Paul Meeks

Paul Meeks IT Project Manager Bicester, Oxfordshire :- :- As an experienced IT Project Manager, I possess a proven track record in delivering complex IT projects from initiation to completion. My expertise encompasses leading cross-functional teams across globally dispersed locations, with a focus on new systems implementation, legacy migration, integration, and project recovery. With exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills, I have successfully executed projects across diverse sectors, including Retail, Media, Hospitality, Management Consulting, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Real Estate. I am a results-driven professional dedicated to ensuring the success of your IT projects, leveraging my extensive skills, knowledge, and experience to benefit your organisation. Recent Project Highlights • • • • Migration to In-house ERP System – Infor M3 (Scott Bader): Successfully spearheaded the migration from two legacy ERP systems to the in-house ERP system, Infor M3 CloudSuite, for remote locations in India and Australia. This initiative unified platforms, significantly enhancing data consistency and accuracy across all business units, streamlining reporting and analytics, and reducing operational costs through standardised processes and systems. Global Finance System Implementation – Oracle NetSuite (OC&C): Led the project to transition the entire company from Access Dimensions to Oracle NetSuite. Directed an internal project team from the UK Finance team and coordinated activities with third-party partners Oracle and OC&C's integration partner, Envirtual. Successfully rolled out the project to 15 offices globally, delivering on time and within budget. Key benefits included the automation of financial processes (P2P, O2C, etc.), integration with core Business Services systems, and customised dashboards for real-time reporting. Telephony Blueprint Rollout – Horizon Systems (Linnaeus Veterinary Services): Infrastructure Project. Managed the rollout of a Telephony Blueprint to 35 veterinary practices, including both Primary Care and Referral services. Collaborated closely with each practice and third-party vendors to ensure a smooth transition, enhancing communication capabilities and operational efficiency. The refined Blueprint is now a standard for future installations and delivers improvements in communication, enhanced client service experience, reduced operational costs and improved reporting metrics. Call Centre Secure Payments System Upgrade – Eckoh CallGuard (Whitbread): Delivered an essential upgrade to the Premier Inn Call Centre payments system for both the UK and Germany. Managed the implementation of the new system, addressing critical InfoSec risks flagged by the team. The upgrade was completed out of hours to minimise disruption, ensuring continued secure payment processing. Professional Experience Project Manager, ERP and Finance projects (Contract) Scott Bader Limited Jul 2023 – Jul 2024 Scott Bader is an employee-owned, £300 million global manufacturer of adhesives, composites, and functional polymers, operating 7 manufacturing sites and 18 global offices. Initially contracted to manage three pivotal projects, I led the migration to the in-house ERP system, Infor M3, at newly acquired manufacturing sites in Australia and India. Additionally, I directed a finance-driven project aimed at revolutionising the company’s costing process and enhancing visibility of product and customer profitability across the entire group through the implementation of Fully Absorbed Cost Totals (FACT). • • ERP Migration - Successfully led the migration from a legacy ERP system to the in-house Infor M3 CloudSuite ERP system for two remote locations: India and Australia. Managed a crossfunctional project team with members from all areas of the business. o Coordinated the development of a customised interface for invoicing and waybills through the Cygnet GST portal for India. o Developed a data strategy with the Technical Lead to ensure seamless data migration. o Ensured integration and functionality of the new ERP system, enhancing operational efficiency and data management. o Collaborated with teams and stakeholders across different time zones. o Managed risks and mitigated potential issues, resulting in zero critical system downtimes. o Achieved project completion within the stipulated time frame and budget. o Implemented enhanced Hypercare support to ensure local teams received adequate assistance after Go Live. o Project FACT – Led a finance-driven project to implement a fully absorbed cost model into the M3 ERP system, delivered on time and within budget. The project workstreams spanned Finance, Technology, Commercial, and Training & Communications. Key business benefits realized include enhanced visibility of true SKU-level profitability, consistent costing across the group, and alignment with the organization's overall strategy. IT Project Manager, Applications and Infrastructure projects (Contract) Linnaeus Veterinary Services Aug 2022 – Jul 2023 Linnaeus are a leading UK provider of Veterinary services and part