Meet the team: Peter Asigbetse

Next up in our Meet the team blog series, we feature one of our Principal Consultants for SAP, Peter Asigbetse. Located in the United Kingdom, Peter recently joined the Avantra team full time after starting as part time a few years back.

Get to know Peter Asigbetse

Peter constantly has a smile on his face, and is always willing to lend a virtual helping hand to a teammate, even while we are all still working remotely. Peter demonstrates the Avantra core values everyday. His work ethic and skill set are unmatched and we are so happy to have him on the Avantra team. Read on to get to know Peter a bit better.

What are some of your responsibilities?

I'm Avantra's Principal Consultant for SAP Industries and as part of the engineering team I help design and develop solutions focused on the integration of Avantra with the SAP ecosystem, whether on premise or cloud. My background in ABAP consulting, development and integration means I understand the challenges faced by our customers and have the capabilities to engineer solutions.

How long have you been with Avantra?

I've been with Avantra as a permanent employee since December 2021 but my Avantra story actually goes way back to March 2019 when I was asked for a few days of consulting which blossomed into an associate role up until I joined the team permanently.

What's one professional skill you're currently working on?

Professionally I'm enjoying the challenge of mastering Javascript which is one of our extensibility tools in Avantra. This supports my remit of helping Avantra customers with integrations to the wider SAP cloud ecosystem.

One example was helping one of our large US customers integrate with SAP Ariba saving $200k per year. 

What's your go to productivity trick?

I had the pleasure of working with a SAP mentor who introduced me to the Pomodoro technique, which basically involves setting a timer of 25 minutes where you do nothing but focus on the task at hand. That means ignoring any email, phone or messenger pings. Once the 25 minutes is up, you have a five minute break and can attend to those messages, then you repeat the process. After every second or third iteration you can take a longer break, say 15 minutes.

What's one thing that surprised you about working at Avantra?

How well we work as a family considering we're spread across the globe from the USA to Eastern Europe and everywhere in between...especially since most of us have only met virtually. I love the fact that any of my colleagues feel they can contact me and we can work together to deliver first class service to our customers.

What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend?

You'll generally find me doing something active, preferably out on my road bike cycling around. I love going out in random directions, exploring the area and just enjoying keeping fit. Pre-COVID, you would find me at a salsa dancing event in the evenings.

What is your hidden talent?

I'm a qualified commercial pilot holding an ATPL (Air Transport Pilot License) which is what is needed in order to be able to fly airliners.

What's your favorite TV show?

30 Rock has been my go to TV show, it's just so clever and sarcastic. The writing behind it is of such a high standard that every episode makes me laugh even when watching it for the umpteenth time.

What's the best advice you were ever given?

"Sit on your hands and enjoy your emergency" is the best advice my flight instructors gave me which means when something happens take time to take a breath, assess and then act because even in aviation there are very few situations where you need to rush to action. This could be a matter of pausing for a few seconds which can make a lot of difference to the outcome. I apply this to all aspects of my life, professional and personal. Be sure to follow Peter on LinkedIn.