How is it that someone of 34 already has 12 years of EPM experience?

As a student, I did an accelerated bachelor's degree in business economics. And during my senior year, I got the chance to combine my studies with a traineeship at The Hackett Group, at the time one of the EPM companies in the Netherlands. They were looking for new talent and so I rolled into the EPM world as a 20-year-old rookie.

Was that a good learning experience?

Yes indeed, I joined the team of Martijn Nauta, who now also works at Bart & Partners. Martijn was my manager and mentor, so to speak. Together we ended up with a big client, Sara Lee.

That's where a world opened up for me. Suddenly I was going to Sara Lee headquarters every day in a suit and tie, where we were one floor below the CFO. So yes, that was a huge learning experience for me. I ended up working there for 3 years on different projects.

How did you like that apprenticeship?

That involved trial and error, which is actually part of that age. But that's where you learn the most.

Such as?

Well, it introduced me to the IT side of business economics. With pretty niche products like Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and FDM Classic. And it was clear to me very quickly: I don't need or want to go into accountancy. I did not aspire to a controller position at that age.

And I learned early on what kind of environment I thrive best in. The person who hired me at the time said, "Leslie, the Big Four isn't for you. You're not going to bring out the best in yourself there. You value mutual relationships, both with clients and teammates, so you don't really have an over my head mentality.' And yes, in my view you do need that mentality if you want to go to the Big Four in the direction of partner.

We are now 12 years on and you have been an independent partner at Bart & Partners for 2 years. What is your specialty?

My specialty at the moment is HFM and FDMEE. Before that, I also worked with Tagetik and briefly with Onestream. But I am basically a jack-of-all-trades. I know how to find my way everywhere. Before I started at Bart & Partners, I worked for a while at a logistics SAAS provider. Completely different from EPM, for which I had to focus more on project management skills and also develop SQL skills. That went well for me. I naturally pick up new things quickly.

Is that where your strength lies?

I think my social and communication skills are my strongest points. Within a team, that's where my strength lies. I am also good at scripting, in a number of languages, but others are better at that. They really excel at it.

Customer contact, customer loyalty, sounding board with a customer, that's what I like. And being the lubricant within a team that makes everything run smoothly again when things are not running smoothly.

EPM is a technical profession, but so there is also a piece of EQ involved?

Yes. Look, as long as everything is going well with the customer, then social skills are less relevant. The customer is satisfied, so they won't easily argue with you. But if things are not going well, or a customer is not satisfied, then it helps if you respond empathically.

The beauty of EPM is that you need a good mix of people. People with tremendous knowledge of the system, the technology and who love nothing more than coding and building beautiful things. Give them a suit of requirements and they'll build it for you. You also need people who like to sit next to the customer. Who know how to translate customer wishes into technical solutions and provide advice. I belong more to the latter group.

Do you get your energy and job satisfaction mainly from working with customers?

Yes, but also from the cooperation with my colleagues. Because together you arrive at the best solution.

Speaking of colleagues, you've been working with the folks at Bart & partners for 2 years now. How do you like that collaboration?

Very good. Everyone at Bart & Partners I actually already knew. I had worked with many of them before. I don't want to say that it feels like coming home, but I did land in a well-spread bed.

Everyone has the same mindset. Building something beautiful together for the customer. You really share that with each other. In addition, they are all very open and sociable colleagues.

What are you currently working on?

Last two years I was at Ahold Delhaize. I'm still working there now, but that will be scaled down soon. Meanwhile, I already have a new job through Bart. I also want to continue to develop myself. As far as Oracle is concerned, I'll be fine for the time being. But OneStream in particular has piqued my interest in recent months.