Consulting & Implementation Experience
Alan Watt
Personal DetailsName: / Alan John Watt
Address: / 152 Church Lane
Marple
Stockport
SK6 7LA
Mobile Telephone: / 07976 929216
Email /
Website /
Nationality: / British
I have a broad range of system development and management skills gained from over 30 years in the IT industry. These include business and systems analysis, application design and development, through team and project management to IT management. I have experience of selling (presales demos), developing and implementing software applications, including financials, distribution, manufacturing, customer service, planned maintenance, warehousing and human resources, in many different types of industry.
I take a comprehensive approach to the development cycle by evaluating high level specifications for estimating, designing technical solutions, producing technical specification documents, and developing technical solutions. My strengths lie in my ability to analyze client requirements and issues, formulating them into technical design, and producing a cost effective solution.
I am a Certified QlikView and Qlik Sense Developer with over 7 years experience working with QlikView customers.
As well as my strong JDE skills (over 16 years) I have been developing with Visual Basic for over 12 years. I can therefore slot equally well into a software house, a large ERP environment or an SME PC based environment.
Personal Profile
- self-motivated, responsible and widely experienced IT professional
- effective communicator at all levels
- enjoys new challenges and following them through to completion
- experienced organiser and problem solver who remains good-humoured under pressure
- able to consider all options with an open mind before making a decision
- 30 years IT experience working in a wide range of environments
- good track record of successful implementations, leading and as part of a team
- 16 years of JDEdwards ERP development and implementations
- 7 years QlikView design and development
- systems development in many technical environments and platforms (including JDEdwards, VB, Access, SQL Server, HTML, Classic ASP)
- systems analysis and design
- development team management
- pre-sales technical presentation
- account management
- business analysis
- project management
- certified QlikView Developer
- certified Qlik Sense Data Architect
- led technical pre and post-sales teams for first UK JDEdwards business partner - selling OneWorld and EnterpriseOne systems and following through to manage the technical implementations
- designed, specified, developed, sold and implemented barcode reading and interfacing system for JDEdwards ERP software
- managed team of developers in Mauritius to re-engineer legacy package for a software house. Involved in design and development of the system and prime instigator of extensions into personnel, CRM and helpdesk modules
- designed, specified and developed many extensions to JDEdwards ERP software as well as bespoke systems for numerous companies
- worked in team of analyst programmers to completely redevelop systems for international pharmaceutical and household goods manufacturer
Education
1976 – 1979
University of Sheffield / BSc (Pure and Applied Mathematics)
1969 – 1976
Heaton School
Newcastle upon Tyne / G.C.E. `A' levels- 1976
SMP Mathematics, Pure and Applied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry
G.C.E. `O' levels- 1974
SMP Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, English Language, English Literature, Geography, French
Specialisation Experience
QlikView Development /
- 7 years Experience
- Certified QlikView Developer
- Certified Qlik Sense Data Architect
- Designer & Developer
- Advanced scripting & dashboard development
- Data Security
- QMC scheduling & administration
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne/OneWorld Development /
- 16 years Development & Design: OneWorld XE thru EnterpriseOne 9.0
- Applications (APPL – Forms) & Reports (UBE)
- Database & Table Design: SQLServer, Oracle, DB2
- Business Functions (NER)
- BI Publisher (Report Output)
VB Development /
- 12 years Experience
- Purchase Order Processing
- Sales Order Processing
- Customer Relationship Management
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Management
- Helpdesk Management
- Personnel Management
- System utilities
- Including applications, databases & web development
JD Edwards CNC /
- 12 years Experience
- OneWorld Installs
- Package Builds, Deployments, Service Pack Installs
- Troubleshooting
- Data Base & Server Admin and Management
Applications (JD Edwards) /
- 16 years experience
- Purchase Order Processing
- Sales Order Processing
- Manufacturing
- Customer Service Management
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Management
Consulting & Implementation Experience
Differentia Consulting (Contract)
Nationwide
Nov 2017 – Present / See below for details of Differentia.
Currently working for Certas Energy in Scotland on Sales and Finance based dashboards in QlikView. I’m working from home but going up there every few weeks to get new requirements on a face-to-face basis.
Abbott Nutrition (Contract)
Maidenhead
May 2017 – Nov 2017 / Abbott Nutrition is a leader in nutrition science, research and development. They make specialist products that help support unique nutritional and therapeutic needs of babies and adults.
