Author

Harry Menear

Published

23 May 2025

Estimated Read time

10Mins

The cybersecurity landscape has never been so fast-moving or complex. The stakes have never been higher. A worsening geopolitical reality…

The cybersecurity landscape has never been so fast-moving or complex. The stakes have never been higher. A worsening geopolitical reality and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats mean that the role of security leaders is more pivotal than ever as devastating cyber breaches become a matter of “when,” not “if.” It’s a time for information and skill sharing, networking, and collective action in an industry facing a more challenging future than ever. 

Visions CIO + CISO Summit brings together executive security and technology leaders and experts from the largest organisations in multiple industries to network and learn from the people driving innovation in the IT and cyber spaces. This year’s event took place between April 28-30, and featured 8 tentpole sessions, over 30 presentations from key industry figures, and more than 30 speakers across the various panels, fire-side chats and peer-to-peer round tables that comprise the rest of the event. Speakers and solutions providers at this year’s event included Illumio, Threatlocker, LastPass, Claranet, Okta, Covertswarm, Intruder, and Ripjar RPC Services. Also in attendance were IT and security professionals from large scale enterprises, including Currys, Astley Digital, 24/7 Home Rescue, H&M Group, IBM, MUFG (Mitsubishi Financial Group), Federated Hermes, Deliveroo, Experian, Saint-Gobain, and Nordea GSK.

At the event, and afterwards, we were lucky enough to catch up with some of the leaders speaking at Visions and get their perspectives on key trends affecting the IT space — from the ever-relevant issue of security to AI and digital resilience.  

Natwest

Ramit Sharma — Vice President & Lead Engineer

1. What’s the general outlook for the IT and fintech sectors right now? Is this a scary time? An exciting one?

“It’s an exciting time, particularly within the UK banking sector, where we’re seeing a real shift toward customer-centric innovation. Financial institutions are working hard to deliver seamless, secure, and personalised experiences—often by leveraging cloud, AI, and advanced analytics.” 

“There’s a strong emphasis on modernising legacy systems, improving digital onboarding, and enhancing fraud prevention without compromising user experience. This push for technology-driven customer satisfaction is creating space for smarter, faster, and more agile solutions—making it a great time to be contributing to the evolution of digital trust and transformation in financial services.”

2. What are some of the challenges organisations are facing that you can help them with? What problems are they asking you to solve?

“Many organisations are grappling with how to secure cloud environments at scale without slowing down innovation. Key challenges include visibility across hybrid or multi-cloud setups, managing identity and access with precision, and operationalising zero trust.” 

“There’s also a strong demand for integrating security earlier in the development lifecycle—what we often refer to as shifting security left. People are asking how to reduce complexity, automate controls, and move away from reactive postures to proactive, real-time risk mitigation.”

Federated Hermes 

Enis​​​​ Sahin — Head of Information Security

1. What kind of outlook does an organisation like Federated Hermes have right now towards the industry? Is this a scary time? An exciting one?

2025 is shaping up to be a very dynamic year for the markets at large. There are rapid developments, from geopolitics to booming technology innovation with AI, that are impacting how the markets move as well changing the environment we operate in as a business. As a global asset manager, Federated Hermes is staying abreast of these changes to ensure we can be where the markets are, whilst maintaining efficiency in our operations for strong profitability. 

2. What problems are people asking you to solve right now?

The ever changing world of cyber has historically been difficult for businesses to decipher. In the last few years, it has become even more difficult to keep up, with the advent of AI and how it is changing the technology landscape. Whilst businesses are trying to understand this new technology and embed it into their products and operations, cyber-criminal enterprises are leaping ahead in innovation and starting to leverage it in novel ways. The challenge this brings is two-fold.”

“On one hand, businesses are trying to find the right use cases for AI to get their return on investment at every level. This applies to core business functions, as well as Technology departments and the Security organisations. As cyber strategists we are now being forced to be innovators ourselves and not just passive consumers of the latest products and market trends. This brings a new perspective to how we design controls, build our roadmaps and prioritize our budget items. Boards and executive teams are looking for Security teams who are embracing AI and maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of their programmes.” 

“The second challenge is on the defensive side. The average person, as well as the average corporate employee, is lagging behind in understanding what the latest AI models are capable of, let alone understanding how they can be used to conduct cybercrime. Working in security, we find ourselves in a situation where we both need to find ways to keep up with cyber criminals to defend our enterprises, as well as keep educating our staff and management teams so that we can bring them on this journey.” 

Astley Digital 

Martin Astley — Chief Information Security Officer

1. Would you say this is an exciting time for Astley Digital?

“Astley Digital is at a pivotal point in its journey, experiencing remarkable growth and expanding our service offerings. We’re actively exploring partnerships with innovative cybersecurity companies like ThreatLocker, enabling us to provide even more robust endpoint security solutions for our clients.” 

“Additionally, the evolving landscape of cybersecurity is presenting us with unique opportunities to leverage AI for predictive threat analysis, streamline incident response, and enhance our managed security services. This moment is particularly exciting as we are positioning ourselves not just as a service provider but as a thought leader in cybersecurity strategy, risk management, and digital transformation for businesses across various sectors.”

2.  What are some of the key challenges organisations are facing that you can help them with? What problems are they asking you to solve?

“Organisations today are grappling with a rapidly changing threat landscape, and one of the most significant challenges is maintaining a strong cybersecurity posture amidst evolving threats. At Astley Digital, we address critical issues such as:

“Endpoint Security: Many organisations struggle with managing endpoint security across remote and hybrid workforces. We provide comprehensive solutions that restrict unauthorised software and applications, preventing potential breaches and maintaining data integrity.”

