Interview with Ciklum, finalists in the IT Project Team of the Year category at the UK IT Industry Awards
Computing catches up with Sam Rapley, SVP Engineering and Delivery, Ciklum
The UK IT Industry Awards, from Computing and the BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has long been the industry's premier awards. Computing caught up with Sam Rapley, SVP Engineering and Delivery, Ciklum, finalists in the IT Project Team of the Year category.
Computing: Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
Sam Rapley: Delivering a greenfield e-commerce product, on time, that users love was fantastic. I'm most proud that we brought together such a tremendous multidisciplinary team from across Europe. It was the strength of the team and our commitment to the outcome that allowed us to meet the challenge. It's a great example of getting skilled people working to a challenging objective using the right technology and processes to achieve success.
This work was game-changing for our client, and I'm proud to have been part of it.
CTG: What tips would you give someone attempting to build a marketplace in such a short space of time?SR: Understand your customer. Don't just guess what your users need, look for creative solutions and test your ideas continually. Create the right team culture and success will breed success. Don't underestimate the power fostering the right culture can have. Creating a moonshot objective and cultivating a can-do culture of ambitious but achievable goals supported by the right enablers is very powerful. Don't guess - use data to understand if you are on the right track. This applies to all aspects of delivery from ensuring you will hit the date through to ensuring that what is being created is what your users want.
CTG: How did you feel when you heard you'd been shortlisted in the UK IT Industry Awards, and what does that mean for your organisation?
SR: I'm really proud of the team. Recognition of our success by our peers is a real honour, just to be shortlisted is a huge achievement. I can't wait to celebrate with the team when we all get back together again post COVID-19. This is also fantastic for Ciklum. We have a history of delivering innovative products for our customers but getting formal recognition is fabulous for all of Ciklum's teams. It proves to everybody that we can deliver these challenging outcomes for our customers.
CTG: What's next for Ciklum?SR: We continue to build on our strengths: exceptional engineering and product design brought together with cutting edge management techniques. Leading such a complex product delivery has allowed us to show off these strengths, we continue to use the same approaches to achieve the outcomes our customers are looking for by unlocking the power of our people.