Jonathan du Plessis
Chief Technology Officer
Randburg,Gauteng
Summary
Highly motivated and results-driven IT professional with a successful track record of managing complex projects, developing innovative solutions, and leading teams to achieve outstanding results. Proficient in innovative technologies and trends in the IT industry, with a passion for leveraging them to enhance organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Skilled communicator, adept at collaborating with individuals at all levels of the organization. Committed to building strong relationships, empowering team members, and consistently delivering superior outcomes. Experienced problem solver with a focus on process improvement and operational enhancements.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
Skills
Information & Communications Systems Management
Leadership
Project Management
Business Development
Technical Mentorship
Corporate Governance
Budgeting and Cost Management
Shareholder Management
Communication
Team building
Training
Documentation
Attention to Detail
Analytical Thinking
Software Development Lifecycle
Databases
Systems Design
Cloud based architecture
Infrastructure and Networking
Process Management
Vendor Management
Work History
General Manager - IT
African Alliance
Illovo, Gauteng
10.2021 - Current
- African Alliance, a private investment banking group present in 9 African Countries is a group of companies with interests in private equity; asset management; commercial, retail, and residential property; corporate and personal finance and lending; hospitality; and traditional retail and fast-food sectors.
• Full operational control of the Group IT budget with input from multiple stakeholders across the organization.
• Led the tendering process for all major infrastructure and licensing changes within the organization, collaborating with multiple vendors to identify the most effective solution for the organization while minimizing costs and overheads.
• Surpassed the board's set Group IT operating expense reduction targets by over 25%.
• Achieved a cost reduction of over 60% for third-party service providers through the implementation of automated systems and procedures, while simultaneously exceeding digitization goals and enhancing the technical capabilities of existing services.
• Delivered expert technical advisory services for newly acquired portfolios, providing critical guidance and support to ensure successful integration and alignment within the group.
• In the process of introducing a centralized data warehousing solution for one of our large retailers with a presence in five countries with the primary objective of advancing sales and stock reporting and forecast modelling.
• Contributed as a core team member to the conceptualization and planning of a new banking and CRM architecture that offers an extensive array of products and services, utilizing a broad range of end-user channels.
• Facilitated the introduction of a centralized cloud-based ERP from multiple disparate, costly, traditional on-premises systems, while at the same time reducing the annual operating costs for the new system by more than 70%.
• Migrated business units to centralized document management systems and cloud-based technologies and facilitated the introduction of paperless, automated platforms to reduce time spent on mundane, routine tasks.
• Introduced automated monitoring and alerting tools for use within Group IT allowing staff more time to focus on providing solutions to the team and organization.
• Created, designed, and implemented IT infrastructure for one new office, three expansions and four office migrations.
• Migrated the centralized Data Centre and wireless architecture to more sustainable, energy efficient providers. Reduced IT networking infrastructure by utilizing existing equipment in a more efficient manner while recycling and donating unused equipment to schools and NGO’s.
• Introduced Self-Learning AI security user modelling within the organization to automatically respond to both internal and external security threats with minimal human intervention.
• Achieved corporate governance board objectives by introducing digital metrics to track and monitor communications, data lifecycle and information management within the organization over multiple jurisdictions.
• Initiated a new compliance system and integrated into existing corporate systems to automatically check AML, PEP, KYC, adverse media, and Risk scores for potential and existing clients on a continuous basis including transactional compliance to achieve governmental statutory compliance levels in multiple countries.
• Instituted an electronic signature system for use within the organization allowing for paperless, auditable agreement and resolution management within the group.
• Created a bank signatory system allowing for auditing and management of authorized personnel for all bank accounts.
• An early adopter of the Open AI platform made readily available to the organization which has been extensively used by various business units to streamline their own operations.
• Instituted cloud-based endpoint management systems to allow Group IT to support users to allow more flexibility in work from home and remote users, while keeping corporate information safe, secure, and up to date.
• Created, designed, and implemented IT infrastructure for one new office, three expansions and four office migrations.
• Initiated a regular internal IT newsletter to informing staff of developments within the ever-changing world of IT and any new tools and methodologies that could be utilized within the group infrastructure.
Head of Application Management
IMS Global Ventures
Illovo, Gauteng
02.2020 - 09.2021
- IMS Global Ventures, historically a company that managed the commercial agreements between a system developed by a third-party vendor and major telecommunication clients within Africa and the Middle East, they undertook to in-house all technical aspects of an existing system and introduce their own in-house developed system.
