Chief Technology Officer
IIR Middle East
Total years of experience :11 years, 9 Months
Responsible for evolving the technology environment so that it supports the company’s business strategy and objectives and providing full programme management for the resources, budget and delivery of all local infrastructure and application projects. These included:
- Design and upgrade of the new local data centre to improve network security, performance, reliability and provide a stable working environment to the business.
- Saved US$ 1million in IT spend over 3 years through sensitive infrastructure and vendor rationalisation.
- Virtualisation of all physical servers using Citrix Xenserver.
- Upgrading network hardware to allow for the deployment of IP Telephony and enhance quality of service.
- Upgrade to Windows 7 and Office 2010.
- Working with global IT on all SAP projects including Financials, HR & Payroll.
- Implementation of a new cloud based CRM system following a full Enterprise Architecture review of all the applications used within the sales and operations environment. This resulted in improved working processes and efficiency.
- Development of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans in the event of physical, technical or environmental incidents.
- Increased the reputation of the IT Service Desk with the business by motivating, mentoring and training Service Desk staff to deliver a high level of service using the ITIL framework and methodology. This reflected in a 40% increase in first call resolution figures.
- Negotiated new contracts and Service Level Agreements with third party suppliers to reduce costs and provide improved service provision.
- Full responsibility and management of the financial and staffing aspects of operational management, service delivery and project management as well as the full range of technical considerations involved.
Management of a large programme of infrastructure projects for the business providing infrastructure and application services to all offices in the UK, Europe, Americas, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
- Design, build and cutover of 3 new regional data centres located in UK, America and Korea to improve reliability and increase network performance and availability.
- Design and implementing backup, restore and disaster recovery plans in the event of physical, technical or environmental incident or outage to maintain service continuity.
- Managing a comprehensive review of the global telephony and core network infrastructure in collaboration with major suppliers including BT and Cisco.
- Planning the global ICT strategy and budgets with the business and recommending enhancements to optimise network performance and provision utilising cutting edge technologies.
- Travelling extensively to all global locations to programme manage all infrastructure and application projects.
- Building a new Global Service Desk providing service and support in accordance with SLAs and ITIL guidelines relating to incident, problem, change and configuration management whilst maintaining awareness of organisational targets.
- Streamlining managed service providers in global offices and negotiating new SLAs to improve support and working relationships.
Managing the implementation of strategic infrastructure components in accordance with business and corporate IT requirements.
- Coordinating all IT provisioning for four project offices incorporating core business systems and bespoke server based applications operating on Windows NT4/2000 and UNIX servers.
- Operating, performance managing and supporting the multi-site infrastructure in the UK and Europe consisting of Cisco routers/switches, frame-relay, leased line, VPN and remote access.
- Providing management and support to a Developer/Programmer tasked with producing bespoke applications for the business.
- Overseeing the provision of helpdesk support and IT services to 500 users in the UK requiring the management, motivation, training and development of a multi-disciplinary team of five staff members.
- Additionally responsible for negotiating with third party companies and for managing the services they provide.
- Installing and configuring Cisco routers and firewalls in UK and European offices and advising on the resolution of LAN/WAN issues as well as negotiating the provision of voice and data services with third parties.
- Designing, installing and supporting a multi-site network of NT4 and UNIX servers with personal responsibility for operating and supporting central data servers, backup library, network switches/routers and remote LANs.
- Managing the deployment of corporate Enterprise Applications and in-house developed applications and providing end user training and support.
