I’ve been blogged forward – Blog It Forward : Mohammed Yakub Shah and blog-it-forward–arindam-mondal. So I thought I’d better get on with it.

Intro

I like a good intro – a good intro, like A C D A C Eb A C D C A sticks in your head, though it could get your thrown out of guitar shops.

I’m English, have lived in Switzerland for over ten years and speak three languages fairly fluently – all though for two of those, it’s often fluent gibberish. I’ve got a degree in Maths and Computer Science, and started working as a systems programmer on an Amdahl mainframe, running VM, using languages like rexx and exec2. I’ve been doing sappy stuff since 1997, so that’s what? 16 years! I started as a PP consultant, but nowadays do technical stuff on R/3 (which young people like to call ECC) and BW. There seems to be a gap between the functional and basis groups – a need for technical understanding of how SAP works underneath the application level, but not quite at the database/os level, which Basis usually operatres at. That’s the gap I try to fill. Some call me “guru for everything”. Well… I try.

I’m a freelancer and work for a few different clients around Europe. I tend to work part-time or do short projects – so if you need some expertise… 🙂 I also have developed a few products. I’m particular proud of “RoleBuilder” which I developed in conjunction with my good friend Julius von dem Bussche of http://www.xiting.ch/, There’s even an OSS note about it.

Fun facts

I enjoy amateur dramatics, reading and I’m currently studying for a degree in divinity on a distance learning course with the University of London. This gives me a student card, which means I can get student reductions for all kinds of things!

Here’s some videos for my dramatic efforts. Lyrics and vocals by me. The tunes though you may recognise. This first one is from five or six years ago.

This one is from last year. I got to play the bad guy. It sounded better live, I can assure you.

Next year, I’m hoping to direct a version of Snow White, using a script that my daughter and other members of my family have been developing.

…small pause… I’m baking bread and the rolls are ready to go into the oven. Today is the Swiss National Day, so it’s a day off for me.

Those questions

What would you be if not an SAP Consultant ?

Easy. Actor. Or possibly director. Definitely something theatrical. On the facebook page of my old school for people of my decade, there’s a photo of myself between two class mates, during a production of the Jack Rosenthal play “P’tang Yang Kipper-Bang”. One of them runs a “Shakespeare in the Park” group in L.A. The other is a fairly well know serious actor in BBC Television.

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

I think the most fun was an implementation in Paris. I was working with a chap, who’s now doing very well as a CIO in a very large company. You know how nice it is to work with brilliant people? Well, he’s one of them. He was my deputy, and we had a great time managing a team of 15 hand-picked French developers, regularly performing technical miracles. He also did impressions of David Brent from “The Office”, during project management meetings. I was the only one who realised he was doing impressions… hard to keep a straight face sometimes.

What are the best experiences that you had while being part of this community?

Meeting up with people in real life. I’ve made so many contacts through SCN.

What I find a bit creepy is all these emails I get about people following me. I feel stalked!

What are the hobbies or activities that you enjoy most?

I think I’ve answered that above. In addition, I enjoy skiing, swimming, baking, cooking, playing games with my wife and my fairly grown up kids (the youngest is 16, the oldest will be 22!).

I’d like to blog forward to

Julius von dem Bussche

Venkat B

Eventually though, like a pyramid selling syndicate, we’ll run out of people to blog forward to

My questions are:

1. What’s the last good book you read?

2. Which actor would you like to play you in the biopic of your life?