The Story of Software

Hugh O’Brien, CTO at Thrive Global, joins the Story of Software podcast to share his insights on employee well-being as a competitive advantage for companies.

Hugh has held a variety of software engineering positions, including senior leadership roles throughout his career. He is used to managing high-profile, high-value systems and is currently the CTO at Thrive. Thrive helps individuals and companies improve their well-being and performance through sustainable, science-backed solutions. They offer tools for people to live and work with less stress, more productivity, and greater well-being.

Today, creating a positive work environment for employees is no longer an added benefit, but a much-needed strategy for fostering stable and productive teams. Happy team members not only work well together and are more productive, but they are also less likely to change jobs. So, what can employers offer to improve the well-being of their teams and secure long-term success for the company?

Some of the topics covered include:

• The changing definition of work and employee preferences.
• The advantages of focusing on employee well-being.
• Software tools for ensuring employee happiness.
• Strategies and resources for ensuring productivity in software teams.

You can find The Story of Software podcast on any podcast platform of your choice.

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis. We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Marion Verles, CEO at SustainCERT, shares her insights on bringing credibility to various climate action projects through technology.

Marion Verles is a mission-driven entrepreneur who dedicated her career to the transformation of our economic system through the redefinition of value. She believes that we need to measure and price what really matters - looking beyond profit to also include people and our planet. She co-founded SustainCERT with the goal to use technology to bring credibility to climate action. 

Prior to SustainCERT, Marion led the Gold Standard Foundation as CEO and spent 7 years in Asia where she founded and led Nexus for Development, a successful cooperative working with pro-poor low carbon entrepreneurs. 

As the need for taking action to minimize our carbon footprint becomes critical, the number of ESG projects has risen considerably. From reforestation and sustainable farming to hydro and solar-powered projects, the options are abundant. So, how can we know which projects to invest in and whether it is actually making an impact? 

With decades of research and development in the field, global standards and verification institutions offer a solution. Find out how it all works on this week’s episode!

You can find The Story of Software podcast on any podcast platform of your choice.

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis. We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Stephanie Sheehan, VP of Engineering at Keelvar, joins the Story of Software podcast to share her insights and experience on becoming an impactful technology leader.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience building software products across multiple industries including Telecommunications, Financial and Medical Compliance, and more. She is now the VP of Engineering at Keelvar, which provides sourcing optimization and automation software for enterprise procurement teams. Keelvar emerged from a leading AI research laboratory and is the category leader in best practice technology for advanced eSourcing, serving customers such as Siemens, BMW, Coca-Cola, and more.

Becoming a Technology Leader:

Moving from a technical role to a management role requires a change in the way you think and how you approach your team. As a technology leader working with cross-functional teams, one needs to bring people together, cater to each individual's needs, and at the same time let go of their ego to become an enabler. These are only a few of the skills discussed in this episode. 

Some of the topics covered include:

• Software solutions that can enable faster procurement
• Empowering women in the tech sector
• The skills needed to be a good leader
• Advice for becoming a leader in the tech sector
• Insights on managing and growing successful teams

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis. We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Jonathan Larbey, CEO at T-Pro, joins us to discuss how the world can benefit from innovation in healthcare & the technologies solving the biggest problems. 

Jonathan is the CEO at T-Pro, the winner of the Deloitte 2021 Impact award, and a global leader in clinical documentation improvement software. T-Pro’s technology allows healthcare providers to voice-enable their existing processes, reduce transcription costs, outsource overflow transcription, and capture patient information effectively and efficiently from anywhere on any device.

Healthcare Digitization:

The demands and pressure on the global healthcare sector have risen significantly in recent years with the Covid-19 pandemic, and so has the need for organizational efficiency in patient care. In this episode, we explore a number of ways in which technology can bring substantial innovation and bridge a number of efficiency gaps. 

Some of the topics covered in the episode include: 

• The shortcomings of the healthcare sector
• How technology can solve certain problems in healthcare
• Ensuring security in healthcare products
• Learnings from leading and scaling a technology business

You can find The Story of Software podcast on any podcast platform of your choice.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis.

