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Integration Hero Vivian Tang

vivian tang Enable U

Enable U consists of individual heroes. Some work with customers, others send invoices. Some are our first contact when we get a call and others work in the background to keep systems running or make new connections.

But the Enable U machine works so efficiently because of our many integration heroes. This series of integration heroes is intended to honour those individuals.

Vivian Tang is energetic, helpful and a real sociable person. She does not find the typical label ‘IT nerd’ applicable to herself. Yet she has a huge amount of technical knowledge and is familiar with almost every technology within our product portfolio. Many customers and colleagues rely on Vivian.

Vivian, what is your background and how did you get started in IT?

“My previous education is communication management. After this I worked as a tax consultant and in the financial department of a large company. IT always seemed fun to me, but besides a lost subject of information management at school, I had no experience with it. Online I came across a traineeship and I decided – fairly impulsively – to register. It turned out well for me and soon I was able to start as a junior Integration Consultant at Enable U.

At Enable U I went through an induction process and became acquainted with different solutions and technologies. When I was given the choice to continue learning as a support employee or to be deployed as a consultant, I knew that the diversity of problem solving, in combination with working in a permanent team of colleagues, would suit me best. To date, I have no regrets about my role as a support employee, and we are now almost two and a half years later!”

And what are your activities now?

“My position and the team I work in have both changed. First I was a Support Engineer in the Managed Services team, now I am an Agile Ops Engineer and I fall under Solutions Development. In the role of Support Engineer I had a lot of contact with customers. You get to know people quite well because you have very regular contact. In addition, I always had a lot of contact with my colleagues to solve tickets and to come up with long-term solutions together.

With the current team, we spend at least one day a week at the office. I alwaysmake sure that I sit next to a colleague whom I can learn a lot from.

I’m still spending a large part of my day solving tickets and customer contact. I like this and it suits me well. I also still do management work, such as performing updates on environments, although I will also make more and more time available for Solutions Development and the associated training and certifications. This way I can develop myself well and continue to grow.”

Can you name an example of a project you are currently working on?

“We are now working on an internal release management process. How do we deal with it when a new version of a product is released? Who should be aware of this, where is everything documented and what is the fixed procedure in the communication to customers? I find these types of processes interesting to dive into because they are in multiple parts of the organization.

Enabler Vivian Tang with collegues in Amsterdam

Why are you so good at what you do?

“I don’t have a ‘typical’ BETA brain, not all my thoughts are in zeros and ones 😉 and  for a long time I thought that I would not be able to hold an IT position. But IT is about much more than coding or solving complex problems ‘from scratch’ without a frame of reference.
I can find solutions to a problem well because I am curious and listen carefully. I think that’s the foundation for every good IT professional. Many women possess these qualities and I therefore dare to say that women are very technical and that the amount of women working in IT must increase.”

What do you still want to learn?

“Through Enable U I can do multiple courses and get certifications. Together with my Teamlead I am looking at the most relevant ones. I am now working on an ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) certification. This is also important for our ISO certification. Then I will start a linux management course so that I can operate in even more departments. At Enable U I have the space to develop and to grow further in any direction I want. And I have the nicest colleagues! I’m looking forward to seeing what the future brings me here.”