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Cathy McLoughlin
Holmwood 6 Cedars Avenue Rickmansworth Herts WD3 7AN
Telephone: 01923 776193 (Home); 07894074504 (Mobile)
Email: cathy.mcloughlin@hotmail.com
Professional Profile
I ama very passionate, hardworking, individual with an excellent track record for delivering transformational
systemand business projects. I amvery commercially aware, have a deep passion for operational excellence and
am always focussed on providing the best experience for the user. I amviewed as the go to person always providing
advice on business process and policy. I have a very logical approach to work and constantly look to provide the
best customer experience without compromising either the technical orbusiness requirements.I demonstrate a deep
understanding of issues in both operational and project situationsand consistently look to identify,assess and mange
risk, always having the end goal in site. I am very experienced in working with leading brands with the primary
focus being to exceed the customer expectation. I have excellent interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills
and the ability to develop and maintain mutually beneficial internal and external relationships. I am a team player
and enjoy working in a fast paced environment, demonstrate flexibility and resilience and can easily adapt to change
and adjust my priorities accordingly.
Career Summary
March – July 2015 Diageo PLC
Self Employed Contractor
Business Analyst/Release Manager
 Documenting Global business requirements for forthcoming Salesforce Sprints
 Created and maintained release plans
 Gained CAB clearance for release
 Created release plans considering both technical and non technical versions.
 Completed a wide range of activities using a variety of scenarios across multiple environments
 Documented full release notes and communicated service outage and downtime.
 Worked with Global market stakeholders to define and confirm Acceptance Criteria
 Attending daily Standup meetings to discuss and review development
 Attend daily warranty calls to review and discuss current market issues
 Worked very closely with keys stakeholders to define timely release plans to minimise disruption to
Operational teams.
2009–2014 Diageo PLC
Commercial Systems Manager
 GB Lead to enable the smooth transition from Siebel to Salesforce ensuring that the strategic and
data need of the business alongside all business processes and ways of working were fully shared and
understood to enable GB to move seamlessly to the new Global platform.
 GB lead for applications support team managing all issues and defining priorities based on severity
and business impact.
 Main point of contact for off shore resource relating to all issues and incidents.
 Proactively diagnosing potential bugs and issues

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 Established cross-functional teams and defined areas of responsibility to enable identification of
errors.
 Review and evaluate all change requests raised across various functions.
 Understood the potential impact of the change to enable approvals and development to proceed.
 Assigned changes to specific release timelines.
 Communicated release plans and changes to global markets and impacted business teams.
 Produced release reports to show successful transition to new versions/environments.
 Lead SME representing several business functions across multiple development projects.
 Provided excellent understanding of all relevant systems to ensure that operational standards were
met.
 Successfully created all requirements to enable development of new functionality.
 Worked in conjunction with all business teams to ensure all day to day operational requirements were
defined, set up, and available.
 Attended regular meetings relating to Testing, Release, Warranty, Support, Strategic Planning and
BAU.
 Worked with 3rd
party agencies to investigate bugs, understanding system behaviours to enable clear
open communication channels with key stakeholders.
 GB lead for testing, firstly through systems testing and then through UAT.
 Attended periodic demo’s to review and sign off new functionality.
 Created all scripts incorporating full end to end, day in the life scenarios for testing in a controlled test
environment and also in the actual working environment.
 Updating the Test log system to record the actual result of the completed test. Priorities assigned
based on the severity of the defect found. Defects discussed with developers and again at the Triage
meetings. Stakeholders fully updated with results and potential impact to timelines, whether the
defect is a showstopper and if there is an interim workaround. Business expectation managed all
through the process.
 Provided subject matter expertise to enable problem solving as well as identifying workarounds to
minimise business impact.
 Approving and logging defects and assigning priorities based on the severity of the defect found.
 Provided support to all business users via a team of super users from each business area, dealing
with the subsequent issues that arose both in BAU and post go live.
 Attended weekly meetings to review defect log with the developers and support team, escalating
fundamental issues as soon as identified.
 Work with developers and the Transition team to ensure smooth handover of developments to the
Service Delivery team and define and assist in Knowledge Transfer activities to support this.
 Establish and maintain relationships with business users and/or stakeholder groups, acting as a point of
contact to discuss applications/systems business requirements.
 Ensure the impact of new changes on the existing application/system infrastructure is considered.
 Support continuous improvement to processes and methodologies.
 Work with systems developers to ensure the solution meets business requirements.
 Act as a subject matter expert, sharing knowledge and best practice with appropriate development and
support teams
 Work with IT Methods, Tools and Training team to ensure relevant development methodology is fit for
purpose.
 Set up all Transactional Data – Tasks, Promotions and Activities based on Operational need.
 Developed suite of reports to enable business reporting
 Created Master Data eg; Set up new users and profiles
 Associated transactional data based on defined profile
 Managed Password issues

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1997 - 2009 Diageo PLC
Business Analyst
 Lead Business link between the GB On Trade and the IS Development teams.
 Translating very complicated ways of working and business processes into user requirements to
that simplify the use of technology for the user.
 Ensured that the system was continually enhanced and updated with additional functionality to fully
support the business in both the strategic and data plans.
 Reporting systems subsequently updated with new functionality to reflect changes in Siebel.
 Worked with 3rd
Party to create a web based Point of Sale system moving to away from manual order
forms. Planning and organising a highly successful training.
 Responsible for defining all testing scripts for internal and external system projects.
 Managed the resource required to fulfil the testing phase of each project.
 Full end to end testing completed and training delivered via super users from each team.
1995 - 1997 Diageo PLC (Guinness )
Customer Service Exec
 Responsible for dealing with customer/trade calls requesting sales and service support.
 Maintaining full history of Trade/Customer Contact via manual records.
Career Summary cont.
1986–1993 Klopman International
Planner
 Working in close conjunction with Workwear fabric clients to agree to deliver to meet their forecasts
regarding specific fabric quantities and colours to support their annual/seasonal ranges.
 Extensive liaison with international shipment companies.
 Negotiating and agreeing credit terms.
1984–1986 Baltic Leasing
Leasing administrator
 Processing Leasing contracts – reviewing the payment terms and ensuring that all documentation
was correct.
1983–1984 IMC Ltd
Claims Processer
 Reviewing and validating customer claims relating to electrical goods purchased from Comet and
Currys.
Education and Qualifications
9 O Levels Including English and Mathematics
Professional Development

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 Managing Challenging situations
 Self Development Programme
 Presentation Skills
 Finance for Non-financial Managers
 Team Building
IT Skills
 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet and Email, Salesforce, Siebel, Microstrategy, Cognos, Remedy.
Personal Details
Driving Licence Full/Clean
Health Excellent; non-smoker
Interests Cooking, Reading, Pilates, Skiing and Walking
References Are Available On Request