Gregory Billson Email & Phone Number

Calgary, Canada Area

I chose to launch Billson Technologies Inc. because for my entire career the greatest joy in work has been to provide solutions that delight clients from the first time they use them and then every day thereafter. I love to see the look on their faces and to be part of the growing trust and working relationship that grow as we work together to create solutions that they will truly love.Doing this requires an attention to all aspects of quality; from taking the time to not only understand what’s important to our clients, but to understand the reasons why. Using this knowledge to jointly formulate solutions that will make the most meaningful differences for them and then ensuring an expertly crafted result is supplied. Then finally ensuring that everything is delivered as per our mutual expectations and providing on-going care and support to complete the picture.While I've worked for some great leaders in the past for me to truly enact this vision required me to start the next chapter of life and create Billson Technologies Inc; a safe harbor where like-minded professionals can work together to serve clients who have always intrinsically known what true quality feels like and who finally get to actually receive it. ShelfGenie of AlbertaI chose ShelfGenie as a franchise because they embrace the same values and aspirations that led me to form Billson Technologies. ShelfGenie clients, having suffered home storage spaces that have made them irritated, upset, angry, perhaps even embarrassed, and which may have caused them physical pain instead get the enduring joy of a solution where everything is within reach, where staying organized is easy, and which makes them feel good every time they use it, day after day and year after year.From our fun and friendly no-obligation/no-cost design consultation, our custom build, through to our professional installation and full lifetime warranty, ShelfGenie of Alberta clients get to enjoy both the results and the journey!

Calgary, Canada Area

Provided program and project leadership, business analysis, and change management expertise to implement an ITIL Service Operations capability for all supported enterprise and line-of-business solutions within the ERCB. Provided leadership to a 35-person technical team that supported over 250 custom built and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products.Key Projects and Achievements:Defined and led the implementation of the strategic plan for the group which enabled the efficient development and continuous improvement of the IT operational support discipline.Created and introduced an IT support model and service catalogue that successfully aligned the utilization of IT resources with the operational needs and priorities of the organization.Created a comprehensive software product catalog that supported the core business processes of the organization with the result that appropriate levels of coverage and support were provided.Led the definition and acceptance of service level agreements with the business which provided complete transparency to clients and enabled the IT group to be appropriately sized and configured in alignment with business priorities.Led and facilitated the development and subsequent streamlining of an intake process that successfully put the business in the driving seat, ensuring that only necessary work and expenditure occurred whilst making it easier for clients to access IT services.Introduced Lean Six Sigma concepts to the team to establish the principles of process, empowerment, and continuous improvement to the team.Provided coaching to product support leaders so that they became fully proficient in leading the on-going support of line-of-business solutions.Provided day to day supervision and leadership for 12 support personnel and aligned the talents and strengths of each individual with the needs and goals of the organization.

Provided leadership to a team of 12 software quality assurance and technical writing professionals to ensure that IT solutions were developed and deployed in a fit-for-purpose state, thereby ensuring that core ERCB regulatory business practices had sufficiently robust and dependable solutions. Provided project management, facilitation and business analysis services to various continuous improvement initiatives as outlined below. Key Initiatives and Achievements:Led activities to resolve an emotive conflict that had developed between a strategic business partner and the IT function; successfully resolved the key issues, tuned the IT service delivery approach in alignment with business values and achieved a restoration in mutual trust and collaboration.Led the introduction of a time tracking solution with the result that IT work could be better governed, that provided improved transparency to the business, and which resulted in more timely, accurate and auditable financial reporting.Streamlined contractor invoicing and cost tracking processes which resulted in a major reduction in the effort required to process and reconcile invoices, and which provided the Finance department with exactly the type of information they required in a timely manner.Took a leadership and facilitation role in an IT stabilization program to identify and remediate key vulnerabilities that threatened the robustness of operational systems; this reduced the frequency with which unintended business consequences occurred as a result of maintenance work on regulatory line-of-business systems.

Provided program management, project management, business analysis and change management services for multiple initiatives. Managed the delivery of IT service design, development and operational support for all IT services to the geology, reserves and geosciences business units of the ERCB. Led a team of over 30 IT professionals including project managers, business analysts, architects, developers and testers. Provided strategic and tactical IT leadership, program management, and business relationship management services.Ensured the successfully delivery and support of numerous solid business solutions through a variety of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tools and custom development. Examples include: Pool Isopach Mapping, GIS Visualization & Querying Tools, Stratigraphy Determination, Well Log Integration (including GIS integration and integration of ERCB data), 3D Gridded Seam Modeling to support coal reserve determination, Coal Mine Viewer, Well Geometry calculations & visualization, UWI calculation, Sour Gas Data, Reservoir Properties Determination, Geology Data Management, Reserves Management, and solutions for the Alberta Royalty Framework.Implemented a capable and mature set of development processes and assembled a highly capable team. As a team we succeeded in showing considerable advances in both our productivity and quality and enjoyed excellent feedback from our customers.

