CV for Darren Armitage
email: darren@dacomputerservices.co.uk
Date of Birth: 22-Oct-1968
Nationality: British
Licences Held: Full UK Driving Licence, car owner
Current employment status:
| Looking for contract |
Working |
Profile
An MSc qualified IT professional experienced in understanding the technical and operational implications of implementing hardware and software systems. Through the combination of IT knowledge and an engineering background is able to more effectively communicate with engineers in order to identify the ways in which IT can benefit the business need.
Career Summary
Manchester Airport
October
2004 to November 2005
Business/Systems
Analyst (Contract Position)
Manchester Airport
Manchester
Contract
outline
Perform
a detailed data and systems analysis of the current desktop and server
environment to facilitate the migration to Windows XP and Windows 2003
systems. This contract included the following tasks:
 |
Undertake a software rationalisation exercise
|
|
Manage approved applications through the
software packaging process |
|
Develop and manage a requirements gathering
process |
|
Develop a project database to manage all
user/PC deployment requirements suitable for printing job sheets for the
suppliers deployment team. |
|
Develop the migration plan |
|
Problem management |
Southern Water
January 2003 to May 2004
Business/Systems
Analyst (Contract Position)
Southern
Water
Falmer
Contract
outline
Prepare the Investment Proposal and project scope for the migration of the
desktop infrastructure from Windows 95 to Windows XP and the servers from Novell
to Windows 2000. Perform
a detailed data and systems analysis of the current desktop and server
environment to facilitate the migration to Windows XP and Windows 2000
systems. This contract included the following tasks:
|
Undertake a software rationalisation exercise
|
|
Manage approved applications through the
software packaging process |
|
Review and manage the requirements gathering
process carried out by the suppliers |
|
Develop an automated system for communicating
changes to shared areas to users |
|
Develop the migration approach for moving
shared areas |
|
Carry out a detailed systems analysis of the
Laboratory environment |
|
Problem management |
Southern Water
November 2001 to December 2002
Business/Systems
Analyst (Contract Position)
Southern
Water
Falmer
Contract
outline
Perform
a detailed data and systems analysis of the current desktop and server
environment to facilitate the migration to Windows XP and Windows 2000
systems in the Customer Call Centre. Tasks required by this contract
included:
|
Carry out a detailed analysis of the Customer
Call Centre |
|
Develop a requirements matrix for the call
centre |
|
Manage approved applications through the
software packaging process |
|
Establish a rollout programme with customer
representatives |
|
Problem management |
Southern Water
November
1999 to January 2001
Project
Technical Manager (Contract Position)
Southern
Water
Falmer
Contract
outline
The
project consisted of analysing and managing the office relocation of 300 users
from offices in Crawley to offices in Falmer (Brighton). This involved an
analysis of the IT environment at Crawley which, being based on Sun Unix servers
running Samba, was significantly different to the rest of Southern Water. A
method of migrating these users to the corporate standard Novell network was
developed which allowed the relocation of users to the Falmer offices to proceed
smoothly.
All IT requirements of these users had to
be documented to ensure that the appropriate functionality was maintained.
Tasks
required by the contract:
|
Project
Management
|
|
Major
Office relocation
|
|
Migration
of users from Unix/Samba File and Print Sharing to Novell File and Print Sharing
|
|
Implementation
of Corporate Standard desktop
|
|
Provide
technical solutions to the project
|
|
Management
of the relocation of data from Crawley servers to Falmer servers
|
|
Management
of the relocation/decommissioning of Crawley servers to Falmer
|
|
Management
of the relocation of desktop computers from Crawley to Falmer
|
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals
June
1998 to April 1999
Network
Analyst (Contract Position)
Zeneca
Pharmaceuticals
Alderley
Park
Contract
outline
The
requirement of the contract was to establish the Year 2000 compliance of a
system to record medical real time data from medical instruments connected to
volunteers during clinical drugs trials. This involved the replacement of most
of the components of the system. This included the network servers, network
operating system, client PC’s, client operating systems, interface cards,
development environment. The in-house written application also required
upgrading, and in many parts rewriting to integrate with the new hardware,
software or network components used.
