Tag Archives: Endava

A year in lockdown

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Jeff Bezos with parcels
During lockdown, we’ve ordered so much from Amazon that I sometimes expect Jeff Bezos to personally deliver a parcel to thank us

12 March 2020 was the last time I worked outside my home. Except for a couple of days in the Endava office in October/ November (more on that later), I’ve been working from home since.

Sometimes it’s been too easy to mentally distance ourselves from the reason why we’re in lockdown. Personally, it feels that each time I’ve got into the new rhythm of working from home, I’ve had a dreadful phone call that someone I know has been moved to a ventilator in hospital or passed away.

Here are some of the highs and lows of the last year. Continue reading A year in lockdown →

Weekly news round up (18 October 2017)

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Here’s a summary of interesting stories I’ve seen over the last week. I try to concentrate on the stories which aren’t necessarily mainstream.

Technology

The five biggest announcements from Amazon’s hardware event were:

  1. The Echo alarm clock (spot)
  2. Echo plus (a home hub)
  3. Cheaper echos in a three-pack
  4. Echo buttons
  5. BMW integration
  6. New Fire TV.

Hmmm… that’s six products. The big question: does a houseful of echos make an echo chamber? https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16374254/amazon-event-2017-news-recap-echo-spot-fire-tv-hardware

The new GoPro Fusion 360 degree camera. It looks outstanding, even if it makes your hand look a little odd on playback. Watching it again, I cannot believe the video quality of this tiny device:

Continue reading Weekly news round up (18 October 2017) →

The future of mobile

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The Future of Mobile at MobOS. It probably won't be like an iPhone 4
The Future of Mobile at MobOS. It probably won’t be like an iPhone 4

I’m in Romania this week presenting a variety of speeches, including the keynote of MobOS entitled The future of mobile. It’s been a challenging speech to prepare for – and was considerably harder than I originally thought. Not least because in technology terms, “the future” means different things to different organisations. One organisation might think some future of mobile concept is way-out-there while another may have already been using it for a year.

I promised the audience to post the script of the keynote here…

I’m going to talk about four areas on the future of mobile – context, the number of devices we use, mobile user interfaces and the central hub concept. That will set some foundation for some ‘left field’ concepts that we have for the longer term future of mobile. Continue reading The future of mobile →

Sitecore EMEA Partners Summit 2015 – conference notes

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Today was the Sitecore EMEA Partner Summit 2015 at the Riverbank Park Plaza hotel in London. We, Endava, are a Platinum Sitecore partner and I’ve often considered Sitecore’s partner programme one of the best developed technology partnership programmes out there – and certainly one that other companies could learn a lot from.

These notes were taken at the conference using OneNote and a stylus (or perhaps it should be called a Microsoft Pen ha ha!!) – which I then quickly converted to text. I’ve had a quick read through, but if anything looks out of context, it probably is – please comment at the bottom of the post and I’ll correct it.

Continue reading Sitecore EMEA Partners Summit 2015 – conference notes →

Web reading list for April

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Question: Is this David Cameron's rating or Apple share price?
Question: Is this David Cameron’s rating or Apple share price?

Since the week before Easter I’ve been extremely busy – there was the holiday period, followed by a big family celebration, and then last Friday I managed to fall off my bicycle and break some fingers. In short… it’s been quite hectic.

During the family celebration I heard a brilliant quote from a friend, Yehuda, an IT Solution Architect, who had travelled from Israel to join us for a week. We were discussing how IT projects have become either prescriptive (detailed requirements) or business focussed (with high level requirements and leaving the solution to the supplier partner). He tells this to all his customers:

Tell me either what you want to do, or how to do it, but if you tell me both – go and do it yourself.

Continue reading Web reading list for April →

How to Produce New Ideas, or “Innovative and Creative Thinking 101”

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Don't expect any creative thinking time from this environment. (Credit: John Seb Barber)
Don’t expect any creative thinking time from this environment. (Credit: John Seb Barber)

When we present our innovation process or new ideas for clients, one of the most common first questions is “How do you think like that?”

This applies to all companies, from small start-ups to very large financial services organisations.

When the question is asked, the rest of the audience often pick up their pens as though we’re going to answer with a poignant, silver bullet answer. But as soon as we do answer, you can see the disappointment in everyone’s eyes.

I’m sorry, but the answer is much simpler than they expected.

Here are the key methods that we use at Endava to broaden our horizons, to think of new stuff, to help our clients with their business challenges. Continue reading How to Produce New Ideas, or “Innovative and Creative Thinking 101” →

My Favourite Gadgets, Books, Apps and Awards in 2014

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Following the annual tradition on this site for the last post of the year, here is a list of my personal favourites from the last twelve months. Continue reading My Favourite Gadgets, Books, Apps and Awards in 2014 →

Book Review: Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint by Christopher Witt

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Wean yourself off the PowerPoint addiction with Witt
Wean yourself off the PowerPoint addiction with Witt

Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint is a great book which will help wean you off PowerPoint and help you to present more effectively.

About a year ago I stopped using PowerPoint during my presentations of the latest Digital Services offering from Endava. I had presented it dozens of times before, and knew the details of the offering. Once I stopped taking my laptop to presentations, colleagues in the room began commenting about the increased passion and asked me to present more, often to a more senior audience. Continue reading Book Review: Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint by Christopher Witt →

Quarterly Digital Innovation Report Q3 2014

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We’ve just released the latest version of our Quarterly Marketplace Innovation report, showcasing some of the most innovative projects across industries.

Many organisations focus on competitors within their own industry, but often the most innovative ideas are blossoming in other sectors. The quarterly report aims to lower the fences between different industries.

My personal favourites from the last quarter are the Fan Boost in Formula E racing  and Google Flights, which has made my recent travels so much easier and probably a little cheaper.

If you would like us to present these projects to your organisation, to send you a paper version or to produce a more targeted version of this report, please contact me.