Our team might be always growing but it is also a place where people come to stay for the long term. We are a family. Today, we had the opportunity to speak to Frank Vogler, our Senior BI Consultant for more than 4 years. We are interested in the stories of our colleagues and what keeps them motivated to stay at HICO for a long time.
A lot of interesting tasks and, of course, our team! Together we can solve every problem. We are always well connected and work hard for each other and the company. I know I can count on every member of the team and I can call / text them at any time of the day or evening. It works the same both ways.
How would you describe your role at HICO?
In our team, I am more of the back-end guy. I love optimizing data structures and solving any performance or data quality issues that might arise with mass data. When you have a problem with a data model, I am the guy you talk to!
In this business, I meet a lot of different customer personalities, which is interesting to me. I can work on different projects and there is always something I can help with and sometimes something new for me to learn. It helps a lot to have the experience in this field, and as I have been working with Qlik® for almost 13 years, this is very helpful.
That is great to know! And could you share if there is something that is challenging, even for you?
In this COVID crisis, where there is no direct person-to-person contact, it is sometimes more challenging to get the information we need for and from our customers. Sometimes things can go south, and we get stuck in one place, with contact persons not available to talk to and figure out what the specific issue is. This creates a merry-go-round of sorts. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing that we can do to solve it, and that is what bothers me.
How do you deal with these challenges?
I write down notes a lot and have a big list of reminders, so that nothing gets forgotten. It is easier for me to create a working strategy like that. I divide my tasks and create step-by-step procedures for each one of them. This also helps me not to get exhausted very quickly. It is nice to have everything laid out in a way that is easy to follow and understand.
And one more important thing; it is okay to ask and bring more people in for help when you are not sure how to do something. Two minds are always brighter than one.
What is a major change you expect in your industry in the next 5-10 years?
I believe that there will be even more data-driven management decisions in the future; AI in combination with BI will be much more important than today. There surely will be an even bigger variety of data sources. I think it is already getting in the direction that our customers have or are now building a proper and well-designed Data Storing Solution to gather all the different data types. On-premise or even in the Cloud. We will probably see a future with business processes more and more aligned and everyone within a company will be on track and knows what is going on.
As the Internet has changed our world years ago, borders are not that important anymore. The COVID crisis led from mostly on-site work to more often remote work, which will certainly lead to the increase of international teams in the short / mid-term.
Thank you, Frank. To end this article, here a few quick but interesting questions…
Name someone who inspires you in life and in work.
My wife, as a mother of three kids (ages ten, eight, and four). She has proven her ability to perform in an outstanding way in this corona crisis. To manage the household, teach the children – as there is no school now – and to work on thousands of other things, truly great effort is needed. In my life and in work, I can learn from her to be gentle even in stressful times and always have the solution and not the problem in mind.
What is one thing about you that people would be surprised to know?
I like to ride recumbent bikes and have started to discover the VR world recently.
Favorite book.
Recently it’s been QualityLand 2.0, from Marc-Uwe Kling.
Your best piece of advice for our readers.
Do not get overwhelmed with work. Instead, structure it and try doing it step by step while always having the solution and not the problem in mind!
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