CASE STUDY
About Amir Arooni
Amir Arooni joined Discover in March 2020 as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer . Prior to joining Discover , he served as CIO for NN Group in the Netherlands , a spinoff of ING . From 2001 – 2015 , he held various executive roles across ING .
features . Just like today ’ s competitors already have or will soon offer the same technology fueled features we offer with the Discover it card .
While tech-based features are important to our customers , and are absolutely necessary for us to provide , they are simply not enough to retain a competitive advantage . Doing that today requires both the technology and the ability to deliver it easier and faster , which requires a new and agile way of working .
How have you managed to stay ahead of the competition ?
To stay ahead on the technology and innovation front , we introduced our signature Runway initiative two years ago , to better position us for the future by shifting from a project-based mindset to a product-driven structure rooted in the agile way of working .
By turning to smaller , autonomous , product-focused engineering teams , we have been able to deliver new products and enhancements faster and more reliably to our customers , while simplifying how we work through technology optimization and extreme automation .
Can you give any examples of the value you ’ ve added by modernizing ?
Two examples of value we ’ ve driven through our Runway modernization efforts involve increasing the speed that we deploy code and release products ; in some areas we are releasing 4x faster than before .
Through Runway , we are providing consumers what they want , faster , and growing our capacity to offer even more . For example , reduced deployment time for our Authorized User team means new Discover Card users can be added to an existing account and receive their cards quicker , resulting in an improved banking relationship .
For our Line Increase Request team , an already high performing group in the organization that provides an instant decision for 98 % of customer requests received , this entails delivering an even greater , differentiated customer experience .
By the end of 2022 , the majority of our teams will have transitioned to a product model structure and gone through the necessary training . Those teams will be working smarter and faster due to new metrics reporting capabilities , a more advanced technology portfolio , such as our internal Trident pipeline that delivers high-quality software through automated releases , and so much more . This will directly benefit consumers with access to the latest banking products and features faster , as well as unparalleled security , reliability and customer service .
Can you tell us about some of the company ’ s recent technological successes and plans for the future ?
In year three of our Runway journey , we will have gone from developing our flight plan in 2020 , to throttling up in 2021 , and now we are climbing to 80,000 FT ( executing ) in 2022 . . . and beyond . The journey doesn ’ t stop after this year . After this phase , we ’ ll take everything we ’ ve accomplished and learned and continue improving and innovating moving forward ,
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