CV Last Updated December 2009  -  Availability is immediate

Tony is educated as an engineer and has been an IT professional for over 30 years. His employment background includes long periods with hardware manufacture Honeywell and with major software-house Logica. For most of the last 17 years, he has worked as an independent consultant. Tony’s core skills are in the field of NonStop systems but he also functions very effectively as a “complete all rounder”, fitting into, and performing well at, almost any role the client requires.  His accumulated complementary skills, and areas of involvement, are summarized below

Client:

HARMON in-house

Period:

September 99 -  Jan 2000

Performing set-up & maintenance of HARMON’s  Internet Web Site, using Frontpage 2000, Dreamweaver 2, Microsoft Photoshop, Paintshop Pro 6, Micrografx Picture Publisher. Setting up in-house network of Windows 98, Windows NT and Linux (Red Hat) platforms. These activities are on-going

Client:

Rabobank  /  IBV

Period:

March 98 -  August 99

Re-designed and re-programmed  a TCP/IP software interface used to connect the new IBM RS6000 Rabofoon telephone voice response application to the Rabo’s main TANDEM based Tele-banking database system. The software was developed on TANDEM and written in C..Researched the technical  infra structure to connect Windows NT and IBM RS6000 systems, to the Rabo's main Tele-banking application (SP-Architect), using Tandem's Remote Server Call (RSC) facility. Programmed and tested the Tandem part of the RSC Interface to the NT system. Programming done in COBOL, using embedded SQL..Researched, and reported on  the software and technical requirements involved for a new implementation of Rabo's Smartfoon interface to their Tele-banking system..Researched, designed and developed an automated multi-process file transfer manager which allowed remote IBM clients to exchange various Swift  data files with the Rabobank’s TANDEM banking systems. Connect-Direct was used as the transport medium. The software was developed on TANDEM, written in C and TACL

Client:

Worked on the Tandem infrastructure team within the OLI project at Rabobank. The system provided the bank’s offices, Call center agents, and other internal applications, with ‘on-line’ customer information. The system used an Internet/Intranet front end  and a Java interface combined with Tandem’s iTPwebserver product. CGI servers used Non-Stop Tuxedo services and Tata Infotech’s Customerview product.   Customer information held on a Tandem SQL database was returned back to users’  Web-browser screens. Assisted with establishing test and production application environments. The project used  both Tandem’s Guardian and OSS environments

Worked on the Betex-ESP based development of the Rabobank’s Telephone Banking / Call Centre application. This was done using TANDEM hardware.  Initially responsible for developing an inter-process API and Betex user exits, to link between the Betex telephony front end software to the Tele-banking Database system.(EDB).... Programmed the accepting and submitting of telephone payment requests. Appointed as Technical Manager for the major enhancement phase of Rabofoon Betex development.Performed detailed project planning and technical design co-ordination.... In parallel with management duties, programmed various new parts of the application and .performed upgrades to the API interface, using C and TACL.....Appointed as Technical manager on a project to interface SmartPhones to the banks EDB system, using LAPB communications protocol. Personally upgraded/programmed the multithreaded X.25/LAPB driver interface. The software was written using TAL, C & TACL......Performed research & development for combining Boazzi personal Chipcard readers to be used as ‘secure logon’ devices when connecting to the above Betex based Rabofoon Telephone Banking system. An additional, separate, Boazzi/Betex datacom task was also developed for the personalization of new chipcards cards. Acted as the Rabofacet manager;designed and programmed pilot software, written in  C

Worked on several projects at VICORP International, in Utrecht, The Netherlands. VICORP were the supplier of BETEX telephony & telecomm software.  Worked as a designer and developer on a project to supply a BETEX-ESP based system to Portugal Telecom, Lisbon. The system  provided a Semi/Automatic Call Wake-up service, audiotex, voice and fax broadcast, and fax on demand facilities. Helped with   requirements specifications. Designed and implemented an 'interface' task to accept, verify and queue Wake-Up remotely initiated call requests. Designed and implemented an on-line, dynamic call resources management sub-system. Designed and helped implement a 'confirmation task' function.  Designed and implemented all of the Enscribe database access routines for the system.  The system was developed  on TANDEM and written  in C.

