James Woodhouse

Led the turnaround and successful delivery of a pivotal energy program to implement a new cloud-based (Azure) solution to manage the settlement process between electricity generators, the national grid and electricity suppliers.

Following a comprehensive review of HMRC's technical debt, I developed a business case highlighting the critical need to modernize the IT infrastructure. This resulted in an unprecedented £1 billion allocation through the SR20 process, dedicated to launching a series of GMPP 'Major Projects'. Working closely with the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, I co-led these projects, successfully overseeing the transformation of the IT architecture while also instituting measures to proactively prevent… Show more

Following a comprehensive review of HMRC's technical debt, I developed a business case highlighting the critical need to modernize the IT infrastructure. This resulted in an unprecedented £1 billion allocation through the SR20 process, dedicated to launching a series of GMPP 'Major Projects'. Working closely with the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, I co-led these projects, successfully overseeing the transformation of the IT architecture while also instituting measures to proactively prevent the reemergence of technical debt.

Key leadership roles, included:
- Facilitating the development of HMRC's enterprise integration strategy and subsequently mobilized the program to consolidate all legacy messaging platforms onto a unified strategic integration framework. This initiative also involved the successful implementation of a new Full Lifecycle API Management tool to enhance operational efficiency.
- Coordinating HMRC's full SR20 submission resulted in securing £2.17 billion in funding dedicated to the comprehensive modernization of HMRC's IT infrastructure, including: addressing technical debt, migrating services to the cloud, and facilitating the disaggregation of large single-supplier IT contracts.
- Delivering a 1-year rapid response project to address the most critical technical debt and cyber security vulnerabilities within HMRCs IT estate.
- Serving as the Deputy Programme Director for a 2-year cloud transformation programme, overseeing the migration of c.500 business applications, critical national infrastructure, and data warehouses to a combination of AWS, Azure and Crown Hosting
- Initiating the creation and implementation of a new Operating Model for Crown Hosting
- Transitioning all software licenses, previously procured and managed by incumbent suppliers, directly to HMRC. This involved right-sizing entitlements and instituting a centralized ITAM (IT Asset Management) Show less

Global boutique technology consultancy.

Key engagements:
- Led an assurance review of the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) technology IT product roadmap ahead of a period of major re-platforming and business transformation (4 months).
- Led the post-merger integration, relocation and modernization of Hyperion Insurance Group’s IT estate (15 months).
- Outsourcing Consultant and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for IT, SIaM and Transition within the Post Offices £650… Show more

Global boutique technology consultancy.

Key engagements:
- Led an assurance review of the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) technology IT product roadmap ahead of a period of major re-platforming and business transformation (4 months).
- Led the post-merger integration, relocation and modernization of Hyperion Insurance Group’s IT estate (15 months).
- Outsourcing Consultant and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for IT, SIaM and Transition within the Post Offices £650 million residential telecoms managed service outsourcing programme Show less

Coordinated (from Copenhagen) the network, infrastructure and desktop application integration of Nycomed into Takeda, across Europe and Asia, following the $13.7bn acquisition of the global pharmaceutical company in 2011