Novosco Blog

Consultancy firm Gartner's predictions for tech are always watched closely around this time of year. Their latest report on the trends to watch in 2020 and beyond was no different and was released recently to much fanfare.

Perhaps one of the most striking lines to emerge was that technology is changing what it means to be human. As Daryl Plummer of Gartner said: “As the digital age progresses, assumptions around the fixed nature of ‘what' humans are is beginning to be challenged”.

THERE is a saying that the only impossible journey is the one you never begin. It probably feels an appropriate saying today as I reflect on my journey with Novosco over the past 12 years or so.

It doesn't seem very long ago that I was working from an industrial unit in Carryduff with a few members of staff, dreaming about growing a bigger business. Even in my wildest dreams though, I didn't envisage Novosco getting to where it is today.

Sophie can usually be spotted sitting awkwardly in a chair somewhere with her nose in her laptop or a book. In her spare time she plays D&D, bakes an excessive amount of cakes, and games (badly). Ask her nicely and she’ll more than likely produce coffee and brownies from a bag or drawer.

Question: Sophie, what does a normal day look like for you in Novosco?

Northern Ireland's business talent was ‘bigged up' by none other than U2's The Edge last week.

He was launching a new initiative, called Endeavor Ireland, that aims to support owners of high potential start-ups.

The Edge said that Northern Ireland has incredible businesses talent and that given the right opportunity, local entrepreneurs can really compete on a global basis.

He will chair the Irish chapter of Endeavor, a global not-for-profit organisation that supports and accelerates high-impact entrepreneurs by connecting them with talent and with global peer and mentor networks as well as connecting business owners to funding sources.

No doubt you have already heard about the upcoming retirement of a whole range of Microsoft products within the next few months and hopefully you have plans a foot to discontinue their use and replace them with alternative solutions. When the product cycle comes to an end there will no longer be any security updates produced against newly emerged threats and Microsoft will no longer provide any support for the product. 

Microsoft will sunset the following products on January 14 2020 :

• Windows 7
• Windows 7 Professional for Embedded Systems
• Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2

Just over a week ago, the business community paid its respects to Brian Conlon, founder of tech business First Derivatives, who passed away recently.

I had long admired First Derivatives from a distance; and when I had the privilege to meet Brian, I admired him as a person - clearly ambitious, driven and committed.

I was struck by a quote I read recently from Sky's Group Chief Information Security Officer, Elaine Bucknor.

Launching the latest round of the company's Women in Tech Scholars Scheme, she claimed that boys in the UK are still more than twice as likely to be encouraged to work in tech than girls. And she said that it's little wonder half of girls Sky spoke with had ruled out working in the industry by the time they reached 18 years old.

Initially unveiled last year, Sky's scheme offers £25,000 in funding to five women in order to fund their tech idea along with support and mentorship.

In 2018 ServiceNow was voted the world's most innovative company by Forbes, ahead of Tesla and Workday, with company revenues growing to more than $2.6 billion in 2018. The company is already established as the market leader in IT Service Desk and Service Management software and is making strong inroads into the HR and Customer Service Management segments with it's Now platform. But it is the digital platform's capability around rapid custom application development and modernisation of legacy applications which perhaps holds the greatest potential for growth.

Kevin loves GAA and is a huge Dublin supporter, he even takes time out to coach at underage level. In his spare time he plays the guitar and saxophone however, according to Kevin both badly. Also, when it all gets a bit hectic Kevin loves to jet off to his holiday home in Spain, as you do! 

Question: Kevin, you’re a pre-sales technical consultant, what does that actually mean?

Kevin: I work with the Sales Team and customers in translating the customer’s needs and required outcomes into a technical solution.

EDUCATION and technology are ever more closely linked.

On the one hand, there is something of a revolution happening in education as technology changes how universities operate, students are taught, and teachers teach.

Recently, the media covered the story of Beacon, an artificial intelligence (AI) education tool, and the first digital assistant of its kind to be operating at a UK university.

