Employee Portrait: Felix Baran
My name is Felix Baran. I live on the edge of the Ruhr area in Hamm - which is close to Dortmund. I am one of the Co-founders of Complion and have been working in software license and asset management for over 10 years. Incidentally, the photo is not of my home, but was taken on the beach at Norderney.
How did you come to Complion?
I was already interested in IT and consulting during my studies. Parallel to my Master's degree at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, I was already working part-time in IT management at a retail company. I was also involved in the student management consultancy at the university. I met my current colleagues by chance at one of my previous employers, where I worked in IT Vendor & Contract Management, still on the customer side. In addition to the expertise of my colleagues, the chemistry on a personal level was absolutely right, so I was quickly enthusiastic about the joint founding idea of COMPLION in 2018.
What are your main focuses at Complion?
My specialist areas are software asset management (SAM), IT asset management, Cloud FinOps and software contract management. My expertise lies in particular in licensing and contract design with large software and cloud providers (e.g. Microsoft, SAP, IBM, Oracle, Atlassian, VMware, etc.). I coordinate and manage projects for large, well-known corporations and medium-sized companies with the aim of procuring software licenses and cloud services as economically as possible and deploying them efficiently and contractually compliant within the company.
I also moderate the VOICE Vendor Observer Competence Center together with colleagues. This is a service that reports monthly on news and changes in the area of hyperscalers, software vendors, licensing and contractual issues and classifies their impact on user companies.
At Complion internally, I work with a colleague to organize training, am the first point of contact for applicants and a mentor for younger colleagues.
What does your day-to-day work at Complion look like?
My morning usually starts at 5:45 a.m. when my wife's alarm clock rings. Before my working day starts, I have breakfast. No munchies, no .... - well, you know. I'm an absolute breakfast person and an early riser. So I usually squeeze in a workout before work - after all, the day can still bring a few surprises.
As I work from home a lot, my workplace is usually just a few steps away. In the morning, I organize my upcoming tasks and appointments, after which I usually have meetings of various kinds with different customers. These can be jour fixes, in which we go through the status of a project together with the customer, present (interim) results or hold topic-related work meetings. Once all the appointments for the day have been completed, I prepare the meetings for the next day. I am more or less free to organize my time as I wish. Every day is different. Priorities are constantly changing and time usually flies by. Even after more than 10 years in the job, I still learn something new almost every day. This is one of the main reasons why I am so dedicated and motivated at work every day.
What are you passionate about outside of Complion?
The perfect balance to work for me is sport and gardening. Depending on the time of year, I work out at the gym, run, swim, cycle or Nordic cross skate (it's like cross-country skiing, but without the snow). Being out in the fresh air clears my head quickly and gives me new ideas. The same goes for gardening. Depending on what's on the agenda, the work is physically demanding on the one hand, but on the other, the results of the work are immediately visible. What's more, home-grown fruit and vegetables taste so much better.
Speaking of food and drink, after the work is done, it can also be a higher-priced Rum mixed with cola at the weekend.