Meet the CxO – George TUDOR, Managing Partner IT TEAMS

A Pink Floyd fan, a math geek and a tech enthusiast, George TUDOR is a man of few words but with a high level of understanding regarding of what his employees need. Without his knowledge, he applies the maieutics of Socrates everyday to help his staff become better and reach a higher level of truthfulness to themselves. Because of this, he can make sure that each project has the right people working on it and vice-versa, thus hitting two birds with one stone – keeping his employees happy, while delivering amazing projects.

Tell us a few words about how your company started

The core team of IT Teams has been established 7 years ago, so we know each other and have worked together for quite a while. With my previous company we have built a SaaS for the US market and several years later we made a spin-off and decided to continue the outsourcing services under a new brand – IT Teams. IT Teams has been created out of the need to offer software solutions to both startups and established companies. To a certain extent, this vision combines our appetite for helping startups take off and our expertise in building and operating remote development teams.

What drives you each day?

I am starting each day thinking about how I can find the right opportunities for people I work with, regardless if they are employees, clients or partners.

Equally important is my desire to do technology related experiments. I always stayed close to technology so whenever I can afford the time, I read software development articles or watch my developers as they work in a specific development environment.

Yet the most important driver is to inspire my colleagues to learn, to become better at what they do. Coaching gives me the best satisfaction at the end of the day. I had the chance to meet incredible people that inspired me to challenge myself, to aim higher and to do my best to help others. It was funny (he smiles) that none of these people intended to help me in this direction, they were actually guiding me to become more efficient. I was lucky to meet them, right at the moment when I decided to start IT Teams, so coaching is an essential ingredient of my definition for success. I believe that a day without a take away of how to become better is a lost day.

What do you believe are the 3 main accomplishments that brought you here today?

I will mention several achievements that are not providing immediate value and yet are tremendously important in the long run.

The first one is my ability to on board valuable team members. I think that nurtured our ability as a team to on board engineers on the right projects for them. This is how we differentiate from our competition.

The second accomplishment is based on honesty and trust, some of the core values of IT Teams, pillars of our relationship with clients and employees. Most of our clients are key partners for us, we have been working together for a long time and we understand their business quite well.

The third one is perseverance. Perhaps years ago we would have given up facing some of the challenges we now overcome. This is combination of maintaining focus, being determined and willing to work hard.

What do you believe are the 3 main failures that brought you here today?

Partnerships that didn’t work out. Would events have lined up differently, IT Teams would not have been born, so obviously things turned out for the best for everybody, including my current team.

Second, since I mentioned hard work previously, there’s also a downside to it. Too much work kept us away from innovation. But I believe this is a constant challenge for the outsourcing industry in general, where no consistent innovation has been noticed for quite a while.

And the third one? (Tudor pauses and gazes through the window of his office) I could have realized the importance of personal development earlier. That might have helped me to make important business related decisions sooner.

Do you ever disconnect from the office? How?

There’s a secret island of pleasure and comfort I visit each day – my family. It recharges my batteries and gives me purpose for what I do. The noisy evenings with my family give me a sense of peace and tranquility after a day of work.

I play guitar or play with my kids. I was a Pink Floyd fan but now, between playing Pink Floyd tunes on my guitar and rattling Melc Melc Codobelc, my big fans at home, urge for the latter. (he laughs)

Do you have any books you wish you could forget just so you can read it again?

Simon Sinek “Start with why” which helped me understand the importance of core values and beliefs behind our actions, behind how we speak and what we sell. I got many insights from this book and I think it helped me better understand why I started IT Teams and how we can continue to attract talent and grow our team.

Education – classic or alternative? Both?

I am a product of the classic approach and I feel I was not taught but rather let free to learn, to behave as I wish and to be part of various competitions. I participated in Math Olympics Contests, I came up with my own schedule for studying, I was rather independent.

