Press Article - PC Consultants Magazine - July 1996

An experienced and determined Consultant, Project Manager and Information Technology Professional, with considerable success in designing, developing and managing projects through to on-time completion and to end-user satisfaction.

So read a comment on one of our Registered Consultants. I was happy to go along with most of it, but the one stumbling block, in my ex-consultants nature was the bit about end-user satisfaction. One who can satisfy an end-user must be very interesting and very rare. So I had to meet him, and so I did.

Olly was a rare person indeed and certainly had a strong background in PC's, mid-range and mainframes. Apart from the usual gamut of languages, operating systems and network knowledge, Olly knew an awful lot about EPOS, EFTPOS, Retail Store and Superstore Retailing, Petrol Forecourts, and Telephony Systems. At present Olly is working as a freelance consultant at Tesco Stores, which involves a lot of travelling. Olly met Pam, his wife of 21 years, at his first job after obtaining his Maths and Computer Science degree at Bristol University. They have two children, a daughter of sixteen and a son of twelve

During the seven years in his first job he got the sort of commercial grounding that is so important in any Computer Consultants career. His pet hate is people who use jargon instead of speaking plain simple English. This really gets to him as he feels they (people who use jargon) are just showing their lack of real knowledge of their subject. The thing he likes most with his latest contract at Tesco's is evaluating new technology, designing the new system, then seeing the project through to completion. There is an awful lot of job satisfaction there.

Olly has a separate office in his home and when asked about it, grinned ruefully and said: "Well, it's just an office, but I do have a complete petrol forecourt system installed there!" Asked about hobbies, Olly grinned and said: "Screaming at the kids is my main hobby" but when pressed admitted to some totally escapist reading such as authors John Grisham, Len Deighton etc. He used to be fond of car mechanics but when the new cars began to retain the spanners he kept on dropping in the engine he decided to knock that one on the head as it became too expensive on tools! Olly likes to begin his day at 6:00am which is a throwback from his Ridgway days. He has been away to the John Ridgway School for business people three times so far. This is in the wilds of the country and consists of five mile runs before breakfast, mountain and rock climbing, canoeing, abseiling, orienteering and all the outdoor madnesses that they can dream up. For sport, Olly tries to cycle ten to fifteen miles every Sunday and he has occasionally done the "London to Brighton" run.

This reporter was very impressed with Olly's quiet but mirthful sense of humour and whilst not being totally self deprecating, was always happy to have a laugh at his own expense. Underneath this happy cheerful personality could be seen a dogged determination which has manifested itself by his success in life.