In a conversation with Thomas Quinn, former Executive Director – Cloud Transformation at UNSW, he shares his insights on transforming IT management.

With decades of experience, Tom advocates for a transformative approach in IT, proposing a view of IT initiatives as ongoing products instead of finite projects. This strategy aims for continuous improvement and better alignment with consumer needs.

He pinpoints three key elements: product focus, consumer experience, and engineering excellence, stressing the need for agility and understanding consumer requirements in the fast-paced, software-centric world.

Tom notes that this shift requires a cultural change within organisations, encouraging the involvement of business stakeholders in IT decisions and moving away from traditional IT roles.

He acknowledges the challenges in larger, established organisations, where entrenched cultures necessitate a comprehensive strategy involving both top-down and bottom-up approaches.

He emphasises the importance of engaging key figures like CEOs and CFOs, demonstrating the benefits of a product-centric model with tangible metrics such as improved cycle times and customer feedback.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • Transitioning IT initiatives to ongoing products enhances alignment with evolving consumer needs.
  • Highlighting product focus, consumer experience, and engineering excellence is crucial for agility in a software-driven world.
  • It is critical to involve business stakeholders in IT decision-making processes and move away from traditional IT roles.
  • Implementing changes requires a comprehensive strategy, addressing entrenched cultures with a top-down and bottom-up approach.
  • Demonstrating the model’s benefits through tangible metrics and customer feedback is essential for adoption and success.
Contributors
Peter Hind Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT
Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​ His primary areas of interest... More

Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. ​

His primary areas of interest are the potential of technology to transform the way organisations operate, the change management obstacles executives encounter in realising this potential, as well as the tactics and techniques leaders have deployed to overcome these difficulties.​

Peter now takes on multiple roles within ADAPT including the moderation of private events and roundtables, interviewing business executives about the strategies they are pursuing and assisting with the structuring of delegate surveys.​

He also interrogates and analyses ADAPT’s treasure trove of end-user and C-suite data.​

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Thomas Quinn Former Executive Director - Cloud Transformation at UNSW
Tom is a highly accomplished executive who has extensive experience driving successful business outcomes across diverse business sectors. He is a recognized... More

Tom is a highly accomplished executive who has extensive experience driving successful business outcomes across diverse business sectors. He is a recognized expert in large scale enterprise technology, has successfully led high profile digital transformations and driven profitable outcomes for both established businesses and technology start-ups. Tom is results oriented and people focused. He has successfully delivered large-scale IT modernisation of household name businesses, driving a genuine partnership between IT, product, production, sales, and finance functions. He enables organisations to leverage technology to achieve competitive advantage, efficiency gains and positive customer outcomes. Since 2016, Tom has focussed his career on taking interim CIO/CTO roles to support leadership teams that need to transform. He is a CIO to fix the present and build for the future.

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