Chief Technology Officer gives insight of goals, achievements and challenges presented by new role
Antony Woodhams has a long and successful history in software development. Now that the new role of CTO has defined more objectives he explains why he relishes the challenges for him and WCBS
This is a very exciting time for me to be stepping into my new role as CTO and take on the challenges and responsibilities that come with it; as a company we’re significantly accelerating our position in the education sector.
The recent organisational changes are making an important difference to the way we manage the operations of the business generally. I feel it makes a lot of sense to have a single point of focus and accountability for all the technical and technology-related aspects of what we do. As a software development business, and with the rise of DevOps as a discipline over recent years, there’s significant alignment between our development and technical services teams.
Antony Woodhams, CTO
I’ve been primarily focused on software development for over 20 years now, so this is a great opportunity to use my experience to positively shape what we’re doing, not just through our software but more broadly through our technology. This is especially important at this point for WCBS, as we evolve into an exciting, fast-paced, modern developer and supplier. We’ve reached a summit of the past 30+ years of growth and are now pushing even higher with our cloud-native products. WCBS is positioned to make significant advancement for some years to come.
The challenges of being passionate!
I frequently say that we’re passionate about developing world class software. That’s what we want to do and that is what we are doing right now! We’re in a position where we are able to move all of the dials in the right direction for customers. It’s not always easy though! Sometimes it’s a real challenge. Regardless, it is a great opportunity to provide meaningful solutions to real world problems, helping schools deliver outstanding education, and that is something worth getting excited about.
Exciting changes soon for customers
From a development perspective, we are continually evolving how we work and how we approach the delivery of our software. We want to get value out to customers faster and that’s something that I’m progressing at this very moment. We are working really hard on our Agile product development approach to ensure we align all key factors in a way that will drive the most efficient production of software. I think we’ll see some exciting changes coming over the next few months that demonstrate to our customers visible changes more quickly, that they can then give us feedback on. It is critical to show that we’re listening to customers and incorporating their feedback into our products. This drives advocacy and will only serve to make us more successful in the future.
Key areas I’m addressing are
- Ensuring we face the software demands for schools
- Reviewing how WCBS’ technology needs affects our customers
- Looking at opportunities for more customer engagement
- Continuing to take security seriously – for WCBS and our customers
I will be updating you further on these points in a blog in a couple of weeks.
