Sam Goodacre
Head of Credit Services IT at Lenvi- Claim this Profile
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Bio
Steven Walton
I worked with Sam for over 3 years and always found him to be an outstanding professional to work with and lead. He was diligent, competent, hard-working, and effective at getting things done. What's more, he managed to do all of that with a smile on his face and a personable, friendly approach. His knowledge of the product space was very good and he always showed a keen interest in learning new things to fill in knowledge gaps. He took to the Product Owner role very well and demonstrated an ability to make good decisions in very challenging circumstances, always keeping stakeholders on board and informed. He took to the line management duties asked of him with the same level of enthusiasm he showed for other areas of work. Starting from a point of limited previous experience, he demonstrated very quickly that he was a man to follow and he embodied the idea of a servant leader. His team couldn't speak highly enough of him and he maintained very good working relationships with them all. I have recently learnt that Sam has been promoted to the role of Head of Product and I couldn't agree more with that appointment. He fully deserved the opportunity to step up and I'm very confident he'll make a success of that as well.
Steven Walton
I worked with Sam for over 3 years and always found him to be an outstanding professional to work with and lead. He was diligent, competent, hard-working, and effective at getting things done. What's more, he managed to do all of that with a smile on his face and a personable, friendly approach. His knowledge of the product space was very good and he always showed a keen interest in learning new things to fill in knowledge gaps. He took to the Product Owner role very well and demonstrated an ability to make good decisions in very challenging circumstances, always keeping stakeholders on board and informed. He took to the line management duties asked of him with the same level of enthusiasm he showed for other areas of work. Starting from a point of limited previous experience, he demonstrated very quickly that he was a man to follow and he embodied the idea of a servant leader. His team couldn't speak highly enough of him and he maintained very good working relationships with them all. I have recently learnt that Sam has been promoted to the role of Head of Product and I couldn't agree more with that appointment. He fully deserved the opportunity to step up and I'm very confident he'll make a success of that as well.
Steven Walton
I worked with Sam for over 3 years and always found him to be an outstanding professional to work with and lead. He was diligent, competent, hard-working, and effective at getting things done. What's more, he managed to do all of that with a smile on his face and a personable, friendly approach. His knowledge of the product space was very good and he always showed a keen interest in learning new things to fill in knowledge gaps. He took to the Product Owner role very well and demonstrated an ability to make good decisions in very challenging circumstances, always keeping stakeholders on board and informed. He took to the line management duties asked of him with the same level of enthusiasm he showed for other areas of work. Starting from a point of limited previous experience, he demonstrated very quickly that he was a man to follow and he embodied the idea of a servant leader. His team couldn't speak highly enough of him and he maintained very good working relationships with them all. I have recently learnt that Sam has been promoted to the role of Head of Product and I couldn't agree more with that appointment. He fully deserved the opportunity to step up and I'm very confident he'll make a success of that as well.
Steven Walton
I worked with Sam for over 3 years and always found him to be an outstanding professional to work with and lead. He was diligent, competent, hard-working, and effective at getting things done. What's more, he managed to do all of that with a smile on his face and a personable, friendly approach. His knowledge of the product space was very good and he always showed a keen interest in learning new things to fill in knowledge gaps. He took to the Product Owner role very well and demonstrated an ability to make good decisions in very challenging circumstances, always keeping stakeholders on board and informed. He took to the line management duties asked of him with the same level of enthusiasm he showed for other areas of work. Starting from a point of limited previous experience, he demonstrated very quickly that he was a man to follow and he embodied the idea of a servant leader. His team couldn't speak highly enough of him and he maintained very good working relationships with them all. I have recently learnt that Sam has been promoted to the role of Head of Product and I couldn't agree more with that appointment. He fully deserved the opportunity to step up and I'm very confident he'll make a success of that as well.
