Managing Director

• Mar 2018 - Present

Manager New Business Development

• Jun 2017 - Feb 2018

• Passionate and focused on solving real-world business problems, pains and challenges.• Using innovative thinking, collaboration, planning strategic business outcomes and executing through technological solutions.• Management, orchestration and coordination of activities and projects with professionals from a Global Ecosystem of sales, pre-sales, operations and support, networks, professional services, marketing, enablement, competitive intelligence, finance, infrastructure and facilities.• Engaging organisations in a collaborative process to produce roadmaps of clearly defined, measurable and prioritised objectives designed to extract value from their existing ICT assets or future acquisitions.| Digital Experience, Innovation, Engagement & Design | Cognitive Computing | Context & Continuity | Operational & Service Efficiency's | Social Response, Reach & Communities | ChatBots | MetaBots & Speech Interfaces | Conversational Commerce, UI & Speech Analytics | Interaction Management | Multi-Modal Solutions | Workforce Optimisation | Performance Management | Desktop Analytics & Robotic Automation | Coffee | Brainstorming Show less

Pre-Sales Manager - Ocular Sales and Marketing Team

• Jan 2017 - Jun 2017

Overview: Works deals assigned to the sales team supported, prioritizing effort based on maximizing total impact on team productivity and profit, or as directed by the sales manager. Responsibilities and Committed Deliverable's:Attending meetings with business development managers and acting as a technical expert | Proactively scopes the technical solution required to address customer requirements, assesses customers’ met and unmet needs, and recommends solutions that optimize value for both the customer and the firm | Secures input from all necessary solution stakeholders within the customer firm. Adapts solutions, as necessary, to ensure appropriate support | Coordinates closely with internal sales, sales support, and service resources to align solution design with customers’ business requirements | Opportunistically pursues additional business development opportunities within customer firms. Collaborates with sales to ensure these opportunities are effectively covered and advanced | Developing technical areas of competence and imparting knowledge through training, technical forums/communities and technical talks | Assists with the creation of a sales cycle plan | Assists customer, prospect and Sales Representative to build a compelling and competitive business case and ROI (Return of Investment) | Coordination and organization of demand generating activities like trade-shows, company events or customer workshops | Engagement with the customers and interpretation of their needs and derivation of advice for prospective products that are aligned with the customers' demands | Develop and maintain a broad knowledge of the live assistance/customer experience industry to stay aware of trends, issues and competition | Actively cross skill and self-develop skills and competencies using provided training resources as well as identify external skills development opportunities | Review purchase orders received from the customer against the original proposal Show less

Pre-Sales Solutions & Product Manager - Ocular Operations, Sales & Business Development Managmement

• Jan 2016 - Jan 2017

Overview: Research, design and development of software systems and/or solutions to meet customer and client requirements | Assist with lead qualification | Prepare and assist with presentation | Liaise with Engineering for resources, demo, solution fit | Ensure that all customer requirements are quantified and qualified | Assist with go-to-market approaches | Assist with Quotes and Presentations and Proposals Roles and Responsibilities include, but not limited to:Researching, designing and writing new software programs and/or Contact Centre solutions, integration to 3rd Party systems, and enhancements on existing solutions; Testing new solutions and fault finding; Developing existing programs and solutions by analysing and identifying areas for modification; Collaboration of existing software products and getting incompatible platforms to integrate; Investigating new technologies; Working with computer coding languages; Writing operational documentation with technical authors; Maintaining systems by monitoring and correcting software defects; Working closely with my team comprising of project managers, systems engineers, systems analysts, and sales and marketing professionals; Consulting clients/colleagues concerning the maintenance and performance of software systems/solutions and asking questions to obtain information, clarify details and implement information. Show less

Product Manager - Ocular Operations, and Steering Committee Team

• Sep 2014 - Jan 2016

Overview: Research, design and development of software systems and/or solutions to meet customer and client requirements | Assist with lead qualification | Prepare and assist with presentation | Liaise with Engineering for resources, demo, solution fit | Ensure that all customer requirements are quantified and qualified | Assist with go-to-market approaches | Assist with Quotes and Presentations and Proposals Roles and Responsibilities include, but not limited to:Researching, designing and writing new software programs and/or Contact Centre solutions, integration to 3rd Party systems, and enhancements on existing solutions; Testing new solutions and fault finding; Developing existing programs and solutions by analysing and identifying areas for modification; Collaboration of existing software products and getting incompatible platforms to integrate; Investigating new technologies; Working with computer coding languages; Writing operational documentation with technical authors; Maintaining systems by monitoring and correcting software defects; Working closely with my team comprising of project managers, systems engineers, systems analysts, and sales and marketing professionals; Consulting clients/colleagues concerning the maintenance and performance of software systems/solutions and asking questions to obtain information, clarify details and implement information. Show less

