The AS Team...
"In 2015 a crack commando IT unit was sent to the 5th floor of BridgeGate by a senior management team for a crime they didn't commit. These men (and women) promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Redhill underground. Today, still wanted by the SMT, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…the Application Support Team." (– A Team theme music playing in the background - Derrr de de Derr, den der na der der…).
All joking aside the Application Support department are a small team of highly experienced members whose primary role is to ensure the applications you all use are up and running as expected. Be it overnight batches or within day firefighting, the AS team are on the front line when it comes to keeping the ship afloat (even if it feels like it’s listing from time to time, be assured we are all furiously bailing below the plimsoll line).
The team are supported by a number of people working for Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS), both on shore and off shore.
Month on month we process and work anywhere form 750 -> 1000 Marval calls, the majority of which are from business users requiring data patches or system changes; we also accrue them from automated job failures and performance issues in the background.
The team all have their own areas of expertise and ownership within the function. With most of the team having served over ten years with the company there is a lot of experience and knowledge and this is what helps when it comes to problem solving, a core function of the department.
We support 24 core applications and over 30 other applications including interfaces (yes that’s a lot of apps!) These applications use a variety of different technologies which makes problem resolution very challenging and means that no two days are the same!
Who are we?
Darrell
Working for Total for nearly 18 years, both operationally and within IT, his primary role is to manage the team. Darrell is also the happy, empathetic and charismatic face of IT for most people within the business. He works with internal and external parties to “keep the lights on” and keep the business chugging along on a day to day basis within budget and to schedule (for the most part).
Jyoti
The smiling technical whizz; who has been doing system development work with Total for over 10 years, he works as a consultant/mentor on all the activities within the team and also lending a hand on projects, he is the “go to” when complex technical issues crop up.
Jeremy/Jezza/JB
I’m sure most of you have had some dealings with this chap in his decade with the company. JB is the guru when it comes to the bulk of the number crunching issues he covers in all areas of the business but usually he’s knee neck deep in billing and pricing problems. He is our man on the tools and has a solution on hand for most issues he comes across, he has had a hand in most of the 60 applications we officially support.
Mahesh
The quiet one of the team who has been keeping Contract Load and MRM afloat for the past 10 years or so, he’s also a dab hand at running all the industry maintenance updates in the systems as and when needed.
Ceri
Even though she sneezes like an electrified mouse she has been testing changes and system updates for the past 12 years. She originated from the now defunct Elf at Home part of the business and is a super user for all things gas billing at both a functional and technical process level. She is the eyes and ears of the team as she gets to have a look at every support call coming through the team – so you may have been contacted by her if there is a problem with any of the info or details of a call you raise.
Yinka
A fairly new addition to the team with ~3 years’ service with us. Yinka is our worker bee; like Mahesh, he slaves away keeping some of our key elements afloat and up to date and ensures that everything in the background runs smoothly and is updated on time. Yinka is picking up more and more experience of Total and over the years has introduced a few initiatives to help automate some of the more manual tasks within the team and the business.
Matt
He came into IT via the Power program from the COO team where he had been for 5 years or so. He spends his time (when not eating) testing all of the CRs and system changes coming through the team and has been at the forefront of the UAT for the Ops team over the past couple of years. He has a good level of experience of most things in power and is getting to a similar level in gas. Matt also manages the unbilled analysis for the team, so you will see his name appear in the Marval calls being worked by the team.
Adrian
Our junior in the team having come to us from the SME side of the business last year and originally from Transylvania; Adrian (or Floppy to his friends) has been working on a number of project streams as well as some CR testing over the past year. He, like Matt is a pedant and a stickler for detail (a desirable quality in a tester – but not when trying to cowboy a quick fix)
CTS Crew
This rabble of analysts and developers work throughout the night to get through the bulk of the data patches and fixes. They are also responsible for the majority of the change request development work that has been undertaken over the past few years. The team has largely remained the same since we went into partnership 4 or 5 years ago so they have a good level of knowledge of most of our key applications.
So there you go, a very brief rundown of the team who fix all the mistakes and problems you all encounter from time to time. To finish up I’ll fire some numbers at you all so there is some appreciation of the undertaking of this relatively small team.
- In 2016 we serviced over 8,000 calls, this is due to grow to over 10,000 in 2017.
- The team support over 60 applications/interfaces and 70 back end processes using approx 30 different technologies/languages.
- We cover every business area from Procurement through to Settlements and support ~400 operational staff.
- We are constantly trying to improve and provide root cause solutions to issues you may or may not even be aware of and so far this year have saved the business over £122k (~£45k Gas and ~£77k Power) in support costs – with 3 months to go! This is an ongoing exercise to reduce input into the team.
Please consider all of the above when chasing for the urgent call you raised an hour ago because the customer has called chasing you, and remember there are more than 400 of you and only a couple of dozen of us!
