Head of Customer Delivery Dan Bishopp talks to us about his journey from tech specialist to a key management role.
The culture of this company struck a chord with me instantly
I joined in May 2011, everything about M247 struck a chord with me straight away. The atmosphere was very relaxed, yet at the same time there was a real can–do culture and an eagerness from everyone to deliver. I got an immediate sense there was a great team spirit and collaborative approach to working.
As a Network Engineer I was quite heavily involved in the pre-sales side of the business, getting customers on board by explaining what the systems could do, how it was possible to customise them to suit their needs and what the benefits to their business would be.
My role developed as the company grew
My role has continually evolved throughout my time with company, over the course of the last five years I moved to a Senior Technical Architect position and then to Head of Pre-Sales. The pre-sales side of the business grew significantly in that time from just me to a full team. My role has developed as the company has grown and matured, with this has been a greater importance and value placed on the pre-sales operation.
Selling bespoke network solutions very much depends on understanding what our customers want and need. This means the link between the technical and pre-sales teams has to be strong, to ensure that the best customer experience can be delivered – which we can achieve through properly understanding the technology being installed.
In 2018 I was promoted to Head of Customer Delivery, a role which meant I left the pre-sales department, but provided me with the opportunity to work with and manage larger team. The team of 24 provisioning coordinators and technical engineers oversee the end-to-end delivery for customers from initial order through to the final installation. The following year, my role was expanded to additionally support and manage our 25 strong team of field engineers, surveyors and warehousing operations.
Following a period of acquisition that saw 3 businesses become one M247, as a business we had grown overnight and now had a second technical coordination team who were based in London and operated using different processes, databases etc. It was my responsibility to align operations between the two teams and create one team culture working as a larger group. This challenged me to get under the skin of our existing processes and to create one way of working across the whole team which was more efficient through optimising performance, sharing learnings and best practice, and implementing robust protocols.
In my experience, M247 is a company that helps people discover their talents and flourish
When I joined the M247 I would never have thought I would end up in a managerial role. The person who joined the business in 2011 was very tech focused and I was throwing myself into completing my Cisco technical qualifications; I basically wanted to be a techy and expected to stay with the business for no more than a couple of years. But looking back, the way my career has developed has been exactly where I wanted to go. The 2020 me wants to lead tech teams, as this is a role that gives me the greatest job satisfaction.
I love M247 as an organisation, I love the culture, I love the people, I love the way I have been allowed to grow here from Network Engineer to Head of Department. Every day is different, and I enjoy the fact that every challenge is different. I know there is a future for me here, I know there is still plenty of room for me to continue to grow and develop.
M247 is an organisation with so many different areas in which people can thrive, there is the room to really discover where your talents lie and you get plenty of encouragement and support to do so. I certainly encourage my team to pursue secondments into different areas of the business so they get to experience other functions which not only helps to aid their understanding of the wider business, but also assist with their own learning and development to help discover where they want to take their careers.
We are a company that is proud to invest in its people, knowing that developing individuals is for the betterment of the business. We build the knowledge and skill set of our engineers to ensure everyone can handle even the most complex configurations queries that come their way, which in turn improves the service we can provide to our customers.
And it’s not just technical skills that we focus on. We invest in leadership development, personal skills, project management, business and service skills too. Knowing that to get the best of our people the most effective way to do this is by doing what is best for them.
I am not aware of any other company where there is so much fluidity in terms of how people progress and how their careers develop. It is not uncommon here for a graduate recruit to end up in leadership role within a couple of years of arriving with the business. There really are so many great opportunities if you have the right ambition and drive, if you are prepared to give your all and show us what you can do.
Does M247 sound like a place you want to work and progress your career in tech? For more information take at look at our careers page and our latest vacancies to search and apply.
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