Islam Youssef

Managing IT infrastructure, operations, and security for 800+ in-house employees, 500+ outsourced staff, 55 hubs, and 2 sorting facilities. Building and managing an IT team, optimizing IT infrastructure and cybersecurity, and delivering scalable solutions to support business growth.

Projects:

• Enforced corporate security policies by fresh-installing a genuine OS on over 400 endpoints and restricting admin privileges, achieving 100% compliance with the endpoint hardening standard and enhanced endpoint performance.
• Implemented a ticketing system (Freshdesk) to streamline IT service processes, resulting in faster response times, reduced resolution time, and improved service delivery by 90% with clear insights on the workload and team performance.
• Designed and implemented standardized user lifecycle processes (onboarding/offboarding) in collaboration with the People Team, ensuring timely provisioning of the correct IT access and tools for all employees.
• Reduced SaaS costs by $5K per month by consolidating two Google Workspaces into a single instance, streamlining user management, and security policies under one dashboard.
• Implemented a standardized IT asset management system with asset tagging, improving tracking accuracy by 95% and reducing loss incidents.
• Implemented a budget-friendly network cloud solution to manage the network of the remote hubs from anywhere seamlessly (Ruijie Reyee).
• Digitized purchasing workflows by replacing email/verbal requests with Kissflow, reducing manual processing by 90% across departments.
• Designed and implemented a centralized CCTV system for monitoring remote hubs.
• Established a new sorting facility and 14 new hubs (Internet, CCTV, and IT equipment purchasing).
• Implemented a new attendance cloud-based system (ZKteco Biotime) and integrated it with the new HR system.
• Managed vendor relationships for hardware, software, and services procurement, ensuring quality products at competitive prices.
• Collaborated with other departments to help meet IT needs and properly integrate and secure systems.

Managing IT services in approximately 10 markets. 2,500 users (Egypt, KSA, Jordan, Iraq, etc.) Providing on-site and remote support, in addition to supporting the company's main systems like GWS and Okta, leading six IT engineers for all IT-related projects, such as security app enrollments, asset management, threat/vulnerability assessment, applying cybersecurity policies, and monitoring and maintaining ticket resolution quality within the agreed SLA, along with many more running projects.

Projects:

• Applied some changes to the Ticketing System workflows, categories, and priorities to ensure we have reliable insights for the IT issues we are facing, and ensure they are solved in a timely manner.
• Integrate various applications with Okta, including default automated access defined by department directors.
• Ensured 100% audit readiness for the GDPR standard for data protection and privacy. • Reduced vulnerabilities by 80% via patch management cycles.
• Implemented a green IT initiative by environmentally disposing of 200+ assets through certified e-waste partners, achieving a 95% recycling rate.
• Established a comprehensive IT governance framework by creating an "Acceptable Use & Hardware Policy" that aligns with ISO 27001 security standards.
• Led the CrowdStrike Enrollment Project on 2,500+ endpoints.
• Led the Zscaler and JumpCloud agent enrollment project across all organizational endpoints.
• Led the Data Retention Project on Google Workspace to comply with Uber's data security standards.
• Led the integration between Slack and Jira projects to raise tickets and respond to requesters automatically on Slack.
• Launched and equipped new regional offices in Amman, Riyadh, Jeddah, and Alexandria with turnkey IT infrastructure – deploying high-bandwidth internet connections, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi networks, and full office setups, including conference room AV systems and printers/scanners – enabling seamless operations from Day 1 while maintaining 99% uptime across all locations.
• Successful negotiation with Zoom Sales to have a three-year commitment with the cost of one year and a half cost only.
• Successful negotiation with GWS Sales to keep a 40% discount on the annual license renewal.

Provides full technical support for the head office and 12 fashion shops distributed among malls in Cairo, 6th October, and Alexandria.

Projects:

• Architected and deployed a VPN network (IPsec/SSL) connecting 12+ branches to the HQ and two remote datacenters in Paris and Dubai, enabling real-time data synchronization while standardizing secure remote access enterprise-wide.
• Led the implementation of the new ERP Dynamics 365 Business Central, ensuring accurate financial reporting and providing real-time KPI dashboards that reduced operational decision cycles.
• Enabled rapid market expansion by opening nine stores with systematized IT rollouts, implementing uniform hardware/software configurations, and store launch checklists for future locations.

Providing IT technical support for the head office and three remote power plants, onsite and remotely, and managing and administering the on-premises infrastructure that consists of five servers on a virtual cluster, SAN storage, in addition to the Internet, VPN access, security, and backup solutions.

Projects:

• Migrated all physical servers to a virtualized environment (HYPER-V) by adding five servers to a cluster, SAN storage, and a SAN switch for the HQ and three branches.
• Upgraded TrendMicro OfficeScan version from 10 to XG for the HQ and three branches (power plants) – two hours of downtime.
• Installed and configured a new MS Exchange server, 'Online Archive,' to avoid the data loss of the PST files saved locally on machines.

Leads two IT engineers to support the ERP system and the IT infrastructure.

Projects:

• Obtaining hardware maintenance contracts for more than ten colleges, thanks to the proven performance in a very short time and the high reputation received from employees.
• Installation of Ethernet networks (2,000+ points) in five new college buildings.
• Installing 600 Wi-Fi access points throughout university buildings.
• Created Helpdesk Team to serve helpdesk maintenance contracts over 15 colleagues.