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In addition to students and academics, Brno University of Technology (BUT) also employs 1,250 technical and administrative staff. Among them are around 800 women who may seem to remain in the background, but without whose work the university could not function. Backstage BUT is a series of short interviews introducing non-academic staff who have linked their careers to BUT. The first person we interviewed was Kateřina Polzerová, who is responsible for the economic operations of the BUT Information Services Center (CIS). Kateřina Polzerová is responsible for the administration of small public contracts at CIS BUT. | Author: Václav Koníček
I got here thanks to economics. The technologies related to my work are more of a bonus for me. With an economics degree from Masaryk University, you can work anywhere where orders are created or invoices are issued, and I am glad that I can use my knowledge at BUT. CIS is my second professional stop at the university. I started at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME), where I spent several years dealing with operational matters. What I like about CIS is that I have the opportunity to work in the field I studied and which is closer to my heart.
My work mainly involves contracts, orders, and purchasing in general. I also administer small public contracts. Every newly purchased or already owned item, whether hardware or software, requires its own paperwork. Orders and contracts with suppliers must be created and the related administration handled. It is also necessary to keep track of contracts – whether they are still valid or need to be moved to the archive, whether there is any specific fulfillment, and so on.
IT and economics have somehow connected themselves over the last few decades. Nowadays, you probably won't find any administrative staff or economists who don't use a variety of electronics with specific software day and night. When it comes to the more complex technologies that I deal with in public procurement, I rely on my qualified colleagues from CIS, who prepare detailed technical specifications and responsibly evaluate all the specific parameters.
In this respect, my economic work is closely linked to their technological work. However, I don't really make a big difference when dealing with orders for expensive high-performance servers for BUT or our everyday consumables, including "cockroaches" and mice. Everything is important in the end.
I am probably a little lucky in life because I have always had the opportunity to work with people from whom I could learn. I see my colleagues in the department as a team of people we can rely on each other. Although they say that experience is not transferable, for me personally, working with people who can give me useful advice based on their experience is very valuable. In this regard, I appreciate not only my colleagues, but also our secretary, Alexandra Peschlová. She knows how to support her people both professionally and personally and appreciate them for a job well done, which is very motivating for all of us. The support of my supervisor, Tomáš Krutiš, is also very important to me. I work with the feeling that if I have any "problems," I can turn to both of them.
My colleagues in the IT department are nice to me, and I would say that it is more challenging for them. I often don't understand them at all when they start explaining what they need to buy in their specific language. Other economists would probably agree with me that it is sometimes difficult to reconcile the language of an economist with the language spoken by technicians. We economists deal with accounts and numbers, while they mainly deal with technical parameters. In the end, however, we always manage to communicate somehow, and that's what matters.
From the perspective of my work, I would appreciate greater interconnection of our systems (SAP, e-spis) and broader digitization of administration – a single record with automatic transcription to other systems would be a useful tool. Duplicate entry is time-consuming and unnecessarily creates room for errors. Digitization is a great help to us – it saves us time and paper. On the other hand, we live in a natural world where mistakes happen, and we have to take that into account. Digitization certainly makes work easier, but it also depends on the extent to which it is appropriate to implement it so that electronics work for us and not the other way around.
I never wanted to build a career – I found peace and meaning in what I do. I like to develop within my field and I prefer quality over quantity. My professional goal is to continue in my current position. The agenda is gradually being digitized, and it is expected that the ubiquitous AI will soon take over routine activities in our field as well – but artificial intelligence will still need to be controlled and taught, which is a new professional challenge that awaits me. Thanks to the experience I have gained, I am looking forward to this change and I believe I can handle it.
I perceive my male colleagues primarily as gentlemen, but at the same time, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to work closely with female colleagues as part of my job. The natural diversity in the team is a great asset and brings variety to our work. My advice to young women would be that today they can work in any field and that the different perspectives of women and men enrich the work. They should believe in themselves and not look for rivals in the team, but partners with whom they can complement and respect each other.