Hi all!
This month, we’re delighted to shine the spotlight on @timjeens, Head of IT at Cambridge Design Partnership. With nearly a decade in his role, Tim leads a small but mighty IT team supporting around 200 users - overseeing everything from infrastructure and security to end-user experience.
Within the Advania Community, he’s been an active voice in conversations around AI strategy and IT best practices, contributing to existing threads and posting his own questions - this one around different AI tools might give you some food for thought 👀
We’re thrilled to have him as part of the Advania Community and can’t wait to see more of his contributions as we continue to grow.
Tim was kind enough to join us for a quick Q&A to share more about his work, what inspires him, and his advice for others. Read on to get to know him better ⬇️
——————————————————————————————————————-
1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your role.
My name is Tim Jeens, I am Head of IT at Cambridge Design Partnership, I have been here about 9 years now. We are a team of 3, looking after around 200 users. I own the entire IT infrastructure and end user support. All the networking, servers, cloud environment, IT security, AI, meeting rooms, End user computers and their support.
2. What’s your favourite part of your work?
I enjoy that my role is very mixed and varied, some days I get into the thick of it with end user support, and then the next day server maintenance, the next management of the staff, then meetings with the higher ups. Right now I am making training videos on the use of AI as we are just about to release it, making and editing the videos myself in Premiere.
3. How does Advania support your goals?
Advania have been helpful over the years, my account manager Hazel Saunders is always responsive and willing to help out. I like the new forum and have had a few helpful replies to my posts.
4. Can you share a project or achievement you’re proud of?
There are a couple I am quite proud of, the migration of our local data into Egnyte, it was a big undertaking, and I got my entire team involved in the set-up and creating training materials, etc. Also, a few years ago, I migrated all our servers to our cloud; I did it sneakily so that no user noticed the move with zero downtime. But with that, I had to migrate the servers again within the system, as I had made it a few years ago, the virtual networks gateway was of an old style, and the only way to upgrade it was to make a whole new network. So, set up the new one, then had to figure out how to get the networks to communicate so I could have servers in both places, then we moved them, with minimal downtime.
5. What’s one tip or insight you’d share with other community members?
Take control of the AI rollout asap, to ensure that confidential information isn’t be leaked, and that people aren’t using the wrong information in their work.
6. When you’re not working, what do you love to do?
I love to Canoe with my wife, a couple of years ago we bought our first Canadian canoe (Venture Ranger), a super stable boat, and went on short and long journeys, we even documented our progress in YouTube videos, search for UKCanoeing on YouTube or Google. If you’re around Cambridge, you’ll likely see my driving around with the Canoe on my roof.
7. Quickfire fun:
Favourite tech tool or app right now? NinjaOne
Go-to productivity hack? AI assistants are super useful, careful with what you put in, and what you get out of it though.
First job you ever had? Toys’R’Us Warehouse Assistant
Big thanks to Tim for sharing with us 👏
If you’d like to be in the spotlight one day, the way is simple: get involved, share your insights, and engage with others here in the Community 🚀
