Information Technology Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.2229

Summary of Professional Skills

Expert 2229 has provided litigation support services in a variety of matters including assisting the Trustee in representing creditor interests in the a software firm reorganization; supporting plaintiff in a matter against a software vendor; representing plaintiff in a matter against a joint venture partner not meeting its IT obligations and representing a plaintiff in determining the damages resulting from a software copyright infringement matter.

Expert 2229 is a seasoned project leader with over 35 years experience in directing companies in designing, selecting and implementing systems to meet their automation objectives and requirements.  He has managed IT projects for companies of all sizes and a wide variety of manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, professional services, construction and real estate companies.  He specializes in helping a company’s IT resources meet its business requirements.

He is a seasoned health care systems consultant with extensive experience in assisting health plans and providers (hospitals and physician groups) and clients in other industries meet their automation objectives.  He has specialized in analyzing operational flow, identifying their information requirements and selecting, developing and implementing computerized solutions for managed care organizations.  His health care clients include Rush/Prudential Health Plans in Chicago, HMO Illinois, Mayo clinic in Minnesota, Harris Health Plans in Dallas, HealthFirst in New York and Mercy Health Plans in Wisconsin and Illinois, Mercy Hospital in Chicago, University of Miami School of Medicine and other HMOs, IPAs, TPAs, hospitals and professional provider groups.

Expert 2229 specializes in managing automation projects from defining systems requirements, working with users to define project success criteria, developing and managing user and IT expectations, developing system specifications and designing and managing the implementation of the system into the culture of the company to meet the project success criteria.

Expert 2229 has also provided consulting assistance in turning around under-performing software companies to become more profitable and in preparing for sale of the company and preparing for the sale of and marketing the firm to another software company.  He has also assisted organizations in successfully completing system implementation projects in serious trouble and having IT resources meet corporate needs and expectations.  Expert 2229 has functioned as the interim CIO for health care companies in the process of revising their IT strategies and organization.

He has extensive experience in assisting clients that have underperforming systems – either not properly implemented or not meeting company information requirements – in turning around the systems problems and completing the incorporation of the systems to meet their business needs. 

Expert 2229 also has considerable experience in assisting health plans and providers in developing HIPAA privacy, security and standard transaction compliance methodologies and tools and directing clients in using these methodologies and tools to assess their HIPAA compliance positions and planning and directing appropriate remediation activities. 

Expert 2229 has developed a business intelligence methodology for companies in a variety of industries including a major healthcare provider in the Chicago area and a Fortune 100 provider of business products and services.

Expert 2229 has taught systems analysis and programming at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).  He initiated and developed the course for the IIT MBA and Master Degree in Industrial Engineering program.  The course encompassed learning the basics of how to develop a system and programming portions of the system in COBOL.  He taught the course for seven years including teaching the COBOL portions of the course.

Expert 2229 has an MBA from Loyola University in Chicago.  He has participated in building three successful consulting practices, first for a big eight accounting firm, for a mid-level Chicago area accounting firm and for the last 20 years has been an independent systems consultant.

Representative Litigation Support Engagements

Represented Creditors’ Committee Trustee in the reorganization of a mainframe based software company.
Represented the major health care clinic plaintiff against the consulting/software firm that provided advisory services and the installed software.
Represented a video vending plaintiff against a SEC traded company joint venture partner that failed to meet their contractual IT hardware and software obligations.
Represented a bankruptcy creditor regarding the asset value of an internally developed software system for a commercially printing company.
Represented a plaintiff in a copyright infringement matter regarding the determination of damages against the defendant.

