About Business Owner - James Black
James Black was born in Christchurch New Zealand but has lived most of his years in Wodonga Victoria Australia.
Early Years
Having a finesse and fascination in computing from an early age, James has always paid a great interest in technology in a practical way. This curiousity was sighted and James did general and advanced computing early in year 11 as a student completing the HSC at his local school in Albury.
University Days
James travelled back to Christchurch to attempt computing science after gaining a very good result in the Higher School Certificate. James was challenged to learn computing at a much lower level learning some very useful skills including computer communications, mathematic models, computational complexity, software engineering in a team environment, database design, compilers and technical prowess in low level languages.
Despite enjoying the challenges at university, James became a little disillusioned with the mathematical and scientific models underpinning this course. Having very much a Microsoft background, James decided that he would go into the workforce during his 3rd year curriculum. James worked in a local Christchurch internet company and decided that his learning of the World Wide Web was more fascinating than what he was studying.
James returned to his family and talked to a local university, Charles Sturt, about cross-crediting his existing credentials in order to finish his degree in Albury. Being thankful that this university was offering a practical course, James became a top performer, achieving a high distinction average resulting in a Dean's award for academic excellence.
Some Highlights
James has worked on some exciting projects over the years. One of his highlights include working for an Information Services company in both local support and data warehousing. James learnt a great deal about UNIX, Oracle, SAP based systems, reporting and business objects, taking on a regional support role in his team environment. Another highlight has been working on two Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) projects to help build a sales and marketing firm and a membership club system. James thrived on pushing the boundaries of these opportunities, engineering wizards and reporting using the Microsoft platform and workflow based systems. James also worked with cameras and membership card systems and integrated this technology in his CRM solution. James also worked with other accounting and membership based systems, integrating them using low level protocols, custom windows services and general workflow.
James worked hard as a software engineer to manage website backups and relocation exercises between domain and hosting environments. James wrote modules for content management systems including a contact us form based module and a FTP module solution. James also learned the Microsoft Lightswitch platform in delivering a solution for a tender company in Albury Wodonga.
Recent Times
More recently, James has been privileged to work as a report officer at a locally based employment agency that works with young people and those having a disability. James has enjoyed the challenge of automation, pulling reports directly using Robotic Process Automation. James has successfully built reports across a number of different Government programs. The reporting engine James has written produces a suite of reports amongst three departments, including dashboards for each program.