Interview: BAE Systems head of strategy and architecture, Malcolm Carrie

Many IT departments are looking to standardise tools and systems across the enterprise, in a quest for increased simplicity and efficiency.

However, standardisation is not an approach that would suit the unusual business structure at defence contractor BAE Systems, according to Malcom Carrie, the firm’s head of strategy and architecture. BAE Systems is made up of several interconnected divisions that operate under the same banner but maintain a degree of autonomy, under what Carrie describes as a “federated system”.

“IT people have a fetish about standardisation,” says Carrie. “But I don’t think that the important question is around standardisation, but about whether systems work, and you can easily collaborate and share information without wall-to-wall standards.”

Basically, the cost in time and effort required to create and maintain standards within BAE’s federated system would be too great when set against the benefits from such a system. As it stands, each division makes its own IT decisions.

In addition, the firm works at least as much with its external supply chain partners as with its own divisions, which would further complicate any attempt to standardise.

However, Carrie acknowledges that the fragmentation experienced as a result of a non-standard approach can be difficult to manage.

Using business intelligence (BI) as an example, Carrie explains that many people in the firm want access to a BI tool, but either can’t describe what they want, or can only describe their need in terms of a specific product.

“They come to me and say ‘I must have Cognos, or I must have Business Objects’. I ask what they are going to do with that, and the answer is ‘I don’t know’.”

The BI market is fragmented and diverse, with a large number of vendors to choose from, and an even larger number of add-ons and plug-ins available to augment their products.

“There are interoperability and efficiency issues around BI because the market is immature. But frankly so is our demand.”

BAE currently uses both Cognos and Business Objects, but Carrie adds that the group uses just about every tool currently available somewhere in its organisation. However, despite this fragmentation he has no desire to force a standard across the group because he sees the tool as less important than the information itself.

The group’s use of BI has grown through a process of evolution. Carrie explains that the company has adopted a bottom-up approach, meaning it hasn’t been driven by any form of corporate mandate.

In addition, BAE Systems has been very acquisitive in the past, again making business standardisation difficult.

“As an organisation we’re relatively acquisitive, we buy people and successful companies. Generally speaking, we don’t want to rip the guts out of successful companies that we’ve acquired. If they’ve already got a BI infrastructure, for example, then we’re more inclined to leave that in situ than tear it out.”

But that isn’t to say that the organisation will go out of its way to avoid creating standards, rather that it’s choosy about what it seeks to standardise. Carrie’s approach is to find commonalities, areas of business that are more generic, then harmonise those.

“Does a purchase order from an aircraft business look different from a purchase order from a security and intelligence business? Is that different from a purchase order from a submarine business? It is areas like these that we are trying to harmonise to reduce wasteful duplication,” he says.

Moving into information

BAE Systems is widely regarded as a military hardware company with products including jets, submarines and aircraft carriers. But Carrie sees the group increasingly moving into the information arena.

“We are moving into ‘information’. That’s partly because intelligence and security is all about information. And it’s partly because our products are increasingly computers with wings or tracks and a bit of camouflage. The IT content in what we sell has increased tremendously in the last 30 years.”

Carrie says many of BAE Systems IT staff are well qualified to provide customers with information services.

“These guys have been through the ITIL schools [ITIL trains staff in service management], they’ve got the practitioner badges,” says Carrie.

Consumerisation

The term “consumerisation of IT” describes a trend in which companies allow staff to access the corporate network on their own devices. The advantage to the enterprise is that it saves money on purchasing and supporting hardware, and the employee benefits by using their preferred tool.

But many organisations cite security fears as a reason to resist this trend. They argue that if you don’t manage the device, it’s far harder to secure the corporate network. As a defence contractor, security is paramount for BAE Systems.