Fulfilling, Insightful, and Engaging – 2025
2025 was a good year for me. One of those years that demanded a lot of energy, but still leaves me looking back with a sense of satisfaction. I had the opportunity to learn many new things – while once again realizing that certain patterns, topics, and challenges remain surprisingly persistent. Regardless of industry, company size, or technology.
In February, one of my most intensive mandates of recent years came to an end: the transition, modernization, and restructuring of the IT function at Maschinenfabrik Alfing Kessler in Aalen. I was on site for almost a year. The starting point was clear – and, frankly, sobering: an IT team that for years had been perceived more as a cost center than as an innovation driver, stalled projects, limited acceptance within the organization, and a strong technical focus without sufficient business and financial governance.
What we achieved together over the course of that year was not a “big bang,” but solid, disciplined teamwork.
We restarted key projects, introduced Microsoft 365 including Copilot, prepared the SAP HANA conversion, established a project organization embedded in the overall company structure, and streamlined sourcing – with clear SLAs and new service provider contracts. What mattered most to me was not the technology itself, but the operating framework: lean, clearly defined processes, largely paperless as a role model for other departments, transparent budgets, and continuous steering. From that point on, figures were always up to date, deviations became visible early, and decisions could be made on a sound basis at any time.
A key moment was the pending signature of the SAP cloud contract and the associated cost increase compared to previous years with ECC. Within a short time, we were able to demonstrate what a realistic total budget over five years would look like. This allowed the management team to decide quickly and cleanly whether the HANA path was viable – or whether alternatives needed to be considered. The decision was made after two days of careful evaluation.
What made this mandate particularly special for me was the team. After years of frustration, a clear shift emerged: a willingness to move forward, to focus on people and their requirements, and to actively seek alignment with the business. You could feel a renewed sense of pride in the work being done. This attitude extended to the shop floor, to the collaboration with the works council, and to sensitive topics such as the use of new technologies – including Copilot. To this day, I maintain a close and trust-based exchange with the works council colleague responsible for IT. This does not happen by chance; it is the result of honest, respectful work at eye level.
Immediately afterward, I moved into a very different setting: a project for Colt Technology in the context of AOK. The task was to introduce a Contact Center as a Service solution, including NLU (Natural Language Understanding), for 1,800 call center agents – after a classic project false start. My role was clearly defined: replan the initiative, rebuild trust, negotiate realistic milestones with the customer, stabilize and complete the pilot phase, and translate the solution into an approvable data protection and IT security concept. The goal was a clean handover of a stable project for a big-bang rollout, to be owned internally by Colt. No rocket science – but a lot of discipline, bringing colleagues along (especially on compliance topics), clarity, and consistent communication.
In parallel, I was responsible for another integration project covering seven country organizations in three waves: A carve-in of XSYS combined with an SAP HANA conversion from an ECC group environment. And yes – it moved faster than many would expect. Significantly faster. The discovery phase had started before my involvement and was unfortunately incomplete, which came back to haunt us later. Nevertheless, we went live operationally in September with a small footprint (wave 1) and successfully integrated the final country – India – into the XSYS HANA template by December 1st. Prior to that, the waves FR/ES/SG and AUS/CA/US were completed, followed by a structured handover into the Shared Service Center operations. On time. Exactly on target.
That said, the project was not without its shadows. My personally most uncomfortable – but also most important – lesson: We and I in person relied too heavily on the project management of the infrastructure service providers. Too many parties involved, too many cooks, too little clarity in the details. In the end, the users paid the price. I should have asked deeper questions earlier, structured more clearly, and intervened more decisively. My intention to avoid duplicate costs and effort turned out to be the root cause of avoidable issues during the rollout.
Perhaps something else also played a role. After the very tightly planned AOK project – at times down to micro-management – I found myself internally somewhat “allergic” to excessive detail control. A classic pendulum swing. That, too, is part of the truth.
My conclusion for 2025:
Technology changes. The patterns do not. It always comes down to clarity, accountability, trust, and solid decision-making foundations. When business and IT truly work together, speed emerges. When they do not, even the best tools are of little help.
A fulfilling year. With results. With learnings. And with enough momentum to make 2026 a little better still.