IT Manager - Head of Department (Support and Services)
ASMAK
Total years of experience :24 years, 0 Months
• Main and vocal point of contact with regards to Service Desk Support, New User, Global IT related services, and New IT Business Development related projects.
• Handling All IT requirements for Ajman / Dubai / Abu Dhabi - Alliance Foods Company
• Maintain and Manage Hosted Services and Data Centre in Ajman to ensure business requirements of the group has been complied in accordance to IT policy and standards.
• Maintaining SLA and support for other business groups for ERP Applications (ORION) and Maintaining Business Process ensuring process owners are updated with any changes on operation workflow.
• Ensuring Change Management and Risk management across the projects to all Business Units.
• Measures the Delivery or release of the projects in timely manner meeting the targets and deadlines in every phase from Planning to deployment across the Business units.
• Handles all IT Project Related from UAE Companies(MS Dynamics / Citrix / VPN / Service Desk Support)
• Handle daily support for Cisco as our telephone system and Office application support such as MS office 2010 and 2013. Including custom application which is Navision and Tally and 4Projects.
• Maintain network stability and traffic between offices and coordinate with Third party support for Main Servers.
• Develop and Manage Business Continuity with regards to Data Backup and Disaster Recovery in accordance to the IT Standards.
• Maintain a user support service to resolve acute incidents as quickly as possible; investigate and diagnose incidents as they occur and develop of solutions to restore service. Activities will include: (with Critical Incidents)
• Review existing and future applications solution for the group towards ERP or SAP implementation based to the group requirements.
• Work with Project Managers of each business unit and communicate all status across the group and ensuring timelines are achieved accordingly.
• Dealing promptly with service requests (access and password changes, requests for advice or information, ad hoc data uploads and downloads according to agreed processes and data sharing /supply agreements).
• Liaise with Account Managers to action Demand and Change request for proper channel and concise procedures to be applied or requires updating when necessary.
• Attend and input, as appropriate, to the weekly meetings of the Technical Advisory Group and Business Development (Change Management) and Risk Assessments.
• Responsible for IT Service Desk performance review and staff development / training / promotions. Provide in-house training on system application and consultancy services to enable users to manage their own data as well as basic troubleshooting.
• Report to management with statistical evaluation of support service of all BU and provide vital info during Team meetings and Service Reviews.
Achievements / Highlights of Career:
• Achieved to Setup Dubai Office from ground zero to working office with Wireless and network connections
• Achieved to Setup Wireless Video Conference.
• Achieved to maintain and support UAE offices in spite of the distance to the main office.
• Maintain and up to date Knowledge base for the Service Desk.
• Created Standard Templates used by Service Desk support for all BU.
• Secure the Internet speed with Etisalat and implement a bigger range for the Office Wireless
• Support offices in UAE for Technical issues for day to day operations
• Stabilize the network administration and server cabling.
• Complete revamp on Cisco telephony to ensure that new policies has been applied.
• Promoted on April 2014 as Head of IT from IT Manager Position after 6 months of joining.
• Strategic plan Group IT Policy and Applications such as ORION.
• Strategic Implementation of Printer Solution for AFC Companies
• Maintaining the Website and Social Media for www.asmak.biz and ASMAK Brands
• Implementation of Investor Relations with EUROLAND for ASMAK
• Handles all IT Project Related from Houston IT (Deployment / Implementation and Support / Integration and Testing)
• Manage and support all IT related services for Dubai Office / Riyadh Office and Hong Kong Office including Beijing, China Office including users who are frequently out of the country or as remote users.
• Handle daily support for Avaya as our telephone system and Office application support such as MS office 2003 and 2007, 2010. Including Custom application which is TimeTrax, MacPac, and Filesite/ Worksite as our Storage solution.
• Maintain network stability and traffic between offices and Server patches and updates.
• In-charge on disaster recovery and system shutdown and Data Center cooling system to ensure the workplace or business continuity.
• Administer basic training for Office Applications and machine usability for new users and visiting users.
• Administer all IT related contracts and third party communication for system maintenance and upgrade requirements.
