Sales Technical Support
Resume:
Paul Crawford
*** **** ***** *****, ******, ON, L4G 3V4
Cell: 416-***-****
Home: 905-***-****
Email: ********.****.*@*****.***
I have over 25 years of Pre-Sales experience helping hundreds of customers from all industries, and of all sizes, determine their infrastructure needs. In 2013 I was part of a downsizing at Mid-Range. I tried to find employment as a Pre-Sales Infrastructure Architect, but unfortunately many vendors, distributors and business partners were also downsizing due to the downturn in the hardware industry, which was primarily caused by a larger surplus of compute and storage capacity that many customers have already invested in, and the increased acceptance and implementation of virtualization which enabled them to do more with the infrastructure they already owned. I therefore decided to incorporate myself and provide IT consulting services. I miss the excitement of Pre-Sale and helping many customers, and would appreciate the opportunity to get back into Pre-Sales.
EXPERIENCE
P.D. Crawford Computer Consulting Services Inc. 2013/08 – Present
Providing a broad range of IT consulting services specializing in Pre-Sales Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture planning and optimization.
- Contract with IBM Global Services at Scotia Bank 2016/02 – 2016/06
Providing Infrastructure Architect services, to support applications running in virtualized AIX, Linux, and Windows environments, and also the storage infrastructure servicing them. Sizing and designing the Server / Network / SAN / Storage infrastructures for new business projects that the bank was implementing by working with the various vendor Pre-Sales technicians and sales teams.
- Contract with ComplyTec Enterprise Compliance 2014/10 – 2015/08
Providing their customers with a full range of solutions to meet their specialized IT Security, Identity Access and Compliance needs. Primarily providing Pre-Sales technical writer support services responding to customer RFP’s.
Evaluating RSA authentication infrastructure (servers, network security, hardening) for SSO and secure tokens.
- Contract with TD Financial Services 2013/08 – 2014/08
Working with TD’s Enterprise Capacity Planning Team
Providing proactive monitoring of all infrastructure platforms, identifying those that are approaching high-water thresholds. Then determine corrective actions, which range from balancing workloads, to working with vendors to increase infrastructure capacity. Platforms included: servers platforms: IBM Power / AIX / OS400 / PowerVM, HP x86 / Windows / VMware, HP Blades / Windows, CISCO networking, SAN and NAS storage arrays: Hitatchi VSP, EMC, NetApps & IBM nSeries, IBM TS3500, DS8000, Storwize.
Worked with the business and application teams to size and architect new infrastructures to support new applications for all the environments (Dev/Test/QA/Prod/HA/DR) by working with the various vendor Pre-Sales technicians and sales teams.
Incorporated TOGAF and SOA principles in the architectural design and documents where applicable; follow SDLC principles throughout projects.
Software Management and Monitoring tools used: NetApps OnCommand Data Management Software, Hitachi Command Suite. Customized the automated capturing and collection of I/O and storage utilization statistics via scripts to facilitate the production of weekly/monthly reporting.
MID-RANGE Computer Group Inc. 2002/08 – 2013/06
Mid-Range is an IBM Premier Business Partner based in Southern Ontario, and one of the only four Canadian IBM Business Partners to achieve the IBM Business Partner Innovation Centre (BPIC) level of commitment. My role was to support the sales team and their customers, as a Senior Infrastructure Solution Architect and Subject Matter Expert (SME). I also managed the Business Partner Innovation Centre (BPIC).
Helping customers across all industries (Banking, Insurance, Financial, Healthcare, Distribution, Manufacturing, Education, Municipal and Federal Government), assisting them in evaluating and implementing new Information Technology (IT) infrastructure acquisitions, to achieve the optimal balance in: requirements, growth considerations, and budget to support their current and new in-house IT infrastructures as well as support their cloud initiatives.
