Head of IT
The First Group
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :12 years, 8 أشهر
Designed IT strategy with the main objective of transforming the company and department by reducing cost, mitigating risk, improving business efficiency and restructuring the IT department to suit the future and existing business needs. Business discovery and engagement was key to understanding requirements and planning for the future IT landscape.
• Strategic design and planning:
• Enterprise Architecture,
• Business Continuity and redundancy,
• Service Desk, Infrastructure and Innovation Team
• System, process and policy risk mitigation
• Business security including CCTV and Access Control
• Discovery, governance and risk identification
• Gap Analysis of resource, process, systems
• Identified, prioritised projects and designed requirements for implementation
• Process and procedure change and implementation
This role is a fixed term contract which initially started as the Regional IT Manager, post-merger transitioned into acting Head of IT and VerIT Deployment Manager simultaneously. A team of 17 across both work streams, it consisted of a Service Desk Manager, 6 Support engineers and the 10 project team members mentioned in the Deployment Manager role below.
• Responsible for 16 sites under the Regional IT Manager remit
• Technical management of regional Infrastructure and end-user services
• Discovery, governance and risk identification
• Develop IT strategies, Contingency planning
• Change management including functional reporting restructure and shared service model
• Designed, developed, and implemented regional CMDB
• Identify gaps and implement solutions/processes to resolve critical issues that impact process performance
• Introduce and develop training programmes for the business and IT teams as required
• Develop and oversee the implementation of GL Group IT Policies, Procedures and Security Standards
• Recruit and manage IT contractors
• Monitor and review the performance of all outsourced IT contracts to ensure they meet the agreed standards and performance criteria
• Evaluate new technologies and improve the performance of the existing infrastructure and applications
• Ensure disaster recovery procedures are followed as and when required
• Performance Management of team in line with KPI’s
Regional Projects:
• CRM Implementation (Salesforce)
• Designed and implemented regional Service Desk
• Researched and implemented Cloud based file sharing
• Initiated regional software audit - Designed method and managed plan and execution
• Platform Standardisation rollout
• Designed and implemented Regional IT Policies
• Microsoft SharePoint deployment
• Upgraded Anti-Virus Software Solution regionally
• Internet Line upgrades and Provider changes
Deployment Manager IMEA - Global VerIT Deployment Project
Responsible for the successful delivery of the VerIT project in IMEA. This deployment consisted of deploying new servers (7 server sites), clients (Laptops/Desktops) and applications running on the VerIT platform to over a 1000 users, split across 38 locations in 6 months.
• Lead, manage, coordinate and motivate Regional Project Team (Project Manager, Technical Implantation Manager, Solutions Architect, Project Coordinator, 6 Deployment Engineers)
• Highlight risks to the Programme Team through the RAID log
• Advise and plan for contingency to reduce risk towards project deadlines
• Review RAG status
• Responsible for devising, organizing, managing and implementing various projects
• Travelling to previously unknown IMEA locations to conduct way of working analysis
• Allocate project resources
• Report project progress to Regional Deployment Lead
• Once VerIT systems are deployed, ensure decommissioning process is adhered to
• Communicate with the business on any changes and development of VerIT
• Review quality of data provided by Regional VerIT Project Team
Dubai Office)
Strong business engagement focus to change business perception of IT. Planned, implemented and
managed several new policies, procedures and systems, which greatly improved the service the IT
department, provided to the business, and as a result improved the service provided to external clients.
During this time the company went through an acquisition of which I was heavily involved in management
and coordination of all relevant changes.
* Reported to the Middle East Managing Partner whilst managing a team in Dubai, Muscat and
Doha.
* Maintained and implemented all IT support standards, procedures, and infrastructure across the
six Middle East offices (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Almaty).
* Implemented new local policies and procedures in line with global IT policies and made sure
they were adhered to.
* Ensured delivery of projects meeting internal and external client expectations of time, cost and
quality.
* Managed initiatives in terms of project lifecycle with adherence to consistent internal standards.
* Managed changes internally via communication, education and alignment of the business to the
projects objectives and requirements.
* Oversaw the execution of all business testing and the creation of business procedures.
* Enabled the transition of the projects to a live operation and then developed future plans to
further optimize and integrate the new function within the business.
* Initiated negotiations with Etisalat to ensure unrestricted VOIP from the Dubai office.
* Performance Management of team.
* Assisted and coordinated International conferences with US AV team.
* Communicated to the business globally during outages or upgrades.
* Ensured Analysts worked cohesively within the Middle East lT, London based teams and
external support suppliers to provide a total solution service.
* Adhered to the companies IT Quality Management System (QMS) and ISO 9001 processes
and procedures.
* Adhered to the companies IT Information Security Management System (ISMS) and ISO 27001
processes and procedures.
Europe & Middle East (London Office)
Responsible for Business Engagement, Change Management, integration and upgrades on core
applications such as Elite Enterprise, InterAction and NeverFail.
* Technical specialist on the following projects and applications:
* ERP Solution - Elite Enterprise (Thomson Reuters)
* Enterprise CRM Solution - InterAction (Lexis Nexis)
* Failover & Backup Solution - Neverfail
* Document Comparison Software - Workshare DeltaView 4.5
* Editing and Proofreading - StyleWriter 4
* Liaised with department heads to understand operational requirements in line with software
capabilities for deployments and upgrades.
* Designed configuration of applications based on business requirements and compatibility with
existing systems.
* Created configuration documents for the packaging team
* Attended and contribute on daily ops and weekly CAB meetings
* Discovery of new applications
Managed externally contracted support engineers for the Abu Dhabi and Doha offices.
* Issue management of the Service Desk Team
* Visited arbitrations locations, consulting on IT requirements
* Produced troubleshooting and Configuration documentation for the service desk.
* Worked on SQL 2005 at a basic level, backing up and restoring databases, running table
queries, Editing and moving data, job activity monitor and stored procedures.
* Tested and published applications on Citrix to the live environment.
* Provided Advice, technical training sessions, and documentation to 2nd
line team
* Projects:
* Ran project on changing the matter centric structure and security of “Workspaces” on
Filesite/Desksite for the middle east
* Assisted in Bighand TotalSpeech rollout
* Assisted in Interwoven upgrade from Desksite to Filesite
* Assisted in migration from Lotus Notes to Outlook 2003
* Assisted in Citrix rollout
* Researched and implemented a new ACD system.
* Migrated from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook.
Started my fulltime IT career at Clyde & Co as 1st
Line Support, promoted to 1st
line Team
Leader, then promoted to 2nd
Line Support (locations both London, UK and Dubai, ME)
leading electrical engineering projects in Industrial, Commercial and Domestic
environments. Projects included Sydney University and Westpac Bank.
Oil & Gas, Maritime, Energy, Business Assurance, Software)
DNV GL Operating in more than 100 countries, with over 16, 000 professionals worldwide.