Curtis Raams Email & Phone Number

Sydney, Nsw, Au

Leading the technology domain encompassing security, infrastructure, software engineering, and delivery

Sydney, Nsw, Au

Moruya, Nsw, Au

Established in 1996, AINS has been a trusted supplier of Telephony, Internet and Private Network services to SMB, Enterprise and Government clients providing a wide range of value added solutions such as Managed Services, Security, Cloud and Consulting. AINS is an approved telecommunications service provider with an Australian Government Telecommunications Arrangements (AGTA) Head Agreement and is the preferred supplier on a number of significant government and industry panels.I have a broad responsibility for all ICT strategy, implementation and performance of both the AINS internal infrastructure, infrastructure for resale and end customer environments. AINS operate largely as a provider of complex ICT outsourcing including managed VPNs, Unified Communications, Cloud Computing, outsourced software development and general ICT partnerships. During my role with AINS I manage a large portfolio of enterprise and government accounts simultaneously, both directly and through my supporting resources in the Network Operations and Service Desk teams.

MOTIV Communications was incorporated in Melbourne, Australia in March 2007. The company began trading in May 2007 as a telecommunications service provider which owns and operates a next generation IP telephony network, allowing it to provide feature rich and highly competitive domestic and international calling products, namely their flagship international calling card suite. MOTIV began selling residential and corporate internet solutions in 2008. As an aggregator of multiple networks including Telstra, Optus, Powertel and Eftel, MOTIV is able to provide a comprehensive product set with extensive coverage in over 1400+ telephone exchanges.Key Responsibilities and Achievements: • Lead a team of developers and engineers to design, implement, and operate proprietary international calling card platform adding $2million to revenue in the first three months of operation and opening many new business opportunities to Motiv through new partnerships and volume recognition. • Introduced relationships directly with tier1 vendors which reduced overall cost of goods by over 45% saving in excess of $8million. • Established a low cost national IP voice and data network primarily utilising open source applications which enabled the business to deliver on its vision of quality while keeping cost low and maintaining flexibility through this critical growth and adjustment phase. • Developed policy, procedure and training documentation enabling the business to execute its ICT strategy • Business Intelligence and Analytics providing regular industry and competitor analysis and forecasting • Business Continuity and Disaster Planning development and execution to ensure compliance with governance and industry best practices.

Blitz Telecom now acquired was a rapidly growing provider of data and voice communications to the small and medium business space. Upon joining Blitz Telecom they only had voice capabilities through resale agreements with Telstra and Optus. Under my leadership Blitz developed an international IP voice and data network and introduced a full suite of technology products for the target market. I oversaw the technical integration of a number of targeted acquisitions such as Hello.Net, GNode Networks, UTS, Telkom and more. All of these acquisitions added value to the business and required careful project management. Responsible for the budget and resourcing of the ICT division I built a team of skilled engineers and software developers which consistently delivered on budget, on time, and with significant stakeholder engagement.Blitz operated on an in-house developed billing platform written in .Net which continued to evolve anticipating and responding to business needs, acting as an enabler for business growth, specifically the ease of acquisition integration. Blitz also operated on a number of open source platforms such as vTiger/Sugar CRM, Drupal CMS, Freeradius, Bind, Dovecot/Postfix, Asterisk IP PBX.Undertaking a global expansion initiative Blitz commenced operations in the USA, United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Primarily in international IP voice, calling card processing, and private IP data services.

The success of UTS and the ongoing success of Koala Telecom (both companies owned by the same equity group) saw the board of the Unique Group appoint me as the General Manager to oversee a merger of the two companies with the targeted goal of achieving government funding for blackspot projects which would then enable a targeted exit through a trade sale of the joint entity.Having developed a strategic plan with defined and measurable objectives aligned to a targeted trade sale, within 18 months both entities were merged in to the single entity of Koala Telecom with a stronger brand position. I personally led the project which successfully received government funding to build a 1700sq/km regional wireless network targeting broadband blackspots. The business continued to thrive in its traditional offerings and was now in the top 10 providers of IP Voice and broadband in Australia.Successfully realising the strategic plan resulted in a trade sale which exceeded initial projections and provided significant returns to shareholders.

UTS part of the Unique Group of Companies was a specialist provider of business PBX communications looking to expand its products to include the newly developing IP Voice technologies and professional services. Initially being led by a small team of technical engineers the business struggled to achieve profitability and adapt to market changes.I served in the capacity of IT Manager for this company while at the same time serving as the General Manager of ICT for Koala Telecom which was also owned by the same equity group but being independently managed.Under my management the IT division was restructured to a series of outcomes focused teams with specified KPI’s aligned to business objectives. A targeted change in resources allowed the company to reduce deployment time of existing projects by 60% and increase the value proposition by making available a new set of skills and products which contributed to the company achieving profitability in less than 14 months.

Koala Telecom was originally my own business founded in the early concept days of commodity VoIP based on the SIPv2 protocol. As an early software developer and entrepreneur I saw a significant opportunity in developing consumer and small business hosted voice services and successfully launched my business in 2000.Shortly after my launch the business was acquired by the Unique Group of Companies which was the head of a multi-market equity investment group. The business with additional funding significantly expanded its offerings and entered a government funded program to build a 1400 sq/km wireless network targeted at removing broadband black spots in regional South Australia. In addition the business continued to develop its own proprietary systems and products and remained a leader and innovator in the industry.I accepted a continued offer of employment with the position of Networking Operations Manager and then General Manager of ICT charged with driving change, expanding their Australian operations and interconnecting their vast international IP telephony networks and partnerships.Key Responsibilities and Achievements: • Initial founder of Koala Telecom after identifying an upcoming market need and capitalising on this as an early innovator of the technology. Koala Telecom was the fasting growing providers in 2007 growing at the rate of 3000 subscribers per week in what at the time was a highly innovative untested market.• Development of technology, processes, teams, and products• Successfully won a government tender to build a 1500kmsq wireless network adding over $4million in revenue over nine months• Responsible for network architecture and implementation supported by a team of engineering and support staff.• Vendor, Partner, and governance management• Organisational and Technical change management• Full design and implementation of network monitoring tools• VoIP (SIP) and Call Centres• Software Development in PHP, Perl, Bash, SQL scripting

Macquarie Park, Nsw, Au

Providing team leadership, mentorship, development, and management to a team of internet technicians. This was the early days of internet in Australia where processes and systems were still be developed. I played a key role in the development of those processes and consistently achieved awards for innovation and leadership.

Macquarie Park, Nsw, Au

Starting my IT career as a technical support operator receiving telephone calls from users of Optus internet services experiencing a full spread of support issues from subscription, to installation, and fault management. This was an era when internet was just coming to age and no specific training was available to prepare technicians for this work.Optus invested heavily in targeted training and development which I was a strong advocate for, often undertaking additional training in addition to my core role seeking further development and advancements.

Master’S Degree, Information Technology

Fortinet Network Security Professional, Fcnsp, Fcnsa

Prince2, Prince2 Practitioner

Cisco, Ccna, Ccda, Ccnp, Ccdp, Ccie

Itilv3, Itilv3