Benktesh Sharma, Ph.D., Senior Director of Technology Solutions at Verra, joins us to talk about the effective use of technology in the fight against the biggest issue of our time, climate change.

Benktesh Sharma is a Technology Leader holding a Ph.D. in Forest Sciences and Biology from West Virginia University, along with a M.S. in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. As Senior Director of Technology at Verra, Benktesh leads the technological strategy of the world’s leading certifying body for environmental projects, currently contributing to over 85% of the total voluntary market for carbon credits.

Verified Carbon Standards for Climate Actions:

There is no doubt that global warming and climate change are the biggest challenges facing our generation, and putting the lives of future generations at risk. A successful climate strategy at individual and global level is a mix of avoiding, reducing and offsetting emissions. The verified carbon standards (VCS) are among the most widely adopted standards for voluntary carbon offsetting, as they ensure a level of quality for climate projects, and enable transparency and trust.

Some of the topics covered include:

• The role of technology in the fight against climate change in today’s market.
• Carbon cycles and verified carbon credits.
• How technology can help build trust in the carbon markets.
• Different applications of technology for tackling climate action.
• Technological challenges that remain to be solved in the sector.

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis. You can find The Story of Software podcast on any podcast platform of your choice.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Peter Rose, CTO of TEKenable, joins us to discuss the growing demand for low code software development in the technology market. 

The Guest - Peter Rose, Owner & CTO at TEKenable:

Peter founded TEKenable with Nick Connors in 2002 to provide high-quality software solutions to Financial Services, Healthcare Services, Agri-Food companies, and the Public Sector. After 20 years in business, TEKenable has been listed in the Deloitte Fast50 three years running, 2019, 2020 & 2021.

Additionally, Peter acts as CTO and associate CTO to several start-ups and established services companies in Ireland and EMEA. Peter is recognised as an expert in the delivery of secure, reliable software to enterprise businesses and as a trusted advisor to many Irish CEOs and CIOs.

Low Code Software Development:

Using low code technologies to scale your products has many benefits, starting with the fact that it lowers the barriers for many team members besides software developers to work on shaping a product hands-on. By eliminating the need for extensive and complicated code, you can enable your product teams or business analysts to build or customize a product and cater to customer needs with no time wasted. 

Some of the topics covered include:

• What is ‘Low Code’ and in what way is it changing the software industry?
• What does TEKenable do, and which problems is it solving?
• The impact of low code for the future of software jobs.
• How to stay on top of new technologies and continuously be learning.
• Learnings from scaling a business & insights for other business leaders.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis.

Rónán Dowling-Cullen, CTO at Bounce Insights joins us to discuss how technology can be used to improve market research, and how tech can enable data-driven decision making.

The Guest - Rónán Dowling-Cullen, CTO at Bounce Insights:

Rónán is the Chief Technology Officer of Bounce Insights. Bounce Insights enables companies to validate the assumptions behind their pivotal business decisions. The Bounce platform provides fast results, quality respondents, and an easy-to-use interface for the benefit of insights-driven businesses. Bounce currently provides customer data for a wide variety of customers, including Coca-Cola HBC, Diageo, and Specsavers. 

How to Make Data-Driven Decisions:

Today, making the right business decisions has become more important than ever as we operate in an ever-changing landscape with high failure rates. Therefore, it is vital to base in evidence the decisions we make in order to adapt and grow successfully. What if there is a way of gathering real-time data from your prospective customers and using their feedback to make the best decisions?

Some of the topics covered in this episode include:

• The challenges of growing a business in an ever-changing landscape.
• The opportunity of driving success through data-driven decision-making.
• The business benefits of gathering feedback from clients and users.
• The technologies and processes that enable quality and real-time data insights.
• Internationalizing a business and launching into new markets.

You can find The Story of Software podcast on any podcast platform of your choice.

The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis. We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Paddy Finn, CEO at Viotas, joins us to discuss how software can make energy systems more efficient and pave the way towards more wide-spread renewable energy adoption.