“Third-Party Risk Management: Ensuring third-party vendors maintain security standards is another pressing concern. We work closely with our clients to assess, monitor, and mitigate third-party risks to prevent supply chain attacks.”

“Incident Response and Recovery: Companies are seeking rapid and effective incident response strategies. We offer real-time monitoring, response planning, and post-incident analysis to minimise business disruptions.”

“Regulatory Compliance: Compliance is a growing concern, especially in highly regulated industries. Our team assists with implementing frameworks that align with industry standards, ensuring data protection and reducing legal risks.”

S&W 

Mark Hendry — Partner

1. Why is this an exciting time for your company?

“We are really fortunate to have reach and presence with clients across different sectors. We have professional service specialisms that respond to many of the trickiest and most important strategy and skill challenges that clients face; technology, cyber security, AI, data, and digital regulations to name a few. Not only is it a great time to be helping clients with those issues and helping them make their businesses more capable, effective, successful and resilient, from a selfish perspective it’s an incredible privilege for our people to be trusted by clients to help with these super interesting initiatives.”

2. What are some of the key challenges organisations are facing that you can help them with? What problems are they asking you to solve?

“We help clients with everything from assessing and improving their resilience positions, to complying with the intersections of a range of existing regulations, frameworks and standards, through to future gazing and thinking about what’s possible through challenging the status-quo.”

“Lately that has included a lot of work on things like AI readiness, development of use cases, working on AI explainability and the human element of potential resistance to the kinds of change that AI and other emerging tech are delivering.” 

“Of course an evergreen core of our work is digital resilience, including cyber security, so we do a lot on ensuring that new technology adoptions including those with AI sprinkled throughout them, are digitally and operationally resilient by design.” 

Deliveroo

Oliver Jenkins — IT Audit  Senior Manager

1. Why is this an exciting time for Deliveroo?

“We’re at a turning point where AI is no longer a side conversation—it’s embedded in the way Deliveroo operates. That shift brings real momentum and urgency to the work we do in securing AI adoption and protecting digital environments.”

2. What are some of the key challenges organisations are facing that you can help them with? What problems are they asking you to solve?

“The main concern is how to adopt AI without opening the door to unmanaged risk. Businesses know they can’t sit this one out, but they’re looking for help building the right guardrails to manage risk; especially with evolving regulation and the rise of AI-powered threats like deepfake vishing and advanced phishing.”

Bilfinger

Nnamdi Ozonma — Information Security Officer UK & Nordic Regions

1. What are you here at Visions to discuss with your peers in the cybersecurity and IT space? 

“The first panel I was part of was the Threat Detection & AI Panel Discussion. We were looking at establishing trust, mitigating risks, and safeguarding security in the age of AI. I focused on how to balance the benefits of AI with the challenges of building trust, managing risks, and ensuring security.”

“Then, I had a deep dive into looking at an age where individuals don’t verify, they just take information, no longer researching to see if the information is correct.”

“I always remain sceptical, whilst understanding the value of efficiency. AI is now embedded in so many tools, but now the main concern is the people within the organisation. Monitoring and education are essential. People will often try to find a shortcut and the easy way to go about things. Until training, governance and understanding is at a level where there can be trust, I suggest turning it off.”

Ripjar

Nick Cooper — Vice President, Information Security

1. These are challenging times for cybersecurity teams. How has 2025 been going for you and Ripjar? 

“Ripjar utilises new and emerging technology to solve customer problems in cyber threat investigations and anti-financial crime compliance. We’ve been able to help organisations achieve record results – identifying connections, anomalies and potential risks, while reducing false positives and increasing true positives – leading to best-in-class results in many industries. We’re excited to be sharing that technology, alongside further innovations, with other organisations as we expand our global coverage.”

“The advent of generative AI creates vast risks and opportunities. It also shifts perspectives on existing machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. It has been exciting to see how the newest AI can be combined with non-generative AI and other technologies to create new solutions to the problems that keep our customers awake at night.”

2. What are some of the challenges organisations are facing that you can help them with? 

“Ripjar serves customers in several areas. Our anti-financial crime customers are trying to make sense of the ever-expanding business risks presented by their customers and counterparties in a tumultuous world. We’re able to help them in that journey, whether it’s responding to changing Russian or Middle East sanctions or aligning with the massive political changes that have impacted PEP (politically exposed persons) regimes all around the world.”

“Using foundational AI, we find broad risks in the media – which is often referred to as negative news or adverse media. That means reading through millions of daily news articles to identify risk signals which are important to those handling the world’s global payments or trading internationally. Agility is a key requirement for our customers, and machine learning and AI make it possible to make sense of huge quantities of structured and unstructured data quickly and accurately.”

“Our cyber customers are sophisticated threat investigators working in complex environments, including a number of MSSPs. They rely on our data fusion and investigations software to identify potential threats to their data and ultimately their businesses.”

Looking at the future

The shadows of GenAI, looming threats, and a shifting regulatory landscape loom over the global cybersecurity and IT communities, but the tone is also optimistic. While every leader we spoke to at Visions CIO + CISO acknowledged the threat posed by emerging technologies, many were also excited by the potential of GenAI tools to detect threats and help strengthen cybersecurity defenses.

Given how quickly the circumstances surrounding cybersecurity have changed in just a few short years, it’s almost impossible to predict where we’ll be by the end of the decade. However, the experts we spoke to at Visions are approaching the future with both eyes open — watchful for new risks, and determined to capitalise on new opportunities. 

The next Visions CIO + CISO Summit (Autumn, UK) is taking place at the Allianz Stadium in London on 13 – 15 October, 2025. Learn more and register to attend here.

