I have 25 years' experience as a Developer on the AS400 / iSeries, coding in all the flavours of RPG up to RPGLE and Free Format RPG.
I am available immediately for contract work.
Please find attached below a copy of my current CV. My number is 07966 513897.
My Specialties
Tony Lazarus Email: TonyLazarus@gmail.com
Phone: 07966 513897 Website: www.bcrystal.co.uk
Professional Summary:
An experienced hands-on IT Consultant with a track record of providing Analysis and Development services at a high level for projects, both short- and long-term, to a wide variety of end-clients in the Banking / Financial sector and elsewhere. Key strengths include:
Extensive experience (since 1989) on the AS400/iSeries in all flavours of the RPG programming language including RPGLE / ILE and Free Format RPG, also CLP and embedded SQL.
Solid experience in all the Project Life Cycle stages: from initial project scoping and obtaining business requirements, analysis of these requirements, documentation including the production of Functional and Technical Specifications, designing and programming, testing (unit, system and integration), debugging and beyond that to implementation, then troubleshooting and Application Support.
"Can do" approach - results-focussed and adaptable - can slide easily and quickly into any role within a project as required.
Current Role:
Since 1995, have operated as a Freelance IT Consultant, completing assignments for leading organisations such as RBS International, RBC, Ageas, DAS and Fidelity.
Below is a list of assignments completed over this period (not all are listed)
Glaxo-Smith-Klein, London September 2016 - June 2017
- Worked in the BPCS Application Support team on two main AS/400 projects
- The first was a project to introduce changes to the BPCS systems in GSK's sites in India, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh concerned mainly with new Indian government tax regulations.
- The second project was initiated by new warehousing processes in GSK's Pakistan business which necessitated major system, batch and reporting changes.
- Coding was in free format RPG with changes made to legacy RPGiv and RPGiii programs.
- Both these projects have involved communication with offshore personnel, both at GSK's offices and in Pakistan and India
September 2017 - January 2016
- Nine-month sabbatical in order to learn new skills including, PHP, Symfony and Laravel
with a view to producing Apps and Plugins, and PRINCE2 to formalise my knowledge of Project Management.
Royal Bank Of Scotland International, Jersey, Channel Islands July 2015 - December 2015
Implemented a process on the AS/400 to bring up to date a third-party data feed containing details of worldwide bank branches and addresses into RBSI's core IBBA banking systems.
The new data feed, based on a new file structure, revealed discrepancies in the existing processing which then also needed to be corrected.
Fully documented both the existing process and the new system.
Coding was in Free Format RPGLE and embedded SQL using the IBM Rational Development Environment.
Technicolor Limited, Rugby, Warks March 2015 - July 2015
Technicolor provide logistics and distribution solutions for a number of clients in the international media industry.
Worked on a project with very tight deadlines to on-board the Fox International group into Technicolor's existing JBA System 21 software.
Transferred the Fox customer database to technicolor, mapping and checking all the fields concerned so they matched up between the two systems.
Coding was on the AS400 / iSeries in Free Format RPGLE with some maintenance of legacy RPG400 code.
Yusen Logistics, Annesley, Notts May 2014 - Jan 2015
Yusen are a global logistics company whose software department serves the logistics and transport needs of a number of partner companies including Yamaha and Mitsubishi.
Worked in Application Support on a number of contracts, all on the iSeries / AS400, fixing bugs in the existing systems
Developed new systems for various end-clients.
Coding was in Free Format RPGLE, RPGLE, CL and SQL.
Ageas Insurance Ltd, Eastleigh Oct 2013 - Apr 2014
Worked on a project to integrate another company's systems and data into Ageas's existing AS400 systems, following a merger.
Carried out major "keyhole surgery" on a variety of in-house programs to incorporate the new policies and claims data without breaking the existing processes.
Assisted in bug-fixing and post-implementation support of this phase of the project.
Coding was in free format RPGLE, RPGLE, RPG, CL and SQL, and change control was via Implementer.
Glaxo-Smith-Klein, London March 2013 - Oct 2013
Worked on a major project to implement the splitting off of some of GSK's consumer products.
Achieved the passing of master and transactional data between three separate systems, via a raft of daily feeds, by building XML files from the core JDE World files on the AS400.
Coding was in free format RPGLE, RPGLE, RPG, CL, SQL and FTP script.