So to respond to your question, I would say both; classic because it brings pure knowledge and nurtures our basic abilities to follow rules and patterns, and alternative to ensure we are able to break patterns and think out-the-box when needed.

Now tells us more about the business you are running. Let’s start with the clients you currently work on

There are four services delivered under the umbrella of IT Teams, each designed to respond to specific client needs.

Our main model is building and managing teams of IT engineers for our clients. Usually, these companies are IT companies maintaining or improving their web and mobile products. We create dedicated teams that ensure the development and QA capacity for our clients in Europe, USA and Australia.

We also provide software services for Startups. Even though this is not our largest revenue stream, it is definitely an attractive direction for us. We meet entrepreneurs that have a business idea and we commit to be fully responsible for all technical aspects of their business. We provide guidance about technology to be employed, innovation trends, we help them develop their budget estimations so we really help them in various stages of their business. We advise them on how to reach the maximum business result in the shortest term possible with reasonable budgets. Last year we helped two Amsterdam-based startups creating their web and mobile platforms. They were targeting in fashion / e-commerce and recruitment industries.

IT Teams is able to provide tailor-made solutions and on a needed basis maintenance services to its clients. A few examples of applications we have built lately are an enterprise solution for manufacturing plants, an HR solution, a Point Of Sale software. Such solutions are used by SME’s in Romania, Europe and USA from various industries such as manufacturing and retail.

Last but not least, there is onsite or remote maintenance. We have both short and long-term commitments with employees that go over to the client and work at their premises in an integrated manner. Again, the typical clients here are large IT providers in Romania and Europe.

Name a few of the biggest clients you work for (if possible)

To respect the confidentiality clauses I will mention only some of our clients such as Tandarts, Baloonr, Robosoft, KiTS. In addition, 6 Romanian mid-large IT providers have been helped by our engineers to deliver their projects on time. We have completed various projects for end clients, represented by well known Romanian banks and one of the big four consultancy houses.

Name a few of the projects that made you a force to be reckon on the market

I learned a lot from developing UnifiedPractice, it was really challenging at both technical and business level, and I got a lot of satisfaction seeing the platform going live. It was a huge opportunity to see how hard it is to attract users on a web & mobile platform, and even more difficult to keep them satisfied. It was once again an opportunity to build and retain strong engineering teams inspired by an innovative idea, committed to transform it into a software that ultimately improves the lives of end-users.

Such experience has been used lately to build a platform that connects individuals from different locations around the world to resolve problems by communicating in various languages.

We have also built and maintained the biggest Netherlands dentists portal.

What is your most beloved project you worked on?

My most beloved project is a recent web solution we have developed for a world class manufacturing company using Microsoft and Oracle technologies. We helped the client increase its production efficiency through a continuous data collection process supported by our solution to gather information and provide statistics related to production failures and scraps.

A consistent part of the system revolves around providing a diverse set of statistics and data reporting, both drill down as well as graphical, that help provide an in depth analysis of quality and stability of the production cycle. Not only have we been able to provide the counting of scraps but have also integrated legacy data (SAP) to clearly indicate the financial cost of the occurring defects.

Why is this project particularly relevant to me?  Because of the combination of technologies we have employed – from complex enterprise platforms like SAP to latest approaches like Single Page JavaScript App – Angular, Material design, rich & powerful statistics and graphics over Oracle RDBMS running behind a Microsoft IIS .Net application. The project was well received not only by the local subsidiary of our client but has the potential of being deployed company wide by the head office of the company.

What project forced you to be creative and innovative?

UnifiedPractice definitely required us to be creative and innovative – together with my US business partners we put tremendous efforts to create a slick product for Chinese medicine practitioners that need to take notes on a mobile device while consulting the patient.

What was the biggest struggle?

Understanding the psychology and behaviour of end users was the biggest struggle. This is a constant challenge in all projects. To create a perfect solution, you have to know not only how the user tends to use a software or hardware artefact but also to learn about, if not directly experience the environment in which the end-user uses the solution.

