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A new focus on Common Business Services allows me to span the whole IT Architecture spectrum from a strategic to an operational perspective. Multiple projects in the HR space are currently on my radar in different project stages. The most exciting is working with HR in defining the strategic roadmap.

I accepted a secondment to manage the IT Common Business Team which supports the core and common Business Services (Finance, HR, Facilities, Legal, Risk, Continuous Improvement) and the Strategy and Transformation Group. This is a great opportunity to apply my leadership capabilities, strengthen my strategic acumen, and combine it with my role as IT Architect.

- defining technology roadmaps, IT governance, and solution architecture- specialising in collaboration, information sharing, and integration services- promoting cloud services where appropriate- strong advocate and focus on business experience- conscious of system security and information confidentiality

Contracting to the Christchurch City Council Objectives:- liaising with customers and stakeholders- investigating systems and services on suitability for the council- analysing different solutions on their merits, meeting customer requirements, and suitability for the council's information technology environment- contributing to strategy and architecture design

Implemented the global ICT strategy with a focus towards specific global business applications:* Implemented a Global Video Conferencing system* Ensured ongoing business value of the CRM system through clear roadmap and dedicated projects * Assessed business processes driving significantly improved information managementUtilised lean management and agile approaches for Infrastructure, Development and Services to continuously shift perception from a cost to a value component in the business.

Reporting to the CFO I was responsible for the smooth operation of Tait Communications ICT systems and services. It was a challenging and rewarding learning curve preparing the team towards the evolving strategic objectives. Several opportunities enabled me to engage at the customer end of the business processes including sales project reporting, sales effectiveness, information sharing with business partners, and managed services. I was shortlisted for the newly created Global CIO role but was ultimately not successful.

During the 5 years as second in command to the CIO I took responsibility for the operational efficiency of the ICT services to the organisation. This included Disaster Recovery preparation and ongoing improvements. Continuous improvements like system consolidation and virtualisation in infrastructure services or 5S implementation at the Service Desk were accompanied with substantial changes like utilising of cloud services for global e-mail and calendaring or the agile development approach. More importantly, a number of strategic projects were delivered to support the organisational objectives bringing the global staff closer together via a common email and calendar system and improving the exchange and retrieval of information via a global collaboration system. ITIL processes assisted tremendously in achieving regulatory compliance and effective use of resources while meeting or exceeding business objectives and employee satisfaction. ICT has been able to contribute directly to business outcomes. A major current move for ICT is to shift its focus towards the business value and away from KTLO (keeping the lights on).

My first year at Tait was as project leader for the continuous use of the new ERP system BaaN 4 in the Mobile Radio Division. I continued in multiple assignments including the Millenium project, the BaaN amalgamation and a series of ICT service improvement projects. During the time I managed the Service Desk (implementing our first incident and ICT asset management system), the infrastructure team (building change management capabilities), and the development team (focusing on release management and quality control). These ITIL process implementations are still used today.

internal IT Servicesbuilding networks focus on security and availabilityintegrating PC based systems with mainframe technologyisolated and networked IS development for inhouse applications