Tasks
required by the contract
|
Planning,
design and implementation of a Netware 4.11 SFTIII LAN.
|
|
Designing
an NDS tree for the suitable integration with the application security
requirements.
|
|
Year
2000 test specification and compliance checking.
|
|
Upgrade
and development of Visual Basic applications.
|
|
Development
of radio clock synchronisation NLM for Netware SFTIII server (SFTIII compliant).
|
|
Evaluation
and implementation of various network applications; Arcserve 6, Sophos Sweep,
Seagate backup exec.
|
|
Interfacing
to various vendor API’s; Netware API, EHLLAPI, Win32.
|
|
Customisation
of Windows 95 clients to meet customer requirements.
|
|
Interfacing
to medical instruments; Cardiodynamic monitors and vital signs monitors.
|
|
Developing
and implementing swipe card logon systems into the NDS tree.
|
|
Implement
the Netware Application Launcher (NAL) for centralised distribution of
applications.
|
|
Completing
software acceptance testing scenarios with customers.
|
|
Documentation
of the completed system.
|
|
Build
and commission Compaq 3000 and 1600 servers.
|
|
Setup
remote management using the Compaq Insight Manager.
|
Nuclear Electric
1997
to 1998
IT
Manager
(Permanent Position)
Nuclear
Electric Ltd
Heysham
1 Power Station
Responsibilities
|
Planning
and management of network infrastructure
|
|
Managing
and monitoring the IT budget
|
|
Managing
the individuals and activities of the IT section, 4 engineers, to provide an
effective service to the station
|
|
Managing
the IT responsibilities for the millennium project
|
|
Managing
the implementation of the corporate NT LAN at the Heysham 1 Power Station site
|
|
Management
and administration of all the IT requirements at a Nuclear Power Station of 500
users
|
|
Providing
computer software training to staff at all levels
|
|
Management
and evaluation of external contractors
|
|
Analysing
and satisfying the differing and often challenging user requirements
|
Nuclear Electric
1989
to 1997
IT
engineer
Nuclear
Electric Ltd
Heysham
1 Power Station
Responsibilities
|
Management
and administration of all the IT requirements at a Nuclear Power Station of 500
users
|
|
Evaluation
of network performance
|
|
Specify
and implement network upgrades as necessary
|
|
Systems
development
|
|
Day
to day network administration
|
|
Providing
computer software training to staff at all levels
|
|
Responsible
for development of Management Information Systems
|
|
Management
and evaluation of external contractors
|
|
Analysing
and satisfying the differing and often challenging user requirements
|
Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB)
1987
to 1989
Technician
Engineering trainee
Central
Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), now known as PowerGen, National Power,
Nuclear Electric, the various regional electricity companies and the National
Grid.
Responsibilities
|
Completed
an engineering apprenticeship that covered the development of various
engineering skills
|
|
Gained
theoretical knowledge whilst completing an HNC in power station plant engineering
|
|
Experience
of working through the different departments at a power station
|
|
Gained
experience of Management Services including implementing the first LAN at the
power station
|
Key
Skills:
|
16
years overall IT experience supporting and implementing a wide range of systems
and solutions.
|
|
10
years experience of providing IT support over a wide range of products and
services in the Electrical Power industry
|
|
8
years experience designing, implementing and managing Novell networks using
versions 2, 3, & 4 including Netware 3 SFTIII and Netware 4 SFTIII.
|
|
Over
4 years experience designing and managing Novell NDS services. This included
designing, implementing and managing a structured NDS tree for a nuclear power
station of 500 users for over 3 years. In a contract position I designed and
implemented a tree for Zeneca Pharmaceuticals for which I wrote a Visual Basic
program to allow clerical staff to add/edit/delete users for an in-house written
application.
|
|
2
Years experience of implementing and supporting NT servers and clients backed up
by an MCSE accreditation.
|
|
2
years experience supporting Unix systems including Solaris and Dynix.
|
|
8
years experience implementing and supporting LAN infrastructure including
ethernet, token ring, IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, Fibre Optic and hubs and routers.
|
|
Able
to quickly understand and apply new technologies and concepts as they emerge
|
|
Experience
of understanding, analysing and satisfying the often challenging requirements of
clients with wide ranging levels of technical appreciation
|
|
A
wide range of experience in technically appraising and integrating new systems
and disparate hardware and software into a unified network infrastructure
|
|
Experienced
in understanding the technical and operational implications of implementing new
hardware and software systems
|
|
Can
demonstrate a successful record of meeting the challenges of providing 24 hour,
365 day/year IT support in the nuclear industry that expects the highest levels
of accuracy and reliability
|
Achievements
|
Successfully completed the relocation of 300 users
from Crawley Offices to Falmer Offices for Southern Water. |
|
Gained Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer
(MCSE)
accreditation. |
|
Successful implementation of an Intranetware 4.11
SFTIII network and NDS tree at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals as part of the millennium
project. Included development of a radio clock time synchronisation NLM written
in C. Upgrade of the existing Visual Basic 3 application to Visual Basic 4 32
bit. Significant development using the Netware API to provide users with a
customised easy to use interface to the NDS tree. |
|
Successfully completed power station LAN upgrades
from Netware 2.15 to Netware 3.1, from Netware 3.1 to 3.1 SFTIII and from 3.1
SFTIII to Netware 4.1 SFTIII at Heysham 1 Power Station. This included the
design and implementation of a structured NDS tree for 500 users. |
|
Implementation of a number of NT servers at Heysham
1 Power Station to provide commercial monitoring of power output and automatic
emergency team notification. |
|
Managed the migration from Netware 4.11 to NT for
Heysham 1 Power Station. |
|
Successfully
upgraded Netware Connect v1 to Netware Connect v2 at Heysham 1 Power Station.
