Pivotal Is Transforming Ford To Be A Silicon Valley Company

December 18, 2015 Veronica Orzechowski

sfeatured-mustangAt Pivotal, we’re passionate about enterprise technology and digital transformation. That’s why we were so excited to announce our work with Ford earlier this week.

Announced at the stunning new Ford Innovation office in Palo Alto, Marcy Klevorn, Ford CIO, and Bill Cook, Pivotal President and Chief Operating Officer, sat down to discuss our work together to-date and what’s in store for 2016 and beyond.

We wanted to share our top takeaways from Tuesday’s roundtable and what’s next for our work together.

Teach And Learn By Doing

Pivotal is working to increase productivity for Ford’s Smart Mobility program by taking Ford’s work in connectivity, mobility and autonomous vehicles to the next level.

Instead of quickly dropping in, changing the product and leaving, Pivotal invested in the learning process to ensure that Ford is able to sustain continuous innovation from within their own teams.

Through our partnership, a “class” of Ford developers traveled to Pivotal Labs in Toronto, where they were paired with Pivotal engineers to begin creating new software for Ford leveraging the company’s recently introduced SYNC Connect technology, which provides remote access to vehicle features via a smartphone app.

Culture And Right People Are At The Core Of Success

In the next year, Ford will continue to hire. For innovation to take place, it is not enough to just have the right technology. At the core of transformation, it is the aptitude of the people doing the development that move a company’s story forward. At the heart of any successful digital transformation, there has to be a fundamental change in the way that an organization operates at every level. Companies must become agile.

“If you don’t change culture, whatever you do isn’t sustainable.”
– Bill Cook

Since adopting the Pivotal Labs methodology, Ford has seen a real buzz in the organization and more employees Employees who want to be part real and impactful change.

This buzz has extended from outside of the Smart Mobility organization with the Ford team growing from 12 to 100 people in the past year.

Ford Is Moving Forward

So what’s in store for Ford’s future? Since ramping up last year, the team has added employees from everywhere from China to Stanford University.

“Ford changed the way the world moves a 112 years ago and we’re going to do it again”
– Marcy Klevorn

In the short time since working together in the Pivotal Labs in Toronto, Ford recently introduced SYNC Connect technology, which provides remote access to vehicle features via a smartphone app.

Stay tuned for more exciting news!

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