BSH digital chief talks DevOps, cloud and the pitfalls of 'always-accessible' technology

Mike Faiers tells Computing why opening up IT to the business has had a huge impact

"There is no more IT. Don't talk about IT anymore, it doesn't exist," says Mike Faiers, director of eBusiness and IT at BSH Home Appliances Limited (pictured).

Of course, as Faiers's job title suggests, this is not strictly true. However, the sentiment underlines the major shift that has taken place over the last few years at the company's UK's offices, that oversees brands such as Bosch and Siemens.

In 2012 the company merged its traditional IT function with its more digital-orientated operations, which Faiers had been brought into lead, in an effort to overhaul how IT interacted with the business

"The IT function was very traditional IT - servers, air-conditioned rooms, fixing laptops, that kind of thing. But we wanted to change it to something that was more consultative and engaged with wider business," he tells Computing.

This led to the creation of the division dubbed eBusiness that Faiers oversees. This is made up of four mini-units. Two - infrastructure and systems - still focus on core IT areas, as the names suggest. The other two, though, are newer, with one dubbed Digital and the other Ecommerce and Innovation.

The idea to create this set of teams was, in part, to help those in IT have a more active role in the wider business environment, rather than just being cut-off from the rest of the business.

"IT used to be like the Wild West, when someone walked in it was almost a case of who would break first and look up and have to deal with the person there," he said.

"But when we looked at what we found frustrating it was that we were seen as detached, not visible, not valued or appreciated, so it was clear that we had to make people feel valued and make the business aware of what we could do."

It was this that led to the creation of the eBusiness unit and a major shift in how the unit operates to become a more integral part of the business that has a far more consultative ethos. It proved an instant hit.

"We were making changes rest of business was crying out for anyway, so when it started they embraced what we were doing," says Faiers.

In particular, the team focuses hard on trying to understand what a request is trying to achieve, so rather than just blindly building a new tool that may not actually be the right solution, it works with those request new functionality to ensure they address the nub of the issue.

For example, the team was asked to help solve an issue where sign-offs for price changes was being delayed, meaning orders were not processed in time, customers were receiving goods late and fines being issued to retailers.

It is now in the process of building a paperless approval process that should reduce delays in pricing change approvals, hopefully ending the issue of late deliveries.

BSH digital chief talks DevOps, cloud and the pitfalls of 'always-accessible' technology

Mike Faiers tells Computing why opening up IT to the business has had a huge impact

Another example was the creation of a booking solution for conference centres.

The original request only stated that as a requirement, but working together to understand how the tool would work best the eBusiness team also built the form so that it could include catering and security units directly within the booking process.

This helped provide a richer set of functionality than had been requested and that, under the old setup, would not have been included.

These are just a handful of some of the projects that have been worked on and Faiers says since eBusiness launched it has been inundated with requests.

The team is not just reactive, though, but has looked to get its own house in order as well by auditing its own technology use.

One early effort involved recognising that a key application used to monitor the supply chain and the location of goods, was overly "exposed" as it was essentially built and managed by one person within the team.

So, with the greenlight from IT HQ in Munich, the eBusiness unit has created a brand new system to track this information that bolts onto the firm's existing SAP data warehouse. This is now being piloted ahead of a likely global rollout to all BSH offices.

Faiers says he considers the way his unit works to be something of a forerunner to what the industry now dubs DevOps. He notes too, with wry amusement, that when he hears people in the business suggest they embrace a similar ethos, he points out they are already doing just that, and have been for some time.

"I say, ‘guys, we are doing this, we don't need to break our backs and get all excited about the new latest buzz word, because we are doing it already," he said.

"Everyone is talking about DevOps and don't get me wrong I get It, I see value and principle behind it, but it's just a nice dressed up way of saying talk to each other."

