--- title: "Itilian in the Spotlight: Taking the lead in complex IT environments" description: Meet Charlotte Sauter, Project Manager at Itility. Discover how she takes the lead in complex IT environments, connects teams, and turns plans into results. image: https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/Charlotte%20Sauter.jpg --- [![itility](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/blog/img/itility%20logo-01.png)](https://www.itility.nl) - Your industry - [Agriculture](https://www.itility.nl/agriculture) - [Energy](https://www.itility.nl/energy) - [Manufacturing](https://itility.nl/manufacturing) - Our expertise - [Business transformations](https://www.itility.nl/business-transformations) - [Software and data](https://www.itility.nl/software-development/) - [IT foundation](https://www.itility.nl/it-foundation) - [Managed services](https://www.itility.nl/managed-services) - [(Generative) AI](https://www.itility.nl/ai/) - [Who we are](https://www.itility.nl/who-we-are) - [Working at Itility](https://careers.itility.nl) - [About](https://itility.nl/about) - [About Itility](https://itility.nl/about) - [Offices](https://itility.nl/about#office-locations) - [Tech partners](https://itility.nl/tech-partners) - [Responsibility](https://itility.nl/responsibility) - [Contact](https://www.itility.nl/#contact) - Your industry - [Agriculture](https://www.itility.nl/agriculture) - [Energy](https://www.itility.nl/energy) - [Manufacturing](https://itility.nl/manufacturing) - Our expertise - [Business transformations](https://www.itility.nl/business-transformations) - [Software and data](https://www.itility.nl/software-development/) - [IT foundation](https://www.itility.nl/it-foundation) - [Managed services](https://www.itility.nl/managed-services) - [(Generative) AI](https://www.itility.nl/ai/) - [Who we are](https://www.itility.nl/who-we-are) - [Working at Itility](https://careers.itility.nl) - [About](https://itility.nl/about) - [About Itility](https://itility.nl/about) - [Offices](https://itility.nl/about#office-locations) - [Tech partners](https://itility.nl/tech-partners) - [Responsibility](https://itility.nl/responsibility) - [Contact](https://www.itility.nl/#contact) [![Picture of Itility](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/Avatar-Itility.png)](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/author/itility?hsLang=en) Written by:   ## [Itility](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/author/itility?hsLang=en) # Itilian in the Spotlight: Taking the lead in complex IT environments ## *“You don’t have to know everything. You do have to know how to find your way.”* *Charlotte Sauter – Project Manager* *![Charlotte Sauter - Itilian in the spotlight 2](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/Charlotte%20Sauter%20-%20Itilian%20in%20the%20spotlight%202.png?width=1672&height=941&name=Charlotte%20Sauter%20-%20Itilian%20in%20the%20spotlight%202.png)* A project where a lot is happening at once, multiple teams depend on each other, and no one has the full picture. For some, that mainly means complexity. For Charlotte Sauter, that’s exactly when the work gets interesting. As a Project Manager, she brings structure, makes dependencies visible, and ensures people know what is expected of them. She has done so across different roles and customer environments. To do that, she doesn’t need to understand every single technical detail. She needs to understand what it takes to turn a plan into a result. That insight didn’t come overnight. When she started, she wasn’t even sure whether IT was the right fit. Almost eight years later, she is still learning. ### **Learning by being challenged** After international hotel management and a master’s degree in Organization Studies, she joined Itility straight from university as a Project Delivery Officer. Her role was to look across projects: are we delivering what we promised, how are quality and budgets developing, and where do we need to adjust? It was an environment where a lot was expected of her. Experienced consultants and managers were direct and sharp on the content. Going into a meeting meant knowing your story. Not just being able to explain what was happening but understanding why. And if you didn’t know something: be clear about it, find the answer, and follow up. That shaped a way of working she still brings to her assignments today: make agreements concrete, set clear expectations, and take responsibility for the result. Or, as two familiar principles at Itility put it: Getting things done and Deliver as promised. Much of that wasn’t learned in a training course, but on the job. By working on complex customer challenges, contracts, and strategic sessions. By seeing how experienced colleagues broke down problems, and by making mistakes herself, getting feedback, and trying again. ![Charlotte Sauter - Itilian in the spotlight 3](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/Charlotte%20Sauter%20-%20Itilian%20in%20the%20spotlight%203.jpg?width=800&height=534&name=Charlotte%20Sauter%20-%20Itilian%20in%20the%20spotlight%203.jpg)   *“I can read as much as I want, but in the end, you just have to start doing it.”