Tony is one of Novosco's Technical Services Managers, and when he's not helping our customers he's usually either watching a football match, learning photography, or enjoying a movie.

Q: Tony, what's your role at Novosco?

Tony: I'm the Technical Services Incident Manager, I oversee our Technical Services Analysts and Engineers, generally ensuring that we restore IT service as soon as possible should any of our customers experience an issue.

Q: What's been your career path so far?

Novosco has won Large Tech Company of the Year at the prestigious Digital DNA Awards.

The company was presented with the honour at the event in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast from amongst a category shortlist that included the likes of Allstate, STATSports, and Kainos.

The win follows Novosco's success in the 2018 Digital DNA Awards, when Managing Director, Patrick McAliskey, was named Business Personality of the Year.

RECRUITMENT is something that is never far from the thoughts of technology companies in Northern Ireland – and with our biggest ever contract secured last year, Novosco has been very much in hiring mode during recent months. This has given me cause to reflect closely on a long-standing challenge for the tech sector as a whole.

Courtney is a Technical Services Analyst with Novosco, she is an avid follower of her own step count on her FitBit, a coffee-addict, and spends as much time as possible exploring music on Spotify.

Question: Courtney, what’s your role in Novosco?

Courtney: My role here is as a Technical Services Analyst, I’m the first contact for customers who contact Novosco when they have any issues or queries. I aim to assist the customer by either working to resolve the issue or escalating it to one of our engineers.

PART of the reason Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google are sometimes collectively referred to as the FANGS is perhaps because they get their teeth into almost everything, from movies and groceries to family photos - and now the expanse that exists beyond the earth.

Going into space may have been one giant leap for mankind all those years ago, but it seems it's just another step in the ever-upward ascent of Amazon, and Facebook too.

After expanding from retail sales to cloud services, Amazon is now going higher still and into satellites.

There can be few businesses left in the UK and Ireland who haven’t had to factor Cyber Crime into their considerations in recent years. Whether they've become victim to such crimes already or have taken steps to prevent an inevitable attempt on them, one thing's for sure – ignoring it isn’t an option.

The National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) annual report this year highlighted the increased prevalence of such crimes, “criminals are launching more attacks on UK businesses than ever before,” was the summary accompanying the report.

WE all know that hacking has become a mainstream problem for businesses and consumers. But we perhaps didn't anticipate how mainstream some hackers would become in how they run their operations.

A notorious cyber crime collective known as the Dark Overlord recently posted an online job looking for tech employees. Specifically, the Dark Overlord is seeking to hire software designers and systems engineers with at least 10 years' experience to “bring innovative approaches to operations and think outside the box”.

Ellen is Novosco's Client Director, as well as a busy working mum of two teenagers, and 3 fur babies that her kids grow increasingly jealous off as she tends to lavish what little time and attention she has on them when she isn’t travelling for work!  She also helps run the family business, the family home and tries to fit in cooking excellent curries and baking absolutely ace Raspberry Ruffle Cheesecakes on occasion’

Question: What do you do, and how did your career bring you here?

Andrea has been working in service delivery for longer than she would care to remember, it fits both her professional desires and her personality needs, as providing a supportive and nurturing environment is key! When not immersed in work, getting some time on the beach, in what will hopefully be 'the retirement plan' place in the sun, is the priority - after all, practive makes perfect!

Question: Andrea, what’s been your career path so far?

Andrea: Now, I’m the Senior Service Delivery Manager with Novosco, but my working career began within the technical side of IT as a developer in the finance industry. I gradually worked my way through several team leader and team management roles until I eventually moved away from managing technical teams to managing services and being client facing.

Rick is a Senior Infrastructure Consultant based in Novosco's Daresbury office; he's a coffee addict with a penchant for travelling and wine - sometimes combining them.

Question: So Rick, what do you do at Novosco?

Rick: Hi! My role is within the field services team as an infrastructure consultant. My primary skills have been historically around networking and security, but more recently I have diversified towards infrastructure and virtualisation, which fits in well with the needs of many of Novosco’s customers.