 
Dr Paddy Finn is the CEO at Viotas - a technology company in the energy sector that focuses on balancing supply and demand in the electricity grid and helping us ease into a low-carbon world of energy. Viotas won the Deloitte Fast50 in 2019 on the back of exceptional growth in the preceding years.

Optimizing The Grid Through Energy Management Software

"The energy industry is going through a huge transition at the moment. Power systems operated largely in the same manner for 80 to almost 100 years and in the next decade we're going to see possibly as much change and advancement as we've seen in the last decade almost. There is a huge amount of food for thought to be able to solve some very complex problems. " (Dr Paddy Finn,  CEO at Viotas)

Electricity production is among the highest sources of greenhouse gas emissions (accounting for 25% of the 2019 GHG emissions in the US), with the majority of electricity still coming from burning fuels. There are many challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector in its strive towards sustainability, and some big ones include optimizing existing energy systems and allowing for the smoother wide-spread adoption of renewable energy.

Some of the topics covered in this episode include:

• The current and future technological opportunities for optimizing energy systems
• The challenges of using renewable energy at scale and how technology can help address those
• The technological advances that will help us move towards a lower-carbon future
• Advice for entrepreneurs planning to enter the energy sector

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

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The Story of Software Podcast is produced by Zartis.

Padraig‌‌ ‌‌Coffey‌‌,‌‌ ‌‌CEO‌‌ ‌‌at‌‌ ‌‌‌‌Zartis‌‌‌‌ ‌‌and‌‌ ‌‌podcast‌‌ ‌‌host,‌‌ ‌‌is‌‌ ‌‌joined‌‌ ‌‌by‌‌ Kevin Ruthen, ‌CTO ‌at‌  Fora Financial, to‌‌ ‌‌discuss‌‌ ‌‌the principles and challenges of effective tech leadership.

Successful Technology Leadership:

As technology takes a more central role within modern businesses, having a well-run, efficient, and engaged software engineering team can be the difference between success and failure. 

Establishing successful leadership - both in terms of processes and culture - is essential to creating well-functioning tech teams. And in an ever-changing business environment, being a successful tech leader is an ever-evolving set of considerations, tasks, and approaches. 

Some of the topics covered in this episode include:

• How has the role of a tech leader evolved over the past decades
• The overarching principles of good leadership in technology
• The common mistakes newly appointed tech leaders make, and how to avoid them
• Creating a culture of high performance within technology teams
• Advice for engineers considering to move into the leadership track
• Resources for new or aspiring tech leaders to upskill

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]

Padraig‌‌ ‌‌Coffey‌‌,‌‌ ‌‌CEO‌‌ ‌‌at‌‌ ‌‌‌‌Zartis‌‌‌‌ ‌‌and‌‌ ‌‌podcast‌‌ ‌‌host,‌‌ ‌‌is‌‌ ‌‌joined‌‌ ‌‌by‌‌ Arjun Mendhi, Founder and CEO ‌at‌ MOLTEN, to‌‌ ‌‌discuss‌‌ the process of bringing successful products to market.


The Guest - Arjun Mendhi, Founder and CEO at Molten:

Arjun has extensive experience across the process of product innovation and is the CEO and Founder at Molten. Molten’s cloud platform transforms media rights, content, and financial management, radically simplifying global operations. By leveraging its domain expertise, Molten infrastructure empowers film & TV organizations with real-time analytics to accelerate deal-making and content monetization worldwide. 

Building Successful Products:

The main challenge any new company faces is achieving product-market fit. And reaching product-market fit encompasses a number of considerations - from how to approach a problem, to looking for the right funding opportunities, to instilling the right culture among the team building the product. 

In this episode, Arjun shares his deep insights on how to build successful products - for both new and established companies alike. Some of the topics covered include:

• The specificities of early stage product development.
• How a startup should approach funding and how to choose investors.
• Hiring at different stages of a company’s evolution.
• Engineering culture and process considerations in building successful products.
• Approaching mistakes and setbacks in the right way.
• Advice for companies looking for product-market fit.

We hope you enjoy listening to this tech podcast and feel free to share any feedback with us: [email protected]