Imagination
August 2007 - Issue 01
SMILE FOR THE CAMERA
When did you join Image Integrators and what does your role consist of?
I joined in April 2006 as Technical Services Manager. Since then, my role has extended to include technical support including driving the docStore function from a technical perspective. A large part of my time is spent on major client accounts, I head up strategic technical planning and I’m very involved in ongoing systems development, including gathering business requirements and system design. On a day-to-day basis, I hop from desk to desk, guiding my team through project delivery or coming up with solutions to problems.
And in life before Image Integrators, what were the milestones along the way?
I’m Shropshire born and bred. I went to Oxford to study Physics and, whilst there, found myself taking a year out in industry. I decided to stay in the real world. The academic hot-house really wasn’t for me and I’ve never looked back.
I moved into computer-aided design, which included designing telephone boxes for BT. No, not the red ones! One was for the Channel Tunnel and another for the Underground. I then became involved in ‘human simulation’, using a computer model, a ‘virtual jack’, to test transport ergonomics. It was the forerunner of the virtual people we see in today’s computer games but, at the time, there was nothing like it.
That business eventually turned into Digital Vision. I was a founding partner and spent 10 years in various roles, of which the first four in factory simulation. I then became a specialist in data capture automation.
Do any projects stick in your mind?
I will never forget project Chatsworth. Before Bank of Scotland could merge with Halifax (to create HBOS), it needed to work out its true mortgage liability. That involved scanning and retrieving information from 14 million mortgage statements produced over a 15-year period. The project was a real monster but it saved the company £7million and enabled the merger to go ahead.
What kind of a manager are you?
I hope that I’m very inclusive, I’m a great advocate of the cross-fertilisation of ideas and I try to involve people and bring out the best in them. I encourage everyone to come up with solutions, but when they get stuck, I’m very hands on. I constantly review new technologies to improve our solutions and am particularly focused on improving docStore’s performance.
What gets you on your hobby-horse?
I’m passionate about electronic transaction processing. You could argue that paper is the foundation of our business but I am keen to drive it out and see companies put more focus on electronic means. However, as long as paper documents exist, I’d like to encourage a new mindset in invoice design. I hate invoices! Invoice data capture is a real challenge because people do such horrible things with them, which make them hard to be machine-read.
What about life outside work?
My parents run a farm in Wales and I feel strongly about being in touch with the way our food is produced. I play cricket and support the England team with some degree of fanaticism. I’m a real ale enthusiast - it’s hard not to be given that Shropshire is full of really good pubs. I currently have no romantic attachments but am open to offers!