-
About Me
I am a senior IT and Operations executive with over 30 years’ experience in project and programme management, global operations management, enterprise systems implementations, product management, supply chain & logistics, team building, corporate troubleshooting, business consultancy and software re-engineering; all involving the leadership of large, multinational, cross-functional teams and underpinned by an extremely strong technical background covering the full software development lifecycle
Deeply experienced in Global Operations management and Outsourcing; building onshore and offshore Engineering and Professional Services teams in India, Sri Lanka, USA and the UK, with P&L responsibility for budget, recruitment, team leadership and staff mentoring.
I bring extensive knowledge in the area of Product Management, overseeing products from initial concept through to customer delivery, determining product release schedules, support policies and future roadmap developments. I have contributed to the growth of the bottom line through improved sales support and increased global expansion via reseller partnerships third-party integrations and joint ventures. I am also a prolific technical writer and experienced product evangelist.
With a track-record of lateral thinking, calm and pragmatic problem-solving, board-level communication and pitching skills, I also have an extensive management consulting portfolio that includes RFP generation, feasibility studies, lost-revenue recovery, cost-saving projects and post-implementation reviews.
Experienced in Agile Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall methodologies, with an implementation portfolio that includes ERP solutions, warehouse management systems, inventory transition projects, third-party logistics, B2B/B2C e-commerce, data warehouses, CRM systems, application re-engineering and data transformation programs.
-
Consultancy Services
Global Outsourced Operations
Vendor selection, Global delivery of large-scale offshore operations (including both IT and Business Process outsourcing), market penetration strategies, outsourcing ROI modeling, and onshore reversion projectsProduct Management
Roadmap definition, release planning, integration planning, competitor analysis, and change control oversightBusiness Consultancy / Corporate Troubleshooting
From cost/benefit analyses, through post-implementation reviews, change management and cost-saving projects, to global expansion white papersProject Management
Significant project management experience from the mid-sized through to enterprise-level ERP implementations. Board-level reportage and presentation, risk management, team building and pragmatic problem-solvingEnterprise Application Re-Engineering
From the initial scoping activities, through architecture planning, application and data migration, revenue / release planning and associated project managementContract Negotiation and Creation
Significant experience in the creation of a wide variety of legal contracts including Reseller/Partnership agreements, Joint-Venture agreements and Master Services agrementsROI Modelling
Financial return-on-investment analysis of software implementations, policy transitions, global expansion activities and outsourcing go/no-go decisionsPartner / Vendor Management
Support in the process of partner / vendor shortlist and selection, contract creation, engagement planning and ongoing partner managementPA-DSS / PCI-DSS Consultancy
Payment application certification management, PCI-DSS scope definition, PA-QSA selection and management, project management, production of all customer documentationCompany Car Scheme Migrations
Scheme exit planning, salary alternative modeling, staff transition support, lease company selection, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) modelling -
Consultancy Projects: Case Histories
-
Client Portfolio
-
Multimedia Projects: Case Histories
Website Design
A mixture of website designs, from simple, static pages, through small-footprint Javascript sites, up to full database-driven dynamic sites using extensive CSS and PHPVideography and Editing
A showcase of video projects, including pure 'editing' jobs where footage was supplied, up to full-service, multi-camera videography plus editing and compositingDesktop Publishing
A mixture of Desktop Publishing projects, mostly for local and small businesses. Print-ready proofs, optimised for CMYK printing, were generated in each case -
Website Projects
-
Video Projects
-
Desktop Publishing Projects
-
Contact Details
Rob McPherson
Gaythorn Cottage
Aston Road
Ducklington
Oxfordshire
OX29 7QY
+44 (0)7775 723948
rob@robmcpherson.net
Connect on LinkedIn
-
Project Background
PA-DSS / PCI-DSS Consultancy
This project concerned the end-to-end project management and production of documentation that resulted in the successful PA-DSS certification of Ingenta's author2reader enterprise software suite, and included:The selection of a PA-QSA. NGS Secure (now NCC Group) were selected after a short selection and due diligence process Creation of a test lab. This involved dedicated network infrastructure, database servers, application servers, PSP interfaces and test data Production of comprehensive documentation, including implementation guide, installation guide, payment flow diagrams, network diagrams and cryptographic key management procedures Forensic penetration testing, undertaken by NGS Secure Application, documentation and infrastructure remediation
Project Background
Global Outsourced Operations
This role was initially concerned with the outsourced re-engineering of the customers' legacy software to the .net framework, with the subsequent benefical by-product being the creation of a revenue-earning offshore Professional Services and Support team. Principal responsibilities and activities included:Production of the partner ITT document Selection of an offshore partner. Virtusa (located in Colombo, Sri Lanka) were selected as the re-engineering partner, complementing the Support relationship with Impelsys (in Bangalore, India) Creation and management of a 30+ man re-engineering team, 5-man Professional Services team at Virtusa, and a 7-man Professional Services team at Impelsys Relocation, with partner, to Sri Lanka for two years to provide training and subject matter expertise for the Re-Engineering and Professional Services teams P&L responsibility and Executive oversight for global outsourced operations
Project Details
Project Management
Experience in this area has ranged from the small (30-40 day mini-projects and software development cycles) through to large, enterprise-level, comprehensive end-to-end management processes. Key activities undertaken have included:Systems Suitability studies and Requirements Definition workshops. Understanding the 'as-is' and 'will-be' scenarios, capturing user requirements and quantifying 'gap' and development requirements Project Planning. Identification and definition of project phases and milestones. Creation, load-balancing and socialisation of project plans with all parties Project Management. Including burn-rate analysis, risk management, stakeholder communication and steering committee management Phase / Milestone Signoff. Ensuring customer is aware of milestone completion and securing stage payments if required / agreed Post Go Live. Including the handover of the project to support personnel, and finally, the execution of a post-implementation review
