Customer Relationship Management Experts in Germany

• Redesign of the company’s BI infrastructure: replacement of a fragmented landscape of manually maintained Excel solutions and CSV imports with a centralized Power BI environment using a unified data model as the company-wide single source of truth
• Consolidation of previously isolated reporting logic in a central semantic model – elimination of redundant files, manual data transfers and inconsistent metrics across departments
• Forecasting & Planning: Design and implementation of company-wide liquidity planning in Power BI – from business logic to a fully automated, data-source-driven planning model replacing the previous manual Excel process; enabling rolling forecasts and continuously up-to-date cash flow transparency for management
• Optimization of existing Power BI dashboards in terms of performance, structure and analytical value using an AI-native approach
• Analysis and improvement of the data model, including data quality analyses, data cleansing and consistent modeling using Star Schema, DAX and Power Query
• Incident & Anomaly Analysis: Identification, investigation and explanation of data anomalies, including root-cause analysis and specific recommendations for action
• AI Solution Architecture: Connecting Business Central and Power BI to LangDock via MCP (Model Context Protocol) for AI-supported data usage
• Development of a historical data layer as a basis for trend and time-series analyses
• AI-supported automation: Design and development of AI skills, agents, loops and processes for the automated analysis and interpretation of reports
• Automated reporting workflow: Setup of scheduled, automated email delivery of AI-generated analyses and recommendations to stakeholders
• Gathering and documentation of business requirements and coordination with business departments and IT as part of requirements engineering / product owner activities
• Breaking down overall requirements into clearly defined work packages and tasks
• Definition, prioritization and management of milestones throughout the entire project lifecycle

Tools: POWER BI, M365, Copilot Studio, MIRO, Microsoft Business Central, Microsoft Fabric, Claude AI, ChatGPT, LangDock, MS VS Code

• Founder of CheironX: AI-supported GRC management (ISO 27001, BSI IT-Grundschutz, TISAX, DORA)
• Strategic focus on Agentic AI and GenAI for modern IT Governance, Risk & Compliance Management
• IT interim management and strategic consulting

Agile Transformation: introducing agile principles and transforming traditional IT departments into Scrum and Kanban teams

IT Operating Model: redesigning the IT organization and introducing modern delivery structures and roles

Flight Levels: building up Flight Levels practices within IT to align strategy, coordination and operational execution

Leadership & Coaching: recruiting Agile Coaches and coaching Scrum Masters and IT leaders

ERP Operations: acting as Interim Product Owner for the existing ERP landscape and ensuring business continuity

ERP Transformation: reorganizing and supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager; Phase 1 (financial accounting) live since October 2025

Operational Core (ERP): establishing dedicated teams for ERP Support, Feature Development, and ERP Migration

Modern Workplace: initiating the transition towards a Microsoft 365-based cloud workplace environment

Integration: establishing a dedicated team to drive integration and connectivity initiatives

Warehouse Operations: building a cross-functional team to support logistics and warehouse-related capabilities

Maintenance & Operations (M&O): introducing a dedicated team for system engineering, security, stable operations and continuous improvement

AI Initiatives: identifying and promoting practical Artificial Intelligence use cases across the IT department

As Interim Head of IT for a German medium-sized industrial distributor, I am responsible for 31 IT employees and lead the digital and organizational transformation, reporting directly to executive leadership. I took over an IT department with almost no basic structures – no clear roles, processes, documentation or ticket system – and with significant technical debt that tied up most of its capacity. Introduced agile principles and ways of working in the IT organization and transformed the traditionally structured IT department into cross-functional Scrum and Kanban teams focused on transparency, collaboration, and customer value delivery.

Redesigned the entire IT organization by establishing a modern operating model, introducing new roles such as Product Owner, Scrum Master and Solution Architect and strengthening the organization through strategic hiring and targeted capability development. Recruited and onboarded Agile Coaches to accelerate the transformation and personally managed and coached Scrum Masters as well as IT department leaders to foster servant leadership, self-management and a culture of continuous improvement.

Aligned IT-internal planning across eight teams to three Flight Levels based on Klaus Leopold (strategy, coordination, team), laying the foundation for later company-wide portfolio management. Consolidated the backlog of more than 10 workstreams and prioritized it by business value and cost of delay. Introduced a ticketing system to increase transparency and enable data-driven decision-making, flow-based work management, and greater accountability at all levels.

Established and supported multiple cross-functional teams, including the Operational Core (ERP) domain with dedicated streams for Support, Feature Development and ERP Migration, as well as teams responsible for Warehouse Operations, Maintenance & Operations (M&O) including system engineering and security, Modern Workplace, Data Quality and integration initiatives. Worked closely with Agile Coaches to support team development, remove impediments, and continuously improve delivery effectiveness.

