Francois Brand Email and Phone Number

Banking and Payments (B&P) Subject matter expertCustomer Commerce including in-storePayment orchestrationObservability and anomaly detectionPostilion switching service Multiple payment gateway servicesAlternative payment solutionsClosed loop servicesFinancial reconciliationMaintain B&P related certification and compliance (PCI DSS, EMV, P2Pe, POPIA,etc.)Main responsibilities:Alignment of all B&P data, application, and technology designs with architecture standards• Maintain business strategy and priorities for B&P.• Keep B&P roadmap aligned with strategic business direction.• Translate retail B&P, business requirements into effective solution architecture• Engage business stakeholders to agree on proposed solutions.• Create business, data, application, and technology architectures designs and model (ARIS) within the enterprise architecture repository.• Keep abreast of latest B&P trends and emerging technologies, driving appropriate adoption. Primary B&P solution architecture and design authority, ensuring architecture quality across all solutions that enable the banking business domain.• Senior design authority providing technical guidance and leadership in solution proposals.• Partner to architecture practice with definition and development of the overall retail solution landscape.• Identify deficiencies and recommend improvements.• Engage external technology and service providers driving projects to successful implementation.• Review external and internal designs from a risk and technology perspective• Perform architecture and design reviews across all B&P solutions.• Provide architectural oversight and guidance to development team across design, build, test and deploy phases, aligned to architecture principles and standards.• Mentorship • Contribute to solution architecture and standards and SDLC governance requirements.

IT Retail & Finance Responsibilities: Domain & Solution Architecture - Omni-channel strategy and road-map - Store of the Future strategy and road-map - Payments strategy and roadmap (RSA and Intl.) Operational SME for: - Switching (EFT) - Payments (Formal, mobile and digital) - In-store systems (incl. Point of Sale) - POS development teams including mobile POS - Operational support - including hardware and network - Legislation and compliance (PCI DSS, P2PE, EMV, POPI, GDPR, RICA etc.)Group Retail innovation: (assisting business with) - Domain and solution architecture and roadmaps - Rapid prototyping & POCCRM: - Customer loyalty and customer convenience - Customer journeyMarketing: (assisting business with) - Understanding big data, AI, machine learning etc.Group Finance: - Operations and innovation - Acquirer and switch risk mitigation - Switching and payment SME (RSA & Intl.)Vendor management: - In-store POS and peripheral hardware vendorsSARPIF committee member

Duties: - Produce Domain and solution architecture to all lines of business. - Collaborate with PMO and project teams ensuring architectural compliance - Assist business stakeholders with creation of business case and value propositions - Produce position papers supporting strategic systems and service upgrades or replacements - Liaise with business analysts on current IT projects and ensuring strategic alignment and governance - SME for Point of Sale - SME for EFT SwitchingAreas of involvement: - ERP (SAP) / POM (Legacy bespoke ERP) - Point of sale - Integration and middleware - Customer relationship management (CRM) - Direct marketing - Unified communication - Vendor evaluations / product / hardware selection

Position held: Product Manager (POS) Specified and directed development of the BCX POS productReason for Leaving: Position terminated internal to BCX alternative position within BCX group required relocation to Johannesburg. Massdiscounters re-employed me into the newly formed enterprise architecture team. - Tasked with designing a fit for purpose POS asset to address Africa specific challenges and service requirements. - Aligned with BCX group strategy, which was focused on asset development. - Strategic product vision, product specification, product development direction, testing, technology evaluation, future proofing and market analysis.Development work was done by the BCX centre of excellence team in Midrand Jhb.

