Insights- Robin Pollock

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Lockdown and working from home given COVID-19 are a reality and will accelerate the move online with fundamental workplace changes. Unprecedented disruption and unprecedented opportunity. With cloud, multi-cloud, edge computing, machine learning and AI, what is important for building a successful technology platform in 2021?

Hiring and career development are key to any success. Always hire the potential not for specific skills to enable growth and development as projects, technologies and businesses change. I favour small agile teams with different skills that bring together all end users with the development team and value small incremental deliveries that can adapt provide continuous improvement and adapt. Teams should be loosely coupled and given full responsibility and reward for success allowing for innovation, building trust and teamwork. The CTO's role is to set standards, architectural roadmap, and challenge to promote quality and reusability. LEGO-like set of building blocks can be reused for future requirements and grow IP and value in your enterprise. Teams of all ages and backgrounds with common goals cut bureaucracy costs and delays and promote ownership, quality and accountability. 

COVID-19 will accelerate new disruptive innovation that creates a new market and value network that eventually disrupts an existing market, displacing established market-leading firms, products, and alliances. It is not the products that change necessarily, simply the established market where online innovation undermines existing patterns and benefits from scale, cost, and online convenience to challenge existing players. New start-ups benefit from the correct architecture and are nimble and agile. Still, all businesses are free to develop efficient processes and technologies using Cloud-based services and tools at low cost. These are key to both incumbent and new ventures' future success and are essential investments in people and technology. 

Availability and accuracy are essential and requires:

1. Business Continuity – tests, recovery, resilience, plans, review
2. Reduce technical and service provider diversity so risk and cost.
3. Simple solutions – agile development, loosely coupled systems, incremental delivery, cross-functional teams.
4. Confidentiality - the level of access should be given appropriate processes, review and audit for legal and regulatory standards.
5. Integrity – original data, no duplication, accurate, maintained, risk analysis, consistent and available.
6. Often Cloud-based for cost, maintenance, performance, scalability, availability, operational and management tools. 

Technology can help facilitate business transformations, such as:

1. Customer-Centric – full functionality, trust, personalised.
2. Operational Excellence – simplify, innovation, efficiency.
3. Continuous Innovation – data, technology, talent, offerings
4. Technology – data, digital platform, cybersecurity, AI/ML
5. Human Enablers – agile teams, cross-functional, motivate, reward, challenge.

If the solution were simple, it would have little value, so companies with Intellectual Property (IP) in the right tools and people grow fastest and are most highly valued. Complexity in all businesses forms includes technical, financial, operational, legal and regulatory, time, change, people, quality and process. A good CTO should work with all areas to simplify and refocus efforts. Change can cause fear and be threatening, but with COVID and Brexit and the changing workplace and markets, it cannot be ignored. Understanding all the factors above with proven help could be invaluable.