Welcome to our latest meet the team blog

Welcome to our latest meet the team blog. Today we introduce Lee Sutton who joined Bedford in January 2022. Lee is a Care Consultant, working with customers to provide ongoing support via our managed service programme. In his spare time Lee enjoys swimming, cycling and running (sometimes one after the other…).

What made you consider joining Bedford?

I was really excited when I found out about the role at Bedford as I had heard great things about the business and I liked the idea of getting back into Anaplan development after being a model builder at a previous company, Thomas Cook.

What are you most proud of?

I’m really proud of the time spent with our managed service customers, coaching them and helping them to become better Anaplanners.

What’s your favourite part of working at Bedford?

I’ve really enjoyed the atmosphere. No matter who I talk to, everyone is always happy to help and in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you need to worry about asking questions. This has been particularly surprising given the remote working set up.

Describe Bedford in 3 words

Inclusive, supportive, friendly.

What’s the company like? How would you describe the team culture?

Based on my own personal career experiences, I would describe Bedford as a gem of a company as it has managed to reach and maintain the highest levels within the industry whilst still keeping a fantastic working environment and culture. A culture that allows employees to grow and develop due to the supportive and humble nature of everyone who works here.

How would you describe a typical day?

With our ongoing support programme, Care, “typical” is not something I would use to describe any day as it really is a more reactive environment. But often the day starts with reviewing any outstanding customer queries to ensure they are getting the answers and support they need. If I’m not booked out on Expert Advisor time, I will generally review any outstanding customer outreach tasks and then I will spend time on internal projects or looking into ways that we can offer more value to our Care customers.

What’s the most important skill that someone will need to succeed in your role?

Agility! We are constantly moving between models and customers, and you often have to very quickly assimilate their model and request in order to provide the support they need.

What is the biggest challenge that someone in this position would face?

Often, the biggest challenge is prioritising requests in order to ensure all of our customers are getting the support they need, when they need it.

What have you learned in the last six months?

During the last six months I’ve been working on a project to help improve our Platform Health Assessments. My main contribution to the project has involved learning to write Python scripts that can extract various model elements and evaluate them against best practice rules. It is hoped this tool will also be able to be used by our internal model builders to ensure that we constantly develop our own skills in order to keep delivering best in class models for our customers.

Why do you stay at Bedford?

My role at Bedford gives me the opportunity to both develop my own technical skills whilst also coaching others to pass on what I have learned. All within a company that leads by an example in ensuring its core values are instilled in all of its employees.

To meet some other members of the Bedford team, click here.