Technical support business consultant: customer retention, developer & partner programs, and service readiness
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- co-Founder and Board President at Square Peg Foundation
- Principal at Darius Consulting
- Past
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- Support Programs & Services Consultant at OQO
- Manager, Strategic Partner Programs at Network Appliance (NetApp)
- Marketing Manager, Demand Services & Spares Services at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Senior Member of Marketing Staff at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Global Business Management at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Manager, Global Account Support at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Support Team Manager, Senior Support Team Manager at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Product Support Engineer, Senior Support Engineer at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
- Education
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- University of Nevada-Reno
- Recommended
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8 people have recommended Darius (Chris) - Connections
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311
connections
- Industry
- Information Technology and Services
- Websites
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Summary
I specialize in business strategy for technical product support, partner & customer retention and service excellence. This includes defining and implementing customer support, partner, and developer programs for technology companies.
My ideal work is in an influential customer- or partner-facing role in a fast paced team. I want to be challenged, learning, and influential in the business. My experience is diverse, but always facing the customer, always working with partners and always working with technology.
Recent client projects include:
- Investigating and advising on business models for a new developer program
- Business development and marketing projects for a fabless chip company
- Support and Service Roadmap for a consumer computer company, driving policy and priority changes through the organization
- Authorized Service program for resellers and enterprise customers
- Outsourcing assessment, and then selection, negotiations and implementation of a new support center outsource partnership
- International service and support expansion strategy for an IT systems reseller
Summary of my experience:
• Global experience in service operations and partner management
• Specialist in strategy, programs and operations for technical support and customer service organizations
• Effective general manager with experience in P&L management, marketing, planning, outsourcing, staff management and organization development
• Highly technical foundation in core networking protocols, operating systems, network and system administration, and computer hardware including graphics and video systems
• International experience, including strategic partner management, channel programs, and developer programs
• Start-up and Fortune-100 experience
• Successfully started several new organizations and support programs, and founded a successful non-profit corporation as chief executive
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Specialties:
Customer retention, support, technical support, developer programs, community programs, outsourcing, partner management, authorized service programs, new product introduction, computer systems, networking protocols, computer hardware, computer graphics, video systems, general management, global service programs, support operations, outsourcing, staff development, organization development.
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Experience
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co-Founder and Board President
Square Peg Foundation
(Individual & Family Services industry)
February 2004 — Present (5 years 6 months)
• Conceived and launched the organization, defined its purpose and all aspects of the vision and priorities
• Implemented and managed all functions, including finance, tax and legal, budgeting, lease negotiations, marketing, development, and fundraising
• In just over two years, received confirmed 501(c)3 charitable status from the IRS, doubled our program, hired staff, developed volunteer programs, leased a facility, and secured cash-flow positive funding for the organization from a variety of private and foundation sources
http://www.everyonefits.org -
Principal
Darius Consulting
(Management Consulting industry)
January 2002 — Present (7 years 7 months)
Business process and program consulting, specializing in customer-facing programs and technical support in the computer and internet industries.
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Support Programs & Services Consultant
OQO
(Privately Held; Computer Hardware industry)
August 2007 — May 2008 (10 months)
Consulting with OQO on several projects related to scaling their service capabilities and defining future services. OQO hired me as a regular employee in January of '08, but then dropped me as part of a layoff in May '08.
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Manager, Strategic Partner Programs
Network Appliance (NetApp)
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; NTAP; Computer Hardware industry)
September 1999 — April 2001 (1 year 8 months)
• Created and implemented the Registered Support Provider program, signing 18 partners including six considered strategic to the company's success. This program closed FY2001 at over $1.1 million revenue, and at a run rate exceeding $3 million per year, and with total support systems sales exceeding $50 million
• Negotiated contracts and managed comprehensive service deliverables for several critical service relationships, including IBM Global Services support of Network Appliance systems in a Microsoft Exchange environment -
Marketing Manager, Demand Services & Spares Services
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)
February 1997 — September 1999 (2 years 8 months)
• Increased spare parts sales from $4 million to $5 million per year
• Successfully consolidated all non-contract service business as Demand Services for total business responsibility of $23 million per year - this consolidation brought focus to key self-service market segments such as Government, Systems Integrators, and Energy
• Developed a detailed profitability model for the time-and-materials repair business
• Defined the Legacy Software strategy and implemented operations for continued support and availability of software required by OEM and government contracts -
Senior Member of Marketing Staff
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)
May 1996 — February 1997 (10 months)
• Led the definition of the next generation customer membership database to support all membership-based customer access websites in the company
• Defined the engagement delivery methodology and reporting for Technology Services, a suite of repeatable consulting services focused on product and technology implementation and performance tuning -
Global Business Management
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)
March 1994 — May 1996 (2 years 3 months)
• Created and implemented Authorized Service Provider programs in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle-East, to address support capacity and capability requirements where SGI had no direct presence
• Assisted local subsidiaries in Europe and Asia with regular business planning, financial projections and objectives, marketing and business development programs, and outsource strategy and negotiations. This work included detailed support load modeling and analysis of staffing requirements, service contract capture rates, revenue projections, inventory level projections, and capital budgets -
Manager, Global Account Support
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)
March 1993 — February 1994 (1 year)
• Established and managed a global account management team in customer support to provide direct contact and both technical coordination and account management to support SGI's major accounts and global accounts
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Support Team Manager, Senior Support Team Manager
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)
April 1989 — February 1993 (3 years 11 months)
• Hired, developed and managed a mixed-expertise team who supported customers directly, managed escalations to engineering, and represented support on new product development teams
• Managed the primary technical relationships with product design teams and manufacturing for all mid-range and high-end products, operating systems software and development environments
• Defined and implemented a new organization structure, performance measurements, and technical team process which achieved a 20-1 staff-to-management ratio and reduce staff turnover by 50%, while delivering industry-leading, award-winning technical support
• Defined and managed staff development courses: “Advanced Telephone Skills” and “Handling Difficult Customers”
• Implemented and managed the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system
• Defined and implemented the company's first comprehensive customer call statistics and managed all operational processes and metrics for technical support and escalations -
Product Support Engineer, Senior Support Engineer
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; SGIC; Computer Hardware industry)
June 1986 — March 1989 (2 years 10 months)
• Primary escalation engineer for all Irix (Unix) operating system, networking, computer systems hardware and peripherals/interfaces problems
• Supported TCP/IP, NFS, sendmail and related network protocols, tools and interfaces
• Supported graphics hardware, systems hardware, interface cards, and peripherals
• Supported the Irix (Unix) operating system, a multi-processor OS, including performance tuning, device drivers, crash analysis and administration
• Represented customer support in the development team for two consecutive new product introductions
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Education
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University of Nevada-Reno
Electrical Engineering and Math (Computer Science) 1980 — 1985
- Activities and Societies:
- Delta Xi chapter of Sigma Nu
Additional Information
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Websites:
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Interests:
Cooking (and eating), Music, Guitar, Piano, Backpacking, Skiiing, Go, Entertaining at home, and horses. I am co-founder of Square Peg Foundation. I co-founded the Palo Alto Acoustic Music Open Mic, which ran for two years at Cafe' Verona and have helped some great musicians with their demo CDs and other recordings. I've traveled all over the world, sometimes in a business suit and other times with a backpack.
Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Contact Settings
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