Kieran Hood

Experience

• 

  Reactions Magazine

  Jan 2000 - Jun 2000

  Researcher and Desktop support

  Fresh out of university I moved down to London and took this temporary position.My task was to telephone every single company in the Fortune Global 500 and get the email address of the Reinsurance manager. This meant eventually doing night shifts alone in order to obtain these details for the west coast of America, Australia and Japan. I can still remember how to say both 'Do you speak English?' and 'Insurance' in Japanese.After completing this task the company kept me as I was coming in useful with desktop support issues. Show less

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  The Stepstone Group

  Jun 2000 - Nov 2001

  2nd Line Helpdesk Technician

  Technical support of office infrastructure: I was responsible for all desktop, printer and network support, installations and troubleshooting.I managed the LAN and telecommunications patch panel, turning it from a cable jungle into a neat and tidy panel.Senior member of a technical Helpdesk providing 2nd line support remotely to 23 European sites over 17 countries and on-site desktop support to local users.Took sole responsibility for any emergency IT calls by providing out-of-hour support.Key trouble-shooter for Symposium software glitches and telephone hardware difficultiesKey Projects:Worked on-site in Lisbon, Paris and Oslo. Helped build exchange servers and connector servers, migrating all users from POP3 to Microsoft exchange and moving them onto a new network. I trained each IT manager in this process as I went along.Relocating a server room to a new office and providing a new desktop infrastructure. I re-patched both the Corporate and the UK patch panel with improved cable management and a new colour-coded system. Show less

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  Dow Jones

  Dec 2001 - Dec 2012

  Technical Support Executive

  One half of the two man technical support team covering all of EMEA. Our first line customer service team escalate technical calls to us. I work directly with clients and their own IT teams to resolve any technical issues they might have with our products ensuring I meet our SLAs. Sole resource of expert technical assistance for French-speaking clients.Work in conjunction with Dow Jones Sales and Consulting organizations as well as the Dow Jones Technology, Development and Testing teams.Direct relationships with Enterprise champions, key business owners, and technical owners (System Administrators, Developers, Consultants) at major corporations and government departments.Key technical trainer for all of our first line customer service team in both EMEA and the US.Key ProjectsI was selected to work alongside our CEO and the heads of our product team as the key contributor to resolving issues our Government clients were having problems with our AJAX code.I have been chosen to perform the role of technical consultant and work alongside our sales team to help suggest which product would work best for which client.Instrumental in gaining Factiva major new clients, by ensuring these clients received excellent technical advice and support during their trial periods. This often involved liaising with clients’ IT departments to solve new, unexpected software problems.I train all our first line customer service team globally on the technical side of our products. I have also created a collection of training videos and documentation.Our biggest client made a point of praising me specifically for my “enthusiasm and professionalism” and this was seen as a key factor in them renewing their contract. Show less

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  Oxford University Press

  Dec 2012 - Oct 2015

  Technical Analyst

  I support the maintenance, day to day running, and ongoing continuity of the Oxford English Testing online platform, and I'm the reference point for all technical functionality questions and queries. I'm responsible for ensuring issues are resolved according to the requirements of the business to the agreed time and quality. Role includes:• Expert in the technical functionality of the Oxford English Testing system. I give product support to internal authors and administrators to ensure products are published and maintained in line with publishing plans.• Resolve reported problems and issues by replicating, diagnosing where possible and escalating to third party suppliers so that problems can be dealt with quickly and efficiently. • Manage and maintain relationships with third party suppliers to ensure the work delivered is of the required standard and within the terms of the supplier contracts.• Proactively monitor the platform using the available monitoring tools such as NCC site confidence and New Relic so that availability issues can be quickly identified, and reports provided to the business on usage metrics.• Specify and co-ordinate the code release of all bug fixes and minor changes so that there is minimum impact to the availability of the platform.• Document support processes in a clear and unambiguous way; suggest and implement improvements• Work with a content management systems (CMS) to create and edit CSS and HTML to the live siteKey Projects• Test lead in the upgrade of Oxford English Testing. Written a large test script that thoroughly tests the functionality of our product. Managed a team of testers to complete the script on time.• Test lead on the EU VAT project. This was complicated to test but was critical with an immovable time frame – if this project failed we would have been unable to trade with EU countries. • Stepped in and thoroughly tested the Oxford Test of English and then trained the new Technical Analyst for that product. Show less

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  Bazaarvoice

  Oct 2015 - now

  I provide technical support to large brands and retailers to ensure that they receive and display ratings and reviews from their clients and that they receive and send content to other retailers they may be syndicated with.I consistently maintain a CSAT score above 9.0 by developing strong relationships with my clients, understanding what my clients are trying to achieve and then helping them to reach their goals.I am confident explaining on the phone or via a Webex session what my clients need to do to ensure that their implementation of our software is technically healthy. I enjoy explaining complicated technical concepts in a way that everyone can understand.I've spent time in Vilnius, Lithuania, training new Technical Success Managers specifically on communication skills and building a rapport with clients so that as a team they maintain a high CSAT.I manage the case load of all our Technical Success Managers based in Lithuania, ensuring that they each receive only cases that match their skill-set and that the work load is fair.When the EMEA Client Care Manager is out of office, I take on her responsibilities. These can include running team meetings, dealing with client escalations and presenting statistics to the Bazaarvoice Leadership team. Show less

  • Manager of the Technical Success Team

    Nov 2019 - now

  • Senior Technical Success Manager

    Nov 2017 - Nov 2019

  • Technical Success Manager

    Oct 2015 - Nov 2017