At Namos, one of the things we love most is helping our customers get the most from their Oracle investment. Our Managed Services team are a vital part of this, so who better to tell us about that than our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Service Delivery Manager, Matt Panayides!
Tell me about your role within Namos.
I’m the ERP Service Delivery Manager within Managed Services. I head up a team of 6 people, who support our customers post go-live, through implementations, and customers who have been using Oracle for many years, who may have changed Managed Service providers. I am responsible for supporting the ERP (Finance) side of Oracle, covering Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) too. My role is to ensure that we are providing a smooth service to our customers, and they are getting the best out of their Oracle platform.
We follow an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, through incident, change and problem management so that quality is upheld.
Can you talk me through your previous experience?
I’ve been in the Oracle space for 15+ years, predominantly as an Oracle Consultant. I’ve worked in the Managed Services space for 13 years, supporting customers originally through E-Business Suite. I’ve covered a range of different modules, and I’m pretty much a jack of all trades! But it has made me a very well-rounded individual.
The main thing I’ve enjoyed about my career is the different roles I’ve played. I’ve always worked in support, but I love listening to the customers, really understanding their frustrations, learning about things that are not working well for them and finding a solution together.
What led you to join Namos?
Initially it was familiar faces! I’ve worked with a lot of the Namos consultants in the past, but it was the Namos values too. I previously worked as a Functional Consultant at PwC via the Mokum acquisition, but my passion is for customer service. I felt that I could bring the experience I gained (along with my ITIL experience) into Managed Services at Namos. After speaking with Chris and Richard, and hearing about the work they were doing in the Cloud space, the freedom they give their employees to grow their knowledge with the support of their peers, is what ultimately inspired me to join a great team.
Namos felt like a family, one team. At times people look at Managed Services as a stepping-stone into Consulting, but it’s not the case. You can build a very successful career in Managed Services. It gives you the opportunity to hone your skills across the entire Oracle suite, but it also provides you with an opportunity to hone your listening, work on projects, focus on skill gaps, and advise customers on the best and modern ways of working. Namos are passionate about ensuring that our customers are getting best out of us.
What do you love about working for Namos?
For me, it’s all about the mission statement: ‘Big enough to deliver, small enough to care.’ I have a very strong work ethic and I’m passionate about building good, strong relationships with our customers. Namos strives to build relationships both inside and outside of the workplace, and we really do aspire to be a trusted advisor to our clients.
Talk me through the typical roles you recruit for within your team.
I look for well-rounded ERP Functional Consultants, and Technical Consultants too. It’s an added bonus if they are Techno-Functional! Having a consultant who understands the end-to-end process really does save a lot of time. It’s not essential, but someone who can adopt an active listening approach, or conduct solution design, is useful too. As an example, some of our customers struggle with their approval setup, so having someone who understands how approvals should work, adds a lot of value to our customers. Ploughing through the work is great, but someone who can focus on the value-add aspects really does improve the way we work. It’s looking at the bigger picture, automation to ensure the customer is not doing unnecessary manual workarounds.
What qualities would make someone a good fit for your team?
Personality, passion for what you do and what you believe. Someone who understands what it means to have ticket management, and how that leads into change, ensuring that testing is done to a high standard. The build is key – delivering the work to the customer’s expectation – but at the same time it’s about taking the pressure away from the customer, by providing detailed testing evidence and supporting them through User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
Oracle skills are also vital, as is staying up-to-date with Oracle updates and Artificial Intelligence (AI) – someone who keeps the customer at the forefront of their mind and reports back with thoughts and recommendations. Working with them to build out the solution.
Which aspects of your work are you most passionate about?
Everything! There is nothing I dislike. The value-add is why I joined Namos and why I’ve stayed in Managed Services. Yes, there will always be challenges, and there will always be things that work for you that may not work for other clients, but it’s all about working with them to help them get the most out of their investment. It’s about examining their business scenarios — how they operate internally, how they report, and whether Oracle can help them achieve something (or via another method). It’s seeing the ideas you have suggested to customers turn into actual enhancements – seeing them make a difference, whether through process efficiencies or automation. It’s being able to take the burden from employees, taking the script from them, asking, “why are you doing it this way? Have you tried doing it that way?” Sparking forward thinking and changing the mindset on how they approach tasks.
What does the future look like for your team?
Global domination! We are expanding into the United States and Europe. During 2020 and 2021, we said that we wanted to be the best in the UK, but now we want to be the best Managed Services team in the world. We’re looking to grow and introduce more service lines into Namos, but it’s also about looking at the whole AI piece, and how our teams will keep abreast of those changes by upskilling. It is really and truly about being a trusted advisor. Our customers come to us for expertise and innovation. I like to see us as an extension of their team. I treat our customers as family – what affects them, affects us. We are looking at automation of testing and environment management, but we are increasing our portfolio management and keeping abreast of new technologies.
What advice would you give to candidates starting out in the Oracle world?
Be yourself. Be inquisitive. It’s about getting to know the application and its limitations and immersing yourself in Oracle technology. There are lots of resources out there – use Oracle University, and the Explorer badges. Keep pushing yourself. If it is something you’re passionate about, you will end up succeeding. Don’t be afraid to take new things on.
Join us again next month, when we’ll be talking all things Human Capital Management (HCM) with our newly established HCM Practice Director, Duncan Davies!
About Namos Solutions
Namos Solutions are an award-winning Oracle OPN Modernised Partner specialising in the implementation and support of ERP, EPM and HCM business solutions, both in the Cloud and on-premise.
Although based in central London, we work wherever our clients need us to be. Many leading organisations located all over the world trust and rely on our expertise to deliver industry-leading business solutions. Namos customers can currently be found in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, North America and Africa.
For more information, please visit www.namossolutions.com or email info@namossolutions.com.
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