Working on an initial 6 month contract at Kellogg’s UK head office to deliver a task based Product Portfolio Management (PPM) application. This application is used in all European markets to manage the pre-production life-cycle of a product. This contract was extended to include a second phase of development and also to evaluate and implement Perforce as a replacement for Visual SourceSafe and a solution for Web Statistics. After evaluations of many leading Web Stats packages, Unicas NetInsight was proposed and then implemented to capture statistics of the Kellogg’s European Intranet CMS which run on EPIServer 4.

The PPM system was developed in Visual Studio 2005/2008 and uses extensive Javascript and AJAX to improve the user interface and experience, this utilises both the Microsoft AJAX Control Toolkit and handcrafted Javascript. Currently working through an upgrade strategy for Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2005.

Introduced software development and release procedures to ensure best practise for rollout of solutions to the production environment.

Notable Achievements:
• Lead Developer on a Product Portfolio Management system to replace a Lotus Notes system used to manage the life-cycle of a product. This project was delivered on-schedule and was very well received throughout the business.
• Critically evaluated Web Stress Testing tools, Web Statistics packages and VSS Source Control replacements; made recommendations and implemented solutions.
• Introduced best practise procedures for software development and release.

At the MYCCI I was involved in all aspects of the project life cycle and proved to be very client-facing especially during the requirements gathering and design stages.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 was used to produce C# ASP.NET and Windows Forms applications for business requirements. Company databases were SQL Server 2000 and version control of the source code was through Visual SourceSafe. Business reporting was achieved through a mixture of Crystal and SQL Server Reports.

Several off-the-shelf packages are used at the MYCCI including MS Sharepoint, DotNetNuke v4, Goldmine as CRM and Fisk-Brett’s Progress for events management.

Notable Achievements:
• The development of a deterministic web-based auto reporting system. This system reads Crystal Report files, assesses their requirements and provides controls for the user to enter report specific values before displaying the report. The business benefit was that Crystal Reports is no longer required on client machines thus reducing licensing and training costs.
• The development of an Intranet-based Online Documentation system. Because of this system, the business can centralise its documentation, ensuring that staff are using the latest versions.
• The development of an intermediary XML Web Service. This service provides an interface between the MYCCI external website and an internal database, permitting members to search the membership and update their details without direct access to the source database. The system reduces administrative overhead and ensures the data held is accurate.

Key responsibilities: analyse business requirements and produce specifications; design and create bespoke software solutions; create management reports through Crystal Reports to business requirements; liaise with external software companies; maintain and support existing software systems, both internal and external.

Baines & Ernst is a financial management company based in Manchester, handling approximately £10 million worth of debt on behalf of their clients. The development team write bespoke software solutions for the company's unique business requirements.

The role was concerned with the creation, maintenance and evolution of the software systems, typically following a full life cycle approach from requirements gathering through to final system documentation and testing. These systems were written in Delphi 6 and connected to Interbase and SQL Server 2000 databases.

Notable Achievements:
• The development of an integrated sort code and account number verification program. This program was used to automate the processing of Standing Order Mandates and provide sort code resolution.
• The redesign and development of the Letter Production system. This redesign made the system more flexible in response to the changing demands of the business.

Key responsibilities: analyse business requirements and produce specifications; design and create software solutions to specification; responsible for the development of the company's Letter Production System.

Originally 2nd line Support Analyst, supporting the head office at Blackley and various satellite sites around the north of England, before being selected to manage the LAN infrastructure. This role involved the continuous monitoring of the network, locating bottlenecks in network performance and implementing a solution. This would often require reconfiguring the Switches, Hubs and Bridges whilst monitoring the effects on the performance of the FDDI network.