Worked as a designer/developer on  a telephone call answering system  for ENERGIS, a newly established English telephone company. Worked with the team responsible for  building  a software subsystem to facilitate Operator Call Answering & Calling Card Verification Services. Designed and programmed various components for  handling  X.25 communications interfaces and primary/secondary LAN workstation routing facilities.  Developed multi-threaded extended memory buffering and queue management routines. Assisted a second team on the same project with debugging and documenting a major 'state' driven process which was responsible for call management & routing. The host hardware platform was TANDEM and all software written using C

Client:

INTERPAY / BEANET

Period:

Oct 93 / July 94

Worked with the System's Management department of BeaNet (Interpay) BV, Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.  The BeaNet TANDEM network is used for the acquisition and routing of large volumes of EFTPOS transactions for banks, petrol companies and retailers. Re-designed and re-programmed a major TACL subsystem for controlling the existing BeaNet's operationalenvironment of 10 networked TANDEM Cyclone systems. Used the RMS software release management package to maintain, develop and distribute various system's & operational management software packages and procedures. Performed general troubleshooting activities to support both applications developers and system's management teams.

Client:

ZERGO / Data Inovation

Period:

Aug 93 / Sep 93

Worked as an associate consultant with ZERGO/Data Innovation. Assisted in producing the functional specification of a security/cryptographic subsystem for a tele-banking application, running on TANDEM Hardware, for the ING Bank in the Netherlands. Produced an initial high-level design concept, system data flows and helped with initial costing estimates

Worked at The London Stock Exchange, based within the  section of the Technical Services Group. Activities included assisting with systems management tasks in supporting the Exchange's development and production TANDEM environments for the  International Equities Trades Confirmation Service (SEQUAL);  performing enhancements to TACL and TAL based system software utilities.  Assisted with training of new staff on aspects of Tandem and Pathway, using TAL, COBOL and  SCOBOL.  Had a leading role in the commissioning of  new Tandem CYCLONE systems; installing and configuring the Guardian Operating system; helping to set-up a development user-base on the system, with Novell LAN access via Tandem's MULTILAN subsystem; networking Tandem systems together using EXPAND running over in house LAN. Supported SEQUAL applications personnel. Co-ordinated and documented a strategy to rationalize the Tandems' LAN environment and to track intermittent TLAM/Novell connectivity problems. Co-authored various strategy papers on long term data storage requirements and hardware migration scenarios.

Client:

VUGA  Uitgeverij

Period:

Various 92 / 93

Developed several data entry and reporting systems to assist a Netherlands publisher (VUGA) in the collation and analysis of results from reader market surveys.  The system were written in Borland's dBASE IV Runtime version, on IBM PS2 hardware.

Logica:

In-House Projects /Sales Support

Period:

Various 89 / 92

Responsible for technical support and software maintenance activities for several  Tandem based OSI / X.25 EFTPOS communications gateways developed by Logica for the Rabobank.  In addition to normal consultancy, sales and technical support activities, was  also responsible for the installation and configuration of a Tandem computer at Logica's office in Woerden; subsequently acted as the system manager.  Worked on a wide variety of Sales Proposals, performing detailed technical research, planning and costing. Worked on a sales bid to Interpay(BeaNet) for providing the central switch software/hardware for their  EFTPOS network (BeaNet). on a sales proposal to BeaNet  for the design and build of a Tandem based high performance software EFTPOS terminal simulator.  Worked a sales proposal to IBM for building software to be used in interfacing an IBM 4684 EFTPOS terminal to the Dutch BeaNet EFTPOS network. Worked a sales proposal to Rabobank for using Logica's message switching product  LTD ,  as basis in the solution for the bank’s  Minibatch electronic file transfer application for passing data between TANDEM and IBM systems.  Installed and gave client demonstrations of  Logica’s  MESSAGEWAY Non-Stop EDI product.  Performed a short study for NCR (Netherlands) into the inter-connectivity of Tandem, DEC and NCR equipment using TCP/IP.

Client:

Rabobank

Period:

Aug/Sep 1990

Produced a comprehensive  High-Level Technical Design for a Tandem based X.25 Gateway  (CTCI)  for connecting one of Rabobank's applications to the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, via the Dutch Datanet-1 X.25 network. Performed initial prototyping, coded  in TAL;  produced planning and costing details for the proposed build of the system.

