In the “On the CaptureCouch” section, we introduce our colleagues. Often new colleagues take a seat on the bench, but we are also sometimes curious to hear the story of our more experienced colleagues. Today, Martijn Marechal talks about how he has kept it up for many years at CaptureTech and what makes his job so enjoyable.
Martijn has been with CaptureTech for more than 12.5 years. He started at IT Innovators all those years ago and joined when the companies merged. He has done nothing but work in IT since college, which is now 25 years:
“When I had to make a choice of what I wanted to do after high school, the course in Technical Computer Science at the MTS around here was just new. I was in the first year they offered that course. I then went into office automation, you could also choose industrial automation in the course. After my training I rolled into IT, not entirely surprisingly.”
Martijn started at a company dealing with software for telephone exchanges and was later allowed to demonstrate his knowledge there in a secondment position at other companies. “That’s how I came across the floor at an organization where I met Maurice (Pronk), who eventually asked me to join him. And now, after 12.5 years, I still enjoy doing that. After all, the great thing about IT is that it never stands still. It’s constantly changing, so even if you keep somewhat the same job, you have to keep challenging yourself to keep up, so you can never really get into a rut. At least, if you want to do it right.”
Not that Martijn doesn’t have ambitions. Definitely not! Where he started 12.5 years ago as a second-line employee on the service desk, he now actually has three different jobs: “I have been an IT Consultant for some years now. This means that I advise customers on which IT solutions best fit their issues and problems. That is very broad, because IT is very broad. I used to also do some management and help desk support, but other than some consulting, that’s not really necessary anymore.”
That gives room for other things: “The role of Project Manager is relatively new within CaptureTech and I like the fact that I get to pioneer in it. This is paying off: projects now run in an increasingly structured manner and I notice that both customers and colleagues really like that.”
Finally, Martijn picks up another new feature, as CaptureTech has been offering telephony services for some time. And let Martijn already have experience with that, which makes him the right man for the role of Presales consultant telephony. “I’m also really energized right now by the combination of those roles. I enjoy combining them and making the best of everything. Before, as a consultant, you also had a role in a project and it gave a good feeling when you could successfully complete a project, but now as a project manager, I work more collaboratively. With colleagues and with customers, that does add an extra dimension to my work.
For example, I speak to end users now, and they are sometimes a bit reluctant to change. Then when they are ultimately happy with what we have delivered, it is great to see and hear. I also work more internally with the technical colleagues and they want to do it so badly, which in turn motivates me to get the best out of myself and this job every day.”
In any case, Martijn will be around for the foreseeable future: “I hope, and I think I will, that the role of Project Manager will become more important, which means that I will be doing fewer consultancy projects. In order to do and supervise everything as well as possible, I myself will have to keep up to date on how everything works, which is a nice challenge. One I’m happy to take on!”
Martijn also looks back with us on the past few years. For example, he sees only positive points to the merger of IT Innovators with CaptureTech: “I was working there for about 10 years when this played out, and that’s one of those times when you can wonder if you’re still in place. I was hearing that, but we were a relatively small company and that meant that opportunities for advancement were also limited. Now that we have become one CaptureTech, we have also become bigger and more opportunities have opened up. You can see this, for example, in the role of Project Manager, which is an opportunity for me to develop in other areas.
But you can also divide tasks differently. A good example is the Service Desk: the way we now work – with customer teams – is working out very well for both colleagues and customers. I also notice this myself: of course they can always ask me for advice, but I have to step in much less for difficult cases, which was more often the case before. The learning ability of the teams has become much greater, and with that we are very much striking an additional professionalization blow.”
According to Martijn, this does not mean that they are losing their strength as a local player that is approachable and friendly to customers: “The atmosphere with colleagues among themselves has remained the same. It’s just really good. Customers can also still rely on our approachable way of providing services, we are still approachable and close to the customer, only just a bit more structured and with even more knowledge and expertise. What more could you want as a customer?”
That IT is constantly changing is a common thread within this conversation. Not surprising when you’ve been around for 25 years and have experienced basically everything about change. “Previously, every organization worked with servers, on-premises. By now you hardly see one standing anywhere, or at least the server park has been stripped down considerably. Therefore, the most important change we are actually in the midst of now is that of working online. Like it or not, every organization will have to deal with it to a greater or lesser extent anyway. What suits you, we like to think about that.”
Another hot topic, of course, is IT security: “With that working online also comes new dangers. Cybercriminals are also becoming more inventive, so sitting still on security really can’t be done anymore. I hear the same thing from clients: security is a component in practically every project. Every customer asks for it. But how to do that is often the question.
Because it has become such an important part of IT, and because it affects everyone and is constantly evolving, we at CaptureTech have a complete, dedicated security team with experts who deal with it on a daily basis. So plenty of challenges, but I think we at CaptureTech are well committed to supporting our customers in the right way,” concludes Martijn.
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