1M1E – November 2023:  Michel Rinaldo, Telecoms and Networks Administrator

For the month of November, we find out more about Michel Rinaldo, who boasts over 10 years’ experience in IT and 23 years in semi-conductor industrial maintenance. He is now employed as a Telecoms and Networks Administrator for Crusta C and JMI at the L’Isle Jourdain site.

How would you describe your typical working day?

My day begins by catching up on my emails to deal quickly with any issues which might hinder other employees’ work, that is, if I haven’t been on call. 

Next, I have several daily tasks: 

• I help team members with a variety of requests, specifically, questions relating to malfunctions, rather than teaching them how to use their equipment. 
• Team members may ask me to help them automate daily or monthly tasks through the creation of scripts or programmes. 
• I manage stock and orders on a site-by-site basis. As soon as the orders have been received, I prepare the relevant tools (PCs, scanners, etc.) for the requests in question. 
• I create user accounts for new employees. 
• and I work alongside my manager on various issues and tasks.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on 4 big projects: 

• Preparing to review our information system (IS) before migration to SAN-type (Storage Area Network) hardware, which will offer more resilience. 
• Overhauling our VPN (for Crusta C, JMI and Gambas & Co), also with a view to delivering improved resilience, with a deadline in mid-2024. 
• Migrating all our sites’ telephony to TOIP (Telephony Over Internet Protocol). 
• And rolling out a professional WiFi network at the Boulogne-sur-Mer site.

In a few words, describe your role to us.

Maintenance, Management, Support

• Maintenance: my role is to maintain the company’s IT infrastructure and tools (Information Systems: IS) for the benefit of all the group’s companies (this isn’t just relevant to Crusta C), safeguarding availability (on the network, VPN and the internet). 
• Management: supply new employees with all the computer equipment they need and onboard them into our group Information Systems. 
• Support: help users on a day-to-day basis with all their IS and telephony needs.

What are the key challenges or goals you have at work?

• Ensuring that our ERP migration happens without interruption to service or other problems. 
• Ensuring that telephony migration happens without interruption to service or else that interruption to service is managed in a way that keeps disruption to a minimum.

If you could choose anyone at all to be your mentor, who would it be? 

Franck NGUYEN, who decided to found this very successful company, who wasn’t afraid of making mistakes – I look at the career he’s had and I’m really blown away by that.

What do you like best about your work? 

Everything to do with IT! 

Being employed, to begin with in an SME and now a mid-sized business, has given me the chance to work in several different fields of IT and to move forward in my career. 

It can be both exciting and stressful but on the whole, it’s well worth experiencing.

Which professional achievement are you most proud of? 

My finest professional achievement is undoubtedly what I accomplished when I started at Crusta C. 

Up until 2013, the IT infrastructure was hosted remotely through a partner. After I was recruited, the company decided to opt for an onsite solution for all our Information Systems (IS). After several months, during which I found my feet, I successfully relocated around ten physical servers to Crusta C’s L'Isle-Jourdain site, right here. 

After having picked up this equipment, I analyzed the company’s IS capacity with a view to replacing all these servers by a single server and moving to complete virtualization. 

One year later, in 2014, I migrated the entire IT infrastructure to a server, replacing all physical servers with virtual servers. 

We’ve reduced our electricity use, going from 2.5 KW an hour to less than 500 W an hour, and improved our performance too.

What advice would you give to new team members? 

Take your time – analyze a situation before you act,

Read information through to the end, especially messages that appear on your screen, before clicking on them. Too many people fail to read this information and then they complain things aren’t working...

November’s question is: Christmas will be here in a month. Can you tell us your best Christmas recipe? 

Every year, I get two kilos of 40/60-grade prawns, along with salmon and oysters. 

There’s nothing better than a simple starter: a few 40/60-grade prawns and some oysters – put them all out on the table with a few sauces (mayonnaise, bearnaise etc.). 

For the main course, I often use larger prawns such as frozen U5/U10-grade prawns. 

Next: 

• I boil them in salted water for 5 minutes. 
• I peel them, remove the intestinal tract, and chop up some lemon and mix it in with the prawns. 
• I place the prawns and some vegetables and condiments (like Espelette pepper) on a sheet of tinfoil for some extra flavour, then I season with olive oil and the finest sea salt. 
• I make tinfoil parcels, closing them up with cocktail sticks and place them on a cooler part of the barbecue or in an oven (gas mark 6-7 / 204 to 218°C). 

Once the parcels have ‘risen’, the prawns are ready!

We’d like to thank Michel for agreeing to take part in our November interview! 

If you would like to read more interviews, take a look at our blog. 

If you would like to join our team, feel free to check out our vacancies. If you’d like to send in a speculative application, just click here.