Episode 10 - Agenor Technology partnership
Transcript
Kirsty McIntosh
Hello and welcome to the Scottish Tech Army podcast, this is Episode 10. I'm Kirsty McIntosh, welcome to the pod again, Graham, how are you?
Graham Johnston
I'm great, thank you and it's kind of unbelievable that this is episode number ten, amazing!
Kirsty McIntosh
I know I have no idea how we got here, it's all gone past very quickly, but pleased nevertheless and Episode 10 is a great podcast because today we are welcoming three people from Agenor Technology and Edinburgh-based IT business. Several volunteers from Agenor Technology have been operating with us for some time. I’m delighted to welcome onto the podcast today Chief Executive Gary Montgomery and volunteers, Kirsty Patterson and Andy Bassett.
Gary Montgomery 0:44
Hi Kirsty
Andy Bassett 0:44
Hi Kirsty
Kirsty Patterson 0:45
Hello
Kirsty McIntosh 1:09
Gary, if I can come to you first, please tell us a little bit about Agenor Technology.
Gary Montgomery 1:16
Thanks Kirsty. So, yeah, I'm the Chief Executive Officer for Agenor. As a company, we were formed in 2006. And ever since then, I would consider that we've been a very successful company we've, we've grown steadily over the years. The core of our business is providing consultancy services to clients. So typically, we undertake projects for clients or provide services to them. We do that by basically either hiring experienced consultants that we know and can put trust in or we take on younger people and take them through that career lifecycle where we build them up into those experienced consultants. So proportionally, I would say we're about 50/50 experienced consultants and people who are on that learning journey. Our biggest clients are in the financial sector. So companies like NatWest, ABN AMRO, as you said, we are an Edinburgh based company, but we also have an operation over in Amsterdam as well, for European clients. And yeah, so it's a, we provide good service, we do excellent work for our clients and we consistently get good feedback on that. In terms of this year, this year has certainly been a challenging year probably the most challenging we've ever had. I'm sure we're not the only company to say that. The impact of COVID for us has typically translated into client projects being cancelled. Now in, now in our industry and in our way of working, that is the thing that hurts us most. So cancellation of projects, or loss of potential projects is ultimately what impacts us as a business. If we don't have active projects to align our consultants to then simply we don't have revenue coming in, but we still bear the cost, obviously, of the employment of the consultants, so that has been a sore one this year for sure, budgets have been constrained with our clients, projects have been cancelled. From a company perspective, we've largely contained the impacts of that by reducing internal costs, and therefore not having to, you know, make a lot of people redundant. We have had to make a few people redundant but it's not been widespread. So thankfully, by focusing on the non-people costs and cost reduction in those areas we've managed to contain that wider impact. The tech army thing came along at a very opportune time. So while we had good availability of some of these consultants, Andy and Kirsty on the call are examples of that there were many initiatives, that the guys could get involved and I think everyone has found it a very positive experience. And have got good things to say about it. So I'm sure we'll hear from Andy and Kirsty on their experiences, but I would look on it as it's been an excellent thing for them to get involved in it's built their experience, you meet new people, you build up your network, I'm sure some of those relationships will last them for many years. So that's a very positive thing and from an Agenor perspective it's always great to do things that benefit the community. The culture within Agenor is very geared towards that we're always keen to embrace those types of opportunities and to use the term give something back. You know, we like, doing things where it's more than just financial reward. It's about getting helping people out, wherever we can
Kirsty McIntosh 5:22
Well, congratulations on being able to keep your business going through the worst of times. So I think that's a really great introduction to today's pod. And Andy, perhaps you could tell us a little bit about yourself and how you how you ended up in the tech army and maybe give us a couple of ideas about some of the projects you've been working on for us?
Andy Bassett 5:43
Sure. So I'm a test consultant with Agenor and I've been with Agenor for over a year now. How I became involved in the tech army. So if you remember, a couple of months ago, back at the start of August, we were still very restricted on where we could go, what we could do and who we could see. So I found that a lot of stuff that I would normally do in the evenings and weekends, I could no longer do. So I had plenty of spare time on my hands. also had some holiday time booked off work. But again, not much I could do or where I could go really without the risk of being quarantined when I came back. So around about that time, I was having a catch up with a fellow test consultant of mine, Rhona Holland, who I believe did a podcast with you a couple of weeks ago.
