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

Technology - love it or hate it - is a critical component for nearly every modern business.

To the business leader or aspiring business leader, the world of technology may sometimes appear to be confusing and obscure. The language and nuance of software, systems, and IT projects is often a barrier to effective communication between different parts of an enterprise at just the time when it’s most needed - during a technology-enabled project that is seeking to deliver business benefit.

This book sets out, in clear non-technical language and with practical real-world examples, the essential background to different aspects of information technology (hardware, software, data, and interfaces); their latest manifestations, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain; and how they all combine into a technology project.

Most importantly, this book helps you, the business leader, understand the people behind the technology, appreciate their perspective and their motivations, and to enable you to ask the crucial questions that could transform your engagement to apply technology effectively.

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