Credentials
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ITQ Spreadsheet Skills
City & GuildsMar, 2013- Sep, 2024 -
Certificate in Business Finance Level 2
ASETAug, 2008- Sep, 2024 -
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Scrum AllianceApr, 2018- Sep, 2024 -
MAAT
AATAug, 2010- Sep, 2024
Experience
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Lenvi
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Software Development
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100 - 200 Employee
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Head of Credit Services IT
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Mar 2021 - Present
As Head of IT for Credit Services I provide technology management and leadership of strategic planning, delivery and implementation activities for this FCA regulated entity. I lead a team of 75 people located in Chennai, Krakow and the UK, leveraging a matrix organisation to deliver change to two core financial services products. • Implement technology strategy to deprecate outdated UIs, reduce tech debt, converge tools, align methodologies and processes across the business • Ensure reliability, security and quality of IT systems in serving client and business needs, ensuring on-going availability of systems, networks and applications; hosted using either on-prem data centres or Microsoft Azure public cloud • Successfully delivering large scale change to complex SaaS products; one product is written in C# .net, using SQL server and the other product using variety of technologies including Java, C, PL/SQL and Oracle, running under LINUX, Apache and Tomcat • Built strong and lasting relationships with senior leaders within Equiniti and numerous public and private sector clients • Recruitment and leadership of a high calibre global team; sizing the team appropriately to meet demand and remain in line with annual budget • Ensuring continued adherence across IT department to numerous compliance standards; SOC1, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 23001 • Driving down tech costs by deprecating unused licenses, reducing architectural complexity, removing unnecessary components and working with Head of Infrastructure to rationalise platform hosting • Drove an increase in functional and non functional test automation across the product portfolio, including the successful introduction and implementation of Azure Dev Ops for Test Management • Knowledge of engineering tooling includes Eclipse, Visual Studio, YouTrack, Ansible, Confluence, GitLab, TeamCity, Docker, Specflow and OctopusDeploy Show less
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EQCreditServices
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United Kingdom
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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1 - 100 Employee
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Head of Product
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Aug 2019 - Mar 2021
As Head of Product I'm responsible for delivering and owning the roadmaps across the portfolio of EQ Credit Services' loan management products. I oversee a complex product portfolio covering multiple product lines at various stages of the product life cycle. Key responsibilities include: • Create a clear vision for the product and enable Product Owners to deliver to the vision• Promote the vision constantly so that all stakeholders are aligned, have context, understand why we are doing what we are doing and where we are going• Oversee the development and management of the product roadmap and product strategy• Building out roadmaps, also overseeing Product managers who are building out roadmaps ensuring they are aligned with vision and objectives• Ensuring product lines have what they need from a people and resource perspective required to achieve established goals• Line management for a team of 5 Product Owners and our Head of Testing, working with geographically distributed teams based in the UK, Chennai and Krakow• Identify opportunities that lead to growth of the product through innovation, whilst maintaining business goals and priorities• Take overall responsibility for the success / performance of the products by setting, monitoring and continuously improving key Product KPIs• Build and define a clear set of metrics to assess the impact of product improvements and enhancementsI've got a keen focus on delivery. Having turned 14 month release cycles into releases every 8 weeks and continuing on a journey to shorten release cycles to deliver value more frequently. Show less
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Product Owner (with Line Management responsibilities)
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May 2018 - Aug 2019
In my role at Equiniti Credit Services I work as a Product Owner, working with and taking the lead of two cross functional Scrum teams, people delivering software using Agile delivery methods. One team focuses on delivering functional enhancements to our product and the other concentrates on creating an automated build and deployment pipeline as we migrate our application to Azure. Slightly unusually for a P.O. I also take on Line Management duties for the 14 people across the two teams.* Defining a product vision for items on the product roadmap* Owning the delivery of the product vision via a scheduled release pipeline* Owning and managing product backlog to ensure prioritisation of work is aligned to business strategies and priorities * Gathering requirements from internal and external stakeholders, breaking these down into clearly defined user stories with acceptance criteria that elaborate the product vision and can be taken through to delivery* Helping to drive a continuous improvement approach* Providing final product acceptance and making decisions on production readiness* Removing impediments that prevent your team from making progress* Communicate effectively with a broad range of stakeholders, internally and externally, about ideas, design and new and existing product functionality* Capturing of client requirements outlining the scope and USE cases* Documenting requirements in line with Third Party Software Providers systems and processes Show less
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Business Consultant / Product Owner
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Oct 2015 - May 2018
