Citrix Experts in Germany

Transformation assignment: IT Operating Model and Governance

• Management of the operationalization of a new IT operating model for a service- and customer-oriented organization in the managed services and Microsoft 365 environment.
• Translation of the target organizational model into concrete roles, responsibilities, organizational elements, decision-making paths and collaboration principles.
• Design and operationalization of a layered model with autonomous delivery teams, supporting units and clearly defined governance functions.
• Design of governance for Service Delivery Management, People Leads, Global Service Owners (GSO), operational teams, clusters and management committees.
• Structuring of the transformation rollout into ramp-up, implementation, hardening and operations, as well as development of kick-off, communication and feedback formats.
• Further development of PMO and office structures as well as portfolio and workforce management to create transparency around resources, risks, dependencies and decision requirements.
• Facilitation of cross-functional workshops and decision-making meetings, and translation of different stakeholder interests into actionable principles, rules and measures.

Interim assignment: IT Service and Operations Management

• Assumption of operational responsibility for Citrix and AD/Access, including incident, escalation, transition and quality management in day-to-day operations.
• Clarification of operational interfaces and clear separation of responsibilities between internal units, Service Delivery Management and external service providers.
• Conduct of structured GAP analyses of existing service descriptions, preparation of make-or-buy decisions and clarification of roles with KPI integration.
• Management of conflicting objectives, dependencies and escalations in complex customer, operations and transformation situations.

Selected results

• The transformation target model was translated into directly applicable roles, governance rules, organizational elements and rollout formats.
• Decision-making paths, responsibilities and interfaces between operational delivery, supporting functions and management were described transparently and bindingly.
• The foundations for self-organized teams, standardized service descriptions and reliable portfolio, resource and management transparency were established.

Methods: Operating Model Design, Governance Design, RACI, GAP Analysis, Stakeholder Analysis, Workshop Facilitation, Change Communication, Risk and Escalation Management, KPI and Service Management

• Gathering information
• Creating rollout wave concepts
• Coordinating employees
• Monitoring and managing activities
• Project management including analysis and reporting to the board
• Creating instructions and specifications
• Training floorwalkers
• Supporting the rollout on site
• VIP support
• Introducing SharePoint

To achieve savings and optimize compliance, apps were restructured in line with the mappings in identity management, restrictions were defined and, above all, costs resulting from overuse were reduced. Communication with stakeholders, validation of authorizations with users and technical implementation in the SAP FI/CO and Sourcing & Procurement modules created significant added value for the group. This also included the corresponding documentation for the auditors.

With project PRIZMA, DB will modernize its infrastructure on the one hand, and develop a fail-safe IT landscape on the other hand, which can be restored quickly and securely in case of a disaster.

• Capture current architectures of existing systems as well as methodical consulting and development of target architectures
• Deepen and maintain the building plan / target IT landscape
• Implement technical architecture concepts & architecture descriptions
• Implement migration concepts for updating and further developing the platform and information systems
• Assess submitted improvement suggestions as part of the project
• Capability management: identify capability gaps, develop target visions, and support transformation planning within the enterprise architecture.
• Create a compatibility matrix of the components in use and compare dependencies of specific versions
• Create an IT concept for extending the platform with the following topics: hardware and software requirements, security, licensing, high availability, load balancing, backup & recovery, update strategy, monitoring integration, etc.
• Coordinate with business architects as well as technical architects from the cross-functional architecture area of the PRISMA program for the topics (backup, Active Directory, monitoring, Citrix, and business applications ...)
• Status meetings and alignment of project planning with the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager
• Advise the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager in identifying project risks
• Advise the System Architect Engineers in steering the implementation of the concept
• Implement the IT concept
• Document the infrastructure

Label: MS Project, LINUX, Windows, ORACLE, Java, REST, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, UML, Enterprise Architect, BPMN, AZURE, AWS, V-MODEL, Micro Service, VisualStudio, SAP S/4HANA, SCRUM(SAFE), ESB (TIBCO), Python, Innovator, LeanIX (TOGAF), Ansible, Ansible Tower, Ansible Automation, ROBOT, SpringBoot

