Software Defining an Infrastructure Company - A Transformative Journey

1. Software Defining an Infrastructure Company -
A Transformative Journey
Mike Walls
Head of Portfolio & Professional Services – Revera

2. Disruptive change can blindside anyone, anytime

3. Our Story
Successful NZ cloud infrastructure company
• 2005 a service provider out of a storage engineering company
• 2011 an up-start beat the big boys for the AoG panel
• 2016 transact with resellers, start-ups, SMBs, banks, utilities etc.
Exponential growth
• 45%+ yoy growth
• $18M > $100M+ in ~5 years
But; there were challenges in fast paced growth!
Reduced innovation and increased chance of blind spots.
So we needed to re-focus - with two goals:
1. Get focus back on R&D and CSI – to continually innovate and transform
2. Pivot from Infrastructure to Cloud services provider and digitise transactions (CX)
.

4. Refocus to Continuously Add Value
Created a small dedicated team focused on strategy, ideation, MVP
• Removed from everyday business
• Focus on quick GTM to validate
Focus on Customer – Problem – Value – Solution
• Utilised Lean principles
- define the value proposition – lean canvas
- focus on business result and then define technology
- define & build technology by quick experimentation (MVP)
- measure success
- learn (stop or iterate)

5. The Need to Transform
Pivot from Infrastructure to a Cloud services provider and digitise transactions (CX)
• software define our infrastructure & future – orchestrate & automate
• go digital - feature rich user interface to our services
= More efficient operations
- reduce resource burden associated with manual tasks
- release resource to do more value add
= Better user experience
- end user self consume, provision, change on demand
- value-add data from dashboards and reports
But; we were an infrastructure company with an engineering mind set

6. The Journey So Far
• We developed a vision and strategy for where we wanted to go
- CEO on-board – a requirement to software define
• Developed CloudCreator as interface to all services
- continuously iterate
- client feedback & requirements
- new products & services
- used specialists when required – UX review
• Working on the next disruptor
• Created a new team – focused on software development
- name and org structure as a focal point
- used Agile as framework to build team around
- team of multi-skilled co-located people
- assigned one of us as Product Owner
- organisational Agile training
- picked some quick wins to iterate quickly with

7. Challenges
• Success = enormous backlog
• Product Owner loss = loss of vision
• Siloed SMEs = reduced velocity
• CICD not considered from start = reduced velocity
• Bi-modal MVPs often require integration back into business

8. Good Learnings
Technology is a key enabler; but
People and Culture are at the heart of DX
Agile and Lean are great tools for DX
• empower people (collaborative, self-managing, multi-skilled teams)
• focus on customer experience (canvas, prototype, UX)
• help focus on what’s important (canvas, standups, sprints)
Agile
• is not just about two week sprints – mind-set is key
• needs to plug into your organisational DNA to truly work
• requires Leadership buy-in
• Product Owners are crucial
• requires good people
DX is continuous improvement
• CSI needs to be enabled
• start small and iterate

9. Disruption can blindside the best of us
• learn from disruption to change
• comes from outside traditional parameters
• focus on ones self and those that matter
People respond to change if its impactful
• create a culture and focus
• story tell
An agile iterative process delivers
• small multi-skilled teams
• response was broken into smaller achievable
and impactful chunks
Images are powerful

10. Thanks for listening
Any Questions?

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Friday 18 November 2016
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Wednesday 23 November 2016
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