Pierfranco
Bini

I have been working for over 20 years around web application. I have started as a one-man band, experiencing all the aspects related to World Wide Web, from system administration to UI design; over the years, I moved away from systems and towards software.
Lately, I have been able to put my experience to test as a team leader with very rewarding results.
My humanities education, turned to science at the University, allows me to be able to understand technology, use it, and explain it to others. The ability to see the whole scenario is one of my best assets in consulting.
And, of course, I still love getting my hands dirty with code...

Γηράσκω δ’ αἰεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος
As I grow older, I'm constantly learning more

Version 12019 - present

Senior CRM Developer

Version 1 proves that IT can make a real difference to our customers’ businesses. We are trusted by global brands to deliver IT services and solutions which drive customer success. Our 1300 strong team works closely with our technology partners to provide independent advice that helps our customers navigate the rapidly changing world of IT. Our greatest strength is balance in our efforts to achieve Customer Success, Empowered People and a Strong Organisation, underpinned by a commitment to our values. We believe this is what makes Version 1 different and more importantly, our customers agree
My work with Version 1 included:

• Technical Lead and Developer on the Houses of Parliament Repair and Restauration CRM project

The Football Association 2017 - 2019

Senior CRM Developer

The Football Association manages the football activity in England from grassroots teams all the way to the national teams. More than five millions individuals are involved in the game and quite a few different software solutions and platforms are used to manage all these football related activities.
Furthermore, there is specific division dedicated to the top customers that buy packaged tickets for the core events at Wembley Stadium.
My work at the FA included:

• Technical Lead of the team that carried out the upgrade from Dynamics 2013 to 2016 for the Club Webley division.
• Documentation: Solution, Infrastructure, Release flow for Club Wembley CRM
• Participating in the steering committee for the selection of next external Marketing and Email service provider and designing the data flow together with the DBA team.
• C# design and coding of plugins and custom workflows for Dynamics CRM 2011, 2013 and 2016/365
• Implementation of Adobe e-Sign integration with Dynamics CRM for Club Wembley members
• Managing Scrum meetings and releases for Club Wembley CRM
• Documentation of all the Scribe collaboration and design technical solutions to replace the whole tool with CRM plugins and SSIS scripts
• General support and troubleshooting

Elite Tele.com 2015 - 2017

CRM and Web Developer

Elite Tele.com is a telephone and unified connectivity solutions provider. I have joined the London-based software development team in 2015 and I have been in charge of the CRM systems for all the companies of the group and involved into the design of an internal Portal for sales, which will eventually become public facing. My job at Elite included:

• design and coding of all CRM 2011/2016 plugins, from simple customised workflows to more complex tasks involving external data sources
• support for all CRM users: as with many legacy systems, Elite main CRM server is made of many layers of code (especially very old fashion JavaScript libraries), so it has to be dealt with very carefully. Working on this made me very aware of the subtleties involved with trying to migrate an old system to newer releases
• being part of the decision making process as to the next step for CRM: migration, clean start, switching to other vendors are options on the table. I have been involved in all the relevant meetings, both internal and with the prospect suppliers
• accompanying and guiding the change requests from the various departments: it is very important to help colleague to learn how to submit their requests and not their solutions, as they cannot know the intricacies of CRM. My consulting background helped me quite a lot on this
• designing and coding an internal portal (MVC5, C#) to help sales department to create quotes for their customer, setting the correct boundaries for the company’s price policy. The portal neatly separates the UI and the logic, which is completely based on SQL stored procedures, both for security and cleaner maintenance.

Self-employment 2013 -2015

Web consultant and developer, CRM consultant and developer

I have worked with GranitiFiandre SpA on a number of projects, the latest being the building of a web application to centralise information about ceramic products, pairing marketing information and ERP data. The goal is to be able to provide a single, controlled set of data to feed all the applications and marketing needs (web sites, design software, catalogue apps, publishing, etc.). It's an ongoing challenge, requiring knowledge and expertise of XHTML, jQuery, PHP, Oracle DBMS, SSO and many other technological aspects of the enterprise data handling.

Pyxis Srl 2013 - 2015

CRM consultant and developer

I had started my work with MS Dynamics CRM with Pyxis in 2012, but in 2013 we formalized a deal which brought me to Panini SpA (Editions and Publishing). Panini is a multinational enterprise with subsidiaries all over the world: I have since then developed their CRM system which implies:

• designing and coding all the synchronisation procedures with the ERP, together with the IT Dept.
• handling the websites request emails and processing them into "incidents", together with the Websites Dept.
• supporting the external supplier for the newsletters management and handling the feedbacks
• designing and coding internal IT workflow management

Pagus Media 2011 - 2013

Web consultant and developer, CRM consultant and developer

BKey Consulting moved to a proper consultancy work, while we entrusted BKey Consulting all the development work to Pagus Media (a company owned by one of the partners of BKey Consulting).
We kept on working with CONAD, Maserati, FloorNature, and others while I started digging deep into MS Dynamics CRM and C# coding for special customisations.