Representative Health Care Projects

Managed the project for a large Blue Cross plan to document an old dental insurance claims processing system.  The objectives of the project were to provide a reference for programmers to learn the system and as a basis for preparing the requirements for a new system.
Directed two large Chicago area substance abuse and mental health care IPAs in assessing their information requirements and in developing their information systems strategy.
Managed project teams for two large Skilled Nursing Facilities in identifying applicable automation requirements and selecting their most appropriate software solutions.
Directed a project for the Association of Ohio Philanthropic Homes for the Aged in defining a set of applicable criteria for selecting computer systems for small, medium and large SNFs that are association members.
Directed the software selection and implementation of start up HMO computer systems in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Directed a Chicago area staff model HMO in becoming compliant with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations.
Assisted the HMO for a prominent Rochester, Minnesota medical center in resolving problems with the implementation of their managed care software.
Functioning as the operational CIO and directed a staff model HMO in improving their automation and operating procedures to make their Medical Management (Utilization Management) functions more effective.
Assisted a major HMO and PPO in Cleveland in planning for their automation requirements to support a major growth initiative.
Assisted several large and small TPAs in developing and implementing their systems strategy, including requirements definition, system selection, contract negotiation and implementation management.
Assisted a Chicago based staff model HMO in preparing their practice management and managed care systems strategy, developing systems requirements, selecting hardware and software vendors, negotiating the contracts, and managing the successful implementation of the practice management software on time and on budget.
Directed the same Chicago staff model HMO in becoming compliant with both the HIPAA Privacy and Security Regulations.  This included implementing applicable Disaster Recovery Plans.
Assisted a large alliance of North Texas HMOs and provider networks in developing a systems strategy for the merge and in selecting a managed care software product solution to meet their collective requirements.
Assisted IBM in developing their national HIPAA and electronic data security health care consulting service products for providers and payors.  This included defining the consulting services, identifying the skills and resources necessary to provide these services, preparing marketing and sales materials, educating the sales team, supporting the sales team in presenting these products to potential clients both by phone and in face to face meetings, preparing proposals and participating in consulting engagements.
Directed the system procurement function for the University of Miami Medical School, Behavioral Health HMO in defining their requirements and selecting a software vendor to replace their current vendor.
Assisted a Chicago-based outpatient clinic and staff model HMO in developing their business intelligence approach and implementing the BI tools to enable their access to actionable quality of care and managed care information.
Directed a small Indianapolis HMO in performing the risk assessment and remediation tasks necessary to become compliant with the HIPAA Final Security Regulations.  This included providing initial direction for the development of Disaster Recovery Plans.
Functioned as a temporary CIO in assisting a large New York Medicaid HMO in quickly resolving major IT resource issues and developing and implementing their automation strategy.
Assisted HMOs and IPAs in meeting their Y2K objectives.
Assisted a large Chicago based HMO in developing their systems disaster contingency plans.
Assisted two managed care organizations in evaluating, selecting and implementing document management and imaging systems.
Assisted several health care organizations in developing their information strategy for pursuing Medicaid, Medicare and Commercial contracts.
Directed and participated in developing its long term systems strategic information plans for three Chicago area hospitals.
Directed a staff model HMO in developing its IT strategic plan and in implementing the systems strategy for their clinical, back office and managed care needs.
Assisted a staff model HMO in performing an audit of their HIPAA Privacy Regulation compliance.
Assisted an HMO in completing the tasks necessary to become compliant with the Final HIPAA Security Regulations.

