Piet Q.-Managing Director and Shareholder

Industry: Publishing, media Project management for the design of a RAG-based archive indexing solution: sovereign on-prem or hybrid compute architecture for LLM and embedding operations, pipeline for transcription and automatic tagging, semantic search across audio/video holdings. Use-case assessment and make-or-buy together with editorial, archive and legal departments, taking copyright law, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty and the AI Act into account. Differentiator: practical LLM infrastructure experience from two of my own productive platforms combined with C-level program management in regulated industries.

Industry: Manufacturing, electronics manufacturer Medium-sized specialist for digital energy measurement data (approx. 100 Mio. EUR revenue, 200–500 employees). Responsibility for rebuilding the IT infrastructure across its full scope – from architecture and strategy through to the contract with the new outsourcing partner. In parallel, coaching of the Head of IT and management with a view to independent provider management after the end of the mandate. Result: BSI-oriented security audit conducted and action plan established; outsourcing contract negotiated and awarded; IT management enabled to independently manage the provider, strategic repositioning initiated with IT strategy, AI strategy and IT security framework.

Industry: High-Tech SDAX group with an established application landscape in its own data centers. Assignment: hybrid multi-cloud strategy with a complete portfolio assessment based on Cloud-6R. Approach connecting infrastructure (data center topology, cloud sizing, TCO) and the application perspective (migration capability for each application). Result: Complete 6R classification; migration roadmap with business cases delivered on schedule within 6 months; board decision to proceed achieved.

Need for a new product strategy after the period of low interest rates. Development using Lean Business Canvas, customer interviews, and a make-or-buy assessment. Involved senior management as a sparring partner so that the implementation decision was supported by the bank rather than imposed externally. Result: Unanimous decision by the Management Board and Supervisory Board; follow-up mandate for implementation (see 2018/2019).

Need for an objective assessment of suitability for future IT leadership. Structured two-stage assessment (general + management) followed by coaching for the final candidates. Focus on preparing them for the role to ensure a smooth transition. Result: Reliable staffing recommendation delivered to the Management Board on time; coaching relationship continued during the transition phase.

Industry: Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Preparation of the IT organization for a single-vendor strategy with an offshore component. Risk cluster analysis across teams, tools, and processes, coordinated with executive management in workshops. Coaching component for professional project management. Affected: approx. 200 employees and 70 million EUR p. a. Result: Risk heat map with prioritized areas for action; transition started as planned and without service interruption.

The client commissioned the execution of a selection process for a new systems partner to provide services for the further development of the global collaboration platform. Development of the service scope, preparation of the SoW, RFI, and RFP documents, support during the selection process, and preparation of the transition.

Executive and divisional management commissioned us to realign a chronically troubled project and lead it to success. The task was to turn the project around and then carry out the process rollout. New processes were rolled out to >350 employees at various locations and at the Indian offshore partner. The formula for success here was professionally established and continuously managed human change through internal fairs, workshops, and individual interviews with the involvement of management.

Project 1: Development of a reference and maturity model describing the necessary changes in the relevant areas of application development. To implement this, a rollout concept was developed to support the organizational change through change management. The concepts developed were tested as a proof of concept in a follow-up project and rolled out across the organization in stages. Project 2: Identification of structural savings potential and professional, short-term implementation. As a result, the project enabled the client to implement savings in the double-digit million range immediately and set internal standards through the quality of the measures. Project 3: Reorganization of IT controlling and, with management support, sharpening of the overarching objectives and responsibilities. This included preparing the organizational structure design with a roles-and-responsibilities matrix and supporting the introduction of the model.

Project 1: Development of a consistent set of KPIs for project reporting and introduction of corresponding tool support for an annual project volume of >250 Mio. EUR. Project 2: Operational project management of the 30-person client team for eight price benchmarks, including preparation, vendor selection, follow-up, and support during the final price negotiations with the service provider. Cost savings in the double-digit million range were achieved as a result. Project 3: Support in defining and establishing IT portfolio management, as well as support for and execution of various cost-reduction programs, repeated benchmarks, and performance and price negotiations.

After SPM was acquired by SAP SI, I moved into consulting and took over the leadership of the SAP Consulting teams. Our portfolio focused on advising group IT managers and CIOs and supporting the implementation of strategic IT projects. In my role as a Trusted Advisor, my two teams and I worked for renowned corporations in the logistics, telecommunications, and banking industries. My revenue responsibility was 5,5 Mio. EUR p.a.