Technical Project Manager
Alshaya Group
Total years of experience :34 years, 10 Months
Orchestrated cross-functional team to deliver technical projects pivotal to major retail transformation programme. Directed and coordinated internal Alshaya resources and external vendors to ofer solutions meeting business needs and aligning with organisational tactical vision.
• Facilitated seamless upgrades of Oracle IAM products, Oracle EBS DB for HR, and Oracle Apex reports by partnering with vendors and synchronising eforts with business operations.
• Upheld standards of quality and compliance throughout project lifecycles by employing Waterfall and Agile methodologies.
Streamlined Release Management processes within the Project Management Ofice of the MTN Boost Programme, guaranteeing continuous cooperation of ERP configuration deployments across various environments. Spearheaded eficient transition of MTNs systems by overseeing review, analysis, testing, and implementation of Oracle Fusion (FIN, HCM, SCM) Quarterly updates over three years.
• Improved Cloud Technology Services by managing OCI PaaS projects, leading to enhanced system reliability and performance for MTNs infrastructure in Europe and the UK.
• Deployed systematic decommissioning procedures for on-premise Oracle Engineered systems running Oracle EBS in three MTN OPCOs, resulting in cost savings and modernisation of organisations technology infrastructure.
Administered software development projects while collaborating with business analysts, developers, testing, and release teams to secure successful project delivery.
• Contributed to PMO Governance initiatives, ensuring adherence to project supervision best practices and standards.
• Received request from contract house to return to MTN Group, reflecting exceptional performance and demonstrated value throughout the engagement.
Assisted Group Executive Team with multiple endeavours, including establishment of telecommunications division, showcasing proactive leadership in driving marketing, product, and sales opportunities. Complied with processes and policies within Group Shared Services PMO while handling management eforts.
• Conducted weekly governance review sessions and provided guidance to staf through dedicated weekly sessions.
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• Guaranteed application and delivery of critical infrastructure solutions by directing high-stakes Oracle Cloud Disaster Recovery projects for external clients.
Orchestrated successful execution of post-paid Marketing initiatives to elevate customer involvement and brand visibility for MTN. Enacted updates to the MTN app, contributing to boosted user experience and client satisfaction.
• Drove heightened market presence and sales for company by overseeing MTNs Summer Campaign and Black Friday projects.
• Cultivated alignment with institutional goals and objectives by nurturing strong stakeholder interaction with senior management and MTN Executives.
Established a Shared Services Organisation for the group, centralising Finance, HR, IT, and Professional Services (PMO). Managed setting and governance of Shared Services budget and conducted financial analysis and forecasts to optimise financial eficiency.
• Revamped operational efectiveness by spearheading process enhancement endeavours and defining policies and procedures.
• Supervised staf and engaged stakeholders to steer cohesion with company targets while administrating eficient activities of Shared Services Organisation.
Ensured availability of Oracle Managed Cloud Services (OMCS) infrastructure and database instances to support implementation of the Next! Programme across all MTN Group Opcos.
• Fostered efective project completion by facilitating collaboration between onsite expatriates and local resources, alongside ofshore teams predominantly situated in the USA, UK, Australia, and India.
• Directed IT infrastructure projects while maintaining interaction with MTN team leads and partnering with Project and Technical leads from partner vendors, such as Wipro, OMCS, KPMG, and Accenture.
Increased data network upgrade at Richards Bay Minerals mining ponds to incorporate redundancy measures. Transitioned two-way radio system at Richards Bay Minerals from analogue to digital, amplifying communication eficiency.
• Complied with environmental regulations by orchestrating post-divestment clean-up activities at Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique.
• Enabled extension of Richards Bay Minerals mine to Zulti South by leading development and deployment of IM/IT applications.
Sasol Declarations System (International)
• Lync upgrade (International)
• Printer Replacement
• LiveLink upgrade
• Walk-in Centres
• Infrastructure Refresh
• Enterprise Service Management
Responsibilities:-
Vernon was responsible for managing several IM and Business projects. Of these 2 were
International Projects, and the other 5 were South Africa based infrastructure projects.
.net
Responsibilities:-
Vernon was responsible for formalising the internal AT.net PMO strategy, operations
and governance. In addition, Vernon was responsible for the consortium PMO reporting
Kolomela Mine, Kumba Iron Ore
Responsibilities:-
This was primarily a Business support role, and Vernon worked closely with business
unit Executives and staff at the Kolomela mine, as well as with Kumba head office staff
to ensure the successful support of the Kolomela IM applications.
assigned to Neotel
Projects:-
• National Fibre roll-out in the Network Implementation Department, to build long
distance fibre capacity from Johannesburg to other major cities.
