Mark Hickson: About Me

My name is , and I am a Lync Technology Solutions Professional with Microsoft Canada based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I have broad capabilities and experience in executing on all components of a Unified Communications solution include Design, Architecture, Implementation, Sales, Marketing, and Support.

I focus on helping organizations realize the value of increased efficiencies and reduced barriers to collaboration that a Unified Communications solution can bring.

I am an enthusiastic and upbeat individual who inspires his team to innovation and excellence. My strong interpersonal skills ensure a high degree of communication, morale, and synergy on my projects. I am adept at handling conflicting priorities within fast-paced development environments and my keen insights into issues that may arise during design, development and implementation stages allow me to anticipate and reduce risks on every project.

My skills in peer mentoring help me transmit project data and techniques to others on the project team, and I inspire client confidence through detailed reporting and analysis. I am able to rapidly understand my client’s business to foresee problems, and I adapt well to any environment.

I am also a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and Solution Architect with more than 10 years of broad Application Design and Development experience, with particular expertise in the .NET environment. In addition, my many successes include being a project lead for a 2-time Lotusphere "Best in Showcase" award-winning CRM application.

Please see my Successes page for a sampling of some of my work, and my Recommendations page to hear what some of my colleagues have said about working with me.

Skills and Experience
▪ Microsoft Unified Communications Sales Specialist
▪ Microsoft Unified Communications Solution Design, Architecture, and Implementation
▪ Custom Application Development Solution Design and Architecture
▪ Practice Development and Leadership
▪ Product Development
▪ Requirements and Business Process Analysis
▪ Peer Mentoring
▪ Industry Presentations

Infrastructure

▪ Microsoft Lync Server 2010
▪ Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2
▪ Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and 2010
▪ Windows Server 2003 and 2008
▪ Windows DNS and PKI
▪ VoIP and SIP

Development
▪ Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
▪ Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist
▪ IBM Certified Application Developer (Lotus Notes and Domino 6)

Hardware/Software
▪ Lync 2010
▪ Office Communicator 2007 and 2007 R2
▪ Office Live Meeting
▪ Office Communicator Phone Edition
▪ C#.NET, Visual Basic .NET
▪ ADO.NET 1.1/2.0
▪ .NET Framework 1.1/2.0
▪ ASP.NET 1.1/2.0
▪ MS SQL Server 2000/2005, Transact-SQL and Stored Procedures
▪ MS Visual Studio 6/.NET/2005
▪ XML, XSLT , XSL:FO
▪ HTML, DHTML, JavaScript
▪ Visual Basic 6
▪ Windows Services
▪ Macromedia Flash MX
▪ Crystal Reports