IT Division Very Backward - Anonymous employee JLR Employee Review

IT division is very backward. The issues stem from the senior and middle management. Most make huge efforts to avoid taking decisions and responsibility. A few are very keen but end up loaded with so much pressure that they can only focus on immediate priorities, so overall there is very little planning for the future and very little innovation, it's all firefighting. Too many of the management are not from an IT background at all - JLR prefer to recruit internally so they take people from mechnical engineering, management or even production line backgrounds. Huge reliance on contractors because of the lack of specialist IT skills. Some are great but others do very little work and stay for years on great pay. Lots of red tape - the worst I have seen. The processes are rigid but often not best practice. Huge use of offshore Tata Group consultancy for development. Individually some developers are great, but many are grads who are trained to standards 10 years behind best practice. Collectively it is poorly managed. Timescales are rarely met and communication is poor, but they are not held accountable as they will always be used next time rather than going externally. Because of the above issues, many projects go around for years, at great expense but never getting anywhere. By the time they come around again, the original people have left and everything is repeated. Factory staff rightly have huge distrust of IT for this reason, and work around the IT processes, leading to further problems and difficultly engaging.