Andi STANCU

At some point in my career, I figured out I want to see the other side for a while. I wanted to be the client for a change. And I also wanted to experiment in corporate world, and understand how it works.

Romstal IMEX is a group of 7 different companies. Romstal, one of the groups companies, is the biggest sanitary ware distributor in Romania and one of the largest in Eastern Europe, with 200 stores in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia and Serbia.

I was in charge of Web Marketing of the group, with priority to E-Commerce in Romania. Among my tasks, I needed to:

• identify and organize providers, write briefs, evaluate work;
• interpret reports and create useful statistics on a daily basis;
• identify new opportunities, document and implement them;
• organize customer support department for online sales;

Responsible for client service and new business. While I had an important role in sales processes I was valued for my technical and project management skills.

I was able to understand requests from a business point of view and then translate them intro technical terms, easily understandable and acceptably by development team.

I was trusted with clients such as Aerotravel, Millennium Bank, Baneasa, Cofidis, Red Cross Romania, Danone, Eurisko, Gipo, Impact - Greenfield Residence, Jagermeister, La Mama, Cafepedia, Mastercard, Mobexpert, Omilos, Era Shopping Park, Orange, Polaris, Raiffeisen Bank.

My initial job was project management but it didn't took long before I was promoted to Senior Account Manager.

I encountered many challenges as I had to deal with a broken team and late projects. I successfully helped the team to get productive and take all the accounts up to date. I have accomplished all that by understanding the client and befriend with my co-workers.

My team became responsible, motivated and able to meet its deadlines.

Among my client portfolio there are a few ductch corporations, such as Unilever South-Central Europe (Dove, Rexona, Dero and Cocolino brands), ABN-Amro and Bosch - Siemens.

In this 5 years journey I learned on my own mistakes everything about administrative opportunities and limitations, client service on business to business level, quality control, project management, time management, resource management, contracts, budgets, accountancy, team integration & motivation and having fun while working.

I was taking care of administration, client service and project management. Initially I had two coworkers and as they were always busy with the work I provided. I had a lot of free time though. So I asked them to teach me how to help them, and they showed me everything about HTML, CSS, Java Script, PHP and MySql. I also learned a lot of Photoshop and I was reading every resource I could find on usability and accessibility.

This was the most important period of my career as I was deep into both offering good services and running a good business.

Because of my multiple roles in this business I was always watching that:

• All clients receive what they expect to receive rather then what they ask for. Integration and interpretation played a high role in this challenge;
• All the members of the team are proud of their work by combining the needs and the requests with current trends and challenges;
• Replace unsuitable requests with better proposals, documented along with facts and stats;
• All the products and services we provide meet the company's standards;

This is my all time favorite costumer. I'm still working for this client and I try to do my best. He is the oldest Apple Reseller and Authorized Service in Romania, doing a great job since 1994. I loved the owner's style and his passion about what he's doing. When I met them, they only had a price list on they're homepage. Step by step we tried to make the best online shop we could, trying to not compete with the greatest websites of them all - apple.com

This website is currently a one man show, where I do everything - as a hobby.

www.noumax.ro

This is a side project me and a co-workers started together while at Firedive and very soon it took over all Firedive resources.

Pictures sharing online service with a scent of social media.

This website is not very interesting if you look at it. However, it makes me very proud as it passed the test of time. As you can see it, it’s almost 5 years old. The owner is Paula Seling, the singer.

www.paulaseling.com and www.paulaseling.ro

Contracts, budgets, statistics ? I am can turn iWork and MS Office tools in favorable assets.

Stressful conditions ? Stress-free leadership and project management.

Difficult clients ? I am a good listener and interpreter.

Project Management

I consider my self to be a good project manager. As a kid, I loved Solitaire because I enjoyed taking a shuffle pack of cards and sort them. I like to watch a movie while a eat because I feel not all my resources are used otherwise. When I cook, I arrange my actions so there are no dead times and everything is ready at the same time. I keep track of my bills and always look for better ways to organize my income.

Team leadership

I am a good listener and I can always find a way to motivate my team. I can understand a developer goal and present the work as beneficial to everybody. I know about frustrations and satisfactions and I know how to make a project more desirable for the team. I know how to explain tasks and how to decline requests.

Usability freak

For years I have put much effort into studying usability issues in online projects. I am convinced that the easiness of online procedures can turn a business 180 degrees.

I'm currently looking for a long-term job that will help me both sustain my living in Amsterdam and integrate into dutch society.

I'm interested in new challenges.

I enjoy team work and dynamic environments.

I spend a lot of time in online behavior research.

Advanced written and spoken english.

Advanced written and spoken romanian.

Car (B) Driving Licence. I also own a presentable car and I'm willing to use it for work interests.

Andi's hands-on experience in developing interactive projects helped him better understand and run projects when he moved from developing to account management. What also helped him deliver on his job was, other than skills and proactivity, the fact that he related really good to people in all departments, working directly or indirectly with him. November 1, 2009

Andi is the kind of project manager that makes things flow easy and smooth. He gives great starting briefs and is very supportive and insightful until the end. It's so much fun working with Andi, that's why his teams always give their best. I recommend Andi as a very knowledgeable, involved and professional person to work with. January 27, 2009

This mac guy teaches me to play Wow. BTW he is an expert in online too. Very good team leader, creative person, eager to deliver just in time. November 3, 2009

A great account manager and team-leader. A mac user. A great friend. Very dedicated to his clients and his team. The master of the deadlines. And he is a very good programmer too. Call him, he's hot! June 18, 2008

My first impression about Andi, which I never changed after knowing him better, was that he is an extremely reliable and responsible young man, allways eager to help, optimistic and friendly. A man of principles that may pass sometimes as stuborn. July 16, 2008