Bruce Ferguson - Curriculum Vitae

Details

Introduction

I am a contractor in the Business Intelligence field and have experience in all aspects of Business Intelligence development,including;

• Researching and documenting business requirements, recommending solutions,
• Developing Extract Transform and Load (ETL) processes, stored procedures, datamart and reporting tables,
• Developing formatted reports,
• Administration of scheduling, enterprise wide distribution, and web delivery.

I enjoy the challenge of digging into databases and data warehouses to understand data structures and find meaningful information, also the creativity involved in producing attractive and meaningful reports for business users.

I have a business focus that helps me to apply an understanding of the needs of the end-user, as well as maintaining the importance of the business objectives. I’m interested in delivering functionality to the end user, rather than just the abstract world of source code.

I would consider my chief assets are my flexibility and my can do attitude. In whatever tasks I undertake I consider whether improvements can be made or where value can be added and I take initiative where appropriate.

Work History

Summary

• May 08 to present, NZAID, Reporting Services and Data Warehouse Developer
• Apr 06 to May 08, Bank of New Zealand, Reporting Analyst Programmer
• Sep 05 to Apr 06, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, iCONZ Systems Administrator.
• Aug 04 to Sep 05, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Cognos Report development.
• Jun 04 to Aug 04, The New Zealand Police, Crystal Reports development.
• Jul 03 to Jun 04, Overseas travel.
• Jul 01 to Jul 03, OA Systems Ltd, Technical Consultant
• Oct 00 to Jul 01, Child, Youth and Family, 2nd Level Application Support
• May 00 to Oct 00, Works Infrastructure, MS Access application support.
• Oct 99 to Mar 00, ECC Thailand, English teaching.
• Jun 99 to Oct 99, Overseas travel.
• May 97 to Jun 99, Methodware, GUI development, Web Site, help, documentation.
• Oct 96 to May 97, Overseas travel.
• Jun 95 to Oct 96, IRD, Support of a Text Retrieval System.
• Aug 92 to Jun 95, IRD, Software support, Print production, Spreadsheets, Admin.
• Oct 90 to Aug 92, IRD, Customer Service with Tax matters.
• Jan 89 to Oct 90, New Zealand Post Ltd, Management of Circulars.
• Feb 83 to Jan 89, NZPO / New Zealand Post Ltd, Clerical, and Customer Service.
• Jun 80 to Feb 83, Upper Hutt City Council, Part time library assistant.

May 2008 to present.
NZAID, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Reporting Services and Data Warehouse Developer, Wellington.

NZAID has a number of SQL Server based applications which are maintained in house, in particular a Workflow Management system, and an Asset Management system.

My role is focussed on the design and development of the new NZAID Data Warehouse, including extracts from all of NZAID's applications and the development of formatted reports delivered through Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Tasks included;

• Configuration and Administration of the Report server and the SQL Server Test database server.
• The development of ETL packages in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Transact SQL.
• Investigating into various databases, in particular normalising a very complex object oriented database into a structure that could be understood and easily reported on,
• Gathering reporting, researching, recommending solutions to meet those requirements,
• Development and delivery of reports in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

April 2006 to May 2008.
Bank of New Zealand
Reporting Analyst Programmer, Development Centre, Wellington.

The Development Centre Team I was a part of developed and maintained reporting solutions for the rest of the Bank. A variety of systems and platforms are used and supported; Mainframe, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, Business Objects, and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.

The Bank of New Zealand operates a very structured System Development Lifecycle. As a member of a team of developers my involvement in a particular piece of work or project could be anything from just one specific task as part of a larger team to managing the process from start to finish. My role included;

• Analysis of business requirements, researching, recommending solutions to meet those requirements,
• The development of workbriefs and business proposals, containing information on cost, benefits, constraints, and risks for proposed solutions,
• Development of data extracts, reporting databases, and stored procedures to support reporting, optimising the data structures for on-demand reporting,
• Development, deployment, and support of reports written in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services or Business Objects,
• System administration and support of our Business Objects XI and Business Objects 6.5 enterprise reporting environments.
• Investigating into various databases, data warehouses, extracts, and cubes to obtain meaningful information for adhoc reporting requests.
• Mentoring and technical lead for two graduate developers.

A few examples of projects that I played a major part in were;
RAG Reporting, these were Management Information reports developed in SSRS which scored Red/Amber/Green against various KPI's. This involved the creation of a reporting datamart, as data came from a variety of unrelated sources and often required transformation to enable meaningful reports to be developed.
Complaints reporting, done in SSRS contained a complex combination of drilldown and context sensitive hyperlinked reports. These passed parameters from each hyperlinked cell displayed in each cross-tab report to making the reports highly interactive.
IPTel reporting, a set of reports on Call Centre staff activity containing complex calculations in the Business Objects Universe for call volumes and agent activity and the aggregation and formatting of hours minutes and seconds.

September 2005 to April 2006.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
iCONZ Systems Administrator, Wellington.

iCONZ is a Consular Case management system implemented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is an Intranet application with an SQL Server back end and is a modification of the COSMOS system used by the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An additional Internet module called RONZ was developed during my time there.

