After spending the first half of my second year in the new team, the internship part of the course was coming ever closer. During this time, Azubis get to know the structures within the systems integrators better. Why? Only then can we understand how Bechtle works as a whole.
The first stop was:The warehouse.
Bechtle Bielefeld is one of the few German systems integrators with its own on-site warehouses. Plus, it is the second largest in the Bechtle Group
Here, I was able to experience first-hand what happens when I trigger an order in the sales department.
Where are the goods? Where do they go? How are they packaged for the various shipping methods and what’s the deal with customs for each of the countries? I spent two months finding the answers to these questions.
And then I moved on to:
in-house IT.
How do I configure a computer from scratch? Which software is essential? What’s a virtual machine and why do we use them? Why do sales reps need a VPN token? How is a server installed at a customer’s premises? What do I have to be aware of? Questions upon questions, But I was able to learn it all in my time in the department, engrossed as I was with everything from CMD to disassembled notebooks. It was definitely very useful in terms of being able to better advise customers in the future and I was certainly able to significantly boost my knowledge of hardware.
Next on the list was: Admin.
This is a crucial part of every large company as this is where everything is coordinated and organised and multi-tasking is a must!
The car pool has to be maintained. Flights and hotels have to be organised for colleagues traveling around the world and of course, the materials used within the systems integrator don’t just magically appear. A large business means a lot of employees, a lot of work, loads of invoices and running costs. And on top of all that are the customers with their questions. All of this is handled by admin to make sure that all the other departments can work smoothly.
Three down, and next was: Accounting.
In this department, everything revolves around contracts, invoices, credit notes, remittance advice and all things bookkeeping. As a business selling IT hardware, software and services to a multitude of customers, there are a lot of invoices to handle to ensure the customers don’t have to wait too long for their orders. And this was my responsibility during my time in the department.
The final stop of my internship was: Operations management.
All internal and external services are managed from here. When does which technician have to go to which customer? What has to be done? What’s the time frame?
And there were even contracts to deal with here as well, for example when an external service provider was used.
Riding high on all the new experiences, it was time to start my third year in sales, but this time the focus is on Global Access. This means the support of customers located around the world and linking them up with different partners. I’ll tell you all about what I do here next time.
During this whole period, I also continued to attend seminars at the headquarters in Neckarsulm. If you want to find out more, you’ll find all the information in our blog.
Until next time,
AZUBIT Leo
