ALAN C. DOUGLAS Page 4 of 5
PROFESSIONAL OVERVIEW
A seasoned IT Manager/Director with technical and applications experience in several industries encompassing strategic, planning and budgeting responsibilities in production services, datacentre management, technical and applications support and development and customer/staff relations.
PROFILE
ü Bachelor of Mathematics (Co-op), Computer Science from the University of Waterloo
ü Industry experience in Healthcare, Logistics & Supply Chain, Education, Financial, Insurance, Service (Cable) and Manufacturing, both technical and applications-oriented
ü IT Services management; Datacentre management and planning, security & consolidation
ü Development of Policies & Procedures based on business goals and requirements
ü Focus on superior customer service and incident management
ü Infrastructure design and development, including PBX and VoIP phone systems
ü Business Continuity (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) development and testing
ü Management of multiple technical/applications teams with strong people-management skills
ü 7x24 Operations services and support in a distributed, multi-platform environment
ü Large-scale (1,000,000+) subscriber processing applications
ü Management by Objectives -- SLA development, tracking and reporting
ü Budgeting, cost-tracking, contract and vendor management
ü Projects brought in on time and within budget
ü Purchasing activities: RFPs, RFIs, evaluation, selection and contracts
ü ITIL Change Management, Incident Management and Problem Management
ü ITIL v3 Foundation certificate
ü Excellent communication skills at all levels
ü Demonstrated strategic, analytical and innovative problem-solving skills
CAREER EXPERIENCE
Entresource, Vaughan May 2003 - present
Director, IT Consulting
· Research into current and developing technology through newsletters, webinars and seminars
· Study towards successful completion of ITIL V3 Foundation certification
· On-going further education through on-line offerings from GoGogh.com
· Redesign of a church website, utilizing HTML and CSS only for simplicity in maintenance
· IT assistance to a non-profit organization (The Olive Branch for Children) by way of Windows desktop maintenance, video creation and presentation
· Creation of Job Requirements agreements for IT positions / consultation with incumbents
· PC Desktop Management to individuals and small business
· Strategic and Operational IT Management for small business
Plexxus, Toronto Nov. 2006 – June 2009
Manager, IT Operations
· Management and Strategic Planning of IT operations to support business goals and direction
· Vendor management for externally-hosted multi-platform server farm including VMware, Windows (2000/2003), Exchange (2000/2003/2007), SQL Server (2005) and AIX (v5.5) servers, IBM SAN storage and TSM backup system; applications include Warehouse and Distribution Management systems on an Oracle platform, Purchasing & Contract Management and EDI
· Management of 3 system administrators and desktop support staff
· Management of 3 in-house WMS/DMS application support/development staff and vendor liaison
· Management of 3 Purchasing and Contract Management systems’ support staff and data analyst
· Management of administration services for Windows and AIX servers, IBM SAN and TSM and Oracle DBMS/iAS/Mobile services
· Network management and planning for multiple locations’ interconnectivity and internet access; monitoring and upgrading as required. Planning for 3 separate and distinct networks to eventually be merged into 1
· Telephony (Avaya and Nortel systems) and vendor management for support of both systems
· Management of Desktop support (Windows 2000/XP, Office 2000/2003/2007) and Blackberry Enterprise services.
Achievements
· Supervised infrastructure build of current downtown office space; planned and executed 2 separate moves of users from separate locations
· Authored Plexxus IT Usage & Guidelines Policy and IT Support Schedule document
· Prepared RFI and followed through to planning and execution of Plexxus Blackberry program
· Prepared RFP for cabling of new warehouse and led evaluation team through to selection and contract award, then managed cabling build process
· Planned, coordinated and managed move of IT equipment and networking/telephony services to support move of central warehouse
· Managed recertification project with vendor of warehouse/distribution management system application for new platform (AIX 5.5 and Oracle 10g), from testing through to production upgrade
· Planned and managed server upgrades and user migration to new domain, Active Directory and Exchange 2007 server from Windows 2000/2003 and Exchange 2000/2003
· Developed future plans for server farm to consolidate services and decommission older servers to maximize productivity and minimize costs; developed backup/contingency and business continuity plans for new structure.
