mark whitfield
I graduated in Computing in 1990 and have spent over 28 years working with large, blue chip companies at ascending points in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) for both Digital and payment / transaction projects (Agile and Waterfall). mark whitfield
To date, I have worked on many large IT projects including solutions for Jaguar Landrover (JLR), Local Regional Government (LRG), Heathrow, Royal Mail Group (RMG), NATS, Euroclear (formerly Crestco), Bank of England, Rabobank, Barclays, LTSB, Alliance &Leicester (now Santander), HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Global Payments. mark whitfield
Before becoming a Senior IT Project Manager, I have worked on many software development projects developing with C, C++, MS SQL, COBOL, TAL, Java and also with the ASP.NET framework, HP NonStop BASE24, XPNET and PATHWAY. mark whitfield
1990 – 1995:
After graduating, I accepted a position as a Programmer at a Runcorn (Cheshire – at Norton House) based software house specialising in Electronic Banking software, namely sp/ARCHITECT-BANK on Tandem Mainframe Computers (now HPE NonStop). This was before the internet became more prevalent and so the notion of enabling desktop PC access to Company accounts for inter-account transfers and related book keeping was still quite a cutting edge idea. The company was called The Software Partnership (which was taken over by Deluxe Data in 1994-95 – then at Wingate House) which was co-founded in 1985 by Nigel Walsh. SP-ARCHITECT eventually evolved into the CONNEX advantage solution. mark whitfield
I spent 5 years in Runcorn developing code for SP/ARCHITECT for various banks including TSB, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Rabobank and Girofon (Denmark). For the latter, I helped develop a suite of code to enable Girofon customers to access their bank account details and latest balance by using a voice, menu-driven, touch-tone phone which dialed into a Periphonics interactive voice software VRAM device hosted at the bank. This then accessed the linked HPE NonStop back-end for the latest customer account information and then reading them back to the customer as required.
Further key code development work also included the software design and development on the Barclays Business Master II (BBM II) project in the early nineties where I was placed on-site at Knutsford (Cheshire). I then spent a further 3-months down at Barclays in Poole (Dorset – Wimborne Road) to develop a batch billing suite of modules to attach to the BBM II application for invoicing client’s use. mark whitfield
I left Deluxe Data International Operations in August 1995 and then as a Senior Programmer joined a software house in Salford Quays, Manchester called Insider Technologies Limited (ITL). The company was founded in 1989 by Steve Tanham and Jim Chapman. Insider specialised in HPE NonStop software for both monitoring (Reflex) and batch scheduling (MultiBatch) on this this mainframe platform. Insider also provided software (RTLX, Sentra) to enable the monitoring, querying and reporting on the ACI BASE24 Classic ATM / POS application using the transaction log files.
1995 – 2004:
As a Senior Programmer, I co-developed a number of platform health, diagnostic plug-in modules for Reflex (also known as Reflex 80:20). These included ‘Console’ for HPE NonStop EMS event viewing and filtering, ‘Status Monitor’ for monitoring HPE NonStop platform components (CPU, Disk, Process, File, MQ, XPNET, TCP/IP to name but a few) and ‘Service Monitor’ for building multi-line, rule based analysis of grouped HPE NonStop components to ascertain overall application / service health. mark whitfield
Code was developed using a combination of NonStop programming languages including COBOL85, TAL, TACL, SQL, C and C++ on the HPE NonStop platform and typically configured to execute inside of a PATHWAY process to enable failover (auto-restart) capability.
In 1997, I was placed at CRESTCo (now Euroclear) in London (contracted out as a consultant by Insider Technologies Limited) producing volume testing and benchmark software. This software was used to test the overall performance of their Stock Settlement application on the new S7000 hp NonStop nodes (first delivered in the country). The results obtained were compared with their existing live K class systems running the same application. I was on-site at CRESTCo for 3 months. mark whitfield
During my time developing various modules for Reflex, in the late nineties I became the Product Manager for this monitoring product and also attended and presented at a number of key IT HPE NonStop conferences in the UK and off-shore, to promote and report on the latest product updates. Conferences I attended included, EBUG (European BASE24 User Group), ITUG (International Tandem User Group in San Jose), SATUG (South African Tandem User Group) and BITUG (British Isles Tandem User Group).
