Technical support contract to Knauf based in Sittingbourne

Knauf UK were rolling out a new desktop to fall in line with their German division. I took on the role to help support with the fallout a rollout can generate. I supported many live 3rd party bespoke factory systems where any failure would cause the production line to stop. I also supported a second factory near Immingham and a third in Dublin. There were sales reps based UK wide whom we supported remotely using Team Viewer as the remote access software. Software used included Exchange MS Server 2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010, Windows 7, smart phones, and Cisco IP phones using Cisco Unified CM Admin Console.

I started this role supporting around 1200 “Woolwich independent Financial Advisors” based UK wide using laptops and around 1500 desktop users from London to Glasgow over two domains. Incidents were mainly logged by first line using HP’s ServiceNow then if not resolved passed on to us in 2nd line support. We would then resolve these or pass them on to the relevant team for resolution and if a resolution was found we would document it and pass the documentation to first line so in the future it could be resolved at first contact by 1st line support. If an issue could not be resolved remotely we would either get the laptop in by courier or make a home visit to the advisor. We also had many trips to other offices which were based al over the UK but mainly is Scotland. Around four years ago Barclays closed this area of the business and many of the BFP offices. I worked closely with Microsoft to create a time bomb which we rolled out to all of the advisors laptops. It activated on a pre-defined date and made all of the laptops unusable the next time they were switched on. We now look after “Specialised Customer Complaints”, PPI Agents and trainers based around the UK but in exactly the same support nodel• I supported an Oracle data base consisting of over 18 million personal and transactional records• I liaise with 3rd party suppliers including Microsoft, courier services and HP• Moved 29 servers from Dartford to Gloucester and Slough data centers• Task & Change management has also been a large part of my role• Lead and assisted in various projects

One of my old IT managers asked me if I would like to start up a new department within the company. I accepted the challenge and now Westmeria have an up and running repairs/service centre. The job entailed training on electro-magnetic alternating pressure pumps, mobility hoists & electric profiling beds. After the first six months I took on a member of staff and became team leader. I had to train, manage and support this person including weekly one to ones.My role here was setting up of the repair process from picking up repairs to diagnosis, quoting, repairing, invoicing, parts ordering, Selling stock, stock control and customer services Also, I kept the network going at our satellite office with around 20and I also supported the main office 50 users. It was a WIN 2000 server environment with Win XP with active directory network which also used Sage MMS and Exchange 2000.

I reported directly to the IT Manger and worked closely with all directors & staff. This role included 1st, 2nd & 3rd line support of Win 2k, NT4 (server/workstation), Ezaccess (Oracle database) Exchange Server 5.5, Office2k, 97, Adobe full suite, Ghost, Veritas Backup Exec, RAS, TCP/IP, ISDN, Nortel Meridian Option 10-Telephone System, PPT presentations and a lot more. There were two satellite offices, which required RAS connections along with sales staff working in the field. I would also look for ways to optimise the network or make cost or time savings

This position required me to monitor their Internet & mail gateway. This was necessary as they had recently acquired the system and were not sure of its reliability. London is the hub of HSBC`s mail system and all post offices were controlled from there. If any situations arose it was my job to ether resolve the situation or contact the people, whether it was Europe, Asia, US or Far East and get the situation resolved.I was then asked to help with their Y2K Planning & Testing project. In this roll I had to question all departments (including Trade Floor, Contracts, accounts, and Management etc.) to find out which programs & apps they used. Then I had to find out if they were Y2K compliant. If they were not I had to find which programs or apps they could be replaced with. When I found out a solution I passed it on to the Y2K testing team who then tested for Y2K compliance. Once each department was upgraded it was my task to sign off each department as being fully Y2K compliant.

At the time Intelligent Solutions was a small start-up company of around 5 – 10 users. I maintained a NetWare 3.11 network, which I upgraded to Novell 4.11 and set up a file structure/Hierarchy. In 1998 I was asked to migrate from Novell 4.11 to Windows NT 4.0. This was implemented successfully and I set up training rooms to train users on the new operating system. Unfortunately this worked too well and my services were no longer required.

This was my first job on leaving school. To start I delivered computer stationary and consumables in mainly the City & West End. By the time I left I managed the entire computer network supporting around 40 people. This was a windows platform with work groups and Novel networking