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Work Background
Network RailHead of Financial Control & Analysis
Jan. 2024Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom
Network RailStrategic Planning Manager
Oct. 2021 - Mar. 2024Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom• Evaluate corporate ambition, political, economic, and other determining factors in order to balance the needs of Network Rail, its funders and Office of Rail and ORR (ORR) in the construction of future control period plans.
• To determine and agree planning scenarios for future control periods with regional and functional executive teams so that Network Rail can evaluate the impact and consequences of different levels of funding on its ability to deliver its corporate ambition.
• Establish and lead negotiations with ORR on the scope, scale and quality of evidence base required for regional and functional plans, so that ORR can provide evidence-based advice and recommendations to funders. • Develop and lead influence of funders (including the Department for Transport and Transport Scotland) on the contents of Network Rail’s regional and functional plans for future control periods so that consistency is maintained between outputs and available funding (c£50bn for CP6) and that the consequences of funding decisions is clearly communicated and understood. • Design and agree framework for inter-regional trade-offs in order to enable Network Rail’s Executive team to make decisions on the overall balance and relative priorities of Network Rail’s plan for each future control period.
• Collating CP7 planning round submissions and writing governance papers and presentations (drawing in / ‘commissioning’ support / analysis as required) including reviewing and analysing region and function submissions and set out findings/recommendations to Network Rail’s executive leadership team.
• Design and agree the assurance framework for each of the rounds of planning, including incorporation into the overall future control period planning.
Network RailStrategic Planning Specialist
Sep. 2020 - Oct. 2021Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom· To support the specification of requirements for strategic plans and supporting evidence.
· To deliver high-level strategic analysis to provide insight on options for future expenditure and outcomes.
· To assist with the co-ordination and production of the Strategic Business Plan and supporting evidence.
· To represent the Business Review Team through interface and dialogue with senior colleagues in relation to the company’s business planning process.
· To engage with operational routes and other business units to ensure consistency between strategic plans, the business planning process, the change control framework and regulatory requirements.
· To assist with the development of strategic planning capability across the business.
Network RailCommercial Analyst
Aug. 2019 - Sep. 2020Milton Keynes, United Kingdom• Developed an excellent understanding of the contractual framework within which the Freight Operating Companies operate
• Understand the claims process from start to finish that Network Rail operates, and understand how each CRE team interacts with their customer
• Ongoing review, analyse and prioritisation of claims with the individual CRE teams • Progress claims to panel and closure, this includes due diligence, writing claims paper, presentation at panel and payment
• Evaluation of the whole Freight Claims process, including best practice from both inside and outside the team
• Leading on the development of a process maps for Intent to Claims and Claims validation • Creation and implementation of automated Schedule 4 Category 3 calculation to reduce end to end due diligence timescales
Network RailStrategic Planning Specialist
Dec. 2017 - Aug. 2019Milton Keynes, United Kingdom· To support the specification of requirements for strategic plans and supporting evidence.
· To deliver high-level strategic analysis to provide insight on options for future expenditure and outcomes.
· To assist with the co-ordination and production of the Strategic Business Plan and supporting evidence.
· To represent the Business Review Team through interface and dialogue with senior colleagues in relation to the company’s business planning process.
· To engage with operational routes and other business units to ensure consistency between strategic plans, the business planning process, the change control framework and regulatory requirements.
· To assist with the development of strategic planning capability across the business.
