New challenges, situations, and tasks are what I thrive on professionally: they call for my expertise, my creativity, my business connections, and my resourcefulness in finding the ideal solution.
I began my professional life working in municipal government. My activities included organization and system programming, method, hardware and software planning, data center design, development of automation solutions for increased quality and efficiency, and data protection coordination.
After a number of years, making the transition to consulting seemed like the logical step. It was the era of the methods and process models; we were among the first to advocate meta-models and repository systems. One main focus of mine back then was that of supporting cross-disciplinary communication between organizational units and IT divisions. My vision of creating executable software based on concepts of functionality was ahead of its time then.
My expertise in contract law (deriving from my university degree in public administration) helped me achieve the first milestone in my sales career, when a major customer asked to have all contracts changed to comply with the regulations governing the award of public contracts for services. When I was planning to move to another company, I then asked myself whether I should apply as a consultant or as a sales specialist. I decided in favor of sales of solutions and projects, with heavy involvement in consulting, as I saw adapting rapidly to new customer situations as more of a challenge. However, in order to remain as well informed on the subject matter as my customers, each year, I also carried out several of my own consulting projects. This remains one of my strengths to this day.
Sales versus marketing: this is the challenge I was presented with as coordinator of marketing and sales. This role increased my understanding of the needs of both sides and added to my skills in cross-divisional communication.
I was already involved in insourcing when working in municipal government – we planned, built, and took over the operation of our own data center. However, no one knew this term back then. Outsourcing is another area I am closely involved in today, and one that is currently experiencing a renaissance in the form of cloud services.
In 2005, after more than 14 years with various management consultancy firms, I decided to become self-employed. This affords me the independence required to provide customers with a holistic service: I can recommend the right solutions, products, and expert advisers to take them on a direct route to the desired outcome. Since 2005, I have focused much energy on learning about the networking approach, which I make use of as a very effective tool. Since 2012, I have been involved in the eco e.V. Data Center Competence Group.
With ecoTrialog, I have developed a format that enables me to play an active part in shaping the future of the data center market. As an auditor for the eco Datacenter Star Audit, I am able to learn about many aspects of data centers and, in developing this audit, I found it particularly important to address the operation of a data center. Indeed, the biggest challenge is not building a data center but running it efficiently, without interruption, 24/7, and enacting the documented processes. Sitting on the jury for various international industry awards provides me with a good opportunity to better understand other markets and benefit from the exchange of views across specialties with other jury members.
In my view, as a professional, I have a duty to keep learning, to keep actively engaging with innovative ideas, to have regular exchange with experts, and to be open to investigating new developments. This means that, when you meet me, you will not find someone who is standing still, but someone who is always moving forward!
This post is also available in: German