Troy Forster

Musings on technology, environment and adventure

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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.

Resume

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Technology Direction and Management

Eager to contribute 25 years of leading edge software development experience, architectural skills and brilliant vision to assist progressive company solve complex problems

Professional Profile

  • Seasoned IT professional with comprehensive business/technical skill set and expertise in business process automation/management, enterprise application integration, process improvement, systems integration, requirements analysis, workflow design, leadership, software development and customer service
  • Proficient problem-solver who envisions business and technical perspectives to develop workable solutions. 
  • Motivated achiever who guides organizations in applying technology to business settings, provides added value, and creates project deliverables in a timely manner.

Professional Experience

Solution Architect, adbeast Inc, Toronto - November 2005 to Current

  • Designed a comprehensive migration strategy to move the core application - adbeast Studio - from its ten year old ASP.Classic codebase to ASP.NET with zero downtime and limited resources.  Architected a complete application and unit-test framework usable by the junior programmers.  Developed robust API to support ground-up rewrite of the front-end.  Led a team of local and overseas programmers in the development.
  • Prior to the .Classic to .NET migration I architected and led the development of all major feature additions to adbeast Studio using SOA built on .NET.  This included a Podcast engine, iPhone Screening Room, Contact Manager, Multimedia Thumbnailer and Unified Authentication Platform
  • Reduced TCO by advocating for a Cloud Computing strategy and then implementing a plan to migrate terabytes of data to Amazon’s S3 storage service.  Built several one-time use tools in .NET to utilize the S3 REST interface.
  • Further lowered TCO by introducing web based and social tools such as Google App Suite for shared calendaring, Deki Wiki for collaborative documentation, private FriendFeed room for sharing bookmarks and Google Reader for RSS consumption.  Also drove the adoption of a Social Networking presence as a valuable tool for Sales and Client Services departments (e.g. twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn).
  • Wrote technical summaries for four successful SR&ED claims.
  • Visionary, architect and lead developer for social enterprise application for the advertising and production industry
  • Architect and lead developer for all custom applications for clients including Anheuser-Busch and Ontario Advertising Review Board
  • Led and mentored the development team. Provided expert advice to the technical services department
  • Championed the migration from VSS to SVN
  • Ajax - Amazon Web Services - ASP.NET including Ajax, Web Services - AtomPub - CSS - C# - Dojo - HTML - JavaScript - JSON - jQuery - PowerShell - Prototype - QuickTime API - T-SQL - VBScript - WCF Services - XML and XSLT

Solution Consultant, Aird & Berlis, Toronto - January 2004 to May 2005

  • Developed application to cleanse, sort, categorize and import 250,000+ legal documents into Docs Open DMS.
  • Conceived and developed Blackberry intranet staff directory deployed via BES MDS
  • Developed network and systems management applications, end user utilities, unattended deployment and installation scripts.
  • Mentored and provided expertise to the development team.
  • Put into place processes to manage licensing, upgrades and accessibility for several legal applications.
  • ADSI - ASP.NET - COM - DotNetNuke - HTML - IIS - Installshield - JavaScript - T-SQL - VBScript, VB6 and VB.NET - Win2K3

Technology Director, Creative Standard Canada, Toronto – January 2003 to January 2004

  • Responsible for application architectures, IT infrastructure, hiring and management of developers
  • Refactored CSCs proprietary CMS product to simplify administration, support page check in/out and facilitate addition of custom modules. 
  • Developed custom press release, events and leaderboard modules for Subaru Rally Team client.
  • Integrated CSC CMS with Insystems existing client prospect application, automated their newsletter management and integrated their existing eForms engine.
  • Worked closely with clients gathering requirements.  Prepared functional specifications and co-pitched new clients.
  • ADO - ADSI - ASP - COM+ - JavaScript - T-SQL - VBScript and VB6 - Win2K3 - XML and XSLT

Solution Consultant, Travelex, Toronto - January 2002 to January 2003

  • Designed and built application to distribute foreign exchange rates in real-time to currency traders.
  • Created scalable framework for integrating legacy financial systems following acquisition of Thomas Cooke Travel
  • Provided support and mentoring to other developers on numerous projects
  • ASP - COM - IIS - JavaScript - MTS - SQL DTS - T-SQL - VBScript and VB6 - XML and XSLT

