K9 Orbs Limited

For many organisations such as schools and colleges, clubs and societies, there is a clear need to make use of IT to aid efficiency, but there is no one properly qualified to assess the performance and benefits of the IT systems.

As an independent contractor, with no vested interest in any one supplier or provider, I can provide an objective analysis of the state of play of your organisations IT systems.  This would include an assessment of fitness for purpose, a review of systems effectiveness and a report of observed issues and limitations.

As Practice Manager for EMEA, I was responsible for all the technical staff working in the CA (then Computer Associates) storage practice throughout Europe, running a team of thirty pre-sales consultants spread from Turkey to Scandinavia, with occasional forays into the Middle East. In addition, I was the European representative on the Product Development Board, and travelled to the USA every 6 weeks to sit on the Development Board meetings, which usually lasted 2 days.

I spent almost 6 months on-site at Nationwide Building Society's head office in Swindon, working on a strategic re-development of the Storage and Backup systems across the two existing and the planned third Datacentres. The remit for the project was simple, reduce server count, decrease tape usage and improve resilience...  

As a Systems Analyst with 25 years experience, persuading accountants that spending money is necessary and convincing operations staff that the 'way they have always done it' is not necessarily the best way, I have come to the conclusion that a proper analysis, followed by a clear message and a straightforward methodical approach is the key.

I have implemented Helpdesk and CRM systems in India, Freight Handling systems in the North of England, and Supermarket POS integration in Turkey, and the problems with all of these disparate systems will still fall into the same old categories; which are outlined - in no particular order - below.