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Do you outsource any IT?
We do a selective approach to outsourcing. We like to keep the brain trust inside. We partner for certain things -- design, UI [user interface] business intelligence. Less than 20% is outsourced. It's relatively small.
For many of the systems we need, there are providers out there that can offer us economy of scale. Strategic sourcing will get us best of breed at a reasonable cost. We don't want to be a manufacturer of devices.
Other things like how to manage your mobile assets are not so well understood. There's not a ton of practitioners out there. The knowledge and know-how of those sophisticated logistics is something that we really want to own.
What's your planning process like?
We plan very logically. We start with a high-level cycle plan, over the next 18 months. What are the functional areas we want to address? I have a strong project manager who breaks high-level objectives into discrete policies. We struggle mightily to maintain order. Issues crop up regularly that need to be addressed. We have separate daily, weekly meetings that take up triage issues. There's a development panel that looks at bugs and things that crop up.
We adopted Scrum planning this year with a 30-day sprint cycle. It's been a bit of a learning experience for many people. It sounds great, but when you get into the details it requires a very disciplined and conscientious person to manage it and reinforce it. It's not nirvana, do what you want. For a company our size, Scrum and Agile are ideal development processes.
What's your biggest challenge?
The challenges we face are all about scalability. We're doubling every year.
There are all kinds of dumb fleet management services out there. It's not B2B; it has to be responsive to consumers and give them the satisfaction and assurance that they're being properly treated. We spend a great deal of time on tele-matics and things related to members' experience.
What new technology are you excited about?
We're going to see a next generation of chips that will enable near field communication. In addition to bolstering and managing scalability, we're looking for consumer differentiation in everything from fuel purchasing to partnerships. There's a huge opportunity to look at cell phones or mobile devices as car keys for reservation, access. It's all about increasing convenience. That's the No. 1 driver for people to use our products. It will be an interesting new world.
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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