Mark Pallett
Prestons
Summary
Dynamic IT professional with a proven track record in leadership roles, adept at managing application development and infrastructure delivery teams across Australia and New Zealand. Expertise in developing standards, reviewing strategies, and implementing performance-enhancing programs that drive operational excellence. Recent contracting experience focuses on enhancing service management processes, conducting root cause analysis, and ensuring the reliability of IT systems using tools such as BMC Remedy, HP SM9, and ServiceNow. Recognized for fostering collaborative environments and building strong relationships with diverse stakeholders in fast-paced settings, contributing to a culture of engagement and empowerment.
Overview
27
27
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
SIAM Governance and Reporting Manager
AC3
06.2025 - 12.2025
- I was engaged on a short-term basis to set-up the Governance and Reporting for the newly formed SIAM Practice. The practice was being stood-up to support taking over the SIAM functions for an NSW State Government agency. This involved the creation of process documents for Incident, Major Incident, Problem and Changes capabilities. Development of the governance reporting, risk management and all associated forums.
- Extensive stakeholder engagement across AC3 and the Government agency to ensure that their needs are addressed by the proposed SIAM processes and take on their feedback for continuous improvements
- Developed new processes and procedures that aligned the future mode of operation utilising ITIL Framework.
- Leading the transition to the new operating model
- Identified service improvements that could be applied to raise the maturity of the processes
- Defined the structure of the CMDB by defining the Business and Technical services structure the Configuration Items align to.
- Implemented new weekly and monthly reporting detailing the key functions and achievements of the team.
- Designed and implemented dashboards covering Incident, Change and Problem used to show the current status
- Reviewed the Service Catalogue identifying opportunities to replace some with a self-service model to lower the load on the Service Desk.
- Led development of comprehensive reporting frameworks to enhance data visibility and decision-making.
- Streamlined report generation processes, reducing turnaround time for stakeholder insights.
- Implemented automated reporting tools to improve accuracy and reduce manual errors in data entry.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to align reporting strategies with organizational goals.
- Developed training materials for staff on new reporting systems and methodologies, fostering skill enhancement.
- Analyzed key performance indicators, identifying trends that informed strategic business initiatives.
DSCB Change and Configuration Management Team Lead
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
07.2021 - 03.2025
- My role is to assist Defence Strategic Communications Branch (DSCB) in refining their Change and Configuration Management processes and procedures and to improve the CMMI maturity level of both services. The team had no formal documentation or work instruction and were rated by external auditors as low maturity. My focus was to review what documentation was available and create a set of Standard Operating Procedures and Work Instructions for both services, in consultation with the team, and align these to the ITIL Framework. Ensure that Change and Configuration Management is delivered in a consistency way for the Branch.
- I have driven the introduction of Discovery tools to be deployed into the Protected and Secret networks to identify and build out the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). This is supplementary to the use of audits and information from the change records as some parts of the network, discovery tools cannot be deployed.
- In the last two years I have been tasked to represent Australia on the Change Approval Board of the 5 Eyes Coalition (FEYE’s). This is the group made up of USA, Canada, UK, NZ and Australia that have interconnecting networks for sharing information over a secret network.
- Over the last year I have been involved in the USA International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and how this affects the US sourced equipment used within DSCB. These regulations, as they apply to DSCB, cover the tracking of US sourced equipment used in our networks where these regulations apply.
- Extensive stakeholder engagement across DSCB with military, civilian and third party vendors to ensure that their needs are met by the Change and Configuration processes and take on their feedback for continuous improvements
- Developed new processes and procedures that aligned the future mode of operation utilising ITIL Framework.
- Leading the transition to the new operating model
- Improved the day-to-day handling of Change Records
- Introduced more Standard Change models to streamline and speed up the change management end to end process.
- Built out the CMDB by uploading data gathered via audits, change records and discovery data as sources of configuration data.
- Defined the structure of the CMDB by defining the Business and Technical services structure the Configuration Items align to.
- Introduced Discovery tools into the DSCB infrastructure to complete the CMDB
- Drove the process and procedural improvement that resulted in Capability Maturity Assessment now being assessed at Level four – Mature from a starting point of Level Two.
- Implemented new weekly and monthly reporting detailing the key functions and achievements of the team.
- Designed and implemented dashboards used to show the current status of all Change Records by phases
- Designed and implemented daily reporting of changes to the CMDB to ensure these all aligned to an approved change. Used to identify equipment being introduced or removed without a formal change.
- Undertook various team development activities designed to transition the team from being individuals doing their own thing, to a cohesive team following a common set of processes and procedures.
- Attend the FEYE’s monthly CAB and track all requests for changes affecting Australian management systems
- Part of the working group to transition FEYE’s changes to a central system based in the USA using ServiceNow as the ITSM platform.
