First face-to-face seminar since the start of the pandemic a complete success
The internal PTA summer seminar is now a firm fixture in employees’ diaries – even in times of the coronavirus pandemic, when the PTA group met again in person for the first time after two virtual seminars for a professional exchange and a cozy get-together. From July 1 to 3, the participants gained an overview of the latest trends and technologies in IT, presented current projects and shared their experiences in these areas at the Lufthansa Seeheim conference hotel. And before there was plenty of partying and dancing in the disco at the end of the first day of the seminar, the management gave an insight into the current development of the PTA Group and its economic situation. A team event and a culinary BBQ on the evening of the second day of the seminar rounded off the event and offered plenty of opportunity for personal exchange.
“We were extremely pleased that we were finally able to meet face to face again this year at our summer seminar and exchange ideas,” explains the management of PTA IT-Beratung GmbH. “Although the pandemic is not yet over, the current situation and our sophisticated hygiene and testing concept made it possible for us all to see each other in person this year and have a good time together.”
This year’s summer seminar was opened with a brief welcome from the management and the seminar’s moderator, PTA employee Dr. Roland Jesse. This was followed by the introduction of Dr.-med. Karl-Ernst Albrecht. In him, the PTA group gained the support of an experienced occupational physician who, following his presentation, carried out COVID and flu vaccinations and offered the G37 eye examination.
The host is not a legacy and the colorful world of SAP
Under this title, the technical discourse could then begin. The expert Heinz Schäfer discussed the questions of whether the host will soon become extinct or whether it has a chance of survival, how work with a host is actually organized and how a host actually works; The speaker showed what skills and roles are required for this, what a terminal actually is and what developments the technology has undergone over time;
After a short coffee break, we then entered the colorful world of SAP; Tim Lessel, Son Tran, Marc Resch and Matthias Beck provided valuable insights into a few current projects, which not only showed the variety of technical possibilities, but also the professional and content-related range of the PTA consultants. After all, a lot has happened in recent years and SAP has been on the market for almost as long as PTA IT Consulting. The range of possible scenarios and applications is now correspondingly broad;
Who benefits from business analysis?
In the third topic slot, Christoph Eschenbrenner and Holger Hesske discussed the self-image of a business analysis after a well-deserved lunch break. For IT service providers, business analysis is usually used to develop and define IT requirements, according to the two IT experts; But the question of whether this has to be the case has triggered a debate about whether IT service providers should not act more as understanders, translators and supporters of specialist departments; The speakers gave an overview of what business analysis actually means and when it leads to solution design; The seminar then discussed the extent to which the use of low-code platforms has an influence and how they ultimately form a possible habitat for citizen developers;
Multi-team scrum environment and secret data in the cloud
In the second afternoon session, Georgios Polioudakis gave extensive insights into how working in a multi-team scrum environment can work; Based on a real project, he described how such a team works with more than 100 participants; This is an unusual approach, as such an organization usually consists of a maximum of ten people who work in a self-sufficient, agile and focused manner; The expert clearly demonstrated what happens when the environment is larger, what influence dependencies between different teams have and how the requirements analysis for several of these teams can be managed in parallel.
Fabian Sohns concluded the first day of the seminar with his presentation on secret data in the cloud. He sensitized the participants to the fact that although operating applications in the cloud means gaining flexibility, this is always accompanied by a loss of control over the physical end devices; He gave practical tips on how to ensure that access data and other non-public information is properly protected and what to do if “chmod 600” is not an option for securing configuration files with sensitive content.
Management report and concluding summer party
Following the conclusion of the technical supporting program of the PTA Summer Seminar, the PTA management team of Matthias Wossidlo, Dr. Tim Walleyo and Peter Fischer gave a detailed overview of the economic situation of the entire PTA Group and PTA Germany. Tim Köhler did the same for PTA Switzerland and Managing Director Dennis Haßlöcher for the sister company DATIS. In addition, Kerstin Frey gave an insight into the current projects in the HR area and Robert Fischer in the Marketing area.
The participants opened the final get-together with a meal together, which culminated in a big party in summery temperatures – to round off the evening, the participants got together in a cozy atmosphere at the bar or in the disco.
Second seminar day starts with future scenario
The second day of the summer seminar was introduced by moderator Dr. Roland Jesse after a leisurely breakfast in the late morning. In his presentation “Can we prepare ourselves for the future as avatars?”, he ventured a look into the near future and explained that many processes and more and more restrictions on manual and time-based support from humans are disappearing in the course of digitalization; This means that consultations can now not only be held in person at a customer center. For suitable scenarios, they are also possible remotely and via video instead; In standardized cases, an avatar could assume this role accordingly; 24 hours a day. Seven days a week, according to the digitalization expert. Based on practical experience from numerous projects, he showed how realistic the experience, how charming the presentation and how credible the result can be.
Lunch, team event and BBQ
After an extensive lunch break, the seminar participants started the joint team event, which was very popular due to two years of abstinence in virtual rooms; The team task was a very special one: The participants were divided into 14 different groups. Each group built a soapbox and then sent one driver into the race. Following the award ceremony, all 14 soapboxes were donated to charitable institutions such as children’s homes or daycare centers in cooperation with the Stadtjugendring and the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt;
An informal champagne reception kicked off the final BBQ in the open air, bringing the second day of the seminar to a close. On the second evening, the PTA team also enjoyed the cozy atmosphere and the personal exchange. After a hearty breakfast on day 3, the time had come again: the PTA summer seminar, which was held in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic, came to a successful and peaceful end.
