WoodMartin

Summary

I am an experienced and adaptable IT professional, with experience in a range of software and databases.  I am comfortable at working alone and in a team, and communicating with a range of people to ensure their needs are understood and their requirements achieved.  My future aim is to continue to develop my skills and work towards a role where I have responsibility for development and staff.

Professional experience

Management Information Systems Developer

April 2008 – present                               PGL Travel Ltd              Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK

PGL Travel Ltd are the United Kingdom’s largest provider of activity and educational breaks to schools and young people.  They operate residential activity centres across Europe and also arrange residential breaks in third party hotels, hostels and campsites.  (www.pgl.co.uk)

• Developing reports in Microsoft Reporting Services and SQL to specifications developed by the business analysis team
• Creating reports use SQL queries from simple and complex select queries through stored procedures using cursors and creating vertical tables
• Assisting the business analysis team and business sponsors in producing report specifications to meet business requirements
• Managing change requests for reports, and maintaining documentation on reports developed
• Supporting users and the IT team in troubleshooting reports
• Assisting the development team in writing and optimising SQL database queries and stored procedures
• As the de facto DBA monitoring the SQL Servers; Performing database backups and restores; General SQL Server troubleshooting and queries; and software package updates

WMS Project Manager

Nov 2007 – March 2008                          Howard Tenens Ltd        Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK

• Supporting the implementation of new Warehouse Management Software
• Production of management and KPI reports using Crystal Reports and SQL
• Troubleshooting software and operational issues through SQL

Software Project Manager (was Training and Support for 2 years)

Nov 1999 – Nov 2007                             Mandata                        Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK

• Managing the development, testing, implementation and training of our WareHouse product
• Production of Crystal Reports to customer specifications and using SQL queries for data analysis and data transformations
• Installation of our software at customer sites
• Training customers and our Sales/Training/Support staff in our software products
• Providing support for our software and Crystal Reports over the phone and on customer sites

Coach (Microsoft Office Trainer)

Dec 1997 – Oct 1999                             task accelerator corporation        Welford, Midlands, UK

• Task Based Training in Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes to groups of 6 delegates and individuals
• Telephone support for Microsoft Office and Windows
• Developing customised automated templates (task accelerators) for clients using VBA Macros

Previous Experience

• In 1988, 1990 and from 1993 to 1997 I worked for PGL on its Activity Centres. Initially employed as a Group Leader, responsible for pastoral and emotional welfare of children on residential activity holidays.  Promoted to Supervisory, Centre Management and then Training roles where I designed training materials for courses and delivered courses ensuring required knowledge and skills were successfully understood by staff in training, sourced from a range of backgrounds and abilities
• Two years as a software programmer (1985-86 & 1990) and working as a Secondary (11-18 years of age) Mathematics teacher for a year (1991-92) with a few months of Teaching supply work in the years following this

Qualifications

1990 – 1991      Durham University          PGCE Secondary Mathematics (Qualified teacher)

1983 – 1987      Hatfield Polytechnic       B.Sc. Degree with Honours in Mathematics (2ii)

Skills Summary

Microsoft Business Intelligence               12 months                     2008 onwards                Daily

SQL in SQL Server, Sybase, Access       9 years                         2000 onwards                Frequent

Crystal Reports                                      9 years                         1999 - 2008                   Frequent

Project Management                              6 years                         2002 - 2008                   Frequent

VB6 Programming                                  7 years                         2001 onwards                Occasional

VBA Programming                                 10 years                        1998 onwards                Occasional

Excel & MS Office                                 12 years                        1996 onwards                Occasional

Training                                                 13 years                        1995 - 2007                   Occasional

Pascal/Fortran Programming                   2 years                         1986 & 1989               

Teaching                                               1 year                           1992

Management                                         9 years                         1988, 1990 – 1992, 1993 – 1997

Referees

Skills Experience Detail

SQL

I have been using SQL queries daily over the last 9 years. My main role is creating, modifying and maintaining reports using Microsoft Business Intelligence. This entails the production of SQL queries against SQL 2000 & 2005 databases to produce result sets that match the requirements of the business. These range from simple SQL select statements run over a few tables, more complex select statements comprising multiple table joins and sub-selects to stored procedures. The stored procedures created are there to add speed or efficiency to the report queries, add more complex functionality such as using cursors to produce results and vertical tables. Some stored procedures are run as overnight jobs to populate a data warehouse so that the reporting overhead is at a minimum.

