Our team is growing!
This month, we welcome Francis Gallagher, a Magento specialist who’s joining Akoova as an Ecommerce Architect.
We’re excited to have Francis on our team and we can’t wait to see all the great things he’ll accomplish. In the meantime, join us in getting to know him:
First of all, welcome to Akoova, Francis! How have you been finding everything so far?
So far everything has been great. The team has been really friendly and helpful, and they encourage your input. It’s a breath of fresh air to see. I’m just getting settled in but it looks like I will have a lot of stuff that really sparks my interests.
That’s great to hear! What were you up to before you joined us?
Before Akoova, I worked as part of a SAAS. I was the Team & Tech Lead of an eCommerce Magento + Python project, which provided a rapid way of getting brick and mortar shops online. It was a really fun project!
Sounds like it! What about your new role at Akoova?
I’m Akoova’s new eCommerce Architect – which is a fancy title for saying “Expert in eCommerce”. It will be my job firstly I live up to the name, but more importantly to ensure our staff have the best support possible. I’ll assist with debugging in-depth client application code issues, best practices, creating new tooling to give everyone a better and hopefully smoother experience, and also to be an escalation line for our support and application engineers as needed.
How did you decide to become an architect? What is your favourite thing about the job?
It was something I have always wanted to do. I am an accomplished developer, team lead & solution architect who really loves to share knowledge and improve anything I can get my hands on!
For years I had wanted to shoot for the stars in making a hosting solution that can do better than most and has the knowledge necessary to overcome any issues that might affect our offerings. I see what a few others are offering and I have felt the burn of inexperienced solution providers before. You could say it was that pain and the desire to never go through that again that led me here.
Well, we’re glad you’ve found us. Sharing knowledge is a big thing at Akoova. Have you been learning anything recently?
I have been messing around with 3D printing and home automation. I just recently got my raspberry pi to additionally be set up to run HomeAssistant on Docker. As well as the usual of being able to turn off lights and heating with voice commands and such, it now lets me turn on my 3D printer and import a file to print from anywhere in the world!
That’s pretty cool! Have you got any other fun facts about you to share?
I was originally a scientist by study and it was only by pure chance many, many years ago that I ended up as a Magento Developer. I was a hobbyist PHP developer when a company contacted me about a Magento job. They were a .Net agency and knew little of Magento/PHP, and so I had to create my own technical test! It’s hard to fail a technical test you create for yourself, but thankfully through all the years I have proven that I was worth the cost.
Lastly, can you recommend something to read, watch, listen to or try? It could be a book, film, band, YouTube video, website, app, art exhibition, your favourite restaurant – anything really.
I have just finished watching Lucifer. Me and my wife both loved it and it was a good easy watch. Also because Scotland in the winter is cold, wet, and windy, I have recently been binge watching a YouTube channel called SVDelos, where a family lives on a yacht and sails around the warmer, prettier parts of the world. It makes for some excellent escapism.
