As Chief Information Officer at specialist freight company Fliway, Kevin Rowland has worked to change the culture and build a trust model within IT.

Since taking up the role, Rowland says one of the major changes has been the way the IT team works within the business to understand issues and provide solutions. 

“IT is part of the business, a support function, working with all other areas to deliver the required outcome. Initially this meant putting in strong governance, service desk management, change control, vendor management etc. In many ways these are the basic building blocks of any IT team but they had not been implemented satisfactorily at Fliway.”

Rowland worked to understand the issues and build close relationships with all areas to deliver on business priorities.  

“At the same time, we totally changed the culture and built a trust model within IT so that everyone supports each other, and we all understand our purpose and objective, which is to minimise the impact of systems issues and be seen as a team which is a facilitator as opposed to a blocker and can provide technological solutions,” he adds.

All projects have been delivered on time and on budget, while year to date incidents have decreased by 45%, priority incidents have decreased by 72%, open call days have decreased by 59% while year to date SLA is 99.2% against a target of 98%. 

“In terms of how IT operates within Fliway, we are now in a totally different position to when I arrived, and the conversation we have with other parts of the business demonstrates that every day,” says Rowland.

“IT is now seen as a centre of excellence, as can be seen by our metrics, and due to the way I work with all areas we are known to be always looking to improve outcomes for end users.”

Walking the shop floor

Rowland began his career in frontline retail, working in shops for 20 years from the age of 14 (I started coding when just 13) and did not start in IT until his mid-30’s.

 “I have now worked in retail or supply chain for 45 years, with 20 years at the sharp end and 25 in IT,” says Rowland. “This means I have a very different approach to every other CIO I have ever met, working at a much lower detailed level, and spending nearly as much time outside the department as I do inside. I walk the floor of our biggest depot every day looking at what is happening in terms of storage, inbound, transport etc. I talk to everyone and can often be found speaking with people in other business areas outside my own, from people picking freight up to the CEO.”

Simple elements such as ensuring all the correct people know when there is a P1 with a closed loop process with clear and easy communication templates, as opposed to hiding the issue, has ensured that the team is praised on the way it has dealt with a problem, according to Rowland. 

“There is no blame culture, and a strong focus on communication at all levels has ensured we are front of mind instead of being left behind,” he says.