• Improvement of processes and targets in the Network Service Delivery Department,
to increase number of orders delivered to customers.
• Development of enterprise metrics & implementation of a reporting capability, with
special focus on Sales and Network figures.
• Improvement of processes and targets in the Network Service Assurance Department
in order to improve the Customer experience once an outage occurs.
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Responsibilities:-
Vernon worked closely with the Chief Network Officer (CNO) of Neotel and his 4
General Managers to develop annual operating plans (AOPs) for the 4 Divisions in the
Network Group, and then drove delivery on these AOPs by working closely with, and
driving departmental management, line staff and vendors.
At the same time, he also worked with 3 colleagues to establish more rigour and processes
in the Neotel Corporate Project Office by the development and implementation of
effective project management tools, processes and best practices.
Applications Integration between Standard Bank systems and HSBC systems.
• Readiness of systems for all new retail and corporate Card projects.
• Testing of Disaster Recovery for MAX middleware platforms and applications, and
availability in Greenfields operations.
• Procurement and availability of infrastructure for Adaptive credit vetting system
Responsibilities: -
Vernon’s responsibility was to ensure that the IT and Network Infrastructure systems in
18 African countries were installed, tested and available for a number of Business
applications projects. He managed both vendors and Standard Bank resources, locally
and in other African countries.
Vernon worked in an advisory capacity for a Non Profit Organisation.
National Department of Social Development
Projects:-
• Integrated Justice System (IJS)
• Home Care based MIS system for 2 provinces.
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Responsibilities:-
Vernon worked closely with other IJS departments, like Justice and Constitutional
Development, National Prosecuting Authority, Police, Correctional Services, Home
Affairs and also National Health to determine requirements and ensure integration of
systems.
Implement a new ERP system - Windchill PDMLink
Responsibilities:-
Vernon managed a team that was responsible to implement a new ERP system. The
project entailed data cleansing and migration, new software (with the application vendor
based in India), as well as the implementation of new hardware infrastructure.
Interfile
Projects:-
• Development of a Dashboard
• CoBiT review
• Implementation of a call logging system
• Development of Job Descriptions
• Development of Incident and Change management procedures
Responsibilities:-
At Interfile, a company that developed, and supports the SARS e-filing application,
Vernon’s responsibility was with the e-filing support team, where he was responsible for
managing the development of processes that improved application availability and
support.
Upgrade the LIMS systems in all state hospitals country-wide.
• Migration of network infrastructure and services in the Western Cape
• development of IT processes that ensured that IT operational delivery is more closely
aligned to business targets
Responsibilities:-
Vernon was responsible for both the software upgrades of the LIMS systems, as well as
several infrastructure upgrades. In addition, Vernon ran a workshop for the IT Operations
Division to propose their strategies and plans. He also developed the Change and Incident
Management Process and chaired the weekly CAB meeting.
Technology
Vernon planned and conducted a strategic planning session for the Enterprise
Infrastructure Division. In addition he also provided strategic consulting services,
reviewed and analysed budgets, comparing actual figures to budget forecasts, and
extrapolated these to present a view over the remainder of the financial year. Vernon also
developed several tender responses, and produced the Strategic Document for the
Enterprise Infrastructure
Gauteng Provincial Government, Shared Services Center
Projects:-
• Implementation of a
Vernon ensured the continued smooth operation of the MIS department whilst
implementing a new Data Warehouse project; implemented management controls where
needed; interfaced with vendors; interacted closely with the various business units within
MTN to determine information needs; raised MIS’ staff awareness of business processes
that are impacted by MIS services.
Vernon reported to the CEO of MTN International, and he worked with both external
vendors as well as internal MTN resources to ensure that IT Systems and Applications in
all MTN operations outside RSA was aligned with Business Strategy, and met Business
needs. Vernon also ensured that there was synergy between different operations, and that
common solutions were used. During this time, Vernon travelled extensively to MTN
Operations in other countries.
Gauteng
South African Post Office
Responsible for all IT systems, services and support staff.
Telkom
Managed the Unix system programmers and Oracle DBAs
Wrote VAX / VMS DCL system programs.
Managed the main Data Centre and Data Centre Staff.
Systems Management, Programming and Support of GIS computers
Systems Management, programming and Support of Process Plant computers.