What would you consider to be your main area of expertise?

For me there are two key areas of specialisation. I combine being a PeopleSoft Functional Specialist with being a Project Manager. Understanding both what the user wants from the system, keeping an eye on the overall objectives, and making sure there is real value from deliverables are high on my list of priorities.

What project have you most enjoyed working on and why?
That’s a toughie. I have worked on many diverse HR and Payroll implementations over my time but some of the more challenging from a design perspective have to be the labour costing systems developed for a number of financial and manufacturing customers. Really blurred the line between where the Payroll system finished and the Costing systems started.

From a project management perspective I have managed payroll implementations in Australia that went like clockwork. It’s really interesting when a go-live is an anti-climax because pretty much everything work first up (obviously there were some minor hiccups). Very satisfying though.

For sheer challenge, I was Tech Project Manager on a Student Administration project looking after 35 techies across 5 development streams. The overall project was about 120 people that had some real challenges (organizational, political, and especially technical).

What is the most interesting customisation that you have delivered or seen in PeopleSoft?
That would have to be the labour costing systems. They took the recorded attendance and mapped costing codes to these. Then after they were converted to pay components carried this costing forward. Not as straight forward as one might think since attendance could break into many different components.

On the HR front, I designed an add-on to the recruitment module that would track agencies providing resources to an organization. It tracked the areas of recruitment the providers specialized in, measured the quality of candidates provided, and then compared these to a number of performance indicators to gauge the effectiveness of both the providers and the recruitment process.

What originally drew you to consulting or the computing field?
Initially curiosity and to see whether I could do it. Turned out that not only was I pretty good at it I could also lead & project manage pretty effectively too. Consulting was pretty interesting from the point of view that no two businesses are the same. Whilst some functioned far more efficiently than others you would be surprised at how many different ways there are of achieving the same business outcome. These differing practices and ways of doing business broaden your own knowledge and means you can bring an unparalleled depth of experience to future clients.

What advice would you give to a new client starting with PeopleSoft?
The lessons learned through 7 years of PeopleSoft implementing would lead me to the following key points:

1)      There is no such thing as ‘pure vanilla’ – you generally have to make minor changes;

2)      Things always take longer than you think – contingency is vital with good planning;

3)      There is no substitute for testing, testing and more testing (except more testing);

4)      If you always do what you have always done, you’ll always get what you always had;

5)      Your implementation partner is your friend

Why did you join Congruent?

Not long after becoming a consultant Nino suggested Congruent would be a good move so I joined about 6 months after the Australian Company was initially formed. Back then I added a different dimension to the Company which was essentially at that stage just a group of very good techies. I managed to win the first two full implementations that Congruent in Australia ever did in their own right. Not long after I became a partner in Congruent in Australia

Then about three years ago Anton invited me over to work for a short period in the UK and France. I jumped at the opportunity that was then for four months. I then moved here to continue the experience about a year ago and never looked back also becoming a partner in the UK business a short while ago.

Where do you want to be in 5 years time?
Hmmmm, that’s a tough one. I am the kind of person who wants to do everything and do it now. I wouldn’t mind implementing PeopleSoft CRM Sales & Marketing since I also work as part of the business development team. There are of course so many other aspects of the product to get to know and learn I could stay busy for ages.
 

Project wise I would like to have also managed a couple of large projects end-to-end. Hopefully I would have witnessed Congruent grow into a powerful PeopleSoft Implementation partner with unparalleled product and management experience.
 

Owning or running a small winery would also be fun, or the beach, or…

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