In our latest instalment of ‘Meet the team that makes Bricsys’, we are introducing Jean-Philippe Van Der Bracht, our BricsCAD as a Platform (BaaP) Product Manager. It is an exciting week for Jean-Philippe as we publish this blog, as he is celebrating his 3-year anniversary with Bricsys!
After joining the company in 2019 after a former colleague’s recommendation, Jean-Philippe quickly settled into his role as BaaP Product manager and has since been ensuring that our platform seamlessly integrates into the user’s workflow by providing a smooth interface with API integrations for all of the unique projects our users undertake.
Jean-Philippe remembers his first week with Bricsys fondly, though he started his career with the company a long way from the Ghent office, in which he is now based!
“My first week was in Japan, as I started as Business Development Manager for the Japanese region. Together with our COO I was introduced to our partners over there. Anyone who joins Bricsys will tell you that you will be immediately involved and brought up to speed. I like this style a lot, no time to waste. It was of course an unforgettable start, back in Tokyo in 2019”!
Now based in Ghent, Jean-Philippe is able to organise his working locale around his agenda, either working from home or from the office. This flexibility and independence to manage one’s own working environment is an ethos that Bricsys proudly pioneered pre-pandemic and is something that will be here to stay as we grow further as a company. Jean-Philippe, along with his colleagues, has thoroughly enjoyed this flexibility, and goes on to describe the Ghent office, Bricsys Head Quarters:
“The atmosphere in our HQ office is great. We have an open style, easy going mentality and you can just reach out to anyone, whether it's our CEO or someone from the Sales or our R&D team. Whatever you like to bring up, you are being listened to in a respectful way and this feels very secure, almost like being part of a supportive family”.
We’ve heard how Jean-Philippe got started with Bricsys, and where his role has led him to today, but what does the average working day look like for a BaaP Product manager?
The day begins with a dog walk which, for Jean-Philippe, provides the perfect headspace to think of his to-do list for the day, and mentally plan out his workload. He mentions that as Bricsys is an international company, with many global offices, it’s important to schedule in the necessary calls and to stay in touch with the team around the world.
More recently, since the pandemic hit, Jean-Philippe has been keen to add some personal focus to each day. For Him, this means taking his daughter to school every day. This is just a small 15-minute task that, like many others, Jean-Philippe admits he may have neglected before, but with the flexibility of home-working and a post-pandemic priority shift, it has added a great deal of value to each day for both him, and his daughter.
“Balance is a key word for me, and I am constantly aiming to find the right work-life balance. At work we need to find the right balance between daily business, short-term low hanging fruit and direct tasks versus thorough analysis and planning very important projects to be achieved on mid- to long term. This is something the Bricsys team are really great at”.
By now, you might be asking yourself, ‘what is the main focus of a BaaP Product manager’? We asked just that, and Jean-Philippe explained further:
“BricsCAD as a Platform (BaaP) refers to delivering fully ObjectARX compatible, so called BRX SDK files, and offering almost plug-and-play porting possibilities to any external developer who has an app running on AutoCAD”.
Jean-Philippe is keen to get into the technical aspects of his role and talks proudly of BricsCAD’s global developer network. BricsCAD allows customers to build in-house custom tools to suit their unique requirements. Over the years, many of these tools look at importing/exporting data to BricsCAD so that the end-users, mostly engineers, can fully focus on processing their work inside BricsCAD.
As you know BricsCAD, amongst a lot of other things, is considered to be a fantastic alternative for AutoCAD. So, for customers who have previously built in-house interfaces for their AutoCAD solutions, we also offer this smooth transfer to BricsCAD, all thanks to being 100% compatible with ObjectARX and AutoLISP. If you’d like to know more about these BricsCAD capabilities, you can get more details via our Developer Reference.
“With our strong BricsCAD API we can engage with local third-party app providers around the world who already offer a specific, localized solution. The possibilities are endless and that is probably one of the strongest assets of BricsCAD. whether you're a Pro, BIM, Mechanical, Civil or Ultimate user, you will always be able to interface with other important tools to achieve what you need for your business”.
AutoLISP compatibility is another aspect of focus for both Jean-Philippe’s role, and for Bricsys more widely. We support LISP from BricsCAD Lite onwards, and Jean-Philippe encourages you to try it out and explore the capabilities. He goes on to add: ‘you will be surprised about the amazing results you can achieve, completely to fit your specific needs’!
When chatting with Jean-Philippe about his role at Bricsys and what he finds the most exciting, his enthusiasm for the developer journey is clear. On this topic, he describes himself as an ‘evangelist’!
The BaaP team really sits in between Development, Sales, Marketing, Front-end, Management and even our CRM department. Jean-Philippe describes the need to cooperate with everyone internally and goes on to describe his team as ‘true team players’. He recognises that the Bricsys team is at their finest when closely cooperating, and BaaP is the glue that keeps everyone on track and aligned.
“There is a lot of variety in the job, and I get the chance to meet a lot of great people, which is amazing”.
We asked Jean-Philippe where he sees Bricsys’ growth trajectory heading in the future. Since Bricsys was founded, it has been growing steadily year over year, and he sees the company at a stage where the BricsCAD product family is strong, yet has potential to serve many more happy users.
“More than ever we want to listen to our users, our strong support network for example, is very important to us! Not only for our users and partners who get fast replies, but we also receive real valuable input to help us make a better product for you with every release. These are very exciting times here at Bricsys”.
And looking to the future with Jean-Philippe, he sees 2022 as the year that…
“Will bring change, improvement, more and better cooperation internally and externally, new colleagues, new partners, new 3rd Party App providers, challenges, opportunities, hard work and lots of fun as well”!
Discover more about BricsCAD, or get in touch to hear more about the BricsCAD solutions waiting to revolutionize your CAD.
