Jess Fox is a seasoned software professional with over 23 years of experience in delivering high-quality software solutions.
For the past 19 years, she has been an integral part of the development team for the Asta suite of products and currently serves as the Head of R&D at Elecosoft UK Ltd, overseeing the Asta brand. Jess excels in uniting teams, problem solving and bridging the gap between users and developers, underpinned by her strong belief in servant leadership.
Outside of her professional life, Jess is a musician at heart and a dedicated mother of three. She resides in Shropshire with her youngest daughter and their German Shepherd, Lilah.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
I grew up very humbly and we moved around a lot because of my Dad’s job, including stints in the US and 4 years in Kenya. I think these experiences gave me an older head and despite flying through school, I decided not to go to university. Instead, at 18 I got the first job I could get in a call centre – and amazingly, this decision later led to a career in software.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this industry?
Probably like many people, I didn’t aim for Contech, or even tech at all. I fell in to the world of software after being seconded from an admin role to help test some new systems. Immediately I had an aptitude for the analytical problem solving that was needed and I excelled at it. That particular company actually created a job in the Development department especially for me. After being made redundant, I took a job in what was then a reasonably small, local software development team called Asta Development and the rest is history.
What do you consider to be your biggest achievement so far?
Definitely the creation of Asta Vision. My colleague, Chris Ray, had come up with an idea to solve a problem for a particularly large US customer who needed a way to manage thousands of projects. From that idea, we wrote a bespoke, on-prem solution for them to manage and control their planning process and files.
We knew we were on to something, but we didn’t have enough to build something generic. I travelled around and met up with a number of our larger customers. I asked them about their pain points and problems and got told stories of losing contract baselines and not knowing which file was the latest one.
I took all this information back to our amazing dev team, and together we designed and wrote what is now Asta Vision. The product continues to grow and improve and I am incredibly proud to have had ownership of such a game-changing product from day one.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your construction career, and how did you overcome them?
In software, we face challenges constantly. We are always negotiating that triangle of scope, time and resources. Something almost always has to give, and you have to compromise.. However, we pride ourselves on being close and listening to our user base and always trying to help solve their problems. This, for me, requires pragmatism.. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and be pragmatic about whatever it is that’s in front of you.
Can you describe a typical day in your role?
I have regular meetings with the dev and test teams, to look at the current active work – where we are, what we’re doing. The Product Manager and I may then sit down and look at roadmaps and plans, or go through and review incoming customer requests. I write a lot of our requirements documents for features we implement, so there is often that to do.
Later, there will likely be a 1-2-1 with a member of my team. Elecosoft has been awarded a Great Place to Work Award for the third year running and a big part of the reason for that is because of the people. We have so many great people at Elecosoft, who care deeply about what they do and take pride in their work. I honestly feel privileged to work with such great people.
The rest of the day might involve customer meetings to solve a technical problem or discuss a new feature, or a conversation with a stakeholder in the business to ensure we’re aligned on things. There is always plenty of variety.
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to enter the world of con-tech?
It’s a tricky one because I never set out to be in this world, but funnily enough, I now feel more part of Contech than I do standard “tech” if that makes any sense. I’ve worked in banking and life assurance software previously, and the fun part about being involved in Contech is you feel part of something bigger, and when one of our customers completes a great big new stadium, or record-beating bridge, you feel a part of that. It’s a great industry to be a part of.
Can you shed any light as to what Eleco is working on next?
In the Asta Powerproject world, we are working hard right now on improving our 4D offering with a new graphics engine and streamlined workflows. With 4D and Asta Vision, we’re giving our customers the best head start to build better quality and richer sources of data. This puts more power in their hands, especially when they start to properly integrate AI. They really need that quality to begin with.
Speaking of which, we’re also investing in AI and Machine Learning. We recently introduced AstaGPT to the market, which is our innovative AI help system nominated for Best Product Innovation at the Digital Construction Awards. The exciting thing for us is that in partnership with our customers, we have access to a wealth of planning data. Combining this with our capabilities and experience, we can help organisations make sense of that data and harness it to drive more efficient processes and lock-in reliable outcomes. It’s creating certainty for the built environment, which is what we’re all about!