Nicole Eggert
- 15/12/2021
Greetings from Hamburg, Germany. My name’s Nicole and I’ve been a Developer on the terminal management system OpenTAS for 20 years and counting. I started my apprenticeship at Implico Group in the early 2000s. Back then, the company was still called RZB. Initially, I applied for the job because I wanted to do something that was forward-looking and future-proof. And that – so much was clear for young me – meant that I had to do something with computers.
Today, the focus of my work lies on the development of websites and applications for mobile devices. These play a central role in the industry’s ongoing adoption of digitalization. After all, many users in the field still rely on pen and paper to register important information and handle key processes – even at big, international companies! The tools and functions I develop for OpenTAS help terminal operators and storage providers to gather, process, store, and leverage data much more efficiently, reliably, and transparently. This is a real game-changer within an industry that constantly thrives for more automation and digitization.
Besides the sophisticated coding work, I find the following aspect of my job especially exciting: I am given the opportunity to directly partake in the energy transition, providing O&G companies with much-needed means to reduce their carbon footprint and render their operations more sustainable. After all, a modern terminal management system facilitates better asset usage as well as lean, safe, paperless, and aim-oriented processes at a plant. And these are two of the boxes that transitioning companies must definitely check in order to reach their sustainability goals.
In the future, I would love to see even more women join the dev teams of IT providers and energy companies on all levels from employee to manager. In my opinion, there is no way around it: The challenges ahead of us are incredibly complex and demanding. To champion them, we need curious minds, broadened horizons, and creative solutions – all of which are values that usually don’t develop well in uniform work forces; they require diversity!
