Announcing techUK's First Blockchain Leader
Congratulations to Roger Oates, Consulting Partner at TCS for being chosen as techUK's first Blockchain Leader, as part of techUK's new Blockchain Re-imagined series.
The purpose of techUK's Blockchain Leader of the month campaign is to showcase tech leaders that are playing a crucial role in driving forward the development of emerging enterprise solutions that can establish trust, help organisations with adoption and bring to life use cases across sectors.
This is also an opportunity to learn from those working in Blockchain about the latest developments and trends in this exciting, emerging and potentially transformative technology.
You can read techUK's full interview with Roger below:
What are your current responsibilities in your role and what does a typical day involve?
I am a Consulting Partner at TCS, where I lead the UK Banking consulting team. As I have been working from home for the last 18 months, my oldest son (12), thinks I work in a contact centre as I spend my days on Teams calls or on my mobile phone. But in reality no two days are the same, as we are strategic partner to most of the major UK banks and my days are spent dealing with engagement issues and supporting opportunities across multiple clients
What do you most enjoy about your work?
The variety, and the intellectual challenge. If I take today, we are responding to a RFP from a client looking to transform it’s ways of working and also to multiple RFPs on transformation to cloud. While we are delivering a number of really interesting engagements where we are looking at transforming their entire Businesses
Why is Blockchain so important to UK right now and what does the future hold for adoption and maturity of Blockchain in the UK?
I have been exploring Blockchain / DLT with my clients for a few years, and to be honest interest in blockchain in my clients has come in waves. Initially a lot of hype and excitement followed by disappointment as the world was suddenly not transformed. I have always held that Blockchain is a team sport, as the major benefits for our clients will come from taking out the friction between them. In order to achieve that you need partners to work effectively together. Therefore, I see the future success of Blockchain will be driven by consortium efforts such as B3i, which is getting a significant number of the worlds largest insurers to come together to address industry issues. In terms of maturity we are past the hype cycle and realism and hard work has set in to deliver long term benefit.
What industries or sectors of the UK economy do you think could benefits from adopting and using Blockchain technology and why?
Blockchain or “DLT” is relevant for any industry where there is a requirement to share data between multiple partners. I have always been an advocate of the benefits to Commercial Lines Insurance. As there are multiple partners, from the insured, the broker, the insurer and the reinsurer, etc where the provision of transparent data between parties could potentially lead to a transformation in the way insurance industry operates today. i.e would no longer require brokers to walk round between parties and hence deliver significant savings and benefits
What do you think is the key challenges, issue or barriers that needs to be broken down if we are to make the UK Blockchain ready?
Blockchain still has an image problem with many Exec’s and hence Business Sponsors especially as they still see it as associated with vagaries of Bitcoin. To date, a lot of effort has gone into educating executives on the potential opportunity, but more still needs to be done to translate technology jargon into business language and hence understanding the potential business opportunity. At the moment Blockchain comes in many different shapes and forms, I quite often use the railway analogy, during the steam age, lots of different companies set up different railways with different track gauges etc, however until there was a degree of standardisation and hence connectivity success was limited.
How can the Blockchain industry and market equip organisations with the understanding, skills and knowledge to make the right Blockchain decisions for now and for the future? Do we have everything we need?
Companies have been exploring with the technology, either via POCs or POVs, however wider spread adoption will be a multi-year journey, with success and failures along the way. Developing a compelling business case for transformation and the correct executive sponsorship will be crucial for making the journey successful
What is your prediction for how Blockchain and DLT Technologies will change the way organisations operate in 2021 and beyond?
Blockchain and DLT technology will become an enabling technology that allows organisations to collaborate more effectively, reducing friction, costs and user experience. Companies will use the technology and we as users will not even be aware that they are doing so
You can read more about techUK's Blockchain work here and please reach out if you would like to nominate a colleague to be the next blockchain champion
Laura Foster
Laura is techUK’s Head of Programme for Technology and Innovation.
Rory Daniels
Rory joined techUK in June 2023 after three years in the Civil Service on its Fast Stream leadership development programme.
Elis Thomas
Elis joined techUK in December 2023 as a Programme Manager for Tech and Innovation, focusing on AI, Semiconductors and Digital ID.
