CV (Curriculum Vitae) / Résumé

I have gained over nine years experience as senior systems analyst within the financial services sector. I have successfully designed and implemented many projects, ensuring that the projects remain on schedule and within budget.

As part of my role as Senior Systems Analyst within the Ulster Bank, I was responsible for the development and implementation of many financial systems, one of which was a system called the Profitability Model. I was involved in the technical design, development and testing of the model in SQL Server v 6.5 with a front end written in Visual Basic, gaining valuable experience on these platforms.

Prior to joining Ulster Bank, I was working with a different technologies and customers. When I joined the Ulster Bank, I adapted very quickly to a new company and to new technologies.
As part of my role I was responsible for the EMU conversion of a number of Ulster Bank Systems, the Core Party Database, Profitability Model and CRM. This involved several small sub-projects under one project using a range of technologies including COBOL, INFORMIX and SQL SERVER 7. I saw this as a challenge to develop my skills in these areas.

Projects such as Horizon Quick Hits, developed for the Horizon Lending team, and Behavioural Scoring for Credit Systems gave me the opportunity to develop my knowledge and experience of Ulster Bank’s Branch Accounting System. The Branch Accounting database system is on a HP Informix platform and the main programming language used is COBOL. My role in these projects was Program Supervisor / Analyst. I was responsible for the analysis, design and successful implementation of these systems. Behavioural Scoring gave me the opportunity to work with the external suppliers Experian.

One of my greatest successes within the Ulster Bank was the implementation of Debt Manager. Debt Manager is as its name suggests a system for managing the recovery of Debt from Early Collections through to Recoveries. This project covered a wide range of sub-projects giving me the opportunity to liase with our customers in the business units and also the external suppliers London Bridge, plus working closely with other Group IT teams. Debt Manager was implemented on an AS400 platform and is designed to take daily feeds from the core Branch Accounting Systems database within the Bank. I was also involved in the setting up of an automated batch letter production system which takes feeds from both Debt Manager and from Branch Accounting. Ulster Bank is also the first Northern Irish Bank to have implemented such software.

Following the successful implementation of Debt Manager, I implemented a project where the front end was developed in HTML and JavaScript. My final project for the Ulster Bank was working on part of the migration of all Ulster Bank systems to Royal Bank of Scotland.

On all projects, I worked closely with the Technical Services department during the design, testing and pre-implementation stages to ensure that the design is the best in terms of reliability, performance, and technical fit. All the projects I have worked on have been implemented successfully without any faults following go-live. All systems were thoroughly tested to ensure that there would be no problems with performance or code following implementation. I also was responsible for planning and carrying out User Acceptance Testing for the systems I implemented. Feedback from the business units and external suppliers I have worked with has been extremely positive.

I have gained a wide range of new skills during my career in IT. I have been quick to adapt to new environments and technologies for example, from Visual Basic through to COBOL, UNIX and Informix. I have a thorough understanding of both Prince 2 and SSADM methodologies.

I successfully managed the business’s expectations on the Debt Manager project and still maintained an excellent relationship with the business team showing that I have strong influencing skills.

I believe my documents are understandable to all levels, as I aim these at the skill level of my audience. I also believe that I am extremely effective at communicating verbally and can communicate at all levels within an organisation.

I have strong problem solving and analytical skills. Many of the projects I have worked on have presented complex problems, to which I have found solutions, These projects have also had highly complex business rules, which I have been able to analyse and interpret into business requirements and technical solutions.

As a member of the ‘on-call’ support team, I also used my problem solving techniques in highly pressurised situations to come up with solutions for live faults that have occurred.

I constantly strive for excellence in everything I produce and I pride myself in being fair and honest. I believe that building strong business relationships, enables me to resolve issues successfully and implement high quality products that meet business requirements.


Awards & Achievements
• The Parity Prize – 1st in academic year 1995/1996 on HND in Computing
• The IBM Award – 1st in academic year 1992/1993 on Certificate in Information Technology

Courses undertaken in-house with Ulster Bank
• HTML
• XML
• JavaScript
• Prince 2
• SQL Server v 7 programming
• Effective Communication
• Modern Business Writing
• GIPFA Estimating for Software Projects
• Object Orientated Analysis & Design and Rational Rose

Technologies used in IT career
• Visual Basic versions 4, 5 and 6
• SQL Server 6.5 and 7.0
• Microsoft Access VBA
• COBOL
• Informix
• UNIX
• HTML
• XML
• Microsoft Visio
• Microsoft Office, in particular Excel, Access and Word

Methodologies Used
• Prince 2
• SSADM

Employment History

Education