Worked for 5 months on-site at Logica's office in Boston America as a designer and team leader on a project producing a message/transaction switch to be used by Lloyds Bank of London. Was responsible for leading the team which performed the low level design and implementation of a  "Security Subsystem" (SS) which handled message authentication, encryption, decryption etc. for the switch. These cryptographic services were based on Logica's Modular Security Architecture (LMSA).  Personally performed the detailed design, coding (TAL) and unit testing of the low level multi-threaded device driver process which managed the physical security devices. Developed memory, queue and timer management facilities to handle the asynchronous read/write interface with the security devices, using Tandem's Generalized Full Duplex Protocol (GFDX) as the communications level protocol.  This project was part of Lloyd's larger Electronic Banking System (EBS) development. All software was written using TAL.

Client:

Rabobank / Interpay

Period:

Nov 88 / July 89 

Programmed and tested updates, to the Rabobank's Fiattering (Authorization) communications gateway to incorporate a new message type.  Assisted BeaNet (Interpay) in performing  analysis and software debugging of a problems arising from their use of the Rabobank's OSI based Interbankair Authorisatie Network (IAN) communications gateway.  Assisted Rabobank in the diagnosis a of duplicate message problem with their original Telegiro OSI Gateway  which had previously been developed for them by Logica in 1984. All software was written using TAL

Client:

Rabobank / Interpay

Period:

May 88 / Nov 88

Worked on a project building an  OSI / X.25 gateway to allow Rabobank of the Netherlands to interface their "Interbancair Autorisatie Netwerk" (IAN) application, Bankkart, to the central clearing organisation, Bankgirocentrale (BGC). The software was also installed by the Dutch Banks EFT/POS network organization, BeaNet.   Was seconded to the initial project to help overcome design difficulties and to provide senior team leadership support.  Developed memory management routines, completed the detailed design, coding and testing of the Gateway's message log archiving subsystem.  Team leader responsible for the Gateway's central Control and Management process.  Personally re-designed and programmed this process to make it fault tolerant. Acted as project manager during a later phase of enhancements to this Gateway. All software was developed in TAL, using Tandem’s OSI/TS and X25AM products.

Client:

Rabobank

Period:

April/May 1988

Part of a team performing a project audit (VeeNet) for Rabobank.  The project involved several organizations participating in the design and build of a Betex Videotext network to be used by farmers, the major software was on Rabo's Tandem computers. Personally responsible for analyzing the technical aspects of the project and generating the technical content of a report which presented the audit's conclusions.

Client:

IBM Nederland

Period:

Nov 87/Jan 88

Performed a study for IBM (Netherlands) into the effort required to interface various terminal emulation products with IBM's PC based Financial Branch System Services application (FBSS).  The various emulators included Videotex, TTY, 3270 and DSP protocols, all interfacing to an X.25 component within the FBSS software. Prepared costing and planning for the effort required to design and build new software.

Client:

OSLO Stock Exchange

Period:

May 87 / July 87

Worked as a senior designer  on a team developing the detailed specification of a fault tolerant trading system for the Oslo Stock Exchange. Was personally responsible for the detailed design and specification of a Tandem based subsystem to perform asynchronous background processing of the various "complex" trader transactions which involved major updates to the Tandem database, utilizing TMF and Pathway.  Designed the queue management system to schedule background processing. Performed prototyping of this queue management subsystem  using TAL, COBOL, SCOBOL and PATHWAY.

Client:

Bank of England

Period:

Mar 87/May 87

Worked at the Bank of England assisting with  new phase of development  to their CHAPS system, on Tandem hardware. Responsible for coding, testing and documenting improvements to an existing report printing process.  Also responsible for completing the design of, implementing and testing a new printing subsystem for the production of Bankers Payments documents. The software used Logica's FASTRX product and was written using  TAL, COBOL, SCOBOL and PATHWAY.

Client:

Sparekassernes DataCenter,  Denmark

Period:

Jan 86 /  Mar 87

Worked for 15 months as a Team Leader on a large project at the Sparekassernes DataCenter near Copenhagen, building, integrating and testing a high throughput OSI/SNA based banking transaction message switch on an IBM 3084 mainframe under MVS/XA. The switch could handle over 30,000 concurrent data streams with an averaged throughput of 300 message pairs per second.   During the development phase, functioned as a Team leader, supervising 6 programmers during the coding of some 200 separate software modules.  During the build & integration phase, was team leader supervising 3 programmers. These two phases overlapped for a period when both teams were being supervised. Coded and tested some of the fixes for the various Assembler and PL/1 programming faults. During testing phase, re-programmed an in-house developed assembly language SNA performance testing

