In early 2020, we announced our acquisition of British, AIM-listed payment and fraud specialist Mi-Pay. It was a momentous occasion for the Alphacomm family. In this blog, we ask our team about the expansion and what has changed for them.

One day you’re national, the next you’re multinational with offices in four countries. What’s it like to work in multicultural teams across multiple time zones? To mark the one-year anniversary of the takeover, we decided to reach out to our team members and ask them.

Monica Turcu Bălin – HR & Office admin – Sibiu, Romania

“It was a good thing for the growth of the company and the people.”

Daily role: Monica is HR & Office administrator at the Mi-Pay office in Romania. She is positive about the acquisition and what that has meant in practice.

“The time difference works in my favour, as I can get to the emails I didn’t get to, before anyone from the Netherlands wakes up!

Other than the occasional Dutch conversation I sometimes find myself in, language differences are not really a problem as we all speak fluent English. As for the cultural differences, I think it’s a learning curve for all of us.”

Daniël Schurr – Operations Manager – Rotterdam, the Netherlands

“It felt like a natural expansion of what we were already doing within Alphacomm.”

As Operations Manager at Alphacomm, Daniël Schurr is responsible for making sure all our Dev teams are operating at their very best at all times.

“As for the business side of things, we added some expertise that we did not have before and in general gained a lot of quality, nice and very likable people. At the end of the day, the goal remains to achieve a situation where everyone is able to perform optimally.

The only downside is that due to the pandemic, we haven’t been able to visit each other in real life. Luckily, we got a chance to visit last year. So we did see each other at least once. In Sibiu, I experienced we all love good food and a drink or two, so that’s more than enough common ground to start off with!

Regarding differences in time and culture, as long as we don’t plan a session too early in the morning or too late in the afternoon, we’ll be fine. We all speak fluent English, so I’ve encountered no issues there. Though perhaps, you should ask that question to the people who talk to me!”

Charlotte de Groot – Operations Reloads and Payments – Kleve, Germany

“I think both companies will benefit greatly from joining forces. The acquisition provides an opportunity to combine the best ways of working for both sides.”

Charlotte is our Stock and Portfolio lead. She keeps an eye on digital inventory and regularly adds interesting new products to our portfolio.

“My work has changed in so far that the growth of my career was sped up pretty fast. I now also get to work with almost all departments which makes my work very challenging and fun.

The fact that some of my colleagues work in Sibiu and others in Rotterdam or UK/Ireland and therefore in other time zones, does not affect the way we work together that much and I also love to talk with my colleagues about non-work related topics.

I love learning new languages and get to know other cultures, so I am very happy that I can experience both whilst working and that also gets me connected a bit more to those who I’ve not seen yet in real life! Looking forward to an after-COVID meeting with everybody.”

Daniel Pruna – ServiceDesk Analyst – Sibiu, Romania

“I can say that all the experiences brought us together, even if we are meeting online.”

Daniel drives customer satisfaction by handling tickets and alerts. He’s also in charge of monitoring and testing our systems 24/7.

“The acquisition of Mi-Pay from Alphacomm was a big step for us and a new open door to the future. As for the cultural difference, much has remained the same. We mostly communicate in English, which is already the language we communicated in before. Above all, what’s important is the connection and the experiences we share.”

Catalin Draghici – Product Owner Paymaxx – Sibiu, Romania

“The acquisition of Mi-Pay by Alphacomm solidifies the strong leading position that both brands built across the digital payments world.”

In his role as Product Owner for Paymaxx, Catalin is responsible for setting, prioritizing, and evaluating the work generated by the payments team.

“The acquisition of Mi-Pay by Alphacomm was a reviving start for me. Alphacomm with its new set of business goals and core values are a fresh breeze to this day.

In the months following the acquisition I shifted from the Project Management role within Mi-Pay, towards a more focused, challenging and exciting role of Product Owner for our digital payments solution.

Since the acquisition my work has become more structured, more focused and better driven by clear core values and business goals. The acquisition improved my working process, applying the Agile principles in Scrum brings numerous benefits and accelerates my professional growth.

The 1-hour time difference is easily manageable, flexibility plays a big role.

The language and cultural differences in the company are a welcome spice, especially in these challenging times. Sharing experiences, helps us navigate our day-to-day challenges with more ease.”

Nicolae Duta – ServiceDesk Analyst – Sibiu, Romania

“The acquisition brought new opportunities and challenges to our work.”

As Service Desk Analyst, Nicolae monitors our ticketing systems, takes care of troubleshooting & reporting and continuously tests transaction flows.

“I think there is not a big time difference, and we can easily keep in touch using email or other social platforms like Speakap, MS Teams and Slack.

My opinion is that cultural differences should not influence us in any way. I am a sociable and open-minded person. Not only that, but I like to meet new people and listen to their stories.”

Quinn Ponidjo – Product Owner Collectmaxx – Head of CSM – Rotterdam, the Netherlands

“We have gained a group of hard-working, reliable colleagues, full of enthusiasm and knowledge.”

Next to pursuing a perfect product-market fit for Collectmaxx, Quinn ensures that the customer implementation and use of the solution is always a success.

“Given our goal, the acquisition of Mi-Pay was a good move. It got a bit busier. There’s a better work process. Now we have more departments and more colleagues, that focus on the right activities.

As for the time difference, sometimes it’s a bit trickier here and there, but I don’t feel like it’s annoying for both parties.

Now and then, you have to search for the right words. We do express ourselves differently. But otherwise everything is fine, everyone speaks English, and we always have Google Translate as a backup!”