Technology Applied: A Business Leader’s Guide to Software, Systems and It Projects

The business IT revolution is about to enter a new cycle of activity, as a result of the global pandemic, global supply chain issues and labor shortages. Right now, there is a growing need for a core understanding of business IT. This book is designed to meet the needs of the modern business stakeholder. Stakeholders who want to understand how new, emerging and future information technology (IT) will shape the world of work and commerce. Stakeholders such as business professionals who need to keep on top of the benefits, risks and opportunities that new tech such as AI, blockchain, crypto and cloud computing can and will bring to their products and services.

This book is designed specifically with the stakeholder in mind. Stakeholders are those with direct or shared responsibility for business IT projects, products, people and processes. It will suit anyone with a non-IT background who is required, expected or ambitious to participate in IT projects: C-suite leaders, senior executives, project managers, analysts, product owners, and business development executives but will also appeal to anyone curious to know how new information technology (IT) trends and breakthroughs might affect business practice in the near future.

The book explores some major areas and threads that stakeholders encounter - computers, data, messaging, projects, risks and tech itself - and examines and starts to demystify the primary channel through which most non-IT business professionals interact with the world of software and technology: the IT project.

Additionally, the book will look at the world of crypto, blockchain and distributed ledgers. The evolution of ledger technology that Bitcoin kick-started has only just begun and is a truly significant change in IT. The authors focus on some core use cases for crypto and explain to the interested stakeholder how this might impact the day-to-day world of commerce and industry. The authors will also illustrate how the global COVID pandemic has impacted the need for business stakeholders to assess disruption to business and technology. COVID has hastened change like working from home, hybrid working and remote working.

Finally, the book gives a detailed and practical look at new IT trends and breakthroughs and proposes use cases for these in different industries and contexts such as finance, trade, the legal profession, healthcare, voting, travel and so on. IT is one of the business world’s strongest pillars and achievements. This book educates the reader on the business-related facts and impacts of IT; its daily application and how the near future will possibly change again beyond all recognition how we view and use IT.

Stephen Ashurst is a professional technology consultant helping private banks, wealth managers, financial advisers and Governments (UK and Bangladesh) analyze, articulate and deliver complex technology and service propositions. Stephen holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) with Mathematics, a Diploma in Law and attended the post-graduate Bar Practitioner’s Course. He is a co-author of Blockchain Applied: Practical Technology and Use Cases of Enterprise Blockchain for the Real World published by Routledge/Productivity Press 2021 and a contributor to AI and the Law published by Edward Elgar 2022.

Kevin Wooldridge has worked in the financial technology industry for over thirty years, helping to deliver financial market infrastructure projects and drive global standardization initiatives. Kevin has a BSc in Physics with Astrophysics