BSH digital chief talks DevOps, cloud and the pitfalls of 'always-accessible' technology

Mike Faiers tells Computing why opening up IT to the business has had a huge impact

However, while this may be an area where the company can make a claim to be ahead of the crowd, Faiers is quite happy to take a much more considered approach to the cloud.

"I think cloud can play a really important role, but it's about how do you provide level of security, availability and everything else that you need?"

He notes in particularly that he finds it surprising how many firms have rushed to the cloud and are so willing to put such sensitive data into environments that are so readily accessible.

"I know people who work for creative agencies where their ideas are their IP and everything is in Google Drive and everyone's using their own devices and there is a level of trust there, that if your IP is that information, that anyone can access it anywhere…I find that interesting."

"We are nowhere near that. We are still very protectionist of our ecosystem."

While business reasons may be the key reasons the cloud remains on the back burner for now, there are also cultural and psychological reasons as to why Faiers is reticent to move to ‘always accessible' setup.

"I understand the idea of information always being accessible is awesome but I think in a strange way there is also a bit of a danger with it," he says.

"If you have a laptop you shut it down and put it away and finish work for the day then you have that separation from work. But if you have an iPad or smartphone and you can suddenly open up a work document and keep working at 9pm, is that a good thing or not?"

Faiers links this back to the new style of IT his teams delivers, that is more consultative and forward-thinking, and reasons it could be detrimental to have a team that are overworked and fatigued when trying to operate in this way.

"Four years ago I think that fatigue would have been detrimental, of course, but not to the amount it would be now, because back then they were doing things, like coding, configuring a laptop, or a server where, ok yes you need thought and consideration, but you don't need creativity," he says.

"But people now, most of what they are doing is not just at a computer screen coding, it's understanding problems, talking to business leaders, working with suppliers and third parties, as well as doing the head down coding kind of thing, and actually that interaction and creativity, you can't do that when fatigued."

BSH digital chief talks DevOps, cloud and the pitfalls of 'always-accessible' technology

Mike Faiers tells Computing why opening up IT to the business has had a huge impact

Of course, it's all well and good instigating massive cultural change in your department and the creativity that it demand, but you have to convince those who will be going through the change that it will be better for them too.

Faiers cites the example of one member of staff who had been with the business for 25 years, essentially just fixing laptops.

"My challenge was to say, we have someone here with 25 years of experience of our business who is doing nothing more than just fixing laptops. That's not the best use of that time, resource, knowledge."

He admits that it was not a simple process to overhaul how they worked for so long, but is clear in his belief that the team has benefitted from the changes.

"It was a difficult change for some of them as they were very traditional IT workers, but it was about showing them the value and benefit of working a different way and over the last years they have proved a revelation," says Fairers.

For example, the aforementioned staff member now heads up the service desk that manages the process through which devices are fixed, providing a far more engaged workflow that gives staff more information on when their request will be handled.

"It used to be that you might not hear anything for two days and have no idea if it was being fixed or not. Now, we provide much more information about when something will be fixed, and if not, why not, say because there's a bigger issue that is taking priority."

Faiers says doing this has given the IT staff much more of a sense of ownership of the services they provide, while the wider business has a much more positive view of the IT function, all within the eBusiness environment.

For Faiers himself the role he has at BSH overseeing the wide array of requirements that eBusiness oversees marks something of a natural culmination of a varied mix of prior job roles.

This started with a degree in business and information systems from Southampton Solent University, before a stint at a managed service provider, rising to the position of head of operations.

This was followed by an unexpected move into Audi. "I love cars and the opportunity came up to work as a progamme manager for Audi and the launch to the Audi R8," he said.

"Part of that was running a CRM programme and designing a dealer portal and I really got into that and did it for about three years before becoming their digital communications manager."

This involved setting up the brand's presence on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on at a time when many businesses were grappling with social media and how best to use it.

This led him into BSH, although not in an IT role, but as a group marketing manager, before shifting into his current role as director of IT and eBusiness, slotting up nicely with his original university degree.

"It's been quite an interesting journey," he notes.