  • Cybersecurity
  • Host Perspectives

Author

Nell Walker

Published

12 March 2025

Estimated Read time

2Mins

Meet, greet, and learn from fellow IT professionals at VISIONS CIO + CISO Leadership Summit on the 28th to the 30th of April 2025. At the Allianz Stadium in London, you’ll discover the newest solutions and strategies on the market, while making meaningful connections with your peers.

Over the course of the VISIONS event, attendees will have access to over 30 presentations and eight different sessions, as well as panels involving numerous expert speakers, and peer-to-peer roundtables.

Interface Magazine is thrilled to announce that our magazine is a media partner of VISIONS UK! For the CIO + CISO Leadership Summit, VISIONS is offering a VIP code for our readership. Secure your free pass here and use the code INTF-VIP for the full VIP experience!

Taking the challenge out of change

The pressure to modernise is at an all-time high, but the VISIONS CIO + CISO Leadership Summit provides a welcoming and informative atmosphere for you to learn about updating your systems, tackling cybersecurity threats, and building AI strategies.

The event is reserved for executives, and aims to support your professional and departmental goals across the board. The programme is tailored to enlighten, educate, and support CIOs and CISOs in their technology journeys.

Agenda

  • Eight sessions
  • 30+ presentations
  • 30+ speakers across panels, fireside chats and peer-to-peer roundtables

Alongside your free pass, use the VIP code INTF-VIP to also gain access to the following:

  • Complimentary accommodation for one night
  • On-site food and drinks provided
  • Multiple networking receptions with open bar
  • Travel reimbursement

Designed to address your challenges

This event aims to put an end to the usual wandering around the exhibition hall in order to find the information you want. During registration, you’ll have the chance to explain the current challenges you’re facing in business, and Visions will do the hard work in arranging meetings with a tailored set of solutions providers. You’ll be connected directly with the people who can help, in a bespoke, no-pressure environment.

Register today! Click here to book, and use our unique media partner code for VIP treatment: INTF-VIP

  • Event Newsroom

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

12 June 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Read in brochure format

Kelvin Moore, CISO & Acting Deputy CIO, on a successful cyber transformation journey at the US Small Business Administration driven by federal agency collaboration

This month’s cover story celebrates a successful cyber transformation journey driven by federal agency collaboration.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Read the latest issue here!

In this month’s issue…

US Small Business Administration: Evolving with Technology

Kelvin Moore, CISO & Acting Deputy CIO, reveals a successful cyber transformation journey at the US Small Business Administration driven by federal agency collaboration. Moore is tasked with securing a platform that offers support for small businesses and entrepreneurs. “It’s my team’s mission to ensure cybersecurity across the agency from an operational perspective and in turn guarantee the security of the programs that support our constituents.”

NAB Private Wealth: Comprehensive, integrated, and relationship-led

NAB (National Australia Bank) Private Wealth’s Michael Saadie and Mike Allen share a vision for comprehensive, integrated wealth management enabled by technology but driven by people. We learn more… “To achieve efficiency and simplification, we’ve consolidated all wealth operations under one channel,” Saadie explains. “Previously, JBWere, nabtrade, and our investment advisors operated independently. Now, we’ve brought these teams together and integrated them end-to-end. This means our operations team provides core capabilities serving all distribution channels.”

The AA: Driving growth with a powerful legacy

Nick Edwards, Group CDO at The AA, talks about the organisation’s incredible technology transformation and how these changes directly benefit its customers. “2024 has been a milestone year for the business, marking the completion of the first phase of the future growth strategy we’ve been focused on since the appointment of our new CEO, Jakob Pfaudler,” he explains. Revenues have grown by over 20%, allowing The AA to drive customer growth. “All of this has been delivered by our refreshed management team,” Edwards continues. “It reflects the strength of our people across the business and the broader cultural transformation of The AA in the last three years.”

Piedmont Healthcare: Data-driven progress

We first spoke with Piedmont Healthcare’s Mark Jackson in the winter of 2022. Since then, the scope of his role at the healthcare provider has expanded considerably. Now its Chief Data Officer (CDO), Jackson has overseen a reorg of his 45-strong team. “I take a lot of pride in efficiency,” he reveals. “I think it’s the key component of our success. Everybody experiences failure. What I want us to do is have the ability to fail quickly and get to working solutions faster because I believe in this way, we can deliver a lot of value with a small and nimble team.”

Nuffield Health: Agile digital transformation

When we talk about incredible digital transformations in Interface Magazine, it’s really only a snapshot of an organisation. In reality, this kind of digital transformation is an ongoing process with no end. When we spoke to Jacqs Harper and Dave Ankers from Nuffield Health in 2022, they had a few things in mind to keep them busy as the charity’s big change evolved.

However, as this transformation evolved, an explosion of change happened in so many directions. Far more than the organisation’s technology team intended. Harper (who leads Technology at Nuffield Health), Ankers (IT Strategy & Delivery Director), and Mark Howard (Head of Technology Engineering) have followed up over 18 months after the initial interview to really dig into all the exciting things that have changed since then, and expand on all of Nuffield Health’s ambitious plans.

Also in this issue, we round up the top events in tech; get advice from Bayezian on how to avoid the risks associated with jailbreaking LLMs and speak with iGTB CEO Manish Maakan about leadership in the FinTech space. And to keep up to date with the latest insights and developments in this space check out our new launch, FinTech Strategy.

Enjoy the issue!

  • Digital Strategy

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

31 January 2024

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Read in brochure format

For our first cover story of 2024 we meet with Lloyds Banking Group’s CIO for Consumer Relationships & Mass Affluent,…

For our first cover story of 2024 we meet with Lloyds Banking Group’s CIO for Consumer Relationships & Mass Affluent, Martyn Atkinson, to learn how an ambitious growth agenda, combined with a people-centred culture, is driving change for customers and colleagues across the Group.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Welcome to a new year of possibility where technology meets business at the interface of change…

Read the latest issue here!

