Jensten Underwriting - System Architect & Lead Developer
Tasker Insurance Group - Lead C# MVC Developer
Gresham Underwriting (Tasker Group) - Senior C# MVC Developer

Office based in Dartford but work from home full time

In this role I was initially taken on board to develop new products along side their existing B2B web application used by Insurance Brokers and in-house Underwriters. However, this quickly changed when my superiors saw what I'd developed after a short period of time and gave myself and another developer, the go-ahead to continue to develop the application I'd started, which is a complete, state of the art (at the time in 2016) B2B insurance quote & management applictaion, - to replace their existing one - using MVC, Entity Framework and WebAPI 2.
Once the B2B application was prooperly up and running, I then spear-headed the project to create a new B2C web application to sell insurance directly to the public. This was completed in .NET and was also a Web API / MVC application, integrated in to my platform via restful web services.

Around August 2021, Tasker Insurance Group was bought out by Jensten Underwriting. Jensten had existing developers who were integrated in to my .NET developemnt team, to continue to work on the Platform I originally designed and developed, in order to integrate all Jensten's wholesale business on to said platform, negating the need for their existing platform.

I now lead a team of 5 developers, improving and adding features to the platform on a daily basis.

FSI FM

Senior C# MVC Developer in Upminster

In this role I was jointly responsible for the maintenance and future feature development of the company’s main API & Web Portal for interacting with their customers’ mobile devices (via OS specific native apps) and other 3rd party FM (Facilities Management) software. I was part of a reasonably large team working in harmony with various different departments in the company to ensure a quality product. We worked to an Agile methodology.

Inspired Thinking Group (ITG)

.NET Team Leader in Dartford

In this role I managed a team of 7 .NET developers working on various .NET 4.0+ & MVC corporate web applications, boasting clients such as ASDA, Morrisons, Boots, Puma, KFC, Crew Clothing and more. The role allowed me to keep a hand in with development 30% of the time, the other 70% is spent running the team on a day to day basis, mainly working from JIRA alongside the Project Manager on a ticket based multi-branching development time-line, developing new bespoke code for each high level corporate client. The team required a very hands-on approach and some individuals required some teaching/mentoring with regards to best practices and generally improving on their knowledge of the .NET development environment. We worked to very tight deadlines and I operated an Agile development environment (where possible) heading up daily SCRUMs to address the team and to make sure development is on schedule etc.

EXOPC - (Software House & Computer Engineering - Canada HQ)

Developer Community Manager remote working

This role was essentially a two sided coin, on one side it was my responsibility to manage, oversee & coordinate a global network of MS technology based developers and on the other I was developing applications myself as well as API DLL’s for the engine of EXOPC’s unique User Interface Layer. The developers, including myself, use various platforms including but not limited to; .NET 3.5/4 (ASP/VB/C#), XML, HTML4/5, Silverlight, WCF & Windows Forms to enable them to develop applications specifically targeted for use within the EXOPC UI Layer along with its global App Store. The UI Layer was essentially a Win32 application for Windows 7 that runs on top of the Windows OS specifically for Tablet PC’s (Such as the EXOPC Slate), and All-In-One touch enabled PC’s, to make the Windows 7 interface more touch friendly. It’s largely based on HTML5 where the main core of the application is a full screen ‘Kiosk’ mode browser incorporating almost all types of web-based programming languages including a language developed by the CTO of EXOPC called MioScript (http://www.mioplanet.com/) As well as managing the developers, I personally developed an essential ‘go between’ interface API (.NET 4.0 DLL) solution, between the EXOPC user interface and the Windows 7 API to control all sorts of Windows OS functions such as volume control, screen brightness, wifi network management & signal strength and multi-touch sensing etc. This brought the world of muti-touch to the world of HTML development.

Prior to my official employment with EXOPC I was invited on a consultancy basis to work for them to attend their corporate meetings with potential partners at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January of 2011, and the Intel Solutions Summit (ISS) in Barcelona a couple of months later. After CES I then met with the head of EMEA at Microsoft at their offices in Reading to demonstrate the EXOPC UI Layer to their top level account managers who manage some of the largest Microsoft clients in the UK such as; The Dixons Group and CMS.
3 Month Contract.

Easier2move Ltd.

Software Development Manager in Rochford, Essex

In this role I started as a Senior Software Developer, developing entire web based applications initially in .NET 1.1 and then bringing the company up to date with .NET 2.0 then 3.5. I, with the assistance of one other junior developer in my team, over the time span of around 6-7 months completely re-wrote Easier2move’s antiquated in-house and B2B web application from classic ASP to .NET 1.1 in 2006, not only replacing functionality but improving the work flow with new system protocols & procedures to lighten the work load of the staff, automating many procedures that previously required human intervention. During this time I still had to support and fire-fight the original classic ASP application until it was eventually scrapped. I personally designed the new application’s look & feel, the new database that was required and not only coded most of the application myself but orchestrated the new build between my team. This was a success with copious amounts of positive feedback from the in-house staff as well as the B2B clients on ease of use, speed increase etc. When Home Information Packs (HIPs) were introduced I managed to save Easier2move approx. £50,000.00 per annum by creating an add-on for the new application to process and manage HIPs, compiling uploaded documents such as property searches and EPCs in to combined PDFs ready to send to the printers or electronically to Estate Agents and Clients. This also involved integrating many complex third party Web Services in to the application and work-flow. The money was saved as they were going to pay a third party company to do this process for them. Essentially I assessed the needs of the business ahead of a deadline, looked at the best way to provide a solution, put a proposal to the Directors and once approved took ownership of the full life cycle of the project such as conception, development, testing & implementation etc.

Dealogic Investment Banking Management

Software Developer in Central London

In this role I was responsible for the in-house Intranet application as well as some new small add-on applications related to the financial industry. It was a classic ASP application and had many facets including a section for managing Human Resources processes. Whilst at Dealogic I helped create a specialised ASP ‘table’ control which had many of the features you’d see today within new .NET controls. The table was implemented throughout the system and helped many people when sorting data etc.
I left Dealogic after a short spell there to find a position closer to home as at the end of November 2005 my son was born.

Cruise Control Cruise Only Travel Agency

Senior Software Developer in Romford, Essex

In this role I was a senior member of a six person team of developers who were responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of an existing in-house bespoke built ASP web application, to quote and book cruises on all the major Tour Operators’ ships for our clients.
During my time at Cruise Control I developed a fare scanning system based in VB that would take a pre-determined list of departures and destinations and scrape/download the LIVE up-to-date fare information from the tour operators’ physical booking systems via IP communication. This meant that the fares (which we stored on our local SQL in-house database for speed), were kept exceptionally up-to-date, and the sales staff were much less-likely to lose sales because of miss-quoted fares. Prior to me developing, testing and implementing this new scanning system, which I developed for them initially at home in my own time, Cruise Control employed a department of some 15 staff to manually go in to each operators’ system on a daily basis to attempt to keep this information up to date. The department previously responsible was abolished and the company saved approximately 10-12 members of staff's wages per annum thereafter. Unfortunately that alone was not enough as the company suddenly liquidated in September of 2005.

Airflights Direct Ltd. Flight Only Travel Agency

IT & Software Development Manager in Southend, Essex

● Design, develop, test & implement industry specific software incorporating the latest technology in order to keep ahead of the industry, for all sales staff to use to sell all products, combining Visual Basic with HTML, ASP, JavaScript & Sql.
● Maintain current industry specific software systems I developed for the company.
● Be responsible for the management, day-to-day running and support of all IT equipment.
● Manage a team of 4 assistants within IT department.
● Design, develop, test & implement internal INTRANET for staff, incorporating all administration needs. Hand coding all HTML, Javascript & ASP needed to create the Intranet.
● Maintain INTRANET from day to day, keeping information up to date and precise.
● Design, develop, test & implement fully E-commerce customer facing website for all product sales, which include charter flight sales, holiday car hire sales, holiday insurance sales, airport parking sales etc. incorporating ASP, HTML, JavaScript & SQL. Hand coding all HTML, Javascript & ASP to create this website. Use the latest Adobe Photoshop package to produce quality images for use on this website.
● Maintain customer facing flight & holiday booking website, ensuring 4,000,000 record database is updated regularly and contains valid information.
● Replace existing BNC network with CAT5 RJ45 network throughout whole building for some 100 pc’s, incorporating hubs & switches using Ethernet/IP protocol.
● Design & develop a win32 VB6.0 application to communicate via Ethernet/IP to an in-house clocking in machine, to log staff attendance, and then integrate a report to link in to the SAGE API to organise staff pay based on hourly attendance.
● Integrate with online payment web API to take payments within online booking forms I developed for the sales staff, rather than having to use PDQ machines.