I principally work in the following areas:

l     Oracle Financials Functional Consulting – Recent intensive work in the implementation, maintenance and enhancement of Oracle Financials, including GL, AP, AR, CE, Systems Administration and BI (XML) Publisher and coordination of critical Oracle DBA activities.

l     Reporting Systems Reviews– I have worked on systems implementation and I have technology skills being conversant with databases and OLAP/BI tools

l     Project Management and Business Process Reviews – I have worked on several finance function projects and am a PRINCE2 certified practitioner.  I have undertaken many business process reviews aligning implementation with strategy

EXPERIENCE

UK Oracle User Group                                                                                           2008-09
·       Presentations on Oracle Business Intelligence.

B2B Fashion Company                                                                                       2008-2009
Oracle R12 Implementation, Senior Business Analyst
·       Provided business requirements for Oracle R12 implementation for “Record to Report” (GL, FA, CE process and configuration and other reporting requirements) and “Order to Cash” (AR, Advanced Collections) as part of the business team.
·       Worked with offshore (India) outsourcing and implementation partners to ensure that Oracle was configured so as to best meet business requirements.

DWP (Department for Work and Pensions)                        2005 & 2006-2009

·       Provided practical and robust accounting solution and architecture for system to split payments between HMG departments for the next eighty years. The accounting requirements and payment streams were complex and there was great potential to miss delivery with an over-complex solution.  We delivered a clean, transparent system which was simple to operate and acceptable to the key stakeholders. 

·       Managed Oracle UAT, user training, and set process controls and procedures for Oracle GL (General Ledger), AP (Payables) and CE (Cash Manager).

·       Full implementation of Oracle AR (Receivables) module (8,000 invoices of £500m).  Configuring descriptive “flexfields”, transaction types, memo lines, autoaccounting rules, systems setup. Creating responsibilities and assigning user “folders” with imbedded SQL queries.  Business requirements documentation, system and user acceptance testing, user training, go live support and post go-live enhancements.  Set up related business processes.  

·       Configured Open Interface loading and built VBA routines to build interface files (cheques and BACS receipts with automatic allocations, “autoinvoice” and customer loads) liaising with DBA to set up processes to populate staging tables using SQL routines (and including FTP to $AR_TOP).

·       Provision of application support resolving one hundred service calls and implementing over thirty enhancements in response to development requests.

·       Replacing reports and documents requiring third party software with clean, integrated XML publisher reports (e.g. separate remittance advices, staged dunning letters, GL detail Excel reports).

·       Systems Administration including review of CPU (critical patch updates), initiation of patch installation (CU2 and FPG), modification of concurrent request programs, enhancement of responsibilities, menus and exclusions, purge of concurrent request queue.  Implementation of audit log routine.

·       Currently implementing Oracle FA and evaluating Oracle Public Sector Financials for provision of MHCA accounts (Modified Historic Cost Accounting).

·       Currently documenting business requirements for Oracle support and initiating a review of support arrangements, particularly with respect to Oracle DBA activities by third party managed service provider.

·       Ad hoc assignment to identify additional income by analysing and modelling “master list of eligible schemes”.  Involved persuading staff from sister organisation to focus effort and to undertake activities which were not their usual priority.  Significant review and challenge of their output.

AVIVA plc                                                                                            2005/06

Senior Finance Manager, Process Strategy & Development

Led two teams of four undertaking projects to improve processes, people and culture.

·       Projects include Performance Management Methods, Career Management Methods, Knowledge Management, Consolidation Controls Review, Balanced Scorecard

PRICEWATERHOUSE COOPERS                                                              2004

IT Reporting Consultant

Member of change team transforming outsourced shared service centre for large public sector multi-site client (120,000 employees)

·       Mapped existing processes and prepared reporting systems for ITIL service delivery. 

CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY                                                                 1997-2004

Business Performance Consultant                                                         2002-2004

Coached and motivated a diverse team of six, delivering improved business performance by completing high profile projects. 

