In this recurring feature, we introduce our new employees to you in a conversation on the CaptureCouch. Just back from vacation in Norway, sitting there today is our brand new and very experienced IT administrator Richard Nouwen.
Blog
Richard on the CaptureCouch
8 September, 2022
Maarten de Bakker
Marketing Manager
Marketing Manager
As part of our customer support team, Richard helps customers with day-to-day ICT issues, but now also picks up projects and support for our logistics solutions. “I like the fact that I can now take on ICT challenges in the full breadth again. For example, with staging and configuring tablets or other mobile devices that we deliver to customers in warehouses, such as the Datalogic Memor 10 or mobile computers from Zebra and Honeywell.” He finds it an interesting addition to his other work that Richard will also be visiting customers on location more often.
New challenge
Those new activities, Richard was really looking forward to. “I am still grateful to all my previous employers, but as an old hand in the business I was used to always taking on everything; from customer support and management to projects. Unfortunately, I was increasingly pigeonholed in terms of activities and I found that difficult. I could only take on limited types of responsibilities and could no longer do everything I liked. Especially the customer contact became less, while that is what I enjoy most. So it was time to look beyond that.”
Richard came into conversation with Maurice Pronk through his old colleague Egwin Dutour. “Soon we got talking about CaptureTech’s wide pallet of types of customers and the how the teams that provide IT services for the logistics customers and the customers who purchase office IT services are becoming more and more integrated. I saw an opportunity there for me, despite my already long experience as an IT person, to develop myself further and to be able to do new challenging things.” That has worked out very well Richard explains. “For example, I can now deal with the Android operating system and configurations for handheld scanners. Very interesting. I should have taken this step much earlier.”
The colleagues
Richard talks enthusiastically about his new colleagues: “There are good consultations and my input is always taken seriously. It’s nice to notice that people listen to each other, even if you want to or can contribute outside your direct responsibilities. For example, certain challenges that colleagues face and for which I have already thought of solutions. Super therefore. I have also been able to find my way well within the organization because of this.”
Richard's vacation vehicle
Building customer relationships
Richard gets the most energy from assisting clients from A to Z. “The appreciation you get from clients is hugely important to me. That clients feel well served and that they always know how to find me with their challenges because they know I can help quickly and well. The relationship you build then becomes almost friendly.”
The diversity in the type of clients, both in terms of type of industry and size of organizations, really appeals to Richard at CaptureTech. “The mix of clients ensures that the types of IT issues are also diverse. This allows me to support clients with all kinds of activities. From day-to-day IT issues to server configurations, installations and migrations. Of course, I have not yet been able to speak to all the customers my team is responsible for, but I am very much looking forward to starting to support them as well.”
Building customer relationships is most important to Richard in this regard, and he does not discriminate by type of customer or size of organization. “I equally enjoy working for clients who have 2 or 3 workstations or 200 to 300. It’s all about making the client happy and having good contact.”
Turned hobby into profession
Trained as an administrative assistant, Richard is not a typical IT person. At one of his employers long ago, he got the chance to swap the numerical work for in-house ICT support and develop himself further in ICT. “So I learned everything in practice and was able to get the necessary Microsoft certifications while working. Thanks in part to Egwin, who was my manager for a time, I always had room for further development and was able to turn my hobby into my profession. Among other things, I have been on secondment for 7 years.”
The future
Richard sees his future at CaptureTech as bright. With more installations and migrations and the combination of management and possibly consulting. “The open culture here helps ensure that we all support each other well and can step in for each other. Because of that multi-deployability, things don’t depend on a small group of people. That also makes it better and better for customers. They are helped faster and employees don’t experience more work pressure.”
Customer contact always remains very important in this regard, according to Richard. “By moving from on-premise to Cloud, you basically get less work at the customer site. But you have to continue to support customers on the same workstation. So you move the service, but you need much less server support as a customer, while it also makes IT security increasingly important. So it’s good that we are very strong in that as well.”
“I like it at CaptureTech and the colleagues are very sociable. Super that I work here,” Richard concludes.