* ### **Zooming out to move forward** Over the years, her responsibilities grew. She took on multiple customers and eventually became team lead within the Project Delivery Office. There, she learned to combine a focus on results with something equally important to her: understanding what people need to do their jobs well. She still brings that combination to her work with customers. At first, she wanted to understand exactly how all the technology worked. Today, she knows her added value lies elsewhere. She needs enough understanding of the content to ask the right questions, but she doesn’t need to be the engineer. By zooming out, she can see how different activities connect. She separates what matters from what doesn’t, clarifies dependencies, and translates an end goal into concrete steps and responsibilities. Then she finds the people needed to move things forward. It may sound straightforward. In large and complex organizations, it rarely is. ### **Structure that leads to results** That became clear during a previous assignment in retail. For an international product launch, several business, IT, and external teams needed to work together. There was a clear target go-live date, but not yet enough visibility into what each team needed to deliver to get there. Starting from the deadline, she worked backwards. What functionality needed to be ready and when? Which teams were involved? When did testing need to happen? And which dependencies could put the timeline at risk? Bringing all this together into one project approach created a clear overview that teams could actually use to steer the work. The result was more than a project plan. Requirements became concrete, responsibilities were clear, and teams could align their work. This helped keep the launch on schedule. In another project, she worked on the pilot of a digital tool for store employees. This brought together product development and implementation. She aligned functionality with an external developer, set up test scenarios, and worked with the teams involved to organize the rollout to 30 stores. Employees needed training, devices had to be available, and after go-live, the results of the pilot had to be monitored. Projects like this show what her role is really about: not just creating a project plan, but making sure all the different pieces eventually come together. ![54242487117\_5a0df1d43a\_k](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/54242487117_5a0df1d43a_k.jpg?width=2048&height=1365&name=54242487117_5a0df1d43a_k.jpg)   *“Step outside your own area, talk to people, and find out what they need. That’s how you can really get things moving.”* ### **Trusting your own toolkit** Having worked in different roles and customer environments, she finds that she needs to reinvent the wheel less and less. The context changes, but many of the skills needed remain the same. Creating structure, quickly getting to the heart of a problem, setting clear expectations, and gathering information from the right people have become part of her toolkit. They help her get a grip on a challenge relatively quickly, even in a new organization. That also taught her an important lesson about consultancy. It can feel as though you haven’t achieved much yet when the bigger end goal is still some way off. Meanwhile, creating clarity, connecting teams, or making responsibilities explicit can already make a significant difference for a customer. That’s why her ambition isn’t tied to one specific next job title. She wants to keep discovering new customer environments, work on challenges she can connect with, and use her experience to help organizations move forward. ### **Taking the wheel yourself** She recognizes that same mindset in the culture at Itility. Expectations are high and people are strongly focused on results, but that goes hand in hand with collegiality. Call a colleague for help, and they will genuinely try to help. That sense of connection doesn’t happen automatically, though. Consultants spend a lot of time working at customer sites, so they don’t see each other every day. For her, investing in those relationships makes the difference. Joining a “Samen” event, taking part in an activity, or staying in touch with people from previous projects gradually builds a network you can rely on. The same applies to development. Opportunities are there, but you need to speak up about what you want to learn, take initiative, and then seize those opportunities when they come. ![image-1](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/image-1.jpg?width=2000&height=1333&name=image-1.jpg)   *“You’re in the driver’s seat.”