As we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, we are taking this opportunity to spotlight the people who have been instrumental in our journey.
Continuing from Christina Weston‘s interview, we are excited to introduce William Sellick, our Development Manager, as the next feature in our 50th Anniversary series.
William’s four years with us have seen him rise quickly from Senior Developer to leading our development team, guiding critical projects like our transition to a web-based platform.
With a deep passion for whisky and a keen eye for technological advancement, William represents the dynamic innovation that drives our company forward. Through his story, we explore how DRAMS continues to evolve, adapt, and innovate to meet the ever-changing needs of the spirits industry.
1. Can you introduce yourself, share some details of your experiences?
I’ve been with DRAMS for four years now. I started with DRAMS as a senior software developer, and quickly moved into the role of development manager – which is my current position.
Prior to DRAMS, I came from a software house, doing all sorts of different software. I have a multitude of experience in different programming languages, different environments but nothing within the whisky domain. This role was something very new to me and the industry was definitely something I was interested in. It’s always good to merge your interests and your work, I think that drew me towards the job.
I’m a keen whisky enthusiast, I regularly enjoy going to whisky festivals and seeing (and tasting) the products as they are released. You get to see the growth in the distilleries that way as obviously, over the years they have older and older products available.
Now, knowing more about the behind the scenes of that process, and being part of it, is really, really cool.
2. What is your favourite drink?
Scotch whisky, specifically, I’m more of a Speyside person. One of my favourites – who are also a DRAMS customer – is based in Aberlour. There are a lot of distilleries in that general area, so I enjoy sampling my way through all the different options.
I’d say my appreciation for whisky came from my father-in-law who is a really big whisky enthusiast. At family get-togethers he encouraged us to try the different types, from there I was keen to keep trying all the different options and go on a journey of discovering what brands and types I enjoy.
3. What is the most enjoyable aspect of your current role at DRAMS?
As I said, I came from a software house that varied in what it was doing, as in you’d be working on one system one week then work on a completely different domain the next week. That meant I was switching between projects and never really getting into the depth of the product or what you were trying to do for a customer.
I think one of the most enjoyable aspects here is being able to develop and improve what we currently have and making the customers life a lot easier. Variety as well because obviously we have a lot of different modules; long-term planning, data analysis, visualisations, so there’s still the variety to keep things interesting, but you’re always building on your knowledge of the product, the industry and the customer requirements.
Managing the team of developers here at DRAMS has also been a really positive experience. I like seeing my team grow and working with individual members to develop their own knowledge and experience. It’s great seeing them grow their skills and advance their careers from a personal perspective, but also because it means that as a team we’re able to do more, design more, benefiting the system, our customers and the company.
4. How has your role at DRAMS evolved since you first joined?
As mentioned earlier, while I joined as a Senior Developer, I was quickly promoted to Development Manager.
So with that, there has obviously been quite a significant amount of change – a lot more people management! Especially with the huge amount of growth we’ve seen in the size of not just the company but the development team over the last few years. When I first started, we were about 12-13 people, and now we’re up to almost 30 – with 7 of those being members of my team.
Another shift has come with our focus on the DRAMS migration project as I’m currently the architect behind a lot of the structure within the new web UI. One of my tasks last year was a lot to do with the pre-requisites required for the web UI. I was investigating some of the very technical aspects which now are the foundation of our new product. It’s such an important project, getting it right is critical for both DRAMS and our customers, so making sure I understood each aspect of the technology we are using has been key.
5. Can you share a memorable moment or milestone you experienced at DRAMS that resonates with you, especially as we celebrate our 50th anniversary?
One of the most memorable moments, for me, I think was the 2023 User Group. This was one of the first times we were actually showing aspects of the new web UI. It stands out because of the amount of team effort that went into getting that ready on time to demonstrate to the customers. I was proud of the response we got from the customers, I think that we did a great job.
