01732 759725 40 PEOPLE Erik Nicolai founded Workspace 365 in 2010 to provide an easier way for people to access all the files, folders and applications they need during their working day. The Workspace 365 digital workspace provides a personalised dashboard through which users can do everything their role requires, from communication and collaboration to project management and email, with the convenience of single sign-on and no need to open separate windows for tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, web browsing or email. At the end of last year the Netherlands-headquartered business opened a UK office in central Manchester to meet demand for browser-based workspaces in businesses with 200-plus users and to help channel partners expand their offerings with white-label hosted or selfhosted workspaces. Here, Erik Nicolai describes his life in IT. from the onboarding process itself, it really is a single push of a button. A great number of users can quickly benefit from a better way of working. Of course, that scalability isn’t easily won. Whilst many vertical scale-ups are built step-by-step, within a software company all the heavy lifting must be done upfront. As an analogy, some people build house by house, but we started by building a skyscraper. TR: And what are the biggest frustrations or challenges? EN: My biggest challenge comes from the balance of ambition and knowledge. Imagine that you’re a doctor. You need ambition but you also need experience. Doctors are frequently expected to discover the real issue that lies behind an initial question. Instead of jumping to conclusions, they need to be experts at joining the dots. In addition, there’s the need to balance personal and professional growth. Change is inevitable and occasionally we’ll need to reinvent ourselves. We need to be able to adopt different viewpoints and understand the challenges our colleagues face. In larger organisations, where responsibilities are more narrowly defined, it’s not so much of a problem, but for organisations that are scaling up it’s very important to get this right. TR: In what areas do you think the IT industry could do better? EN: I think the IT industry has an image problem. Those outside it don’t see how exciting it is or how fast-moving developments are. They don’t realise the potential that IT has to effect positive change or the broad range of opportunities the sector offers. Unfortunately, there is still a gender imbalance in IT and a lack of diversity in the workforce. These issues are serious and in a world where talent is scarce the sector needs to do more to promote itself as a great place to work. TR: What do you hope to achieve in your role? EN: I aim to empower my colleagues and show them that there are no limitations to what they can achieve. Most people want success, but they can be held back by fear of failure, perfectionism or minor setbacks. Others are unwilling to commit 100% and wonder why they don’t reach their goals. It’s not an easy lesson to learn but there are no elevators to success. You simply have to take the stairs and keep walking. When someone dedicates themselves to the process and keeps moving forward, even if progress is slow, they can achieve remarkable results and enjoy the journey. TR: What advice would you give a young person considering a career in IT? EN: I’d ask them whether they were looking for stability and predictability. If they say yes, I would suggest they try another sector. But if they enjoy learning, like the challenge of never quite knowing what’s on the horizon and are adaptable, I’d tell them IT could be a perfect fit. https://workspace365.net Technology Reseller (TR): What was your first job in IT? Erik Nicolai (EN): Like many people, my route into IT wasn’t the most direct. I had been working at the call centre of an insurance company, looking for something that would offer me more opportunities and develop my strengths, when I secured a position within the marketing team of a software company. The business was called X-Solutions and the focus of my role there changed quite quickly. I was marketing the product rather than the company itself, and that prompted the realisation that in most software companies the emphasis is on marketing the company and not its solutions. That distinction might seem subtle, but it’s the solutions that make the difference. From 2007, I worked in product marketing for various software companies before channelling my energies into Workspace 365. TR: Did you get into IT by accident or design? EN: It was by accident, although I was looking for a new position. Reading the local newspaper, a print edition – this was in 2005 – I saw a role advertised and applied. It wasn’t the software industry that appealed initially, but once I was in the job, I realised I loved it. There is magic in software. TR: What excites you most about working in IT today? EN: For me, it’s hyper-scalability. We can onboard a large new customer and, apart My life in IT Eric Nicolai
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