I am writing a letter of recommendation for Mr. Taha T. Shipchandler, with whom I have been associated both personally and professionally for the last twenty-five years.

Through these years, Taha has been a close friend, confidant, peer, and business associate. Both of us grew up together in India, received our bachelor's in engineering from MIT, Manipal (India), studied together and received a master's in industrial engineering from the University of Houston (USA) at about the same time, and have since collaborated on various computing projects. Hence l believe that I know Taha well enough to be able to be a reliable character and professional reference for him.

I have always found Taha to be a pleasant, intelligent, hardworking, and responsible person. His command of the PC platform-based products is sound and working knowledge of data base products most enviable. He knows and understands project management and also has the vision it takes to implement a development plan. Perhaps Taha's most striking quality is that he is an extremely honest person and voices his frank opinion regardless of any negative consequences to himself. Taha, in my opinion is a technically astute and competent professional, and without doubt I would be pleased to have him on any project team of mine.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at (713) 583-0010.

I strongly recommend Taha, whose exceptional organizational skills and methodical approach to project management have made him an invaluable asset to PMI Houston.

As Venue Lead, Taha consistently demonstrates a remarkable ability to plan events with precision, ensuring every detail is meticulously managed for successful execution.

What distinguishes Taha is his proactive planning style. He consistently works ahead of schedule, coordinating with speakers and team members well in advance and implementing a structured system of reminders that guarantees everyone is prepared and aligned. His forward-thinking approach prevents issues before they arise, resulting in seamlessly executed events that appear effortless to attendees.

Drawing from his extensive experience across public sector, energy, healthcare, and technology industries, Taha brings a wealth of knowledge that enhances our chapter's operations. His background in managing complex IT initiatives translates perfectly to his volunteer role, where he applies the same disciplined approach to event management.

Taha's dedication to continuous improvement stands out prominently. He is always exploring innovative ways to enhance our events or implement cost-saving measures without compromising quality. This commitment to excellence, combined with his PMP certification and technical expertise, makes him particularly effective at bridging the gap between technical requirements and practical execution.
I confidently recommend Taha for any project management role where meticulous planning, strong organizational skills, and results-oriented leadership are valued. His ability to ensure that events unfold exactly as planned, with every detail accounted for, exemplifies the highest standards of project management professionalism.

Taha is a very talented Project Manager. Taha reported to me in a contract position at PayPal for 7 months. In that time he proved to be a very effective project manager. His ability to rapidly come up to speed on technical subjects is a great ability and a rare find. He is easy to communicate with and seems to always have a smile on his face. He would be a great asset to any team.

I have had the pleasure of working with Taha Shipchandler from Datamatix on several joint projects over the past two years. He has assisted in the RFP bidding process, and as a service provider Business Analyst on a major project deploying an Eccentex AppBase management platform. Taha gathered detailed requirements from users, created functional specifications, and concise user documentation from technical specifications.
As a multi-talented individual and business owner, he has become highly knowledgeable in our product, AppBase.Taha is always professional, innovative and willing to take on any task. I would highly recommend Taha’s enthusiastic approach to accomplishing projects to any organization or team.

Taha has volunteered as a venue lead with PMI Houston for 6 years.
He is responsible for the Galleria Venue, one of the largest in town, and due to his dedicated efforts, he has cultivated a large attendance.
During my time as VP Programs, I have found Taha to be both enthusiastic and detail oriented. He plans events well in advance allowing time to promote the events and book the venue.
Taha is also an excellent host, during the meetings, and developed the Programs playbook, which we use for training and events across the Chapter.
I highly recommend Taha for any leadership role.

We have had the pleasure of working with Taha and he has proven to be able to handle projects and assist with critical project deadlines. Taha has been focused on the task at hand, committed to learning and helping others. He has a positive attitude and good work ethic.

Taha has been a great business partner in delivering high quality on time on budget projects. His work is always delivered up to expectations.

Taha is very organized and goal-oriented professional with great expertise in business applications and quick learning abilities. As we worked on the joint projects Taha was always diligent on every task he owned. He is very punctual, detail oriented with great communication skills. It was a great pleasure to work with Taha.

Taha did an excellent job supporting our Lee County customer. Below a testimony I received from them:
"I would like to thank Taha and his team for resolving all outstanding issues we have and we can bring this project to conclusion.
I believe this is a great achievement for both your team and us here.
What I admire most from Taha is his perseverance and his dedication, though we have many issues and challenges, he is always there to the end. I believe he is a great asset for Shipcom for any future projects, and I’m happy that he was the one assigned to do this project for us.
There is no greater compliment I can give to him and his team, other than the product they deliver, is used today by many our county staff to perform their work. It affects their productivity daily, and getting it right is no easy task."

