At the Technology Solution Center in Nanjing (China) Simon is in contact with customers from all over the world.
One of the biggest challenges is the communication around the world. Different customers from different regions with different writing styles have all kinds of requests. Simon has to deal with them to find out what it is they really want.
What I'm doing here is playing a small part of the big system. But every cog in the wheel is important to bring the customer further.
An important aspect for Simon as a developer was the repositioning of the IT department. The Technology Solution Center was formerly called the Shared Service Center. So instead of just providing a small part of service, they are expected to deliver a whole package of solutions. “This approach also makes it interesting for me as a developer to plan and implement projects in the long term”, explained Simon.
“I am particularly proud when I was able to proactively use the different time zones to my advantage. With a customer from the USA there was a communication gap due to many questions and answers. So what I do is to act proactive before the answer arrives. With my experience I try to figure out what the customer wants based on our experience, our technology and skills. So instead of sending them a lot of questions that I have to wait for because of the time difference, I sent them a result to see if this implementation or result is what they expect. In this case it was a direct hit. The customer wrote me that this is exactly what we want. It saved us a whole day.”
Simon also likes the DB Schenker company atmosphere, there's not too much office politics, he said. ”So everyday after I have finished my job correctly or even while implementing my tasks we all like to joke around and have fun with each other. I think just everything is good as long as I finish my job on time and correctly.”
And Simon speaks of another good example: “In Chinese IT companies we usually have the working code ‘nine-nine-six’ (9:00 AM to 9:00 PM, six days a week). So it's actually amazing that at the Technical Solution Center we only have to work until like five, half past five. It is good for my private life: To have time for my family and my young child.”
And as an employee in IT development this is not always easy to combine.