In my role at Equiniti Credit Services I work as a Product Owner, working with and taking the lead of a cross functional Scrum team of 6 people delivering software using Agile delivery methods. I also spend some time working as a Business Consultant, configuring and implementing software for clients.* Defining a product vision for items on the product roadmap* Owning the delivery of the product vision via a scheduled release pipeline* Owning and managing product backlog to ensure prioritisation of work is aligned to business strategies and priorities * Gathering requirements from internal and external stakeholders, breaking these down into clearly defined user stories with acceptance criteria that elaborate the product vision and can be taken through to delivery* Helping to drive a continuous improvement approach* Providing final product acceptance and making decisions on production readiness* Removing impediments that prevent your team from making progress* Communicate effectively with a broad range of stakeholders, internally and externally, about ideas, design and new and existing product functionality* Acting as the functional lead on new client implementations and change processes, capturing requirements and the configuration of client instances of the package* Capturing of client requirements outlining the scope and USE cases* Documenting requirements in line with Third Party Software Providers systems and processes,* Working alongside internal and/or client test teams during system, regression and acceptance testing, proving configured instances of the software and change items* Implementing and delivering client training strategies and user acceptance testing strategies * On site user support after go-live to ensure end user competence and detailed handover of support to the Services Desk Team Show less
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CDK Global
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United Kingdom
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1 - 100 Employee
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Implementation Consultant (Accounts)
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Jul 2008 - Sep 2015
Working for CDK Global, who provide Dealer Management Software (DMS) to the retail motor trade. I ensure effective and efficient deployment of Autoline systems to customers in the UK and Ireland to a World Class standard. • In depth knowledge of all Autoline systems and how they can be configured and adapted to suit customers business processes and requirements • Working across multiple concurrent customer projects to establish business best practice solutions, system functionality and product adaptations in line with customers business requirements • Take accountability for identification and resolution of problems, engaging with customers and other areas of the business to see issues through to a successful outcome • Highlighting any emerging issues and risks within the projects that I am working on and escalating as required to ensure customers gain the maximum benefit from the system from set-up to post go-live • Establishing and maintaining successful relationships with customers and CDK stakeholders to ensure that projects are delivered right first time and on schedule Show less
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Ultima Business Solutions
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United Kingdom
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IT Services and IT Consulting
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1 - 100 Employee
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Accounts Consultant
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Mar 2006 - Jun 2008
Working as an IT contractor for Toyota GB Plc. my main activities revolved around installing the Toyota DMS, V8, into Toyota Centre’s. • Responsible for installing the Accounts and Vehicle modules at go-live and providing on-site training and telephone support to the Toyota and Lexus Centre staff post installation to ensure maximum benefit is gained from the system • Worked in conjunction with H.M.R.C to write a suite of reports for Toyota and Lexus Centre and H.M.R.C staff to use to audit V8 accounts for VAT purposes • Worked for several Toyota Centres who did not have Senior Accountants to complete their Month End Management Accounts and submit composite results to Toyota Show less
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Hartwell
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United States
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Truck Transportation
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1 - 100 Employee
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General Sales Manager
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Oct 2004 - Mar 2006
General Sales Manager overseeing both New and Used vehicles. • Responsible for 9 staff including 7 Sales, 1 Business Manager and 1 Administrator• Built and developed a successful Sales Team by training and developing existing staff members and effectively recruiting new members
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Graduate Sales Trainee
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Oct 2003 - Oct 2004
Commenced employment in the sales department and also spent time working on projects with other areas of the dealership to improve business processes and develop my own understanding of the Motor Industry.
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Acquisitions Surveyor
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Oct 2002 - May 2003
My employment at Pentland was short due to the company downsizing and making me redundant. Primarily responsible for managing a portfolio of 45 new and existing sites for the West Yorkshire roll-out of mmO2 Airwave from site acquisition through to build. This project was on target when I handed the sites over. My employment at Pentland was short due to the company downsizing and making me redundant. Primarily responsible for managing a portfolio of 45 new and existing sites for the West Yorkshire roll-out of mmO2 Airwave from site acquisition through to build. This project was on target when I handed the sites over.
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Toyota
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Indonesia
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Truck Transportation
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700 & Above Employee
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Graduate Trainee
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Oct 2000 - Sep 2002
During my degree, I undertook a two-year full time placement within Dealer Business Solutions (DBS) a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota (GB) Plc, reporting directly to the General Manager. During my degree, I undertook a two-year full time placement within Dealer Business Solutions (DBS) a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota (GB) Plc, reporting directly to the General Manager.
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Education
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1999 - 2002
Nottingham Trent University
BA (Hons), Business Management
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