Welcome to this site

Iain Toolin — Delivery-focused Project Manager with a data architect’s eye. I help untangle ERP and data estates, guiding projects from chaos to clarity. The strategic goals haven’t changed — just the tools we use to reach them. In the noisy, multi-dialect IT world, data is the one language everyone can understand — if it’s structured, labelled, and shared well. Treat it like your 'lingua franca', not an afterthought.

This is a working portfolio and thinking space—built where technology, business, and delivery meet.

We often say we’re living through transformation, but much of it is familiar. The same goals as the Renaissance: to record, organise and apply information. It's just that the quills are now keyboards, scrolls are now schemas, and candlelit ledgers are now cloud platforms. In spirit, this site belongs to the Renaissance—when thinkers made sense of complexity by drawing on a range of skills, not just one. Arguably, that is where we are today; just the enabling technology has improved. See the list of Renaissance Data Wranglers at the bottom of this page. 

🔍 Why This Site Exists

📜 My Hypothesis: Technology today is doing what the Renaissance once did—driving forward knowledge, craft, and connection—only now with smarter tools and a different syntax.

The underlying goals haven’t changed. The tools have evolved, the domains have expanded—but the purpose?

Same as it ever was (you may ask yourself!): Understand, improve, build. That’s why I believe tech skills are transferable.

Once you can break down a problem, shape the data into something useful, and connect human need to technical capability—you’re 80% there. That’s your Pareto edge right there. The tech stack? It’s just the accent, not the language.

🧭 This site isn’t just a list of past roles or achievements—it’s a reflection of how I think, solve problems, and collaborate to drive progress. Whether you’re exploring partnership, seeking delivery expertise, or simply curious how a T-shaped thinker with a Renaissance mindset can help shape your data, projects, or platforms—this is the starting point for that conversation.

🧠 T-Shaped Thinking, Practically Applied

  • 📊 Broad experience in project delivery and data analysis — hands-on leadership in high-stakes environments where outcomes matter and clarity cuts through the noise.
  • 🛠️ Broad experience across cloud platforms, systems thinking, stakeholder engagement, and real-world strategy — which helps connect the dots when others get stuck in the detail.

This mix lets me turn technical work into something that makes business sense — aligning people, platforms, and priorities without the usual drama.

🚀 Where I Can Help

I’m looking for opportunities to:

  • Deliver projects that rest on solid data and appropriate governance
  • Bring shape and focus to digital sprawl
  • Help organisations turn scattered information into something reliable, reusable, and valuable
  • Ensure business needs connect to tech choices to achieve the 'pragmatic ideal solution'

 

Domain Title Enterprise Scope Illustrative Functions
BSS Business Support Systems Customer-facing processes Billing, CRM, order management, subscription handling
OSS Operations Support Systems Network/service operations and assurance Provisioning, fault management, inventory, service quality
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning Internal enterprise operations Finance, HR, procurement, project management, supply chain

🗃️ Why ERP Domain selected to show data skills

Enterprise systems aren’t so distinct anymore; lines between ERP and BSS/OSS have been blurred and breached. What used to be the domain of HR and finance is now expanding—modern ERPs are reaching deep into customer and operational territories once ruled by BSS and OSS. SAP’s doing complex billing with BRIM, Oracle’s plugging customer experience into operational workflows, and Microsoft’s turning IoT into field service gold through Azure. The lines are no longer neat.

But this shift isn’t just commercial ambition—it’s smart design. Across BSS, OSS, and ERP, the same data keeps popping up: asset states, workforce movements, customer details, and time-based triggers. If you’ve got a team that knows how to handle ERP platforms and understands data modelling properly, they’re not just ERP-literate—they’re already walking the walk across the whole stack.

