Head hunted to bring order to a chaotic business function which had suffered from lack of direction, lack of investment and no figure head for 5 years. Staff turnover was high at over 100% per annum. Projects were not completing and lacked planning. IT was not aligned with the business objectives. Reduced staff churn to 0%, planned and completed outstanding projects – resulting in increased end user satisfaction and efficient spend of budget.Wrote business plan based on discussions with staff at all levels and implemented programme of change designed to address key points, improve service, uptime, business continuity, storage consolidation etc. Some of the programme involved capitalising on already existing investments, some on implementing new technologies, such as the use of the cloud for both structured and unstructured data and SIP.Documented all processes in order to bring clarity and consistency to IT delivery. Whilst doing this, wrote business continuity plan as existing was inadequate. Implemented new It help desk system and initiated project management and change management into the IT team.

Upon joining David Chipperfield Architects, Simon brought an out of control, failed IT department into line to produce an effective, high-performing team. He created an IT strategy for David Chipperfield Architects, with short, medium and long-term goals based on actual business needs, rather than IT departments or other individual’s desires. Building upon the initial processes to provide an IT system that exceeds and pushes the business use of IT.He put in place a process of repair and restoration to bring the software and hardware to a functioning and acceptable level in the short term. Also, he had written and tested the practices Business Continuity procedures.He rationalised and formalised the budget, gearing many items to spread the annual spend to reduce spikes in spend and smooth cash flow. Significant capital expenditure items included replacing failing hardware storage systems with cost-effective storage, enhancing backups, reducing staff frustration, reducing the loss of productivity and hugely reducing risk.The software license rationalisation facilitated the adoption of Office 365 in the practice. This was financially beneficial, but also led to a number of key strategic projects. For example, the development of the practice intranet, providing online systems to support and enhance the information management and flow within the practice and supporting the ISO9001 accreditation. In addition to that, he worked closely with the finance department to re-implement financial software, to introduce and integrate online reporting, work in progress calculations and other tools to aid better job running.Simon was also responsible for Health and Safety in the practice and is a qualified first aider and fire marshal.

Simon was responsible for all the IT strategy and delivery for Zaha Hadid Architects.The IT team at Zaha Hadid was fully out-sourced, Simon manages this relationship and aligns IT with the business to deliver the best possible technical solutions, whilst keeping a tight rein on the budget.He was responsible for the IT strategy for the practice, renowned for delivering cutting-edge architecture by its innovative ways of working and complicated software pipelines. He managed a software estate based on Microsoft infrastructure, but includes software from Autodesk, Bentley Systems, Gehry Technologies, Rhino and a host of other delivery packages and render engines. He developed strong relationships with all software vendors and undertook a software audit to ensure compliance and renegotiated many software contracts to gain better coverage and ensure value.He completed many projects in rationalising the storage platform to replicated Equallogic storage and also rationalised the virtual servers; implemented an HR system; implemented a media asset management system; upgraded Exchange to a stable platform and implemented Mimecast for email continuity. He constantly fine-tuned the IT working process and has introduced news of working and increased communication between IT and the rest of the business. He introduced new outsourced partners to the business to support architectural teams working in remote regions. He introduced Microsoft’s Office Communicator (now Skype for Business) – to reduce cost in phone bills and maintenance, yet increase productivity and communication both internally and externally for a truly global practice. He also worked on implementing a practice management system in the form of Union Square’s Workspace; implementing System Centre to streamline delivery of workstations and applications and formulating and testing the business continuity plan.

Simon formed since68 consulting after leaving Broadway Malyan and worked with a number of clients in various sectors such as healthcare, charitable organisations, IT and management consultants.He consulted on various IT related topics - for example social media and the intranet for Great Ormond Street Hospital. Many other roles involved social media consultations - such as the charities I worked with and the management consultants; though focusing heavily on social media, these were part of an overall strategy for IT the companies involved.He also undertook a number of studies for various IT consultants, including one on technology trends and patterns within TV/movie post-production in Soho.