What makes your company different from others in your field of expertise?

What makes us unique is our ability to provide the right engineers for the right project. This is what guides us in what we do. It is the reason for which we are not looking for growth at all costs overlooking the quality of the collaboration between our employees and our clients. We aim to have 100% matching between IT talent and the opportunities brought by our clients.

How are your products innovative?

We are quite close to deliver a platform to support our services. This tool will be used by our clients to get better visibility over the results offered by our teams. Right now our internal tool features recruitment capabilities, project management and activity tracking. Invoicing and objective tracking will be soon implemented before going live, so we will be able to ensure 100% transparency for our clients over the results provided by an outsourced team.

Who is the biggest innovator for you?

I like Google as a company and how they are able to transform the ideas they focus on.

I also like them because they have knowledge and use the technology at its top level combining network hardware, devices, data and services to provide a unique user experience. I also like that they are able to get value out of open source offerings.

I closely followed the evolution of the Google Drive platform and its related cloud space development tools. And whenever we got the chance, we experimented by integrating google drive in our applications to create outstanding features that can be replicated in real life products. One such feature, for instance, is extracting pieces of data (like the phone number or email address) from various types of documents stored in the cloud where various people can collaborate to edit and maintain the information. We used this feature for our internal tool I mentioned earlier. Imagine the money you saved using current tools compared to how you would have solved this request 5 years ago or even more.

What advice do you have for a young entrepreneur?

To have the courage to speak about his or her own ideas and discover the people that are able to help him or her along their entrepreneurial journey. And never overlook the fact that technology is only a part of the solution and most of the time, the actual execution is 10 times more important. So get a mentor, and validate your business plan before spending crazy money and time on original ideas.

What do you want to accomplish in the next year?

Our main goal is sustainable growth. We did big steps towards this goal, we got 4 new clients in the last month and the year ahead of us will definitely bring more projects and more opportunities.

The key is going to be the ability to deliver talent in a challenging market where big IT companies will continue to create more and more opportunities for Romanian IT engineers.

There are several new directions we are looking to expand into such as a new creative & online division, a recruitment service, perhaps some collaboration for GDPR compliance.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

Since I started IT Teams I always imagined our services being provided from multiple locations across Europe. So opening offices in additional cities in Romania as well as other countries is one goal.

The second goal is to provide higher value for our customers, so offering domain or industry expertise and technology as a packages is a must for coming years.

Why did you join Smart Alliance – Innovation Technology Cluster?

Valentin, Managing Partner Digi Soft introduced us to the concept of Smart Alliance at the right time, when we needed to discover innovative techniques that we can adopt in what we do and how we do it.

Though it may be difficult, there is always room for innovation and I believe we can learn from other cluster members, from their experiences and what went well for them. Innovation comes with risks and changes, it’s like crossing the same river in a way no one has tried before. So having partners help you along the way really makes sense.

How does it benefit you?

In several ways. Firstly, we would like to integrate our cluster presence with our marketing activities to sustain our development. Secondly, it’s very useful to have a discussion group that includes executives that know your business as well as share similar challenges with you.

And of course, I cannot overlook the social part of this experience, our regular meetings outside office, without business or cluster objectives, all being replaced by a dinner with enjoyable people.

How do you see your company as being part of the cluster?

Definitely we can help to deliver large, complex projects together with other members.

And since my goal is to integrate innovation with our services, I will share the progress with others so they can learn and suggest in return what we can do better.

How do you see the evolution of the cluster?

I see the cluster growing and we need better funding for this.The next level for Smart Alliance would be to have one or more ambassadors to promote the cluster across Europe. At that point we would be able to access and deliver considerably large & complex solutions that none of the members can deliver individually.

Until then, I believe we can improve the collaboration between cluster members by identifying additional interests that can be transformed into micro-projects, where small groups can sustain these projects and share results or progress within the cluster.

