Chris Burns's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

📖 Summary

Experienced SAP Basis Administrator and now SAP Basis Team Lead. I'm used to project managing enhancement projects and new developments, managing risk and coordinating conflicts. I am a member of the University's Change Advisory Board and Business Continuity Committee. Currently I'm devising our route to S4/HANA through a proof of concept project. I've covered most of the Basis paradigm: EHP and support package implementations, new system builds, copies and restores, Unicode conversions, hardware and OS migrations, data migrations, client strategy, troubleshooting, OSS notes, transports, printing solutions, authorisations and licensing audits. Through all that, I've covered many versions of SAP ERP, CRM, SRM, PI/XI, NetWeaver Portals, BW/BI, BI Java stack, Solution Manager and several SAP-integrated document management solutions. I started out as Unix System Administrator and Oracle DBA and I'm still combat-ready with a number of programming languages. Outside of work I have chaired Social Clubs and local Charities, with budgetary responsibility. I find that the personable approach, and quick rapport, gets the best out of everyone and the job done! If it's your first time visiting my profile, Hello! and please feel free to send me a link request.Business Systems Technical Manager @ I direct and manage an experienced team of SAP Basis Administrators, responsible for the University's SAP EcoSystem. We have a high system uptime, good procedures and governance and this gives us a stable business solution. Our ITIL based change management procedures, and our experience, allow us to resolve issues quickly. The team's ongoing personal and technical development is my concern and I strive to build cross-team, and inter-organisational, relationships. Our SAP estate is complex and growing, so I would define ourselves more as Netweaver Engineers; integration is a major focus. We have four instances each of ERP, SRM, CRM, BW, BW Java, PI, Netweaver Portal, Solution Manager and a third party document management solution; also the supporting cast of Oracle databases, Tomcat servers, web dispatchers and web proxies, spread over almost 200 VMWare/Linux hosts and Solaris Zones. I examine and leverage the latest SAP technologies and methods to get the best out of our SAP investment. I manage (and co-manage) upgrade and enhancement projects, plan resource and keep a focus on keeping my technical knowledge current. It's important not to become too distant from the team's focus: my aim is business continuity. As ever, communication is key. I'm responsible for managing our external Audit and Compliance partners, and external consultants. Key achievements: - Drove the move from Solaris to VM/Linux SAP Platforms for provisioning and budgetary expediency. - Delivered SAP ERP, BW, BW Java, SRM, CRM, PI, NW Portal landscape, all upgraded to current 7.4 versions. - Directing the SAP Fiori / HANA / BusinessObjects / Lumira "proof of concept"​ landscape, with impressive results so far! - Moved University SAP printing solution from Unix to Windows, enabling improved driver support. - Delivered the most successful external audits yet of SAP in the University - Keen participant in University's mentoring programme, being both a mentor and mentee. From August 2012 to Present (3 years 5 months) Newcastle upon Tyne, United KingdomSenior SAP Basis Administrator @ • Architected and built the highly-available Process Integration 711 landscape. A mixed environment was realised with Solaris Oracle database zones, and Red Hat Linux application servers guesting on VMware, for budgetary and provisioning expediency. • Project Managed and built SAP XI3.0, PI7.0 landscapes. • Key Implementation and Configuration Team member for entire project lifecycle of the British Computer Society Silver Medal-winning "Enquiries to Registration" solution; this brought together a number of discrete SAP products: ERP, EP, CRM, BI and TREX to produce a fully integrated Post-Graduate student admissions process with an intuitive web-browser based user interface. • Key Implementation Team member for initial SAP CRM, SAP BW, SAP EP, TREX, and Solution Manager builds, and upgraded SAP ERP from version 3.1H through to ERP 6.0 EHP6. • Project managed upgrade, and Unicode conversion, of BW3.5 landscape to BI7.01. • Managed hardware upgrades on SAP ERP, CRM, PI and BI landscapes. • Collaborated on implementation of two document management solutions: Serengeti and EasySoft, and integrated them with University SAP landscapes. • Integrated and load balanced Seeburger SFTP solution with University PI landscape, for use with various PI scenarios. • Responsible for the University's SAP printing solutions. • Administration of SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP BI, SAP PI, SAP SRM and SAP EP landscapes, residing on Solaris, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMware. Entailed troubleshooting, problem resolution, user account and authorisation maintenance, role development, backup strategy (utilising RMAN and brbackup), software logistics, application of support packages, plug-ins and SAP Notes. Also system cloning, refreshes and client copies. • Oracle tuning, regular installations, upgrades and patching. • Implemented uPerform software on SAP ERP systems. • Wrote Business Process Documentation for all above work. • Position required a high level of UNIX competency From March 1999 to August 2012 (13 years 6 months) Senior C++ Programmer @ Developer of business critical reports and statistics on various data within Kenan Systems' Arbor/BP Telephone Billing System (Sybase/HP-UX platform) to inform global stakeholders and drive business decisions. From May 1998 to March 1999 (11 months) London, United KingdomTechnical Support Analyst @ Developed, maintained and supported Order Handling and Circuit Order Systems, for telecommunications systems; Remedy’s Action Request System was utilised on an Oracle database / Solaris platform. Installed these systems while on-site in Colt's London, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich offices. Administrator of Oracle, Remedy, Solaris, and Windows and Apple desktop platforms in Colt's London offices. From January 1996 to May 1998 (2 years 5 months) Programmer/Analyst @ • Developed clinical applications, improving patient and trial data access, for CRUK-affiliated hospitals. On-site in affiliated hospitals, during project life cycles, performing analysis, installation and support. • Validated and migrated legacy data into Oracle; acted as technical "guru" to colleagues. From November 1992 to December 1995 (3 years 2 months) Scientific Analyst/Programmer @ Developed and supported a number of C, FORTRAN, PV~Wave, Pro*C and Pro*FORTRAN programs to aid the mechanisation of geophysical data processing and archiving. The data was once again largely retrieved from European Space Agency sources. From March 1992 to November 1992 (9 months) ADF Technician @ As part of the security-cleared EOS on-site team at the Defence Research Agency in Farnborough, acted as SunOS and Oracle Administrator; also responsible for the server room, media and processing & archiving of images from European Space Agency sources (particularly the ERS-1 remote sensing satellite) using various tools. From August 1991 to March 1992 (8 months) Placement Student @ Fruitful industrial placement. Shared responsibility for desktop and LAN support and wrote utility software for Janet use. Also beta-tested software on behalf of the UK Academic Community. Gained familiarity with the Joint Academic NETwork (JANET), networking protocols in general and many operating systems (OS400, AIX, SunOS, Dynix) and programming languages (chiefly C, C++ and Fortran). Attended many standards meetings, user groups, SIGs and trade shows. From August 1989 to August 1990 (1 year 1 month) BSc Honours Degree in Computing and IT Practice @ The Open University From 2011 to 2014 BTEC Higher National Diploma, Computer Studies @ Northumbria University From 1988 to 1991 BTEC National Diploma, Computer Studies @ Northumberland College From 1986 to 1988 O Level @ King Edward VI School From 1983 to 1986 Chris Burns is skilled in: Oracle, SAP, SAP BW, SAP Netweaver, Unix, SAP Portal, Unix Shell Scripting, SAP R/3, Business Process, SAP Basis, ERP, SQL, SAP BI, SAP XI, Business Intelligence