Meet… Serge Smit!

In this ‘interview with a colleague’, a colleague tells more about himself and about his experience and personal development at BPM Company. This time meet Serge Smit, since 2014 he has been a Pega Consultant at BPM Company.

What is your educational background? What did you study?

Business IT & Management at the Hogeschool Utrecht

When did you start at BPM Company and what motivated you to work here?

I started at BPM Company in 2014 as a Pega System Architect, after a successful graduation project as a intern at the company. At the time, the organization took me through a lecture that BPM Company gave about Business Process Management and the possibilities of Pega. It immediately gave me a clear picture of what you can do with this development platform, and how it makes a difference for organizations. The culture and expertise (experienced consultants employed) and the focus on my own development were also decisive in my opinion. This gave me a great opportunity to develop myself.

How do you challenge yourself to develop yourself, and how does BPM Company support you in this?

I like to take on other tasks in addition to my development focus area, such as writing user stories and making designs. This is almost always a collaboration with other colleagues. BPM Company has meanwhile built up a lot of knowledge through internal Special Interest Groups, where you can find a lot of information.

What ambitions do you have that you want to fulfill as a Pega Specialist?

I’m still working on it. Ultimately, I want to include the following focus areas in my daily work: Architecture and design; This means that I want to be involved in bigger topics at an early stage or early stage. And make a contribution to the team there. Coaching junior team members – I get energy from transferring experience and helping others.

Which clients of BPM Company do you work for?

Currently at LeasePlan, in the Next Generation Digital Architecture programme. There, I am working on a Business Rule Engine that will be used worldwide for the delivery of LeasePlan services. Other clients I have worked for: MN Services, DICTU, ING and Achmea.

What is the best thing about your job at BPM Company?

I really enjoy presenting the work that has been done to the clients, and also being involved in the business implementation. Those are the people for whom you build the product, they will work with it.

What are the challenges for you as an advisor of the Pega projects?

There are always plenty of challenges, such as having to say “no” sometimes and substantiating it well. Take an upgrade, a customer often has an interest in keeping up with the latest version. Sometimes it can happen that a new version of the platform contains bugs or changes that have an impact on the application. It’s wise to research this early on, but sometimes delaying the upgrade for a few sprints can help.