Meet the CxO – The Three Musketeers, Andrei, Matei & Alexandru, MPs at Adcentric

How can three young entrepreneurs born in Bucharest can upgrade the game in helping a company building its image? We didn’t know the answer so we asked The Fantasy Fan (Andrei Popovici, 28 years old), The Philosophical One (Alexandru Cristian Verdeș, 28 years old) and The Science One (Matei Popa, 31 years old), managing partners at Adcentric what it means. Foolish and hungry, failures in classical education, and extremely creative, this trio managed to land important clients with their outstanding view of the world. Their vision is carefully carved by encompassing their personalities. Complementary and different, the three of them found the perfect chemical formula that allows them to function as a whole, while being their themselves.

Tell us a few words about how your company started.

M.P. – Everything started in the summer of 2010 when we saw a niche of Google AdWords freelancers being more and more overwhelmed by demand and unable to single handedly cope with their customer’s requests. In the very beginnings, Adcentric was meant to develop and manage Google AdWords campaigns for local businesses. The brand is built around this idea – ‘ad’vertising ‘centric’ – focused on advertising, filling a gap in 2010’s Romanian advertising market. Everything we did back then revolved around advertising through AdWords.

What drives you each day?

A.P. – Facing new challenges and overcoming them. The feelings after each triumph are worth it for me.

A.C.V. – I find that some of the most successful people are not always the most talented, but they are the most driven, the most inquisitive. The “where” isn’t all that important to me as long as the journey there is full of wonders. To that extent, I guess you could say that to a point I’m driven by a certain sense of adventure and by the desire to enjoy it every step of the way to the finish line.

M.P. – It’s a form of competition. Not with others or other companies, but with myself – trying to be better every day and better at what I do.

What do you believe are the 3 main accomplishments that brought you here today?

A.P. – I’d like to summarize this answer:

1. a) First and most importantly was taking the risk to become an entrepreneur.
2. b) Finding the right people to start a business with.
3. c) Entering this field of work and keeping up with innovations.

A.C.V. – What brought me here today? Luck, fortune and a game of cosmic dice. You get to a point in life (and mind you I’m not that old) where you’re not that sure what your accomplishments are. I studied, I worked hard, I played hard and I had the planets align and steer me towards what I am today. I have a family, a great kid and another little guy (or girl) on the way – so there’s one major achievement in life. I’ve managed to put together a successful business mostly thanks to my two awesome partners ‘in crime’ – Andrei & Matei – and I enjoy being a part of it every step of the way – so there’s your second major achievement. I’d like to say the third is still to come and I’d like it to have a bigger impact – maybe even change the world – but let’s keep that a secret for now.

M.P. – I’m going to be short – Always being accountable for the work I’ve done, learning from my mistakes and always being fair to people around me.

What do you believe are the 3 main failures that brought you here today?

A.P. – (laughs) Quitting all my previous jobs, it all led to this point.

A.C.V. – Failures? Don’t have any. I’ve been through a few business opportunities but I wouldn’t regard them as failures, rather as opportunities to learn, to grow. My first major opportunity was working with a very driven guy who proposed we partner up and build something grand together – working mostly for the Dutch market. He was brimming with energy and had enough business connections to keep the whole thing going but I soon found out that the partnership was incredibly one-sided as all the work and management fell on me and my other partner at that time and all the ‘laurels’ and most of the business benefits went the other way. So, I decided to start over, one thing led to another and I soon found myself in another business venture where the experience I gained in the past was going to play a major role in how I wanted the business to be managed. Things were improving until they broke down again – this time it was a failure of vision – how we wanted things to function and I promised myself I was going to keep things fair for everyone. That’s how I eventually found myself where I am today – with these wonderfully like-minded individuals who want to build something based on the pillars of trust, respect and responsibility.

M.P. – I believe these are the most important – Failing at University (I quit the Electronics faculty at PUB in my second year), failing with an advertising job right before founding Adcentric in 2010 and failing to get a job at Enel a little later

Do you ever disconnect from the office? How?

