GM plots next phase of IT overhaul

[Harley Lover]

Important reading. I know some of you are in the field, and thus can comment on the information contained in the article. Some snips:

 

 

Ten times more productivity. One thousand percent more data. Nearly 10,000 more employees.

That's the result — so far — of an information technology transformation that General Motors began in 2012, a massive effort to undo years of outsourcing those increasingly critical functions and rebuild them in-house from virtually nothing.

For GM's global chief information officer, Randy Mott, an IT veteran and mathematician who joined GM specifically to execute that plan, those numbers add up to a successful first stage of the project. Now Mott's job is to unlock the potential of the operation he's created, to bolster GM's bottom line, and help position the automaker to be a leader in connected and autonomous vehicles.

"In pretty much every respect, the transformation is complete," Mott, who's based in Austin, said during one of three in-person or telecommunication interviews. "Now we've been really focusing on, how do we drive innovation?"

 

Among the biggest early achievements was that GM now says it knows the exact profitability of every vehicle that rolls off an assembly line.

GM also has created a private internal cloud — nicknamed Galileo — to improve its business and IT operations, including four innovation centers and two data warehouses. They are handling triple the number of projects that the automaker used to commission simultaneously and completing them in half the time.

GM's two enterprise data warehouses​ in suburban Detroit — consolidated from the 23 outsourced centers there were in 2012 — house 88 million gigabytes of data, 11 times more than the automaker had produced five years ago, according to Mott. That excludes data from a fleet​ of more than 100​ autonomous Chevrolet Bolts in California, Arizona and Michigan tested through Cruise Automation, which the wholly owned subsidiary stores locally.

 

 

GM placed its four IT innovation centers in Austin; Chandler, Ariz.; Roswell, Ga.; and Warren, Mich., to be near well-known IT incubators and within 200 miles of more than half of the top computer-science universities in the U.S.The company has hired more than 3,000 recent college graduates from about 100 universities, including actively recruiting at 40, Mott said. The new employees are allowed to choose which center to work from, as the automaker has added nearly 500 telecommunication systems for day-to-day meetings. Each center has its own unique characteristics and common workspaces, similar to​ those made popular by Silicon Valley tech companies.

Full article: http://www.autonews.com/article/20170918/OEM06/170919754/gm-plots-next-phase-of-it-overhaul?cciid=email-autonews-weekly

Edited September 18, 2017 by Harley Lover

[akirby]

So they insourced a lot of outsourced stuff (23 outsourced datacenters? Holy crap) and streamlined internal processes using a private cloud. All good stuff but ten times more productivity is creative slideshow material.

 

I'm guessing a lot of the productivity comes from not having to deal with the outsourcing contracts - those are inherently high overhead and the contract itself gets in the way of getting things done. When you're dealing with employees you can shuffle priorities and reassign resources at will. With outsourcing contracts that usually translates to more money. We used to have a joke that any time we went to a vendor for a quote on a project the cost was at least $1M no matter how small the project.

 

Private cloud simply adds automation to deploying IT services including network and applications which is great but those benefits are limited unless your developers are building cloud enabled applications and that takes years for a company with older legacy applications.

 

All good stuff but it sounds like they're just catching up to where most companies were 5-7 years ago.

[rperez817]

One of the people I used to work with in the federal government got a position with General Motors at their IT Innovation Center location in Roswell, Georgia north of Atlanta. He really likes the work environment there.

 

My old colleague used the GM Employee Discount to buy a C7 Corvette Stingray Grand Sport. He told me that the GM facility where he works is right next door to one of the largest Porsche dealerships in the USA, Hennessy Porsche of North Atlanta.

[Harley Lover]

All good stuff but it sounds like they're just catching up to where most companies were 5-7 years ago.

 

How does Ford's capability compare to GM's? How does GM compare to the competition? Here's a claim buried in the article:

 

 

Les Copeland, GM's CIO of global data strategy and services, says the company is the leader in the amount of data brought in from vehicles.

"We're second to none in our industry," Copeland said after a demonstration of GM's new Maxis internal data system here. "We are very much geared toward leveraging our data to drive business outcomes."

[fuzzymoomoo]

 

How does Ford's capability compare to GM's? How does GM compare to the competition? Here's a claim buried in the article:

 

That sounds like unverifiable corporate speak to me.

[jasonj80]

The claim actually makes sense - GM has had embedded modems in millions and millions of vehicles. The were the only large OEM with that capability and has been gathering data for the past 20 years with Onstar. Ford just started to put modems in vehicles and now it is still mostly a mid-line package option.

[fordmantpw]

Data data everywhere, and not a use for most of it.

