We’re delighted to open our event with insights from an acclaimed technology leader. Richard shares his insights on the professionalisation of the role of IT in the enterprise, what it means to be a digital first leader in 2022 and the future of the CIO role. In his current role as CIO for Walgreen Boots, he also looks at the role of technology in retail and how it can be a driver for community healthcare.

Our panel of experienced technology leaders share their insights on IT leadership, emerging trends and expected challenges. They reflect on lessons learned in the past 2 years and what it takes to be a successful digital leader today.

o strategically transform, leaders need to deliver tech at speed, innovate at scale and put people at the centre. The pressure is on to strategically lead businesses forward. As digital acceleration transforms industries and customer and employee expectations, tech leaders have a vital role in deploying technology and data to integrate functions and seamlessly enable new business models. Puneet discusses the actions to focus on to unlock long-term value for all stakeholders.

What are the action areas to deliver digital transformation of government processes and services?

CIOs cannot digitally transform a business on their own. Today, in most organisations there is a gap between leadership and technologists. If the gap is left unaddressed, the business gets stuck digitising and never transforms.

Niall will present a case study of an Irish business that faced the challenges of the pandemic, bridged the gap between technology and leadership, transformed, and as a result, witnessed explosive growth.

• Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of digital performance during the pandemic
• Combining digital, technology, mindset and culture to create a smooth digital experience
• Advancing automation to accelerate digital transformation and developing a proactive automation strategy
• Securing digital business transformation: What CIOs need to know

Putting trust at the centre of customer experience
• Critically question data collection within the organisation
• Deploying cutting-edge methods and embracing innovations to measure and enhance CX

• What innovative, agile and adaptive architectures should you be considering?
• How to modernise sooner rather than later and how to integrate security into modernisation plans
• Are digital and data transformation initiatives feeding into customer experience?
• What are the best ways of supporting self-serving customers?
• Getting the fundamentals right: How we are transforming our back-office operations for optimal digital transformation

• Why ICT governance was pivotal to the delivery of emergency accommodation to Ukrainian refugees
• How willingness was the real engine behind a human-centred service delivery
• How technology adoption enabled prompt provision of emergency services

Private cloud technology, high speed connectivity and secure remote access has fundamentally changed the way Grant Thornton delivers their eDiscovery service, which provides a blueprint for other practices across the globe. The project is part of Grant Thornton’s wider digital transformation journey to deliver superior user experience and build sustainable competitive advantage.

Enterprises have an ever-growing reliance on managed-service providers as they focus on driving business. This session will focus on security, service availability, cost efficiencies, compliance and governance with real-life examples of what’s happening within the Irish market and how “as-a-service” is becoming the new norm.

• How can we engage with the public about data use? and how can we ensure that data is accessible to the public?
• How can we proactively tackle public concerns and ensure that the public are part of the policymaking process / delivery of big data-driven projects in government?
• Achieving data sharing goals across government services: The fine line between meeting accessibility demands and preventing privacy concerns.
• Covid 19: Using data to save the world. How has the public sector collected, stored and published data

How your organisation can deliver digital experiences that meet and exceed the expectations of citizens.

The opportunity to deliver leading technology solutions continues to expand for the CIO: How you can shape your role as a technology executive:

• The changing face of the digital CIO: Where is the role of the CIO going?
• The importance of forging stronger relationships across the business.
• Practical steps CIOs can take to make digital transformations take hold gaining buy-in from business leaders.

• Data protection and reliance in a hybrid era
• Reinventing your data protection strategy in the work-from-home era
• Scaling data protection through object storage
• Protecting your organisation against ransomware attacks

• Threats, opportunities & technology in the new normal
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service: Enabling innovation and new operating models
• Legacy, lifecycle and scale in the era of digital transformation
• Managing ecosystems and partnership in exponential IT
• The journey to sustainable IT

• Do have a recovery procedure that has been real-world tested?
• Who is responsible for each step? Understanding the scope of the problem, recovery, law enforcement etc.
• Should you pay the terrorist? Can you? Do you have a crypto wallet?
• Sure, your data and systems have been encrypted but has your data been stolen too? How would you know?
• Who manages your systems today? Do you trust them? Are they ultimately responsible / liable? – Reviewing Contractual agreements, SLAs, contract responsibilities, legal liability, cyber insurance, & independent security accreditations.
• Is recovery actually possible and how long can you survive without your standard applications, databases and processes? Are your backups protected, isolated and immutable?
• When is the right time to tell your clients?