Curriculum Vitae of Ranald Cross

Contact Details

Name: Ranald Cross

Street Address: 10 Yacht Street

Clontarf, QLD 4019

Australia

Postal Address: PO Box 87

Clontarf Beach, QLD 4019

Australia

Phone: 07 32835989

Mobile: 0402 336 597 (preferred)

Email Address: measys@gil.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpgcross/

Career Objectives

My career has always been diverse because I enjoy making technology deliver on the promise of making people's lives better. I excel at and always strive to improve and where appropriate, add automation to systems. It is my belief that freeing staff up from repetitive tasks and so that they can work in more interesting and value-adding endeavours is a win-win for any business. I am always looking for that next challenge.

Employment History

SingTel / Optus GIO (through Infosys Australia Pty. Ltd.)

Start Date: Aug 2019

End Date: currently employed

Positions: Technical Architect

Role is primarily to transition IP from previous to new teams.

My major achievements have been;

Ÿ Transfer of high-level IP surrounding data architecture.

Ÿ Authoring technical documentation in an easy to absorb style.

Ÿ Explanation of plans for resolving end-of-life dates that start at the end of 2019.

SingTel / Optus GIO (through NCS Australia Pty. Ltd.)

Start Date: Jun 2014 (role / title change)

End Date: Aug 2019 (outsourcing vendor changed)

Positions: Infrastructure Systems Team Lead

Data Systems Solution Designer

Role and responsibility expansion from previous positions has resulted in designing and implementing the current enterprise data processing systems infrastructure. Currently lead of the team responsible for the ongoing delivery of corporate and government billing and reporting systems within the GIO division as it expands operations globally.

My major achievements have been;

Ÿ Restructuring the primary Sybase (SAP) databases to improve scalability and performance.

Ÿ Authoring documentation of systems to assist various teams.

Ÿ Designing plans for infrastructure and application uplifts past current end-of-life platforms (c.2020).

Optus CS&S (through NCS Australia Pty. Ltd.)

Start Date: Mar 2007 (role / title change)

End Date: Aug 2019 (outsourcing vendor changed)

Positions: Senior Technical Consultant / Solution Designer

Senior Database Administrator

Initially hired as a senior Sybase DBA to provide specific handover and mentoring of the new DBAs brought in as part of the Trysoft-to-NCS contract changeover. My role expanded into providing DBA support for all database platforms used at the site; Sybase, MySQL, MSSQL and MSAccess. After 3 years in this role, my primary role has moved to solution and infrastructure designer for ITIL-aligned software systems.

My major achievements have been;

Ÿ Mentoring a geographically distributed team.

Ÿ Authoring documentation of systems to assist various teams.

Ÿ Consulting on improvements to new and existing systems

Optus CS&S (through Trysoft Corporation Ltd.)

Start Date: Jun 2000

End Date: Feb 2007 (outsourcing vendor changed)

Position: Database Administrator

Originally hired as a Delphi developer, I was offered and took on a number of opportunities in other areas before taking a position as a DBA. I have been in that role since 2001.

My major achievements reflect my versatility as an administrator and developer of many years experience;

Ÿ Development of a scripted ETL solution tailored to Sybase IQ for enterprise data management is my more recent project taking in many of my skills.

Ÿ Improvement of code robustness both as a developer and a consultant to other development teams.

Ÿ Fast and thorough research and dissemination of IP to resolve problems, develop and evolve systems.

Ÿ Development of simple, automated and reliable web and scripted solutions to improve the productivity of various groups of staff.

Ÿ Development of scripted solutions to bridge the gaps in available tools has been my forte and is generally recognized by both my peers and managers as a major contribution to the success of the enterprise.

R.W. Burns Engineering Pty Ltd

Start Date: Mar 1997

End Date: Jun 2000

Position: Software Engineer

My primary role was as a C/C++/Pascal developer for DOS, Windows and embedded systems. Additionally, I served double-duty as the network (Windows/NetWare/Linux) administrator.

My key achievements were;

Ÿ The successful upgrading of 1000's of lines of legacy code written for a pre-Y2k DOS platform to a Win32/Y2k compliant (console) version.

Ÿ Development of testing procedures for QA.

Ÿ Mentoring and training of contractors and trainee programming staff (C/C++).

Skill Summary

Non-Technical Skills

I have been described as patient in conveying knowledge to fellow workers and clients. I have good written and oral communication skills.

One of my strongest assets is my ability to blend technologies to achieve rapid, reliable and robust solutions. My motto is to use the best tools for the task rather than force one technology to provide the answer to all aspects of a problem.

