As a Senior IT Operations Specialist I play a key role in helping the team to achieve its goals to restore incident resolution as soon as possible and keep an audience of IT professionals and management aware of technical issues.Responsible for addressing all IT crisis incidents that occur during business operational hours. Key driver of service delivery, mitigation of service issues and addressing areas for improvement :• Perform confidently and authoritatively in the role of… Show more As a Senior IT Operations Specialist I play a key role in helping the team to achieve its goals to restore incident resolution as soon as possible and keep an audience of IT professionals and management aware of technical issues.Responsible for addressing all IT crisis incidents that occur during business operational hours. Key driver of service delivery, mitigation of service issues and addressing areas for improvement :• Perform confidently and authoritatively in the role of incident management subject matter expert and lead customers in responding to fast paced incidents• Distributing Incident Management Communications to a IT and business audience.• Facilitating technical conferences to steer incident resolutions to technical issues.• Conducting Incident Quality reviews on incident tickets that meet the criteria• Natural problem solving skills with a strong attention to detail and a desire to seek simple solutions to complex problems• Great communication skills and the ability to explain technical matters in non-technical ways to all levels of the business• Determination to find the root cause of problems rather than just dealing with the symptoms• Identify and construct new process frameworks, as well as reviewing, recommending and documenting improvements to established processes Show less

Performed the role of the UK Technical Team Lead in high value projects providing the highest level of technical support and training, with an emphasis on Mission Critical accounts, ensuring projects were completed on time, within budget and customer retention was achieved.Successfully undertook and maintained the role of the named Network Support Advocate for various blue chip companies, financial and public sector institutions, providing them a broad variety of technical and… Show more Performed the role of the UK Technical Team Lead in high value projects providing the highest level of technical support and training, with an emphasis on Mission Critical accounts, ensuring projects were completed on time, within budget and customer retention was achieved.Successfully undertook and maintained the role of the named Network Support Advocate for various blue chip companies, financial and public sector institutions, providing them a broad variety of technical and operational subject matter expertise to ensure customer satisfaction through the efficient and effective delivery of the contracted services to the customer, ensuring customer retention.Successfully produced and delivered highly technical reference guides for complex products, customized product and end user training and support to companies allowing them to effectively complete their job functions and support their network environment.Selected as the Network Technical Account Manager for a number of strategic 3G telephone and financial companies acting as the focal point for all aspects of operations to ensure customer satisfaction through the efficient and effective delivery of the contracted services to the customer.One of six Technical Solutions Consultants, responsible for worldwide customer support of Riverbed WAN and Storage Optimisation, who attained and maintained their certification to support a multi-million dollar contract.- Worked proactively and reactively to provide a broad variety of technical and operational subject matter expertise.- Managed or participated in all severity 1 escalations.- Managed or participated in post mortems, to review the incident, identify successes and recommend improvements where required and created Post Incident Reports- Managed the customer needs, expectations and business impact with regular communication updates to HPE and end customer Executive Management during a critical incident with department leads and C-level managers. Show less

November 1999 saw the UK networks team combine with other European network teams to form the Network Competency Centre. Darren was promoted to the position of Technical Supervisor for the UK engineers.- Provided oversight and mentoring to support teams.- Provided support to customer-funded activities, offering expert consultancy in design and architecture projects.- Performed Peer-review of elevated/escalated customer cases.- Provided proactive identification and resolution… Show more November 1999 saw the UK networks team combine with other European network teams to form the Network Competency Centre. Darren was promoted to the position of Technical Supervisor for the UK engineers.- Provided oversight and mentoring to support teams.- Provided support to customer-funded activities, offering expert consultancy in design and architecture projects.- Performed Peer-review of elevated/escalated customer cases.- Provided proactive identification and resolution of customer infrastructure risks.- Provided proactive scheduling of software and firmware releases against customer and vendor certified releases, field notices and product advisories.- Provided 7x24 On-call support.- day to day planning for RCE training at country and product group level- day-to-day resources planning- technical lead at country level- technical lead EMEA wide at product level- provided feedback on team and process issues to hub manager- deputised for EMEA manager- coordination of presales and consulting requests at country level- responsible for strategic planning on a product group and/or service type- liaison with account management- named Cisco network engineer for a number of strategic 3G telephone and financial companies- maintain network support plans for the strategic customers- attended regular account meetings with department leads- produced action plans for changes to production environments when changes required- produced product reference guides for high complexity productsProduct skills :- HPE Networking (Procurve, Aruba, Comware)- Cisco routers and switches- Arista switches- F5 LTM- Blue Coat ProxySG/Packetshaper- Riverbed SteeHead, SteelCentral, SteelFusion- Confident in using tools like Wireshark, Fluke and debug outputs to troubleshoot complex problems.Strong interpersonal, leadership, analytical and technical problem solving skills, resourcefulness and the commitment and ability to work under pressure in critical situations. Show less

