The team at Springthrough comes from a variety of different perspectives. While we all have a passion for technology, that takes shape in different ways professionally and personally. To give you a glimpse inside our doors, and the many personalities that make up our team, we've asked our team members to share some thoughts on their work, their interests, and their experience at Springthrough.
Meet Eric Koopmans.
Eric started working at Springthrough in November of 2015. He works as a Solutions Architect.
How would you describe your work day-to-day?
My days are thankfully comprised of an array of different work. The variety is one of the things I really love about consulting and helping businesses with their technology strategy. Each day is another challenging and complex problem to solve. Most of my day-to-day work does involve strategic planning and consulting with businesses who need it. I also spend time working on RFP responses for new projects, aligning architecture for web hosting solutions in cloud services like AWS and Azure as well as data center environments, and planning requirements and needs for integration projects. I also write blog posts from time to time.
What has challenged you the most?
Without a doubt the largest challenge I have is keeping up with the pace of technology and solutions that exist. I can't do my job without a high level of playful learning and a technology inquisitiveness. I need to know a lot of detail about a lot of business systems and be able to adapt quickly to each company's environment. The good thing for me has been my history across my career and my natural need to know how things work and connect. These experiences have set me up for success as a technology strategist and architect of things.
What is your proudest moment here?
Each time one our clients experience an "aha!" moment by implementing solutions we have developed it is a pretty proud moment. We truly exist to make sure that these initiatives not only are completed on time and budget but also change the way our clients do work and measure success for the better. I know it is a cop-out to not narrow it down to one proud moment, but we end up having so many throughout the year it would be short selling it a bit to leave some on the table.
What were you looking for in a position when you came here?
I was looking for a team and a company that fit my values and that offered extremely challenging yet varied work. Like most creative folks, I find I am easily bored and I probably would go insane only working on one initiative or one project for an entire year or more. I thrive in situations that put me outside my comfort zone because I know I am learning and growing each time I take on that challenge. I haven't been disappointed yet, and the challenges exist here because our clients continually present us difficult issues to solve and because I want to help them get through the slog, so they can operate in the smartest most efficient way possible.
What has surprised you in your time here?
The most surprising thing at Springthrough is the variety of work we do here. When I came to Springthrough I had a notion of what was happening here or at least I thought I did.
What do you for inspiration/rejuventation?
I play a lot of sports for rejuvenation and for fun. I mostly play golf and soccer and also spend some time doing the winter sports like snowboarding and some cross country skiing when I am hankering for a twisted ankle. For relaxation and inspiration, I spend time with my wife on our hobby farm - raising chickens and gardening and looking forward to starting an apiary next year.
