Karen E. Vogel

Application support and implementation specialist with 10+ years of delivering software implementations, production support, and end-user training across financial services, healthcare, and enterprise IT. Seven years implementing Entrust Instant Financial Issuance (formerly CardWizard) instant card issuance software for banking clients, followed by SME-level support of core banking and lending platforms including Instant Financial Issuance, Encompass (ICE), and FIS Data Integrity Manager — vendor-side and client-side experience with the same systems. Owns customer issues end-to-end: de-escalating frustrated users, resolving escalated incidents within SLA, training clients on new systems, and translating technical details into plain language for non-technical audiences.

Strong in SQL, ServiceNow, UAT, release validation, and root cause analysis. CompTIA A+ and Network+ certified; Security+ in progress.

Application Services Support Specialist - Tata Consultancy Services - Remote / Edison, NJ

(2025-04 - 2026-06)

Served as SME for six business-critical financial services applications — web-based platforms including Encompass (ICE), FIS Data Integrity Manager, Epic, Loan Loss Analyzer, Entrust Instant Financial Issuance (CardWizard – hosted on-premises), plus Synergy. Acted as primary point of contact for business users, coordinating vendors and internal IT teams to troubleshoot incidents, validate fixes, and keep stakeholders informed through resolution of escalated issues.

• Owned approximately 50 customer support calls per month end-to-end — intake, triage, resolution, and follow-up — alongside ServiceNow incidents, change requests, and customer data imports/exports, maintaining SLA and compliance requirements.
• Proactively identified a failed overnight file transfer, traced the failure through job scheduler logs, and coordinated across teams to reprocess the file before the start of the business day, preventing downstream reporting delays.
• Applied and tested configuration changes in DEV and UAT, performed release validation, and confirmed application readiness on test and production servers following patching and release cycles.
• Onboarded and mentored new team members on support workflows, call handling, troubleshooting procedures, and documentation standards, raising the consistency of the customer experience across the team.

Technical Applications Support Developer I - Computershare SLS / NewRez LLC - Greenwood Village, CO

(2022-08 - 2024-07)

Served as the first line of support for internal business users, resolving application, reporting, and website issues with clear, jargon-free communication and consistent ticket ownership.

• Managed approximately 30 ServiceNow tickets weekly — including escalated and high-visibility issues — maintaining SLA performance and proactive status updates through closure.
• Partnered with development teams to deploy SQL packages using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Azure, and Octopus Deploy in support of release management.
• Investigated and resolved functional, performance, and data-related issues across multiple mortgage servicing applications.
• Conducted root cause analysis and documented remediation steps, technical procedures, and knowledge base updates to reduce repeat incidents.
• Validated system updates across DEV, UAT, and production environments in support of change management and production deployment.

Implementation Specialist - Entrust - Englewood, CO

(2015-07 - 2022-06)

Led implementation, installation, configuration, and upgrade of Entrust Instant Financial Issuance (CardWizard) instant card issuance solutions for banks and credit unions, from kickoff through stabilized production.

• Delivered approximately four remote client training sessions weekly via WebEx, RingCentral, and Zoom, tailoring each session to the client's workflow and skill level to drive adoption and reduce follow-up support volume.
• Supported client onboarding, branch rollouts, data mapping, workflow setup, system configuration, card management and authorization system integration, and implementation readiness activities.
• Provided hands-on post-go-live support — issue resolution, user adoption coaching, and application stabilization — serving as the client's escalation path until their production environment was steady.
• Identified, documented, and escalated software defects, partnering with engineering teams to validate fixes ahead of client release.
• Created and maintained SOPs, training materials, and internal documentation used across the implementation team.

Systems Engineer - CORESTAFF Services - Denver, CO

(2014-10 - 2015-07)

Client: United Airlines

• Executed release changes and system updates in production environments.
• Designed and performed system tests to validate functionality against user requirements.
• Resolved approximately 20 daily support requests from airline staff across multiple airport locations, restoring service quickly under time-critical departure pressure.
• Contributed documentation for new and existing systems.

Bachelor of Science - Information Systems Security - ITT Technical Institute