mark whitfield it career profile project management

IT Career Profile

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Mark A. Whitfield

IT Career Profile

Date: 16/05/2011 Author: Mark A. Whitfield

Title: IT Project Manager Years in IT: 20+ Serial No: 5.1 No of pages: 70 (including this page)

Doc loc: c:\personal\recruitment\MAW_CareerProfile_16052011.doc

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Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 3

2. PERSONAL DETAILS ......................................................................................... 4

3. CAREER SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 5

3.1. 1995 – Present / Insider Technologies Limited, Salford Quays, UK ........................................................ 5

3.2. 1990 – 1995 / Deluxe Data International Operations ( now FIS via eFunds International ) .................. 6

4. IT COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE ........................................................................ 7

4.1. Insider Technologies Limited ....................................................................................................................... 7

4.2. Deluxe Data International Operations (formally The Software Partnership) ....................................... 18

4.3. The Software Partnership .......................................................................................................................... 20

5. HIGHER EDUCATION ....................................................................................... 25

5.1. Bolton Institute for Higher Education (University of Bolton – 2004) .................................................... 25

6. APPENDICES.................................................................................................... 26

6.1. Supporting IT Project Screenshots ........................................................................................................... 26

6.2. Professional Training Summary ................................................................................................................ 41

6.3. Professional Training Certificates ............................................................................................................. 44

6.4. Latest - P60 End of Year Certificate – 01-04-2011 ................................................................................... 62

6.5. Latest Pay Slip – 25 / 05 / 2011 ................................................................................................................... 63

6.6. Recommendations from http://www.linkedin.com/in/markwhitfield LinkedIn Profile ....................... 64

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1. Introduction

This document offers a more detailed account of my IT commercial experience since starting work in September, 1990. It provides a project by project breakdown of my project management and technical experience to date.

It is intended as an accompanying document to my CV and gives a more detailed account of technologies I have worked with and IT projects I have managed. The document is ordered so that my most recent work experience is presented first. I have also included the course modules studied as part of my Higher Education in the last section.

Design, sales and project related documentation written by myself as part of IT projects detailed in this document, can be made available for perusal as part of the interview process. A small number of appendices have been included at the back of this document to support some of the recent projects I have managed or been involved with.

TANDEM Computers have been incorporated into Hewlett Packard (HP) (after merging with COMPAQ) and are referred to as hp NonStop systems throughout the rest of this document for consistency.

All of the details contained in this document are also provided in annotated form on my website ( under ‘About Me>My Resume’ ) at :

http://www.markwhitfield.net/cv.htm

This area of my website also allows the download of this profile document, my latest CV and sample IT work I have completed over the last decade.

*Best viewed with Internet Explorer 7 or better

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2. Personal Details

ADDRESS: BOLTON, Lancashire, UK.

CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]

WEBSITE: www.markwhitfield.net/cv.htm

TELEPHONE: Mobile: Home:

DATE OF BIRTH: 13th October, 1968

AGE: 42

MARITAL STATUS: Married

HEALTH: Good

NATIONALITY: British

DRIVING LICENCE: Full

COMMERCIAL YEARS IT: 20+

AREAS OF EXPERTISE: IT Project & Product Management (PRINCE2), Technical Pre-Sales, DotNetNuke Web Design, Software Design and Consultancy. Programming: TAL, COBOL85, C++, C, NonStop & Microsoft SQL, NSK based utilities. Work carried out both in-house and on-site.

AVAILABILITY: 1 month’s notice

REFERENCES: Available on request

CURRENT SALARY: £BASIC + Benefits ( Basic+ Car+ Pens+ Healthcare+ Bonus ) Required Salary is Negotiable

Signature: ………………………………… Date: ……………………

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3. Career Summary

3.1. 1995 – Present / Insider Technologies Limited, Salford Quays, UK

Responsibilities: IT Product & Project Management (PRINCE2) Product Technical Initiatives Team Leading, Agile - Scrum Website Design and Authoring with DotNetNuke On-Call Cover for Customer Accounts - Thales Security Resource Manager (SRM) - Reflex 80:20 & MultiBatch Product Training Technical and Pre-Sales Consultancy Marketing Literature and IT Articles Product Demonstrations, In-House & On-Site On-Site Installation of Software – UK & Abroad Requirements Analysis HP NonStop Program Design Product Integration: - BASE24, XPNET, hp Operations Center, - TIVOLI, BMC Performance Manager Using NSK Based Utilities & Programming: - C, C++, TAL, SQL, COBOL85, TACL Also: Microsoft SQL Reports and SQL Server 2005+ Testing – Acceptance, System & Certification Technical Track Presentations BASE24 User Group (EBUG) – 2010,2009,2008,2007,2006,2005,2003,2002 British Isles Tandem User Group (BITUG) – 2006, 2005 – BITUG SIG 2006 San Jose TANDEM User Group (ITUG) – 2003 South African Tandem User Group (SATUG) - 1999, 2008

Applications: System Management and Automation Software Service Management, Batch Scheduling ICE, BASE24, BASE24-eps & XPNET Integration Enterprise Manager Integration Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRT) Thales e-SECURITY Authentication Server and Management Server Thales e-SECURITY HP NonStop based Security Resource Manager (SRM) DotNetNuke (authored www.insidertech.co.uk) NetObjects Fusion

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3.2. 1990 – 1995 / Deluxe Data International Operations ( now FIS via eFunds International )

Responsibilities: Acceptance Testing Customer Support On-Site Implementation and Support Program Design Programming – COBOL85, SCOBOL, SQL System Design Requirements Analysis

Applications: Electronic Banking – PC – Telephone Voice / Touch-Tone Response Unit Electronic Point of Sale

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4. IT Commercial Experience 4.1. Insider Technologies Limited

Insider Technologies is an HP Partner, operating in the Financial and Messaging markets. The Company provides Service Management, Tracking, Bespoke Software and Information Mediation solutions. Insider’s product set runs on HP NonStop, Windows, Linux and Unix platforms. Based in Manchester, England, Insider Technologies Limited was established in 1989 by people with wide experience of the IT industry. From this collective experience, the company grew rapidly with each new employee bringing new skills and expertise.

Website: www.insidertech.co.uk (current website designer and author)

Year: Oct. 2004 – Present

Area: Reflex 80:20 / Reflex ONE24 / Sentra Development / Company Website Author Product & Project Management (PRINCE2), Technical Pre-Sales & Consultancy, Training, Installation, Design, Coding and Testing

Position: Manager – Strategic Technical Initiatives

Operating System Languages / Main Others

HP NONSTOP SERVERNET - S SERIES & ITANIUM – J SERIES

COBOL85 Microsoft Reporting Services

HP NONSTOP K SERIES NONSTOP SQL Microsoft Project

NSK BASED UTILITIES, e.g. SCF, C , C++ (NSK Based) ENSCRIBE

PERUSE, PATHCOM, INSPECT etc. TAL PATHWAY

WINDOWS 2000 / XP TACL ICE by Insession

Microsoft SQL Server DotNetNuke

Microsoft Visual Studio Microsoft SourceSafe

Business Intelligence Reporting Tools (BIRT)

Certified PRINCE2 Practitioner

Agile - Scrum

Currently employed as a Project Manager (certified PRINCE2 Practitioner) and Pre-sales Technical Consultant at Insider Technologies Limited (ITL). This role enables me to remain technically ‘hands-on’ for any issues or initiatives that may arise for the company’s primary product set, namely the HP NonStop based products Reflex 80:20, Reflex ONE24 and more recently MultiBatch.

