Simon Butter

Hired to help clear a backlog of projects and revamp the project management processes that were in place to help improve delivery of their portfolio. Responsibilities included:

• Leading cross-functional teams for successful implementation of IT projects.
• Assessing project requirements and identify the appropriate resources needed for execution.
• Worked with both Waterfall and Agile methodologies to increase team productivity and efficiency.
• Monitored risk management processes for optimal mitigation of potential issues.
• Coordinated system testing activities, ensured all functionalities performed as expected before launch.
• Negotiated contracts with vendors, secured cost-effective services and products.

My final role within Carnival UK was to lead an IT technical project for the Food & Beverage team. The projects aim was too create an onboard solution for guests and crew regarding allergen information across over 2,500 dishes in 50 different dining concepts across the fleet. Responsibilities included:

• Sourcing an initial 3rd party to support the data collection and analysis of all ingredients within the food and drink products Carnival procure.
• Scoping out requirements from both ship and shoreside stakeholders to ensure the needs of everyone is met, in the form of workshops and regular update meetings.
• Sourcing a 3rd party who could supply the software that would deliver and realise the desired benefits of the project.
• Planning the build, test and delivery phases.
• Managing risks and mitigating them to ensure major problems were averted.
• Led cross-functional teams to achieve project goals on time.

Due to ill health i was unable to travel for a period of 12 months and so CUK offered me a small secondment role whilst i recovered to assist in the transition of all IT services onboard their newly built cruise ship Arvia. Responsibilities included:

• Working with solution architects and Information security teams to ensure services were built to design prior to them moving into BAU.
• Conducting thorough reviews of all project related documentation to ensure the IT support teams had all the necessary information to manage the system effectively in BAU.
• Work with programme and project managers to plan the transition of services.
• Hold Service acceptance meetings to agree sign off project deliverables

Hired to lead and manage the delivery of all IT ship based initiatives including in-service, refit and new build projects. Responsibilities included:

• Working with cross functional teams to plan onboard activities.
• Liaising with ship and shore stakeholders to agree scope and desired outcomes
• Managing a team of up 30 technical support team members and multiple vendors during the planned works.
• Validating and testing systems to ensure no issues prior to next guest cruise.
• Conducting daily risk and issues reviews to allow for quick mitigation and ensure delivery is on time.
• Coordinated training sessions for team skill enhancement, boosting overall performance.
• Executed multiple simultaneous projects, maintaining high standards of quality control.
• Conducting post implementation review workshops to highlight and address area's for improvement next time.

Recruited for a Business Intelligence Project Manager role to deliver bespoke software solutions and data insight projects for the business and national regulator OFGEM. Responsibilities included:

• Scoping out projects to meet the needs of varying business departments.
• Allocating and managing resource to ensure seamless delivery of technical requirements.
• Financial planning and budgeting.
• Working with the business to test systems prior to release
• Providing monthly data insight reports to OFGEM allowing to analyse trends in gas and electricity usage.
• Took over SSE IT's longest running project impacting 700 staff and delivered inside 10 weeks.