Designing business solutions around network architectures and products. Business transformation and the requirement for new skills and capabilities are becoming more complex and integrated with software solutions, my goal is to help Service Providers navigate this challenging shift in business. Building on my extensive knowledge of SP technologies and new skills in AI, Orchestration, and Programability.

Systems Engineer working cisco Global Services Provider for Vodafone. Specifically working on the Vodacom account for a number of key focus areas into the company:I am responsible for the Enterprise portion of the Vodacom business group which faces their corporate and business line customers. I am responsible for the product and solution roadmap in the migration from the legacy 7600 to new the ASR99xx platforms for their Provider Edge devices as well as the positioning of their core transport equipment.I also guide and provide strategy and product alignment for the group within Vodacom which is responsible for the long haul transmission of IP data from SA to Europe and the rest of the African continent. Finally I work closely with the internal Vodacom IT department; providing services within Vodacom in terms of Data Centre, Access through Wi-Fi and LAN, VoIP and collaboration for the employees and contractors inside Vodacom South Africa.

Consultant and SME for Mobility, Wi-Fi and Cloud in the Cisco Consultancy Services group.We help customers master the intersection of people, process, data and things in their march to becoming digital enterprises. Our methodology drives new business processes, organizational models and platforms for sustainable innovation.

Held a position as a Cisco High Touch Operations Manager to work with designated mission-critical customers, such as service providers and financial services companies, ensuring they receive premium-level service. Specifically focused on the Financial Sector in South Africa; working on the accounts such as Barclays and First National Bank, ensuring new network operations and integration were functioning daily. Was part of the strategy development and new projects focused delivering on Data Center upgrades and maintenance.

High Touch Engineer on SP accounts South Africa, working as an escalation point for critical outages on contracted Service Provider networks, such as Vodacom (part of the Vodafone group) and MTN for mobile and core networks, and Telkom and Neotel for Core and SP Networks. From August 2013 – January 2014, I consulted internationally to Orange Telecom in Lyon France to ease the transition from the Design and Implement phase to the Operations phase. As a result, Orange has signed a larger contract to include other international operational entities in their Cisco contracts.I was part of the Global HTE Council and developed, created and maintained various policies, templates and procedures for use globally by High Touch Engineers during their interaction with the customers. Most specifically, the Root Cause Analysis template and procedure to guide the global HTE team in the assessment, documentation and delivery of this critical document for major outages and after business impacting events.

Cisco Solutions Architect that Planned, Designed, Installed and Tested the Telkom SP Wi-Fi project in South Africa. The project integrated a distributed wireless public AP setup into the Mobile Packet Core of Telkom Mobile. Using Cisco’s mobile packet core designs and the Intelligent Services Gateway to create a differentiated and tiered experience based on customer profiles and captive portals.I was the point of contact on this project as the lead designer of the overall customer specific solution as well as specialist on the ASR1000 as the ISG which defined the services available to the customer.I designed, built and tested the next phase of the SP Wi-Fi network to create a method of voucher redemption to allow integration of the SP Wi-Fi network into a cloud solution for security and authentication as well as to allow non-registered subscribers access through a captive portal. In addition to the above work, I took the initiative of building a local Advanced Services lab for the customer recreates and internal training. This lab consisted of a number of network devices accessible via a secure VPN connection. In addition to this physical infrastructure, a Virtual Machine was installed and runs on a Cisco UCS platform using Cisco Virtual Routing Lab to expand the lab virtually through VSphere, but able to connect into the physical network in order to support complex environments..

Worked as a Customer Support Engineer in Cisco Systems High Touch Technical Support (HTTS), specifically covering the Routing and Switching queues. This team accepted globally high profile cases from Cisco customers who purchased HTTS as part of their Focussed Technical Support (FTS) Smart-net contract.HTTS is a specialised team of senior engineers providing Level 3 and Level 4 support and who drive resolution of outages and events from case creation to closure. This challenging role requires calm decision making and rational problem solving to determine causes and corrections to failure on key customer components. Teams are divided into specialties, of which I was part of the Routing and Switching core team dealing with Service Provider and Data Center outages and restoration.

Assisted the Senior Systems Engineers in the design and rollout of Cisco NGN network in Telkom. A presales roll for the sales and basic design for customers of Cisco Systems South Africa.

I lived and worked in Amsterdam, Netherlands as an Associate Sales Engineer for Cisco Systems as part of the Cisco Sales Associate program. I received training on a number of Business and Technical Skills, a full list is extensive but a subset is included here:- Advanced Communication Skills- Negotiation- Conflict Handling and Resolution- Time Management- Business Etiquette - Customer Satisfaction- Sales strategy

Was assisting in the control and management system for the flow meters and control valves during the unleaded upgrade for the Sapref industrial basin refinery.