我们想休息五分钟跟安德鲁·希尔聊聊, 我们的方案架构师, to find out a little bit more about what he does here at Ampersand and to get his perspective on the world of ecommerce in the new normal.
Hi Andrew, so tell us a little bit about the work you do at Ampersand
I help our clients to get the best “bang for their buck” by defining solutions that are effective and help drive value from their investment. 我有各种各样的工作量, which involves getting me in front of clients early on in projects to help define scope, 阶段和预算.
Once solutions are defined I help the delivery and development teams to understand them and ensure that we deliver what we’ve promised. I work with the QA team to help define the detailed acceptance criteria for a solution so that clients can sign-off on the solutions we have defined. Most days I spend working with both technical and non-technical teams, 帮助弥合他们之间的鸿沟.
你通向&符号的道路是什么?
我以工程学位开始我的职业生涯, which led me into some technical disciplines but I actually migrated into a more functional role as a business analyst at Centrica (British Gas). That role became increasingly technical over time and so I refocused my attention specifically on programming and web development. I left Centrica to set up my own web development company with two friends; this actually coincided with me emigrating to Cyprus! 七年后，我回到了美国.K and took a role as a development manager at a CRM company where I managed a team of developers for four years, 构建定制的web应用和移动应用. I then joined Ampersand in 2015 as a lead developer, moving into the solution architect role in 2018.
是什么让你在这里呆了五年?
在过去的五年里, 我们有目的地改变了交付转换项目的方式, 以及随之而来的挑战, 随着不同的客户工作, 对我有真正的价值吗.
而&符号则以客户为中心, 我们还有一个非常强大的技术支柱, 这显然影响了我们作为机构的声誉. 我有技术背景, it’s great to work in an environment where we give the right weight to strong, 弹性和有效的技术解决方案. 我们从不偷工减料.
The teams I work with (that’s our clients’ teams and our internal team) are really fantastic so very often it doesn’t feel like work. Working with clients to help them realise their goals is what I enjoy the most.
Can you share some exciting projects that are happening at Ampersand at the moment?
We continue to engage with some really exciting brands and retailers who have a wide range of problems to solve. One of our clients is in the process of transforming their stores nationwide; meanwhile they’ve engaged Ampersand to realise their ambition of trading online. 这些机会在很多方面都是Ampersand的理想选择, 凭借我们强大的技术实力, ten years’ retail experience and our unique Accelerator approach (which you’ll hear more about in the coming months).
What do you think the impacts of COVID will be on the ecommerce industry?
I think a lot of people are thinking online first when they shop now and realising that there’s a huge amount of products and services that can be delivered right to their doorstep. And so we’re seeing an increase in retailers investing in their ecommerce strategy and coming up with innovative ways of presenting and marketing their products and services.
What do you think the next few years will have in store for retailers? (没有双关语)
I believe that many retailers are realising that they can be much more effective with improved search and merchandising tools. These tools help customers to find what they want quickly and improve conversion but they also push high value and popular products under the consumer’s nose. The rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence in these sectors will also allow more personalised shopping experiences, 和丰富的, 在每次访问时向购物者展示更相关的旅程. 我们与各种搜索密切合作, merchandising and personalisation providers to help get retailers to market quickly to leverage this technology.
Much has been said about the rise of augmented reality in ecommerce over recent years but we’ve never seen real evidence of retailers and brands really exploring this space. I think that the lack of clear direction in the underlying technology means that this is unlikely to change any time soon. Of course the effects of the pandemic might accelerate developments in this field.
Thinking about Ampersand’s New Normal, what do you think your hybrid working model will look like?
整个团队已经过渡到远程优先的工作场所, 采用新的技术和工具来实现这一目标, 非常棒. In the new normal I see myself visiting client sites again and working from our Manchester office to keep up with the team and have some of that non-work related chat and banter, 这是我怀念远程工作的地方吗.
话虽如此, working at home for the last five months has had its benefits: the commute to my office is always smooth and I get to hang out with Poppy too (see below)!
安德鲁的家庭办公室成立了
波比在桌子下面闲逛!
