Piet Quade-Managing Partner

Industry: Publishing, Media Project management for designing a RAG-based archive access: a robust on-prem or hybrid compute architecture for LLM and embedding operations, pipeline for transcription and automatic tagging, semantic search across audio/video archives. Use-case evaluation and make-or-buy in collaboration with editorial, archive, and legal departments, considering copyright, broadcasting treaty, and AI regulation. Differentiator: hands-on LLM infrastructure experience from two proprietary production platforms combined with C-level program management in regulated industries.

Industry: Manufacturing, Electronics Mid-sized specialist for digital energy metering data (approx. €100M revenue, 200–500 employees). Responsible for rebuilding the IT infrastructure end-to-end – from architecture and strategy to contracting the new outsourcing partner. Simultaneously coaching the IT director and executive management for independent provider management after my mandate ended. Result: Carried out a BSI-oriented security audit and established an action plan; negotiated and awarded the outsourcing contract; enabled IT management for independent control and initiated strategic repositioning with an IT strategy, AI strategy, and IT security framework.

Industry: High tech SDAX group with a mature application landscape in its own data centers. Assignment: hybrid multi-cloud strategy with a full portfolio assessment based on Cloud-6R. Approach bridging infrastructure (data center topology, cloud sizing, TCO) and application perspective (migration readiness per app). Result: Complete 6R classification; migration roadmap with business cases delivered on schedule in 6 months; board approval to proceed achieved.

Need for a new product strategy after the low-interest phase. Developed using Lean Business Canvas, customer interviews and make-or-buy evaluation. Included executive management as a sparring partner - so the implementation decision would be carried by the bank, not imposed externally. Result: Unanimous approval by the executive board and supervisory board; follow-up mandate for implementation (see 2018/2019).

Need for an objective suitability assessment for the future IT leadership. Structured two-stage assessment (general + executives) with subsequent coaching for the final candidates. Focus on familiarizing them with the position, so the transition could succeed seamlessly. Result: Robust staffing recommendation delivered to the executive board on time; coaching relationship continued during the transition phase.

Industry: Chemicals & Pharma Prepared the IT organization for a single-vendor strategy with an offshore component. Conducted a risk cluster analysis across teams, tools, and processes, aligned with management in workshops. Added a coaching component for technical project management. Impacted about 200 employees and EUR 70 million per year. Result: Risk heatmap with prioritized action areas; transition started on schedule without service interruption.

The client mandated a selection process for a new system partner to provide services for the further development of the global collaboration platform. Developed the service interface, prepared the Statement of Work (SoW) and RFI and RFP documents, supported the selection process, and prepared the transition.

The executive board and department heads mandated realigning a chronically troubled project and driving it to success. A turnaround was executed, followed by the process rollout. New processes were rolled out for over 350 employees across various sites and at the Indian offshore partner. The success formula was the professionally established and simultaneous human change program, using internal fairs, workshops, and one-on-one interviews with management support.

Project 1: Development of a reference and maturity model that describes the necessary changes in the relevant areas of application development. A rollout concept was developed to implement it, securing the organizational change through change management. The concepts developed were tested as a proof of concept in a follow-up project and rolled out step by step across the board. Project 2: Identification of structural savings potential and professional, quick implementation. As a result, the project enabled the client to implement savings in the tens of millions immediately and set internal benchmarks with the quality of the measures. Project 3: Reorganization of IT controlling and, with management support, clarifying the overall goals and tasks. This included designing the organization structure with a role-task matrix and supporting the introduction of the model.

Project 1: Development of a uniform set of metrics for project reporting and introduction of a corresponding tool support for an annual project volume of over EUR 250 million. Project 2: Operational project management of the 30-member client team for eight price benchmarks, including preparation, vendor selection, follow-up, and support during final price negotiations with the service provider. Cost savings in the tens of millions were recorded as a result. Project 3: Support in defining and setting up IT portfolio management, running various cost reduction programs, and supporting repeat benchmarks, performance, and price negotiations.

After SAP SI acquired SPM, I moved into consulting and took over leading the SAP consulting teams. Our portfolio focused on advising corporate IT executives and CIOs and supporting the implementation of strategic IT projects. As a trusted advisor, my two teams and I served well-known companies in the logistics, telecommunications, and banking industries. I was responsible for revenue of EUR 5.5 million per year.