As part of my primary management role at ITL, I successfully headed up a team to deliver mainframe ATM and point-of-sale monitoring software to HSBC bank in 2008. Prior to this implementation, I was heavily involved with the joint architects, Alliance & Leicester (now Santander) with the design, development and project management of the product.

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Since ITL is a relatively small software house, this role carries a wide range of responsibility including:

• Project management of complete development life-cycle for new product initiatives, certified PRINCE2 Practitioner

• Providing technical assistance in support situations (both in-house and on-site)

• Production of functional design documents and program specifications for any new or proposed NSK development projects

• A key part in major NSK sales bids in the UK and abroad, e.g. Athens, Riyadh

• Company website design and authoring using .NET SQL application, DotNetNuke

• Providing 24x7 technical support for; Bank of England, Royal Bank of Scotland and Euroclear (formerly CRESTCo) who provide settlement for 88% of the UK’s equities.

• Providing 24x7 support for the Thales e-SECURITY products; Security Resource Manager (SRM) which runs on the NSK platform and both SafeSign Authentication and SafeSign Management Server which run on Windows and Unix platforms. These products provide for the request and response of Cryptographic functions (eg. MACcing, Random Number Generation, PKI verification) to an attached application.

Attended the BASE24 User Group (EBUG) in Madrid, Prague, Vienna, Istanbul, Lisbon, Malta, Budapest and Edinburgh and given presentations for the ITL BASE24 enabled NSK monitoring products as part of the EBUG technical track sessions. I have also attended the San Jose International Tandem User Group (ITUG) and UK BITUG and written an article for the BITUG Newsletter on approaches to hp NonStop Enterprise Management. I have represented the company at the South African Tandem User Group (SATUG) in both 1999 and 2008.

As part of the role of managing key technical initiatives for ITL, the following list provides a brief overview of the major projects I have been involved with (see also – ‘Other tasks include’ below). Documentation I have produced to support these initiatives is available on request for perusal as part of the interview process.

I have studied the PRINCE2 Project Management Foundation course to aid in my role as IT Project Manager at ITL. I am now a certified PRINCE2 Practitioner (2011).

Company Website – Open Content Management Framework, DotNetNuke

ITL requested that I design and author a new company website using the Open Content Management framework, DotNetNuke. This is a Visual Basic .NET Microsoft SQL database driven technology that enables website updates from any location with internet browser access.

As part of this exercise, website prominence was a key driver along with a more professional, corporate look-and-feel. The website (at http://www.insidertech.co.uk) is an ongoing programme of work that takes up a few hours a week of my time in taking it forward. I have attended 2 gbdirect (iTrain) website courses in this regard; ‘Writing for the Web’ and ‘Website Prominence and Visibility’. See appendix J.

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RTLX Reactor - Real-Time Log Extraction

Part One

Assigned to a team to help develop a new add-on module for an existing Windows based ITL product called Sentra. The new module called RTLX, provides real-time monitoring of both ATM and POS transactions routed and processed by the ACI application, BASE24™. Sentra achieves this by dynamically deploying extraction agents to the HP NonStop platform and relaying (P)TLF data back to the Windows Server (with Microsoft SQL resident) using ITL’s FastPipe product (in-house developed proprietary TCP/IP sockets protocol).

My role involved working with two Major Clearing Banks in Bootle, Merseyside and in London to assess their requirements for; Transaction Graphical Monitoring, Real-Time Charts, ATM/POS Queries and Management Reports. As part of the requirements gathering, I provided the project status updates to the Bank’s BASE24™ IT personnel and supplied further technical input to the development team as the project progressed. Towards the end of the first-phase of the project, I helped design and develop the real-time browser based charts and management reports using Microsoft Reporting Services and SQL Server (for building the appropriate SQL Stored Procedures). I represented ITL at the 2006 EBUG conference in Lisbon to help launch and promote the new RTLX product extension to other financial institutions running the BASE24™ application. See appendix I.

Part Two

As a result of conversations at the European BASE24™ User Group (EBUG) in 2006 (Lisbon) and 2007 (Istanbul), I assisted the company technical pre-sales effort in helping to secure a contract with a major bank based in Sheffield (UK). This contract required the adaptation of the ITL product RTLX (see Version One below) to monitor a more customized version of the HP NonStop product BASE24™ to that monitored by RTLX version one.

The bank’s card acquiring business had no mechanism to monitor the real time transaction flow and look for deviations against normal POS throughput behaviour that would indicate a problem and provide early warning to relevant parties. Monitoring retailer transaction volume shifts and types of transactions and authorisations were amongst the banks list of product requirements.

The bank had moved away from the standard deliverable file formats (supplied by ACI) typically used in logging both ATM and POS transaction records, to a more proprietary layout for their TLF and PTLF files. This resulted in a development project in-house, to modify the RTLX file extractor processes on the HP NonStop platform, to read the new record formats and relay the transaction data to a Microsoft SQL database on a Windows Server. The RTLX standard database format, SQL stored procedures, dashboards and management reports all had to be modified to cater for the new file formats as part of the development project.

When the contract was secured, one of my tasks as part of the in-house project, was to write the RTLX Technical Interface Specification document. This document details the TLF and PTLF file formats on the HP NonStop platform and the corresponding SQL database columns required to map the incoming record fields to. It also provides a clear indication to the bank of how each of the RTLX software deliverables fulfills the monitoring requirements set down in the user requirements document issued by the bank’s BASE24™ project team.

As part of installing the initial implementation of the RTLX product on-site, I was also required to produce the visual graphical displays on which to map the alerts required by the bank. The first of these graphical ‘hypervisors’ was produced for the POS acquiring business and is used to monitor the major POS retailers processed. This display is used to monitor retailers for changes in transaction authorization, denial, referral and stand-in rates.

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The second display is required by the BASE24™ support area and is used to monitor the status of the entire BASE24™ system with emphasis on monitoring throughput of customer transactions across the interchanges/interfaces.

I also produced BASE24-eps™ and XPNET layer Hypervisor displays for both the EBUG and SATUG in 2008.

XPERT24 Product

Produced a technical design document and various program specifications for a new ITL product called XPERT24 (XPNET Performance Monitoring and Tracking) to monitor the performance of the XPNET layer of BASE24. This product consists of hp Nonstop PATHWAY servers that both detect and process the XPNET counters currently available for the XPNET layer (rate, state and queue counters) and the transaction interchange counters (approval/denial rates of ATM/POS transactions). I provided both technical and design requirement information to the development team and the product manager assigned to overlook this project. I am currently responsible for installing the product at ACI in Watford for acceptance testing as well as producing the supporting marketing literature and technical user manual for this new product. As a subsequent design phase, I was requested to produce an R&D document for BASE24

TM (P)TLF log file analysis and

monitoring. The proposed design makes use of the ITL Windows product Sentra to provide the graphical front-end user views with a browser enabled interface. See appendix A.

HP OpenView Operations Enterprise Manager

Requested to research and produce a design for integrating the ITL NSK based Reflex 80:20 product with the hp OpenView Operations (hp OVO) enterprise manager. This initially involved a trip to Lisbon to attend the hp OpenView Universe event that represents the technical showcase for this enterprise level product. I then put together a number of design documents and managed a development team tasked with engineering an hp OpenView Smart Plug-in (SPI) to interact with Reflex 80:20 on the hp NonStop platform. This hp SPI approach represents the latest technology for integrating third-party products and provides an unparalleled approach for enabling remote platform control and management under hp OVO.

Once the Reflex SPI development was complete, I overlooked acceptance testing at the hp labs at Fort Collins, Colorado and was instrumental in attaining HP certification for the Reflex 80:20 product. As part of the certification process, I produced a comprehensive Reflex SPI user guide along with supporting marketing literature. See appendix B.