A.P. – Finding time to rest, relax and enjoy life is one of the main requirements to be in business today. I kept my clients aware of my business hours and always tried to get my colleagues to be efficient in their tasks so that we can all go home and recharge our batteries for tomorrow.

A.C.V. – I used to. Now that I enjoy the environment as much as I do I guess you could say I disconnect at the office. There’s really nothing to disconnect from as work isn’t work to any of us.

M.P. – Not really, I usually only take city breaks which always means a laptop is lying around and we’re never short on requests or issues.

Do you have any books you wish you could forget just so you can read it again?

A.P. – I have a soft spot for Tolkien’s work J. We should all be able to read his books for the first time, every time.

A.C.V. – ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde. Just thinking about it made me go back and search for a quote I loved: “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.”

M.P. – It is not a book, but a series that really stayed with me throughout the years – Frank Herbert’s Dune

Education – classic or alternative? Both?

A.P. – Alternative all the way, I honestly do not consider that any of my accomplishments or any success that I may have achieved has anything to do with classic education.

A.C.V. – This is a tricky matter when you really stop to think about it. The question here is if the classical system can still function in the modern world. Alternatively, are any of the other, more modern systems up to par? I’m inclined to say ‘no’ to both of them. What we now have is a fast-track, fast-minded generation used to gadgets and the benefits therefrom with a totally different set of standards, wants and needs than we, our generation, had growing up. The problem here is that when we – the governing party – try and impose our vision upon our youth and it is often times antiquated when paired with their actual needs. The problem is that given the rapid expansion of technology I don’t think we’re adequately prepared (mentally) to cope with the ever-growing speed of everything that’s going on around us.

M.P. – Alternative, I’ve always been self-taught since I can remember and traditional education didn’t work out so well in my area of expertise

Now tells us more about the business you are running. Let’s start with the number of clients you currently work on.

A.P. –  We try to bring a certain standard for our clients online presence. We have very strong opinions about the importance of branding and presenting a message the right way. For these reasons brands like: Thermegroup, Etno TV, Money.ro, Casa Doina, Zexe, Juventus Bucuresti chose to partner with us.

Name a few of the biggest clients you work for.

A.P. – Therme Group, Etno TV, Money.ro, Casa Doina, Zexe, Juventus Bucuresti

Name a few of the projects that made you a force to be reckon on the market.

A.P. – The media platform for Money.ro really was a step up for us, proving (to ourselves and others) we can handle big clients and deliver to their standard. After this project we become an option for clients who were associated with great quality.

What is your most beloved project you worked on? What project forced you to be creative and innovative.

A.P. – Optimacall. It was one of our first project as a digital agency and we had the opportunity to have full creative freedom from the client, and it was awesome 😀

What project forced you to be creative and innovative?

A.P. – I would say Therme Group. They expected excellence from their project and for that we had to be all-in. Big amounts of research, bold ideas, new coding languages, you name it. But as always, we delivered.

What was the biggest struggle?

A.P. – Convincing international clients that working with a small Romanian digital agency is a win win for them.

14. What makes your company different from others in your field of expertise.

A.P. – Our focus on design. We start all our custom project with great designs that we later bring to life.

How are your products innovative?

A.P. – We always keep the user in mind, and because of that we are able to deliver experiences with our websites. No detail is overlooked and as a result all aspects come together for a truly complete experience.

Who is the biggest innovator for you?

A.P. – Steve Jobs, with the first Iphone 🙂

A.C.V. – Right now, I’d say Elon Musk. From PayPal to Tesla and finally SpaceX – I find that Musk is an inspiration for any and all aspiring tech agencies. Not so much for the technical solutions but, more importantly, for the scope of the solutions and the problems they tackle. I’ve read somewhere that since we landed on the Moon we haven’t really dared to dream big, to have bigger goals. We’re too focused on the necessities of today, maybe even tomorrow – are we’re far to grounded, looking to satisfy only our own needs. J.F.K said “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win (…)”. I feel that Musk has adhered to the same philosophy and it is something I both admire and aspire to myself.

