Digital transformation remains a huge challenge for enterprises around the world. When the pandemic first forced office workers home, IT teams scrambled to adapt existing tools to a new work-from-home environment. But as time went on, they quickly discovered cracks in their plan, having to deal with an increased attack surface and employees rapidly becoming frustrated by slow, unreliable and often cumbersome VPN tools.
With the future of work now looking very different than it was even three years ago, IT teams are now evaluating tools that will help employees be productive and secure when working remotely. This necessitates new, more intelligent security and remote access solutions as well as better collaboration and productivity tools. From a security and remote access perspective, the implementation of zero trust technologies makes a lot of sense as organisations look further down the road at adopting a SASE framework.
A history of service
The Irish financial services firm, Goodbody, is one company that is already ahead of the curve. Founded in Ireland almost 150 years ago, this investment-led business offers clients various wealth management, asset management and investment banking services.
Over the years, Goodbody has earned a string of accolades, including the title of #1 M&A advisor in Ireland, and a 5-star rating from Morningstar. In 2019 alone, Goodbody was voted the #1 broker of the year and the #1 financial advisor of the year. This has continued into 2020 and 2021, with back-to-back wins in the credit union sector as investment advisor of the year in Ireland. Operating offices in Dublin, London, Cork and Galway, the company’s 300 staff strive to live up to the name of this enduring brand.
When it comes to employee experience, Goodbody has always had a strategy in place to make the working experience out of the office as close to the in-office experience as possible.
Long-term investment
“The amount of investment that’s going into innovation around remote working isn’t just for short-term innovation. This is an investment into the future,” said Sean Croston, Chief Operating Officer, Goodbody.
“When I think of digital transformation, it’s about people, it’s about process and it’s about technology,” Croston continued. “We’ve all been working in a remote capacity for a long period of time, and we have a real opportunity now to reflect on our businesses and our working environments as part of the digital transformation to really build something different for the future of our organisations.”
According to Croston, the shift to the cloud will be a pivotal factor in the next evolution of business development. Not only does the cloud provide elasticity for Goodbody, it has also become part of the firm’s strategy by enhancing application and data availability, business continuity and security.
Visibility through the clouds
But with the move to the cloud, there also needs to be a way to monitor and control what is happening. “You have to put in measurement. You can only manage what you can measure, and that’s the same for any transformation program,” adds Croston. “It’s a journey. You set a target, you bring in measurements, and you review on the way.”
As a leader in these kinds of IT investments, Croston has a clear message for other leaders in a similar place. He explains that the most important aspect of leadership is that you can’t just have leaders at the top of the organisation. It’s about having leaders in every seat; people who contribute across the board to the success of the company.
“It’s having a culture where you can adapt, and you can change work. ‘Work’ is a place where people used to go. Now it’s something that they do. I think there’s a massive opportunity within all this for organisations to truly redefine themselves and define how they operate.”
To watch more of Sean Croston, check out the Words of Wisdom video below.
