Hi, I'm Tony B. 👋

I am a proud father to two girls, who are both dancers, so I’m a Dancer’s Dad and have been for over 17 years so the car has a fair few miles! I also have a Miniature Schnauzer who has small dog anger issues! I have the most amazing partner, and we love to travel when time allows, whether it be driving the NC 500, or an all-inclusive family holiday.

In short; My passion lies in bridging the gap between technology, business strategy, and customer experience. I love doing what I do, making customers happy and learning every day how technology can enhance business production. Working within relatively small teams has given me the opportunity of personal growth whilst learning a wide range of skills that a small team has required in order to succeed, everything from full-stack development, server infrastructure, and customer suport, to advertising, marketing, and competitor analysis.

Head of Product Development

X:drive Computing Limited - Canterbury, Kent: Sep 2017 – Present

• Owned product strategy and execution for WhosOff and WhosOffice, workforce management platforms used by 150,000+ users across 65+ countries, from startups to global enterprises.
• Partnered directly with company Directors on multi-year platform strategy, aligning roadmap investment with commercial goals and market position.
• Acted as the commercial gatekeeper on sales commitments, challenging delivery timelines before they were promised to customers, protecting the business from repeated over-promising to clients.
• Diversified acquisition channels beyond a single dependency, improving marketing ROI and reducing paid-channel risk.
• Led Cyber Essentials certification adoption, strengthening product trust and directly supporting sales conversations with security-conscious enterprise buyers.
• Owned product-level P&L decisions across advertising spend, licensing, and third-party integrations.
• Ran a boardroom-to-frontline feedback loop, translating recurring support tickets into prioritised roadmap fixes, keeping churn-risk issues visible at leadership level.
• Driving the adoption of emerging AI and search engine optimisation practices – including LLM-aware content strategy, GEO and SEO/SERP best practices, to update public facing web strategy and maximise SaaS discoverability.

Business Application Developer

X:drive Computing Limited - Canterbury, Kent: Jul 2012 – Sep 2017

• Drove the growth strategy behind a 5x increase in combined user base, from 20,000 to over 100,000 users in five years.
• Led the development team's transition to DevOps, improving deployment frequency and cross-team collaboration.
• Designed custom infrastructure monitoring that reduced downtime and built enterprise customer confidence.
• Contributed to product improvements behind Software Satisfaction Award wins in the HR & HCM categories.

Web Developer (SaaS Platform Lead)

X:drive Computing Limited - Canterbury, Kent: Dec 2007 – Jul 2012

• Led the platform's move from free-to-use to subscription, achieving 85% user retention through the migration - a commercially critical transition for the business.
• Built multi-currency international payments integration, enabling global platform expansion.
• Established secure, scalable hosting infrastructure on Microsoft Hyper-V, underpinning subsequent growth.

Web Developer

Wisdom Solutions Limited - Folkestone, Kent: Mar 2001 – Nov 2007

• Progressed from developer to team lead, overseeing a technology migration from classic ASP to .NET.
• Architected and launched a bespoke SaaS platform for a private client, driving rapid user acquisition from zero.

Business / Strategic

Requirements processing • SaaS • Ecommerce • KPIs • Competitor Analysis • Budgeting • Cyber Essentials • Team Management • Vendor Management • Stakeholder Management

Technical & Development

SQL • MS-SQL • jQuery/JS • WebApi • SOAP • JSON • Hyper-V • DevOps • XML • .Net (ASP.Net/VB) • WinForms • CSS • MS Active Directory • DevOps • Visual Studio • LD+JSON • SSO • IIS • Postman • Agile • MFA

Payments & Integrations

SagePay • GlobalPayments • RealEx • Payments • CardSave • PayPal • Barclays • SecPay • Slack • Webhooks • Azure • Okta • auth0 • onelogin

Marketing

Google AdWords • CPC/PPC • OOO Advertising • Print Advertising • Google Analytics • Google Tag Manager • Microsoft Advertising • SEMRush • AdRoll • CASSie • Google Search Console • Instantly

Design

Adobe Fireworks • Photoshop • Premiere Pro • UI/UX

BSc Multimedia, Technology & Design (2:1)

University of Kent, 2001 - 2004

Achievements include National Lottery funded grant, collaborating with Kent County Council and Kent University to develop on project for release as an educational element for schools, based on the 3D Canterbury Blitz project produced as part of coursework.