Based in Maidenhead and part of the UK based operation. I was brought in to develop a QlikView “template” that would give a consistent look & feel for all new dashboards. I was also asked to assist with the redevelopment of the many existing QlikView and Excel spreadsheet dashboards. The QlikView projects are primarily driven by the Sales and Marketing teams. However, Finance have recently discovered the benefits of BI and are now demanding dashboards. 8 dashboards have been successfully implemented using the new template with many more in the pipeline.
Differentia Consulting (Contract)
Nationwide
Mar 2017 – May 2017 / See below.
Working for:
- Certas Energy
Royal Mail Group (Contract)
Chesterfield
Sep 2016 – Mar 2017 / Royal Mail is recognised as the UK’s most trusted letters and parcels delivery company.
Based in Chesterfield I was a member of the Group Business Intelligence team. We were working on the Finance Transformation Project. This was looking to replace all the Finance Team’s current reporting applications with new QlikView applications.
Differentia Consulting (Contract)
Nationwide
Jan 2016 – Aug 2016 / See below.
Working for:
- British Sugar
- David Lloyd Leisure
- Hyperion
- Recology (USA)
- Tanimura & Antle (USA)
AstraZeneca (Contract)
Macclesfield
Sep 2015 – Dec 2015 / AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London. It is the world's seventh largest pharmaceutical company.
I joined the team in September 2015 to assist in the global implementation of their various QlikView systems.
There are 4 applications in the “family” known as Manufacture Me (MMe). I am responsible for:
- Inventory Stock Tolerance – which assists AZ companies around the globe to plan their stock holdings. We currently have around 200 users per month in 32 different countries
- Plan Adherence – which helps global planners check how AZ companies are performing against their plans. This is a new application and has around 30 users in 10 different countries but the intention is to roll it out globally.
Each month tickets on the “Backlog” are pulled together into a “Sprint”. The KPI owners are consulted and the Sprint is agreed. The team then works together to ensure delivery of those fixes, changes and enhancements.
Differentia Consulting (Contract)
Nationwide
Aug 2010 – Sep 2015 / Differentia Consulting are a Premier QlikView Reseller. I initially spoke to them in August 2010 regarding JDEdwards roles. However, they suggested I retrain as a QlikView developer. They were keen for me to cross train into QlikView so that I could help to both support their existing JDE customer base and encourage them to use QlikView.
Since then I have become a certified QlikView Designer/Developer. Differentia effectively act as an agency supplying me with work both on an adhoc and a longer term basis. My roles normally involve designing and developing dashboards but also include mentoring and training in-house QlikView developers.
Worked on many QlikView projects, such as:-
- Aggregate Industries (Leicester): financial analysis, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP database
- British Sugar (Peterborough): financial analysis, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP database
- CEL Group (Warrington): financial analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Certas (Edinburgh): financial analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- David Lloyd Leisure (Hatfield): financial and sales analysis, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP database
- DX Group (Nuneaton): financial and sales analysis, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP database
- Health Lottery (London): sales analysis, extracting data from shop till interface files and bespoke databases
- Hyperion (London): financial analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Interface (Halifax): financial, sales, pricing, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP and bespoke databases
- Limagrain (Humberside): financial analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Miller Group (Edinburgh): financial, sales and job costing, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP, bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Moorhouse Insurance (Cardiff): financial analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Morgan Group (Wirral): financial, sales and job costing, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP databases and spreadsheets
- National Nuclear (Warrington): financial, sales, projects and human resources, extracting data from specialised packages
- Pepsico (Leicester): financial, sales, warehouse and logistics, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Sure Group (Liverpool): financial, sales, warehouse and logistics, extracting data from bespoke databases and spreadsheets
- Trident Seafoods (Seattle, USA): financial analysis, extracting data from JDEdwards ERP database
- York Minster (York): financial and sales analysis, extracting data from bespoke databases and till systems
20:20 Mobile (Permanent)
Crewe, Cheshire
Apr 2010 – Aug 2010 / 20:20 Mobile are the UK’s number one distributor of mobile phones.
Member of the JDEdwards Project Team – assisting in the implementation of JDEdwards EnterpriseOne (Release 9.0) ERP software throughout the group.
