Insight announcements Championing Excellence: Insight Recognises Distinguished Technologists Globally
By Insight Editor / 22 Sep 2024
At Insight, we understand the importance of recognising the expertise of the most accomplished experts within our own technical community. We believe in celebrating the depth of our solutions expertise, crafted by technologists who are fostering Insight’s team culture, diversity of thought, leadership excellence, and innovation overall.
This year, Insight expanded the Distinguished Technologists Program globally, building on the success of the existing US-based initiative. A Distinguished Technologist is an industry-recognised IT professional who has earned the highest levels of thought leadership, mentorship, and industry influence. Each year, select teammates have the opportunity to apply for this global program to recognise their outstanding contribution to the business and support of our clients. As well-respected industry veterans, their perspectives on key trends and evolving technologies give business leaders new ways to approach digital transformation.
By prioritising the development and recognition of our technologists through this program, we ensure that our solutions are not just built for clients, but also by and for the very experts who drive novel ideas and excellence within our organisation.
On that note, we are proud to share our newest members for this select group:
In APAC:
- John Jones, Australia national practice manager, business apps
- Paul Smithdale, principal architect
- Stephen Tulp, APAC tech strategist
In EMEA:
- Santo Orlando, EMEA practice director, modern apps and data services
- Iain Smith, EMEA practice director, unified communications
- Lee Wilkinson, technology lead, cloud, data and intelligent edge
In North America:
- Dean Chyla, principal architect
- Meagan Gentry, U.S. national practice lead, AI
These teammates have demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities, embodied our core values of Hunger, Heart, and Harmony, and stood out as role models for our community of 6,500+ technologists worldwide. Committed to sharing our expertise on the evolving technology landscape and assisting businesses in future readiness, we will soon feature their insightful perspectives and tech predictions on au.insight.com.
Through their expertise and dedication, they help redefine how our clients operate. For example, here in APAC, Paul Smithdale and Stephen Tulp played a pivotal role in leading their team to deliver innovative solutions for Roy Hill, enhancing operational efficiency and productivity. This collaboration led to the development of Roy Hill’s Azure and AI platforms, the delivery of an integration platform, and the management of their Microsoft Enterprise License agreement. In addition to that, the partnership has cultivated a culture of innovation and collaboration, opening new avenues for growth.
Insight's involvement in modernising existing integrations within the SAP system follows a phased approach, utilising Azure Integration Services to provide a secure, cost-effective solution. The Insight Path accelerator has played a key role in this process, creating a secure environment for developing AIS integrations and enhancing the developer experience through a DevOps-templated approach.
Separately, John Jones and team worked with Landgate to address the significant challenges around their Power Platform usage, governance, and citizen developer support. By implementing a structured governance framework and processes, Insight enabled secure and innovative application development. Insight conducted a Power Platform maturity assessment, established best practice models, and created a Centre of Excellence.
The approach led to stronger IT governance, streamlined risk assessments, enhanced oversight, and optimised licensing. These improvements resulted in increased innovation and efficiency at Landgate, with 20 new early adopters monthly since March 2024 and a continuous flow of innovative ideas from the Citizen Developers Hub discussions.
The Distinguished Technologists Program not only drives Insight's strategic direction but also enriches our offerings, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of technological advancements.
This approach also allows individuals to advance in their careers by highlighting their experiential knowledge and mastery of contemporary technologies and tools, rather than solely on their team management skills. Insight's dedication to providing fair and equal career growth opportunities helps us attract and keep top talent. This ensures that we continue to deliver world-class solutions and services to our clients by highly motivated and caring people.
At its core, the Distinguished Technologists program embodies Insight's commitment to empowering people and technology on a grand scale. It honours and supports experts who are leaders in their technical domains and have made substantial contributions to transformative projects within the company and the industry at large. We are providing our IT professionals a unique career advancement opportunity centered on pioneering technological excellence.
As the programme evolves with a focus on global reach and inclusivity, our Distinguished Technologists will guide Insight's executive leadership on the future of technology and modern business practices. We are excited about the future and the contributions these bright minds will make to Insight and our clients.
