Fisher & Paykel general manager for information technology Andrew Ramsay says the 80-year-old company has evolved from a manufacturer selling appliances to retailers to being the ‘the most human centred appliances in the world’, winning in the luxury premium market segment, delivering services and establishing new business models to elevate growth.

To support this focus, the information technology teams have delivered a number of initiatives over the past two years including an agency business model, a product information system and the implementation of integrated teams.

Agency business model

“As a luxury premium brand, we want to connect with our customers early and give them the best experience with F&P,” says Ramsay. To this end, they have launched an agency business model where retailers storefront and sell the product but use F&P platforms to quote and sell and then F&P delivers, installs and maintains. 

This new business model required agency portals, a new order management platform, multiple APIs, re-architecture of stock reservations and full automation for warehouse replenishment and cash reconciliation. 

A significant transformation (from an eco-system of platforms that was built for B2B) that was delivered by an integrated team of technology and business teams working iteratively to deploy new technology and business capabilities that can be used for agency and direct-to-consumer models.

Production information system

“As an appliance manufacturer our products and services are our core value proposition to customers.  As part of our omni-channel digital strategy it requires a seamless and consistent experience for our customers throughout their engagement with F&P,” says Ramsay. “A key enabler of this is the information about our products including brand content, images, specifications, features and benefits, manuals, and architect and designer material.”

To create a consistent experience, the team implemented a single source product information system that continuously serves product information to F&P’s digital channels. It also has a set of APIs meaning product data can be subscribed to as a service for retail partners.  

“The ability to create ‘once’ and publish ‘everywhere’ has been a game changer improving both the quality/consistency of product information and removing ‘low value’ work for product and content teams in having to manage product information in multiple places,” adds Ramsay. 

Improving alignment through integrated teams

In 2021, Ramsay restructured the technology teams to be aligned to key business value chains and technology capabilities.

“At F&P we have multiple teams delivering software and solutions, not just IT.  There are engineering teams that build software for appliances, IoT teams that build software to connect and control appliances and the IT team,” says Ramsay.  

The IT team has led the implementation of integrated teams focused on business outcomes and the design and implementation of systems and structures so they can integrate planning and delivering of technology initiatives.  

“This has driven improved alignment so that knowledge can be shared easily and improved the speed of learning and delivery,” adds Ramsay. “We have developed experimental delivery processes to optimise speed to learning.  This has been a critical enabler to a number of initiatives being successful e.g. we are delivering subscription services (e.g water filters for fridges) across our IoT app, website, CRM and order systems and having the teams aligned and working in the same systems and structures is enabling this delivery to occur at pace.”

Value of technology to the business

Ramsay says that by connecting technology experts directly with business experts the conversation and connection has become deeper and increased the appreciation of the value technology is playing in growing the F&P business.

“I have also focused on building leadership capability in my direct reports as I can’t be successful without having high performing leaders.  I have increased my direct reports and as a business we have invested in leadership development.  The outcome is that the IT leaders understand better how to drive transformation initiatives, think in terms of business outcomes and are able to work with our executive and market managing directors,” he adds.

The technology strategy is now highly aligned to business strategic initiatives.  

“The conversations with the Group CEO and executives have shifted to what choices we need to make about our technology initiatives and actually how can we invest more.  This is a fundamental shift to where IT was three years ago and more importantly what is needed to drive growth in line with our business leading goals,” says Ramsay.