I like helping people grow
I was the second employee in the Belgian office back in the day when I joined Ferrologic. Today we are a group of 25 experts and part of Solita’s community in Central Europe. I’m currently working as an Integration Team Lead, so practically I have two roles; a team lead who deals with Solita related activities and an expert who works with clients.
As a team lead, I contribute to finding new clients and follow up on sales leads. I make sure that my team members are happy and up to date with their skills. I’ve worked with numerous clients, and I’m glad that I’ve managed to build strong expertise in my field. I can share knowledge with my team members and help them grow. I really like helping and guiding people.
In my expert’s role, I work with clients and help them with their integration challenges. It’s about developing solutions that help different technologies to communicate with each other. Our solutions could be described as “technical connectors” – we build tools that enable different systems and processes to talk to each other. Often technological challenges appear when business is growing. Our task is to make sure that clients’ technological solutions can handle their business needs. We put the infrastructure in place and check that things run smoothly.
Cycling brings balance to my work-life
What I like about the team here in Belgium is that we know and trust each other. It’s an energetic group of quite young people; I think the average age is below 30. People are willing to go the extra mile when needed, and we work in a very agile way. The feeling at the office is casual, and sometimes people bring their dogs here. It’s nice to have office dogs visiting every now and then.
We also have an enthusiastic group of cyclers at the office. We go cycling together frequently and also take part in races. We have done Liège–Bastogne–Liège for example, it’s really challenging, and you need to be in a good fit. I think cycling is a nice way to spend time together; you get to go outside, explore, and see beautiful sceneries. Also, we all have a desk job, so it brings balance and is good for the body.
A community of like-minded and passionate people
I’m getting to know Solitans more these days and the big company-wide kick-off in Helsinki this January was an excellent opportunity to meet and talk to people across the company. It was a very nice experience; we were having fun together, and people were curious about their co-workers from other countries.
The kick-off also made the merger more tangible in a positive way. I realized how big Solita is and all the opportunities that follow from being part of a mature company. It’s a big shift in the mindset, but the transition has been smooth with only small changes. If I had any fears about the merger before, they have disappeared. I’ve also had opportunities for myself since the kick-off.
So far, I’ve felt that the culture at Solita is very similar to what we are used to. The co-workers I’ve met are friendly, open and warm – I get a familiar feeling with them. People are passionate about what they do, and they have the courage to try new things and take new projects. Even in the context of over 1000 employees, I feel like I’m part of a caring community of like-minded people. That’s a good place to be.
Jeroen Wanten is an Integration Team Lead who works at Solita’s Belgian Community. The Community joined Solita’s workforce in November 2019 when Solita and Ferrologic formed a North European leader in data-driven digital transformation.