An enthusiastic IT consultant with over 20 years of Retail & Windows hardware and software experience. Consulting supplied on key projects for tier 1 & 2 customers for the end to end implementation and roll out of bespoke software (EPOS) solutions on to Microsoft operating systems. My outgoing nature makes me an ideal part of any team whilst I am also capable of autonomous working and time management. I have excellent time keeping, loyalty to my employer and a courteous nature. I try wherever possible to be pro active and come up with a solution which is self maintaining and scalable. I try to be innovative and think of creative solutions that bring maximum business benefit. I am capable of managing small projects as well as liaising and managing third party suppliers. I have considerable understanding of support processes throughout the project life span including first, second and third line support liaison, pro active consulting, as well as troubleshooting and fixing hardware, software and network issues.
Supporting the Enactor retail Point of sale, including substantial involvement in moving from legacy VMWare ESX guests to AWS EC2 instances through dev/QA/preprod/prod. Day to day 3rd/4th line support, interface management, customisation, and powershell scripting.
Created a resilient and mission critical powershell script to remove unneeded xml files and then POST zipped up retail transactions to an AWS lambda endpoint and confirm receipt/failure and retry. This single script supported multiple environments and in excess of 36,000 transactions an hour.
Creation of scripting processes to create 2500+ gift cards through the creation of XML interface files.
Deploying and rolling out automated deployment and configuration of Datadog agent monitoring to 1600 windows devices including log file monitoring, grok analysis of multiline logs, mysql, windows services, disk space, CPU usage, FIS EFT monitoring, SQL monitoring, stored procedure monitoring of a SQL cluster, dashboarding and alerting.
Using AWS and powershell to do reporting of GP2 and GP3 disks, for cost reduction. Analysing git repos to identify required code changes.
updating SSM agent on 300+ devices
analysing and diagnosing Microsoft volume shadow copy for AWS backup snapshot and AMI management
Experience and good working knowledge of AWS CloudEndure. Zabbix, Telegraf, Influx, Grafana & Kapacitor
Troubleshooting, Integrating and optimising products in to the Dunelm infrastructure and creating solutions to support them following the business process needs. Working with powershell jobs to configure, implement & support Enactors mobile and fixed POS solution. Helping to troubleshoot and fix issues in the estate using Zabbix for monitoring and SQL server management studio to gather metrics and provide reporting.
Working within the PoS Team providing 2nd and 3rd level support to the Selfridges and Brown Thomas JAVA and Tomcat based Micros Retail Java till estates (running on Oracle 10g and XE). My unofficial aim was proactive identification and resolution of issues prior to a call being logged as well as enabling the 1st line team to resolve more calls at source. I would analyse the issues that were taking up time and automate fixes. To do this I used VB scripts as scheduled tasks to interrogate the estate as well as supporting and improving a legacy VB6 support application to detect and resolve error situations, where the error could not be resolved by the program it would gather information to be pasted in to the call logging system. I also used PRTG to automate monitoring of the web based application servers, QAS, bespoke applications and gateways and alert the team as well as logging a call. PRTG was also used to create dynamic ‘maps’ for visual use on a 60’ screen. This role also included making reports using Excel and Oracle T-SQL, modifying menu sets,terminal profile modification and promotions. I also supported the Mission Integrated Systems Hospitality solution (MSSQL Server and MSDE), Berkel scales, Bespoke ‘Rapid Business Systems’CRM solution as well as troubleshooting the Salmon Ecommerce interfaces and the Oracle XBR program for loss prevention.
Main carer for my 2 children whilst doing freelance contracting and consultancy from Home. Managing my own time and balancing the workload with the needs of the children and family presents unique challenges and opportunities for introspection and revising the way that I work and approach learning, education as well as time keeping and work life balance.