Some specific examples of work are:

• The Marketing team used to request mailing lists of schools based on combinations of criteria such as school type, geographical location, schools that had booked or not booked within specific date ranges. These were converted into SQL queries specific to each request. I changed this process by creating a report with multiple criteria that the marketing team could run themselves making them more self sufficient.
• Establishment planning report that compares daily job offers, acceptances staffing establishments and guest numbers against the same equivalent date the previous year. All this data was taken from the HR & Reservation SQL databases. The data is correlated into a data warehouse using an overnight stored procedure and then presented as a report including a chart.
• A Wage Analysis report using the actual daily staff numbers for the year, broken down by location. The business enters any potential wage band changes as parameters into the report to so that they can quickly see the effect that the changes would have had on the year’s budget.

I work with staff at all levels of the business from Directors, senior managers, administrators and users to produce the reports. This requires effective communication to ensure that reports meet the actual business requirements.

Another aspect is some database administrator tasks such as maintaining replication between databases, restoring and backing up databases, checking process and user database locks and any miscellaneous database tasks.

Previous SQL experience has been to interrogate and manipulate the databases to support customers in their use of software and in identifying bugs and testing software patches. I provided guidance to the programmers in the production of SQL queries that are used in the program and in the stored procedures and triggers within the database. I have troubleshot SQL queries, stored procedures and triggers that programmers and support staff create that do not produce the desired results. I have produced a number of complex stored procedures to create data sets for export to match customer’s requirements, and modified existing procedures to manage the flow of data to customers’ needs.

IT, Programming and Development

Another daily task has been using Crystal reports for the last 9 years to amend and produce reports that meet our customers’ requests. As well as producing reports for customers I also support others in their production of reports. The reports range from simple reports to multi grouped reports and sub-reports which correlate the data from widespread tables in the databases.

In my previous role our software products used Sybase and Access databases and were written in VB6. The role was to manage the development, implementation and support of the WareHouse software.  One aspect of the job was to produce Specifications for software changes from customer requests which required a detailed knowledge of the software product and an understanding of the workings and structure of the database.

Customers often provide Excel spreadsheets with data in that needs manipulation prior to being imported into the database for their daily use. On occasion our customers have spreadsheets that require importing on a daily basis so I have written VBA macros for those customers to convert the spreadsheets into simple flat csv files that can imported by the software program.

I use VB6 to debug the software and either point out required changes to the developers or make the changes myself depending on the urgency of the change. In my previous job with task accelerator I used VBA to create automated document templates which used an interface to create the company style document with the correct details and formatting. I have used VB.Net to create an application to deploy reports across multiple folders.

I have the ability to pick up new IT systems very quickly. I am able to demonstrate this with my experience at Mandata where I have a very good working knowledge of their WareHouse and Traffic software for use in training and support of customers and colleagues. Another example was during my time with task accelerator when I became their main knowledge source for most Microsoft products.

Training and Support

I have been training adults since 1990. Having enjoyed training over the years and wanting to focus on my IT skills I decided to move into a career in IT Training. In the two years that I was with task accelerator corporation I trained delegates in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook in Office 4.3, 95 and 97, Windows NT and 95 together with training users in Lotus Notes 4.5 and 4.6. The method of training used was coaching groups of 6 delegates in the tasks that they will expect to cover in their day to day work (this was based on needs analysis of companies’ staff) rather than the traditional skill based approach to training, followed by providing telephone support. With Mandata I trained customers in the Haulage and Warehousing software as individuals and groups. Each training course was different to suit the existing skills and needs of the customer and their business and what they wished to get out of the software.

I was the main support for Mandata’s warehouse package, which involved liaising with the programmers to get an acceptable product and working with the customers on site, over the phone and using remote desktop tools to assist them with issues.

Management

During my initial 9 years with PGL I managed staff at different levels. During my first few seasons I was a Senior Group Leader managing the Guest Care departments of from 4 to 16 staff. This involved organising guest accommodation, staff rotas and providing support whilst ensuring that the guests had an enjoyable and safe stay. The rest of my years with PGL I was a Centre Manager of from 15 to 60 staff and from 50 to 200 guests. This required the managing of a smooth operation comprising guest care, activities, catering and cleaning. This was a varied role dealing with staff, children, teachers, parents, site owners, Head Office and external agencies. During my last two at PGL I undertook the role of Guest Care Manager which required the management of the Group Leader Training courses.