Julia Sheer 
IT Team Manager, Reporting and Support Services
I'm a member of our IT Management team, currently responsible for SAP Reporting and Support Services within our IT department. I've worked for Yorkshire Water for 8 years and finished the graduate scheme in September 2003.
After I left the graduate scheme, my first substantive role was as an IT Project Manager in our Assets Development team. 18 months later I was promoted to Senior IT Professional and in line with my aspirations around people management I became a team leader in our SAP Development team, managing a team of people delivering Work Management solutions to the business. In 2006 I changed roles again, to become the Team Leader of our Business Warehouse Reporting team. During 2007 my role grew to encompass our SAP back office functions, Procurement, Finance, HR and Payroll and I was promoted to Team Manager.
In my current role I'm responsible for part of the IT budget which enables us to deliver IT services and solutions to Yorkshire Water and to other non-regulated companies across the Kelda Group. I lead a team of 13 highly knowledgeable and skilled IT professionals and one of my main responsibilities is to work with them to develop their skills and careers over time. This is an aspect of my role that I find particularly rewarding.
Above all, I enjoy the variety in my role, from working closely with the business to produce services that give maximum benefit, to working with my IT colleagues to continually improve the way we deliver World Class IT at Yorkshire Water. Recently I have been heavily involved in understanding and setting the direction that the IT strategy will take over the next 5 years, something that will be critical to the success of our business going forward.
The graduate scheme gave me a great grounding. The skills I learnt and the networking opportunities that I was afforded were invaluable. YW has a culture of continuous development and by taking ownership of your own career progression with the support of senior managers there are lots of opportunities to take advantage of.
