Day 6, Part two: About a meeting with the smurfs, football, and an exciting dinner

About a meeting with the smurfs, football, and an exciting dinner

Meeting with the Smurfs

The afternoon of this day was no less interesting than the morning. I attended a meeting of the team "Smurfs" (another cool team name).

The team Smurfs and 3 other teams are working together on a new freemium payroll system which is cloud based. The target customers for this program are small Swiss enterprises.  I already had the chance to see the application in action. The aim of the meeting was to plan the course of action for the next months as the payroll system will communicate with governmental authorities (tax authorities, BFS (Bundesamt für Statistik), AHV (Alters- und Hinterbliebenen Versicherung), and private insurance companies (for the PK (Pensionskasse)). It will submit the required data automatically to these institutions over Swissdec. Swissdec is a non-profit joint project with the above mentioned institutions. At the same time, it functions as a certification center for such payroll systems to ensure that the necessary requirements for the automatic transmission are being met. To keep the long story short, the new program has to comply with the requirements of Swissdec.

The team meeting

The meeting was attended by the members of team Smurfs, Daniel (Head of Development at AXON IVY and my shadowing host), as well as Francesco who is also an employee at AXON IVY and is a specialist the operational requirements for such software. The meeting took place in a smaller meeting room and was very impressive to me. Francesco and Daniel explained to the team what needs to be done until the end of the year as the software should be on the market by then (since most companies do their tax declaration etc. during January). The team (like always) was very attentive. Daniel later told me, that the team just started to work on this project the beginning of this year. What was really interesting for me was how Daniel and Francesco explained to the team what had to be done and also why it had to be done. I think, one reason for the teams to be so motivated at Axon Active Vietnam is also that they get really involved in the projects and know exactly what the customer wants to have. This is basically the credit of the POs and Managers at Axon Active (like Daniel and Francesco). They do not just give orders to the team but really work as part of the team and also explain the projects in detail. It was amazing to hear that some of the team members had already gained quite some knowledge about the Swiss payroll and tax system. This fact also makes them not just working for a project but also contribute their thoughts and recommendations for improvements.

All in all, I can say that all the meetings I have attended so far were highly productive and that the Managers at Axon Active Vietnam (both, the ones from Switzerland and from Vietnam) are really able to motivate the team members and provide a good and efficient working environment.

Football and an outstanding fish dinner

After work, I accompanied Christoph and Nathalie (two POs of Switzerland) to watch the football game of some of their team members. We arrived at a huge area where they had about10 football courts and on every of them people were playing. They played very good but we couldn't really follow the scores as we also arrived a little late. In the end Hap Em, one of the team members of team Golden told us that they won 9:1.

I tasted snails for the first time in my life and they were
delicious!

A so called hot pot with fish, a very tasty sauce
and a lot of vegetables

After the football match we went to a restaurant with 3 current team members and two former ones. Christoph once told me that they left Axon Active but still stay in contact. They also say that Axon Active Vietnam is and stays the "employer of their hearts". Wow... I was just wondering if I ever, ever in my life in Switzerland heard someone saying something like that about a former employer :) I would say this really speaks for itself and for Axon Active Vietnam and of course for Christoph and Nathalie who work close together with the team. The food was outstanding and so were the conversations we had. We had quite some beers and were talking about the prices in Vietnam compared to Switzerland, all kind of alcoholic beverages, Fondue (they actually once brought Gerber fondue and had a team dinner), wedding plans, and investing opportunities in Vietnam. It was very entertaining and every 5 minutes we rose our glasses and shouted the typical “Mot, Hai, Ba, Yo” just as Vietnamese people do when they are drinking and spending an enjoyable evening with friends. 

Thank you for the great evening guys (and sorry I forgot to
take a picture of the whole table)

I think the fish was as excited as
I was :)

At the end of the dinner I had to go to the toilet and everybody was laughing and saying that I should enjoy. I wasn't really sure what to think about that. They also told me to take a picture. This information confused me even more but I had my mobile with me anyway. So here's the picture :) 

There were actually some more pictures but I thought one selfie is enough:) 

When Nathalie went to the toilet as well, of course everybody was wondering what pictures the woman toilet had to offer. Turns out they just have the usual advertisements which you'd also get on a Swiss toilet... 

I would like to thank Christoph, Nathalie and all the others for the opportunity to share such a nice evening with such nice people. I enjoyed every minute and it was a great experience!