Centennial College, Scarborough (contract) July 2003 – Sept. 2006
Director, Information Technology Services
· Corporate Strategic & Operational Planning/Development & Release/Performance Management
o Member of IT Steering Committee
o Chair of Change Approval Board
o Review of performance and service level agreements with external partners and client departments/schools
o Short- & long-term planning & budgeting of infrastructure and technology
· Relationship Building/Entrepreneurship/Education/Presentations
o Development of mutually beneficial relationships with external partners (Unis Lumin, Bell, Telus, Avaya)
· IT PMO, Budgeting & Planning, Human Resource and general administration
o Project Resource, Cost & Timing Management
o Direct management of 3 senior managers: Applications, IT Infrastructure & Academic Infrastructure, 3 applications developers/analysts and 4 Computer Operators
o Indirect management of 10-15 developers &business analysts, 12 infrastructure technical personnel, 3 DBAs and 5 HelpDesk/Service Technicians
· Corporate Systems - Infrastructure & Enterprise Systems Operational Management
o Development & Leadership of Operational Support groups for College’s Enterprise systems (HR, Payroll, Finance, old & new Student Systems)
o Planning and management of transition to new ERP
Achievements
· Planned and delivered multiple infrastructure upgrades to improve network and data security, privacy, availability/accessibility and reliability – service levels regarding network and server availability were revised and improved
· Planned and delivered WAN upgrades & redundancy to eliminate single point of failure that would isolate a campus.
· Drafted new long-term plan for College’s infrastructure based on latest business/strategic plan
· Ensured complete “best practice” infrastructure/environmental requirements were considered by Physical Resources in renovations to new Administration Building
· Designed physical, environmental and technical infrastructure for Centennial’s newest campus in Dubai, UAE to open in January 2007; adapted parts of Student Information System to handle the Dubai Campus as a separate business entity
· Redrafted College Disaster Recovery Plan to incorporate new ERP system and new (alternate) datacentre in College’s new campus
· Reviewed IT data privacy policies for conformity to PIPEDA
· Introduced standardization concepts to Systems and Project Development Life Cycles:
· Project Authorization, Project Charter templates, Job Documentation template
· SLA Toolkit – templates & checklists; metrics determination, measurement & reporting
· Incorporated DR/BCP, SLA considerations & data ownership concepts into SDLC/PMLC
· Developed security/privacy improvement projects and revisited College’s Acceptable Computer Use Policy to incorporate security/privacy issues as well as stressing College-wide responsibilities – Presented to IT Steering Committee & Executive Team
· Planned and directed the migration of the old Student Information System to new ERP
· Planned and executed phase-out of mainframe (MVS, VM, Web Hosting)
· Worked with Physical Resources and IT Campus Committees to plan and execute all IT (re)installations and equipment (servers/PC/phones) moves during the “Great Move of 2004”, when one campus was closed and 2 new ones opened – 55% of staff, faculty and students were eventually moved between campuses, with no impact on services to the rest of the college
· Managed development teams to review academic processes with multiple business groups/schools to amend/develop applications to improve processing of:
o Registration process - eliminated long line-ups, unavailable/slow mainframe services, long processing time for students -- Improved student satisfaction and College’s reputation
o Domestic and International Admissions - jointly developed new business processes and service levels to provide timely delivery of Offer Letters and Fee Statements
o Financial Aid - developed new processes around multiple Bursaries
· Application, Network and Server monitoring were improved to provide finer details to measure adherence to service levels for each
Unisen Inc., Mississauga / AGF Management Limited, Toronto Oct. 2000 – June 2003
Manager, Production Services
· Datacentre Management
o Budget management for capital and operating expenses and contracts for datacentre environment, hardware, software and support services – Managed budgets totalling over $12 million
o Management of 3 production datacentres and a disaster recovery hot site for 7 x 24 availability to over 100 external client groups; total of ~40 UNIX servers (Sun and IBM), 2 AS/400 model 820s and ~200 NT/Win2K servers
o Provided architectural and staffing recommendations to VP, Production Services, based on future technological and business requirements
o Managed multiple technical support teams and 3 teams of operators, including their internal and external project involvement, career development and educational opportunities
· Production Management
o Member of I.S. Project Management Committee – charged with standardizing methodology and documentation for all internal projects, from initial Project Charters to Work Breakdown Structures to Project Plans and use of Microsoft Project
o Coordination of regular meetings with Applications Developers and Business Analysts to ensure Production schedules would be met, and to assign support resources for implementation projects
o Integral member of project teams – reviewed and approved all Project Charters as representative of Production Services – included review of plans with business partners and other internal clients, as well as Relationship Managers for external clients
o Consulted with Project Managers (BIS) and technical support teams to determine hardware and software requirements, emphasizing consolidation efforts, server and maintenance costs, backup, disaster recovery and business requirements
o Production Services representative on Change Approval Board – managed integration of changes into production, user acceptance and disaster recovery environments; ensured that all Production Services policies and procedures were adhered to in all Change Requests, Release Management principles were satisfied and scheduled changes did not conflict with other changes or business requirements
· Project Management
o Managed projects for technical and environmental services: installations, upgrades, integration, datacentre moves, disaster recovery plan development and environment setup
o Coordinated purchasing activities: issued RFPs, RFIs (e.g.: Disaster Recovery consulting, second site hosting, hardware for large projects [e.g.: PeopleSoft CRM], datacentre design & construction, cleaning and environmental services); ranked & selected vendors; negotiated contracts for purchases, licences, support agreements, SLAs, etc.; arranged for demonstrations, evaluation packages, delivery time/location & terms
· Management of outsourced Helpdesk (Millennium Care) serving ~1300 Win2K Clients
· Coordination with internal and external auditors as well as Corporate Security Officer to ensure compliance on all issues raised
· Co-chaired Joint Health & Safety Committee – WS&IB certified.
