Hello!
I'm an IT Leader, Customer focused Service Delivery Manager, and highly competent Technologies SME in an array of commercially relevant infrastructure solutions, on premise and in the cloud
I am SC Security Cleared and at present am available for my next contract appointment with 2 weeks' notice
Leadership & Project Delivery
I lead teams and projects to success, delivering positive outcomes on time and within budget
Recently, I've led a small team of technology professionals for the prestigeous and well regarded Met Office. Leveraging the ITIL framework, and through a process of continual service improvement, the team provided measurable improvements in Incident and Task remediation. With my guidance and direction, the team delivered a higher volume of support, at a greater pace, achieving an over 80% reduction in open and active Incidents
Technical
With nearly three decades of experience, having witnessed the inception of Active Directory, and cloud services, I am a proud technology evangelist and expert
I am highly competent in a number of commercially relevant technologies. I am equally at home managing Azure/Entra Cloud provisions as I am writing complex Powershell scripts for process automation or configuring/supporting/managing on-premise Infrastructure services such as Active Directory, Group Policy, or the Virtualization platforms VMWare and Hyper-V
Project Highlights
Feedback
Full feedback and recommendation details can be found on my LinkedIn profile in the Recommendation section
It has been a real pleasure to work with Andy. He is an excellent communicator. His expertise, dedication, and leadership qualities make him an asset to the organisation
Peter Housley (Head of Corporate Technology)
Andy spent over 2 years at the Met Office leading a very busy team. What impressed me was his ability to adapt to situations he may not have seen before. Had a real can do attitude. A real loss to the Met Office and would definitely re-hire Andy
Mark Francis (IT Manager)
I have really enjoyed working with Andy. He worked closely with the business to align its requirements with technology solutions that were within budget and delivered on time. He also managed a project from inception to conclusion to provide our field team with the technology that was fit for purpose and supported them to deliver their business objectives. I would recommend Andy without hesitation
Lee Fineman (Managing Director / Chief Commercial Officer)
Andy has been a great person to work with. He is helpful, personable and is great at communicating with less IT-savvy people. Andy has really strong technical skills and as such is fantastic at solving problems
Paul Chamberlain (Product Training Director)
Andy is an excellent IT leader. He leads by example and his team follow suit. He has supported all functions within the business and has managed change through a common sense and can do attitude. He has the ability to understand his audience and tailor conversation. I would say his biggest strength is process simplification
Keith Dawkins (International Operations Manager)
Andy has been an absolute pleasure to work with at Natures’ bounty and I can highly recommend him to other organisations that need their IT Infrastructure, service and operations managed efficiently, diligently and economically
Danny Chinery (Technical and Strategic IT Director)
Latest
January 2024
This marks the 5th consecutive year in which I have been consulting for the Met Office. A lot has been accomplished since I first engaged with the Met Office in 2020
In recent times, I've been assigned to support the prestigious Super Computer project and explore ways in which Conditional Access can provide a safe and secure environment for scientists, management, and external guests to collaborate
I have also been tasked both remediation of the Met Office's Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud backup solution and subsequently implementing a new Service Offering to which both the Met Office and Barracuda will subscribe
September 2023
Since commencing my new role in May, I've accomplished a lot. I've compiled a new Framework and a series of PowerShell scripts, Runbooks and other supporting artefacts (such as Management Solutions Overviews, PowerBi Analytics, Comms Articles, KillChain explorations, etc)
We are currently in Pilot stage awaiting busines sign-off for more impactful production change. Meanwhile I am addressing a number of quick-wins to improve the Met Office's security posture
April 2023
I was humble and thrilled to be contacted by The Met Office regarding a Senior Technical opportunity to deliver a new Security Framework for Conditional Access and Multifactor Authentication
I welcome the new challenge and start my new role in May
March 2023
Having taken a few weeks of downtime for myself and to spend time with my family, I feel refreshed and recharged and ready for my next appointment!
I'm SC Cleared, Immediately Available, and looking for a flexible role (hybrid/homeworking. I'll be gravitating towards roles which take advantage of my leadership, technical acumen, customer service/focus and/or transition management skills. I'm open to roles inside or outside of IR35
February 2023
This marks the conclusion of a 2.5yr appointment with the Met Office. Before leaving, as well as finalising handover to my successor, I delivered a parting-gift of a PowerShell based proces for Quality Assurance validation of laptop builds
January 2023
Owing to a small number of recent out of hours 'major' Incidnets raised, I rewrote the team's Post Incident Review processes and supporting documentation, creating a template for repeatability. The new process improves business engagement and enables a framework for documenting root cause analysis/action which can be latterly reviewed for common failures and process/service improvement
December 2022
In the lead up to the Christmas break, I provided hands-on customer support and assistance as an escalation point. This bolstered the team's ServiceNow queues further reducing the volume of open support requests. The ServiceNow queues for my team contained fewer than 30 open items collectively (for a support-base of 2500 customers). This was a significant achievement and put the team in good stead for the commencemet of the new year