Group IT Manager
Sun International
Total years of experience :22 years, 3 Months
Sun International purchased the gaming component of Grand Parade Investments and as such my position moved over to the holding company to over see all IT operations for gaming operations within Sun Slots
Working in senior management and tasked to do the following:
•Attract, motivate, coach and develop team members for high performance
•Communicate, present, and speak senior management language
•Influence, build relationships, navigate politics, negotiate, manage conflicts
•Understand strategy, business functions, decision-making and workflow
•Budget, forecast, manage cash flow, understand financial statements
•Plan and manage successful projects, manage risks, costs, time and project teams
Establish IT policies regarding operational procedures and ensure compliance.
• Work with outside vendors, upper management, and leadership of other departments to ensure smooth processes.
• Establish strategies for risk mitigation and contingency planning.
• Plan and schedule project guidelines and goals while ensuring timelines are met
Grand Parade Investments is a Western Cape-based black owned and controlled (as defined in the Codes of Good Practice) holding company listed on the JSE Limited, having investments and operations in the South African gaming and leisure industry. Since its establishment in 1997, the company has positioned itself as a formidable player in this industry, keenly focused on cash generative gaming assets capable of delivering long-term sustainable returns to shareholders.
Through participation and leadership, GPI has consistently sought to ensure that its investments are optimally leveraged for the benefit of all stakeholders and the broader community. As a Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment enterprise with a substantial shareholder base comprising a broad spectrum of the population of the Western Cape, one of GPI's primary objectives was to provide a vehicle whereby Historically Disadvantaged Persons were able to participate in the country's lucrative gaming industry. The black empowered shareholder base is in excess of 8, 600 direct members and up to a further 15 000 indirect members. After listing, thousands of the initial shareholders progressed to a new corporate listed environment, with an opportunity to participate in the continued growth and development of GPI.
GPI has consistently been driven by two passions - to be a profitable and successful enterprise in the gaming and leisure industry, while at the same time uplifting and rewarding its thousands of shareholders.
•Recruited as the IT Demand manager for the GPI Slots and subsidiaries.(7 entities)
•To provide governance and management of the demand pipeline and act as primary partner for the business functions to capture, structure, align and plan business demand and match this demand with the IT supply functions’ capacity.
•To ensure consistent capturing and prioritization of the demand towards IT and regular alignment and prioritization of demand.
•Facilitate the annual planning cycle as well as structuring, capturing and estimation of the demand on an on-going bases and mapping of the demand against agreed plan and resource base.
•Facilitate regular communication channels and forums to align on planned activities in the day to day operations between business units and Technology Services as well as reviews on IT performance and incidents.
•Manage the relationship with the business units with respect to their new requirements (projects, system enhancement requests, availability and disaster recovery requirements, capacity requirements, etc.)
•Manage a group of demand managers and subject matter experts working with the business units regarding their IT demand and IT deliveries.
•Develop, define and implement the overall IT demand management structure & processes in agreement with the Head of IT and COO.
•Develop a communication and governance structure in line with Capital Expenditure Committee processes which takes care of the business units needs and aligns demand with existing capacity.
•Manage workload and assignments of a team of demand managers.
•To initiate, participate and contribute (at a high level) to any on-going business activity which will create substantial IT demand.
South African based company specialising in the manufacturing of polymer products.
I am in charge of ensuring that appropriate systems are developed to support the company and to streamline all business processes.
•Accountable for a budget of R2 million and for dealing with risks/issues/opportunities.
•Represent senior executives at team meetings and provide support and feedback.
•To develop project management processes and tools to capture, prioritise and manage requirements.
•Create project specifications, plans, budgets, schedules and operational policies and procedures, including business continuity and disaster recovery.
•Overall task to ensure the business achieves compliance and quality control objectives that would step up the growth rate.
NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd a subsidiary of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) conducts its sophisticated operations from the Pelindaba nuclear facility near Pretoria, South Africa and in Belgium. NTP exports its products to nearly 60 countries on five continents and maintains world-class quality (ISO 9001:2008), safety and regulatory compliance systems and performance. NTP is a world leader in the production and supply of radiochemical, in particular I-131 and Mo-99, the latter being the most important isotope for devices used in the practice of diagnostic nuclear medicine.
•Recruited to establish a formal IT department and head governance programs.
•Introduced ITIL as the service management & Prince2 as the project management office (PMO) frameworks and formed the companies IT steering committee to improve related technical performance and service levels.
•Saved on costs by migrating all sites to BT-based global MPLS VPN.
•Arranged and managed key projects in areas such as infrastructure development, IT Risk, Information Security, IT Governance and staff development.
•Deployed and implemented full ITIL Service desk procurement system.
•Improved profitability by reorganising IT operations by demonstrating IT as an add-value contributor instead of a cost centre.
•Managed over 120 virtual servers as well as cloud based systems
•Managed the complete campus network using HP, CISCO and APN’s based network technologies.