Acted as Interim Product Owner for the operation and enhancement of the existing ERP landscape while supporting the ERP migration as a Project Manager. Reorganized the project organization and had the already negotiated contract with the implementation partner realigned with a focus on approach and overall responsibility; Phase 1 (financial accounting) has been live since October 2025. Collaborated with the selected implementation partner to design and establish the project organization and target operating model for the ERP transformation, introducing agile delivery structures and ways of working. Facilitated the alignment between business, IT and the external vendor and played a key role in negotiating the contractual framework and delivery model to ensure a sustainable foundation for the transformation program.

Initiated the strategic modernization of the workplace environment through the adoption of Microsoft 365 cloud capabilities, establishing the foundation for enhanced collaboration, scalability and future digital services.

Launched AI initiatives to identify practical business use cases and promote the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence across the IT department. Encouraged self-management and empowered teams to take ownership of decisions, delivery and continuous improvement.

Interim management and temporary leadership for industry and infrastructure. I step in where organizational change has stalled and leadership, structure and execution are needed at short notice.

Projects: AI and transformation strategy for a regional hospitality association (2026): analysis of problem areas and their interdependencies, two prioritized initiatives, metrics and roles for implementation. Result: clearly identified the core issue (the data foundation, not the technology) and delivered a practical plan. Two presentations for the Modell Hohenlohe business network (December 2026) on leadership, structure and effectiveness during periods of change. Preparing a pilot to stabilize leadership structures at a 1st-tier automotive supplier.

• Expansion of the competence portfolio to include AI-driven marketing & chatbot integration
• Design and development of several intelligent chatbots (Steno, UChat, ManyChat, GHL) for MeditationSoul.org and Physio Point for automated promotion of workshops, retreats, and online courses
• Experience with social media automation tools and AI content tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Gamma, HeyGen)
• Creation of automations with n8n for marketing and CRM processes (lead nurturing, event promotion, funnel flows)
• Combining creative brand communication and AI-supported automation to increase efficiency and personalization in digital marketing campaigns

Working Environment

• Insurance / Claims Management (Property, Liability, Automotive)
• REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter

Scope

• Further development of the internal REST-based ClaimAPI with Guidewire ClaimCenter as the backend and various portals/front-end offices as clients, and with the following objectives: + increased AI-supported claims processing outside of Guidewire ClaimCenter + and support for all lines (property, liability, automotive).
• Further development of automated claims processing

Activities

• Interfacing IT & Business
• Design activities with documentation in Confluence, Jira: + Requirements engineering (functional and non-functional) + Design of REST endpoints and coordination with interface partners (esp. AI-colleagues) + Identification, design and evaluation of alternative solutions (moving away from a monolithic approach toward fine-grained endpoints, with code reuse across all lines if possible) + Creation / refinement of product backlog items in Jira, i.e. epics, user stories and tasks, incl. alignment with developers & POs during (pre-)refinement sessions + Using AXA Secure GPT when creating / refining user stories (description, acceptance criteria) and designing REST endpoints + Estimation and prioritization of user stories and tasks during Sprint Planning sessions + Coordination and support during the implementation of Product Backlog items + Driving decision making with preparation and presentation of decision-making documents
• Quality assurance: + Test management, including test case creation using Xray in Jira + Test execution using Bruno as REST client and in Guidewire ClaimCenter + Submission of test artifacts for PO approval + Analysis of production bugs

Methods Big Room Planning (aka PI-Planning in SAFe), Scrum, BPMN, EPK, UML, ERM, DDD

Tools / Tech Stack Teams, Confluence, Jira with Xray, OpenAPI/Swagger, REST, JSON, XML, MS Office, Bruno, GitHub repository (reading), Guidewire ClaimCenter, AXA Secure GPT (AXA's in-house GenAI solution based on Azure OpenAI)

Management of data protection & IT security-related projects. Adjustments to knowledge management and consulting processes.

Activities:

• Data protection consulting
• Process optimization in in-house consulting
• Interface to specialist departments, IT security, development and management

• Project management and consulting services with a focus on IT interim management: digitalization of corporate management, including processes and applications
• Assessment of the entire IT infrastructure, including applications, core processes and contracts, including cost optimization
• Evaluation and implementation of solutions to promote digitalization in the company in the areas of property management, CRM, invoice review and approval processes, smart metering, DMS and time tracking
• Digitization of file folders and introduction of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams as central document and communication platforms
• Design and delivery of an AI workshop, including the rollout of AI tools to increase efficiency and transparency in key business processes
• Preparation of training materials and delivery of user training for newly introduced digital processes and solutions

