Chris Randles

Current

Dedicated Support Engineer (USA) at Novell

Past

Emergency Response Engineer (UK) at Novell
Directory Services Engineer (NL) at Novell
Network Engineer (British Telecom UK) at BT

NetWare and Desktop Support Engineer at 3Com
Desktop and Network Support at John Scott & Partners
Technical Support (UK) at Dataller
Programmer (UK) at Metcom Computer Services
Trainee Software Programmer (UK) at Digital Computer Services

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5 more...

Education

Wigan Institute of Technology

Connections

50 connections

Industry

Computer Networking

Websites

Chris Randles’s Summary

Varied rolls over the 8 years I have been with Novell. Back-line eDirectory support in Holland, 3rd-Line support and Emergency on-site engineer in UK, Dedicated Support Engineer in USA.

Interested in a support position within a heavy Linux/Unix environment.

Chris Randles’s Specialties:

Linux, NetWare, M$ Windows, VMware/Xen, eDirectory, Programming, Business Analysis. Ability to trouble-shoot just about anything.....

Chris Randles’s Experience

Dedicated Support Engineer (USA)

Novell

(Public Company; NOVL; Computer Software industry)

August 2003 — Present (6 years 5 months)

Currently providing support to the California Highway Patrol.

O/S Technologies supported:-

SUSE Linux/Xen, NetWare/Xen, M$ Windows,

Applications supported:-

Identity Manager 3.5.1, ZENworks for Desktops 7.1, ZENworks for Servers 7, GroupWise 6.5 and 7, Novell Clustering, Xen etc.
Emergency Response Engineer (UK)

Novell

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; NOVL; Computer Software industry)

October 2001 — August 2003 (1 year 11 months)

Duties included:
Providing a backup engineer service to the UK major accounts during DSE vacations and sickness.
Providing support/dial-in services to other NTS engineers, SAM’s and their clients.
Working with members of consulting on client issues.
Providing emergency on-site visits to correct critical client problems.
Providing 'stand-by's' to customers carrying out critical work.
Being a part of a Proactive Resolution Team, to provide customer health-check' visits.
Directory Services Engineer (NL)

Novell

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; NOVL; Computer Software industry)

November 1999 — November 2000 (1 year 1 month)

Duties included:-

Working from escalated customer call queues, diagnosing, identifying and correcting NDS/LDAP and related problems, usually involving a 'dial-in' over PC-Anywhere and using DSDump.
Giving assistance, advice and direction to 'Response Team' (first-line) engineers.
Giving assistance and advice to members of the sales team.
Giving assistance and advice to PSE/DSE engineers.
Giving assistance, advice and training to Customer Response Representatives.
Providing emergency on-site visits to correct critical client NDS problems.
Providing 'stand-by's' to customers carrying out critical NDS related tasks.
Being a part of a Proactive Resolution Team, to provide customer 'health-check' visits.
Network Engineer (British Telecom UK)

BT

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; BT; Telecommunications industry)

July 1997 — October 1999 (2 years 4 months)

My time at BT was concentrated on supporting all things 'NetWare', with particular emphasis on Novell Directory Services. A member of a specialized team of three, we provided all of BT's second line support to the engineers in each geographical region within the United Kingdom. I conducted the majority of the work required in putting together a corporate eDirectory tree, one of the largest in the world at that time. I pro-actively found and fixed numerous problems within the BT NetWare infrastructure, across hundreds of eDirectory trees and servers, including documentation and resolution of bugs.

The BT network consisted of many protocols, including IP, NetWare IP, and IPX. Troubleshooting connectivity and routing problems was a frequent requirement, which gave me the opportunity to work heavily with Cisco routers, and became very comfortable with examinig their interface configurations and routing/filtering tables etc.
NetWare and Desktop Support Engineer

3Com

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; COMS; Computer Networking industry)

1995 — 1997 (2 years )
Desktop and Network Support

John Scott & Partners

(Computer Networking industry)

1987 — 1990 (3 years )
Technical Support (UK)

Dataller

(Insurance industry)

January 1985 — May 1986 (1 year 5 months)

Dataller was the UK leader in the field of specialized insurance broking software. My successes here included the transference and implementation of the full Dataller software range on the IBM PC XT and AT, to the Unix System III based Onyx 5012v and the Xenix based AT, Altos 586 and Texas Instruments Business Pro. Other involvement included the field of computer communications, modems and the linking of services such as 'Prestel', 'In View' and British Telecom Insurance Services to the Dataller software suite. It was during this period that my trouble-shooting skills vastly improved. I also developed and delivered several Unix training courses to Dataller staff and customers.
Programmer (UK)

Metcom Computer Services

(Computer Software industry)

November 1981 — November 1982 (1 year 1 month)

With this company, I gained professional knowledge of a commercial programming environment in a bespoke software house. This gave me the ability to form a structured approach to programming, right from the initial meeting with the client, through to the specification agreement and development stages, and on to completion, installation, acceptance and finally maintenance and product support.
Trainee Software Programmer (UK)

Digital Computer Services

(Computer Software industry)

June 1980 — November 1981 (1 year 6 months)

Fortunately, by the time I had finished my college training in electronics and computing, a relative had formed a computer engineering firm who's employees made use of micro computers. I was given a trainee position in this company to help the users get the most from their computer systems. Whilst in this job, I wrote many small conventional software packages, such as stock control, sales invoicing and purchase processing, which were used to perform business processes within the company. I learned how to be self motivated, how things work in a company structure and the sort of challenges that a small business faces in conducting it's day-to-day business