Lloyds Banking Group: A technology & business strategy

“We’ve made significant strides in transforming our business for the future,” explains Martyn Atkinson, CIO for Consumer Relationships & Mass Affluent at Lloyds Banking Group. “I’m really proud of what the team have achieved. There’s loads more to go after. It’s a really exciting time as we become a modern, progressive, tech-enabled business. We’ve aimed to maintain pace and an agile mindset. We want to get products and services out to our customers and colleagues. We’ll test and learn to see if what we’re doing is actually making a meaningful difference.”

AFRICOM: Organisational resilience through cybersecurity

We also speak with U.S. Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) CISO Ryan Larsen on developing the right culture to build cyber awareness. He is committed to driving secure and continued success for the Department of Defence. “I often think of every day working in cyberspace a lot like counterinsurgency warfare and my time in Afghanistan. You had to be on top of your game every minute of every day. The adversary only needs to get lucky one time to find you with that IED.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

ALIC: Creating synergy to scale at speed with Lolli

Since 2009 the Australian Lending & Investment Centre (ALIC) has been matching Australians with loans that help build their wealth. It has delivered over $8.3bn in loans to more than 22,000 leading Australian investors and businesses. Managing Director Damian Brander talks ethical lending and the challenges of a shifting financial landscape. ALIC has also built Lolli – a broker enhancement platform built by brokers, for brokers.

Sime Darby Motors: Driving digital, cultural, and business transformation together

Sime Darby Berhad is one of the oldest and most successful multinational companies in Malaysia. It has a twin focus on the Industrial and Motors sectors. The company employs more than 24,000 people, operating across 17 countries and territories. Sime Darby Motors’ Chief Digital & Information Officer Tuan Jean Tee shares how he makes sure digital, cultural, and process transformation go hand in hand throughout one of APAC’s largest automotive multinationals.

Also in this issue, we hear from Microsoft on the art of sustainable supply chain transformation, Tecnotree map the key trends set to impact the telecoms industry in 2024 and our panel of experts chart the big Fintech predictions for the year ahead.

Enjoy the issue!

Dan Brightmore, Editor

  • Fintech & Insurtech

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

22 November 2023

Estimated Read time

4Mins

Read in brochure format

This month’s cover story charts NAB’s journey to support SMEs with customer-centric digital solutions. Welcome to the latest issue of…

This month’s cover story charts NAB’s journey to support SMEs with customer-centric digital solutions.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Interface showcases leaders at the forefront of innovation with digital technologies transforming myriad industries.

Read the latest issue here!

NAB: Reinventing Small Business Banking

A passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion and equity of opportunity, Executive GM Ana Marinkovic leads a team of 1,600+ small business experts. They lend over $1.2bn a month to Australian small businesses. National Australia Bank (NAB) plays a major role in propelling entrepreneurship across the country. Delivering better outcomes for small business owners sits at the very heart of NAB’s strategy. “Our scale and connectivity help us to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing our business and the communities we operate in,” says Ana.

TUI: Making travel plans mobile

The mobile side of TUI has never been more vital. TUI’s mobile apps were officially launched in 2013 and began as something of a proof of concept. For the entire international industry, moving from web to mobile devices was a huge shift. The initial set of apps were very skeletal and only integrated for UK and Nordic customers.

One of this year’s goals is to accelerate the native journey to make all the customer journeys native. This will further improving the customer experience. After a recent UI refresh, the app look and feel is fresh and sleek, and has plenty of exciting features for customers to enjoy. “Just in the last couple of months we’ve introduced an integration with OpenAI for a travel planner that helps you choose excursions,” Donia adds. “Seeing it grow over the years is so exciting.”

TARA Energy Services: tech fuelling growth

“Continuous improvement is woven into the fabric of the culture at TARA Energy Services,” says its proud Director of IT, Paul Parzen. “Every day, we face new challenges, both operationally in the field and strategically in the boardroom. We must make sure the organisation’s IT strategy for data management, core infrastructure, network architecture, and security is ready to meet them.”

“Some people might say, ‘wow, a pension. That sounds a little boring.’ But at the end of the day, what we do is help people retire in the best way possible and that’s a pretty good place to be.”

Those are the words of Dee McGrath, CEO of Link Group’s Retirement Solutions since May 2019. The company is a global, digitally-enabled business connecting millions of people with their pension assets – safely, securely and responsibly. 

Evara Health: Technology delivering care for all

Evara Health’s mission statement is to help people become healthy and live healthy lives, and that means all people. A lot of health organisations don’t serve everybody and their treatments aren’t available under many types of insurance. However, Evara Heath doesn’t turn anybody away. It supports the underserved and the uninsured, and patients are treated regardless of whether they can afford it. Around 25% of patients have no insurance at all, and over half are covered by Medicaid, which isn’t accepted by everyone.

Enjoy the issue!

Dan Brightmore, Editor

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

11 September 2023

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Read in brochure format

Doug Laney is Innovation Fellow at West Monroe and a leading Data & Analytics strategist. We caught up with the author of Infonomics and Data Juice to talk tech and how companies can measure, manage and monetise to realise the potential of their data

Our cover story explores the rise of data and information as an asset.

Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!

Interface showcases leaders aiming to take advantage of data, particularly in a new world of AI technologies where it is the fuel…

Read the latest issue here!