Kirsty McIntosh 6:37
Yes, she did.
Andy Bassett 6:37
Yeah. And she was telling me about a project she was involved in with the Tech Army and some other work she does with the Tech Army as well, and how all her testing knowledge and skills were being put to really good use for, for good causes. And she pointed me in the direction of the volunteers list that you have published, where the charities and the Tech Army list down, what sort of volunteers are needed and the skills that are required. So I was having a look through that one day. And I saw that an organisation called Social Good Connect was needing some user acceptance testers. And I thought aha! I've got tonnes of experience in testing. I've been testing now probably for nearly 20 years, in a whole variety of roles from test management to defect management. So I dropped a note to the person who posted the role. And within a couple of days later, I was on a call with Hannah from Social Good Connect about starting on the project.
Kirsty McIntosh 7:50
Sounds fantastic. Well done. What about yourself, Kirsty?
Kirsty Patterson 7:56
So I am a Junior Project Manager for Agenor and I have been for just over a year and was put on furlough back in May. So I was approached by another member of the management team, Tony, and who had said about the STA , I think he'd heard from Rhona as well, I think Rhona had initially found you guys. And he just said, you know, they've got, like a junior scheme, a buddy scheme, which not having been a project manager for long, and I've done a project for NatWest. Apart from that my experience is quite low. So it seemed like a really good idea. And so same again, was looking down to the opportunities list and saw the CrossReach project that was looking for a junior to work with them. So I've come in with not a whole heap of experience and working with Luke Woollett, which you had on last week's podcast as well. And, and he's taken me and actually there's another Junior from Agenor as well , Lewis (Slight), working on the same project and he's taken us both in and kind of split us down separate paths that we're gaining different experience as we're coming through it. And so Lewis is actually working with Andy, doing a lot of the testing and things like that, and I'm working more on the user experience side of things, to do something completely different to what I've done before, which is really good.
Kirsty McIntosh 9:20
That's absolutely wonderful. I mean, are you enjoying it? It must be a bit scary kind of doing something completely new.
Kirsty Patterson 9:25
This is scary. This is new. But no, it's really good. And, you know, the team we have is brilliant. And, and working with CrossReach as well, they're absolutely great. And, you know, whatever they've wanted from us, we've been able to do, we're doing it quite quickly for them as well, and to get their whole service digitised basically building like a web based app for them. And it's good, it's really good. It's great experience and it's, like Gary said, you're making these connections and, you know, meeting all these people.
Graham Johnston 9:58
It’s amazing. And yeah, incredible to have you guys on board. And just you mentioned that CrossReach project, we had them on the podcast last week to tell us all about the amazing work that's been done there. So that's maybe a starter for 10. What other projects have you both been involved in? Maybe start with you Kirsty
Kirsty Patterson 10:15
Em so I haven't, I've only been working on the CrossReach project, but I know that Andy's been working on more than one.
Andy Bassett 10:20
Yeah, that's right. So I've been working with Social Good Connect an, organisation which I think's based in Dundee. And they have an application where charities can post vacancies and roles for volunteers. And that could be for a whole wide range of, of needs, and also allows companies to register with Social Good Connect. And it allows their employees to search for vacancies for roles that they're interested in and apply for those. That's a very high-level overview of the application. There's lots of good functionality in there. Like there's a sort of an intelligent search facility. So it matches up what you're interested in with the roles that are available. And it also handles the application process as well. So all that's done online.