Clients include: Tangerine (ING Bank), Tim Horton’s, RioCan, TD Bank, Foresters, OTPP, OLGC, Kinross Gold Mines, Mackenzie Financial, TELUS, MTS Allstream, McMaster University, Sick Kid’s Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital, Grand River Hospital, Town of Newmarket, Town of Richmond Hill, Town of Markham, Honda, IBM (internal) and many more.
Senior Pre-Sales Infrastructure Solution Architect and SME:
Document customer infrastructure requirements utilizing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio.
Prepare Pre-Sales architecture designs and configurations, applying TOGAF and SOA principles when applicable, for IBM Power (pSeries, iSeries), xSeries. BladeCentre, PureFlex, Networking (IBM / Cisco), SAN (Cisco / Brocade), Tape Libraries, Storwize, DS8xxx, XIV, and nSeries.
Customer support helping them with the implementation and automation of system monitoring and maintenance.
Maintain knowledge of IBM products and positioning.
Assist with the writing of responses to RFP's utilizing the Microsoft Office suite of applications.
Coordinating with vendors regarding product availability and deliveries.
Participate in trade shows.
Prepare and present Customer seminars and training.
IBM Systems Director, Tivoli Storage Productivity Center.
Architect infrastructure solutions supporting IBM Websphere.
Architect Infrastructure Alternatives and present the options to customers.
Marketing support.
Achieve and maintain sales & technical certifications.
AIX / OS400 / Windows installation, configuration and upgrades.
IBM PowerVM and VMware setup and configuration.
CISCO and Brocade SAN and Network zoning.
IBM DS8xxx, Storwize / XIV / nSeries Storage virtualization and allocation.
IBM PowerHA implementations.
Architect infrastructure solutions which incorporate databases: DB2 on AIX and iSeries, or Oracle RAC.
Architect Backup solutions using IBM TS3xxx tape libraries and using TSM, Commvault, NetBackup for in-house and cloud based backup infrastructures.
Defining the scripting requirements to support the automating of backup and recovery of systems.
Apply TOGAF and SOA principles when applicable when supporting customers.
Business Partner Innovations Centre (BPIC) Manager:
Scheduling and coordinating customer access and utilization of the BPIC infrastructure to support the pre-sales efforts.
Managing the compliance requirements to maintain the BPIC status required by IBM.
Responsible for customizing the infrastructure configuration to support the per-sales efforts by setting up of hardware and software, which included installing and configuring different versions of AIX and Windows platforms as well as networking, SAN/NAS network and storage partitions to exceed all customer proof of concepts or system trials.
Reset and maintain the BPIC infrastructure facilities, ensuring that a broad range of old and new hardware and software infrastructure is kept available to address as many customer potential requests.
SpectrumWay Solutions Inc. 2000/07 – 2002/07
SpectrumWay is an IBM Premier Business Partner located in southern Ontario. I supported the sales team as a Senior IT Infrastructure Solutions Specialist.
Senior Pre-Sales Infrastructure Solution Specialist
Determine and document customer’s requirements.
Prepare detailed product configurations and options.
Pre-sales product and technical support.
Maintain knowledge of IBM products and positioning.
Assist in preparing RFP responses.
Coordinate with IBM regarding product availability.
Prepare and present customer presentations.
Create and deliver marketing collateral.
Achieve IBM sales and technical certifications.
Participate in trade shows.
Organize customer seminars.
Prepare & present training to the technical & sales teams.
OnX Enterprise Solutions 1997/04 – 2000/06
OnX Enterprise Solutions (formerly ONYX Computer Inc.) is a multivendor Business Partner located in southern Ontario. OnX Enterprise Solutions wanted to become an IBM business partner and my responsibility was to establish the IBM relationship and build the IBM sales and support team from the ground up.
IBM Product Manager 1999/06 – 2000/06
Product Configuration and Support for Sales.
Defining Customers Requirements.
Assist in RFP Responses with Sales Team.
Coordinate with IBM on product availability.
IBM Product Knowledge and Positioning.
