Author: Mark Whitfield

Welcome to my site! After graduating in Computing in 1990, I accepted a position as a programmer at a Runcorn based software house specialising in electronic banking software, namely sp/ARCHITECT-BANK on Tandem Computers (now HPE NonStop). This was before the internet became more prevalent and so the notion of enabling desktop access to company accounts for inter-account transfers and book keeping was still quite a cutting edge idea (and smartphones only ever hinted at in Space 1999). The company was called The Software Partnership (which was taken over by Deluxe Data in 1994). I spent 5 years in Runcorn developing code for SP/ARCHITECT for various banks like TSB, Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and Girofon (Denmark) to name but a few. I then moved onto a software house in Salford Quays for further bank facing projects. After a further 23 years in the IT industry and now a Senior IT Project Manager (both Agile and Waterfall delivery), I thought I would echo out my Career Profile in this corner of the internet for quick and easy access.

Winner of the ITL Non-Invitation – Ian Slack with 42 (6’s format)

The Eden Course, St Andrews – 17/09/2018 –
Winner of the ITL Non-Invitation – Ian Slack with 42 (6’s)

Mark Whitfield ITL Non Invitation Trophy

6250 yards, par 70. Only slightly more forgiving than its contemporaries on the seaward side of the Links, the Eden Course was built in 1914 by Harry S. Colt whose use of natural boundaries and severe bunkers provides a course full of character.

https://www.standrews.com/Play/Courses/Eden-Course
Eden Clubhouse (Eden, Strathtyrum & Balgove courses), St Andrews, KY16 9SF

Your Project Management Twitter…

For ALL Project Managers out there, I have started a PM twitter feed at https://twitter.com/WAgilePulse for all Agile/Waterfall and related tweets. Feel free to follow and tweet #Agile #Project #Scrum

 

Some HPE NonStop (Tandem) related groups on LinkedIn…

HPE NonStop Tandem | Guardian OSS Performance Monitoring Management Integrity Blade Itanium ServerNet
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/165816/
332 members currently

BASE24 BASE24-eps – HP NonStop Tandem IBM SUN – Open System Services OSS RealTime – Experts Users
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/150095/
1,514 members currently

PCI DSS Compliant Payments Transactions Compliance Monitoring Alerting Querying Archiving Reporting
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/146595/
472 members currently

SATUG Southern African HP NonStop Tandem NSK Server User Group – SATUG
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/81881/
57 members currently

Payment Engine Applications Forum | Retail and Wholesale | HP NonStop NSK Tandem SUN IBM Windows
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/80773/
343 members currently

HPE NonStop Tandem NSK OSS Open System Services Monitoring – Users, Experts and Technical Authorities 
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/80740/
840 members currently

Job Batch Scheduling | HP NonStop Tandem Guardian Open System Services OSS Servernet Integrity Blade  
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/78111/
371 members currently

BASE24 BASE24-eps User Group Forum | HP NonStop Tandem NSK IBM SUN Windows – News Events Discussion
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/51296/
910 members currently

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Golf at St Andrews, Scotland – September 2018

As part of my 50th birthday celebrations and a yearly, informal golf competition amongst friends, I visited St Andrews and played a number of courses including the Eden Golf Course adjacent to the Old Course. We also stopped off at Penrith Gold Course and played 18 just before Storm Helene arrived. Helene travelled across the Atlantic and weakened from a tropical storm to an ex- tropical storm but could be felt on the drive back to Preston.

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My Top 100+ Movies so far…

My 100 plus clips from some of my favourite over the years I will add to the over the coming weeks and months

mark_whitfield_top_100_movies

My Aston Martin V8 Vantage Driving Experience

Three Sisters, Wigan – My Aston Martin V8 Vantage Driving Experience

Activity: ASTON MARTIN THRILL @ THREE SISTERS RACE CIRCUIT

Aston Martin V8 Vantage Car: Aston Martin V8 Vantage Max Speed: 180 mph 0-60mph: 4.7 secs BHP: 380 bhp Transmission: 6 Speed Manual Engine: 4.2 litres

MediaCityUK – Photographic Timeline Journal – 2007 to 2010 reprise…

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During my time working in Salford Quays as an IT Project Manager, I took a good number of photos (and movies) of the @MediaCityUK build (literally from the ground up). The pictures were taken from 2007 when the dockland was flat and unused, through to 2010. MediaCity UK is now home to the BBC and ITV in the north west and the University of Salford.

The 200 or so pictures represent an abridged timeline of the build selected from a few thousand starting with the most current picture first…

On Monday, will have been in Professional IT for 28 years…

Deluxe Data International Operations (formally The Software Partnership)

Deluxe Data International Operations, Wingate House, Northway, RUNCORNthesoftwarepartnershipwingatehousenorthwaysmall

I started work at 12pm, September 3rd 1990. The Runcorn office started life as The Software Partnership (first at Wingate Drive in Timperley and then Norton House in Crowngate and subsequently Wingate House in 1992 on Northway) in the mid-eighties (co-founded by Nigel Walsh) but was purchased in 1994 by the American company Deluxe Electronic Payment Systems. This in turn is part of Deluxe Corporation which is one of the largest cheque printers and debit transaction processors in the US, and a major supplier of secure card management systems. The company changed to EFD eFunds in 2000 and is now Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) (at 2007) based in Daresbury, Warrington. The Software Partnership started out developing on-line banking systems for Tandem and UNIX systems.