• Coaching and training 6 agile Scrum teams
• Taking on the role of Solution Coach (leading 6 agile teams)
• Advising and coaching program management and Tribe Leads, including roadmap, program, and risk management
• Implementing the risk strategy
• Integrating and establishing agile methods, combining the Spotify and SAFe models
• Facilitating agile events and sharing agile values and methods
• Developing and implementing team development processes
• Mentoring internal Agile Coaches in the Agile Chapter

Design and implementation of a “unified-commerce” platform for SMEs to sell and deliver multi-product bundles

Achievements: Designed and delivered a fully functional, CPQ-based “buy flow” process for configuring and selling multi-product bundles on time, and secured customer approval within the specified 90-day timeframe. Successfully tested the integration of various interface services for customer search, customer data enrichment, address validation, service qualification, phone number validation, credit checks, appointment selection and quote-to-order transition.

Responsibilities:

• Strategic goal delivery: Translating strategic customer goals into action and delivering them (e.g. release content, business value).
• Backlog management: Creating and refining backlog items (Initiatives, Epics, User Stories, Defects) in close coordination with the project team and client.
• Prioritization & releases: Owning Product Backlog prioritization and delivery of defined release goals.
• Deliverable tracking: Tracking work completed by suppliers and the client.
• Roadmap & release planning: Developing and delivering roadmaps and release plans together with the client.
• Scope ownership: Owning the contractually agreed scope of work.
• Claim management: Proactive claim and change management with the client.
• Team coordination: Managing and coordinating the development team.
• Leveraging synergies: Using synergies between client projects and product development.
• Proposal preparation: Preparing proposals (with supervision) and presenting them in person to clients and partners.

Skills: Developing, communicating and delivering product visions; Product Backlog Management; Stakeholder Management; Regular reporting to management and steering committees; Requirements analysis & engineering; Planning and documenting workshops; Functional leadership and coordination of (distributed) project teams and external service providers; Epic Management; User Story specifications; Creating use cases, supporting software testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT); Release Management and sprint planning; TO-BE process design; Process optimization; Planning, designing and specifying interfaces to existing and new systems; Identifying, assessing and managing project risks; Proactive claim and change management; Facilitating sprint planning and reviews; Data migration; Scrum; Kanban; REST API; JSON; XML; BPMN; UML; Jira; Confluence

• Focus on optimizing and further developing the internal customer EBICS application
• Functional and technical consulting for Aareal First Financial Solutions AG on EBICS standard products and applications in the areas of operations and further development, as well as project-related communication with external development partners and the product manufacturer to implement the corresponding technical optimizations
• As the functional coordinator, providing advice on content-related and regulatory requirements as well as technical prerequisites and requirements, and bringing these together at the functional level
• Consulting on the use of EBICS formats
• Reviewing the current EBICS standard for optimization and further development potential
• Analyzing the current state to identify development potential and deriving appropriate recommendations for action while considering regulatory requirements
• Conducting EBICS tests throughout the project
• Functional responsibility for requirements management and, in this context, recording and documenting requirements for such tests
• Designing a functional and sustainable test management system
• Conducting and evaluating tests
• Consulting on sustainable quality assurance and audits
• Project language: German and English
• Tools/Methods: MS Project, MS Office, MS Visio, TestRail, Confluence, Jira, Business Logics Bankkrecher, Business Logics Test Data Generator, Business Logics Banking Tool, Business Logics Test System, DBEAVER, Squirrel, Unix Virtual Machines, WinSCP, Kitty, Putty, various Aareal Bank products, Online Banking Portal, Aareal Sign, core banking system, SAP Blue Eagle, SAP RE-FX, Aareon Wodis Sigma, Haufe Real Estate Wowinex, GAP Group Immotion, UTS Karthago, SAP IS-U/Waste, SIV kVASy, various EBICS clients

• Developed a market entry strategy for the claims division of an insurance services provider.
• Analyzed and optimized existing claims processes.
• Defined management metrics and KPIs to improve performance and efficiency.
• Advised management on market positioning and process digitalization.
• Led an IT team of 13 employees as part of an interim vacancy cover.
• Ensured stable IT operations and managed external IT service providers.
• Led regulatory projects, particularly the implementation of the DORA regulation.
• Prepared and supported an IT security audit.
• Change management and conflict moderation in a challenging transformation environment (FI migration).

• Managed the integrated SAP S/4HANA delivery plan for 12 BTS workstreams, including milestone, dependency, and governance management.
• Coordinated end-to-end delivery across Business, IT, and Operations, focusing on execution, readiness, and issue resolution.
• Responsible for RAID, test, cutover, and deployment management to ensure a successful go-live.
• Implemented KPI tracking, status reporting, and PMO governance to provide transparent management of performance, risks, and escalations.