Support Specialist: Contact Centre Application & Retail Support

• Apr 2014 - Sep 2014

Product and environment experience: Workforce Management tools, Leave Administration, Agent Administration, Quality Assessment, Automated Time Sheets, Knowledgebase Management, eGain (Web Services with integration channels), Call Centre Operations Monitoring, Contact Centre Statistics, Detailed Subscriber Contact Centre Statistics, Outbound Campaign Management, Inbound Campaign Management, GSM Switching, SS7, Transmission, Networking, IVR (IBM WVR, Voice Genie, Genesys Voice Portal and Tecnomen/Tecnotree), Database (Oracle, MySQL), OS (Windows, AIX, Solaris, Linux), Java technologies and Application servers (Tomcat, Glassfish, JBoss), Voice and Screen Recording (DataVoice and Genesys), CISCO telephony, Aspect UIP, Call Centre Technologies and products (Softphone, knowledge base type applications), Ringback Tone Technologies (Jinny, OnMobile)Commited Deliverables:Fault Management, Change Control, Risk and Escalation Management (Communication, Visibility, End-to-End Resolution, and Post-Restoration Analysis and Reporting), Service Integration (including testing and evaluation), Site Management, Customer and Operational Support, Implementation (Installation, Configuration, Integration), Data Security Standardization, Analysis and Reporting (Support and Operations, Business, Management and Executive), Vendor/Supplier Mediation, Customer Relationship Management, Configuration Management, System Administration, System Availability and Performance Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Management, System and Application Availability and Performance, Problem Resolution Management, Application and System Maintenance, Capacity Management and Systems and Applications Efficiency, Logical Security Management, Technology Strategy and Architecture, Project Delivery & Management, Training and Knowledge Transfer, Managed Services, Process Development Show less

Support Specialist: Contact Centre Solutions Support

• Jan 2009 - Apr 2014

Part of a mature, competant and focused team within the Contact Centre Solutions Support and Operations. This included the support and operations the services/technologies that were inherited from my previous position/role (See below description of roles and responsibilities during the June 2007 - January 2009 period for the Support and Operations of the VAS & Data Support Services), and support and operations of additional technologies and environments within this new role/environment.Commited Deliverables:Fault Management, Change Control, Risk and Escalation Management (Communication, Visibility, End-to-End Resolution, and Post-Restoration Analysis and Reporting), Service Integration (including testing and evaluation), Site Management, Customer and Operational Support, Implementation (Installation, Configuration, Integration), Data Security Standardization, Analysis and Reporting (Support and Operations, Business, Management and Executive), Vendor/Supplier Mediation, Customer Relationship Management, Configuration Management, System Administration, System Availability and Performance Management, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Management, System and Application Availability and Performance, Problem Resolution Management, Application and System Maintenance, Capacity Management and Systems and Applications Efficiency, Logical Security Management, Technology Strategy and Architecture, Project Delivery, Training and Knowledge Transfer, Project Delivery & Management, Training and Knowledge Transfer, Managed Services, Process DevelopmentProduct and environment experience:GSM SwitchingSS7TransmissionNetworkingIVR (IBM WVR, Voice Genie, GVP and Tecnomen/Tecnotree)Database (Oracle, , MySQL)OS (Windows, AIX, Solaris, Linux)Java technologies and Application servers (Tomcat, Glassfish, JBoss)Voice and Screen Recording (DataVoice and Genesys)CISCO telephonyAspect UIPCall Centre Technologies and products (Softphone)OnMobile Ringback Tone Technologies Show less

Support Engineer: VAS & Data Support Services

• Jun 2007 - Jan 2009

Includes all responsibilities from my previous role, (See below description of Roles and Responsibilities during the January 2006 - June 2007 period for the support and operations of the VAS & Data Support Services) and also various additional technologies within this Support and Operations environment for VAS & Data Support Services. I brought with me an excellent dimension (coming from a vendor perspective) into the customer environment allowing me to provide excellent value to the department and the organization at large. At the same time challenging me enough to grow in technical, planning, managing, organising and collaboration aspects. Furthermore strengthening my multitasking and priotisation skills, and a strong passion and commitment for delivery and in adding value towards customer satisfaction and organisational foundations. The additional environments and support and operations thereof integrated me technically within other environments giving me flexibility in my support and operations capabilities and strengths; growing my people skills and in engaging with multiple teams; communicating and delegating effectively within the SLA targets outlined and agreed between these 3rd party vendors and internal to the organization. Show less

