Voices of TBAuctions: Tech That Transforms
Welcome to Voices of TBAuctions, an interview series spotlighting the people behind Europe’s leading multi-brand B2B digital auction platform. Through candid conversations with our leaders and team members, we explore who they are, their experiences, insights, and the passion that drives our success.
We are excited to highlight Marcus Benedicto, Business System Owner at TBAuctions (TBA). He is serving as the key link between the business, leadership, and technical teams. He improves IT processes, leads projects, and works with vendors to implement smarter, more efficient solutions. His focus includes automation, user support, and leveraging AI to enhance tools and streamline workflows.
What excites you most about working in IT at TBAuctions?
Here at TBAuctions, we are constantly looking for ways to improve processes, especially in IT, to be more effective and provide better tools and technologies for people to work. And at TBAuctions, I have openness, the incentive, and the opportunity to propose and implement new processes, share ideas, and bring my own way of working to the table. And that’s really exciting.
How does your role add to innovation and efficiency across TBAuctions?
As a business system owner, I am between the business side of TBAuctions, the business department, upper management, and the technical team. My role is to facilitate communication between the two, and I do so through projects in which IT is also involved, including contacting and negotiating with external vendors. So I am always in between new things in IT, constantly working to improve processes. So, focus on improving the IT aspect of things as much as possible.
What’s a recent IT initiative or project you are proud of, and why?
Lately, we have been working on several automation initiatives within our team, again to help the teams resolve issues and also to help people get access to the application. So there are a lot of initiatives that will help us with user AI and automated processes to make this more efficient. And this is something I am really proud of, because the time spent resolving those issues and the agility with which people get their requests fulfilled are already improving. So I am proud of that.
What skills or mindsets are essential for thriving in tech roles at a fast-paced auction tech company like TBAuctions?
You have to be really analytical in the sense of trying to understand the root cause, understand the scenarios in which you are working, to be really effective in what you are proposing as a solution. On the other hand, you also need social skills to talk to people, understand their concerns and demands, understand how they are working, and propose and work together to find solutions, right? Sometimes we have technical limitations, sometimes we have other sorts of constraints. And if we think that it is not only about coding or systems, it is pretty much about enabling people, and in this case, our core workers, to work better using technology, that’s a better recipe for success.
How do you stay ahead of tech trends and continue growing professionally?
I keep track of interesting articles and posts on new technologies relevant to AI, as it is a hot topic at the moment. So I like to keep track of that. But in terms of professional growth, I also really enjoy learning from people. In my role, I have the opportunity to work with different teams and departments, and I often learn from working with diverse people and projects and apply those lessons to my own work.
From an IT perspective, how do you see TBAuctions evolving with the use of AI in the company?
Well, we are definitely implementing a lot of applications. On the IT side, we are making sure to evaluate them and choose the best ones for our work, being mindful, of course, of data security and data privacy, which is really important. We want to make sure our data and the company’s data are protected. But AI can help in many areas of the company. We are also using AI in several departments to help us resolve tickets ourselves. This is the way to go, and we are happy to help any department or project that wants to use AI to choose the best tools for its needs.
Outside of work, what hobbies or interests help you recharge?
I am a gamer, so in my free time I play. This is also how I connect with people from Brazil, which I am from, so I am often playing with my friends online. I also do a lot of streaming content, like Netflix, anime, and all that. And besides that, I am also messing around with my two cats. I keep having a good time spending time with them.
