Employee Profile: Manager Professional Services, ZyLAB North America
As Professional Services Manager, I've got my finger on the pulse of all the key operational aspects of keeping ZyLAB's North American operations running smoothly. For example, I'm responsible for overseeing all installations, implementations, training sessions and support activities provided by ZyLAB across North America. I coordinate the engineers for new and existing assignments, making sure that their back-end support technology is operational. In addition to managing implementations of our award-winning ZyLAB solutions, I'm also responsible for the day-to-day operations at our new office in McLean, Virginia, a challenging task seeing that we've doubled in size over the last two years.
Getting an opportunity at ZyLAB
Before joining ZyLAB, I coordinated production at a printing facility for the largest newspaper in The Netherlands. Wanting a new challenge, I got the opportunity to apply my procedural and systems skills to a new role as Support Engineer at ZyLAB. In this role, I was tasked with expanding the Support Department, implementing a more structural approach to administering support calls and improving the quality of handling these calls. After getting over a steep learning curve, I became comfortable with the huge amount of ZyLAB technology and terminology and was able to start understanding how to address the necessary support techniques and procedures. At the same time, ZyLAB supported me as I finished up my Bachelors degree in Technical Business Management. In fact, my thesis was an analysis of which key components within the support process had the most positive effect on improving the quality of work being performed by a support department in a software solutions company.
Realizing your growth potential
After earning my degree, I was offered the position of Support Department Manager, taking on more responsibilites such as developing training materials and conducting training programs for new employees as well as ZyLAB's resellers channel. One of the exciting benefits of teaching these programs to the resellers was the opportunity to meet a lot of different people from every region of the the world. While managing the support department and hosting the international training program, I became very interested in project delivery, as ZyLAB was engaging in larger and more complex projects. The need for a professional services department arose, so after spending five years managing and restructuring the support department, I was again presented with a new opportunity: Project manager for the UK and USA. At first, frequently traveling back and forth from Amsterdam, London and Washington DC was very exciting; however, as the role matured, the management team realized that remote management of professionals services was not the optimal approach. As such, we decided that the best approach was to jump onboard the fast-growing US operation, and move over to the US, which I did about 2 years ago.
Being a part of a dynamic team at a great company
I hope my story helps show people the kinds of opportunities for exciting work and personal and professional development that are available at ZyLAB. I feel extremely fortunate as I look back and think about the chances I was given to take real responsiblity for business-critical functions and to be given the support I needed to ensure they were successful. I don't think I could have come this far, this fast in a more rigid, silo type of organization. I think that people who are looking for great opportunities ata company that encourages them to make a real impact and not just be a number should consider ZyLAB. We are always looking for sharp new team members at our main offices in Washington, DC, Amsterdam, and London. If you're interested, please feel free to contact our HR department at humanresource@zylab.com. I look forward to meeting you soon at one of our upcoming corporate events!