Attended the Oracle BI Publisher course and developed several documents, including Despatch Note, Invoice, Order Acknowledgement, Remittance, Statement and Pick Lists (which include barcodes).
Roles include: systems analysis; design; development (both interactive and batch applications).
Silentnight Group (Contract)
Barnoldswick, Lancs
Feb 2006 – Apr 2010 / Silentnight Group are the largest bed manufacturer in the UK.
Member of the JDEdwards Project Team – assisting in the implementation of JDEdwards EnterpriseOne (Release 8.9) ERP software throughout the group: Silentnight Beds, Sealy, Rest Assured, Pocket Spring.
Roles include: systems analysis; design; development (both interactive and batch applications); data migration.
Vibrant Systems (Contract)
Cheshire
Apr 2003 – Feb 2006 / Designing, developing, marketing and selling software to integrate PDAs and other handheld devices with JDEdwards ERP software. Also general JDEdwards consultancy.
Also designed and developed a warehouse management system to be sold as a packaged solution to small businesses.
As one of the two directors of the company I was responsible for the day-to-day running of the company, marketing and pre-sales activities, as well as project managing and co-ordinating the developments.
The company stopped selling software with the merger of our two biggest rivals in the JDEdwards space. They became the JDEdwards preferred partner and meant that there was no future market for the software. The other director now supports the existing customer base himself.
Jade Enterprise Solutions (Permanent)
(now Drive Computer Services)
Ossett, West Yorks
Mar 1998 – Apr 2003 / Jade is focused on organisations with £20-£150m turnover in the Consumer Packaged Goods and General Distribution sectors in the UK.
My job description covered managing all technical aspects of customer implementations from contract agreement to completion, including project resource control, education, training and consultancy. To assist in the sales cycle from initial contact through to contract delivery. To develop customer specific solutions using the OneWorld Toolset.
Responsible for all things technical within Jade, covering:-
- Management and mentoring the Jade Technical Team
- Pre-sales technology demonstrations and presentations of all technical aspects of OneWorld CNC, Toolset, data warehousing, and e-business
- Pre-sales applications demonstrations and presentations in the areas of Sales, Procurement, Human Resources, Customer Service and Plant Maintenance
- Post-sales contract negotiations, specifications and agreements
- Post-sales installation and implementation of OneWorld, including customisation of, and extensions to, OneWorld using the Toolset and other third party tools (inc VB, SQLServer, Access, Excel, etc)
- Leading the Technical Team in terms of application specification, and development
- New product developments, i.e. vision, management, development, marketing, and sales for add-on products
- Designing and developing bespoke systems in OneWorld
- Management, planning and administration of development / technical deliverables.
- Quality assurance of program objects, application of standards, interfaces and procedures.
- CNC Consulting and planning, stress testing, volume testing, upgrades and service packs.
- Analysis and Design of integrated custom solutions with the One World toolset and enterprise functionality.
D & H Computer Services
(Permanent)
Cheshire
Feb 1995 – Mar 1998 / Project Manager; Systems Analyst; Developer
- PC: DB/C; VB, MS Access, SQLServer
Allied Steel & Wire (Permanent)
Sheffield
Apr 1988 – Dec 1994 / Chief Programmer - System Manager - Project Manager - Customer Account Manager - IT Manager (North)
- HP3000: SpeedWare, Cobol
- PC: Gupta SQLWindows, MS Access, PowerBuilder
Reckitt & Colman (Contract)
Hull
Jan 1985 – Apr 1988 / Analyst Programmer
- HP3000: Cobol
Allied Steel & Wire (Contract)
Sheffield
Nov 1983 – Dec 1984 / Analyst Programmer
- HP3000: Cobol
Coggon Computer Systems (Permanent)
Sheffield
Oct 1979 – Oct 1983 / Trainee Programmer - Senior Analyst/Programmer
- HP3000: Cobol, Fortran
- HP1000: Fortran
Career Scope
The positions held cover over 30 years in the IT sector, including 20 years in Management positions in industry, all directly IT related.
Numerous projects involving the implementation of enterprise wide distribution and manufacturing systems in the UK.
