Today we have selected Vassilios Zografos to take his interview. He is the CEO of interworks.cloud.
First of all, how are you and your team doing in these COVID-19 times?
We are doing great, thank you for asking. Since the first cases of COVID-19 in Greece, we took swift action by setting precautionary measures and inviting all our workers to work remotely, even before the government regulated this. For more than 18 months now, we have been implementing strict safety protocols while providing our employees the flexibility to work from anywhere.
Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company?
My three partners and I started this firm precisely 20 years ago. You see, my background, affinity, and passion have always been in the IT industry. Beyond my studies on Information Technology, I have always been a true believer in business automation and what technology can do to help businesses manage their day-to-day tasks effectively and boost productivity.
How does your company innovate?
For more than a decade, we have been working relentlessly to harness the benefits of the cloud, well before it became widespread, and make them available to many. We never stop imagining how we can improve and how we can further empower our customers. We have a steady vision that guides us and a two-decade experience in the industry. These elements, together with our customers’ feedback, boost our innovation.
How the Coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?
The pandemic brought a remarkable shift towards cloud computing, leading the industry to more resilient and sustainable growth. At the same time, widespread connectivity has made big data more available and accessible to businesses, whereas machine learning is being embedded into an increasing number of products and services. In this context, we have been working non-stop towards evolving our products and meet the growing demand for cloud automation.
Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?
The health and safety of our people (employees and customers alike) is a no-brainer for us. For this reason, we immediately switched to WFH. However, when we started working remotely, our top priority was maintaining a healthy remote working environment with high mental wellbeing levels.
Undoubtedly, managing a team remotely requires a whole different approach. So we had to quickly adopt new tools and processes and adapt our collaboration methods. The outcome has been so positive that we established a permanent Work-FromAnywhere scheme for everyone. Our employees can choose where they want to work from, if they want to come to our premises and how often.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to navigate this crisis?
As we discussed, managing a team remotely requires a whole different approach. We empowered our managers with tools that help them keep their teams together, engaged, and motivated no matter where they are. So, we started using tools to measure our employees’ pulse every week, thus understanding how they feel and what challenges they may be facing. More importantly, knowing employee pulse allows our managers to offer valuable mentoring.
On top of that, we organize regular 1-on-1 remote meetings. In these dedicated sessions, our managers discuss openly with their team members, address their concerns and commit to resolving issues together. Almost 1,5 years in WFH mode, we are proud to report that 86% of our team members feel their overall performance has not been disrupted. In contrast, 81% stated that the spirit of collaboration, togetherness, and open communication on which our company is founded had not been affected by the pandemic.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Our competition lies in the cloud automation sphere. While there are formidable companies with very good solutions, we offer a unique combination of technology, expertise, experience, and innovation. Product-wise, we keep adding new features to our platform to address customer needs and industry trends. Such as the Standard Edition for Resellers, allowing distributors to easily upgrade their resellers to said Edition and provide them with valued autonomy to set up configure their very own Marketplace.
Customer-wise, we form win-win relationships with our customers/partners, and we help them grow their channel as we grow. And people-wise, we keep expanding, adding more and more experts to our global workforce. In less than a year, we have attracted more than 40 new hires.
Your Final Thoughts
The lockdown and remote working necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic were an unexpected reality check for organizations of all sizes. The new reality imposed by the pandemic turned the world upside down but gave a new impetus to cloud computing and digital transformation. At interworks.cloud, we work non-stop to help our customers. And partners successfully navigate this journey and make the most out of the new opportunities in the industry. We have both the experience and the tools, and we can’t wait to share them with cloud businesses worldwide.
- Spokesperson: Vassilios Zografos
- Company: Interworks.cloud
- Website link: https://interworks.cloud