In the early eighties, Alan studied Computer Studies at Salford Tech and Nottingham Trent University. His industrial placement took him to Formscan Ltd in Somerset; a placement year that resulted in full time employment.

At Formscan, Alan worked on programming interfaces to convert documents during communication between incompatible Word Processing systems.

During the late eighties, Alan developed a barcode-based integrity tracking solution integrated into MICR printers for Xerox Corporation in El Segundo, California. In 1992 this system was extended to include Pitney Bowes inserting machines, to deliver an end-to-end integrity control and tracking solution for a global charge card supplier. The solution, piloted in Brighton UK was deployed globally in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Australia. This Automated Document Factory (ADF) product suite became the main product line for Formscan. In the late nineties, Alan designed a bespoke solution for a credit card statement provider in Omaha Nebraska. This workflow solution integrated into inhouse back office solutions and tracked the production of four million statements per day. The solution included client services user interfaces, warehouse stock control integration, machine performance and postal manifesting. Operator performance was recorded including bonus pay calculation.

In 2000, Alan joined Bell and Howell Europe, which became a part of Pitney Bowes in 2001. His position as a software consultant included sales training, pre-sales and bid support, project management and implementation services. Major projects included the Student Loans Company ADF, mail integrity for the Nationwide Building Society, integrity and tracking the production of Government documents at Fujitsu and a statement production system at PostelPrint in Italy. Internal projects included being a core team member for trade show and marketing events.

In 2008, Alan became European Product Manager for all ADF (DFWorks) and Output Management products (Emtex). In 2012 this became a global role for all ADF software, USPS postal system tracking, e-delivery, document archive and workflow automation. He gained his Product Management Certification with the Pragmatic Institute (USA). Alan’s technical background allowed him to work closely with clients and gain the respect of the Agile development teams to ensure that client requirements were defined and delivered successfully.

Since 2017, Alan has provided consulting services for the pre-sales, solution design, project management, implementation and testing of ADF deployments in the UK and Europe. His desire is to provide fully utilised, fit-for-purpose solutions that deliver their intended ROI.