Operator Interface Subsystem (OISS)

Requested to manage a major bid to replace a 10 year old, in-house developed operations tool, ‘OISS’ used at LloydsTSB, with ITL’s Reflex ONE24 product. This bid is still on going currently due to a management reorganisation at the bank. The current NSK tool manages and monitors the BASE24 environment for the bank. More specifically, the OISS tool looks after the entire ATM estate at LloydsTSB, which consists of 5000 ATMs. The Reflex ONE24 product will require major enhancements in order to fully replace this BASE24 management software. The gap analysis, technical assessment and costing of the project has been part of my current role in the technical initiatives area at ITL.

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Reflex ONE24 for BASE24 Monitoring

As part of taking the Reflex 80:20 product forward, I was asked to find ‘CPU friendly’ ways of integrating the product with the electronic payment and transaction application BASE24. I designed and engineered a number of PATHWAY Servers that allow Reflex users to automatically detect all XPNET and ICE (by Insession) components and request detailed information and status about them. This is made possible by using a highly graphical WIN32 object tree presentation within the Reflex product and providing point-and-click GUI technology.

The solution programmatically interfaces with the XPNET layer of BASE24 using low-cost API calls and allows XPNET EMS events to be mapped to the graphical icons for real-time status. For ICE, the NSK subsystem programmatic interface (SPI) is used to extract ICE components from the NOF (Network Operator Facility) interface. This involved the installation and running of the ICE software in conjunction with appropriate use of ICE DDL libraries shipped with the product. These approaches provide ‘listen rather than interrogate’ methods for BASE24 monitoring. I also produced the technical user guide and marketing literature to support this development. The resulting product is called Reflex ONE24.

I am typically called upon for following up sales leads for the Reflex ONE24 product. I have installed this BASE24 enabled product at a number of banks including LloydsTSB, Bank of Ireland, Bank of Valletta (Malta) and both Commercial and Piraeus Bank (Greece). See appendix C.

Courses: PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner Courses May 2011 (ILX Group, Gold e-Learning)

Agile Training - Scrum May 2011 (RADTAC, In-House)

Thales e-Security HP NonStop Security Resource Manager (SRM) HSM8000, PayShield 9000 Gateway July 2009 (In-House Insider Technologies Limited) Website Promotion and Visibility by Design May 2009 (gbdirect, iTrain Education – London)

Writing for the Web May 2009 (gbdirect, iTrain Education- London)

Querying Microsft SQL 2000 with Transact SQL March 2009 (QA Training – Leeds)

Developing Web Applications using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET January 2007 (Remarc Technologies Training – Leeds)

Designing Good Marketing Brochures - April 2006 (SkillPath Seminars – Manchester)

Cryptography - March 2005 (In-House – Thales e-SECURITY)

Web Services & SOA – February 2005 (In-House – Insider Technologies Limited)

MultiBatch Product – March 2004 (In-House – Insider Technologies Limited)

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Year: 1998 – Oct. 2004

Area: Reflex 80:20 Development Product & Project Management, Technical Consultant, Training, Installation, Design, Coding and Testing

Position: Manager – Operations Products


HP NONSTOP SERVERNET - G SERIES

COBOL85 TACL

HP NONSTOP K SERIES NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

WINDOWS 98 C, C++ (NSK Based) ENSCRIBE

NSK BASED UTILITIES TAL Microsoft Project

SeaGate Crystal Reports

Product Manager assigned to project manage the complete development life-cycle for 4 software products, 2 HP NonStop based and 2 Windows based. This software has its main focus in the system management, automation and SLA monitoring of critical path applications running on hp NonStop systems at major financial and telecommunications institutions around the world.

These products are developed by ITL and their ongoing research, design and delivery make up the primary day-to-day role of a Product Manager at ITL, with any issues being reported directly to the Operations Director. This role involves the project management of each development phase of the products and the use of Microsoft Project for tracking progress and reporting status. It is also the responsibility of the Product Manager to provide technical guidance and leadership to assigned team members. Projects I have been involved with include; integrating the NSK product Reflex with both the TIVOLI Enterprise Manager and B&B COMMAND/POST (now BMC Patrol), NSK based comprehensive File Monitoring and introducing comprehensive disaster recovery functions into the Reflex product for site swaps. See appendix D.

Development teams are typically made up of between 6-8 technical staff responsible for both hp NonStop and Windows development. The Product Manager is tasked with ensuring that the resulting software meets the original terms of reference as specified by the client or the ITL in-house technical design team. This is carried out in accordance with the ISO9001 quality standard, which necessitates the production of the appropriate paper trails to document work carried out. All Product Managers at ITL are accountable for each development area and are subject to internal and external company audits.

Other tasks include:

Consultancy / Pre-Sales – Ongoing input to marketing and pre-sales activities for major bids and also existing accounts to ascertain the path forward for ITL products. This has involved a trip to South Africa (1999, 2008) to promote interest in ITL products and several visits to London and Europe. I have also attended the ITUG in San Jose and the EBUG conferences to promote the BASE24 enabled ITL product set. As part of an in-house consultancy team, helped extend a new ITL NSK reports suite using Crystal Reports and corresponding Microsoft SQL stored procedures.

Training and Demonstrations – The provision of technical training to customers and staff both in-house and at customer site. Assisting the marketing division with product demonstrations to potential clients as well as participating in major, NSK related technical conferences.

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Helpdesk support – Interfacing to the ITL Helpdesk to aid their handling of customer queries and problems relating to previous releases of ITL products. This requires the assigning of live software problems encountered on client sites to appropriate ITL staff, and the update of current project plans to reflect impact to ongoing in-house developments. I am also involved when software problems require an on-site presence in order to look further at issues that cannot be replicated in-house.

Live Product Support – Providing 7 * 24 hour cover for major clients who make use of ITL software as part of their system management (Reflex) and batch management (MultiBatch) strategy.

Courses: Sales & Marketing – February 2001 (In-House – Insider Technologies Limited)

Microsoft Project ’98 – May 2000 (IIL UK Education Centre, Reading)

Successful Project Management – February 1999 (Skillpath – Manchester)

Managing Multiple Projects, Objectives and Deadlines – October 1998 (Skillpath – Manchester)

Year: 1997 – 1998

Area: Reflex 80:20 Development Product Management, Design, Coding and Testing

Position: Product Manager


HP NONSTOP SERVERNET – G SERIES

COBOL85 TACL

HP NONSTOP K SERIES NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

WINDOWS 98 C, C++ (NSK Based) ENSCRIBE

NSK BASED UTILITIES TAL Microsoft Project

My first project management task after my 3-month placement at CRESTCo (now Euroclear) in London, involved adding Management Reporting capability to the Reflex 80:20 NSK system-monitoring product. This was the first Insider Technologies initiative to link the NSK platform with a remote Windows server for MIS reporting functions. PATHWAY servers were designed and engineered to relay NSK metrics extracted by Reflex, to a Windows Microsoft SQL database. This allowed for the generation of both tabular and graphical reports on NSK platform performance trends between user specified dates. My role as project manager involved the design of the overall NSK relay architecture and managing the staff assigned to the project and their individual tasks using Microsoft Project. All project status and issues were reported to the Operations Director.

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Year: 1997 (Aug – Nov)

Area: Reflex 80:20 Development Team Leading, Design, Coding and Testing

Position: Senior Programmer – CRESTCo (now Euroclear), London

Operating System Languages / Other

HP NonStop ServerNet SERIES G04 OS

COBOL85 ENSCRIBE

WINDOWS 95 / NT NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

NSK BASED UTILITIES TACL

Placed at CRESTCo (now Euroclear) in London (contracted out as a consultant by Insider Technologies Limited) producing volume testing and benchmark software. This software was used to test the overall performance of their Stock Settlement application on the new S7000 hp NonStop nodes (first delivered in the country). The results obtained were compared with their existing live K class systems running the same application. On-site at CRESTCo for 3 months.