Provided Unified Modeling Language and Object Oriented Analysis and Design trainingLed the Pool Isopach Business Area Analysis project, which subsequently led to the successful implementation of the Pool Isopach System. This was the first project to implement an ArcGIS solution within the ERCBWas recruited into a full-time position within the EUB starting April 1st, 2003

Provided training to multiple organizations both in a classroom environment and on-site. Clients included Burntsand, Critical Mass, Home Depo, Pangaea and more.Consistenty received highest possible course evaluation results.Acted as a mentor / evaluator for more junior trainers."Excellent! I loved the brilliant analogies you made. They really helped in clarifying complex concepts""(the instructor) seemed to have a VERY good grasp of the material. Every serious programmer / designer should take this course. It should be mandatory""I'd also like to commend Greg Billson - the instructor for the courses - I felt he did an excellent job of pacing the course, sensing where extra explanations were needed and where material was already known and could be skimmed lightly"

Certified as a UML trainer by QA Training, one of the UKs most respected IT training organizationsTaught multiple UML and Unified Process related courses.Provided training and mentoring services both in a general classroom environment and on-site. Provided training to multiple organizations including IBM, Anderson Consulting, British Airways, Vodaphone and othersConsistently achieved the highest possible feedback ratings for training:"The lecturer's knowledge and style made the content of the course easy to follow and enjoyable""Obviously has practical experience, very good real life examples given. The enthusiasm of the lecturer made the course very interesting"

The Halifax Bank in the UK was at the time the UK’s largest mortgage lender and owner of one of the country’s largest chains of estate agencies (realtors)I led the replacement of multiple property management accounting systems with an off-the-shelf tool from CFP Software Ltd. The project was run on a very tight timescale, and was implemented on time and budget and was very well received by all business unitsThe contract was subsequently extended to lead modifications to a COTS mortgage sales system and to support the capture of mortgage sales support business processes"I feel we have been fortunate in having the level of service provided by Greg, without whose experience numerous projects would not have been completed successfully",

Supported Consort in the renewal of their IT practices and in the selection of supporting tools. Introduced metrics into a number of key business areas, which later provided evidence of the scale of improvement that was being achieved.The consulting assignment included revitalization of their SDLC based upon object oriented analysis and design techniques, along with the selection and implementation of supporting tools."We needed more than just a QA regime introducing, and Greg, through my Project Managers and teams has provided invaluable high quality solutions", Consort Securities Systems.

Responsible for software process improvement.Introduced a formal lifecycle and software development methodology.Introduced software metrics to capture productivity, defects, software quality and software structure.Introduced supporting tools including: 3SL Cradle, a full functionality Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tool suite; McCabe Tools, a suite of software quality / complexity metric tools.Initially led a small pilot project for British Steel Port Talbot showing very successful results.Over time the methods were adopted on our largest and most critical projects to great effect.Our metrics showed a correlation between our software process capability/maturity (i.e. adoption of improved methods) and customer satisfaction. We were able to show conclusively that customer satisfaction was highest in the projects that had the highest software process capability & maturity.Our metrics also showed a correlation between profitability and customer satisfaction; we showed conclusively that our most profitable projects were also those that had the greatest degree of customer satisfaction.We confirmed the cost and quality benefits of taking a defect avoidance strategy, our metrics showed how the cost of remedying defects grew exponentially the later they were detected. This proved the case for implementation of defect avoidance techniques.Finally, using the McCabe metrics we were able to prove that elegant software structures correlated to greatly reduced development and maintenance effort when compared to poor quality software design structures. This proved the commercial benefit of taking the time to design the solution carefully.

Successfully made the business case that Scomagg could increase revenues and profits by opening its first branch office. Located in South Yorkshire, the location was chosen for its close proximity to major manufacturing industries.When the business case was approved I was appointed manager, and was responsible for the development of the branch.Led the growth of the branch from an initial staff of 3 to a final complement of approximately 30.Led growth in annual revenue from £250k to £2.5m. As the success of the branch became proven the company was encouraged to open additional branch offices.Operated the branch at an increasing profit despite operating in a very competitive marketplaceEstablished a solid reputation in local industries for very high quality project deliverables at competitive prices and timescalesEstablished mature software development practices within our branch which enabled us to provide a consistently high quality of service. The performance delta that we achieved was such that the organization established the role of Software Methods Manager with the objective of gaining similar benefits throughout the business; this was the next role into which I was appointed.

Responsible for the management of multiple projects, all of which delivered results of a high quality, and all of which were delivered on time and within budget, including:- Melting shop control system- Arc furnace power control system- Scrap yard control system

Responsible for leading small teams of analyst/developers and for the analysis, design and implementation of IT systems. These included:ISPRA FIS: User interface for an automated inspection system for irradiated componentsPipeline Inspection Gear (PIG), Data Transfer Unit. System that used ultrasonics to inspect the interior of Gas Riser Pipes.Stores & Spares Standard Package.Chemical laboratory sample management system. A system that received samples of steel from the melting shop and which coordinated their analysis and dissemination of results back to the steel makers.

Responsible for the design, code and test of various sub systems, including:Ladle Tracking system for a Basic Oxygen SteelworksReporting sub-system for Stainless Melting and Continuous Casting steelworks

Bachelor Of Science (B.Sc.), Computer Science

A Levels & O Levels (Equivalent Of High School Diploma)