I am working as a self-employed business analyst/ project manager and consultant. Most assignments are IT based but also require strong general management skills. Examples include:
- Acting as Project Manager for implementation of an ERP system in a £100 million t/o pharmaceutical distributor.
- Tendering for new systems (including CRM and event management) and managing their implementation in a £8 million t/o charity.
- Acting as IT Head for a company providing counselling and associated HR services. A number of new systems have been implemented including case management.
- Determining IT strategy and upgrading business systems in a fast growing recruitment agency.

King Sturge is one of the largest UK firms of Chartered Surveyors, with a turnover of £60 million, 15 offices and around 1000 staff. I had overall responsibility for IT and E-business integration within the UK company. Major responsibilities and achievements included the following:

- Determining IT strategy and obtaining “buy-in” from the Management Board.

- Project managing the installation of new corporate systems. Specific examples include:
• a practice management, CRM, and financial management system for the whole firm
• A major upgrade to a corporate property management and accounting system with about 150 users.
• Development of the corporate Intranet from scratch

- Managing the change brought about by new systems, and raising the awareness and image of IT

- Managing the IT Department (20 full time staff plus contract staff) and third party suppliers. Recruiting, appraising and developing staff, and ensuring that they work as a coherent team.

- Managing an IT budget in excess of £2 million p.a. excluding staff costs.

- Managing the growth in demand for IT (total staff numbers in the firm increased from 550 to 1000 during my period as Head of IT). Ensuring that network and data storage capacity kept pace with requirements.

Wodehouse Consulting was a small consulting company with whom I carried out a number of IT assignments. The main one was a post-merger systems integration project for a Trade Union of more than 250,000 members.

This involved:
- Determining the integration strategy including merging of systems and databases.
- Tendering for and selecting suppliers for new systems, specifically Membership Records and Administration.
- Acting as programme manager for development/ customisation and implementation of the systems.
- Achieving harmonisation of working methods and procedures within the merged departments.
- Managing the relocation of the merged organisation to new premises.

Grant Thornton is one of the “Top 10” Accountancy firms in the UK. I was a Supervising Consultant in the IT Consultancy part of the practice.

Typical assignments included IT strategy development, management of system development and integration projects, system tendering and selection, systems implementation and IT “value for money” reviews.

Example assignments include:
- Project Management of system implementations for the former British Rail.
- Project Manager for implementation of new financial systems in a major multi-site defence electronics company
- Project Manager for a system replacement project for one of the UK’s largest pension funds
- IT “value for money” review for a publisher of regional newspapers.

A similar mix of work to Grant Thornton but at a less senior level

Team member in development and implementation of IT strategy for a major retailer.

A senior IT Manager in a (then) FT-100 company, involved in manufacture and distribution of convenience foods. I also spent a period as a systems auditor.

Career progression from Graduate Trainee to Systems Project Manager. Managed all stages of development and implemented a variety of manufacturing and administrative systems.