. Simply Solutions Portfolio
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Portfolio

Multi-Function Device Project

In 2008 Hampshire County Council began a programme of change to dramatically reduce its property portfolio, requiring their main office to be converted to open plan.

I was responsible for supporting two of their directorates through the step change and managed the refurbishment of one of their satellite offices to accommodate flexible working practices, including the development of new business continuity and emergency planning procedures.

The transition to open plan offices required resources to be shared, HCC secured a contract with Canon UK to provide MFDs (print, copy, scan) and I managed the successful delivery of over 200 devices to offices across Hampshire and the disposal of the legacy devices.

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Income Management Upgrade Project

In 2013 Portsmouth City Council decided to close its regional payment offices and deliver channel shift to online which necessitated replacing the authority’s income management system, Civica ICON with Capita Pay.

The project involved not just the delivery of a business critical system that processed over 7000 transactions a day but the required change management for residents and staff across 35 sites including moving the council's bank account.

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Cloud Migration

Cripps are one of the top 50 law firms in the UK and the largest in Kent with a turnover in excess of £28M.

I managed a full Cloud migration to Amazon Web Services for the business and was responsible for ensuring that new support arrangements were in place in alignment with ITIL best practice.

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Income Management Upgrade Project

In 2018 the London Borough of Haringey decided to deploy a major upgrade to the income management solution Civica ICON which was processing over 450,000 transactions a year. The project provided the authority with the opportunity adopt significant channel shift to online but had a tight delivery deadline due to new PCI regulations. I was contracted to deliver the solution within 6 months and did so having also deployed PayPal and Point to Point Encryption for the council's 20+ card payment devices.

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Housing management system replacement Project

Having procured Civica Cx Housing in 2017 as a replacement for an end-of-live version of the Northgate product, Enfield had struggled to make any progress in deploying it to their 300+ end users. I joined in July 2019 and delivered a fully configured system by December the following year. Cx was a significant departure from their legacy solution being built from the ground up and delivered in a modular fashion and required each business process to be largely redesigned. The configuration included building 19 interfaces, 7 payment arrears processes, 32 mapped as-is processes, and the migration of 125k cleansed records including 8k+ contacts, 3k+ assets, 4k agreements and 5k accounts.

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Market Analysis & Options Appraisal

NHS Property Services oversee the clinical sites across the UK and have the responsibility for security, maintenance and maximising revenue from room hire. I was tasked with undertaking an evaluation of the software market to identify potential replacements for their current facilities management product. The assignment was delivered two weeks ahead of schedule fully meeting the clients' expectations.

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Parking Payment Programme

I was engaged by the London Borough of Merton to manage a project team who were delivering a number of activities against a tight time scale in order that the council could introduce emissions-based charging on and off street, and extend their Pay by Phone offering through Ringo. This included software development, procurement, contract management, statutory and legislative process, and communication. All activities were delivered to the defined time lines and in line with the Executive's expectations.

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Case Management / Enterprise Work Management

I returned to the London Borough of Haringey to manage the implementation of a new case management system for their Planning & Building Control service and to help develop and then deploy a Cloud based Project Management tool for their Digital Services team. The Planning & Building Control system was an interesting departure from traditional solutions being built upon a Salesforce database by a software house Arcus Global. The solution was successfully deployed with an under spend of just over 50k.

The Project Management tool was also somewhat ground breaking for a Local Authority being developed with an Agile approach on the Monday.com platform, this was also successfully delivered on time and in line with Executive expectations.

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Testimonials

  • “Paul joined us at a critical juncture, stepping into a complex, long-running project that required significant reorganisation and consistent engagement with both our external supplier and a wide array of internal stakeholders across multiple departments. From day one, Paul demonstrated a deep understanding of the project’s intricacies and quickly became a safe pair of hands, bringing calm and clarity to a complex situation He has consistently maintained a clear and detailed grasp of the project’s status, navigating challenges with pragmatism and a solutions-focused mindset. His ability to keep momentum going has been invaluable. Paul’s calm, approachable manner and positive attitude have made him a pleasure to work with and a trusted partner throughout. Thanks to his leadership and perseverance, we’ve successfully delivered a project that had been years in the making. I would wholeheartedly recommend Paul to any team looking for a dependable, thoughtful, and effective delivery lead."

    Leon McComish, Delivery Lead

  • “It’s honestly been such a pleasure working with you, you’ve been incredible! And it is not just because of your skills and leadership, but because of the genuine care and dedication you bring to everything you do. You’ve taught me so much without even trying, just by the way you lead, support the team and drive things forward with such clarity. You’ve made a real difference to this project and will be really missed, thanks for everything."

    Rena Buckingham, Senior Business Analyst

  • “It was a great honour working with you, thank you. I learnt so much about Cx but also about project management and how it is done, about processes and much more. The Cx implementation would never have got so far had it not been for your commitment and dedication. Thank you for all your extra time, support and patience."

    Diana Tumova, Food Safety Environmental Health Officer

  • ““Thank you for all your amazing support and guidance provided on the Cx project and for always bringing a warm smile and positive approach to the table. It’s been a pleasure working with you."

    Rebecca Whitehouse, Environmental Health Manager

  • “I wanted to take this chance to say thank you for all of your support. I haven't had the privilege of working with you directly for long, but in that short time I have been both impressed by and grateful for your calming, reassuring hand on this process. You've been effective yet supportive, punctual yet patient, motivating yet calming. As far as I can tell, it is almost entirely thanks to you that the Nexus migration didn't fall over immediately and I just wanted to say thank you."

