Interview: Antony Hausdoerfer, group CIO, The AA
Direction of travel is an important consideration for everyone at The AA. For group CIO Antony Hausdoerfer, it means making sure customers have the best possible experiences when they are in a challenging situation.
“How can we know what the problem is that customers are having before we send a patrol, so we make sure that whoever we send to support that customer, we get the right person there with the right skills in the shortest possible time to get people back on the road in the shortest possible time,” he says.
Hausdoerfer is driving that plan for digital transformation at The AA. He joined the organisation as director of technology and change in December 2019 and became group CIO in April 2022. He was previously group IT director at Avis Budget Group, and formerly in senior technology roles at Three and Vodafone.
Hausdoerfer enjoyed the challenge of delivering IT at Avis, particularly establishing touch-free car rentals via phone, which proved timely as the project was completed just before the coronavirus pandemic. He also worked on a data project that assessed the petrol left in rental cars. These projects gave him an appreciation of how information can be used to manage and maintain vehicles.
As he explored potential new challenges, he was approached about a role with The AA – and he was eager to grab the opportunity: “I saw The AA as a prestigious brand, and with what I’d learned around connected vehicles and data at Avis, I thought this would be a good opportunity to exploit this knowledge.”
After he joined The AA, the company changed hands and moved from public to private ownership in March 2021. A series of changes at the senior leadership level created the opportunity for Hausdoerfer to become CIO.
“There was a lot to do, and with the new ownership, we were going to be able to make those changes, and that potential excited me,” he says.
“We’ve been on a journey, and we’re still on it, but we’ve made some big steps forward in terms of where we are, particularly in terms of data and improved connectivity, so that our patrols can be as good as possible.”
Riding the rollercoaster
Hausdoerfer says his day-to-day responsibilities encompass the IT systems and processes that support the business. He works alongside other senior executives, including the chief digital officer and chief data and analytics officer, to ensure The AA is exploiting technology and information effectively.
“I see all the technology capabilities that we provide to our customers, colleagues and the business systems behind the scenes,” he says.
“Our chief digital officer is focused on the digital channel. We also have a chief data and analytics officer who looks at how we get value from information. My role is to look after all the infrastructure and technology they use.”
His technology oversight also stretches across business portfolios. The road portfolio includes customer-facing systems, from the moment someone interacts with The AA app or a phone to report a breakdown, to the passing of that information to a patrol and onto the support a customer receives at the roadside, including managing associated policies.
“We’ve been on a journey, and we’re still on it, but we’ve made some big steps forward in terms of where we are, particularly in terms of data and improved connectivity, so that our patrols can be as good as possible”
Antony Hausdoerfer, The AA
Hausdoerfer also oversees the technology for the insurance portfolio. His team is replatforming The AA’s insurance capabilities, with the last few system migrations taking place. He also refers to his team’s head office programme, which involves managing the services that support staff, including finance systems, other enterprise platforms and incident response functions.
“I have full accountability for the end-to-end cyber capability of the business, which keeps you on your toes,” he says.
Finally, Hausdoerfer oversees IT architecture. He recently recruited a chief architect and is working to ensure there’s an integrated approach to architecture across the organisation. He recognises the disparate nature of his role.
“It feels like a rollercoaster. The ownership change brought an upturn in pace that hasn’t stopped since I joined. I think it takes a certain character to thrive with that pace of work. There are days when it’s quite tiring, but you’re delivering so much,” he says.
“The work has purpose in terms of what you’re seeing happen at the roadside, what’s happening in terms of customer satisfaction, the speed with which you get to customers, and the fixed rate at the side of the road. So, the work pace might leave you feeling a bit tired, but you get to deliver some great outcomes.”
Making a difference
Hausdoerfer points to some big achievements since becoming CIO. In terms of technology deliverables, he refers to replatforming the firm’s legacy road and insurance systems.
“Road and insurance were running on the same platform that was probably designed for neither. So, we abstracted road and we put a Pega capability in the middle, with all the different systems around the outside, and made it a proper ecosystem, which put the customer at the heart of everything,” he says.