Representative IT Consulting Projects

Served as the CIO for a national transportation company that acquired a $10MM company as a major operating division and grew in one year to $35MM in one year without any automated systems.  Provided systems strategies and implementation management direction for this company in establishing their automated systems resulting in their operations being a leader in their industry.  This included managing the following engagements:
Designed and managed the development and implementation of custom dispatch software.  There was no prewritten software for this process in this industry.  As a result of this system, the entire paper driven processes, from railroad calling for service through billings, were converted in the consolidated Kansas City operations to a fully paperless operation in 8 months.
Directed the implementation of JD Edwards accounting package for the subsidiary.
Directed the process to organize and catch-up a significant backlog of unbilled services and posting them to the new JD Edwards Accounts Receivable software to manage collections
Directed the consolidation of their two dispatch centers in Columbus, OH and Kansas City, MO to one in Kansas City
Designed, developed and programmed, managed and maintained the mission critical engineering design and construction management project management system for an international architectural engineering firm.
Performed a review of the IT system of a company being purchased by another company to determine which system should be primary system for the combined company.
Functioned as the CIO in providing system technical support for 15 years for the same international architectural engineering firm.  As Y2K became a critical issue, advised the client of the need to move to a new modern system.  Managed the requirements definition, software vendor selection and implementation of the new software.
Performed the assessment and feasibility study of a failed automated warehouse implementation for a prominent beer distributor in Central Florida. This resulted in preparing a multi-million dollar project implementation approach with vendor budgeting and engineering and system planning. 
Performed several IT assessments to determine how the purchased company’s system would fit into the combined company systems, if the purchased company’s system would function on its own and/or how the systems should be merged to one integrated system.
Solely designed, developed and implemented an automated warehouse management system and an industrial engineering time study system for International Harvester.  The programs for both systems were entirely written in COBOL.
Based on the assessment managed the above project to successfully complete the implementation of the warehouse automation system that met their project success criteria.
Performed an assessment of the IT hardware and software resources for a Kentucky precision stamping plant.  This included recommending their long term IT strategy and managing the project to implement the systems’ solutions. 
Based on the above assessment, was assigned by the Kentucky precision stamping plant management as the project manager to implement the recommendations. The project experienced 6 major changes in project scope with minor impact on the initial go live date. 
Led a project for a large St. Louis catalog sales company experiencing a disastrous system implementation to complete that implementation.  Based upon the initial assessment, recommended that the company revert to its old system.  Successfully directed the reversion project to meet the company’s time and budget objectives.
Performed system selection and implementation management services for a nationally known and SEC traded TV retail products company. This included preparing the automation strategy, defining system requirements, identifying likely software and hardware vendors and selecting and implementing the hardware and software.
Performed system selection and implementation management services for a variety of commercial, residential and industrial construction management and real estate management companies.
Performed system selection and implementation management services for a variety of professional service firms including law firms, public accounting firms and engineering firms.
Performed system selection and implementation engagements for a variety of small manufacturing and distribution companies.
Provided information technology and consulting practice expertise representing a British owned company selling a Boston division’s IT and consulting practice.  This included performing an initial assessment of their IT and consulting management and practices, developing the sales package materials sent to prospective buyers, assisting in the development of the confidentiality agreements and facilitating the buyer due diligence meetings at the Boston location.
When the acquisition wasn’t completed, was assigned as the temporary CEO for the same Boston software company that was a division of an SEC traded company.  The holding company desired to turn around the under-performing system division in preparation for selling the division.   In 8 months the company became profitable with a positive cash flow.  Bringing the software company’s customer implementations under control resulted in the net cash value of the open projects changed from $7,000 when the assignment started to $3.6 million when the company was sold with another $2 million in sold but not-yet-started projects.
Prepared a software implementation guide and user training program for a national homebuilder software company.  Directed the implementation of their software for several home builders and trained the software vendor’s other installers in the disciplined implementation process.
Directed the selection and implementation of an automated distribution system for a Los Angeles based movie distributor.
Served as an overall business and systems advisor for 10 years to a national professional association.  This included serving as their de facto Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer as well as assisting in selecting and implementing their new systems software. 
Assisted a children’s day care center company desiring to take their internally custom developed application software to market as a canned software solution for other day care companies.  After reviewing the costs, marketing and support costs necessary to convert an internal software system for commercial sales, the owners concluded not to pursue the matter.
Provided systems related valuating software systems as part of the due diligence support for organizations looking to acquire other companies.

Employment Experience

1991 – Present, President, An Independent IT Consulting Firm (Name available upon request)

1979 – 1991, Manager - Principal, Philip Rootberg & Company
Partner-level with responsibility of developing and managing an IT consulting practice primarily assisting clients of all industries, with heavy emphasis on health care, in meeting their accounting systems needs.

1975 – 1979, Consultant - Senior Manager, Arthur Young and Company
Senior manager participating in the growth of a major consulting practice within the Arthur Young and Company accounting firm.  Developed and implemented major custom accounting systems for large manufacturing, association and financial institutions.

1971 – 1975, Department Manager, International Harvester Company
Engineer responsible for developing engineering systems to:

Automate a high bay warehouse stacker crane;

Improve the cost effectiveness of designing new products and for developing;
Implementing a time study system that was accepted for operations by the unions working for International Harvester. 

In all three major systems projects, the results were documented and presented at professional conferences

1967 – 1971, Engineer, Zenith Radio
System developer responsible for developing a computer program for topologically designing printed circuit boards for electronic circuits used in Zenith television sets.  This software reduced the topological design process from three to four weeks to one to two days.

Education

1966-Bachelor Of Science In Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

1969-Masters Degree in Business Administration, Loyola University, Chicago, IL

Other Accomplishments

An active Associate Member of the Illinois Association of Health Plans.  Chaired a seminar being developed for the Illinois Association of Health Plans regarding the impact of HIPAA on HMOs. 

Speaks regularly on systems related issues and consults with the association regarding systems
topics, legislation and issues related to the state HMOs.

Developed a comprehensive systems implementation and management approach for the Illinois Association of Health Plans.  Presented this approach at an association seminar and to other health care organizations.

A speaker for the Illinois CPA Society, Illinois Association of Health Plans and RX2000 regarding Health Care organizations becoming HIPAA compliant.  He also was an active speaker, program planner and faculty member for RX2000 regarding preparing managed care organizations. 

Assisted the American Bar Association – Legal Technology Advisor Counsel in defining accounting system requirements, evaluating and testing practice management software for ABA approval.  Co-authored a book, available upon request, regarding evaluating and selecting legal software.