* For future Itilians, that may be her most important message. Come and meet us, talk to people, and experience for yourself how we work. There is plenty of room for people who want to take responsibility and keep learning. And that’s also why she is still here almost eight years later. Not because her career was mapped out from the start, but because there has always been something new to learn and something new to take on. [![back](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/blog/img/button_back.png)Back to overview](https://blogs.itility.nl?hsLang=en) Tags: [Careers](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/tag/careers)   |   [Itility & Careers](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/tag/itility-careers) Share: - [![](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/blog/img/linked-in-02.png)](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blogs.itility.nl/en/itilian-in-the-spotlight-taking-the-lead-in-complex-it-environments&title=Itilian%20in%20the%20Spotlight:%20Taking%20the%20lead%20in%20complex%20IT%20environments&source=Itility) - [![](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/blog/img/socmedicons-04.png)](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://blogs.itility.nl/en/itilian-in-the-spotlight-taking-the-lead-in-complex-it-environments&t=Itilian%20in%20the%20Spotlight:%20Taking%20the%20lead%20in%20complex%20IT%20environments) # Author's picks [![](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/Media%20(61).jpg?width=345)](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/key-strategic-takeaways-from-fabcon-sqlcon-barcelona-2026?hsLang=en) [(Gen) AI](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/gen-ai?hsLang=en#b-overview)   |   [Analytics](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/analytics?hsLang=en#b-overview)   |   [Data management](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/data-management?hsLang=en#b-overview) ## [Key Strategic Takeaways from FABCON & SQLCON Barcelona 2026](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/key-strategic-takeaways-from-fabcon-sqlcon-barcelona-2026?hsLang=en) [![](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog%20-Taking%20manual%20work%20out%20of%20invoice%20processing%20with%20AI.png?width=345)](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/taking-manual-work-out-of-invoice-processing-with-ai?hsLang=en) [(Gen) AI](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/gen-ai?hsLang=en#b-overview)   |   [FinOps](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/finops?hsLang=en#b-overview)   |   [Industry Solutions](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/industry-solutions?hsLang=en#b-overview) ## [Taking manual work out of invoice processing with AI](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/taking-manual-work-out-of-invoice-processing-with-ai?hsLang=en) [![](https://blogs.itility.nl/hs-fs/hubfs/BMAD-party-mode-on-1920x1080-1.png?width=345)](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/from-bmad-to-agents-to-skills?hsLang=en) [(Gen) AI](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/gen-ai?hsLang=en#b-overview)   |   [AI engineering](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/topic/ai-engineering?hsLang=en#b-overview) ## [From BMAD to agents to skills: Why we are building reusable engineering knowledge](https://blogs.itility.nl/en/from-bmad-to-agents-to-skills?hsLang=en) # Technology, Data, People [Eindhoven (HQ)](https://itility.nl/about#nl-office) [Flight Forum 3360](https://goo.gl/maps/eEgqhvCsQ2wBY3rs6) 5657 EW, Eindhoven The Netherlands [info@itility.nl](mailto:info@itility.nl) [+31 (0)88 00 46 100](tel:+31880046100) [San Diego](https://itility.nl/about#us-office) [13500 Evening Creek Dr N #120](https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z9wtjcQK6Jn8QGa88) San Diego, CA 92128 United States [info@us-itility.com](mailto:info@us-itility.com) [+1-858-325-0120](tel:+18583250120) [Austin](https://itility.nl/about#us-office)[106 E 6th St #900](https://maps.app.goo.gl/tfFfowbYtwzCfwFN8) Austin, TX 78701 United States [info@us-itility.com](mailto:info@us-itility.com) [+1-858-325-0120](tel:+18583250120) [Romania](https://itility.nl/about#romania-office) [Palas Campus Iași](https://maps.app.goo.gl/6KEC5iTi8RUtM1QTA) B2 Building, 6th Floor Romania [contact@itility.nl](mailto:contact@itility.nl) [+31 (0)88 00 46 100](tel:+31880046100) - [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/company/itility) - [Facebook](https://nl-nl.facebook.com/itilitybv) - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@itility-bv) - [Mail](mailto:info@itility.nl) © Copyright - Itility 2026 | [Cookie policy](https://www.itility.nl/cookie-policy) | [Privacy policy](https://www.itility.nl/privacy) [![Itility](https://blogs.itility.nl/hubfs/blog/img/itility%20logo-01.png)](https://itility.nl)