Robert Tombs

Senior IT Programme Manager with extensive experience delivering enterprise transformation, cloud, ERP, WMS and SaaS programmes across retail, logistics, warehousing, supply chain and regulated environments. Proven track record leading complex multi-workstream programmes valued up to £10M+, including turnaround recovery of failed initiatives, governance transformation and operational stabilisation. Demonstrated portfolio management, stakeholder engagement, vendor governance and Agile delivery, with consistent achievement of measurable cost reduction, risk mitigation and business process improvement outcomes.

Strong background supporting CIOs and senior leadership teams through strategic roadmap delivery, PMO establishment and enterprise technology transformation.

Research into Agentic AI and Program Delivery - None

(2025-04 - present)

Writing an article for publication investigating Agentic AI and Program Delivery

Medical Leave - None

(2025-01 - 2025-04)

Minor Medical procedure that had unforeseen complications

IT Turnaround Portfolio Manager - Manning Impex

(2025-03 - 2025-12)

Manning Impex; A Family run importer and distributor of Asian foods into the UK and EU, an annual revenue of over £30 Million, operating in over 10 countries, employing over 100 staff. (Supply Chain, B2B, Retail, Warehousing, Finance).

Objective: Leadership of a business transformational implementation of WMS (Blue Yonder - Dispatcher 2024) and ERP (Sage x3) solutions paper based good dispatch and Sage200. Program turnaround and aligned to business objectives from failed state. Instigation of PMO & IT Governance. Implementing the solutions on 1st December per the business requirements. Replacement of warehouse paper-based stock inward, management, and dispatch process with WMS (Blue Yonder 2024). Integration with Sage X3.

Operating

Cost reduction, mitigating inventory and sales risks, by £1M per year. Directed with the CEO and CIO business change that supported new technologies.

Resources: Portfolio Value £3 M, Led 2 Data specialists & 3 Testers. (Sage X3, Sage 200, Blue Yonder Dispatcher 2024, SQL, Zap BI, Monday.com, Asana.com).

• Program Turnaround by re-engaging stakeholders and resolved vendor-business conflict.
• Successful Implementation of IT Operational management, Program IT Governance, Risk Analysis frameworks and business and vendor stakeholder executive reporting.
• Hired and onboarded 3 Testers to implement SIT, FAT and UAT testing of both solutions.
• Designed with the Data Lead the data migration plan from Sage 200 to X3 (Finances operating common data and Inventory).
• Directed vendors' Issue collection & management, identifying & resolving requirements gaps.
• Successful delivery of ERP (SageX3) and WMS (Blue Yonder 24) solutions including supporting business process on time and Budget.
• Successful turnaround of twice-failed WMS (Blue Yonder) implementation and ERP (SageX3) upgrade including integration, including business and finance process change.
• Rejuvenated and resolved vendor and business conflict.
• Reduction of Inventory loss, saving £500,000 per annum.
• Increased Inventory dispatch efficiency by £200,000 per annum.
• Increased Financial and organisational control of inventory (3-month lead time).

Senior IT Program Manager - TVS SCS

(2024-03 - 2025-01)

Global logistics & warehousing organisation, annual revenue of $1.2 billion, operating in over 33 countries, employing over 18,000 staff. (Supply Chain, Logistics, Warehousing, HRM, Call Centre).

Objective: Directing the reduction of costs and risks across IT portfolio, supporting the CIO by successfully creating and implementing IT Governance and PMO. Also, program management of multiple high-visibility complex projects, which reduced business risks and costs by over £400,000.

Resources: Program Values £10M, Led 2 PMs, Matrix BA vendor and Business SME resources, (Power BI, TRACE, SAP, DevOps, Jira, MoorePay, DarwinBox, Crown).

• Delivered enterprise delivery governance and portfolio controls and SLT executive reporting.
• Established portfolio budgetary frameworks, Shaped IT Roadmaps that aligned with business strategies.
• Implemented program prioritisation, streamlined resource allocation, chokepoint identification.
• Directed and mentored junior PM covering WMS Agile development project.
• Led & mentored senior PM to deliver vendor SaaS call centre solution. Solution facilitated operational functionality and customer handling. 40% risk reduction.
• Led & mentored senior PM to deliver vendor SaaS infrastructure replacement program, including program Opex and Capex budgetary governance.
• Recovered failed Time & Attendance SaaS programme through stakeholder re-engagement, governance restructuring and Agile delivery planning, reducing operational risk by 50%
• Successful Delivery of IT transformation Portfolio to technically demerge core and infrastructure technologies of two companies.
• £100,000 and risk by 50% reduction in the first annum through IT Portfolio management.
• Increased IT Portfolio reporting & analysis from adhoc to framework lead, 40% risk reduction.
• Business operating cost reduction by £100,000 over 2 years through leading business divestment and core and infrastructure technologies.
• Controlled Time and Attendance Turnaround program costs by £100,000 and risks by 50%.
• Time & Attendance program business operating cost savings of £150,000, and 50% risk reduction

Senior Delivery Manager - Mobilise Cloud

(2023-04 - 2024-02)

Cloud implementation consultancy that offers SaaS services to private and public organisations with an annual turnover of over £5M, employing over 50 employees. (SaaS, Consultancy, Non-Profit).

Objective: Leadership of multiple customer revenue generating IT programs.

Customer Program

Cost and Risk control. Instigation and implementation internal IT PMO & IT Governance policies.

Resources: Program Values £5 M, 10 Project staff including PMs, BAs, and Developers (Azure, AWS, Monday.com, Jira).

