Board
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Andy Bell
Director & Co-founder
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Jason Belcher
Director & Co-founder
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Paul Massey
Non-Executive Director
Andy Bell
Director & Co-founder
Andy started Vanilla, along with Jason in 2009. Despite being something of an ERP ‘geek’ he is passionate about not complicating things and delivering what the client needs. Andy likes to split his time between working with his customers on projects, running the business and supporting the Sales and Marketing functions with new business development and the occasional editorial piece.
News Articles
Bring Your Children to Work Day
Dynamics 365 Business Central Partnership
Jason Belcher
Director & Co-founder
Jason founded Vanilla with Andy in 2009 after working on both the consultancy and industry sides of the fence. His vision for Vanilla was to provide a no-nonsense, cost-effective service to users of IFS Applications and to make sure his customers get the best value from their investment.
His role now is making sure that the company grows but maintains the core principles it was founded on. He is determined that we continue to treat our customers as we did our first – like they are our only one.
News Articles
Capital Orchestra Announcement
Bring Your Children to Work Day
Whitworths Upgrade to Qlik Sense
Dynamics 365 Business Central Partnership
Paul Massey
Non-Executive Director
Paul’s role is to guide Vanilla in creating rapid, but low-risk growth and long-term success. He is a pragmatic leader with a legacy of building thriving organisations on foundations of enjoyment and sustainability and believes that durable success begins with strong, motivated employees. Paul brings a rich experience in people development, believing that strong and enthusiastic talent loyal to the company will always benefit a business through both growth and challenge.
He is also thoroughly seasoned in the ERP and business systems world, having spent the last twenty or more years showing how these tools can quickly optimise the potential and value of hundreds of organisations across a wide spread of different industries.
News Articles
Management Team
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Simon Ball
Head of Operations
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Mike Hollifield
Head of Technology
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Frazer Doe
Head of Sales
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Paul Darwin
Head of Consulting
Simon Ball
Head of Operations
Simon has been working with IFS Applications since 1997, during which time he has established a strong service delivery track-record, with an emphasis on project and programme management.
As part of IFS’s consulting organisation for seventeen years, Simon experienced all aspects of project delivery and IFS implementation work; during the final eight years of that time, Simon was responsible for the consulting and support functions within the UK and Europe West as Consulting Services Director.
Having spent four years previously with Vanilla Solutions as Non-Executive Director, Simon returned to the business as Head of Operations, responsible for the Delivery and Support functions. Simon’s real value for customers comes from his ability to provide leadership to those embarking on business implementation projects, his approach being to establish an appropriate and workable structure, whilst ensuring that plans and objectives are clearly communicated and simply measured, with a strong focus on risk assessment.
News Articles
Mike Hollifield
Head of Technology
Mike is an innovative technical consultant, coming from a dedicated industry background he joined the Vanilla consulting team in 2017. Mike has advanced technical ability and fantastic communication skills, allowing him to express his ideas and opinions in a clear and constructive manner to both technical and non- technical members of the businesses we work with.
In 2018 Mike was promoted to Head of Technology, taking responsibility for the development team in Vanilla as well as leading our R&D activities into new technologies.
Blog Posts
The Vanilla Archiving Approach
The Benefit of Scheduling Your Archiving
What is Data Archiving for IFS Applications™?
News Articles
Oxford Biomedica – Vanilla MTD for IFS Case Study
Frazer Doe
Head of Sales
Blog Posts
News Articles
Paul Darwin
Head of Consulting
Paul is an energetic Supply Chain professional with experience working across different industry sectors including Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Distributed Power and Yellow Goods. He has significant Supply Chain and ERP experience, having worked as a Sales and Operations Planning manager including the responsibility for Supply Chain and Operational elements in a full ERP system implementation.
In 2018, Paul was promoted to Head of Consulting, taking charge of all the consulting staff within Vanilla. He’s able to build relationships at all levels within an organisation and ensure our consulting team is working to the high standards we set.
News Articles
Fujichem Continuous Improvement
Charity Challenge 2018 – Yorkshire 3 Peaks Completed
Consulting
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James Powell
Lead Consultant
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Piotr Swierszcz
Lead Consultant
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Maria Nikolaidou
Senior Consultant
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Janine Procter
Senior Consultant
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Tim Boulton
Senior Consultant
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Tim Hughes
Lead Consultant
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Chris Wharton
Senior Consultant
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Kelvin Robinson
Consultant
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Kelly Breakwell
Consultant
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George Armstrong
Graduate Consultant
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Lewis Moore
Graduate Consultant
James Powell
Lead Consultant
James is a dedicated professional with a wide range of experience in systems implementation and business improvement. He adopts a people focussed approach to business engagement to ensure that solutions and improvements deliver sustainable business change. James’ excellent interpersonal skills come to the fore in customer/user facing delivery tasks. James has over 14 years’ experience, Analysing, Designing, Configuring and Project Managing business systems and process improvement projects.
