BA delays at LHR - Computer issue

[Planemike]

[quote]

So where's the Rt Hon Mr Grayling then ?

Keeping his head down and working on having himself re-elected.

[gordonroxburgh]

The thing when you get rid of costly internal staff and use contractors to backfill, there is never any continuity of the support and expertise in place.

Compare this to resource cost heavy staff who have given years to the airline who know all the systems to the nth degree, against a capable contractor reading the support documentation, but with only 5 minutes experience.

100% culture failure led to the total disaster and that goes right to the top.

[FlightCosting]

Originally Posted by Nialler

No. The UPS is more than a bank of batteries. It's an expensive piece of kit which smooths the supply during Brown outs, during spikes and during the absence of any power at all. The electrical input to a properly specced enterprise server should never fluctuate.

But Cruz said that it was a power spike that killed the system, which is the most pathetic lie I have ever heard. Even my small office system that I have used for 25 years to develope my system that I even sold to my ex employer BA has a surge protection and 30 minutes of Back up power supply and real time mirroring.

[zed3]

Worked at Eurocontrol's Maastricht UAC for 42 years and we, in Ops. were basically at the forefront of development of the ATC modern systems. From what I can remember, if the systems expert was on leave then nothing changed. If things went wrong and then we in the Ops Room worked around the problem and it went back to systems. But the basis was if there was a risk then wait. We had many successes and a few failures but we got round the problem through team work. That was in the 70's and 80's, great days. I think that BA is too big and splintered for that to happen, as can be seen from the result. Probably not the only organisation these days with this sort of problem... BT seems to be another case from my experience. There are too many managers, too much hierarchal mist and sludge and no ultimate responsibility.
It will be interesting to see what happens after the inquest.

[qwertyuiop]

Who wants to guess where the share price will be at noon tomorrow.
This will dictate which heads will roll.

[Caribbean Boy]

Originally Posted by PAXboy

SeenItAll

Ian W
INDEED and THAT is why the head of IT should be out. My late father, on seeing the change from 'personnel' to 'human resources' in the 1980s and then the start of outsourcing, commented, "You need to be able to quickly reach out and grab the throat of the person responsible. They have to know that their pay packet is at risk."

For most outsourced staff - it is not. If the company, overall, declines and stuffs up - only then might it be but the outsourced company will say that they did all they could - withint the contract and the financial constraints.

The Main Board director responsible for IT must also go. If there is no main board director for IT, then you have found the seat of the problem.

Alex Cruz has nobody responsible for IT reporting to him. All of BA's IT was moved to its owner IAG, the person in charge is Bill Francis, Head of Group IT. Francis reports to Ignacio de Torres Zabala, Director of Global Services, who in turn reports to Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of IAG.

Walsh has amongst his direct reports Cruz and Zabala, but not Francis. It may be relevant that Francis is not an IT man - he is perhaps best known for being in charge of cabin crew.

[PAXboy]

Caribbean Boy
You're saying the Head of Group IT is not an IT man??? Not born and bread???? Further that, BA as a company in the group are not responsible for their own IT - because 'group' do all of that sort of thing? They then take it on trust because Group is never wrong? And they have to take it on trust - because none of them understand a didgeridoo about IT!!!

[Caribbean Boy]

PAXboy,

You understand the situation perfectly.

Furthermore, I can't think of a single previous head of IT who was an IT man. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the likes of Paul Coby and others never wrote a line of code, did design or ran a server farm.

[mercurydancer]

Originally Posted by Caribbean Boy

Alex Cruz has nobody responsible for IT reporting to him. All of BA's IT was moved to its owner IAG, the person in charge is Bill Francis, Head of Group IT. Francis reports to Ignacio de Torres Zabala, Director of Global Services, who in turn reports to Willie Walsh, Chief Executive of IAG.

Walsh has amongst his direct reports Cruz and Zabala, but not Francis. It may be relevant that Francis is not an IT man - he is perhaps best known for being in charge of cabin crew.

Ahh now that makes sense. Cruz rocks up in a hi viz vest and talks tripe, knowing full well that he could not prevent this mess. Willie Walsh remains quiet, but possibly now being fully appraised of the mess. Cruz just needs to front up BA, and being treated kindly by IAG. Good man in a crisis and all that. Promotions and trebles all round.

[peekay4]

Alex Cruz has nobody responsible for IT reporting to him.

I'm not sure that's 100% accurate? I admit I don't know IAG's structure.

However, even with a shared Group IT, typically there's still a Head of IT responsible for each Line of Business (LOB). Sometimes even more than one (e.g., Heads of IT architecture, IT delivery, IT operations, etc.)

