The day of Jelle Dijkstra, Business Analyst and Application Specialist

9-3-2020

Department: Group IT - Application Management

A peek behind the scenes during an average working day of one of our IT colleagues...

08:00 a.m.

Another fantastic day ahead with various different topics and activities. I take a moment to go through the planning for today and the next few days. I have organised two training sessions for next week and I need to touch base with the external trainers to coordinate a few things. A colleague from the IT Service Desk will be providing the IT resources required for these sessions. Then I just need to pop over to see the reception ladies to make the final arrangements for the room to be used and the number of participants. Of course this is one of those processes which could easily be automated and digitised, but fortunately personal contact, both with customers and colleagues, is still very much a priority at ForFarmers.

I subsequently check my emails and our ticket system for any things which require my immediate attention. I instantly deal with any urgent matters, or ones I can immediately get done. Any others I will plan in, or allocate them within the team.

10:00 a.m.

I discuss the possibilities of linking the SAP system to a new application platform with my colleague. This new platform will allow us to offer future functionalities, in the form of Apps or web applications, to our end users faster, over existing systems. A thorough preparation is crucial here; if we define the right building blocks for the platform now, we will constantly be able to make use of these again in the future.

11:00 a.m.

I plan in some follow-up appointments with the feedback from my last meeting and make arrangements with the supplier. A training course about the platform in question has also been organised for next week and I coordinate the final details with the trainer on the phone.
I check my emails and process a number of outstanding actions of a current project: the digitisation of an approval workflow.

12:30 p.m.

Lunch! It’s Thursday, which means meatball day. Off to the canteen for the culinary highlight of the week.

01:00 p.m.

No time for a walk in my lunch break today; I need to attend a meeting about the ‘Plant Maintenance’ project. The external partner we’re working on this project with wants to check any final issues with the IT project members before the official kick-off, planned for next week. We discuss any outstanding issues. Our conclusion as the IT team: we’re ready for it. The solution will be realised on a new platform with a multitude of possibilities - always fun for an IT person - and more importantly: with the possibilities and flexibility which our internal customer has asked for. We agree I’ll be in charge of this platform on behalf of ForFarmers and I will also be responsible for monitoring its ‘architecture’.

02:00 p.m.

I can move straight onto my next meeting, this time about ForFarmers’ Data Lake. A great development and innovation for our organisation. I check the various different proposals together with a colleague and we decide which one is the most realistic. Once we’ve analysed the chosen proposal and received a telephone explanation from ForFarmers’ subject matter expert, it appears we still need to work on some finishing touches before we can enter into discussions with potential suppliers.

04:15 p.m.

The meeting is done, I check my emails one more time, call back a colleague and supplier and finish off my day.

04:45 p.m.

I’m on my way home, I have a quick bite to eat and then head off to the football pitch, where the SC Markelo JO12 boys and girls are expecting another fun football training session.