Case Studies, Executive Sales Support, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

“Cheryl was a loyal and dedicated employee who willingly took on new tasks while balancing the priorities demanded of her by three busy executives. I found the quality of her work to be excellent, especially in MS Word and Excel. Her flexible and pleasant manner allowed for simple straightforward communication and remarkable results.”

Judy Wolfe-Foster
General Manager
ThyssenKrupp Specialty Steel NA

ThyssenKrupp Specialty Steels North America – Mississauga office

Position: Executive Assistant to the senior management team, consisting of a General Manager, VP Sales and VP Operations

Situation: The company was going through an expansion and transition at the time Cheryl was hired. New machinery was being added to increase value and the Chicago-based H.O. was negotiating with its parent company in Germany .

To support the capital investment, marketing materials were developed for promotion through field representatives, trade magazines and trade shows.

Action taken: Cheryl coordinated all pre-production and preparatory activities, including:

Arranged for the photographer to be on-site and supervised their travels throughout the plant
Set up times for executive review of photos and first drafts of copy writing
Booked the ads and organized the company's presence at trade shows where new services would be promoted
Ensured operator could upload the customer's CAD drawings to new CNC machine
Orchestrated and conducted customer tours of the plant during the company's annual golf tournament
Managed travel arrangements and documentation for listed VPs

Finally, she assisted the General Manager in compiling confidential financial and operational performance reports for presentations at the North American and global Board of Director reviews.

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Vasogen, a Mississauga-based biotechnology pharmaceutical firm

“ Cheryl Scoffield was instrumental in working with Document Control to update these trackers. Her flexible, pleasant manner and attention to detail assisted us in successfully managing this challenging project and allowed me to focus on other priorities. I found Cheryl to be an asset to the team and always willing to step in and take on a new task.”

Hilde Fuchs
Senior Clinical Project Manager
Vasogen Inc.

“One of the main focuses of Cheryl's job was to review an extensive amount of documents relating to a major international trial. Her leadership and flexibility in taking charge of this challenging project was pivotal in helping the company prepare for Regulatory Audits to the close of the study. Cheryl is always cheerful and a joy to have on a team where the stress can be high. She remains calm and collected at all times.”

Yvonne Quinn, GCP
Compliance Manager
Vasogen Inc.

Position: Clinical & Regulatory Coordinator

Situation: The Phase III ACCLAIM cardiovascular clinical trial of their Celacade™ device was being conducted in 96 North American sites. Success was pivotal to the company's future. An overwhelming amount of documentation was generated and the accuracy of the analysis tool (clinical document tracker) was suspect. The project was behind schedule, causing a crisis of confidence amongst all teams involved.

Action Taken: Cheryl's original project mandate:

Identify missing documents
Attend departmental meetings
Coordinate document collection from sites, and
Assist with day-to-day administration of the trial

In addition, she joined the clinical team, initially, to verify the statistics on the over 8,000 U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and Health Canada regulatory documents.

She restored the exactness of the clinical document tracker by analyzing its operation and adjusting the default settings. From there, the trackers' functionality was expanded to capture additional data necessary for the trial's closure.

Result

The deadline for the first stage of the project was met and Cheryl was retained for the trial's closure phase. She re-verified all documentation, after which the site files were sealed for auditing by the FDA and Health Canada regulatory authorities.

Her contributions allowed the trial to be closed on time . During the project, Cheryl worked directly with Clinical Directors, Project Managers, Compliance Manager, Canadian and US Clinical Research Associates and an existing Clinical/Regulatory Coordinator.

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Air Liquide, Compressed Gas Industry – Burlington , Ontario

Position

Sales Coordinator at company's Oakville sales office (3 month contract) supporting Sales Manger and a team of 4 outside bulk industrial gas sales reps in high-volume Southwestern Ontario Region (Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton).

Cheryl managed flow of sales contracts between branch and HO, administered pricing, installations, first deliveries and consolidated invoices within an Oracle system.

Pre-existing situation

High turnover characterized the position, which disrupted the sales team's effectiveness. Other departments were adversely affected with their staff forced to compensate.

Associated challenge

1) Customary transfer of knowledge from retiring coordinator to new hires perennially incomplete resulting in incomplete work, long hours, and high stress

2) Lack of procedural documentation made the job unwelcome for company personnel asked to serve as back-ups

3) Over previous 2 years, knowledge of Sales Coordinator's role and responsibilities had decreased

4) Sales manager was working overtime running reports normally generated by the coordinator and therefore, had limited time to spend orientating

Action Taken:

To assure smooth handoffs in the future, Cheryl created the company's first Sales Coordinator's Process Manual. It detailed all processes, priorities, responsibilities and paper flows associated with the position. Information sourced through staff interviews, especially those who interacted with the sales department.

Subsequent calls to the company confirm the Process Manual is still being used.

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