Axel Brinkmann - Independent Consultant and Project Manager

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Experience

Dec 2017 - Present

8 years 2 months

Independent Consultant and Project Manager

Consulting, organizational consulting, project management, (multi)project management, interim management, coaching, supervision
Topics: IT strategy, IT service management, IT organization, IT controlling, risk and change management, software implementation, application management, quality management, offshore management, organizational analysis and personnel requirement analysis, procurement procedures
Industries: Public sector, Healthcare, Insurance, Logistics, Software vendors, Retail, Transport, Financial Service, Traffic, Security

Aug 2016 - Present

9 years 6 months

Berlin, Germany

Consultant: Set-up and management of external project controlling

BMWi/BMI

Set up and led external project controlling at a federal authority in a S-O-S major project (software development based on V-Model XT, agile on the contractor side with SAFe adoption), set up and led quality and risk management, acted as auditor
Established operational project controlling focusing on schedule, risk and quality controlling
Regularly presented the controlling report to the project steering committee at the BMI at department head level
Continuously monitored, evaluated and updated project progress in terms of schedule, risks and quality
Planned and conducted regular project management audits, code reviews and IT baseline protection audits with the contractor
Advised on implementing changes and their impacts, and provided ongoing advice to department management

Feb 2016 - Dec 2016

11 months

Germany

Consultant: Organizational analysis and personnel requirement analysis

BMAS

Conducted organizational analysis and personnel requirement planning in the 'Central Services' area following BMI and BVA guidelines
Held initial discussions with managers of the areas and teams under review
Identified and validated goals for task performance and development; defined and assessed importance and changeability of core processes, optimization potential, and organizational structure and workflows
Created task catalogs and planned the survey activities
Conducted process analyses on key processes and analyzed the organizational structure
Ran task critique workshops
Determined calculation parameters for target personnel requirement analysis
Developed optimization proposals
Performed target personnel requirement analysis considering the optimization proposals

May 2015 - Feb 2016

10 months

Germany

Consultant: Development and establishment of a secure and legally compliant quality seal for cloud computing solutions

BMWi

Defined the organizational structure and workflows for the cloud computing quality seal
Set up the PMO and overall project management
Gathered and modeled business processes, including functional and technical requirements for the online self-test, online application and information platform
Reviewed the usability concept to ensure it met the defined process requirements
Validated and optimized process models

Feb 2015 - Jan 2016

1 year

Germany

Consultant: Organizational analysis and personnel requirement analysis

BMAS

Conducted organizational analysis and personnel requirement planning in the 'Application Development' and 'Operations and Support' areas following BMI and BVA guidelines
Held initial meetings with managers of the areas and teams under review
Identified and validated goals for task performance and development; defined and assessed importance and changeability of core processes, optimization potential, organizational structure and workflows
Developed task catalogs
Planned the survey activities
Carried out process analyses on key processes (requirements management, incident management)
Performed document audit for the introduction of SAP Solution Manager (ChaRM)
Ran task critique workshops
Determined calculation parameters for target personnel requirement analysis
Developed optimization proposals on cross-IT topics (AFM, SAP standard operations, knowledge management, architecture management)
Performed target personnel requirement analysis considering the optimization proposals and created overall optimization proposals for the IT area

Oct 2014 - Nov 2015

1 year 2 months

Berlin, Germany

Consultant: Project Management

Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM) and Federal Archives

Project management for the initiative to build a "Digital Interim Archive of the Federal Government" (DZA)
Project initiation, planning, control and leadership of the national project planning
Project management consulting and support for the project leadership (coaching), including creating and maintaining PM documents, supporting coordination with project participants, risk management, requirements management, information management, change management, cost control, reporting, communication and change management, and stakeholder management
Preparation, planning and updating of the cost-effectiveness analysis for the project according to WiBe 4.1
Creating and updating the overall project plan
Developing a business model to integrate up to 700 agencies
Support for procurement planning

Mar 2014 - Sep 2014

7 months

Bonn, Germany

Consultant: Advising the national Project Management Office (NPMO)

German Federal Bank and Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)

