Robert S. Buckles
Indianapolis, IN
www.rsbuckles.com

OVERVIEW

A Specialist in Decision-Support and Financial Applications

• I specialize in the design and implementation of departmental and analytic systems.
• I focus on building practical, flexible systems to meet defined business objectives and deliver superior economic returns.
• Projects range from basic administrative and tracking applications for the average user, to integrated processing and reporting systems for the corporate analyst.
• Implementations employ tools such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, query and reporting packages, and other desktop and workgroup products.
• Solutions typically involve extensive interaction with users to improve processes, develop techniques, and transfer knowledge.

APPROACH

Business-Driven, User-Centric, Hands-On

• Creating value in the decision-support space ultimately means empowering the knowledge worker and his intellect to the benefit of the organization.
• To this end I function as an integrator, working to bridge the gap between the business needs of users and the technical infrastructure at their disposal.
• While programming and the "hard" activities of application development are usually key components of integration, by themselves they are rarely complete solutions.
• Facing difficult technical choices, many users are hungry for a personalized, in-context kind of support—"I know there is a better way to do this...." is the comment I hear.
• Coaching and other "soft" activities, teaching a business analyst how to apply a tool to her particular requirements, for example, are often what makes the difference.

SPECIALTIES

Access and Excel Development, Accounting and Financial Domains, Integrative Solutions

• Access offers a balance of usability and power well-suited to many departmental and analytic needs. I have applied this versatile DBMS in a range of projects, from the package implementation, to the custom-designed solution.
• For complex calculations, Excel can be a flexible alternative to brittle hard-coding. I have extensive experience with this rich and under-utilized tool, as a business analyst and as an application developer.
• The accounting and finance arenas place unique demands on developers. My financial background enables me to communicate with financial professionals and interface to core accounting systems and specialized financial packages.
• When manual tasks such as re-entering data crowd out the knowledge worker’s analytic activities, the cost—in poor decisions and lost opportunities—can be severe. The "Islands of Data" problem is a major challenge in the quest for business intelligence.
• Integrative solutions respond to this systems breakdown. By taking the user’s point of view, I can apply my technical skills to pull together people, process, and program in an effective design. As a smoother, more efficient work-flow reduces drudgery and improves quality, it simultaneously frees time for the analytic efforts that add value.

RECENT
PROJECTS

Moderate Scale, High Impact

• Operations Support—a systems integration project to streamline the production of several complex income tax returns. Working closely with a team of accountants, I developed several macro-driven spreadsheet tools to automate entry, mapping, and coding processes and integrate with CorpTax, a high-end corporate tax system.
• Departmental Information Manager—an Access application to centralize and manage the "nuts-and-bolts" information of daily operations. I created a program to replace scattered documents and spreadsheets and to produce the reliable reports an efficient workgroup requires, including staff directories, company listings, status reports, and so on.
• Tax Package—an Excel application to collect financial data and calculate current and deferred liabilities. I developed a large forms-based model for a Fortune 500 insurance company. With its easy-to-use navigation and printing features, this system serves as the backbone of the company’s tax reporting process.
• Roll-up Pro 1.1—an analysis and reporting tool for Excel. Consolidating data from multiple spreadsheet files is a common headache for the business analyst. Using the power of VBA, I designed this tool to put the user in control. It provides a precision instrument for aggregating and analyzing data.
• Date Tracker—an Access application to control the regulatory filing process. I created a system to track the required filings for multiple corporate entities and trained personnel to use it effectively. Custom reports offer views of the data by status, responsibility, and other dimensions to facilitate staffing and planning decisions.
• N-gine 2.0—an application framework for Excel. Implementing navigate-and-print functionality in spreadsheet solutions is typically problematic. This project is an on-going effort to create a standard foundation for Excel development. Comprising a VBA add-in and structured XLS file, N-gine supplies pre-built services to the Excel user.

BUSINESS
BACKGROUND

Analyzing the Business

• Diverse experience in analysis and planning roles and the accounting and financial functions, including technical areas such as corporate tax.
• Strong background as a financial analyst, with extensive financial modeling experience in connection with budgets, projections, valuations, and transactions.
• Experienced in structuring and managing project work.
• Skilled in helping users to apply software features and develop technical abilities.
• Focused on exploiting information technology to enhance business performance.

TECHNICAL
SKILLS

Applying the Technology

• Analysis—Adept at taking the user's perspective to establish organizational context, analyze business needs, and define system requirements.
• Design—Strong knack for mapping requirements into workable solutions. Proficient in communicating technical concepts and helping users to evaluate design alternatives.
• Implementation—Effective relational data modeling abilities, seasoned GUI design sense, and solid Visual Basic programming skills.
• Summary—Good feel for delivering practical solutions under real-world constraints.

TOOLS &
SYSTEMS

Focus on Microsoft

• Primary commitment is to the Office-VBA platform and related technologies.
• Offering advanced knowledge of Access and expert knowledge of Excel, in particular.
• Familiar with a variety of products in the desktop and workgroup categories, e.g., word processing, spreadsheet (Lotus 123), database, etc., and learn new tools quickly.
• Skilled in interfacing to accounting and financial systems via query-report writers.
• Experienced in implementing and integrating specialized financial packages such as fixed asset systems (FAS) and corporate tax systems (CorpTax, Fast-Tax).

CHRONOLOGY

Education and Work Experience

1986

• Bachelor of Science with Honors, Finance
  Kelley School of Business, Indiana University - Bloomington, IN

1986 - 1988

• Associate—Financial Management Development Program
  Heller Financial, Inc. - Chicago, IL / Los Angeles CA

1989

• Master of Business Administration, Finance
  Kelley School of Business, Indiana University - Bloomington, IN

1989 - 1990

• Consultant—Business and Financial Planning Group
  Grant Thornton - Chicago, IL

1991 - present

• Independent Systems Consultant - Indianapolis, IN

Copyright © 2000 Robert S. Buckles

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