How to monetise, manage and measure data as an asset

Our cover star is pretty big in the world of analytics… We meet the guy who defined Big Data. Doug Laney is Innovation Fellow at West Monroe and a leading Data & Analytics strategist. We caught up with the author of Infonomics and Data Juice to talk tech and learn how companies can measure, manage and monetise to realise the potential of their information. In his first book Laney advised companies to stop being fixated on hindsight-oriented analytics. “It doesn’t actually move the needle on the business. In the stories I’ve compiled over the last decade, 98% have more to do with organisations using data to diagnose, predict, prescribe or automate something. It’s not about asking questions about what happened in the past.”

Canvas Worldwide: A data-driven media business

Continuing this month’s data theme, we also spoke with Alisa Ben, SVP, Head of Analytics at full-service media agency Canvas Worldwide. Data has transformed the organisation, and what its clients do. “We look holistically at the client’s business and sometimes the tools we have might be right for them, sometimes not. It’s more about helping our clients achieve their business outcomes.”

TUI Musement: from digital transformation to digital pioneer

At travel giant TUI, handling data effectively is paramount when communicating consistently and meaningfully with up to 25 million customers annually. David Garcia, CIO for TUI Musement, talks about the tech evolution driving the travel giant’s provision of experiences, transfers and tours. It’s a big part of its operational shift from local to global. “As a CIO, I’ve always been interested in how the tech innovations we drive can support the business and add value.”

Hiscox: making cybersecurity more accessible

Liz Banbury, CISO at Hiscox and president of (ISC)² London Chapter, talks to us about how cybersecurity can become a more accessible, realistic career path for almost anybody. “When I was at school, topics like computer science didn’t even exist,” Banbury explains. “In one of my first jobs, over in Hong Kong, we were still using a typewriter! A lot has changed. My key point here is that there’s a lot of cybersecurity professionals who are really good at their job. They are inspiring, and have come from all walks of life. Crucially, they don’t have a maths, computer science, or technological background at all. But they still make great cybersecurity professionals.

Portland Community College: Risk vs Speed in Cybersecurity

Reet Kaur, former Chief Information Security Officer at Portland Community College, discusses the organisation’s transition to the cloud amid a digital transformation journey. “I don’t want to work with people who just say yes all the time. I want my ideas challenged to help forge the excellence in the security programmes I help build.”

DBHDS: Cybersecurity in healthcare

The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) exists to create ‘a life of possibilities for all Virginians’ and transform behavioural health. Its focus is on supporting people across the entire commonwealth. It helps them get the support they need in order to take wellness and recovery into their own hands. In an area like healthcare, sensitive information is all over the place, meaning cybersecurity is a priority – and this is where Glendon Schmitz, CISO at DBHDS, comes in. “The security team exists to help the wider organisation achieve its objectives with data. We’re there to protect the business, not the other way around.”

Also in this issue, we schedule the can’t miss tech events and get the lowdown on IoT security from the Mobile Ecosystem Forum.

Enjoy the issue!

Dan Brightmore, Editor

Author

Peter Barker

Published

20 March 2020

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Peter Barker, CTO at Rufus Leonard, on the importance of close CIO and CMO collaboration and how they can deliver truly differentiating experiences for their customers.

In a world where connected, consistent and differentiated experiences are born from closely aligned technology teams and marketing functions, the spotlight is on the collaborative relationship between a CIO and a CMO.

The traditional role and responsibilities of the CIO has altered as a result. As ‘2019 State of the CIO’ research highlights, 55% of CIOs are spending more time learning about customer needs as a way to foster the creation of revenue-generating initiatives[1] – prime marketing territory. While, according to Forrester, a CMO’s collaboration with a CIO is one of the four essential steps in planning their marketing evolution[2]. It’s clear that to deliver extraordinary brand experiences through robust systems built on a foundation of strong architectural principles, these two roles must seamlessly align.

Defining your differentiating experience

Today, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience[3]. In this competitive environment, the biggest challenge CMOs have is making sure their brand is delivering a truly differentiating experience. And while 80% of companies believe they are delivering these ‘superior experiences’ to their customers, only 8% of customers would agree[4]. While brands may deliver on customer experience promises and meeting customer expectations, few are creating those competitive advantages that give customers that little bit extra.

Forrester identifies this as ‘digital sameness’ – companies solving the same problems in the same ways over and over, therefore creating the same experiences. “The experiences of the world’s leading brands languish, lapse, lockstep, or lag because their customers struggle to separate one experience from another.[5]”

So how do you stand out in the landscape of digital sameness? Thirty years of helping brands like BBC, The Gym Group and Pinsent Masons has taught us that if customer experience matches customer expectations, then brand experience exists to create meaningful difference.

That’s why brand experience needs to sit above customer experience. This involves identifying and investing in hero moments along the journey – specifically where your brand could credibly provide a unique experience – which will create a memorable and differentiated experience for your customers.

It’s these unique experiences and offerings that will keep people coming back to you (loyalty) and start encouraging them to talk about you to their friends (advocacy). Brands with a strong brand experience command 79% higher purchase intent and an average of 45 more Net Promoter Score points than those who offer a lesser experience[6].

Driving your differentiating experience

When it comes to driving brand experience, there is no question of the importance of technology. After all, companies who create technology-driven differentiation see growth 4x faster than the competition[7]. Aligning the activities around brand experience bring focus and priority to the CIO and CMO relationship as well as ensuring you meet your customer’s digital expectations. At the heart of this business-critical relationship is your platform.

It’s the CIO’s job to provide the blueprint and platform to deliver experiences in a way which manages costs, threats and risks to the business. It’s not just about efficient IT provisioning; if the platform isn’t accessible, fast enough, or can be easily compromised it will cost – both in business and reputation. The platform is the key to growth and efficiency; allowing you to create new highly personalised services more easily and expand seamlessly with new partners or new channels using your services.

