Helen Westcott Email and Phone Number

Although I have accidentally fallen in love with the world of AI and rules engines, and am putting my philosophy skills to use in an industry that I am very excited to be a part of, I still couldn't quite resist the pull of the academic world. This role really is my way of having it all!I love lecturing at Liverpool. They have an amazing continuing education programme that I am very proud to be a part of. The courses I have designed and run so far have been on topics such as the existence of God, an introduction to Modern Philosophy and an introduction to Nietzsche. I've had great feedback from the students who have attended with a lot of them saying they will go on to learn more about philosophy because they have enjoyed the topic so much. I can't ask for much more than that!

My role as Decision Specialist at Brightmast requires me to wear many hats, all of which I love! As a software and consulting house, my focus is both internal (product development) and external (customer consulting and delivery).Internally at Brightmast, I am the Product Owner for Brightmast's Cognision, a platform for rapid development of cognitive applications capable of emulating complex decision making. I specialise as Lead Designer, Product Owner and Business Analyst responsible for development of Cognision's Decision Modeler, a tool designed for business users to model and automate complex decisions in business processes without using code. I am also Lead developer of Cognision Training and Centre of Excellence Programmes as well as Cognision's Business Process Optimisation Methodolgy.I work in customer facing roles as Lead Decision Architect creating Cognitive Applications (SaaS) for multiple customers in the HR, Finance and Procurement space (FTSE100 and NHS). I am responsible for gaining in depth understanding of complex customer processes, policies and business rules in order to design and build products that meet their needs.I act as Lead Agile Business Analyst with business rules specialism on multiple customer consulting projects. I am responsible for managing the customer relationship including stakeholder management up to C-level. As a Business Analyst, I am responsible for requirements elicitation including stakeholder workshops, rich pictures, vision elicitation, interviews, protocol analysis, observation, process mapping (as-is and to-be using BPMN), gap analysis, prototyping, document analysis and persona and stakeholder analysis.My experience in business analysis, technical delivery and business rules expertise puts me in a unique position to deliver real value both internally in terms of our product development and externally in terms of making sure we keep our customers happy.

I got to work with colleagues of amazing calibre at Level and company of this quality enabled me to push the boundaries of my skills and creativity. It felt great to be part of a team blazing a trail and coming up with creative solutions for very specific business problems. The focus on outcome and actually addressing compartmentalised problems really appealed to my skill set as a business analyst. I valued the freedom to be innovative when designing and developing AI solutions at Level as I applied my skills in new ways, and constantly evolved my skill set which is deeply important to me.My specialism at Level was BRMS (particularly Oracle Policy Automation/Intelligent Advisor) and business analysis. However, Level was very much an 'all hands on deck' company which is perfect for me as I enjoy variety in my work. As well as focusing on client relationships, solution design and development, I also got involved with sales, pre-sales and marketing. This included engaging as a speaker at events and researching on the bigger picture and philosophy behind AI and what we do at Level. I was also an advocate for women in STEM, working with Level to encourage more women into the industry.

Magia Consulting is a technology solutions provider and consultancy, that specialises in Oracle Policy Automation and Oracle Service Cloud to empower organisations to convert complex business requirements and policies into simple-to-use digital solutions.With a portfolio of clients around the globe, we are an Oracle Gold Partner that can assist in all aspects of the software implementation lifecycle, from developing strategy through to live support and service enhancements. Our implementation and training teams provide industry leading expertise and are committed to delivering excellence.At Magia, I was jointly responsible for Business Development, Strategy and Marketing.Lead Oracle Policy Automation (OPA) Rules Developer on several key projects at a Central Government client to develop their data collection, funding calculation and payment systems. Responsible for architecting policy models, authoring rules, testing, defect resolution, integration advice, as well as elicitation of business rules and business analysis.Speaker on 'Policy Automation: A New Approach to Creating Your Personalised Success' at Modern Service Experience 2016 in Las Vegas.Speaker on 'Implementing Business Rules in Mobile Applications' 2015 and 'Transforming Customer Experience Using Business Rules' 2016 at the Building Business Capability Conference in Las Vegas.Speaker at the OPA Global Public Sector Industry Strategy Council and OPA Focus Groups across Europe.Speaker at UK Oracle User Group Applications Conference 2016.

Responsible for several key business areas of a large scale IT transformation programme to develop a new Customer and Case Management System which compromises of Oracle E-business Suite (CRM, GL, AP, and AR), an Online Web Portal, SOA, and three large rulebases built in Oracle Policy Automation (OPA).Responsible from an analysis perspective for the production, maintenance and integration of two large (OPA) rulebases.Key stakeholder in the Oracle OPA UK Cross-governmental Forum.Invited by Oracle to speak about OPA in front of a worldwide audience at Oracle OpenWorld 2014 in San Francisco.Team member of accredited OPA Centre of Excellence.Business Analyst role on a related agile project working closely with Oracle to develop a mobile application for the Legal Aid Agency using OPM v.12.Responsible for requirements elicitation and engineering, including facilitation of workshops, and management of detailed requirement catalogues.Responsible for translating complex business requirements (policy and business rules) into a form suitable for OPA rule developers.Responsible for Business Process Modelling and architecture, including successful delivery (and ongoing maintenance), of Business Process Documents using Microsoft Visio and Sparx Enterprise Architect.Responsible for stakeholder management of product owners, System Integrator, business SMEs, technical developers, and senior business management.Responsible for impact analysis of potential system changes in terms of risks, costs and benefits.Rated as exceptional in Performance Development Reviews.

Team Leader of seven SMEs.Responsible for recruitment of SMEs and line management duties, including absence management and performance management, executed with care and patience.Assisted the Business Analysis team in the production of various project deliverables to strict deadlines.Assisted with system configuration and managed delivery of system reference data.Coordinated the production of test scenarios for the User Acceptance Team.

Assisted in leading team of twenty caseworkers.Responsible for quality control, analysis and reporting of team performance to senior staff.Developed and introduced a range of training materials and successfully delivered training.

Sourced and presented complex information concisely to business analysts.Assisted in requirements gathering and prioritisation.Assisted in facilitation of solution validation workshops.Analysed and converted complex guidance into questions for use of rules developers to develop two large OPA Rulebases.Analysed and reviewed business reference data to streamline for use in a new IT solution.

Responsible for making decisions on and processing application for Legal Aid.Acted as a mentor to new starters.

Responsible for processing sales orders using Sage.Resolved customer queries in a professional and friendly manner.Assisted in production of internal standard operating procedures.

Achieved sales targets by generating new business and policy renewals over the telephone.Responsible for resolving customer queries.