Northumbria University

Coach and Consultant helping customer successfully adopt Microsoft Azure

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

I currently have a small consultancy focusing on helping customers be successful with Microsoft cloud technologies.  We provide coaching and mentoring to customers teams and managed services.  In addition to the big projects some of our other smaller engagements include:- Ongoing managed services for large organisations in Hong Kong and China- Coaching and mentoring for a cloud adoption with a major university in the North EastIn addition to these smaller engagements my larger contracts are on my CV below.

Connected Systems Consulting Ltd

Coach & Consultant for Microsoft Cloud and Integration Technologies

I consult as a product advisor on Saravana's behalf to bring in my extensive industry experience to help develop 2 of Kovai's products:- Serverless 360 which aims to lower the cost of ownership of Azure solutions by providing a monitoring and management tool which makes it possible to democratize support of the solution to non Azure experts- Atomic Scope which is an advanced and modern Business Activity Monitoring solution for Azure and BizTalk customersProduct Ownership is a new area for me and an exciting one because these two products aim to address problems I see with most of the companies I meet within a consultancy arena.

Serverless360

Product Advisor

This project involved building a B2B partner management solution for 3rd parties outside of the organisation which could internally integrate with many different business internally within the group.  One of the big challenges was the number of partners we would deal with means that we needed to support modern and legacy approaches to integration but do so in a way which was managable, flexible and supported plug and play of businesses.The main solution was built using Dynamics 365 with Azure AD and B2B collaborarion in Azure AD between internal businesses.  We were also building a white labelled Portal hosted on Azure and also many different forms of integration involving API's, messaging and other approaches.The integration platform used the following technologies:- Azure API Management- Azure Functions- Azure Web Jobs- Service Bus- Event Grid- Event Hubs- Azure SQL Database- Logic Apps- BizTalk hosted on Azure IaaS- Azure DevOps CI/CD - Azure DataLake- Power BI- Power Apps- Flow- Azure Powershell Runbooks- CosmosDB- Azure Security Centre- Azure App Service- Azure SignalR Hubs

Large Global Healthcare / Insurance Provide

Lead Architect + Cloud and Integration Delivery Lead

The customer was developing a B2B solution to help with the management of one of their key strategic partners.  This involved using the cloud to develop a solution in the dev/test arena but the solution would be deployed locally on premise in mainland China.We developed a solution with Dynamics CRM for managing the partner and used BizTalk and API's to integrate between Dynamics and a number of 3rd party organisations to support the solution.

Large Health Insurance Organisation in China

Cloud and Integration Lead

Michael was responsible for architecture and delivery of the integration platform to be a foundation building block upon which the University could deliver their 2025 Vision.  Michael was also responsible for reviewing and guiding the university to using the Microsoft Cloud in a mature way to also lead towards this vision and developing the skills of people within the organization to work with cloud and integration technologies.  Michael presented at the London Integration Summit in 2015 where he and Oliver Davy talked about integration at the Uni.  This can be seen on the following <a href="http://link:http://www.biztalk360.com/integration-platform-support-vision-2025Michael">link:http://www.biztalk360.com/integration-platform-support-vision-2025Michael</a> also introduced practices such as automated build and deployment, behavior driven development to the university as part of maturing the way development is done.The University have been recognised by Microsoft as being a reference for how to use Azure on a number of occasions including asking Michael to present the keynote at the UCISA 2016 conference.The integration architecture and API architectures designed and developed by Michael were the key building blocks to the success of projects such as :- A Student Portal which was developed on Sitecore- A significant student management system developed on Dynamics 365- Student Grades journey between Blackboard and SITS- Upgrading older versions of applications such as Blackboard- Development of a Student Mobile applicationMichael was the lead for the adoption of the cloud at the university and set the uni up for significant opportunities for success in the future.

Major North-East University

Cloud & Integration Architect

I was contacted by the organisation to provide advice and guidance on the implementation of a new BizTalk project they wanted to do and also to provide advice on best practices and development practices to ensure their project was successful.  I also provided quality assurance and governance over the work that was delivered

Large UK based Legal Firm

Integration Advisor

Michael was technical lead for the delivery of the cloud and integration platforms to support key strategic projects within the organisation.  This involves support for integration processes to support a major implementation of Dynamics CRM Online and On Premise to support businesses in Hong Kong.There is a significant investment in Microsoft Azure to support the solution for these projects with BizTalk deployed on Azure IaaS integrating with Dynamics 360 Online with Azure App Service and Azure Functions.  There is also integration with legacy systems on premise and B2B integration with Business partners.

Large Health Insurance Company in Hong Kong

Cloud & Integration Advisor

I worked with the customer to help develop a number of different hybrid integration solutions exposing some of their line of business applications to SAAS applications and business partners.This project involved the use of Windows Azure Service Bus to create a begin the creation of a global service bus across their organisations.I designed the architecture for these solutions and coached the development teams to deliver projects in an agile way.  These hybrid solutions are key to delivering success for the customer in the future.We have now delivered multiple projects across different businesses within the customers organisation using Microsoft Azure.

Large Global Healthcare and Insurance Organisation

Integration & Cloud Architect

Michael acts as an advisor to the customer to help them ensure they deliver a quality service around their BizTalk integration platform.  This involves guiding the internal team around BizTalk and Integration best practices, reviewing plans and acting as a point or escalation for any issues.

Large UK NHS Trust

Michael was contacted by the CTO to help with some integration challenges they had and to provide advice on how to effectively do BizTalk projects.  The customer  had been undertaking an integration project involving Lagan CRM.  Michael used the BizTalk Maturity Assessment which he had developed to evaluate the challenges faced by Home Group and to guide the improvement initiatives to help the customer be able to successfully deliver BizTalk projects.  Michael then acted as an advisor to for future integration projects.Some of the technologies involved in the projects include:BizTalk 2006 R2, .net 4.0, WCF, Lagan CRM, Kainos Meridio Document Management, BizUnit, Capita IBS, Open Financials.

Large UK Housing Association

BizTalk & Integration Advisor

Michael was involved as an advisor to an initiative at this Council about exposing one of their housing business processes online via the council’s website and also through to integrating it with their line of business systems.  Michael’s role was to provide guidance on how to approach the project and the technologies and implementation patterns the council should consider and also mentoring to the council’s development team.  Michael also reviewed the council’s previous BizTalk project and provided some guidance on how to improve the way they do BizTalk projects.

South East Council in the UK

BizTalk Advisor

Michael was approached by Frends from Finland to help them with their global expansion initiatives.  Michael has been identified as a person who may be able to help them expand into the UK.  Michael was working on a short term freelance basis to help review Frends leads within the UK and help them to position their product in a suitable way for the UK market.

FRENDS Technology

Consultant

I worked with the customer on a number of occasions as a technical/integration architect and team leader for the Integration team.  I have been involved in a lots of different projects where my technical abilities have been requested to help guide other teams.  I was a lead in the adoption of Microsoft Azure within the customer and instrumental in developing the relationship between the Microsoft account team and the customer to help improve the success of our use of Azure.Some of the key highlights of this include:•	A large number of integration projects using BizTalk 2006R2•	Proof of concept around migrating existing BizTalk implementation to BizTalk 2009•	Guidance to the operations and infrastructure teams on how to manage a large BizTalk implementation•	Proof of concept work with the .net Team on migration of a large .net application to Visual Studio 2010 and .net 4.0•	Producing a whitepaper to guide on how to maximize their investment in BizTalk across the organisation•	Consultancy on a security initiative to implement single sign-on across applications•	Escalation of complex technical problems from other development teams, particularly around performance issues.•	Training of other team membersBizTalk 2006R2, 2010, 2013, Windows Azure Service Bus, Windows Azure VM, Windows Azure Web & Worker Roles, RabbitMQ, Visual Studio 2005-2013, C#, MsBuild, Cruise Control, Cognos, WCF, IIS, Thunderhead, Peoplesoft, Oracle Databases, nServiceBus, WS-Security with Kerberos, SQL Server 2005 – 2008R2, Payware, BizUnit, Behaviour Driven Developent, WSE 2, Teradata, NHibernate, Linq to NHibernate, Entity Framework, ClearCore Master Data Management, SSIS, Dynamics CRM Online, numerous legacy applications.