So how do you build an intelligent business core that facilitates and orchestrates internal and external ecosystems, all while delivering experiences driven by data, content and insight from people, process and platforms? And that’s not all; it also needs to connect your back-end and front-end distribution channels to create actionable insight which will help you evolve and optimise your product and service development.

Ultimately, you’re looking for a platform that can inform high-quality propositions quicker than your competitors, as well as creating operational efficiencies through automation to drive more contextually relevant customer experiences. A big ask? The good news is there are a number of routes you can take to develop a robust platform:

  • Commitment to a full enterprise stack
  • A vendor PaaS solution
  • A CMS that has some experience and headless features
  • Distributed channel logic
  • A centralised Omnichannel Experience API which you own

Choosing a robust, omnichannel solution

There are pros and cons to each option, but if you want something that lets you control and own your business experiences, is highly portable, open source and more easily maintained, for many modern businesses your best option is a centralised Omnichannel Experience API (OX.api).

An OX.api framework provides the capabilities to curate the experiences the CMO craves across all of your channels through solid technical engineering, adhering to architectural principles such as:

  • Availability: Multi-layered, HA, zero downtime deployments, and caching strategies
  • Data quality: Single source of truth, upholding compliance such as GDPR
  • Interoperability: Best practice, standards, portability, and SOLID principles
  • Secure by design: Multi-layered security designed with cyber security specialists
  • Resilience: Service bus for integrity, and containerisation to ease DevOps
  • Performance: Maximise the use of elastic computing and the Cloud, blend Cloud and Edge, and build for performance

Investing in a platform with these capabilities essentially aligns the CMO’s agenda with the CIO’s agenda. It unites your brand purpose to your tech stack, allowing technology to deliver the experiences customers want.

Your key takeaway

When you connect and power the experiences your CMO craves with the tools and systems your CIO needs, you can unlock the unique and meaningful moments that will truly set your brand apart from the competition. The opportunity available can’t be denied. Not only is it about fulfilling what your customers demand, but rather creating an infrastructure for innovation and optimisation. Taking your customer experience beyond the status quo is the key to unlocking market share and driving growth – which is ultimately what will separate the industry leaders from the followers. 

[1] IDG –  https://www.idg.com/tools-for-marketers/2019-state-of-the-cio/

[2] Forrester – https://www.forrester.com/report/Four+Steps+To+Establish+An+Innovative+Marketing+Function/-/E-RES139931

[3] Gartner – https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/customer-experience-battlefield/

[4] Bain & Co – https://medium.com/@CMcVoy/80-of-ceos-believe-they-deliver-superior-customer-experience-661efabd16b0

[5] Forrester – https://go.forrester.com/blogs/brand-experience/

[6] WARC – https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/from_hero_to_nearo_why_understanding_brand_experience_matters/

[7] Forrester – https://go.forrester.com/blogs/if-you-want-to-dominate-then-disrupt/

Author

Tracey Harris

Published

16 February 2020

Estimated Read time

5Mins

When Malta-based construction and property enterprise Vassallo Group embarked on a company-wide digital transformation, it looked to CIO Carlo Aquilina…

When Malta-based construction and property enterprise Vassallo Group embarked on a company-wide digital transformation, it looked to CIO Carlo Aquilina to build the entire infrastructure, operations and innovations at the group…

Walk through the streets of the beautiful island of Malta and you will not be able to escape the work of the Vassallo Group. Property, hospitality, education and healthcare, the Maltese construction and property company completely reshaped Malta following the devastation caused by the Second World War. Indeed, Vassallo Group embarked on a mission to ‘rebuild the nation’ to its former glory and beyond.

Building on its strengths, the Group carries a legacy that is over 70 years old, and over the years has diversified its operations that have brought about expansion and investment. Today, Vassallo Group, stands at the forefront of several different sectors in the local market that include property and construction, furniture and interiors, elderly and disability care, catering, hospitality, architecture and education. The Vassallo Group is a large, complex enterprise and represents a unique challenge to its IT function, which provides technological solutions and support to all of the companies and their users.

Vassallo Group talks to Interface Magazine

Carlo Aquilina was approached to take on the role of CIO at Vassallo in 2015, having spent a while building up an IT team at a manufacturing enterprise. “When I started in manufacturing, IT needed lots of work. We started from scratch. We built up the whole IT department and the whole team. When Vassallo approached me, they offered me that challenge again as they really lacked IT. It was a real challenge, but I built my team and we started on what needed to be done.”

Vassallo Group previously had a shareholding in an IT company and this sister company was providing IT, but the level of support was not sufficient for their local clients, thus Aquilina was asked to build the IT function that would serve the 1,900-plus employees and its extensive client base. “When I joined, I was tasked with the project: to start from scratch. I gave the board of directors a number of options. Should we go on premise, should we go with another hosting company, should we go hybrid, should we go cloud? The main ambition was very simple and I was given six months to come up with a solution where we gave our clients, our clients, meaning our users basically, a brand new environment with zero downtime. It was all firefighting in that first year.”

Vassallo went 100% cloud with Microsoft Azure, which Aquilina believed to be the best short-term, and long-term solution. “We’re a Maltese company. We’re not an IT focused company. IT is here to provide service to the business. Our business is not IT. We’re not a gaming company. All of our products are Microsoft, and so it was an obvious choice to move to Azure.” Vassallo agreed to go 100% to the cloud, having drawn a blank against the large capital expenditure associated with on-premise. “With cloud, you don’t invest in anything and everything is top of the range. Of course, it also helps to be paying operational costs and not capital costs. That was the way forward and then they (the board) embraced it. There was a number of partners who approached us to do this, to help us with this migration. I chose CyberSift, which was a start-up, actually.” An advantage to working with a start-up is that they’re not encumbered by a large kind backend and can move audaciously and quickly and this was certainly an appeal to Aquilina and his team. “I knew one of the technicians; a brilliant engineer and that helped. Plus, the price we were given was also from a start-up perspective.”

