For the longest time, I have always been an advocate for small business. In the early days of my career, a number of my close friends had their own businesses. The use of digital technology was in its infancy and was something new. The internet was in its youth and website technology was still very immature.
As there is today, there was a great deal of emerging technologies and a confusing array of options. As the ‘IT person’, it was usually me who was called on to whip up a website ,setup email or technology.
Fast forward several decades and a rounded IT career under the belt working in all aspects of technology from development, technical and information architecture, business and technical analysis and then latter in business and technology management, sales and leadership roles.
I worked for a variety of technology companies here in New Zealand but also in Australia and the UK. In 2010, I took out a top accolade for Consultative Selling while working for a large multinational technology company. My focus has always been on the business value of what I delivered.
In January 2015 I had the opportunity of not only working for a government agency but also to setup a new team that would work to advocate for the business and liaise with the IT team in the solution delivery.
The first week in the role, I was summoned to the CIO to explain why we were setting up an IT team outside of IT. A few weeks later and a presentation to the IT senior leadership team outlining our charter and we were on our way with the first Business Systems team for that part of the organisation.
This was where I saw a need for experienced people who can confidently talk both business and IT and be outcome focused while at the same time ensuring the business expectations were set and maintained. We were the bridge between the business and IT!
I had almost five excellent years with that government agency!
Fast forward to 2020 and the global COVID pandemic. Small businesses were closing their doors unable to trade due to significant lockdown restrictions. Some businesses were able to pivot or leverage their existing digital web presence, but revenue was seriously impacted across the board for many small to mid sized businesses.
At the time, I was the CEO of a small locally based Data and Analytics consultancy. Like a lot of other small business leaders, we were also looking hard at what we could do to keep the doors open and our staff gainfully employed and paid.
We worked hard behind the scenes to keep the business operationally resilient and at the same time keeping the lights on and our staff happy.
We looked at streamlining process, renegotiating contracts with suppliers to flatten costs, cost cutting unnecessary expenditure and we worked with our clients to extend existing contracts for ‘essential service delivery’.
It is fair to say, this work reignited my passion and my thinking about small business support. I wondered how other small businesses were coping and whether there was an opportunity for them to review their business models – to look at how process and technology could be streamlined and whether their current contracts were delivering optimal value for money.
2021 bought another lockdown in New Zealand. Resiliency was the key to survival. The work we had done in the first lockdown and the results of our retrospective reviews meant we were better placed to tackle a second lockdown. During this period, I started looking at how other small businesses bounced back.
Then the stars aligned. In mid 2021, I was listening to a podcast from a respected global research organisation. The topic was about the rise of the Business Technologist, and it covered what they called the democratisation of digital delivery. In a nutshell it was discussing the new role of a hybrid IT/Business worker called a Business Technologist – someone who could work with both the technology and business people to ensure mutually beneficial, cost effective outcomes were met.
This was the point at which I finally was able to put a name to what I had done for so many years – I am a Business Technologist!
This was the genesis of Fernleaf Consulting!
Fernleaf Consulting is all about working with small to mid sized businesses to ensure investment in digital technology is optimized and leveraged in the most cost effective way.
I could finally take my 30+ years of experience and work with small and mid sized businesses to help them optimize how they work and how they could make better use digital technology.
I could work to ensure business expenditure in digital investments was the best it could be and more importantly, I could recommend and introduce change could bring cost savings that may be invested back in the business.
I could finally put a name to what I have been doing for most of my career – Business Technologist!
If you think we can help and you would like to have an obligation free chat about your business and how you could implement digital technology more cost effectively, get in touch via our Contact page.
Cam Chapman
Founder and Managing Director
Fernleaf Consulting Limited
January 2022
