Continuing to work (unpaid!) for the family business after leaving the office and returning to my career.

UK Railtours originated in 1978 when my father John Farrow started running days out by train for his friends. By the time of his passing in 2019 this had grown into a business with a multi-million pound annual turnover, widely regarded as one of the leaders in the field. Originally I only came in to help out for a few weeks over the summer of 2021 but this was rapidly extended. I intend to remain in this role until late 2023 or early 2024, at which point I hope to resume my career in Technology.As one half of a two-person team with my sister Liz Morris, any single job title is unlikely to capture the full remit of my role - but my core responsibilities are:- Tour ideation and planning (from core concept through route and haulage planning, costing, off-train activity planning)- Supplier liaison and management (working with nationally known organisations such as DB Cargo, GB Railfreight and Network Rail)- Social media strategy and management- Office management (procurement, compliance, data management, health and safety etc)- Customer interaction (bookings, enquiries, complaints (thankfully rare) etc)Headline achievements thus far:- Improved compliance with GDPR and data retention- Reduced day-to-day running costs of the business by circa 30%- Implemented technology based archiving (replacing boxes and boxes of paperwork)- Refocused the company from 'days out' to the enthusiast market- Raised over £13,000 for The Royal Free Charity in memory of dad

When returning to work following covid-19 furlough, I was offered the opportunity to move across to the Solution Architecture domain as Senior Solutions Architect. As the Senior SA my primary role was split. Approximately 60% of my workload was dedicated to delivering solution architecture deliverables for technology projects, from project initiation documentation through High Level Design and detailed design oversight throughout the life cycle of the project.Meanwhile the other 40% was spent line managing the Solution Architects within the organisation and overseeing process governance, which included a complete revision of the project initiation process and updated versions of all standard project deliverables for the Architecture team (e.g. HLD).

After a head office restructure, my transfer was requested by the Germany domain. Whitbread's German expansion is a key driver for the continued growth of the Premier Inn brand and complements the revised corporate strategy of becoming 'The best budget hotel brand in the world'. As such the role brings increased exposure and responsibility as "all eyes are on us".Supporting the incumbent IT Business Partner for Germany in producing a roadmap of future technology change which will help take the German business from 3 hotels at present to >30 within 3 years. Specifically I am responsible for producing a customer data management plan, using my previous experience in delivering the UK solution and taking in to account the differences in German data protection law to identify and prioritise areas for improvement. This will include the development of high level business cases for future projects.Along with another Lead I am responsible for the line management of a team of 4-5 Business Analysts, managing resource allocation across the domain. My team are responsible for the delivery of process and requirement for projects in two areas - organic growth (new build hotels in Germany) and Mergers and Acquisitions. As such our projects span the entire gamut of a hotel business, from finance and HR to front of house POS and stock management solutions.In addition to 'traditional' project delivery workload my team are tasked with assessments of future acquisitions, looking at their current IT landscape and determining the best cutover and migration strategies as we move those hotels from their existing solutions to Whitbread's IT ecosystem. This includes frequent travel to both the cities we have a presence in, and those we have identified for future expansion.

Acted as IT Business Partner in the Customer space, working with business stakeholders at all levels from Director down to identify future opportunities for technology to provide business benefit in the Customer domain. Became primary point of contact for the Whitbread restaurant Marketing teams on all aspects of data including GDPR compliance and impact assessments of future campaigns.Lead the Business Analysis function for the Customer & Commercial domain, managing up to six direct reports in the Business Analysis and Data Analysis space. My team delivered process assessment and documentation and elicited and documented requirements for projects in a broad spectrum of subject areas; contact center & case management (Microsoft Dynamics 365), email campaign management (Adobe Campaign), customer data management (Microsoft Data Platform, Cosmos), telephony integration. In addition to my role leading the team I was directly involved in the successful delivery of Whitbread's first ever Customer Master Data Management solution (using Cosmos), after three previous projects had failed to deliver. Working with a broad group of stakeholders I completed the functional and non functional requirements but also took on the business relationship management role, working with business stakeholders to define a roadmap for future development after day 1 launch. This included leading the definition of how Whitbread would apply GDPR and other relevant data protection law to their customers data, in consultation with legal support.

Lead business analyst for the implementation of a product Master Data Management (MDM) and menu lifecycle workflow solution, from initial stages of defining and scoping the project through requirement engineering, as-is and to-be process definition and business impact assessment. Played a leading role in the planning, coordination and assessment phases of the vendor selection process (RFP). I have informed and worked on all aspects of the solution design, and worked to define a new target operating model for the Whitbread restaurant business. Working with a diverse group of stakeholders (30+) from across the business and at varied levels of seniority (up to and including director level) to ensure the solution meets the business need. The project has dependencies from, and is itself dependent upon, several other major projects within Whitbread so cross-project communication has been essential.Led business analysis effort on the replacement of the existing Whitbread restaurant table booking solution with a new tool. This solution comprises a user-facing application for on-site booking management and customer-facing web front end integration to the existing brand websites. This included assessment of pain points and areas for improvement and then taking this into account during requirement engineering and RFP. Solely responsible for works to ensure transition of data from incumbent solution to the replacement (inc. booking analytics) is handled with minimum disruption. This has included elements of project management and solution architecture definition. As teams involved in the project work in both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, a knowledge of both has been essential.I have worked with other senior BAs to establish and lead the first Business Analysis Special Interest Group (SIG) within Whitbread. The SIG has worked to define standardised ways of working and templates for the entire BA function and has helped to define the BA role to the wider business.

In replacing the incumbent Amazon-based platform I have been responsible for the implementation of six contact centre applications including contact handling, web-based knowledge management, workforce management and order management. As lead BA for the £11 million Customer Services project I had a lead role in scope definition and requirement gathering for the contact centre applications, working with all levels of stakeholder from floor-level advisers to the Director for Customer Services. I had heavy involvement in leading both ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ process mapping and both system and user testing. Helping the team with its transition from a Waterfall approach to an Agile one, I am also responsible for supervision, mentoring and career progression of junior Business Analysts and have worked with other lead BAs to set up M&S’ first Business Analysis ‘Chapter’ according to Agile methodologies.

Moved to Business Change in the Clothing commercial development team