Dave Stokes's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

Development manager specialising in ERP, CRM, Reporting and BI in small to medium sized teams with the Microsoft technology stack in the Thames valley. A proven track record of creating, developing, fixing and solidifying high performance technical teams. An effective leader managing change in challenging environments by building a team ethic and harnessing their full collective potential....

Development manager specialising in ERP, CRM, Reporting and BI in small to medium sized teams with the Microsoft technology stack in the Thames valley. A proven track record of creating, developing, fixing and solidifying high performance technical teams. An effective leader managing change in challenging environments by building a team ethic and harnessing their full collective potential. Processes employed are adapted to the budget, quality and timescales, whilst still ensuring the solution is fit for purpose from both a commercial and technical perspective. A positive, calm and stable personality able to work without supervision and under pressure. Technical enough to get hands on in smaller teams or with larger teams purely managerial and strategic. Specialties: Delivering results in constantly changing environments (both expanding and contracting). Managing the full development life cycle from product strategy to delivery and support. Building company-wide infrastructure to tie up the technical processes, systems and relationships with the Sales, Marketing and Finance functions. Technical innovator grounded in strong commercial focus. People control, development and coaching, including handling offshore and multi-site teams. Able to tailor messages to suit the target audience.CTO @ Responsible for implementing infrastructure and facilitating the strategy to organically grow the business and build a market leading product. Day to day ownership for development, support, services, product management, release management and IT. PrecisionPoint is a pioneering Financial Reporting solution underpinned by turn-key BI technology and unique integration USP. • Grew support and maintenance revenue by 300%+ without increasing costs • Dealt with the people and process challenges of quadrupling the customer base • Scaled the product to perform overnight processing of ½ billion+ accounting transactions • Average customer retention increased from 65% to 90% • First Microsoft certified Dynamics NAV and AX Business Intelligence product worldwide • IT infrastructure architecture introduced bought IT spend to below 1.5% of total budget • Introduced at no cost a single integrated system across all technical and consulting functions dealing with work items, timesheets, workflow, costs, revenue and profitability breakdown. • “Green field” facilitation of the product strategy, release management and coding processes. • Deputises for CEO and was effectively acting CEO for 3 months. • British Accountancy Awards finalist 2014 From January 2009 to Present (7 years) Software Manager, Mid Market Division @ Delivery of software, architecture and product strategy for Business Intelligence (BI) products. • Delivered BI for the flagship Sage product in just 7 months. Sales conversion rate was 75%. • Implemented the product in Europe after working with the CTO as Principle Architect to devise a global advanced reporting strategy which would enable technology sharing across group op-cos. • Transformed the product plumbing in 3 months to use an alternative technology stack. • Grew revenue in key accounts up to 30%, including Morgan Stanley, Reuters and 3M • Project estimation methodology introduced was never out by more than 10%. • Produced a 40,000 word generic coaching blueprint to help other teams. From October 2007 to November 2008 (1 year 2 months) Product Development Manager, BI Division @ Recruited to manage the development, support and finance functions after Sage acquired the Enterprise BI company IntelligentApps. • Reduced costs by 30%, whilst tripling the number of product releases. • Protected domain knowledge in spite of over 80% of staff leaving during acquisition. Facilitated remaining contractors to be managed out of the business within 6 months. • Built new team and introduced over 3000 test scripts, robust version control and issue tracking system. • Topped morale survey across all Sage UK op-cos for 2 years running. Staff retention was 100%. • Topped the Bloor survey for best BI management tool. This was achieved by stabilising flawed platform architecture, improving product quality and bringing the lead architect on side. • Deputised for GM; accountable for Sage’s BI customers, whose turnover was £100 billion. From October 2005 to October 2007 (2 years 1 month) Platform Manager, Mid Market Division @ Initial role as Architect before being asked to take responsibility for overall management of the function. • Pioneered a new desktop