Advising the national Project Management Office (NPMO) in the project to implement the SSM regulation (Asset Quality Review and stress test of 24 German banks)
Project audit with the involvement of the Major Project Management Competence Center of the Federal Administration Office (BVA)
Optimizing project management based on the project audit results
Creation and leadership of the national project planning (Asset Quality Review and stress test of 24 German banks)
Developing and establishing a communication strategy
Developing and establishing an efficient reporting process
Coaching the NPMO team

Oct 2013 - Jan 2014

4 months

Nuremberg, Germany

Lead of Communication Workshops

Federal Employment Agency (BA)

Planning and conducting communication workshops for all staff of the BA IT department with a focus on communication models and establishing a communication culture

Mar 2013 - Feb 2014

1 year

Bad Vilbel, Germany

On-site

On-Site & Offshore Manager: Application Management

First Data

Managing the department, leading the onsite team and overseeing the offshore team in Hyderabad, India
Responsible for support and further development of 22 business-critical applications
Realigning the delivery and support process
Project management of all internal application projects
Analyzing all applications and creating a 5-year strategy for consolidating and realigning the application landscape

Oct 2011 - Feb 2013

1 year 5 months

Nuremberg, Germany

Project Manager for implementing SEPA compliance

Federal Employment Agency (BA)

Implementing SEPA capability within the Federal Employment Agency according to the EU regulation
Gathering and analyzing 27 specialist and payment procedures and the adaptations required (80-90 million payments per month)
Gathering and analyzing the affected SAP modules and all interfaces
Communication across all business units and affected IT areas
Conversion and migration planning of approximately 60 million bank account records
Managing the external (Accenture) partners, consisting of approximately 15 SAP developers
Detailed project planning, cutover planning, and resource planning
Risk and quality management

Sep 2011 - Nov 2017

6 years 3 months

Germany

Managing Consultant

Capgemini

Jan 2011 - Dec 2011

1 year

Frankfurt, Germany

Interim Management of the Service and Support Department

ITS Care

Interim leadership of about 60 IT service colleagues
Coaching of the IT systems department head
Consolidation of service locations
Staff scheduling for 1st level support (SPOC)
Introduction of reporting for executive management
Drafting the introduction of ITIL-compliant processes in incident and problem management

Jun 2010 - Aug 2011

1 year 3 months

Independent Consultant and Project Manager on behalf of Capgemini

Capgemini

Jan 2010 - Dec 2011

2 years

Thetford, United Kingdom

EDI Transition Project Manager

Jeyes International

Project management of EDI transition for about 400 customers to MS Dynamics and to a new company in the Czech Republic
Full communication with all customers
Planning and execution of testing and implementation phases
Management of the external development company in Manchester
Development of a process-based reporting system for the CFO
Quality assurance of the performed tests
Supervision and coaching of the finance and controlling department throughout the project

Jan 2008 - Dec 2010

3 years

Bonn, Germany

Risk and Change Manager of the Overall Project, Head of the Project Office

DPAG

Project „Client Refresh 2010“: design and replacement of about 40,000 clients
Development and implementation of a progress reporting system for the executive board
Risk and change management for the planning and implementation project
Creation and further development of the overall project plans
Participation in two project audits conducted by DPAG
Participation in project budget planning

Jan 2008 - Dec 2008

1 year

Stuttgart, Germany

Project Team Member

Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG

Implementation of a 5-year telecom strategy
Creation and further development of subproject plans
Implementation of change requests
Consulting on merging service locations and selecting a service management tool

Jan 2007 - May 2010

3 years 5 months

Partner

Novedas Unternehmensberatung GmbH

Jan 2007 - Dec 2008

2 years

Berlin, Germany

Project Manager for the Implementation of a Service Management Tool

Toll Collect GmbH

Implementation of a service management tool in the service area for OBU users
Requirements specification for the implementation of a new service management tool with two ITIL processes
Led workshops for process analysis and documentation in the 1st and 2nd level support area
Managed the HP development teams
Staff scheduling for 1st level phone support
Created skill matrices for the realignment of the 1st and 2nd level support departments
Technical design and implementation of the integration with the existing Oracle database system
Planning and implementation of a configuration management database