Large UK based Healthcare and Insurance Organisation

Integration Architect

I took on an additional role at Edenbrook which involved reducing my time in consultancy around BizTalk to take on some additional responsibilities.  As capability leader of SOA/BPM at Edenbrook I was responsible for a number of things which relate to technologies associated with the Microsoft BPM Suite.  The main activities include:•	Managed the knowledge gained between projects and ensure it is available to consultants•	Provide a point of contact for troubleshooting issues on BPI projects•	Develop relationships with Microsoft Partners such as product vendors like PNMSoft and Frends•	Develop relationships with Microsoft•	Work on technical presales engagements•	Enhance the reputation of Edenbrook in the BPI community•	Provide input into the sales process for BPI projects•	Provide input to the recruitment process for new consultants•	Act as a buddy to new consultants•	Review and troubleshoot on other projects•	Develop approaches for Edenbrook to effectively deliver projects

Edenbrook

Microsoft SOA/BPM Capability Leader

I worked as a Senior BizTalk Consultant with Edenbrook and provided consultancy to a number of BizTalk engagements.

Senior BizTalk Consultant

I was heavily involved in defining Edenbrook’s methodology for Technology Refresh projects which involved tools and methodologies around effective migraton of applications to Microsoft .net technologies.  This also involved some integration work with Microsoft Team Foundation Server and the development of custom process guidance

Consultant for Technology Refresh Initiative

I worked as part of a blended team who designed and delivered a secure online banking system with a Service Orientated Architecture.  My role was to undertake design and development tasks, provide training and mentoring to the internal NBS developers. The main highlights of the project were:•	Service Orientated Architecture incorporating Web Services, WSE (WS-Security and WS-Addressing)•	Integration with SQL Server, AS400, Active Directory Application Mode, Authorization Manager.•	Heavy use and customization of Microsoft Enterprise Library along side Edenbrook’s framework approach.•	White Labelling strategy to allow NBS to sell the solution to other financial companies.•	Introducing NBS to modern software development practices such as Pair Programming, Test Driven Development, Continuous IntegrationThe technologies involved in this project include:C#, Enterprise Library, <a href="http://Asp.net">Asp.net</a>, Web Services, SQL Server 2000, ADAM, AzMan, NANT, Windows Services, Ritmo Data Access Provider, WSE2, WinForms, XHTML Web Controls

Newcastle Building Society

.net & Integration Consultant

I worked as part of a team who designed and delivered a BizTalk 2004 messaging solution which allowed NHS Trusts to communicate with the Area Service Provider.  This allowed synchronisation between the patient information in systems at the local trusts and the central systems.  My main tasks included:•	Help design and review the Architecture for the solution.•	Design and develop schemas, pipelines, custom pipeline components and adapters for BizTalk 2004.•	Design parsers with Itemfield Content Master to perform advanced mapping of HL7 messages.•	Provide training to junior Accenture developers in .net, BizTalk 2004 and Content Master.The technologies involved in this project included:BizTalk 2004, Visual Studio 2003, C#, WSE 2, Itemfield Content Master

Avanade

BizTalk Consultant

I was a late joiner to this project to develop a large <a href="http://ASP.net">ASP.net</a> application for NPFIT.My main responsibilities in this project were:•	Perform development tasks to deliver the PortalDevelop integration components to support the application•	Perform a review of the application.

Michael Stephenson

Michael Stephenson