William Lazar
Mountain View, CA 94040
Email
Objective: Delivering products and conversations that engage and delight customers and partners.
Summary: Results-focused professional offers successful record of delivering complex products and superior communications for companies producing enterprise and internet software.
Highlights
Business
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Technical
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Professional Experience
Aptana, San Mateo, CA, 7/2008 – present
Manager, Customer Success for a company delivering web application development and deployment tools and services.
- Develop content and deliver technical support to ensure customer success
- Build team processes and best practices for effective longterm customer retention
- Liaise with Engineering and Product Management to prioritize and monitor issue tracker reports
- Nurture customer and partner community to enhance Aptana's reputation and mind share
Marketo, San Mateo, CA, 12/2007 – 5/2008
Manager, Community and Content for a company delivering marketing automation as a web-based service. Revenue, we like to say, starts here.
- Built a complex publishing system to ensure customer adoption and success by delivering highly targeted online content. System developed in PHP, JavaScript (including jQuery, several jQuery plugins and HighSlide) and CSS with the SMF package as jump-off point.
- Developed and nurtured the Marketo community with product support and best practice articles to deepen relationships between Marketo and it's customers, prospects, employees, and partners.
- Served as a public face for Marketo, providing first line customer care and communicating with members to build the Marketo brand.
BriteSpring Consulting, 2/2007 – present
Assignments include:- creating websites using blogging software, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and MySQL
- web marketing and community engagement using blogs
- user experience analysis
- developing a small-site CMS in PHP
- developing customer documentation
- speesees.com, an organic clothing wholesale and ecommerce company;
- SchmartBoard, makers of the world's best circuit prototyping system;
- Zonbu/PC on Rails, a consumer broadboand computer maker; and,
- Fixya, a consumer self-help community site
RawSugar, Palo Alto, CA, 3/2005 – 1/2007
Senior Manager, Customer Experience for a company building a new web service at the intersection of search and tagging.
- collaborate with CEO on marketing materials and positioning
- write all website text including company blog, online help, and forums
- provide technical support and customer training
- develop RawSugar plugins and tools for WordPress, MovableType and Blogger
- maintain online community software (blog and forums)
Consultant, 2002 – 2005
Assignments included:- product management and marketing,
- managing customer service, and,
- creating websites using blogging software, PHP, CSS, and MySQL.
- Intransa, an enterprise storage system manufacturer;
- Lexen, Inc., an international pharmaceutical supply and services company; and,
- Pyra Labs (since acquired by Google), publishers of Blogger weblogging software.
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (formerly NetDynamics, Inc.), Santa Clara, CA, 1997 – 2001
The Application Services division of Sun produces Java/J2EE application and web servers used for large scale, secure, transaction-backed Internet and intranet applications that connect to relational databases and legacy packaged applications such as SAP and PeopleSoft. NetDynamics, Inc. was acquired by Sun Microsystems in September, 1998.
Product Manager, iPlanet Application Servers (now Java Enterprise Servers)
Worked with product marketing to prepare whitepapers and data sheets; communicated with the field through sales kickoffs, email newsletters, technical FAQ, and other channels; collaborated with professional services, support, and education groups to create complete customer solutions; made presentations to customers, sales and executive management.
- iPlanet Application Server - managed the definition and delivery of iAS 6.0 and follow-on service packs as well as several customer beta programs.
- Netscape and NetDynamics Application Servers - managed the release of service packs for Netscape 4.0 and NetDynamics 5.0.2 and follow-on service packs plus the iAS Migration Toolbox. Addressed major customer concerns over the transition to the new iPlanet Application Server.
Technical Support Manager
- Managed the NetDynamics support delivery team, composed of up to 11 support engineers, three escalation engineers, and a premier accounts manager.
- Average team caseload was 550 calls and 25 escalations per month. Reduced average time to close by 33%, from 5.25 days to 3.5 days.
- Recruited six support engineers and one escalation manager, promoted four internal staff.
- Instituted several key department changes including the addition of a premier accounts manager position, and providing internal education forums conducted by peers and development engineers.
- Managed the technical sessions of the NetDynamics User Conference.
- Instrumental in making very difficult transitions from independent company to standalone product group within Sun to integration within the iPlanet alliance successful.
KnowledgeBase Architect/Technical Writer/Support Webmaster
- Redeveloped the NetDynamics support website to include significant additional material including a monthly newsletter and other technical information. Authored two volumes of the NetDynamics 4.0 product documentation as a temporary member of the Engineering staff.
- Developed Technotes, a set of over 200 online technical articles and code samples, that provided information, support and programming samples beyond that supplied in the documentation.
CenterView Software, Inc. San Francisco, CA, 1996
Acquired by Informix, CenterView produced a client/server add-on for Visual Basic named Data Director.
Senior Consultant, Services Group: sales and technical support, managed external product testing.
Education
Rutgers Graduate School of Management Newark, NJ
Master of Business Administration - Concentration in Finance.
University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA
School of Journalism: Bachelor of Arts - Major in Journalism, minor in Music.
Community
Jewish High Tech Community, President 2006 – present
Mountain View West 1 Homeowners Association, President 2002–2005, Board member 2001–2005
Publications
- Authored 60 articles on software development process and tools for Software Development Magazine, LAN Magazine and LAN Interoperability, Windows Tech Journal and VB Tech Journal.
- CA-Visual Objects Developer's Guide, Sams Publishing, 1995 (Co-author).
- Life With UNIX, Prentice Hall PTR, September, 1992. Contributed the Preface to the Special Edition chapter, a 16 page update reviewing developments in UNIX from 1988 (the book's original publication) through 1992.
- Contributing Editor, Software Development Magazine, San Francisco, CA (1997 -1998)