Expert Cobol Developer England, United Kingdom

Might be available

(Updated 2022-06-05)

Expert Cobol Developer

England, United Kingdom

Native English, Beginner Danish, German

  • 20+ Years experience with Cobol and associated tools
  • Excellent communication skills and documentation
  • Analyst/Designer/Developer with 40+ years experience

Skills (38)

PL/1

SQL

DOCUMENTATION

COBOL

CODING

DB2

Developer

MS OFFICE

OPERATIONS

MENTORING

Quality Checking

Agile

OFFSHORE

IMS DB/DC

TEAM LEAD

MAINTENANCE

Microsoft 365

STOCK CONTROL

VSAM

Jira

TRADING

UNDERWRITING

ACCOUNTING

RETAIL MARKETING

BILLING

RETAIL

SALES SYSTEM

TAXATION

PAYMENTS

INVOICING

ORDERING

Confluence

QA

SCHEDULING

Oracle

MANTIS

SQL Server

VERSION CONTROL

Professional Experience

Analyst/Designer/Team Lead/Developer
BMW/MINI UK

2016-06 - Present

* Creation of a system to display vehicle spec/option details electronically, on display stands adjacent to cars and motorcycles in dealer showrooms. This generated very positive feedback from sales staff and customers alike, and is known to have boosted revenue.
* Automation of a process to determine emission and fuel efficiency data for vehicle option combinations, for the purposes of taxation and registration in Ireland. This replaced an unwieldy and error-prone manual system based on spreadsheets and emails, and has been a huge success.
* Creation of a new storage, maintenance and distribution system for motorcycles.
* Enhancements to a wide variety of financial, sales, ordering, vehicle distribution, workshop operations and parts supply applications.
* All development carried out in a fully Agile environment.
* Developed using COBOL2, APS, DB2, CICS, XML, Mantis, Connect:Direct, SDSF, MQ Series, IMS/DB, IBM RDz/IDz (IDE),TSO/ISPF, z/OS, also Oracle/Toad/SQL Developer, Jira, Confluence.
Upgrade Engineer
BOTTOMLINE TECHNOLOGIES

2015-12 - 2016-06

* This project involved the implementation of upgraded BACS Credit and Debit software for clients throughout Europe, with the UK's largest vendor of banking payment products. This was a compliance issue whereby all BACS users had to conform to the new Transport Layer Security protocol for payment transactions by June 2016.
* Windows platform with SQL Server databases.
Mainframe Support consultant
TRUSTMARQUE LTD

2015-09 - 2015-11

* Temporary BAU cover for Guardian Financial Services during a major period of data migration.
* Carried out using CA-7 Jobtrac, SAR, Filemanager, Endevor, PL/1, DB2, IMS/DB, z/OS.
Development Lead
EXPERIAN

2014-12 - 2015-07

* Design and implementation of processes to improve application efficiency, by archiving high-volume consumer data selectively, governed by a range of compliance and business directives, as part of a performance enhancement initiative.
* Additionally, the physical data models for the hosting databases were optimized, and indexes modified, to improve access times, working closely with the DBA team.
* Developed in Cobol V4.1 using DB2 V10.1 on a z/OS platform, plus scheduling using CA-7 Jobtrac.
Analyst/Designer/Developer
CREDIT SUISSE BANK

2014-03 - 2014-07

* Delivered software to provide high-end clients, such as corporate and institutional investors, with bespoke performance statistics of their portfolios, in formats relevant to their requirements.
* Developed in Enterprise PL1 and using DB2 V10.1 in an Agile environment.
Analyst/Team Lead/Developer
WAITROSE UK HQ

2011-05 - 2013-01

* Migration of legacy shelf-labelling and promotional signage system to new SQL Server platform, to utilize a proprietary package.
* This necessitated the creation of software to generate complex extracts from existing databases on a daily basis, for all products whose attributes had changed (e.g. price, shelf location), and transmission of this change data to the package, for rendering and printing.
* Performance was a priority here, as extensive new processing was added to an already tight overnight batch window.
* The coding and unit testing of these processes was shared between ourselves and an offshore team, which involved a high degree of mentoring, support, supervision and quality checking.
* Developed using COBOL V4.1, DB2 V9.1.
Designer/Developer
BMW/MINI UK HQ

2007-05 - 2011-01

* Design, development and enhancement of systems associated with the control and monitoring of vehicle movements between arrival ports, distribution and storage sites, workshops, and retail dealers, ensuring all movement/delivery decisions were table driven.
* Major enhancement to the recording of vehicle damage in transit and control of their repair.
* Communication between the controlling system and those of the carriers, compound managers etc. was achieved using XML MQ messages.
* Developed using Microfocus MFEEE, Cobol, DB2, CICS, IMS/DB, APS, INTERTEST.
Developer
EDS

2007-01 - 2007-05

* On-site assignment for Fin-Force, who provide processing services for the international banking industry. This was a new development project to process cross-border trade paper transactions.
* A series of PL1/DB2 online processes were developed, communicating with Java front-end GUIs via MQ and IMS message queues (Service Oriented Architecture).
* New DB2 Rowset Positioning / Multi-Row Fetch techniques were employed to improve performance. Changeman was used for Version Control.
Analyst/Developer
3M INDUSTRIES

