Business Development Manager Tuomas Lappalainen is a satisfied returnee to Pinja in a new role of maintenance development tasks. Back in the day, he started as a maintenance account manager in Pinja’s organization and has now returned to a growing and internationalizing company. According to Lappalainen, one of the interesting aspects of the work is that it gives you access to a wide range of organizations and places that you would not otherwise see.
Tuomas Lappalainen is an experienced veteran in the field of maintenance. He has been involved in various deployment and development projects and has seen a kind of cut-through of the Finnish industry. He has gained experience in the energy sector, mining industry, machine shops, the food and brewing industry, as well as municipal actors such as water utilities.
– Actually, the only common denominator has been maintenance. Clients have ranged from small, ten-person machine shops to large companies employing hundreds of people. So it can be said that the flexibility of the system has really been tested, Lappalainen says.
Behind the role of Lappalainen as a Business Development Manager is the development of the business and the Novi by Pinja product, as well as a variety of other tasks that help us serve clients better, and support the client and project managers. He works as an account manager in development projects, and also participates in the delivery projects of maintenance systems in order to maintain a practical feel for the system delivery needs.
According to Lappalainen, a maintenance account manager does not need to know how to repair machines, but he must have a good understanding of the principles of maintenance, as well as the importance of the principles as a productivity factor. The basics of programming are also helpful in being able to have a natural conversation with software developers and evaluate a sensible and profitable way of doing things.
Sometimes an experienced and multitalented person like Lappalainen also comes across surprising work tasks. It doesn’t bother him – Lappalainen thinks about his work holistically and largely with the attitude of an “internal entrepreneur”. The most important thing is to serve the client well, and this, he says, has always been a guiding idea for Pinja.
– Account management and development is a versatile job that requires precision. We are expected to lead the way and develop continuously, and clients’ trust must be achieved by demonstrating our expertise. The practices found to favor Pinja do help, but it is equally important to do the background work carefully, understand the substance and keep in mind the commercial perspective, Lappalainen says.
Because practical work requires a lot of communication in different directions, extroversion is also important. Lappalainen says that he works closely with the software delivery team, product development, technology team and sales and marketing, among others. And of course the clients, too.
Pinja’s account and project managers have many accounts advancing at different stages at the same time. Managing accounts with a systematic approach is therefore of paramount importance. That is why everyone needs to find their own way to manage the project in addition to the materials provided by the teams, keep careful notes of big decisions, as well as the details, and handle the schedules and systematic nature of the work.
When the current Business Development Manager Tuomas Lappalainen first started working as an account manager, the maintenance software team consisted of only a dozen members. Over the years, the number of co-workers and different projects have increased, the clientele has become more international, and the employer’s responsibilities have widened significantly.
In a bigger house, the amount and nature of responsibility is different from what Lappalainen had before, but fortunately the company’s ERP and CRM systems support the work efficiently.
– Further advantages of a larger organization are better visibility and ability to have an impact, as a result of which sales and marketing also work differently than in a smaller organization. However, the best thing is that such a large house will be able to offer digital services for the entire lifecycle of the factory, as promised, Lappalainen says.
Lappalainen feels that Pinja has a wide range of jobs and career paths to provide, and employees’ ideas and development suggestions are really listened to. Employees thus have a real opportunity to influence the company’s operations, their own job description and the whole work community.
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