Alice Cassie is the recently appointed Head of Consultancy at Escone Solutions, a business applications support and Consultancy provider. Here she gives us the low down on her career to date and her role as leader of a team of finance application specialists.
When did you join Escone Solutions?
I joined Escone Solutions seven years ago. After graduating with an Honours degree in Accounting and Finance at Robert Gordon University, I accepted a job as an International Wealth Advisor and headed over to Malta. However, the job wasn’t for me and so I returned to Aberdeen a few months later. I had heard that Escone was looking for someone with a background in Finance to join the team, so I sent over my CV and after an interesting interview I was offered the job!
What was your first job at Escone?
When I joined, there were only four of us including the co-founders Kev and Mike, who started the business back in 2015. My first role was as a Business Analyst. I had no experience with either eBIS or OpenAccounts, so it was very much about learning on the job. I initially started learning by answering and resolving tickets on Escone Assist, our super user Helpdesk and was soon given my own client projects to work on. The team were always there to support me and pass on their knowledge and expertise.
Can you tell us more about the Consultancy services Escone provides and how clients have benefitted?
We have clients from a wide range of sectors including transport, housing, oil and gas and education, all with very different requirements and ways of working. We listen to our client’s requirements, challenges, and work with them to identify improvements and solutions that are tailored to them. We also offer services such as System Health Checks, tailored solutions, system redesigns and upgrade assistance.
What has helped you most in your career?
The mentoring and support I have had from the team has been hugely important in my progression at Escone – they have invested a lot of time and energy in my training and development. Having knowledge of Accounting and Finance has also been a huge help throughout my roles, as it allows me to understand the language and processes involved when working with our clients’ Procurement and Financial teams.
Tell us about your new role as Head of Consultancy
Previously, there were two divisions, eBIS and Consultancy. A key part of my new role has been merging and streamlining these divisions into one. There are now six of us in the Consultancy team and we work on a variety of projects for different clients. An immediate part of my role was taking over as lead in the delivery of the consolidation and upgrade project for Transport UK. This was a large project with an extremely tight deadline, which involved a lot of hard work, late nights and the entire team working together to get this completed on time. There were a lot of plates to juggle when I first took on the role last year, but I really enjoyed the variety and challenge of it all!
What do you enjoy most about working at Escone?
I enjoy building and developing working relationships with our clients as well as the variety of the job. It’s been really rewarding over the years to be a key part of gaining new clients and maintaining our relationships with them. At Escone, we really care about our clients and will often go the extra mile for them. It is very much about offering a personal service and becoming an extension of their team.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I like to keep active and enjoy going to the gym and walking my crazy cocker spaniel. I completed my first Hyrox back in March in the mixed doubles event with Director Mike Charles. We completed the race in one hour and 29 minutes and I am determined to beat that time so can definitely see myself signing up for another one in the future! When I do decide to sit still, I enjoy watching engrossing TV shows – I am currently in the middle of watching Narcos!