REFERENCES - comments on Working as a member of a Team
Views on John's recent SAP S/4 Hana Public Cloud Project - achieved in 7.5 months
December 2021: -
From a Business Process Expert in the company: - It has been really great working with you John and your support throughout is much appreciated.
From the Clients Group Senior IT Director: Thank you for your help and support. You handled the process very well and professionally.
From the Implementation Partner: - It is an achievement we are all so proud of here at Sapphire Systems! Thanks John. It is an honour to be making history with you.
From the Senior Manager of the Implementation Partner: - Many thanks for all your help with the project. I think we worked well together, and this is always an important part of making projects successful. It was a pleasure working with you on the Briggs of Burton project. Your experience and skills were very much appreciated. Hopefully, we can do more projects together in the future.
From a fellow Consultant: - Fantastic job. It was a pleasure working with you on this amazing project delivering SAP S/4Hana Public Cloud
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REFERENCES - comments on Management Style
View from fellow consultants working on John's recent SAP programme at Associated British Ports
November 2019: -
"John is a straight-talking, accessible and knowledgeable project manager who gives his best to the job, even under enormous uncertainties and stress. He gets tangible outputs from team members, including from those with dotted/invisible reporting line to him, by setting clear expectations as well as infusing them with a sense of purpose". 31 Oct2019
And from another Consultant: -
"Thank you for our conversation earlier today! So many tips you've given and things that you made me think! Thank you for that! I have got lots to do! 😊
So as an initial part of the list of items that I need to do 😊, please find my contact details:
I much appreciate your recommendation and words. It has been a pleasure to be working with you. We finally had a competent Project Manager with us" 6 Nov 2019.
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References
View from a fellow Change Consultant on the Bombardier Transformation programme part of which was to implement SAP S/4 HANA across its 75 Manufacturing and Engineering sites in 28 countries
April 2019: -
"John is a very experienced senior PM, transformation and operations lead that I have had a pleasure to work with to during SAP S/4 HANA implementation for Bombardier. John’s role was to guide and support the transformation programme PMO as a senior advisor.
John has been recognised by the team, leadership and senior stakeholders as an excellent asset gaining trust and very quickly becoming the heartbeat of the programme.
John’s background is managing large programs, senior advisory, directing operations as an interim consultant". 10 Apr 2019
View from the agency and the Client on this multinational SAP programme
“I had the pleasure of working with John on an assignment where he was a programme manager for a SAP rollout.
Feedback from our client was that John was excellent and I therefore highly recommend him.
Some of the client's feedback includes "......thanks for your contribution which was a key element to the success we had in Europe, taking five sites live under very challenging conditions. I particularly salute and thank you for your continued energy and commitment ......." and "......I would like to formally thank you for all your efforts over the last 15 months in helping us implement SAP across a number of our businesses......." And from my perspective, John was organised, professional, helpful and genuinely great to work with.
Once again, highly recommended and I'd happily work with him again.” March 9, 2012
View from a satisfied Senior Executive
"On a professional note! ..I have really enjoyed working and collaborating with you over the years.
You have done an exceptional job on the relocation of the business to Luton and managing the SAP UK Programme. Your presence and energy will be missed". 5 July 2010
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View from a consultant of the Implementation Partner on the BAESYSTEMS/ SELEX / Finmeccanica SAP programme
“John was pivotal in providing overall management, structure and direction of the multi-year, multi-site SELEX GALILEO Programme from its inception, through delivery to go-live at the final location.” August 3, 2010
View from the CFO of SELEX / Finmeccanica
I have known John for approximately eight years. I know him to be an individual who exhibits professionalism, great attention to detail and who builds good relationships with the stakeholders involved in his work.
I have seen him at close quarters in three specific projects which amply demonstrate his qualities.
The first of these was as Operations Director in a business of which I was Finance Director. The largest programme in that business was a complex design and production engineering programme of in excess of £1 billion. The entry into production of this programme was a particularly difficult period and John’s analytical approach and his ability to manage a vast amount of detailed scheduling and supplier issues enabled us to come through this period successfully.
"He has proven ability to deliver them in an efficient and effective manner without the significant collateral damage that such projects often involve. In addition, he is a personable individual who is easy to work with and who resolves issues without recourse to difficult behaviours".
The second project was the move of a 1000-person engineering site from a large quantity of old buildings in north London to a purpose-built state of the art building 20 miles away in Luton. John was responsible for the project management of both the build and the move. This project was completed with the complex specification being met and the move completed over three weekends with remarkably little disruption. Again, attention to detail was important, but it was his management of the many stakeholders that stood out in this project.
The third and most recent project was the implementation of SAP across our UK business of approximately 4000 people and 5 sites. The implementation was a particularly deep one, involving operations and engineering as well as the more commercial elements of the business. The implementation of the system did run behind, but the problems were with the lack of understanding by the IT provider of the volumes of data and complexity of the process, rather than the project management of the implementation itself. Once these early issues were resolved, John was able to marshal the 100 plus employees directly involved in the project as well as again keeping the various stakeholders informed, on side and equipped to make the necessary decisions relating to the programme.
Again, the phased implementation, went ahead with remarkably little disturbance to the business.
In short, I would thoroughly recommend John for projects such as these three again as, in my experience, he has proven ability to deliver them in an efficient and effective manner without the significant collateral damage that such projects often involve.
In addition, he is a personable individual who is easy to work with and who resolves issues without recourse to difficult behaviours.