Experience

CloudWay

• Belgium
• Information Technology & Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Senior Cloud Architect

  • May 2022 - Present

  Working at CloudWay as a Teams and Microsoft 365 Cloud Architect, helping deliver on their mission statement: “Our focus is to remove blockers and help combine existing services with cloud services. Through experience and passion for continuous learning, CloudWay is a great partner in projects as advisors, project managers, trainers and hands-on for customers and as subcontractor” Working at CloudWay as a Teams and Microsoft 365 Cloud Architect, helping deliver on their mission statement: “Our focus is to remove blockers and help combine existing services with cloud services. Through experience and passion for continuous learning, CloudWay is a great partner in projects as advisors, project managers, trainers and hands-on for customers and as subcontractor”



LoopUp

• United Kingdom
• Telecommunications
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Microsoft Technology Lead, Consulting

  • Oct 2020 - Apr 2022

  Working to help LoopUp define and deliver their Cloud Communications offering based around Microsoft Teams and Direct Routing. Working to help LoopUp define and deliver their Cloud Communications offering based around Microsoft Teams and Direct Routing.



Modality Systems

• United Kingdom
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Principal Consultant

  • Aug 2016 - Sep 2020

  With some internal restructuring taking place there was an opportunity to take on a more senior consulting role. This position was aimed more towards strategic engagements and “C-level” discussions with customers. My move into this role also coincided with Microsoft making great strides with O365 and it became clear that we had to start embracing “cloud focused” projects. These required a different approach to traditional on-premise deployments as they were delivered in a more collaborative way with the customer.When Teams entered the fray I was involved in a number of interesting strategy projects helping customers to understand and navigate what the impact of this new product would be on their planned roadmaps. The most interesting of these projects involved working with a large household brand based out of the USA to understand what their current UC estate truly looked like and map their requirements and goals into the MS roadmap. Show less

• Senior Consultant

  • Nov 2014 - Aug 2016

  Having previously made a move to a company where IT was their core business I now wanted to move to a company where specifically UC was their core business. I wanted to “scratch an itch” and get into some large and complicated projects before the technology had moved on. I was interested to challenge myself and my skills against the rest of the industry to really see how much I knew. Modality being one of the best-known brands in the space was a great place to do this.I was involved in many challenging projects from the start covering all aspects of project delivery from complicated cross PBX migration scenarios to helping map strategic direction to the technology roadmap for a 250,000 seat organisation! Show less



Waterstons

• United Kingdom
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Executive Consultant: Infrastructure Technology

  • Jul 2011 - Nov 2014

  After a few years at Waterstons I became an Executive Consultant as I chose to focus myself towards going deep in a technology area rather than people management. For me the area that had most peaked my interest was Unified Communications. By this point the technology had evolved through several generations and was now a viable replacement to traditional phone systems and I found something magic in the ability to make phone calls from a client on your computer. I also found that by leaning into the UC world I could focus my learning and energy in on particular area but it meant I had to retain most of the rest of my technical chops too with Lync design sessions covering; Firewalls, AD, Networking setups, Client deployments, SIP and SBC details.As an Executive Consultant I also took on responsibility for the telephony services area looking at increasing work in the Microsoft UC space and with responsibility for a small team. We were small and agile but punched above our weight with the delivery of some amazing PBX to Lync / Skype migrations. Show less

• Senior Consultant

  • Feb 2009 - Jun 2011

  Coming from the NECC with a good background across Microsoft Server technologies I wanted to take a job where IT was the primary function of the company, rather than just an internal role so becoming a consultant seemed like the right next step. As a consultant at Waterstons I got the opportunity to work with a wide range of clients across multiple sectors and could still play with my favourite Microsoft toys… including Lync, Remote Desktop Services, Forefront TMG, System Center Configuration Manager, Public Key Infrastructure and Desktop management.Another important factor to me in moving into a consulting role was to find a company who had “heart” rather than just a head for numbers. Waterstons had this and the customer was always put first. With Waterstons having no direct sales roles it was also an opportunity to become comfortable talking to a customer across all levels from pre-sales, technical delivery and support.One of my very first projects with Waterstons was deploying OCS 2007 which started to set me down the path towards my UC&C specialism but it would take a few years to work that out! Show less



North East Chamber of Commerce

• United Kingdom
• Information Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Systems Administrator

  • Dec 2005 - Jan 2009

  At NECC I was responsible for all the servers in the company and the network infrastructure which includes about 250 staff machines as well as multiple training rooms spread across 9 sites (400 machines total). This has meant that I was constantly involved with delivering different projects, either implementing new software or striving to improve services to our users using existing software and network infrastructures.Some of my key achievements working for the NECC were: Upgrading the e-mail infrastructure to Exchange 2007 including a certificate based Windows Mobile push email deployment and a seamless deployment of Outlook Anywhere (RPC https proxy) that allows users to roam with their laptops and still receive email; creating a disaster recovery strategy utilising Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 and Symantec BackupExec System Recovery Server to help greatly speed up recovery times while maintaining the security of a tape based backup; Managing and maintaining a Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 environment complete with secure remote access that delivers two of the main line of business applications; Implementing SMS 2003 to automate machine configuration and software deployments, I subsequently upgraded this infrastructure to SCCM: 2007; Piloting an Office Communication Server 2007 deployment for staff to increase internal communication. Deploying “Roaming Profiles” using a blend of DFS, replication and custom scripts to give users a seamless desktop experience wherever they are in the business. Show less

• Contractor

  • Oct 2005 - Dec 2005

  I was hired by the NECC to assist with a major upgrade to the company’s network infrastructure (NT 4 to Active Directory 2003). As well as helping ensure a smooth migration for the users I designed and implemented a Group Policy and scripting framework to automate common configuration settings suitable for both hardened student machines and staff computers. I also developed an account creation tool to automate the setup of student Active Directory accounts from the output of the NECC’s learner tracking software. Show less



John Wiley and Sons

• United States
• Book and Periodical Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Contractor - Technical Proof Reader

  • Jun 2008 - Jun 2008

  Proving technical proof reading services for “MCTS - Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration: Exam 70-642” (ISBN: 0470261692) looking for technical inaccuracies in the draft manuscripts and providing feedback on any errors. The book is a training manual designed to cover the subject material for MCP exam 70-642 dealing with Server 2008 networks and covers aspects like DHCP and DNS design, file replication technologies and TCP/IP principals. Proving technical proof reading services for “MCTS - Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration: Exam 70-642” (ISBN: 0470261692) looking for technical inaccuracies in the draft manuscripts and providing feedback on any errors. The book is a training manual designed to cover the subject material for MCP exam 70-642 dealing with Server 2008 networks and covers aspects like DHCP and DNS design, file replication technologies and TCP/IP principals.



Adam and Company plc

• Junior IT Admin

  • Jun 2004 - Sep 2005

  The role involved working as part of a team providing support (2nd line) for users both onsite and at other branches throughout the UK. Day to day tasks include Windows NT account administration, building & upgrading desktops & server as well as patch management & application rollouts (via SMS and scripting). Some of the projects I was involved in included: developing a faster & more streamlined method of deploying desktops using a Windows PE boot environment & Norton Ghost, integration & deployment of a Blackberry messaging solution and refitting of the main comms room. This was my first proper IT position and gave me a good grounding in due process and how IT departments should be run. Show less