Mark Bennett Email & Phone Number

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

• IT Needs Assessment: Collaborated with the in-house team to identify and address various IT needs.• Workflow Analysis: Observed store workflow to identify IT solutions for improving the shop’s customer experience.• POS System Implementation: Collaborated with customers and vendors to implement an intelligent point-of-sale (POS) system.• Cost-Effective Solutions: Researched and proposed a cost-effective solution for Wi-Fi, label printer, and laser printer. Setup of these devices done.• POS Optimization: Assisted the store owner in optimizing the POS system, including menu streamlining and stock management, resulting in faster checkout times.• Custom Solutions Development: Used coding skills to develop a Raspberry Pi-based menu and food picture display on the shop wall.• Product Label Design: Designed and implemented product labels with essential information, including spice name, weight, price, and barcode.• Professional Development: Committed to professional development by pursuing ongoing IT certifications and staying updated with industry trends.• Start-Up Assistance: Helped the "Launch U" start-up by providing information on required IT staff and recommending suitable servers and laptops.• Assisted with Sales on POS, Mr D Machine and card machine. Recorded daily sales. Corrected varying stock availability on Mr D. Stocktaking done.• Made IP address of printer static to keep it working from day to day.

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Self : after hours and weekends, Pretoria • Experience with Parallax Robot (building), Raspberry Pi coding and electronics, Micro:bit with little:Bits coding and electronics, Sphero robots, Apple Swift playgrounds, Microsoft Mine-craft education. Electronics, coding and building robotics.• Provided training, to teens and helped with coding.• Demonstrated respect, friendliness and willingness to help.• Supervised and led lessons. Creating tutorials on YouTube.• Python coding used in various situations on PC, MAC and Raspberry Pi.• Some Python code examples. Get Weather / Bitcoin prices via public API and act on that information. Text quiz that people can answer via answering A, B, C, D. 3D pendulum swinging. Word Cloud with food words. Data processing. Memory game.• Sinclair ZX Assembly programming in teen years.• Helped setup Cryptographic Mining rigs, and home automation mini servers.

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

•Assisted with special events and programs(Dance and Discipleship, Praise Evenings,•Over-night Camps, Away camps, Out-reachesboth local and in Africa.•Assisted with Cycling Afternoons for children,Karaoke singing, face painting, photography.•Assisted with registration and de-registration ofchildren.•Presented, mostly, object lessons each Sundayexcluding holidays which communicated valuesto around 200 children.•Helped distressed children on occasion, andeach week correct children which are out of line.•Supported engaging, fun, and smooth-runningevents by helping with organization, planningand running.•Created recognition system for children. Eachchild has name badge with bar code. Behaviorwas registered, by scans and children would getor loose points. Rewards given at year end.•In times before and after learning times, operatedrobot based hot potato, and also hoop throwing.•Occasionally operated sound system for music,and presentation slide sets shown to childrenduring lessons or dancing.•Assisted with evening training sessions for Childrenthat wanted to go further.•Acted in skits or plays, and got children to assist.

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

• Customer Workshops: Scheduled workshops to consult with customers and gather requirements for solution full ICT layouts and services.• Requirements Documentation: Created customer requirements documents • Build Documentation: Developed build documents using standard templates• Cross-Functional Coordination: Coordinated with various technical and business teams • Technical Approvals: Presented build documents at technical cross-functional approval meetings. Upon acceptance, sent designs for costing and detailed design, to operations team.• Presentations: Created and delivered customer information, technical build, technology introduction, and instructional documents.• Document Corrections: Addressed and corrected. • Process Improvement: Suggested changes in design templates, improving process efficiency. • Complex Solution Design: Worked on both simple and complex solutions, keeping to standards.• Design Tools: Used MS Visio for logical and physical design drawings.• Scripting and Automation: Provided scripting to automate the retrieval of virtual machine information for migration and billing checks.• System Maintenance: Fixed and supported the RVTools system at BCX, providing detailed information on the Cloud capacity • Technology Demonstrations: Conducted technology demonstrations and POCs using Desktop lab, V Cloud Director lab, OpenStack, and Amazon Cloud.• Container Platforms: Introduced container platforms to the company, implemented in One Cloud, and provided technical training and setup documentation to the operational team.• Object Storage Solutions: Led the introduction of object storage for business solutions, demonstrating its efficiency and cost-effectiveness over traditional storage for large data sets.• Continuous Learning: Pursuing Cisco DevNet and Alibaba Cloud certifications for continuous learning.• Report Automation: Automated capacity and billing reports using Excel macros, Excel scripts.

