5 minutes with Sam Butler-Thompson

Sam Butler-Thompson is Q2Q’s senior web developer and sums up his creations as ‘systems, simplified’. Find out more about Sam in this Q&A.

• Describe your role at Q2Q in one paragraph
  As part of the development team at Q2Q, I produce a range of solutions to relieve the headaches caused by inefficient or overly complicated business processes. Whether this involves building a public-facing e-commerce website or a business information system, I help make the headaches go away!
• What’s your favourite part of the job?
  I enjoy entering each day with a new challenge to face – new problems require new solutions, so it never gets boring.
• What does it take to be a great senior web developer?
  Creativity is essential, particularly the ability to address a customer quandary with a simple, yet innovative solution.
• If your colleagues could sum you up in one word, which word would they use?
  Steadfast.
• What did you want to be when you were growing up?
  I grew up around IT and technology, so I am what I wanted to be – that boyhood dream becomes further realised with every challenge I face!
• The phone rings and it’s your dream enquiry – who would the client be?
  It’s not the ‘who’ part that interests me, I’m more intrigued by the challenge – the stranger the better!
• What’s the biggest IT challenge facing SMEs in the current business climate?
  SMEs are provided with so many different systems to fulfil a variety of purposes that it can get confusing – CRMs, WMS, eCommerce, marketing platforms, social media management platforms – the list goes on. Having such a surplus of data, without the means to make it work together, results in difficulties at the top-level of decision making processes.
• If you could change one thing about the IT sector, what would it be?
  There are lots of varying solutions available for an array of business problems, but very little seamless ways that these can communicate and work together effectively to benefit the user. I’d like to see the industry do more to integrate key business platforms and provide clarity to customers, so they can make smarter decisions to drive their organisation in the right direction.
• What are your hopes for Q2Q over the next 12 months?
  We have lots of ideas for innovative solutions to address many of the daily problems SMEs face, especially regarding data aggregation – I hope we can make these a reality in the coming months.
• If you could pick any 3 words to describe Q2Q, what would they be?
  Fun. Understanding. Innovative.