Seeing recruitment technology differently

Helping organisations with IT and change management projects.

Multiple Award-Winning Gin School and Distillery

Deputised for the Program Manager in the delivery of the £8.2M implementation of Tribal’s SITS & SID Student Management software. Recruited and built highly talented team of self-managing, autonomous product owners and developers who were focused upon delivering the software into the organisation. Developed and implementing a service strategy including: service level agreements; service catalogue; and managing the analysis, design and implementation of a range of support services for end users of Student Information Systems to ensure effective use of this corporate resource and empowerment of staff and students to perform in their roles. Managing, monitoring and reporting service performance; driving continuous service improvement.Managing the remediation of service failure.Recently seconded to a project in the China office, Shanghai, to assist with the adoption of the a new system where I trained, implemented efficient workflows, audited compliance, and built relationships between the staff and the University.

Start-up Software SaaS development house, specialising in multiple tenancy data-driven solutions including: a Web-CMS that hosts several prestigious independent newspapers, and Clarity365 a cloud-based business management solution developed to improve workforce performance and profitability by decreasing the man-hours spent on daily time tracking, billing, invoices, managing expenses and other back-office business processes. Product development; commercialisation; customer relationships; forming a go to market strategy; marketing.I was also the scrum master and fulfilled the many varied roles that are required in an ambitious start-upThis was an interim role to establish the organisation, reposition and launch the product.

Local World, formed in January 2013, is a local media business that brings together Northcliffe Media and Iliffe News and Media. Boasting a portfolio of 107 print titles including the Cambridge News, Hull Daily Mail and Leicester Mercury it has a weekly reach of over 6 million people. Along with 68 Complimentary web and mobile sites with a monthly audience of over 10 million unique users, growing daily. ● Head hunted for the inception of the new Local World business, because of my vast experience in the sector, transformational digital experience and my industry knowledge. ● Working as part of a transformation delivery team to advise on technology and workflows, in order to assist the executive team reinvent the business model and to seek new opportunities to digitise the organisation. ● Key areas of focus have been consolidating two merged organisations, formally Northcliffe News & Media and Iliffe News & Media to find synergies, harmonise technology and make savings. ● Reviewing the estate and making strategic recommendations in order to move the group forwards, leveraging my knowledge of SAAS technologies. This included the selection of a Systems Integrator / Near Shore IT Services company. ● Novation and negotiation of IT contracts finding cost saving with a full year effect of over £2 Million whilst improving quality and service. ● Implemented a Project Management office to being structure and governance to the organisation in order to deliver technical projects. ● Conceived and led a “big data” project to harmonise the various silos of customer data and provide management insight into the B2B customer base, as well as providing a revolutionary reporting tool which demonstrates advertiser’s response and provides analytics to prove the advertisers return on investment.

• Transitioned the business to an outsourced managed service operations and digital delivery to a 3rd party, near shore delivery centre. Including contract negotiation and TUPE processes. • Driving the evolution of the business into becoming a social enterprise with the implementation of Google Apps and Salesforce.com to a circa 1000 strong sales team. Leveraging the mobile working opportunities presented by Apple iPads• Working alongside the Digital & Business Development Director to define and execute the organisation’s digital strategy, leveraging the strength of 200+ trusted, local newspaper brands in the UK and Republic of Ireland• Accountable for project management of business transformation projects, change management and process re-engineering• Responsible for 40+ technical staff including .Net & Java developers who support both the online portfolio and commercial business applications • Working across all functions of the business to lead digital initiatives• Able to tailor communication styles, as appropriate to the audience• Accountable for project management of business transformation projects, change management and process re-engineering • Management of multimillion pound operational and software development budgets• Owner of 3rd party relationships to drive commercial and technical advances• Focused on workflow and technical delivery for print, internet and mobile platforms• Sourced and implemented a new standardised group wide Content Management System for both print and online, (Atex Prestige & Polopoly) c2200 journalists, 211 newspaper websites (unique monthly audience of c10M ) • Instrumental in the selection, adoption and launch of one of the Hit Wise top 10 online jobs platform• Recommended and launched an integrated £2M+ online business directory with ratings and reviews • Introduced tempted digital ad-creation workflow solution that has driven a digital sales uplift of 55% • Implemented enterprise Taxonomy across all departments

• Proposed, created and led a key transformation project of aligning all of the group’s many disparate commercial and pre-press workflows, naming conventions and configurations into a new holistic “Standardised Best Practice” format. This was a catalyst for change when the executive team were shown that harmonising the sales processed and order fulfilment allowed for the breakdown of the cottage industry culture and how consolidation and centralisation aligned with commoditising and productionising back office functions can amounting to third column cost saving benefits. These were in excess of £35Million year one. • Devised and implemented electronic paperless pre-press work flow that subsequently was across the group. Resulting in multi million pound savings at the same time improving service by reducing average production times from up to 24 hours down to 5 hours. • Researched and implemented group wide e-Vouchering Solution to negate the need to post out hard copies of newspapers. Net result of annual £3M savings attached to this project. • Implementation of common editorial and commercial software platforms across the region. • I led a project of Server consolidation to a Virtualised Datacentre pioneering for the industry.

• Responsible for a second division from February 2006.• Member of the Executive team of East Midlands Newspapers LTD, making operational and strategic decisions • Formed one IT department from 5, serving 38 offices across the Midlands to provide stronger support at reduced cost.• Integration of the acquired business of Ashwell Associates into the division’s workflow and technology. • Responsible for teams of c80 FTE specialising in advert make up, page planning & output for 128 newspaper and magazine titles.• Enabled Pre-Press consolidation and created two centralised page planning departments down from 38, to increase productivity quality.• Managing cross functional disciplines of c100 staff in multiple locations.• Led the divisional Advertising system installation, noted by the supplier as being one of the most successful, due to speed, workflow efficiency and adoption. Since then the template for all future rollouts.• Integration of the acquired businesses, Lincolnshire Standard Group and Morton’s Newspapers into the division’s technology stack and workflows. • Trialled and subsequent migration to electronic page makeup and computer to plate technology, one of the first in the UK and a major step forward in the industry.• Responsible for budgeting, local IT strategy, safe working practice, disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

• General IT ad hock desk top PC and Apple MAC support to the newspaper business function

• Devised and Implemented IT strategy• Supported the IT function of the organisation• Sourced and implemented a Customer Relationship Management and membership/subscriber system.

• Manager and buyer at an independent computer shop and mail order outlet.• Instrumental in increasing turnover by from £300K to £1.5M.• Built the business that started in the owner’s garage, to be one of the top ten Commodore computer. retailers in the UK, including several shop openings and moves.