Profile: 

An experienced interim with a pragmatic approach in difficult situations. Experienced in Programme, Project, Service and Operational Management delivering Projects, IT Operations and Support based on Prince 2 and the ITIL frameworks. My main strengths lie in my ability to manage people and projects, guiding, motivating and directing the team to achieve the business’ goals. Adept at relationship building and Stakeholder Management with a proven ability to communicate at all levels. I am an excellent and effective problem solver with the experience and breadth of management skills required during change programs and crisis management. A proven self-starter who is prepared to own issues through to a successful conclusion. 

Recent Achievements: 

• Provided Programme Assurance for four of the five major releases in the second phase of a very large software development and business optimisation programme made up of 60 individual projects contained within 14 workstreams. Ensuring that all project, workstream and programme goals are delivered to time and quality. Implementation Manager for the final two releases ensuring that the phase was completed to schedule and quality.

• Integrated an outsourced service provider into the group in order to increase visibility and governance of the delivered services for the IT department. Maximised the returns on IT investment by employing a holistic view of service and infrastructure provision. The resulting increased compliance with agreed processes and procedures produced increased confidence in services delivered, agreed service levels, clear accountability and consistent service offerings.

• Successfully completed the transition of application support and development of Legacy and MI applications to an offshore-outsourced service provider based in Bangalore and Hyderabad, India. This resulted in 30% saving in the cost of delivering IT services for the client and enabled the rationalisation of the IT organisation structure along with increased flexibility to deliver the business’ needs.
• Developed and implemented the Service Control and Resolution processes used within IS Operations to deliver all computing and information services to the UK business within defined Service and Operational Level Agreements resulting in improved availability, response and resolution times.

• From a start-up position, built, implemented, staffed and operated an industry leading E-Commerce data centre using Sun servers running Oracle 11i ERP and CRM applications integrated with several “commercial off the shelf” BSS, OSS and workflow applications using BEA Tuxedo in a mission critical 24 x 7 environment. Responsible for all policies and procedures used by IT teams. Responsible for all sub-projects, in –house and out-sourced, during both the build and operate phases including, computer room fit out, hardware and software build, systems development, network and infrastructure installations. Successfully in-sourced application support saving the company £1.5 million in support costs.
•  Post merger, integrated the IT infrastructure and support teams to provide best practice support services. Consolidated the internal Windows 2000 computing infrastructure, enabling the UK corporate business goals to be achieved by providing standard accessibility to systems and information independent of the user’s location. Integrated all service delivery functions so that the UK business was provided with a single, easy to use point of reference for all internal computing and telephony issues. This resulted in a £170k saving on support costs and much improved user satisfaction.

Experience:

August 2006 – Date

Programme Assurance and Implementation Manager, [snip]. 

[snip] is the UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer, with annual sales of around £2 billion and five million customers. [snip] call centres receive over 31 million and make 9 million outbound telemarketing calls annually. 

·         Provided ‘hands on’ Programme Assurance so that the Business Optimisation Programme and the component projects, workstreams and programme deliver the programme’s objectives in terms of time, cost and quality.

·         Ensured that the programme governance and controls (planning, risks and issues, reporting, quality) processes and procedures were adhered to in the projects workstreams and projects.

·         Assured that the deliverables associated with milestones and quality plans were actually achieved and that scope and content was not changed outside of the Programme governance regime.

·         Responsible for the assurance and validation of project, workstream and Programme plans in terms of content, completeness and viability. Worked with the workstream managers to agree the correct status and escalated as necessary in line with the programme governance regime.

·         Ensured that individual project and overall programme status was continuously understood, validated and correctly reported via the reporting cycle.

·         Identified & facilitated the proper handling of risks and issues escalating where necessary to the Programme risk register and assessing the effect upon project RAG status.

·         Identified, developed and managed any necessary recovery plans or mitigation strategies with the workstream and to instigate, monitor and report upon recovery plans when milestones (or other project activities) varied outside tolerances.

·         Provided “hand-on” crisis management when incidents were escalated above project or workstream capabilities. Facilitating an unbiased view of the problem and ensuring that the correct resources were employed to optimise recovery.

·         Ensured programme reporting was timely, accurate and complete.

·         Defined, planned in, and agreed necessary Quality Gateways and acceptance criteria for critical plan activities. 

January – June 2006 (Contract extended once) 

[snip], BG Group. 

BG Group is a leading player in the global energy market and is a dynamic growing business with operations in 20 countries over five continents. The technical helpdesk provides telephone and deskside support to users worldwide. 

·        Responsible for the integration of an outsourced service provider into the group in order to increase visibility and governance of the delivered services for the IT department.

·        Managed three integration streams covering Service Delivery & Support, Project Services and Commercial Management of IT services.

·         Increased compliance with agreed processes and procedures enabling increased confidence in all services delivered.

·         Managed the negotiation and agreement of Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators for the delivered services.

·         Employed the ITIL and Prince 2 frameworks to ensure that all disciplines of Service Management and Project Management within scope of the integration.

·         Provided published ways of working, organisation structures and service levels to enable clear accountability and consistent service offerings.

·         Managed the implementation of an agreed governance structure covering the services delivered, project management office, commercial and contract management.

·         Provided consultancy services to assist the development of global service delivery standards to establish consistent delivery of IT across the group.

·         Designed and developed a Service Catalogue to provide clarity of delivered services to the business.