M.P. – Alex surely is, he tackles a (very) broad range of coding issues every day, always keen on learning new things and solving problems more efficiently, which actually means doing things differently from what is expected or traditional

What advice do you have for a young entrepreneur?

A.C.V. – I believe it was Steve Jobs that said “Stay hungry. Stay foolish” – and mind you those are words to live by. You have to keep your mind sharp and hungry for more, be it for knowledge, challenges and/or beauty. Always strive for the best version of yourself.

M.P. – Do what you think is right and have it your way as long as you possibly can – in the end, it always works out, you just have to get there.

What do you want to accomplish in the next year?

M.P. – Next year we want to outgrow our current offices and to double our team in size. By mid july 2018 we plan on having a new location in sight for relocation.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

M.P. – In 5 years we would like to have established Adcentric as a respected international brand in our industry, encompassing and promoting the same values we strive for since the beginning: morality, responsibility, innovation and respect, not only for our customers, but also for our work and for everything we build together.

Why did you join Smart Alliance – Innovation Technology Cluster?

A.P. – It made sense to be part of a bigger team who can tackle bigger challenges.

How does it benefit you?

A.P. – It is a platform to expand our business and find partners for more complex projects.

How do you see your company as being part of the cluster?

A.P. – We can provide a different perspective on how to make things look as good as they work.

How do you see the evolution of the cluster?

A.P. – I see the cluster as a trend setter of sorts, where smaller companies with more creative freedom engage tasks in different ways then the market is used but with just as much success as the bigger players in the game.

You can find more about their work and services on their website and Facebook page

Interview by Răzvan Dincă, PR Specialist@Smart Alliance – Innovation Technology Cluster

Meet the CxO – Elena Unciuleanu, CEO Reporting Center

When you think of our field of work, you rarely see women, especially women that are CEO’s. Elena Unciuleanu has over 10 years of working in programming. Having only 35 years old and with her company being born only 2 years ago, Elena is by far one of most promising young female entrepreneurs in Romania. After she built a team around her vision, she managed to create a product that was very quickly adopted by the Romanian banks. Despite the challenges a woman has to face in this business, Elena never gave up and she always kept her head held up high.

Tell us a few words about how your company started.

It all goes back to when I was an employee. I started as a database programmer, working for one of my university teachers. Then, one of my former university classmates insisted on introducing me to his manager, thus to a brand-new industry, banking solutions. I was mesmerized by this exquisite field on the spot! I got specialized on Banking Reporting and here I am, after 12 years, still loyal to this domain.
My company came to life 2 years ago, as a natural evolution of myself. After gaining relevant experience in this field, first as employee, then as team leader and freelancer, I felt it was the time to find a way to share the knowledge I’ve got. Especially since my customers gradually increased their expectations, I had to extend in an organized way. Thus, I founded this Business Intelligence Excellence Center in Bucharest, where we create reporting software solutions for the European banking market. I named it Reporting Center and here I build a team around my principles – hard working, prone to details, to be reliable and the most important thing – have common sense. When you have a small team, even the little discrepancies can disrupt the whole chemistry, so I tend to be very careful when I choose my colleagues.

What drives you each day?