BTEC Computer Studies

Canterbury College, 1999 - 2001

C, C++, Access, Visual Basic, Pascal, Business Law, Information Systems.
Delco Creative Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement

Developing User Requirements: The Key to project success

Learning Tree Foundation

Defining requirements, listening for value, making sense of discoveries, turning vision into value through structured requirements, delivering value incrementally through user stories, measuring business outcomes, sustaining and expanding value.

Introduction to Cyber Security

Open University, 2020

Designing the User Interface

Open University, 2020

Enterprise Product Management Fundamentals

Coursera / Microsoft, 2026

Introduction to product management, market research and competitive analysis fundamentals, product development life-cycle, product strategy development, product roadmap and requirements.

Fire marshal

St John Ambulance, 2026

National Business Awards

2012 - London

UK Finalists, WhosOff

Smarta 100 Business of the Year

2012 - London

Shortlisted, WhosOff

Software Satisfaction Awards

2012 - London

Winners of HR and HCM category, WhosOff

Alan Noake MBE

Managing Director / Wisdom Solutions Ltd

"Can't praise Tony's abilities enough. It is rare to find a web developer who can also create fresh, neat web design elements as well. Tony worked with me for about six years. Great to see him now a senior web developer"

Sarah Hardes

Retired, formerly lead at Kerala Moments

"Delighted to have found Tony to work with - a true professional with expert knowledge of his field and a thoroughly nice guy. Nothing is ever too much trouble - any problems or queries are instantly sorted out. Every company should have someone like Tony they can turn to."

Projects @ X:drive

• WhosOff.com

  SaaS - Online staff leave planner, launched in 2005, still growing from strength to strength.

• WhosOffice.com

  SaaS - Staff scheduling and shift software platform.

Others include:

Satellite & Aerial Supplies • Miles and Barr • John Aspinall Foundation • Custom SNMP Server Monitoring • OOD Module Generator • Sterlingbuild • Veetee • Green Island Promotions • IBOS Association • Fly Fishing Breaks • Treasury Today Priority Freight • LoveDigitalTV • Frequency Distribution • Sterlingbuild • Charity Christmas Cards / CCA Occasions • Bob the cat Bevan • Bayliss Executive Travel • Several legal firms: Custom case tracker for vendors and suppliers. Customer portals for matter management, document access and tracking. • Parry Sharratt Solicitors - Custom case tracker for vendors • Breeze & Wyles Solicitors • HSA Law • Owen Paulo Solicitors

What industries have I worked in?

I have worked primarily within the SaaS, HR technology and software development sectors, delivering products used by organisations ranging from startups to global enterprises. I have also developed bespoke solutions for legal firms, travel companies, charities, retailers and other commercial organisations.

What product management experience do I have?

I have led product strategy, roadmap planning, stakeholder management, requirements gathering, commercial decision-making and product delivery for workforce management platforms serving more than 150,000 users across over 65 countries.

What technical skills do I have?

Extensive experience with .NET, SQL Server, Web APIs, JSON, XML, JavaScript, CSS, DevOps, Microsoft IIS, Active Directory, SaaS architecture, authentication technologies including SSO and MFA, together with cloud integrations and infrastructure management.

Do I have experience with AI and SEO?

Yes. I actively develop AI-aware content strategies alongside modern SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) practices to improve product discoverability across traditional search engines and large language models.

What products have I worked on?

I have led the development and growth of WhosOff and WhosOffice, two SaaS workforce management platforms, as well as delivering bespoke software solutions for clients across multiple industries.

Has I received any industry awards?

Yes. Products I has helped develop have received recognition including Software Satisfaction Awards in the HR and HCM categories, National Business Awards finalist status and Smarta 100 Business of the Year recognition.

Where am I based?

I am based in both Kent & Essex, United Kingdom, and I have worked throughout my career with businesses across the UK while delivering products used internationally.

What qualifications do I have?

I hold a BSc (Hons) in Multimedia, Technology & Design from the University of Kent and has completed additional training in product management, cyber security, user interface design and requirements engineering.

How can you contact me?

You can contact me via the email address and LinkedIn profile provided on this website.