As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, we are taking this opportunity to spotlight the people who have been instrumental in our journey.
Through a series of interviews with some of our longest-serving and most dedicated employees, we aim to share the stories and experiences that have shaped DRAMS into the company it is today. These interviews offer a unique glimpse into the history, growth, and culture of DRAMS, as told by the very individuals who have lived it.
In our first feature, we are honored to introduce Christina Weston, who has been with DRAMS for an incredible 42 years. Her journey reflects not only her dedication but also the evolution and success of our company.
1. Can you introduce yourself, share some details of your experiences?
I’m Christina Weston. I’ve been with the company for 42 years and in that time, I’ve had quite a variety of things to do. When I first started, I was in an admin role, then I used to do a bit of finance; adding invoices into the system and running the staff payroll – that kind of thing. At one point I also used to order equipment because we used to supply hardware to our customers.
Then I moved into the support department. It’s an area of the company that has seen quite a bit of change. Initially, we didn’t have any support people at all and it’s something which has been gradually introduced. I first joined the customer support department as part of the team and spent quite a few years there. Before taking on more of the consultancy work and going out to visit customers to deliver training. Eventually, though, I came back to the support team, but this time as the team lead.
So as you can imagine, during those 42 years I’ve seen quite a lot of change!
2. What is your favourite drink?
I’m not that massive a drinker, but picking a favourite one, I think I’d probably go for Amaretto.
3. What is the most enjoyable aspect of your current role at DRAMS?
I really enjoy the contact with the customers, chatting with them and getting to know them better as it allows us to build stronger relationships. It’s also rewarding to see how our work can make a difference for them.
I also appreciate seeing my team grow and develop. As I mentioned the introduction of the Support team happened after I joined the company, so I’ve loved being part of that growth and development.
Now as the Manager it’s great to see team members come in and learn all about the DRAMS products, pick up new skills, take on new challenges and make the most of the opportunities within the company for development.
4. How has your role at DRAMS evolved since you first joined, and what would you consider to have been some of your key learning experiences?
There’s definitely been quite a lot of change. I’ve already talked about some of the different roles I had within the company when I first started, but even my role in the Support Team has evolved and grown over the years, especially with moving into the Team Lead and then Team Manager positions. But actually, I think that the experience in all the different departments has been really valuable, it’s given me insight into how all the other departments work and what impact that has on my own team.
And in terms of key learning experiences, I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s very true in the case of DRAMS, but every day’s a school day!
5. Can you share a memorable moment or milestone you experienced at DRAMS that resonates with you, especially as we celebrate our 50th anniversary?
I suppose our 25th anniversary stands out as one of my most memorable moments. We had a dinner dance at the Marcliffe Hotel for staff and their partners, and it was a fantastic night. Everyone was dressed up and celebrating all the hard work we’ve put in over the years. It was an unforgettable night, highlighting the strong relationships we had within the team and the great atmosphere we have in our company.
And I think that’s something we still have today; we all work really well together, and we all support and help each other to achieve the best for the company.
6. What would you consider to be DRAMS biggest successes/achievements in the time that you’ve worked for the company?
In the beginning, our customers were all just Scotch producers. Now, we’re global with customers making all kinds of spirit, like Tequila, Rum and Brandy. And every time we get a new type of customer or break into a new country, it feels like a big win for DRAMS.
Our first Bourbon customer stands out in my memory as that was the first non-Scotch customer.
We had countless conversations internally and with them, making sure we fully understood the Bourbon processes. We learned a lot with that first Bourbon customer, but we’ve learned even more since.
Taking the time to ensure we fully understand our customers’ processes and requirements is important to us as a team and a company. It’s always been an important part of the value we offer.
7. How have you seen the company evolve since you joined, and what do you think has been the most significant change over the past 50 years?
I’ve sort of touched on the idea that in the past the roles were a lot broader and there wasn’t the same management structure we have now. As the company has grown, and as the number of people in the team has grown, that approach would have quickly become impossible to manage successfully.
It’s been a natural progression from where we were to where we are now, and it allows each department to focus on one area of the business and for people’s roles to become much more specialised. Which has been for the benefit of the company and for the people in the team.
Having been part of that transition period, I used to think that it could eventually get a bit boring, that losing that variety in the type of work you were being asked to do would become a negative. But that hasn’t been the case at all, every department has its own set of objectives and challenges that keep things interesting. For example, in the Support department, you never know what call is going to come in on any one day, so that in itself gives you a huge amount of variety in the role.
And now, when we are hiring for new roles, we are able to bring in people with a specific area of experience or skills, making their contributions much more impactful and, overall, the company that much stronger.
8. Can you share a memorable experience where you directly impacted a customer’s success story?
Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that makes a difference. I remember being on-site and helping someone with some release testing and I showed them how to do something in Excel and it was the simplest thing, but they said that the day had been worth it even just for that.
We got through all the testing, but just that one thing that I showed them in Excel – which was not part of what I was there to do – made a huge difference to them and how they went about their role.
We always want to make sure we do our best for our customers, help them in anyway we can.
On the other hand, there can be occasions where a customer might feel that they’ve got a major problem, but we know that the issue can be resolved easily. An example I can remember was of a customer who had been left to look after the month end reporting by themselves, and they’d never been in that position before. They were checking over all the reports and they had imbalances on their W1 report, that they couldn’t identify the cause for or resolve.
It got to the last afternoon before it had to finalised and they still had no idea how to solve it. So, when they reached out to us, we were able to show them that it’s a straightforward issue to resolve, and we got it fixed in no time. It was nice to be able to give them that reassurance that we could fix that problem for them and fix it in a relatively short period of time.
9. One of DRAMS Core Values is ‘Customer Focus:
“We listen to our customers, recommending solutions that best meet their needs and delivering beyond their expectations.”
How do you see this value integrated into the day-to-day activities of DRAMS?
Yeah, definitely. We’re always thinking about what the impact is on our customers.
For the DRAMS products, any changes we make or new screens we add, we’re always asking ourselves if we’ve made it user friendly, if we’ve added something that will work for the customer’s needs, making sure we’re looking at it from more than just the technical point of view.
For our services, we’re always trying to make sure things are completed in a timely manner, that we work through all the options available to our customers and always listen to them.
Everyone at DRAMS is willing to go over and above for our customers.
10. In your opinion, what sets DRAMS apart as a solutions partner, and how does the team ensure ongoing value for our customers?
The amount of experience throughout the DRAMS team is enormous and we’ve worked with lots of different spirit types all around the world, which makes us very knowledgeable.
Even the customers that produce the same type of spirit are all different, so we have loads of experience of working with customers who all have slightly different needs. DRAMS doesn’t just go in and say here’s our product, this is what it does, take it or leave it. We’re constantly listening to how each company operates, drawing on that experience and considering what changes we might need to make to our software to make it the ideal solution for them
And that’s not just for new DRAMS customers, our software is always evolving. We now have a specific Product Development team, who are specifically looking at how we take the product forward, making sure we deliver ongoing value to all customers.
One of the main priorities for that team just now is the upgrade of our core system to a web-based interface, it’s a really exciting project and I’m really looking forward to seeing our customers all using that new system.