I am a professional dreamer! I invest a lot of energy in designing for me and my colleagues a lifestyle that we love, so that the time we spend together working is, in fact, the exciting part of our life.
I deeply care about Reporting Center team, both professionally and personally. This year, my #elitesquad as a I call them, got me a present saying: Creating from the heart generates love, creating from the soul generates Joy. They managed to synthetize our mindset, our relationship and values and I believe this is the most important thing.
What I love most about my job is that I have plenty of interactions with many different people! In my projects, I work side by side with my clients, with their technicians, business people, consultants, auditors, you name it. I do not have only one team, but I am part of dozens of teams in the same time, each having its own dynamic. It’s refreshing and some may think it is exhausting. But it is fascinating. The multitude of experiences that I have each day is awe-inspiringly and makes me wonder what will happen tomorrow.
The best is that I do not have a routine – same desk, same faces. I have my own corner arranged at almost every client and that is why each morning when I’m heading to work my heart beats a little bit faster. The enthusiasm gets the best of me when I know this day will be uniquely different from yesterday and less amazing than tomorrow. Before I say anything else let me be clear on something – I do have my own office separate from any other entity, but when you work with important banks you are not allowed to bring your own laptop and connect it to their network. Their data do not and will not leave the premises of the bank. So, for that matter they give you a so-called “station” (high-end computers). For example, during our implementation projects we need around 4 fully equipped stations.

What do you believe are the 3 main accomplishments that brought you here today?

It’s the people that I’ve met. For instance, I did not have many employers… only 2, but they become over time my professional mentors, having a great impact when it comes to defining my values and my career.
It was at college where I found my first mentor – my database teacher, who later became my first employer, Associate Professor Dr. Christian Mancaş. Each year he recruited his best students to come and work at his software company he had in Bucharest. This is how I managed to work alongside the best young IT enthusiasts. From him I borrowed the way I create my team, as I chose my first employees at his recommendation. Considering where Reporting Center is today, I am so grateful for his precious advice.
Another key moment, was the shadowing period with the most talented entrepreneur I know – Olimpiu Bălaş (business angel, nowadays). He is the one that helped me find this passion for banking reporting being inspired by his own example, and he is the one that taught me this field and, afterwards, how to build and run a business. I was told the importance of acting now, not when you’re ready, as you are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress, simultaneous.
Of course, all of these are in addition to the coaching I received in high school – the seaside “Mircea cel Bătrân” National College, in Constanta. For instance, in the first day of school our head teacher said: “When you have high grades, no one will ever give you any problems for boys having long hair or for red painted nails at girls”. This followed me until today: I would rather work harder just to have this advantage.

What do you believe are the 3 main failures that brought you here today?

When I think back it comes to me something that Michelangelo Buonarroti said: “The problem that people have is not that they aim too high and fail, but that they aim too low and succeed”. So, I don’t see a problem in failing short when you’re on the right path.
A turning point in my career, was the period between freelancing and entrepreneurship, to be more precise, when I accepted to run a huge department of Business Intelligence inside a corporation. I was 33 years old at that time. I saw it as a great opportunity, a chance to observe a corporation from the inside. I had to change perspective, from running a profit center, to running a cost center. But, my biggest struggle became the fact that I did not have any time to initiate or create something, just because my calendar was already booked by prescheduled recurrent meetings. Then and only then I understood my calling: that was the moment when I realized that I have to become an entrepreneur.

Do you ever disconnect from the office? How?

I go to the sea. I own a beach house: big windows and a magnificent view to the beach volleyball and soccer fields. I can sit there watching for hours. However, I don’t really believe in disconnecting, as I am never truly disconnected. Is still me, just that I am in a different environment, where I don’t feel like I am working. I am always available for my team and clients, we communicate even when I am on the beach. After years of working in this field, short interventions no matter the time, seem natural to me. For me, there is no line between the personal and the professional life, because when you put passion in what you do everything gets personal.

Now tells us more about the business you are running. Let’s start with the number of clients you currently work on (name them if possible)

We develop Business Intelligence Solutions, with a focus on Regulatory Banking Reporting. Most of our clients are banks from Romania and Moldova, but we started to implement BI also in other industries. Our main advantage is that we manage to always meet our customers’ deadlines, no matter what! You cannot postpone a Regulatory decision, so acting on time it’s crucial for them. We perform well under pressure and our customers appreciate that we never let them down.

Name a few of the projects that made you a force to be reckon on the market.