My role included the following;

• Day to day administration of security, adding and removing users.
• Maintaining a register of faults and enhancement requests, prioritising these, and managing the process to resolve these.
• Installation, testing, and release of systems fixes and enhancements.
• Checking data quality and fixing incorrect data where necessary.
• Training users in the use of the system, both Wellington and overseas users.
• Monitoring system usage and providing remedial training where necessary.
• Assisting in defining the business requirements and acceptance testing of the new RONZ module.
• Improving on the design and layout of the ASP/HTML pages of the RONZ module.
• Writing of management information and system audit reports.

August 2004 to September 2005.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
HRIS Cognos Report Developer, Wellington.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) upgraded their HRIS system to PS Enterprise and required a suite of reports to be developed using Cognos Impromptu, the database is SQL Server 2000.

My reporting role included the following;

• Developing over 90 different reports using Cognos Impromptu.
• Researching and documenting new and additional Business Intelligence requirements.
• Testing the reports and arranging their availability to end users.
• Training and supporting staff in the use of Impromptu and the reports.
• Undertaking adhoc data extracts and the completion of reports for complex Human Resource surveys.
• Verifying the correctness of data conversion from the old system.
• The development of an overnight batch job (using Cognoscript) that could run reports according to a schedule and email them to report recipients.

The PSE database is very complex, as are most HR systems. This was compounded by the MFAT HR environment being very complex as staff were posted all over the world with all of the various terms and conditions, currencies, and allowances etc associated with that. Some of the reports required joining (sometimes unrelated) data from 15 to 20 different tables.

There were a lot of inconsistencies of data structures within the database, particularly around end dates of records, which made as at date reporting quite complex.

Other project related tasks I was involved with, not specifically related to Business Intelligence, are as follows;

• Assisting in defining the business requirements for the Phase II modules, and the Web Portal.
• Testing and fault resolution for the Web Application.
• Backup and assistance to System Administrator in resolving faults, liaising with vendors, testing, and training.
• Administration of user access and security for PS Enterprise.

June 2004 to August 2004.
The New Zealand Police College
Crystal Reports Developer, Porirua.

The New Zealand Police upgraded their Help Desk Management software to the new version of HEAT, they required existing reports to be redeveloped and new reports to be developed in time for the system go-live. These reports were written in Crystal Reports, the database is SQL Server 2000.

My role included the following;

• Analysis of the existing reports, researching and documenting the Business Intelligence requirements.
• Re-development of the reports using Crystal Reports.
• Testing the reports and arranging their availability to end users.
• Verifying the correctness of data conversion from the old system to the new.

The quality of the existing reports varied considerably and all required a good tidy up at least. There was little or no documentation so I had to rely on my ability to dissect reports and question end-users.

The data structures changed when moving to the new system, particularly around the monitoring of SLA performance, so some reports required a total re-write.

Many of the old reports involved using Crystal to extract data from the system into Excel where it was manipulated manually. One very complex report involved a day or more of manual tinkering to produce each week, and the end result was inaccurate. I exceeded expectations by automating this process within Crystal.

July 2001 to July 2003.
OA Systems Ltd
Technical Consultant, Wellington.

OA Systems was New Zealand’s largest vendor for Crystal Reports together with the related enterprise management applications; Seagate Info and Crystal Enterprise. OA Systems sold the software and on a consultancy basis installed, configured, customised systems design, wrote reports, and hosted training courses.

My role was as a consultant to our customers and included the following;

• Report writing using Crystal Reports.
• Gathering and documenting Business Intelligence requirements for customers, providing advice on the best options, and writing report specifications.
• Testing reports and reporting environments.
• Reporting database development and customisation, and writing DTS packages and Stored Procedures to support reporting.
• Custom web application development within the Crystal Enterprise environment.
• Installation and configuration of Seagate Info and Crystal Enterprise, and the migration of customer sites from old versions to new.

Some of the projects and customers I was involved with were:
A web application for a Government department: This involved setting up a data extract into a reporting database outside of their firewall. Creating reporting tables with a flattened data structure to enable good performance. Developing a back end stored procedure which acted like a search engine to return report results. Developing the reports including hyperlinks that allowed reports to be run from previous report results. See http://spectrumonline.med.govt.nz/licence-search.html
A reporting application and data warehouse for an SOE: The main complexity for this project was security setup as each user was only to have access to certain data. It would have been far too complex for Crystal Enterprise to cope with so it was decided to handle it by creating reporting tables to enable row-level security and Stored Procedures optimised for reporting to give the performance to make this possible.
A Health sector agency: A financial reporting project, plus assistance with the maintenance of their Seagate Info environment.

Other regular, non-project, tasks included;

Maintaining the network of the OA Systems training suite, re-ghosting and configuring training workstations.

October 2000 to July 2001.
Child, Youth and Family
Application Support Analyst, Wellington.

Child, Youth, and Family was the government agency looking after the rights of children, adoptions, and community funding. My role was in supporting CYRAS (case management system), and some other minor systems. CYRAS has an Oracle back-end with a Java front-end.

