The People Behind Cloud Genius
On moving his company to Wales, he saw great opportunities for offering training and development. Currently he has recruited and trained one person from the Jobs Growth Wales scheme. He is looking to take on more trainees immediately and in the coming years.
John has experience of a vast range of IT systems – everything from NHS distributed data collection systems to massive, UNIX-based office automation systems through to Microsoft Windows server systems and Cloud-based services. His IT career spans three decades so far and he was one of the pioneers of Cloud-based computing, working in the early days of ‘private clouds’ and Software as a Services (SaaS). John’s first experience of a ‘computer terminal’, at school, was a telex machine, linked up by an acoustic modem to the local college (see picture).
He says that his greatest programming achievement is the Eventbrite -> Salesforce integration that he created for a client.
Among his qualifications: Salesforce Administrator and Consultant, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, CompTIA Security+, UNIX systems administrator, as well as honours degrees from Durham and Oxford.
In his spare time, John enjoys bread-making and bee keeping.
Customer Responsiveness and Women’s Fashions
One of the joys of running your own business is having all the tasks that no-one else in the business can/will do. That includes networking... I am a member of the EVO network. This morning we had a great talk from Laura B, founder of the Shortlist. Laura is on a...
How do I know how well we are doing?
What on earth are they doing? One of the scariest moments of going from being a successful ‘minion’ to a manager is that moment when you realise that you don’t know what is happening. You can look very carefully at the folk you are managing, but you cannot watch every...
Email privacy changes and how they affect you
It's not going to work the same. One of the go-to methods for contacting many clients is mass-email. Here we use Campaign Monitor, but there are many others including the venerable MailChimp. All of these systems allow you to track whether someone has opened their...
Cardiff Salesforce User Group – starts tonight
Sing! Sing! Sing! Last night was the second rehearsal of my Welsh Male Voice Choir. Hurrah! It was so good to see friends back in real life and catch up. Networking is back on the cards... and that, too is an opportunity to catch up with friends, meet new people and...
£100 for a ponytail – that’s a lot
Getting money for Winston’s Wish bit.ly/JDfirewalk
Project Risks.. and how to avoid them.
It is always a great joy to hear Amanda Beard-Neilson speak. Amanda is organizer of one of the best Salesforce conferences in London. OK, I think the best. I have always found her an inspiration. Here she is on project management - something she absolutely aces!...
John supporting Winston’s Wish by getting his feet singed
I have many clients who are charities. I love working with charities as the world is a better place at the end of the day than it was at the beginning. To that end, I am doing a bit of fund-raising for a charity. I have chosen one which is not a client, as I didn't...
Life in a Multi-channel, Multi-media world. How do you cope/thrive?
Life used to be so easy in the old world (10 years ago). A client wanted you and they rang up. If you were not available, they went through to VoiceMail or got an engaged tone. If they emailed you, then you replied to them in a reasonable time. About the worst that...
More free Salesforce Training!
How do you learn best? There used to be a trope that some people were visual learners, some people learned best by hearing, some people learned best by reading, while others were kinaesthetic - they learned best by doing. While that seemed like a sensible set of...