Philip Eldridge Email & Phone Number

Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom

Continuing my career at Shackleton I now oversee the service desk, NOC and technology alignment teams.I still work on reviewing our clients against industry best practices and devloping a roadmap for improving their systems but I now also ensure our internal departments work together more closely . For example any recurring issues reported by the service desk at a client are resolved automatically by our NOC team and any lessons learnt added to our company standards and applied across our client base.I also ensure our teams align to both the EOS and TruMethods management frameworks which the company uses.

Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom

Continuing my career at Shackleton my job has now focussed on ensuring that our clients get the best use of their technology and maintain their cyber security. I do this by reviewing them against best practises in the industry.Using the TruMethods framework and systems like myITprocess I have developed a series of standards. These cover areas like infrastructure configuration, disaster recovery, Office 365, business policies and cyber security amongst many others.I work with the client’s management team explaining the business benefits that can be brought about by investing in their IT systems, also the potential risks to their business and reputation that can arise by not investing.I have successfully put clients through the government backed Cyber Essentials scheme, this is now part of the supply process and allows them to tender for government/MOD contracts. I’ve also helped many clients who deal with privileged information adhere to their data protection obligations. We are now looking at incorporating ISO and PCI standards into our existing framework.There is still a hand on aspect to the role with projects and remediation work but I enjoy the continual improvement process and seeing the benefits over time this work brings about.

Dundee, United Kingdom

I am a senior technical engineer and technical account manager supporting businesses around the country but primarily on the east coast of Scotland. As a technical account manager within my group of clients I am their single point of contact for all technical matters which allows me to get a good understanding of their business. I will go in and produce a report of their current setup and make recommendations for change based on best practice and also their unique needs. If agreed upon I then design a solution including all parts and time required and will then proceed with the installations and upgrades as required. With this close tie to my clients I look to bring a long term relationship which benefits both parties going forwards. We support all Microsoft platforms including Office 365, Server 2016 and Hyper-V. Also all supported desktop versions as well and are a one stop shop for software, networking and all manner of peripherals as well. We also specialise in a strong security suite to protect your business from malware and hacking attacks.Currently and where suited we have a strong offering for cloud based services through Office 365 for office and e-mail through to full disaster recovery and business continuity solutions with a single box solution that essentially bullet proofs your network against disaster.We utilise the N-Able platform so all our clients equipment is pro-actively monitored to ensure it is working correctly and to highlight any faults as they arise. This allows us to fix many issues before they even become a problem like failed hard drives in a server, missed backups or potential virus outbreaks etcWe have a very varied client base from small 5-10 person limited companies and charities all the way up to government departments and housing associations with hundreds of users.

I am a technical consultant covering the north of Scotland and helping small to medium businesses to get the most effective use of their IT systems. The job covers all aspects of IT support from an initial site audit with recommendations for performance improvement, added functionality and cost reduction. Then onto designing entire networks, upgrading existing systems, providing onsite IT cover where no in house IT exists or helping in house IT personnel with larger more complex projects like server consolidation. The role covers designing the proposal, project managing the install through to the actual physical build/installation itself and customer sign off on completion. In more complicated installs where multiple providers are involved we often sell extra time on project work so we can provide the technical project management skills to bring together different services such as telecoms, cabling and security where the client may have limited knowledge themselves.This role is giving me exposure to some of the more modern server technologies such as Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2, SBS2011 also Exchange 2010/13 and virtualisation with Hyper-V. I also work extensively on the RFS team which technically approves time and materials for all projects throughout UK.I regularly encounter a wide range of makes and models of servers, PC’s, laptops, printers, multi-function devices i.e. copiers and help support my clients with anything deemed by themselves as IT be it mobile devices, phone systems, camera’s etc My clients are in very different fields ranging from oil and gas, transport, manufacturing, construction etc which gives me a good grounding in meeting client requirements at all levels. It is a fast paced environment with numerous demands on my time as I follow multiple projects through their various stages of completion.