📌 The data skills and related musings showcased are applicable across the whole landscape

 

Data Wranglers from the Renaissance Period (same goals)

🧑‍🎨 Name 🧠 What They Did with Data 🧰 How They Did It 📌 Why It Mattered
Leonardo da Vinci 📏 Measured, sketched, logged anatomy, mechanics, hydrology Used journals full of observational drawings, numbers, and ratios Turned raw observations into visual data – the bloke basically prototyped infographics
Niccolò Machiavelli 📚 Collated political and military histories Recorded and analysed actions of rulers and states Created early “behavioural data” on power, risk, and governance
Andreas Vesalius 🔬 Recorded human anatomy in fine detail Dissected bodies, corrected centuries of guesswork Brought empirical evidence into medicine – anatomy by observation, not assumption
Tycho Brahe 🌌 Logged precise astronomical measurements Built custom instruments, created mega star charts Produced the most accurate data set of the heavens before telescopes existed
Johannes Kepler 🧮 Modelled planetary orbits using Brahe’s data Matched numbers to motion – crunched the maths manually Showed that the planets move in ellipses – the birth of celestial physics
William Shakespeare 🎭 Captured social data through plays Reflected patterns of speech, status, power, and emotion Not a data guy in the strict sense, but encoded cultural patterns into a searchable body of work
Luca Pacioli 📒 Invented double-entry bookkeeping Created structured financial ledgers (debits = credits) Gave us the first real business data model – the accountant’s star schema
Gerolamo Cardano 🎲 Used probability and statistics before they were cool Analysed dice games, risk, and chance in mathematical terms Paved the way for quantifying uncertainty – proto-risk modelling

Testimonials (for this site)

{I borrowed Dr. Emmett Brown's DeLorean DMC-12 and went back to the future to get my testimonials}

Comments (Renaissance style old school 🏫)

It’s like wandering into a monastery and finding a fully annotated whiteboard. Less buzzwords, more brain. If only all integration work felt this holy.
🧙 Brother Interface, Order of the Blessed Middleware
Finally, a site that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve just stepped into a vendor's fever dream. It’s all signal, no sales chant. I took notes. My parrot took notes.
🦜 Dame Agnes of PowerPoint, Chief Wielder of Slide Decks
IainToolin.com is the tavern where seasoned architects swap tales and trade tools. Bring your curiosity, leave your ego at the door.
🍺 Cedric the Contrarian, Freelance Metadata Duelist
Reads like someone who’s actually shipped things. Multiple things. While juggling flaming dependencies and fending off committee dragons.
🐉 Lady Mavis of Gantt, First Sword of Project Timelines
Thoughtful. Witty. Light on jargon, heavy on “oh THAT’s how you do it.” It’s like pairing your ERP with a decent glass of wine.
🍷 Lorenzo de’ Budgetelli, Accountant-At-Arms
If this site were a report, I’d actually read it. Twice. Then forward it to everyone I’ve ever seen misuse a Venn diagram.
📈 Herminia Slidesworth, Senior Officer of Strategic Oversimplification

Carousel of Comments (I found the fancy web widget)

"Master Toolin’s scrolls on data migration are nothing short of miraculous. I had barely tamed my own ledgers when his guidance summoned order from chaos."

— Archivist of Forgotten Interfaces, Grand Guild of Data Scribes

"Iain’s diagrams speak louder than a council of analysts. His Snowflake scroll alone clarified what my entire fellowship failed to decode in three moon cycles."

— Cartographer of Cloud Constructs, Order of Distributed Architects

"There are few who understand the alchemy of ERP systems and fewer still who can explain it with such clarity and wit. A rare breed — half mage, half project lead."

— Chief Interpreter of Legacy Tomes, Academy of Systemic Sorcery

"His writings on data governance should be engraved in brass and hung in every project chamber. It’s not policy — it’s poetry in structure."

— Ethics Mechanist, Tribunal of Data Honour

"‘Are You Data Ready?’ isn’t just a page — it’s a rite of passage. Many a junior integrator I’ve seen weep softly after realising they weren’t. Thank the steam saints it exists."

— Initiate Wrangler, House of Integration Initiates

About me

I am based near Wallingford in the United Kingdom. Dedicated to delivering innovative IT solutions and exceptional service, helping businesses optimize their infrastructure and achieve their strategic goals.