Project Background
Product Management
A popular area of attention for all forward-thinking organizations developing software solutions. Competitive advantage requires focus in each of the following areas:Product Roadmap Definition and Release Planning. Breaking down the product development and defect backlog into manageable groups for the development team, and grouping planned developments into release cycles Definition of functionality matrices. Breaking down the application functionality into discrete business processes for easy comparison of features and functions Internal and External feedback. Regular and continuous engagement with staff and clients in order to identify application shortfalls and/or opportunities Training and Support of business development teams. Providing assistance with business proposals, customer queries and application demonstrations Best-of-breed integration opportunities. Identification of application integration opportunities with third-party solutions or organizations
Project Background
Car Fleet Transition
The customer wished to update its aging car fleet policy, and investigate a number of contemporary alternatives, including green fleet, salary alternatives, withdrawal of fuel cards and also a potential lease company transition. The project included:Modelling of salary alternative packages for current fleet drivers, including TCO (total cost of ownership) elements Identification of new baseline vehicles for each salary band Staff communication sessions Lease company review and selection process Negotiation of new Master Hire Agreement (MHA) with new lease company Rewrite of corporate fleet policy including duty-of-care, new HMRC regulations and 'green' car policy Subsequent renegotiation of individual vehicle leases and poolfleet agreement once new policy had been implemented and matured for approximately 18+ months
Project Background
Corporate Troubleshooting
This area has encompassed an eclectic mix of issues over the years; some challenging and some relatively straightforward. Highlights have included:New Market expansion studies. These were undertaken for a customer in order to qualify and quantify the opportunities and challenges of expanding operations into Australia and China. Both involved significant research and communication with external consultants. Deliverables in both cases were a report presented to the Board detailing opportunities, costs, and recommendations Post-implementation project reviews and analysis. These analysed a variety of issues, including such elements as project time overruns, root underlying causes of defects, project profitability and also 'phase 2' activities - such as technology migration options - following a successful project implementation Cost-Saving analyses. Focussing primarily on areas of high expenditure or overspend, these were typically approached by reviewing the expected / desired level of expenditure, negotiating with vendors / suppliers if necessary and then implementing (or proposing) revised solutions or processes in order to achieve desired cost levels
Project Details
Enterprise Application Re-Engineering
The client wished to migrate their proprietary-technology Enterprise Systems to a cutting-edge, extensible, open technology that would allow them to maintain their position within the industry. This was a significant undertaking, with many people playing a part in the project. Key activities undertaken in this project included:Technology selection. After reviewing the pros and cons of both Java and .net technologies, .net and SQLServer were selected as the core framework elements Re-Engineering partner selection. Due to the amount of work required, the vast majority of the project resource was provided by an offshore partner (Virtusa), who delivered a blended onshore and offshore resource model Project Management. This initially involved day-to-day oversight of the re-engineering strategy definition, followed by oversight of offshore project progress and delivery of onshore engineering responsibilities
Project Details
Contract Creation & Negotiation
Covering a number of different scenarios over the years, the key engagements of note were as follows, with each being either created from scratch, or based upon a heads-of-agreement:Foreign Market reseller agreement. This particular agreement allowed an overseas partner (reseller) to sell the customers' product in the resellers' territory. Careful attention was paid to reseller financial targets and resellers' end-user agreements, such that the customer was fairly represented, yet also appropriately protected Overseas Partner Integration agreements. This agreement dealt with the day-to-day rules of engagement, intercompany resource management, ongoing phased integration and ultimate 'option to purchase' for an overseas agent Application Integration Reseller Agreement. This agreement provided the customer with the right to resell (bundle) a 3rd-party product with their own. A painstaking process yielded a contract that provided a well-defined and robust framework that defined respective support responsibilities, product prices and deployment models
Project Details
ROI Modelling
This included feasiblity studies to qualify the potential revenue, costs and ROI on various speculative expansion projects. It also resulted in the generation of sales tools that allowed Business Development staff to provide ROI illustrations to their customers. Projects included:Product ROI Tool: Allowing end-users to understand the financial benefits of implementing the customers' software. Included modelling for elements such as head-count savings and efficiency ⁄ productivity gains Global IT and Business Process Outsourcing: Allowing the business to see the fully-loaded cost of using outsourced resource, the most efficient onshore ⁄ offshore resource mix, and the potential margin from outsourced business process activities New Market Expansion: Modelling the potential new market revenues against the costs of recruitment, new premises and international travel; illustrating when the break-even ⁄ profitability tipping point would occur, and allowing an informed go/no-go decision on the new market
Project Details
Partner ⁄ Vendor Management
Liaison and Management of third-party application vendors, product resellers and strategic partners. Primary responsibilities included:Third-Party Integration Vendors: From initial interactions at ITT shortlist stage, through due diligence, contract negotiation, payment scheduling and agreement of ongoing business engagement model Strategic Partners: From initial ITT, through contract negotiation, monthly resource management, issue resolution, new business management and finally exit/transition Product Resellers: Taken from initial heads of agreement, through application training, collaboration on co-branded marketing collateral, review of reseller royalty reports and ongoing partner liaison