Kirsty McIntosh 11:20
Social Good Connect's a really interesting organisation. They actually weren't supposed to launch until later on this year, but because the pandemic had hit, and they knew that there would be the potential requirement or interest in, in volunteering, you know, more so through the pandemic, they actually opened up their platform early, which was, which was really, really generous of them. So it's been fantastic that we've been able, we've been able to help them. I do have a couple of notes here of some of the other projects that people from Agenor have been working on. And actually, you've been spread across so many - so many of the projects that we've been doing in the Tech Army, it's something else! So, I mean, there were lots of you working on Crossreach. There was another organisation called Works Plus that Lewis was involved with. Is it Shaf? One of your colleagues, Shaf, he worked on a charity project called With Kids, Rhona who was obviously your kind of point person who arrived in the Tech Army first. And a kind of proxy recruiter by the sounds of things, which is fantastic. We need to have a word with her later. And she's worked on sort of two or three different projects as well. So, so you really have made an incredible contribution to, to the organisations, who are who are needing the Tech Army’s help. So thank you. Thank you all very, very much for that.
Graham Johnston 12:45
And so, I mean, amazing to hear and what would be the benefits you would say for your own personal experience of being involved in these projects? I mean, we've heard before from, from Gary about the fact that projects in your own business have come to a standstill and, you know, yourself Kirsty you were saying you're on furlough. So there's been, I guess, kept you active during, during this period of unprecedented business continuity. So what benefits have you found from working with these projects as part of the Scottish Tech Army? Maybe start with yourself, Andrew.
Andy Bassett 13:23
So it's a few things actually. So, first of all, I find it quite personally satisfying that I've been able to put my testing skills and knowledge and experience to, to use for organisations, such as Social Good Connect, and, and Crossreach. It's also been really good that I've been able to do that while I've been able to socially distance. So all the work that I do is done in my spare room on my laptop, we communicate via Zoom and emails and that works really well. So that's the personal side of things. Also, throughout most of my career, I've worked in financial services, not just limited to financial services, but mainly financial services. So it's been an opportunity to see how processes and systems work in the non-profit sector. So that's been an experience there. Like Kirsty mentioned before, I've built up some new connections and my network in the IT world has expanded. Coincidentally, on Social Good Connect, it turns out that I'm working with someone that I worked with probably about 15 years ago. I haven't seen him since or heard from him since then. So it was good to get back in touch with himself. The opportunity to mentor as well. So Kirsty mentioned that Lewis is working on the Crossreach project. So Lewis was quite interested in testing. So I've been passing on my knowledge to him and we've been working together. And it's been a good opportunity to, not so much a high pressured environment, because we still have dates to deliver to and things like that. But I've been able to take the time out and, you know, mentor Lewis a bit at a more, you know, steady pace than what you perhaps might do in the, in the more commercial environment.
Kirsty McIntosh 15:31
Brilliant.
Graham Johnston 15:33
And what about you Kirsty ?
Kirsty Patterson 15:35
So like I said, I'm a junior. So, I mean, I was actually a restaurant manager before I came to work for Agenor. And so I was like a complete blank canvas. And so, having worked in the financial sector, as well earlier on in the year, being able to work in the healthcare sector this time is completely different. And I mean, even learning things from a different perspective. So now, I was working, mentored by a girl called Ciara in the user experience side of things. And it's means that, you know, because we're developing this app, I'm now looking at the development in terms of being the client, being the person filling in the app and signing up to CrossReach's services whereas beforehand, I would never have been able to look at things like that. So I'm gaining experience that I can take back to Agenor and take back to our clients once we come back from furlough, and I'm just not particularly a person that can sit around and not really do things. So when put on furlough, and I mean, I think we started the Crossreach project back late June, maybe. So that was when things were, you know, still really strict, not really able to do much so it was a good way to be able to learn put in your time, and things like that and you're also you're helping, you know, Crossreach a lot of it is help with mental health and things which obviously, especially after the likes of COVID, and things like that, it's quite a big thing, everyone's going to have been affected somehow. So it's really satisfying to be able to be helping something like that. In that, you know, the work we're doing is going to help, it's helping their service, which will then help people on the other end again, it's been great.
Graham Johnston 17:22
That's amazing. It's great to hear both of your experiences. And I think that's the - thinking about those stories of actually getting experience in not just a different organisation, but actually a completely different industry with a different type of product. Building networks. So, Gary, you must be sitting listening to that thinking that's incredible in terms of what, what you've what you've done for STA and having all these people involved, but also that's, it's got to be good and beneficial for you in the business moving forward. And these two examples can only be two of many examples that you're hearing from other people that you've had as part of the STA from Agenor.
