Philip Buxton

Experience

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  Circulation Manager

  Apr 1996 - Dec 1996

  Bleeding Edge Publishing Ltd

  Video magazine publisher with customers ranging from small independent rental outlets to large national corporate retail outlets e.g. WH Smith.Overhaul of the magazine ordering and distribution system, involving liaison with senior management, finance, customers and external distributor, leading to greater efficiency and accuracy and a significant increase in customer satisfaction.Creation & maintenance of customer database.Responsibility for ensuring correct volume of print production and distribution of each magazineUse of Excel to record specific financial information regarding customer transactions for internal accountancy control.Raising invoices and arranging dispatch to customers. Show less

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  Signet PLC

  Feb 1997 - Feb 2001

  Product Co-Ordination Supervisor

  Head office for a company with three chains of high street jewellers.Responsibility for 2 members of staff and their training, and department budget.Production of branch line lists, price tickets and ID photographs for inclusion in product launch and sale packs, requiring thorough and accurate maintenance of product spreadsheets.Developing and implementing improvements the service involving coordination between the department, Buying, IT and Printing resulting in reduced costs and lead times whilst increasing accuracy.Production and distribution of all product launch and sale packs to strict deadlinesReporting on progress of all launch activity against schedule and producing action plans for anything falling behind schedule.Publishing & maintaining schedule of all product launches, branch activities and written head office communications to branches and organising its distribution to strict deadlines. Show less

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  PJ Watson Ltd.

  Sept 2001 - Aug 2005

  IT Manager

  Supplier to the jewellery trade.Creation and maintenance of company database to drive improvements to the ordering process.Implementing and administering the company’s Windows Server 2003 domain to improve efficiency and IT security.Maintenance of all company IT hardware and software, including repairs and upgrades.Creation and maintenance of company web site to improve company visibility and sales.Advice on all IT issues.Processing of customer orders for a particular jewellery range and raising commissions invoices. Show less

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  Foreign & Commonwealth Office

  Dec 2005 - May 2012

  Business Analyst; Asset & Configuration Managment; IT Engineer

  Developing and administering the SACM (Service Asset and Configuration Management) systems, driving improvements in accuracy, efficiency and efficacy to improve the value of the service to the business.Joint project manager, coordinator, administrator and trainer for the mapping of the organisation's world estate.Project manager for the introduction of a new e-learning facility into the organisation.Creating/retrieving routes and other equipment details for engineers’ use.Installing/troubleshooting IT equipment e.g. PCs, monitors and printers. Show less

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  Foreign and Commonwealth Office

  May 2012 - Jan 2014

  Test Manager / Business Analyst

  Contracted as a Test Manager / Business Analyst to redesign and run the testing process within a multi-million pound global programme to upgrade the IT and communications infrastructure of the FCO, the UK Border Agency and the Department for International Development in over 250 sites around the world. The implementation of this cloud technology was projected to save £90 million over seven years.Responsibilities:• Gather user requirements for the programme’s testing process from both technical and non-technical stakeholders by conducting interviews and running workshops to create a process that meets business needs• Business Process Redesign and Business Process Improvement of the process to test whether the supplier met their contractual obligations for each site’s migration, including stripping out ineffective tests• Create a Test Strategy and Test PlansIntroduce automation to decrease testers’ workload, improve accuracy and increase the scope of the test coverage• Conduct tests according to a time-critical schedule• Matrix manage representatives at post involved in the testing process• Analyse test results comparing them against contractual criteria to enable payment of the supplier or require them to implement and create and enact a remediation plan• Communicated weekly with the programme board, supplier and other stakeholders regarding successes, risks and failures in testing, and progress on remedial action• Create, contribute to and administer a programme dashboard showing testing progress• Present bi-weekly updates to the whole team including the programme board on testing progress and results• Act as an intermediary between the technical architects and suppliers on one hand and management, team members and end users who had less technical expertise on the other• Business analysis for new software to enable users to change their PIN or use the internal phone directory. Show less

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  Aon

  Apr 2014 - Jun 2014

  Rollout Engineer / Tester

  As a stop-gap job I worked at AON on their migration from Windows XP to Windows 7 where I was involved in upgrading software and hardware and testing installations.

