Amazing Things Have Come Out of Something Others Don’t Want to Do: Elīna Jakubaņeca

While she wanted to avoid becoming a project manager once again in her life, it did bring her to leading the team working with Vaisala’s strategic shift, bringing its data and analytics ecosystem to SAP Cloud, which Elīna refers to as one of the two “stellar” projects of her life.

A love for the IT world and embracing challenges

Before joining our team, Elīna was no stranger to the world of IT. With an education in finance, her career began at Rietumu Bank, but her passion for IT was already what opened the doors. She had really good Excel skills that were put to use in the implementation of reporting to the credit register of the Central Bank  — and, as Elīna laughs, one of the first tasks she took that no one else wanted but that has become an important step in her life.

Transitioning to IT and embracing Agile

Elīna's background in finance led her to join IT Alise (later bought by Tietoevry) in 2005 as a finance consultant. She went from a functional consultant to a project manager very quickly during her time there. As she shares: “This is also the time when my interest in Agile appeared. It was still a relative novelty at that time, and I’m proud that my team was one of the pioneers implementing this approach in our work.”

In 2010, Elīna embraced a new challenge and co-founded SIA eBIT, which later merged to form Autentica, where she worked until 2021. Autentica is an IT company operating in the fields of digitalization, automation, and robotics. Her journey with these companies saw growth from 20 to 100 employees. After more than ten years in a leading position, Elīna was ready for a change. She decided to switch her career and embrace the world of data analytics.

Growing communities outside of work

Before diving into Elīna's experiences as a part of our Scandic Fusion team, it’s worth taking a step outside her professional experiences. A fun fact about her reveals that she’s a community builder.

When her interest in Agile methodologies grew, she was among the members who, in 2006, founded Agile Latvia, a community that aims to spread information about Agile practices among Latvian software development professionals and industry newcomers. They were ahead of time. “We were holding conferences, inviting international speakers to share their experiences. The word “agile” was not even used that much. This happened before “agile” was a buzzword,” shares Elīna.

Another community to which Elina has added her fair share of magic dust over the years is the Baltic Geospatial Information Technology Conference.

^"I got involved in organizing the conference, because nobody else volunteered from my company. I am really, really proud of what Baltic GIT conference organizing team has achieved and me being part of it.

Elīna shares when asked about her activities outside of work. “It all started in 2017 when I came back from maternity leave. Latvian State Forests offered several other companies the opportunity to organize a geospatial information systems-themed conference. I had previous experience organizing conferences and agreed to participate in this project. In the end, a four-person team, including myself, Dana Spulle, Katrīna Amerika, and Māris Kuzmins, created an amazing conference with a specific niche but quite a crowd interested in this field.” In the first year, they had 300 attendees; the second time, they made the conference more international. Now it has grown from Latvian to Baltic GIT Conference with around 500 attendees each time taking place in another Baltic country. “The biggest appreciation of our work that we see is that sponsors come to us asking: “So when will the next conference be?””

Life at Scandic Fusion

Familiar with Scandic Fusion before joining, Elīna was drawn to the company's commitment to quality and the culture of continuous learning.

^"Quality is paramount to me, and I'm grateful that at Scandic Fusion, we prioritize clients' needs, often anticipating them better than they can. I think this strongly aligns with our culture of learning. Without it, we couldn’t stay a step ahead of our clients. Another thing I appreciate is a culture that evaluates people based on their skills and achievements. Justice is crucial; ensuring fair evaluation of all employees is important to me.

Another aspect that stands out to Elīna about Scandic Fusion is her trust in the company's leadership team. This trust is crucial for her peace of mind, ensuring she doesn't have to worry about the company's direction or future plans. She appreciates the transparency and reliability of the leadership team, the company's growth, and its clear vision, which add meaning to her work and highlight the absence of stagnation or routine. In her opinion, this dynamic environment is why many employees remain with Scandic Fusion for the long term.

