03 / 09 / 2024
At Arxus, we love to put our people in the spotlight. In that spirit, we gladly tell you about Tim Wolfers’ amazing journey. Since he started out in 2011, when Arxus was still a small startup, he has witnessed our growth first-hand. It’s partly thanks to Tim’s continuous efforts and dedication that our organization stands where it does today. And we’re extremely honored that he’s still a proud member of our team, after all those years.
In high school, Tim studied tourism, which gave him a fair advantage when it comes to speaking several languages. However, he gave in to his insatiable curiosity for everything technological and enrolled in a college education in computer sciences. When he had to choose an internship, he got in touch with Arxus and well... He never left.
“The opportunity at Arxus was all about delving into technologies and expertise that I hadn’t been in contact with before”, Tim says. “I was eager to learn and took the first chance I got to stay here.”
When Tim (and Hans, his fellow student) started, our team at Arxus included only 5 people. His role? Junior Cloud Engineer. Together with his colleagues, Tim helped manage the Hosted Messaging & Collaboration Platform (HMC), a solution in our private Microsoft cloud for email, data and CRM. Not much later, Tim grew into the role of Medior Cloud Engineer, where his focus and expertise shifted to SQL Servers and Office 365.
With the introduction of Office 365 Wave 15, we started incorporating Microsofts public cloud services in our portfolio. That’s when Tim emerged as an architect, drawing out migration projects and making sure our customers switched flawlessly to Office 365. Eventually, Tim even became Technical Lead of the Productivity Team, which we now call Microsoft Modern Workplace (Office 365 services, remote desktop solutions, Active Directory …).
“The Modern Workplace Team is all about delivering a productive and flexible work environment for our customers, without compromising on security and collaboration. We want to help businesses evolve towards a full-fledged hybrid working space, with managed devices via Microsoft Intune, cloud telephony using Microsoft Teams, and more. We want to build a managed services portfolio of the Microsoft Modern Workplace within Arxus,” he concludes confidently.
So, it came as no surprise to his colleagues that we ultimately asked Tim to become our Modern Workplace Tribe Lead.
As Tribe Lead, Tim doesn’t only tackles technical things. He also manages the team and aims to support customers from a strategic point of view. And it’s that kind of variety that keeps him engaged and on his toes.
“Salahdine (the other Tribe Lead) and I operate in tandem. Sure, he usually takes on the more commercial part, but we’re really doing things similarly. And working together like that is awesome, much better than just staying on our separate little islands.”
However, carrying the title of Tribe Lead was something Tim had to get used to. “I’m grateful that I got the opportunity to follow leadership trainings. In my opinion, those helped me become a better leader. I’ve learned to think along the lines of business logic. And yet I’ve still been able to stay true to myself and my love for everything technical.”
At Arxus, we always look for innovative solutions, just like Microsoft. And that fuels Tim’s enthusiasm and commitment. As soon as he starts taling about Microsoft and Modern Workplace, he completely lights up. “We recently organized a Technical Night* at Arxus to talk about things like CoPilot and the security aspect of Office 365. There’s so much to still be done and discovered. I see it as my mission to prepare customers for all the changes. And for impact they could make.”
He pauses then continues: “I actually think the most interesting topics and questions come from customers, not from Microsoft. By tackling those issues, with the available Microsoft technologies, we can put a lot of experiences in our backpack. And those can be used to support other companies during their transition to the modern workspace. It’s such a fast-evolving world. So, you really have to keep up to speed, but that’s what I enjoy most. The modern workspace is still changing massively. Just consider AI, automation, hybrid work ...”
* Technical Nights are events we organize at Arxus to bring colleagues together and inspire each other on certain topics and technologies that are currently hot and happening (or more traditional but still just as interesting or even crucial).
Needless to say, we’ve been growing a lot since 2011. Not only on a technical level, but our community has evolved immensely too. In the beginning, it took us more or less a year to grow from 5 to 15 colleagues. Now we easily gain that many people in a matter of months. But in terms of organization, that takes some adjusting.
Tim’s two cents: “The entire company had to mature. You want everyone to feel at home here, to get equal opportunities, and to stay connected to one another. I try to do the same within my own Tribe. And I can tell you: it’s not as simple as you might think, but definitely worthwhile.”
The most important part of our way of working at Arxus is striving for sustainable, long-term relationships with our customers, even after a project is over. In that spirit, Tim describes it as a painting that is never finished. “Both the customer and we are holding the brushes, but we always sketch before we start painting. And maybe we’ll repaint bits, or refine a part of the drawing, or scratch the piece altogether. As long as we’re co-creating.”
And that’s how he feels about us too: “For me, Arxus is most of all a place where I get all the space I need to develop and to keep on learning. Because standing still is the same as going backwards”, Tim says pensively. “I enjoy our organization’s flat structure and the fact that everyone’s always ready to lend a listening ear. You can truly count on the community to help you out when necessary. So, I’m definitely still here to stay, for a long time!”
Definitely check out our vacancy page. We hope to meet you soon!
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