IT Director
Exceed Solutions
Total years of experience :25 years, 8 Months
Leading, motivating, and energizing an enthusiastic team who support multiple clients across Greater Toronto Area. Brought on-board to boost internal/client-facing technical services, data centers, IT purchasing, infrastructure, disaster recovery/business continuity, IT forecasting and more.
• Manages the definition of the IT strategy and oversees the alignment with client's business strategy, by setting the joint direction, defining common understanding of the role and the purpose of IT, defining objectives/metrics/KPIs.
• Oversees the provision of IT standards, policies, processes, and enterprise architecture for the entire company to ensure IT solutions/services contribute to the business objectives whilst enhancing the control environment and complement technology landscape.
• Ensures awareness and communication of all matters related to the information technology as well as addresses enablement and training needs resulting from IT initiatives.
• Ensures workforce availability or manages the acquisition of external vendors to develop IT solutions/services based on technical specifications and ensures fulfilment of Company's quality standards for solution/service delivery.
• Oversees the technical implementation by managing the monitoring of milestones, reporting the progress, identifying and escalating issues and risks.
• Manages the building and maintenance of trustful relationship with the vendors leveraging on the partnership model. Resolves high profile escalations with the vendors, if required.
• Monitors and assesses the skills and capabilities of the department, and determines the actions needed to increase the department's impact or to resolve capability gaps.
• Coaches, mentors and develops the direct reports and the top talent/high potentials in the department.
MedAvail Technologies Inc. is a healthcare technology company that has developed and commercialized an innovative Self-Serve Pharmacy Kiosk solution. MedAvail has deployed kiosks in the US, Canada and Switzerland.
Duties:
• Identify resource and equipment requirements, efficient capacity planning and manage software and hardware availability.
• Report directly to VP (Infrastructure & Security) for internal corporate data center consolidations, network and system architectures, voice/data convergence, and business process improvements.
• Provides leadership and direction to the overall IT team and relate any critical items to upper management in a clear and organized manner.
• Skill in organizing resources, establishing priorities and standardizes procedures to improve efficiency and effectiveness for the overall IT Team.
• Provide direction and technical expertise in the design, development, systems integration and support within the Technology space and serve as a technical mentor to team members.
• Defines and Maintains documentation regarding configurations, operating procedures, and service records relating to Infrastructure hardware and software.
• Monitor and review vendor and industry web sites and news groups for vulnerabilities, patches and fixes which may apply to us or our customers.
• Handle multiple assignments, manage priorities, and meet strict deadlines.
• Meet with client teams and gather requirements, conduct regular team meetings and track project progress.
• Conduct performance reviews of team members and identify areas of improvement, give feedback and recommendations.
• Estimate project budgets, coordinate with finance department for funds and plan for purchasing of equipment and hardware in a cost-effective way.
• Operates and maintains Datacenter Networks, tracks significant problems, monitors performance, and performs upgrades to hardware and software as required.
• Actively involved in evolving global policies and procedures governing corporate security, email and Internet usage, access control, and incident response.
• Work closely with Client Relations and Professional Services teams to assess and document the requirements specific to our customers’ planned Lab, Pilot and Scale deployments.
• Participate with the management team in designing and development of the product IT architecture, in particular as it relates to the ability to provide high reliability in diverse customer situations.
• Coordinate with outside consultants on PCI DSS compliance. Scope covers vulnerability scans, penetration testing, policies and procedure audits. Supervise team to fill SAQs.
• Provide Tier3 support for all internal IT relevant issues.
Reported directly to the IT Director, responsible for data center consolidations, network and system architectures, voice/data convergence, and business process improvements.
Responsibilities:
• Managed corporate data and voice network infrastructure and support systems to maximum stability and security levels.
• Lead and partnered with business associates to analyze needs and to develop and manage corporate infrastructure.
• Performed ROI and other cost-benefit analysis of new strategies and technologies.
• Staffed and developed individuals and team empowerment to maximize effectiveness, and continually raise performance standards and results.
• Preparation and administration of the infrastructure budget as well as the maintenance and monitoring of certain budgetary items.
• Managed and Monitored performance to key operational metrics.
• Possessed strong commitment to team environment dynamics with the ability to contribute expertise and follow leadership directives at appropriate times.
• Motivating the team to achieve high standards and KPI targets.
• Implemented new initiatives for designing the infrastructure, introducing new network and infrastructure concepts, testing configurations and creating configuration templates.
• Improved the security architecture by strengthening the edge & integrating IPS at Internet edges.
• Designed the VoIP network architecture & applied traffic engineering to separate VoIP and Data traffic.
• Designed & configured the QoS policies for end-to-end application performance and VoIP call quality.
• Evaluated, affirmed, and/or modifed the L2/L3 services provided by the vendors (Cogent, Cogeco, AllStream, Bell, and Rogers).
• Recommended changes to multi-homed BGP with the ISPs to conserve bandwidth across the backup link.
• Provided technical recommendations, plans, and expert advice on the development, planning, design, characterization and analysis of the core infrastructure and managed customer networks.
• Negotiated the procurement of Network Equipment for the core and customer network.
• Developed strategies and direction for network systems solutions using current and emerging technologies.
• Planned and designed network capacity and technology upgrades.
