”Meet Acubiz” is a series of articles that’ll take you behind the scenes at Acubiz. They’ll tell the stories of the everyday heroes. In this article, the spotlight is turned towards Michael Andersen, who is Brand & Communications Specialist.
When did you start working for Acubiz and why have you stuck around?
I’ve been with Acubiz for 3 years on February 1st, so my anniversary is coming up soon. The short answer to why I’ve stuck around, is that I’m happy with my colleagues and the work I get to do.
At the same time, I don’t feel that Acubiz has peaked yet as an organization. I believe there’s a huge potential for us. Both in Denmark and abroad. Many companies have seen the light of day and are working – either fully or partially – digitally and automatically with expense management. However, there are still many who haven’t embraced the solutions offered by us. I think it’s exciting to help spread the word about Acubiz.
Can you tell us about the role of the marketing team in Acubiz?
In marketing, we tell the outside world who we are, what we do and what we can do. Acubiz was put in the world to make everyday expense management easier for employees, finance departments and management teams. When employees perform their work, expenses will always arise to some extent. Our task is, amongst others, to tell how and why it’s possible to streamline these processes. It can be communicated in a myriad of ways and through many different media. We try to mix the right cocktail.
Something we do a lot of is delivering relevant and useful content that solves problems and is valuable to our readers and audience. We need to deliver content that’s actually useful. We use different marketing channels to distribute, but the basic idea is that we deliver content with value.
At the same time, we also inform customers about new updates, functions, etc. We want the new features that we develop to be used by our customers. After all, the features help to make everyday life easier for them. The whole organization naturally helps with that – especially our implementation consultants, support and sales, but we certainly also have a great responsibility in marketing.
What are your responsibilities in Acubiz?
If I have to divide my work tasks into categories, they would be communication, digital marketing, social media and events. I’m pretty lucky to have diverse workdays. One day I can immerse myself in some text for a blog post or a whitepaper. Another day I help shoot videos or plan and host events. Then of course there’s also everything in between. That can include preparing presentations, ordering merchandise, coming up with new content for our social media and SEO optimization of our websites. In addition, I also work with our visual identity and branding.
There’s room for many colors in our marketing palette. I’m lucky enough that I get to paint with many of them. I’m a generalist, which I used to see as a weakness. Today, I think that the role of generalist is as strong and important as the role of specialist.
What is the biggest difference between the Acubiz you started working for versus the Acubiz you work for today?
In terms of work, my time at Acubiz started with the marketing department going on a digital education journey. We really needed to boost the use of digital marketing. Today, pretty much everything runs digitally, and many of our processes are automated. That’s the biggest difference in terms of work
From a purely organizational point of view, a lot has also happened. When I joined the team, Acubiz was an owner-managed company. Acubiz has, while I have been here and the years before, grown on pretty much all fronts. It has resulted in us being acquired by Visma at the end of 2021. Being part of Visma means that we’ve become part of a very large organizational setup. So even though we’re still going to operate as an independent company, it’s inevitable that we’ll notice changes in our daily lives. But it’s just exciting – I’m looking forward to it!
What is the biggest difference between Acubiz and your previous workplaces?
I’m still young 😉 so I’ve only worked at one other company before Acubiz. In that company, the head quarter was in another country, and even though the Danish organization was quite large, and we had a certain degree of freedom, everyday life was still characterized by the classic adherence to strategies and decisions made elsewhere.
In Acubiz, it’s us who set the direction. We decide which marketing tools we need to use to get to where we want and need to be. It’s a relatively big upheaval and a different way of working, which suits me just fine. It’s the biggest difference, but I’m grateful and happy to have tried both. For me, it just means more experience. And that’s great because it helps me develop.
What do you do in your spare time?
Although it’s hard to tell (irony may occur), I like to stay physically active and play different sports. In recent years, football and padel have been my favorite activities. Right now, I’m unfortunately suffering from a knee injury, so my condition and form have definitely seen better days. In addition, I like to work on some DIY projects on the sideline once in a while. So far that has resulted in a new lamp and a new coffee table – and they look absolutely great.
