David Pickard Email & Phone Number

Basel, Bs, Ch

Basel, Switzerland

London, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Technical Consultant on GoldenSource products

Technical Consultant on GoldenSource products

At HSBC I worked on a number of development projects using the GoldenSource software. This requires the following, as well as the skills outlined in my previous role below:-Assisting in the system/integration testing set upIn depth development of in house code using Unix, Oracle PL/SQL, XMLLiaised with the vendor to ensure that HSBC received the essential support that was required and that it was delivered in a timely mannerBecome familiar with and performed WebSphere deployments using ear filesProviding in house training on GoldenSource products to HSBC staff.

With GoldenSource I spent time on site with a number of their clients. These included, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Daiwa, HSBC & HSBC Security Services and Pioneer Investments. In all of these projects I assisted and led in the implementation of software from a technical perspective. This included:-Documenting solutions in functional/technical specificationsConfiguring the product to enable it to perform tasks that the client requiresDesigning and developing GUI modifications to suit client needsDeveloping and transforming data to publish to downstream systems using Oracle XML SQL, Java and XSLT. The product allows Java plug-ins to be developed for many aspects, including inbound rules processing and the outbound publishing process. I have been involved in the development of these at a number of client sites.Developing Unix shell scripts to run and monitor the overnight batch process to receive and process all data from data vendors including Bloomberg, Reuters, Moody's, and Markit REDDue to the flexibility of the GoldenSource software suite, each implementation is different from the next one. This gave me a great opportunity to discover what the product is capable of and allowed me to learn how to tailor it to the client's needs. It also enabled me to work with all the systems the different clients had for integration purposes, increasing my knowledge of each system. This included Latent Zero, Charles River, IBM MQ, and Tibco.

Develop and support Front & Middle Office applicationsProvide out of hours support for critical systemsBug fixesDealing with live issues under a pressured environmentDevelop changes to improve current systems and interfacesDeveloping relationships with our software vendorsEnvironment set up for testing cycle.My main priority in this role was to support their major Front & Middle office production systems. However, I was also involved in M&G's major project implementations and to ensure that my team had the necessary skills to be able to further develop and support our new systems. As a result, I have experience of full project life cycle from specifying requirements to live support. The major projects I have been involved in include:-Data Mart - Implementation of GoldenSource data repository system to house the Fixed Income instrument data. This was implemented on an Oracle 9i database on a Sun Solaris server, with an XML based browser application running on Apache Tomcat. The system requests data from Bloomberg and processes the reply messages using Oracle's AQ technology. This included:-Set up and management of the code for each of the environmentsTroubleshooting any issues with the environment set up and codeApplying various GoldenSource supplied patches to the environmentsMaking GoldenSource screen changes.Oracle 9i upgrade (Sun Microsystems) - upgrading our major in house system called FODB (Front Office Database) to Oracle 9i database on a Sun Solaris Server, as well as upgrading the application from Forms 4.5 to Forms 9i, and our application reporting from Reports 2.5 to Reports 9i on Oracle Application Server.Credit Ratings - working with Telekurs to implement a credit ratings interface into our Front Office Database.Xamin - A performance analytics system used by the Front Office. As well as supporting this application, I was also integral in upgrading the application and server code through 2 Sungard releases.

Develop and support all Lotus Notes databasesSupport of Mainframe COBOL systemsBug fixesDevelop changes to improve current systems and interfaces.Full cycle testingM&G had a large number of Lotus Notes databases varying in complexity. An examples being a change requestdatabase to log and audit all IS projects and enhancements, as well as a sign off database to ensure that all changes went through the correct procedures, testing phases and obtained the correct signatures before release to production. There were also a high number of databases required by the business to store documentation, log and track project or departmental risks or issues, as well as discussion forums for any issues that there was a requirement for. My job was to develop and maintain these systems as part of a team of 2 Lotus Notes developers, as well as maintaining our legacy mainframe systems, written in COBOL.

Carrying out varying transactions on Life & Pension policiesProviding often complex quotes for our customersDealing with customer complaints.Carrying out quite complex My first job on arrival at M&G was as an administrator for our Life & Pensions policies. A lot of time was spent dealing with customers and their requests. These included fund switching, calculating premium quotations for new business, increases in life cover or maturity value. I was also responsible for correcting corrupt life & pension policies on a system called PAXUS. This was done be resetting the policy and winding it forward through the transaction that had occurred in the policies lifetime.

Education record

Education record

GCSE examinations including: Mathematics grade A ; English Language grade C; English Literature grade C.