Ready to shape the digital future?
From academic to expert.
After her dual study program at Bechtle, Alessa knew exactly what she wanted—to change and make things happen. This is just what she does in her job as a Business Development Manager. She develops concepts for the future and supports schools on their digitalisation journey. You just have to speak to Alessa to feel the passion she has for Bechtle, her job in the public sector and school digitalisation.
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It all began in 2017 with a dual study program in International Business with a specialisation in Intercultural Management at Bechtle in cooperation with the DHBW Bad Mergentheim. She was among the first to study at Bechtle.
In the course of her three years she went through many departments—from Sales Development Team Europe and International Project Management E-commerce to International Sales in key account management to international purchasing for Great Britain. Alessa still benefits from the many insights she gained from working with international colleagues. “It was super helpful for me that I got to check out different departments during my practical phase and find out what really interests me and what my strengths are,” says Alessa.
The path into school digitalisation.
She found she was passionate about the last department of her practical phase: The Public Sector in the Bechtle@School area. She quickly found a subject for her bachelor thesis that after being permanently hired she could drive forward and start implementing immediately. For two years now, Alessa has been a business development manager for the K12 school sector and a guide for educational institutions in all things digitalisation. “Even back then, digitalisation of schools was a major topic. I know from my own experience: My school days were long and hardly digital. This motivated me to join the team and commit myself to their mission,” the 26-year old says.
The public sector is a special kind of customer. “I find it fascinating that we get to work with public institutions such as hospitals, the police, ministries, schools and universities. The core of the country, in fact. It’s so different to anything else,” she says with a grin on her face.
Her tasks are predominantly strategic and creative, daily business only taking up a fraction of her time. She serves as a central contact supporting the different Bechtle companies with the public sector and school digitalisation, identifying market potentials and opportunities, talking to manufacturers and partners, developing a tailored offering portfolio and supporting the Bechtle companies with tenders and on-site in projects. “It always fascinates me to see what was planned on paper successfully realised at the end of a project. It’s the positive feedback coming from our customers and seeing that we have actually achieved something that makes me really proud of our Bechtle@School team,” says Alessa.
Thinking international.
Only recently she was given the pioneering task to drive school business across Europe. Her vision: Make Bechtle a Europe-wide digitalisation partner and extend the strategic portfolio to go along with that. Her passion for languages and travel helps in this regard. Besides German and English, she has expanded on her French and Spanish in business situations and is currently teaching herself Korean and Chinese. She frequently has language meet-ups with an Asian colleague to converse casually over a coffee. With success: This year at one of the biggest fairs for audiovisual solutions in Barcelona she greeted the CEO of a customer in Korean. “He was taken aback, then laughed and was overjoyed and I’m sure I left a lasting impression,” Alessa tells us.
Her days as a vocational trainee.
To this day Alessa looks back fondly on her time as a trainee. She especially remembers the trainee Azubi Camp. This is intensive training taking place in a business hotel at the start of the traineeship to enable networking and prepare trainees for daily work. The agenda includes various seminars on time and self management, social media skills and lots of time to get to know each other and exchange experiences. Even to this day she’s still in contact with many former Azubis and dual trainees—and not just at work.
Another highlight was her semester abroad in Ireland. At the beginning of 2020 she worked in Dublin for two months in the public team of the E-commerce company's Public Team, got to know her colleagues and the culture and got some experience in international business. An experience she draws on to this very day.
Driving change.
Alessa is someone who wants to make a difference, both at work and in her private life. “I’m currently part of a very large shift in the education sector. By developing well thought-out concepts for municipalities and cities me and my team are making a great contribution to what future generations will learn,” she says. It’s important to start now and pull out all the stops, to keep actively moving forward. “This is what drives me everyday.”
When asked what school will look like in 20 years, Alessa is convinced that the classroom of today won’t exist in a few years. Instead, a lot more focus will be placed on collaboration and team building—with more collaboration spaces and less teacher-centred teaching. Individual support will be increased and the paper-free classroom will become standard thanks to cloud access to documents, homework and content. Technologies such as augmented reality or the use of AI and robotics will no longer be a dream of the future. “To be quite honest, I’m jealous of the current and future generations. Some of the technology and media being used today are so good that I would like to go back to school,” she says with a smile.
