Paul Simms

Experience

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  Ferranti Computer Systems

  Jul 1983 - Oct 1988

  Software Engineer

  Technical Author, then Software Engineer on command and control systems for the MOD for a major defence electronics manufacturer.

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  CSC

  Oct 1988 - May 1998

  Project Manager

  Management of a systems integration project for a strategic planning system for MOD. Set up and running of a Programme Management Office for a 3000-user, desktop roll-out and outsourcing contract for a major Water Utility. Management of a billing system maintenance and enhancement project for a major Water Utility.

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  Capgemini Consulting

  May 1998 - Jun 2007

  Project Manager

  A variety of programme/project management, service delivery, sales support, and PMO management roles with a variety of clients in the Telecom, Public Sector and Agrochemical sectors.

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  IOP Publishing

  Jun 2007 - Jul 2010

  Business Solutions Manager

  IOP Publishing is the publishing company of the Institute of Physics, producing a range of physical and online publications in order to disseminate the findings of scientific research globally. Operating with an annual IT budget of £2m, I was hired to consult with the business and lead a number of concurrent project teams - with up to 20 resources - to deliver a number of initiatives which would create Java, Oracle and XML-based solutions and platforms for the business.Delivered a major programme of enhancements to a journal peer review and production workflow system in order to support the operations of a major US journal partner.Created interface for accepted articles in production workflow which enabled migration of IOP US partner's peer review activities to an external hosted service.Delivered major enhancement to IOPscience journals platform enabling a subscription model and resulting in the decommissioning of legacy platforms..Successful migration of web operations from a series of disparate magazine websites to new single platform upon which IOP could operate their magazine publications and B2B advertising. Show less

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  Colt Technology Services

  Aug 2010 - Sept 2011

  Programme Management Office Manager (Contract)

  Colt is a multinational telecommunications and managed IT services company. I was engaged as a contractor to lead the creation of and subsequently manage the PMO for the business' £15m, CIO-sponsored transformation programme to deliver a cloud-based ‘office of the future’ which could be utilised by Colt’s 5000 European employees.Delivered PMO which supported and facilitated delivery of the Office of the Future programme. This resulted in 1,000 employees utilising mobile working via a virtual desktop and significant savings through more efficient hardware and software use.Successfully supported implementation of Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), hot-desking and work spacing methods into day-to-day BAU which resulted in significant efficiencies and increased productivity throughout the business. Show less

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  Leading Resolutions

  Oct 2011 - Dec 2018

  PMO Manager & Consultant

  I was engaged as Leading Resolutions' PMO practice lead to provide expertise and lead delivery of PMOs for a range of clients.Project Managed two projects of a business change programme to deliver back office cost savings and processing efficiencies. One project delivered improved processing of employer submitted pension contributions and the other delivered enhanced member self-service and call agent first call resolution capabilities.Developed a Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) based on a hybrid SCRUM approach for one of the world’s leading providers of insurance, reinsurance and employee benefits services who wished to improve the capability of its Application Development team. Rolled out, coached and drove adoption across the UK and offshore teams, portfolio managed application development projects that required a feasibility phase and enhanced levels of business engagement. Managed User Acceptance Testing of a major release of the Employee Benefits platform. Set up and ran the PMO for an enterprise desktop modernisation programme for a leading facilities management client to create an Office 365, Azure Cloud and on premise hybrid environment supporting Windows 10 devices and migrating 13,000 users.Successfully defined all relevant frameworks and processes for a new IT project, programme and portfolio delivery toolset for a leading facilities management client which were implemented in order to facilitate the unification of delivery approaches across several IT divisions and sub-teams and the creation of a single enterprise PMO.Led implementation of a new IT PMO for a mutual insurance society as part of a business transformation programme, designed to launch a new on-line wrapped insurance proposition under a new brand.Designed, rebuilt and led the IT department’s PMO function for the UK's leading charity for looking after special places following a major re-organisation within the charity. Show less

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  Zircon Software Limited

  Jan 2019 - now

  Operations Director

  Zircon Software provide full life-cycle software engineering services including requirements, software development, testing, verification and validation and quality audits for engineering applications from control systems to information systems, real-time safety systems to web enabled systems.Initially as Head of Delivery and later as Operations Director I am accountable for the delivery of all Zircon’s software engineering projects to customers as well as planning and estimating projects as part of our quotation process.I’ve managed the delivery of a range of engineering projects such as embedded software driver developments, train braking system fault logging and reporting systems, SIL0 verification and validation audits and testing and various R&D projects that have used machine learning for detection and alerting.To improve our delivery capability I have built our portfolio management capability through project inventories, dashboards, project management and delivery critical success factors and weekly project reviews and governance meetings. I’ve improved our project delivery through the introduction of milestone management in combination with agile/scrum techniques, developed our risk and issue management, introduced earned value and created some delivery KPIs to better inform us of how we are delivering our projects.I’ve also managed our journey towards ISO27001 Information Security Management accreditation. Show less