Support Specialist/Team Leader: IBM on-site team for Vodacom's VAS & Data Support Services

• Jan 2006 - Jun 2007

Progressed within the team, and support and operations of the environment as a team leader with added responsibilities to my specialist role (See below description of roles and responsibilities during the January 2005 - January 2006 period for the support and operations of the VAS & Data Support Services).Additional Roles Included:In depth problem assessement, troubleshooting and resolution with advanced knowledge on support and operations within the environment which include 1st/2nd line support and also 3rd line support functions which consisted of obtaining all necessary logs (both standard, medium and advanced logging) and in having those collected successfully, logged accordingly with the IBM 3rd level support (advanced SS7 and WVR Support Team based in Southhampton UK), engaging with them directly and also management thereby managing expectations both internal and customer-based; timelines towards problem detection, resolution and permanent resolution mechanisms and analysis; and also in having those planned and implemented according to the organizations service call, incident/problem and change management process' thereby mitigating risk and service impact and adhering to a mature/responsible change implementation schedule. All escalations on critical and business impacting problems and fault managment to the various teams and business stakeholders, eg. Network Management Centre, Vodacom Management, and IBM 2nd/3rd level support to ensure end-to-end resolution and visibility and ensuring mitigation of service impact and placing high priority and urgency on service restoration. Weekly Management Reporting that includes communicating and reporting adequately to both the Vodacom, IBM Account Management and IBM Service Management on the status of the support and operations on the contract, its identified problem areas and issues, and in commiting to analysis, investigation and permanent resolution timelines and actions. Show less

Support Specialist: On-site team for Vodacom's VAS & Data Support Services

• Jan 2005 - Jan 2006

Part of a support and operations team that wascontracted to the Vodacom VAS & Data Support Services Division and in supporting and operating the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) environment for VAS (Value Added Services) and Vodacom Call Centre's. This included the full support roles and responsibilities of the environment and it's functions thereof - i.e system availability and performance, system maintenance, capacity management and systems efficiency, business continuity, security, technology strategy and architecture, project delivery, training and knowledge transfer and in aligning with the customer/organizations process's and business requirements and needs. Show less

Junior Support Specialist: AIX Support Team

• Jan 2003 - Jan 2005

AIX technical support for IBM customers both remote and on-site e.g Vodacom, Spoornet, MTN, SA Eagle, Standard Bank. My responsibilities ranged from remote and on-site support in attendance to calls logged to the AIX helpdesk. In-team responsibilities included implementing rosters to ensure availability of the team and support call centre at all times and drawing up and distribution of reports for EMEA targets and in improving customer satisfaction within IBM TSS delivery. Acquiring fixes for customers, having them cut to disc and arranging delivery or collection with them and also was included in the AIX Team Standby Roster for customers with 24/7 support contracts as I advanced within the support function. Show less

IT Specialist: Entitlement desk and IBM SA Intranet Web development

• Jan 2002 - Jan 2003

Engaged telephonically with customers whom logged calls in regards to support requirements based on their architecture and system's in use for their functions and solutions. It was my responsibility to determine/verify if they were entitled to support and within support contract basis and/or if the requirement was a statement-of-work-type support agreement of which payment process's would need to be approved and adhere to process accordingly. Verification of support contracts and assigning these calls logged and queueing them accordingly within the correct support groups and engagement with those support groups: AIX Helpdesk, AS400 Helpdesk, Mainframe Helpdesk. Responsible for South Africa IBM intranet site development and update changes and worked in conjunction with EMEA administrators/developers to make required changes to aspects of the intranet site within development environments and aligning with production go-live launches. Show less

Junior IT Specialist

• Jan 2001 - Jan 2002

Qualified from a handful candidates for a final-year part-time opportunity at IBM South Africa based on examination results, and interviews with the organizations. I worked 3 days a week at the organization and other 2 were on campus attending lectures.The experience allowed me to gain valuable insight into organization structure, business models, services, their process’, and a provided me with a stepping stone into information technology and solutions and in providing me with opportunities to expand, explore and find my grounding's and technology/solution preferences. Show less