Five digital consultants from five separate firms have been announced as finalists for the Digital & Technology Consultant of the Year category at the 2017 MCA Awards. The award recognises exceptional performance by individual in either digital or technology.
The winners will be announced at the MCA Awards Ceremony & Dinner, held at the Park Plaza Westminster on Thursday 27 April 2017. All MCA awards are judged by an independent expert panel of judges who have experience of working in the public and private sectors, universities, consultancy or journalism.
The summaries of all the finalists can be found below:
Maria Kordoni, Arup
Have you felt or feared that frustration when, for whatever reason, your bag doesn’t arrive at the same destination as you? Maria is a passionate and driven technology consultant working with Heathrow to prevent this, and fulfill their vision of ‘every passenger, every bag, every time’.
She is currently working with 1000 stakeholders to migrate Heathrow’s siloed baggage reporting systems into one single source of truth, to track any bag at any time. Planned for commissioning within a year, this step change will help realise significant savings and further enhance passengers’ satisfaction. Maria has worked repeatedly with Heathrow over the past nine years; a testament to the quality she brings and the relationship she builds. She project managed the baggage integration testing for the new 2.5bn Queen’s Terminal, including trials of 4,800 bags, equivalent to ten full Boeing 747’s; a vital part of its seamless opening. Developing 12m of business cases for improvement in their baggage IT capabilities, Maria is helping Heathrow maintain their best major airport in Europe title. Her ability to drive projects, no matter what challenges occur along the way, is highly valued by her client:
“Her role in ensuring quality has prevented several projects from failing. She has been exemplary in looking forward to ensure a clear path to enable my projects to deliver the planned outcomes; she has held the vision whilst adapting the route to delivery.”
Nikola Prelevic, Atos Consulting
Nikola is an innovator and visionary in the digital space. He has the rare ability to see end to end, from strategy through to operating model and end solutions. His rigour and attention to detail ensure that digitisation is value -driven and evidence-based. At the same time, he is a natural leader who understands that digital is always, ultimately, about people.
Nikola firmly believes that now is the time for organisations to reinvent themselves to address some of society’s most important issues. Yet the challenge is how to create a coherent digital story across four domains (business strategy, digital marketing, analytics and technology) that are usually siloed by design. Comfortable across all these domains, Nikola creates a step change in organisations thinking that enables his clients achieve truly transformational change.
With his ability to facilitate and inspire, Nikola creates the conditions for close collaboration between consulting and client teams. Ultimately, what motivates Nikola is that the solutions he helps to deliver make a real difference to people’s lives.
David Woodhead, DXC Technology
David Woodhead, Consultant and Digital Transformation Partner at DXC Technology, is renowned for designing, implementing and driving business value from innovative digital solutions. His combination of analytical thinking and creative nous has seen him lead from the front to create DXC Technology’s innovative consulting methodology for digital transformation and clock an impressive number of successful client projects. He has helped transform and modernise the core business systems of a major member services organisation to realise new efficiencies; facilitated new ways of working and client engagement processes for a large engineering company and delivered a new digital customer experience for a UK restaurant chain.
Ed Greig, Deloitte
Ed is the Chief Disruptor at Deloitte Digital, helping clients to think disruptively and also disrupting Consulting itself. His role is to work with new technologies to demonstrate where they can be used effectively by building minimum-viable products or proofs of concept that support a case for further investment by quickly and inexpensively showing tangible benefits.
He has led teams on a variety of pioneering projects in Virtual Reality (VR) and 360° film, as well as in 3D printing, machine learning, Augmented Reality (AR) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Ed also introduces new ways of working, with practical workshops that challenge the clients’ thinking about their organisations and the future, as well as internal and client-focused ‘hackathons’. He explains new technologies in a way that’s easy to understand, and is a recognised expert in this field both in the media and at industry events.
Matthew Shearsby, KPMG
As UK leader for KPMG’s Microsoft Dynamics AX (ERP) practice, I have successfully implemented this advanced, cloud-based solution for numerous clients across many industries, with outstanding results.
I consider myself far more than just a ‘techie’, and exhibit rounded skills as an inclusive leader who encourages team members to come to their own conclusions. And I’m an inquisitive relationship manager who can truly understand and adapt to client needs.
Amongst my many successful engagements, I’ve helped restaurant chain TGI Fridays create a far more agile Finance function that can track performance and equip staff to be more responsive to customers. In my work with Biffa waste management, I’ve given the client a delivery system that is designed to increase efficiency and help monitor all activities.
And my work with Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley Police has given the three forces a shared ERP solution – I believe the first of its kind in the UK public sector. Controllers can more easily support officers on the beat, and employees can remotely access a range of self-service facilities to save time and make them more effective.
I’ve also played a big part in integrating IT services provider Crimsonwing into KPMG following the 2015 acquisition. By spending time at the company’s nerve centre in Malta, I’ve created a strong and growing team that is making a huge contribution to KPMG member firms position as leading players in technology, helping client’s master disruption.