Year: 1996 – 1997


Position: Team Leader


HP NONSTOP K SERIES COBOL85 TAL

WINDOWS 95 / NT C (NSK Based) TACL

C++ (NSK Based) PATHWAY

NONSTOP SQL ENSCRIBE

After the design and development of the graphical Status Monitoring software detailed below, I completed a C/C++ course in London. The reason for attending this course was so that I could start to look at porting some of the Guardian proprietary system monitoring software running on the hp NonStop platform, to Windows workstations running NT.

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Insider Technologies had successfully developed highly graphical hp NonStop system monitoring and automation software for the Operations Bridge to check the status of NSK objects and subsystems. The business side of ITL’s accounts also wanted to view actual service provision and availability as well as the component level hp NonStop status information. My task was to produce a Service Monitoring suite of software which would allow for the display of NSK objects running on various hp NonStop nodes in a cross sectional, service based representation. This was my largest undertaking to date and involved the production of an SQL database storing data driven rules allowing for BOOLEAN logic to be applied to NSK based objects for cross correlation and comparison.

Various PATHWAY C and C++ servers were written to collect status data. This data is then applied to the rules database in order to ascertain whether or not a service is in danger of becoming critical based on the components that make it up. The GUI representation followed a ‘Windows Explorer’ look-and-feel. A set of GUI screens were constructed to allow for the building of rules to apply at run time to NSK based entities in each service object tree. The C code on the hp NonStop platform uses embedded SQL to access the Reflex database. Queuing servers written in C++ were developed to forward pertinent object information from child NSK nodes to a nominated control node were the data could be parsed, interpreted and applied. See appendix E.

This was the first time ITL had developed C and C++ PATHWAY servers on the hp NonStop platform and experience in this area of NSK programming is still hard to find.

Course: C / C++ Course – March 1997 (Comtec Computer Training – London)

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Year: 1996 – 1997


Position: Team Leader


HP NONSTOP K SERIES COBOL85 PATHWAY

WINDOWS 95 SCOBOL TACL

SUN WORKSTATIONS TAL ENSCRIBE

NSK BASED UTILITIES NONSTOP SQL

Responsible for designing and subsequently team leading a development team of hp NonStop and Windows programmers in the production of graphical NSK Status Monitoring software to be incorporated into the Reflex product. This software allows for the registration of various hp NonStop system objects, e.g. CPUs, Disks, Processes, MultiMessage objects, Communication Lines etc. and the subsequent monitoring of their status and health. The TAL PATHWAY server accepts input from a number of NonStop processes and a GUI interface in order to provide the latest real-time status information. This was the first SQL project that Insider Technologies entertained. I was responsible for setting up the SQL database and constructing it in such a way as to allow for a ‘File Manager/ Windows Explorer’ type front end. This meant that hp NonStop objects could be grouped by type and viewed by way of drill down trees. The software is now running at a number of sites including the Bank of England and CRESTCo (now Euroclear) and is used by Operations Bridges to inform on the state of critical NSK objects and the overall status of selected NSK nodes. See appendix F.

Hp NonStop EMS Event Viewer Console

After the TAL course I was asked to write a PATHWAY server in TAL which could start up a number of EMS distributors on request, to allow for multiple user event views of a hp NonStop system. This involved SPI programming in TAL to attach collectors, filters and timestamps to distributors and subsequently populate internal buffers with the latest EMS information. This console offers all of the features of the hp NonStop product Viewpoint but also with a GUI front end. Also provided is the ability to breakdown events into their appropriate tokens (like the hp NonStop EMSA product) and search events based on elected token values. I was responsible for conveying the GUI front-end interface requirements to the Windows team assigned to the project. This Event Console is now part of the Reflex product and allows events to be copied into the Reflex database. The event can then be configured against a Reflex reaction, e.g. generate an SMS message or email. The Event Console is also available as a separate product. See appendix G.

Course: HP NonStop System TAL Programming Language Course – (hp NonStop UK Education Centre – High Wycombe)

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Year: 1995 – 1996

Area: Reflex 80:20 Development Screen Design, Coding and Testing

Position: Senior Programmer


HP NONSTOP K SERIES COBOL85 ENSCRIBE

WINDOWS 3.1 SCOBOL PATHWAY

SUN WORKSTATIONS

My first tasks at Insider Technologies involved the design and production of a number of SCOBOL requesters and the updating of the pertinent COBOL85 servers. These requesters poll at a configurable rate, for the latest performance and status details of hp NonStop system CPUs and various Disk and Processes and subsequently display this information to the operator by way of the Reflex product. A GUI front end was produced and it was my task to convey the necessary Inter-Process Message and format information to the GUI team assigned to produce the PC front-end.

I also developed two SCOBOL requesters and a Pathway server to secure Reflex tasks so that only authorised Guardian users could execute them via the Reflex GUI interface. This layer was developed so that another level of security could be introduced into the Reflex product. See appendix H.

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4.2. Deluxe Data International Operations (formally The Software Partnership)

The Runcorn office started life as The Software Partnership (first at Wingate Drive in Timperley and then Norton House in Crowngate and subsequently Wingate House in 1992 on Northway) in the mid-eighties (co-founded by Nigel Walsh) but was purchased in 1994 by the American company Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems. This in turn is part of Deluxe Corporation which is one of the largest cheque printers and debit transaction processors in the US, and a major supplier of secure card management systems. The company changed to EFD eFunds in 2000 and is now Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) (at 2007) based in Daresbury, Warrington. The Software Partnership started out developing on-line banking systems for Tandem and UNIX systems.

Website: www.efunds.com

Year: 1994 – 1995

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Customer Support Software Investigation / Design / Coding / Modifications / Enhancements / Testing / On-site Installation / 24 Hour Support

Position: Lead Analyst


HP NONSTOP CLX GUARDIAN COBOL85 PATHMAKER

NSK BASED UTILITIES NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

VOS 4.3 VPS 7000 / 9000 TACL CONTROL

WINDOWS 3.1 SCOBOL ENSCRIBE

MS-DOS COBOL74 MEASURE

Assigned to a team responsible for supporting a number of ‘Live’ Direct Electronic Banking applications running at various major clearing banks in England and abroad, previously designed and developed by ‘The Software Partnership’ and ‘Deluxe Data International Operations’. Tasks included addressing various performance issues, on-site installation of software enhancements, dealing with system problems and failures, answering customer questions and providing information about various aspects of their Electronic Banking Systems.

Periphonics Voice / Touch-Tone Response Unit Customer Acceptance and Installation of New Software / Software Enhancements to Response Unit and supporting hp NonStop Application

Included in my tasks as part of the Customer Support team was the support of a Phone Touch-Tone Banking application running at a major clearing bank in Denmark. It was my responsibility to see through the Customer Acceptance phase and subsequent installation of a set of software enhancements to this phone system. The system provides for on-line balances, account information and the ordering of statements by interfacing to a hp NonStop host system via a touch-tone response unit. This unit deals with incoming telephone calls by speaking digitised voice messages to the caller in response to touch-tone input.

