Diamondb Stress Management and IT Solutions
1 Jan 1998—14 Jan 2000
AstraZeneca Plc, D&D IMS, Mereside, Alderley Park, Nr Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK10 4TG
Duties: 1st and 2nd line IT support for the Research (now called Discovery) community at Mereside (1200+ users), including help desk and personal visits. General PC Office applications and science/department specific applications. Macintosh specific support - general office applications and science-specific. Internet Browser support including intranet and internet site advice. Awareness of business needs in assigning support call priorities.
Original 6 month contract extended to 12 months, with extension to date.
PC: Windows NT4/95, MS Office 95 for PC (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), MS Exchange 4, Access 2, Lotus Notes 4, Reflection X, Internet Explorer 4, Netscape 4-4.6, Dreamweaver 2 and Fireworks 2, Frontpage 98. Acrobat Reader. Omnipage (OCR), Adobe Photoshop 5, SMS, Norton Anti-virus. Macintosh: Mac System 7 to OS/X, MS Office 98, MS Outlook, Lotus Notes 4, Exodus, Internet Explorer 4.5, Netscape 4-4.6, Dreamweaver 2 and Fireworks 2, Filemaker 4, Omnipage (OCR), Adobe Photoshop 5, Timbuktu and Apple Network Assistant, Applescript, Virex/Dr Solomons Anti-virus toolkit.
Bioinformatics Applications: BioLIMS, DNAStar, Vector NTI, Rasmol (PC and Macintosh), Mindset, Grail (Unix/X-windows).
Others: ISIS 2 (Oracle client/server chemical structure software), Endnote 3 (bibliographical database).
Mainly Dell PCs ranging from GXL590 to Optiplex Gxa. Macintoshes ranging from 7200 to G4, and G3 PowerBook. Peripherals including scanners, external disk drives, CD-writers.
(Before the Research support area was reorganised with Astra and Zeneca merger)
Duties: Specific IT support for Bioinformatics users to cover: general Office applications, science-specific and department-specific applications.
Bioinformatics Support Tasks
Complete Apple Macintosh platform support - Operating System fixes and builds; utilities and applications; building installers for these using both basic, network-delivered and in-house scripted CD-ROM builds; Bioinformatics application upgrades and support. Responsibilities shared equally between BIOINFORMATICS support team members.
Specialist application support for approx. 150 PCs used by Bioinformatics users. Mostly running Windows 95 but about 20 running Windows NT 4.0 workstation. Installed standard office and science-specific software on these PCs, (admin access).
Basic UNIX support for the Bioinformatics users' SGI O2 UNIX Workstations (command line and X-windows interface).
Filemaker Database Work
Update to BIOINFORMATICS inventory Making it fully relational to allow user/computer many-to-many relationship. Software license database design. Bioinformatics Support Team projects database.
Bioinformatics user/computer survey
By personal visit & email mailshot. A total of 180 Macintoshes, 160 networked including instrument-linked. A total of 270 Bioinformatics users out of the 1200 or so Research users. Results collated and input to inventory database.
OS 8.1 roll-out for 160 Networked Macintoshes (100 personal)
One of a team of two who upgraded all the Macintoshes in the Research area in 1998.
BioLIMS (Bioinformatics Laboratory Information System for DNA sequencing lab)
Commercial product - installed and tuned at AstraZeneca. Client/server application (client on Macintosh), connecting to Oracle server.
BIOINFORMATICS Conference support
Assisted in preparation, setup and technical support for International Delegates in a 3-day conference (networked PCs and Macintoshes)
(after Astra and Zeneca merged to form AstraZeneca)
Duties: 1st and 2nd line IT support for the Discovery community at Mereside (1200+ users), including office and specialist applications.
Primary Operations Support Tasks
Macintosh backups, builds, deliveries, application/utilities installer writing and 2nd Line Support.
Peripherals (including handheld organisers) support and software deployment.
Auditing Software on PCs Routine using standard reports from SMS
Non-core (specialist) software deployment. Omnipage, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks etc.
Deputy Operations Support Tasks
NT Printer Queue Management
PC and Laptop Builds using Symantec Ghost for installs and backups. Also Win95/NT Workstation installs (single and dual boot). Some deployment.
Printer (including network and stand alone) Configuring and Delivery (including NT queue setup)
Instrument linked Macintosh support.
License Database maintenance.
Support Procedures Web Site design
Design and construction of intranet web site for all Support procedures. Designed as part FAQ and part user guide to allow rapid access to necessary information on-line, solving users support problems and also more detailed operational instructions. Ranged from simple password change procedures to how to build dual boot Windows NT/95 PCs.
Macintosh Builds design
Using both basic and in-house burnt CD builds, scripted and self-designed Installer VISE installers, together with Apple Network Assistant to "Clone" the software on several Macintoshes at one time on the network. Design of NT connection logon box using Applescript.
Macintosh OS 8.6 Rollout
Manage and coordinate OS 8.6 rollout to 150 Macintoshes. Key upgrade using Macintosh Manager (running on under Macintosh OSX, a Unix-based server) to provide secure user logon and roving profiles. Design of Web-based user feedback form for rollout
Network Description
A 10baseT (and partial 100baseT and switched) network system using TCP/IP protocol (presently static but moving to DHCP). WAN connections for Swedish sites, internet access and e-mail delivery.
Training Received (1998-1999)
General: Frontpage 98,1 day; Supporting Windows 95 - 3 day; VBA for Excel, 2 day; MSX , ½ day; Call Logging System, Expert Advisor, ½ day; Adobe Photoshop 5,1 day; Omnipage 9, ½ day; Project Management Workshop, 2 days.
Bioinformatics: Mindset; Grail; Basic Bioinformatics