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OBJECTIVE

A senior software development position in the services or trading sectors where innovation, creativity and commitment can be used effectively.

PROFILE

I am a successful and proven business analyst and software development project manager. I have a proven track record of high quality work and of delivering projects to specification within time and budget which meet the business needs. I am an energetic person who enjoys motivating and training and developing colleagues to deliver successful solutions. I am proficient in presentation to both management and customers. I have won awards from employers and received unsolicited commendations from clients.

SKILLS

• Business Intelligence tools, in particular (Cognos BI 10), and the creation of a data warehouse fed by extracts from legacy operational systems. I am familiar with most elements of Cognos (Warehouse design, Metadata modelling, Analysis studio, Query studio, Report studio, and Administration).
• Microsoft Office application development: VBA, Access, Excel and Query.
• Extensive product and project management, (MS Project 2000 and PlanView) with full life-cycle experience: Business Analysis, Proposal, Modelling, Design, Specification, Tendering, Assignment, Development, QA & Testing, Documentation, Implementation, Training, Support, and Maintenance.
• Modern development methodologies: Agile, RAD and Prince2 ; modern environments Windows 7, XP, UNIX (Solaris & Linux), and Internet business technologies.
• Team player including appraisals, coaching, training and organisation. I am good at conflict avoidance and resolution. I can manage people and problems. I enjoy developing and training junior staff.
• Good interpersonal skills and competent at communicating both verbally and in writing at many levels. Effective when dealing with senior executives, customers, and with developers.

SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
  I have been a Cognos developer for 5 years. Initially, I was instrumental in a 2 year project to produce a data warehouse using data feeds from legacy operational system. I helped design the data structures (schemas) and data definitionbs. This warehouse forms the foundation for a Cognos business intelligence system used by all managers world-wide and thereby allow evidence-based management decisions. This project includes very many operational and financial attributes and measures. More recently my work has mostly involved business analysis, report creation and training.
• Development Management
  I managed the specification, development and implementation of ReutersFX Orderwatch product, the market-leading front-office product for global foreign exchange order collection, routing and management. I interviewed third parties to determine the business requirements, wrote the requirements and functional specifications and oversaw product development using internal and external development resources and a budget of over £1,000,000.
• Project Management
  I was required to migrate two energy-trading applications from legacy architecture IBM mainframe to Sun Unix for BP with minimal disruption to trading activities. I built multi-company teams and agreed project plans with client. Two business-critical systems with over 1,500 users were migrated in daily tranches across a temporary hybrid, composite system (Mainframe - Unix) without any user disruption. I received unsolicited letters of commendation from senior BP management.
• Team Building
  I was requested to head a project to build Reuters Eurobonds product. I selected the best available staff for the various roles that could work independently and yet co-operatively from different countries. The new system exceeded the original specification and was delivered before time. The team won plaudits.
• Creativity & Foresight
  I was given the challenge of a previously failed project to provide a regulatory news system for the LSE. I saw that the project could be done differently and would result in a general-purpose product. I prepared the requirements specification and managed external development by two software houses. The product was sold to several European stock exchanges. I won the Reuters JCP award for my achievement.
• Strategy
  I convinced senior management of forthcoming need for an XML API to the Orderwatch product. Prepared requirements and functional specifications. Selected and obtained tools. Developed W3C conformant schemas. Produced the XML API myself, which is now a major selling point for the product.

CAREER SUMMARY

January 2003 - August 2014 Gullivers Travel Associates

Senior Business Intelligence Analyst

• Reporting directly to the CEO/Chairman: study of 3rd party web-services providers for inclusion in major E-commerce web-site.

• Generation of DHTML and XML for dynamic web pages; AS/Query report writing; developing VBA & Excel macros; APL*Plus coding.

• Transfer of hotel data section to new low-cost office in India.

• Establishment of a Management Information Services section.

• Business research for hotel portfolio management and reservation data analysis.

April 2002 - December 2002  Various Contract

1984 - March 2002  Reuters Ltd

Architect & Development Manager, Treasury Solutions (1998 to 2002)

• Manage a specialist team of 6 permanent staff plus contractors and external software development houses (total about 25 staff) working on the creation and development of Reuters' global foreign exchange order management product: FX Orderwatch. The cost of development alone is millions of pounds. (FX Orderwatch is the market-leading product used by many of the world's biggest trading entities as a business-critical element of their globalFX trading operations and operates 24-hours handling Spot, Forward, Outright, Future and Call orders marking them to market in real-time world-wide.)

• I designed the architectures and platforms, selected the infrastructures used and chose the development environments. I drew up requirement and functional specifications and ensured that these were agreed by both the customers (Reuters' clients) and by the developers.

• Using the RAD approach the business went from a justified business case to revenue earning within 6 months, a feat of which I justly feel proud. Similarly, subsequent developments have kept pace with user demands and allowed the product to become the solution of choice in the marketplace.

