All the way back in 1998 I started my consulting career with PwC. My first engagement was on a project re-implementing Oracle E-Business Suite for Hilton International following the acquisition of Stakis Hotels by Hilton’s parent company Labroke Plc. This was one of the first implementations of Oracle E-Business Suite on the then new “Network Client Architecture” as opposed to the previous “Smart Client” (i.e. thick client) architecture.
I delivered a variety of technical solutions for the programme. These included:
- Automating the download of bank statements. This is back in the day when the banking software didn’t have an interface to facilitate this, so resulted in a screen-scraping and key-press simulation. These days you’d call it Robotic Process Automation.
- Fuzzy matching algorithms to assist with data migration and cleansing
- I designed and coded bespoke interfaces and front-end solutions for the collection and posting of weekly business summary data.
I also rolled out Oracle Financials at two casinos (performing on-site system configuration and delivering training to client staff). Hanging around the casino’s during the day led to hearing some great stories from the duty manager.