In 2002 after a successful Reflex to IBM TIVOLI integration, I was instrumental in managing and attaining the very first, HP OpenView Operations Enterprise Manager – 2-way Smart Plug-In (SPI) certification for the HPE NonStop platform via the Reflex product. This solution enabled HPE NonStop EMS event alerts to be relayed to the HPE Enterprise Manager GUI screens for multi-platform monitoring and troubleshooting at a client’s Operations Bridge. As this was a 2-way platform solution, with Reflex installed, users could then initiate tasks to remedy issues directly from the HP OVO console. mark whitfield
2005 – 2013:
In the earliest part of the millennium and still at Insider, I began to get more involved with HPE NonStop transaction / payment monitoring for both ATM and Point-of-Sale (POS) devices linked to the platform using ACI’s XPNET software product. Now as an IT Project Manager, I started to field waterfall projects which involved taking the browser enabled RTLX (Real-Time Log eXtraction) product forward by linking in with Insider’s key financial clients and also banking delegates attending related European conferences, to feedback requirements for development. RTLX was successfully delivered to a number of UK banks and payment providers including HSBC and Global Payments. mark whitfield
In 2011 (while the BBC were setting up their new BBC North operation in Salford Quays called MediaCityUK), a very key project delivery for myself was a large transaction tracking project at Al Rajhi Bank in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). For this, I made a number of trips out to Saudi for requirements gathering, consultancy and eventual implementation where I recall presenting the merits of RTLX at the bank on a Sunday morning (Friday being the religious day in Saudi) before it was eventually taken up as their chosen transaction querying solution.
The ensuing Agile SCRUM project involved the BASE24 Classic payment solution and the relay and optimised parsing of multiple Terabytes (10 years) of tape archived POS and ATM transaction logs to the RTLX product. Parsed authorisation/settlement transaction records and tokens were stored in a normalised MS SQL database (partitioned) on a Windows server for browser querying and reporting by multiple bank departments. Sensitive transaction fields (e.g. PAN numbers) were encrypted using AES_256 encryption in line with on-site PCI DSS directives. mark whitfield
This successful bank project was featured in the globally published HPE NonStop journal – ‘The Connection’. PDF version – page 12.
During this time, I became an accredited / registered PRINCE2 Practitioner (with ILX) and also trained to enable successful project deliveries using the Agile SCRUM framework. I left Insider Technologies in 2013 having progressed from a young and proficient HPE NonStop technician / programmer in the mid-nineties to IT Project Manager.
2014:
I joined Wincor Nixdorf in September 2013 and was recruited as an Agile IT PM to manage ATM software delivery to a number of primary UK banks. The last was on-site at Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), Halifax as the IT Project Manager assigned to manage the Wincor Nixdorf work stream (£5+ million) as part of the LBG Self-Service Software Replacement (SSSR) programme.
This programme of change required the upgrade of the entire LBG ATM hardware estate to run Windows 7 (from XP) and to transfer the ATM driving responsibility away from BASE24 Classic on HP NonStop to Wincor’s ProClassic Enterprise (PC/E) on the AIX platform running Oracle. This involved the project management of both UK and off-shore resources as well as linking with the client for both project status updates and the latest financial burn rates. mark whitfield
In late 2014, I joined Betfred as a Senior IT Project Manager in the Gambling and Casinos industry delivering multiple projects for both Betfred online and mobile (iOS, Android and Windows) using the Agile SCRUM framework. Project deliveries covered payment gateways and methods, sportsbook for football and horse racing amongst others and the online virtual (computer generated) gaming components.
Projects varied in size and cost and extended over multiple phases requiring the management of many software suppliers, each delivering different aspects of the solution from fraud detection, frontend, middleware, payment services and mobile apps.
2016 to present:
I joined Capgemini in January 2016 as a client-facing Engagement Manager for the delivery of both Waterfall and Agile digital projects (on and off-shore development teams) to different industry focus areas around the UK including automotive, local regional government, postal service and aerospace & defence.
I am currently augmented into MuleSoft as a Delivery Manager.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like any more information… mark whitfield
Mark Whitfield 