“We focused on customer satisfaction and improving retention, so being able to give better services and offers to our customers, as well as delivering better commercials. We faced a significant data migration to get three million customers on the new system. However, we made that change and we’ve achieved the commercial outcomes we were looking for.”
For insurance, The AA partners with technology specialist CDL, which offers a platform-as-a-service capability to help enhance customer experiences. “That partnership allows us to focus on developing more relevant products for our customers that are starting to cut through in the wider market,” he says.
Hausdoerfer has also overseen improvements to colleague experiences, which includes The AA’s roadside patrol teams. His team considered the various IT elements crucial to success and decided to take a fresh approach to technology procurement.
“We went down a leasing model. We’ve just replaced everyone’s desktops, giving them much better capabilities. We’ve also done work in terms of connectivity for the patrols and other capabilities to create a big swing in colleague satisfaction, so people feel they have the tools to do their jobs,” he said.
“That upturn in satisfaction was one of the biggest swings in last year’s employee survey. Previously, there were challenges in terms of how people perceived their technology. It’s a journey that’s never complete. But we’ve made a big difference, and that’s something I’m proud of because it affects everyone who works at The AA.”
Connecting roadside patrols
Hausdoerfer is also embracing pioneering areas of technology. Roadside recovery patrols are often called to remote areas, where the teams face difficult terrains and limited connectivity.
“They can’t deliver the best customer outcomes if they don’t have connectivity,” he says. “We need to know where they are to allocate the next most applicable job. We need to share information, such as customer location and details, the car, and the potential problem.”
The organisation wanted to move beyond its existing solution, which operated on a SIM-only basis using 3G and 4G networks. The answer came via telecoms giant Ericsson, using a combination of primary and backup SIMs that tap into wider frequencies on any spectrum.
The AA began implementing the solution in 2022. Hausdoerfer took just over a year to roll out the technology because his team wanted to build a clear business case. His organisation started with a pilot of 350 patrols spread across the country, 50 of which had the worst connectivity experiences.
“We could see very quickly, partly through the feedback, but then also through the data, that our teams were getting significant improvements,” he says.
“We had one patrol operating on a challenging topology in the 60% connectivity range. They reached 90% directly after we gave them the capability. Those results made it clear that this was the best solution.”
Before implementing Ericsson’s technology, the average connectivity rate for patrols was about 89%. Today, The AA offers 98.5% high-value connectivity. That capability means the organisation can take a more proactive approach to patrols, pushing customer and vehicle data to teams quickly and efficiently.
“The ability for us to serve customers effectively is now vastly improved,” he says. “We’re exploring more ways to get value from the data for our customers and potentially for other organisations. That work has to be in line with our responsibility to customers in terms of data protection. But there are different things we’re exploring.”
Taking a proactive approach
Hausdoerfer will continue to look for ways to boost internal operations and customer experiences. He paints a picture of The AA’s data-enabled approach 24 months from today.
“It would be a personalised service that satisfies the customer,” he says. “That’s simple to say but hard to achieve. We’re focusing on the fact that drivers face different problems. So, how do we personalise our service to give customers what they need, in the way they need it, through the channels they want to use?”
The AA is also exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve customer experiences. The company’s internal innovation team has developed a car-health assistant called Vixa. Using Databricks technology and internally developed algorithms, the system takes a proactive approach to vehicle maintenance.
“We can start to see patterns with how your car is performing as a connected vehicle to pre-empt an issue before it happens. We’ve got high accuracy now in terms of our battery model, which looks at the performance of your battery based on multiple factors, including things like weather conditions and other aspects,” he says.
“We can accurately predict whether you’re going to have a battery failure next time you try to start your car. We can advise you that you’re likely to have a battery failure unless you take corrective action. It’s great that we respond when there’s a breakdown. But if we can help you avoid having a breakdown in the first place, that’s even better.”