Pretoria Metropolitan Area

• IT Solution Framework: Aided in developing and implementing an IT solution framework.• Strengthened communication skills through regular interactions with team members and customers.• Demonstrated proficiency in creating simple designs, such as server upgrades by using RVTools reports, and effectively communicated project requirements to the implementation manager.• Via macros and formulas, created automation of the reports, which normally would take hours. Reserved sold capacity in Excel, so that it would not be resold before provisioning. • Certain parts of internal Cloud were near full, so reported regularly and organized regular meetings, as we sold capacity. • Conducted weekly meetings with customers to discuss their Cloud requirements and completed requirement forms.• Created costing designs to assist the solution architect in producing customer proposals (Low and high level).• Developed design solutions with customer information containing virtualization, storage, network, wide area network, security, high availability, backups and disaster recovery configurations to strengthen sales.• Pursuing both Cisco DevNet and Alibaba Cloud certifications with a passion for continuous learning.• Utilized macros, scripts, and Python to automate capacity and RVTools reports, resulting in time savings.• Currently assisting in driving Container as a platform as a service, rather than infrastructure only.• Assisted Cisco team when migrating from Cisco IOS to Cisco ACI.• Assisted getting HPE Synergy and Oracle Cloud working, by organizing meetings with vendors and internal staff, to sort out software defined network related issues. • Created Proof of concept working presentations and demonstrations for Cryptography processing, OpenStack Cloud provisioning with firewalls, AlienVault and Greenbone network security scanning. • Tasked to be technical lead in replacing Telkom's end-of-life storage arrays in an official procurement process. Arrays bought.

Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa

Spearheaded the technical evaluation process for Telkom SA Stores division for an official RFI to compare vendors offering POS devices, kiosks, barcode scanners, cash drawers, and slip printers as part of a store rebranding.• Criteria Development: Developed and reviewed criteria for each POS vendor, fostering fair competition for POS devices and accessories • Technical Testing: Conducted comprehensive technical testing, generated insightful reports, and established a lab environment with multiple vendor devices for rigorous business testing, optimizing efficiency and accuracy.• Driver Installation: Acquired in-depth knowledge of diverse options and the unique nature of POS device drivers.• Collaboration: Collaborated closely with team members to set up and execute business tests using 7-9 devices, adapting to testing schedules.• Vendor Selection: Played a pivotal role in selecting the winning vendor based on established criteria, despite budget constraints resulting in the purchase of only essential peripherals. A solution that that resulted in a happy customer.• Standardization: Implemented company architectural framework standards, meticulously setting up operating systems, drivers for POS devices, and peripherals, ensuring compatibility and standardization across systems.Key Achievements:Evaluation Process Efficiency: Enhanced the efficiency of the technical evaluation process, securing timely buy-in from business and procurement stakeholders, leading to greater accountability and fair vendor comparisons.Optimized Testing Processes: Improved business testing processes by developing clear, vetted marking documents and involving relevant parties appropriately. Successfully set up a lab environment through coordinated overtime efforts.Standardization: Adhered to company architectural standards. Introduced Windows IoT for devices requiring specialized drivers and tight OS lock-downs, commonly used in POS and ATM Machines.

Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa

• Network Micro-Segmentation: Joined an ongoing project and took responsibility for introducing network micro-segmentation to integrate the network with visualized servers, a critical component not initially considered in the project scope.• Design Creation: Created high-level logical and physical designs for the Cisco ACI rollout, ensuring consistency with Telkom's document standards using MS Visio.• Lab Validation: Built and assessed a VMware-based lab to meet project requirements and validate performance and reliability.• Network Configuration: Configured DNS, DHCP, micro-segmentation, and multiple IP ranges to test network scalability and reliability across multiple data centers.• Documentation: Provided comprehensive documentation of lab setup, including server names and network configurations.• Cisco ACI Fabric Implementation: Successfully implemented Cisco ACI fabric with the focused teamwork bringing centralized management and automation, application-centric approach and scalability and flexibility to Telkom Data Centres.Key Highlights:• Enhanced Project Scope: Introduced and integrated network micro-segmentation, improving network security and performance.• Teamwork: assisted team is delivering the successful implementation of Cisco ACI fabric, significantly improving network infrastructure.• Design Excellence: Developed high-level logical and physical designs, maintaining alignment with Telkom's documentation standards.• Lab Validation: Built and assessed a VMware-based lab, ensuring project requirements were met and validating network performance and reliability.• Improved Scalability: Configured critical network components, enhancing the scalability and reliability of the network across multiple data centres.

Pretoria Metropolitan Area

• Skilled in learning and adapting to new technology, conducting technology evaluations, and managing implementation projects.• Demonstrated ability to quickly learn and adapt to new technology resulting in efficient technology introduction.• Worked flexible hours across day and early evening to ensure timely project completion and business satisfaction. Team worked well together in terms of synergy.• Collaborated with a team to conduct a comprehensive comparison of Citrix and other technologies, including evaluating technology options, conducting thorough testing, and analyzing factors such as performance, scalability, and cost. Ultimately determined that Citrix was the best solution for visualizing applications. Citrix was more efficient than Microsoft technology.• Citrix was deployed to optimize access to a Geographic Information System (GIS) technology used by telecom field services. By hosting backend and application in the same data center, hundreds of users could access an optimized screen without requiring expensive individual desktops. A cost saving.• Participated in various technical aspects of the Citrix implementation project, including design, setup, configuration, testing, end user support, and troubleshooting.• Hundreds of clients were helped. Introduced WYSE terminals as an alternative means for some users to connect to the Citrix environment, particularly for light task users who needed to run apps in case their desktop failed. The terminals were also utilized by the call center.• Created a Microsoft Group Policy for Citrix Applications and desktops. To lock down the Microsoft Desktop OS for remote desktops and lock down the remote applications according to company standards. In summary, this project saved much capital that would be wasted on upgrading local and remote staff's desktops and network connections. From a business perspective, the response to the remote application was great.

Pretoria Metropolitan Area

• Used critical thinking to break down problems, evaluate solutions and make decisions.• Developed and maintained courteous and effective working relationships.• Resolved problems, improved operations and provided exceptional service.• Learned and adapted quickly to new technology and software applications.• Resolved complex Windows, MAC and MS Office technical issues on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. Critical thinking was used to analyze problem sources and take corrective action.• Managed a flexible schedule, working across day and early evening to ensure timely support for all clients. This was done to accommodate clients more flexibly.• Worked as part of a smaller team dedicated to supporting managing executives, providing customized solutions without disrupting other operations, unlike more junior staff.• Developed and implemented a successful peer to peer printing solution, which replaced the problematic Novell print server that impacted top executives' productivity almost daily.• Introduced Apple notebooks and mobile devices to the company, providing training and support to users, for top executives and the board, who were more familiar with Apple.• The board's secure app could run on Apple IOS. A low-level design was created.• Other support staff were assisted to sort out numerous problems with Windows and Apple, and some training was provided to prevent problems.

Olifantsfontein Training College, Electrical And Electronics Engineering, National Diploma

National Diploma, T3 Telecommunication: Electronics, Telecom, Transmission, Logic, Digital, Telecommunication: Electronics, Telecom, Transmission, Logic, Digital