- Developed training programs to mentor junior staff, fostering professional growth and knowledge sharing.
- Streamlined processes by implementing best practices, resulting in improved workflow and resource allocation.
- Facilitated regular team meetings to encourage collaboration, address challenges, and align on objectives.
- Promoted a positive work environment by fostering teamwork, open communication, and employee recognition initiatives.
Business Services Consultant (Contract)
AUSTRALIAN CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE COMMISSION
03.2021 - 05.2021
- Engaged on a short-term contract to define the business services required to support a major new system for a government agency.
- Defined the business services required to support the new system and had these approved by the Leadership team
- Defined the support arrangements for the new system and build the knowledge articles for the Service Desk
- Facilitated stakeholder engagement sessions to gather insights and align objectives.
- Streamlined reporting procedures, resulting in improved accuracy and timeliness of deliverables.
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS
05.2016 - 12.2020
- My role is to assist DHA in refining their Problem Management processes and procedures after this function was brought in house from Unisys. The focus was to review current processes and procedures and transition this to a best practice operation aligned to ITIL Framework. The contract was extended to assist in the transition from Department of Immigration and Border Protection to the wider, multi-agency of Home Affairs. I was further extended to assist with the transition from HP SM9 to ServiceNow.
- Defined how Problem Management services are delivered to the organisation.
- Ensured all third-party vendors, IBM, Unisys, Optus, used the Departments Service Management tools
- Developed new processes and procedures that aligned the future mode of operation utilising ITIL Framework.
- Established using the Known Error Database to support the 1st level staff with documented workarounds
- Leading the transition to the new operating model
- Drove improvements in Problem Ticket management leading to a decrease of over 100 outstanding problem tickets
- Drove the process and procedural improvement that resulted in Capability Maturity Assessment now being assessed at Level four – Mature from a starting point of Level One – Initial.
- Work closely with the Capacity Management teams where the underlying root cause of Incidents are related to capacity constraints and collectively, development and propose, solutions, such as increasing capacity, archiving, etc.
- Implemented new weekly and monthly reporting detailing the key functions and achievements of the team.
- Designed and implemented dashboards used to show the current status of all Problem Management tickets by priority and age.
- Implemented trending analysis to identify and remediate high volume, low priority incidents
- Held workshops with the team and the major Service Provider Groups to get alignment to the new operating model and get endorsement
- Undertook various team development activities designed to transition the team from being individuals doing their own thing, to a cohesive team following a common set of processes and procedures.
- Drove the adoption of Kepner Tregoe root cause analysis within the Incident and Problem Management teams
- Developed the Problem Management requirements and led the acceptance testing when we transitioned from HP SM9 to ServiceNow
- Developed comprehensive reports outlining program effectiveness and areas for improvement.
- Mentored junior consultants, fostering professional growth and knowledge sharing within the team.
- Enhanced communication among team members to foster collaborative and supportive work environment.
- Identified areas of improvement for clients'' operations, implementing targeted solutions to increase productivity.
- Improved organizational efficiency, overhauling outdated operational procedures with innovative, tech-driven solutions.
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
07.2015 - 05.2016
- My role is to assist DHS in the creation of Service Catalogue for all ITC services they provide to internal Business Units and other external government agencies.
- Extended for a further 12 months to drive the completion of the catalogue for the 320+ services identified. Align the services to SLA’s and create the service catalogue in HP Service Manager. The purpose was to have all CI aligned to services and each service aligned to its SLA.
- Defined how DHS deliver the ITIL processes for the organisation and to external govt. agencies.
- Developed Service Definitions for 320+ services and aligned them to what were actually being provided.
- Reviewed the SLA’s being offered per service and aligned these to an SLA the infrastructure could support
- Having the updated Service Definitions endorsed by the ICT leadership as the new service offering
- Loaded the defined service into HP Service Manager, linked this to the appropriate SLA and service calendar so SLA reporting could be produced from with the tool.
- Arranged a workshop to train the Service Level management team in how the SLA are loaded, activated and can be reported on in the Service Management tools.
- Build the relationships between the Services and the underpinning infrastructure and related services.
- Developed the Service Offerings used in the contract negotiations with National Disabilities Insurance Agencies to host their workload on DHS infrastructure.
- Facilitated stakeholder engagement sessions to gather insights for strategic planning initiatives.
