mikebarnes

Who is Mike Barnes?!

Summary

From school and university, where I majored in Computing, I progressed into a career with BT in their major research labs at BT Laboratories in Ipswich. There I started straight away in the IN design team working under work package to the BT/MCI joint venture "Concert", which eventually turned into a BT/AT&T joint venture and, shortly after my departure to Alcatel, folded back into the parent companies. During my time, I worked on call flow design for the global voice network Concert used to provide TDM voice VPN and global inbound services.

I joined Alcatel to work on BT's "NIP" IN platform, expected to transition from BT in-house to Alcatel, but this deal never materialised and instead I worked on the cashless platform. This reduced scope never really satisfied me, and when a chance at Cisco came along I decided to move after only 18 months. A month later, the downturn hit so my timing could not have been better.

At Cisco, I worked for 9 years on the BT account, specialising on hosted voice and Unified Communications. I developed an excellent understanding of VoIP/UC technologies and applications in general and of Cisco products such a CallManager, PGW and gateways.

Having decided it was time for a shake-up, I am now an independent communications consultant. I specialise in UC and collaboration, hosted/cloud and managed services, and social aspects of modern business communications. I am available to help with tender creation and evaluation, one-to-one and multi-point education, technical writing and other related activities.

Specialties: IP Communications, VoIP, Hosted Services, Managed Services, IP Voice Signalling, Unified Communications, Collaboration, Social Networking, Cloud Services

Experience

Independent Communications Consultant at Linked World Ltd, Communications Consulting

March 2010 – Present

Communications consultancy offering my expertise in Unified Communications and Collaboration, and emerging corporate use of social networking tools. My speciality is Cisco UC, with experience in older technologies such as SS7 and of large projects in the hosted/managed space. I can help you with buying decisions, making the most of your investment, and in training, documentation and other forms of knowledge transfer.

SE at Cisco Systems

January 2001 – March 2010 (9 years 3 months)

As an SE on the BT account, I was responsible for the infrastructure voice projects in which Cisco was engaged with BT. Primarily this was the MMVoIP and VoIP Port product suite, providing hosted corporate voice and UC services, but also for the SP interconnect product IP Exchange. During much of the 9 years I was the main technical interface to BT, and was instrumental in moving the relationship from one of a "box buying" CAPEX-based model to a true service wrap with OPEX-based pricing.

Pre-Sales Consultant at Alcatel

May 1999 – December 2000 (1 year 8 months)

• Joined to lead design aspects of an Alcatel/BT IN system.
• Moved into the role of UK design authority for the BT chargecard replacement platform, an existing project.
• Was made team-lead (1 report) for UK pre-sales and business development.
• Worked throughout with colleagues in Belgium, who provided global tendering and engineering support.
• Responsible for working with sales team to provide timely and professional responses to customer bid documents, also for providing design support to UK design, solutions and sales teams.

IN Design Senior Professional at Concert Communications

1997 – 1999 (2 years)

• Joined Concert as a direct employee rather than work-packaged from BT. Continued the same core role as when with BT. Owned the core voice network design (detailed call flows), and the voice billing design.
• Designed Concert replacements for the MCI DAP (their proprietary IN) and billing mediation systems. Provided detailed technical support to diverse groups such as marketing and billing teams to enable end-to-end service solutions for voice services and in particular billing.
• Won a place on the Chairman's Club awards trip (known as 'Top Honors').

IN Design Professional/Senior Professional at BT

1994 – 1997 (3 years)

• Started with BT in the Network Intelligence Engineering Centre (IN).
• Worked from the outset on global projects, mainly Concert but also BT Joint Ventures Telfort and VIAG. This involved a fair amount of travel within Europe and to the US.
• Designed solutions alongside MCI colleagues using the DAP control technology from MCI.
• Worked on various projects including a proposal to implement a VoIP network interfacing to the DAP, new voice services (VPN enhancements and global Inbound services).
• Eventually was one of the key designers working on replacing the Concert systems when the MCI alliance ended with their merger with Worldcom. This involved working closely with vendors and marketing teams.

Education

The University of Reading, 1991 – 1994

BSc, Computing

Units included: Artificial Intelligence; Computer Graphics; Computer Vision; Electronic Control Systems; Database Design; Functional Programming

Was a BT sponsored student through university, when BT funded training courses in presentation skills, time management, quality management, negotiation and an Outward Bound course.

Wycombe Royal Grammar School, 1984 – 1991

A levels in Maths, Computer Science, Business Studies

AS level in Advanced Maths.

GCSEs in Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Computer Science, Art, French, English Language, English Literature