Jim Bowyer has worked in the IT department at Superdrug for 18 years, starting as a trainee programmer and rising to the position of Senior Analyst Programmer. He now works as a Support Analyst, resolving technical and procedural issues for both Superdrug and its sister company. He is responsible for managing issues, making decisions, and documenting solutions. He has a deep understanding of the business processes and databases, and enjoys delivering excellent customer service. He feels ready for a new challenge after 18 years at Superdrug.

1. Jim Bowyer
Support Letter
I have been employed in the IT department at Superdrug for 18 years. I started as a trainee
programmer rising to the position of Senior Analysts Programmer producing in-house software using
RPG and CL languages in the AS400 environment. Five years ago the business moved the core
operations platform from the AS400 to Oracle Retail (RETEK) . I subsequently moved to a Support
Analyst role, supporting this (and other) applications
I work in a small team reporting into the Application Support Manager. Our prime purpose is to
resolve issues to ensure the accurate and efficient delivery of core business processes for both
Superdrug and our sister company Savers.
I am responsible for managing, prioritising and resolving technical and procedural issues raised by
colleagues in store, head office and by third party suppliers, working within an ITIL framework. I am
required to make decisions using all available evidence, identify and provide solutions to existing
problems, and take ownership of outstanding issues. I am also expected to account for my decision
making and keep detailed notes and documentation of issues using our Service Now ITSM package.
I also take ownership of new software, and before allowing the release into production sign off
support, testing and implementation documentation.
I have a deep understanding of the many processes that underpin a large and modern retailer and
have worked in most key business areas both as a developer and in my support role. I have excellent
SQL skills and an expert knowledge of the databases that form the foundation of these processes. I
am able to extract and interpret data efficiently and repair where necessary. I analyse scripts to
identify common points of failure and manage any fixes required. I also manage our support library
and provide scripts to identify common issues .I also issue work around scripts to repair data while a
more permanent solution is implemented. We also provide one off reports on request, and often
upload data to allow the business to avoid lengthy repeative tasks. On occasion I do small projects
and recently have implemented over 40 reports to our overnight batch to avoid colleagues having to
run these manually. I also monitor jobs in the overnight batch and other processes and report any
usual trends to our DBA teams and line manager.
I am passionate about delivering an excellent service and receive great job satisfaction in exceeding
my customer’s expectations, and have been nominated for internal awards for ‘making the
difference’. In am acutely aware of customer needs and expectations and posses excellent
communication skills, both written and verbal.
I thoroughly enjoy my role as a support analyst and have been happy at Superdrug for the last 18
years. However I feel that I now need a new challenge whether that be a role with more
responsibility, a role where I can expand my skill set or applying my experience and knowledge in a
new environment.