• New connection of the product interfaces of the Financial Data Warehouse (FDW) directly to the Abacus 360 native interfaces
• IT environment: PC, client-server, Citrix remote client, Oracle DB
• Mapping of FDW outbound to Abacus 360 Native
• Analysis of requirements documents, business concepts, and existing interface rules
• Definition of new FDW rules for outbound to Abacus 360
• Adjustment of test scripts for the new interfaces
• Execution of tests to ensure correct data delivery and processing

• Technical leadership and further development of a team of 28 IT staff (internal & external) in the areas HelpDesk/HelpLine, RHEL (Red Hat), MUREX (trading system & applications), SAP basis operations
• Managing external service providers (including FI-TS for SAP basis operations)
• Personnel, resource and budget planning for the IT department and projects
• Introducing and establishing regular communication formats (weekly status meetings, team and cross-department meetings)
• Ensuring application operations in a hybrid environment (Windows/Linux with database and web/application servers)
• Supporting transformation projects to modernize the application landscape (e.g. DevOps approaches)
• Setting up and implementing a digital IT procurement for hardware & software (e.g. with DELL)
• Developing and managing the "IT Operations DOS" department based on corporate strategy
• Preparing management reports & decision papers on IT projects, optimization potential and automation opportunities
• Representing the department in the advisory boards of the Rentenbank and ensuring regulatory compliance (BaFin §44, GDPR, BSI, MaRisk)

Unified ITSM framework

• Definition of a company-wide ITSM target picture
• Introduction of a uniform service structure across all business units

SLA and OLA management

• Building a standardized SLA framework
• Definition of service classes (Business Critical, Standard, Low Priority)
• Introduction of OLAs between internal teams
• Building meaningful SLA reporting
• Definition of KPI and service dashboards for business units

Service portfolio management

• Definition of service descriptions
• If needed, preparing possible cost and service billing

Ticketing & processes

• Incident management
• Uniform ticket categories
• Standardized prioritization
• Escalation matrix
• Automations
• Self-service optimization

Request fulfillment

• Service catalog across all business units
• Approval workflows

Problem management

• Introduction of root cause analysis
• Known error database
• Problem review process

Complete asset management concept

• Hardware lifecycle management
• Software lifecycle management
• Leasing lifecycle
• Mobile device lifecycle
• Monitor lifecycle
• Phone lifecycle

Processes

• Procurement
• Goods receipt
• Inventory
• Assignment
• Return
• Disposal
• Leasing return Goal: single source of truth for all assets

CMDB design

• Definition of all configuration items:
• Workplace
• Notebooks
• Monitors
• Mobile phones
• Printers

Infrastructure

• Servers
• Firewalls
• Switches
• WLAN
• Storage
• Backup systems

Cloud

• Azure resources
• Microsoft 365
• SaaS services

Relationships

• User ↔ Asset
• Asset ↔ Service
• Service ↔ Infrastructure
• Location ↔ Asset
• Goal: make all service dependencies visible

Software asset & license management

• License management concept
• License balancing
• Compliance reporting
• Microsoft license management
• Adobe license management
• SaaS management
• Contract management
• Renewal management

Interfaces & automation Existing systems

• Workday
• Joiner
• Mover
• Leaver

TESMA

• Leasing data
• Contract data

Matrix42

• Asset synchronization
• User synchronization

Active Directory / Entra ID

• User management

Microsoft 365

• License assignment
• Group management

Dormakaba

• Access processes

• Lifecycle services

Monitoring platforms

• PRTG
• Palo Alto
• Cisco

Reporting & KPI framework

• Definition of a management dashboard
• KPIs
• Ticket volume
• SLA fulfillment
• MTTR
• First resolution rate
• Asset accuracy
• License compliance
• Change success rate
• Service availability
• Degree of automation

Network redesign support

• Governance
• Support of the network redesign from an ITSM point of view
• Definition of affected services
• Change management structure
• Communication concept

CMDB integration

• Recording of all network components
• Service mapping
• Dependency analysis

Validation of documentation and knowledge base articles

• Network documentation
• Operations documentation
• Standard changes

Monitoring & event management

• Target picture
• Central monitoring concept
• Event management process
• Alerting strategy
• Escalation model

Systems

• Cisco

• Palo Alto

• Fortinet

• Rubrik

• Veeam

• Matrix42

• Azure

• Microsoft 365 Automation

• Ticket creation from monitoring

• Escalations

• Standard actions

Audit, compliance & information security

• ISO 27001 consulting
• TISAX consulting
• NIS2 preparation - consulting
• Audit-ready processes
• Documentation structure
• Evidence tracking in Matrix42

