The Importance of Lifelong Learning in a Tech-Driven World

Innovation through learning

It’s an illusion to think technology companies are always inventing brand new things!

In reality, something truly new is rare in the technology and software space. Once in a while, an idea will converge and something new and transformative is created. More commonly, what you see is a rapid evolution of ideas and concepts – one idea building on another.?

Darwinian natural selection shows this in nature over millions of years, scientific understanding advanced from Archimedes to Hawkings over hundreds of years, our Tech driven world has emerged in a similar way in just decades.

Here at Applicable, we consider ourselves advocates and evangelists for new technology. We have been working in this rapidly evolving world for many years. Our primary skills are in absorbing learnings and applying this new knowledge. Our customers trust us because we understand the technology they have been using, and work with them to understand their business and challenges. We work with our partners, particularly Microsoft to learn the capability of their software and their roadmaps, and we understand how the world we live and work in is changing, the legislation, the threats and the standards that create the market place we all work in.? We then combine these learnings to deliver value to customers, honouring the trust they put in us.

Lifelong learning is at the core of great IT consultancy, and that’s why we have made it central to Applicable. It’s the reason we deliver value to our customers with every engagement.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

There are three fundamental factors in computing: how much you can store, how quickly you can process it, and how quickly you can move it. As each factor improves, IT becomes more capable. For instance, communications technology has evolved from telegrams, to fax, to email, to social media – each step building on the last. The best consultants have gained experience over time and have worked with and understood the evolution of the technology. They have a knack of understanding the next step quickly because they know all about its origin. This allows them to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, the business drivers for the next step in its development and can therefore recognise how best to apply it to business problems.

We’ve worked with countless technologies and multiple business cases, applying them to solve business problems. This experience makes us qualified to provide this end-to-end service.

For example, Purview is relatively new and exists to keep you on the right side of the law and stop you from losing data, a level of experience is still needed for effective implementation, we make sure we have that experience.

The real skill of a consultant is the ability to continuously learn. It must be the one constant in this fast-paced technology world. To be able to layer skills, knowledge and experience over time gives a great consultant the ability to remove the wheat from the chaff. New products come out all the time, but identifying which are useful tools to be applied, and which are shiny toys with minimal use and value is where the skills come into play.

Experience teaches you the best way to navigate and utilise technology. While it may be new, the fundamental principles on which it is built generally remain the same.

Convergence and the creation of paradigm moments

There are points of real change; where several technologies combine to create something new. The personal computer, smartphone, email, and the cloud – all game changers. While they seemed new at the time, they arrived when multiple technologies converged and evolved together.

We are seeing another change right now in the interaction between individuals and computers. For years we have used individual applications to perform key tasks, such as web browsing, emails, word processing, spreadsheets, CRM, finance, ticketing, etc. But now we are seeing tools capable of bringing huge amounts of data from many different sources together, with AI acting as a consolidator and Unified Communications allowing everyone to work together, with content rules and policies keep data safe. You will see tools like Teams becoming the single point of entry into your organisation's activities.

Trusted advisor

Being a trusted advisor is about past, present, and future.

Past: You must understand a company’s existing technology – what’s useful, what’s problematic, and what’s missing.

Present: At Applicable, we bring a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience to the table. Learning about each customer’s business is a privilege - not to mention fun and exciting - while opening the doors to helping them solve their problems or develop business advantages.

Future: Being a trusted advisor is more than being the most knowledgeable person in the room. It’s about absorbing the required knowledge quickly and efficiently. Those moments of greatest trust are not when you say, “I know that,” but when you say, “I will find out”, and returning with the answers. We work closely with partners like Microsoft to understand and apply their roadmaps, becoming certified in their portfolio of today, so we are ready for tomorrow.

Gain True Value

The real value of bringing a lifetime of learning to our customers is in how it helps them improve their businesses. We can comfortably work at the leading edge of technology because we understand its origins and can learn about and apply their nuances.

Whether your goal is to move faster, more accurately, safely, legally, or see whether a new technology can deliver on its promises, it’s easier to implement with a lifelong learner by your side. Work with someone who knows the pitfalls, who listens to your needs, and someone who’s not afraid to admit what they don’t yet know but will find the answer before you can say “lifelong learning”.

That’s the Applicable way.

[email protected]