Hello, I'm Dan Collacott.
A customer-centric IT Strategist, Senior Executive and Enterprise Architect with 20+ years’ experience leading £MM infrastructure, service transformation and digital change programmes that positively improve business capability. I engage with C-suite stakeholders to gather and translate requirements into commercially viable and realistic technology-enabled vision, strategy and roadmap. Over the past two decades, I have led cross-functional onshore and offshore teams, and managed services partners and suppliers. I have architected datacentres, digital workplace, cloud, network, unified comms and application solutions across nuclear, government, applied intelligence, security and financial services. An influential communicator, I have exceptional people and stakeholder management skills. I operate across all levels to build credibility and trust, which allows me to bring the organisation along on the journey to transform the technology landscape, create pathways to success and deliver mutually beneficial outcomes. I have turned around challenging strategic programmes by bridging the business and IT gap, understanding the bigger picture, assessing complexity, quickly identifying risks and solutions, and restructuring teams, cultures and processes to deliver scalable and resilient technology platforms. Having gained a reputation as a dependable and reliable individual, I forge a professional, yet fun, working environment and possess a collaborative, consultative approach, nurturing honest and sustainable relationships with senior leadership, end-users, services partners and third-party suppliers. I am always interested in advising on enterprise architecture, digital technology transformation, business continuity planning, remote working and cloud platform solutions. So why not start a conversation and find out how I could use my extensive skill set to empower your IT teams and modernise your infrastructure!
Details
- Location
- Years of Relevant Experience10-15 years
- Seniority LevelMid-Senior level
Current / Most Recent Job Title
Enterprise Architect Strategist CTO
Current / Most Recent Employment
SSE plc. Initially contracted to provide an Enterprise view of Group IT’s project portfolio (in-flight, planned, and future), factoring in COVID-19 impacts and return-to-office considerations. Demonstrated consistent value and contributed to multiple projects and EA team outputs. Produced IT Strategy papers and roadmaps for executive and leadership teams, outlining current state, target state, and transitional state options. Aided with project portfolio planning to enable a strategic, cost-effective "right first-time" approach with minimal regret spend. Acted as primary Enterprise Architect for infrastructure and networking, guiding transformation from legacy systems (e.g., ISTN/PSTN, MPLS) to modern solutions using commodity services (e.g., 4G/5G, LEO/Starlink, wired exchanges). Provided governance across various projects, such as cloud-first transformation, server hosting (on-prem/cloud), PKI as-a-Service, the move to cloud-managed laptops, Zero Trust, SASE/SSE ZTNA, Direct Internet Access, firewall upgrades, and post-COVID return-to-office initiatives. Supported the executive directive to shift services from data centers to cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) within aggressive delivery targets, managing obsolescence, risk, and related challenges.