Gary Montgomery 17:57
Yeah, yeah, for sure. It's always beneficial for people to do different things, and working in different - we have done work in the past while we are primarily focused on financial services, we've done work in the pharma sector before we've done work in the NHS etc. And they are very different environments. I would have said if you'd asked me years ago, could you take one person and they could operate as say a project manager, they could operate the same in each environment, I would have said, yes, a good project managers a good project manager, but there are definitely differences in these different sectors that different skills and behaviours need to be brought to bear. So it's great that the guys get exposure to that and basically build up that experience, it’s extremely useful.
Kirsty McIntosh 18:47
Yeah, I think I mean, what you're saying there, Kirsty that you've probably just picked up or got a lot more confidence that the skills you have are transferable and fantastic thing to remember I suppose when you're being asked to maybe be dealing with new clients in the future. I think one of the things that really struck me about when we were doing some research for this over the last kind of couple of weeks is how much you've all managed to keep in touch with each other whilst you're operating within the Tech Army. You haven't all kind of although you've kind of come in individually, if you like, you're actually still you're still you're kind of company culture sort of within the Tech Army as well, that that really strikes me as something I wouldn't normally have expected to kind of come across. So did you do that, deliberately kind of kept in touch with your workmates whilst all of this has been going on this year?
Andy Bassett 19:37
Yeah, absolutely. So when we work for Agenor obviously, our colleagues work on a variety of different projects. So I'm quite used to keeping in touch with my colleagues on a day to day basis, but it's been great to catch up with Lewis who I didn't know very well actually before the Tech Army. I was working out at client sites on different projects to Lewis , I don't think I'd ever met him in person. So it's been good and myself and Lewis catch up probably every other day. We have a Zoom call, chat about how things are going. If there's anything that either of us are stuck on or need a bit of information about, so yeah, it's been good.
Kirsty McIntosh 20:20
What about yourself Kirsty ?
Kirsty Patterson 20:22
Yeah, I mean, it was it's been quite funny because obviously, you know, Luke'll say you know, we're gonna get someone in for testing and yeah, his name's Andrew Bassett and I was like, okay. Yeah, I know. I know Andrew. And, and then, you know, you mentioned something about I'm sure we had Rhona, Rhona Holland. I'm sure she helped us out for a little bit as well. And I'm thinking this is basically just Agenor with a few other people around about it, you know, we're still working as a team here, but it's been good. And, you know, as Andy said, like we're all kind of on different client sites all over the place. And I'm actually down in the Borders. There's a few of us down here but majority are kind of Edinburgh. We've got a few up in Fife. So like I said, you're kind of used to just like messaging through people to speak to them and chat to them anyways and kind of keep in touch, but it's been nice having especially having Lewis as a junior as well being on the same project with me it's, it's been nice because we're both kind of learning off of each other and things as well so it's been good.
Kirsty McIntosh 21:17
That's cool! Have you got involved in any of the, the internal projects in the Tech Army things like the homebrew challenges have you have you had an opportunity to look at any of those or have we have you had you working like slaves on lots of our other projects instead?
Kirsty Patterson 21:31
I've actually not had the chance to but I did speak to Luke about it a few weeks ago about sending in pictures that represented your lockdown for you and things like that. I just never actually got around to it but I do read up on them as they come down yeah,
Kirsty McIntosh 21:45
Yeah they're good they're good fun. They really are good fun. What about you Andy did you get a chance to look at them
Andy Bassett 21:49
Ah no, I haven't Social Good Connect keeps me very busy with the testing that they have for me to do.
Kirsty McIntosh 21:56
That's brilliant.
Graham Johnston 22:45
So Gary now that sort of lockdown is, well lockdown is starting to ease, it's easing and then there's spikes. What's what are things starting to get back to normal again, for Agenor?
