Women in Tech: Interview with Karen Copley, Head of IT Service Delivery

1. Could you provide a brief introduction of yourself and your role?

I’ve been in IT now for around 30 years, always in Operations, and started my IT life on a Service Desk looking after mainframe maintenance routines. I then moved up through the various areas of IT Operations which were Desktop Support (as Windows came along in the early 90’s) and Infrastructure Management (on-prem data centre servers, before the days of cloud), before moving into Service Delivery where I have managed multi-million-pound contracts, supplier performance, service teams, technical teams, and internal/external stakeholders.

At a high level, I am all about delivering a great experience to our customers, whether internal or external, when they contact us for help or if they want something, for example software. We achieve this by having great people, great tooling, great knowledge and the right processes underpinning the services that we deliver to our customers.

In my role at FOD, I head up the following areas: Technical Support, Incident and Release Management, DevOps, and End User Compute. Putting that simply, we deliver, support, and change the services given to our internal and external customers.

Technical Support are the helpdesk for our customers when they need it. They triage issues and work closely with our developers to prioritise resources for the most important incidents. We also manage and coordinate Major Incidents (e.g., system down) to ensure we reach a resolution quickly along with understanding the root cause. We also manage releasing new software updates through our Release Management process. This ensures that software releases follow a strict path, from development and testing through to deployment.

Our DevOps team are our engine room who ensure the platforms that our software runs on all work. They are a highly technical team who are creating, managing, updating and monitoring the health of our entire technology estate.

Finally, our End User Compute team ensure that our teams have the hardware and software to perform their roles. I am also responsible for overseeing key supplier performance, the IT spend and setting the direction for some of the technology that underpins all these critical functions.

2. What does a typical working day look like for you?

First of all, I look at our Tech Support tickets to see what tickets have come through since we closed the day before. I touch base with the Tech Support team to make sure they are ready for the day and have the support that they need. We catch up and align on any releases that may be taking place to ensure we all know what’s scheduled for that week and if anything is taking place that deviates from the normal schedule.

We then go into the daily stand-up to discuss the development priorities for the day and to see if they need any support from us. Then I have a DevOps daily stand-up to discuss and track their work items and look at what they may need help with (unblocking any blocked tickets etc).

From there, I catch up with End User Compute to make sure our priorities are on track and look at anything new that may have come in. I also deal with any escalations from customers, attend some customer meetings and get involved with project work. I deal with any contract renewals and review the IT budget on a monthly basis to keep an eye on what we are spending and where.

“If we identify a problem and find a quick resolution, it keeps our customers happy, and this is by far the most rewarding part of Service Delivery and Operations.”

3. What is the most rewarding element of your role as Head of IT Service Delivery?

Problem solving. Finding solutions to issues and problems that we face but most importantly, what this means to our customers. If we identify a problem and find a quick resolution, it keeps our customers happy, and this is by far the most rewarding part of Service Delivery/Operations.

I also like the fact that every day is different. You never quite know what is going to be thrown at you. Whether it’s a release that has been deployed to production, a change that hasn’t gone as planned or simply something we didn’t expect (despite all the upfront planning!), this makes for a varied and challenging role which is why I have been doing it for as long as I have.

4. What have been some of the greatest achievements in your career?

I grew up in the airline industry and there were so many achievements and challenges during that time. The experiences that really stand out to me were launching the Go Fly website in September 1998 which enabled us to book flights online (rather than just by phone) and migrating the on premise live and backup server/comms rooms.

This project involved circa 50 servers and 100 services, all of which had to be understood and documented prior to migration into a managed service provider (Savvis) which provided the secure data centres we needed and access to growth in services.

When I worked for easyJet, we delivered easyJet’s end of year sale without any incidents, launched easyJetholidays.com and overcame so many challenges surrounding the Icelandic ash cloud in 2011 which closed the airspace and caused major disruption to customers, planes, and crews at that time.

