Swindon, England, United Kingdom
Experienced IT & change professional, with a background in Digital Transformation/improving service delivery via technology, Project/Programme Management, and Engagement, within the Digital & IT environment. Having worked within the Housing/FM sector for the past 10 years, I have vast experience of taking paper based process & human based processes, and digitising them, as well as changing cultures so they become “digital only". A keen proponent of change, I love the challenge of taking an existing process and improving it via digitisation, automation and good old common sense, whilst being diplomatic and building relationships too. I also have a strong background in sales/complex tender processes, including written responses, strategy, interviews and dialogue processes, I have helped Axis win contracts worth over £300m.
Leading client engagement & retention where it meets our client facing products, including Dynamics CE, FLS and our integration connector. Now working as part of a new Group IT function inside the PE backed merged company, I am leading a team of 9 to engage & onboard new clients, and then ensure ongoing customer success.
Promoted to Head of IT, with a view to transforming how we delivered the day-to-day service. Leading a team of six, we support 1,000 users, across 3 core sites, with many remote sites, providing both remote and face-to-face support. I have done this by working with the operational businesses to reduce the volume of calls coming into the Service Desk from 100+ per day to 5, this was done via better data capture, and then resolution of major issues alongside education of users. One of the biggest changes was to introduce a digital service desk for users to log issues via Microsoft Teams, with an SLA of 30 minutes. This means we resolve 98% of queries incredibly quickly, and very visibly to everyone. We have recently procured HelpJuice, a knowledge base solution which expands this, as we can quickly and easily provide users with a link to an article which will help them fix their issue, I also work with senior management around problem staff who cannot or will not learn. I have moved the recording of more complex issues to a DevOps solution, which allows easy management and communication of the more complex issues. As well restructuring the department and reviewing/refining all processes, so that out headcount hasn't changed as Axis has grown from £130m to over £200m, I have recovered a failing contract by reviewing and improving the technology solution and the business processes, and also led our technical transformation away from our existing hosting supplier to SaaS solution, this has included; - migration of file storage to SharePoint/OneDrive - migration of legacy servers to Azure - Introduction of CCaaS based Contact Centre solution, and direct routing for DDIs, the contact centre has enhanced functionality around email management, which, if adopted correctly, will see significant reduction in operational overheads, as well as enhanced service delivery.
I was asked to take up the role of Engagement Manager, as it was clear the business was not making the best use of the technologies available specifically around job scheduling and mobile working, and there were several operational difficulties that were being blamed on the technology stack. We completed a “Big Fix” project, which consisted of a team of people from IT/Finance/Operations/Training going round the country visiting one contract a week, and noting down their biggest issues, and then attempting to fix the biggest three issues that week. We categorised the issues into people/process/technology and found that people and process were by far and away the biggest issues, we fixed most of the technology issues, and provided guidance on any others. We handed over a list of major people and process issues to the Operating Division, unfortunately many of which are still an issue today. During this period, I continued to head up any client facing activities from an IT perspective, including contract wins and mobilisations, which included Melton District Council I also re-started many of the internal educational sessions I had done before, around how contracts needed to manage interfaces, manage their scheduling systems, and get best use of the technology available. I also started some discovery on how to transform Axis, as the Board had directed us to start looking at replacement ERP solutions.
With a technically focussed Head of IT recruited, I was asked to lead the programme to transform the Axis infrastructure, which was a combination of migration to a new infrastructure supplier, and introduction of new technologies, including - Citrix – moved Axis application delivery away from local application delivery to virtual application delivery, delivering a consistent and scalable solution as the Axis business grew. - Zeacom call centre solution – migrated to a new call centre management solution, with enhanced features, such as tiered call diverting, call routing, auto-attendants, and call recording. - Microsoft Lync – introduced VoIP telephony to replace historic PBX telephony solutions, alongside instant messaging, and screen sharing. In 2014, I helped Axis secure 4 major contract wins, I was part of the bid and mobilisations teams, which included not only extensive written submissions, but also competitive dialogue sessions with both staff from the clients, as well as residents. I programme managed the mobilisations, which all included end-to-end integrations, including the most comprehensive integration model we had delivered to date, and front-line contact centres, as for the biggest win, Axis would be taking the calls on behalf of the client. I also introduced a formal project management process to the Axis IT Division, starting in Excel, but ending up in a solution called Wrike, we defined protocols for both requesting and managing change, many of which remain in place today.
Managed a mobile working solution for 300 operatives, based across the UK, the role included all aspects of support and development of the solution.