Practical expertise in the following industries: Metals/IFA, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Food, Brewing, Electronics, Communications, general CPG
Specific customer facing projects include:
-Abbott Nutrition-sales & marketing, finance (Pharmaceutical)
-Aggregate Industries-purchasing, sales, telemetrics (Construction)
-Allied Steel & Wire-all systems, including manufacturing, distribution, maintenance mgt, service mgt, administration, process control (Industrial Fabrication)
-AstraZeneca- stock control, manufacturing control (Pharmaceutical)
-Bakkavor-financials (Food)
-British Steel- SOP & manufacturing (Industrial Fabrication)
-British Sugar-purchasing (Food)
-Carillion Telent-sales analysis (Telecomms)
-CeDo Group- warehousing (Industrial Fabrication)
-CEL Group-financials (Services)
-Certas Energy-financials (Energy)
-Daniel Thwaites- sales analysis (Brewing)
-David Lloyd Leisure-sports, health & leisure (Leisure)
-DTZ-real estate management (Property)
-DX Group-postal service (Logistics)
-Ener.G-SOP & manufacturing (Utilities)
-Energis Communications- warehousing, fixed assets (Electronic)
-Haymarket Media-sales analysis (Publishing)
-Health Lottery-sales analysis (Leisure)
-Interface- sales, CRM, financial analysis (Industrial Fabrication)
-IQE Group- quotations, SOP, quality control (Industrial Fabrication)
-JSA Personnel-sales analysis (HR)
-Laurens Patisseries- SOP, distribution, warehousing (Food)
-Limagrain-finance & sales (Industrial Fabrication)
-Lindt & Sprungli- SOP, purchasing (Food )
-Macphie of Glenbervie- customer relationship management, personnel helpdesk (Food)
-Miller Group-sales analysis, financials (Construction)
-Moorhouse Group-sales analysis, financials (Insurance)
-Morgan Thermal Ceramics-financial & sales analysis (Industrial Fabrication)
-National Nuclear Lab-sales analysis, financial (Nuclear Energy)
-Numico-bespoke nutritional database (Pharm)
-Oxford Instruments-financial analysis (Industrial Fabrication)
-Paragon Group-financial analysis (Industrial Fabrication)
-PepsiCo-warehouse execution, load planning, shift reporting (Food)
-Reckitt & Colman- SOP & distribution (Food, Pharm, CPG)
-Recology (California)-waste management (Industrial Fabrication)
-Royal Mail Group-postal service (Logistics)
-Silentnight Group-finance, distribution & manufacturing (CPG)
-Sure Group-finance, sales & maintenance (Utilities)
-Tanimura & Antle (California)- financial (Food)
-Tilda Rice- SOP, manufacturing, distribution, warehousing (Food)
-Trident Seafoods (Seattle)- financial (Food)
-Value Retail- luxury retail outlets (Retail)
-York Minster-finance & sales (Leisure)
Internal projects include: warehousing; web site design and maintenance; customer service; market information; personnel; and helpdesk systems
Interests
I am married and have a family comprising:-
- Fenghua (wife) – comes from Foshan (Guangdong) in China
- Alex (28) – graduated in Drama & Creative Writing at the University of Hull; Journalism degree at Wrexham University. Is now Online News SubEditor for the BBC in Manchester
- Joshua (22) – is at University of Sheffield studying Physics. Loves Playstations, PCs, television and music
- Sally (20) – is at University of Leeds studying for a Masters in Environmental Sciences. Enjoys music and socialising
- Philippa (Pip) (17) – is at 6th Form College studying for her A Levels. She enjoys dancing, singing and reading
- William (Billy) (13) – already looks like he’s going to do as well if not better than the others. He enjoys terrorising the rest of the kids!!
- karate – I’ve been doing it for over 9 years now and have reached purple belt / 4 Kyu (that’s 6 “gradings” to get to this stage). I took it up because the kids had been doing it for a while, so I was railroaded into it
- taijichuan – been learning for over 7 years - took it up because it improves your karate and general well-being
- bird watching – combined with dog walking and generally getting out in the fresh air
- football – following my beloved Newcastle United through thick and [mainly] thin
- cooking – for family and friends – helps me relax at the weekend
- reading – pretty much anything, from Pratchett – Tolkien – Dickens (and everything in between) – sci-fi – autobiographies – sports – science & technology
- music – lots of different kinds – enjoy going to festivals
- languages – I can speak enough Chinese Mandarin to survive in China; I'm also learning Cantonese; I get by in French
For more information go to
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