Work

Problems solved, not projects sold.

Twenty years of the same job in different clothes: find what's making something harder than it needs to be, take it out, and leave it simpler. For small business owners, for big companies, and for my own businesses.

Small business owners

Owners carrying it on their own.

Lary · Airfare Consultant · Travel concierge

12+ apps to one place

The problem
Lary gives travellers a private-flight experience on commercial flights: preferences, seats, lounges, passports, visas, delays and rebooking. Everything he needed to do it lived in more than a dozen apps, spreadsheets and WhatsApp threads.
What we changed
One portal. Clients request flights and keep their passport details and preferences in one place. Lary sees every traveller, their preferences and every trip from booking to arrival.
What's different now
One place to run the client experience, instead of hunting across twelve.
"My client information was scattered across too many places. Andy brought it all under one roof. It's given me more structure, more energy and more satisfaction doing the work." Lary, Airfare Consultant
Gary · Neptune · Growth consultancy, Ireland

Hard to explain to clear

The problem
Gary knew exactly what his business did, but couldn't say it simply, and his website didn't either.
What we changed
A day together working out what the business really does, in plain words. Then a new website built around that message.
What's different now
It started as a website job. The real result was clarity, for his clients and for Gary himself.
"I knew what my business did, but I couldn't explain it simply. After a day with Andy, I could. The new website came out of that, but the real result was clarity." Gary, Neptune
Tyler · Property Pirates · Property business

Data everywhere to next steps

The problem
Overwhelmed, with no real processes, no systems, and a lot of business data with no useful way to read it.
What we changed
Processes and systems first. Then one app that pulls the data together and puts it in order, so it actually tells him something.
What's different now
The next action is obvious, instead of buried.
"I was overwhelmed, with data everywhere and no real processes. Andy helped me put systems in place and pull everything into one app, so now I can see what needs to happen next." Tyler, Property Pirates
Ayetex Consulting · 2023 to now

Arc Surfaces: seven sites, made simpler.

$216ka year off telecom spend
2xnetwork capacity, at the same time
7sites in the wider project
The problem
After an acquisition, Arc Surfaces was still running the acquired company's old network across its branches in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Van Nuys, Denver and Boston, all of it homed in Seattle. Seattle and Tacoma were closing and moving to a new site in Kent, Washington, and rebuilding the old setup there would have meant paying to keep two ways of doing everything.
What I did
Reporting to the CTO, I mapped every site: the equipment, the software, the connections and what depended on what. I redesigned the network onto the company's one standard setup, moved users and data from the old domain into the main one, reviewed every telecom and internet contract, built out the new Kent office, and closed Seattle and Tacoma with minimal disruption.
What's different now
One technology stack instead of two, a network that's easier to run, telecom costs down more than $216,000 a year, and twice the capacity.
My own businesses

I've had to fix it for myself first.

Rental business · Austin, since 2020

From nothing to 150+ houses

Growing that fast meant every system, every spreadsheet and every decision came back to me. We spent two years solving problem after problem before it ran the way we wanted. It's where I learned that the answer is rarely to work harder. It's to find a different gear.

Career · 2004 to 2023

Twenty years of taking out what doesn't need to be there.

Networks, infrastructure and cybersecurity in Scotland, Australia and the US. Different companies, same instinct. Here's each one.

NBG Homes · Austin · 2021 to 2023 · Director, Infrastructure Services & Cybersecurity

Running IT for a global business, and making it cost less.

Reporting to the CTO, I was responsible for the global IT infrastructure and service delivery teams, across office spaces and large distribution centres, including bringing the China operation into the fold.

$512ka year in recurring costs removed
2teams led: infrastructure and service delivery
CTOreported directly to

$512k a year off recurring costs. I owned the annual IT budget and forecast, and took more than $512,000 a year out of the recurring costs.

Global telecoms simplified. Designed the plan to consolidate and simplify telecoms and secure access across every site.

A cybersecurity programme. Defined how the business stayed secure from internal and external threats, with investment matched to the real risks, including vulnerability management and security monitoring.

IT that runs the same way everywhere. Created the policies and controls behind it: change management, patching, email retention, standard equipment and acceptable use.

Service people could rely on. Set up IT service delivery with clear service levels tracked by KPIs, proactive monitoring and a process for the most urgent incidents.

Teams working together. Rolled out Microsoft Teams and Dropbox as the company's collaboration tools, and drove adoption across the business.

A voice at the top table. Reported regularly to the executive team on key projects and KPIs, and managed the key vendor relationships.

Silicon Labs · Austin · 2017 to 2021 · Network Engineer, then Cybersecurity Engineer

A global network for a chip company, run by two people.

Four years, first as one of a two-person global network team, then as the only enterprise cybersecurity engineer. More than 25 sites around the world, acquisitions to bring in, and a lot of old ways of doing things to simplify.

25+sites worldwide
7,500+network ports migrated
55%off security logging licences
4Super Hero awards

Acquisitions brought in on time. Integrated the networks of newly acquired businesses in Singapore, Montreal, Copenhagen and Taipei. Three of my four Super Hero awards were for this work.