Course: HP NonStop System Performance Analysis and Tuning Course - (hp NonStop UK Education Centre – High Wycombe)

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Year: 1994

Course: Periphonics Voice Processing Systems LTD. VPS 7000 / 9000 Series VPS Application Development (VOS 4.3) – (Periphonics Voice Processing)

Year: 1994

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Phase Development Software Coding / Modifications and Test

Position: Senior Programmer




MS-DOS TACL CONTROL

SCOBOL ENSCRIBE

Assigned to a team responsible for making changes to software produced during the development of a Direct Electronic Banking system for a major clearing bank in Holland. These code modifications were brought about by observations and change requests produced off site during customer acceptance. Tasks also included updating documentation, supervising software modifications and enhancements using the software version control utility, CONTROL

TM and designing, coding and testing new software.

Transaction Handler software was tested using the sp/TESTBED utility which is a test harness to simulate a PC interface. Work was carried out in-house.

Year: 1994

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Transaction Handler Development Software Coding / Modifications and Test

Position: Programmer


HP NONSTOP CLX GUARDIAN COBOL85 TACL

MS-DOS NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

Responsible for the coding and testing of a number of new Transaction Handlers to be included in a release of a Phone Banking application for a major clearing bank in Denmark. These Transaction Handlers provide new functionality to allow end users access by phone, to account information on-line from the Host systems running at the bank. Tasks included testing the new software using sp/TESTBED and modifying System Operator TACL macros to cater for new functionality. Work was carried out in-house.

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4.3. The Software Partnership

Year: 1993 – 1994

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Batch Host Interface Development Software Design, Code, Test and Implementation





MS-DOS TACL ENSCRIBE

SCOBOL

Responsible for the design, coding and testing of a number of Batch Host Interface processes which form an interface between the hp NonStop platform and systems running software for a major clearing bank in Saudi Arabia. The Host Interfaces are scheduled using NETBATCH, which activates TACL macros to initiate the running of the interfaces. They are responsible for updating the hp NonStop SQL database with transaction, balance, share and calendar information and informing the host systems of new accounts added on the hp NonStop system. The Host Interface is based around a file transfer mechanism provided by TCP/IP software running on both the hp NonStop platform and Host systems. Work was carried out in-house.

Phase II Voice/ Touch-Tone Response Unit and Smartphone New Software and Software Enhancements

After the initial development phase, I was assigned to a team coding and reviewing new software and making changes to software produced during the first phase of development. I was responsible for coding the majority of the new functionality on the hp NonStop platform. Work carried out allowed for greater choice to users of the Touch-Tone/ Voice Processing system, to request on-line statements and also balances of accounts from the host systems, by phone. Functionality was added to allow for the inclusion of a Smartphone device to request the download of account and transaction information and also make and up-load payments and stationary orders. Work was carried out in-house.

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Year: 1993

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Standard Product Development [2] Software Standardisation



HP NONSTOP CLX GUARDIAN COBOL85 PATHWAY

NSK BASED UTILITIES NONSTOP SQL PATHMAKER

MS-DOS TACL CONTROL

SQL ENSCRIBE

Responsible for modifying and enhancing different areas of software in a standard Direct Electronic Banking application. These tasks were carried out in order to prepare the Standard Product software for release to sp/ARCHITECT-BANK development projects. Work was carried out in-house.

Year: 1993

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Billing System Development Software Design, Code, Test and Implementation

Position: Programmer – Poole, DORSET



MS-DOS NONSTOP SQL ENSCRIBE

Responsible for the design, coding, testing and implementation of a Billing System to accompany a previously developed Direct Electronic Banking application for a major clearing bank. The Billing System consisted of a number of Report, Counting and Host Interface Batch programs. The Count programs were designed to total and store information, on a scheduled basis (using MULTIBATCH) about accounts, reports and different types of payments up-loaded and down-loaded to customer workstations. The stored information was then formatted and written to ENSCRIBE files to be sent to a Statistics system operating on the Host using the file transfer mechanism BCOM. Other tasks included preliminary investigation and reviewing code. Work was carried out at the customer’s site in Poole, DORSET over a 3-month period.

Course: HP NonStop Platform Principles Course – (hp NonStop UK Education Centre – High Wycombe)

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Year: 1993

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK Standard Product Development [1] Software Standardisation





MS-DOS TACL CONTROL

SCOBOL ENSCRIBE

Responsible for the research of previously developed Direct Electronic Banking systems to assess which software modules could be used for a Standard Electronic Banking application. Tasks included bringing together software from other in-house developed banking applications, developing new software, setting up a software development environment and entering software into CONTROL for tight version control to a subsequent phased development. Work was carried out in-house.

Year: 1993

Area: sp / ARCHITECT-BANK TMAS Message Handler Development Software Coding, Test and Implementation




MS-DOS NONSTOP SQL PATHWAY

Responsible for the development and subsequent testing of a collection of Message Handler software modules. These modules form part of the front-end group of Transaction Handlers responsible for dealing with messages from EPOS terminals within a Terminal Management and Authorisation system. Each module was tested using sp/TESTBED to simulate the EPOS terminal and where necessary INSPECT was used. Work was carried out in-house.

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Year: 1991 – 1992

Area: sp/ARCHITECT-BANK Batch Host Interface Development Software Design, Code, Test and Implementation





MS-DOS SCOBOL ENSCRIBE

TACL EMS

Responsible for the design, coding and testing of a number of Batch Host Interface Processes which form an interface between the hp NonStop platform and IBM systems running software for a major clearing bank. The Batch Interface is based around a file transfer mechanism provided by BCOM software running on both the IBM and hp NonStop systems. Tasks also included producing code to validate business and international payments on the hp NonStop platform to be sent to the Host for processing. Work was carried out in-house.

Customer Acceptance Software Enhancements

After the development phase, I was assigned to a team responsible for making changes to software produced during development. These changes were brought about by observations made off site during customer acceptance. Tasks included updating existing documentation, changing the program code to which the observation pertained and subsequently re-testing the software. Transaction Handler PATHWAY servers were tested using sp/TESTBED as a harness to simulate a PC interface. Event messages were added and/or amended if required, to account for any new code inserted into the Electronic Banking application software. Work was carried out both in-house and on the customer’s site in Knutsford, CHESHIRE.

Courses: hp NonStop SQL – (Internal – The Software Partnership)

Coding Transaction Handlers on hp NonStop systems – (Internal – The Software Partnership)

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Year: 1990 – 1991

Area: sp/ARCHITECT-BANK Batch Host Interface / Reports Development Software Design, Code, Test and Implementation

Position: Junior Programmer


HP NONSTOP CLX GUARDIAN COBOL85 ENSCRIBE

NSK BASED UTILITIES NONSTOP SQL EMS

MS-DOS

Responsible for the design, coding and testing of a number of report programs. These reports output formatted registration data set up by System Administration software on the hp NonStop platform and also provide information about end user system and facility usage. Three of these report programs used programmatic interaction with the Event Management System (EMS). This involved using a Distributor and a Filter coded and linked into the report programs in order to extract all of the appropriate event messages tagged with a tailored billing token, to produce the reports.

Also responsible for the design, coding and testing of a number of Batch Host Interface processes which form an interface between the hp NonStop platform and IBM systems running software for a major clearing bank in Holland. Work was carried out in-house.

Year: 1990

Area: sp/ARCHITECT-BANK Code Modifications and Testing

Position: Junior Programmer


HP NONSTOP CLX GUARDIAN COBOL85 PATHWAY

MS-DOS SCOBOL PATHMAKER

NONSTOP SQL ENSCRIBE

TACL

Responsible for the system testing of an NSK based Electronic Banking application developed for a major UK clearing bank. This involved testing the SCOBOL System Administration screens and subsequently applying fixes to problems identified in the Transaction Handler and sp/REQUESTER software. Tasks included debugging code using INSPECT, making any program changes required and subsequently re-testing the software. Work was carried out in-house.