DAS Insurance Ltd, Bristol March 2012 - Jan 2013
DAS are a global Insurance company specialising in Legal Claims Insurance.
Worked primarily on a project to accept claims data from customers or insurance brokers via XML from a Web Service, checking this data against the company's bespoke AS400 claims system and uploading it or sending error notifications back as appropriate.
Coding was in free format RPGLE, CL, SQL and FTP.
Ceva Logistics Ltd, London Jan 2011 – Jan 2012
- Worked as an Support Analyst / Programmer for Ceva Logistics, a multi-national logistics and transport company, dealing mainly with the rollout of the company’s AS400-based systems
to the various national territories.
- Analysing and creating queries and extracts as part of the proposed migration of all the company’s systems onto one central platform, including setting up programs to carry out the FTP links between the systems.
- Day-to-day responsibility for any changes or enhancements to be made to any part of the system. Coding was in RPGLE, CL and SQL.
Other Relevant Roles:
Fidelity International, Tonbridge
Fidelity International is one of the UK's largest Investment Fund Managers.
Worked on a project to implement legislation changes concerning the new ISA regulations which were about to come into force. My responsibilities were to produce functional and technical specifications and test scripts, and to carry out coding and unit testing.
Also contributed to a project to implement major changes in the company's calculations engine arising from legislative changes to the tax regulations in Germany.
Involved in all stages of both these projects project from initiating requirements with the business to design, coding and testing. - Much of the programming on the project was carried out by an offshore outsourcing company, so the technical specifications were to quite a detailed level. Owing to the complex nature of the code changes, there was a very large amount of testing done, hence I was also responsible for writing test scripts.
Worked in Fidelity’s Application Support division, providing first- and second- line support and making any necessary emergency programming changes arising. This was generally under a high level of pressure and to a tight expected response deadline.
Coding was on the AS400 in Free Format RPG with some SQL and RPGiv / ILE, using the Aldon change management system.
Royal Bank of Canada Global Services, London
Worked for over two years in the City Of London, for the Global Securities division of this large multinational Bank. I worked on a number of small projects, many involving Foreign Exchange systems, working directly with the Client Services department on improvements to the existing back office Midas systems, as well as new data extracts and reports.
I worked on the whole range of the bank’s programs and gained a good understanding of the business.
Coding was in ILE RPGiv on the AS400 (with CL, QUERY and embedded SQL, and also some free format RPG).
A typical project involved meetings with users, production of specs, analysis, coding and testing. Since most tasks were client-led and critical to the Bank’s business, this all had to be done to standards in a short timescale. At any given time I had around four or five such projects on the go in various stages of completion. I utilised UML to achieve this. As well as the technical side, my job was to keep the ball rolling, foresee and deal with any potential hold-ups, manage the manpower required, gently prod the users for feedback and so on.
Skandia Life, Southampton
Skandia is a leading multinational Life and Pensions Company.
Worked as a Technical Analyst, working to strict company standards to produce Functional and Technical design specifications and System Test plans to a very detailed level so developers with no prior knowledge of the company’s systems could easily code them.
Coding was on the AS400 in RPGiv, ILE, and free format RPG and SQL Design was done using UML.
My major contribution at Skandia was to a project to implement all the changes necessary to the company’s systems owing to new Pensions legislation.
Also helped develop a project to review the charging structure of the company’s pension products.
Development was done by an offshore company so the technical specs produced had to be to a very high level of precision.
Domestic and General Insurance Ltd, Wimbledon
Contributed to a major project to develop the company's Campaign Management systems. Coding was on the AS400 in RPGiv and ILE.
Target Financial Services Ltd, Bristol
TARGET is a software house providing bespoke solutions to a number of clients in the Banking and Financial Services sectors.
Wrote program specifications, functional specifications and programs for a number of different applications, as well as code enhancements and bug fixing.
Coding was on the AS400 exclusively in RPGiv using ILE, with embedded SQL, all controlled by the ALDON change management system.
Entra Financial Software Ltd, Stockholm
Entra is an international financial software house with branches all over Europe.
Worked in the Stockholm office, using RPGIV and ILE to write a new credit-card application function for an existing AS400-based card system (ENTRACARD).
This involved analysing requirements and writing the user interface, which consisted of bespoke APIs to interrogate the Dun and Bradstreet accounting database for data on credit rating, as well writing the low-level ‘C’ TCP/IP comms programs to communicate with the D&B systems.