of the Mars Petcare Veterinary Health Group. Brought into the Applications project team to manage the migration of practice imaging systems to a unified platform, and subsequently deployed to upgrade the telephony system at key practices. • • Unified Imaging PACS System Migration - Successfully managed the migration to a Unified Imaging PACS system (AIS) for over 50 Referral and Primary Care practices. This complex project involved integrating various legacy systems into a single, cohesive platform, resulting in: o Enhanced imaging capabilities and consistency across all practices. o Streamlined workflow processes and reduced administrative burden. o Improved diagnostic accuracy and speed, leading to better patient outcomes. Telephony Blueprint Rollout – Infrastructure Project. Led the rollout of a new telephony system to 35 veterinary practices, both Primary Care and Referral. Coordinated closely with individual practices and third-party vendors to ensure a smooth and efficient transition, achieving: o Significant improvements in communication efficiency and reliability. o Enhanced client service experience through better call handling and reduced wait times. o Reduced operational costs by optimising telephony infrastructure. o Improved reporting metrics for sites on the group telephony platform. IT Project Manager, IT Transformation (Contract) OC&C Strategy Consultants Apr 2021 – Jul 2022 OC&C Strategy Consultants is a global management consulting firm. As the sole Project Manager on their IT Transformation Programme, I spearheaded the refresh of two key legacy systems, introduced a Change Management process, and established a project governance framework. • • • • • Kimble Implementation: Led the implementation of Kimble, a Professional Services Automation (PSA) system on the Salesforce platform. This system became the central hub for all consultancy work, successfully rolled out to all global offices. Finance System Migration – Oracle NetSuite: Managed the complex migration from Access Dimensions, the legacy finance system, to Oracle NetSuite. This included extensive integration with existing systems such as Kimble, SAP Concur, and Bamboo HR. Acquisition Programme Management: Directed the programme for acquiring a new business entity in the Netherlands. Managed progress across all workstreams, including Legal, Finance, HR, IT, and Commercial, and regularly presented risk assessments and progress reports to senior stakeholders in weekly SteerCo meetings. Change Management Process Implementation: Introduced an ITIL v4-based Change Management process to facilitate beneficial changes with minimal disruption to IT services. As Change Manager, I established a weekly CAB to review and address the backlog of changes. Project Governance Framework: Developed and instituted a project governance process for medium-to-large projects, covering all phases from initiation to closure. Created standardised project documentation templates, including PID, RAID logs, and Highlight Reports, to ensure consistency across projects. InfoSec Consultant/Project Manager, ISO 27001/OneTrust projects (Contract) Whitaker Solutions Ltd Aug 2020 – Mar 2021 Worked with a Information Security Consultancy to provide InfoSec consultancy and Project support on several live projects. • • • Managed an ISO 27001 implementation for a Healthcare Technology start-up. I provided Consulting services including running a gap analysis exercise, project planning, supporting the team on the implementation of new policies and procedures and running an internal audit to prepare them for certification. Certification meant they could tender for NHS contracts. Assisted various companies with their Cyber Essentials assessment. Managed multiple Data Mapping and Assessment configurations in the data governance and compliance platform, OneTrust. IT Project Manager, Amadeus & PCI Enablement Programme (Contract) Whitbread – Premier Inn Jan 2018 – Mar 2020 Managed multiple projects and the overall Payments workstream on the Amadeus (SaaS) replacement of the legacy Hotel Management system. Multi-million-pound transformation programme. Also managed multiple projects on the PCI Enablement Programme which was addressing Security compliance related issues and moving Whitbread to a more compliant position. • • • • Delivered integrated Payments services for all Premier Inn payments channels including Digital, Front Desk, Kiosk, Contact Centre & Business Accounts. Implemented the Amadeus Payments Platform. A Level 1 PCI compliant Payment Gateway. This acted as a gateway to Whitbread’s payment processors and Fraud management solution. Rolled out multiple, complex Network Firewall changes to enable flow of data in new systems channels. Chaired progress and performance meetings with Governance board and key stakeholders at Executive level to ensure project remained on track. • • • • • • • • • Closely worked with key areas of the Business - Finance, Fraud & Business account card teams to understand the current Business processes and ensure there were no gaps in the new system. Managed multiple Third-Party vendors from RFP/SOW