How being cloud smart fosters growth at Saab

Stockholm-based Saab recently announced that it’s significantly raising its growth targets for 2027 from 10 to 15%, an increase linked to the war in Ukraine and the fact that many countries are now rearming, which is clearly evident from Saab’s increased order intake. This also means the company now expects to ramp up hiring in the short term, and the IT department is no exception, says CIO Annette Eriksson.

“In the last two years, we’ve grown by several hundred people and currently the increase is now around 1,600 globally,” she says.

Such widescale recruitment is taking place in virtually all areas, from project managers to security experts and IT architects.

“Specifically as an IT department, we’re an important support function that’s crucial to cope with the growth rate,” she says. “And now that there’s so much, we’re working a lot with skills transition, governance, management, and leadership.”

The IT organization at Saab is also very staff-intensive, as many of the company’s systems are developed in-house. This means that people need expertise both in older types of technology to manage older systems, as well as in the very latest technologies.

Also because IT systems are developed and operated in-house, the cloud is not an obvious choice, given that security is an exceptionally high priority at Saab.

A smart approach to cloud

Unlike many other companies completely focused on being “cloud first,” being “cloud smart” is what really matters.

“There are areas where you can absolutely embrace cloud technology, whether it be private, hybrid, or public,” she says. “Where it’s possible to use more public delivery models, we will do so. We’re working intensively on this, to be able to use what’s out there.”

In addition, some of the major product suppliers are moving more toward the cloud, as well as end users such as the US or Swedish armed forces, for example. This puts further pressure on Saab to see how it can maneuver within the cloud and be able to tap into the rest of the ecosystem. But Saab can’t test tools like Chat GPT or any generative AI that connects to the public cloud. That kind of technology needs to be tested completely in-house. But Saab is also testing new technology within a concept they call the Center of Excellence.

“We work with various representatives of the business to test new technology and develop concrete solutions, and it’s worked very well,” says Eriksson.

Depending on the technology, groups working on a particular solution may include different numbers of people from time to time.

Not only agile

In recent years, Saab’s IT operations have also begun to adopt an increasingly agile way of working — but not entirely agile; there’s also work in traditional projects.

“We use a mixture,” says Eriksson. “I see it more as both, instead of either/or. The crucial thing is you have an awareness and clarity of which method you choose on a case-by-case basis.”

With Saab moving as a company toward being software-driven, where software is at the core of almost all services and products, Eriksson knows why it’s critical to analyze how to effectively use a range of available technologies, such as open source and AI.

“It’s important that we do this in order to manage the journey toward a software-driven business in the right way,” she says.

Of course, software is integral to many of the company’s top products, such as the Gripen E series fighter jets, where flight-critical software is separated from the rest of the aircraft, which means that an upgrade can take a day instead of several months, which is something unique to Gripen E.

For Eriksson, working in IT at a technology-led enterprise, and being surrounded by tech-savvy people, is a clear advantage and a catalyst for growth. “We see IT as what makes the business possible,” she says. “But then we can’t allow just any creativity when it comes to internal IT. There are requirements for architecture and integration.”