Patrick Nhigula

Employment History

University of South Carolina, 2015 – Present * Please see Formal Teaching Experience section below

South University, 2011 – Present * Please see Formal Teaching Experience section below

Technical Analyst - Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC, 2006-2011 * Coordinated and prepared device matrices for all line businesses for Blue Cross Blue

• Shield of South Carolina and members partnerships. This includes Medicare and Medicaid contractors, Governments Agency (Tricare and Department of Defense (DOD)). Including document networks drawings and enclaves’ devices counts on monthly bases. Name: Patrick Nhigula Page Number: 2
• Contributed and coordinated in gathering and collecting documentations that eventually will be used to deploy deliverables, requirements and solutions based on nature of the projects requested.
• Facilitated to consult and advise Governments Programs Administrations contractors (Medicare and Medicaid) on solutions and requirements that they would need to process claims and protect healthcare insurances data and information within Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina network infrastructure.
• Facilitated to provide high level estimate (HLE) for equipment and infrastructure when our customers are responding to request for proposal (RFP). This will include over three years cost model and caveats assumptions that will be used to generate cost model.
• Prepared and maintained Tricare, Medicare, Corporate and Commercial, and EDC device matrices and Network diagrams include all servers and networks counts to the BCBSSC enclaves that are due every month to meet government security compliance.
• Facilitated to Reconcile and analyze the workstation support inventory data to match the Tricare device matrix.
• Coordinated to Review and analyze the Tricare, EDC, and Medicare discovery data provide from Network Security and Compliance team before include the logical assets in an appropriate device matrices (For example Tricare, Medicare, and EDC)
• Facilitated to Review the Tricare network diagram that is provided by the network Engineering team and reconcile the network devices and the servers counts on the network diagram to make sure that each device and server represent on the network diagram match the monthly published the Tricare device matrix.
• Coordinated to Review approx. 65,000 lines of the Tricare software inventory monthly and inserted these lines into the customized the Tricare device separate tab Coordinated to manage, control, publish, and distribute the device matrices and network diagram to IT

Senior Network Support Analyst & Technical Trainer, Spirit Telecom, Columbia, SC 11/2000 – 2007

• Recommended network service upgrades based on user population needs and cost effectiveness.
• Prepared project plans using Microsoft Project and Visio based on business needs and directives given by the executive board. Manage the allocation of budgets, incidentals, and deliverables.
• Coordinated and managed the enterprises customers such as Carolina First Bank, South Carolina National Guards, and Blue Cross BlueShield (ATM and Frame Relay Wide Area Network)
• Managed and maintained WAN Frame Relay and ATM Network across the State of South Carolina.
• Devoted and trained customers on how to use Provisioning VOIP phones using Broad soft application and Atreus Authority tool.
• Facilitated and coordinate service provisioning application and Polycom 501 and 601 phones.
• Presented and demonstrated how to use phone features that purchased by customers.
• Devoted and assumed accountability and responsibility for Frame Relay and ATM Networks, software selection, remote desktop management and control, planning, designing, installing, testing, implementing, systems auditing, documenting and maintaining. Assured all practices met with approved auditing standards.
• Managed and planned the Alcatel switches, networks, ATM/Frame Relay and IP-MPLS for 16 Independent Telephones companies in South Carolina. Management includes circuits’ provision, configuration and mapping, DSL and telecom (PBX) service monitoring, proprietary software troubleshooting and upgrades and maintenance.
• Presented and trained new staff on the proper usage of CAS, Remedy, and X-authority software and the fundamentals of PC use, including Windows 98 and Windows XP basics, Internet operation. Name: Patrick Nhigula Page Number: 3
• Managed and coordinated with telecommunication vendors and states agencies network manager and engineers in isolating complex wide area networking outages and turn up assists for new circuits. That’s includes IP-MPLS, DSL and ATM/ Frame Relay.

Technical Support, (Contractor), SC Department of Social Services, Columbia, SC 11/1999 – 11/2000

• Coordinated and provided end-user support in a multi-tiered Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98 for all SCDSS offices within the state of South Carolina.
• Managed and resolved hardware and software issues, including but not limited to PDC and BDC domain issues, network availability, user account creation, NDS file and print sharing, mainframe support and troubleshooting, deployment of antivirus software for
• desktops, Cisco router and switch troubleshooting, e-mail server response, outage reporting and additional client requests.
• Coordinated and implemented the migration of IBM Token Rings to Standards Ethernet for all SCDSS Offices. This includes implementation of remote access solutions utilizing Citrix Metaframe, Microsoft Internet Information Server and Cisco VPN authentication, promoting the delivery of information and software via the Internet.
• Managed and coordinated the maintenance on personal computers, servers and peripheral devices as requested by customer base.
• Devoted to created detailed test studies based on the analysis of critical business needs and made recommendations to client/server support teams to implement solutions.
• Facilitated and managed the support of enterprise-level application servers, client desktops and networking routers and switches in a help desk/customer support setting.