2005-10 - 2006-12

Development of Accounts Payable accounting systems for this diverse manufacturing company. Developed using PL1, COBOL2, DB2, and Peoplesoft.
Analyst/Developer, LEGAL & GENERAL

2003-12 - 2005-08

Surrey.
Development and maintenance of Investment, Pension and Annuity quotation systems, including legacy call centre and e-commerce platforms, and production of associated customer documentation, using PL1, COBOL2, DB2, CICS, Endevor, Xpediter, with some exposure to MQ series processing.
Analyst/Developer
TOYOTA UK

2002-09 - 2003-10

Development of various in-house batch and online systems, used internationally, controlling the external and internal logistics of car parts, i.e. the efficient flow of parts from suppliers to the plants and onward to the correct factory assembly points, avoiding shortfalls or overstocks, conforming to their 'just in time' ('Kanban') philosophy. Developed using PL1, DB2, IMS DC.
Analyst/Developer
ZÜRICH INSURANCE

1999-06 - 2002-04

Various COGEN customisation projects including development of customer document systems, enhancements to software performing underwriting processing, pre-renewal screening, claims script processing / document creation, auto-faxing, Motor Insurance Database compliance, etc.. Developed using COBOL DB2 CICS AFP TSO MVS, ENDEVOR and SMARTTEST.
Analyst/Developer
AMERICAN EXPRESS

1998-04 - 1999-04

Various projects, including Y2K compliance; introduction of Euro currency; development of credit bureau reporting system. All applications developed using COBOL2, DB2, IMS/DB, CICS and VSAM, tested using XPEDITER. (*Training in Visual Basic 6.0 received but not yet applied.)
Analyst/Developer
FRIENDS PROVIDENT

1997-10 - 1998-03

Development of online and batch software to accompany the release of new financial products. These programs were developed in PL1 accessing IMS and DB2 databases, using IMS DC for online transactions, and tested using XPEDITER.
Analyst/Developer
B & Q Headquarters

1997-03 - 1997-09

This assignment was an FI managed on-site project which involved the enhancement and maintenance of COBOL2 and TELON inventory and sales programs against DB2 and VSAM databases, in a support environment.
Analyst/Developer
IBM UK HQ

1994-08 - 1997-01

Development of price quotation system which functions as a callable service for IBM sales centres world-wide. Development of invoicing and tracking system, to support new initiative to charge customers compound interest on late payments. Conversion of data and software to allow installation of new training administration package. Various other conversion projects. Developed using PL1, DB2 and IMS DB/DC under SCLM.
Analyst/Developer
EAGLE STAR INSURANCE

1990-01 - 1994-08

Development of insurance document production software for motor and property policies, for their recently installed COGEN package, including renewal invitations, alteration advices, certificates etc.. Design and development of software to process pension, life and mortgage policies. This included on-line and batch programs to perform automated letter/statement/cheque production, and production of management statistics etc.. Developed using COBOL2, DB2 and IMS DB/DC, also PL1 and AFP for final printing, development being controlled by ENDEVOR.
Analyst/Developer
UNIPART automotive products

1989-10 - 1989-12

Development of EDI system for direct ordering and invoicing by electronic mail, using PL1, DB2 and IMS DC.
Analyst/Developer
ALLIED DUNBAR

1989-04 - 1989-10

Development of data conversion software to migrate VSAM pension administration system to IMS databases, using PL1 and ROSCOE.
Analyst/Developer
BRITISH AIRWAYS, Heathrow Airport

1988-09 - 1989-04

Development of personnel time-recording and aircraft maintenance scheduling system, using PL1, IMS DB/DC, TSO MVS and MAESTRO.
Analyst/Developer
NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK

1988-02 - 1988-08

Development of overseas draft system, to allow fast electronic transfer of funds between the UK and international banks. Written in PL1 using IMS DB/DC.
Analyst/Developer, SEL TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ITT

1986-08 - 1987-10

Development of software integrity package using PL1 with CLISTS, panels and JCL skeletons, plus system-tailoring software for telephone exchanges.
DBA/Developer

1984-01 - 1986-01

LINE LOCAL AUTHORITIES, Enfield.
My position here was database administrator, giving support to developers of IMS applications. I also developed database vetting utilities using PL1 / IMS / MVS / TSO.
Analyst/Developer
STC IDEC

1979-01 - 1984-01

Design, coding and implementation of data entry, enquiry and analysis package, using PL1 under VM/CMS. This package was designed as a flexible, user-configured information management system, its applications varied from fault logging and symptom correlation, to document organisation and maintenance.
Analyst/Developer
MINICOMPUTER COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE, Wycombe

1978-01 - 1979-01

Design and development of customised application software for small businesses, for example a stock control system for a car spares warehouse, an accounting system for a brewery, a share registration system for a City broker, and a general administration system for a leisure company. All of these assignments involved on-site interviews, analysis and implementation. Developed on minicomputers with their own proprietary assembler level languages.
1976 - 1977: Period of various non-IT employment in Denmark.
Sound engineer
Advision and Ramport

1974-01 - 1975-01

Academic Background

O-level

2024-12 - 2024-12

Contact contractor

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