He was contracted and engaged at Brake Brothers (a Sysco company), a large food service wholesale and logistics group, in Ashford (Kent) for his infrastructure architecture programme portfolio and change management capabilities.

The company was undertaking a significant IS/IT Infrastructure Change Programme requiring comprehensive management across its lifecycle. This involved a complex landscape of internal IS staff and numerous external IS/IT service partners and outsource vendors supporting critical business functions. Many of the infrastructure components and platforms while running critical business systems had become aged and difficult to support.

Many changes were envisaged that would require careful planning, control and execution in limited downtime periods. An external and experienced IT/IS professional change manager was urgently required to mitigate for the risk of introducing production change incidents and cut-over failures.

The primary task was to deliver Infrastructure Architecture across this extensive Change Programme. This encompassed managing the full lifecycle of infrastructure projects, overseeing relationships with various outsource vendors (including Atos, Cap Gemini, Dot Group, Comprise IT, DVW Solutions, and Sagittarius), and managing internal IS staff.

A key aspect of the role was to support the adoption of the client’s newly implemented IS/IT PPM change management procedures, including the Plan-Build-Run gate stage methodology, design authority councils, test management office, PMO, service transition acceptance, change approval boards, and the Daptiv PPM (PMO) tool.

He successfully planned and then led several critical infrastructure initiatives, including:

• Architecture Planning and Delivery: Spearheaded the architecture planning and successful cutover to live operations for the B2B Website & Integration for Catering Equipment.

• Data Migration: Directed the implementation of IBM Infosphere Data Migration Tools.

• ERP Integration Upgrade: Led the upgrade of their ERP-to-ERP systems integration platform based on IBM DataStage infrastructure.

• Migration of Key Services: Successfully migrated B2B, FTP, Payment Card Processing & Extranet Gateway Services running on VMware with Disaster Recovery (DR) capability.

• Environment Management: For both Business-as-Usual (BAU) and the change programme, the contractor managed the setup and transition of landscape environments for testing and migration to the single ERP system (comprising SAP ECC6, APO, BW, PI, VISTEX pricing review solution, and Brake’s online e-business customer platform).

• PPM Adoption Support: Actively supported the client in adopting their new IS/IT PPM change management procedures and the utilisation of the Daptiv PPM web-based software tool.

As a direct result of his portfolio project management, he contributed to the following successful results:

• Implementation of Key Infrastructure Changes: The B2B website and integration, data migration tools, upgraded ERP integration platform, and migrated gateway services were successfully implemented and transitioned to live operation.

• Enhanced System Stability and Resilience: The migration of critical services to VMware with DR capability improved system stability and business continuity.

• Streamlined ERP Landscape: The establishment of dedicated test and migration environments facilitated a smoother transition to the single integrated ERP system.

• Improved Programme and Project Management: Support for the adoption of new PPM procedures and the Daptiv tool contributed to a more structured and controlled approach to IS/IT project delivery within Brake Brothers.

• Effective Vendor and Stakeholder Management: Improvements were made in effective management and  relationships with multiple external vendors and internal IS staff to ensure the successful delivery of the infrastructure programme.

• programme management
• Project Management
• infrastructure

• Accelerated Solution Delivery

• Retail and Consumer
• Hospitality and Leisure