Reference for Jim O’Hara

OCC New Media is a new media communications agency producing internet, intranet and CD-ROM solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Our bespoke programs help our clients to communicate and market their products using the advantages of the electronic format.

Jim O’Hara has recently completed two projects for me

- updating an existing CD-ROM based health economics model

- creating an on-line database to enable clients in different countries to update their hotel and flight booking requirements for large meetings OCC run. In this project, Jim

o worked with me on the overall business requirements for the project, also working with end-users to understand their requirements

o wrote the functional specifications for the project

o estimated the timescale for the project

o managed his time on the project according to the estimate

o developed and tested the application

In both cases, Jim has excelled and way exceeded my expectations. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I have worked with approximately 50 multimedia/internet software programmers over the past 15 years and I would rate Jim to be in the Top 3!

His strengths are as follows

· big picture thinker – looks at the overall business needs and searches for the best long-term solution

· gets to final release in a remarkably short and stressless period – Jim is able to work through the functional specifications and methodically create the application with minimal intervention

· produces extraordinarily bug-free code – in general, I have noticed that the application Jim releases for my viewing and for my clients’ viewing are remarkably bug-free, given their development stage

· understands the technology – Jim has a very good understanding of the latest Microsoft thinking regarding .Net and its associated technologies and is skilled in maximising their benefits

· very flexible and “can-do” attitude – Jim is remarkably flexible to any particular requirements of the project or the company

· good communicator – Jim has no problem explaining what his needs or issues are and bringing them to resolution

· good listener – Jim always listened to my thoughts and comments and we were able to have a sensible discussion about the best way forward