An initial 6 month contract extended to 22 months with IBM doing on site consultancy to implement PCMS’ Beanstore EPOs Software on to Marks & Spencer’s existing hardware platform, including a new Windows Embedded for Point of Sale (WEPOS 1.1) Operating System. The role involved creating and implementing the PoS Detailed Technical Architectural Design (DTAD) document which outlined the technical decisions and rationale for the solution, as well as consolidating any required existing documentation. The DTAD also included an evaluation of hardware life span, data sizing, and migration to USB retail devices as well as reducing power consumption. This solution called for a modular system where the build, hanger and estate could be maintained with minimal effort. The final solution was based on Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) and used the Operating System Deployment (OSD) feature pack. The other tasks included ensuring 24x7 availability and ensuring security using group policy, firewall and the Bit9 Parity Whitelisting product. The different base units included Wincor Beetle & IPOS, Fujitsu TP2K & TPX as well as different types of NCR SCOT self check out system. Scripts were used to ensure that drivers were swapped in, or out as appropriate during build time. Key software & technologies used included: • Windows Embedded for Point of Sale (WEPOS 1.1) • Bit9 Parity Whitelisting software • PCMS Beanstore • Java for Point Of Sale (JPOS) • Windows Firewall • Remote Installation Services (RIS) • Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) • Domain Name Service (DNS) • Windows Deployment Services (WDS) • Active Directory including Group Policy • Windows Scripting Host (WSH) • Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) Limited exposure to: • BDD & Vista Deployment • PCI DSS consulting • VMware
Providing software and hardware consultancy to Burberry UK on behalf of PSG ltd. This involved liaising with third parties such as Digipos UK and Star Printers UK to provide updates to Burberry's hardware and software platforms in order to support new hardware. The hardware integration included new base units and printers as well as applying service packs and security updates to their legacy operating systems. This consultancy also involved configuration changes to their BT Expedite Point of Sale system called Coalition.
Managing a team of 14 technical specialists to deliver release and implementation of projects in to service. This includes allocation and co-ordination of release, build and SQL resources. This role also includes troubleshooting, PM work, technical consultancy knowledge & management level discussion.
An initial 6 month contract extended to 22 months with IBM doing on site consultancy to implement PCMS’ Beanstore EPOS Software on to Marks & Spencer’s existing hardware platform, including a new Windows Embedded for Point of Sale (WEPOS 1.1) Operating System. The role involved creating and implementing the PoS Detailed Technical Architectural Design (DTAD) document which outlined the technical decisions and rationale for the solution, as well as consolidating any required existing documentation. The DTAD also included an evaluation of hardware life span, data sizing, and migration to USB retail devices as well as reducing power consumption. This solution called for a modular system where the build, hanger and estate could be maintained with minimal effort. The final solution was based on Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) and used the Operating System Deployment (OSD) feature pack. The other tasks included ensuring 24x7 availability and ensuring security using group policy, firewall and the Bit9 Parity Whitelisting product. The different base units included Wincor Beetle & IPOS, Fujitsu TP2K & TPX as well as different types of NCR SCOT self check out system. Scripts were used to ensure that drivers were swapped in, or out as appropriate during build time.
A high profile technical consulting role focussing on infrastructure, installation and the technical challenges of the IT sector. On site requirements include gathering customer requirements, needs analysis, consultancy, issue management, project delivery and managing client expectations. This role also included providing support for first/second line, pilot and the customer.
My development experience was also used to develop a thin client resourcing system using ASP, HTML, VBScript and Visual Basic interfacing with SQL 2000 as the back end database and utilising DTS and the core Microsoft technologies. Visual Basic has also been used for unattended gold builds as well as bespoke requirements.
The role included customer facing configuration for Tier 1 clients and bespoke software solutions. Put together interfacing report for tier 2 customer Asprey Garrard which used Microsoft Log parser to analyse XML, TXT and CSV files and construct a web page which was used on the client’s intranet for support. • Analyse functional/business requirements and associated timescales • Bespoke application configuration, including POS • Gap identification and analysis for upgrade and integration work. • Construction of solutions using business analysis and requirements definitions. • Interfacing and integration analysis. • Liaison with project leaders to ensure information flow between teams. • Listening to customers and managing their expectations while handling co-operation through negotiation. • Leading/supporting team communication for a consistent and structured approach. • Defect logging, investigation and resolution. • Change control. • 24 patch gold build consolidated rollup update for Mexx clothing. Multi currency, language and configuration updates including fiscal printing. • NSB Coalition 4.5, 5.4, 5.5 knowledge
This role required the following: Providing pre sales support and consultation to the sales team for presentations to prospective customers; I also participated in the Retail Solutions show. Updated exposure included windows 2000 server, Active directory, DNS, SQL server 7, e-commerce & RAID.
Third line support including escalation. Training new members of team. Application configuration work. Limited exposure to SQL server 6.5. Troubleshooting ISDN Wide Area Networks and routing. Testing, UAT, pilot and roll out of patches.
Second level support (USI's Coalition EPOS software) On-site client work In depth problem solving and analysis Pro active issue investigation.
First line EPOS support via telephone and email providing remote out of hour's client support and issue resolution. Supported using PC anywhere, Landesk. Supported: