Services · 03

Interdisciplinary projects

Interdisciplinary projects rarely fail because of expertise.

They fail because departments meet that believe they understand each other and yet speak different languages. “Availability” means one thing in IT and something else at the plant, “urgent” one thing in sales and something else in development. It takes someone who translates.
That's me.

Dancers move between large chess pieces on a chessboard

Illustration: © Andrea Fischer

Typical situations

The MES or digitalization project is stuck because automation and IT keep passing responsibility back and forth.
A supplier delivers a “standard” that doesn't work in your network, your operations or your validation.
All kinds of devices need to go on the network: lab equipment, medical devices, plants. But nobody wants to own the interface.
Sales promises what development can't deliver, and both feel they're in the right.
The business unit knows what it needs but can't express it in a way that IT and automation understand the same way.
Your very own case?
Let's talk, and I'll add it to this list (and solve your problem).

Two seahorses form a heart, below them a person wearing diving goggles

Illustration: © Andrea Fischer

What I do for you

Requirements clarification: I sit down with the business unit, IT and automation and keep translating until everyone means the same thing. The result: requirements that both sides sign off on.One to three workshops, documented.
Architecture and interfaces: Which data goes where, via which interface, and who is responsible for what. From the plant up to MES, LIMS or ERP. I stand for decisions that will still hold in five years.Assessment and recommendation, implementation support if needed.
Technical project management or sparring: As technical project manager at the interface, or as a sparring partner for your project manager who doesn't know the other world.By the day or week, over the course of the project.

Both worlds, first-hand

IT

I started out as a data processing specialist and programmer in classic IT: building and running networks and infrastructure, migrating entire hardware landscapes into virtual data centers, and integrating medical devices in hospital IT.

OT

Then the move into automation: process visualization, control systems, complex plants. Most recently as Senior Technical Consultant for zenon with major pharma accounts. Plant availability, cycle times and batches are barely familiar to IT. To me they are.

And in between: the people

Over many years I have worked with people in every role and at every level, and learned how quickly misunderstandings arise and how crucial clear communication is.

That's why I trained as a systemic consultant and mediator. I don't just translate between systems, but between people: I pick up on expectations, things left unsaid and lack of clarity early on, I listen, ask questions and get conversations moving.