Starting as a Technical Consultant, I worked at various companies in a consulting manner developing software ranging from batch files and Perl scripts to N-Tier Enterprise Systems interfacing with Government Agencies.When De Data started developing the Purveyance Retail Execution and Territory Management system ten years ago I was involved in the selection of server side technologies for the development of the reporting and data management side of the system. This also included architecting and developing large portions of these components of the system using Powerbuilder, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Microsoft SQL Server, Java 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 6, Tomcat, JSP, Servlets, Web Services, XML, XSL, C#, ASP.NET MVC2/MVC3 jQuery and WCF.Since taking the role of Technical Director I have focused on introducing systems and practices that have enabled us to improve the stability of our software and also increase the output of our development team, increasing our products value to our clients.

I was brought in to analyse the software and make some minor modifications so that the software could be installed into a business partner site in the USA.Initial analysis showed the software was in need of some major changes due to some of the coding practices used by the previous developer.There were several components that made up the package as a whole, these included:- Software to monitor the output from a three dimensional scanner, it also allowed the remote user enter in some job details before sending the compressed files via ftp to the central processing office.- A windows service that monitored the ftp server for incoming work which was uncompressed and entered into the central database for preparation for the milling process.- A desktop application that allowed the milling operators to position the jobs with supporting spigots using an interface with PowerMill and CopyCAD for the toolpath calculations.- Another desktop application for the office staff to maintain product and customer information as well as invoicing and exporting of accounting information to the accounting software.- A web site that allowed the remote clients to log in and see the status of the work they have submitted.All these software components were developed using C# on .Net 2.0 against a MySQL database server. The database queries had to be written so that they also ran against a Microsoft SQL Server database as this was the requirement for the US business partner.During my time there I assisted with hardware purchases and setting up the networking and liaising with the telecommunications company during the companies relocation into new office space.They also had a training room which required some software be developed that allowed the trainer to do a 3D scan and then when complete have that scan automatically distributed to the various training machines.

I was a part of a small group of Forte developers who were called in to assist the in-house development teams which included offshore developers in Hyderabad, India.Multiple customized code lines had developed for the different client companies using the insurance software. As well as slight variations in the front end and business logic in the different code branches, each client also used different database engines. These included Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and Informix.To assist with the application of fixes to the different code lines I developed a Perl script that produced a set of code files that had been changed to make it easier to apply the changed to the other environments.To improve the unit testing being performed I ported the popular Java unit test project, JUnit, to the Forte language so that unit tests could be created in exactly the same way as JUnit test are created for java programs.As a part of this contract I spent three week in the Indian office assisting the offshore development team. Whilst there helping to fix issues with the overnight build process.

Work on the Field Force Automation management system, utilising Powerbuilder and SQL Server for data management, stored procedures for batch processing and report generation using SQL directly and via stored procedures.

Lawpoint had a VT100 based legal document service which was being updated to being a html web based interface for its users.I was one of several Forte consultants brought in to assist with this migration to help and mentor the twenty or so internal development and systems staff.While there I was a part of various different teams which performed tasks including:* Development of the initial web pilot system.* Development of various interfaces to different government agencies.* Redevelopment of the COBOL pricing maintenance into the new Forte infrastructure,* Mentoring other teams to help improve their initial designs to help them scale better.* Development of routines to generate documents in pdf format.* Assist in the initial setup of the Oracle server while their internal staff were trained up to be the full time DBA.* Took part in a study of software developers by an external party to try and find a way to improve internal junior software development staff.

There was a internally developed project management software that was developed in Powerbuilder and ran against an Oracle database server.I was brought in to maintain and enhance the software.This was a fairly unique requirement for a Powerbuilder application as it had to run on windows and on Unix workstations.

Design, maintain and support and patient information system, using Powerbuilder and Oracle.

Design, develop and maintain various utilities and systems including:* a generic Hierarchy Data Maintenance System to organise information like Customers, Products and Time,* a program to Generate Sales Report from Oracle cubes,* a Product Promotion Management system.In this role I utilised Powerbuilder with an Oracle database using tables, views, triggers, stored procedures and packages, and Visual Basic reporting off the Oracle cubes.As a part of my role here I helped to introduce source control management as a part of the team development using Visual Sourcesafe.

Develop and maintain the recruitment agency contact management system, utilising Powerbuilder, Sybase SQL Anywhere and Advanced Revelation.