We are pleased to introduce you to Ifzal Hussain. Ifzal is a Senior Project Manager based in the United Kingdom and is responsible for covering projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Beyond his technical expertise, Ifzal has a passion for community service – both locally and globally. We are pleased to have Ifzal as a part of our team. Read on for his unique perspective on work, technology and giving back.
Can you tell us a bit about your career path and how it brought you to Source 1 Solutions?
Having worked professionally for over 20 years in IT, I have acquired a proven track record of success in delivering results in managed services & roll out projects. All of these roles have been client facing project delivery roles and have allowed me to develop a vast repertoire of skills and a huge amount of experience over the past two decades. I have earned my stripes from working in various IT roles such as:
- CAD Technician
- Desktop Engineer
- Infrastructure Associate
- Implementation Manager
- Regional Delivery Manager
- IT Project Manager
How do you stay connected with your global team?
Working on global projects has its challenges, however it gives you a chance to respond to queries thoughtfully, instead of just responding in real time. Working asynchronously gives S1 global coverage as I manage regions that are outside the USA time zone and respond to end clients and engineers quickly.
Applications such as Microsoft Teams, and Skype allow me to respond to quick queries in real time, the main advantage is the logon status, knowing when members of a Global team are logged online. These tools offer me the opportunity for fast and effective responses.
The PMO team have regular conference calls 3 times a week, with the majority of our conference calls held during a time where we can all comfortably join.
What three apps are “must haves” for your mobile?
Growing up surrounded by social media, I guess it will have to be:
- Google Maps/Waze
What are some of the challenges you/your team have faced and how have you overcome them?
Managing multiple global projects with my PMO team. We have delivered and earned a reputation in successfully delivering large projects, managing client’s expectations, vendors, and engineers, and being very much involved with regular communication to ensure successful delivery. Between the PMO team we have shared out the regions and we also are constantly reviewing workload and offering to support each other when we feel we need support.
Tell us more about your passion projects.
Outside my normal work, I am involved with anything that involves youth work, engagement with community, working with local councillors, working with the local police community support officer (PCSO), building bridges with the community and local police, and attending local community events, ward meetings etc.
After seeing the gap where parents are a little disconnected with the youth and children, and being a parent myself, I felt I could add some value in working on projects on weekends. This gives me an opportunity to include my children in any youth work I do in the hope that they will become the role models of tomorrow. I have organised community litter picks, weekly community bicycle rides to promote cycling and teach people how to cycle and various other community projects.
I’ve also had the pleasure of working alongside some amazing teams to distribute critical food supplies and water pumps in and around Pakistan. In Mardan, a town and district in Peshawar division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan that was decimated in 2012 by severe flooding and is still in need of major support. Due to the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown we had to manage this distribution like others in a safe manner and we managed to do this with the coordination of our team and the support of locals.
We have been working in Mardan for the past 6 years and have annually provided for the needy and destitute in the region. Our Ramadan packages have been distributed to 200 families. The families we support are individually selected and an assessment of their needs is made prior to any aid being given. We are supported by some well-established families in the area who we have now become very close with and without their support none of our work would be possible. A huge thank you to our Mardan team for their continued support.
Since 2014 we have completed water hand pumps for 554 families. We have an order of 121 more water hand pumps but due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions in place this will perhaps take us until the end of the year to complete. We are not taking any more do donations until we complete the back log.
