David Orchard Email & Phone Number

Macclesfield, England, United Kingdom

Passionate technology leader specializing in crafting cutting-edge digital solutions. Driving digital transformation for SMEs, transforming ideas into reality. Expertise in web development, app/SaaS creation, and business process automation.

Manchester, United Kingdom

In this contract I was a mix of project manager and technical consultant. Taken on to tackle a backlog of legacy projects, I was tasked with planning changes to police systems and services. This required a broad technical knowledge coupled with the ability to plan work and coordinate disparate groups of people, whilst negotiating disruption to services that are both highly sensitive and critical.Coordinating projects such as upgrades to the ANPR system and migrations of services to the… Show more In this contract I was a mix of project manager and technical consultant. Taken on to tackle a backlog of legacy projects, I was tasked with planning changes to police systems and services. This required a broad technical knowledge coupled with the ability to plan work and coordinate disparate groups of people, whilst negotiating disruption to services that are both highly sensitive and critical.Coordinating projects such as upgrades to the ANPR system and migrations of services to the PSN.I also consulted with the force’s security manager on possible solutions to tackle challenges brought about by stringent PSN requirements. Here I was able to fall back on previous experience of PSN work.I was mostly liaising with varying branches and external suppliers but also able to get hands on where quicker than organising a third party. Also, I was one of only three people trusted to authorise changes to the force’s firewalls. Show less

Winsford, Cheshire, United Kingdom

This role was an interesting mix of Technical Lead, Consultant and Architect. Liaising with police operational staff and business units, suppliers and other police forces, my work included planning and leading on infrastructure and datacentre change projects to allow the force to gain Public Services Network (PSN) accreditation. This included upgrading and hardening critical systems, designing datacentre solutions to segregate vulnerable parts of the infrastructure, and other more specific… Show more This role was an interesting mix of Technical Lead, Consultant and Architect. Liaising with police operational staff and business units, suppliers and other police forces, my work included planning and leading on infrastructure and datacentre change projects to allow the force to gain Public Services Network (PSN) accreditation. This included upgrading and hardening critical systems, designing datacentre solutions to segregate vulnerable parts of the infrastructure, and other more specific projects such as re-platforming the ANPR databases away from an unsupported operating system.I wrote some of the functional and non-functional requirements in the ITT for a complete replacement of the Force Communications Centre (FCC). This included the ICCS (inbound calls) and Command & Control (deployment) systems. I also helped manage the migration of all corporate telephony to a new supplier and worked with other departments (and forces) to implement a system for extracting in-car video footage from traffic cars - where the snippets of that footage could be automatically linked to a crime reference number.I developed a framework to allow the force to plan and manage their IT Roadmap - due to concern over missing opportunities in light of dwindling revenue and an increasing project workload. I also consulted on a number of feasibility studies, such as the use of RFID for managing seized firearms inventory, and liaised with VMware on the use of cloud-based services. Show less

Stafford, Staffordshire, United Kingdom

Managing a small IT department covering infrastructure, projects, and development and support functions. My role involved liaising with the leadership team and suppliers to deliver and support a number of technologies including a NetApp and Vsphere server infrastructure. I gave recommendations on technical challenges such as DR and backup solutions and was involved in mentoring members of the team. I was greatly involved with implementing an ITIL framework for change and problem management… Show more Managing a small IT department covering infrastructure, projects, and development and support functions. My role involved liaising with the leadership team and suppliers to deliver and support a number of technologies including a NetApp and Vsphere server infrastructure. I gave recommendations on technical challenges such as DR and backup solutions and was involved in mentoring members of the team. I was greatly involved with implementing an ITIL framework for change and problem management which allowed the team to be more efficient whilst meeting the auditor’s recommendations. Show less

A hands-on role which involved managing a team of twelve infrastructure delivery and support engineers. I ensured Wintel infrastructure projects were delivered with high quality, in a lean manner while overseeing the timely resolution of server support issues and maintaining on-going operation of the company’s back-end server infrastructure. I engaged with project managers, the technical architect and external suppliers to lead the delivery of several projects. I sat on the Change Approval… Show more A hands-on role which involved managing a team of twelve infrastructure delivery and support engineers. I ensured Wintel infrastructure projects were delivered with high quality, in a lean manner while overseeing the timely resolution of server support issues and maintaining on-going operation of the company’s back-end server infrastructure. I engaged with project managers, the technical architect and external suppliers to lead the delivery of several projects. I sat on the Change Approval Board (CAB) where we met daily to analyse and approve technical change requests. The technologies supported included VMware, Microsoft and Citrix platforms sat on HP, Dell and Cisco hardware. The organisation has primary and DR data centres connected by MPLS to many branch offices. I take a hands-on approach where required and my technical skillset allows me to advise and mentor colleagues and projects teams. Whilst in the position, I applied several organisational changes to benefit the team with the way workloads are handled and projects are accepted. It should also be noted that I had to hit the ground running, taking on all of these responsibilities in my first week. This was whilst interviewing and getting to know my team, getting up to speed with on-going projects and meeting key people in the business. Show less

Covering a long-term manager’s absence. This included managing the helpdesk, 2nd & 3rd line support teams, external consultants and other specialist contractors over a multi-site organisation.At the same time I was coordinating and implementing the migration of the company’s datacentre from Louth to a new facility at Birmingham. The infrastructure is mostly virtualised on vSphere 5.1 and includes all aspects of a normal Wintel environment, ie MS Server 2003 & 2008 R2, Storage Server… Show more Covering a long-term manager’s absence. This included managing the helpdesk, 2nd & 3rd line support teams, external consultants and other specialist contractors over a multi-site organisation.At the same time I was coordinating and implementing the migration of the company’s datacentre from Louth to a new facility at Birmingham. The infrastructure is mostly virtualised on vSphere 5.1 and includes all aspects of a normal Wintel environment, ie MS Server 2003 & 2008 R2, Storage Server, Exchange 2010, SQL 2008 and Enterprise Vault. I also implemented a WSUS platform and did a full system upgrade of their Websense web, data and email security solution. The company uses Veeam and Backup exec for backups and uses all standard HP kit from DL380 rack servers, BL467 blades to P2300 SANs. I also had to get to grips very quickly with configuring their brand new 3PAR Storeserv 7000 SAN.The project finally involved building a complete DR solution which is currently a near-mirror of the production site. All this had to be accomplished under very tight deadlines as the company had been let down by previous resources at the last minute.In addition, I managed a Windows 8 Rollout (including Win8 Embedded on HP thin clients) and was greatly involved with Mitel and their Universal Communications/VOIP implementation, which involved virtualising their voice gateway (MBG) and applications (MAS) servers. Show less

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Harrogate, United Kingdom

Halifax, United Kingdom

Chester, United Kingdom