In the May 2021 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, Allison James and Andrew Olton, the panel discusses: pivoting to sustainable business models; and IT risk management.
This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify (NEW!!) and on Stitcher!
By now, and technically speaking, 2020 should be far behind us. The fifth month of 2021 is quickly drawing to a close; yet, the pandemic, which we are still navigating, looms large, and is likely to do so well in 2022 here in the Caribbean region. In order to survive the pandemic, virtually all organisations have had to leverage ICT more than they ever had before. However, it also means that new ways of working, new ways of thinking about work, its processes and even its functions, along with previously unencountered challenges, all came to the fore in 2020, and still continue.
In this our May 2021 Community Chat, the focus is on strengthening organisations, specifically making them more robust and resilient in the strategies they employ, and in the processes they implement.
Introducing our guests and the topics
Andrew Olton is a Technical Services Consultant at FreeBalance, a Canadian firm that provides public financial management and GovTech solutions, advisory services and training that support public sector reform and smart government. He is also a Data Analytics Career Mentor, at Springboard, which is headquartered in California. Springboard is an online platform that offers courses in areas such as data science, analytics, security and design, whilst also providing a customised learning experience.
In living in Trinidad and Tobago, which has implemented varying degrees of countrywide lockdowns, in addition to having its borders closed for over a year, Andrew has been able to observe the adjustments businesses have had to make to survive. Although those changes may still be considered short-term, or a stopgap, until ‘things return to normal’, the truth is that: (i) we can no longer be sure exactly what ‘normal’ is; and (ii) we are still in the throes of a pandemic, and so the status quo remains.
It is within that context that a shift in mindset might be prudent. Instead of thinking in terms of stopgaps, the impetus for which were the exigent circumstances in which we have been living, Andrew is of the view that a focussed effort on pivoting to sustainable business models – that are robust, and can safeguard the future of the business in the long term – ought to be the priority.
Allison James is a Manager at one of the Big Four accounting firms, and has a hybrid background as a Chartered Accountant and a Certified Information Systems Auditor, and has over ten years’ experience in the IT Audit and Assurance industry. Her focus is on the digital agenda: specifically, the wider adoption of cybersecurity and data analytics within the region.
Allison holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Accounting from the University of the West Indies, and an Master of Science in Management and Information Systems: Change and Development, from the University of Manchester. She is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and a Certified Information System Auditor (CISA).
Thanks to her background in IT auditing and assurance, Allison is particularly attuned to the changes in clients’ attitudes and perceptions. Over the past several months, she has observed that although there has been greater reliance on IT, there has not been a commensurate emphasis on IT risk management. As a result, organisations across the region may be subject to a broad range of vulnerabilities of which they are not aware, but more importantly, they have not established systems or processes to reduce the likelihood of a breach or otherwise debilitating incident.
We would love to hear from you!
Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.
Select links
Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:
Image credits: A James; Aolton; David Schwarzenberg (Pixabay); PlusLexia.com (flickr)
Music credit: Ray Holman
Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez
