My professional career has always been around software for handling complex business process. Starting back in the mid-2000s when I got my first job in technology as a Support Technician at Raindrop Information Systems. Located in Piccadilly, London, I provided first line support to international property management clients such as Shell, BP, Trillium, JLL and many others, working with the Manhattan application. This started my journey of gaining experience in core finance with a flavour of commercial property management, and a technical journey of relational database technologies and exposure to a variety of programming languages.
Around 2005 I decided to move into a role closer to home, avoiding the a very long London commute from Clacton on Sea where I still live today, taking on a role with The Access Group (which at the time was Access Accounting) using my first line support and foundational experience in accounting. This unique and growing software company presented me several opportunities to grow my experience and depth of knowledge across several varied roles from Support, Training, Product Development, Functional Consultancy, Presales, Account Management, Business Intelligence and more.
My time at The Access Group allowed me to evolve a deep understanding of how business applications around the domain of ERPEnterprise Resource Planning software is used by businesses to manage day-to-day activities. More, are a critical part of an organisations operational success, and how to solve the complex issues they seek to address (and how to bring them back on track when they don’t).
I have always been a keen innovator, looking for a way technology can solve complex problems in an elegant, simple and effective way, whilst developing my own knowledge and understanding. To this extent I have taught myself SQL, C# such that I can create solutions to address open issues, I was responsible for the creation of an application which fully automated the investigation, diagnosis and resolution of complex support problems, unable to be solved through standard means, creating a tool called Access Diagnostic Operations in my early years of working in support.
In my latter years I used my understanding of the complex data structures and various applications across a typical client estate, to develop a fully autonomous Data Warehouse delivery and deployment tool, creating a ETLETL (Extract, Transform, Load) is a process that extracts data from sources, transforms it for analysis, and loads it into a database. More pipeline alongside creating many fully dimensional modelled finance, HR and payroll data sources for ease of reporting, called the Access Data Warehouse.
All of these experiences have furthered my passion and depth of knowledge around the breadth of understanding required by modern ERPEnterprise Resource Planning software is used by businesses to manage day-to-day activities. More solutions and their constituent parts, laying the groundwork for my introduction to the world of Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O.
Moving forward to 2017, I took on the role of a Senior Technical Solutions Professional (TSP / Presales) directly with Microsoft. Engaging with their top tier enterprise clients in the retail and consumer goods industries. I was responsible for the product and technical decision activities to securing new business for Microsoft within their Enterprise Commercial Specialist Team Unit (STU). delved into technical sales and advocated for the transformative benefits of Dynamics 365 as a platform, with a focus on Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and the Commerce (previously Retail).
Microsoft allowed me to immerse myself in the technology whilst staying grounded on delivering tangible business outcomes. Giving me the opportunity to present internally and externally at many events throughout my time including Microsoft Ready, London Dynamics 365 user group (D365UG), Scottish Summit, Retail Week Live and many others. I worked with the UK Adobe teams to build combined go to market propositions for the Adobe and Microsoft customer lifecycle, and was a Mixed Reality / HoloLens advocate presenting globally on the business value of mixed reality.
In 2019, I transitioned into the role of a Senior Solutions Specialist at Microsoft, becoming the Commercial Lead for Dynamics 365 Finance, Supply Chain, and Human Resources into the top end of mid market (SMC). It was a phase of client-focused business development, emphasizing the transformative power of technology in professional services, further developing my commercial expertise and building on my hands on experience and technical expertise.
This journey led me to Tisski where I met Paul Sinnott after joining to help build their commercial sales capabilities for Dynamics 365 F&O, who introduced me to a good friend and colleague Mike Pearsall at the Scottish Summit in 2022.
Presently, I serve as the Business Applications Transformation Director at Node4, leading the Specialist Team Unit (STU) for Dynamics 365 & Power Platform, focusing on bringing the value of Dynamics 365 to clients across public and commercial sectors.
If there is one thing that has been consistent in my career to date within technology, its change. Learning how to get the most from the ever evolving business application landscape will be a never ending journey of improvement.
Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!