PROFILE  

I have extensive experience in the following IT areas:

·         Development;

·         Application Support;

·         Project Management;

·         System Design

My time spent in the above areas has set me up with excellent communications and leadership skills.

I have a track record of developing innovative process improvements in order to save my Customers time and budget.

My project management skills cover concept through delivery and post-implementation support.

·         Strategic thinker

·         good sense of the larger picture

·         Work well with cross-functional groups

·         Respond effectively to multiple conflicting priorities

·         Continually manage deliverables in a demanding and fast-paced environment.

My track record shows that I am flexible, a good learner and extremely Customer focused. 

EXPERIENCE

1998 – Present        Vodafone limited (security cleared)

Vodafone Limited is a global company, providing mobile telecommunications to the public and all types of businesses.

Billing Support

-          Manage the team which provides second line support for the Vodafone UK data billing system. The system is Portal Infranet which runs on an HP-UX machine.

-          Manage the team which provides second line support for the Vodafone UK file transfer system. In-house produced COBOL scripts wrapped around a Uniqueue Transfer product, which runs on HP-UX.

-          Provide 24x7 support cover.

-          Work closely with third party vendors, and internal developers to ensure that the systems continue to perform to expected levels, and meet customers SLAs.

-          Assisted in the upgrade from Portal Infranet 6.3 to version 6.5.

-          Responsible for the recruitment, development and mentoring of a new staff.

-          Responsible for Personal Development Reviews for all staff. Setting and measuring SMART objectives and work.

Provisioning Support

-          Worked in the team who supported the business critical provisioning systems. Became team manager after two years. In-house written C and Fortran programs running on VMS Alpha box.

-          Provided 24x7 support cover.

-          Realised the need for, designed and developed system using MS Outlook, VMS Mail, DCL and SQL to produce near instant automated reports of subscribers for Service Providers. This saved Vodafone Corporate alone, an estimated fifty man hours a week.

-          Gathered requirements for, designed and wrote system to migrate 6,500 phone numbers for our largest customer to new consecutive numbers without the need for the individuals to have to change the SIMs in their handsets.

-          Gathered requirements for, designed and wrote system to connect Pay As You Talk numbers in bulk. All Vodafone UK PAYT connections use this system now.

-          Worked with Mobile Number Portability Helpdesk, and subsequently reduced the number of incidents they raised from 15 a week, to around 3 a month.

-          Held regular reviews with key Customers.

-          Key member of team who recovered the system from two major system disasters. One of which was made harder by the fact that the latest backup was corrupt.

-          Took on the support of two security systems, used by the Government to track selected handsets around the country.

-          Responsible for the recruitment, development and mentoring of a new staff.

-          Responsible for Personal Development Reviews for all staff. Setting and measuring SMART objectives and work.

1988 – 1998       WH Smith News.     

News Support

-          Supporting in-house COBOL systems, used around the country to deal with all aspects of the wholesale arm of WH Smith’s business. Became team leader after three years.

-          Provided 24x7 support

-          Assisted in the migration of the accounting suite of programs to run on Dec Scheduler.

-          Wrote, maintained and ran COBOL programs which were used to both merge multiple businesses in to one, or split one business in to many. These were used periodically as WH Smith News rationalized or gained new contracts.

-          Worked on part of the conversion of WH Smith News’ main order amendment system from COBOL to MAGIC.

1985 – 1988       Plessey Semiconductors

Development and Support

-          Supporting in-house COBOL applications using FMS running on VMS systems.

-          Moved on to writing COBOL applications, and amending both COBOL and FORTRAN in-house applications.

-          Worked with Customers to design and build a suite of eight COBOL programs for a new Product Definition system. My first major IT achievement and one that I am still proud of. 

Courses attended

-          VMS Utilities and commands

-          Datatrieve Level 1

-          Datatrieve Level 2 – report writing

-          FORTRAN for beginners

-          Using SQL from VAX COBOL

-          SQL Server

-          MAGIC programming

-          UNIX basics

-          UNIX script writing

-          Effective communications

-          Successful team building

-          Management for the IT professional

-          Technician as manager.

-          ITIL fundamentals (passed exam) 

TECHNICAL SKILLS

-          VAX VMS 1985 – 2003

-          VAX COBOL (coding) 1985 – 1998

-          VAX Datatrieve 1986 – 2000

-          RDB/SQL 1997 – 2003

-          VAX FMS 1985 - 1988

-          VAX Fortran 1987 – 1988

-          MAGIC 1998

-          HP Unix – current

-          Oracle SQL 2003 – current

-          Portal Infranet 2003 - current