STEVE DAVIES

PHONE: 0709-2304391

Combines Business and Technical knowledge, loves a challenge

Skills

Defined IT strategy for clients by analysing business needs and correlating with technical expertise, creating strategy documents, integrating with corporate business strategy requirements.
Advised clients on marketplace trends in selected product areas, suggesting possible alternative strategies and positioning products according to the clients plans
Consulted, defined technical architecture and worked on the business case for a number of new ventures and start ups
Worked with Sales to identify new business opportunities both within existing clients and elsewhere. Advised from a technical perspective in pre-sales situations, preparing bid documents, identifying and selecting solutions and liasing with product specialists
Provided consultancy services to a range of clients in different business sectors, specialising in technical architecture. Created and delivered architectural documents at all levels, contextual, conceptual, logical and physical, working with both internal and external sources.
Interviewed client staff, customers, suppliers and other interested parties to define requirements and strategy. Defined issues, risks and areas of flexibility, both business and technical. Carried out requirements analysis.
Analysed business needs and requirements in terms of technical solutions, defining the technical requirements, integration issues and dependencies, identifying the architectures best suited to the clients' needs. Liased with product vendors, technical specialists, colleagues and other information sources to define product sets capable of fulfilling the client requirements. Selected products to create solutions that met the clients' needs, and justified the selection in terms of the requirements process. Involved the client where necessary, interpreting the product features and capabilities in terms of the requirements, ensuring that all chosen products fitted together and met the requirements. Defined areas requiring bespoke development. Worked on integration of requirements with business plan. Costed the entire solution.
Presented findings and recommendations to audiences at all levels from board downwards. In at least one competitive situation, the solution was sufficiently compelling that its implementation was made mandatory for all bidders in the second round. Presented on projects at meetings of the Technology Consulting Group and elsewhere
Recruited staff, both internally and for clients, identifying required skill sets, selecting appropriate individuals and interviewing them. Managed staff, gave appraisals and advised on promotion process
Created technical definitions at a detailed level of the architecture and design. Defined service levels and project governance. Oversaw developments at all stages throughout the project lifecycle, often acting as technical design authority and quality control, ensuring consistency throughout the project. Both oversaw and implemented hardware and software deployment. Carried out code reviews, QA and bug-fixing exercises. Project troubleshooter.
Project managed small projects. Team leader and technical lead for groups of up to 25 developers. Worked with Project/Programme management to integrate RAD techniques with client-specified project management methodologies including PRINCE, DSDM, PERFORM, RUP and others. Created prototype systems. Designed and programmed n-tier applications from UI to API level

Cornwell Management Consultants - Consultant

IT and IS consultant for a medium-size consultancy, specialising in government work. Carried out IT Health checks, performed QA, created business cases, presented bids, carried out extensive research in areas including CMS, Enterprise Application Integration and collaboration systems. Worked for many UK government bodies at a high level.

Amey Business Solutions - Technical Design Architect

Enterprise technical architect for a local authority, contributing to IT strategy documents, advising on compliance with both local and central e-government requirements. Technical design authority on Change Management team. Worked on selection of CRM, Document management, XML integration architecture, intranet portal, wireless access and content management products.

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: - Senior Consultant

Provided architectural input in pre-sales situations for bids e.g. ERP solutions (SAP), EAI and CRM for companies in the energy/utilities, finance, distribution, manufacturing and other sectors. Wrote answers (technical, IT strategy etc.) to bid documents as part of the bid process, analysed Requests for Tender etc., carrying out research into solutions and lining up technical experts in specific areas.

Solutions Technical Architect for a Defence services contractor working in the area of military training, working directly with the IS director. Designed a full enterprise IT architecture based around Windows 2000, Citrix and Oracle, using IAF methodology (starting with business requirements and going through contextual, conceptual, logical and physical phases, ending up with a complete cost model) as part of a competitive bidding process. This covered the entire technical requirements and deployment strategy for setting up a new business of around 2000 employees from scratch, as well as interfaces with third-party suppliers, partners and the existing military organisation. Conducted interviews with the client's management, with civilian suppliers and with senior military personnel, analysed requirements, advised on setting up the new business, carried out package evaluations and related the customer technical requirements to strategic changes in the Defence environment with especial regard to security and networking constraints. Defined Management Information systems and reporting requirements. Provided substantial technical input to the client's bid, which was considered a significant factor in its acceptance by the MoD's consultants.

Provided architectural consultancy to CGEY's FM division during a bid to take over the infrastructure support for a major financial customer's ISA sales and portfolio management website (implemented using VB, Java and XML messaging). Developed documentation, UML diagrams and plans for the transfer; reverse-engineering from the existing system in the absence of any pre-existing documentation. The knowledge gained in understanding the client's architecture provided key insights, allowing the support team to stabilise the previously unreliable website and providing convincing arguments for the sales team as to CGEY's fitness to take over the contract. Supplied additional technical support and knowledge transfer. Involved in developing a disaster recovery strategy. Provided input to the client's plans to migrate their Microsoft IIS/Windows NT site to one based on Perl and Apache on Solaris.

Worked in a team of Technical Architects for a new web-based subsidiary of a major Swiss insurance company. Developed a new business (HR expatriate services), throughout the lifecycle from business definition and requirements capture to eventual deployment. Performed requirements analyses, carried out competitive evaluations, arranged meetings with suppliers and made recommendations for products in many areas including web content management, document management, intruder detection, version control, accounting, webserver acceleration and credit card payment systems. Managed relationships with suppliers and defined Biztalk/XML integration strategy. Helped design and implement a complete n-tier technical architecture based on Microsoft Windows 2000 with ASP, SiteServer and SQLServer, using the IAF methodology to design an object-oriented system. Worked closely with the Finance Director in the selection and implementation of a finance system and billing package. Gave well-received presentations on the architecture and development. Investigated numerous areas, both technical and business-related, working to very tight timescales and solving a wide variety of integration, performance, infrastructure and other issues.

Client-side Architect and technical design authority for a 3-tier client server project providing supply-chain information for an international automotive manufacturer, using VB, MTS/COM, MSMQ and SQL Server. Designed, developed and implemented an object-oriented client architecture based on design pattern principles, using UML. As the VB technical lead, provided expert consultancy to members of the team and designed reusable components and utilities for use by other projects. Developed components for several other projects using VB and Oracle. Evaluated future project opportunities, covering supply-chain, retail business and manufacturing aspects of the automotive industry. Wrote technical analyses of existing products and produced cost estimates for replacement.

(Further job history available)

QUALIFICATIONS

MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional)
B.Sc.(Hons) Geological Sciences (University of Birmingham)
Birmingham University Chancellor's Prize winner
3 A levels (Radley College, Oxon)
9 O levels

OTHER

I have been involved in the IT industry since 1984 and have extensive experience with many technologies and disciplines. My current technical skills include Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Python, ASP, XML, Oracle, SQLServer, Content Management products, eBusiness products, User Interface design, Networking, Security, HTML, Web skills, EIA products, CRM products, Object-Oriented (component-based) development, UML, RAD techniques, general product selection and more. I used to be one of Cap Gemini's top VB designer/developers, until I moved into technical architecture. Along the way, I have developed particular interests in intruder detection systems and in knowledge management.

My role as an architect has always required being able to combine an understanding of business with near-expert technical knowledge over a very wide field. As a result, I am extremely good at researching new areas and coming up with workable solutions. This flexibility has often been of use in pre-sales situations, allowing me to argue the strengths and weaknesses of competing solutions from a position of understanding.

I have worked in a number of industry sectors, including Finance/Insurance, Defence/Public Sector/Local Government, Manufacturing (principally Automotive and Chemical), Transportation, Utilities (principally Electricity) and Retail. This covered extensive work in supply-chain and web-based solutions as well as many other areas.My experience with internet-based solutions covers both vertical and cross-industry B2B situations

Last Updated: March 2003