Leading the strategic direction of Twenty7tec's best of breed software solutions in the Wealth and Mortgage space, I was responsible for leading the team to deliver solutions that meet the needs of Mortgage and Wealth Advisers.

As Head of Product at Gilmond, I led a team of Product Owners and Managers to deliver the vision and strategic goals of the business and its customers.

As one of the Product Owners at Gilmond, I was responsible for running multiple Scrum Teams delivering systems and services to the energy retail sector. Responsibilities also include delivering continuous Agile Improvement.

From overall responsibility for the delivery of Cloud Collaboration, Document Management and Workflow .NET solutions to companies such as Dixons Carphone, Mothercare, DS Smith and Move with Us, to the additional operational responsibility of Technical Support and Human Resources. During my time with Castrum, I managed multiple simultaneous Projects, from the delivery of off-the-shelf software to the creation of bespoke web-based solutions. From the initial Project Brief to requirements capture and successful delivery, I managed the entire process.I reorganised the operational aspect of the business to remove obstacles and allow the business to grow. I also improved the Support operation, resolved contract and renewal issues, and put in place a number of mechanisms to improve and streamline the processes used by the business.I also gained invaluable experience in Partner and Customer management, Contract Negotiation and Renewal.

As Head of Platform Services, I managed the delivery, design, development and maintenance of the Unicorn Platform to meet the needs of Banking, Financial Services and Insurance clients’ training and competence requirements through the Unicorn range of products and services. This comprised of managing the Development, Configuration and Helpdesk functions of the business.Defining and implementing process for multiple teams, I also acted as a point of escalation for various issues across the Platform Team. I also continued to work as an integral part of the Projects & Configuration team, working closely with Project and Account Managers to deliver solutions to meet client requirements in a timely and profitable manner.I improved the way in which Scrum had been adopted by ensuring best practice was followed, introducing Planning Meetings, Daily Scrums, Reviews and Retrospectives across the multiple Teams. I introduced the SkillsServe Blog, a method by which customers could be easily kept up to speed with new releases of the platform, and I also migrated the business to JIRA OnDemand.

As Lead Configuration Manager, I managed a team of five responsible for the delivery of innovative and creative e-learning solutions to meet our Banking, Financial Services and Insurance clients’ training and competence requirements through our range of products and services. Also working as an integral part of the Projects & Configuration team, I worked closely with our Project and Account Managers to deliver solutions to meet client requirements. During my time in the role, I managed the deployment and delivery of multi-tenanted and single-tenancy solutions to companies such as ABN Amro, AtoS, Chartered Insurance Institute, RBS, Tesco Finance, and Volkswagen Financial Services.

At EIMS, I helped to build a strong relationship with Cisco. When I joined the business, their Development Methodology was based loosely around Scrum, and Enhancements and Defects were drip-fed to customers. Along with the Development Manager, we moved the team to using a mixture of Kanban and Scrum, and began delivering releasable software every four weeks to customer’s specification. With a relatively small team, we managed to reduce the Backlog from around 150 Enhancements and Defects down to 25 in six months. Whilst resolving various historic issues within the business and its Products, I also helped the team to begin delivering a NEW Web Platform to replace an existing suite of Web and Desktop Workflow/BPM applications that used legacy technologies which had become difficult to support and maintain. The role focused primarily on Project Managing Customer relationships, capturing requirements, planning and delivering work within agreed budgets and timescales, and providing various levels of reporting. It required good communication, presentation, diplomacy, and interaction with Customers, Senior Management, Development Team Leads, Developers, QA and Technical Support.I introduced a method by which we could easily manage the Product Backlog, as well as introducing Sprint Planning, Reviews, Retrospectives, and correctly fashioned User Stories.

I moved into the Mediasurface/Alterian Product Management Team to take ownership of the Corporate Edition Web Content (CMS) and Document Management (DMS), and Social Media Publisher applications. At the beginning of the role, I became a Certified Scrum Product Owner, and became responsible for Work Streams for two Development Teams. At the same time, I also carried on having an involvement in QA. I then assumed responsibility of the Professional and Enterprise Editions of the product, and worked with four Teams in both England and India. I managed requirements for up to four streams of work, two in Dorset (Poole), one in Bristol and a Team in Bangalore. I also worked closely with the Customer Service Management Team to deliver regular and timely fault resolution. I also had direct communication with both Customers and Partners, both on-site, and remotely. Scrum had already been adopted by the business, so my role included the creation of User Stories, management of the Product Backlog, running Sprint Planning and Reviews, as well as ensuring that the Teams had productive Sprint Retrospectives. When the business was acquired by Alterian, I gained a good knowledge of Marketing Solutions, and the requirements of the Marketeer.

I started with Immediacy (Mediasurface) as their Senior Test Engineer, helping to setup a QA Team and improve their processes, to ensure the delivery of quality .NET Web Content Management tools. Along with others, I implemented Automated Test suites using WatIR, WatIN, and Selenium. Within the role, I liaised with both the Professional Services and Technical Support Teams, investigating issues, providing workarounds and feedback to Defect and Enhancements requests. I also aided the Technical Author in delivering documentation, and material for our Training collateral. The position was very much an Internal Role, and did not require me to be Client facing. Whilst Unit Testing was carried as part of Development, I carried out Acceptance, Integration, Regression and Usability Testing. All Tests were delivered as part of various Test Plans, but over time we moved away from carrying out Test Plans by implementing Automated Tests.

During my second stint with the company, I held the role of Helpdesk Technician supporting a Market Leading SQL Based Billing Platform.

During this time, VIP adopted Speech Recognition (ASR), and Text to Speech (TTS) Engines, allowing the development of Self-Service Speech Solutions. The SEMAP Portfolio incorporated .NET Web Applications & Services, using SQL Server for Data Storage. The Portfolio supported Aculab, Brooktrout, Dialogic and Eicon PCI & ISA Voice Cards. My role of QA Lead grew, and I became involved at the Design Stages of Projects, so that Test Plans, Test Cases and Test Environments could be prepared for the delivery of the initial Release Candidate. The position of QA Lead required my Team and I to ensure delivery of Products that met specific Acceptance Criteria to a high standard. I also helped to create an ISO 27001 Accredited Quality Assurance department. Within the role of QA Lead, I assumed the responsibility of leading two QA Engineers, and was also required to engage with both the Operations and Technical Support Teams, supporting Installation and Support issues and queries. Communication was an important factor in the QA Team, as it was essential that I communicated well with both the Developers and the Product Design Team. Technical Author/Internal Trainer Alongside my Role as QA Lead, I had the responsibility of creating & maintaining technical literature pertaining to the Installation & Configuration of the SpeakEasy and SEMAP Platforms. I also delivered internal Training Sessions to staff responsible for installing and supporting the delivered products.

In my role as Customer Service Engineer, I visited customers and resellers to provide Installation, Fault Resolution and Training. I supported Call Management products such as Advance Classic and Advance 2000, as well as Voicemail products, VoxPro and VoxBox, via both Telephone and Email. When the business decided to relocate their Support Operation to Poole, I took on the role of selecting and implementing a Helpdesk Application from Sunrise. This was subsequently used to capture all existing and new Customer records and Support tickets. Working at Oak Telecom gave me a good introduction to various PBX solutions from Alcatel, Ericsson, Lucent, Mitel, Nortel, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Siemens, Telrad and Toshiba. It also gave me my first experiences of working with Resellers and Switch Manufacturers within the Telecoms Industry.