• The technology is an N-tier OO architecture with Windows NT/2000, VB6 & C/C++ clients using COM/DCOM and a local Access database as an intelligent cache connected via WAN to UNIX (Solaris) application servers connected to Sybase. It has a secure Internet interface (JavaScipt/DHTML and Java Servlets with SAX & APL) and back-office connections (Java, XML and TIB RV).

• I deal directly with customers and prospects to identify and solve their business needs. I design the application architecture; prepare requirement and functional specifications; agree the overall project plans with the selected development teams; closely monitor development progress and costs and take appropriate remedial action where necessary. I supervised, and interfaced with, other related development groups based abroad. I keep my management aware of progress and potential threats to delivery timescales. I deliver to specification, on time, and within cost. I ensure that what is delivered is tested, documented, usable, installable and can be fully supported and maintained.

• I am responsible for man-management of the internal development team. I believe that proper team motivation through inclusive methods can make development projects so much easier and productive. I recruit, determine salaries, conduct regular and formal performance appraisals, arrange staff training and development, and ensure that the team operates at optimal efficiency. I believe that increasing the capabilities and skills of development staff and empowering them to take decisions within their compass improves both productivity and quality because take have commitment and responsibility for their own work.

• I manage the work done by remote offices and by external sub-contractors; agree terms, deliverables and dates. I supervise progress and ensure that delivery time and quality are not risked.

• Supervised, and interfaced with, other related development groups based in Palo Alto and Paris.

• I do business planning, task scheduling, risk assessment and control, expenditure and revenue reporting, human resource planning and reporting, man-time productivity monitoring, and act as the formal interface between the development group and the rest of the company.

• I am familiar with object modelling tools such as UML and I have extensive experience using formal structured methods for design, planning, risk assessment, building, documentation, testing and release, principally Reuters' own all-encompassing full life-cycle system: QSP. I am qualified in PRINCE2.

Representative Projects

1. I developed an XML API to integrate with the collaborating systems that comprise a bank's trading infrastructure: front, middle and back offices talking by appropriate messaging tools.

2. I developed a secure interactive Internet HTML/Java servlet front-end to allow a bank's corporate customers to place high-value transactions and monitor their status. I extended this system to allow the web interface to be presented on wireless, hand-held, palm-top devices.

3. I advised senior management how the products are best developed to meet future sales and customer specifications with particular regard to new technologies and integrating the products with other applications, both Reuters and third party.

4. I led the development of several highly integrated global energy trading systems for two major British-based petrochemical companies, one of which is still in daily use by about 1,5000 staff. These systems required integration into the companies' existing business processes and in-house systems.

Development Manager, Value Added Messaging (1992 - 1998)

• Led a team of 10 senior developers and various (about 6) contract staff working on very high speed, real-time, world-wide messaging and order processing systems for use by major companies. The technological base was a Windows NT client written in VB and C/C++ communicating via WAN and using extensible messaging engines running on Sun UNIX servers.

Representative Projects

1. I led the development of several highly integrated energy trading systems for a major British petrochemical company currently in use by about 1,5000 staff, and similar systems for an Anglo-Dutch petrochemical company which required integrated development effort by several parties.

2. I did the business analysis, formal specification, and infrastructure architecture for a trading system for use in the former communist block. I met prospects in Russia, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine to understand their business models and how an electronic trading system could benefit their chaotic business.

3. I managed the simultaneous development by three external software houses of an infrastructure to provide secure and highly reliable regulatory news systems for several European stock exchanges (e.g. LSE, NASDAQ-Europe, Deutsche Börse, Vienna Börse, and others)

Applications Manager, Reuter:File (1990 - 1992)

• Supervise a geographically dispersed development teams totalling about 12 staff working on a variety of projects related to historical time-series databases and applications.

Representative Projects

1. I managed the specification, design and development of Reuters' Eurobonds time-series database to allow Reuters to enter the new market segment for historical price and yield data combined with real time analytics. My special interest and contribution was with the specification of the multitude of calculations required for the securities market. I sub-contracted some of the work to specialist external software houses thereby decreasing delivery time and improving the quality of the result.

1984 - 1990  I P Sharp Associates

UK DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

• Responsible for a group of about 15 analysts and developers working on a variety of customer-driven projects.

Representative Projects

1. Development of a securities and Gilts time-series database application for a famous Gilts market maker allowing bond salesmen and dealers to analyse current and historical market conditions in near real time.

1982 - 1984  Yardley Information Systems

Business Analyst

1. Business Analysis for mid and back-office systems for the commodity trading of futures, options and other derivatives.

1976 - 1982  SIA Ltd (Computer Bureau)

PROGRAMMER

1972 - 1976  GLC

ACCELERATED MANAGEMENT GRADUATE INTAKE

EDUCATION

QUALIFICATIONS

PERSONAL

REFERENCES

Excellent references and testimonials are available upon request.