Ryvita Ltd, Poole
Took on the role of Interim IT Manager. The major task at this time was to begin a data migration of the company’s AS400 systems to a Unix-based machine. Progressed this, as well as dealing with the prioritisation of any and all IT issues arising, day-to-day firefighting and managing an IT Department team of eight people.
Worked on Ryvita’s suite of manufacturing, sales and accounting modules. This involved designing, coding and testing programs in RPGiv, ILE and CL, with embedded SQL, Query, Java and Visual Basic, as well as helping to implement a new manufacturing system, which meant being involved in User Acceptance Testing.
Developed the company’s EDI systems, which involved talking to business partners about requirements and setting up messages in Intercept/400.
Warnaco BV, Netherlands
Warnaco is a multinational clothing company with distribution centres worldwide.
Worked on a project to migrate the Calvin Klein Jeans operation from its base in Italy to a new warehouse in the Netherlands. This meant integrating CKJ’s existing Stealth vendor package into the ACS package used strategically by the other Warnaco divisions.
Involved in high- and low- level design at an international and local level, tiptoeing through various levels of company politics involved and getting to grips with user requirements in a very short space of time, translating these into program changes, cutting the code and extensively testing it.
New development was done on the AS400 in RPGiv / ILE and Free Format, with changes to existing RPGiv, RPG400 and RPGiii programs.
Managed and implemented a project to create interfaces between Warnaco’s JBA systems and the Stealth package. Coding was in RPGiv and ILE.
Retail Assist, Northampton (formerly Grantfort)
Retail Assist (or Grantfort as it was at the time) produced the Merrett retail package – clients include Harvey Nichols, Principles and Burberry.
Responsible for coding and testing new and expanded functionality in the Warehousing and Purchase Order modules for rollout of the product to a new client (Paperchase).
Coding was on the AS400 in Visual RPG and RPG iv ILE under Thenon See/Change.
Abbott Laboratories, Wiesbaden, Germany
Abbott is a multinational pharmaceutical company based near Frankfurt.
Analysed and updated the bespoke Sales Order Processing module, including changing the Order Entry process to standardise the company’s various legacy systems, as well as giving enhanced functionality.
Coding was on the AS400 in RPGiv using ILE, service programs and APIs, embedded SQL and the TURNOVER change management system.
Allied Domecq Spirits And Wines Ltd, Bristol
Working on the heavily-bespoked JBA Drinks/400 package on the AS400, coding in RPG400 and CL.
Primarily involved in setting up and documenting EDI programs, interfaces and procedures between the Group and its Trading Partners, working with the ETS/400 and Intercept/400 packages. This included Orders, Invoices and Credit Notes and Price Lists.
Also contributed to a project to improve the way the supply chain was handled throughout the Group’s constituent companies.
Dixons Group, Hemel Hempstead
Worked on the Company’s Coverplan AS400-based insurance systems.
Responsible for a project to rationalise follow-up mailing strategies, and a project to implement a new discount scheme.
Contributed to application support and provided various management reports as and when required.
Parker Pen Ltd, Newhaven
Developed systems to implement EDI on a JBA Sales Order Processing system on the AS400, using Intercept/400.
Responsible for developing EDI Invoicing, Credit Notes, Ordering, Order Amendments and Cancellations and Despatch Notes, and for integrating these into the existing SOP module.
Career Chronology (dates overlap):
(NB - Analyst / Developer or Senior Analyst / Developer role unless otherwise stated)
09/2016 - 06/2017 Glaxo-Smith-Klein
01/2016 - 09/2016 Sabbatical to learn new skills
07/2015 - 12/2015 Royal Bank Of Scotland International
03/2015 - 07/2015 Technicolor Limited
02/2014 - 01/2015 Yusen Logistics
10/2013 - 04/2014 Ageas Insurance Ltd
03/2013 - 10/2013 Glaxo-Smith-Klein
03/2012 - 01/2013 DAS Insurance Ltd
01/2011 - 01/2012 Ceva Logistics Ltd
09/2010 - 12/2010 Polo Ralph Lauren
05/2010 - 08/2010 Truvo BV
06/2007 - 05/2010 Warnaco BV, Consultant
01/2009 - 07/2009 Wells & Young’s Ltd,
07/2007 - 12/2008 Fidelity International, Analyst / Developer, Support Analyst
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