BKey Consulting2009 - 2011

Founder, Owner and CTO

With a couple of colleagues we decided to start a new company, aiming at providing complete support to the Marketing Departments, from true marketing consultancy, through web design, to web marketing.
We worked for CONAD (GDO), Maserati, and FloorNature (Ceramics).
These were the days of jQuery, one of the best tools to ever surface the web.

DSM Lab Srl 2005 - 2009

Group R&D Coordinator

DSM Lab was the developing branch of Digital Streaming Media Group. We kept on working on video streaming, while YouTube was becoming the leading service, and kept on working on the latest video codecs.
The company invested hugely on a 360 camera (which didn't produce the expected results) which was an interesting technical challenge.

Digital Streaming Media Srl2003 - 2005

Group R&D Coordinator

The company mission was video streaming (live and on-demand): we worked with important Italian companies such as Ferrari and Telecom.
We also kept on doing websites and portals and I had extensive experience with PHP, XHTML, Javascript and MySQL.

Fashionweb.net SpA2000 - 2003

R&D Coordinator

As I was leaving Sedoc for lack of challenges, I received an offer to move to a Milan-based, fashion-related start-up to start working on video streaming.
Bandwidth was narrow around Italy, so a very good idea resulted a little ahead of its time.
The Fashion world was simply not ready, so we turned our attention to different market and rebranded the company.

Sedoc Srl 1997 - 2000

Web services coordinator

Sedoc bought a share of Italian Web and then the whole company. Sedoc was active in ERP with IBM AS/400 and a custom software.
They realized the potential of Web services and we created a few websites. HTML in the meantime was improving, we started doing dynamic websites with Perl and mSql.
E-commerce was growing and I had the chance to obtain a certification on IBM Net.Commerce, which would become WebSphere later on.

Italian Web Srl1995 - 1997

Founder and CTO

Italian Web was my first foray in the world of web programming. We designed websites with HTML 3.2 and struggle to explain what a website could mean to business.

Director of the Executive Committee of the ccTLD .it Naming Authority 2001-2002

Member of the ccTLD .it Naming Authority 1998-2005

The Web was budding in Italy back then and we tried to manage the transition of the country code top level domain .it from the safe harbour of scientific institutions to a more contemporary business, trying to set rules so as to avoid misuses and outline rules for dispute resolutions. I've been involved into Italian Naming Authority as long as my work had anything to do with domain registrations.

Università di Bologna 1987 - 1995

5 Years Degree in "Chimica Industriale"

It's always a bit awkward to translate my degree into a word-by-word translation "Industrial Chemistry", because it does not tell much abroad: it is a Chemistry degree strongly oriented to the industry world.
My dissertation was on "Computer simulation of properties of micropores-confined liquid crystals", with Prof. C.Zannoni: I have never stopped working on computers since.

University of Kent, UK 1989 - 1990

Chemistry with Management Science, University Diploma with Distinction

First group from Bologna to UKC within the exchange project "Erasmus". One of the best years of my life.

Microsoft MB2-716 (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customization and Configuration)

PSM I Scrum Master, September 2018

TOGAF 9.2, November 2019

Listening Volunteer with the Samaritans since 2017, IT manager for the Brent branch

Concert Manager and member of the Finchley Chamber Choir

Singing and vocal technique

I love singing. After the year at UKC I started singing under the baton of Roselise Gentile in Italy.
I've been president (while singing as baritone) of our chamber ensemble for many years, until Roselise expanded her career in other directions and eventually moved to UK.
I've studied singing privately for many years, trying different teachers, learning a lot, but feeling the need to develop my own approach.
I consider vocal coaching an important part of my life and my free time, and I have worked for several years with the Mirabilé Vocal Ensemble, Nottingham (UK), which won the the female ensemble category at the 2016 Eistedfodd competition in Llangollen.
In 2016 I have joined the Finchley Chamber Choir, a very high standard amateur choir based in North Finchley. After the last AGM I have been appointed as Concert Master and member of the Committee.

Gregorian Chant

I've been lucky enough to complete a 3+1 years Gregorian Chant course with Prof. Nino Albarosa. It's a fascinating world I hope I'll be able to develop further in the years to come.

• London
• UK
• pf.bini at gmail.com
• LinkedIn