Mary Cleary
Secretary General, Irish Computer Society
In a rapidly changing digital landscape, we must harness the voice and expertise of our IT and digital professionals, at the coal face of innovation.
The pandemic saw an acceleration of the adoption of digital technologies and ways of working. This response was connected with digital transformation processes already underway; and without this readiness, our ability to keep functioning would have been severely reduced.
Acceleration of digital adoption
We know that there is a strong link between an organisation’s digital and IT maturity and its ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
The IT and digital professional community were at the forefront of providing the digital solutions we depended on to weather the global pandemic. Since then, the universal pivot to digital has centralised the role of technology across all aspects of our lives, making digital transformation even more essential to businesses in Ireland.
Target short-term deliverables, focused on your story, that — once achieved — will give the team the confidence to move forward and bring the story to life.
Informing digital transformation
IT professionals and teams are strategic technology partners that play a vital role in any digital transformation. Their insights and expertise must be captured and inform the digital transformation journey.
Similarly, to meet the emerging challenges and opportunities presented by innovation in technology such as cybersecurity, developments in AI, as well as the global challenges of sustainability and digital inclusion, businesses, organisations and policymakers must absorb and leverage the expertise and accrued knowledge of the IT and digital community.
Fin Goulding, CTO at Flow Academy and ICS Fellow, supports companies to develop their digital transformation goals and strategies. He shares: “Digital transformation starts with ‘storytelling.’ Organisations can get bogged down with large strategic presentations, programme governance or new methodologies that can become the focus rather than the business outcomes themselves. Target short-term deliverables, focused on your story, that — once achieved — will give the team the confidence to move forward and bring the story to life.’’
A culture of IT professionalism
Ireland has a highly skilled population of IT and digital professionals that have secured our position at the global cutting-edge of IT. Implementing a national strategy of IT professionalism will further strengthen this position.
Digital technology solutions and the specialists that implement them can help society tackle its shared goals and challenges, so we must build an Irish IT profession that is recognised and respected by other stakeholders as highly skilled, innovative, ethical and accountable.