 

Seriously, why is it 'cool' to tout that you have lots of data? If it doesn't mean anything or translate into something useful, it's just a waste of storage.

 

When things go south (as it does quite often in a cyclical industry like automobiles), it's easier to let go of outsourced employees than full-timers.

[akirby]

I'm sure they have more data for the reason jason stated. The question is how are they using it? The Art in Big Data is being able to find useful applications for the data both internally and things you can sell externally.

 

Either way getting the data is the first step and that's a good thing, but the amount of data stored is not the best indicator of success.

[Harley Lover]

Has anyone read the article? I can't post the entire thing for obvious reasons.

[jcartwright99]

It's funny, executives do the IT insource/outsource talent every 5-10 years. Cost become too big, outsource. Executives walk away with millions saying they saved the company money. Results are generally garbage when you outsource. New executives will promise they will get results by and gain efficiency by insourcing. Team get too bloated costs become too high. Rinse repeat. Executives walk away with millions, while not having solved any real problems.

[jcartwright99]

Data data everywhere, and not a use for most of it.

 

Seriously, why is it 'cool' to tout that you have lots of data? If it doesn't mean anything or translate into something useful, it's just a waste of storage.

 

When things go south (as it does quite often in a cyclical industry like automobiles), it's easier to let go of outsourced employees than full-timers.

 

 

We aren't consumers anymore. We are just data plots in a graph that can be bought or sold. Until the data gets hacked and has all your personal identified information. Hackers will then know you better than your spouse and if there is anything questionable, blackmail you! Better yet steal your identity. All of these data grabbing companies generally get a small slap on the wrist. Even Equifax, which is a credit bureau, will receive a lenient fine. Their executives will probably get hit by insider trading by the SEC though. I truly think Equifax should be shuttered.

 

I digress! Essentially,companies are gathering this data (most say the won't share it) to understand you. The problem is that eventually, your information will be bought and sold. Comcast is mining your webviewing habits like crazy. They say they won't sell it, until they do (or get hacked).

[akirby]

Another new option is offshoring. Instead of outsourcing to someone like Tech Mahindra or IBM you simply hire employees in Europe and Asia. You need to be a global company with resources in those countries but you get the benefit of lower wages without the overhead of an outsourcing contract. It also lets you do "follow the sun" operations where the Eurasia employees provide coverage/work outside normal North American work hours. Done right it's very effective.

 

Outsourcing is still good in limited circumstances where work is going away, but you're right that as a general cost cutting tool it's not really applicable.

[Harley Lover]

I *think* I recall the Old Wizard posting on an occasion or two that Ford IT is/was a complete mess. If I'm remembering that correctly, I hope he posts here with some insights into Ford's situation.

 

To what extent is having this capability that GM is touting going to help them in the drive to a self driving vehicle?

[akirby]

I don't believe Ford is that much ahead (if any). I was referring to the industry in general.

 

It's hard to say whether the car info will help develop self driving vehicles. Probably more useful for traffic studies and things like that but you never know what you'll find until you start mining the data.

[rperez817]

Another new option is offshoring. Instead of outsourcing to someone like Tech Mahindra or IBM you simply hire employees in Europe and Asia. You need to be a global company with resources in those countries but you get the benefit of lower wages without the overhead of an outsourcing contract. It also lets you do "follow the sun" operations where the Eurasia employees provide coverage/work outside normal North American work hours. Done right it's very effective.

 

GM does that. It has a global center of excellence in the Philippines to support operations management functions for GM around the world. These GM employees work on HR, finance, support for SAP, etc. http://careers.gm.com/location-philippines.html

 

GM also has an advanced technical center in Israel that supports GM's work with autonomous and connected cars across all their brands globally.

Edited September 19, 2017 by rperez817

[fuzzymoomoo]

Global center of excellence is a bullshit name

 

It's a regional headquarters and you know it. Cut it out with these stupid corporate speak buzzword names.

[akirby]

Global center of excellence is a bullshit name

 

It's a regional headquarters and you know it. Cut it out with these stupid corporate speak buzzword names.

 

Center of Excellence is probably the correct term. It's quite common in the industry and is usually abbreviated COE. It means those employees are experts in a certain area (in this case operations management).

 

Regional headquarters is something entirely different. They could have both the COE and the regional headquarters staff in the same building.

[rperez817]

Global center of excellence is a bullshit name

 

It's a regional headquarters and you know it.

 

That is incorrect sir. GM's GBS in Makati is not a regional headquarters. GBS employees serve all GM business units worldwide.

 

GM's regional sales operations in the Philippines is a partnership between GM and a third party distributor called The Covenant Car Company Inc. and is also based in Makati.

[fuzzymoomoo]

I stand corrected

 

I still hate the name