The digital transformation roadmap has been ripped up. Covid-19 has forced businesses to act now and adapt to digital. Industry norms are no more and as all organisations scramble to adopt digital or face the repercussions of falling behind. ActionPoint wanted to hear from those spearheading the tech revolution with the Technology Leader’s Forum. ActionPoint CEO and Host David Jeffreys was joined by panellist’s Niall Fitzmaurice –Business Group Lead at Microsoft, Mark Kennedy- Managing Partner at Mazars and John Savage- ActionPoint COTO. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways.
Adapting to Technology
Mark Kennedy, Managing Partner, Mazars Ireland
For many organisations prior to Covid-19, face-to-face meetings and worldwide travel were key components of what it meant to do business. Mark Kennedy and the team at Mazars found the adaption process to online communication to be a saving grace and a way forward.
“The issue is not so much about the technologies and more about the business model. What I found fascinating in an organisation which has a very strong local management, we also work and coordinate many countries, we managed to replace two months of international travel by using online tools like Teams, where we could actually get to have effective meetings and make effective decisions. We had these tools and we weren’t really using them but we became experts very quickly. We began to look into how we manage data, how we share, how do we collaborate.”
Using Technology as an Asset
John Savage, COTO, ActionPoint
Having previously overlooked or perhaps not understood the potential tech could bring to the day to day operations in business, organisations were now in a frame of mind to consider what it had to offer. On the Technology Leader’s Forum panel, John Savage commented: “Technology is often the thing we talk most about but it’s often the end result. This has really driven the big change in the speed of adoption, the tools people didn’t even know they had and learned to use them pretty rapidly. What we’ve found is it has opened up the leadership in our client organisations to think ‘Oh, what else can this do?’ and it’s that mindset that we didn’t necessarily have before.”
Technology for Change
David Jeffreys, CEO, ActionPoint
When it comes to adapting a new approach and embracing the ever-changing landscape of tech in business, where can organisations begin to hone in on their own digital transformations and how to bring about change in a workplace? During the Technology Leader’s Forum, David Jeffreys said: “Obviously the people are the driving force of transformation, but you also need elements of entrepreneurship and innovation. There’s a need for us in our respective roles to empower our employees and our teams to bring suggestions to the table.”
However, driving this change means having the right people that strive for more in your organisation. John Savage explained: “Whether it’s a two person organisation or a 2000 person organisation, if we don’t have a workforce that’s hungry to learn more, learn and innovate how they can use their tools better – the ones that do have this mindset will get ahead. There has been a bit of a slowdown in training, but I think there needs to be a mindset shift driven by the ‘why’. I think Covid will give us motivation to get a better training plan within our teams.”
The Art of the Possible
Niall Fitzmaurice,, Business Group Lead, Microsoft
For business leader’s it’s a collaboration of their finest assets, a huge part of which is a dynamic workforce, that will lead to progressive and withstanding organisation that will successfully navigate through these difficult times. Niall Fitzmaurice said:
“If you’re rooted in value, if you have an understanding that people are going to drive it; it’s really having that vision that taps into the human ambition and sparks imagination. We want human beings to use their creativity to map out something that could happen or where could we go, that art of the possible.”
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