Managing Director at Vizioz Limited
Reading, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Managing Director at Vizioz Limited
- Mobile Expert at DeMatteo Monness
- Past
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- Business Development Director at Added Value Applications Limited
- CTO at CLIK Media Ltd
- Head of Technology - Messaging Solutions at Carphone Warehouse
- Director at Mobile Data Association
- Program Manager at SpinVox Ltd
- Technical Director at Mobile Message Centre PLC
- Technical Director at eCubate
- Intranet Consultant at Powerway
- Intranet Consultant at European Software Publishing
- Developer at The Internet Bookshop
- Education
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- University of Plymouth
- Recommended
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11 people have recommended Chris - Connections
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171
connections
- Industry
- Information Technology and Services
- Websites
Chris Houston’s Summary
- I have recently started my own website development business, my goal is to grow this to a £250k turn over in the next 12 months.
Previous Experience:
- Business Development for an innovative Recruitment Software firm.
- CTO for a mobile start up called CLIK Media Ltd who are focusing on Mobile classifieds, initially focusing on the Indian market with future global expansion plans.
- Providing Insight and investment advice on various firms in the UK mobile industry.
Innovative CTO / Director with broad experience in Mobile focused and Internet based businesses.
Highly skilled at providing IT consultancy and technology design management.
Previous position I managed the Carphone Warehouse Messaging Solutions Mobile Application and Server development team using Agile development techniques including an integration server, Unit and Coverage Testing, etc.
Chris Houston’s Experience
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Managing Director
Vizioz Limited
(Computer Software industry)
June 2009 — Present (7 months)
Vizioz Limited offers both advanced Umbraco development consultancy services and our own community and retail websites.
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Mobile Expert
DeMatteo Monness
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Investment Management industry)
August 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)
- Investment consultancy related to the UK mobile industry
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Business Development Director
Added Value Applications Limited
(Computer Software industry)
September 2007 — June 2009 (1 year 10 months)
- Increased AVA's brand awareness
- Managed reseller partner relationships
- Developed new website based on the Umbraco CMS platform
- Increase SEO from next very low to first position rankings -
CTO
CLIK Media Ltd
(Wireless industry)
September 2007 — December 2008 (1 year 4 months)
- Product development design and strategy
- IT Infrastructure Management
- Management of Technical Team -
Head of Technology - Messaging Solutions
Carphone Warehouse
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Wireless industry)
January 2006 — July 2007 (1 year 7 months)
• Lead Product Strategy for the Messaging Solutions Platform
• Provide strategic decisions on development practices
• Launched a new platform 5 months after CPW acquired Messaging Solutions
• Manage the internal development team and outsourced contractors
• Recently managed a major new product launch which was delivered on time, to spec and within budget requirements.
• Implemented a new development methodology across the development team. This involved moving all development projects to use Continuous integration and test driven development. -
Director
Mobile Data Association
(Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Telecommunications industry)
May 2004 — May 2006 (2 years 1 month)
The Mobile Data Association promotes the uses and benefits of mobile data through the industry and business press, conferences, seminars and the operation of websites (www.themda.org and www.text.it).
• Deputy Chair for the Messaging Group Steering Committee
• Chaired largest UK Mobile Networks Panel Session
• Provided Guidance on Web Strategy
• Helped with MDA Black Tie Ball organisation -
Program Manager
SpinVox Ltd
(Wireless industry)
July 2005 — December 2005 (6 months)
SpinVox bought Mobile Message Centre in July of 2005. During my period at SpinVox I worked as a Program Manager and helped launch two new products that were sold through the Carphone Warehouse.
• Integrated the Mobile Message Centre team into SpinVox
• Managed the Launch of two new Mobile Products
• Implemented new Statistical Analysis of the SpinVox platform -
Technical Director
Mobile Message Centre PLC
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Wireless industry)
2000 — June 2005 (5 years )
• Founded Mobile Message Centre with two co-Directors in 2000
• Led the technical strategy for the business
• System Architect for Messaging Platform, managed development and implementation
• Wrote technical RFI responses including a 50 page response to Yell.com resulting in winning the Yell.com contract that is still in place today.
• Managed up to 11 Members of Staff -
Technical Director
eCubate
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
1999 — 2000 (1 year )
eCubate was a small Incubator based in Harrow on the Hill in London.
• Advised 3 incubation clients on their technical strategy
• Provided technical input for clients Venture Capital proposals -
Intranet Consultant
Powerway
(Wireless industry)
September 1997 — 1999 (2 years )
Software development consultancy for Powerway UK clients. Powerway acquired European Software Publishing.
• Ran the UK development Team for the USA company Powerway.
• Provided development consultancy for Intranet based MIS
• Forest and Trees consultancy creating SITA’s MIS. Now used to analyze SITA’s global business.
• Converted Onestop Shop’s MIS from paper based reporting to an interactive data mining Intranet system -
Intranet Consultant
European Software Publishing
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
November 1996 — September 1997 (11 months)
Development consultancy role creating MIS Intranet systems for clients as both Intranets and using the MIS tool called "Forest and Trees"
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Developer
The Internet Bookshop
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Retail industry)
June 1995 — November 1996 (1 year 6 months)
I joined the Internet Bookshop as the 5th employee in 1995 straight out of University. I helped grow the company from selling 400 books a week to selling 2,500 books per day within 18 months.
One of my "claims to fame" from working at the Internet Bookshop is I designed and coded the world first "People who bought this book also bought..." concept which was later copied by Amazon and many other sites.
Additional Information
Chris Houston’s Websites:
Chris Houston’s Interests:
Umbraco,Technology,Telecoms, Property, Skiing, Power kiting, Narrowboats, Cycling, Photography
Chris Houston’s Groups:
Mobile Data Association, Telegraph Business Club
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Umbraco -
Mobile Data Association Discussion Group -
BizSpark UK
Chris Houston’s Honors:
Individual Project First Prize at University.
Chris Houston’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
