MM-designlab Ltd

I.T Technical Consultant – Business Integration (BT)

The major goal of BT’s Service Re-Design project for the City of Edinburgh Council, 2005 – 2007 was to transform a disparate and failing NOVELL based IT estate into a coherent, remotely manageable Microsoft Server 2003 / Active Directory based WAN, with Application management and delivery managed by Microsoft SMS and new Windows XP workstations throughout. The old Novell servers were virtualised using VMWare and then decommissioned after lengthy investigation – with user and business data migrated to a centralised Network Accessible Storage (NAS) system. Running alongside and deeply integrated with the Service Re-Design project was the migration of users’ Email from i-Planet to Microsoft Exchange 2003.

Desktop Support

The role at HBOS (Intelligent Finance) was set over a period of several weeks, mainly at their offices in Livingston but also at Sighthill and in Edinburgh City Centre. Predominantly this was a desktop support role though we built, deployed and then supported new desktops. In addition we setup PCs with complete suites of high-end development software for new developers, re-configured printers on various switches, diagnosed and fixed hardware issues with workstations. Interestingly this was all based around an NT Server network, as opposed to Server 2003!

EPOS Installation Engineer

This was a short term contract to install and configure new Windows XP workstations throughout House of Fraser. Working in a small team we had to remove certain items of hardware from the old workstations, install these SNICY cards in the new workstation and then install a new operating system from a USB disk. Once the operating system was installed we had several configuration steps to run through before the new EPOS (Chip & PIN) terminals were ready to be used. One interesting aspect to this role was that we worked during office hours so the shop was full of customers – a smart appearance was essential here as was the need for speed so that the tills were out of service for the minimum period of time.

Deployment Engineer

The entire Scottish Water IT estate was refreshed from a mixture of Windows NT and Windows 2000 workstations running in a NETWARE environment to Windows XP Professional systems on an upgraded NETWARE environment. This was a particularly well organised project and a lot of fun to be involved with – data collection was performed by a dedicated team who then fed back site requirements to the Applications Team in Dundee. New workstations were built and staged with core applications prior to our weekend deployments in sites though out Scotland. Initial tasks at site involved identifying all areas to be refreshed in that particular phase, PC systems were sorted in a logical manner and deployment would begin once users went away for the weekend. We would remove old workstations, record all details of these PCs and then install all the new items of hardware. Applications were then dragged down to the PCs via the Novell NAL system and configuration performed where required. All systems were deployed and the majority of issues were resolved before users returned to work on the Monday so that support was available at the very start of the day. Floor walking and resolving issues with applications (Lotus Notes was a common application requiring configuration) on the Monday & Tuesday ensured that we left all users happy with their new, much improved PCs.

Example of skills :

• Active Server Pages, PHP, VBScript, Javascript, HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, DreamWeaver, Ultradev.
• 3DS Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Premiere, SpeedRazor, Lightwave.
• Database design & implementation using mySQL, Microsoft Access & MS SQL.
• IIS & Apache webserver setup & configuration.
• Mercury Mail Server setup & configuration.
• Windows Server 2000 & 2003, Win XP, Win 2000, Win NT4.0, Win 98, Win 95, DOS 6, Novell 4,5,6.
• Terminal Services to administer Windows Server 2000 / 2003.
• Antivirus strategy and deployment using McAfee Auto-Update Architect and FTP server.
• Antivirus client configuration : McAfee Enterprise 4.5, 4.51, 7.1 ; Symantec / Norton
• Network Design & Support. TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP configuration. Workstation configuration.
• Active Directory – configuring user accounts, setting permissions, installing / configuring printers.
• Wireless network setup, security and configuration.
• Technical support on Windows / networking issues.
• Hardware / Software installation and configuration.
• MS Office suite - Word, Excel, Access, Visio and Powerpoint.
• Oracle Client software installation and configuration.
• Lotus Notes configuration.