Partner in the spotlight: Ordina
It's already the last month of the year. For this month, we had a chat with Jens Helderweirdt of Ordina.
Can you introduce yourself and what's your role at Ordina?
I’m Jens Helderweirdt, father of a sweet little daughter Nimke and partner of a lovely girlfriend Lokke.
I started my career at Ordina about 8 years ago as a ‘Full stack .NET software engineer’ at the NCore unit of Ordina, a mouthful to say. My focus was laying on developing application with Microsoft technology. After a couple of projects within Ordina as well as for different clients, I had the chance to take up the role as a technical team lead in an High Performance Team at the Federal Police.
At that time I was already involved in a lot of community events within Ordina and more precise our NCore unit. The unit was growing quickly and they were looking for someone to take on the role of Practice Lead for our Young Professionals. I was eager to be able to coach and mentor the younger part of our squad, so of course I said yes.
At this moment I’m spending 4/5th of my time at clients in a team lead role. Besides that I’m working as a Practice Lead for the starters within the NCore unit. It’s not always easy to combine these, especially in terms of time management, but I get a lot of energy from the interesting conversations I’m having.
Partner in the Spotlight: Odisee Co-Hogeschool Brussels
Since we are hosting our VisugXL conference at Odisee, we sat down with Kevin, program manager of the Bachelor in Applied Informatics and the Associate degrees Programming, System & Network Management at Odisee for our next interview.
Can you introduce yourself and what's your role at Odisee?
My name is Kevin and I’m the program manager of the Bachelor in Applied Informatics and the Associate degrees Programming, System & Network Management at the Odisee University college.
Brussels is my basecamp and my day-to-day mission is to connect lecturers, students and the workfield by professional education. I’m a fast multitasker and do my very best to make the energy I have contagious. Most of the time I’m a problem solver and team manager.
Next to designing curriculums, I use my degree to teach the 3rd year students how to become a real professional and help them in making the first steps towards an interesting workplace.
Partner in the spotlight: Xpirit
For our first chat after the summer with one of our partner, we had the pleasure to meet Annemie Vandenberghe of Xpirit.
Can you introduce yourself and what's your role at Xpirit?
I started working @Xpirit Belgium this year, the 1st of April (no joke) and I did so for several good reasons.
1st of all, as the growth of Xpirit BE was accelerating, they felt the need to onboard their 1st non-billable FTE to support this growth. For me this was an interesting opportunity, because the role I can fulfil is a combination of what I most like to do: service our external clients (business development - account management) and service our internal clients (Human Resources Coordination).
I didn't hesitate because I go way back with the founders of Xpirit BE, Pieter Gheysens and Gill Cleeren. When I started my career at Compuware in 2000 (HR role), I got to know Pieter who started his career as a .NET consultant. I gradually became involved in the Microsoft community (getting to know Gill) and got carried away by their enthousiasm, resulting actually in the foundation of the Visug in 2005. The rest is history;p
Secondly, what hits me the most in my first 6 months at Xpirit, is the fact that they feel strongly about their people 1st strategy. Those are not just words. It's not only about making profit, it's about us, growing our expertise together, building Xpirit whilst embracing our values.
Partner in the spotlight: Microsoft
For our last partner interview before the summer, we had a chat with Nick Trogh of Microsoft.
Hi Nick, can you introduce yourself and what's your role at Microsoft?
I’m Nick Trogh and I’m a developer audience product marketing manager at Microsoft. In this role I’m responsible to help professional developers get skilled on the Microsoft Azure platform. I do this by organizing developer workshops, creating online coding activities, speaking at conferences and meetups, and working with our developer communities to reach all developers wherever they are.
Partner in the spotlight: Codit
Another month, so another talk with one of our partners. This month, we had a virtual coffee with Massimo Crippa of Codit.
Hi Massimo, can you introduce yourself and explain what’s your role at Codit?
I’m Massimo Crippa, I am the Lead Architect at Codit Belgium. I am responsible to help defining the technological strategy and implement that strategy within Belgium. I work together with the different teams to help designing and building innovative solutions our customers are looking for. I keep the finger on the technology pulse and translate that to our internal teams and our customers.
Partner in the spotlight: Capgemini
It’s becoming a tradition in the meantime. Every month we talk with one of our partners. This month, we’re sitting down with Michiel Staessen of Capgemini for a chat over a cup of coffee.
Hi Michiel, can you introduce yourself and explain what’s your role at Capgemini?
Hi, I am Michiel Staessen. I started at Capgemini in 2013 as a software engineer, after working with Capgemini for my master’s thesis. In the meantime, I fulfil more the role of software architect. In addition, I am also the Microsoft community lead, the person who brings together all consultants of Capgemini who work with Microsoft technologies to share knowledge. Besides that, I am also active in some presales assignments, recruitment,… a little bit of everything actually, but mainly my role is software architect.