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
NATIONAL BROADBAND COMPANY (NBNCo)
03.2013 - 09.2013
- Engaged under a short-term contract to set-up and develop the processes and procedures for NBNCo’s IT Service Management organisation. Primary focus was on the creation of the Incident and Problem Management capabilities based on BMC Remedy and the identification of the foundation data that needed to be captured. Used my wide-ranging skills in operational management; helped NBN create their ITSM team and lay the foundation for operational processes and procedures going forward. This included all reporting, SLA’s and KPI’s
- Conducted workshops with all internal and third-party vendors to gather business requirements
- Developed the process maps for Incident, Problem and Change processes
- Developed the incident and problem management processes for use in NBNCo
- Assisted in the interviewing and subsequent selection of the permanent leads for each capability
- Designed and developed the operational reporting for incidents and problems
- Conducted root cause analysis for high severity incidents and developed the resulting action plans
- Used Analytics to undertake trend analysis of all high severity incidents for the last 12 months
- Reviewed the ITSM technology plan to improve alignment with NBNCo strategic plan
- Implemented SLA measurement strategy to measure outsourcers contractual deliverables
- Developed KPI reporting for the ITSM capabilities of incident, problem, change, service level and service catalogue capabilities
Consultant Incident Monitoring Systems (Contract)
IBM AUSTRALIA SYDNEY
05.2010 - 12.2012
- Engaged under a six-month contract to re-organise and introduce new processes and procedures into the Incident Monitoring team supporting the Westpac account. Subsequently retained; and tasked with leading the project team deploying new monitoring tools for the Westpac account. The project team included the current BAU team; with local and overseas members. The new Westpac outsourcing contract introduced a new range of toolsets into monitoring area and more rigorous SLA. My role was to help the team adapt and reorganise to meet these challenges and modify the current processes and procedures to align with the ITIL Framework and ISO quality initiatives.
- Acted as the client interface between IBM and Westpac for all Incident monitoring activities
- Worked directly with clients on aligning their Incident Monitoring strategy to support their Corporate objectives
- Rostered staff on a 24x7 on-call support for the Incident monitoring infrastructure. Acted as the escalation point for the team in all incidents, conducted post incident reviews and implemented corrective actions
- Managed the delivery of a new monitoring solution for Westpac using SCOM, Omnibus and Tivoli
- Introduced new processes and procedures based on the new Westpac outsourcing contract
- Developed the Business Continuity Plan for the team and for Westpac’s Incident Management capability and successful tested this in the six-monthly tests
- Championed the move to BMC Remedy for incident, problem and change handling
- Managed a project to move workload to the off-shore team in India freeing local staff for Client Funded project work and lowering Operational Costs
- Re-structured the local teams into a client focussed team based on technology streams
- Introduced new SLA tracking processes and quality improvement initiatives
- Introduced new toolsets for workload management and tracking
- Worked closely with account team and client on service improvement initiatives
- Managed the security and audit compliance of the team
- Facilitated workshops to gather requirements and align project goals with client expectations.
- Developed strategic frameworks that supported clients in achieving their long-term objectives.
- Drove implementation of best practices across projects, ensuring adherence to industry standards.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to define project scope and deliverables effectively.
Technical Service Delivery Manager Unix and Storage Aus/NZ
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES (FORMALLY EDS)
04.1999 - 03.2010
- Technical Service Delivery Manager Asia Pacific Midrange, Mainframe and Storage Capability (2008 – March 2010)
- This team was responsible for all Unix and Storage 2nd and 3rd 24x7 level support along with providing resources for all add-on business and sales bids within Australia and New Zealand. The team also acts as the technical experts for all sales bids in the region. Introduced global standards, shared vision and leveraged resource pools. Underpinning all the processes was alignment with ITIL Framework and ISO quality standards.
- At the same time, I was the Asia Pacific and Japan Regional Manager for the Midrange, Mainframe and Storage capability developing the regional market offerings in these disciplines. The role of this team was to take the global service offerings and working with regional sales leads, develop the cost and support models relevant to the Asia Pacific region and to determine which offerings are to be sold in region.
- Addressed client issues for all Unix and Storage related matter between HP ES and our clients in Aus/NZ
- Managed a team for over 30 FTE based in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Auckland
- Managed all high severity incidents and post incident reviews and corrective actions
- Supported over 1000 Unix servers located in our multiple regional Data Centres
- Supported all the Storage solutions based in our multiple Data Centres
- Worked directly with clients on aligning IT strategy to their Corporate objectives
- Managed the team working on various bids and re-bids providing technical expertise and leadership in the solution design and costing in Asia Pacific region ensuring alignment with global offerings
- Managed the transition and transformation of new Clients into HP ES
- Introduced global standards, processes and procedures into the teams
- Drove server virtualisation to improve the ROI and better utilisation of Data Centre capabilities
- Championed the use of template solutions to deliver consistent solution, faster and at a lower cost to the client
- Seconded to USA to help design and develop the cloud offerings for HP utilising Azure and AWS
- Managed the Profit and Loss for the teams as well as the $10 million CAPEX and OPEX budgets
- Managed the workload pipeline and resource allocation for Incident, Problems investigations, Changes and new work requests
- Developed the cost models and service offerings for the delivery of midrange, mainframe and storage solutions for the various countries in the Asia Pacific region
- Member of the global offerings design and development steering committee working on all new service offerings
- Led service delivery teams to ensure alignment with client expectations and operational goals.
