A Compare The Cloud interview with Thomas Konopka, sales director, Six Degrees and Michael Foote, business development director, Hitachi Consulting. Join them as they talk about digital transformation.
David Organ: I’m really pleased to be joined today by Michael Foote, from Hitachi Consulting, and Tom Konopka from Six Degree. Guys, hello. Welcome. Now we’re here today to discuss digital transformation, both in the public sector and the private sector. So first off, can you tell me a little bit about Six Degrees?
Tom Konopka: Sure. So, in a nutshell, Six Degrees are a cloud service provider providing hybrid cloud services. We have a sort of a springboard to the cloud approach, and our vision is really, really simple. It’s all about enabling our customers’ brilliance.
David Organ: And of course, we’re here, Michael, with you from Hitachi Consulting. So, can you tell me what the relationship is between Hitachi Consulting and Six Degrees?
Michael Foote: Absolutely. So, Hitachi Consulting is the consulting arm of the Hitachi Group. Very much focused on application solutions around Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft. Working together with the Six Degree group to provide a springboard to take people to the cloud using their environments, their communications, to allow our customers to experience the cloud quickly and effectively.
David Organ: So, digital transformation. Looking at the public sector first, what sort of problems do they face with their digital transformation journey?
Tom Konopka: I think, at times, it’s just scale of it. And secondly is really about delivering projects on time and actually delivering real value for the money that they’re actually spending. At times, they really need some help about being led, almost like a Sherpa type role, and then working with organizations that provide that agility and flexibility in helping to deliver those projects.
David Organ: And in terms of some of the challenges, Mike, can you sort of enlighten me a little bit on the specific challenges that some public-sector bodies face?
Michael Foote: Yeah. What we tend to find is, with a lot of the digital transformations, it’s about knowledge; it’s about information; it’s about support; it’s about understanding what this new world is and what this new world can do. And again, working with Six Degree Group, we can bring a degree of understanding and a degree of knowledge together and jointly help the customers to succeed.
David Organ: And, of course, a lot of these organizations, they have big estates, don’t they Tom? I mean, how do you transition, or even go about dealing with such a large estate, when you’re moving them, say, to a cloud environment?
Tom Konopka: I think a lot of it is around education. And actually, you know, there is no one-size-fits-all model. It’s a journey. You have to collaborate with partners. We all have our own skill sets and our own experiences that we can share and actually educate, and take those organizations on that journey and really enable them. You know we call it ‘springboard’ for a reason, which is actually to help catapult people forward.
David Organ: And it’s not just public-sector bodies. I mean, you bring experience from all sorts of industries with Hitachi Consulting.
Michael Foote: Absolutely. Yeah, and I think that’s important. We’re working in two specific areas because it’s right for us to build a relationship that’s effective, and works, and brings success to our clients. So, we’re focusing very much on the public sector area initially, with manufacturing as a supporting area, because we have a number of joint customers in that space where we can bring a degree of consulting, a degree of understanding and the application side. That in roles and responsibilities, we can work effectively together to bring that success.
David Organ: It’s a great story. Guys, thank you so much for joining me and telling me a little bit about your experience with digital transformation.
Michael Foote: Thank you.
Tom Konopka: Thank you.
For more info on Six Degrees, click here.
For more info on Hitachi Consulting, click here.