Grant Forbes

• Managed large-scale projects and introduced new systems, tools, and processes to achieve challenging objectives.
• Modified inventory control programs to maintain and enhance annual business plan.
• Conducted performance evaluations, compensations and hiring to maintain appropriate staffing requirements.
• Developed proposals and presentations for internal and external audiences.
• Consolidated vendors and renegotiated contracts to optimize costs.
• Contributing to and executing business unit strategy and implementing business unit and business area engagement and operating model to achieve business unit’s objectives and new business and annuity revenue targets.
• Managing and/or overseeing network solutions architecture teams that design offerings and solutions that meet required level of quality as well as standards, within negotiated and agreed service levels, operational level agreements or contracts, while following lead-to-cash, end-to-end process, through to invoicing.
• Responsible for ongoing performance management via weekly cadence and reporting.Ensuring that turnaround time for submission of proposals to clients is continually improved through automating repetitive tasks and applying standardised design templates and collaborating with associated business areas to optimise each unit's strengths in construction of solutions. This includes administrative tasks such as creating project files and must maintain and improve respective OLAs to business areas for solution architecture.
• Engaging with external clients along with relevant internal stakeholders, to understand and shape client strategy and requirements, and subsequently present solution proposals to those clients.
• Establishing and enhancing relationships, and networking with partners, clients, and vendors

• Collaborated with clients to determine project specifications and scope.
• Developed network and system architecture according to business needs.
• Improved business productivity for clients by re-engineering and designing infrastructures.

Identifying correct technologies for assistance with customer migration to Private, Public or Hybrid architected cloud services.
Ensuring correct partner discounts and pricing models are used for identified architectures from relative vendors, both locally as well as from a global perspective, when dealing with international clients.
Consultating sales team in order to set correct margins for closing deals.
Solutions specific to each design solution for each client are chosen from either F5 or Riverbed technology families.
RIVERBED: SteelHead, SteelCentral Network Performance Management, Application Performance Management as well as Aternity End User Experience reporting. SteelFusion data convergence and software defined edge (SD-EDGE), SteelConnect software-defined wide areas network (SD-WAN).
F5 TECHNOLOGIES: Local Traffic Manager, Big-IP DNS, Application Acceleration Manager, Advanced Firewall Manager, Application Security Manager, Application Policy Manager.

• Resolved customer issues quickly and efficiently to enhance overall customer satisfaction ratings.
• Implemented corrective actions to fix root causes of various issues.
• Reduced process lags, monitored employee performance and completed training for new employees.
• Conducted troubleshooting and diagnostic procedures on customer devices.
• Interfacing with clients in order to identify needs, problems and challenges associated with bandwidth usage and link utilisation, identification of suitable technology and positioning solution based on correct fit of technology for specific needs of each client from Riverbed Product Family.
• Vendor management as well as managing client relations and interactions.
• Facilitating placement of orders received with vendors.
• Interacting with engineers and clients to facilitate solution implementation aligned with client change control windows and engineer schedules.
• Scoping and managing implementation of Proof of Concept (POC) engagements in order to demonstrate equipment capabilities.