17.08.2021
IT consulting at ECE: creating complex solutions using expertise and targeted communication
When asked to summarize her job in IT and SAP consulting, our colleague Ojuna Sergejewa-Weisenseel says that it is about constantly overcoming new challenges, developing solutions through open-mindedness and analytical skill, and working as a team. In this interview, she shares exciting insights into her diverse range of duties.
What exactly do you do in your job as a SAP Consultant and IT Project Manager, Ojuna?
As a Senior Consultant for SAP at ECE, I am in charge of a product. In my case, that product is “Accounting”. Firstly, my task is to enhance the product strategically. Secondly, it is to stabilize the processes and functions in accounting, viewed as an IT product. What makes my job particularly varied is that I act as a Project Manager and Process Consultant alongside my responsibility for this product. I oversee various IT projects.
As a Project Manager, I ensure that we achieve a project’s goal by using a team of internal and external IT coworkers to the best of their abilities. As a Process Consultant, I help the section with its use of business applications. While my specialization is the SAP solution, I also provide general support for the entire IT system landscape.
What are the biggest challenges in SAP and IT consulting?
Something I find exciting and also challenging is that my work has very few routine tasks. Instead, I often deal with issues that make us face new, complex challenges. The job here is to keep thinking in new ways, search for the best solution in a dialog with the section, and keep optimizing and automating processes. In my view, this is what being a SAP Consultant is all about.
As a Process Consultant, I build a bridge between the section and the development team. This demands technical know-how as well as fundamental knowledge about business processes.
I maintain an intensive dialog with internal and external IT consultants and colleagues from other sections so that I can understand a problem and develop a solution. It involves breaking down requirement specifications into individual issues, analyzing them, creating a proposal for optimization, trialing it with a prototype if needed, and evaluating it from an integrated point of view. A solution is only rolled out after people are convinced by it. Requirement specifications can be compared to a puzzle. You only get a full picture after you piece it together.
These different challenges, the constant change of perspective, and the associated development of my capabilities are what I like a lot about my job
Is there a SAP project that was a particular highlight for you?
When I joined ECE in 2015, I first worked as a Technical Sub-Project Manager for three years and was in charge of rolling out SAP across Germany, Austria, and Poland. During the subsequent rollout project, I as the Sub-Project Manager had responsibility for all accounting processes for the ECE companies in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Denmark.
The SAP project completely remodeled the company’s entire process and system landscape. Pulling off such a big change was only possible with a motivated and interdisciplinary team, and being part of it made me very happy. That is why I think of it as an absolute showcase project for SAP consulting.
What makes working at the ECE Group so special for you?
Easy: the complexity of my tasks and the close collaboration with different areas of the company. What sets us apart at ECE is our fantastic team, in the company’s sections as well as in IT. I am constantly amazed at how committed, flexible, and reliable everyone is.
There is a lot of respect here for characteristics like open-mindedness, goal orientation, and analysis and communication skills. These are enormously important for me and my work.
I am also especially impressed at how IT has a crucial role within the company. As it should do, too – IT systems are the lifeblood of a modern company. The way data flows is comparable to blood in a human body. This means anyone who works in IT is responsible for business processes running smoothly and ECE performing well. This is great motivation and inspiration for me.