Partner in the spotlight: Team4Talent
For this month’s “Partner in the Spotlight”-interview, I had a pleasant conversation with Bart Van Herck and Tjorven Denorme of Team4Talent.
Can you both introduce yourself and your role at Team4Talent?
Bart: Team4Talent and eMenKa have recently merged and are going forward together as Team4Talent. That’s why Tjorven (formerly from eMenKa) and myself joined this interview, because the name eMenKa may be disappearing, but the people and the concept definitely stays.
Because of the recent fusion, the roles are in the company are switching. I come from the Business Director role at Team4Talent, but now I will go further as account manager. There is my strength, my energy and my drive. But I will keep an eye out and keep challenging everyone where needed.
Tjorven: I will make the reverse step. After 20 years in sales, of which 14 years for eMenKa, where I have always responded and acted towards the customers, I am going now to the recruitment side: finding partnerships, new people (employees on the payroll/ freelancers/…) and so on. So for me, the search for projects will become the search for the right employees.
Partner in the spotlight: Cegeka
For our first interview of 2021, we had the pleasure of speaking with Bert Brouns of Cegeka.
Hi Bert, can you introduce yourself and what is your role at Cegeka?
My name is Bert Brouns, I’m an Enterprise Architect and Guild lead at Cegeka.
As an Enterprise Architect I support teams and organizations in their operational and strategic endeavors. I’m part of the leadership team for the .NET Development guild at Cegeka’s Applications division. With our guild we want to facilitate the .NET community at Cegeka in knowledge sharing, learning & development matters and other initiatives that trigger the interests of developers, architects and other people with a technical background.
Partner in the spotlight: Involved
For our third “Partner in the Spotlight”-interview, I had a pleasant conversation with Johnny Hooyberghs, .NET developer and consultant for Involved.
Hi Johnny, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role at Involved?
Since I was an early teenager, I felt like I was a creative person. I tried drawing or playing a musical instrument, but I wasn’t very successful with that. When my mom bought a 386 DR-DOS computer, I discovered QBASIC and started building little programs using that. That’s where I got my first taste for developing software and I knew immediately I wanted to pursue that interest. After graduating, I landed a job in a software company that had a very old Windows application for the elderly care sector, and they wanted to do a rewrite using the .NET Framework. I’m super grateful for this opportunity because they gave me enough freedom to develop myself, I got to learn so much, and I had a fun time doing it.
After that, in 2014, I got into contact with Jan Rauter. Jan was starting a new consultancy firm, focussed on .NET and JavaScript, and we had a good match. Involved is a relatively small company where everyone knows everyone, without any kind of hierarchy. For Involved, I’m a .NET developer in a team of people with the same passion that are eager to talk about their passion.
Partner in the spotlight: aariXa
For our second “Partner in the Spotlight”-interview, I had a pleasant conversation with Erwin Tips, co-founder of aariXa.
Hi Erwin, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role at aariXa?
My name is Erwin Tips, I’m an engineer in Chemistry, but ended up in the IT industry almost immediately after my studies. Initially as developer / 3rd line support at IMEC, but after a year I already ended up in consultancy. I am co-founder & manager of aariXa, and outside of it I am still a consultant as Business Analyst, currently at Fluxys, in Brussels.
Announcing Visug XL
We'll be honest: we had imagined the second edition of Visug XL to be bigger and bolder than last year. But... as we all know, things have changed since we all met at Visug XL 2019. No worries though, as we are preparing for the Virtual Edition of Visug XL. Mark October 29 already in your agenda as we'll be running a virtual conference. And you're invited!
Agenda
We're extremely proud to give you at this edition no less than 16 sessions from 1 PM until 8.30 PM (CET). Take a look at the agenda here.
Registration
Registration is free. Visit this link to make sure you reserve your spot!
We will be running Visug XL through a conference platform PINE, which will open on October 1. After registration (and thus after October 1), you'll get a unique personal account.
Partner in the spotlight: Axxes
To kick off this series, we had the pleasure to interview Hannes Lowette, Head of Learning & Development at Axxes.
Hi Hannes, can you introduce yourself? What role do you have at Axxes?
Hi, I’m Hannes. Up until recently, I had two roles at Axxes: Principal Consultant and Competence Coach, both in our .NET group. As a Competence Coach, I am responsible for the growth of our consultants. Recently, my focus has been shifting more towards this aspect of my job, so the consultancy part has been dropped when I became Axxes’ first Head of Learning & Development. In this new role, amongst other things, I am responsible for training, personal coaching, and knowledge sharing, both internal and external. We also have several people who love sharing their knowledge and have the ambition to grow as a speaker. I will also be working on that, so we can put the knowledge we have in the spotlight.