The record
1986 to now.
2012 – present · Chief Information Officer, Trustco Group Holdings
Oversight and strategic input on the design, development, implementation and maintenance of the group’s business systems and infrastructure. Head of the IT team and its management functions. Permanent member of the Trustco Group Holdings IT Steering Committee, with governance responsibilities set out in the IT Steering Charter.
- Trustco Banking System and its core modules — 2014 to date
- Trustco Mobile Leo and Trustco Mobile Shoprite platforms
- Yambu Insurance
- Trustco Procurement Management — 2018
2011 – 2012 · Head of Information Technology, Trustco Group International
Oversight and strategic input on group business systems and infrastructure.
2006 – 2011 · Chief Executive, Strategic Software Systems Support Services, Trustco Group International
Executive duties alongside continued management of Trustco systems development at every level. Delivered the student portal, material management, client email platforms, the Trustco Mobile system and its custom SMS solution, reporting servers and a ticketing system — plus CDR and billing interfaces to Cell One (now Leo), Cell One Emerald, Econet Lesotho and Econet Zimbabwe.
2003 – 2006 · IT Software Systems Manager, Trustco Group International
Managing the developer team and the day-to-day system requirements of the group; extending existing systems and migrating legacy platforms. Designed, built and maintained Legal Shield Namibia systems, SMS technology and its web portals, M4M, document management, Winna Mariba, banking systems, the Central Information File, the Trustco Finance System and the Student Administration System — with integrations to AccountMate, North-West University, APS and others.
1999 – 2003 · Independent Consultant, trading as DS Software Development Services
The business that still runs today.
- Win Accounting — accounting software for the South African SME market
- Smart Banking — generic bank export and import modules
- Generic data transformation tooling
- SMS software systems for cellphone operators
- Pastel and ACCPAC integration into Trustco’s proprietary systems
- Y2K compliance conversion of the Data Memory accounting package and CPA hospital systems
- Printing industry systems for Horizon Systems; data integration for Lombardi Foods; ACCPAC data integration for CA Systems
- Feasibility study, analysis and design for a government organisation on secure implementation of a distributed information network over a private network
- Consulting to Paltrack, Agrihub, Horizon and the Arthritis Foundation
- Training instruction for IT-IQ — Access 2000, Crystal Reports, SQL Server
- Early web R&D on Clarion for Windows 5.5, ASP templates and ClarionNET
- Completed the Excellence Foundation’s Executive Facilitator programme for SME excellence measurement
1997 – 1999 · Contract to Triple-S Computers
Point of sale interface into ADEPT, the Triple-S back-office accounting suite, in Progress. Facilitated turn-key implementations on the Triple-S suite for Jaggers, Advance and Harrisons in Zimbabwe.
1995 – 1997 · Southern Life, Head Office, Rondebosch — Sales Support
Built and maintained the systems behind the remuneration of Southern’s field agents: remuneration at all levels, housing subsidy, allowances, loans, share options, competitions, a field manager query MIS, electronic and disk distribution, payslip assembly and mainframe upload, and reconciliations. Also designed and implemented a Learning Resources Administration System for HR and Development.
Completed Leadership Edge, a six-month intensive leadership programme.
1994 – 1995 · Contract to Syfrets
- Executors Liquidation and Distribution System — built in Clarion 2.1, deployed across the Syfrets national LAN
- Syfrets ProBanker — remote access platform letting professional financial service providers link directly into the Syfrets network across multiple operating system platforms
- Maintenance of the insolvency systems in a Progress client-server environment — Windows front end, Progress back end on UNIX
- Maintenance of the revised Wills system
- TBX maintenance using Visual Basic, Progress and Syfrets’ MCS message control layer over TCP/IP
- Executive Information Systems project — Visual Basic and Access, later upsized to SQL Server
- A membership system for the Arthritis Foundation
1991 – 1994 · Data Memory Programming, Somerset West
Software engineering and re-engineering, database design, systems analysis, project management and technical support. Built and maintained a full accounting suite — general ledger, debtors and invoicing, order entry, creditors, cashbook, stock, stock manufacturing, job costing — plus an ABSA debit order linkup and a hospital store finance control system.
1990 – 1991 · National Service — Grahamstown and Pretoria
Commissioned as Lieutenant. Designed and implemented a control system for ammunition stores in Clarion 2.1. Converted the Data Memory accounting systems from GST to VAT.
1987 – 1990 · Technikon Natal, and Data Memory, Durban
National Diploma in Computer Data Processing, alongside part-time and then full-time work at Data Memory — development on their accounting suite, plus lecturing DOS to their clients.