Specialist Technical Skills

Due to my depth and diversity of experience I have particular skills in the following areas;

Ÿ Fault finding and system diagnosis

Ÿ Software debugging

Ÿ Planning and implementation of fault detection systems

Ÿ Impact assessment and mitigation

Ÿ Ability to take an holistic view of heterogeneous and complex systems

Ÿ Designing and documenting end-to-end solutions

Ÿ Able to adapt and extend existing solutions to solving problems

Ÿ Assessing suitability of diverse technologies

Ÿ Writing for both technical and nontechnical audiences

Computer Skills

As would be expected from so many years spread across various industries, I have developed a wide variety of skills in a large collection of areas. To make the skills list more meaningful, I am only listing skills that I have utilised in recent years.

Ÿ SQL (Transact-SQL, ANSI SQL, PL-SQL & Watcom SQL)

Ÿ Sybase IQ (v12.5-16.0 Windows, Linux and HPUX)

Ÿ Sybase ASE (v12.0-16.0 Windows, Linux and HPUX)

Ÿ Sybase ASA (v8.x+)

Ÿ Sybase Replication Server (v12.x-v15.x)

Ÿ Microsoft SQL Server administration 2000, 2005, 2008)

Ÿ Microsoft Access / Jet development

Ÿ MySQL administration (Windows and Linux)

Ÿ Oracle administration (Windows, Linux and HPUX)

Ÿ ODBC, JDBC and native client access implementations

Ÿ UNIX basic administration (HPUX, Linux, Solaris and AIX)

Ÿ Windows basic administration (AD, GP, etc.)

Ÿ Risk, gap and DR analysis and planning

Ÿ Computer security (AV, firewalls, etc. using various tools on Windows & Linux)

Ÿ Remote access (Citrix, VNC, X and terminals)

Ÿ Hardware and software design, selection and evaluation

Ÿ Data systems design

Ÿ Embedded system design & programming

Ÿ Virtualisation solutions (VMware ESXi, QEMU/KVM, VirtualBox)

Ÿ Clustered data system HA solutions

Ÿ Design and implementation of automation solutions (hardware and software)

Ÿ Microsoft Office suite (and clones)

Ÿ Scripted (/automated) ETL solution design and implementation

Ÿ UNIX shell scripting (Bourne shell on HPUX, Linux and Solaris)

Ÿ Perl (on Windows, Linux and HPUX)

Ÿ VBScript and Batch scripting

Ÿ HTML, CGI, PHP, ASP

Ÿ Delphi (and Pascal)

Ÿ C and C++ (various dialects)

Ÿ Microsoft Visual Studio .NET (VB.NET and C#)

Ÿ Java (J2SE, WebLogic, etc.)

Ÿ Usual UNIX-centric tools; awk, sed, grep, etc.

Ÿ HP Service Manager 7, HP Connect-IT

Industry Experience

· Telecommunications (software: billing)

· Electronics (engineering: design, manufacture and servicing)

· Petroleum (engineering: dispensing equipment)

· Fisheries / Shipping (engineering: navigation equipment)

· Mining (engineering: manufacture and service of processing equipment)

· Industrial Automation (engineering: design and manufacture of equipment)

· Transport / Logistics (software: billing, payroll and general accounting systems)

· Computing (various: retail, distribution, servicing, hardware and software design)

· Wholesale (automation: auctions)

· Retail (various: sales and service)

· Agriculture (automation: hydroponics)

· Local government (engineering: water supply and waste water treatment)

· Railways (engineering: power)

· Energy (engineering: generation, distribution and metering)

Education / Qualifications

Institution: Loyalist Certification Services

Qualifications: ITIL V3 Foundation (Certified)

Completed: 2010

Institution: Hewlett-Packard

Qualifications: Service Manager 7 Administrator / Tailoring (Optus)

Completed: 2009

Institution: Sybase Inc.

Qualifications: Sybase IQ Administrator (Optus)

Completed: 2004

Institution: University of Southern Queensland

Qualifications: Bachelor of Information Technology

Completed: (currently deferred)

Institution: Queensland Institute of Technology

Qualifications: Associate Diploma in Electrical Engineering - Electronic and Industrial Control Systems

Completed: 1987

Professional & Association Memberships

· Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG, US)

· Application Developers Alliance

· Association of C and C++ Users (ACCU, UK)

· Association for Computing Machinery (ACM, US)

· Australian Delphi User Group (ADUG, AU)

· HP Business Technology Community (Connect, US)

· IEEE Computer Society (IEEE, US)

· Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG, US)

· Independent SAP Technical User Group (ISUG, US)

· Information Technology Professionals Association (was "SAGE-AU", AU)

· Australian Institute of Engineering Associates (AIEA, AU – Lapsed)

· Engineers Australia - Associate Member (IEA, AU – Lapsed)

Interests

· Classical, science fiction, horror and fantasy literature

· Music and movies

· Maintaining a private computing equipment museum

· Strategy and role-playing games

Referees

Professional references are available on request.

Document last updated: 15 September 2019