stage through to completion of project. Managed Programme partner to ensure scope was agreed and solution design and development was in line with Programme expectations. Matrix management of internal and external resources. Provided sign off on all Whitbread System Testing and UAT. Coordination of multiple Third parties - Including Accertify Fraud Management solution, Datacash Mastercard Payment gateway services, Mulesoft ESB integration, ATOS Worldline Business Account card and Kiosk payments. Business and Technical change control – Internal, Partner and Third-party. Payment Regulation & Compliance planning – PCI review, Comfort Testing, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), 3DS v2, Stored Credentials on file mandate. Managed migration of existing data – Data assurance and Data cleansing exercise carried out. Additional Projects • Managed an upgrade to the Call Centre Secure Payments system for both UK and Germany. Ensured a PCI compliant system was in place and reduced the overall associated PCI risk. • Managed an InfoSec led PCI Remediation discovery exercise to identify high risk areas across the Premier Inn estate. IT Project Manager, GDPR Programme (Contract) Countrywide Jul 2017 – Dec 2017 Managed the IT workstream of the GDPR programme. Remit to setup project controls, write a Business Case, conduct a group-wide audit to determine compliance position in relation to IT Security & Infrastructure. Worked with IT Consulting partners (CGI) and In-house Security Architecture team to determine which tools (DLP etc.) could be used to mitigate problem areas. • • • • Delivered a recommendation to senior stakeholders giving tactical and strategic options to implement GDPR controls across the whole Group including satellite Estate Agents. Managed Technical and Business workshops to define requirements and solutions. Provided detailed reports and updates to Executives on the Steering Board. Managed the migration of a Finance system onto a new Microsoft Azure (cloud) platform. This improved the performance of this Business-critical system and ensured it was hosted in a more stable environment. IT Project Manager, IT Peak Preparation Programme (Contract) House of Fraser Jun 2016 – Jun 2017 Project Manager in the Business Technology team and responsible for the delivery of Infrastructure and Applications projects into the Retail and Supply Chain areas of Business. • • • • Undertook an audit of all IT Systems, Hardware and Software and highlighted the systems that were perceived as vulnerable or requiring additional attention. Focus on key areas of the Business, core IT systems, network infrastructure, Supply chain systems and store hardware. Developed a Peak Operating model in conjunction with key Business areas. Fed in and applied the lessons learned from previous Peaks. Developed a Communications strategy and updated all senior executives including the HoF board on progress of the Programme. Additional Projects • Managed an urgent rollout of 40 news tills, computers and peripherals to 8 stores across the UK. IT Project Manager, Home Retail Group Account (Contract) Fujitsu/Argos Jun 2015 – Mar 2016 Worked as part of the Managed Infrastructure Services team on the HRG account (Argos, Homebase & Habitat) I rolled out a number of IT Transition projects including a high-profile project as part of the ‘Peaks’ programme of work. • • Managed a ‘Peaks’ project to make a collection of key Argos order processing Unix Servers fully resilient over the busy Christmas period. Managed the transition to a new cross-platform password synchronisation solution across the whole domain. IT Project Manager (Contract) Value Retail PLC Oct 2013 – Mar 2015 Managed a number of Infrastructure, Service Improvement and Business change projects through a period of Transformation. • • Managed a 500-device migration to Microsoft Windows 7 across 8 European sites on time and to budget. Managed the implementation of ServiceNow, a cloud based ITSM tool which automated & streamlined IT operations, lowered operational costs and enhanced the efficiency of the Service Desk. IT Manager/Project Manager (Contract) Disney and ESPN Media Networks Apr 2010 – Oct 2013 Managed the onsite IT operations and a small team of IT support analysts. Project Managed a number of infrastructure projects in a Transition programme. • • Managed an ESPN office relocation project. Successfully moved all systems and 100 users. Managed the Disney Channel transformation project – Refresh of Technology and upgrade of Comms rooms. Earlier Career Summary The Walt Disney Company – IT Contractor – April 2008 – April 2010 Value Retail Plc – Network/Server Analyst – March 2004 – April 2008 Dan Technology/Paralogic Services – Infrastructure Systems Analyst - December 1999 – March 2004 Professional Training and Qualifications Prince2 Practitioner AgilePM Practitioner ITIL Foundation certified MSCA – Microsoft Certified Professional Other relevant information Bure Park Primary School, Bicester – Parent Governor – November 2018 – May 2022 Bure Park Primary School, Bicester – Chair of Governors – May 2022 – July 2023