Enrique Zschuschen

What do your duties consist of?

In my job as manager I am responsible for the Common IT Services department with 170 employees in four countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Poland). Within this I am the line manager for four teams: WCM & Web solutions, Enterprise Content Management, Integration Solutions and the Software Centre. In collaboration with the team managers I define the correct growth model for the teams based on previously defined goals and targets. These models are periodically scrutinised. By working in this way we guarantee that we achieve the desired service levels for our clients within the defined budget.

Currently the focus is mainly on achieving cost reduction targets. I am personally actively involved in this for the major application consolidation plans within our teams. Consultation with our direct business partners and stakeholders is critically important to ensure this succeeds.

What makes you most enthusiastic about working for Vattenfall/Nuon?

'I do my work in a very dynamic environment. The IT world is constantly changing, in terms of both infrastructure and organisation. We are confronted with many challenges in maintaining Nuon complex infrastructure. That’s why we seek to make this landscape less complex.'

'I continually try to improve the way we work and have lots of sessions with my team managers about how we can improve and reduce the cost of the services we provide the customer. To this end we use principles such as ‘pay per use’ and ‘the polluter pays’ in such a way that we deal with the total cost of ownership of the application with greater awareness, thereby making our budgets and cross-charging model sharper and more transparent.'

Why did you choose to work with customer issues?

'Looking after customers systems means also looking after the dynamic. As the end customers have to be given the right assistance it is important that the systems function optimally. Consequently, it’s essential that we as management departments have a good understanding of what the processes of our customers are. This ensures that the management departments focus more and more on the overall process rather than the individual application.'

What do you consider most important for ensuring that your work will produce good results?

'We endeavour to invent and execute clear and efficient management processes. And within these processes we try to automate as many of the standard actions/activities as possible. In this way we offer members of staff a more and more challenging working environment, because they too think about how the process can actually be improved, so that there’s more time available to tackle complex problems in an effective and structural manner. This is one of the means of trying to safeguard the quality of the service.'

What advice would you give someone considering applying to Vattenfall/Nuon?

'It’s important for an employee to be able to work in a fast and challenging environment in which you are constantly challenged to improve yourself. Nuon/Vattenfall offers numerous opportunities for growth and to attend the necessary courses. There are no obstacles to growth, but every member of staff is responsible for achieving it. And because our business (e.g. marketing) departments are continually coming up with new ways of retaining our customers and attracting new ones, the IT departments are expected to be genuine business partners as well. That demands a very pro-active attitude of our staff towards creativity, both on a business level and on a technological level.'