- Developed and implemented process improvements to enhance service efficiency and quality standards.
- Managed cross-functional collaboration between technical teams and clients for seamless project execution.
- Oversaw incident management processes, ensuring timely resolution of client issues and concerns.
- Analyzed performance metrics to identify trends and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
- Coordinated resource allocation and scheduling to optimize team productivity and project timelines.
- Facilitated regular communication with stakeholders to report on service delivery status and progress.
Education
Diploma - Business (Information Systems)
Auckland University
Auckland, New Zealand11-1989
Dip. - Business Admin
Victoria University
Wellington, New Zealand10-1994
Skills
- Report design
- Advanced Excel
- GAAP
- Process mapping
- Dashboard creation
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Customer service
- Problem-solving
- Multitasking
- Reliability
- Excellent communication
- Effective communication
Certification
- Kepner Tregoe Problem Investigation and Root Cause Analysis
- ITIL Foundation V4 Canberra, Australia
- ITIL Master Certification V2 Sydney, Australia
- ISO 9001:2000 and CMMI Fundamental of Internal Auditing Sydney, Australia
- EDS Technical Excellence Programme Plano, Texas, USA
- Certified Software Manager (Software Licencing) Sydney, Australia
- PCI Data Security Standard Sydney, Australia
- Client Delivery Development Programme Sydney, Australia
- PMBOK Certification Sydney, Australia
- Management Essentials
- Project Management Auckland University Graduate Programme
Career Snapshot
- DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS ITSM Consultant in IT Service Management 2016 (May 2016 – Onwards)
- DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICE ITSM Consultant in IT Service Management 2015-2016 (May 2015 – May 2016)
- OVERSEAS TRAVEL AND HOUSE RENOVATIONS 2013-2014
- NATIONAL BROADBAND COMPANY (NBNCO) NBN Co Limited (the company or NBN Co) was established on 9 April, 2009 to design, build and operate the National Broadband Network. NBN Co is a wholly-owned Commonwealth company a Government Business Enterprise and is represented by Shareholder Ministers; the Minister for Communications and the Minister of Finance. ITIL Consultant for IT Service Management Start-up (Short Term Contract) 2013 (Mar 2013 – Sep 2013)
- IBM AUSTRALIA The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk, New York, USA. IBM Manufactures and markets computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure hosting and consulting services in the areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology Consultant Incident Monitoring Systems 2010–2013 (Aug 2010 – Jan 2013)
- HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES (formally EDS) Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing EDS began going to market as HP Enterprise Services a name change which came one year after HP announced the acquisition of EDS for $13.9 billion. It was ranked as one of the largest services companies on the Fortune 500 list with around 2,000 clients. 1999–2010
- EDS/HP ES AUSTRALIA Technical Service Delivery Manager Unix and Storage Aus/NZ Technical Service Delivery Manager Asia Pacific Midrange, Mainframe and Storage Capability Transition Manager for the TabCorp Account Technical Service Delivery Manager Off-Shore Capability India Technical Service Delivery Manager Wintel NSW Technical Service Delivery Manager Internet and Web Hosting Aus/NZ Technical Service Delivery Manager Data Centre Rationalisation Technical Service Delivery Manager Internet and Web Hosting Australia Project Manager CBA SWAT Programme (seconded from NZ) (2000) 2001-2010
- EDS NEW ZEALAND Infrastructure Project Manager (Contract) 1999–2001
Timeline
SIAM Governance and Reporting Manager
AC3
06.2025 - 12.2025
DSCB Change and Configuration Management Team Lead
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE
07.2021 - 03.2025
Business Services Consultant (Contract)
AUSTRALIAN CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE COMMISSION
03.2021 - 05.2021
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS
05.2016 - 12.2020
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
07.2015 - 05.2016
ITIL Consultant (Contract)
NATIONAL BROADBAND COMPANY (NBNCo)
03.2013 - 09.2013
Consultant Incident Monitoring Systems (Contract)
IBM AUSTRALIA SYDNEY
05.2010 - 12.2012
Technical Service Delivery Manager Unix and Storage Aus/NZ
HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES (FORMALLY EDS)
04.1999 - 03.2010
Diploma - Business (Information Systems)
Auckland University
Dip. - Business Admin
Victoria University