• Handles Win 7 platform and Windows XP applications support
Data Server Administration / Telephony
• Install all approve patches to update and setup server upgrades for Riyadh and Dubai Offices
• Maintain and troubleshoot AVAYA telephone and Coordinate with the Third Party Support to ensure the business operations are all up and running without downtime.
• Administrate all Users Telephony Profile from creating to deleting the user account.
• Administrate Active directory for password assistance and coordinates with Houston for exchange assistance.
Achievements / Highlights of Career:
• 3 days Machine Rollout for Dubai and Riyadh (Total 35 users) in Win 7 OS and Office 2010
• Resolves all issue in 64 bit environment by ensuring all printer drivers are updated to support win 7.
• Achieved to maintain and support three offices in spite of the time differences (Dubai / Riyadh / Hong Kong / China)
• 1 day migration of Dubai and Riyadh Offices for Office 2007 including basic training on Office application.
• Created a New Hire Support and Training for Dubai and Riyadh Users and Assist London, Hongkong and Beijing Users
• Maintained Office Emergency preparedness and as a First Aid Warden and Fire Warden in spite of current support loads
• Successfully installed the new AVAMAR Server with minimal assistance from Houston for both Riyadh and Dubai Offices.
• Manage 8 Senior and 17 Junior IT Service Desk Analyst Divided as User Administration and Service Desk Support Agents a total of 25 agents in a Team. Maintain and support knowledge base for trends and investigating new technologies as per Business requirements and Custom Applications.
• Maintain a user support service to resolve acute incidents as quickly as possible; investigate and diagnose incidents as they occur and develop of solutions to restore service. Activities will include: (with Critical Incidents)
• Dealing promptly with service requests (access and password changes, requests for advice or information, ad hoc data uploads and downloads according to agreed processes and data sharing / supply agreements).
• Monitoring Call Centre and Support Service Calls and Investigating and resolving data quality issues and pending issues.
• Critical Incidents are handled within 4 hours and ensure all communications, fixes and analysis are all reported with concise detailed information.
• Maintain a user support service during business hours that is 24 /7 Service Support and Deliveries including Ports and Terminal Operations.
• Ensure all requests and incidents are logged and handled appropriately according to agreed SLA levels (compliance with ITC ITIL procedures and policy). Ensuring Charge back are applied.
• Carry out bug fixes and develop technical solutions to incidents handled through the service desk for more improvement of First Line support and resolution. Includes Hardwar and Software support such as Printers / Faxes Business Machines / Business Applications / Office Applications / and Network Troubleshooting.
• Maintain the desk instructions for systems applications & ensuring documentation provided by developers is adequate and to date.
• Liaise with Account Managers to action Demand and Change request for proper channel and concise procedures to be applied or requires updating when necessary.
• Attend and input, as appropriate, to the weekly meetings of the Technical Advisory Group (Change Management).
• Responsible for IT Service Desk performance review and staff development / training / promotions. Provide in-house training on system application and consultancy services to enable users to manage their own data as well as basic troubleshooting.
• Report to management with statistical evaluation of support service of all BU and provide vital info during Team meetings and Service Reviews.
Achievements / Highlights of Career:
• Achieved to maintain One Day resolution and 90% service support for all BU
• Able to manage the deliveries within the 8 business hours and 4 business hours for critical issues
• Created basic support on MS Offices / Blackberry Support / Printer Troubleshooting / and Operating System Support
• Maintain and up to date Knowledge base for the Service Desk
• Created Standard Templates used by Service Desk support for all BU.
• Successfully maintained a below 10 second ASA and below 5% Abandoned Calls
Networking
• Assists in the planning and implementation of additions, deletions and major modifications to the supporting infrastructure (hardware).
• Implements network security at all levels as established by Security Policy.
• Oversees the administration and maintenance of all infrastructures, and directs the team in these areas.
• Oversees the administration of the WAN.
• Determine a competent partner and outsource consultants in each project.
Telephony
• Manages and develops upgrades for the telephone system (Avaya).
• Oversees all telephone changes, including routing for seating/desks.
