Pleasance House Consulting - Staff - Allan Wilkie

Agency-Style cv

 

Personal Details

Age

53 years as of 02/08/2008 (DOB = 02/08/1955)

Marital Status

Married for twenty-four years to Dr. Stella Clark - (a consultant psychiatrist/ medical director)

Children

Fiona (age 19) and Melissa (age 15)

Hobbies

Cricket and Golf

Schools

1960 - 1967 Freuchie Primary School
1967 - 1973 Bell-Baxter High School, Cupar, Fife.

College

1973 - 1978 Napier College of Science and Technology in Edinburgh.
BSc (Hons) in Science with Industrial Studies.

 

 

Areas of Expertise

I have over thirty years’ experience in designing, building, implementing and managing retail systems. My expertise covers the following functional areas:

  • Bar-Coding, Hand Held Terminals, POS, EFTPOS and In-Store Systems
  • Logistics, Warehousing, Distribution and Transport
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Merchandising and Merchandise Planning
  • Management Information Systems – Data Warehousing

Skill Set

I have a varied skill set covering all aspects of:

  • Analysis and Design
  • Project Management
  • Implementation Support
  • Account Management
  • Commercial Awareness

Hardware and Software Experience

I have worked with:

  • Various flavours of Unix with Oracle and Ingres databases
  • Many configurations of NT Servers with Oracle and SQL-Server databases
  • All Windows Operating Systems
  • Several remote access, terminal server, VPN support products
  • All Microsoft Software – Project, Access, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher etc.
  • RSA/OpenRSA/SQL-Retail/Supply Chain merchandising system
  • Cognos Business Intelligence Software Suite
  • Buyers Toolbox Merchandise Planning system
     

Work History

Pleasance House Consulting

2001 – now      Retail Systems Consultant

After being made redundant I set up on my own, operating as Pleasance House Consulting. I have completed two major contracts. The first was with Texstyle World based in Shettleston, Glasgow.

I assisted them through the selection and implementation of a merchandise planning system - Buyers Toolbox from ANT USA. An early part of this project was the provision of retail consultancy and technical support, helping the Texstyle World merchandisers to completely re-define the product hierarchy they were using to manage their business. I designed and built an intermediate sub-system based on SQL-Server to automatically extract transactional data from the legacy AS400 systems, massage and load it on a daily basis. My new database was the source of the initial planning database and also provided the weekly updates it required.

The other major task in this contract was to provide a new Management Information System. This was done using the Cognos toolset. Several multi-dimensional analysis cubes were built to meet different reporting needs. The largest of these had a dozen multi-layered dimensions with over 100,000 categories and 60 million rows built into it. My intermediate SQL Server database was the main data source collecting all relevant transactional and structural data from the purchasing, point-of-sale etc. legacy systems and some additional spreadsheets that were maintained by the users. The data structures were defined to Cognos using Impromptu. Data could be drilled down to item (design/colour/size) by store by week. Information available included stock, sales (including refunds and promotional sales), supplier deliveries, returns to suppliers, purchase orders, mark-downs, stock losses and adjustments, store transfers, model stocks and allocated stocks. There were over three years' history of these transaction types for 60,000+ products in over eighty stores and three warehouses.

I generated standard PowerPlay reports to be run automatically and either printed locally or published as html for auto e-mailing. Remote users were sent complete compressed reports, but local users got the necessary URLs to let them access the reports directly on the corporate intranet. I devised and ran several training courses to teach Texstyle World staff how to do their own ad hoc reporting, realising the greatest possible benefits from the mass of data available to them.

Finally on the Texstyle World project, I built an extra feed back from the planning system to the Cognos cubes so that "Performance against Plan" reports were available for sales, stock and markdowns against original plan values and revised plan values.

Following on from the Texstyle World project, Pleasance House Consulting now markets the Management Information System to other retailers.

This formed the first part of my most recent major contract, which was with Bowie Castlebank (Klick Photopoint) in Glasgow. I supplied the Management Information System on a fixed-price basis. Subsequent to that, I was retained to guide them through the processes to select and purchase a new merchandising system – and then to project manage its implementation. Key features of this job included:

·        Purchasing

o       Contract/call-off purchasing of key lines based on availability schedules from suppliers

o       Semi-Automatic replenishment of central warehouse from suppliers

·        Merchandising

o       Redrafting the merchandise hierarchy and product coding structures

o       Merchandising based on shop grades by department

·        Replenishment

o       Re-scheduling stock deliveries to smooth distribution patterns throughout the supply chain

o       Fully automated replenishment of shops from warehouse

o       Special procedures to handle customer special orders

·        Distribution

o       Revising the central warehouse layout in terms of picking zones and sequences, racking heights and product layout

o       Introducing new procedures for checking goods in against PO and putting away to bulk slots

o       Picking in whole case quantities from labels

o       Providing carton labels, shop delivery notes and route summaries to assist transport and shop operations

o       Providing let-down lists in correct chronological order

·        Stock Control

o       Perpetual inventory in all stock-holding locations

o       Stock ledger

·        Interfaces

o       POS interfaces (both directions)

o       Financial systems interface (to Sun accounts)

o       Automated feeds to the PHC MIS

I am still involved with Bowie Castlebank on a part-time permanent retainer, overseeing their management and development of the two new systems.

MGB / Radius Retail / Transatlantic Software Corporation

1998 – 2000    Retail Systems Consultant

As part of a major restructuring I moved to the Milton Keynes Head Office. My personal responsibilities were focussed on the maintenance of demonstration equipment and the preparation of tailored sales presentations of the central merchandising system and data warehouse, often using data provided by prospects only days in advance, in a wide variety of formats. Contracts were signed with AG Stanley (FADS Homestyle), Lillywhites, Rank Holidays (Oasis, Butlins, Haven Holiday Camps and Warner Hotels) and GlynWebb a regional DIY chain. Despite three "successful" sales campaigns in 2000, no contracts were signed, so I was made redundant on 31st October 2000.

I was also the account manager for half of the customer base. The most important parts of this role were to work closely with client senior management, defining and documenting their systems development strategies; feeding their requirements into the development cycle; making them aware of opportunities available in new releases and generally managing their expectations.

1989 - 1998     System Implementation Consultant

Scotts and Select-a-Shoe (Durban)

Boymans (Johannesburg)

Nobody beats the WIZ (New Jersey)

J Sainsbury (Restaurant system)

Canadian Tire (Toronto)

Kmart Canada (Toronto)

Kmart Mexico (Mexico City)

Greatermans (Johannesburg)

Rex Trueform (Cape Town)

Sock Shop

AutoWindscreens

 

Wm Low & Co. PLC

1988 - 1989     Business Systems Manager

1987 - 1988     Systems and Programming Manager

1985 - 1986     Methods Manager

1978 - 1984     Methods Executive

 

Contact Details

E-mail awilkie@pleasancehouse.me.uk

 

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