During my time at Domino’s, I transformed a failing Service Desk, implemented new tooling, established ITIL processes for the core set that we needed, set up a new desktop support function, improved the franchisee relationship and renegotiated a major contract with Rackspace (the first of its kind) which enabled Domino’s to migrate to Azure without penalties over a three-year period.

Across all three companies it was fast, exciting, challenging but above all, we worked together and had each other’s backs which made it an enjoyable team to be part of.

“IT has evolved so much since I started. My toolkit was a Windows CD and a spanner for racking kit. Now time has moved onto infrastructure as code, testing, software development. You need a brain, not a spanner. There are no barriers to entry, but this can only come if that message is sent loud enough and early enough.”

5. Who are the female mentors, leaders, or peers that have positively influenced your career?

Without a doubt, Go Fly CEO Barbara Cassani. She was inspirational, passionate, honest, strong, clear and it was motivating to work with her and for her. Throughout my career I have been surrounded mainly by male colleagues, so there are sadly no female peers that jump out in terms of them positively influencing my career. I have lots of male mentors and leaders that have though.

6. A TechNation report found that only 19% of employees in STEM are women, what more can be done to ensure women and girls have equal opportunities to enter the industry?

From as young as we can, we need to keep sending the message to girls that there are no barriers to entry. Why are there “male dominated roles”, there is no reason for this but if you look at how we look at girls and boys, are we conditioning them to think that way? For example, girls like pink, boys like blue – do they? Or are they conditioned to think that way? Girls play with dolls, makeup and hair, boys play with toys that encourage building things etc. Aren’t we (society) somewhat part of the problem?

IT has evolved so much since I started. My toolkit was a Windows CD and a spanner for racking kit. I was a rarity. Now time has moved onto infrastructure as code, testing, software development etc. You need a brain, not a spanner. We have never been on a more level playing field, you need to want to do it and see that there are no barriers to entry. This can only come if that message is sent loud enough and early enough.

“I think there is still the view that women can only have one or the other (a career or kids) but this couldn’t be further from the truth!”

7. Considering that technology is a male-dominated industry, how can male peers become greater allies to women in the workplace?

Let women be heard. Give them a seat at the right tables and let them give their input. Put your ego in your pocket and let it stay there. Always be brave in calling out when you witness sexism, exclusion or women being disregarded, no matter how subtle or innocent you think that might be.

8. What are some of the challenges that women face in the workplace in terms of progression and business-as-usual, particularly in technology?

Bias. I think there are still views out there that women are the homemakers and will want to focus more on that and at some point, go on maternity leave. I think there is still the view that women can only have one or the other (a career or kids) but this couldn’t be further from the truth!

I don’t have children but we now have the option of shared parental leave which didn’t use to exist so we have moved things forward a bit, but I am sure we can go further.

“Seeing the world through the lens of others is literally an eye opener, it really is. We may not think we are biased but when you have your mind opened, you can see yourself differently and make small changes that make everyone feel they can be their authentic self.”

9. What advice would you give to women and girls who are looking to start their career within technology?

As the technology sector is still predominately male, I think this is still putting women off from starting a career in tech. When you combine this with imposter syndrome (around 80% of women suffer from this or will do in their lifetime), you can see why they don’t join!

I think it is easy to feel inadequate and say, “I’ll never be good enough, so why bother starting”. My advice would be to work out what you want to do and simply go for it. The technology sector is more than just tech, there’s a need for strategy, leadership, relationship management (stakeholders, customers, and your team).

It isn’t all about writing code or installing software! Never be afraid to say you don’t know the answer, google A LOT, watch videos, be curious, and never stop learning.

10. What are some of the most effective policies or initiatives you’ve heard of to encourage diversity in the workplace?

Education is the starting point. There are some people that might not want to sit through a video about diversity and inclusion but we all should, and I have worked in three companies where this is mandatory, and it does work.

Seeing the world through the lens of others is literally an eye opener, it really is. We may not think we are biased but when you have your mind opened, you can sometimes see yourself differently and make small changes to make everyone feel that they can be their authentic self.

I also think it is important to create an environment where people feel they can call out concerning behaviour without consequences. The more we challenge, the more we can influence change for the better.