Marketing and Some Technical.
IBM Sales & Technical Certifications.
Competitive Positioning.
Customer Presentation (on ONYX and IBM Products and Solutions).
Coordinate and Provide Internal Sales Training on IBM products.
Assist with Customer Seminars.
Participate in Trade Shows.
Provide Branch Sales Support.
Prepare & present training to the technical & sales teams.
IBM Business Manager 1997/04 – 1999/05
Grew the business unit from zero to over $8M.
Manage vendor escalations for customers.
Leverage vendor special pricing.
Track and manage vendor programs.
Prepare vendor forecasting.
Facilitate vendor teaming.
Input vendor sales out reporting.
Responsible for OnX sales tracking and performance.
Manage IBM lead generation programs.
Assignment of customer accounts and coordination.
Responsible for marketing programs & campaigns.
Maintain & track OnX business partner certifications.
Customer presentations.
OnX management tracking and reporting.
Assist in RFP responses with sales team.
Develop and maintain OnX policies and procedures.
Trades show participation.
Manage vendor relations and coordination.
Responsible to grow the sales and technical teams.
Work Experience – Prior to 1997 - summarized to shorten my Resume 1976 - 1997
1985 – 1997 – WANG Canada Computers Inc. – Senior Programmer/Analyst, Instructor, Pre-Sales Architect, SME, Migration Specialist, Systems Administrator, Systems & Storage Specialist
1982 – 1985 – P.D. Crawford and Associates Inc. – Senior Programmer/Analyst
1979 – 1982 – DMR & Associates – Senior Programmer/Analyst
1976 – 1979 – Drake Systems – Programmer/Analyst
1976 – 1976 – Cooper Buxton Canada – Operator, Programmer/Analyst
TOOLS
Microsoft Office Pro Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, and Visio),
IBM: eConfig, TSM, Director, Storage Productivity Centre, Lotus Notes
NetApps OnCommand Data Management Software,
Hitachi Command Suite
CERTIFICATIONS
TOGAF Certified.
IBM Certified Solution Advisor - Cloud Computing Architecture V2.
IBM Certified Specialist - Enterprise Storage Technical Support V3.
IBM Certified Specialist - Midrange Storage Sale V1.
IBM PureFlex Technical Pre-Sales.
IBM PureFlex Sales.
IBM Certified Infrastructure Systems Architect (ISA).
IBM Certified Technical Sales Specialist - Power Systems with POWER7 and AIX - v1.
IBM Certified Specialist - Power Systems Technical Support for AIX and Linux.
IBM Certified Specialist - System x Technical Principles V9.
IBM Certified Specialist - Storage Sales V2.
Tivoli Monitoring Technical Sales Professional (v1).
Tivoli Automation Solution Sales Professional v2.
IBM pSeries and RS6000 - RS/6000 SP and PSSP 2.2 (Certified), AIX 4.1 Systems Administration (Certified).
IBM pSeries and RS6000 - RS/6000 Sales Specialist (Certified), AIX 4.1 Migration.
IBM TotalStorage - IBM Storage Pre-Sales (Certified).
IBM Tivoli - Tivoli Product Solutions 201 Sales Mastery, Tivoli PACO Solutions Sales Professional.
EDUCATION
Control Data Institute - Diploma of Programming and Operstions 1976 – 1977
Programming Languages: COBOL, RPGII, FORTRAN, Assembler, and JCL, and Computer Operations.
Thornhill Secondary School - Grade 13 Diploma 1972 – 1976
Three years of FORTRAN and Assembler programming on an IBM 1130.
Aided in design and development of: Student Time Table System, Locker Assignment System, Grade Recording and Reporting System.
HOBBIES and INTERESTS
Photography, Scuba Diving, Camping, Golfing, Alpine Skiing, Kite Boarding, Pinball, Cycling, Classic cars
Beaver/Cubs/Scouts Leader. 1993 – 2006
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