Staff Interview
What were you doing immediately before joining us? Before CLC I worked for Graitec, a national Autodesk reseller. As part of my role at Graitec I helped deliver the managed IT Service to small clients in the Architectural, Engineering, Construction & Manufacturing industries. A lot of IT Infrastructure refreshes and installs!
Previous experience? Last year I was involved with the cloud upgrade for CLC’s ERP system from the on-premise Dynamics Nav deployment to the cloud based Business Central. A big part of this was the customisation of Business Central through development of Al Code customisations.
Plans for the merged business in outline? Regular communications with function leaders to ensure IT is aligned with business requirements. To work with the business teams to Integrate, merge and unify applications. Implement and support new applications as requested.
How will your plans improve our business? When the Business and IT are aligned, we can prioritise and push forward timely and relevant projects. The merge into group systems and applications will allow teams to work together and unite on a single set of IT solutions.
Name Peter Burden
Job title Head of Finance & Operations Technology
Department/Division Group IT
Date of joining CLC January 2019
Based Southampton
Any challenges you would like to share? Managing change so we can control the risk associated with that change is going to be key. When changing applications, their configuration or ways of working in general, we have to respect what that means for our end users, so communicating and controlling this change properly is critical.
Immediate priorities – what does your day look like? It’s a case of maintaining our “As Is” applications, with a mix of planning and arranging our migration to our “end state” applications. Also as requirements for our “end state” becomes clearer, planning and standing up a support function within the team for these applications and services.
Goals for the business?
Implementing and supporting applications that help business functions reach their goals effectively and efficiently.
What do you need from the business/us to achieve these goals? An effective cycle of feedback, clear communications and a clear set of requirements we can act upon.
Any thoughts on the integration process that you would like to share? If we want the integration process to be a success, we really need a focus on communication! This will greatly help our visibility of the “what, how and why” as everything fits together.
Who’s on your immediate team? Since starting this role I’ve had an incredible showing of support from both my colleagues who already know me in CLC and the growing IT Leadership team for Axis CLC. It’s something I am incredibly grateful for.
A specific shout out to Dave Roberts and Paulo Borges de Sousa who have run and maintained the finance systems on both sides of the business to date, and will play a key part in the unified system going forward! Their efforts are really appreciated!
Finally... Any hobbies, clubs, beliefs, activities you would like to share? I’m into a lot of very typical “Geek” activities… Dungeons & Dragons, Video Gaming, Warhammer & model making, 3D Design & Printing. I also love Airsoft! It’s got me travelling to a bunch of fun events across England with a great group of people. The next big one I’m looking forward to is the Warzone Airsoft Festival at the end of July!
I’m really looking forward to the challenge ahead, its going to be tough but there’s lots to learn and many new colleagues to meet and get to know!