A key figure at American tech giant Pluralsight told a conference in Manchester that the answer to the riddle of digital transformation lies inside their organisations.
Tommy Barlow, EMEA director of commercial sales at Pluralsight, told the Digital Transformation Conference at Manchester鈥檚 Bridgewater Hall on Wednesday that transforming their businesses into efficient digital machines is a human-led process.
Indeed their own staff are those best-placed to drive the digital revolution 鈥� provided they are given the appropriate training and opportunity to 鈥減ractice鈥�.
鈥淒evelop and retain the team you already have [rather than bring in talent from outside],鈥� American Barlow told the audience.
鈥淚t鈥檚 more valuable because [existing employees] have tribal knowledge. You can pay for the skills, but you can鈥檛 pay for tribal knowledge.鈥�
Barlow鈥檚 lightbulb moment came when his father lost his leg in his seventies. The new prosthetic limb came with an app 鈥� and it became clear to Barlow that technology and humanity work best in harmony.
He says this has powered his approach as part of Pluralsight, which aims to provide developers, IT and cyber security professionals with access to world leading tuition online.
鈥淒eveloping digital talent is the only way to get a true competitive advantage,鈥� he said.
鈥淚n business employees are dissuaded from practising. We need to set aside sacred time for practice.
鈥淧eople generally like to learn, but companies don鈥檛 know how to teach them.鈥�
Carl Burton, head of product at Co-Op Digital, agrees with the human-led approach.
He and his team were tasked with creating a new piece of software for Co-Op Funeralcare which would allow them to move toward a paperless, connected process.
While developing the 鈥楪uardian鈥� software, his team relocated to same floor as the Funeralcare staff to encourage casual conversation with the people who would actually use the technology.
They also held a series of trials in branches located around the UK.
鈥淔unerals are highly variable 鈥� they are not a production line,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭he UK is very diverse and we didn鈥檛 want to build a product that only worked in one place.鈥�
The team, which are still working on constant refinement of the software, consider themselves 鈥渁 product team, not a project team鈥�.
The resulting software has collected industry awards and even resulted in Co-Op employees tweeting positively about the software without prompting.
鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 got trust, you鈥檙e doomed to fail. Digital transformation isn鈥檛 fixed. The pace of change means it鈥檚 never completed,鈥� he added.
Performance coach Ross Mackenzie of BigThingk, interviewed by Tech North Advocates co-founder Naomi Timperley, encouraged attendees to think beyond the technology they were developing and focus on the end-user.
He advised that business leaders should consider 鈥渢he outcome of the outcome鈥�.
鈥淲hat will now become possible for the client that wasn鈥檛 possible before?鈥� he asked. 鈥淲hat will be different now they are using your product or service?鈥�
Mackenzie, who has coached corporate and personal and sporting giants including English golfing pro Lee Westwood, said tech companies are very passionate about what they鈥檝e created. 鈥淏ut there is a chance of being blindsided. The only thing that matters is the client experience,鈥� he said.