Experience

n/a

• Software Development
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Retired

  • Feb 2018 - Present



Experian

• Information Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Support Analyst

  • Jun 2015 - Feb 2018



Aviva

• United Kingdom
• Financial Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Software Engineer

  • Jan 2013 - Jul 2013

• Software Engineer

  • Apr 2011 - Dec 2012

  Became part of a delivery team tasked with migrating a third party's Collective Investment data from our system onto their in-house system. Following successful completion of the migration I transferred to a development team working on Aviva's in-house work flow system.• Participated in design workshops with third party representatives and analysed their requirements. Utilised the results to define mappings which ensured that data from our system was put into the correct format for it to be migrated onto their system. • Designed and implemented several of the offload file extracts. This included the largest extract which contained 120 million transaction records. To match the target system's data model some of these had to be split into several records and others combined into one record according to complex business rules while maintaining data integrity. • Ensured correct reconciliation of some of the extracts so that the data sent was correct. This was successful, as there were very few questions raised after the migration. • Working closely with business users, provided statements and client letters to their requirements. These used data extracts fed into Word mail merges. • Volunteered for training as a Workstation Assessor and carried out this role in addition to my other responsibilities. Show less

• Support Lead

  • Jan 2008 - Apr 2011

  Headed a team of two other staff responsible for all aspects of supporting the Threads system. This included incident management, resolution and reporting. In addition, it was necessary to communicate effectively with business users to ensure that their requirements were properly understood.• Managed the incident queue for Threads using procedures based on ITIL methods. Provided reports to the Support Manager showing levels of incidents and achievement of correct service levels. These reports covered all support teams, not just Threads. • Analysed incidents in the first instance and assigned for resolution. If a pattern of related incidents suggested the need, a problem record would be requested. • Cooperated with other support teams to track down issues that caused service interruption across systems and coordinated action to resolve them. • Analysed requests for small enhancements to the system, captured the client’s requirements, produced detail designs and managed the development of the changes. • Cultivated good relationships with the business users, ensuring that their requirements were properly understood and the most appropriate solution found to the reported problem. Also managed their expectations as to what resolution could be expected. • Organised and participated in a rota providing support for overnight batch runs. This required the ability to work alone and under considerable pressure in order to resolve any problems that would prevent the completion of the batch runs. If they were not completed on time, it would be impossible to make the system available the next day. • Actively monitored the performance of the system. Took action, where possible, to reduce the time taken by batch runs including, for example, careful scheduling of jobs or archiving of unnecessary data. • Acted as People Manager, setting SMART objectives. Show less

• Analyst Programmer

  • May 1998 - Dec 2007

  Employed by GA Life (Later Aviva) to work on setting up of a system to administer GA's collective investment products and its links to other systems. The company also provided third party administration to other institution's products.Performed a variety of tasks, involving both development and support.• Designed and developed processes interfacing the Collective Investment administration system (Threads) to QSP ledger systems (Purchase Ledger and General Ledger) • Cooperated with business users to identify and analyse their key functional requirements and translated them into system designs. This was particularly demonstrated when setting up a new instance of our Collective Investments system to administer third party's products. • Designed and specified various peripheral systems including regulatory reporting which had to be completed to a fixed timescale and externally specified requirements. • Completed a Design Thinking Course given by IBM consultants. This covered analysis of requirements, both functional and non-functional and employment of use cases to evaluate the suitability of the design.• Analysed and resolved various faults on the base Threads system. • Implemented several small enhancements to Threads, working closely with the testing team to ensure they were delivered to the correct level of quality. • Mentored a graduate trainee, ensuring that the work he carried out was appropriate to meet his training requirements and was correctly documented. Show less



Quality Software Products

• Gateshead

• Analyst Programmer

  • Oct 1987 - May 1998

  Employed as trainee programmer at a software house. Designed and implemented small projects during my first year of employment. Later took responsibility for the support of the OLAS Sales Ledger product, and then the Purchase Order Processing system. After a while I was responsible for a team of 12 people giving first line technical support to all OLAS products. I was also responsible for the design, development and implementation of several bespoke changes to the OLAS system. • Designed and built various subsystems within OLAS Sales Ledger. • Supported Sales Ledger system. Controlled list of incidents and prioritised to give timely resolution. Worked closely with external clients to ensure that their problems were fully understood and an appropriate resolution arrived at, either by providing suitable advice, or fixing a problem. • Led a 4 man team supporting OLAS Purchase Order Processing. During this time the number of outstanding reported incidents was reduced from 175 to about 10. Supplied MI reporting of incidents to senior management. • Headed a central support team providing front line technical support for QSP UK customers. My team would look at all faults logged for all OLAS products and provide a fix or work around where possible. If a genuine system fault was found, it was passed to the relevant product development team for correction. • Transferred to a development team providing bespoke changes for QSP clients. Designed, specified and developed various changes, ranging from small amendments to the base system to new add-on packages. Show less



IRD

• Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

• Research Engineer

  • Jul 1980 - Sep 1984

  My role included: • Design and development of test equipment to trial new processes and devices. • Procurement of equipment and supplies from external suppliers. • Theoretical calculation and evaluation of processes to test their viability before proceeding to a prototype stage. My role included: • Design and development of test equipment to trial new processes and devices. • Procurement of equipment and supplies from external suppliers. • Theoretical calculation and evaluation of processes to test their viability before proceeding to a prototype stage.