I have extensive experience of negotiating with customers, analysing business and technical requirements and producing proposals.
I have recently been working with the following technologies:
technologies:
I also have a deep understanding of telecoms technologies gained from working with a number of large European and global telcos, including Cable & Wireless, Cegetel, FLAG Telecom, Sunrise and KPN. I have helped companies such as these to model and provision networks using many technologies, including:
bbned
bbned are a new Dutch telco providing DSL services to customers. I
worked with bbned, KPMG and Cisco to turn their business plan into an operational
network in less than three months. To do this, we provided them with our
core product and then customized it to interact with the rest of their
OSS systems. We developed an entire layer of business-specific functionality
in a remarkably short time. We had to interface with a number of other
applications including Tibco InConcert, Remedy and the Tibco Information
Bus. We delivered ahead of schedule, allowing bbned to provision customers
earlier than planned.
Cegetel
Cegetel are the second largest GSM provider in France. They need to
understand where their capacity is located and what capacity is being utilized
in order to maximize the return on their hardware. I helped to deliver
a system that allows them to view their entire national network right down
to individual 16Kb timeslots. The delivered system includes an interface
to the network that allows regular synchronization with the physical hardware.
September 1996 December 1999
Senior Analyst ? Cadability Ltd
When I joined Cadability it was a very small company with four employees.
Over the past three years we have enjoyed remarkable success, with the
company growing to around 50 people. I have been involved in a large number
of very successful projects including:
Fault Centre System:
I led a small team of people to develop a system in Visual Basic
5 that allowed reporting, tracking and resolution of customer-reported
faults for a large telecommunications company. I was involved from
initial concept through requirements gathering, development and testing
to deployment and support. The system interacts with Access, Oracle and
DB2/400 via ODBC and interfaces directly to AS/400 applications using EHLLAPI.
The system allows the client to meet their statutory commitments, monitored
by OFTEL. It was designed with a very high level of fault-tolerance. Over
120 people use it concurrently every day.
Online Credit Checking:
This was a major project to implement online credit checking
of potential customers for a large, multi-site call centre (500+ telesales
staff). The system logs customer details and queries a third-party mainframe
for credit details. The system was developed with Visual Basic 5 and interacts
with third-party software running on NT Server and S/390 via TCP/IP and
SNA Server. Because of the extremely heterogeneous nature of the
systems involved, this project presented some very challenging technical
problems. We delivered the project on time and to budget. The payback time
on this system was less than a month
Workforce Management:
This system, developed in Visual Basic 5, is responsible for
assigning several hundred engineers to about 2,000 jobs every day. It interacts
with Oracle using ODBC and with AS/400s using ODBC, Data Queues and native
AS/400 programs. It assigns the jobs according to flexible criteria, and
then uses a sophisticated algorithm to minimize the time each engineer
spends traveling between jobs. This system is absolutely mission-critical
for the client. If it fails for even one day, they would have 2,000 angry
customers and several hundred engineers unable to work. We have kept this
system working without any significant problems for over two years. During
this time several major enhancements have been added to accommodate the
client's changing needs. I have recently been working on a project to explore
how this project could be converted to a Intranet-hosted application, using
Java Applets and Servlets hosted on servers running Apache, IBM WebSphere
Application Server IBM MQSeries. The project scope included separating
parts of the system into ActiveX components written in Visual C++ 6
July 1995 - September 1996
Self-employed
I spent this time developing my software development skills,
mainly with Borland Delphi and Microsoft Visual C++. I used these skills
to develop a number of bespoke systems for local companies and organizations.
I also began an Open University degree in ?Computing for Commerce
and Industry?. I have completed 25% of this, and am continuing as time
allows.
December 1993 - July 1995
Field Sales Representative, North Devon Journal
I was responsible for selling advertising space to businesses
in the North Devon area. This role involved developing close relationships
with many local companies, understanding their businesses and suggesting
ways that advertising could assist them in business development. I assisted
companies in developing marketing plans and designing advertisement campaigns.
I was responsible for meeting sales targets and ensuring that the customer's
requirements were met at every stage.
Previous employment
Diplomatic Group - Telesales
This role involved selling very high-value advertising space
to key decision makers in UK and European companies.
Imperial College Facilities Audit
The University needed to present a report to justify proposed
building funding from central government. To do this we needed an accurate
survey of all the facilities, from electrical outlets to hypersonic test
facilities. This was a challenging and fascinating task. We got the funding,
and I spent a lot of time in the computer centre.
Education
Higher Education
2 years of degree course in Mathematics at Imperial College, London.
3 modules of Open University Postgraduate degree in Computing for Commerce
and Industry:
Software Design and Implementation
Distinction
Object Oriented Programming Technology
Merit
Relational Databases
Merit
I am continuing with this course as time allows.
Further Education: King's College, Taunton
A Levels:
Mathematics (A), Further Mathematics (A), Physics (A), Chemistry (A)
S Levels:
Mathematics (Merit), Physics (Distinction)
Cambridge University Sixth-Term Examination Papers:
Further Mathematics 1 (Pass), Further Mathematics 2 (Merit)
Secondary School: Braunton School and Community College
O Levels:
Mathematics (A), Additional Mathematics (B), English Language (A),
English Literature (A), Statistics (A), Physics (A), Chemistry (A) German(C),
Geography(B), Technology (C), Biology (A)
Interests:
I sail in the Bristol Channel with my family and friends. I enjoy the
challenge of commanding, navigating and crewing yachts whenever I get the
opportunity.
I thoroughly enjoy playing tennis very badly.
I also spend a lot of time keeping up to date with emerging technologies,
such as e-commerce, distributed computing and multi-tier systems.
Other Relevant Experience
I have (often unintentionally) been involved in running internal networks;
this has included administration of servers, configuring routers and running
databases. I currently administer about 50 Oracle databases on various
servers. Very occasionally, this is fun.