Our long term relationship with Northern Rock enabled us to work closely with our client on many projects. Our work covered a wide range of discipline from technical consultant with their strategic development unit to designing and development of cluster based database systems and hetrogeneous database applications. Clustered Database Our consultant DBA was able to help with the specification of the server and the Oracle 8i Enterprise database used for a call centre system that resides on Quad CPU, 4GB NT4 (Enterprise Edition) Cluster and configured using Oracle FailSafe 3.04. The system was designed for high availability and supported up to 1700 concurrent users. Heterogeneous Database The Counter Terminal System consisted of a series of Counter Service PCs connected to a branch server. Each server in turn is connected to the HQ Server collating all the information from the branches. The, third party developed, system has been designed around Microsoft Access Database and Microsoft MTS . Our engineers were able to provide the database and interface components using Oracle8i heterogeneous service to communicate between Oracle and Access database at the branches and the HQ Oracle Database. Enterprise Manager The initial release of enterpries manager did not provide the functionality required by our client. We were able to deliver TCL scripts for our client to use with Oracle's Enterprise Manager to give them the functionalty they require from the product. Recovery Manager Delivered a report on how Northern Rock can use Oracle's Recovery Manager to manage their database backup and recovery. Database Administration & General Consultancy Our engineers have administered several Oracle database for our client. In addition to the general DBA duties our engineers advised Northern Rock on the suitability of third party Oracle based products that are to be purchased. We ensured that the systems are well implemented and to identify possible integration problems with Northern Rock systems. Staff Recruitment Carried out technical interviews for client recruiting technical team leaders. Planning and Specification of ORACLE 8 Databases We performed part of the technical planning and specification of a Proof of Concept system, integrating Marlborough Sterling’s Omiga, Managed Solution Corporations’ ClientWise and Gentia Software’s Gentia. The system consisted of real-time communication between databases as well as database replication to the Gentia data warehouse. Technical Architect Our engineers worke with the Client's Strtegic Development Unit to recommend solutions that will allow Northern Rock to integrate its disparate applications and databases and enable it to participate in new technologies, internet banking for example. The constraint being that any solution should be able to be supported by the current infrastructure. The team investigated the use of JAVA/CORBA based tools as bases for component based development strategy. A Proof of Concept project was designed and implemented. Our role was to ensure that any product scrutinized will be compatible with Northern Rock’s network infrastructure and Distributed Server’s strategy. We delivered a report on the requirements of an Oracle Enterprise Licence for Northern Rock. Business Process Re-engineering Using Cayenne Software Design tools (namely, Groundworks, Terrain Map, and Terrain) to re-engineer Mortgage Application ORACLE Database and Investments ORACLE Database. Our engineers supported client's analysts who have not had formal training in relational database design methodologies. Core System Re-engineering A Technical Architecture Team was set up to investigate the possibility of implementing “off the shelf” packages to achieve the core system renewal. We managed a team that delivered the final report for senior management detailing the tools’ fit to the Society’s strategy, fit to Society’s current systems as analysed earlier, gap analysis, costs of components required and specify hardware, software and infrastructure requirements and costs. Four members of staff were at my disposal at any one time from a pool of eight.