Due to the fact that we activate in this field for so long, we can offer our clients a complete portfolio: we develop the reporting required by the National Bank, both on individual and consolidated bases; we cover the consolidation in case of bank merger, prior or post-merger; we calculate the banking profitability for local banks and for international headquarters.

What is your most beloved project you worked on?

Our product – Elite Reporting Platform – the third generation of banking reporting, was made to be so intuitive so that you won’t need a training to use it. Until now we had to teach the users how to use our apps, now we want our app to know the user profile, to follow his natural workflow and to guide him in resolving his current tasks. Just like Facebook, you don’t need training for Facebook! Everybody, at any age, knows how to use it!
This application, Elite Reporting Platform, was a real success, as we managed to get it up and running in 5 different banks, 3 months after its launch.

What project forced you to be creative and innovative (if possible)

A real challenge happened when we implemented the statutory reporting for a bank in Bulgaria.
We received from the client the Bulgarian legislation in its mother tongue and of course we sent it to translation to a Romanian translator. The legislation was vast, and the translator said that it will be done in approximately 2 months. Considering the fact that the project had to be Live in 3 months, we couldn’t wait for so long… so we improvised. Using Google Translate (applied on Cyrillic characters), and afterwards, exactly as the children from Les Enfants du Capitaine Grant, we cumulated the translation with our experience in Romanian legislation, and we rebuilt the meaning of the articles that needed to be implemented.

What makes your company different from others in your field of expertise

We introduced in Romania the concept of Purple Expertise in Business Intelligence. Thus, we train in our BI Center of Excellence, 2in1 Purple experts: a person that can be both a business analyst and a developer in the same time. Purple combine 2 independent perspectives – business (blue) and IT&C (red). He takes the information that resides in business and it translates it in IT, unifying 2 sides that in general do not collaborate, as they are not compelled by the same factors.
A Purple owns a solid reputation in both departments and can easily swap sides. His versatility generates an immediate impact because he is used with parallel implementations, he embraces the changes in on-going projects and allows the beneficiaries to change their mind and rephrase their requests accordingly as the project advances.

How are your products innovative?

Our products are innovative through precision. When it comes to reporting to the National Bank you need extremely high accuracy, 100% to be exactly. Our advantage is that we don’t give up until we reach the required quality standards. In our field of work, being a hard worker is more important than talent, because the legislation keeps changing and you have to continually adapt.

What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years?

Taking in consideration that the banking legislation was unified across the European Union according to the standards imposed by the European Banking Authority, and the reporting solutions developed in Elite Reporting Platform – FINREP, COREP, Basel III and IFRS – have the same format in all of these countries, we intend to implement our application in other countries from EU.

What were your struggles you faced as a woman in this industry, in Romania?

I have never taken something for granted. With every new customer, I have to prove I can handle that task from zero. Even if I’ve done that several times before with other customers. The customer does not care about your past experience, awards or diploma, but the value you can bring to him today.
Of course, I faced all the clichés: I am a woman, I am blonde, I am too young for my industry etc. But my vision is far too high from all these minor realities, so I just ignore them and move on.

Why did you join Smart Alliance – Innovation Technology Cluster?

We joined this cluster alongside other complementary firms with the sole purpose to support each other and to offer integrated services to our clients. Together we are stronger! In the same time, I used this opportunity to know other entrepreneurs, to talk about their experiences and about how they approach different markets.

How does it benefit you?

I collaborated with multiple companies inside Smart Alliance, on projects and with their employees that I only had to “borrow” for a few days. This is a great prospect, because when I need extra hands for my projects I can talk with different friends from the cluster and help the project go live, other than hiring a person. Obviously, the service is mutual.

How do you see the evolution of the cluster?

I truly wish that our cluster will be visible enough so that will become a strategic partner for Romania when it comes to implementing projects in IT. We all know the cases where the money was redirected to companies that did nothing. I believe we can accomplish so much more, if we had the right people handling their specific projects.