Our company AC2 is the developer of the commercial software application ‘TP6000 Plus’ which is used in the Oil & Gas industry for Terminal Automation. We hired Taha Shipchandler to develop the web-based version of ‘TP6000’ which we call ‘TP6000 Remote’.

Taha was very effective with Research & Development based activities. He introduced us to many state-of-the-art web technologies. We were pleased with the performance and appearance of ‘TP6000 Remote’, as well as the web-based reporting features in it. Taha was good at keeping his deadlines, and indeed at times completed the tasks quicker than expected.

Taha is an intelligent analyst, and a skilled developer. We will gladly sign him on for future projects.

The  City  of  Houston  Human  Resources  (HR)  Department  desired  a  web-based application to automate workflow  processes related to the hiring,  maintenance and termination of temporary agency workers.  One goal of this automated workflow application was to integrate certain functional duties and activities performed by the HR Department, other City departments and the employment agencies providing the resources.

 A  competitive  bidding process  was  conducted to  select  a  vendor  to  design, develop  and implement this application.   Datamatix, Inc. of  Katy, Texas  was  one ·of the bidders.  The bid turned  in  by  Datamatix  was  comprehensive. Textual  and  graphical representations  of  the proposed system  were  presented  demonstrating an  understanding of  the temporary  service program  requirements.   After   due  evaluation, Datamatix  was  awarded  the  project  as  the proposer providing the best value.

 Datamatix staff conducted in depth user interviews for requirements gathering and verifications of user specs.  Datamatix provided value added feedback on the functional specs and was very responsive to follow up inquiries and meetings.  The project web site was  updated periodically and   the   stakeholders   were   kept   informed.  The   result  was   the   implementation  of   a comprehensive and functionally accurate application.

 The  HR Department is satisfied with the overall  performance of  Datamatix. We  believe they demonstrated good traits of customer service during the course of the project.   In fact, recently we engaged them to perform a Phase II Enhancement Project for the application. We anticipate a   continuous  working   relationship  with   them   after   project   completion  and  for   routine maintenance.

Datamatix was our choice for outsourced development work for a custom web-based tool that is an integral to our engineering process ("Translator"). We are a custom engineered to order company. This back- end tool was required to interface between one data source (UNIX based Universe Nested Relational DB) and output data and files in specific formats to match other tools in our value chain (DB tables as well as data strings for AutoCAD drawing files).

The tool allowed for the creation, validation, and repository for a

business/product rule set. The project was quite complex. The written functional specification was roughly 160 pages and the technical specification about the same size.

 Not only did they come in on-time but worked closely with our in-house development staff to understand the business requirements. This included working hand-in-hand with us to prepare a proof-of-concept demonstration for top management and Board of Directors personnel. They are the most cost-effective 3rd party developer we have found. They worked to our specifications, and we clearly established the acceptance criteria up front.

To that end they played by the agreed rules and went beyond our expectations by collecting and bringing to our attention changes that might be considered for future enhancement upgrades.

 The tool has been implemented, is functional, and in use. They delivered exactly what we asked.

 I would use them again and recommend that they be given very serious consideration. Without reservation I would say they are extremely competent, knowledgeable, cost-effective and the single most polite group of individuals I have come across in the industry.

 If you can define what you want in terms of form and function, I have no doubt they can deliver.

Taha was selected by us to work on the COE (Common Operating Environment) project at BP in July 2006. In January 2007, we transitioned him to the MMS (Materials Management System) project, on which he worked until July 2010. The MMS project was very successful. The system has created cost savings by increasing efficiency of operations, and close monitoring and tracking of the procurement, inventory management and material movement processes.

I worked closely with Taha as his manager throughout his term at BP. Initially his technical prowess seemed to be his most remarkable asset. As I got to know him better, I observed that he had a keen analytical mind to quickly grasp the fairly complex business issues of the MMS. He asked the right questions and routinely put down his comprehension of the solution in high level and low-level design documents. This exercise provided a verification process to reduce the possibility of error. Taha showed remarkable creativity and skill in building the system and later in troubleshooting, installation and support phases.

Taha's dealings with the end-users and his associates were professional and courteous in his own soft-spoken way. Taha is not only an excellent IT consultant, but also a man of integrity. He will be a valuable addition to your IT team.