Welcome to the resume and portfolio of Ben Townsend. This site is a record of some of my achievements, a history of my work in the field of information technology, and an overview of my education and current research focus, qualifications and expertise.

Who I am

Ben Townsend is an experienced software developer currently working as the Enterprise Architect for BuiltSmart Interactive, a boutique software and hardware development house based in Melbourne, Australia.  In this role, Ben is responsible for the analysis, architecture and design of solutions at both the enterprise and business unit levels, incorporating appropriate technologies and tools to ensure that the delivered products address all of the client’s documented or implied business needs. 

Ben has more than 17 years of commercial experience in software analysis, design and development, solutions and enterprise architecture and project management.  With a firm belief that maintaining a set of hands-on, applied skills is the best way to stay abreast of current developments and trends in the IT industry, Ben has a keen interest in real world applications of information technology, and is passionate about ensuring that his solutions fit client needs and business drivers.  To this end, he maintains a detailed working knowledge of the software development lifecycle, from initial analysis through to final implementation and onward into the production support lifecycle.

Ben began his career with Deakin University in 1994 as a software developer working in Visual Basic and Borland Delphi.  He quickly moved into the rapidly-growing world of web development and was one of the first commercial adopters of ColdFusion in Australia while working at Deakin Australia.  For this work he was featured in Network World magazine back in 1995.  Since then, Ben has progressed through the ranks of the development world, as a senior analyst, project manager, technical manager and team leader, solutions and enterprise architect. 

In addition to his early hands on development work at Deakin, Ben’s experience over the past 16 years has incorporated work with Oztrak, where he undertook the development of client-server and web-based software for data communications and hardware control using mobile devices (SMS, mobile data communications, packet radio transmissions), geospatial information processing (GPS, mapping, vehicle tracking), and telemetry (remote control, remote monitoring, data acquisition, alarm and signal processing). 

Ben has worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global pharmaceutical company, where he was the team leader and senior developer for the Asia Pacific region, responsible for the analysis, design and development of web-based applications to address both the business and statutory medical needs of company operations across the region.  One of the applications created in this role was for the recording and analysis of clinical trials and their results with appropriate region-based data integrity rules, and this included the recording and appropriate storage of a variety of patient records and trial outcomes. 

Ben has also been the web development team leader and a senior technical consultant for Callista Software Services, the developers of the Callista Student Management System which is used by Deakin University, Monash University, University of WA, and many other Australian tertiary institutions, for the management of their entire student data set.  In this role, Ben managed the Callista Connect student web portal product as well as analysing and designing intranet and internet solutions for Barwon Health and South West Institute of TAFE.

It is as a result of this combined expertise that Ben is fully conversant with all facets of website design and development, large scale databases and advanced data communications with high degrees of privacy, security and data integrity requirements.

Ben has a vast array of current, relevant commercial development skills and experience and brings real-world experience in their use and implementation to any role that he undertakes. In addition to development skills, Ben also maintains skills in multimedia production (audio, video, graphics and 3D), server and infrastructure management and maintenance (Windows, Unix and Linux, networking under Cisco, Windows and Linux). He is constantly learning and evolving his skills in line with current developments, and is passionate about the ongoing and lifelong professional development which should be a part of any IT practitioner's practice.

Ben holds a Bachelor of Computing from the University of Ballarat and a Bachelor of Information Technology (1st Class Honours) from Deakin University.  Ben is undertaking PhD studies where he is a candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy (Information Technology). His thesis is entitled "Communications for a bio-monitoring system featuring data security, remote telemetry and carrier agnostic data transmission". 

Academically, Ben is the recipient of the inaugural Novell Scholarship from Ballarat University, awarded by Novell Corporation for his undergraduate studies in data communications.  He is the co-recipient of the Bus Industry Award for Innovation, awarded for work in vehicle tracking and telemetry with Oztrak in 2000.  He has also received both ‘best in course’ and ‘best in unit’ awards for his undergraduate studies, and recognition of academic progress for his work in the Bachelor of IT (Honours). Ben has also been recognised several times professionally for his work ethic and contributions to his teams, receiving the Callista Excellence Award, Bristol-Myers Squibb Extra Mile Award and BMS Global Sarbanes-Oxley Award.