A day in the life of: Sue Roberts

I suppose there are some aspects of daily routine that are 'normal', - the teeth brushing, the cereal, the supper but who wants to read about that?

I love my 45 minute journey to work - strange I know - but 45 minutes to think and plan my day or put closure on the day just gone helps to keep my head together! And with the top down on my Mazda MX5 convertible to blow the cobwebs away, I couldn't ask for more!

Amatica is such a diverse company and my role covers so many aspects that sometimes it's hard to stand back - one exception to that is the actual software development; there I have to leave it in the capable hands of Jenni Allen our Solutions Architect and her team. We'll discuss and plan projects, technologies, resources etc., but when it comes to the design and code, that's her domain. It makes delegation really easy!

I rely heavily on Diana Cook, our Accounts Controller to help manage the company's finances. Amongst other things, she will monitor resources against budget, track cash flow, manage the purchase and debtor ledgers, help with forecasting and draws anything untoward to my attention. I can't always come up with the answer but I can try!

In the course of most days, there will be something personnel related to do. We are always on the look-out for good .Net developers to extend the team and we have recently had a round of interviews which is always interesting. We'll have another new starter at the end of the month if all goes according to plan!

We always start the week with either a management meeting or what we call a 'round robin' meeting where everyone in the office highlights what they are working on that week and co-ordinates if and when they might need to call upon the resources of others in the team. It helps to bring the development and technical team up to date with some of the pipeline opportunities that the sales team are nurturing and to reassure the sales team that the projects they have secured are developing according to plan! It also gives Diana the opportunity to identify when invoices can be generated!!

There are always potential clients to contact, queries to respond to, opportunities to evaluate, research and planning. Amatica has recently been accepted onto the High Growth programme run by the NWDA so my consultant is making sure I try and put some thinking time aside but finding time to communicate back to everyone else in the team is a challenge in itself!

It's just as well I enjoy being busy…. No two days are the same.