• Successfully built, hired, and managed a fully remote multi-disciplinary technical team comprising Developers, DevOps, Infrastructure specialists, Database Administrators, Client Liaison Officers and Systems Support and Networking engineers, Solution Architects and Business Analysts, providing effective leadership and direction to achieve outstanding results.
• Pioneered the adoption of innovative self-healing support systems that facilitated real-time monitoring and tracking of system issues, system alerting, project progress, and client requests, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
• Demonstrated exceptional agility by onboarding and deploying the first client within just 7 weeks of joining the organization, despite the unprecedented difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Successfully migrated 10 clients to a new support model with upgraded security, systems, and reduced total cost of ownership within just 4 months of taking over from the previous management team.
• Instituted a comprehensive set of standard operating procedures and coding guidelines for all departments, promoting agile development and deployment.
• Successfully introduced semi-automated patch management systems that enabled support staff to deploy security and quality patches for all operating systems, databases, and application updates to all clients within a week of release.
• Mentored and trained a highly driven team to an exceptional level, resulting in several members being able to successfully transition to managerial positions within large global organizations.
• Successfully managed and ensured compliance with all client Service Level Agreements, with an agreed minimum SLA of 99.5%. Our team consistently achieved an average SLA of 99.97% for each client, which translated to only 11 minutes of anomalies within a month.
• Successfully minimized emergency severity incidents from an average of 14 per month across the base to just one incident every six months.
• Implemented a 4-day work-week initiative that provided team members with dedicated time off to address relevant family responsibilities, boosting productivity and overall morale.
• Developed company aligned, hierarchical KPIs for all staff within the division supported through skills and performance assessments, personalized growth plans and departmental succession plans.
• Spearheaded the establishment of a new analytics and reporting department that ensured comprehensive and accurate reporting of each client’s environment in a controlled and automated manner.
• Introduced intelligence tools seamlessly integrated into each client’s environment that provided unprecedented near-real time visibility to the commercial and executive teams within the organization with automated commercial and financial alerting.
• Successfully created, developed, and maintained a new call center application that enabled clients' call center agents to access critical information, allowing them to provide end-users with the necessary information without logging calls within our organization.
• Designed and developed a web application that seamlessly integrated into the system, empowering commercial staff to manage loan balances for each system without relying on technical or advisory staff for input.
• Designed, developed, and maintained a commercial SMS campaign tool that leveraged analytical data within the system that allowed our organization to communicate directly to end-users on the status of their account and to offer personalized products.
• Successfully tripled the annual turnover of a client from R40 million to over R120 million by ensuring system uptime and access to near real-time analytical data leading to a quicker turnaround time by various business units.
• A key member of the system architecture team that successfully released a new core version of the system to clients, resulting in the eradication of a third-party system and relating costs.
• Facilitated a seamless handover to my existing team upon resignation, as all team members had been mentored in all relevant aspects of the system.
Head of Technical
Digitata
Fourways, Gauteng
07.2010 - 01.2020
- Digitata Limited is a software development house that provides telecommunications providers with Intelligent Pricing Solutions. I held various roles within the organization, concluding with the head of technical, overseeing all aspects of the IT, DevOps, QA, Release, and Support teams.
• Managed the QA, Release, Training, Documentation, DevOps, Infrastructure, Database Administration, Architectural, Networking and Systems Support teams within the organization.
• As a mentor, helped several members of my department develop their skills and leadership abilities, leading to their successful transition to leading technical teams outside of Digitata, highlighting the effectiveness of my guidance and mentorship.
• Successfully led the training initiatives and developed detailed training documentation for all staff, including new hires, on all upcoming major and minor software releases, resulting in increased productivity and improved operational efficiency.
• Led the development of an extensive, clustered PostgreSQL solution as the technical lead for the Big Data platform, which provided exceptional visibility to the commercial, advisory, and actuarial departments. The solution exceeded the executive committee's expectations, coming in cheaper and faster than any other competing technologies and required minimal additional training for existing staff and changes to technical procedures.
• As lead architect, drove the successful onboarding of multiple clients, overseeing pre-sales activities, information gathering, and technical design, which resulted in increased business opportunities and successful client partnerships.
• Successfully introduced and managed the cloud-based infrastructure within the organization, taking on full responsibility for the health of the AWS platform, resulting in enhanced operational efficiency and cost savings.
• Conceptualized and built a custom-built release management tool, allowing the development team to version-control, build, release, and automatically deploy to the QA and development environments, resulting in considerable time and cost savings and improved agility.
