Meri Mäkelä's job is developing OP Financial Group's D365 applications. Meri is a self-learned IT specialist and enjoys work that allows her to be involved in many different tasks and projects. “Here, I get to freely try almost anything that interests me. That's what's special about OP.”  

Meri does not have the most typical background, because she has the education of a construction engineer. However, Meri was always attracted by the IT field, so when she moved to Tallinn, she also took a plunge into the depths of the IT world. Meri's first work experience in the field was a desk job, from which she continued to work as a consultant with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM programme. 

“My first project as a consultant happened to be one of OP Financial Group's customer relationships,” says Meri. “When it was time to move back to Finland, I felt that the role of a consultant no longer quite suited me. Luckily, I was welcomed in at OP and got to continue working on the same project as an OP employee.” 

Nowadays, Meri divides her time between two different teams: she works as a developer both in the core team and in the major customers team. In the core team, Meri gets to create shared ground rules, instructions, and practices for the use of several different business functions. “It's fun to think that our core team is like the foundations and frame of a building. With the help of these structures, other teams build the front of the building,” describes Meri. 

The goal is better customer relationship management 

Meri appreciates how versatile CRM tasks are at OP. “In addition to basic developing, we have testers, service designers and release managers, for example. There are fields of activities from integration to change management and documentation, and I have been able to take a peek into nearly all of them,” she says. 

The results of her work mainly affect OP employees, but they are also visible to customers in the form of a more uniform service experience. “New systems improve work management, give a more comprehensive image of the customer and therefore help manage the life cycle of the customer relationship,” describes Meri. 

Dynamics teaches its user 

Meri's journey with Dynamics began independently by completing the system's own certificates. She describes herself as a self-learned IT specialist. “Microsoft has great training paths anyone can take for free. I got started by studying Dynamics's own materials, and after that it was time for the largest learning experience when I started boldly trying things out and applying my skills in practice.” 

Meri describes the Dynamics platform as user friendly because in her opinion, the different areas of the system are easy to master, “Dynamics has many different ways of doing things, which creates opportunities to make something better together. It's fun to see how people from different backgrounds solve the same problems from their own perspectives” she says. Meri says that working with Dynamics is like solving a jigsaw and your understanding of its ecosystem grows one step at a time. “When you learn one thing, a path always opens to another,” she says. 

The diverse projects of a large firm are attractive 

The task closest to Meri's heart is developing work processes. “I enjoy being able to improve a process like documentation with my own work. “It's still quite new to have shared activities between teams, so the processes are also constantly taking big leaps.”  

Meri feels at home with a job that has a good balance between remote and in-office work. “The hybrid working model we use is well-suited to me. When you're face to face, it's easier to solve issues together, and a comfortable office is nice to work in, while at home I enjoy a different kind of peace,” she sums up. A large firm always offers the chance to try something completely new. “Here, I get to freely try almost anything that interests me. That's what's special about OP,” Meri says. Sometimes I even pile up a little too much work on my plate when I learn about an attractive project that I can't resist participating in,” Meri says, laughing. The freedom she has at work has also taken her by surprise: all team members are trusted, and you get to solve problems in the manner you best see fit. 

What greetings does Meri have for her future colleagues? “I am looking forward to having more CRM developers! It's fun to train new people and learn from them. I need to find time for it, but there is always time for fun things,” decides Meri.