Introduce yourself 👋

Lorena Seco de Herrera Ortega · 2025-03-26T10:10:19+00:00

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Welcome to the Advania Community!

We're so glad you've joined us 😊 This space is all about connecting, sharing, and learning from each other.

We’d love for you to introduce yourself - here are a few prompts to get you started, but feel free to share whatever you like!

What's your current role?
Where are you currently based?
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

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Lorena Seco de Herrera Ortega

I'll go first! 🙋‍♀️

What's your current role?
Senior Community Manager
Where are you currently based?
London!
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
I joined Advania around half a year ago and I'm pretty much still learning and discovering the wide range of products and services that the team manage. It's exciting to think what's yet to come as we expand our capabilities.
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
Real examples of peer-to-peer support at it's finest! (amongst lots of other things😅). Can't wait to see the collaboration and advice based on the knowledge and experience from our clients and how it leads to hopefully finding solutions and saving time!
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?
How busy London is again in the mornings! Pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels. Not sure if I like it or not but it has been interesting to see how it progressively got busier to the point that I might have to change my office days if I want to book a desk at the office or avoid waiting for three tubes in a row - the hustle and bustle is back! 🏃‍♀️

Dan Robinson

What's your current role?Solution Expert – Employee Experience/Modern Workplace
Where are you currently based?London and Reading
Where are you on your journey with Advania?I am now over two years into my journey with Advania. I have expanded my role and feel like part of the furniture. This is my first pre-sales role after coming from 19 years working with the internal IT structure for a large organisation so it have really been a journey of discovery for me.
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?I am looking to engage with both existing and prospective customers. I want to see how we can use Advania services and products to help people get the most out of their IT journey.
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?In my role there is always something new to learn. Recently for me its been how organisations can leverage Copilot chat to bring AI Agents to a wider audience.

Zaid Parker

What's your current role?Senior CSOC Analyst
Where are you currently based?Cape Town
Where are you on your journey with Advania?about 3 years in
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?networking and gaining opinions on the best way forward
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?It's really easy to schedule meetings with people perceived as "Busy"

Sergey Zelenov

What's your current role?
Technical Architect
Where are you currently based?
London
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
On the very surface of it - less than 1 year in… but the roots go way back to Content and Code where I worked from 2014 to 2019! 😉
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
Strengthen existing client relationships and maybe build new ones!
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?
New Microsoft Purview data security controls for the browser & network - a very promising technology!

Pravesh Kara

What's your current role?

Security and Compliance Product Director

Where are you currently based?

Where are you on your journey with Advania?

Fixtures and fittings territory

What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?

Amazing insights that will help me shape the services that our community really values

What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?

Real time deep fakes are really easy to do. Surprised and concerned!

Sheldon Mckay

What's your current role?
Internal Lead Architect
Where are you currently based?
Cape Town 🚠
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
I joined Advania UK about 3 years ago. I enjoy learning about people and their views! Which typically gives a great level of insight. 🌍
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
I would like to have an understanding of what the community of Advania UK thinks, and network.
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?
How quickly things can change in the world.

Adam Jamal

What's your current role?
Senior Azure Consultant
Where are you currently based?
Reading, UK
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
I joined Advania around a year and a half ago and I'm so happy to be part of an amazing team who are constantly pushing the boundaries.
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
To better understand our customers journey; how they feel their journey is progressing, the good, the bad and the ugly. How we can help them on that journey so the bad and ugly are no longer the cause of sleepless nights.
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?
DeepSeek used Open AI's models to train its LLMs

Masuma Shariff

Hi all

What's your current role?

Technology Associate in the Architecture & Security Department

Where are you currently based?

Manchester

Where are you on your journey with Advania?

Almost at a year now. Will be a proper year in May. I'm always learning something new, whether it be new Microsoft technologies or even about the corporate environment and how it works. It's a never-ending learning journey.

What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?

I'm hoping to learn from the Advania experts and read what they are doing/ challenges they run into. Will help me understand more about how to work around similar challenges or pick a new learning item.

What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?

There's a rise in AI safety regulations - especially after a French AI summit, where there have been a release of draft controls, roadmaps and standards that should be considered. A good touch on AI governance and risks.

Luke Farrugia

What’s your current role?

I’m Head of Demand Generation at Advania UK, but also doing some bits on the RevOps side of things too

Where are you currently based?

I’m based out of the London hub, but live out in West Sussex, about 30-minutes from Brighton

Where are you on your journey with Advania?

I joined in 2024 to help elevate our brand, drive demand, and help us grow efficiently, across strategic verticals including Insurance, Financial Services, and Public Sector.

What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?

I’d love to see this Community become a space where we can share real insights, what’s working, what’s not, and how we can better support our clients in a rapidly changing landscape.

What’s one thing you’ve learnt recently that surprised you?

How many organisations still see IT purely as a cost centre. Even in 2025, there’s a major opportunity to shift that mindset and reposition IT as a value driver and strategic enabler.

Paul Westlake

What's your current role?
Enterprise Architecture Team Lead within Architecture and Security
Where are you currently based?
Moved out to North Dorset in 2021 and elected to work remotely, but started working from Reading 1 day a week when I took on the Team lead role in October 2024
Where are you on your journey with Advania?
Embedded.. Having started at Content & Code in January 2017 in Technology Enablement, I have seen the phenomenal growth to where we are today./
What’s one thing you’re hoping to get out of this Community?
Enable ongoing conversations with clients beyond the end of project engagements to understand what challenges they have after we have helped design and implement M365 features.
What's one thing you've learnt recently that surprised you?
Our Tech Associates! They bring such brilliant energy and are unincumbered by the knowledge of decades old technology!