Working for a global business process outsourcer with clients such as BT, T-Mobile and Capital One I am in charge of desktop support in 4 call centres throughout the UK. For the first year of this role I only supported 1 call centre in Dundee but I was then promoted to the Team Leader role for the northern region. My region comprised of one call centre in Dundee, two in Newcastle and one in Derby. This includes a total estate of 2800 users, 2100 PC’s and 35 servers. I have 6 direct reports to me and I report to the UK IT Director. I am based in Dundee but travel around my region as necessary and remotely manage where applicable.As well as the day-to-day support of PC’s, servers and networks on the sites through the use of the company helpdesk software, I help maintain and develop the processes, standards and policies to meet the numerous client and central team requirements. This includes major projects such as PCI, BCP/DR, desktop standardisation, centralised AV and patch deployment. This included writing the processes for offsite data storage, AV deployment and daily checks among many others. I was an escalation point for both IT departments and the business often acting as a bridge between the two whilst ensuring the relevant SLA’s were met. I was also involved in the weekly management meetings of each site providing relevant updates for the business and also addressing any needs or concerns they had. The supervision and development of my direct reports via regular 1-2-1’s, appraisals and career development planning is a task I take very seriously. I have recruited 4 engineers in this role and have also had to dismiss one person for disciplinary reasons.This was a role I thoroughly enjoyed and my work was recognised with a promotion and increased responsibilities. Unfortunately the industry was hit harder than most with the economic down turn and my role was one of the many thousands to get cut when times turned bad.

Head of IT in a calltaking and taxi dispatch business my role has developed and changed significantly over the time I spent here. My role for three years was that of overall head of IT for two company's one in Edinburgh and one in Aberdeen, I split my time between the sites with 2 days in Edinburgh and 3 in Aberdeen. I administered the two bespoke taxi systems and also the 2 networks one Win2K based and one WinNT based but with a SCO Unix back end. In total we have around 90-120 users at any one time at both sites depending on the day and time. As part of my duties I had to liaise between local management, senior management down in London, the local drivers committees and also our two suppliers one of whom is based in Australia and the other in Canada. I looked after the two Avaya/Index phone switches and our remote hill sites/links as well as providing onsite support for the London calltaking software and hardware, which is based at each site. We also remotely run two fleets down in Liverpool and Birmingham via a terminal services based solution.I was on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year and although flexible enough to be at either site within approximately two and a half hours I had the system setup that I could do 90% of my work at either site remotely so this was not usually necessary. Both sites had secure e-mail accessible from any pc anywhere in the world and are linked by an ADSL based VPN. I had no IT staff directly under me but did supervise the work done by the installers/engineers based in our local offices. I answered to the group head of IT down in London.This was an evolving role as I was originally employed by the Canadian taxi company for one year, but was then taken on by the local Aberdeen one when they decided they wanted me to report directly to them. When the Aberdeen company was bought over by ComCab I inherited the second call centre and associated taxi fleets/systems.

Overall head of IT in a mid sized, £20M turnover, oil services company of 250 personnel. In charge of day to day administration of the network as a whole and also in the future planning of IT within the company. My responsibilities also included specifying/purchasing IT equipment. In my role as IT administrator I controlled my own budget but was answerable to the support services manager. I was in charge of one other person. The network consists of approximately 100 PC's both desktops and notebooks running Windows '9x. The workstations run the Microsoft Office software suite and Lotus cc:Mail is used for e-mail. These PC's connected to three servers, one running Novell Netware 5.0, one running Microsoft NT 4 and one running Altos Unix. Maintenance of the network includes both hardware and software installations/administration. I also provide basic training and induction to anyone entering the company.I was responsible for the company's millennium compliance situation, not only for the IT side but also checking the building's systems, rental assets and liasing with our own purchasing department to ensure our supplier chain was also compliant. Other projects I oversaw included: the replacement of the accounting system, setting up a VPN between three sites, the installation of a Citrix server so remote locations could access programs at head office, the introduction of an authorised use policy, setting up an intranet/extranet, migrating the network to a pure IP basis and the installation of a new phone systemI was the sole IT person in this company for two years and a supervisor for 2 more with one person answering to myself.

This position originally started as a year out in industry from RGIT but progressed to last 4 years. My main duties included programming and supporting accounts systems for Scottish based companies and helping to support Abtex's own IT systems.The programming side included such languages as Microsoft Access, Clipper, Retrieve 4GL and Baan basic. I wrote systems for such differing fields as car rentals, fish processing, grocery import/export and pipeline suppliers. Much of this worked involved not only programming work but a large amount of discussions with the client to analyse their needs. Internal support was mostly based around PC's running a Novell 3.12 server and also IBM RS6000 support for systems running AIX. I finally had to leave this role as the opportunity for advancement was minimal. An initially 6 person department was slowly reduced and when I left only 2 people remained.

Bsc, Computing Science

Attended 2 years of the computing course and my year out in industry. I did not return to complete the course. I felt I was learning more.

Sys History

Achieved 6 Higher grade exams and 1 SYS module. Highers were Maths, English, Physics, Modern Studies, History and Computing.

Education record