Tech DevOps
DevOps came into being in the software sector when the companies implementing it realised they could accomplish projects more efficiently when the development and operations teams collaborated and communicated with each other instead of working in a silo-type environment.
However, DevOps and its practices span beyond the tech sector. Here are five non-tech industries also using it.
1. Banking
The banking sector is historically not at the forefront when it comes to uprooting how the companies within it do business. However, some of them realise that a certain amount of evolution is essential to remain competitive. Barclays reached that conclusion and started implementing DevOps principles. It applied them to the technology side of things, plus all other segments of the business ranging from compliance to human resources.
Then, at Standard Bank, the company switched to a DevOps practice in part to support its customers’ growing demand for digital banking solutions. After making the transition, the entity had more than 200 teams using DevOps and noticed a (90% reduction in turnaround time) as a result.
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2. Insurance
The insurance sector has also made strides by deciding to take the DevOps approach. Sometimes, companies within the industry choose to do so after realising they need to release an app to suit customers’ needs. Such was the case with Allianz.
The company’s management team set a goal for each of the enterprise’s organisational units to (create an app within a year).
The thought was that by doing that, it would be easier to accommodate customers’ needs and respond to their preferences without such extensive delays.
Ultimately, the first batch of apps created from this goal arrived on the App Store several months earlier than anticipated. Moreover, switching to DevOps got Allianz ready to start its transition to moving to the cloud.
In another instance, Nationwide started using DevOps and noticed a (70% reduction in user downtime) and moved 58% of its teams into the top quartile for productivity measures. These examples show how DevOps can help companies get rid of inefficiencies and increase their competencies.
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3. Inventory management
Today’s warehouses are substantially more high-tech than the ones from past eras. For example, it’s common for such facilities to use a warehouse management system (WMS) that allows keeping track of all items from the time they arrive on-site to when those products get packaged and shipped to their destinations.
A WMS can keep track of stock numbers, product categories and more, telling warehouse workers precisely where to find a desired item within a sprawling warehouse. Implementing a WMS into a facility for the first time is not always easy, but it can become more straightforward with help from DevOps.
For example, one of the best practices for (a successful WMS implementation) is to carefully choose the project team. But, a company could go even further and apply DevOps principles to facilitate cross-departmental teams communicating with each other through each stage of the project.
Streamlining the communications between departments gives benefits beyond making it easier to implement a WMS. That’s because one of the many reasons why companies from various industries start using DevOps is to remove the barriers that slow down their processes.
Cutting out such challenges is especially important in inventory management since continual delays in shipping parts to manufacturers or getting products to empty retail shelves could cause competitive disadvantages.
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4. Healthcare
DevOps is also spurring positive changes in health care. That’s especially true since health care enterprises increasingly use big data platforms to gain more insights from collected data and use it to bring about improvements for providers and patients. One part of DevOps practices involves automating repeatable practices to cut down on manual labor.
Also, the health care industry works with a variety of data sources ranging from electronic health records (EHR) to patient images. Using big data platforms can help health care entities make sense of the information they collect and utilise it to make better decisions within organisations.
The collaboration between teams that DevOps requires also helps ensure the proper treatment of sensitive data and the ability to maintain compliance.
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5. Hospitality
The internet has drastically changed how people research hotels, book rooms, hire special events managers and more. It’s not surprising, then, that many of the companies in the sector turned to DevOps to maintain their competitiveness.
For example, using DevOps allows hospitality brands to assert that they’re well-equipped to meet guests’ changing needs and deliver convenience to them.
Depending on DevOps shortens the time required to develop and test new offerings and speeds up the time to market for those products. Then, companies within the hospitality sector have improved changes to excel despite the rapid changes occurring within the industry.
Applicable to virtually any industry
As this list shows, industries can benefit from using DevOps even if they are not tech-centric. One of the main goals of DevOps is to stop departments from working in compartmentalised ways and encourage them to communicate with each other instead. That aim helps things get achieved faster with less friction.
