James Houston

Accomplished, resourceful and results-focused IT professional with successful experience in achieving client objectives within diverse, challenging, and busy dynamic commercial environments.  Excels in managing high-value projects throughout the lifecycle with strong detail, problem-solving and follow-through capabilities.  Confident communication and influencing skills with the ability to manage client and internal teams to achieve project deliverables. Organisational ability to handle multiple priorities and meet deadline schedules. Productive working under pressure within a team using own initiative to enhance performance.   Accurately performs challenging tasks with precision and attention to detail. A self-starter who can conceptualise and implement innovative technology solutions that deliver results.

Areas of demonstrated value include:

• IT Service Management • ITIL / Service Desk Institute Certified
• Incident / Change / Problem Management • Customer Satisfaction
• Budgeting / Analytics / Trending • Cyber Security Implementation
• Stakeholder/Supplier Management • Service-Level Agreements (SLA)
• ITIL / Service Desk Institute Certified
• Customer Satisfaction
• Cyber Security Implementation
• Service-Level Agreements (SLA) Management

Redinet Limited, Service Delivery Manager, May 2021 to Present

• Management of the contract and relationship from customer and suppliers
• Deliver comprehensive reporting and trending information to key stakeholders
• Maintaining high performance levels for service-related processes, and implementing improvement activities wherever necessary
• Owner of critical incidents, coordinating with resolution parties, and establishing effective communication between stakeholders for post-incident reviews
• Monitoring SLA’s and internal KPI performance.
• Ensuring that systems, procedures, and methodologies are in place to support outstanding service delivery
• Responsible monitoring and maintaining all IT Services
• Played in an active role in supporting users on day-to-day issues and acting as an escalation point for engineers.
• Managed internal and client projects to gain insights into the scope of service delivery
• Responsible for service delivery performance, meeting customer expectations, and driving future demand
• Reviewed internal and client third parties and processes, and creating strategies for service delivery optimization
• Developed an internal reporting structure for Service Desk Metrics and cost efficiencies 
• Managed the development plans of the Service Desk Management and Engineers
• Introduced and lead training development programme

Wavex Technology, Field Service Manager, September 2019 to May 2021

• Responsible for developing and managing 12 engineers ranging from Tier 1 and Tier 2, which is then divided into a team managing clients directly onsite and an internal security officer 
• My client-facing engineering team, is responsible for delivering exceptional IT support directly to our clients
• I also manage the Information Security Internal Engineer ensuring ISO27001 to ensure standards are adhered to Internally
• Managing Critical Incidents and actively working with the engineering teams to resolve the issues
• Introduced the setup and maintenance of a wide range of reports including those within ServiceNow to improve data capture, KPI visibility and offering trend analysis to Senior Management team.
• Acting as the single point of contact for our top 10 clients to improve, not only, services but also the customer experience
• Reviewing client systems and procedures to identify improvements and applied agreed changes
• Working in conjunction with clients, to delivery small and mid-sized projects and building virtual teams to deliver the desired solution
• Built client specific dashboards and reports within ServiceNow
• Introduced personal development schemes and training programmes.
• Improved Field Service scheduling by migrating their current system into ServiceNow.
• Budgeting and forecasting requirements for new clients and capacity management
• Created in-house bonus system providing transparency for Management and Employees to monitor personal KPI’s.
• Creation and implementation of Service catalogue and pricing matrix.
• Worked alongside the Sales and Senior Management teams to develop a pricing matrix for accurate budgeting and to feed into the growth engine
• Automated the month end financial reports, by migration of data, creating workflows and scheduling custom reports to capture all relevant data and flag issues.
• Worked with the internal Procurement, Sales and Finance departments to streamline reporting and data capture for improved forecasting and budget management

Capital Support/Six Degrees Group, London, Service Desk Manager, October 2018 to August 2019

• Transforming a 24/7 global IT Service Desk using ITIL and Service Desk Institutes best practises to deliver quality customer experience
• Responsible for 2 Team Leaders, 1 Service Desk Coordinator and 30 Tier 1-3 Engineers
• Supporting over 130 Financial and Hedge Fund fast-paced clients and ensuring we delivery excellent customer experience 
• Organised the implantation of documentation repository for process and procedures
• Ensuring data governance for GDPR and ISO27001 are adhered within our own environment and while working on client infrastructures 
• Coordinated cross functional meetings to determine root cause of problems and improve workflow processes 
• Maintained Service Management training material and process/procedure documentation
• Acting as primary escalation manager for all critical incidents and client requests
• Monitoring SLA’s to prevent breaches and ensuring the customer experience is kept at the highest standard. 
• Completed detailed ticket analysis to find trends and implanted changes to prevent potential issues occurring
• Responsible for developing and delivering monthly budget, KPI, SLA reports for senior management and client stakeholders
• Engaging with clients on a weekly basis, providing progress reports on any outstanding incidents, requests or project work and maintaining customer relationships
• Completed the Service Desk Institute, Service Desk Manager certification 
• Continuing to provide hands-on technical assists to cross-platform and complex client environments

Capital Support/Six Degrees Group, Field Services Manager, January 2018 to October 2018

• Leading a global IT team of 22 Senior Field Engineers while recruiting for 2 Team Leaders 
• Motivating and strengthening moral within the team by organising social events and engaging the team on regular basis
• Coordinating monthly team meetings, providing company updates with sponsorship from company directors 
• Escalation point for incidents and requests for the team and clients
• Creation of development roadmaps for everyone within the team
• Documenting process and procedures and increasing client pacific knowledge 
• Analytics, trend analysis and reporting to stakeholders

Capital Support/Six Degrees Group, Field Services Engineer, December 2014 to January 2018

• Initially handling the technology requirements for a portfolio of clients within the financial services industry to ensure a high level of customer service for this leading IT managed services provider
• Developing and maintaining collaborative relationships with the CEO, COO and CFO of the client to assess their technology needs, resolve problems with creative solutions, and effectively manage their expectations
• Attending Cyber Security board meetings and working with 3rd party security company to help achieve ISO 27001 certification for the client

CareerBuilder UK Ltd, London, Implementation Engineer, December 2013 to December 2014

• Managing key international projects using prince2 methodology across EMEA and APAC
• Travelling globally including India, UAE, Africa, Australia, China and Japan to support customers in coordinating the technical aspects of office moves and multimillion-dollar acquisitions

25sevenIT Ltd, London, Technical Consultant, January 2010 to December 2013

• Provided 1st/2n/3rd Line support to a large number end-user
• Carrying out migrations of Exchange 2003/2007 to office365 environment, implementing performance monitoring of systems across all customers, and managing BES system and device management

Studying for Microsoft AZ900

Service Desk Institute, Service Desk Manager Certification (SDI/SDM) January 2019

Prince2 Foundation/Practitioner October 2015

Just IT Training Ltd, London, Network Professional Programme, October to December 2009

CompTIA A+ Essentials and Technician; Microsoft Certified Exams MCSE/MCSA; Cisco CCNA; MCDST; 

West Kent College, Kent, HND in TV Production and Technology, September 2003 to July 2005

Aberdeen College, Scotland, August 2002 to July 2003

Highers: English Literature (B); Information Technology (A); Oral Presentation (A); 15 media-related modules

Ellon Academy, Aberdeenshire, August 1998 to June 2002

GCSEs: Maths (Intermediate 2 - A); English (Intermediate 1 - A); Craft & Design (Intermediate 2 - C); Graphic Communication (Higher - C)