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Cristian is one of our Power Platform Solutions Architects – we chat to him about what a Solutions Architect does and what he likes to do in his spare time – plus a few other things in between.
I am a Solutions Architect, and my role is to convert our clients’ requirements into a design that becomes the blueprint of the system, whilst providing direction throughout the development process.
To best explain what I’m doing to a child, I would say that they should think about colouring books, and that my role is to decide where the black lines are and the developers are the ones doing the colouring.
One piece of advice that comes to mind is, work smart not hard, which doesn’t seem to apply if you are paving a driveway but sounds very good.
I was born and raised in a small village, in the heart of the Romanian countryside, where technology and computers were scarce at the time. When I got my first computer in 2003 it opened a whole new world of possibilities and ever since, I have been drawn to technology.
Mate Rimac, for the huge advancements he’s brought to the electric supercar market.
Most days there are three main activities that I focus on, usually starting with working on designs and research for new or ongoing projects. When I’m not doing that I’m either providing support and direction to my colleagues in the development team or getting involved on client-facing calls or meetings to gather requirements, better understand their needs and current architecture of business intelligence and software products.
On a professional level my goal is to deploy as many new Power Platform solutions as possible and help Bespoke become market leader in this field, and on a personal level, I plan to move house.
My favourite sport is skiing, yet the UK is not the best place to be when it comes to that and as the father of a small child the prospect of having 5 minutes of doing nothing is enough to raise my excitement to very high levels.
There are probably other 9 to 5 jobs that are interesting enough to have a go at, but I would like to be a rally driver on one of the winter stages.
For me, success is going on a journey and it being exactly as I expected. A smooth journey and any additional surprises such as aircon, or table service, are a bonus. That’s why it’s so important to fully understand a client’s needs, expectations and future aspirations at the very start of a project – so we can be certain of a successful project delivery.
It would have to be a sandwich, it works for any time of the day.
I speak two languages fluently, Romanian and English. I can also speak a bit of Spanish, or at least I think I can.
I like the challenges that come with designing, developing and deploying great solutions, but the best bit is successfully completing a project.
Patient, Knowledgeable, Supportive
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I’m a business analyst here at Bespoke. My role involves working with clients to design a solution that will meet their unique business requirements. I need to document these requirements clearly so that the developers can build a tool that accurately meets their needs.
I’m also responsible for ensuring that the final product is a match to what the documentation outlines.
I’ve only been in this industry since I’ve been with Bespoke, so about 18 months. I graduated university with a degree in economics in 2018. After graduating I took a year out and went travelling around Australia and SE Asia.
In terms of my professional background, I’ve worked in quite a few different fields over the years including hospitality, construction, and farm work so I’ve managed to have quite a broad range of experiences which I think has helped me a lot with getting to grips with this industry.
I was interested in working in data as the industry is constantly evolving as new technologies emerge which makes it quite exciting and fast paced. On a personal level, I think it is an industry where I can learn loads of new skills and really grow.
I would say my favourite part is delivering the final solution to clients. It’s very satisfying seeing the final product after weeks or months of planning and development.
My favourite project (I suppose projects is more accurate) would have to be Heaton’s. A major project commenced with them about a week or two after I joined Bespoke, and has continued throughout my time here. We have gone from building them a simple estimating tool to completely redesigning their business processes, from acquisitions through to sales. In the coming months we’re looking at moving more of these functions onto the Power Platform.
My toughest challenge would have to be adjusting to the impact of Covid. I had only been with Bespoke for about four months before we went into the first lockdown, so I had only just started to understand the processes and structure of working in an office before that was completely thrown on its head and I was working remotely.
My days are pretty varied. They usually involve some combination of working alongside the developers, meeting clients to discuss potential or ongoing projects, writing documentation and testing the final tools before they are released.
I think in 10 years the industry will look very different to how it is now. More or less, everything will be cloud based and run by smaller, external teams. There will be a much greater emphasis on analytics across all companies as data insights will become more accessible to everyone.
Hopefully, all manual and repeated processes will have been automated making businesses much more efficient and freeing up workers for more creative tasks.
A virtual assistant or something that could automate the testing process would be great. It can be quite time consuming to test a large tool. Something that could load data, check the functionality against the documentation, and correct any issues would be a lifesaver though I’m not sure what I would do with all the free time.
It’s quite generic but I’d love to be able to play a musical instrument. I had drum lessons growing up but quit when I realised becoming a rock star wasn’t likely (after 5 years I still couldn’t keep a beat). I’m not too fussed what instrument I would be able to play, even something like a tambourine would be fine with me.
If I could travel anywhere, it would be Antarctica. When I was younger I had a slight infatuation with penguins. It’s been a dream of mine to see them in the wild ever since.
To read more Bespoke Team interviews, click here.