E.ON UKMedium Term Planning Manager
Jun. 2017 - Nov. 2017Bedford, Bedfordshire, United KingdomOperational Planning Lead on the formation of the MTP planning process to enable delivery of a robust and challenging FTE requirement which provides to both KPI’s targets and budgetary controls of circa. 4,000 FTE
• Work alongside colleagues across Customer Operations, Finance, HR and Operational Planning to coordinate the various plans which deliver to budget, service and accommodation requirements, providing recommendations to support delivery of a fully signed off MTP plan through the OP function
• Work alongside the Business Partners within Operational Planning and support the Head of Operational Planning on pertinent projects
• Build and develop strong relationships with Key Stakeholders to allow open and honest communication
• Create various views & outputs which will provide key stakeholders such as Res Exec, Ops Exec and SME Exec a clear and succinct depiction of effects of many scenarios, supporting executive decision making with insight and clarity on FTE projections and affordability
• Establish and maintain a robust governance framework around the MTP planning process taking full account of improvement projects, operational ‘stretch’ targets and planned external activities. Be the key interface with finance in developing transparent budget forecasting
• Evaluate and make recommendations to shape operational strategy to ensure resources are efficiently utilised to balance budgets and performance through challenging and thought-provoking leadership
• Responsible for driving efficiencies in reporting and automating where possible to reduce costs
• Ensure all actions and behaviours treat our customers fairly and comply with regulations
E.ON UKPlanning & Scheduling Manager
Dec. 2014 - Jun. 2017Bedford/NottinghamPurpose:
Manage a team of planners & schedulers to deliver short, medium and long-term operational capacity plans for the E.ON UK Retail Business. Responsibilities:
• Creation, development and implementation of continually improving medium and long term capacity plans across E.on Customer Operations (Residential, B2B, and New Business) and our outsource partners.
• Establish and maintain a robust governance framework around the MTP planning process taking full account of improvement projects, operational ‘stretch’ targets and planned external activities. Be the key interface with finance in developing transparent budget forecasting.
• Provide recommendations on the effective planning and distribution of the c£174m Customer Operations Budget across departments and, using experience and insight, identify opportunities to increase efficiency and eliminate waste.
• Accountable for the delivery of robust ‘bottom up’ resource requirements for E.on Customer Operations including a detailed understanding of all workload types and demand drivers thereby providing clear and concise summaries to the Res and SME exec.
• Evaluate and shape operational strategy in order to ensure resources are efficiently utilised to balance inbound, outbound and non-voice workloads.
• Contribute to the development of the operating model and service strategy and show how the function will evolve to support the Res and SME exec in achieving our short, medium and long term strategic objectives. • Provide expertise, resilience and support to Operational Planning, senior Operational managers, finance and the execs.
• Develop strong working relationships with key personnel across the business to identify and plan for any activity that will impact upon call volumes, performance or staffing. Be universally recognised as the first point of contact when any such activity is proposed
• Ensure Nice workforce management application is used in the most effective way to minimise effort and maximise efficiency
E.ON UKCapacity Planning Analyst
May. 2013 - Dec. 2014Bedford/Leicester/Nottingham• Work with the Customer Service Managers and their delegates to produce long term plans which span 4 weeks to 3 years, to enable accurate budget conversations with our Finance partners
• Work closely with the resource planner for each of my areas to ensure short and long term plans fit together, included reviewing mid-term plans for 2014 and onwards
• Work with project teams to work through proposals that will impact across business areas which may include training impacts, mailing impacts and also demand impacts. This includes producing mailing schedules, impacts on customer service level or backlogs created, proposals on where the additional work will best sit and proposals on how to mitigate these impacts
• Work closely with the forecasting team to ensure future forecasts are accurate and include any demand changes that I am forecasting or changes in demand that are being seen by the operational areas, this will include investigating where these demand changes are coming from
• Completing ‘Demand Governance’ process, this includes forecasting impacts for each area, gaining sign off for these impacts and then arranging for the scheduling of training, mailing schedule implementation and tracking of demand impacts
• Continuing to work with key stakeholders at various levels to ensure that everyone is up to speed with the changes planned for the future and are comfortable with these changes to ensure that implementation of these changes goes smoothly.
• Using contacts that I have made over the past 10+ years to ensure that the work I complete is accurate, useful and provided at the right level of detail for all involved
E.ON UKSection Manager
Nov. 2012 - May. 2013Bedford• Senior manager for up to 6 team managers and 84 advisors
• Management of a section which included up to 5 different work streams, understanding the areas workload, capacity and potential resource constraints or availability
• Working closely with the onsite Operational planning teams to manage the short and long term plans to ensure the budgets are accurate and FTE savings can be made wherever possible
• Work closely with my section team managers to ensure the processes are accurate and the customer journey appropriate for the customer and the business
• Forward planning which includes future projects, IT release, waste management analysis and implementation to ensure that the section is meeting its budget and customer expectations
E.ON UKResource Planning Analyst
May. 2011 - Nov. 2012Bedford/Nottingham• Produce weekly planning packs for the Customer Service Manager and Sections Managers detailing forecasted call volumes, handling times, average speed of answer and planned shrinkage figures.
