Meet Alexis Rombaut, our system architect
Eight years ago, Alexis Rombaut first joined Zeticon, where over the years he witnessed a profound evolution in the workplace. He saw the start-up grow into a professional environment, where he is now a fixed value in the team and takes on the role of system architect.
THE WAY TO ZETICON
Alexis got to know Zeticon in the working group at the University of Ghent thanks to Professor Paul Lagasse, who was also the owner of Zeticon at the time. Alexis was looking for a bigger challenge as a researcher, after which the ball got rolling. The original architect at Zeticon was also a supervisor at Ugent, so Alexis' work was not unknown to them and they allowed him to join the Zeticon team.
CAREER IN ARCHITECTURE
Alexis started his career at Zeticon as a developer. His very first assignment was immediately one for a major customer, Videohouse, where he was responsible for video processing and transcoding services. Alexis was responsible for the incoming video material and made low-resolution videos to publish on the website. Gradually, he became engrossed in the ingest and export process, which allowed him to take over the role of architect after a few years. Currently, Alexis' task consists mainly of monitoring the entire architecture of Mediahaven and keeping the long-term vision in sync.
"The product is getting bigger all the time. If you have a nice core, but new things are added all the time, you have to make sure that the core remains compact and flexible enough."
NEW DYNAMICS IN THE WORKPLACE
Zeticon has undergone a huge evolution in terms of employees, structure and customers. Previously, there was a young atmosphere and few employees, so everyone took on different tasks. Zeticon has doubled in numbers, both in terms of employees and customers, so there was more need for structure. Because of this, more challenges came on Zeticon's path and now there is more manpower to realise them effectively and smoothly. On top of that, the structure and planning also provides more clarity; you can better assess whether an assignment is feasible and when it can be completed.
"Before, you wanted to put on ten different 'hats' at the same time and take on extra tasks. Now there is room to take off a few 'hats' so you can focus more on your own main task."
Nothing but praise about the atmosphere; it clicks well with all colleagues, but a boundary between work and private life is maintained. This boundary is extremely important when receiving and giving criticism during a pitch or assignment, so that feedback is not taken personally.
FUTURE PLANS
Alexis prefers to deal with the technical rather than organisational aspects, although the ambition to learn remains strong. In general, software development, more specifically programming, remains largely stable and not much will change in the long run. However, he does find further training very interesting in order to gain experience with new technologies, such as workflow engines. As they are currently working on SpringBoot, a Java framework, Alexis thinks it would certainly be useful to keep up with that.
"We won tenders from larger foreign players before. We can dream of continuing this pattern and even expanding to other countries in Europe ... The sky is the limit!"
WHAT MAKES ZETICON UNIQUE?
improving our products.
"Zeticon is able to develop a Belgian product, which is technically very high quality and which can match up perfectly with bigger players. With a more commercial drive thanks to Chris and Cronos, we can realise very nice things."
For 10 years, Zeticon has been refining its own product, maintaining it, removing elements and rebuilding them. It becomes so extensive that you can compare it to a bridge: "When you finally get to the end, you have to go back to the beginning again to maintain the bridge."
Application
At Zeticon, we are always looking for motivated colleagues to strengthen our team. Do not hesitate to send us your CV!