My role included the following:

• Level 2 help desk support, analysing faults and change requests, and recommending changes.
• Replicating reported faults, testing and authorising the release of fixes.
• Writing test scripts, and user acceptance testing of new releases.
• Managing the System Development Life Cycle, prioritising and co-ordinating the resolution of problem requests and clarifying the business needs.
• Communication between the users, business owners, developers, and database administrators, to resolve issues.
• Making changes to codes tables and templates.

May 2000 to October 2000
Works Infrastructure Ltd
Contract Application Support Analyst, Wellington.

This company is a large Engineering contractor. My role was to support an Access Database system that was designed in-house to handle project management and billing for contracts managed by this company, this was installed at over 30 sites throughout NZ.

June 1997 to June 1999
Methodware Ltd
Software Development, Testing, and Documentation, Wellington.

This company developed and market software which automates methodologies for Auditors. It does so using a proprietary Windows based database development shell coded with Visual Smalltalk. We developed customised products for specific organisations, as well as off-the- shelf products.

June 1995 to June 1997
Inland Revenue Department
Data Coordinator, Planning and Development Division, Wellington.

The ‘Technical Reference Support System’ is an on-line text retrieval system implemented for the whole of the Inland Revenue Department. It contains Tax Law and departmental circulars also operational material is in the process of being added. There are two versions, a Unix client, and a Windows client, both using Status IQ software as a server.

August 1992 to June 1995
Inland Revenue Department
Implementation Coordinator, FIRST Training, Wellington.

FIRST Training is responsible for the development of training for all custom computer systems implemented within the Inland Revenue Department. This includes Computer-based, Paper-based, and Instructor-led training for up to 5800 staff.

October 1990 to August 1992
Inland Revenue Department
Officer, Taxpayer Services, Lower Hutt.

Taxpayer Services is the programme within the Inland Revenue Department that deals with customer enquiries.

January 1989 to October 1990
New Zealand Post Ltd
Commercial Manager Circulars, Wellington Region.

This was a standalone position focused on running the Household Circulars operation, which was a fairly small product/service for NZ Post.

February 1983 to January 1989
New Zealand Post Office/New Zealand Post Ltd
Clerical Officer, Lower Hutt and Wellington North District Office.

I belonged to the Postmasters Office area. This had responsibility for the administration and agency functions within the Post Office.

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Software Skills

The following is a list some of the software packages and technologies I have used indicating my skill level:

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services	Advanced report developer and system administrator.
Crystal Reports	Advanced report developer.
Cognos Impromptu	Advanced report developer.
Business Objects	Advanced report and universe developer.
Seagate Info, and Crystal Enterprise,
and Business Objects XI	Administration, installation and configuration.
MS SQL Server	DTS, SSIS, datamarts, transact SQL and stored procedures.
MS Visual Studio	Business Intelligence developer.
Oracle and TOAD	Basic database development and administration.
Sybase	Basic querying.
SQL, and Transact-SQL	Advanced developer.
PL-SQL	Basic developer.
Windows	Basic server administration, a little networking.
MS Word	Advanced user.
MS Excel	Advanced user.
MS Access	Average developer.
PS Enterprise	System administrator.
Paint Shop Pro	Advanced designer.
HTML, and DHTML	Advanced hand coding development.
Homesite, and HTML-Kit	Advanced user.
Dreamweaver	Basic user.
Javascript CGI, and ASP	Some skills in modification, or configuring existing scripts.
PVCS Dimensions	Basic user.
HEAT	Basic user.
Remedy Action Request System	Basic user.
Norton Ghost	Average user.
UNIX	Basic user.

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Educational Qualifications

The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand:

1992	120 Organisation and Management	B
	160 Quantitative business methods	B
1991	100 Accounting Principles	B+
	140 Business Communication	A

Upper Hutt College:

1982	University Entrance Accredited
1982	Sixth form Certificate
1981	School Certificate

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Referees

I will supply names and contact details on request.

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Links to other sites that I have designed

Some of these have since undergone a re-design by somebody else.

Bodhinyanarama Net - A web site for the Wellington Theravada Buddhist Monastery. Manor Park Golf - A Golf club in the Hutt Valley, Wellington. Wellington Warlords Inc - A wargaming club based in Wellington, no longer maintained by me. Methodware Ltd - My previous employers web site which I designed and maintain. They have since added a frameset. Wonderful World of the Windy Wellington Weird & Wacky World Wide Web - A tongue in cheek directory and links site for and about Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. De Bellis Multitudinis - My Web Site on the DBM ancient wargames rules. Paintworld - Wargames miniature painting service. Therapeutic Massage - The Healing Touch - A Massage Therapist located in Wellington. The Serious Search Page - Can't find what you're looking for? Try the Serious Search Page. Wellington Webz - My Web Site Design and Development Service. My Favourite Tag Lines - Quotes, Jokes, and Tag lines. The Amazingly Awful Almanac of Absolutely Agonising Alliterations - A collection of Alliterations written by me. My Home Page - A front page with a difference, I just wanted to play around with graphics and Javascript.

The author is a member of

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For more information contact me.