Lisa Grenholm
Servicedesk Specialist , Nordlo in Umeå & Lycksele
“It was an amazing feeling, getting a job before I graduated”
Jenny Brännlund
Development Lead & Quality Manager, Nordlo in Lycksele
Jenny Brännlund
Hi Jenny, tell us a little bit about your role and your journey with Nordlo
It started when I was studying remotely to be a systems analyst via Luleå University of Technology. I contacted Nordlo to do my thesis, and at the same time I also applied for a job in the organisation. The outcome was that I was able to do my thesis on Nordlo’s ISO 27001 certification, and I was given a part-time job as a BI consultant. It was an amazing feeling, getting a job before I graduated.
What’s it like, working as a Development Lead & Quality Manager?
As development lead, I have a responsibility as team leader for our developers. This means I have a great deal of customer dialogues, listening to needs and suggesting solutions that can match up the developer’s competence with the customer’s needs. That’s really great, as there’s a lot of project management in the change projects that I get to be involved in launching. This was exactly what I wanted to work with when I applied to the industry. I get to be involved and have an influence, driving on the customer’s journey of change. The best thing of all is the trust we’re given from our customers.
What did you do before?
Before starting at Nordlo, I worked in the area of service. I’ve always been driven by being able to develop, and am interested in both team dynamics and in personal and technical development. I wanted to take the next step, and felt that the IT industry is the one with the greatest potential and development opportunities.
Can you describe a normal working day for you?
A normal working day sees me having a lot of customer dialogue and talking with my team and our developers, making sure that they have the tools they need to be able to perform their assignments. I’m keen to make sure that everyone think that it’s fun to come to work. The breadth we have as a team is incredible. There’s a tremendous strength in being a team that can support each other, not only with competence and in projects, but also socially and morally.
What’s Nordlo like as a workplace?
I think Nordlo’s a really good workplace and I’m extremely happy here. If you want to take on responsibility, you really get the chance to do so. My personal experience is that I’ve had the opportunity to develop, and that we as a team have been given a lot of responsibility. We celebrate successes, but also support each other when we face challenges. This week I went to our Developer Days, where those of us who work with system development and digital business development met up in a larger team to drive Nordlo’s development forward. It produced some interesting insights. We realised there are a lot of us who can benefit on a broader front from the sharing of expertise, boosting resources and identifying shared work methods.
“Sharing knowledge and being able to help each other to become more efficient and focus on more value-adding tasks is important, and we do this really well”
What are the day-to-day challenges you face at Nordlo?
The challenge is in the complexity of different solutions. We often meet the business’s needs with a solution that can be integrated throughout our customers’ IT environment and business logic. The specification of requirements isn’t always absolutely clear when a project begins, but the need becomes increasingly visible, the more the project starts to take shape. Sometimes there’s also time pressure associated with the deliveries. So planning and prioritisation are all-important in change projects. This is where we all pull together as a team. You mustn’t be afraid to get to grips with whatever arises.
What advice would you give someone who wants to work at Nordlo?
Don’t be afraid to make contact and challenge yourself by stepping in. I think your mindset should be that if others can – so can I. Don’t be afraid to trust yourself and your ability to deal with whatever you take on.
What challenges do you think the industry will face in future?
The major challenge is to grow and to bring the right people into the industry. We need to attract motivated people who want to keep up with developments. In technical terms, we’re moving more towards cloud solutions, which brings both challenges and opportunities. We’re seeing a shift from hardware in a specific data centre to cloud-based solutions. So we need to continue to lead the way and guide our customers towards the right solutions.
What types of problems do you solve for your customers?
Our development team works a lot on data and back-end solutions. We help our customers to identify what they want in their decision support. We make sure that the right data is in the right place, on the right occasion and at the right time. We also work a lot with the automation of processes to free up time for employees, so that they can focus on more value-adding tasks. This often involves highly customised integrations between system and function.
Which are the biggest needs for your customers?
The biggest needs that our customers have are to automate and optimise to become more efficient.