Products I have maintained
Analysing, designing and adapting an existing code base.
Writing applications from scratch is a wonderful process that gives you and your team the freedom to structure code how you want and to ensure it is modularised in a way that suits your own style. It also means that maintenance is easier and quicker as you have familiarity with the code base.
Maintaining and expanding an established code base is a much more complex undertaking. You know what you want to achieve and how to go about it but you also have to be careful that you're not always re-inventing the wheel. Chances are, a lot of the code you are about to write already exists somewhere in the code base. Finding it is a real skill.
Opening an established solution for the first time is a very scary prospect, but is a skill every developer needs; unless you intend to stay with the same organisation for your entire career.
Applications
Applications I have worked on.
Not every organisation is starting from scratch. This section overviews some of the products that I have worked on that already existed. As a rule they are large and complex systems which can be far more of a challenge than starting from a blank page.
Digital Wealth is the only exception to the 'already exists' definition. For this one, I was in on the creation of the team, the design of the product and the subsequent coding.
Tercero
Tercero is market leading, multi-award winning, front-to-back Investment Management software. A single, integrated solution providing comprehensive operational support for all aspects of your business - delivering flexibility, efficiency and control.
Technology wise, the Tercero front end is a Windows Forms desktop application that communicates to a SQL Server back end through a WCF business layer. It's written in C# and the front end is based around the DevExpress suite of controls.
Digital Wealth
Built specifically for the investment management community, Tercero Digital Wealth allows you to deliver the online capabilities needed in the new digital age. Device independent, Tercero Digital Wealth will allow you to engage with your customers in the manner expected by today’s changing demographic; digitally.
Digital was built from scratch using the then brand new and still in beta version of Angular 2. The site is served from a .Net Core service to give us some flexibility in how we serve the site. The web app communicates with Tercero via a very comprehensive REST API. It's been through the pain of Angular upgrades and is going from strength to strength through Angular 8.
Prospector
Trigold Prospector is the market leading mortgage sourcing tool, providing a complete end-to-end system for mortgage advice. It is regarded as the most user-friendly, compliant, and accurate sourcing software available; over two thirds of mortgage professionals use Trigold Prospector on a daily basis.
Prospector was a rather old piece of software developed in VB6 using an Access database to hold details of over 8000 mortgage products and their variations.
Adviser Office
Adviser Office is a market leading client and practice management system for adviser firms of all sizes. It provides all the CRM and back office tools needed to simplify and streamline the way you operate, helping to automate manual processing which significantly reduces costs and saves time.
Adviser Office is a beast of a program that aims to satisfy all the needs of an IFA. Supplied as a series of related modules, it provided all of the bac and front office functionality that an IFA could require.
Key to the product flexibility was its scalability. A small and medium sized practice might start out with an MS-Access database solution, reducing costs. When they scaled up the operation, the Access database could be scaled up in to MS-SQL Server.
Testimonials
Am I really any good?
Don't take my word for my abilities, take a look at other peoples opinions about me.
One very quickly runs out of superlatives with Steve. He is the cleverest person I know. He is highly innovative, passionate regarding the proper maintenance of agreed standards and protocols and establishes excellent relationships with our clients.
Steve is a rare developer resource who is able to provide a good breakdown of technical solutions for all audiences to understand... Steve understands the importance of project deliverable's both from a client and business perspective and shows a personal pride in ensuring the delivery schedules are met.
I have worked closely with Steve for his time with us and long before we formed our company. His technical ability far out-performs anyone I have known or met in companies we have worked with like IBM/EDS/Cap Gemini
Steven showed a great deal of commitment and skill when he worked with me. His attention to detail, comprehensive documentation and well thought out code, using very impressive technical standards meant that it was always possible to rely on the solutions provided being top notch. Steven is an asset to any company, at any level - if I were able to, I'd love to work with him again.
I have had the pleasure of working with Steven for several years in my role as CTO. He his one to the most multi-disciplined technically skilled developers I have known but what sets him apart is his eye for, and attention to detail, particularly when considering the user experience. I would absolutely not hesitate in recommending Steven.