Internal Systems (including e-mail, MS Office products, GIS Status Quo, Hosted EDMS, Collaborative PPM, MS Dynamics GP, Oracle Business Suite)
• Oversees troubleshooting, systems backups, archiving, and disaster recovery and provides expert support when necessary.
• Works with project teams to develop and implement business systems and proprietary software as required.
Help Desk Administration
• Administrate the helpdesk operation within organization to record and prioritize all IT requests.
• Able to provide ample reports in concise and clear manner.
• Assign and delegate issues in timely manner according to standards and policies.
• Provide Basic and advance Troubleshooting and Training for Software and Hardware Issues to ensure Business Operation Continuity.
Asset Management
• Builds and maintains vendor relationships and manages the purchase of hardware and software products.
• Manages the purchasing of all software, hardware and other IT supplies at the regional level.
• Ensures that company assets are maintained responsibly.
• Ensures the IT standards in-line with the ITIL methods and procedures.
• Conduct Product review and Product recommendation for enhancing Business Operations.
Management & Supervisory Responsibilities
• Overall responsibility for effective resourcing and functioning of the IT department
• Serves as main point of contact on all IT related matters.
• Plans, develops and implements all IT related projects in-line with business requirements
• Identifies and provides standards for gathering information for use in trend analysis and reports information to company management.
• Assist on IT Budget Forecast and Infrastructure Planning.
Achievements / Highlights of Career:
• Able to stabilize the network and server performance without the previous documentation
• Manage to support 86 employees single-handed.
• Able to support the TENT Project for 50 people to be built in a week time with two days’ notice.
(First 14 staff hired and was sent to United States for an Eight (8) months training all expenses paid by the company).
-Transitioning for Product Engineering Role.
-Handles Product sizing and planning.
-Handling 200+ of people and several Section Heads in a project.
-Provides Technical reviews during Shutdown and Product release.
-Provides Initial review for the new features for the upcoming products.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) Department: (Technical Leader)
-Provides assessment on the code changes accordingly to the coding standards.
-Handles machine troubleshooting.
-Supports development for the OEM Property Sheets and new features implementation for a specific project.
-Assist on the Component review for the new intakes.
-Spearheading certain task or features to be implemented in a certain Project.
-Handles 7 software engineers and 20 test engineers for a specific project.
Windows 9x Printer Driver: (Technical Leader)
-Fix deferred issues from the old drivers to provide better products for the upcoming printer drivers.
-Provides assessment for the new intakes
-Provides Trainings for the team members
-Spearheading certain task or features to be implemented in a certain Project.
Windows System Driver: (Project Engineer)
-Handles project sizing and lead role in a specific Project Development.
-Spearheading certain task or features to be implemented in a certain Project.
-Contributed on the development cycle (From the beginning up to the End or release of the projects). Main Objective is designing features and fixes problems that are found in the project (Hardware and Software).
-Provides MS support for the new release operating system.
-Provides Solution for MS security issues.
-Development on Terminal Server Drivers (such as in Citrix).
-Handles the 5 Software engineers and 5 Test Engineers during project development.
-Contributed on the development of the website (www.crownasia.com.ph.) for the Crown Asia Philippines. Major task is Marketing, Handle Unit promotions, Unit commercials, Unit Showcase, and Seminars/training for the brokers.
-Network support as an administrator assistant and handles Product promotions and Advertisements.
-Conducts training and evaluation to clients / brokers.
-Handles the planning for products Selling strategies, Marketing Strategies and Planning.
-Handles 120 real estate agents and Manage 20 workers for every project showcase.
-Facilitate Software upgrades and troubleshoots hardware and supports customer services. Network support for gamers and Internet users/clients and network traffic. Administrate Network implementation and Architecture.
-Top 20% of the Graduating Class -Certificate of Recognition from the VP of the University of San Agustin Student Affairs Office (1999-2000) -Athlete of the Year with Special Academic Awards -President of Agustinian Computer Engineering Society (ACES) -Auditor / Business Manager of University of San Agustin Student Council (USASC).