Customer Acceptance

Responsible for testing the NSK based System Administration software of a newly developed Electronic Banking application in accordance with supplied acceptance test scripts. The acceptance tests were carried out with the purchasing UK bank in attendance. All issues and observations were noted and where appropriate, fed back into the development area. Work was carried out in-house.

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5. HIGHER EDUCATION 5.1. Bolton Institute for Higher Education (University of Bolton – 2004)

(University status attained in April 2004)

Website: www.bolton.ac.uk

Year: 1988 – 1990

Course: BTEC Higher National Diploma in Computer Studies

Awarded: DISTINCTION (overall first over the 2 years)


VAX / VMS OPERATING SYSTEM PASCAL DBASE3

MS-DOS SQL COBOL74

ORACLE FMS

The HND course I attended at BIHE was a 2-year, full-time course made up of the following modules:

• Computer Systems Architecture

• Programming Methodology Theory / Practice

• Data Processing

• Business Studies

• Quantitative Techniques

• System Analysis

• Business Information Systems Theory / Practice

My final year project consisted of an ORACLE SQL-forms designed GUI interface running under an MS-DOS operating system. The GUI interface provided insert, update, delete and transaction rollback facilities for recording information about students attending courses at BIHE, along with their module assignment and exam result details. The student data was held in an ORACLE SQL database set-up on a PC local to the application. The tables were designed in accordance with Third Normal form (TNF) design methodology in order to cancel out repeating student data. The resulting application catered for both snapshot and historical reports. System analysis work was carried out using SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology).

The project file for this student application is available for viewing on request.

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6. Appendices 6.1. Supporting IT Project Screenshots

Appendix [A] – XPERT24 (BASE24 XPNET Performance Monitoring & Tracking)

XPERT24 is a new NSK based product for monitoring XPNET performance counters. These counters relate to states, rates and queues recorded against XPNET nodes, stations, lines and processes. XPERT24 also monitors the approval and denial rates of the transaction interchanges for both ATM and POS networks. I carried out the R&D for the project and provided technical input during development as well as assisting in the project management. Two screenshots shown below.

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Appendix [B] – HP OpenView Operations Integration with Reflex 80:20

Using a new HP Smart Plug-In SDK for Windows, I provided the R&D as well as the project management for a development to integrate the NSK based Reflex 80:20 product with HP OpenView Operations. I also managed the acceptance testing that followed at Fort Collins, Colorado that resulted in HP certification for the Reflex product. I have written an article for the BITUG newsletter that discusses the approaches used by ITL for Enterprise Manager integration of hp NonStop platforms. Two screenshots shown below.

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Appendix [C] – BASE24 XPNET Monitoring in Reflex ONE24

I was tasked with writing a number of utilities to automatically detect and extract information for the XPNET components of BASE24. The components can subsequently be displayed in the graphical screens of Status Monitor by way of drill-down object trees. All real-time monitoring is achieved using XPNET EMS events and user requests. I provided the R&D for the project as well as developed the resulting software. I present the Reflex BASE24 solution each year at the EBUG as part of the technical tracks. Four screenshots provided below.

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Appendix [D] – Integration with TIVOLI, COMMAND/POST and File Monitoring

I have project managed all Enterprise Manager integrations with the NSK based Reflex 80:20 product. One of my earlier projects involved the R&D for a development to monitor both NSK file arrivals and comprehensive file monitoring. This software covers both ENSCRIBE and SQL file metrics, e.g. percentage full, growth, corruption, security and so on. Four screenshots provided below.

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Appendix [E] –Reflex 80:20 Service Monitor

Developed a number of PATHWAY servers to provide SLA rules based analysis of NSK entities across a number of hp NonStop platforms connected by EXPAND. I was also the team leader for this project, assisting the Windows development team with all relevant API message and technical information to aid in the production of the GUI screens.

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Appendix [F] – Reflex 80:20 Status Monitor

Developed a number of PATHWAY servers to provide graphical drill down object tree set-up and monitoring for the Reflex 80:20 product. Assisted in team leading the Windows development team with appropriate technical information.

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Appendix [G] – Reflex 80:20 Console Event Viewer

Developed an NSK based TAL PATHWAY server to programmatically start an EMS distributor and extract events based on supplied filtering criteria. Up to 16 distributors can be started for concurrently accessible user views. The event viewer includes APIs for user requests to acknowledge, get cause and recovery texts, provide token breakdowns of events, copy events to the Reflex database and set-up new specialised views.

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Appendix [H] – Reflex 80:20 DashBoard and Task Ownership Allocation

My first tasks as part of working for Insider Technologies limited, involved the production of a number of SCOBOL green screens to periodically access CPU, process and disk metrics for the NSK platform. These screens were developed for the Reflex 80:20 product. The Windows development team also produced a number of GUI screens to graphically present the information in a number of customisable bar chart displays. I also maintained the PATHWAY servers responsible for extracting the NSK metrics by way of GUARDIAN O/S procedure calls.

I also developed two SCOBOL green screens to interact with an existing PATHWAY server, to allocate Reflex tasks to specified GUARDIAN users. A GUI equivalent was developed to provide the same functionality.

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Appendix [I] – Real-Time Log Extraction - RTLX

Assigned to a Product Team to provide System Analysis, Design and Microsoft Reporting Services development to a new module for the ITL Sentra product. This product deploys lean extraction programs to the HP NonStop platform for the relay of BASE24™ (P)TLF record details to a nominated Windows Server with Microsoft SQL installed. Details relate to both ATM and POS transactions UK-wide (or Globally). The screen shot below shows a resulting browser-based graphical view of ATM/POS related alerts raised against the incoming ATM/POS data from the NSK platform.

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Once the (P)TLF data is contained in the Sentra Relational Database, SQL Stored Procedures can be put together to feed Self-Refreshing Sentra DashBoards. The DashBoards below relate to ATM (TLF) data and show Transactions Per Second and Approval, Denial and Time-Out rates.

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Users can also construct complex queries against the stored (P)TLF data using the same Browser views. These offer a considerable advantage over the BASE24™ green screens which only provide limited querying on a handful of columns against the NSK based, Entry-Sequenced ENSCRIBE files.

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Using Microsoft SQL Reporting Services, users can also generate ATM/POS Management Reports against the stored (P)TLF data. These Reporting Services enable users to construct charts to any granular level. Example reports are transactions per second, transactions per retailer or financial institution, Interchange response times and so on.

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Appendix [J] – Website Design and Authoring using DotNetNuke

ITL requested that I design and author a new company website using the Open Content Management framework, DotNetNuke. This is a Visual Basic .NET Microsoft SQL database driven technology that enables website updates from any location with internet browser access.

As part of this exercise, website prominence was a key driver along with a more professional, corporate look-and-feel. The website (at http://www.insidertech.co.uk) is an ongoing programme of work that takes up a few hours a week of my time in taking it forward. I have attended 2 website courses in this regard; ‘Writing for the Web’ and ‘Website Prominence and Visibility’.

