Career path — Tapsa Nylander
Scroll down and discover what an Account Manager does at Pinja!
Maintenance with strong expertise
I’m Tapsa, and I work at Pinja as an Account Manager for the manufacturing industry. My job description consists mainly of customer relationship management and project coordination for the maintenance management system Novi by Pinja. When a client buys a system from us, I go through with them what should be delivered, the timeframe, the objectives, and the steps to be taken. Although maintenance is pretty much the same everywhere, it’s interesting to see the variety of clients I get to work with – from the food industry to power plants.
Novi by Pinja helps in work management – daily maintenance work is the hard core of Novi. Novi contains all preventive maintenance plans, uptime, maintenance work performed by production operators, and much more. It helps maximize the lifetime of equipment, so you don’t have to buy new equipment so often.
One of the most recent moments of success in my work was when I was able to finalize the documentation for a longer deployment project for a client. The document was worked on for a year. In larger projects, the challenge is in managing the numerous small tasks that accumulate. But when you make the client happy, you can be satisfied that your expertise is of value to others.
Although my role is self-directed, my job is to work in a team which includes myself, a couple of other Account Managers, and a Product Manager. Like other Novi account managers, I have a background in maintenance. It has enabled us to use our mutual knowledge to improve the system, for example by thinking of useful functions. We happen to be a fairly like-minded bunch – it might be because the job attracts certain kinds of personality, or perhaps the work forms us.
The best thing about my workplace is: Flexibility. I get to decide how my day progresses and what I focus on!
My career path
The development of my career path
Graduation as a Master of Science in Engineering in production economics
I studied production economics at Lappeenranta University of Technology, majoring in logistics. I think that studying logistics has given me a good start to my career. Logistics is the management of the flow of information, materials, and money within a company. It helps me understand clients’ situations – when they explain their starting point, I can open up the discussion, and present different perspectives. I may already have a solution to the challenge in my back pocket.
Towards maintenance
I started my career in a ventilation fan company, first as a summer job alongside school and later in sourcing. After that, I worked for a while as a sourcing manager for a tool import company. I realized that it wasn’t for me, and had to find something else. In 2008, I became a maintenance engineer at a cement factory when they were looking for someone to supervise subcontractors rather than an engineer who understood how to repair machinery.
From Maintenance Planner to Group Maintenance System Manager
When it was decided to take over the outsourced maintenance of the cement company, I was made a Maintenance Planner. I worked as a Maintenance Planner for two years, and was the administrator of the system. On that basis, I was asked if I would like to join the group’s incipient country-wide SAP project, which quickly expanded to European scale.
I became a process owner in the maintenance of European factories. My task was to define how SAP would be configured, and how it should work in all European factories. It gave me an idea of what process management is, and how all areas of the company are interlinked. When the Europe-wide SAP project was completed, a person with an understanding of maintenance was needed to design the appropriate action plan for maintenance globally. That’s how I became Maintenance System Manager for the whole group in 2017. After a few years of doing that and becoming all too familiar with airports, I started to think about doing something else.
To Pinja as an Account Manager
I started working as an Account Manager at Pinja completely remotely. The equipment was delivered by mail, and the orientation was performed remotely. The first time I saw my colleagues was at a development day, when we went to see what it’s like to work with clients, and what they go through. At first, I was involved in smaller Novi by Pinja maintenance system deployment projects, working with a partner. The partner was responsible, and I was there to watch and discuss, to learn how to do it. It gave me a good basis for my own projects.
In a deployment project, it’s the details that matter
One of my favorite projects is a commissioning project for an energy company. It was quite simple, and the client was represented by really nice and knowledgeable persons who were a pleasure to deal with.
The deployment project started with a kick-off day, where we went through with the client their wishes for the system, so that we don’t build a yard swing when they really want a snowmobile. We clarified the timeframe targets, the working groups, and what will be introduced in the system.
The Novi environment was then set up to the server, and the first data transfers from the client’s systems were performed. We had project days with the client, where we went through all aspects of Novi one by one, and compared them with the planned finished version. We arranged as many project days as it took to ensure that the Novi version was exactly what the client wanted. The last step was to replace the client’s old system with Novi, i.e. the actual deployment, and to train the system users.
A thorough definition makes it easier to manage a large project
For larger projects, the first step is to define the system, which takes several days. At the end of the definition process, we may have a large amount of product development on hand for features that the client wants Novi to include.
In such larger projects, product development needs to be managed, which involves test cycles and documentation. In addition, integrations with other client systems must be made to ensure their interoperability with Novi. It’s not difficult to do, but you have to keep your finger on the pulse. Thanks to a thorough definition, we have a clear specification to make the job easier. The reward is to see the project through to the end and the system successfully deployed to the client.
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At Pinja, I can make my voice heard!
What does being a datalover mean to me?
It means that the challenges we discuss are always resolved, and we can talk about serious work issues and non-work matters in good spirit. You get the feeling that what you do is appreciated.