Piotr Swierszcz
Lead Consultant
Piotr is a dedicated professional with a wide range of experience in systems implementation and business improvement. He adopts a people focussed approach to project engagements to ensure that solutions and improvements deliver sustainable business change. Piotr’s key strength is in developing operational and strategic finance solutions using IFS Applications. Piotr has 24 years’ experience, analysing, designing, configuring and project managing business systems.
Maria Nikolaidou
Senior Consultant
With 13 years of international experience working within the manufacturing industry and 12 years of IFS experience, Maria boasts a varied technical and manufacturing background. An IFS specialist who’s capable of handling complex assignments effectively whilst possessing the confidence to work independently or as part of a team. Maria has worked and lived across the globe and speaks five different languages.
News Articles
Janine Procter
Senior Consultant
Janine joined the Vanilla team in 2013 as a Senior Consultant with over ten years’ experience working with IFS Applications. She has previous experience working in Export Logistics for an industrial and medical equipment supplier.
News Articles
Tim Boulton
Senior Consultant
An enthusiastic consultant with a broad range of functional knowledge and a solid background in managing IFS full implementation and enhancement projects. Tim has 7 years’ experience managing complex ERP projects; overseeing requirement capture, solution design, testing and business change. Confident in analysing the needs of a business and understanding quickly how they operate, Tim can recommend solutions and improvements at all levels of an organisation.
Tim Hughes
Lead Consultant
Tim has 18 years’ experience of requirement capture, solutions design and implementation in a range of businesses. Very confident at leading workshops, analysing processes and recommending improvements. Tim quickly understands different business solutions and is comfortable building relationships across all levels of an organisation.
News Articles
Chris Wharton
Senior Consultant
Chris joined Vanilla in 2017 as a business consultant after spending 10 years in the manufacturing industry as an application analyst. He is enjoying the change in career direction which allows him to interact with clients, understand their issues and play a part in resolving them.
News Articles
Kelvin Robinson
Consultant
Kelvin previously worked in the Automotive Industry for 10 years in a Customer Service and Sales Capacity dealing with global leaders in the OEM Off and On-Road industry.
He has gained a wealth of knowledge of IFS 7.5 and the Sales and Marketing (CRM) module during his career. End-User Training and Functional ERP delivery are one of his key areas, coupled with excellent Customer Service skills allow him to build strong relationships at all levels.
Kelly Breakwell
Consultant
Kelly joined Vanilla in 2019 after spending 5 years in the Scientific Research and Development Industry. She is a passionate and enthusiastic Consultant with experience of Implementations, End-User Training and Functional ERP knowledge in the following sectors; Pharmaceuticals, R&D, Food Industry, Aerospace and Engineering, Plastic Extrusion and Furniture Manufacturing. She is enjoying the change in career as this allows her to be involved in the process mapping, continuous improvement, and interactions with people entwined with business change.
George Armstrong
Graduate Consultant
George is a recent business graduate that is developing his skills in the IFS industry, allowing him to become an effective and established IFS Consultant in the future.
News Articles
Lewis Moore
Graduate Consultant
Lewis is a recent graduate consultant who is currently developing his skills in IFS to be an integral member of the consulting team.
News Articles
Delivery
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David Robb
Project Manager
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Kieran Garry
Project Manager
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Olivia Davies
Project Administrator
David Robb
Project Manager
David’s previous experience was predominantly within the retail industry, where for the past 6 years he worked as a Project Manager on a large business transformation programme. During this time David was accountable for a range of strategic IT and business change projects, with notable projects including the implementation of a new HR system, implementing new cloud based learning and recruitment systems and subsequently rolling these out to 20,000 users and harmonising delivery schedules throughout the retail and supply chain side of the business.
David is looking forward to taking on a customer facing project management role, utilising his varied skill set in order to help Vanilla and its customers to deliver successful and value-added projects.
Kieran Garry
Project Manager
Kieran joined the Vanilla team in 2014 and in 2017 was promoted to Project Manager within the delivery term. His role is to work closely with the customer and internal teams to manage projects through to successful completion.
News Articles
Olivia Davies
Project Administrator
Olivia joined Vanilla in 2018 as a Support Analyst. She also manages some small to medium-sized projects. She has previous experience of being an IFS customer & managing a busy IT department with a support desk so knows what customers expect.
News Articles
Support
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Claire Valentine
Senior Support Analyst
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Gary Warner
Technical Support Analyst
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Karol Pietrzak
Solution Analyst
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Rachel Clifford
Support Analyst
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Rachael Hinckley
Support Analyst
Claire Valentine
Senior Support Analyst
Claire joined Vanilla’s Support Team in 2017 and as a Senior Support Analyst, enjoys solving the more complex issues that are presented to our support. She has previous experience in the Oil & Gas, Food Packaging and Pharmaceutical industries.
Claire also found and set up our Newcastle office.
