Head of Technology
Cedar White Bradley
Total years of experience :26 years, 4 Months
Headhunted by a leading Intellectual Property Consulting Firm with a presence throughout the Middle East. Employed with the brief to review the existing ICT department and infrastructure; make recommendations and then implement changes with a brief to develop corporate ICT strategy to underpin the planned growth of the organisation. Managing a team of 6 staff across 6 offices throughout the Middle East. Projects identified for delivery in the coming fiscal year include:
• Unified Environment for all users, utilising Citrix published application across all countries
• VOIP telephony solution across all countries
• Development of Corporate Intranet using Microsoft SharePoint technologies
• CRM roll out of Microsoft Dynamics AX
• Implement formal helpdesk procedure with governed SLA’s
• Source, procure and implement new Purchase Order and Accounting software
• Develop training programs for the IT team
• Develop and maintain IT training programs for all users
Employed with the brief to review the existing ICT department and infrastructure; make recommendations and then implement changes with a brief to develop corporate ICT strategy to underpin the planned growth of the organisation. Chadwick Lawrence are a major law firm within the Yorkshire area of the UK with 300 staff across 8 regional offices. During the six months spent at Chadwick Lawrence I was responsible for:
• Systems integration and data migration during a merger with a 30 fee earner law firm
• Roll out of Microsoft Remote Desktop environment to all staff across all offices
• Project planning to move all services to a single data centre
• Consolidation and improvement of WAN structure and topology
Employed with the brief to review the existing ICT department and infrastructure; make recommendations and then implement changes with a brief to develop corporate ICT strategy to underpin the planned growth of the organisation. The role has encompassed everything from staff recruitment and training, systems management and development through to business analysis and leading change programs.
• Strategic business planning role
• Develop and implement corporate ICT strategy aligned with business strategy
• Lead project team to deliver Lexcel
• Recruit, train and manage a team of 5. Supporting 250+ desktops over 3 locations
• Sourced, purchased and implemented a UPS and Generator to ensure robust business continuity measures.
• Designed, sourced and implemented fully virtualised server environment
• Designed and lead project to overhaul the Pro Claim case management system
• Designed and lead project to overhaul the Sage accounting system
• Lead BPR projects within each department to ensure maximum efficiency utilising IT
Managed a department of five technicians providing 1st line desktop support to 300+ users around 8 branches throughout the North East. The role developed with the rapid growth of the organisation over the 8 years. The role included that of a business analyst leading BPR initiatives within the organisation in addition to systems management and support and development.
• Designed and implemented WAN infrastructure across 8 branch offices
• Implemented common desktop throughout the organisation, via thin client technology
• Sourced, purchased and implemented a workflow driven case management system to facilitate the high volume conveyancing department
• Reengineered new business inception process throughout the organisation
• Member of the project team to deliver Lexcel accreditation to the practice
• Migration from Windows 98 to Windows XP operating system
• Migration from Office 2000 to 2003 suite
• Implemented formal helpdesk procedure with SLA’s
1999 - 2000 Browell Smith & Co Solicitors Newcastle
ICT Technician
Provision of 1st line technical support to 300+ users across 8 sites region wide. Responsible to the ICT Manager.
• Deputising for ICT Manager in absence
• Development and maintenance of Videss case management system
• Dealing with department heads to streamline business processes via ICT
• Delivery of staff ICT induction and refresher training
• Devising and implementing UAT testing plans for new software
• AVAYA and MITEL telephone programming
1998 - 1999 Stanton Croft Solicitors Gosforth
Administration Clerk \ IT Support
Responsible for matter inceptions and file opening within Personal Injury Department and client contact to arrange initial appointments. In addition providing: • First line desktop support to 50+ users
• Development and maintenance of corporate intranet
Executive MBA (AMBA accredited) – Merit The AMBA accredited Executive MBA at Newcastle University Business School is highly ranked. The course incorporated all aspects of modern business management from accounting and finance, developing corporate strategy and human resource management. The highlight of the MBA course was the involvement in a number of consultancy based projects both here in the UK and overseas. 2007 saw the cohort based at Thomson Financial in New York, to undertake a project using employee focus groups to identify particular issues around the ‘cultural’ and ‘communications’ impacts of the planned merger with Reuters. In 2008 the group were based in Poland to undertake a number of varied consultancy based projects. My main involvement during this latter trip was to advise a software house, ZETO, on a strategy to break into the UK marketplace.
BSc (Hons) – Computing For Business (2:1) The Bachelors’ degree encompassed modules designed to provide the relevant skills to any ICT professional. A foundation in operating systems, data structures and information systems was given before more business related modules followed. The key skills derived from the bachelor’s degree include: • Object Oriented Modelling • Oracle and SQL database development • Java programming The degree concluded with a final year project during which I developed a web based absence management application which was subsequently implemented at Browell Smith & Co.