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6.2. Professional Training Summary

Management :

Month / Year Course Location

May 2011 PRINCE2 Practitioner Course ILX Group – e-Learning

– Cyril Caulkin

May 2011 PRINCE2 Foundation Course ILX Group - e-Learning

- Cyril Caulkin

May 2011 Agile Training – Scrum Course RADTAC, In-House

May 2009 Website Promotion and Visibility by

Design course

iTrain Education -

London - Dave Fisher

May 2009 Writing for the Web iTrain Education -

London - Dave Fisher

April 2006 Designing Good Marketing

Literature

SkillPath Seminars

(Andrew Chapman) - Manchester

January 2006 PRINCE2 Project Management

Foundation

Correspondence

Current

February 2005 WEB Services and SOA In-House - Insider

Technologies Limited

February 2001 Sales and Marketing In-House -

Outsource (Peter Donovan)

May 2000 Microsoft Project ‘98 IIL UK Education

Centre (Orange Belt)

February 2000 Successful Project Management Skillpath Seminars -

Manchester

October 1999 Managing Multiple Projects,

Objectives and Deadlines

Skillpath Seminars -

Manchester

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Technical :

Month / Year Course Location

November 2009

July 2009

Business Intelligence Reporting

Tools (BIRT)

Thales e-Security HP NonStop

Security Resource Manager (SRM)

HSM8000, PayShield 9000 Gateway

In-House – Insider


In-House – Insider


March 2009 Querying Microsoft SQL 2000 with

Transact SQL - M2071

QA Training - Unit 9,

Pavilion Business Park, Leeds

January 2007 Developing Web Applications Using

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

Remarc Technologies

Training - Leeds

December 2006 Thales e-SECURITY SafeSign

Product

In-House - Insider


March 2006 Cryptography In-House - Thales e-

SECURITY (Tim Fox)

February 2006 NetObjects Fusion In-House - Insider


March 2004 MultiBatch NSK Job Scheduling

Product

In-House - Insider


March 1997 C / C++ Programming Comtec Computer

Training

November 1995 HP NonStop TAL Programming HP NonStop UK

Education Centre

June 1995 HP NonStop Performance, Analysis

and Tuning

HP NonStop UK

Education Centre

September 1994 VPS 7000/9000 Series VPS

Application

Periphonics Voice

Processing

Development

(VOS 4.3)

now NORTEL

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May 1993 HP NonStop GUARDIAN Principles HP NonStop UK

Education Centre

April 1991 HP NonStop SQL In-House - The

Software Partnership

April 1991 HP NonStop Tansaction Handlers In-House - The

Software Partnership

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6.3. Professional Training Certificates

Appendix [1] – HND Certificate One – June 1990

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Appendix [2] – HND Certificate Two – June 1990

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Appendix [3] – NSK Guardian Principles Course – May 1993

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Appendix [4] – Periphonics Voice Processing Course – September 1994

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Appendix [5] – Performance Analysis and Tuning Course – June 1995

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Appendix [6] – TAL Programming Course – November 1995

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Appendix [7] – C/C++ Programming Course – March 1997

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Appendix [8] – Managing Multiple Projects, Objectives & Deadlines – OCTOBER 1999

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Appendix [9] – Fundamentals of Successful Project Management – February 2000

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Appendix [10] – Microsoft Project 98 – Orange Belt – May 2000

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Appendix [11] – PRINCE2 Foundation Course – October 2005

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Appendix [12] – Designing Good Marketing Brochures – April 2006

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Appendix [13] – Developing Web Applications using Visual Studio – January 2007

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Appendix [14] – Querying Microsoft SQL 2000 with Transact SQL – March 2009

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Appendix [15] – Writing for the Web – May 2009

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Appendix [16] – Website Promotion and Visibility by Design course – May 2009

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Appendix [17] –Agile Training – Scrum Course – May 2011

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Appendix [18] – PRINCE2 Practitioner and Foundation Course – May 2011

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6.4. Latest - P60 End of Year Certificate – 01-04-2011

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6.5. Latest Pay Slip – 25 / 05 / 2011

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6.6. Recommendations from http://www.linkedin.com/in/markwhitfield LinkedIn Profile

IT Technical Initiatives Manager

Insider Technologies Limited

7 visible recommendations for this position:

“I have known Mark as a colleague and a friend for the past 14 years and have found him to be an innovative, productive, creative and intelligent individual who thinks laterally to develop and and achieve results, not just for his own personal endeavours but also for the benefit of Insider Technologies Limited, where his vision has enabled leading edge technologies and solutions to be developed, e.g. RTLX Reactor, Reflex 80:20, Payments Tracking, XML Monitoring, BAM solutions, Reporting Services reports and latterly, website develop,ent His website development has enabled Insider Technologies to present their products and solutions to a much wider audience, resulting in the company achieving ‘hits’ and interest in their products, far more that was previously achieved. Mark is also a very approachable, friendly and empathetic person who listens and understands colleague’s and friends concerns and always has a positive nature and willing to learn new technologies and skills.” September 9, 2010

Dave Shields , Principal Consultant , Insider Technologies Limited worked with MARK

“Mark is a keen, conscientious and knowledgeable individual. Our paths have crossed on numerous occasions over the past decade and he is always keen to broaden his own experience so that he can provide greater support to his customers. He can always be relied upon to deliver a quality service.” July 29, 2010

Dan James , Solutions Consultant , ACI Worldwide was with another company when working with MARK

“I worked with Mark on helping to fine-tune the design of Insider Technologies' RTLX product for our company. I was impressed about how efficiently he used my time (in terms of asking precise, relevant questions, and interpretting my replies accurately). I enjoyed working on this project in no small part because of Mark's obvious enthusiasm and vision for the product.” March 2, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results , Personable

Martin Hart hired MARK as a IT Consultant in 2005

“Mark's profession caring attitude towards his is reflected the quality he produces. His infectious character affects those who with and for him” January 24, 2010

Mike Earnshaw , Owner , Hermes IT Ltd worked directly with MARK

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“During my time at Insider Technologies as Sales Director, Mark provided unparalleled technical support for the HP NonStop product set for all my sales efforts. It was quite clear his passion for the NonStop products was mateched by his want to help me secure sales both in the UK and abroad. Whether it be PowerPoints, in-house or on-site technical demos appropriate product literature and especially his ability to produce a proposal in good time to create a sales opportunity. It comes as no surprise that Mark is Manager of Strategic Technical Initiatives at Insider Technologies. His energy and productive approach to his work was always on show and a lesson to other budding managers .” January 22, 2010

Derek Radcliffe , Sales Director , Insider Technologies Limited worked with MARK

“Mark is what you want and expect but very rarely what you get in a service provider/software vendor. He is very capable, attentive and has no problems in thinking outside of the box to get a solution. I would recommend him and his company anytime.” January 12, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert

Rick Stather hired MARK as a IT Consultant in 1997

“Concise Business and Technical All-Rounder” January 25, 2008

Ian Slack , .Net Developer , Insider Technologies worked with MARK

ITL Operations Products Manager



“Working with Mark I have always found him to be thoroughly professional in his approach and a very competent technician.” July 21, 2010

Stephen Gorf , CTO , iCore Ltd worked with MARK

“I worked with Mark as part of the implementation of the ITL RTLX Reactor NonStop product at HSBC for ATM and POS transaction monitoring. From day one, Mark demonstrated a deep understanding of the heavily customised HSBC system and applied this to design a solution that satisfied our requirements. Marks extensive knowledge and experience of BASE24, HP Nonstop and Insiders own products was key to delivering a solution to our business. Highly recommended.” April 20, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert

Anton Godfrey hired MARK as a IT Consultant in 2006

“I worked with Mark on a number of high profile client projects in which he provided excellent technical support. Mark demonstrated a real capacity for understanding client needs and developing effective solutions often against aggressive time scales. Mark has a proven track record for delivery and would be a valuable addition to any organisation.” February 22, 2010

Andy Atkins , Consultant , Insider Technologies Limited worked directly with MARK

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“I worked with Mark for several years at Insider Technologies on various projects. Mark was initially my manager at Insider where he provided technical details and specifications to be implemented by myself on various NonStop development projects. Mark has good leadership skills and is also a good team member. He is professional and approachable. When problems arose, he listened to the developers and amended plans to find alternative solutions.” January 13, 2010