News Articles
Gary Warner
Technical Support Analyst
Gary joined Vanilla in 2018 as a Developer. Gary has come from an IFS technical background where he supported a global IFS implementation. Gary likes to resolve problem issues and is keen to learn new skills along the way
Karol Pietrzak
Solution Analyst
Karol joins us from AMAG Technology where he was database analyst. Prior to that, Karol was the finance lead for an IFS implementation. He joins our support team as support analyst, with a focus on financials
Rachel Clifford
Support Analyst
Rachel joined the Support Team at Vanilla in 2020, coming from one of our old customers Thompson and Morgan. There she worked with IFS Applications for several years, particularly focusing on Finance and Manufacturing.
News Articles
Rachael Hinckley
Support Analyst
Rachael has been with Vanilla since October 2018 and arrived with 15 years of experience in Supply Chain/Logistics and 6 years of IFS experience. As part of the support team, Rachael thrives on investigating issues and solving customer problems
Technology
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Steve Bagwell
Technical Consultant
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Neil Carter
Senior Developer
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Andrew Nicholls
Developer
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Paul Trownson
Developer
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Chris Elliston
Developer
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Brandon Ellis-Cairns
Developer
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Ian Hannaford
Graduate Developer
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Boluwarin Adedoyin
Graduate Developer
Steve Bagwell
Technical Consultant
Steve joined Vanilla in October 2019 as a Technical Consultant. He has a proven record of delivering practical business value and competitive advantage from business systems in manufacturing environments. His executive level, business leadership experience, coupled with a hands-on approach drives the transformation of business processes, data capture and delivery of business intelligence. He is a strong advocate of Lean Manufacturing principles and has the vision to surface the true value that IFS can offer to help businesses achieve world-class standards.
Neil Carter
Senior Developer
Neil joined Vanilla in 2017. He has a broad IFS application knowledge gained in the Manufacturing and Construction sectors in techno-functional roles. His Project Management background allows him to quickly understand customer requirements and interpret these to deliver user-focused technical solutions. He has strong attention to detail and possesses the ability to learn new skills quickly.
Andrew Nicholls
Developer
Andrew is a dedicated professional with a wide range of experience in the technical side of IFS ranging from Data Migrations to PL/SQL. Working within a team, Andrew has excellent communication skills at all levels, using his initiative. His role includes using third party products, NovaCura Flow allowing customers to have a more productive ERP system. Andrew has over 5 years’ technical experience configuring business systems and process improvements.
News Articles
Paul Trownson
Developer
Paul joined the Vanilla team in 2013 and has a background in computing. He works across many of our clients as part of the delivery team and is heavily involved in SQL reporting and producing training documentation.
News Articles
Chris Elliston
Developer
Chris joined the technology team as a Developer in July 2019, coming from one of our old customers Thompson & Morgan, who have recently chosen to move away from IFS. He has been working with IFS since 2012 and brings a wealth of experience with him.
Brandon Ellis-Cairns
Developer
Brandon joined Vanilla in 2014 as a Trainee Consultant and is now a fully-fledged Developer. He has a strong background in technology and wrote Vanilla’s Making Tax Digital software. Away from the Office Brandon has a keen interest in motorsport, gaming and snowboarding.
In 2019, he won the Hull and Humber Young Person in Tech Award.
Blog Posts
News Articles
Ian Hannaford
Graduate Developer
Ian graduated in 2019 form De Montfort University with a degree in Cyber Security and has joined us as a graduate developer. He looks forward to learning new skills and developing his understanding of IFS Applications.
News Articles
Boluwarin Adedoyin
Graduate Developer
Bolu graduated in 2018 from the University of Abertay, Dundee with a degree in Computing and has joined us as a graduate developer. He has a keen interest in knowing how things work and can usually be found learning about new technology be it software or gadgets
News Articles
Business Development
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Marc Reed
Marketing Specialist
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Callum Hutchinson
Junior Sales Consultant
Marc Reed
Marketing Specialist
Marc joined Vanilla in May 2019 and brings a creative outlook to the company. After excelling in the advertising, film and latterly sports industries he is now taking on the technology industry bringing a unique brand of innovation to the organisation.
Callum Hutchinson
Junior Sales Consultant
Callum is a recent Marketing and Legal Studies graduate that is developing his skills in the IFS industry, allowing him to become an effective and established IFS Sales Consultant in the future.
News Articles
HR & Accounts
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Rachel Belcher
HR
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Sarah Bartram-Royston
Accounts
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Kirstyn Brown
HR & Recruitment Manager
Rachel Belcher
HR
Rachel joined Vanilla in 2012 as Payroll Clerk and is now our HR Manager and Mental Health First Aider.
News Articles
Sarah Bartram-Royston
Accounts
Sarah joined Vanilla in April 2019 as an Accounts Administrator. She previously worked for a Finance company as an IT Service Desk Coordinator for 20 years and is enjoying her change in career.
Kirstyn Brown
HR & Recruitment Manager
Previously worked within the hospitality industry as an Events and Revenue Manager, then took a career change to become HR and office manager for a small housebuilder which then allowed her to complete a qualification in Human resources in 2019 when she became an associate member of the CIPD.
News Articles