He has been working here since November 2018 and lives in Rijnsburg. His girlfriend also works at Florisoft, René (32) shares. In his free time, he enjoys meeting up with friends and regularly works out. He especially enjoys soccer, tennis, and padel, but he's also a regular guest at the "Florigym." Not so surprising, as he graduated in HBO Sport Studies.

"Haha, no, that doesn't have much to do with IT." After a trip around Asia, he returned to his old part-time job at a bakery. Finding work in the sports world proved difficult. Then he heard that Florisoft was looking for people.

My Career at Florisoft

René started at support. "The beginning is challenging. There's no Florisoft course; you just have to start working with it. After the onboarding period, I began answering calls, with an experienced colleague by my side. That's when you learn to ask the right questions and dig deeper."

"Sometimes you think: I can't solve this. But in the end, you figure it out, especially with support from colleagues. We really work together, and everyone is willing to help each other."

"We have a great team with fun colleagues. It's a relatively young group, and the atmosphere is friendly and informal. What I especially appreciate is the willingness to help others. Almost everyone here is from the local area, so the mentality is often similar. It creates a certain connection."

From Software Support Specialist to Consultant

"By now, I am partly an implementation consultant. Support is really a great learning school, and it helps me now. You encounter all sorts of situations with many different customers who work in various ways."

"The work is very diverse and challenging. Every question or problem is different, so it never gets boring. I enjoy the implementation work because you're embarking on a journey together. In the beginning, the program is completely new to the customer. Then everything is set up, and they learn how to use the software. Later, you often hear that they think the system is brilliant. It's very satisfying when you can speed up or improve their processes. Sometimes, it saves a company just one or two hours per day." René enjoys visiting customers and observing how things are done. Sometimes this even takes him abroad. "Different companies, different cultures."

What does your workday look like?

"This depends on my role at the time. In support, there is a schedule with three call days and two days to follow up on remaining tasks. In principle, you handle the solutions for your calls and emails yourself, unless you're unable to solve it, of course—the bigger problems." René mentions that in this department, you never really know how busy the next day will be.

That's different in consultancy and implementation work. Here, he usually has several different projects going on and companies he works with. "In a week, I have fixed appointments. In between, I often work on things or solve issues."

When it's break time, René usually goes for a walk. "It's nice to get some fresh air and move around."

Challenge & Development

In this industry, it's very important to stay up to date with new developments. "We regularly have knowledge sessions about specific modules, for example, on volume calculation. The person who knows a lot about it gives a kind of presentation. I actually did this myself recently, about our new app, Cash & Carry. Afterward, we discuss it together. And in consultancy, we recently had a two-day communication training. It's great that Florisoft organizes these kinds of things."

Choose Your Own Path

There are plenty of career opportunities here, he explains. "Look at me: I started in support as first-line, and as I gained more experience, the opportunity arose to help others. In performance reviews, they always ask which direction you'd like to go." René once expressed the ambition to go into consultancy. "Later, the management asked if I wanted to shadow an experienced consultant during an implementation. Now I handle both existing and new customers on my own."

He is proud of what he has achieved so far at Florisoft. In the beginning, he briefly considered quitting. It wasn’t going well, and things weren’t going smoothly in his personal life either. "The management and my supervisor suggested I take some time to think about it because they saw a lot of potential in me."

After deciding to stay, things only got better. "Being able to solve problems on my own gave me more confidence." This is how René took the step into consultancy and became a strong pillar at support.

Finally, don't be afraid to ask questions!

"When you first start here, it’s important to show interest. Ask plenty of questions and dig deeper. Everyone is also willing to help, so make sure to take advantage of that!"