Experience

Borders College

• United Kingdom
• Education Administration Programs
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Database Developer

  • Jun 2019 - Present

  My primary role is to work with the MIS (Management Information Systems) team to maintain the college’s main database system called Unit-e, which is developed and supported by Capita. The Unit-e system is used to record information regarding students, courses, attendance and funding, etc. The database is a SQL Server 2017 database with a front end user interface and various web based tools and interfaces developed by Capita in C#. Reporting is carried out using a mix of Crystal Reports, Report Generator (a Capita product) and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and more recently Microsoft Power BI. Part of my role is to carry out regular database system upgrades to keep the software up to date with current academic and funding changes. I am also responsible for other systems within the college that integrate with Unit-e such as Celcat which is used for resource/room time tabling and attendance recording. The data from Celcat is transferred to Unit-e at regular intervals throughout the day. Unit-e also integrates with the Sun Systems finance and accounting software and the Tequious system, which is used for student bursary funding. I was recruited to the college as a database developer, but since starting there in June 2019 the college have become aware of my varied skill set and so I have also been heavily involved in projects including creation of an isolated test network in VMware vSphere and upgrading the college email system from Microsoft Exchange 2010 to 2016. I also recently worked with other members of the team to help the college achieve the Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation. I'm currently working on an Identity Management project to allow students and staff to use one account to gain access to all applications within the college and in the cloud (Office 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.) and i'm also the technical lead on a project to integrate the college's Unit-e system with the Smart Assesor ePortfolio system, which is cloud based. Show less



Paul Foster Property

• Sunderland & Scottish Borders

• Private Landlord

  • Jan 1998 - Present

  Since 1998 I have built up a portfolio of rental properties. My role as a landlord includes: - Renovating and maintaining the properties in accordance with relevant legislations. Preparation of tenancy agreements, inventories and other necessary paperwork. Meeting and vetting prospective tenants. Dealing with any tenant issues. Monitoring annual safety checks and scheduling appointments. Dealing with the local councils with regard to council tax and landlord registration. Recording and monitoring rental income. Show less



Scottish Borders Housing Association

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• IT Officer

  • Jan 2009 - Jun 2019

  SBHA own and manage approximately 6000 residential properties and garages spread across the whole of the Scottish Borders. Working as part of a small IT team originally my role was predominantly network support, but more latterly I was responsible for system architecture (Vmware Vsphere), database administration (Oracle, MS SQL Server, MS Access, MySQL), data analysis and reporting (Business Objects, MS PowerBI, Excel) and development and scripting (PHP, Powershell, HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, VB, SQL, PL/SQL).During my time at SBHA I also managed several large IT projects including the following...2019 - Market Research Company Integration - BMG were appointed to undertake tenant satisfaction research relating to repairs. The project required daily analysis of repairs to be uploaded to a remote server each day. BMG also required details of tenants calling SBHA that opted in to complete a survey. This was done by interrogating the telephony data in almost real time and also uploading this data for BMG to access.2017/2018 - Gas Contractor Integration - Late in 2017 PH Jones (part of British Gas) were appointed as the main gas contractor for SBHA. This project involved linking PH Jones' internal job management system (PILOT) with SBHA's Northgate Housing management system, so that SBHA have full visibility in near real time of the gas works being carried out.Ongoing - Virtualisation - I worked as system architect to first design SBHA's multi network, fault tolerant virtual infrastructure and then as project lead to implement the installation of the new hardware and Vmware vSphere 3.0 software and then managed the virtualisation of the physical servers. At the time I left SBHA the organisation was using Vmware Vsphere 5.5 and I was project lead on each major version upgrade and also to implement new ESX servers and storage and Veeam Backup and Replication software which is used by SBHA for backup and disaster recovery. Show less

• CRM Implementation Analyst (Temporary Secondment)

  • Jan 2015 - Jul 2016

  Working closely with the CRM provider Documotive (Now part of Castleton PLC), the project manager and the business to implement a new CRM system within Scottish Border Housing Association. The role included system architecture, system implementation, data analysis, data interpretation, data cleansing, de-duplication and reporting.



MessageFlow Limited

• Sunderland, United Kingdom

• Technical Director

  • Mar 2002 - Mar 2008

  Messageflow Limited provided text messaging solutions predominantly to councils and newspapers on a national level. As a founding director my role included: - Liaising with clients onsite and by telephone and email. Onsite installation and implementation of text messaging software. System architecture. Database architecture. Design, programming and maintenance of internal text messaging systems (VB6, VB.NET, ASP). Design, programming and maintenance of client portal (VB6, VB.NET, ASP). Database administration (MS Access, SQL Server). Maintaining and patching file and application servers and PCs. Backup and disaster recovery. Show less



Exel Computing

• Sunderland, United Kingdom

• Technical Manager

  • Jan 1995 - Mar 2002

  Exel Computing provided custom software solutions and PC and network support to clients throughout the North East of England. My role included:- Installation and maintenance of Networks, servers, PCs, printers, etc. in clients’ premises. Installation and maintenance of PCs, printers, etc. in customers’ homes. Telephone and onsite PC support covering hardware and software queries. Design, development and implementation of custom software systems (VB6, VB.NET, ASP). Management of admin and technical personnel. Show less