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  Computacenter

  Sept 2014 - Sept 2015

  Business Analyst / Test Manager

  Contracted as a Business Analyst for a multi-million pound database development project to increase the efficacy of the Real Estate Practice. Additional support was given to a financial IT project to bring the company in line with recent financial regulation changes.Responsibilities:• Gathering business requirements for the database and documenting them• Creating and updating the Requirements Traceability Matrix to track progress for stakeholders• Documenting business requirements including User Stories• Identifying and mapping the as-is business process through workshops and one-to-one interviews and documenting them using UML• Identifying what existing company assets could be harnessed for the project• Gap analysis of required assets• Identifying what new assets related to existing business assets could be used (e.g. from the same software supplier which are designed to work together)• Identifying what new assets are required unrelated to existing business assets• Identifying IT staffing requirements to administer the project deliverables• Documenting a proposed solution including a cost/benefit analysis, assisting the Project Manager with the business case• Plan a proposed to-be business process in workshops with stakeholders using UML• Plan the database screens and underlying tables with the developers• Creation of functional specifications and seeing them through to delivery with the developers• Managing client expectations by carrying out periodic demonstrations of the deliverable with users and project sponsors showing progress, enabling feedback and change proposals, and reports on project challenges and delays• Contribute to the Risks and Issues Log• Stakeholder Management of: Project sponsors, end users, developers, third-party suppliers, IT department, Test team Show less

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  Willis

  Nov 2015 - Nov 2016

  Business Analyst / Test Manager

  Contracted as a Test Manager with additional Business Analyst responsibilities to introduce industry-standard testing practices to a multi-million pound database development project to increase the efficacy of the Real Estate Practice as well as the capacity of the project's Business Analysis resources. Additional test support was given to a financial IT project to bring the company in line with recent financial regulation changes.Responsibilities:• Assist with user requirements capture for the database project and creation as well as maintain a Requirements Traceability Matrix• Assume over-all responsibility for the end-to-end testing lifecycle for two projects• Workshop planned solutions with designers and developers to plan appropriate levels of testing• Create a Test Strategy and Test Plan for the projects• Introduce a test tool for tracking testing and defect resolution• Full test and defect management during the testing lifecycle• Report on progress of testing and defect resolution to stakeholders• Lead business analysis on the Document Management Solution for the database project, capturing requirements and proposing a course of action to meet them. Show less

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  Banana Apps

  Nov 2017 - Jan 2018

  Test Manager / Business Analyst

  Employed a Test Manager with additional Business Analyst responsibilities.Responsibilities:• Training staff in how to analyse what tests should be run for apps and how to structure them and report test results.• Contributing to the business analysis of apps for new customers.

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  Admiral Sportwetten GmbH

  Mar 2018 - Feb 2019

  Test Analyst

  Employed a Test Analyst to test betting terminal and cash desk software before release to branches.Responsibilities:• Joined a flagship project to set standards of good practice across the company and became responsible for writing the company test strategy which included a number of my proposals such as a defect management process.• Manual testing of terminal and cash desk software used in Admiral shops.• Automated testing of the above software using Tosca.

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  EXL

  Feb 2019 - Sept 2021

  Tester and Business Analyst

  Employed to be on site with EXL's team for their insurance client AIG as a Tester to learn EXL’s Lissia system (which provides an insurance quote engine, policy creation/management and billing functionality for the client) and to perform Business Analysis with the client to provide them with system improvements that meet their requirements.Responsibilities:• Analysing the requirements of code deliveries; Creating and performing functional and regression tests.• Manual testing of the Lissia system and analysing returned data with MS Excel.• Testing WSDLs using SoapUI• Documenting functionality. Show less

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  Global Minds

  Jan 2021 - now

  Test Manager

  Test manager for a delivery of a accounting consolidation system.