James Sharp

Acutus Consulting has merged with Climber and is now a subsidiary of Climber UK. As Managing Director of Climber UK I am focused on serving the UK market with exceptional consultancy services and a broader joint offering, including cloud/Qlik SaaS, platform support services through Climber’s Expert Services and greater functionality through Vizlib’s value-added extension products. supporting our clients in their transition from QlikView to Qlik Sense and provision of services across the Microsoft BI stack.

I founded Acutus Consulting (www.acutusconsulting.co.uk) to help businesses of all shapes and sizes to unlock the power of their data and make informed decisions. Acutus has provided project management and Business Intelligence expertise to support businesses to deliver multi-million pound projects.

Business Intelligence project manager providing strategic direction and support for a multi-million pound projects using the Qlik and Microsoft technology stacks. Significant experience in leading the delivery of reporting solutions for SAP, Success Factors, Baan, JAMES and many other core Babcock systems.

Due to my experience and passion for business intelligence and my belief that data analysis can be simple for everyone, I Identified a gap within the education sector for improved pupil data reporting. Over the last eighteen months I have commissioned the development of a QlikView reporting tool to help primary and secondary schools connect, and make sense of all pupil data. The product is now being promoted through its own website (www.schoolsintelligence.co.uk), marketing campaigns and attending trade shows. Schools Intelligence has now merged with another education company which is taking on the responsibility for selling the product into schools, local authorities and multi academy trusts.

I developed the project scope, project plans and defined the budget allocation for the Shared Service Centre, management reporting QlikView project. I led all stakeholder and project team communication and collaboration. The management team are now able to measure the effectiveness of outsourced departments against defined KPI’s for Accounts Payable, Procurement, IT, Compliance and HR.

I led a business transformation project to replace and integrate core business tools, covering CRM, accounts, the website and other online tools. I was responsible for developing all project plans, defining the project scope managing the budget and facilitating project and stakeholder meetings. I undertook the RFP process on behalf of the BIA covering solutions from SalesForce.com, Microsoft Dynamics and iMIS EMS. Microsoft Dynamics was chosen as the preferred tool and this was then heavily integrated with both the accounts systems and the BIA website. BIA customers are now able to book events online, manage their bookings and pay for their event tickets and annual membership. The BIA team have seen huge efficiency gains through the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics and its connection to the website. Staff no longer have to key in customer information or deal with payments for events as this process is now fully automated.

Managing the project delivery of Cognos reporting tool, for the UK and Ireland commercial business. Delivery high level of business insight on sales performance, sales team activity and financial management. Delivering significant efficiency savings by automating the report build process from data within SAP, Seibel and external data sets.

With promotion to Regional IT Manager, I gained full responsibility for South Africa, Australia and Canada, while retaining managerial responsibility for the UK. I partner with country Vice Presidents and business unit directors to ensure innovative IT solutions are offered and delivered to meet strategic needs whilst delivering strong ROI. I work with global IT Management teams to define and influence the global IT strategy, and budget and plan across the cluster for CAPEX and OPEX expenses. I project manage many different IT disciplines throughout the Commonwealth cluster, managing resources in a matrix organisation. I have recently led the global roll out of Microsoft Lync for 12,000 employees across all global affiliates, whilst transitioning Lync infrastructure services to Sanofi’s global data centres. – Awarded 2011 Business Excellence award (see case study at www.plantronicscasestudies.com). I defined the business intelligence strategy and delivered BI reporting through the implementation and customised development of ‘QlikView’. This improved efficiencies by drawing data from financial models, accounting systems and CRM applications, saving time within many departments and leading to a high level of business intelligence. – Awarded 2010 Business Excellence award.

During my time as IT Manager for the UK and Ireland I delivered projects and managed a support team, providing cost savings and improved efficiencies for the organisation. I partnered UK business units to ensure IT solutions were offered and delivered to meet business strategic needs. I also managed the IT support team within the ITIL industry framework supporting 150 users on Microsoft server environment including: Exchange, SQL, Server 2003/2008 and Cisco LAN equipment and an Avaya telephone system.

I provided problem management and 3rd level support for educational establishments throughout the UK on ‘RM Community Connect 3 networks’ (based on Microsoft infrastructure).

Line managed a team of 16, including technical and business support staff. I recruited staff and provided senior technical expertise for a Windows 2000 server roll out project for all schools throughout East Sussex in line with government targets.