Peter Watts Email & Phone Number

London, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

As Head of IT Strategy and Delivery for Parkinson's UK, I am responsible for managing a team of 14 IT professionals who deliver a full range of IT services to the charity including hardware and software rollout and provision, supporter data management and data infrastructure projects. I am responsible for defining and implementing an IT strategy that enables our staff and volunteers to deliver the highest levels of service to assist those people affected by Parkinson’s. Key achievements include:• Restructuring the IT Team to enable delivery of business as usual activities and strategic data and infrastructure projects that deliver tangible benefits to the staff.• Leading the IT Team to deliver on a range of digital transformation initiatives to improve efficiency and collaboration across the charity.• Implementing a fit for purpose disaster recovery solution ensuring that we are able to meet agreed timelines for recovery.• Building strong relationships with key stakeholders at all levels, raising the profile of IT across the charity ensuring that we are seen as a key business enabler.• Managing an annual IT budget of circa £2m with a strong focus on cost control and service improvement.• Reviewing hardware provision and defining a strategic approach to ensure equipment is appropriate and fit for purpose.• Strategically managing the migration to Office 365 cloud services to provide a robust and stable infrastructure that delivers improved business continuity and productivity benefits to staff. • Providing strategic IT advice and input to support and move the charity towards flexible/agile working using laptops and mobile technology.• Lead on implementing new technology with a significant focus towards moving services to the cloud, supporting the strategic aims and ambitions of the charity.• Managing and restructuring the Raiser's Edge (supporter) database team to provide capacity to deliver BAU and project activities within agreed time frames.

Atisreal were acquired by BNP Paribas in 2005. Since that time, I led the department of 14 people, managed a budget of around £1.8m per annum and successfully delivered on a number of business critical and strategic projects. Specific highlights and achievements include the following -• Managed, developed and motivated the IT Team to create a culture of success and achievement within the team regularly recognised by the business. This was acknowledged in 2005 when the IT Team won the “Support Department of the Year” award with significant improvements in staff retention. • Planned and delivered IT integration following the acquisition of both Chesterton (March 2005) and Fuller-Peiser (November 2006). This involved the integration of over 400 staff and 7 offices into the existing UK operation. • Built and developed strong relationships with leading suppliers in the IT/Communications industry such as Dell and British Telecom resulting in cost savings, innovative solutions and shortened lead times for delivery. • Developed a DR/BCP solution to support the needs of the business in a time of crisis. The BCP solution, using a 3rd party for provision of workplace recovery, was successfully tested in 2010.• Managed the successful implementation of and took responsibility for ongoing management of a Blackberry environment including resilient BES services.• Working with an external supplier, managed the entire migration from legacy version of MS Exchange to a more current version. This was “from cradle to grave” and included project planning, documentation, hardware procurement, budget management and implementation schedule. The project was delivered on schedule with no user disruption.• Implemented of a new secure remote access solution based on Citrix CSG/RSA two factor authentication. This has been hugely successful (450+ users) and now forms an integral part of our business delivery mechanism together with DR/BCP.

The Partners of Weatherall Green and Smith sold their interest in the company to an overseas investor, Vendome Rome, and a new company was formed, Atisreal Limited. During this time, I was heavily involved with integrating the UK business into our European operation. Significant achievements during this period include -• Managed and developed of the IT Team (comprising 11 staff members) together with the ongoing management of the IT budget in excess of £1m per annum.• Forged strong relationships with my counterparts in the French and German Atisreal operations and developed close working relationships and practices to ensure a joined up approach to ongoing development of IT services and strategy.• Managed the relocation of the entire UK head office and IT Datacentre which provided all centrally delivered applications to the UK business. This was successfully completed over Easter period with no disruption to the business.• To improve secretarial efficiency and reduce costs, implemented a digital dictation system throughout the UK. A dedicated bank of typists and extensive management reporting ensured the system remained efficient and cost effective.• Assumed responsibility for Telephony and managed the implementation of a full IP Telephony Solution from Nortel. This was a joint project with an external supplier and, despite significant technical challenges, proved extremely successful and is still in use throughout the UK business.

As Head of IT for Weatherall Green and Smith, I guided the company through the change from dumb terminal based computing with Data General through to standardised PC based technology using core Microsoft applications. During this period, significant achievements include -• Developed a strong working relationship with the Partners and delivered an IT strategy that took the business forward ensuring that I had their full support and backing.• Migrated away from dumb terminals using proprietary DG hardware/software to PC based computing using Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange. This was a significant step for the company but one which, once achieved, stood us in good stead to move forward without being tied to a hardware vendor.• Managed and implementated of the Year 2000 project. This required hardware and software updates to server, desktop and network hardware and was aimlessly delivered with no business interruption.• Introduced Dell as our desktop vendor of choice. This decision enabled us to grow our PC estate in line with a mainstream manufacturer. I worked closely with Dell and forged a strong relationship and they have remained a strategic partner ever since.

As Software Development Manager, my remit was to design software applications to meet the evolving needs of the business. Applications had to be delivered within agreed timescales, be user friendly and sufficiently robust to ensure data integrity within our environment. During this period, I was responsible for the development of two major software development projects:• Developed “WeatherBase for Windows”; this was, effectively, a Practice Management System for a surveying practice developed in Oracle Forms 6 using an Oracle 9i back end. It included modules to manage property details, CRM functionality, job recording and time recording functionality. This was a market leading tool which put us way ahead of our competitors.• Created an application entitled “The MoD Valuation System”. This application was designed and written internally specifically to meet the demands of our Property Valuation Team who had won a contract to value the entire MoD UK Estate.