Learn all about life at Codat from Implementations Lead Rob.
Why did you get into a career in Implementation?
I’ve experienced a lot of different roles in tech in my career; product, support, and solutions, to name a few, most recently working in pre-sales in the corporate treasury space. While I enjoyed sales, as it offered the chance to work with various clients and use cases, I was tired of spending lots of time working on deals, building relationships and bespoke solutions, and then walking away once the client signed.
I was looking for a role that retained that close relationship with the customer while also offering the satisfaction of working with them from the inception of an idea to the realization and launch when they go live, and implementation seemed a perfect fit!
Why did you decide to join Codat?
I’d worked for my previous company for a long time, witnessing it grow from an organization of 50 to over 10,000 employees. I was keen to move to a fast-paced start-up with a similar ethos to my early career experience, where the work you are doing is genuinely valued, and you can see the impact of a good idea or new process.
I was also drawn to Codat’s aim to make life easier for small and medium sized-businesses as while they may not be our direct clients; it’s great to know that the products and applications we are supporting our clients to bring to market are going to make a real difference to so many people.
Fortunately, a very good friend of mine already worked at Codat, and speaking to him gave me a great insight into the culture and values. I also got to meet and talk to a real mix of people when he invited me along to the pub!
What have been the biggest challenges for you while you have been at Codat?
Moving to Codat was a huge change for me in terms of industry, technology, and company size, so the most significant challenge has been adjusting to all these things simultaneously!
That said, the support I have received from everyone has made the transition a lot easier than I expected. From the onboarding process to the support I have received from my manager and the wider team, it feels like everyone is moving in the same direction.
What have you learned during your time at Codat so far?
I don’t have a SaaS or API background so I’ve learned a lot about that since joining. The onboarding program and follow-up training pieces are really well thought out at Codat, which has been really helpful for me to skill up quickly.
What are you most proud of in your career?
In my first management role, I was promoted to lead a global support team struggling to cope. I implemented new processes, applied a data-driven approach to ticket reporting, and bought in new hires, which resulted in significant improvements in our KPIs and a substantial uptick in team morale.
What do you love most about your job?
The variety! Every day is different, and it’s a real mix of strategic objectives around building processes, working with different parts of the business to improve how our clients implement Codat, and more focused implementation work with clients on running projects, providing support, and answering technical questions. I love the mix of collaborative projects, client-facing work, and individual learning/troubleshooting.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their career in Implementations?
Remember to be the voice of the customer, especially when advocating for them internally. It’s important to ensure you represent their position honestly and fairly so others can understand what is driving urgency from their point of view. It’s really important to build relationships internally across the business. In implementation, you work closely with many different teams such as product, delivery, and engineering, so having close relationships will help deliver value to customers in the projects you work on.
What excites you about the next year?
As the first implementation hire at Codat, I’m super excited about growing the team globally and formalizing more of what we are doing to help our clients implement Codat quicker. We’re also currently working on some significant implementation projects for our Sync for Commerce product which are due to go live this year and have the potential to drive Codat’s usage numbers to another level, so I’m looking forward to seeing those clients launch in the market.
Best book you’ve read recently?
I pretty much exclusively read non-fiction books and recently finished Into the Grey Zone by Dr. Adrian Owen. It’s an absolutely fascinating read that explores the work of a neuroscientist who has pioneered techniques to interact with the brains of people who are unable to communicate due to an accident or illness.
Chinese or Indian takeaway?
That’s a tricky one in my household, as I’m a big fan of Chinese, but my wife prefers Indian. We typically compromise and go for Thai, which means she can have a curry while I enjoy a stir fry!
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