November 2004 – December 2005 (contract renewed three times) 

Transition Manager, [snip] 

[snip] UK is the UK's largest holiday company and includes the leading UK brands of [snip] and [snip]. The tour operator is represented by more than 730 [snip] holiday shops throughout the UK as well as: an award-winning website, holiday brochures, the [snip], call centres, cruise ships and their own TV channel. 

• Responsible for the transition of Legacy, BI and MI streams to an offshore-outsourced supplier.
• Planning, management and control of 11 parallel projects ensuring the supplier acquires sufficient technical and business knowledge to provide applications support and development.
• Facilitation of discussion of and agreement to the processes and procedures required for delivering application support services.
• Responsible for ensuring that the required Work Orders, Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators are in place, understood and monitored.
• Responsible for ensuring that all risks are tracked and mitigated and that any issues are resolved by the appropriate team.
• Ensuring the integration of support and development staff from very different backgrounds and cultures into a cohesive team that delivers the business’ requirements.
• Stakeholder management ensuring that all interested parties are aware of the status of each project and have buy in to the process.

2002 – 2004 

Operations Manager, Internet Operations, [snip]

[snip] drives [snip] content through every platform. Internet Operations is responsible for providing the hosting, infrastructure, design and streaming technology behind some of the world's best known internet sites delivering information and services to a global audience. 

• Responsible for the operation of [snip] and several managed hosting contracts.
• Responsible for the Operational and Service Management Processes of the Internet Solutions Business and for day-to-day service delivery management.
• Responsible for SLA negotiation, Customer Service Management and for ensuring operational service levels are maintained according to agreed KPI’s.
• Responsible for event management, from technical set up to service delivery during the event (e.g. Wimbledon Interactive, Royal Funerals)
• Responsible for integrating staff from very different background and cultures in to a cohesive team, with a strong customer service culture. 

2000 – 2002

IT Systems Manager / Systems Operations Director. [snip]

[snip] is a leading Internet Service Provider and telecommunications company based in the UK. It has a national broadband network consisting of 3,500 route kilometres of fibre cable and a world class Service Management Centre providing a range of traditional telecoms solutions and Internet hosting services.  

• Responsible for the implementation and operation of all LAN/WAN, back and front office environments and support services required for managing the UK business and network.
• Managed 6 operational and technical teams providing data centre operations and infrastructure support in offices throughout the UK.
• Managed a £4.5 million budget and 25 people, responsible for setting objectives, career development, training plans and regular reviews. Chairman of the Change Control Board.
• Responsible for the selection, performance and SLA management of several third party suppliers providing the company with support, development and operational services.
• Responsible for the recruitment, motivation and development of computer operations and system support teams.
• Developed and implemented best practice computer operations and support services based on ITIL standards. Including Incident, Problem, Change, Configuration, Release, Availability, Capacity, Financial and Service Continuity Management.
• Managed several phases of systems development from requirements gathering to roll-out.

1998 – 2000            Senior Manager, European Customer Services. [snip] 

1992 – 1998            Manager, UK Customer Engineering, [snip] (Europe) 

1989 - 1992             Systems Engineer, [snip] Europe Ltd 

1987 - 1989             Field Engineer, [snip] Europe Ltd 

1983 - 1987             Terminal Equipment Technician, H.M.Forces 

Education: 

·         Prince2 Practitioner

·         Post Graduate Certificate in Management

·         4 GCE ‘A’ Levels, 2 ‘A/O’ Levels, 8 ‘O’ Levels. 

Hobbies and Interests: 

I enjoy attempting to play golf and am an active member of the ITSMF.

Personal Endorsements:

(Contact details available on request)

[snip] – BG Group 

“I enjoyed working with Bill on this project and appreciated his professional approach, knowledge of IT processes and pragmatic view of the world.”(May 4, 2006)

Transition Manager - [snip] UK Ltd

“Just what the job needed....... transitioning complex applications, reluctant staff, little published knowledge and challenging timescales. Bill has brought drive, pragmatism, a massive capacity for work and an overall awareness of ALL the areas needed for success. He has brought people together, calmed troubled waters, made it happen. Job done. What more need I say. Thanks” (September 4, 2005)

“"When the going gets tough", you need to ask Bill when he's next available. I've had the pleasure of working with Bill on two occasions and it has been nothing but a pleasure. He has too many skills to list but one of his primary assets is that he has the ability to make a crisis look like a walk in the park.” (August 16, 2005)

“Bill is a technically compentent & commercially focussed manager whose broad range of experiences within IT have been pivotal in delivering the transition of [snip]'s Legacy & MI applications to our Indian partner. Without his knowledge of all areas of IT & his pragmatic approach these applications would not have been transitioned to time or budget.”(August 16, 2005)

Operations Manager - [snip]  

“As a colleague starting up a new business Bill brought a great breadth of operational management experience. His pragmatic style was key to managing a difficult and diverse group of technologists which resulted in the transformation of a business from a loss maker to highly profitable in a year.”(October 18, 2005)

“Bill worked for me during a period of great change for BBCT. His influence and management skills delivered greatly improved standards of service and customer satisfaction right from day one. He is a straight talker who will own problems through to resolution and gets the job done, a great guy to have on your team.” (August 25, 2005)

“In order to succeed at Programme or Project Management, the PM's ability to deliver is totally reliant on getting the resources he needs, and once assigned, getting them to do the work required. Bill managed one of the most "high maintenance" teams of people in [snip] and without his management and arbitration skills I would not have been able to successfully deliver their VPN service.” (August 17, 2005)