Detailed Knowledge
Education and Business School Research: 1965-71
After taking an undergraduate degree in Management Sciences at the University of Salford in the UK he joined the research staff at Durham University Business School and participated in the early research on computer-based financial and cost modeling.
While at Durham he also undertook research for the UK Government into the impact of Technology on Industrial Relations. He has retained a keen interest in the behavioural implications of the application of computer technology.
Internal Management Consulting at Dunlop: 1971-73
He then joined Dunlop Limited as an internal management consultant and, initially based in Germany, focused on the evaluation of physical distribution systems in Europe.
He also designed and built computer models for Manpower Planning in the UK operations.
Finance and Managerial Accounting at Shell: 1973-77
He moved to Shell Chemicals as a finance executive and was responsible for the management accounting information for Supply and Distribution for which he developed the first computer-based Ad Hoc reporting systems.
He was then responsible for the development of computer systems for meeting the reporting requirements of special Government legislation on Pricing.
It was here that he first used the FCS Decision Support System (DSS) from EPS, which was supplied by Comshare. This was used primarily for Strategic Planning and Cost Modelling
Marketing Management and Application Support at Comshare: 1977-80
He was then employed by Comshare to support FCS users, primarily Budgeting applications, across a wide variety of industries. He also used relational databases in conjunction with the matrix approaches of FCS.
He eventually became Marketing and Application Support manager for FCS working on a variety of DSS applications in the UK and Europe, especially the large international Oil companies in Aberdeen.
His final role with Comshare was as Regional Sales Manager for the North of England prior to moving to Canada.
Executive Vice President at EPS Consultants: 1980-85
He then moved to Canada with EPS, the owners of FCS, to open the Canadian operation in 1981as Executive Vice President.
He grew the business from one person and one office to 45 staff across 6 offices over a six-year period.
He developed the Strategic and Marketing Plans and the organization to support these plans, especially the development of local offices across Canada. He hired the key staff and developed internal training courses for these staff.
He developed both software sales capabilities and consulting services into profitable segments and provided consulting resources to the USA operation on a regular basis.
He also helped develop educational documentation, often initially writing it himself and then later supervising other staff. This documentation was then used in other EPS offices around the world. He also developed a wide range of educational programs that were marketed to clients.
Vice President of Marketing at Thorn-EMI Computer Software: 1985-86
EPS Consultants became part of Thorn-EMI Software in 1985, where he was then appointed Vice President of Marketing for North America and was based in Boston.
He worked primarily on positioning issues for a wide and diverse software product set and how best to ensure that marketing activities supported the direct sales efforts.
He also developed a whole range of Marketing literature to support the sales process.
President of Parkinson Barber Consulting: 1986-97
In 1986 he returned to Canada and undertook personal consulting engagements with Popsicle Industries in the implementation of PC-Based ERP systems, and with CIBC on the management of internal support groups for computer users.
President: EPS Software Consultants: 1987-95
In 1987 he re-established the EPS operation in Canada as the exclusive agent for both Thorn-EMI and Pilot Software and their DSS and Executive Information Systems (EIS) software tools.
He was able to return the former Thorn-EMI Canadian operation to profitability with 6 months and had several high-profile clients such as Canada Trust, Royal Trust, Environment Canada, Syncrude and Telus for the primarily mainframe-based DSS and EIS tools.
EPI became a leader in Canada for multi-dimensional DSS applications and also multi-dimensional EIS reporting from a wide range of finance and marketing applications.
He re-opened the former EPS offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal.
He promoted the production of Strategic Plans to support the existing DSS/EIS business as well as new initiatives into new business areas.
He personally headed up these initiatives at the new EPS into the provision of software that complemented and enhanced the Pilot DSS and EIS tools in workgroup settings. This resulted in EPS becoming a Premium Partner for Lotus Notes given its strength in workgroup computing as well as a Solution Partner with Microsoft.
He identified software partners in the Notes arena, primarily for Quality and ISO 9000 applications covering Customer Management.
Activity Based Costing (ABC) was a specialist DSS application that also complemented the workgroup computing initiatives. This resulted in EPS being awarded the exclusive agency in Canada for HyperABC, from Armstrong Laing, one of the world’s leading ABM software tools. Since then HyperABC has been renamed Metify.
President of EPI Organizational Software: 1995-98
In 1995 he formed EPI from these new initiatives at EPS. The new company was formed to promote and support the Armstrong Laing ABM software, which achieved significant penetration with clients at Royal Bank, ScotiaBank, Sun Life and the Royal Canadian Mint.
EPI was also authorized Solution Partner for Notes from Lotus and Productivity software from Microsoft.
He has also worked closely with Lotus and other organizations on the development of methodologies for the rapid development of workflow and workgroup computing, including Notes applications for controlling ABC implementations. He helped develop the Accelerated Value Method (AVM) with Lotus in Canada, the UK and USA, for the rapid implementation of Lotus Notes
There was a continued emphasis on the Notes-based ISO 9000 Quality systems as well as new software for Process Management (ARIS from IDS).
EPI retained a capability in Executive Information Systems in order to offer its clients the highest level of Executive and Management reporting from the core software tools.
He has also been heavily involved since 1995 in evaluating the use of the Internet and understanding its impact on senior executives in terms of their own direct usage. He has also been active in monitoring the changing ways in which the Internet can be used for business applications.
President of Armstrong Laing Canada: 1998-99
EPI was absorbed into Armstrong Laing in February of 1998 and he became President of the Canadian operation.
He spearheaded the initiative to licence software he had identified as being a solution to the easier collection of information for the ABM software. Armstrong Laing eventually purchased this software, ProCarta from Domain Knowledge, for this purpose.
President of Enterprise Software Solutions: 1999 to 2001
He formed ESS to work directly with several smaller clients.
He has acted as Associate VP Sales and Marketing for two small High Tech companies, and retains active involvement with one of these companies where his main focus is the development of Internet-based sales and marketing activities.
He was a founding shareholder of Domain Knowledge and worked with their software for Process Documentation/Mapping and Knowledge Management.
He continued to provide high-level management consulting to long-term clients in Europe, including a four-month assignment in the UK assessing Warehousing Requirements for Veka UK, as well as associated SAP software for Warehouse Management.
He has lectured at several Canadian Universities, been guest speaker at various Professional bodies and published several papers on DSS and EIS topics. The two latest ones are “What If: Decision Shaping Systems” for the CMA Magazine and “It’s time to reconsider ABC” for Computing Canada
Parkinson and Company (UK): 2002 to present
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