Head of IT Planning & Projects
Fawaz Al Hokair Fashion Retail
Total years of experience :20 years, 2 Months
• Assisting in development of IT strategies and planning long and short-term vision for IT Roadmap and budget plan.
• Designing and implementation of standard project management processes.
• Evaluation of infrastructure and preparing analysis reports.
• Planning for new technologies which can add value to retail business and processes.
• Conducting weekly meetings with department heads.
• Supervising project progress of departments and preparing achievement reports.
• Preparing project plans with outsourced companies and ensuring project deliverables.
• Ensuring resources and projects are within planned budgets.
• Preparing RFPs, RFIs and processing proposals.
• Deliver and operate all project management functions.
• Developing functional processes for internal departments.
• Ensuring security by implementing security policies and methods.
• Participating in developing the IT budget plan by collecting all budget request presented by all Head of IT Divisions and share the proposed IT budget plan to CIO.
• Managing the development of the resources skills and capabilities building by conducting performance appraisals and mentoring, leading to opportunities to attend trainings and certifications sessions.
• Managing IT performance management.
• Reviewing and ensuring SLAs of outsourced vendors.
• Assisting in ensuring that IT strategy is in line with business strategy and that business requests are duty met by IT teams.
• Taking part in developing and communicate standards, best practices, techniques and tools for project planning, execution, management, on-going deliverable tracking, KPIs and ensure policies, processes and standards are periodically refreshed.
• Managing negotiations with vendors and work with business teams to complete required due diligence for vendor onboarding.
• Acting as the main point of contact for vendors and monitor vendors’ performance and SLAs.
• Managing contract execution process, moderate disputes and escalate issues.
• Contribute, draft, review and updated IT policies and procedures (BYOD, Employee On boarding, IT patching, IT backup etc…)
• Creating IT compliance reports and associated plans (audit internal IT policies and Software assets).
• Oversee and execute IT compliance reviews of IT process, IT assets (hardware/ software), IT security.
• Serving as a subject matter expert on all IT compliance issues.
• Identifying potential gaps or conflicts in existing IT processes and suggest solutions to address those gaps.
•Assist in leading the development of IT strategies and planning long and short term vision for IT Roadmap and budget plan.
•Manage relationships, team capabilities build up, negotiations and sharing of the IT vision and strategy with the employees
•Deliver and operate all project management functions, providing leadership and coordination to the SIO activities
•Share the IT vision and strategy with IT CIO and IT department and ensure continuous to the SIO activities
•Participate in developing long term goals and strategic objectives for individual IT processes to increase operation efficiency and accuracy, improve capability development, performance management and relationship with business users
•Participate in developing the IT budget plan by collecting all budget request presented by all Head of IT Divisions and share the proposed IT budget plan to the IT general manager for approval and amendment
•Manage the development of the resources skills and capabilities building by conducting performance appraisals and mentoring, leading to opportunities to attend trainings and certifications sessions
•Manage IT quality compliance, quality assurance and co-ordinate IT performance management
•Take part in leading the demand management activities for IT to strike balance between IT demand and supply
•Ensure the fulfillment of the IT advisory service as per OLA and manage the service catalogue of the IT Advisory Service
•Assist in ensuring that IT strategy is in line with business strategy and that business requests are duty met by IT teams
•Participate in monitoring, reviewing and providing mitigation and resolution plans on risks and issues and escalating major risks and issues to the IT steering committee if needed
•Take part in developing and communicate standards, best practices, techniques and tools for project planning, execution, management, on-going deliverable tracking, KPIs and ensure policies, processes and standards are periodically refreshed.
Roles And Responsibilities:
•Planning and designing of new projects.
•Monitoring and coaching of staff to achieve best results.
•Preparing project reports and development updates for top management.
•Recruitment of employees and training.
•Maintaining organization's effectiveness and efficiency by defining, delivering, and supporting strategic plans for implementing information technologies.
•Execution of projects by coordinating resources and timetables with user departments and data center.