6. What would you consider to be DRAMS biggest successes/achievements in the time that you’ve worked for the company?
Our expansion, most obviously there are the new spirit types and geographies which are significant accomplishments. But one of the other aspects of DRAMS expansion is more horizontal, I think one of the successes that we’ve experienced is how we’ve enabled the different customer entities to talk to each other. I mentioned our User Groups, that’s a key example of what I mean.
We bring all our customers together and create this opportunity to discuss parts of the industry. They discuss all the things that DRAMS itself is involved in and how they’re using it either differently or the same, and how they could use it. The User Group allows us to listen to our customers suggestions or potential changes they’d like to see.
All of this gives us the chance to see where and how we can do more for our customers, either with new features in the existing product or with new modules.
7. 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?
I would definitely break it down department wise.
We have a Product Manager who’s obviously very focused on not only driving the product forward but meeting the needs of our customers.
The Professional Services team have regular calls with our customers, I think there’s a great deal of discussion there about what we currently provide, the challenges they might be facing and what more we can do to help.
Customer Care, obviously they’re the frontline of hearing from customers when things go wrong or when things aren’t working exactly the way the customer expects.
Us, the Development team, are kind of the endpoint for a lot of these things. We try and do the understanding piece of what is it the customer wants from it? What are they trying to achieve and how can we use technology to try and help with that? A lot of its understanding their domain, understanding the technology, merging those two things together and trying to work out what’s best.
8. In your opinion, what sets DRAMS apart as a solutions partner, and how does the team ensure ongoing value for our customers?
I would say that DRAMS itself is quite a unique product. I don’t believe there is anything out there that specifically does everything we do. DRAMS was built, based on the interactions and in partnership with distilleries. The overall base structure of the application was created with that in mind.
The company itself, through the last 50 years has grown with the distillery industry, and matured products in general because we have expanded a lot more, so we have a very good knowledge of how this process works. In a lot of ways, some distilleries have now taken that process from us and that’s how they’ve worked. It’s good to see the that we’re matching the requirements of what a distillery would in general need.
What sets us apart?
We have a lot of domain knowledge within the company itself, individuals who’ve been with us for a long time and within the industry for a long time as well. They understand why things are the way that they are. It’s very easy for a business analyst to go and say what you require and then just randomly write things down. But if you can go back to them with ‘well you know that’s probably not a good idea, I see why you would want to try and do that, but this is going to cause problems here, here and here.’ That’s something offer, with our knowledge we aren’t afraid to push back a little bit more than just ‘yes we’ll just do that’.
A lot of companies see us as working with them to be able to try and help them within their process. We are a solutions partner for them and DRAMS is an important part of their general business.
9. In your opinion, what sets DRAMS apart as a solutions partner, and how does the team ensure ongoing value for our customers?
The biggest advancement that we’re currently taking advantage of is web-based technology. We’ve been a desktop application for a very long time and the biggest move that we’re doing now is to be to be web based.
There’s been a big push for people to move away from desktop applications and move on to the web and I do generally think it’s a very exciting time for us to be working on this.
There are a few other areas of technological advancement I could call out. Obviously, we moved into the scanning market in about 2015. I see that as an area that is continually developing for us, especially as better handheld scanner devices become available. They’re basically mobile phones now, so its important to keep with this kind of technology. In the future I think we could look at other ways we could introduce mobile applications, as that’s something I believe could have a big impact for our customers.
10. In your opinion, what is the most significant contribution DRAMS has made to the field, and how do you see the company continuing to lead and innovate in the future?
The most significant contribution I would say is that we have maintained the software for such a long time. If you look at other industries where there isn’t quite the same reliance on a specific software, they typically have an ERP type solution, which gets reviewed and replaced on a fairly regular cycle. DRAMS isn’t like that we’re continually upgrading and adding to our core application and have been for the last 50 years.
DRAMS was originally created for use as a specific few distillery, which gave us a good foundation, but we’ve taken that structure and built beyond the needs of those original customers. Now we’re successfully having an impact on the bourbon, rum, tequila and cognac industries.
We’re a company that mature spirit producers can come to and know with confidence that we understand their needs and that we can give them a solution which can handle it all.
