Customer support manager Brian Nugent discusses the appreciation he and the wider delivery team receive from Advancetrack’s accountancy clients.
What is your current role and responsibilities?
I’m the customer support manager – it’s a role I’ve held since it was created in November 2020. This primarily entails me looking after the support desk, i.e. tickets coming in and helping clients with onboarding. The latter involves me training accounting partners on our platform and then dealing with their queries as things progress. These are my main tasks but in reality, I will do a bit of everything, really.
What is your background?
I have an applications support background in the medical sector, including 16 years at BMI Healthcare. I was made redundant in January 2020. At the time my wife and kids were in Madrid in our new home, and then lockdown happened and I was stuck in the UK. I got to Madrid in June with no job, in a new country, didn’t speak the local language and with my family – very daunting!
I reached out via LinkedIn, looking for work, and Advancetrack CTO Ian Gregory said there might be an opportunity. Ian and I had spent time together at BMI. Things moved quickly; I then spoke with Advancetrack MD Vipul Sheth, and that was that.
How has your role evolved over time?
It was a new role when I joined, so it was about me making the job to some extent. I jumped in with both feet: I learned about accountancy; and how outsourcing and offshoring worked. At the beginning I worried about having enough work, but then I looked into how Advancetrack’s platform is used by our accounting partners, so I got involved with helping them.
As I said previously mentioned, I’m now involved in billing, credit notes and the onboarding side of things. Client onboarding has become an important part of what I do; I liaise with the sales team and the delivery team in India to allow for the seamless integration to the accounting firms we work with.
What do you enjoy most working at Advancetrack?
The accountancy space is great to work in. All the clients are very friendly and grateful for the work we do. For example, in healthcare it was within hospitals and there wasn’t great feedback, whereas conversations are more pleasant and constructive here.
It’s great to see the impact we make to the lives of people in the firms we work with, allowing them to have a real work life balance and actually take personal time; even go on holidays with their family.
I also get great support from Ian and Vipul too; of course it’s great to earn a salary but I like the appreciation of people I work for and with – that goes a long way.
What makes it tough?
When I first started, it took a while to understand how I would work with the Indian operations. But once some communication hurdles were crossed then things became a lot more straightforward.
What excites you about the future at Advancetrack?
As we’re growing, we’ve some very exciting things around the corner, and that will impact my role as Advancetrack continues to grow. In the shorter term, I could argue that our podsourcing offering is an example where my work has been made easier – it’s such a compelling offering that it answers some of the queries and issues that our accountancy partners sometimes have with outsourcing and offshoring.
I’ve also enjoyed working closely with our new sales manager (Rishi Ruparelia), who has been a breath of fresh air… even if he is a Spurs supporter.