•Verifying application results by conducting system audits of technologies implemented.
•Preserving assets and data by implementation of disaster recovery plans and asset management.
•Recommending and developing IT strategies, policies, and procedures by evaluating organization outcomes.
•Preparing annual and monthly budgets.
•Develop, implement, and maintain policies, procedures, and associated training plans for operations team and service desk support.
•Conduct research and make recommendations on products, services, and standards in support of all infrastructure procurement and development efforts.
•Financial and technical meetings with vendors, outsourcers and contractors.
•Monitoring, management and planning of data center.
•Weekly and monthly meetings with staff and other departments.
Projects and tasks :
•Planning and designing of new POS software for organization.
•Testing, evaluating and implementation of CCTV system for outlets.
•Implementation of DIA Internet service for Head Office.
•Designing, development and implementation of website for coffee chain and corporate office.
•Development of policies and implementation.
•Deployment of servers for Microsoft AX implementation.
•Data collection from departments for AX Implementation.
•Testing, evaluating and deployment of Antivirus in Head Office.
•Designing android application for retail outlet.
•Email server implementation.
•Deployment of firewall.
•Implementation of Virtual Servers using Hyper-V.
•Preparing comprehensive reports of core and secondary projects.
•Conducting Technical Interviews for recruitment and preparing reports.
•Preparing project and implementation plan reports.
•Maintaining Communication with International Suppliers and Clients.
•Preparing manuals of implemented projects.
•Preparing reports of budget and implementation of new projects.
•Preparing weekly and monthly execution reports.
•Responsible on planning and designing enterprise level IT infrastructure.
•Designing and implementation of helpdesk for organization.
•Developing strategies and plans for IT Department to achieve efficiency and accuracy.
•Building and supporting Datacenter which provide high availability and redundancy.
•Installation & Configuration of ADSL connections at stores with VPN.
•Analyzing and implementation of POS Software (NCR & EDSS).
•Implementation of NCR Software and technical support to overseas branches in Malaysia and Singapore.
•Installation and Configuration of NAS Storage.
•Installation and Configuration of SonicWall Firewalls
•Research and development for new technologies as core projects.
•Installation and configuration of Windows 2003/2008 domain.
•Installation of Internet Filter Server.
•File Servers installation with managed disk quotas.
•Active directory management and creating group policies.
•Installation of ERP server and installation of ERP for users.
•Maintaining security of network from hack and virus attacks.
•Installation and configuration of Data Leak Protection tools.
•Installation and configuration of Backup Tools (Symantec Backup Exec. & Acronis).
•Deployment of Antivirus servers.
•Installation and configuration of Point of Sales Machines with Back Office Servers.
•Design and implementation of Point Of Sale Machines for the Retail Outlets.
•Network Designing.
•Installation of Wireless Access Points for Internet Access. (Linksys, Netgear).
•SQL Data backups of Application and Data Servers.
•Maintenance of Switches and routers.
•Technical & Application Support to branches across the Kingdom.
•Installation of Security Systems. (IP & Analogue surveillance systems of all brands).
•Site survey and planning of sites. Preparing technical reports and designs with maximum coverage.
•Planning and managing trainings for staff.
•Installation of Avaya contact center.
Installation and configuration of Windows 2003 domain.
Installation of ERP server and installation of ERP for users.
Deployment of Antivirus servers.
Designing and Installation of Network using Visio
Installation of Wireless Access Points for Internet Access.
Maintenance of Switches and routers.
Technical & Application Support to branches across the Kingdom.
Network maintenance, trouble shooting and PC Maintenance.
Major role in integrating. Network Designing, Cabling and installation of servers, workstations and wireless points.
Windows 2003 Server Installation
Installation of ISA Server
Installation & Managing Windows2003 App. Server
Managing Windows2003 ISA Server
Installing & Managing RAS Clients of Branches
Installing & Managing Wireless Network
Responsible for IT Purchases
TOGAF 9
Certification course of VmWare
Network Security Essentials Administrator Training