Curiosity about what happens behind the screen has driven Ariane Wanet for more than twenty years, from SAP end user to SAP consultant at Flexso.

Ariane’s path into tech didn’t start with an IT degree or a carefully mapped-out career plan. Trained in accountancy, she first encountered SAP as an end user and quickly found herself wanting to understand how it all worked. Today, as an SAP consultant at Flexso, she brings together years of business experience, SAP expertise and something that may be even harder to teach: a genuine enthusiasm for what she does.

When SAP became more than a tool

Ariane still remembers the colleague who first made her curious about what was happening behind the SAP screens she used every day. It was 1998, and she was working as an accountant when she encountered SAP for the first time. One of her colleagues was a super user who seemed to know the system inside out. “I remember thinking: wow, he knows so much about SAP. I wanted to understand what was happening behind the scenes too.”

What especially fascinated Ariane was how everything in the system was connected. Change something here, and something else would happen there. Today, she compares that feeling to playing in a sandbox. “You try something and think: wow, if I do that, it will change this and that. It’s crazy,” she laughs. “There are so many possibilities.”

“There are so many possibilities.”

Yet a career in SAP consulting was still years away, even though Ariane felt in her bones an opportunity would come along one day. She was trained as an accountant but soon realized the profession itself wasn’t quite right for her. “It was too serious for me” she says. What she did enjoy was understanding how a business worked and gradually discovering processes beyond accounting. SAP became a common thread throughout those experiences.

A life built in Brittany

Just one week after the birth of her first son in 2004, Ariane moved from Belgium to Brittany, France. It was a deliberate choice, driven by the kind of childhood she wanted to give her family. “I wanted my children to grow up close to nature and the sea,” she says. Brittany became home for the years that followed: she had two more children there and took on different jobs along the way.

Her career wasn’t a perfectly straight line, but her interest in SAP never disappeared. Then, in 2016, while she was still living in Brittany, a French consultancy company offered her the chance to become an SAP consultant. “I thought: what? This is incredible!” she remembers. Rather than feeling intimidated, Ariane felt ready. When she met the director of the consultancy company, she wasn’t nervous. “I knew I had to be there.”

Her years as an end user proved valuable in her new role. Before advising clients on SAP, Ariane had experienced business processes herself, from accounting and production management to sales and logistics. “I know the business, so I can talk to clients as an equal” she explains. “I understand what they need.”

She is quick to add that this doesn’t make her unique at Flexso today: many of her colleagues bring extensive business knowledge of their own. But having sat on both sides of the table still shapes the way she approaches clients and their needs.

Values matter

In 2018, Ariane returned to Belgium with her family and continued working as an SAP consultant. She knew she had found the profession she loved. Finding the right work environment, however, proved equally important.

“I need to feel that the customer is happy.”

At one point, Ariane found herself in a workplace that increasingly clashed with her professional values. For her, listening to users and understanding what they need is at the heart of a successful SAP implementation. “I need customer satisfaction,” she says. “I need to feel that the customer is happy.”

The mismatch eventually took its toll and Ariane went through a burnout. The experience made her think more consciously about what she needed from an employer. She already knew what she wanted to do. Now, she also knew that where and how she did it mattered.

Finding the right fit at Flexso

That insight shaped her choice for Flexso. Here, Ariane found an environment that felt much closer to her own values. She describes her colleagues as open-minded, generous and welcoming, with a culture where knowledge is shared and asking for help comes naturally.

“For me, Flexso is really a team,” she says. “People help each other.” That supportive environment also leaves room for learning. “At Flexso, they don’t ask for perfection,” Ariane says. “They just ask people to give the best of themselves.”

“At Flexso, you come, you learn and you are welcome.”

Perhaps she sums up that philosophy best herself: “At Flexso, you come, you learn and you are welcome.”

Turning enthusiasm into impact

More than twenty years after discovering SAP, Ariane’s enthusiasm hasn’t faded. And as a consultant, she has noticed that enthusiasm can be contagious.

“When a teacher is passionate, you listen differently.”

She compares it to being taught by someone who genuinely loves their subject. “When a teacher is passionate, you listen differently,” she says. “You become curious too.” She sees the same thing happen with clients: enthusiasm encourages people to ask questions, explore possibilities and become more involved.

At the same time, Ariane sees her role as a bridge between what technology can do and what the business actually needs. Her years as an end user help her understand both sides. A technically sound solution, after all, only creates value if it also works for the people who rely on it every day.

For someone who once looked at a super user and wondered what was happening behind the scenes, there is something fitting about that. Today, Ariane gets to open up that world for others.

It’s never too late to make the jump

Ariane’s own path into tech didn’t follow the traditional route. She didn’t study IT, didn’t start out as a consultant and took several turns along the way. But she doesn’t see those experiences as detours. They are part of what she brings to her work today.

That is also what she wants other women to remember, especially those who wonder whether they have the right background or have simply waited too long.

“Dare. Dare to jump. Try it,” she says. “All of your experiences are a gift.”

Her own career is an example of exactly that. Accountancy gave her business knowledge. Being an end user gave her another perspective on technology. Raising a family, moving countries and starting over added experiences of their own. None of them kept her from finding her way into tech. They helped shape the consultant she is today.

Thanks to Flexso for supporting women in tech and making this story possible.

Check out their website here!

Curious about other stories at Flexso? Read them all here!

Ariane Wanet