Bloom: Wendy Nys
Maximum 20% routine. For Wendy Nys, the other 80% may be more challenging. That's how she feels about life and that's also the balance she is looking for in her work. For the past year, Wendy has been Customer Success Manager at Arxus. It is a job in which she can perfectly combine her technical knowledge with her soft skills. It is a logical step in her flourishing career, but it is certainly not a final destination.
Prefer LEGO
As a child, Wendy was more interested in technology and LEGO than in dolls, for example. From the fourth secondary school onwards, she consciously chose IT.
"I never just did what was most obvious", Wendy begins. "I was in the ASO and wanted to study Computer Science, but that was not possible there. I had to switch to a TSO course. In my time, it was called Business Economics Informatics (now Accounting Informatics). Studying IT was still quite new then, especially as a girl, but for me it was the only option."
Did you go straight into tech after graduating?
"Yes and no. I actually started in a commercial position by chance. I found a vacancy at a small tech company where they had only just taken the first steps towards IT. I was one of the first to work with their new ERP system and I liked that. For 15 years, I continued to work as a commercial office assistant in various companies. It was always about very technical products. My last inside sales job was with an IT company and there I was lucky, thanks to my affinity with IT, to be able to work directly with the IT colleagues as a key user. Then I realised how much I enjoyed that and I wanted to 'go back'."
"Thanks to my affinity with IT, I got the chance to work with the IT colleagues. Then I realised how much I enjoyed that."
Returning to IT after 15 years, that doesn't sound like a given.
"I didn't quite have the right experience, but I had set my sights on a tech job. So try and stop me!"
Wendy started at the bottom of the ladder again. "As an IT helpdesk employee, I could use both my technical and my commercial, more social skills. I quickly learned a lot and it was not long before I became team lead of the helpdesk. And when the company decided to outsource the service desk, I helped set it up. That's how I got into it, and because I had the necessary knowledge in the meantime, I was given the task of managing the service desk as operations manager. After a while, we had the operations well on track and then I heard that the role of Infrastructure manager became vacant. For me, it was time for something new, so I took on that role."
Are you serious?! You're telling this like it's nothing, but that was a big step, right?
"Sure! But I really wanted that. Operations management is more service-oriented and I still wanted to go more technical. I learned a lot in that job as Infrastructure manager. I followed training courses and was assisted by the partners with whom we worked. We had a small team and yet we did a lot of projects for which I was the project manager. I grew enormously in that company and I wasn't finished yet, but as a woman it stopped there."
The glass ceiling (and through it)
"Women and technology, the management had its doubts about that."
"I really wanted to grow further," says Wendy. "It didn't necessarily have to be in height, but it could also be in width. But I felt I was working for a management that had its doubts about the combination of women and technology. Is that going to be OK, I saw them thinking. Even after all those years! So I decided to look for an employer who would give me more opportunities.
This is how you came to The Cronos Group ended up there?
"I had already worked with quite a few Cronos companies and there happened to be a vacancy at Uptime Group, for Customer Success Manager at Arxus. I reacted to it rather impulsively, but it clicked immediately. Arxus is a scale-up, a relatively small company in full growth, and I liked that."
Customer Success Manager, what does that mean at Arxus?
"Customer Success Manager is actually a dual job. I am the person who promotes the interests of the customer within Arxus and at the same time I am the person who represents the Arxus vision and Arxus products to the customer. This brings me into contact with many different business processes and many different sectors. We have customers in the construction industry, healthcare companies, production companies, etc. I also have to deal with all the products and solutions that Arxus offers. I translate the customers' questions into Arxus's offer and vice versa, and I bring everything together. A bit like a spider in a web.
"Within Arxus I represent the interests of the customer and at the customer I represent the Arxus vision and the Arxus products."
Do you mainly work with the IT department at customers?
"Usually, but we do try to involve the business, certainly when it comes to strategic choices. Arxus is a cloud provider. We do private cloud, but also Azure. If customers want to switch from private cloud to Azure, we guide them through the process. We really take them along in their 'journey' and show them what is currently on the market that could be of interest to them. In addition, we offer managed services at Arxus. Guaranteeing this service and support to customers and seeing that everything is properly monitored are also part of my job."
80% challenge
What do you like most about your job?
"I think anyway the contact with all the different people and customers. Secondly, the technicality of the products. And finally, the supporting and advisory role that I have. It is very satisfying when customers can make the right decision because of my advice."
Can you name three successes that are of most value to you?
"Number one is definitely the fact that I was able to grow as a helpdesk employee. The fact that, in cooperation with an external company, I set up a well-run service desk in which I then took on a leading role. Secondly comes my switch to Infrastructure. That switch was really quite drastic. I also took Security into account and had an audit carried out within the company on my own initiative. From that audit, I set up a Security Committee with the management, the business and IT, and I started awareness campaigns for the employees. Since then, Security has been on the map there! That's the third success I'm really proud of."
And what challenges have you encountered?
"Unfortunately, as a woman in a man's world, it is always a challenge to be taken seriously. Time and again I have to prove that I am technically up to speed and it often takes a long time to gain trust. It is as if it is less obvious for a company to put its IT infrastructure or IT policy in the hands of a woman. In my current job, too, I find it a challenge to build up a relationship of trust with my customers. They don't just believe what I say. Over the years, I have taken this less personally because I have already experienced it so many times. I know how to handle it and I think: "I'll get there!
"I have to prove time and again that I am technically up to speed, and it often takes a long time to gain confidence. But in the meantime I know: "I will get there!
"The biggest challenge today has nothing to do with my being a woman, but is simply that there is a lot coming at me from all sides. My days are very hectic. But if I don't have that in my job tomorrow, I won't like my job anymore. I need that to keep me interested, to have the feeling that I can still grow. As soon as more than 20% of the work is done routinely, I look for a new challenge. That can be within the same job, but I always try to keep to the 80/20 rule.
Well-considered ambitions and boundless dreams
What would you still like to achieve professionally?
"What I would like to do again is to help set the course of a company. A management position focused on business processes, vision and strategy. It is not necessarily my ambition to be a people manager with dozens of people reporting to me."
And on a personal level?
"I love to travel. The newness appeals to me in particular. Getting to know other cultures, talking to people and trying to understand how they live, that interests me enormously. It must have something to do with my soft skills. My favourite country is without doubt America. When I think about it, I feel homesick. But I hope to make many other beautiful trips with my partner. Costa Rica, Australia, Iceland, Lapland and Mexico are at the top of our list.
To conclude, is there anything you would rather have known earlier? Would you have made different choices?
"If I had known 20 years ago that it would work out so well, I would have taken the step to an IT job much sooner. I also never want to work in a company with a glass ceiling again. I know what I'm worth and I want to be able to develop without limits."