• Successfully delivered PMO & IT Governance frameworks. Standardised Risk and benefit collection and analysis, and requirements collection.
• Directed customer-facing (Police) Agile Azure infrastructure and cybersecurity migration program.
• Directed customer-facing (WMS and Logistics) Agile AWS infrastructure and cybersecurity migration program.
• Pre-Sales consultancy.
• 20% Project internal risk reduction through the instigation of an appropriate PMO.
• £100,000 revenue generation - Customer-facing AWS implementation (Police).
• £500,000 revenue generation - Customer-facing implementation (WMS and Logistics).

Senior IT Program Manager - The Pension Regulator

(2022-09 - 2023-04)

The Pensions Regulator are a UK based non-departmental public body which regulates and protects work-based pension schemes, employing over 1,000 staff. (Pensions).

Objective: Leadership Performance and Reporting discovery project business case creation and identifying potential cost and risks reduction. Also, the replacement of a SaaS payment solution that addressed identified cybersecurity flaws.

Resources: Program Values £5 M. 8 Matrix resources including BAs and Business SME (Power BI, Tableau, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics D365, MS Project).

• Directed Performance and Reporting Power BI solution business case program.
• Shaped alternative solution, which reduced program failure by 100%, influenced board member acceptance.
• Leadership and delivery SAFe project to update vendor-hosted SaaS payment solution. Instigated vendor, and business executive reporting. (Program Value £100,000).
• £1M performance and reporting program cost reduction.
• Averted £40,000 per annum in potential lost fine collection and associated operational costs.

IT Program Director - Full Bore Services Ltd.

(2022-01 - 2022-09)

Importer and B2B E-commerce of private goods, with an annual revenue of $5M. Operating in over 5 countries and employing under 50 staff. (B2B, Retail, Supply Chain, Logistics, Warehousing).

Objective: Directed the repositioning of the Portfolio of business and IT transformation projects, aligning them with business strategies. Reduction of IT & business operational costs and risks.

Resources: Program Value £5 M, 2 Project resources (PMs, BAs, and Vendor management). (SAP, Salesforce, SQL, Microsoft Dynamics D365, Jira, DevOps, Confluence).

• Led Internal, stakeholder management and Capital financiers to develop, agree and instigate refinements to the IT Portfolio of business projects, aligning them to business strategies.
• Refinement of IT PMO and Governance policies and standards.
• Hired and onboarding of 1 permanent IT and business transformational PM.
• Successful preparation and management of IT Operational and Portfolio budgets.
• Benefit and Risk analysis, Mentor PM Risk and Benefit management.
• IT Portfolio roadmap development through project prioritisation, resource allocation & chokepoint identification that support business strategy.
• Directed PM lead Sales Order process, Web portal, Finance, HR (SAP Success Factors), Stock Control and Inventory, Supply Chain, and WMS (SAP, Salesforce) projects.
• Directed program to design and implement refinements to GDPR policies and processes.
• 40% IT Portfolio project overrun risk reduction.
• Implementation of IT portfolio governance.
• Portfolio Cost reduction of £80,000.
• 50% GDPR risk reduction, through governance, processes, and policy updates.

Senior IT Program Manager - Park Holiday Ltd.

(2021-10 - 2021-12)

Park Holidays Ltd, UK-based holiday park operator, with annual revenue of £160M employed over 2,000 staff. (Retail). Objective: Leadership of Microsoft Dynamics D365 upgrade. Reduction of organisational cost and risks. Systems integration with Marketing. Resources: Project Value £500,000. 5 Project staff (PMs, BAs, and Vendor technical resources), (Microsoft Dynamics D365, SQL, SAP, Power BI, Tableau).

• Successful delivery of a discovery program that analysed Back Office, Customer Operations, and Marketing requirements.
• Leadership of risks, and benefits, Agile project planning, resource planning and stakeholder management, through selection vendor onboarding.
• Directed program to design and implement refinements to GDPR policies and processes.
• £50,000 cost reduction Back Office, Customer Operations and Marketing management
• 20% program risk reduction.
• £200,00 expected revenue generation from current and future customers.

IT Program Director - Full Bore Services Ltd.

(2021-01 - 2021-10)

Importer and B2B E-commerce of private goods, with an annual revenue of $5M. Operating in over 5 countries and employing under 50 staff. (B2B, Retail, Supply Chain, Logistics, Warehousing).

Objective: Create and implement an IT Portfolio Office. Designed and directed PM-led IT Portfolio of IT and business change projects, which reduced operational costs and IT portfolio risk.

Resources: Program Value £5 M, 5 Project resources (PMs, BAs, developers, and vendors). (SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics D365, SQL, Jira, DevOps, Confluence).

• Led Internal, stakeholder management and Capital financiers to develop, agree and instigate IT Portfolio of business projects, aligning them to business strategies.
• Refinement of IT PMO and Governance policies. Standardising Benefits, Risks, SLA & KPIs.
• Successful preparation and management of IT Operational and Portfolio budgets.
• Hired and onboarding of permanent IT and business transformational PM and BA.
• Directed and mentored PM to lead Sales Order process, Web portal, Finance, HR (SAP Success Factors), Stock Control, Supply Chain, and WMS, (SAP, Salesforce) projects.
• Successful standardisation of Agile SAFE frameworks and requirements, Risks & Benefits collection, and analysis.
• 50% IT Portfolio risk reduction.
• 50% increase of IT portfolio management capabilities.
• £120,000 cost reduction through PM and BA onboarding.

BSc - Computer Science - De Montfort University, Leicester (1997-10 - 1999-06)

MSc - Master of Science - Birkbeck University, London (2019-12 - 2020-12)