How ICT Services Help to Overcome Challenges in the Automotive Sector

Grzegorz Gawron, Service Delivery Manager in a project for the largest Comarch ICT client, tells us about the importance of innovative IT infrastructure services in one of the most rapidly changing industries.

You work as Service Delivery Manager on a large project in automotive. How would you describe this sector?

The automotive sector is incredibly dynamic. There is constant competition to emerge as the market leader. Of course, electric and autonomous cars are the current priority, and all major car manufacturers and solution providers are investing in their development. This doesn’t mean that other elements have now become less important – the entire manufacturing and R&D environment is constantly growing and needs to operate reliably. Any delay may mean financial losses.

Could you tell us about your role in this environment?

Working on such a demanding project is a great challenge, but the fact we can have a tangible impact on the level of security and continuous operation of the IT environment in such a dynamic context also brings enormous satisfaction. And this, in a nutshell, is what my job involves: I’m responsible for delivering high-quality ICT services to ensure failure-free system performance so that the client can focus on developing their business.

Your IT journey started some time ago.

I have been working in IT for around 20 years. I have advanced through various customer service roles including, of course, project management, and joined Comarch as a Sales Director nearly 12 years ago. Several years later, it occurred to me that I could give much more to the company, and to myself, by going back to management, so.I moved on to work with production teams.

What was your path to the current project?

I joined my current main project more than 10 years ago, when I was asked to fix a challenging situation with the client. The project was still relatively small at the time, active at a handful of locations in just two countries. I hope I more than delivered the goods. Suffice to say that, before long, the client not only decided to extend the contract, but also expanded it to new countries and locations. The current scale of the project is nearly 10 times greater than it was when I took it over. We now provide support to around 12,000 users at almost 30 different locations. I hope this is proof enough that our ICT team understands how to adapt to the market and follow its demands.

How has the pandemic affected your work? 

The pandemic has changed not only my job, but also the work of our entire team, including all those who provide services remotely and the several dozen staff working onsite at our client’s locations. Onsite, the changes have been relatively limited. We have had to ensure the safety of our employees while guaranteeing continuous IT operation. Our task was not easy, but even so, I think we have done at least a satisfactory job.

What has been the hardest part? Tell us more about Comarch’s approach. 

In general, it was the shift to remote work, both by Comarch and by our client, along with the need to ensure uninterrupted support, which posed the greatest challenge. New VPNs, authentications, remote access at Comarch and the need to support our client in similar solutions on their part – all that was a challenge. However, thanks to good coordination, both internally and between Comarch and the client, the entire process went smoothly, without major setbacks, and we fully adapted to the new reality after just a few weeks. To a greater or lesser extent, we’re still working in that reality today. 

How would you describe the challenges in the near future?

Right now, I think that the greatest challenge has to do with the uncertainty about legal regulations in all the countries where we are present, the client’s own uncertainty in terms of production planning (the notorious crisis in the semiconductor market has taken its toll), and the absences that are now more unpredictable than ever – be it due to sickness or quarantine requirements.

How do you think your client’s situation would have looked in March 2020 without Comarch’s support?

Definitely worse than with it! The greatest advantage of Comarch ICT is its flexibility, which is especially important in periods of greater demand for our services. Because of the sheer scale of its operations, Comarch was easily able to allocate more engineers and more support to processes related to changing the operation model at most locations and thus ensure the rapid and smooth shift to remote work.

Given current market fluctuations, what are the key benefits that Comarch’s ICT Services brings for clients?

Most companies have limited inhouse IT resources, as they are very expensive. Having an experienced, trusted IT partner enables a business to adjust the scale of services to meet needs. We often think about service scalability mainly in the context of the cloud, but it’s a factor you also need to take into account when delivering network services, system and database administration, monitoring, and service desk support. Depending on the market situation, we are able to increase or decrease the number of staff working on the project without causing any downtime or reduced performance. We guarantee service continuity and uninterrupted operation. 

Grzegorz Gawron, 12 years at Comarch, 10 years as Service Delivery Manager in a project for the largest Comarch ICT Services client