International Women's Day!

A celebration to uphold achievements, to raise visibility, to showcase the work of all women around the globe, and most importantly, to give a perspective of a gender-equal world, where breakthroughs and triumphs are made possible by women. On this very special day, we hold the utmost privilege to honor women. Before we scale to the entire world, we look upon ourselves and what we have achieved in our journey. Our Executive Director, Christie Yap sharing her journey and the hardships she had faced to achieve her goal, including guidance for anyone that is in a similar position.
Back in 1991, Christie was working in a software house, positioned as a System Analyst for 3 years. Whilst her brother, Mr. Yap Yun Fatt as a Computer Engineer, had proposed to form a company of their own with great vision ahead. Despite all challenges and obstacles, Christie and Mr. Yap founded Advelsoft at the age of 25 and 28 respectively.
Advelsoft started as a home-based company with a team of 3 members, which primarily works towards developing a turnkey accounting software. Two years after founding the company, Christie conceived her first child, Vince Yong, whom is currently part of Advelsoft as the Chief Technical Officer. And two years later, conceived her second child, Yannru Yong, whom is currently an Account Supervisor in Advelsoft Solutions. Being a career woman with children, it was never easy to find balance between work and family as handling all on-site support requires lots of traveling that took up a lot of the time she could have spent nurturing her children. 
“Being pregnant while working to handle all on-site support and marketing required a lot of traveling, it was really tough compared with the modern days, where pre-maternity and post-maternity leaves are part of the modern privileges that we could not afford back in the days. The only maternity leaves that I had were on the day of giving birth.” she said.
Christie added, “My children find the office as their playground, and computers were for them to play and explore with. They had spent more time in the office instead of being at home growing up. We would not prefer sending them to daycare centers, because I do have my responsibility as a mother to look after them, guide them on their homework, talk to them, or prepare food for them. So instead, they were always playing, eating, or napping around the office till I got off work at 7 or 8 pm”, she said.
Christie holds these values close to her heart, Perseverance and Integrity. 
Advelsoft went through 2 financial crisis throughout the years, the first was in 1997, where the company was forced to lay off some of the employees. Christie refers to it as the toughest period of the business, there were days where it was struggling to release salaries. It took 5 years to recover from this setback. In 2002, Advelsoft had its first property management project, Sunrise, and from then on, solely focused on this niche market.
The financial crisis in 2007 had Advelsoft in another tight bond which led to the company moving from Subang Jaya to their hometown, Kampung Subang, for minimizing the cost of the rental. Mr. Yong, Christie’s husband whom had joined her in this journey in 2008, conducted a major restructuring to the company in 2009.
“To persevere is easier said than done, but if I were to throw in the towel during the economic crisis year, Advelsoft wouldn’t be here today at our 30th Anniversary this year. Some people would question me, that I’m a woman with three children. I should’ve just given up and become a housewife while taking care of my children instead since my husband had his own business anyway. But I made a promise to my clients, they’ve already invested in my services and put trust in us. I want people to know that we are trustable, reliable, and accountable. I held onto the integrity that pushed me to persevere.” she said.
Perseverance has been key to the foundation of Advelsoft. For years, Christie #ChooseToChallenge, working tirelessly with a goal in mind, to make Advelsoft thrive as it does today. We, as part of the company, have so much to thank her for. Perseverance, Integrity, and Resilience stood strong with Christie in the starting years, and now we stand strong alongside her morals. With it, we strive to serve our customers with the highest of determination and passion.
On International Women’s Day, join us in celebrating women like Christie Yap, Executive Director of Advelsoft, who #ChooseToChallenge and carved out paths for themselves in the industry that so often requires sacrifice to grow a successful business.
 

Published : 8-Mar-2021

Switch To Desktop Version