Vassallo Group. A Maltese institution

CyberSift viewed the chance to work with Vassallo with similar relish and the then start-up provided a specific engineer to be onsite with the IT team at Vassallo for the full duration of the migration. “Whatever I was asking, I was getting,” Aquilina explains. “‘Okay, we’ll do it for you, but you’ll have to promote us, after.’ Now I’m promoting them. So, we had engineers working for us and I didn’t need to grow my team. In fact, we’re a very small team.”

The key thing Aquilina and his team built in that crucial first year was ‘trust’. “I had the trust of the board of directors because every time they asked me something, I satisfied their request. So, there was trust. At the end of the day, it’s a family-owned company. Trust is very important.”

Aquilina and his team were given six months to deliver the project and took 2-3 three months to design and implement the infrastructure. The following three months, they contacted suppliers, before moving the software. “If it’s on premise or on cloud, there was remote access. It was teamwork, everyone pulling the same rope. Whenever one of the suppliers told us, ‘Listen, we’re not available this week. Let’s do it next week. We’ll slot in someone else. We’ll set meetings. We’ll explain what we are doing.’ All they needed to know is that we were moving from server A to server B. They did it for us because it was their software, their app, their solution.”

With any large-scale technological transformation there are challenges although Vassallo seemed to evade many of the pitfalls through great organisation. “I don’t think we had actually the biggest challenges because it was all planned out. We used to meet every day with the engineer who used to work for us and my team. It was a case of ‘What happened yesterday, what happened today, what is going to happen tomorrow and why? Are we on track? Yes. If not, why? What can we do?’ We worked late at night so that we could achieve it. It was all based on trust and teamwork. It was a case of open-heart surgery because the business wanted to work. The business kept on working even though we were doing open-heart surgery. We had that support from everyone. Everyone understood that this needed to be done. We had support from everyone, from all the partners, from Microsoft, everyone.”

Even though digital transformation involves technical infrastructure, software, servers and cloud, people are still integral to a successful outcome. “Yes, they are extremely important,” Aquilina explains. “There are the users, the customers and the IT team. We are a very small team and that really helped, because a huge team would require lots more organisation and more hand holding. It was me who was both sponsoring and managing the project. I had the lead engineer who was doing the actual work, remotely. They had an assistant administrator who was assisting. People are so important.”

Vassallo Group holds an annual internal awards and in 2016, the IT department was awarded ‘Best Customer Focused Department’ even though it had been, in Aquilina’s terms, firefighting. We were there constantly, anytime, any day of the week. The team and I were presented with this trophy, which proved my theory that the company had move to something much more stable.”

Now Vassallo Group is reaping the benefits of this transformation. “IT-wise, we are working on a business intelligence project. Now we have the infrastructure ready and a solid base or foundation, I want to give something back to the business. We implemented an ERP solution, which Finance, Logistics and Operations are using. I don’t want the directors to go into board meetings with huge amount of papers. I want them to go in with just a laptop. The data is live. We’ve already done that for one of the companies and it’s working. You can connect to the TV to project live data. That is business intelligence. We’re working on the other companies too. Now that they know what they can get, everybody’s bombarding us with requests. Of course, we’re taking our time and that is ongoing.”

From BI, Aquilina wants to harness the power of AI in board meetings. “I want to give them the facility to project live data, but I also want to give them the facility to change the data accordingly. They will see the results with AI.” Recruitment could be a big beneficiary of these initiatives too. “What if we employ 100 people? AI will work out the costs, work out the benefits of employing that many people. Then you can take an educated decision. ‘Should we employ 100 or 200? Let’s put in 200 more employees. What’s the cost?’ AI will work out the costs as well as the benefits. That’s all in progress. However, these are very sensitive tools that we need to use and if the tool gives you the wrong information, then you will make the wrong decision. I explained this to the board and they gave me the time needed to do it properly. We have to be very meticulous. They understood and told me, ‘Whenever you’re comfortable, we can start using.’ The CIO has to have 100% trust from the board of directors, because if there’s no trust, they keep on asking, ‘But why and how?’ That is the way forward.”

Providing technological infrastructure, new software and cyber security for such a large company means that Aquilina’s hands are certainly full. “We support about 1,900 employees and 500 users. I can afford to have a relatively small team because we have a solid base, and a solid infrastructure. I have a wonderful team. I recruited everyone from outside the business. I didn’t find anyone here, so they all respect me. We’re all friends at the end of the day, although I am their manager. We talk about anything and I help when needed. So, there’s trust from them and the senior management, which I believe is extremely important. It’s a wonderful place to work.”

Author

Dale Benton

Published

9 August 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Part four of a six-part supply chain masterclass with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner, Supply Chain, Gartner. In this episode, Frank…

Part four of a six-part supply chain masterclass with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner, Supply Chain, Gartner.

In this episode, Frank explores the concept of transforming organisational structures and talent development in order to prepare for the next era of business growth.

“Companies that really understand and develop the talent they have, while also looking from the outside to consistently bring new talent into the business, are winners in tomorrow’s marketplaces.” – Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner, Supply Chain, Gartner.

Listen to the full episode – out now!

Author

Kevin Davies

Published

18 April 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

In this week’s episode, we chat with Vennard Wright, CIO of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). Vennard Wright, twice voted ‘CIO…

In this week’s episode, we chat with Vennard Wright, CIO of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC).

Vennard Wright, twice voted ‘CIO of the Year’, is the man entrusted with driving massive changes across the WSSC.