1. Managed the POS development, POS operational support, POS maintenance and enhancements for the Massdiscounters account. - POS product development and operational support. - Product specification, management of development and testing.POS, EFT switching and Payments SME to BCX and Massdiscounters group2. Managed the data warehouse and BI reporting teams for the Massdiscounters account - Data warehouse product development and operational support - BI report development and operational supportDuties included: - Team management and administration of two development teams (upwards of 40) - Set and manage KPI’s - Performance management - Training and career development - Talent management and succession planning - Budget and spend against budget - Stakeholder engagementMoved to product management role internal to BCX - October 2010

Reason for Leaving: POS Dev. service outsourced to BCXDuties included: - MDD IT executive team member - Manage in-store application development and operational support teams - Set and manage KPI’s - Performance management - Training and career development - Talent management and succession planning - Budget and spend against budget - Establish and maintain policies and procedures for the team - Ensure SDLC processes are identified, documented and followed - Establish best practice software development change management process - Project management & service delivery (SLA). - Risk management - Strategic planning - hardware, technology, industry best practice, cost benefit analysis - New technology assessments of the POS application, OS, Database - Ensure compliance with group architecture approach and industry guidelines. (i.e. SOA, PCI DSS, EMV, etc.) - Manage vendors and service providers. Main achievements: - During my time as IT Systems manager, we never failed any store openings or store relaunch (revamps). - Consolidated 38 versions of POS down to one and implemented source control and change management standards and procedures - Switch integration with POS & ERP - Selected and purchased Postilion switching software (license) and constructed the first truly active / active Postilion switching service in SA for Massdiscounters ONLY, hosted on Stratus hardware with full hardware redundancy providing 99.99% service up-time SLA - This included eSocket.POS, Postilion Realtime, Postilion Office and Postilion Card (not implemented but investigated for tokenisation and CRM purposes) - Being part of the precursor to today’s SARPIF, representing merchant interest in the run up and ultimate implementation of - Achieving EMV certification of our own Postilion switch & integrated service.

Position(s) held: Team Leader (Sept ’02 to April '05)Natural II Developer (Feb ’02 to Sept ’02)Technology: Natural Adabas, ORACLE (SQL), Java, MS Office 2003 – 4MS Project 2003-4, EPMReason for Leaving: N/ASeptember ’02 to April 2005Role and ResponsibilitiesTeam leader responsibilities included the management of the project team delivering various projects in adherence to a strict SDLC process. February ‘02 to September ‘02Role and responsibilitiesI developed the Import Warehouse ITB phase I System which was integrated with the central transactional system (POM).

Position(s) held: Project Manager (Jan’01 to Sept’02)Production Support Manager (March ’00 to Jan ’01)Technology: Visual Basic, FoxPro, SQL and MS Windows ’98, NT & 2000, MS Office & MS Project Reason for Leaving: Main Projects completed and company interests in SAwas downsizedMarch ‘00 to September ‘02Role and responsibilitiesProject Managed: implementation and customization of major financial software product, called “LAMDA”. Full project lifecycle was planned and followed through successfully.Responsible to a staff complement of 50 (up to 60)Duties included:- Resource Management- Budget / Project Financial Management- Project Management- Product customization and development - Test planning- Quality Assurance- Release Management- Progress Reporting to (Lamda) Program Manager March ’00 to November ‘00Role and responsibilitiesProduction Support Manager with main client SANLAM and performed as project manager on a number of smaller projects:Production Support Manager:- Managed a team of 7 specialists- Provided support to over 250 users.- Quality Assurance- Release Management

Return home to South Africa and took an extended break to tour around the UK and to pack up and return and settle back into life in South Africa

Various Y2K related assessments and remediations across UK and the Sultanate of Oman

Various y2k Natural Adabas based review and remediation projects within the financial (banking) environments of the UK and USA

Project managed the data warehouse environment both for product development and product operations

six months contract to help with work on the customer claims system

3 month contract to assist with clean up of master data project

Various projects within the department of finance, firstly in Pretoria and later in Polokwane (Limpopo province)

Vehicle accident damaged my lower backI required two surgeries to my lower back (3 months apart) with prolonged bed rest and physiotherapy.I am Fully recovered, and in the years since my injury, I have continued with my active lifestyle which include canoeing, running, open water swimming, mountain biking, road biking and adventure racing. I have not had any time off from work due to back problems since January 1995.

Various consulting projects in the Western Cape

Developed the vehicle underwriting system for Santam Insurance

Stellenbosch University Administration systems

Programmer within the actuarial pensions validation department