DAN - SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT TEAM LEADER

History
Dan joined First Data from school in 1990 as a Data Capture clerk, with no IT experience or real inclination to work in IT. The job was close to home, a lot of his school friends were joining too and he thought he would earn some money while thinking about what to do with his life. He progressed rapidly and moved regularly between departments, gaining experience in a number of different areas of the business, including Testing, Client Services and Surround Systems. Most recently he moved into the Solutions Architecture team, where he has been promoted to Team Leader.

The Job
Dan is responsible for a team of 7 people, made up of permanent and on-shore & offshore contract staff. As well as being the general point of reference for his team, he carries out the initial design for specific solutions and communicates this to the team, whilst working with the client and other areas of the business to ensure that his solution is fit for purpose. He is sometimes required to visit Athens to work with the team there, and is in regular contact with colleagues in Dublin, Orlando and Australia, as well as liaising with the offshore contractors.

Working at First Data
Dan enjoys his role and is passionate about working for First Data and about delivering a professional service to customers and colleagues. The role of Team Leader has allowed him to develop new skills and he is looking forward to utilising them further as his career with First Data progresses.

NICKY - BUSINESS ANALYST

History
Nicky joined First Data in 1998, having previously worked as an Office Manager. Her first role was as an Assistant Development Co-ordinator, an administrative support position working with a Project Manager. She was soon promoted to Development Co-ordinator and, 3 years after joining, successfully applied for a role in the Business Analysis team, where she has been working ever since.

The Job
Nicky’s role as a Business Analyst is essentially about gathering requirements from her clients, communicating these to the Solutions team and ultimately making sure that the solution is fit for purpose. She has worked on a number of projects, which have involved visiting clients and other First Data sites on a regular basis. She has recently attended a training course at our VisionPlus Academy in Athens, where she has been given some of the knowledge she will need to deliver solutions to her clients when they migrate to the new platform.

Working at First Data
Nicky enjoys the challenges that her role throws at her and the responsibility of the position. During the busy phases of a project, and there can be lots of those, she works long hours to ensure that the clients requirements are delivered on time. Her manager allows her to offset this to some degree, by allowing her to work from home on occasions or by taking some time-off in lieu. She is not sure how her career will develop from here, but is confident that her manager will be supportive in whatever she decides to do.

JAMES - APPLICATION DEVELOPER

History
James joined First Data in 2000, having been approached by a former manager from his previous employer, who had himself moved to First Data. He joined the Client Services team, primarily working on the telephones, but after 4 months saw an internal advert for a vacancy in IT Development. Even though he had no IT experience, he applied, successfully completed the IT Aptitude Test and was offered the role. He underwent a 10-week Assembler course in Southend and then took up his new role.

The Job
James has just completed his most recent project, which was working on the installation of a new third-party, merchant-acquiring system. Previously he has done a lot of work on the authorisations process and Switch / Maestro migration, which has involved coding, unit and system testing, some design work and technical support for the “go live” phase of projects. He is also part of the team providing out-of-hours support on a rota basis, where he is on call to deal with any client problems for one week in every eight.

Working at First Data
James enjoys working in his current team – they are very busy, but this has helped to generate an excellent team spirit, which is further enhanced by regular social events. He has attended a number of VisionPlus courses recently and is looking forward to putting this training to good use on his next project, where he will also be building on his mainframe programming and coding experience.