This month’s Claritas Spotlight is on Head of Database Solutions at Claritas, Andy Tate.

Tell us about your role at Claritas

I run the database solutions team and develop the operational processes that the department follows.

I also manage a number of Claritas internal systems.

How long have you been at Claritas?

10 years 3 months. I started July 2006 after being made redundant by one of Claritas’ customers. I was then approached by Claritas employee, Wes Rowland, and asked if I would come to work for Claritas.

What prior experience do you have?

I have 32 years experience in Information Technology. My previous job was to ensure the day to day running of all the company servers. I was also the only software developer and wrote the original identichip website and database solution.

I have written various applications in my career, in a number of languages eg. rpgII, Cobol, informix 4gl, coldfusion, and C#.

What would a normal day consist of?

• Ensuring Claritas internal systems and Client hosted applications are running
• Providing support to internal users on various applications eg. Paperchase, Sharepoint, Team Foundation Server
• Writing database solutions for clients
• Providing support to the technical team for database / application issues

Why is your role so important to Claritas’ customers?

Most applications these days connect to a database; if the database is not available or has performance issues, the client is going to have performance problems with their applications. This leads to end users having a negative experience of the application.

What’s your favourite part of your job?

The best thing about my job is that every day is different and I love diagnosing problems and coming up with the correct solution.

Tell us a couple of quirky facts about yourself

I ran the London Marathon when I was 18.

For me, everything has to be black or white, there can be no grey areas!

What 3 things would you take with you if you were spending a year stranded on a desert island and why?

• A hammock to sleep on as I would hate to be on the ground with all those pests. This can also be re-purposed as a fishing net or a bag for carrying things
• A book on survival – Hopefully this would enable me to learn how to survive for 12 months
• Sun cream – I wouldn’t want to get sunburn on my tropical island!