Trent Polytechnic

St. Ambrose College

Software Developer & IT Consultant

I have many years experience of developing bespoke database software for various vertical markets.  Areas of expertise include invoicing system linking through to accounting programs such as Sage.

My work recently has all been in and around care homes and the care industry.  Other projects have been for grain merchants, special needs transport, automotive invoicing and coach fleet management.

I have recently released a third party report generator for CoolCare3, this is being offered with full cooperation from LNT Software.  This is an essential add on for all CoolCare3 users, and fills in some of the reporting gaps for the main product.

I have a lot of experience in linking to and extracting information from Sage 50 and 200.

CoolBlue Software

I joined the LNT Group after being commissioned to write and implement a care home management system in 2000.  The project was such a great success I was invited to join the group and develop the software suite for the general market place.  Ten years on and this project has turned into a strong business with a client base approaching one thousand care homes.

During my time at the LNT group I have also implemented other system, with most of the group companies running on software I have written at some time in their corporate life.

When we moved into our current location I designed and implements the Cisco CME telephone system, with upwards of 300 end points, and configured for all the group companies.  I am solely responsible for the configuration and day to day running of this and many other systems.

I am also responsible for the groups substantial data archive with some twenty-two terabytes of data coving the entire accounting, document and CAD data history for the last six months.

Currently I am involved in the planning for the next generation of our care home product, CoolCare 4.  This is going to be the greatest challenge as we want to redesign the product from the ground up, using the latest web based technologies and to cover many aspects of the care sector we have shied away from for the last twelve years.

In addition to this, the LNT Group has grown up into a large business and we need to move our own infrastructure and accounting systems to reflect this. The group now includes Ginetta, so we build racing cars, Ideal Care Homes which operates upward of 40 care homes, LNT Construction which specialises in building care homes, we build about 20 homes each year, LNT Solutions, which keeps the worlds airports running when the snow and ice tries to stop them, we also keep the rail network running with de-icer products and finally, LNT Software, which  has some 1000 care homes across the UK using its CoolCare product.

LNT Software Limited

Director

Contract programming, worked on several bespoke systems, including inventory and sales order processing for an online ink cartridge business, agricultural merchant sales and purchase order processing, vehicle scheduling for local authority special needs transport service and of course the project which led me to join the LNT Group, care home management software.

Self employed

After five years as a computer engineer working on leading dedicated word processing equipment I joined this small business to embrace the emerging personal computer business.  My electronics and minicomputer experience was invaluable in learning the new skills that this new PC market place needed.

Over the next five years I developed my skills in programming and discovered I had a flair for systems analysis.  I have designed and implemented a huge variety of bespoke systems for small business, from agricultural engineers, live stock markets, insurance and banking and general manufacturing.

In the fifteen years I worked in this business, I learned a huge amount about business methods and financial operation, always from a deep understanding to create bespoke software to run these, or aspects of these businesses.

Action Data Systems Limited

Computer Engineer, systems analyst and programmer.

Feild service engineer for mini computers and dedicated word processing terminals.

In this era, before PC were invented, feild service engineers had to actually fix computers, down to board level.  My area covered from North Leeds to Northumberland and Skipton to Hull.

My experience includes personal word processing terminals and mini computer systems.  I also worked on SMD, Pheonix and Wren CDC drives, qualified in data rebuilding at sector level in the iCAM file system.

Mike Renals