When and how did you decide to pursue a career in IT support?
When my university career didn’t pan out as I had hoped, I decided to get a job. While I was looking, I came across an opportunity to learn computer skills as part of an apprenticeship scheme being offered by Wrexham ITEC. It turned out I was rather good at IT and ended up helping the other students on the course too.
I spent six months working for Scottish Power, who had recently taken over Manweb, learning ‘on-the-job’, with day release back to college to complete my GNVQ level II. After that I held an number of IT positions, developing my knowledge-base – from a sports media company in London through to Calypso Soft Drinks back in Wrexham, where I spent seven years as a network administrator.
In 2007, I went for a job at Great Bear. I was interviewed by Paul Williams (founder of Highstream), who I already knew from my school days. I became the desktop services team leader at Great Bear, and spent 10 years there, until Paul approached me to join his recently set-up business, Highstream.
What do you love most about working at Highstream Solutions?
I had always worked well with Paul, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to continue to work with him. Probably the thing I love most about working at Highstream, is the opportunity to develop the right resolution to a business challenge and help take the pain away. For this, I need to maintain an awareness of what is out there and what works. That way, I am able to advise the client on what will provide the most effective answer to the issue. Sometimes that offers a quick-win result, other times it involves developing the big picture solution.
Which has been your most challenging project or IT query?
Over the years I have worked on all sorts of different IT projects. However, one of the most challenging – and satisfying – projects I worked on was BMW UK’s new parts warehouse in Northampton. The new 600,000 sq ft warehouse required a full kit-out. My focus was the offices, meeting rooms and warehouse workstations. The overall project took about six months to complete, and it was fascinating to see it transform from an empty shell to a fully-functioning warehouse. It was completed on time and to a high specification. I was really proud of what we achieved.
What does ‘a day in the life of an technical manager’ entail?
My work is a combination of office and site-based work. I enjoy getting to know our clients and then working out the best solutions to their challenges. Many of the challenges are around security – or lack of it – due to data being spread around many unsecure locations. The other big challenge is comms; slow comms can cause some of the biggest frustrations for clients. I also have an important role in mentoring and developing the team, which I thoroughly enjoy. This goes back to my early days in IT, when I first realised I had a natural affinity with it.
What advice do you have for businesses requiring IT support?
The best piece of IT advice I have for any business, is the importance of having robust security measures in place. Deploying multifactor/two-factor authentication (MFA/2FA) is key. MFA is rapidly becoming an essential tool to help safeguard your data, as it means access is only granted if the request is confirmed by your mobile device. Just using MFA takes away many IT security risks.
What is it you enjoy most about working with computers?
I have spent around 27 years working in IT and it is constantly evolving. It is fascinating to see how things develop. Take improved mobile and satellite communications for example; as this is develops, maybe the need for cables diminishes.
What advice would you give to someone interested in following the same career path as you?
I think the best advice for someone looking to follow an IT career path is to keep up-to-date. Technology advances so rapidly that you need to have a genuine techy interest to have any chance of keeping up with the changes.
About Highstream
Highstream is a growing, agile IT services and support company. Working with customers predominantly in the North West of England and North Wales, the company is happy to provide IT support throughout the UK. The company has a team which is experienced across many industries, fulfilling services from small office requirements to large, industrial-scale infrastructure installations.