Solution Consultant, Aird & Berlis, Toronto - February 2001 to January 2002

  • Built new, and enhanced existing front line business applications
  • Automated management of DocsOpen document management
  • Built web interface to legacy DOS based accounting system
  • ASP - COM - IIS - JavaScript - MAPI - MS-Access - T-SQL - VB and VBA

Development Consultant, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Toronto - September 2000 to February 2001

  • Contracted to complete the UI layer of an existing distributed application running on 300 laptops
  • UI developed using VBA and MS Access Forms talking to Sybase Adaptive Server Anywhere

Development Consultant, United Nations International Labour Organization, Geneva, Switzerland - January 2000 to May 2000

  • Worked with vendor of existing workflow application to design and develop a new web-enabled interface
  • Application accessed from offices in over 50 countries
  • ASP - HTML - JavaScript - IIS - MS Access - VBScript

Development Consultant, The City of Toronto, Toronto- November 1998 to January 2000

  • Developed automated operating system and application deployment for Works and Emergency Services department
  • Developed numerous windows and web applications to assist in administration of environment

Y2K PC Architecture Consultant, The Bank of Novascotia, Toronto - July 1997 to November 1998

  • Provided technical expertise internationally on all PC related issues pertaining to Y2K evaluation and remediation
  • Conceived, designed and developed ScotiaBank’s first intranet site
  • Developed a BIOS and RTC diagnostic tool deployed to 10,000 PCs in over 50 countries.  Scotiabank later shared this code with Attest Inc. who incorporated into their GASP inventory product
  • Authored end-user Y2K documents that were distributed to over 50,000 employees worldwide.
  • ASP - IIS - JavaScript - MS-Access – Turbo Pascal and Turbo Vision - VBScript

Senior Developer, Applications Integration and Deployment, Rogers, Toronto - June 1995 to July 1997

  • Responsible for advancing the architecture of Rogers Enterprise wide common desktop
  • MSDD Development Manager
  • Designed and developed applications to manage and administer the RELAY Desktop
  • Designed and developed hands-free migration of Windows 3.1 to Windows 95
  • Integrated shrink-wrap and in-house software into RELAY Desktop

HelpDesk Specialist and Intermediate DEVELOPER, Torys LLP, Toronto, Canada - April 1994 to June 1995

  • Provided expert 1st level support to over 600 users of Microsoft Office Professional 4.2
  • Extensive programming, customisation and routing of MS Word documents using WordBasic
  • Contributed numerous articles to a weekly newsletter called WordWrap
  • Lead discussion groups on Internet issues, including a presentation to 150 members of the Toronto Law Office Managers Association (TLOMA)

Technical Administrator, Burson-Marsteller, Toronto - September 1992 to April 1994

  • Hardware and software support in mixed Mac/PC environment using Microsoft Office
  • Provided technology expertise and advice to Technology Practice Group
  • Liaison between high-tech clients (Sun Microsystems, Microsoft) and public relations professionals

PC Hardware/Software Sales, Dawson MicroSystems, London, Ontario – June 1991 to September 1992

  • Inside sales to clients including The City Of London, The London Police Force, The London Board Of Education, Ellis Don and The London Regional Art & Historical Museums

Areas of Expertise

            Concepts & Practices

·         Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

·         Source Control

·         Documentation

·         Unobtrusive JavaScript

·         Cross Browser Development

·         Application Integration

·         Process Automation

            Languages & Mark-up

·          C#

·          HTML & CSS

·          XML & XSLT

·          JavaScript & JSON

·          VB, VBScript & VBA

·          Visual Basic

·          Turbo Pascal

·          Delphi

·          Many script and macro languages

·          BAT

            Apps

·          VSS, SVN

·          MS Office: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint

·          MS Office DOM Programming

            Frameworks & APIs

·          ASP.NET & ASP.NET Ajax

·          COM, MAPI, WCF, WMI & ADSI

·          Dojo

·          Prototype

·          jQuery

·          DotNetNuke

·          BlogEngine.NET

·          Turbo Vision

            OS, Server & DB

·          Windows NT 3.1 – Server 2003

·          DOS 2.11 – Windows 7

·          Various Linux

·          IIS

·          MS SQL

·          MS Access

·          Sybase ASA

·          MySQL

·          Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)

 

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