Client:

Lloyds CTSB Bank

Period:

Mar 85 /  Dec 85

Worked for 12 months as Technical Manager on a project for Central Trustee Savings Bank (London), designing and  implementing an extension to the bank's CHAPS system. This enhancement required building an IBM 2780 communications interface, automatic message authentication, remote/offsite logging and additional screen handling for the user interface. Was responsible for the overall technical design approach.  Assisted the project manager with planning & Quality Assurance, system design reviews and evaluation of client change requests. In parallel, acted as  team leader for the development of the new communications interface and the formulation of an application level "link protocol" to control the data traffic. Personally designed and programmed the communication link's state driven kernel module, its 2780 BISYNC driver and its CHAPS inward message processing module. The software was written in TAL.

Client:

Rabobank Nederland

Period:

Apr 84 / Mar 85

Worked for 12 months with Logica in Rotterdam, the Netherlands,  on the design and implementation of an Tandem based  OSI communications gateway, into an X.25 banking network,. for  the Rabobank. The gateway was custom built to implement the OSI communications reference model.   Performed the feasibility study into which class of Transport Layer to use. Specified the overall hardware & software environment for the gateway. Produced the functional and design specifications for the gateway's Multi-Process OSI Class 2 Transport layer.  Designed the inter-process message protocol which linked the different physical processes within the Transport Layer.  Designed and  programmed the multi-threaded Transport Circuit Process (TCP) which provided multiple links to the underlying X.25 network. Designed and programmed various buffering, queue management, and inter-process message/reply subsystems. All coding was done using TAL.

Client:

Lloyds CTSB Bank

Period:

1984

Worked for several months, on-site at the Trustee Savings bank (CTSB) in London designing and implementing procedures to perform change control and software release functions for their Tandem based CHAPS system. The procedures were implemented using TAL routines combined with the EXEC utility (pre-TACL).

Client:

Bank of England

Period:

1983/84

Worked at the Bank of England, providing FASTRX consultancy support. Assisted with enhancing and debugging of their Tandem based CHAPS system.  This involved tracing and diagnosing various faults as well as having to re-code and re-structure some of the system's Pathway servers to improve non-stop operation. Programming was done using TAL, COBOL,  SCOBOL and PATHWAY.

Client:

Barclays Bank

Period:

1982/1983

Worked with Barclay's Bank and the Bank of Scotland building their TANDEM based interfaces to the Clearing House Automated Payments System (CHAPS).   The software used Logica’s  message switching product FASTRX.  Designed and programmed the X.25  and IBM 3270 communications interfaces for the system.  All programming was done using TAL.  During following support period, supervised a team of Logica and client staff. Acted as project manager for this period with responsibility as the senior Logica person on-the client site.

Employer

Honeywell Information Systems

Period:

1978/1982

Worked for Honeywell Information Systems at their Special-Systems Centre in Hemel Hempstead. Appointed as  senior assembler programmer and team leader, using Honeywell LEVEL-6 mini-computers. Designed and programmed software for a multi-tasked printer output subsystem used by Amercan Express. Developed  assembly software for a data concentrator system for the Littlewoods organization in Liverpool.  Performed pre-sales work on a Honeywell (Italy) point of sale systems. Performed a detailed technical assessment on connecting DTS POS Cash Terminals to Level-6 computers. Team leader on the development of a Honeywell in-house Point-of Sale product, with responsibility for the overall system design, the 3780 communications, the request queuing mechanisms. Produced the product documentation and the supplied consultancy services to other Honeywell sales offices. Assisted with the programming and integration testing of an Automated Freight Routing and Reporting system.  Most software was programmed using Honeywell Level-6 assembly language.

Employer

ADP Network Services, London

Period:

1977-1978

Worked for  ADP Network Services in London as a Systems programmer, supporting their international network of DEC System-10 computers systems. Maintained various Operating-System software components, data communications utilities and CAD graphics software.  Programming languages - Assembly language, and Fortran

Employer

Period:

1974-1977

After successfully completing 4 years of Engineering studies, worked as a computer operator at the Hatfield Polytechnic computer centre, Hertfordshire England. Worked on DEC System-10 timesharing mainframes, providing  24 hour per day support to the students and surrounding schools.  Transferred to the City of London Polytechnic, London, to become an Operations Shift Leader, also working on DEC System-10. Started programming DEC assembly language utilities.