Profile

A proactive and enthusiastic manager, with first class communication and inter personal skills at all levels, who enjoys providing the highest levels of customer service and technical competence in all areas and has an ability to innovate and seek solutions.

Has initiated and has experience of project management and implementing changes to working practices and technological systems. A natural organizer experienced in managing multiple technical projects. Experienced in the preparation and achievement of budgets and targets, providing training, development and motivation of staff. Enjoys working both as part of a team or individually.

Key Skills and Attributes

• Determined attitude to project completion and success.
• Ability to analyse problems and pro-actively resolve issues.
• Ability to manage and co-ordinate internal resources and external suppliers.
• Experienced in change management, new server deployments and system roll outs
• 9 years IT and Telecoms experience.
• 30 years experience of customer service delivery.

Employment History

1997 - Vesuvius Group. Global Manufacturer of Refractory Products for Steel, Foundry & Glass Industries. Annual turnover £746m, 84 locations across 30 countries

Key Achievements

· Project managed rollout of Citrix / thin client solution across three UK sites.

· Design and project management of installation of 1600 port network infrastructure across two buildings for new UK head office. Redesign and project management of upgrades to all UK site voice and data networks.

· Consultant on network infrastructure upgrades at sites in Europe, Asia Pacific, India and South Africa.

· Prime member of team responsible for deploying a single Novell eDirectory Tree in 40+ sites across 5 countries, involving an 80 plus server rollout.

· Initiated redesign of UK Telecoms infrastructure resulting in £70K p.a. savings in UK call costs.

2005 - Technical Support Manager UK & Northern Europe

In addition to the role of Technical coordinator, became responsible at the start of 2005 for a team of 6 technicians providing IS technical support to over 400 users across 12 sites in the UK and Scandinavia. Reorganised the UK helpdesk processes and systems, which improved customer service and perception of the department within the company.

Management and motivation of staff, ensuring that helpdesk tickets are resolved in a timely manner, all IS systems are installed and run to standards; company data is kept secure, backed up and restorable. Also responsible for new system deployments, software licensing and hardware purchase, disaster recovery procedures, management and coordination of hardware, software and maintenance vendors. Management and overall control of staff led projects.

Initiated and project lead a revision and centralisation of UK telephone systems resulting in a £70K p.a. saving in UK call costs. Revision of UK IS purchasing strategy resulting in 20% saving in new server costs.

2004-05 Technical Coordinator

Responsible for ensuring all sites in UK, Scandinavia, South Africa and Asia Pacific conform to standards set by the Technical group, providing technical support for hardware and software issues both remotely and on site. Designed and project lead installation and rollout of network infrastructure upgrades both in UK and abroad. Project lead remotely and on site, new system deployments and network upgrades in India, Malaysia and China.

2000-03 Network Engineer

Joined the International Division Technical group, who are responsible for specifying and implementing standards for Vesuvius IS. Key member of team in implementation and rollout of new Wide Area Network and Novell directory services across the company and became primary support contact and global administrator for the Novell infrastructure. Joint developer of Vesuvius global IP addressing scheme. Travelled extensively in East and Western Europe, USA and Brazil implementing a new global WAN, Novell network and rollout of new site systems. Designed network / voice infrastructure and project led installation of same for new UK headquarters for Vesuvius. Network fault diagnosis and rectification. Initiated and set up global purchasing agreement with Veritas as a result of testing and setting BackupExec as global standard.

1997-99 Site IS support at Chesterfield Site

Responsible for all on site IS support for 50 users including backup of servers, upgrades and network and telecom problems. Coordinated the expansion of the sites infrastructure when the Sheffield office was moved to Chesterfield.

1991-96 The Blake Group Ltd. Vauxhall/Peugeot Main Dealer, Chesterfield & Worksop

1993-96 Parts Manager, Staveley, Chesterfield Branch.

Managed a team of 3 providing parts service to in house, trade and retail customers.

Actively involved with both service and bodyshop departments as part of the management team to attain ISO 9000 and also help provide customers with a fully integrated after sales service.

Undertook a revision of the warranty displaced parts return and job coding systems resulting in an increase in warranty profitability.

Initiated and implemented the integration of all three receptions from 3 buildings into one including re-siting of IT systems and was completed without compromising customer service

1992-93 Senior Partsman, Main Chesterfield Branch.

Developed Autofactors, a division within the parts operation that supplied parts for all makes, from a sideline position to a significant player in the local aftermarket arena.

1991-92 Parts Sales Representative, Mansfield Area.

Developed this territory from no penetration to a significant contributor to departments' profitability.

1989-91Lucas Service UK Ltd. Sheffield.

Stores Manager.

Managed a team of 4, providing automotive electrical and diesel parts service to in house, trade and retail customers, responsibilities included stock control and customer service.

In October 1989 the branch was the first to become computerised and I was involved in the final development of the system, implementation of new procedures and training of staff.

1986-89Charlie Browns Autocentres PLC. Shipley.

1988-89 Branch Manager, Hillsborough, Sheffield.

Developed the branch and level of service offered to customers, resulting in the branch becoming the leader of the Northeast region both in terms of turnover and profitability.

1986-88Assistant Manager, Various Branches in South Yorks Area.

1984-86Abbey '83 Ltd. Renault & Hyundai Main Dealer, Sheffield.

Vehicle Technician. Responsibilities included training of apprentices.

1983-84 Steel Castings Research and Trade Association, Sheffield.

Transport Controller. Responsible for fleet maintenance.

1980-82 Truckline Parts. Sheffield.

Trainee Manager. Responsible for deliveries and customer service.

1976-80 E.W. Hatfield Ltd. Sheffield.

Indentured Apprentice. Employed at Jaguar/Daimler service centre .

Education And Training

2007 Prince2 Overview. Vesuvius Group

2006 Citrix Presentation Server 4 Administration. Vesuvius Group

2003 Novell Netware 6 Installation and Administration. Vesuvius Group

2002 Novell NDS Design. Vesuvius Group

Networking & TCP/IP Fundamentals. Vesuvius Group

2000 Novell Netware 4.11 Administration. Vesuvius Group



1997 NVQ Level 2 IT Support. Kalamazoo/Sight & Sound

1996 NVQ Level 3 Customer Service. Blake Group Ltd. Chesterfield



Vauxhall Difference Change Management. Blake Group Ltd. Chesterfield

1995 Dale Carnegie Management Leadership. Blake Group Ltd. Chesterfield

1987 Institute of the Motor Industry. Granville College. Sheffield

1981 City & Guilds Motor Vehicle Technicians Certificate. Granville College. Sheffield

1976 5 GCE "O" Levels. Abbeydale Sixth Form Centre. Sheffield

Hardware Experience

Servers Dell, Compaq, IBM

Desktop Dell, Sony, HP, IBM, Compaq

Network Cisco, Dell, HP, Fluke

Software Experience

Server Windows NT4, 2000, 2003: Novell 4.11, 5.1, 6.0, NDS 7&8, eDirectory 8.6.2, Border Manager, Zenworks. Veritas Backup Exec. VNC, RDP

Desktop Windows NT4, 95, 98, 2000, XP, Office 97, 2000 suites. I.E 5/6. Visio. Lotus Notes. Citrix client. McAfee. Triactive helpdesk. OpenOffice

Networking Cisco, Fluke Network Inspector & Optiview. HP JetAdmin.