Full Name: Matthew Thomas Houldsworth

Date of Birth: 18th Agust 1978

Sex: Male

Status: Married

Smoking: Non-Smoker

Driving Licence: Full Clean Licence Held

I am a very self-motivated individual, able to work alone or in a team environment. I like a challenge and the opportunity to prove my skills at a high level. I enjoy seeing a project develop through to its conclusion. I am driven to further my knowledge and keep up with new developments and research. I am easy to get along with and I like to think I am considerate of other people; I have good communication, management, planning, leadership and motivation skills. I am especially good at converting technical language so that it can be understood by non-technical people.

For the last 6 years I have been leading a team of developers at C Spencer Ltd project managing a £5 Million Enterprise System Development. I was initially brought in to turn around this failing project, and then to launch it to the company. This system includes intranet facilities, web mail and shared calendars, CRM system, administration databases, financial reporting and links to accounts software, workflows of company processors, document control and document management, enquiries systems, HR and training system, along with many other features.

I have been involved with every part of the projects life cycle, from its original failing point right at the beginning of the project to the completion of the project with its launch to the company.

When I joined the project had never undergone any requirement gathering exercises, there was no documentation for the work already completed and the team was largely dysfunctional. This was of course the main reason for its failure. I undertook a specification exercise which documented the exact requirements, implemented a change control system to manage scope creep, the main problem with this exercise was that the management of the company were not clear what they actually wanted, so there was a certain amount of coaching to be done to get the details we needed to bring the project back from failing to being successful in the eyes of the project stake holders.

We struggled with an very inexperienced team of developers, so I spent a great deal of time converting specifications into technical briefs, and stipulated that I wanted the developers to follow the brief to the letter, this brought discipline and professionalism to the team. I was later able to relax this methodology as over time the more senior programmers became more familiar with what was expected and we were able to employ a Development manager to oversee the day-to-day coding practices.

Later in the life cycle of the project I was able to release some of these responsibilities to others and concentrate on the launch of the product to the company, this became a ‘Change management’ exercise. There was a certain amount of resistance to the change brought about by the Enterprise Application. This was mainly due to two factors, firstly it was a big change to the way people work, the system changed so many aspects of the business, and secondly fear of the unknown, we managed this process by implementing a wide ranging company wide training programme, this took a great deal of time and effort, but it did pay dividends.

In the final periods of the projects life cycle I was responsible for support, managing up-take and making recommendations for improvements to the system.

The SOS Enterprise application is now used throughout the company and has already been a proven success enabling C Spencer Ltd to make improvements to their business.

Previous to my employment at C Spencer Limited I was Self employed as a multimedia designer, working freelance (Digitalquill Multimedia & Design), developing websites for many large organisations including The Home Office, DfES, International charities such as Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre and Aegis International Genocide Research Institute, and commercial websites for a number of companies including Home Army and Wellsprings. I have also worked on several joint ventures with other Companies, banana search, GPcare and Family Break to name a few. Some of these sites have been featured on the highly respected Macromedia Showcase site.

I have also worked in paper-based design, doing the Desk Top Publishing of many books and leaflets. In addition I have worked with Macromedia Director to produce some Educational CD-ROMs and Kiosk style interactive multimedia tools.

I have skills in many areas of business management and administration, through my work at C Spencer Ltd analysing company structure and systems along with running my small business and have gained valuable experience in customer care, accountancy, team building and leadership, business management and project management, as a project manager I have learned to be able to keep an eye on both the day-to-day detail and the bigger picture.

I have very strong personal management skills, while running a multi-million pound project, I have had to deal with many stake holders and project personnel. All these people have varying backgrounds and all speak a different language, some technical, some from management, some from the shop floor. I have proven that I can bring out the best in each individual for the good of the project.

Change management has been something that I have proven I am very adept at with the launch of the Systems at C Spencer Ltd. I have coached and aided colleagues through significant change to a business, overcoming reticence of the staff by communicating with them to mitigate their concerns and giving them any technical skills or filling confidence gaps through training and personal one-to-one tuition.

My academic background in both earth science and multimedia computing have given me a grounding in academics and a strong systematic and analytical mind, coupled with the ability to communicate on a technical level with specialists and on a non-technical level to Non-IT people.

I have a very good technical knowledge of all areas of IT, programming in PHP, ASP, ASP.net, knowledge of database systems, MySQL, MsSQL, Access, Networking and Server Administration (Unix and Windows), web and email server management and configuration, SPAM and Virus Control, along with a good knowledge of Hardware. I also keep myself up-to-date with the latest technologies.

I enjoy family time, we have a young daughter who takes up a great deal of time, we enjoy taking her out for walks, holidays and days out. Getting mucky and splashing in water are favourite pass times of our three year old, we love to indulge her!

Much of my spare time is split between property development/DIY and Internet software development. I have ‘done up’ several properties and have eyes for more development projects in the future. I enjoy the challenge of this and putting my joinery and ‘DIY’ skills to the test, we have recently completed a new Orangery Extension on our home, most of which I did myself.

My Internet work consists of Internet Software development, mainly development of premium WordPress Plugins which have been very successful and also web development and Affiliate Marketing. I enjoy this challenge, as this is a constant learning curve attempting to keep ahead of the game.