Supervised the teams for following day to day tasks:
• Configuration and trouble shooting of OSPF and BGP between customers and service providers.
• Monitoring and review system logs of routers and firewalls.
• System administration for windows 2008/2012 servers.
• Daily system monitoring, verifying the integrity and availability of all hardware, server resources, systems and key processes, reviewing system and application logs, and verifying completion of scheduled jobs.
• Administration of network monitoring systems - Intermapper, Zabbix, and SolarWinds Orion.
• Installation and configuration of network devices (Cisco, Juniper, F5, Brocade, etc.) at Clients and datacenters.
• Remote management of network devices in datacenters at Montreal, Vancouver, New York, and Chicago.
• Configuration and trouble shooting of Layer 2, Layer 3, VPN (IPSEC and SSL) connections.
Major Accomplishments:
• Supervised project to provide DSL services to home users. Project includes DSLAM, 10G switches, 10G Layer 2 connections, 10G Internet, Video and Voice over IP solutions, and CPEs.
• Supervised the project to upgrade the core network from pfSense FWs to Juniper and Cisco firewalls, switches, and routers.
• Continually cut Infrastructure spend, with $10K+ annual savings from licensing agreement negotiations (Microsoft, Cisco, Juniper).
• Contributed a major role in merger of Frontline Technologies and Belzberg, which included network and data center design, relocation of trading servers, network devices and L2 circuits.
• Brought in top-notch team members - enhancing Network, Telecom, Help Desk and architecture team competencies, with better change control and resource management practices.
Direct activities as a hands-on Manager with project management responsibility for all IS projects. Contributed to high-profile projects - from network and software installations, to UAT and new implementations, through complex systems integrations.
• Supported projects including the development of IT strategy and process definition based on user needs, viable technology and operation efficiency.
• Acted as a key contributor to the multi-year technology plan for Al-Rajhi Group’s IT, as well as assisted the roll-out of all stated strategies and programs. Evaluated specifications and requirements for projects against available solutions.
• Monitored network / infrastructure services for optimal performance at Head Office, branch office, Hospitals, and school. Provided recommendations for services that are not meeting performance goals and objectives.
• Managed and participated in Installation, configuration of new/existing servers; Windows, Exchange, DNS, ISA, etc., hardware peripherals, services, router, firewalls, directories, switches, storage, etc.
• Initiated, participated, facilitated multidisciplinary performance improvement projects/teams, which includes branch offices, hospitals and school.
• Maintained and supported existing systems as required, and managed root cause analysis for issues related to system capacity and performance by using teams and vendor resources through SLA's.
• Managed and executed special projects, as assigned.
• Designed maintenance, installation and configuration procedures.
Major Accomplishments:
• Designed the blueprints of complete IT infrastructure at newly build Procare Riaya Hospital (www.procare.com.sa). HP servers, HMIS, Routers, Switches, Cisco ASA, UTP & Fiber Optic, Wireless, GE PACS, and Blue Coat were major solutions in that blueprint. Establish an IT department consists of network and support engineers, system analysts, developers, DBAs and help desk. Implemented Microsoft SharePoint 2007 for Hospital Portal and help desk. Installed Websense coalesce with Blue Coat Proxy SG for Internet Client management.
• Redesigned Network and Data center of 100 bed Dr. Fakhry and Al-Rajhi Hospital; structured cabling, new Cisco switches, routers, firewalls, Dell servers, SAN, UPS, Hospital Management Information System and Client Management Solution (SMS). Installed and configured Windows 2003 servers, Exchange 2003, VERITAS, and Microsoft Systems Management Server.
• Saved company 10K+ monthly by reducing outsourced resources, costs of services/product i.e. Internet services, licensing etc.
• Managed LAN/WAN environment, with Cisco switches and routers, Sun Solaris and Windows servers, Cisco PIX, ASA and remote access (VPN). Network support up to 100+ end-users.
• Administered Solaris/Windows 2003/2008 on Sun F3800, Sun E3000, HP DL380 and DL540, and Windows client PCs. Managed backups (Veritas), DHCP, FTP server and DNS.
• Designed LAN and data centre for Bahrain branch office. Installed Cisco router and firewall for internet and VPN. Configured Nortel BCM for IP Trunking.
• Established and implemented different policies and procedures i.e. security, purchases (for IT department), E-mail tracking etc.
• Designed several in house IT training programs, which enhanced employee’s performance at no extra cost.
Joined the Establishment as a computer engineer and progressed subsequently in several roles after demonstrating outstanding technical capabilities to lead a team in supporting a sophisticated network and infrastructure for over 400 employees.
Key Results:
• Supervised the infrastructure migration to support 400+ workstations at 50+ locations across the country. Migrated from Hubs to switches, x.25 and dialups to leased lines, PC based servers to HP DL series servers. Configured EIGRP and OSPF on all core and edge routers.
• Saved more than $100, 000 by evaluating, selecting and installing central site and border routers used in network implementation. Products evaluated includes Cisco, Nortel and 3Com.
• Installed and maintained Windows 2000/2003 Servers, Exchange Servers, TrendMicro Neat Suit, and IIS.
• Worked with Development Team to implement Oracle on Sun Solaris on Sun servers.
• Stipulated the centralized management of the entire network system by installing HP Open View NNM, Altiris Client Management Suite, and WhatsUP Gold.
