Mark Baron Email & Phone Number

Derby, United Kingdom

Service Delivery Manager responsible for a wide ranging portfolio of Customers.

Wetherby, Uk

Project Manager, with responsibilities including:• Project start-up / governance and management meetings;• Creation of PID, work packages, plans, risk and issues logs;• Budgetary and financial management of projects;• Creation and management of project teams;• Management of change to services, systems or people/teams;• Assessment of risk and implementation of controls/processes to eliminate or remove risk;• Preparation of contingency/rollback plans during go-live… Show more Project Manager, with responsibilities including:• Project start-up / governance and management meetings;• Creation of PID, work packages, plans, risk and issues logs;• Budgetary and financial management of projects;• Creation and management of project teams;• Management of change to services, systems or people/teams;• Assessment of risk and implementation of controls/processes to eliminate or remove risk;• Preparation of contingency/rollback plans during go-live or migrations of systems. Show less

Alfreton, Derbyshire

I have recently left IBM to pursue permanent or contract Project Manager, Programme Manager and Information Security contracts.Please contact me with any opportunities that may be of interest.

Leicester, United Kingdom

I managed the successful migration from ISO 27001:2005 to the new ISO 27001:2013 standard against extremely tight deadlines, achieving external certification via Bureau Veritas International. Responsibilities include:• Manage a team of SME's and technical specialists (including Customer resources) to implement a typically 12-18 month programme of work in just 4 months;• Creation of a robust plan and set of agreed deliverables to achieve external certification against the new ISO… Show more I managed the successful migration from ISO 27001:2005 to the new ISO 27001:2013 standard against extremely tight deadlines, achieving external certification via Bureau Veritas International. Responsibilities include:• Manage a team of SME's and technical specialists (including Customer resources) to implement a typically 12-18 month programme of work in just 4 months;• Creation of a robust plan and set of agreed deliverables to achieve external certification against the new ISO 27001:2013 standard;• Ensure that all stakeholders (including senior Client stakeholders such as the CIO, Head of Privacy and Head of Emergency Planning) were kept up to date on progress and were also aware of any risks, issues and dependencies that needed to be addressed;• Provide effective financial management, ensuring that the appropriate resources were utilised for all tasks and each individual was clear on their scope and milestones;• Ensure that the use of external SME resources (from IBM Security practice) was kept to a minimum whilst maintaining an effective delivery capability;• Agree scope and implement a multi-year plan for internal auditing, to be carried out by an external, independent auditor;• Define and implement improvements to the business as usual delivery of the security practice to enhance the contribution of the security practice within the Client and project team;• Implement a more operationally focussed delivery within the practice (as opposed to a purely ISO focussed approach);• Implement new processes and procedures for 3rd party vendor remote access;• Make significant changes to the terms of reference and focus of the Security Working Group;• Improve the recording and reporting of SLA and KPI metrics;• Review and put in place improvements to the Continued Business Need and Employee Validation processes;• Define and implement changes to Projects & Programmes processes to ensure appropriate security involvement within all delivery projects. Show less

Leicester, United Kingdom

I undertook the role of Projects & Programmes Portfolio Manager, succeeding a resource that was at the senior end of the band above mine. Responsibilities included:• Managed a delivery portfolio of ~30 active projects (along with 30+ in the pipeline);• Managed 12 Project Managers, including Client PMs, TUPE'd PMs and IBM PMs;• Within 3 months I managed the successful closure of more projects during a single month than in any month in the history of the account;• Achieved an… Show more I undertook the role of Projects & Programmes Portfolio Manager, succeeding a resource that was at the senior end of the band above mine. Responsibilities included:• Managed a delivery portfolio of ~30 active projects (along with 30+ in the pipeline);• Managed 12 Project Managers, including Client PMs, TUPE'd PMs and IBM PMs;• Within 3 months I managed the successful closure of more projects during a single month than in any month in the history of the account;• Achieved an unprecedented level of project closure throughout my tenure;• Instigation of a suite of fundamental changes to the structure and running of the Projects & Programmes function to enhance delivery capability, reduce costs and improve delivery excellence.• Weekly status update and escalation meetings with the UHL Chief Information Officer (CIO) and UHL Head of Projects;• Presentations at several monthly Client Project Boards. Show less

Portishead, United Kingdom

I managed a team of IBM UK, Customer seconded staff and a 3rd party supplier team to deliver a $1.5m upgrade to Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s business critical Duty Management System. Responsibilities included:• Managed the team throughout the development lifecycle from requirements gathering workshops with the Customer and 3rd party supplier through hardware procurement and installation, migration and clean-up of data and the build, system test, UAT and go-live of the software and… Show more I managed a team of IBM UK, Customer seconded staff and a 3rd party supplier team to deliver a $1.5m upgrade to Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s business critical Duty Management System. Responsibilities included:• Managed the team throughout the development lifecycle from requirements gathering workshops with the Customer and 3rd party supplier through hardware procurement and installation, migration and clean-up of data and the build, system test, UAT and go-live of the software and reporting capabilities;• Managed change control on the project, including the signing and delivery of a $108k change request for additional system capabilities very late in the project cycle;• Day-to-day management of the project and team;• Management and Customer reporting, including presenting progress updates at weekly Customer meetings and also at weekly meetings with the Southwest One CEO, IBM Associate Partner and IBM account Delivery Project Executive;• Direct liaison with key stakeholders including the Avon & Somerset Constabulary Corporate Information Management (CIM) team and external specialist penetration testers to ensure appropriate security sign off of the system. Show less

Taunton & Portishead, United Kingdom

I performed the role of Delivery Project Manager on Southwest One. Responsibilities included:• Managed a team of ~30 IBM UK, IBM India (both landed and offshore) and Customer seconded staff;• Delivered a suite of around 40 complex technical changes;• Managed a dedicated ~$500k P&L for delivery of changes that augmented the base team;• Managed the team throughout the development lifecycle from initial requirements gathering workshops with the Customer through Design, Build… Show more I performed the role of Delivery Project Manager on Southwest One. Responsibilities included:• Managed a team of ~30 IBM UK, IBM India (both landed and offshore) and Customer seconded staff;• Delivered a suite of around 40 complex technical changes;• Managed a dedicated ~$500k P&L for delivery of changes that augmented the base team;• Managed the team throughout the development lifecycle from initial requirements gathering workshops with the Customer through Design, Build, Unit Test, UAT and Implementation;• Responsibility for a suite of management and Customer reporting, including presenting progress updates at monthly Customer Project Board and Gold Group meetings with senior Customer stakeholders (e.g. Avon and Somerset Constabulary Head of Finance, Head of HR and Head of Corporate Client);• Presentation of status updates on twice weekly calls with the Southwest One CEO, the project's IBM Executive Partner and IBM Delivery Project Executive;• Liaised directly with 3rd party providers such as SAP and Ancile to facilitate technical webinars and obtain technical support where required. Show less

Farnborough, Uk

• Managed the 24 x 7 x 365 Operations Team which consisted of 16 members of staff across Infrastructure and Application support;• Led the team in the delivery of sub-projects including the automation of system healthchecks (saving several man-hours of effort per day) and improvements to onboarding and account management procedures;• Worked with the Service Manager on the planning and implementation of a consolidation of two Operations teams into a single, combined team with a… Show more • Managed the 24 x 7 x 365 Operations Team which consisted of 16 members of staff across Infrastructure and Application support;• Led the team in the delivery of sub-projects including the automation of system healthchecks (saving several man-hours of effort per day) and improvements to onboarding and account management procedures;• Worked with the Service Manager on the planning and implementation of a consolidation of two Operations teams into a single, combined team with a reduced headcount resulting in ongoing cost savings;• Implemented a new Operations incident management process which drastically reduced the number of open incidents, ensured Operational ownership of outstanding issues, and reduced the time to closure of raised incidents;• Provided technical leadership, guidance and mentoring to all members of the Operations Team, along with planning and estimating work and providing support and feedback;• Managed the analysis, implementation and deployment of a suite of Systems Management improvements leading to an enhanced level of systems monitoring including monitoring of additional system components and technologies, a rationalisation of alerting scenarios and severity levels, a review and update of alert trigger levels and an upgrade to the front-end GUI;• Sole Operations representative for the planning and development of future releases, including status meetings, checkpoint meetings, transition meetings, transition/cutover workshops and risks & issues meetings. Provided updates on the progress of Operational deliverables, communicate the operational requirements and acceptance criteria to accept the release into Live Service, and highlighting any risks & issues that affect Operations;• Technical and business Impact Assessments for all Change Requests, Problems and Incidents;• Operations representative at Change Approval Boards and Daily Service Reviews, providing updates on the status of live service and implemented changes; Show less

Farnborough, Uk

Responsibilities included:• SME for creation of ~120 Operational Procedures required to operate and maintain the new e-Borders system. This included scoping and definition of the required procedures, assigning and managing the creation of documents to relevant technical teams, review, modification and sign-off of all procedures, authoring new procedures and tracking and reporting of progress against Go-Live dependent milestones. All milestones were met or exceeded and procedures… Show more Responsibilities included:• SME for creation of ~120 Operational Procedures required to operate and maintain the new e-Borders system. This included scoping and definition of the required procedures, assigning and managing the creation of documents to relevant technical teams, review, modification and sign-off of all procedures, authoring new procedures and tracking and reporting of progress against Go-Live dependent milestones. All milestones were met or exceeded and procedures completed within agreed deadlines;• Provided technical expertise for Service Delivery aspects of the transition to the new e-Borders system, including Incident Management, Change Management, Problem Management and physical / environmental limitations & changes;• Carried out technical and business Impact Assessments for Change Requests and defects identified / raised by the Customer and IBM. Assessments included providing estimates for each defined requirement or issue, tracking progress of development and implementation of changes and defects, identifying and escalating risks and issues to the Project Manager and Service Manager to ensure no impact to delivery scope or timescales;• Act as IBM representative at regular Security Working Group meetings with the Customer;• Provided technical governance for the project, including leading the team in the delivery of sub-projects, the pioneering of system trials, assisting both the Client and End Users in resolving technical issues, and providing technical assistance to all members of the Operational Support Team in completing their day to day and ad-hoc tasks;• Managed the technical delivery of IT Health Check actions and updates to an agreed plan. Completed on schedule with no unplanned system impact;• Supported IBM Associate Partners/Partners in completing bid proposals for a number of potential new Customers;• Generation and maintenance of system design and architecture documents. Show less

Uk

As Service Manager on the project I led a team of IT Specialists to deliver a 24x7x365 service on a critical, strategic multi-site secure Government IT system, with a focus on consistently exceeding contracted service levels and providing delivery excellence. The contract value managed, including change requests was ~$7m over 3 yearsAreas of responsibility:• Incident Management - prioritisation, assignment, escalation and closure of incidents within SLA targets. Ownership and… Show more As Service Manager on the project I led a team of IT Specialists to deliver a 24x7x365 service on a critical, strategic multi-site secure Government IT system, with a focus on consistently exceeding contracted service levels and providing delivery excellence. The contract value managed, including change requests was ~$7m over 3 yearsAreas of responsibility:• Incident Management - prioritisation, assignment, escalation and closure of incidents within SLA targets. Ownership and management of all Major Incidents with all relevant stakeholders, including representation at MI reviews and management and implementation of follow-on corrective actions. Management of out of hours support and the primary escalation point for major incidents;• Configuration Management – managed hardware, software and system configuration baselines;• Defect Management – defect prioritisation, assignment, resolution and implementation;• Change & Release Management - managed system changes and minor enhancements from impact assessment through to live system deployment, including management of maintenance windows;• Quality Assurance Management - ensured outputs / performance were to the required standard and meet contracted security requirements. Also managed all internal project documentation and interfaced directly with the IBM Process Quality Assurance team, including participation in audits and transitioning the project’s documentation suite to OPAL standards.• Management Reporting - created weekly and monthly reports & presentations, including incident performance metrics, system capacity and team utilisation. Attended and presented at weekly and monthly client meetings;•Supplier Relationship Management - interfaced with 3rd party suppliers, data providers & receivers and other key stakeholders, ensuring building and maintaining of effective relationships;• Planning & Resource Management – managed the priorities and workload of all team members across multiple Customer sites. Show less

Project Manager working on Strategic Initiatives and BSkyB Picnic account within the UK Delivery Centre in IBMs Application Services division.

Team Leader for the 18 members of the Nortel HSS Product Verification team. The team consists of both full-time Nortel staff and offshore contractors and I am responsible for ensuring that the verification of the HSS releases is completed on time and is of a very high quality.

Joined Nortel as a graduate from university and worked as a PV engineer on the Fixed Wireless Access product, primarily on the OAM/P systems based on OpenView on a HPUX OS.I was responsible initially for testing specific features within releases and then became responsible for the quality of whole releases.I spent 10 months as an Expat in Miami, USA from October 2000 to May 2001 as part of this role where I oversaw several aspects of the testing cycle for the latest release of… Show more Joined Nortel as a graduate from university and worked as a PV engineer on the Fixed Wireless Access product, primarily on the OAM/P systems based on OpenView on a HPUX OS.I was responsible initially for testing specific features within releases and then became responsible for the quality of whole releases.I spent 10 months as an Expat in Miami, USA from October 2000 to May 2001 as part of this role where I oversaw several aspects of the testing cycle for the latest release of the FWA product.During this role I gained experience in writing Test Plans and Test Cases, along with raising problem requests and storing of testing results. Show less