Management
Issues Resolution
Charismatic Leader
Financial Management
Contract and Vendor Management
Corporate Communications
Hiring and Retention
Rules and regulations
Content Development
E-commerce strategy
Team Leadership
Innovation management
Problem-Solving
Analytical Skills
Teamwork and Collaboration
Relationship Building
Decision-Making
Team building
Change Management
Accomplishments
- Lead a team responsible for driving $300M in annual operational savings through the development of self-install capabilities, adoption and volumes across all Residential, Business and Communities product categories as appropriate to meet customer needs, reduce costly transactions and increase cost savings.
- Developed and executed organizational programs to enhance employee morale and offer alternative methods for skill and knowledge development.
- Significant experience in evaluating current state Call Routing architecture and providing recommendations & implementing process improvements Engagements at AT&T & CenturyLink resulted in ~$3.3M in company savings
- Identified operational efficiencies to improve customer experience and streamline the self-install process within the Supply Chain and Digital channel.
- Led a team that evaluated a complex matrix of Frontline Agent Call Transfer Capabilities, resulting in a 90% reduction in options / streamlined the experience for call center reps
- Developed disposition change management process to ensure proper time management and handshakes between cross-functional teams resulting in process efficiency and 0% agent errors
- Experience in launching new Desktop Tools to Frontline Agents, which resulted in a 7% reduction in call escalations
- Experience managing teams & processes through multiple disruptive Technology Platform transitions with minimal customer impact
- Project / Process / Product Management, Provided end-to-end Leadership on a new Corporate Drop Ship program, resulting in 50% cost reduction per transaction and 20% increased productivity within the call center
- Managed, documented, and implemented all of CB call center processes resulting in efficiency and continuous effortless intra-departmental handshakes
- Analyzed existing HR Processes and partnered with IT to develop Automation where appropriate, resulting in ~50% less manpower for processing new HR Requests
Timeline
Chief of Staff, Product Dev & Mgmt. (Atlanta, Ga)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2023 - 2024 (1 education.year_Label)
Director, Product Development
Cox Communications, Inc.
2021 - 2024 (3 education.years_Label)
Sr. Mgr., Strategic Projects (Atlanta, Ga)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2014 - 2021 (7 education.years_Label)
Sr. Technology Process Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2012 - 2014 (2 education.years_Label)
Care Technology Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2010 - 2012 (2 education.years_Label)
Cox Business Care Mgr (Atlanta, Ga)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2008 - 2010 (2 education.years_Label)
Project/ Process Mgr (Northern VA)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2004 - 2008 (4 education.years_Label)
Business Analyst (Northern VA)
Cox Communications, Inc.
2002 - 2004 (2 education.years_Label)
University of Maryland - University College
Master of Science from Technology Management
Howard University
Bachelor of Science from Physiology
Project Management Institute
PMP from Project Management Professional
Aft Systems Inc.
from Six Sigma Greenbelt