Role: Solutions Architect
Company: Business Services Organisation (BSO)
Track Record:
HOW I BECAME A SOLUTIONS ARCHIECT
GAVIN O’PREY
The post: Solutions Architect at Business Services Organisation (BSO), part of Health and Social Care.
As a solutions architect with BSO Gavin O’Prey must ensure the system designs meet the needs of healthcare professionals
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I have been at BSO for one year as a solutions architect in the eHealth programme, responsible for delivery of the national award-winning Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record. This brings together information from disparate clinical systems to create a single patient record for everyone in Northern Ireland and allows health and social care professionals to provide faster, safer patient care.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Information technology.
Did you go on to further/ higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I gained an MSc with distinction in Computer Science at Queen’s University.
How did you get into your area of work?
I worked as a net developer before moving into a senior analyst role then solutions architecture. Before moving to BSO I worked in global private sector corporations.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
Yes. Solutions architect was the role I have targeted throughout my career
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
Five years experience in a senior technical role with management experience were the requirements.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
Yes, experience in any role that provides both technical and managerial responsibilities on large projects can prepare you for the job.
What attracted you to BSO?
I was aware that BSO was a large organisation, employing in and around 220 IT staff across NI and was responsible for the delivery and support of a wide range of regional information technology services to all health and social care organisations. The position was attractive to me as it provided experience as solutions architect on a leading project in Northern Ireland. I was inspired by the career paths offered by the BSO. It further provided me with the opportunity to meet clients face to face on a regular basis, as in my previous experience with multinational corporations more and more communication was being carried out remotely. As well as being an innovative organisation I was obviously attracted to the additional rewarding benefits to include annual leave entitlement, salary, training and development opportunities and flexible working patterns.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
The ability to converse with project stakeholders in both technical and business roles. The business stakeholders can work in a variety of health services including clinicians, pharmacists, community care professionals, health managers and executives. This requires adapting use of technical/non-technical language and the level of detail required to elicit business requirements and application architecture to meet them.
What does a typical day entail?
Project planning, meeting with clinical staff to discuss requirements, updating system designs/architecture, updating business flow models, analysing issues for workarounds and quantifying risk My current focus is the on-going growth and development of the NI Electronic Care Record (NIECR). This is a portal computer system giving health and social care professionals across the HSC a single, secure overview of key information about their patients in order to aid better, faster, safer decision-making and improve the quality and efficiency of the services we provide.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
Ensuring system designs meet the needs of health care professionals. This is a challenging field due to the constantly evolving high demands of the health service, but provides the greatest satisfaction knowing that your job contributes directly to improving patient health.
Why is what you do important?
The effective design and management of software solutions and architecture for patient and client care is essential in meeting health service demands. Our programme delivers real benefits to frontline health professionals in hospitals and in the community who are working to deliver and improve health and social care in Northern Ireland.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Solutions architects should have a passion for technology, and keep themselves aware of the latest design tools, development tools and languages and architecture best practice. They should also seek experience of tailoring system architecture and application design to meet needs and leading multiple teams to deliver and support software solutions. They should also seek experience in eliciting requirements and be able to demonstrate an ability to quickly assimilate business knowledge.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
A career in professional football has so far evaded me.
If you could go back, what is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
I’d tell myself that successful IT projects require you to release early and release often.
Describe your ideal day off.
A day trip with the missus to somewhere along the coast, a beer to wash down crispy calamari and chips and back home to watch Man United — managed by anyone except Louis van Gaal!
For more information on current vacancies with BSO – http://www.nijobfinder.co.uk/browse/business-services-organisation-jobs