Principal Solution Consultant / PreSales / Solution Engineer role (EMEA / APAC) reporting directly into the SVP of Global Sales for a market-leading, cloud-based Smart Locker / Dispensing solutions provider. Wearer of multiple hats on a daily basis with a real get-stuff-done attitude. Verticals targeted include: Retail, Food Service, Warehouse / Distribution, Corporate, Education, Hospitality, Healthcare.Responsibilities include:- Subject matter expert for Retail, Food Service, Asset Management and Forward Stocking of IT solutions- Own non-technical and technical PreSales activities from initial RF* completion through to contract sign / delivery- Tailored, hands-on demo delivery to prospects- Work closely with key project personnel and C-suite level stakeholders for the successful delivery of project be this a single site install or fully-integrated multi-phase rollout- Commercial awareness of opportunity and associated risks- Solution design based on business requirements and time dependencies- Integration ownership via RESTful APIs / SNS - examples include; POS, eCOM, IT Service Mgmt, Transport- Documentation creation includes: RFI/RFP, Case Studies, Business Cases, ROI calculation tools, Solution Overview, Integration, Hardware, Cloud, Data (GDPR)- Project ownership and management between internal and external teams - BRD, SOW, Project Handover- Scoping, documentation and management of external development for bespoke solutions- Onboarding of channel partners including: Sales Enablement, Demo training, Commercials, Supporting tools- Ownership of Apex Customer Experience Centre demo environment- Competitor analysis and market awareness- UK / Overseas trade shows and events

Representing PCMS as an Application Consultant, responsibilities being; initial requirements gathering / project scope, systems / data integration, bespoke development, support and pre-sales for new functionality and technologies. • Work with the customer to identify and agree development requirements to existing PCMS BeanStore PoS / BoS software and 3rd party WMS software to both Central and Store environments.• Engage with the customer and gain a full understanding of business processes and how they fit in with day-to-day operations. • Work with business experts to agree how bespoke software can integrate into their current retail model from both a functional and non-functional perspective.• Identify the impact and approach required for introducing change into the business model; be this implementation, upgrades or defect resolution.• Break down barriers (turn technical talk into plain old English) between the customer and project teams, and also the internal development and support teams.• Work closely with the customer and internal Data Management Teams to understand up / down stream data interfaces and configure accordingly to ensure a smooth transition. • Work alongside the Project Manager to manage resource, prepare release plans, identify and resolve knowledge gaps and remove technical debt.• Identify where bespoke development can be harvested back into the core software model.• Work with the Lead Technical Developer to design, build and maintain FTP, Build, Development and Test environments using openSUSE and SLEPOS Linux distros.• Work closely with the Business Analysts and Test Teams to prepare test data, maintain and run scheduling scripts, support applications, queues and interfaces and interrogate databases over both Oracle and IBM platforms.• Provide a continuous communication channel between the customer, key stakeholders and 3rd parties into the internal project team.

Predominately working with PCMS mid-tier retailers performing Non-Functional testing re the following software: -IBM WebSphere Application Server * Enterprise application upgrades / Maintenance Releases * Internal MQ / SIB queue configuration * JMS / JDBC Resource configurationApache Tomcat Application upgrades / Maintenance ReleasesOpen MQ MessagingIBM dB2 * Schema integration * Data interrogation * Data interfacing using XMLMaintain the following areas of customer-specific BAU environments on both Microsoft and Linux platforms hosting the PCMS suite of Vision products: -* Application servers* Queue factories* Databases* Data feeds* Patch deployment* Maintenance Release deployment* Customer PoS terminals / peripherals* 3rd-party applications / software / hardware* LAN / WAN NetworkingMid-tier customer sectors include: -* Fuel* Hospitality* Retail* Retail - Food service* Retail - Mobile* Self Checkout

Employed as a Senior Tester developing and testing the Beanstore PoS application ready to implement into Pick n Pay, one of South Africa's largest retailers in food, general merchandise and clothing. Worked on developing and testing almost 50 bespoke PoS changes unique to Pick n Pay.Test and implement the following: -* Vision BeanStore* Vision Estate Manager* Application serversWorked closely with Agile testing methods and adopt the SCRUM technique of managing projects and software development and delivery.

Played a pivotal lead role as the internal PoS Specialist / Consultant regarding brand change requests to the key stakeholders within the four key Aurora Fashions owned brands. Advise and worked on the analysis, approach, testing and implementation of BTE’s Store 6 EPoS solution globally, for the Karen Millen, Whistles, Coast, Oasis and Warehouse brands.Spent time in the USA testing and implementing the Karen Millen pilot store in SoHo New York. Also tested and implemented PoS in stores in Boston and Wrentham MA. Tested and implemented PoS in numerous countries in Europe including, Belgium, Amsterdam and Denmark.Solely developed, tested and implemented the 2009-2010 BT Retail Week Technology Award "EPoS Initiative of the Year" winning Mobile Gift Voucher solution into Oasis stores.Worked as part of the team awarded the 2009-2010 BT Retail Week Technology "IT Team of the Year" award.

Don't laugh...this was an awesome job that got me into the world of retail and ultimately got me a job at Sainsbury's Head Office. Jamie Oliver would have been proud !!!I will most definitely be book-ending my career with a re-visit to this role.