Data centres moved. Part of the team that moved Austin's in-house data centre into a colocation facility in 2017, and Hyderabad's in 2020. The fourth award was for the Austin move.

Expensive circuits replaced. Swapped the costly, slow-to-change private network between sites for a modern SD-WAN, saving money and delivering more.

Days of work cut to minutes. Put every firewall worldwide under one central management system, instead of configuring each one by hand.

A whole network rebuilt. Migrated more than 7,500 network ports from old Cisco switches onto a new platform.

Compliance made easy. Reorganised and automated SOX evidence gathering, so everything needed came out of two commands.

China, on time and under budget. Delivered a security project for more than 300 employees with minimal downtime.

A security programme from scratch. As the only enterprise cybersecurity engineer: security policies, an incident response plan, vulnerability management, network access control across 26 sites, data loss prevention and endpoint protection. Cut logging down to what mattered and took 55% off the licence cost.

Arm · Austin · 2016 to 2017 · Global Telecom Services Network Engineer

The network behind a global chip designer, across every continent.

Part of the Global Telecom Services team based in Austin, keeping a worldwide network running and moving offices, data centres and acquisitions without disruption.

600+network devices worldwide
10,000+computers and servers connected
500people moved in Shanghai

Shanghai moved in one go. As part of a team of four, moved a 500-person office in Shanghai, on time and under budget, while bringing up a new colocation data centre to centralise local services.

Head office core, single-handed. Replaced both core switches at the US headquarters in San Jose on my own, on time.

Offices moved and acquired. Migrated an office of 50+ people in Plano, Texas, and moved and integrated an acquired office of 75+ people in Boston, both on time and under budget.

Every IP address accounted for. Implemented and ran IP address management software across the network.

Fiserv · Austin · 2014 to 2016 · Network & Systems Engineer

Keeping a financial data centre running, and recovering it when it stopped.

On the infrastructure team for the Austin data centre and the Dallas disaster recovery site: more than 100 network devices and 2,000 servers in a highly secure, compliance-heavy environment.

12 hrsof manual work saved every week
13 hrsto recover from a total power failure
2,000+servers looked after

12 hours a week given back. Recognised for automating backups and weekly updates for network devices, saving around 12 hours of manual work every week.

Machines built five hours faster. Implemented an imaging system that saved up to five hours per build, with several machines built at once.

A data centre back in under 13 hours. Supervised the recovery of the Austin data centre after a total power failure.

Security for payments, single-handed. Implemented RSA security for the PCI and VPN environments on my own, and was part of the PCI and SOC 1 and 2 compliance team.

Faster connections. As part of a two-person team, installed six F5 load balancers into production, cutting connection times to as little as 10 milliseconds.

Knowledge out of people's heads. Implemented shared documentation and password storage for the team.

Luminex · Brisbane, Australia · 2010 to 2014 · Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, R&D Associate

IT, research and a patent, and an award no one else has won twice.

A role that covered everything: the local site's IT, remote support for offices in Japan, China, Europe and the US, technical writing, and testing robotic laboratory equipment with the R&D team.

2CEO and President's Awards
$40ksaved on a site move
60%of machine issues solved
1patent

The only person to win it two years running. Won the CEO and President's Award two years in a row, the only employee in the company's history to do it, and the only IT team member ever to win it.

$40,000 saved on a site move. Managed the move and installed all the network cabling myself, including 130 connections, finishing early and well under budget.

A compliance policy written from scratch. Wrote, planned and introduced the company's record retention policy in line with SOX, which earned the second award.

60% of machine problems solved. Found a major fault in one of the robotic designs, which went on to solve 60% of machine-related issues at newborn screening laboratories.

A patent. My design for an automated blood spot card for newborn screening was accepted for a patent.

Help that customers loved. Created a how-to library that customers consistently thanked us for, later moved into Salesforce after its success.

Disaster recovery moved. Earned a team award for helping move the disaster recovery site from Toronto to Madison.

AMA Newtown · Edinburgh, Scotland · 2004 to 2010 · Network Systems Administrator

The only IT person for a building firm, while I was still at university.

Part of a 25-person team of directors, accountants, surveyors and architects, running five construction sites with more than 500 people on them. Everything that needed to work came to me.

30%less travel time for site managers
5construction sites connected
500+people on site

Site managers stayed on site. Set up remote access for four construction sites, saving site management an average of 30% of their travel time to the office.

Less downtime, more done. Brought in three new servers and overhauled the network equipment, cutting server downtime and lifting productivity.

Financial systems replaced. Moved the company's financial systems onto MYOB, on time and under budget.

Trusted to go and learn. The board approved time in the USA in 2005 and 2006 to expand my knowledge.

iD Tech Camps · UCLA 2006 · Princeton University 2005 · Class Teacher

Teaching technology in America, to every kind of learner.

Two summers teaching computing and technology at UCLA and Princeton, to students ranging from those starting with no knowledge at all to those who needed very little support, including students with a range of special needs. I also coached soccer skills and taught a bit about Scotland, its culture and heritage. It's where I learned to explain complicated things in plain words.

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