”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 toward Hans-Jørgen Pagh, who is one of our Senior Developers.
Can you tell us about your role in the Development team in Acubiz?
My role in the Development team is to develop and maintain the APIs that are used for our app, Acubiz One, to communicate with the users’ underlying solution. I am also responsible for developing the API’s for our up-and-coming web solution. Other than that I am also involved in the development of our existing solutions as well as the maintenance and further development of our advanced engine for calculating allowances and mileage. In other words, I am involved in most things when it comes to the maintenance and development of our solutions.
You code in an older programming language. How does that impact your day-to-day work?
The programming language in our backend in terms of the internal APIs is quite old, but it is fast to develop in, and the solutions we created 25 years ago still run stably while the performance is good. We are taking it easy in Acubiz, so we are in the process of recoding relevant parts of our solution in more modern technology, while we operate and service existing customers’ solutions.
What made you interested in coding?
It has been many years now, but I have always wanted to systematize and automate manual processes. So when I got the opportunity to modernize things in my first job, in a somewhat old-fashioned accounting department, it was just a matter of getting started with coding.
Security is a keyword in all companies. How do you help ensure that Acubiz’s solutions are top of the line in security?
Security is more important than ever before, and it is high on our to-do list in Acubiz’s development department. We must continuously test our security, and analyze and prevent any security risks. Especially after Visma bought Acubiz at the end of last year, security is becoming a bigger priority. We have introduced several extra security layers in the form of tools such as Cloudflare. We also have an external company attached who, in a secure environment, tries to hack our solution. In this way, we test ourselves and do everything to maintain our high level of security.
What is the biggest difference between Acubiz and your previous workplaces?
I have worked as a consultant for close to 20 years, where I have been working alone mostly. So it has been absolutely fantastic for me to come to a smaller company where the culture is very familial. It also brings me closer to other departments such as sales and marketing, which is largely a motivating factor, as I can really feel that I am helping make a difference. With Visma behind us, we get the best of both worlds: from the familiar, agile and short decision-making processes to a large network of dedicated colleagues with whom I can spar and who many times have the answer to what I don’t necessarily know anything about myself.
How do you see the future of Acubiz in terms of development?
We must continue to develop our products at the same time as we increase our efforts around security in our solutions. We must also move towards Continuous Delivery, where we can release new features faster than today. We must achieve this through increased use of microservices and automated testing.
You recently became employee of the month – How are you going to spend the prize?
I think that it will be used for dinner with my wife, who always supports me if I need to work a little extra. It doesn’t necessarily have to be at a fine restaurant, as we appreciate a place with a relaxed atmosphere.