The Head of IT for the LOB would then have "matrix" reporting to both the Group IT Head (e.g., Bill Francis) and to the LOB Head (such as Alex Cruz) or an LOB CIO (if the Head of IT is not the CIO.)

It's not unusual for Group Heads to be a business exec, not a technical manager.

[Caribbean Boy]

I happen to have met Willie Walsh on a number of occasions, and I've seen him give several presentations. I can't help feeling that it's most unlike him to keep so quiet. He's got Cruz taking all the flak, but let's remember that:

• It's Walsh who made the decision in January 2009 to demote Paul Coby from Director to Head of IT and make him report to the Chief Finance Officer.
• It's Walsh who has a non-IT man in charge of IT
• It's Walsh who still has no IT director reporting directly to him

[pax britanica]

Shareholders have an excuse to sack Walsh and Cruz and get it back to British Airways again not Aer Iberia. What is significant is that he put his cabin crew hatchet man in charge of IT tho, so we can guess what his objectives were

[yoganmahew]

Originally Posted by Caribbean Boy

I happen to have met Willie Walsh on a number of occasions, and I've seen him give several presentations. I can't help feeling that it's most unlike him to keep so quiet. He's got Cruz taking all the flak, but let's remember that:

• It's Walsh who made the decision in January 2009 to demote Paul Coby from Director to Head of IT and make him report to the Chief Finance Officer.
• It's Walsh who has a non-IT man in charge of IT
• It's Walsh who still has no IT director reporting directly to him

Indeed, and when he was at EI, he did his best to shut down IT. He never liked it, never liked the power it had over the company. Unlike with pilots (who he also didn't like, despite being one), though, he didn't recognise the crucial part IT plays in the company. It was all "a website and a DB is all you need" - Mick O'Leary BS stuff, that I'm not sure Mick O really believes himself.

[LHR_Geezer]

Originally Posted by otter1

There is a man who had great vision for BA. He was liked by all and was customer service to his bones. He wanted to invest in service which cost money and so it was suggested by those above that maybe he would be better suited to a position outside of BA. One of the finest men we have ever had on the leadership team and a tragic loss when he left.
His name is Frank Van der Post. I think the staff should start a bring back Frank campaign ....

Couldn't agree more with your comment, excellent idea. Unfortunately I doubt it would happen but if you don't ask, you don't get.

[Caribbean Boy]

Originally Posted by peekay4

I'm not sure that's 100% accurate? I admit I don't know IAG's structure.

It is 100% accurate.

I'd like to clarify something. Bill Francis and his four direct reports have moved from BA and are all on IAG contracts, as well as a few other senior managers. However, the bulk of the people in IT are still on their BA contracts, it's just that their reporting line goes to IAG and not to BA. The retention of their BA contracts is important as they keep certain benefits, not least their defined benefit pension schemes.

[peekay4]

However, the bulk of the people in IT are still on their BA contracts, it's just that their reporting line goes to IAG and not to BA.

I'm very surprised they do not have matrix reporting to the line of business head, who has P&L responsibility. Seems like a serious organizational deficiency.

[b1lanc]

Originally Posted by Caribbean Boy

I happen to have met Willie Walsh on a number of occasions, and I've seen him give several presentations. I can't help feeling that it's most unlike him to keep so quiet. He's got Cruz taking all the flak, but let's remember that:

• It's Walsh who made the decision in January 2009 to demote Paul Coby from Director to Head of IT and make him report to the Chief Finance Officer.
• It's Walsh who has a non-IT man in charge of IT
• It's Walsh who still has no IT director reporting directly to him

Huge mistake that many large companies make - IT reporting to CFO. IT is never a revenue maker - it is a revenue consumer. The line makes the revenue and IT is a drag on profits. Any wonder why IT is always looking in the rear view mirror? It took a very large (and expensive) wake-up call to another UK conglomerate to change the reporting structure and increase their IT spending to protect their revenue stream.

[G-CPTN]

BA says it will be 'back to normal' from Tuesday 30th May.

Apart from displaced luggage and those passengers still waiting from cancelled flights.

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Originally Posted by Caribbean Boy

let's remember that:

• It's Walsh who made the decision in January 2009 to demote Paul Coby from Director to Head of IT and make him report to the Chief Finance Officer.

I've never really understood this IT-reporting-to-CFO thing, certainly not this century.


And even less so in the case of an airline, where the business is a seat pricing algorithm and the IT system that supports it.


(Actually running the aeroplanes is optional, you can subcontract, or rent them in, after all.)

[Caribbean Boy]

Earlier today, Cruz said that "there was a power surge and there was a back-up system, which did not work at that particular point in time. It was restored after a few hours in terms of some hardware changes".

BA boss 'won't resign' over flight chaos - BBC News