Martin Ward, Head of Engineering, MMT
DevOps is widely regarded as one of the most popular techniques for modern software development. It is a methodology that strives to unify operations, quality control, and development into a single, continuous set of procedures.
Computing's DevOps Excellence Awards showcase outstanding achievements from organisations, personalities and solutions that have successfully applied DevOps methodologies.
This year's winners will be announced at a live awards ceremony on Tuesday, 14 March in London.
One of the finalists is MMT, who is in the running for the Best DevOps Cloud Product.
We caught up with Martin Ward from MMT to find out what makes his company different from other technology firms.
Martin is head of engineering at MMT, a leading UK-based digital partner. Martin has been leading engineering teams within the technology industry building solutions and digital products for over 15 years. As a senior digital leader, Martin is passionate about DevOps as well as building a culture of learning and support for engineers, empowering them to grow and develop their skills while delivering exceptional results. Martin is focused on creating a collaborative and inclusive environment where everyone has a voice and feels valued, based on the belief in the power of teamwork and the culture of open communication, transparency, and enablement.
Computing: What makes you different from other technology companies?
Martin Ward: Here at MMT we don't just provide our clients with capability, we provide them with best-in-class digital transformation professionals, ranging from business transformation consultants and agile coaches to product owners, scrum masters and engineers. We pride ourselves for having seasoned specialists who deliver quality outcomes for our clients with a focus on speed and quality. In teams where we're augmenting existing engineering capability, our experts quickly find themselves in demand with our clients, leading digital, engineering and cross-functional teams and helping to drive overall tech-empowered business strategy. In scenarios when we're delivering digital products for clients, our focus is on delivering value quickly and driving continuous improvement for them and their customers.
What one company achievement in the last 12 months are you most proud of?
I'm proud that we are finalists at the DevOps Excellence Awards for the amazing work that our joint Vodafone and MMT engineering team have achieved.
Vodafone's engineering team has always been known for pushing the boundaries of what's possible and delivering high-quality digital solutions. However, as the company continued to grow and evolve over the years, the need for innovative and effective digital solutions for the business and its customs grew even greater.
We have been Vodafone's digital transformation partner since 2017. Over the past year, we've worked closely with their UK Engineering team on improving ways in which multiple cross-functional engineering teams collaborate on web development, as well as hitting the goals of reducing digital waste, improving ROI, increasing engineer satisfaction and productivity, while delivering digital products at greater speed in response to the business and consumer demands.
We've also been working on boosting some of the Vodafone's digital products and modernising legacy tech using the cloud-first approach. The solutions we've been able to provide so far have been ground-breaking for the business, resulting in dramatically reduced costs, improved use of data and growing customer satisfaction.
As the next step, Vodafone and MMT are looking to scale the successful solutions and products across Vodafone globally. With benefits such as unification of international markets and helping to champion digital environmental sustainability globally by removing digital waste, we're looking forward to helping Vodafone build a better future for everyone.
What are you working on this year?
With new gen technology advancing rapidly and changing radically the ways in which we live, work and consume digital content, I am spending some time looking into all the new AI capabilities that have sprouted this year, including generative AI and machine learning. I am keen to understand the support they're about to offer the engineering community as they mature and to understand how we can leverage the technology to offer new and compelling capabilities for our clients.
I feel that technology keeps growing in its ability to empower businesses to do more, not only commercially, but also in building a better future for everyone - by reducing the digital carbon footprint and improving the accessibility of products and services to users from diverse backgrounds and people with disabilities. MMT digital has been long championing these principles in the digital and tech community, and with AI stepping up the game, I feel there are even more opportunities to excel in the areas of sustainability, diversity and inclusivity.
Why are events like the DevOps Excellence Awards important to the IT industry?
Behind every satisfied customer who buys products and services online is a backend system and a digital infrastructure. Not everyone knows what it takes to build and maintain these systems that enable almost everything from business operations to online payment transactions. The process of getting these things working requires a massive amount of ideation, execution, problem-solving, creativity and collaboration.
So it's always fantastic to see businesses and engineering teams getting rewarded for excellence in the environment where most of the 'reward' is hidden behind front end and the glossy finish or function for customers. Keeping the lights on, supporting change, reducing risk, and turbocharging delivery is a massive element of modern software delivery and it needs to be recognised.
DevOps Excellence Awards will take place on 14th March in London. Click here to view the shortlist and here to book your table.