•Managed the companies Microsoft Enterprise licence agreement
•Introduced a “money saving ideas intranet site”, that was rolled out within the global IT function & accepted by the Global supply chain Director as a means of capturing global savings across all departments and presence within countries
•Supplier management & consolidation remained a priority during my tenure that allowed us to successfully save substantial amounts of finance and create partnerships rather than creating supplier/client relationships
•Authorisation and control of all supplier invoices and compilation of financial budgets
•Planned and initiated a vision of an enterprise wide mobile IT strategy delivering applications worth in excess of R3 million.
•Saved R800K by terminating a project, delivered by an alternative means by transforming processes for enterprise adoption of mobile handhelds.
•Appraised staff against ‘agreed targets and objectives’ and discussed annual appraisals with senior executives
•Was present during the planning stages of setting up SAP in the cloud for an overseas-based subsidiary.
Projects that I managed and completed successfully includes but not limited to a help desk system, Exchange migration, Microsoft SharePoint collaboration, MS LYNC, MS Live communications, MS CRM, Watchguard firewall & inter site VPNs, Remote access solution incorporating Active Cards and VPNs, Hyperion Data Warehousing Project & the ERP Hardware & Software refresh programme.
Infrastructure project include but not limited to the setup of a data centre, disaster recovery centre and offsite IT continuity offices.
Responsible for the day to day IT requirements of client companies such as user management, trouble shooting, help and advice. Maintaining desktop applications, local area networks, IT security and telecommunications.
•Managing a team of over 30 administrative & technical staff.
•Responsible for hardware and software installation, maintenance and repair.
•Performing routine audits of systems and software.
•Manage the IT budgets and expenditure on hardware and software. Developing & maintaining the company IT systems, software and databases. Recommending and implementing improvements and efficiencies.
•Management of server software and associated backup routines.
•To evaluate, test, advise, train and support I.T. related projects.
•Procurement of IT hardware, software and maintenance products & services.
•Responsible for the recruitment and training of new staff.
•Writing documentation for ICT procedures, security and disaster recovery.
•Maintaining documentation of changes regarding users, functions & systems.
•Managing the internal & hosted network infrastructure including: firewalls, servers, switches and telephony.
•Implemented and managed and supervised ITIL service desk processes
•Administered all hardware and software and networking processes at a national level giving support to more than 500 users.
•Setup, and configured the company servers using Microsoft server 2003&2008 in conjunction using MS exchange and the ERP software platform
•Ensured availability and effective utilization of resources (human, technical & monetary)
•Managed all scripting work making use of languages & DB engines such as VB.Net, .Net, ASP.Net, C++ and My SQL
Started a distribution company from scratch to test my ability to succeed in a self owned business. Within a few months my turnover exceeded 100K per month which was a milestone as I made and took a significant market share in the current location I was based in.
I later sold the company to pursue my passion and ambitions in the corporate arena.
Extensive knowledge of business operations and in-house IT business systems
Skilled at problem management, process analysis and root cause analysis
Ability to work in a complex and matrixes team environment
Ability to handle multiple tasks, set priorities, schedule and meet deadlines
Ability to define, document and resolve problems utilizing a variety of analytical tools
Ability to gather and validate requirements in order to resolve issues and problems
Ability to quickly and easily adapt to changes within the business and organization
Proficient with MS Office Word, Excel and Access
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
•Tracked and recorded project progress, maintained issues, error logs, and arranged meeting agendas.
•Interviewed participating teams to determine Team's specific business requirements are in order to successfully complete the project.
•Worked effectively on various department projects in a team centered environment.
•Performed data analysis, data modelling, diagramming, and solution
Implemented development to support web-based applications and client server databases.
•Created descriptions to enable clients to understand how programs should access data.
•Worked with programs, software vendor and customer to resolve problems with software.
•Provided detailed documentation inclusive of specifications, programming and process requirements.
•Analysed and determined methods to optimize usage of hardware resources and effectiveness of procedures.
•Maintained a high level of competency with area of responsibility.
Determined and analysed business processes, infrastructure changes, and IT work require support project.
•Coordinated project development by working with involved departments and teams.
Running a proactive team of support staff responsible for delivering a high quality, customer-focused professional service.Providing the very highest level of technical support and customer service to the university and student community.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
•Software Testing, Implementation & configuration of specialist education systems.
•Producing and presenting reports to customer senior management.
Provide End User training and documentation.
•Maintenance & management of the Critical Windows based Server Environment.
•Maintaining up to date Antivirus levels on all machines across the University.
•Working on Active Directory and controlling IT user accounts.
•Managing and monitoring of backups in multiple locations.
•Providing maintenance support and break-fix solutions covering eight campus labs.
•Follow documented processes i.e. implementing change control procedures.
•Liaising & meeting with university IT Service and IT Managers.
•Troubleshooting technical problems and implementing solutions.
•System upgrades both at workstation and Server level.
•Purchasing of IT Equipment and software in line within agreed budgets.
•Supporting a multi-location IT infrastructure for more than three thousand users.
•Provide fast and accurate troubleshooting and rectification of reported faults.
•Asset management and repair logistics.
ISO 27001 Foundation and practitioner certification
ITIL V3
Cobit in IT Governance
BCom Information Systems
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer