Tech Insights: Interview with George Chondros, ClickSoftware

In our Tech Insights series, we quiz industry leaders to get their views of what the year ahead holds for the IT world. Today we speak with George Chondros, Senior Director for ANZ & SEA, ClickSoftware.

Do you expect to face an increasing burden from new legislation and regulations? How will your company tackle this?

As a cloud company, the data sovereignty and privacy requirements are always paramount to our customers. Therefore, I expect (nay, hope) that new federal and state legislation and regulations will be adapted to be in line with the changing ICT landscape and the adoption of cloud by the enterprise and government organisations. Just recently the federal government has indicated that, where possible, cloud-based solutions are preferable for any new IT purchase.

Where our customers’ data sovereignty and privacy requirements do not meet the global industry standards, we are agile enough to accommodate, ensuring that we comply with requirements.

What new and innovative technologies do you see emerging in your IT solution categories in 2015, and how will they help your customers?

Wearable technology is still in its infancy, but the application of this technology is gaining traction; whether it is out in the field with engineers and the ability to monitor an engineer’s vitals on a real-time basis and take actions based on this information, or left with clients in the home healthcare industry to streamline the home visit process. Couple this with announcements throughout 2014 from Apple (Health Kit), Samsung (Health) and Google (Fit) about their platforms, and I believe that we will see wearable technology take off in 2015 in the enterprise sector.

What do you see as the two or three biggest growth opportunities for your customers in 2015, and why?

ClickSoftware’s customers come from a wide range of industries (utilities, telecommunications, professional services, home healthcare, HVACC etc) and typically what is a growth opportunity in one industry is not relevant to another. However, one of the growth areas all our customers can benefit from is the Internet of Things (IoT) - the ability to connect with multiple devices and peripherals within the existing internet infrastructure. This will provide innumerable automation benefits for all our customers  whether it be syncing with wearable devices to monitor the health of workers out in the field or providing schematics on infrastructure that is needed to fix the issue in a timely manner.

What do you see as the single biggest challenge facing the ICT industry in the year ahead, and why?

With the pace of technological change at an unprecedented rate and consumer trends now filtering into the enterprise, one of the greatest challenge for vendors is selecting the right technology, whether it be hardware or software, to move their solutions forward with. Not only will this enable vendors to harness current and future trends in the market for the benefits of their customers, but it will also enable them to be more agile in light of changing needs and demands ensuring that their solutions are relevant for their target market.

Currently the Senior Director for ANZ & SEA, George Chondros has been with ClickSoftware for 11 years in a variety of roles ranging from professional services, key account management and sales. Working across various industry verticals throughout APAC has provided him with extensive knowledge across all facets of providing mobile workforce management solutions. Prior to ClickSoftware, George worked in various business and technical roles at Deloitte Consulting, Armaguard and 80-20 Software.