People behind Tallence – Ilham Barrachid-Akhouaji

Ilham: My professional background is shaped by variety and a broad range of industries and domains in which I have managed projects. I started at university in the field of Digital Geographies, with a focus on IT and spatial relationships, and quickly moved into practice through program management in the fintech environment and initial startup experience.

After that, I spent many years in project and portfolio management at a mid-sized IT company, supporting organizations ranging from small businesses to large enterprises, with a strong focus on agile project delivery. I have worked across industries, including banking, aviation, automotive, e-commerce, mechanical engineering, and chemicals.

From cross-industry business intelligence solutions to software-supported machine networking, I have been able to familiarize myself with a wide variety of contexts. Boredom has therefore never really been an issue.

Ilham:
The values that guide me most in my work are clarity, reliability, and a willingness to learn. It is important to me to make complex topics understandable, to take responsibility, and to develop sustainable solutions together with my project partners.

I am guided by a pragmatic view of feasibility, mutual respect, and the conviction that sustainable project success is primarily driven by strong collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement. Direct and open communication is particularly important to me.

Ilham: At Tallence, I primarily represent competencies at the intersection of IT, organization, and people. These include agile project and portfolio management, structured steering of complex initiatives, and translating between business requirements and technical solutions.

In addition, I bring strong capabilities in stakeholder management, facilitation, and clear communication - always with a focus on transparency, collaboration, and pragmatically achievable results across different industries and organizational sizes.

Ilham: What excites me most is structuring complex challenges together with diverse stakeholders and turning them into viable, implementable solutions. I particularly enjoy working with development teams.

I am especially motivated by working at the intersection of business, IT, and organization, and by seeing how good communication, transparency, and agile ways of working create real impact - for teams as well as for organizations.

Ilham: Internally, I really appreciate the strong sense of collaboration and the willingness of colleagues to support one another. Externally, Tallence stands out for having built a strong reputation over the past 25 years in industries such as telecommunications.

Tallence has cultivated a group of experts with deep specialized knowledge who not only deliver solutions, but also provide forward-looking advice to optimally support customers.

Ilham: Tallence has been around for 25 years, and many more successful years are meant to follow. What motivates me is the next level - how far can we go?

There is a lot of room for shaping things and many topics where we want to become even better. Actively addressing these topics together with the team is highly motivating for me.

Ilham: As the daughter of two migrants, growing up in Germany was not always easy. My mindset was strongly shaped by sports, which have been part of my life from a very young age. I grew up with martial arts.

For me, passion and performance go hand in hand. When I enjoy a topic, I give 200 percent and, metaphorically speaking, fight my way through any challenge.

Ilham: The most demanding situations have been projects with a high level of complexity and many involved stakeholders - especially in contexts with unclear requirements, organizational change, or significant time pressure.

These situations required strong communication skills, the ability to structure complexity, and a high sense of responsibility. At the same time, they reinforced my ability to act pragmatically, solution-oriented, and reliably even under challenging conditions.

Ilham: A recurring challenge in almost every project is dealing with different expectations, priorities, and perspectives among stakeholders. Often, the task is to clarify goals, create transparency around dependencies, and develop a shared understanding of approach and success.

At the same time, I see this challenge as a key lever: through clear communication, structure, and trust, it is precisely here that sustainable collaboration and effective results can be achieved.

Ilham: I see the use of AI in my profession as a significant value-add - particularly for analysis, structuring information, and supporting decision-making. AI can help make complex information more accessible, identify patterns, and automate routine tasks.

However, responsible use is essential. AI complements human experience, communication, and judgment - it does not replace them. Especially in project and consulting work, the strength lies in combining technological support with human clarity, empathy, and contextual understanding.

Ilham: I greatly value a pragmatic way of working. My most exciting experience so far has been collaborating with engineers in the context of software development for mechanical engineering.

In one project, I supported various stakeholders in implementing an AI-supported inline control system for a production line, aimed at reducing scrap and minimizing machine wear. The interaction between people, software, and machines was fascinating.