Digitisation at MAPAL

As Team Leader of IT Client Management, Sebastian Schaal is pulling the strings in the background

All roads lead to Aalen. From here, IT Client Management orchestrates the technical infrastructure of the MAPAL sites. Sebastian Schaal works to ensure that all employees worldwide benefit from the same user experience.

“We actually take care of everything that runs in the background: Guidelines, controlling updates, central settings. So that IT can concentrate fully on service.” The trained IT specialist for system administration knows what he’s talking about; after all, he’s already been able to gain some service experience in his professional career. He joined the company in 2018, when MAPAL was just starting to move to Office 365 and was increasingly investing in cloud services. “It was an exciting time back then”, Sebastian Schaal recalls. It also awakened in him the desire to shift his focus more to the back end. This way, he can dive deep into systems and implement ideas (without being distracted by the daily service business). In 2020, he was promoted to team leader of the newly created IT Client Management department.

Under the three major headings of “standardisation”, “automation” and “documentation”, he and his team work exclusively on internal IT solutions for the total of 25 sites of the MAPAL Group. “We want to create a global standard that is centrally managed by us in Aalen”, Sebastian sums up the goal of his department as well as his diverse responsibilities in the client environment.

“Sometimes you’re on the phone with Japan, India, Romania and the USA in a single working day. Being in contact with so many countries and cultures is very enriching for me, because it tends not to be like this in your private life.”

You can be an important driver for digitalization, there are exciting possibilities waiting for you and our IT.

The desire to start all over again

In order to be successful in IT teams, Sebastian Schaal is convinced you have to have an independent way of working and also have the desire to start again from scratch. After all, you search for solutions in your field via many paths and a lot of the time you come to a dead end. You have to be able to cope with that, Sebastian says calmly. “If you’re really interested in finding good solutions, it’s all the more fun when you’ve found something that goes down well. There’s a lot of feedback and you can feel the gratitude of the colleagues at the sites. Then you know why you've spent weeks thinking about it.”

Networked with the world

What he appreciates about his work is the many connections with other departments and especially the international contact: “Sometimes you’re on the phone with Japan, India, Romania and the USA in a single working day. Being in contact with so many countries and cultures is very enriching for me, because it tends not to be like this in your private life.” Sebastian has already experienced for himself that the cooperation with a site can also temporarily change into an on-site commitment. In 2018, he was given the opportunity to support a major server changeover in client services at the Tokyo site for a fortnight. An experience that shaped him and for which he is still very grateful today.

In a manufacturing industry, interlocking system landscapes are simply crucial to success. “IT is becoming more and more important these days. Without IT, there is no digitalisation – and no development”, Sebastian sums up. And a little pride can be heard in his voice when he adds: “That’s why we contribute significantly to the future viability of the company.”

You can be an important driver for digitalization, there are exciting possibilities waiting for you and our IT.

People Who Work With Us

  • Erwin Schuster, Chief Information Officer

    Between big data analytics, artificial intelligence and new business models, Erwin Schuster and his teams create the general conditions so that technological progress is a reality at all levels every day at MAPAL.

  • Joshua Roth, Junior Inhouse Consultant

    The future becomes tangible when innovative technologies become an everyday part of the working world. Joshua Roth tests the extent to which processes can be automated with Machine Learning and reports on his experiences as a young professional at MAPAL.

  • Hien Vo, Software Developer

    The real sprint starts when you start working with sprints. Hien Vo lives and breathes agile processes and knows every ticket in the backlog. Born in Vietnam, she works with the IT and Marketing departments as well as with external service providers around the world to create the best possible user experience for MAPAL’s online presence.

  • Dennis Sandig, Product Owner & Application Manager

    Digitisation needs drivers who strive for the best. Dennis Sandig is usually involved at connection points to mediate between specialist departments and development teams. He reports on his experiences at MAPAL.

  • Moritz Mäurer, Master Data Manager

    He’s on board as early as when the first sketches are drawn up according to DIN structures and he’s still there when the companies receive operational support. Moritz Mäurer takes a holistic approach to product development.