    Oluwalogbon Akinnola, Senior Data Analyst

  • “Hi Paul, Even though we haven’t had the chance to work together directly, I’ve observed from a distance that you’re a student of the craft and excellent at what you do. The sphere of influence was a really valuable framework, so thank you for sharing it."

    William Bramble, Senior Delivery Manager

  • “We will miss you Paul, best project manager I’ve worked with, ever!".

    Darren Wilsher, Private Sector Housing Service Manager

  • “Paul is an asset to any organisation that requires a skilled and experienced IT project manager. He has proven his ability to deliver successful outcomes and to add value to the business. He is also a reliable and trustworthy colleague, who is always willing to help and support others. I highly recommend Paul for any future employment opportunities."

    Gareth Bedford, Head of IT Transformation Delivery

  • “Hi Paul, it has been our pleasure working with you, I honestly don’t know how we would have got to were we are without your expert management of this challenging project. I know it hasn’t been easy and I haven’t been easy! But I really appreciate your involvement and just wanted to thank you for your patience and dedication to see this through. If I am ever in a position where I was in need of a project manager I would look no further, and hopefully I will someday!"

    Kevin Tohill, Team Leader - Development Management

  • “Hi Paul, It was a pleasure working with you and the consensus here is that the go live went well, there are no Hypercare tickets left already & only 59 tickets raised over the 4 weeks which I hear is a record!"

    Lee Bristow, Senior Project Manager

  • “Paul, I understand today is your last formal day with us. You've been amazing! I thought I was organised until I worked with you. Thank you so much for your work, and some challenging moments, but you've kept us on track and you've been a trusted member of the team".

    Rob Krzyszowski MRTPI, Assistant Director, Planning, Building Standards & Sustainability

  • “Paul has been terrific, I wish we could have 12 PMs like Paul."

    Moosavi Ali, PMO & Resourcing Manager Digital Services

  • “Hi Paul, the project is in a really good place thanks to your project governance and oversight. I do appreciate the work that you have done and we will be sorry to see you go."

    Cathryn James, Executive Director of Environment, Civic Pride and Climate

  • “I have no words to express my gratitude but THANK YOU for everything. You have been amazing and a great pillar to the whole team, I dread the thought of what will happen without you. I will miss you dearly and hope we can work together again. Merry Christmas to the best project manager ever."

    Glenda Tapa, Implementation Consultant

  • “It has been pleasure working with you and you are the best project lead I have ever worked with".

    Zhensheng Chen, Team Manager - Income Team

  • “Hi Paul, given the tumultuous history with our Council; project managers here one minute, gone the next, and all the various challenges, I honestly don’t think this project would have gotten as far as it has without your leadership. I have such admiration for your skill, level headedness, ability to coordinate the team I’m so impressed".

    Enam Hussain, Sales & Leasehold Services Officer

  • “Over the past 18 months Paul has implemented robust project management using PRINCE 2, Microsoft Project, RAID Log and Highlight Reports. By identifying resources required, he has managed delivery of implementation in the project team. Working closely with one of the organisation’s key suppliers, and adapted to their changing resources, he has ensured continuity of delivery and reached the point of full UAT across council services and 3rd party integrations within the project".

    Martin Sanders, Head of Service Management and Governance

  • “It has been a pleasure working with you, very professional and through".

    Hassan Hassan, Infrastructure Solutions Architect

  • “Since the introduction of PayPal there have been over 51,000 successful transactions, equating to just under £6 Million pounds, which is absolutely fantastic and absolute justification for it’s introduction. I would go so far as to suggest that PayPal along with that projects introduction of our online eStore solution, for which we now have over 4,300 signed up customer accounts, have probably been the two single most successful and transformational payment solutions we have ever implemented, so well done Paul Evans who project managed the project".

    Gary Jude, Financial Systems Manager

  • “Paul was extremely helpful and accommodated all our requirements and kept us informed all the way through. I can only thank Paul for all his patience with me, as I have corresponded with him on numerous occasions and he always got back to me straight away and managed to resolved several issues we came across. ".

    Alex Franci, Legal Services

  • “Congratulations to you and your team on achieving a smooth service transition. It was a real pleasure working with you on this matter".

    Sarah Robson, Lawyer- Contracts & Procurement

  • “Paul has played a key role in making the network services transition a success and in achieving our £250k annual savings, a real testament to his hard work."

    Ed Garcez, Chief Digital and Information Officer

  • “Hi Paul, as I said in our meeting ‘Thank you’ , I think you are a really good project manager who is calm, organised, strategic and supportive, I have enjoyed working with you and also learning from your management styles".

    Sharon Grant, Senior Accountant

  • “in an efficient and timely manner Paul almost single-handedly, managed our IT and Phone System also contributed to the financial efficiency of the business by negotiating competitive supplier contacts and identifying methods of achieving objectives in-house rather than having to outsource. I would not hesitate to recommend him".

    Chloe Carey, Managing Director

  • “While working on the Corporate Mobility project we recieved frequent updates, notes for meetings are always available ahead of any project meetings, Paul was very engaged with the project liaising with suppliers, setting up meetings or calls when there is value to be had, I have had no problems or concerns".

    Wayne Gibson, Infrastructure Engineer

  • “Paul is amazing, his telephone manner is superb. He always demonstrates that he is very calm and patient and always empathises with the customer, he explains what he will do and absolutely does what he says he will do. He is very busy most of the day but never gets frustrated with any situation".

    Tina Slocombe, Operations Advisor