Jan 2007 - Dec 2007

1 year

Hamburg, Germany

Performed a cost-benefit analysis

HHLA

Conducted a cost-benefit analysis for the SAP release change project

Sep 2003 - Dec 2006

3 years 4 months

Head of Customer Support

DKV Euroservice GmbH & Co. KG

Built and led the European customer support department
Managed the Service Desk for Europe, initially for DKV employees, later providing service & support for around 17,000 customers and suppliers
Project responsibility for implementing a service management tool
Project responsibility for implementing an ACD system
Mapped business processes in IT service management to ensure smooth support of IT infrastructure and business applications
Developed, reviewed, and implemented 4 SLAs during the transfer of all IT operations to an external vendor
Developed training materials for DKV standard applications and the service desk application
Full personnel responsibility for 6 employees

Jun 2003 - Aug 2003

3 months

Riederalp, Switzerland

Farm Worker

Sabbatical

Jan 2001 - May 2003

2 years 5 months

IT Operations Manager Central Europe / User Service & Support Manager Central Europe

Capgemini

Led the Configuration Center for the Central Europe (CE) region
Completely restructured and repositioned the entire IT department in the CE region
Defined and implemented internal IT processes to optimize business process support
Managed the CE Service Desk for approx. 2,400 users
Managed the IT department for the Bad Homburg and Berlin locations
Oversaw test phases, selection, and implementation of new systems
Created and updated onboarding training and adapted processes
Established the Telephony department for Central Europe, including designing procurement, billing, and management of mobile and fixed-line services, implementation, and operational rollout
Developed budgets and monthly forecasts as part of the outsourcing process, including analysis of transaction costs
Drafted, reviewed, and implemented 6 SLAs during the transition of the entire IT operations to an external IT service provider (Cap Gemini Service GmbH)
Acted as support manager liaison between Cap Gemini Ernst & Young CE (client) and Cap Gemini Service GmbH (IT service provider)
Formed and led a steering committee made up of board members and managing directors for regular needs analysis and trend reporting
Point of contact and project lead for internal strategic IT and communication projects
Technical lead for the A(ccelerated) S(olution) E(nvironment) Center planning in Munich
Represented the CIO of Central Europe
Full personnel responsibility for 15 staff members and one trainee IT systems programmer (IHK)

Mar 1998 - Dec 2000

2 years 10 months

MIS Manager

Peregrine Systems GmbH

Led the IT department
Built and standardized the IT infrastructure in Germany and Switzerland
Installed and maintained multiple IBM file/print and application servers
Managed Exchange Server applications
Configured and maintained Cisco 2600 routers and Bay Networks switches
Installed and maintained the backup system
Upgraded and expanded the phone system to Siemens HICOM 300E
Responsible for purchasing all hardware and software
Managed one employee and one trainee IT system management assistant (IHK)

Dec 1995 - Feb 1998

2 years 3 months

Frankfurt, Germany

Head of Harddisk Recording Department

PA Sound GmbH

Head of Harddisk Recording Department
Projects at the Berlin Philharmonie and Alte Oper Frankfurt

May 1991 - Nov 1995

4 years 7 months

IT Employee

Holy Service GmbH (IT Systemhaus)

Mar 1990 - Nov 1993

3 years 9 months

Dual apprenticeship as industrial clerk (IHK) and business IT specialist (IHK)

Siemens Business School

Jul 1988 - Feb 1990

1 year 8 months

Frankfurt, Germany

Civilian Service Volunteer

German Red Cross

Sep 1985 - Jun 1990

4 years 10 months

Studied Economics

Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Jan 1985 - Dec 1985

1 year

Frankfurt, Germany

High school diploma (Abitur)

Lessing-Gymnasium

Trainer for seminars and workshops

Trainer for multi-day seminars and workshops on communication & conflict management
Article in Behördenspiegel on project & change management

Skills

Topics

Consulting
Organizational Consulting
Project Management
(Multi)project Management
Interim Management
Coaching
Supervision On It Strategy Topics
It Service Management
It Organization
It Controlling
Risk And Change Management
Software Implementation
Application Management
Quality Management
Offshore Management
Organizational Analysis
Personnel Requirement Analysis (According To Bmi Handbook For Organizational Analysis And Personnel Requirement Analysis)
Procurement Procedures