Funnily enough, Elīna's journey as a data analyst at Scandic Fusion started with working on the same thing she worked on when her career began – the credit register. Therefore, she describes her transition into her new role as a data analyst as both challenging and rewarding. She often experiences moments of self-doubt, feeling like she has much to learn despite her extensive background. However, these feelings are balanced by "eureka moments" when her previous experiences seamlessly integrate into her current projects.

^"I’m a human who doubts a lot, always needing to check if everything is right. I feel I lack deep understanding, knowing why things are as they are from books and not experience. It will take me years to truly dig to the root of things. Regardless, I have these moments when everything clicks because what I’m working on is on the border between my new role and the things I have done before. It’s a great feeling!

Vaisala’s project – when everything falls in the right places

When asked if she has had some noteworthy moments while at Scandic Fusion, Elīna immediately mentions Vaisala’s project, she describes it as one of the most fascinating and rewarding projects she has ever worked on. She emphasizes that projects of this caliber are rare and that being able to work on one is a significant highlight of her career; therefore, she refers to it as a “stellar” project.

What has made this project stand out? Elīna highlights three main things to create a perfect blend for a fantastic project experience:

• Stellar project team with self-motivated, experienced members;
• Productive and positive client relationship;
• New and exciting technology.

Amazing Project Team

The project was remarkable due to its highly motivated and experienced team. Elīna highlighted the seamless collaboration where every team member knew their role and performed it excellently. "You don’t have to try to get these people on board, to motivate them to do the work, or to educate them. They learn themselves," she explained. This environment allowed everyone to focus on their tasks and enjoy the process, making the project a pleasure to work on.

Productive Client Relationship

Another key aspect of the Vaisala project was the productive and positive relationship with the client. The client had a clear understanding of their goals and what they wanted to achieve. This clarity and shared vision fostered a highly efficient and effective working relationship, allowing the project to progress smoothly.

Innovative Technology

The project also stood out due to the innovative technology involved. It provided an opportunity to learn new skills and explore new tools rather than merely replicating previous work. Elīna found this aspect particularly engaging, even though it came with its challenges. "With new technology, sometimes everything is changing on the go, and you try to catch what you can, and that creates an extra layer of stress, but it’s still interesting for you as a specialist," she noted. Each day brought new learning opportunities, contributing to the growth of the entire team as professionals.

Continuous Learning: A Data Analyst’s Journey

As Vaisala’s story shows, there’s no escaping learning for a data analyst, and as Elīna admits, it can be challenging to keep up with every new development. For any newcomer to the field, she emphasizes the importance of Ralph Kimball's and Margy Ross' book "The Data Warehouse Toolkit" as the foundation, explaining the structure of systems and how they are being developed. Elīna agrees with it often being referred to as the “Bible” of data warehouse modeling as she admits: “Every time you read it, you can discover something new.”

Besides the foundations, she also shares that for any data analyst, what one learns depends on the technology one works with because it’s impossible to cover everything.

^"If we compare it to, for example, ERP systems that are already relatively stable, then in the world of data analytics, you have something new all the time. It is like a rollercoaster.

Elīna admits that she should probably follow SAP news, for example, as that’s the technology she works with. But because she’s still relatively new to data analytics, her solution to keeping up with everything is following the lead of more experienced colleagues who follow the latest developments and filter them, sharing with the rest of the team the parts that are relevant to their work. For example, recently, we had our internal event called Meetup of SAP enthusiasts: “Brew & View: Cheers to the new possibilities of SAP BO 4.3” – a clear representation of our learning culture at Scandic Fusion that Elīna really appreciates.

Besides that, when there’s a topic Elīna gets really hooked on, she likes to dig deeper by going through books, articles, and any other material she can find on the topic. While she also does this with topics not related to her role as a data analyst, she recently got curious about the term “data governance” and how it’s being used by her colleagues and clients but with some mismatches of the meaning. So, of course, she had to dive right into it, and you can read about her learnings in here article: “Two Burgers, French Fries, and Data Governance, Please”.

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If you are passionate about data, eager to learn, and ready to embrace change, Scandic Fusion might be the perfect place for you. Explore our career opportunities and join a team that values quality, innovation, and collaboration.

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