Nicole Nussbaumer - 13 years at HR Campus

What was your greatest personal success during this time?

For me, my first Employee Central project with Payroll, which I introduced for a Customer in 2015, was a major milestone. Moritz, our current CEO, coached me back then and gave me valuable advice. Back then, the system wasn't as integrated as it is today. There were separate and different databases behind each module. I would say that overcoming these technical hurdles was probably one of the biggest challenges of the project. As the project was ultimately a complete success, I still have fond memories of it today.

Were there any projects that you remember less favourably? And if so, what lessons did you learn from them?

There were some projects where not everything went smoothly. I remember one case where we had a lot more work to do because the Customer's requirements and their many customised programmes were more extensive than originally thought, although only a standard project was planned. In another project, we held many different workshops and yet the project was put on hold after these efforts.

One project that I remember particularly well was the introduction of SAP Performance Management at a cantonal bank in 2010. It was supposed to be a standardised project that - according to the software manufacturer - could literally have been carried out with just a few clicks. In the end, it was one of the most nerve-wracking projects because nothing worked at all. We had to invest a lot more time and were also dependent on the manufacturer's troubleshooting. In addition, the journey to this Customer was very long and I had to commute over four hours.

However, I could always count on our Team at HR Campus in all these projects. The cohesion and helpfulness within the Team is very high, which ultimately made every project a valuable experience and therefore a success.

You must have had some crazy experiences over the 13 years. Can you think of any that you would like to share with us?

One of the most impressive projects was with a Customer that we still support today. We carried out extensive studies before we set up the multiple deployment on the development and test system and the customer carried out the testing. As everything looked good so far, we went live with the system. Then the nightmare of every HR department happened - the new function caused data inconsistencies that jeopardised payroll accounting, among other things. However, in one night shift we managed to restore the system and by 6.30am it was up and running again. It is simply incredible what a dedicated and focussed Team can achieve. I am extremely grateful for that!

One perhaps somewhat crazy experience was after a customer workshop in 2014. The workshop was actually planned for a whole day, but we were so efficient that we finished by lunchtime. On the way home, my sat nav suddenly showed that it would take me 99 hours to get home. Naturally, I thought something was wrong with my sat nav. However, it turned out that a bridge near Birmensdorf had been damaged, which had brought all traffic to a standstill. So I had an unexpectedly long journey back - but fortunately it didn't take 99 hours after all.