Chantal Mertens

• In charge of the IT project management practice, of the demand management practice as well as the test management practice.
• 7 PMs in the team (+ myself), 3 Business Analysts and 2 Tests Managers
• Projects are covering all fields, from pure infrastructure to applications management to application development
• Since October 2022, I’m also assuming the Interim Head of IT (as the previous Head of IT left Vivaqua)
• Several business projects where I am acting as Project manager or Program manager

With the support of the Brussels-Capital Region and within the framework of its policy to facilitate access to the right to housing, the Funds pursues missions of public social utility and offers mortgage loans, low rental housing, loans to be able to pay for rental warranty. The Funds is also building new living buildings or acquiring and transforming older industrial or commercial buildings and transforms those into affordable housing. All those services are aimed to families with low/middle incomes.
Several big projects, including implementation of a Document Management System, implementation of an ERP, rewriting all home-made applications, externalization of infrastructures to Datacenters.
Cloud migration : externalization of many applications to the Cloud into private datacenters, implementation of Office 365 and migration, access to Authentic Sources in the Cloud to simplify administrative burden.
Definition of the IT strategy, owner of the Digital Transformation strategy, Implementation of SCRUM, implementation of GDPR policies
I resigned with 2 other directors (none was replaced).

Cloud migration : Program manager for the externalization of all infrastructure and applications to the Regional Datacenter of Brussels Capital after a fire within the computer room.

IT Manager for EVERE (Commune – Gemeente), CPAS/OCMW and 30 distant sites (schools, sport centers, Social home, …).
Deep collaboration with the CISO of Iristeam.

Project Portfolio manager for Evere: definition of a project portfolio with all projects concerning Evere, developing a methodology for the prioritization of projects given the strategy, costs, benefits, available resources and risks of each project.

Luxoft is a leading provider of high-end software development services across the globe. They offer international delivery capabilities through their network of state-of-the-art delivery centers around the world. Luxoft`s customers benefit from the right mix of technology skills, industry knowledge, proprietary processes and methodologies, and a choice of engagement models.

I was in charge of the development of a major strategically application/infrastructure by Deloitte's Luxembourg. The methodology used was Agile Scrum and I was acting as Product Owner for the offshore teams.
The contract was stopped due to the war between Russians and Ukrainians, who were the offshore teams.

Program manager for the SMILE program: implementation of new interim ERP, business intelligence software, integration with accountancy, change of social secretary for 20.000 people
• Team management: HW and infrastructure, telephony, Web development, Business Intelligence, Business applications, Project Management Office
• In charge of the definition of an IT strategy and global IT budget
• Management of all enterprise projects
• Implement methodologies (Prince II, Project portfolio management, ITIL)
• Define and manage KPI & KQI

Key Achievements:
- Implementation of VOIP telephony.
- Definition of Daoust IT strategy (the what) and strategy plans (the how and when) aligned with marketing strategy
- Definition of an IT budget, covering all ongoing operations and projects
- Start of the Smile program on 2/01/2014 successful, on time, on budget and on scope
- Raise of the maturity of the company: implementation of a service desk, implementation of project management methodologies, review of all external contracts

• Teams management: IT Architecture & Integration, IT Delivery, IT Analysis, Tools support (40 people)
• Cloud strategy: transformation and migration of the two Active-passive datacenters to new Active-Active datacenters.
• Deep collaboration with development, testing and product management teams (and team management of up to 120 people)
• Implementation of IT Governance following COBIT
• In charge of IT strategy and responsible of global IT budget
• Project manager for the implementation of the PPM tool and Web content management.
• Architecture: define & document technical architecture of the different solutions Isabel6, Zoomit.
• Implement methodologies (PMBOK, Project portfolio management, ITIL)
• Delivery: Assist clients with complex configurations/installations, support presales activities, manage client planning, cost, assessments and risks evaluations, control SLA/OLA – Project managers, solution consultants & Service Delivery Management
• Analysis: bid management, business analysis & functional analysis
• Tools support: ERP, Incident & problem tools, Configuration database, Web tools, CRM, PPM
• External Communication: corporate customers, banks, vendors, external partners
• Internal communication: Marketing & Sales (assist presales), PMO (project steercos), Finance & Administration (budget and actuals)

Key Achievements:
- Definition of Isabel IT strategy (the what) and strategy plans (the how and when) aligned with marketing strategy
- Official RFP to change from Active-Passive external datacentres to Active-Active with a change of technology.
- Enforcement of the role of IT architects in product development and implementation of Enterprise and Solution architects
- Deployment of agile methodology (Scrum) in development teams
- Simplification of internal product range with a cost reduction benefit of 30%
- Implementation of business analysis
- Alignment of product management, architects and analysts
- Definition and implementation of a project methodology for Customer Delivery projects
- Implementation of Project portfolio management

• Start of the subsidiary in Luxembourg
• Project Portfolio Management and Enterprise Portfolio Management implementation by customers
• Consultancy: project management improvement/coaching, methodological support, best practices, process re-engineering
• Development methodology consulting (PrinceII, PMI)
• Change management and cultural adoption
• PMO, PSO creation and animation
• Knowledge transfer, coaching, mentoring activities
• Training, functional workshops

Some customers: Odyssey Financial Services, Champ, Enovos, Fortis Luxembourg and Belgium, Société Générale.

• Project management for all large projects
• Consultancy about technology trends, eCommerce, eProcurement, Knowledgebase systems, collaborative systems, enterprise portals, application integration and business processes changes
• Relationship manager for all customers
• Management of the teams (15 people) and of subcontractors
• Definition of the strategy of the company
• General management of the company

Some important projects: eFund (information and transactions on funds), IKEA corporate portal, intranet for Belgian federal institutions, website and extranet for the federal parliament, website for the Ministry of Economy, eCommerce solutions for GIB, Premaman, extranet for Wolters Kluwer’s large customers, extranet and credit simulation tools for Alpha-Credit, design of a stress-test tool for Alcatel Space, project management tools for Magotteaux.

• Project manager for the rewriting of all back-office applications
• Providing leadership, general technology direction, day-to-day workload management, professional development, assist in the recruitment process, conflict resolution and performance management for both architects and developers (23 people): real time, back-office and BI teams
• Execution of all projects on time, on budget
• Assist in defining architecture, ensure compliance to the architecture and turning it into concrete implementations
• Budget and control of cost responsibility.

• Developing of a medium/long-term vision which supports business needs as expressed by internal customers at European level (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands)
• Translation into detailed action plans, definition of needed budget and required resources; supervision and organization of implementation up to deadline
• Piloting the definition of required architecture and integration aspects
• Management of the teams (22 people): recruitments, job descriptions, appraisals, coaching and feedback
• Evaluation, selection and implementation of solutions and packages
• Responsibility for all Internet and extranet developments, data management solutions, datawarehouse and business intelligence, content management, electronic document management, office solutions, security solutions and global integration aspects with legacy applications

Nationwide US sold Paneurolife in 01/2005 and stopped all European activities

• Project manager at the National Bank of Belgium (data center move and 2 application projects) based on RUP.
• Account systems engineer for the National Bank of Belgium, the Belgian Stock Exchange, Nagelmackers, Belgolaise, P&V, Dewaay, SWIFT …

• Management of the development team (10 people)
• Introduction of structured development methodologies and of project management methodology
• Introduction of new tools and techniques (Client/Server)
• Formalization of change and risk management
• Choice and management of sub-contractors
• Definition and choice of a global banking package in order to replace the old home-made developments for the core business units (in collaboration with the department organization and the executive committee)

Specialized in Nuclear Physics