Although I have my own role at Avanade, and therefore my own expertise, I am happy to have support from colleagues. From different departments and even from other countries. It makes results even better.

Working at Avanade for me personally is a dream come true. I have mostly been working for large corporate international companies, but I have never before worked in a truly international environment. In the past, the teams I operated in were heavily oriented on the Netherlands or the Benelux. With a few occasional projects with colleagues from Spain, Portugal and Germany, my work was very much local.

Working as a Change Manager

I started at Avanade as Organizational Change Manager, leading companies through change during technical transformations. Change management makes sure that the company is set up for success through active, visible sponsorship and a desire to change. Change management not only ensures that a project finishes on time and on budget it also makes sure there is a ROI and the project objectives are reached.

So, our job is to enable companies to reach the point that the ultimate utilization of the new solution is reached, that all people using a solution are proficient and to keep the speed of adoption high. That means that applying change management has a direct effect on the successful outcome of your project.

It is all about people

Recently I was asked to also fulfil the role as Offerings Lead Modern Workplace Value Realization – quite a mouthful. I am so lucky that I get to speak to Avanade’s clients about our Modern Workplace offerings. And not only just the offerings, more specifically I can talk about how we can help you get more value out of your already existing platform.

But my work is certainly not technically oriented, it is all about the people. The people I meet from all the companies we work with, the collaboration with many colleagues from Microsoft and Accenture, and, of course, within Avanade.

Fading borders due to digitalization

During the last months I was working on a project in the UK – technology has enabled us to work cross-border as if there were no longer any borders. A colleague in the UK, US of even Australia is only a Microsoft Teams chat away. I have weeks where I speak “face-to-face” with the UK and India in the morning, the US in the afternoon and throughout the day to my peers in Sweden, Spain or France as if they were in the same office building with me. I love it that the only thing I have to take into consideration is the time-zone. Easy, no?

Of course the current situation has forced us to change. Technology has been one of the big drivers in enabling us to work internationally, but it is still the people and their well-being that makes it all possible. I love that, at Avanade, I can drop somebody a chat, introduce myself and ask for guidance, sharing knowledge or tips and tricks I might need to do my job well. As I see it, I not only have colleagues in the Dutch office, no, my colleagues are anywhere in the world – and we truly work together as a team, no borders, just a Teams call away – Together being the best!