Vennard speaks exclusively to The Digital Insight regarding digital transformation, diversity in the workplace and Hillary Clinton… Listen to the podcast here!

Author

Jason Walsh

Published

8 April 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

The Digital Insight speaks to Mike Dargan, Group CIO at the Switzerland-based bank UBS regarding digital transformation, as part of…

The Digital Insight speaks to Mike Dargan, Group CIO at the Switzerland-based bank UBS regarding digital transformation, as part of an exclusive series of podcasts…

Could you tell us the five pillars to digital transformation that UBS is implementing and how you’ve been getting them off the ground?

So, we introduced a framework for innovation or digital transformation, which were really the levers by which we achieve things, which is the A, B, C, D, E. A for AI and Automation, B for unbundling, C for cloud, D for data, and E for experience. These are really the levers we pull to try and drive the transformation. It’s also a good way for people to remember what we’re doing, and that will give the right focus to each of the areas.

Now, all of these are super linked. You can only really do this if you’ve got a cloud strategy because you can operate, obviously, in a hyper-scale environment. Getting the data organised is important to drive the right experience.

AI and automation is one of the biggest. We’ve been focused first on robotics or robotic process automation and moving along the value chain to try and drive AI, which can come in many different forms. The first is doing it in a very structured way, so almost like an event, and then moving into machine learning, which can be NLP (natural language processing) and chatbots.

The first area of focus is really in the non-client facing space, so what we’re doing in HR is to have a chatbot. What we’re doing in technology is to have a smart bot which helps everyone when they have a technology issue. They can communicate live if they do. The computer itself will resolve issues and drive things in that way. Click here to listen to the podcast!

Author

Jonathan Weinberg

Published

21 February 2019

Estimated Read time

5Mins

As the oft-quoted saying goes: “One of the best times to start a business is during a recession.” Economic downturns…

As the oft-quoted saying goes: “One of the best times to start a business is during a recession.”

Economic downturns bring new problems needing new solutions, innovation from outdated practises and inspiration for a generation of budding entrepreneurs to build the ‘next big thing’.

In 2007-08, the global financial crash left a question mark over legacy industries such as banking, retail and property but it also marked the arrival of new players, who, a decade later, are leading their industries.

For instance, as the US saw the emergence of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Apple launched its first iPhone. Few innovations have represented a bigger game-changer, and one responsible for direct and indirect global growth and change.

Born from the iPhone was an app and software development infrastructure that now influences all we do and this has fuelled the birth of a start-up and technology ecosystem worldwide.

Oxfordshire-based award-winning IT network integrator Lan3 has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. On its blog, founder Steven Thompson remembers: “Nothing makes you feel more alive than quitting your job at the start of the largest financial crisis in living memory. With a stark warning from the bank manager that the UK is littered with the remains of start-up IT companies, the first days were chaotic.

“On the other side of the world, a man called Steve Jobs was about to turn networking, and many other industries, on its head.”

He adds: “The explosion of new devices – an explosion that still reverberates today – resulted in every organisation in the country needing to take networking seriously, sometimes for the first time.”

Many tech powerhouses stemmed from the US post-2008. In February 2009, months after investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey founded his Square mobile payment system. It has become a multi-billion dollar company.

Many of the hugest technology names were also originally founded in bad economic times, including Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and ARM.

So it’s no surprise then that soon after the 2008 crash, Airbnb, Fitbit, WhatsApp, Uber, Spotify, Transferwise, Dropbox, Kickstarter and Groupon were all conceived or launched.

Today’s challenger banks such as Monzo and Starling would maybe still be ideas on a screen had Fintech not got a huge boost off the back of the resulting banking mistrust and the arrival of a new digital-first iPhone generation.

Storage Giant is now the fifth largest self-storage company in the UK but it started during the height of the last 2008 recession. Founder Simon Williams now oversees a multi-million pound turnover with nine trading sites across Wales and England, with three more in development.

Funding from one bank for one new opening was even pulled during the crisis but Simon persevered. He said: “It was certainly a nervous time to start a new business and continue to build it throughout one of the worst economic downturns in recent history. However, I had no doubt we would succeed. This was not because our sector was immune to the fluctuations of the economy but we had an extreme focus on cost control, customer pricing as well as the customer experience.

“To facilitate that customer experience we had to constantly push the envelope with all of the technology incorporated into each self-storage centre. Those systems included state of the art access control, biometric fingerprint technology, lasers and software management control.”

Richard Blanford was another who turned fortunes around amid recession when his large-scale IT infrastructure company Fordway saw most projects disappear.

He was quick to take advantage of changing IT technologies and pivoted his business towards the early days of cloud computing – risking money to build and host its own infrastructure to offer managed cloud services. These now provide 60%+ of revenues with Fordway among the top 25 suppliers of cloud computing to the UK public sector.

Richard explained: “We had to recruit new people and learn new skills as we moved from reselling to a service-based business. If the business isn’t working, don’t wait for things to get better. Understand how you can apply what you are good at differently, and change quickly, even if this means cannibalising your existing business.”

Andy Hey’s Leeds-based Enjoy Digital was founded in 2008 and now employs 55 people. He said: “At the time, I don’t think we worried too much about launching during a recession. Maybe it was my age, but I certainly didn’t understand the scale of what was happening in the global markets. Working in marketing was definitely a challenge during this time as it’s typically those budgets that get cut first.

“In many ways, starting when we did, gave us many long-term benefits that companies now often strive for, such as the value we’ve placed on hard work since day one.”

And with more economic shocks not ruled out in the UK in the short-term, such useful learnings may just be what many fearful companies, CIOs or entrepreneurs need to hear.