Meet Alfi: Sharing his insights into the world of IT and evolution

Through the relentless efforts of our employees across our regional offices and our site teams, we continue to excel and achieve our overarching business goals. Each department throughout our Group undoubtedly plays a valuable role in the delivery of our services.

This week we spoke with ICT Systems Analyst, Alfi, who shared with us some of the career experiences he’s had since joining the Carey Group in 2014.

When did you join Careys?

I joined our sister company, BDL Dry Lining, in 2014, before it was acquired by the Carey Group. I consider myself lucky to have been a part of this exciting change.

Pursuing a career in IT

“Technology is no longer evolving; technology IS evolution.” The biggest benefit of information technology is that it simplifies what we want to do. It does this for each and every one of us.

After earning my Masters degree in Telecommunications, I wanted to be part of a team that focuses on the technological growth and future success of a business. Being a member of the team at Careys has allowed me to experience the perfect combination of growth aided by technology.

Day to day responsibilities

Day-to-day my job involves managing the first line, second line and technical service desk team, responding to internal customer incidents and queries. This includes:

• Maintaining ongoing communication of incident updates to our users
• Managing the service desk, which is staffed with support specialist, support desk analysts, 1st line support analyst and ICT general administrator
• Maintaining the incident ticket database and ensuring the tickets are set to correct priorities and are within the SLA for response and resolution
• Maintaining ticket updates with notes on current status
• Liaising with senior management on P1/P2 incidents
• Liaising with third parties on root cause analysis for third party services
• Training and mentoring service desk analysts and technical engineers
• Scheduling team members to provide backup support whenever needed

What I enjoy most about my role

My role presents new challenges every day and gives me the opportunity to use technology to provide amazing and interesting solutions – which is the fun part. It is exciting and empowering to be able to support colleagues throughout the business, helping them to effectively and efficiently deliver their tasks seamlessly.

Technology is changing every day. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and the learning curve is sharp. An application which worked only last month could suddenly become obsolete once updates arrive. So, you constantly have to stay ahead of changes in technology, and this, in itself, aids my growth – both personally and professionally.

My favourite project

We currently have a lot of ongoing projects, which range from technology support requests raised by employees, to creating new systems for new team members through infrastructure changes – all of which add value to the business.

Our ServiceNow implementation has elevated our service delivery to the next level. It has been one of my favourite projects to work on.

ServiceNow has made our services automated and has replaced manual, time-consuming tasks with automated workflows. It has boosted employee satisfaction and productivity by giving them access to a convenient online experience.

Overcoming obstacles

Challenges that we face are always lessons learnt. As a team we are standardising our procedures and documenting our solutions so when similar situations arise, we know how best to address and resolve the challenge.

My advice to anyone looking to pursue a similar career

If you are looking for a challenging and rewarding career that enables you to be in line with the continuous evolution of technology, and you have a desire to provide solutions, this profession checks a lot of boxes. Equip yourself with the with the right tools and you will be a front runner. IT is a field where your ability to adapt to new technologies counts, so prepare yourself to learn something new every day of your career.

What the culture at Careys means to me

At Careys, our culture is exactly what our tagline says: ‘We Care’. Delivering safe, high-quality and exceptional levels of customer satisfaction – our values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are reflected throughout the business.

An interesting fact about the IT department

As a team, we are continuously learning and implementing best practice from around the world. We’re not only resolving issues, but we are also preventing many issues from happening in the first place.