In July of 1996 he was taken on as a full time employee of Hewlett Packard, providing HP3000 technical and network support to customers. Further tasks and responsibilities included :- accepted responsibility for the maintenance of the HP network team's systems- accepted the responsibility for managing the HP3000 and DTC network sub teams at the response centre- established an HP3000 Networking FAQ and troubleshooting WEB page for first line support engineers- deputised for… Show more In July of 1996 he was taken on as a full time employee of Hewlett Packard, providing HP3000 technical and network support to customers. Further tasks and responsibilities included :- accepted responsibility for the maintenance of the HP network team's systems- accepted the responsibility for managing the HP3000 and DTC network sub teams at the response centre- established an HP3000 Networking FAQ and troubleshooting WEB page for first line support engineers- deputised for team manager- provided on-site and remote consultancy to customers Show less

Darren was recruited through Eaglecliff Limited in August 1995 to work on a one year contract with Hewlett Packard. Tasks included :- provided technical telephone support/problem resolution- at the request of Hewlett Packard, performed system upgrades on customers systems- expanded his communication skills with a Professional Telephone Skills course provided by Hewlett Packard- agreed to perform and scheduled upgrade dates for the new HP MPE operating system releases

Darren was promoted to Technical Specialist in 1994, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- a member of the team that migrated a clients IBM finance application to a Hewlett Packard UNIX platform- a member of the team moved three clients workloads from three separate mainframes at Southampton to one large IBM mainframe at a new datacentre in Devizes.… Show more Darren was promoted to Technical Specialist in 1994, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- a member of the team that migrated a clients IBM finance application to a Hewlett Packard UNIX platform- a member of the team moved three clients workloads from three separate mainframes at Southampton to one large IBM mainframe at a new datacentre in Devizes. This included documenting and testing procedures to be used during the move- assisted in a VM/HPO to VM/ESA upgrade, providing assistance as required, and responsible for the testing, migrating and productionisation of the VM/HPO ‘server’ machines to VM/ESA- responsible for all media management in disaster recovery tests, involving media movements between two sites- a short technical review project to determine a client’s backup strategy, detailing recommendations to be made- responsible for a clients disaster recovery tape to cartridge conversion project Show less

Darren was promoted to Operations Support Technician in 1989, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- produced technical and operational support documentation for the finance HP3000 system at Poole, and providing relevant training for operations staff- responsible for HP3000 application and operating system upgrades- provided assistance in solving… Show more Darren was promoted to Operations Support Technician in 1989, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- produced technical and operational support documentation for the finance HP3000 system at Poole, and providing relevant training for operations staff- responsible for HP3000 application and operating system upgrades- provided assistance in solving the problems with the Field Service’s ‘SWIFT’ modem links, working closely with both Hoskyns communication staff and the client- project leader for the relocation of the HP3000 at Poole. This involved establishing a new network for the HP to connect to- project leader for the migration of the HP3000/42 to a Precision Architecture machine- a key member in the installation and testing of the HP3000 fixed assets and financial management systems- in-house modifications to third party applications- assumed full responsibility for the operation and support of the HP3000 Show less

Darren joined Hoskyns in April 1988 as a Computer Operator, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- operational support for any of the company's mainframe, mini and micro computers, remote terminals and communications equipment- monitor use of and investigate malfunctions of all equipment- provide user support for any staff in the use of the… Show more Darren joined Hoskyns in April 1988 as a Computer Operator, and was involved with a number of assignments and projects, at a number of levels, from System Management/Administration through to Application Support. These included :- operational support for any of the company's mainframe, mini and micro computers, remote terminals and communications equipment- monitor use of and investigate malfunctions of all equipment- provide user support for any staff in the use of the computers Show less

Darren joined the Computer Services Department at the Bournemouth University, formerly the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, as a Computer Operator. His main responsibilities were :- operational support for any of the University's mini and micro computers, remote terminals and communications equipment- monitor use of and investigate malfunctions of all equipment- provide user support for any staff and students in the use of the computers- some VDU entry of data and… Show more Darren joined the Computer Services Department at the Bournemouth University, formerly the Dorset Institute of Higher Education, as a Computer Operator. His main responsibilities were :- operational support for any of the University's mini and micro computers, remote terminals and communications equipment- monitor use of and investigate malfunctions of all equipment- provide user support for any staff and students in the use of the computers- some VDU entry of data and typing- processing all user requests and batch work as per their requirements Show less