We assist entrepreneurs and small businesses with their computing issues and challenges. We provide you with computing solutions, simplified so you can get on with your own specialty.Small companies and entrepreneurs don't have the budget for a technology department, but still need the tech. That’s where we come in!We can give you the technological edge you need to compete effectively without in-house technical staff.Think of us as your fractional headcount IT department!

The Byng Group uses smartphones and custom software to quickly and effectively quote, manage and complete renovation projects in the rental apartment sector.I had a number of consulting roles here. Sept 2009-June 2011 – Provided IT infrastructure support and recommendations for improvement. Also met with customers and provided process specifications for custom software and linkages to meet customer needs. After customer approval, I supervised the development and tested the deployment. July 2011-March 2012 - Responsible for marketing, business process analysis, writing and overseeing a patent application through to submission, SR&ED submission, monitored a pilot project for compliance. Maintained and developed a website, consulted on various specific targeted projects.March 2012-October 2013 – As Head of Manufacturing, I oversaw a facility that manufactured kitchen & vanity cabinets, countertops & sliding closet doors. This included drawing preparation, validation, supply chain management, vendor certification, dual sourcing, manufacturing and outsourcing components where the volume did not justify in-house manufacturing. I introduced design changes and new procurement, assembly, inventory management, bills of materials and QC processes. I documented the custom manufacturing module, designed a training course & taught it to existing staff and 2 new people hires. Also responsible for Supply Chain Management and Logistics. 2014-2018 ran the central warehouse and 4 subsidiary warehouses & logistics, documented & trained staff. I established new business, scheduling, inventory management & procurement processes throughout the company, streamlined existing ones, set up a call center, setting up monitoring and reporting services (using SSRS) for management initiatives.2018-2019 Ran the procurement Department, including anticipatory purchasing.2019-2020 Documented existing software with an eye towards rewriting it.

• Transitioned all existing customers, suppliers, customer drawings and other design data to new systems.• Helped train former staff in the quality system (ISO9001 & TS 16949).• Completed the data collection and submission for a (successful) SR&ED credit application

Hamond was a small (15 people) slide forming company. Slide forming is a specialized type of metal stamping and forming. Unusually for a metal stamping company of that size, Hamond had it's own integrated design team and toolroom. I worked in most parts of the business, production, shipping, receiving, designing and building tooling, purchasing, sales, estimating. In 2007 I sold the company to Bohne Spring Industries Ltd, a larger competitor. Highlights:• 75% increase in sales in first 2 years.• Expanded facility from 7,000 to 14,000 ft2 in first 3 years. Negotiated all leases with landlord.• After 6 years, moved to new 24,000 ft2. facility. I did all facility & move planning. We upgraded all older computer, phone, electrical & air systems. Our goal was to minimize lost production time. We lost only 5 days total.I was the youngest partner. As the other 2 retired, I took over their responsibilities. For the last 5 years, I was the entire management team.Project management: each set of customer tooling was treated as a separate project, with elements of quoting, sales, design, tool build, material purchasing and scheduling, scheduling an available machine for testing, feedback from initial testing, etc. Often there were 3 or more sets of tooling on the go at the same time.Business management: as in any such small business, the boss participated in customer relations, supplier relations, accounting, etc.Computing: I trained my partners and then the employees in the use of computers. We used MS office for all correspondence, sent faxes from our computers, did all our design for the last 15 years on base AutoCAD, later AutoCAD Mechanical Desktop. Quotes were done in Excel and posted to ACT (a contact manager) using a script I wrote. This allowed the sales manager to communicate to the customer quickly and accurately. The central database of the company was the product database, which contained all part manufacturing data, to ensure accuracy and repeatability.

Leading a small subcommittee of the TSDS executive, organized 23 dance workshops with 29 out-of-town teachers. Personally travelled to, met with, interviewed, took classes with, danced with and hired the teachers. Scheduled the workshop timing with the teachers and other local dance organizers. Oversaw a committee that did all the travel logistics, hall and equipment bookings, publicity, pre- and day-of registration, onsite startup and shutdown, booking of bands and/or DJs, as needed, payment and post-event accounting in 2 currencies.The list of teachers follows.1995 Teddy Kern1996 Beata Howe, Debby Ramsey, Teddy Kern, Robert Cordoba1997 Beata Howe, Robert Cordoba, John Knapp & Meredith Stead1998 Jonathan Bixby & Sylvia Sykes, Robert Cordoba & Deborah Szekely, Barry Douglas, Debbie Ramsey & Wes Boz1999 Andrea Deaton, Catrine Ljunggren & Chris Yee, Teddy Kern2000 Beata Howe, Bill Borgida, Marcus & Baerbl, Michelle Kinkaid, Kelly Buckwalter (now Kelly Casanova)2001 Catrine Ljunggren, Mario Robau, Jr, Jeannie Tucker

A small micro-computer consulting company, doing mostly engineering and scientific programming, some hardware maintainance and assembly, some systems specification. coding in AutoLISP for mechanical design in AutoCAD. Coding routines to draw common die features (punches, strippers, die buttons, springs, strip pushers, etc) quickly and accurately.coding in dBXL for crop insect analysis for the Muck Research Center, a division of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. The analysis enabled field consultants to determine the best time (most effective time) to spray onion crops to avoid overspray and the resulting pollution of the Holland March basin.setting up and provisioning a network for a small architectural firm, replacing the sneakerlan system they previously used for plan submission with a more automated, more productive one.

A special project for DFN (the German Canadian Research Council), working with an internal team and a team from Softlab Munich to implement an email "bridge" (X.400 to RFC822 according to RFC987). Worked in C, C++, IBM Assembler. Learned German at the same time. GMD has since been folded into Fraunhofer (the people who are responsible for the MP3 standard).

The university ran Amdahl UTS (an implementation of Unix System V) under VM as a student computing environment by day. By night, we ran an engineering and scientific computing facility on the same hardware.The same machine was also one of 2 front ends for a Cray X-MP/22 supercomputer. I led a team that provided all software configuration and support for this environment. I was active, during this time, in bringing NetNorth/BITNET to Toronto.Specified new hardware for a VM configuration when the old hardware ran out of steam.I proposed (and the proposal was accepted) getting cached DASD into our VM configuration.

Several positions:MVT Quality AssuranceMVS Quality AssuranceMVS Systems AnalystMVS Performance AnalystQuality Assurance - responsible for the day to day availability of the systems used for all student and faculty computing. Answerable to operations and systems managers for all downtime incidents. Problem source determination, researching and suggesting preventive solutions. Responsible for disk space management.MVS Systems Analyst - responsible for longer term needs analysis and planning of the facilities used for student computing. Included recommending new solutions as appropriate. System upgrades, planning and implementation. MVS Performance Analyst - using tools written by others, where available (Omegamon, SMF analyzers, SAS), or writing my own tools, if necessary, find and solve performance problems hampering the efficient utilization of the computing systems used by faculty and staff. Where necessary, recommend affordable, cost-effective hardware and/or software upgrades to keep performance problems at bay.

SHARE is a user group for users of large IBM mainframes. IT professionals meet in person and online to learn about current trends in the industry, share their experiences with their peers and develop recommendations to help guide IBM and other vendors. I chaired the VM Performance project through 2 major and 2 minor conferences a year for several years, culminating in a white paper proposed and started by me and completed by the rest of the team after I went to Germany.

Part time and summer job, manning a help desk with others.

Computer output operator on midnight shift