• Work closely with the capacity planner for Bedford to ensure short and long term plans fit together, included reviewing mid term plans for 2012 including shrinkage using data from 2011
• Introduced full back office planning for Bedford site including task data, automated day file information and any off system work such as spreadsheets. This has included a redesign of the planning pack to include all of this information.
• Leading back office planning implementation for all sites, this will include one to one sessions with the other OPA’s on their individual areas, meeting with Capacity planning to agree the correct way forward and then best practice workshops.
• Took the lead on implementing ODA (Organisational Data Alignment) for resource planning. This included working with the project on testing ODA/Totalview interaction, data cleanse for all sites before their go live dates and continued support for the resource planning after go live. • Held an SDC (Service delivery co-ordinator) away day, items discussed were introducing service levels on the resource planning mailboxes, challenges faced on a day to day basis, one to ones and personal development plans.
• Liaise with management in Bedford on a regular basis regarding backlogs and best practice for management of calls and tasks. Key time for this was Project Diomed where Bedford was the primary site for support. During this time I worked with capacity planning to track the backlogs created, support given and following this project tracked the overtime given to recover Bedford’s original position.
E.ON UKTeam Manager
Sep. 2005 - May. 2011Bedford• Completing fortnightly 1-2-1’s and coaching sessions with my team. This including completing PDP’s, looking at where they needed motivation and encouragement to achieve their full potential.
• Open door policy, this allowed my team and the wider team to approach me about anything which enabled them to trust me and in return allowed me to get the best out of them. • Process map governance, this involved keeping our process maps up to date, following the governance process in place, reviewing any changes that were required, considering the customer impacts and agreeing which was the best way forward for the operation and the customer.
• Monitoring absence, punctuality, conduct & capability in line with the E.ON policies using applications in place such as Totalview and OBI
• Worked on prepayment data cleanse project, including forecasting a clearance plan, weekly updates via conference call, management of work and performance on a daily/weekly basis
• Meeting with Capacity planning to agree weekly new in and retried task volumes, AHT’s and agreeing the resource required
• Additional project work as required such as Timeswitch work which can include setting up processes, telephone lines and letters and the PvS audit which involved looking at current processes, what PvS gaps where being experienced and how we could close these gaps efficiently.
E.ON UKPlanning and Forecasting Analyst
Jun. 2005 - Sep. 2005Bedford• Forecasting call volumes by half hour for each of the call types
• Analysing the forecasts compared to actual
• Maintain the contact types in Totalview to ensure accurate forecasting
• Working alongside all levels of management to ensure optimum staff utilisation
• Controlling and maintaining performance solutions mailboxes across all sites
E.ON UKReal Time Analyst
Aug. 2004 - Jun. 2005Bedford/Rayleigh• Managing service level for home moving registrations and query using real time displays
• Responsible for call queue management • Liaising with ‘Real Time Analyst’s’ at other sites to ensure that we have sufficient resources across all sites
• Responsible for the co-ordination of all ‘Off-line’ activities e.g. Team interchanges, 121’s in line with the vertex way
• Managing the amount of ‘Idle’ time on both departments ensuring that ‘In-Fill’ work is carried out
• Covering Rayleigh Intraday role when required
• Implementation of best practice processes for Totalview, including vacation planner for 2005/2006
• Producing daily off-line activity reports for section managers
• Provided reports on an ad-hoc basis
E.ON UKCustomer Service Advisor
Aug. 2002 - Aug. 2004Bedford• Dealing with customer accounts via telephone and letter
• Achieving sales targets and vertex way metric targets on a weekly basis
• Moved to back office, were I completed conversion compromises from migrated accounts
• Moved to front office, where I became part of the escalation team
• Ensuring all customer queries are dealt with on a one to one basis from start to finish • Experience of covering service level when required during the day and service level manager three evenings a week
Arcadia Group LtdStore Deputy Manager
Jan. 2001 - Dec. 2002St. Neots, Cambridgeshire
ClarksSupervisor
Jan. 2001 - Dec. 2001Bedford
Arcadia Group LtdSales Assistant
Jan. 1999 - Dec. 2001St. Neots, Cambridgeshire
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