·      Re-engineered job costing processes by mapping the existing inputs, process and outputs and appraising these against the business objectives.  The elimination of duplicated effort and non value added processes saved two posts.  Transfer of job set to users reduced turnaround time by one week.

·      Solved an intractable problem which had eluded our payroll provider for over a year.  The CAA required a suite of monthly interface files for our general ledger, data warehouse and pension scheme system.  Within a week built a VBA routine which automatically generated the key interface file and later the full suite of interfaces.  The payroll provider withdrew the £100k charge for this.

·      Delivered business case and proof of concept to improve reliability, enhance functionality and reduce maintenance cost of Finance data warehouse.

·      Improved level of service by working with IT partner to identify lead support team members and setting standards and boundaries for each Finance system.

·      Consolidated recruitment and manpower planning.  Eliminated confusion from four separate systems by establishing one single authoritative data definition and source.  Created new decision friendly system to automatically produce monthly reports, which ensured that divisional heads were accountable throughout the year and that recruitment requests were evaluated in a fair, transparent and systematic way. 

 Financial Projects Trouble-shooter                                                          1997-2001

Headhunted by ex-colleague to break the deadlock on various projects.

·      Completed Activity Based Costing (ABC) project enabling the CAA to justify charges levied and to generate additional income. 

·      Migrated 150,000 pilots licence and medical records and the decision rules for new Personnel Licensing System.  I built and directed a team of four IT technicians and formulated and communicated the migration strategy.

·      Enhanced the “Project Office” functions on a troubled £4m IT project - information was accurate but irrelevant.  Implemented an automated system to produce Cost and “Value Earned” information (Actual, Forecast and Budget) by top level monthly summary for Project Board with full drill down for ad hoc enquiries (by week, by work package, by staff member).

EASTERN ELECTRICITY                                                                                1997

Project Accountant  

·      Implemented “major projects” reporting and consolidation system to improve

performance monitoring and decision-making.

RELATIONAL AUDITS Ltd.                                                                       1995-1996

This consultancy earned its fees improving the effectiveness of organizations by scrutinising the way in which groups of people interacted.  The core tool, a behavioural questionnaire, was supplemented by focus groups and seminars.

Lead Consultant

·     Built a team of four competent consultants using inexperienced Cambridge University graduates.  When I left the consultancy it was paying its own way and continued to complete work with prestigious clients.

·     Completed audit and seminar with Inland Revenue district and three prisons as part of organisational change initiative.

BG (BRITISH GAS)                                                                                1989-1995

A recently privatised national utility, BG employed over 80,000.  BG became an international business with upstream and downstream interests.

Financial Services Manager                                                                  1994-1995

I was promoted to this post to because I could approach issues in a fresh way. 

·      Identified, modelled and demonstrated the core operational and financial strengths of “Fleet Contract Services” as part of the project team which built this shared service centre.

Various Analyst roles                                                                           1989-1993

·      Analysed financial management policy and compared to other models (return on capital, CAPM, project appraisal, industry regulation)

·     Designed, developed and maintained five years plan model, accounting principles and procedures.  Created, enhanced and maintained monthly reporting and consolidation systems

ERNST & WHINNEY Auditor                                                                  1987-1989

I can work for you on my own or I can provide a team of consultants giving a wider offering and cost effective mix of rates, contracts or support agreements.  My company BeLife Ltd. currently has two consulting employees, two associates and a network of related professionals.  See (http://www.belife.co.uk)).

KEY SKILLS

 EDUCATION 

§  PRINCE2 certified practitioner (2004)

§  London Business School, six month Corporate Finance Evening Programme (1993)

§  Chartered Accountant, Institute of Chartered Accountants New Zealand (1991)

§  Certificates of proficiency – Estate and Tax planning, Financial Accounting (1988)

§  Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) (1987)

PERSONAL DETAILS

Status              :           Married with three children.

Interests          :           Triathlon (swimming, cycling, running)

                                Reading Managerial, Economic, Social History and Theory