25th September, 2002

meet peter smith: product manager

"Leaving behind a career as a qualified engineer, I joined Matrix Resource Management in 1989 as part of the new Support team. I progressed to Senior Support Engineer before moving to Soft Solutions Ltd in 1997 as Quality Manager. Whilst with Matrix, I was responsible for over 100 installations. I was exposed to a great variety of challenges, including an installation at Heathrow Airport where my dedication to the job was so great that it involved being permanently 'on call' whilst the system went live - even taking calls at 4am on a Sunday morning!

When I became Quality Manager with Soft Solutions I took responsibility for implementing the ISO9000 quality system, achieving certification in 1998. Craving technical things again, I moved to be Support Manager before changing to my current role of Product Manager at the end of 2001.

My current role covers a broad spectrum of responsibilities - as Product Manager, my focus is on the application, ensuring that we include the best new features, as well as making sure we market what is already there!

I also have responsibility for International Partner support, spending a lot of time dealing with product, support, and training issues. Sometimes life can be extremely challenging. I recall two specific training exercises which stretched me to the limit - once having to train 25 people in India with only two PC's to work on, and on another occasion teaching a group of ten in Russia via three translators. My experience is wide and varied. Apart from my experience with IMPACTxp, in my former engineering life I spent some time as a Project Manager, including responsibility for the procurement and installation of a £1.2 million Lamp Production Line."

Email Peter: peters@impactxp.com