Meet Tom Allen
Tom Allen is our new Senior Business Analyst. Tom has been a Marketing Technology, Operations, Digital and Data consultant for the past seven years, most recently working on a series of digital transformation projects with Reuters, before which he worked at Moneyfarm, a fintech start-up in London. In this interview, he shares the highlights of his career in Martech so far.
What are your responsibilities at WoolfHodson?
I am currently working in the solutions design and delivery team. My role is multi-faceted but always requires close collaboration with both the client teams and our internal team to reach the optimal outcome. A typical day could involve things such as mapping out business requirements, holding discovery workshops with client teams across multiple functions including marketing, sales, IT, data and product, creating process maps to show data flows and systems architecture, or even developing a testing plan to ensure functionality of technical systems delivers to the stated requirements.
Why did you choose a career in Martech?
More and more organisations are adopting different technologies to serve their customers in the best way. Knowing that this adds real value to the customer as well as having the opportunity to work through puzzle-like problems with the client day to day to help them figure all this out is what attracted me to this line of work. I have a mathematical and scientific background so I enjoy logically thinking through and solving a problem but also working with people and building relationships; a career in Martech strikes a good balance between the two.
Tell us more about your roles at Reuters and Moneyfarm – how do you feel your experience there led you to WoolfHodson?
Moneyfarm was a fast-paced introduction to an organisation driven by technology – I was exposed to and got hands-on experience working with a wide variety of technologies across the digital marketing ecosystem, to drive the business growth forward in its early stages. Reuters was slightly different; a large organisation but with similar narratives as it was going through a technology and leadership transformation just after I joined. I was in charge of a number of digital transformation projects for the marketing team which expanded my project management and business analyst experience. After working with a series of great vendors at these companies, I knew I’d like to become involved in consulting.
What is the highlight of your career to date?
Being part of the project team at Reuters and helping to launch its new digital subscription business.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in your career?
Having a good team makes all the difference, especially when a pandemic comes around!
What attracted you to WoolfHodson?
WoolfHodson has a fantastic, experienced team of people who are at the top of their game when it comes to Martech and commercial operations. I was attracted to the company because it offers me the opportunity to learn from colleagues and but also to collaborate closely thanks to a company culture that pushes these values.
How do you think Martech will change over the next few years and what do you think the next big thing is?
I believe the industry will become more regulated and, as a result, companies will be forced to learn and adapt their current processes and tech stacks to accommodate this. I think (one of) the next big things will be contextual marketing. As companies adapt to a lack of third-party cookies, moving to a method of ‘contextual’ marketing will become bigger and bigger.
What do you love best about your new job at WoolfHodson so far?
The team culture is extremely open and collaborative, so this is exciting not just for settling in quickly but also for learning from experienced people every day.
You’ve volunteered at the migrant camp in Calais and in Mumbai – what inspires you to do this?
It was really about helping people in need at the time, learning as much as possible about the hardship they were facing and trying to give as much as we could back to them.
Favourite podcast?
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee, at the moment.
We are always keen to connect with great talent and are currently recruiting for various positions. Please take a look at our recruitment page for more details.