Karl Todd , Product Manager , Insider Technologies Limited reported to MARK

“I've worked with Mark for over 10 years and always found him very professional and helpful. His attention to detail has always been outstanding.” January 13, 2010

Mike Hoare , Owner , Kempoller Software was with another company when working with MARK

“Mark is a diligent and methodical person upon whom you can rely on to produce reliable and accurate work. I had the pleasure of working with Mark at Insider Technologies and found his approach was at all times professional, customer-focused and pragmatic, and he played a key role in ensuring projects were delivered appropriately so that significant programme milestones would always be met. His Knowledge and understanding of Tandem systems was very impressive and his attention to detail and professionalism was second to none. Without any doubt he has been one of the best customer oriented professional I have worked with. I strongly recommend him to any potential employers.” January 12, 2010

Khalid Khan , Test Consultant , EDS worked directly with MARK

Senior Development Engineer



“I worked with Mark for a number of years and found him to be a very competent and technically focused individual. A true technical professional.” July 28, 2010

Greg Turner , Application Developer , Insider Technologies Ltd worked directly with MARK

“I first worked with Mark in the mid 90's when were installing some of their products. His knowledge of ITL's own products and HP Nonstop platforms is quite staggering. However, it's his ability to be able to think outside of the box to ensure that the client gets what they want that stands him out in a crowd. ITL's decision to put Mark in this position shows that they also appreciate and know what others have thought for a long time. I am sure that he will now drive the company forward in what is a very competetive market place. It is for these reasons that I have no hesitation whatsovever to recommend Mark to anyone.” March 22, 2010

Rick Stather , System Manager / Assistant Data Centre Manager , Cable & Wireless was with another company when working with MARK

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“While working at ITL I found Mark to be an excellent manager for the Reflex family of products and I have always found him to be very professional at his job. Mark continues to excel in his work and has progressed his career in the company and I am happy to consider him a great friend. Mark would be a perfect fit for any development position or managerial position in any company.” February 23, 2010

Brian Bradburn , Software Engineer , Insider Technologies Limited worked with MARK

“Mark has an excellent combination of skills. He has a wide range of technical capabilities, an awareness of commercial issues, and works very well with customers.” April 2, 2008

Lisa Chan Brown , Software Engineer , Insider Technologies Ltd worked directly with MARK

“I found Mark to be a dedicated and resourceful person who was always willing and able to help out. His contribution at ITL has been a key to their success.” February 8, 2008

Colin Baxter , Programmer - consultant , Insider Technologies Limited worked with MARK

Lead Analyst

The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations (2007 - now FIS via EFD eFUNDS)


“At Deluxe Data, Mark was well regarded as a solid and reliable team member, as well as for his technical expertise. His thorough knowledge of the NonStop platform and his determination to deliver a quality product earned him the respect of his colleagues on each project in which Mark was involved.” August 27, 2010

Graham Hughes , Software Engineer , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations worked with MARK

“Mark was a well regarded colleague at The Software Partnership. He was enthusiastic and quickly appreciated the concepts and techniques behind both Tandem NonStop system design and dealing with mission-critical financial processes. As such, he became a trusted source of information to his colleagues and customers alike.” August 10, 2010

Chris Conway , System Designer , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations (2007 - now FIS via EFD eFUNDS) worked directly with MARK

“During the time I worked closely with Mark I found him to be a reliable, self motivated colleague who would work conscientiously to complete all tasks in a timely manner without the need of supervision.” July 22, 2010

Brian Smith , Product Consultant , Deluxe Data worked with MARK

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“Marked worked with the sp/Architect product helping deliver solutions based on it to the companies financial sector clients such as RaboBank and Barclays. Mark was an accomplished NonStop technician and programmer for the Software Partnership who was also able to work well in a customer facing role when on-site.” February 24, 2010

Dave Oddie , Product specialist , The Software Partnership managed MARK indirectly

“I worked with Mark on a major Tandem Nonstop system for Rabobank, Utrecht. I was the system designer at The Software Partnership for the sp/Architect electronic banking system, and responsible for advising and supporting the programming team. The project was Mark's first introduction to Tandem Nonstop, and I was impressed by Mark's commitment to good practice, by his willingness and ability to learn and apply new techniques and by the good interpersonal skills he demonstrated. His work was a valuable contribution to the success of the project.” February 22, 2010

Malcolm Cowen , Software designer , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations managed MARK indirectly

“Mark was a diligent analyst whilst working for me, with a good grasp of the business issues we were addressing. Mark's hard work, often on-site, contributed to the many successful projects we undertook for some challenging customers” January 25, 2010

Andy Roe , Project Manager , Software Partnership managed MARK

“Mark was (and I assume, still is!) a technician with an excellent grasp of both detail and the wider picture. Conscientious, and a good sense of humour made him a pleasure to work with” January 18, 2010

Pete Morrell , Product Manager , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations managed MARK indirectly

“I worked with Mark during his early days in IT and he showed at that stage an understand of the development role and a clarity of thought. We worked within a challenging area of the company - providing both frontline customer support and background defect resolution, and Mark proved that he was always calm under crisis, diligent in hitting the deadlines and a great member of the team. These foundations appear to have served him well during his later career” February 8, 2008

David Chance , Customer Support Manager , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations managed MARK

“I worked with Mark developing electronic banking services for Barclays, where Mark was a solid contributor in the design, programming and testing of Barclays BusinessMaster II and other electronic banking systems. Out of all the team, he was always the most calm under crisis, diligent in hitting the deadlines and a great member of the team.” February 7, 2008

Greg Mathews , Customer Solutions Architect , Fujitsu Services worked directly with MARK

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“During our time at the Software Partnership Mark proved himself to be an extremely competant software engineer who took great care and pride in his work.” February 7, 2008

John Littlewood , Programmer , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations worked directly with MARK

“Mark worked on developing the system for a highly innovative financial network. He was always professional and enthusiastic, inspiring enthusiasm among his colleagues.” January 15, 2008

David Cainer , Quality Manager , The Software Partnership / Deluxe Data International Operations (2007 - now FIS via EFD eFUNDS) managed MARK indirectly

Student

Park High Secondary School

1 visible recommendation for this position:

“I've known Mark for many years since going to Park High School in the eighties. He had the 'tech' bug back then which has never gone away to this day. A very knowledgeable chap and a great person to know.” August 26, 2010

Brian Elsey-WN One Media, Student, Wigan College of Technology studied with MARK

Student

Bolton Institute of Higher Education (BIHE) - The University of Bolton. Deane Road, Bolton. BL3 5AB


“Mark was a dedicated and diligent student who always wanted to achieve high quality results on his course. I've no doubt that these qualities have carried Mark forwards on his career in IT.” August 31, 2010

Peter Heyes, Student, Liverpool John Moores University studied with MARK

“As students at the time I found Mark had a high work ethic. Coupled with his natural abilities in his areas of study this resulted in very high quality work. His skills supported not only his own work but he was also very supportive to others around him. His IT and general skills helped me on numerous occaisions (including general support) at times when he had much of his own work to complete. I would recommend Mark on the basis of his ability to manage his own demands and deliver high quality work while always making time to support others.” July 22, 2010

Michael Pilkington, Student, Bath Spa University studied with MARK

IT Career Profile

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“With his finger on the pulse of all that's happening in IT, Mark has always been at the forefront of any new developments within the industry. Professional at all times Mark is organised and thorough in all that he does. This extends to his interests outside of work, for example, his photographic recording of the building development of Media City in Manchester. On a personal level, Mark is great fun to be around with a sharp whit and a great conversationalist.” July 16, 2010

Bernadette Thorley, Direct Mail Production Manager, Protocol Communications Management studied with MARK

mark whitfield it career profile project management

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