Pilat, a subsidiary of Magic Software Enterprises, is an independent software vendor (ISV) specialising in providing highly customised cloud-hosted web applications to Human Resources (HR) teams. With over 40 years of experience, Pilat provides simple, clean, and easy-to-use software solutions either as "out of the box" or fully customised to meet the unique requirements of each client. Their expertise lies in delivering tailored solutions to diverse sectors, from local government to highly regulated industries, empowering clients to enhance and optimise HR management processes for performance, talent, 360 feedback, job evaluation, and succession planning.Experience Includes: • Architecting and managing Microsoft Azure public cloud services to ensure high availability, resiliency, security, and scalability. This involves designing and implementing the Azure architecture using best practices from Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), enabling Pilat to meet the demands of the business, protect client data and ensure our clients meet compliance with industry regulations.• Owning and leading the implementation of IT governance and regulatory requirements, including ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials, to ensure compliance and adherence to industry standards.• Collaborating closely with the Research and Development teams to monitor and optimise cloud infrastructure performance, improve system performance and design and implement enhancements in line with the cloud roadmap.• Implementing and maintaining best practices in IT operations and service delivery, including managing budgets, procurement processes, and vendor relationships to ensure cost-effective operations.

Experience Includes: • As line manager, took overall responsibility for day-to-day IT operations, including establishing a dedicated IT team by separating IT responsibilities from the development team. Implemented a clear division of duties to ensure that resources with the most suitable skills were allocated to the appropriate projects, while focusing on improving infrastructure costs, enhancing performance, and optimising the end-user experience.• Collaboration with the IT and development teams to establish robust change control processes, utilising FogBugz, a web-based project management and issue tracking application. This platform facilitated effective management of software development projects, streamlined issue and bug tracking, and fostered seamless collaboration and communication between the IT and development teams for all application releases.• Successfully managed server migrations, including IIS and MSSQL, while consolidating resources, data centres, and migrating environments to VMWare. This encompassed overseeing seamless transitions, minimizing disruptions, and optimizing resource utilisation, resulting in significant cost reductions and improved operational efficiency.• Implemented and maintained effective controls, policies, and procedures within the IT department to ensure compliance with SOX ITGC audits and other regulatory requirements. This included overseeing change and incident management processes, establishing best practices, methodologies, and documentation for customer solutions, and developing SLAs and policies to uphold quality standards and customer satisfaction.• Actively contributed to research and development initiatives, staying up to date with emerging technologies and exploring innovative solutions to enhance system performance and user experience.

Southgate College is a large further education college situated in North London, renowned for its extensive range of courses spanning more than 15 subject areas. Catering to diverse groups, including 16–18-year-olds, adult students, learners with high needs, higher education seekers, as well as those pursuing public services and commercial skills.Experience Includes: • Successfully established and managed a Moodle Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), including creating course structures and a power users’ group made up of staff across multiple departments and technical abilities to encourage the rapid adoption and development of learning materials for the platform.• Led the migration to an open-source IT helpdesk web-based application, enabling end-users to create tickets through a web interface or email and allowing IT technicians to access the helpdesk from any computer within the college network and management with improved reporting capabilities.• Collaborated closely with Capita throughout the development of the Unit-E student record system, actively participating in sharing the college’s successes and failures with local and regional Capita Unit-E user groups.• Developed Microsoft Access and Visual Basic 6 tools to enhance and complement the abilities of the core student record system, including ID card printing, student reports, and profitability reporting.• Delivered training on applications, executed modifications as required, recorded processes and procedures for the IT helpdesk and developed tools. This encompassed technical writing and documentation to guarantee accurate documentation of procedures for training and reference purposes.• Played an active role in the modernisation and consolidation of the two college networks, which included the migration from Windows Server 2000 to 2003, the upgrade from Microsoft Exchange 2000 to 2003, and the creation of a new active directory forest domain.

Experience Includes: • Collaborated with the admissions team to develop a custom Microsoft Access-based application to migrate paper-based admissions processes to an accessible networked database.• Streamlined the IT helpdesk process by developing a custom Microsoft Access application to track requests and generate detailed reports, resulting in improved efficiency and faster resolution times for IT issues.• Managed and maintained a computer hardware and software inventory database in collaboration with the finance team to ensure accurate financial record-keeping and budget forecasting.