Start by understanding the risks and costs of cloud, how this model would benefit your business then assess what IT assets you want to migrate. Tesco Bank now views cloud as business as usual after a full migration in less than nine months. However cloud has struggled to make significant inroads in large banks due to issues such as availability, …
Banking and the cloud; don’t let the hype… well… cloud your judgment Read More »
Africa DevOps Day was hosted by Barclays in Johannesburg recently; I spoke about experimental agility at scale using the recent FNB CodeFest as an example. DevOps seeks to drive increased levels of collaboration between developers and operations; much like the way Agile values “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. In his talk, Thomas Enoch …
The EY Strategic Growth Forum in Johannesburg grappled with how technology is disrupting banking; as a panelist in the forum I offered insights on some key questions. New entrants, new tech, new thinking – what does this mean for the industry and how well are banks responding? FNB’s Innovators Programme continues to drive a successful culture of disruptive thinking …
Technology and Banking Disruption: Level playing fields or new rules? Read More »
Three more ingredients for the secret sauce of a “mind blowing” event; team coaching through the night, exec sponsorship (and exec dragons) and world class tech support. Last week the second FNB Codefest saw 250 developers converge for a multi-day sprint to work on over 40 business sponsored ideas of which the winner was a kids …
FNB CodeFest: Highlights from the coolest IT sprint in the FirstRand Group – Part 2 Read More »
It was all about collaboration, ideas taking shape, latest technology and techies talking shop; a perfect day out of the office in other words. One of the ways we made this codeFest bigger than the previous one was a full day set aside for setting up technical environments. This time we made sure that all the …
Our IT department recently took a spinning class at work; it boosted our heart rates and illustrated a powerful concept of teams. The link between exercise and knowledge work is well established; stay healthy and your productivity should be higher. The general sense of wellbeing that accompanies regular exercise has also been shown to improve results. …
Day 0 of the second FNB codeFest was held recently on Spring Day; our theme was the green shoots of ideation. It’s been said that Thomas Edison figured out 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb; all his attempts still contributed to the one that changed the world. Fintech ideation is a lot about disruptive thinking to find …
It’s the difference between thriving and surviving; big business and government also have a crucial role to play. I participated in a panel debate at the Innovation Summit in Cape Town today where we discussed the importance of “enabling ecosystems for innovation.” As a banker I had already been told earlier in the day that …
Do techpreneurs need an ecosystem that supports innovation? Read More »
Teach more coding, get more programmers – is it that simple or are we sacrificing quality for quantity? Becoming an employed computer programmer no longer requires lengthy formal education at the tertiary level. You can teach yourself on the internet, primary schools in the UK are introducing it and it’s becoming part of the core …
Coding and Education; bridging the gap or walking a tightrope? Read More »
It’s good to be pro-Agile but it’s also important to be anti-Cumbersome You know them when you see them; unwieldy and inefficient projects that take ages to deliver and no-one really knows how to start untangling and fixing them. Many projects have to be large and complex simply because of their scope – but they can still be …
