Today I'm celebrating my 6th year with The One Point, I joined The One Point in 2009 at the time the digital department was under the name The Media Point.
6 years is not a long time but I've seen many changes since I started, the company name, the people I work with and the type of work I do.
when I joined the company was made up of:
The Mobile Point
The Media Point
The Tech Point
As technology grew we were working more closely across the departments so much so we merge them under a new name 'The One Point' we still have our specialist areas with The One Point but we are all under the same brand.
As with every business people come and go, I get to work with a great bunch of people from all walks of life, each with their own ideas and goals it makes a great working environment.
In 2009 as a new web developer I worked mainly on web design creating bespoke websites using a custom built content management system. I was part of a team of designers and developers, although I was the 'new kid' the team decided to go with my content management system over the off the shelf systems so we could be truly bespoke. I remember feeling really honored to be given such a key role in shaping how we worked, which proved to be really flexible, to this day we are still using my content management system for all our websites. although it looks very different to how it started!
Thinking back to my interview and Martin asked me "why should I employ you?" and I responded I kid you not with "because you would be stupid not to!" to this day I can't believe I said that! what a stupidly cocky thing to say! in my defense I was young and a little full of myself thankfully I've matured a lot since then.
In my first week I was asked to build a CRM for the company I remember asking what's a CRM? I think it was described to me as an intranet which it kind of is but without the need to use VPN or port forwarding for external access.
I didn't know it as the time but this starter project would change the course of our digital business model and what we focus on the most in the web team. The One CRM started as a simple companies database that only consisted of a staff directory and a basic list of companies and products they had with us.
I then bolted on a mobiles section to house all our mobile leads and deals for processing and recording deals from, a few months of development completely changed how the mobile team worked. They used to work off spreadsheets hundreds of them all with different information on, each rep had their own way of working and did not like to share their data with the others. The idea that I was going to come in and created a mobile CRM Module for them to use where others could see their records was horrifying to them!
As with anything new people are reluctant to change, as they had no choice in the matter they started to use the mobile module. 6 months down the road if I suggested going back to spreadsheets they would have been an uproar. The mobile team had embraced the CRM and saw the huge benefits it provided.
In the past trying to find 'Mr Smith' who's contract was due to end in 60 days from hundreds of spreadsheets would have taken hours and potentially missing the renew window, using the CRM however a report can show all contracts due to be renewed instantly.
I feel really happy to be part of such a positive change! I've kept developing the CRM it's changed massively to the point it's my core business now developing bespoke CRMs for lots of different business sectors, integrating with Office 365, Sage, Evernote, PayPal, Survey Monkey, Dropbox, Box to name a few!
I've changed on a personal level when I joined The One Point I was very timed I felt very comfortable behind my keyboard but take me into a room with a client and I was a bag of nerves, I was more then happy to let my managers have the client meetings and leave me to write the code.
These days I head up the digital team, meeting with clients regularly and presenting my ideas and giving talks/demonstrations and providing training. A very different Dave I can tell you! Last year I was going to my old university once a week and helping the tutors to provide support and advice from a modern developers perspective I really enjoyed it.
This year I started my own Code Club at a local school with the support of The One Point, teaching 9-11 year olds how to program. I'm coming to the end of term, the experience has been unlike anything else. I was really nervous before I started my first class, now I look forward to it.
Running the digital dept is a lot of responsibility but I love it along with working with my team. Thinking to my past experiences I've got a lot of great memories.
I look forward to the next 6 years at The One Point!
Book a MeetingHealthcareEducationManufacturingLogisticsLawInsuranceCharityFinanceEstate AgentsHullLeedsNewcastleRest of UKSolutions Finder