Roadmap

• 12-month roadmap
• Prioritization of all measures
• Quick wins
• Medium-term projects
• Long-term target picture
• Documentation

• Coordination and planning, execution, documentation, and analysis of test cases
• Development of test concepts considering best practices (e.g., test pyramid) with a focus on reliable, automatable test runs
• Implementation and maintenance of test cases according to the test concepts
• Technologies: Citrix Workspace, Shopify, Jira, Xray, MS Teams, MS SharePoint, Confluence, MS Office 365

• Focus on winning new enterprise IT projects and further developing the IT Service and Application Management profile
• Available for new projects in Application Management, IT Service Management and Application Operations

Task:

• Design and build a proof of concept (PoC) for a future-proof virtualization platform, taking secure system architectures into account
• Assess the current state of existing infrastructures and develop selection and evaluation criteria for the right OS virtualization platform
• Carry out the requirements analysis and then create and prioritize tickets in the ticket system
• Complete and continuously update a tool evaluation matrix based on PoC results
• Support team knowledge building through clear documentation of the approach and results in Confluence
• Enterprise analysis of existing hardware (creating different BoMs)

Technologies: Vmware, Vmware Aria Operations, Osism, Canonical OpenStack, FishOs, Linux, Terraform, Ansible, Confluence, Alma

As PMO for the key topics of the IT Planning Council for Saxony-Anhalt, I am responsible for monitoring the four funded projects in Saxony-Anhalt with regard to compliance with the funding guidelines, state budget regulations, project standards, scope, and achievement of goals.

• Central PMO for four digitalization and funding projects within the digital strategy of the state of Saxony-Anhalt
• Overall coordination and steering of the projects in cooperation with the ministry, FITKO, and project leads
• Planning, structuring, and tracking of project milestones, dates, and work packages
• Creation and maintenance of project, status, and final documentation
• Establishment and execution of cross-project reporting to ensure transparency and traceability
• Execution of budget and cost controlling as well as support in the financial steering of the projects
• Setup and ongoing maintenance of cross-project risk management including assessment, action planning, and escalation
• Coordination of change management including assessment, planning, and tracking of change requests
• Monitoring of project progress through target/actual comparisons and derivation of optimization and steering measures
• Coordination and communication with all relevant stakeholders via defined contacts
• Support in complying with funding, procurement, and budget law requirements
• Preparation and moderation of status meetings and management reviews
• Ensuring transparent, on-time, and quality-focused project execution across multiple parallel funding projects.

• Optimization of business results and expansion of sales activities
• Responsible for personnel organization
• Introduction of a document management system (DMS)
• Introduction and optimization of the ERP, CMS and CRM landscape
• Introduction of digital signatures
• Increase in revenue, reduction in costs and increase in EBIT

• Administration and further development of the M365 environment including Teams, Exchange Online, Intune and SharePoint Online
• Development of dashboards for performance monitoring using Microsoft Power BI
• Implementation of user requirements and processes with low-code/no-code technologies (Power Apps, Power Automate)
• Use of Jira and Azure DevOps to plan and implement user stories in an agile project context
• Participation in daily stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews and retrospectives as technical point of contact
• Planning and implementation of security policies using Azure Conditional Access and multi-factor authentication
• Configuration and deployment of clients and applications via MECM (SCCM) and Baramundi

Evaluation and selection of a new endpoint management platform for an environment with around 50,000 clients. Support for a manufacturing company in evaluating a future endpoint management platform as a possible replacement for the existing client management solution. Conducting a structured software selection process including proof of concept as well as preparing the decision basis for the Enterprise Architecture Board (EAM). Defining the technical requirements and evaluation criteria and creating a short list of possible solutions (Tanium, Baramundi, Microsoft Intune / MECM). Planning and supporting the technical proof of concept as well as evaluating the architecture and operations aspects of the different platforms. In addition, evaluating tools for migrating existing software packages from the Ivanti DSM environment. Comparing and testing IDERI Move and PACE for the automated transfer of the existing package structure to the new platform, with the goal of significantly reducing migration effort. Support in selecting the required Tanium modules as well as preparing the decision documents for the Enterprise Architecture Board.

Tools: Tanium, Baramundi, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft MECM, Ivanti DSM, IDERI Move, Pace, Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server. VDI