Achievements
· Worked with in-house technical support teams, hardware & software vendors’ teams and Director of Applications Maintenance to develop proactive monitoring and maintenance processes resulting in surpassing all SLAs and achieving 99.999% uptime for all critical systems
· Worked with BIS and technical support teams to develop server consolidation plans, resulting in an immediate $250,000 annual reduction in server maintenance and software licensing
· Developed I.S. Disaster Recovery plan with IBM, Applications Development team (TAS) & Business Analysts (BIS); successfully tested in Nov.2002 with under 20-minute failover time
· Proposed and negotiated major AS/400 upgrade to ensure future compliance to SLAs – 36-hour quarter-end run for a new client was reduced to 10 hours
· Developed plans for design of new datacentre at new location; developed plans to consolidate 3 existing datacentres into the new one; developed plans to redesign an existing datacentre into a hot site and populate it based on D/R requirements
· Executed the move of one entire datacentre to new location -- coordinated with Facilities, Building Management, environmental services, hardware vendors, external clients, business units and support staff -- move and post-move cleanup completed – Disaster Recovery (hot standby) site established – Finalized plans for remainder of moves and development of disaster recovery site – all moved successfully according to plans
· Standardized hardware configurations and upgrade paths acceptable to Production Services
· Developed & implemented physical security procedures for all I.S. locations
· Worked with PeopleSoft & Unisen technical teams to develop economical hardware purchasing & deployment strategy for installation of CRM system in phases
· Worked with TAS & BIS to develop common documentation for applications to be put into production, including backup and disaster recovery requirements
· Developed Operations’ Catalogue of Services for user community requests
· Developed formal procedures & documentation requirements in Operations
· Coordinated with technical support teams and outsourced Helpdesk to develop first-line knowledgebase for quicker problem resolution
· Worked with all technical support teams and Operations to develop and centralize startup and shutdown procedures by server, including: applications, database manager and operating system.
Cogeco Cable Systems Inc., Burlington Aug. 1995 – Oct. 2000
Manager, I.T.
· Brought Applications Development in-house, saving contractor costs of up to $300K annually
· Evaluated and coordinated special requests from user departments (Marketing, Internet Services) regarding development of sub-systems/interfaces to support special initiatives, acquisitions, new business alliances, etc.
· Managed development of several Sales & Marketing survey tracking & reporting systems
· Budget Management for staffing/consulting and hardware/software requirements
· Managed the migration of 850,000-subscriber database from Tandem to Oracle/IBM
· Coordinated installation and population of a Redbrick Data Warehouse environment to complement the Oracle OLTP database
· Datacentre management, SLA development for 7x24 support, including 300-desk call centre
· Database (Oracle, Tandem) / Warehouse Management and UNIX (AIX) & Tandem Administration
· Staffing and supervision of SysAdmins, DBAs, operators and help desk personnel
· Issuing and evaluating RFPs, negotiating contracts for DR site and outsourcing of billing printing & mailing functions
· Involvement with development of contingency planning procedures for datacentre and Call Centre
· Purchasing activities for hardware & software; Vendor selection & management
§ Development of : upgrade/maintenance schedules, backup/archive strategies for local and hot site recovery, and testing/training environments