SJBContact

simonb@nimbos.net

Personal Statement

An enthusiastic process analyst, project manager and change management professional with a reputation for quick, creative thinking and a developed customer service ethic. I have extensive experience bridging the gap between technical and non-technical personnel.

Key Skills

  • PRINCE2 Project Management (Practitioner certificate since August 2008)
  • Process mapping, design and simplification
  • Change management and communication
  • Supervision of offshore-outsourced activities
  • Advanced MS Excel and VBA macros
  • SQL and MS Access
  • Adobe Photoshop and Flash

Career

Business Analyst, IMS Health, Marylebone, London
(February 2008 to – March 2011)

  • Mainly a project management role as part of the EMEA Finance team.
  • Project focus on implementation of third-party vendor solution for online pricing and proposal generation.  Project rolling out across top 5 EMEA territories with a budget of $1.5M over 5 years.
  • Direction, supervision and liaison with third-party developers and unit testing teams in Chicago and Chennai respectively.
  • Process analysis of pricing methodologies for creation of specifications to pass to development teams.
  • Analysis of policies for discounting and credit note operations and creation of guidance tools for user application of these policies.
  • Pricing analysis has saved IMS ≈ $50k in identified efficiencies and methodology adjustments.
  • Discounting procedures, approval process and associated technology has led to visibility of ≈ $1M of previously un-approved discounts to clients.

Analyst, Business Simplification, IMS Health, Marylebone, London
(November 2006 to February 2008)

  • Project to simplify various internal processes and systems though process design and technological solutions.
  • Project area of focus for simplification – Approval mechanisms. Involving arranging and running stakeholder workshop sessions for process design improvement.
  • Responsibility for development and maintenance of electronic resource repositories and collaboration systems.
  • Responsibility for the writing and distribution of change management bulletins and updates.
  • Writing VBA Excel macros for specific client-format requests and automating regular tasks for the Client Service team.
  • Supporting change management activities on a project by project basis

Data Analyst, MIDAS Solutions, IMS Health, Marylebone, London
(January 2003 to November 2006)

  • Querying off-site mainframe database to produce customised sub-set data – ad hoc pharmaceutical data queries for clients.
  • Liaison with sales and marketing departments and pharmaceutical clients – advising on data availability, best practice and structure for data queries.

Information Support Manager & Customer Services, London Buses, Victoria, London
(2 Roles, March 2001 to December 2002)

  • Managing, maintenance and development of MS SQL Server database holding all London Buses’ customer contact and correspondence.
  • Analysis for presentation to the Board of Directors of volumes, work-flow, tracking targets and trends in the content of customer correspondence.
  • IT liaison for the Customer Services Department.
  • Answering of customer comments and complaints.

Marketing Operations, Direct Wines Ltd, Reading, Berkshire
(3 roles, July 1996 to July 2000)

  • Researching user-requirements and designing, before ultimately programming and testing, modules for the sales operating system used by call centre staff to process orders, track deliveries and deal with customer account enquiries.
  • Liaison between Customer Services and IT Development teams.
  • Extensive SQL database query and manipulation to isolate particular groups of customers – used to correct processing errors, over-sells on items with limited quantities etc.
  • Management of the wine storage service – keeping around 5000 cases of wine for 2000 customers at an external facility.
  • Resolving customer complaints and queries.

Education

University of the West of England, Bristol
1993 to 1996
BA(Hons) Science, Society and the Media, Class – 2:1

Reading College of Technology, Reading, Berkshire
1992 to 1993
2 A-Levels: Physics Chemistry

Meadway School, Tilehurst, Reading
1985 to 1992
3 A levels: Geography, Physics and Chemistry
10 GCSEs

Hobbies & Interests

  • Astronomy, including GCSE course at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
    Sep 2010 – Jun 2011
  • Member of a local pub-quiz team
  • Family history research – so far back to great x 5 grandfather in 18th Century.
  • Film making – including entries in the Sci-Fi London 48hour Film Challenge since 2009
    (The entries)
  • Volunteer for Open House London event each September – annual architecture festival