|
|
Development
of a business application for Performance Indicators using Paradox 4.5 and
Oracle 7 for Nuclear Electric.
|
|
Development
of a power station management information system using dBase 4 and third party
graphics tool at Heysham 1 Power Station.
|
|
Subsequent
upgrade of the management information system using Gupta SQL Windows and the
Gupta RDBMS at Heysham 1 Power Station.
|
|
Completed
a dissertation for my masters degree which investigated the ability of
cross-functional teams to solve working level problems. Specifically, making the
case for an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS)
|
Competencies:
Systems
Administration and Implementation;
Novell
Netware, 400+ seats, versions 2,3,4 incl. SFT III for 9 years
NDS
design, implementation and support.
Netware
Application Launcher (NAL) implementation.
Windows
NT Server 4 for 2 years
Netware
Connect, versions 1 & 2
Sun
Solaris 2 for 2 years
Trimco
Electronic Document Management System
Palindrome
backup system for 2 years
Arcserve
backup system for 2 years
Use
and support of Compaq server systems for over 8 years including SmartStart and
Compaq Insight Manager
Application
development;
Visual Basic, versions 3 & 4
Paradox for Windows, version 4.5
MS Access
Lotus Notes, version 3
Gupta SQL Windows, versions 3 & 4
dBase for DOS, version 4
Novell NLM programming
API
development;
Netware
API development (client & server) including NDS integration and
administration of NDS objects
Mainframe connectivity using EHLLAPI
Win32 API
Database
Administration;
Oracle,
version 7
Gupta
SQLBase, up to version 5
User
Support;
Windows NT 4.0
Wordperfect for Dos/Windows
Microsoft Office versions 6 to 97
Microsoft Project
Lotus 123 for Windows
Lotus Freelance
Lotus ccMail
Windows 3.1/3.11
Windows 95/98
Teleworking
Saber LAN Workstation v5
IBM Mainframe connectivity
Helpdesk service for 500 user site
Network
Infrastructure planning, implementation and support;
Ethernet
Token Ring
TCP/IP
Fibre Optic
Synoptics/Bay Network infrastructure implementation
Cisco router implementation
Network cabling specification and implementation specification
Lattisnet & Optivity network management tools
Technical training completed
MCSE
qualified by completing the following Microsoft exams;
| Networking Essentials |
|
Implementing and Supporting MS Windows NT Workstation 4
|
|
Implementing and Supporting MS Windows NT Server 4
|
|
Implementing
and Supporting MS Windows NT Server 4 in the enterprise
|
|
Internetworking
with MS TCP/IP on MS Windows NT 4
|
|
Implementing
and Supporting Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0
|
|
Implementing
and Supporting Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0
|
Windows
NT4.0 Server
Internetworking
TCPIP for Windows NT4.0
Microsoft
SMS
Microsoft
Exchange Server 5.0
Novell
Netware 4.1 Implementation
Novell
Netware 4.1 NDS Design
Novell
Netware 3.1 Troubleshooting
Solaris
1 Admin
Solaris
2 Admin
Windows
NT 3.51 Workstation
Windows
3.1 Support
Microsoft
Access 2.0 Developer
Gupta
SQL Windows Development
Introduction
to C Programming
Paradox
4.5 ObjectPAL development beginner, intermediate & advanced
Lotus
Notes Application Development 1 & 2
Microsoft
Project
Aldus
Pagemaker
Saber
LAN Workstation
Qualifications:
| Qualification |
Studied at |
| MSc
IT & Management
|
Sheffield Hallam University
|
| HNC
Plant Engineering
|
Watford
Technical College
|
| Technician
Engineering Apprenticeship
|
CEGB
|
| 3
A Levels
|
Heysham High School
|
| 7
O Levels
|
Heysham High School
|
Contact me at darren@dacomputerservices.co.uk
Copyright 1997 Darren Armitage.
This page was last updated on
08 March 2006
| 