Since 2003, Simon has been working for Broadway Malyan, as their IT Director. Broadway Malyan is a renowned Architecture and Design practice, with 14 offices throughout Europe, the Middle and Far East, with 750 staff and an annual turnover of £50M. Simon has been instrumental in the expansion of the company in recent times, providing IT infrastructure, access methods, appropriate networks and new ways of collaborative working. This has facilitated low-cost, sustainable IT systems across the globe.Whilst working at Broadway Malyan, Simon identified, commissioned and managed the implementation of an ERP system called “Business Process” to support the companies ISO9001 quality assurance certification.He identified and specified and implemented, an intranet based image database to index and better use the graphical resources available, across all the offices.He also identified the need for an accurate contacts management system which links people, companies and projects and further enhances the shared knowledge, and has data integrity as one of its core tenets.Simon has formed focus groups within the business to look at CAD and Graphics as special interest groups and also a generic IT group. This is to foster best practise within the company and discuss new ideas and ways of working across otherwise disparate offices.He also undertook a cost reduction exercise across landlines and mobile fleet where without reducing quality, or exposing the company to undue risk he managed to reduce the mobiles monthly spend by 40% and reduced landline spend by 50%. Other recent projects include rebranding the IT team within Broadway Malyan, providing a more customer focussed approach; working with the legal team and focus groups on developing a business continuity plan; finally, a new intranet based around communities of practice to foster the beginnings of knowledge management.

Simon worked for St Ives Burrups Ltd, as their Associate Director IT. He had global responsibility for the provision, maintenance and running of all IT services, networks and developments for St Ives Burrups Ltd., the financial print division of St Ives, a market leading FTSE 250 plc.Simon initiated and had responsibility for a St Ives group wide-area network consolidation and cost saving project valued at over £3 million over three years saving approximately 30% of the total spend.He was also responsible for the IT security of his own division and also provided consultation to the group of companies on this subject. He rewrote the Groups Information Security Manual to become a more pragmatic and effective tome.In 2000, he was responsible for the IT integration of two American companies into St Ives Burrups. This included pre merger due diligence work, and post merger integration of staff and information systems.Simon was also responsible for the identification, procurement and successful implementation of an MIS system into the company. This involved considerable liaison with all aspects of the business and careful selection and management of 3rd party suppliers. The total value of the project was £1.4M over 2 years.Amongst his other projects was the provision of St Ives Burrups eBusiness activities by providing a secure document delivery and project collaboration portal on the internet.

At Foster and Partners Simon managed a team of seven, and was responsible for all IT support, development and implementation of all IT networks, hardware and software within the practice.He instigated the re-networking of the office to facilitate faster access to large CAD and graphic files. He also introduced web access and email to the company, thereby facilitating a new means of communicating with their clients.Security concerns were ever present, Simon ensured security both internally and externally by setting up swipe card access at key points in the building and firewalls and antivirus software. Whilst at Foster and Partners, he also consolidated operating systems from a heterogeneous environment of NT 3.5, Unix, Apple Mac and Windows 95 to NT4, thereby reducing support costs and the burden of legacy systems.

Simon worked as Cad Manager at Bechtel. At Bechtel he ran the engineering support team of eight people. The main packages that the team supported were varying 2D and 3D CAD suites and the hardware on which they ran. He successfully introduced Bentley Microstation into the UK business and was an active player in Bechtel’s IT strategy steering committee based in Washington DC. In 1995 he helped design the corporate NT domain structure across 25,000 workstations and servers worldwide.

Simon worked part-time, training students in CAD. He wrote and designed his own course material to a very high standard. During these two years he learnt innumerable soft skills.

Simon worked as CAD Team Leader with a team of eight, and running the day-to-day business of the CAD department, ensuring work was of a high standard and delivered on time.