Gary Montgomery 22:59
Yes and No. So thankfully, there are still a lot of projects that we're working on. So in many regards, you know, it's business as usual, people are still working away in delivering projects. But we have to recognise that things are changing as well. I don't expect the same amount of projects to be coming through from clients in the future, I think the focus of the projects will change. And there will be more focused spending, etc, etc. So we need to adjust ourselves as well. And that means, you know, focusing our training and certification in the right areas we've always been, we've always invested a lot in training and certs for everybody. We'll just need to be more targeted with that, and more selective but yeah, I'm very positive. Like we said earlier we managed to navigate through what has been an exceptionally difficult year. And, yeah, I'm very happy with that. I feel really positive about that. And I look forward to hopefully next year being better.
Graham Johnston 24:12
Yeah, absolutely. I think everybody, everybody does but I mean, well done, it's no mean feat to come through what's just happened in the last few months, you know, continue to operate and all sorts of support to the STA and the way that Agenor have done this. Absolutely amazing. Yeah.
Kirsty McIntosh 24:30
Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations, I'm really impressed with the culture that you have and the fact that you're also part of the team that you were before, before the pandemic. But it's been to the benefit of the Tech Army and its, its, its customers so, so thank you all very much indeed. It's been great.
Graham Johnston 24:47
Great to chat to you. Any, any other sort of final, final remarks or a final sort of memories of the STA so far, but sort of highlights from your time?
Gary Montgomery 24:56
Just in terms of the future with the Tech Army, so , we anticipate that things will continue on, obviously, availability of people is what helps us support things like the Tech Army but we hope it continues on. And we hope to, and we will certainly commit whereas , you know, it's been circumstantial, that we've been able to provide assistance, we’ll actually going forward commit to devoting some time to this as well. So I think we will, we will actually make that commitment internally to make that work.
Graham Johnston 25:33
That's incredible. So you're saying, although the business is back working as normal, or as near to normal as possible, you're going to continue to have people involved in the projects that the STA are supporting?
Gary Montgomery 25:43
Definitely ye
Kirsty McIntosh 25:46
Wonderful. Thank you. That's fantastic.
Graham Johnston 25:50
Well, thank you all very much indeed. It's been a fantastic conversation, great to hear the stories of what you've been involved in in the Scottish Tech Army and really appreciate hearing about Agenor and it just it does bring to life, as Kirsty said earlier about the culture that clearly exists within the business and bringing that into the, into the STA and having it integrated into many of the projects that you guys have been involved in. It's just been clearly amazing and people have benefited and organisations have benefited from that. So massive thank you to you all. And thanks for joining us today on this podcast. It's been great to talk to you.
Kirsty Patterson 26:23
Thank you for having us.
Graham Johnston 26:25
Yeah, thank you.
Gary Montgomery 26:26
Thank you.
Kirsty McIntosh 26:27
That's fantastic to hear that even once the business is back up on an even keel Agenor Technology have every intention of letting their staff continue to volunteer for the Tech Army, isn't that great?
Graham Johnston 26:43
Unbelievable. And I think it just brings to life that whole tech for good piece. I mean, this is a business, commercial business that's obviously had a tough time like every business has but continuing to support the Tech Army with supporting third sector businesses and organisations it's absolutely incredible. So yeah, kudos to them. It's, it's amazing.
Kirsty McIntosh 27:05
Yeah, we're very fortunate and very grateful.
Graham Johnston 27:08
So moving on from that, where we just mentioned projects and live projects there, it's it's the 10th episode. So it felt right to introduce a brand new feature to the podcast, which is talking about some random statistics around the Scottish Tech Army. So I'm going to introduce somebody who's going to come back every episode now and give us an update on some statistics that we're going to be measuring through the STA. So our resident stato, Al Stevenson. Hi Al.
Al Stevenson
Hey everyone, so of the 136 requests that we’ve accepted we’ve got 119 in progress and 17 have already been completed. With total volunteers of 1098 with 248 resources active on projects today.
Graham Johnston
Brilliant! Amazing stats, and this is I think, just proves the value of the STA. So thanks, Al. And you'll be back on every episode to give us a nice flavour of some of the headlines, statistics that our listeners are definitely wanting to hear every single week. So that’s it for this week, thanks very much for listening to Episode 10 of the STA podcast. We’ll see you again next week.