in just 4 months to make it the flagship product (Sage 200). • Established Mid-Market technology and architecture roadmap, which was validated by the Group CTO. • Delivered project accounting module across multi site product teams with the new scrum development process, C# programming language and internal product API. • After 6 months the team was toping the application delivery metrics • Delivered presentations to large audiences at the annual visions and developer conferences. • Appointed member of the UK Technical Steering Group, which decided technical strategy for UK R&D. From October 2003 to October 2005 (2 years 1 month) R&D Manager, Central Division @ Asked by the UK CTO to build a new team delivering platform solutions to the Small, Mid-Market and Enterprise divisions. Reported to the UK CTO. • Successfully worked with the core remote development team to deliver a licensing tool that went into 50,000 UK businesses (without a single bug being raised). This was done without any testers within the team. • Without dedicated testing or analysis resource, used lightweight processes utilising technology, wherever possible, to deliver solutions. • Reviewed and scoped a generic reporting tool for all Sage businesses. • Generic conversion tool for Sage products enabling a customer base of 150,000 customers to be upgraded to the mid market product for the first time. • Designed a generic data model for all Sage products to be used with migration and reporting. From October 2001 to October 2003 (2 years 1 month) Platform Manager, Enterprise Division @ Reporting to the R&D Director; was responsible for ERP software development in the areas of server, client and databases. Sage is one of the leading global suppliers of business management software to 5.7+ million small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) worldwide (7% global market share). • Line manager responsibilities for managing the function. Deputised for the R&D Director. • Established new team processes with hybrid waterfall / iterative development methodologies. • Technical lead for the first 700 NT / SQL Server user site in the UK. Enabled discussions between the UK CEO and Steve Ballmer to resolve Microsoft technical issues. • First SQL Server product to be benchmarked past 1000 users at Microsoft labs. • Achieved the largest NHS NT / SQL ERP implementation at University Hospital Birmingham Trust. From October 1999 to October 2001 (2 years 1 month) Database Team Leader, Enterprise Division @ Initial contract position to cover maintenance and development of Enterprise accounts platform code. Joined permanently as Database team leader and responsible for all SQL Server, Oracle and Informix development work. The role reported to the Platform Manager. Tetra was one the UK’s leading ERP vendors before acquired by Sage (UK) Limited. • Managed project resource, including people. • Took on additional responsibility in the role for the server components and product builds. • Coded the first Sage Windows / SQL database product addressing Microsoft product flaws. • Headed task force to get Windows / SQL Server into the business partner community. • Wrote and delivered implementation training courses and product manual. From October 1996 to October 1999 (3 years 1 month) Analyst Programmer, Enterprise Division @ Contract and permanent position to cover maintenance and development of Enterprise accounts platform code. Delivered analysis, design and coding across all platform components. Produced several proof of concept projects such as NT and SQL Server support for the core product. Reduced the average log count from 40 to 10. From October 1994 to October 1996 (2 years 1 month) Application Analyst Programmer @ Application programmer for the accounts modules and bespoke development work. Wrote a sizeable chunk of the purchase ledger, particularly around transactions and cheque payments. Designed and delivered the report writer for the product. Agreed requirements, wrote design specifications and coded many bespoke projects for diverse areas such as tie production, lift maintenance and timber production. It also included ad-hock mock-ups for sales demos. Carried out other tasks such as manning the support desk and the hardware side of the business. From October 1992 to October 1994 (2 years 1 month) Application Programmer @ Full time programmer for a software house specialising in the printed circuit board manufacturing industry. Project design and implementation including the Timesheet and Control module. Delivered phone and modem support when required. From October 1989 to October 1992 (3 years 1 month) Technical Experience / Qualifications and Training Dave Stokes is skilled in: SaaS, ERP, Business Intelligence, Software Project Management, Microsoft SQL Server, Business Process, Product Management, Software Development, Enterprise Software, Business Analysis, Databases, Change Management, Management, Scrum, SQL