• Sanctioned the development of a test IN, Charging, and Core networking platform that facilitated the use of multiple technologies, vendors, and interfaces within the organization's development lifecycle, resulting in improved agility and cost and time savings.
• Created and supported automated test procedures within the platform allowing for more agile deployment and quicker turnaround time for testing procedures.
• Contributed significantly as a core team member in the development of a revenue summarization module, which supplied valuable insights into revenue streams for clients, resulting in improved subscriber modeling and increased revenue opportunities.
• Seconded to Ericsson in Sweden for multiple projects and technical oversight of the strategic partnership between Ericsson and Digitata.
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant
ASYST Intelligence
Johannesburg, Gauteng
10.2007 - 06.2010
- ASYST Intelligence (now Decision Inc) is a leading Business Intelligence Consulting house that supplied various solutions, mostly SAP BusinessObjects to a variety of public, private, and governmental clients.
• Designed, developed, and supported Data Warehouses and reporting solutions for Governmental, Finance/Banking, Insurance, Manufacturing, Mining, Aeronautical, Property Management and Telecommunications organizations.
• Designed, developed, and supported custom built applications for use within the SAP BusinessObjects suite of applications.
• Seconded to Mozambique to head the reporting requirements development for Vodacom Mozambique.
• Developed and supported an automated system for gathering, reporting, and monitoring on chemical formulae for Impala Platinum Base Metals Refinery.
• Headed up a team of Business Intelligence consultants to report on the largest SAP B1 implementation at the time.
• I achieved the highest turnover rate for any consultant within the organization.
• I provided training and mentorship to all new consultants and previously disadvantaged graduates who joined the organization, ensuring growth and quick upskilling, some of whom went on to run entire Business Intelligence business units at various firms within South Africa.
• Facilitated several training sessions on fundamental Business Intelligence concepts and Report writing to the public.
• Designed and developed all standard code practices to be used within the organization and functionality for SAP BusinessObjects, SQL Server, Oracle, C# and Visual Basic.
Quality Assurance Manager
LGR Telecommunications
Centurion, Gauteng
12.2003 - 06.2007
- LGR Telecommunications (now Adapt IT Telecommunication) is a software development house providing Telco’s with large-scale Business Intelligence and Insights systems on their Call Data Records (CDRs).
• Created and managed an automated internal testing tool that cut in-house testing from up to 3 months to 1 week for a full regression test.
• I was promoted to Quality Assurance Manager within 6 months of starting, taking on responsibility of all QA, release and third-line support tasks.
• I was seconded to a client in Atlanta, Georgia for 6 months to be part of the team to implement the largest data warehouse in the world at the time (in Oracle Exadata).
• Trained all new staff members on the systems and processes and procedures of the organization.
• Sat on the technical steering committee as one of the main stakeholders.
• Designed, developed, and managed customized CDR tools and applications for use by our clients for filtering, summarizing, and reporting for their own enterprise clients with inline summarization within 15 minutes of a transaction being recorded.
• Designed, developed, and managed the in-house intranet sites for all three branches.
• Designed and developed custom reporting functionality that allowed for greater analysis on handset, competitor, interconnect routing and telecommunication traffic.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Applied Information Technology
Midrand Graduate Institute (Pearson Institute)
Midrand, Gauteng 01.2001 - 06.2004
Diploma - PC Engineering
Varsity College
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape 01.2000 - 12.2000
Timeline
General Manager - IT
African Alliance
10.2021 - Current
Head of Application Management
IMS Global Ventures
02.2020 - 09.2021
Head of Technical
Digitata
07.2010 - 01.2020
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant
ASYST Intelligence
10.2007 - 06.2010
Quality Assurance Manager
LGR Telecommunications
12.2003 - 06.2007
Bachelor of Science - Applied Information Technology
Midrand Graduate Institute (Pearson Institute)
01.2001 - 06.2004
Diploma - PC Engineering
Varsity College
01.2000 - 12.2000
Similar Profiles
ANGELA KEBAABETSWEANGELA KEBAABETSWE
Business Development Officer at AFRICAN ALLIANCE BOTSWANABusiness Development Officer at AFRICAN ALLIANCE BOTSWANA
Barrack OwinoBarrack Owino
Regional Lead-Peoples Vaccine Alliance Africa at People's Vaccine AllianceRegional Lead-Peoples Vaccine Alliance Africa at People's Vaccine Alliance
ARZO KOHISTANIARZO KOHISTANI
Volunteer at Alliance for African AssistanceVolunteer at Alliance for African Assistance