Projects portfolio: IT Projects

Role: IT Supporter, infrastructure local project lead
Location: Montreux, CH.
Period: 09.2011 – 07.2015
— Working for a gloabl pharma & biotech engineering consulting firm headquartered in Denmark. Primarily recruited for another role, the growth of our regional office in Romandie soon required a Local IT, from which I highlight some projects hereafter:

1- IT infrastructure project local lead

Moving the team from a small, temporary rental office with light infrastructure (a switch & router rack connected to head office in Basel by a permanent remote VPN) to a 2 floors own building with dedicate installation: mainly Cisco hardware routers and switches racks, VOIP phones, mutliple Access Points, DMVPN then MPLS, Perle, etc. Some requirements were driven by Global IT at our headquarter in Denmark, mainly for hardware solutions, and I was helped locally or remotely by IT managers from Switzerland or Denmark when needed. My tasks included:

• Project description scope writing
• Procurement: RFP and supplier selection for cabling, infrastructure, electricity, central patch bay closet and soundproofing
• Budget estimations, project and installation planning
• Implementation analysis: location study, cost impacts, equipment final location, analyse number of ports & access points needed, etc
• Reporting project status and recommendations to Global IT
• Hardware supply followup (routers, patch bays, switches, access points, mostly Cisco equipment) and installations of some elements
• Network: support for remote management through Global IT
• Equipment cabling, network connection and configuration (user work stations, tracer, printers, VOIP phones) through switch panels based on provided network mapping
• Local or remote support for network & configuration

Some interventions were made out of office hours, to comply with my other project or consulting assignments as well as to avoid network disconnection for users (+/- 15 people).

This was a small project, less than 100K CHF and a few months duration, but it was a challenge for someone passionate but not especially skilled in IT infrastructure and I really enjoyed it. Entrusted by my regional manager to lead this, and being the only local person dealing on site with suppliers and work in progress, it allowed me to take responsibilities and grow my project management skills by being involved in the project from its early definition to its completion. It also greatly improved my understanding of network infrastructure, hardware equipment, and connection protocols involved to equip an office.

2- Regional IT Supporter

As said above, our growth required to have a local IT to support the regional office, liaising with the IT country manager in Basel. This assignment was part time, depending the need for support and punctual issues, but included continous development of professional competencies and building knowledge by participating and exchanging better practices with colleagues during weekly Global IT Supporters meetings.

• First level troubleshooting: deliver IT support and services to local team of engineers according SLA..
• ..includes most frequents Windows 7 issues, user access to secured project documentation, helpdesk tickets, user management, Active Directory, etc
• Office hardware management and testing, estimate procurement need in relation with HR recruitment planning
• Installation and configuration of new laptops (W7) and work stations
• Software: followup on needs, plan and update central licenses pool quotas (for instance CAD softwares licenses)
• On customer project: train external consultant on DMS, Microsoft and own internally developed solutions
• Support rollout and local implementation of new solutions, early access for testing and giving feedback: Microsoft 365, Dynamics Navision, Sharepoint
• create or edit technical documentation and user tutorials