New facilities in Atlanta, Miami and Providence are a first step in GE's efforts to attract and retain IT talent with a mix of technical, analytical and leadership skills.
For the past several years, has been pursuing a profound digital transformation with an eye to claiming a stake at the heart of the digital industrial revolution. GE CTO Chris Drumgoole says thriving in the era of the Industrial Internet requires employees with new capabilities 鈥� technical, analytical and leadership skills that are explicitly cross-discipline.
鈥淟ike a lot of big IT shops around the world 鈥� we resemble a lot of them, I鈥檓 sure 鈥� we鈥檝e been very heavily outsourced over the years,鈥� Drumgoole says. 鈥淎 lot of talent went the way of outsourced partners and other businesses. All around it was about cost and efficiency rather than innovation. If we鈥檙e going to be successful in the Industrial Internet, that has to change. We need hands-on-keyboard technical talent.鈥�
IT now front and center
In the past, Drumgoole says, IT has frequently been relegated to the back office, where it has focused on keeping infrastructure and systems running. But that鈥檚 all changing. Now, he says, CIOs and technical talent are at the core of the business, 鈥渋magining, building and deploying platforms and applications that are fueling growth and producing tangible financial returns for customers.鈥� Today鈥檚 CIOs and IT technical teams are expected to innovate to drive competitive advantage in the market, while also keeping one hand on the tiller of day-to-day IT tasks that reduce inefficiencies and costs.
[Related: How GE will bring the Industrial IoT to life ]
To that end, GE today is launching three locations focused on delivering IT services and operations and expanding the company鈥檚 digital industrial efforts:
- In Atlanta, GE will establish a Digital Operations Center to support its Global Infrastructure operations. Drumgoole notes that Atlanta will be the largest site, but won鈥檛 resemble a traditional network operations center (NOC). Instead it will be a big collection of small teams working in the same building. GE plans to hire system administration, system engineering, full stack operations (DevOps), full stack engineering and service desk professionals for the Atlanta location.
- In Miami, GE will expand its existing presence to support the company鈥檚 growth in Latin America by attracting up-and-coming tech talent with language skills. Drumgoole notes that there鈥檚 a lot of working going into turning Miami into a tech center, and if that happens, 鈥淲e want to be there first.鈥� The company will hire IT professionals with network management, software engineering for apps and end user client services skills.
- In Providence, GE will create a new site to support the development of end-user applications and high performance computing (HPC). Drumgoole notes there鈥檚 a lot of UX talent in Providence, as well as talent with extensive skills in applied mathematics.
Drumgoole says the new sites will offer hundreds of new GE IT positions over the next several years, adding to its current pool of 8,000 GE IT employees.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what this move is all about for us: the talent,鈥� he says. The ability to attract and retain it 鈥� that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e going to a number of sites, not just one.鈥�
[ Related: Former GE 娇色导航plants digital stake as CEO of GE鈥檚 transportation business ]
Deciding where to place the new facilities was an exhaustive process, he explains. Part of it was based on the presence of universities 鈥� he notes that institutions like Brown University played a big part in Providence鈥檚 selection. But the company also studied population growth in an effort to identify up-and-coming tech centers.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all about talent and being close to a space where we can influence talent,鈥� Drumgoole says.
He notes that it鈥檚 not just about elite research universities like Brown. The company hopes to establish apprenticeship programs in many schools and universities.
Industrial Internet is big business
The stakes are high. According to Wikibon, spending on the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) will reach $500 billion by 2020.
Drumgoole says a rapidly expanding ecosystem of global systems integrators, independent software vendors, telecommunications services, technology providers and developers is emerging as a result of the gold rush. At the heart of it all is the industrial IT talent that will allow organizations to transform their operations leveraging quantities of data that will make the data generated by the consumer Internet look 鈥渜uaint鈥� in comparison.
[ Related: GE鈥檚 Jim Fowler on the 娇色导航role in the digital industrial economy ]
All that means the demand for 鈥渇ull stack鈥� technical talent, already a hot commodity, is going to keep rising. Companies that want to thrive in the Industrial Internet space will have to compete for employees who may have expertise in an area like networking or Java coding, but also have working knowledge of the other IT domains.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to go into new cities where we鈥檙e going to be an attractive employer,鈥� Drumgoole says. 鈥淭hese employees are very sought after.鈥�
鈥淲e still need the network guru, but the network guru needs to understand the other technologies,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he same is absolutely true of the software side. Developers need to understand infrastructure and vice versa.鈥�
The three new locations are just the beginning for GE, Drumgoole says, noting that a global company can鈥檛 run its IT out of just one country.
鈥淭his is a first step for us. We鈥檙e not looking at this uniquely to the U.S.,鈥� he says. 鈥淓xpect to see more from us in other spaces. We started in the U.S. because that鈥檚 where we have some scale for IT.鈥�
