July 16, 2011 I worked with Steve for approximately six years, providing legal advice and assistance with negotiations over the course of many major IT procurement projects using the Queensland Government Information Technology Contracting (GITC) Framework. Steve's attention to detail and his ability to build and manage the processes and documentation required for a complex transaction are unmatched. He capitalizes on this by never missing an opportunity to carry forward the lessons learned, solutions discovered and precedent drafting developed for the benefit of future transactions. I would be happy to provide further information on request.
April 21, 2011 In his role as Principal Contract
Advisor at Transport and Main Roads Steve was influential in negotiating a
complex GITC SOA contract for my unit. Throughout the negotiations Steve was
(without exception) thorough, prompt with follow up's and actions, displayed
outstanding subject knowledge and represented the interests of my unit and the
Department at all times. Steve never lost the business focus while also
displaying an excellent ability to balance and combine that focus with his
considerable subject matter expertise. If I had to negotiate a similar contract
in future, Steve would be my first call.
"I had the pleasure of working with Steve Parry at BCC on a Request for Tender (RFT) process for software and services, where Steve's knowledge of the Government Information Technology Contract (GITC) was invaluable. Steve is a very dedicated and goal oriented individual and meets any challenge head-on to secure a suitable solution."
"I found that Steve's approach left no
surprises at the end of the day. From the beginning, he clearly documented what
the customer thought he wanted, validated it, then monitored progress regularly.
This process ensured that I was always aware of what was to be delivered and by
when. Any deviations were identified early before they turned into
trouble."
Greg Bock, Network Systems Planning Manager, ENERGEX. (gb040@energex.com.au)
"I have known and worked with Steve Parry
since 1997. During the negotiation and development of a major long term GITC
outsourcing contract I found to him to be professional, direct, honest and
ethical in his dealings. His technical and business knowledge together with
attention to detail produced a comprehensive contract for his client. Steve is
dedicated, hard working and very thorough. His people and negotiation skills are
excellent. I highly recommend Steve for senior project, strategic or consulting
IT&T roles. More importantly, Steve goes the extra mile for his clients to
ensure they get value for their investment. I would not hesitate involving Steve
in any major projects that I am involved in."
Paul MacRae, Regional Manager, BrightStar IT Group.
(paul@principles.com.au)
"Steve's project and
document management techniques, as well as his sense of humour and ability to
work with a team, are his greatest assets. On the High Speed Metropolitan Area
Network Project Steve's management systems assured the team that we could always
find documents and even the vendor relied on Steve's system as the true source
for contract variations. Steve also kept his sense of humour during arduous
contract negotiations over coffee, when others failed Steve continued to
negotiate hard and won the point for his side, in this case the customer.
Working with Steve was fun and although we thought the contract negotiations
would never end, it eventually did and we parted ways. I would certainly have
Steve on my team anytime or be part of one of his teams."
"I used Steve Parry to audit the work that had been done on the WAN and LAN networks as part of the replacement network project that was in progress. I was impressed with Steve's expertise and the professional way in which he tackled the issues (people as well as technical issues). In my view Steve would be among the top few people in his field in Brisbane, so I am happy to recommend him."
"Steve Parry was contracted by DMR to
project manage a transition from one call centre management system to another
during 1997. He was energetic and thorough in his approach, bringing an obvious
wealth of experience to bear on what proved to be a difficult assignment.
Through his attention to detail we were regimented to cover all the fine detail
of this project - without which we would not have achieved our objectives."
John Gygar, General Manager - Marketing, DMR Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd. (John_Gygar@apac.dmr.com.au)
"During 95/96 I was the Systems
Administrator with DKFD on Lihir Island, PNG (Lihir Gold Mine) trying to manage
and roll out a data network. As with any third world country, the lack of any
basic infrastructure was the main problem, Steve was charged with fixing it and
for several months I had the pleasure of watching a professional at work. Chaos
became calm and along the way my understanding of many things including time
management and professionalism grew exponentially."
Andrew Batt, IS&T Supervisor, Bechtel Australia
P/L. (akbatt@bechtel.com)
"I have worked with Steve in varying
capacities, including as a Steering group member of a project being managed by
Steve and as his Project Manager. In all instances, without exception, I have
found Steve to be conscientious and reliable. He exhibited a very high level of
ownership of outcomes and has consistently demonstrated loyalty. This has led to
his expending effort beyond agreed commercial parameters. Steve has also shown a
very sound project management background. I wouldn't hesitate to work with Steve
in the future."
Sameer Pandya, Consulting Principal, DMR Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd.
(Now sameer.pandya@team.telstra.com)
"I have worked with Steve Parry on two major mining projects. Both Lihir Gold and Century Zinc projects were completed on time and within budget as far as communications was concerned. On both projects I was given the job title of Communications Engineer. Steve has an eye for detail and an ability to translate that into the printed word. This means that managers and clients are kept informed of the situation as the project progresses. I counted myself fortunate to be able to capitalise on Steve's work in both cases as it meant that reporting on progress, situations, issues and resolutions only had to continue in the method that Steve had designed and management had accepted. During the Lihir project I also drew an Steve's design work and drawings which I found invaluable. I thank Steve for the opportunity to voice my opinion on his web page and would be happy to work with him again at any time."
"I have known Steve Parry since 1994. At the time Steve was introduced to the company that I was working for, a major communications network rollout and design on a construction project in Papua New Guinea was in a grave state. With the personality, experience, determination and organisation that Steve bought with him Steve took the project from near collapse to a successful finish. I believe that this experience was a great learning point for Steve as well. We took Steve out of the comfort of the first world where "impossible" tasks can be performed in a couple of days, and introduced him to the third world where raw determination and nothing else would often see the "really impossible" performed in even less time.
Steve survived our initial experience together in Papua New Guinea and we stayed in touch over the next couple of years with Steve acting as my virtual dial-up mentor. As fate would have it I entered back into the engineering industry on another major construction project and immediately identified the issues there with the previous experience in PNG and called upon Steve (primarily) and another associate to assist in straightening out yet another project gone wrong. He once more played the major role in taking a network from break-fix through design-review and to hand-over.
I would very much like to add that because of the known previous working relationship between myself and Steve, it was much harder to get Steve on board than it would have been any other consultant. But fighting tooth and nail and doing the hard yards the introduction of Steve into the team soon proved to be having the team become more than the sum of its parts.
Another successful project complete and the parting of ways once more. I have no doubt that we will work together again in the future and I would not hesitate to have Steve as either; manager, co-worker, consultant or employee.
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