Hi, I'm Roland

 

Hey its me Roland

I love tech

With 15 years of experience in the tech industry, I have a deep passion for coding, problem-solving, scaling systems, deploying cloud infrastructure, system integration, and corporate enterprise consulting.

About Me

Dedication and hard-work are essential to being a great developer. I am a dedicated and hard-working individual.

For the past six years, I've specialized in developing and integrating Fintech solutions in the payments sector for corporate clients. I thrive in fast-paced, agile environments, and excel at translating requirements into high-performing, user-friendly systems.

From Web 1.0 to Web 3.0, including smart contracts on the blockchain, LLMs, microservice architectures, and monolithic applications, I've truly seen it all.

Whether it's on-prem infrastructure, leading cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, and Azure, or serverless functions and Lambdas, I build cloud-agnostic applications that can be deployed anywhere.

Tools of The Trade

Below is a short list of only my favorite tools and frameworks. I use these tools to build fast and scalable web applications.

Timeline

Dedication and hard-work are essential to being a great developer. I am a dedicated and hard-working individual.

Web Developer

2007 - 2010

Web Developer for ProDG Software Development in Windhoek Namibia. Developing custom content management systems and front end websites for corporates and SME's in Namibia.

Search Marketing Consultant

2010 - 2011

Search Marketing Consultant at OnPage1 (Christchurch New Zealand). Delivering top-end search engine optimization and search marketing services to SME's.

Co-Founder

2011 - 2011

Founded My-Child, an early childhood education platform for parents and family to follow child learning progression.

Software Developer

2012 - 2013

IhmsMedia was founded in September 2013 upon my return from New Zealand. Main business practises are in software development consulting.

Managing Member

2013 - 2016

Managing Member at Intouch Interactive Marketing. Biggest digital agency at the time serving corporate clients with digital marketing systems. Customers include MTC, GIPF, Standard Bank, Bank Windhoek, Nedbank, FNB, eBank, Namdeb, Debeers, Namibia Media Holdings and multiple smaller SME's.

Team Lead

2016 - 2017

FNB Communicator: A SMS based employee feedback system running on all FNB teller machines that send an SMS requesting feedback once the client has been dealt with. The feedback was captured in 3 stage SMS process.

MTC Queueing System: A bespoke queuing solution base on the Intouch Queue Management System (IQMS) that allocates customers in relevant queues per enquiry type chosen. A callup screen with voice integration can run video adverts and info graphics. Full integrated voice recording of the staff/customer conversation and enhanced reporting.

MTC Mobile Feedback Solution: SMS based feedback solution that integrates into the IQMS solution and allows customers to provide customer service ratings after each support session between staff and customer in every mobile home nationwide.

GIPF SMS/EMAIL System: A custom built email and sms communication system allowing transactional and marketing related communication to be sent via SMS and Email. Integrated into the internal member system.

NMH Content Hub: Built the centralized content management hub that powers all the content on all publication websites for Namibia Media Holdings. These include Namibian Sun, Allgemeine Zeitung, Republikein and all sub editions

Software Consultant

2017 - 2018

NBC/Standard Bank Jukebox: A live music video streaming application that showed from 20:00-21:00 o'clock on NBC 1 on Saturdays.

Viewers could send Artist codes via SMS to vote. Social media content was scraped for hashtag #NBCJukeBox and displayed on screen. Mentions on facebook and twitter integrated for real time feeds on live TV.

Live SMS votes depicted the song to play next and display on the leaderboard

Software Consultant

2018 - 2019

NamPost banking Frontend: A taylor-made front-end banking application built ontop of the NamPost Savings Bank core banking platform. The application consists of a front-office teller application and a back office management system.

The application is run on every Post Office nationwide. All existing member migrations and new client enrolments are being performed from the system. KYC checks, card binding, biometric enrollments, transfers, statements, withdrawals, deposits and purchases are handled by the application.

NamPost Sanction Screening:: A screening tool to screen client data against UN sanction and Namibian PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) databases before onboarding. This system synchronises sanction list databases daily and provides reports on matches as legally required by the Financial Intelligence Act.

Software Consultant

2019 - 2021

NamPost Pension Payments: A system to process large number of pension payment files and identify account numbers to identify clients on legacy systems and new. The system creates batch files in formats for new and legacy system and processes hundreds of millions of pension payments monthly.

SMS System: Megabuild, Wanderers and Social Security Commission are currently actively using the core SMS platform to send transactional and marketing related SMS's to customers. Various 2 way sms campaigns are managed by the customers directly.

Uunduno: a Namibian sport system/portal designed to generate tournament schedules and manage sport events. A front end to allow officials to record game events and scores, a player component that allows players to keep track of their career statistics and numerous other health statistics. The NFA and Namibian Rugby Union are both eagerly awaiting the delivery of the final product.

Software Consultant

2021 - 2022

NamPost Post SSN migration System: After full rollout of the new banking system for NamPost it was time to decommission the legacy Stratus System. I developed a system to import and store all legacy banking data from the previous 10 years. The system reconciles all financial and transactional data to present a balance and customer statement. These balances are migrated onto the new system upon enrolment. All current outstanding customers are being migrated by the system. A requirement was also to fully integrate into the SAP ERP.

NamPost Banking Support Portal: To fully service all customers I developed a fully featured help desk and support portal for NamPost. This support portal is fully integrated into the core banking systems and handles ticket creation, customer statements, profiles, event logs, card management and a complex workflow with fine-grained user roles and moderation processes. Email and SMS notifications to ensure customer tickets are dealt with in a timely matter.

Hybrid Customer Portal: Developed a support user portal for NamPost Hybrid/Courier to better service their customers. The system receives specifically formatted customer data files from the internal CRM/ERP systems. These files are parsed and processed to generate customer account statements in a digital format. The workflows allow for generating PDF statement files for customer usage via email and SMS along with a specific format for the internal printing system at Hybrid. The system is multi-tenant and designed to scale well for bigger workloads and adoption for new customers.

Software Consultant

2023

Customer Relationship Management System: In late 2021 I was contracted to develop an internal bespoke CRM for a global pharmaceutical company. requirements where extremely challenging due to the complex operating nature of all the subsidiary companies. Each company from Australia to Africa and Canada had its certain operating procedures and sold its specific products. I developed a fully Microsoft Graph integrated CRM (web as PWA, Android and iOs application) that allows for full time management and calendaring of all the sales personal. Complete on-demand reporting of all activity to Sales managers and supervisors.

NamPost EEFT/ENCR Portal: Developed the front-end portal to facilitate EEFT transactions and allow NamPost to interact in the enhanced payments streams in Namibia.

NamPost Internet Banking: Advisory role for the NamPost internal development team working on the mobile banking application and web based internet banking portals. Role is strongly focused on upskilling and guidance to the team.

Software Consultant

2024 - Present

SMS/Whatsapp/Facebook Messaging Solutions: I have developed SMS-based marketing and communication solutions using the SMPP protocol, directly integrated into MO and MVO infrastructure. For international clients, I have created solutions that integrate with Twilio and Nexmo APIs, as well as built systems that work seamlessly with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp APIs.

Consumer facing AI powered Chatbots: I have developed chatbots that are powered by AI and machine learning to assist with consumer relations and customer service. These chatbots are able to understand natural language and provide responses in real-time.

Some of my work

Some of my UI/UX design work.