Endava was founded with the vision of transforming business through the power of technology. Its customer base is broad and varied – spanning verticals that include everything from banking and government to automotive and aviation, but one thing they all have in common is a desire to advance their business through the right application of technology. David Boast, Managing Director – MENA, Endava, talked about the importance of people and how the business is committed to digital acceleration.
Tell us a bit more about your organisation’s business journey.
Endava was founded over two decades ago with the vision of transforming business through the power of technology. Building on the strong foundation that delivering excellence for the uncompromising and highly regulated BFSI sector helped establish, we have continuously elevated our value proposition while evolving to extend our expertise to a diverse range of verticals including government, retail, healthcare, media and many more. In 2018, we marked a significant milestone by going public on the New York Stock Exchange, solidifying our standing as a digital solutions pioneer.
While Endava is dedicated to consistently delivering solution excellence, we see technology itself as a means to an end. People are the reason behind everything we do – whether it is creating a company culture that empowers our employees to thrive, or collaborating with clients to deliver solutions that yield impactful experiences for their employees and customers. Looking ahead, we remain committed to digital acceleration, leveraging our global presence and fostering a culture of openness, adaptability and trust.
Endava has been in the region for the last two years. How has the business grown since its establishment and how did you ensure growth?
Even prior to establishing our physical offices in the region, Endava was well known as we had worked with leading organisations to help them achieve their digital ambitions. Building on that momentum with our official entry into the region over two years ago, we have established an especially strong track record in the BFSI, government, retail and e-commerce spaces. Among our regional clients are a leading payments services provider, a reputable merchant acquirer, a leading cloud services provider and an up-and-coming FinTech disruptor.
Our success is resultant of our ‘close to client’ approach which is underpinned by our commitment to collaborating as a unified team, with one shared goal. Rather than seeing ourselves as an external partner, we deeply embed our pre-sales, sales and account and project management resources within client teams. The skills of these cohesive units are then augmented by the scale and technical expertise of our nearshore delivery teams, ensuring our clients can therefore reimagine the relationship between their people and the technology they use.
What is your company’s vision and goal?
At Endava, our goal is to transform people’s lives through technology. We are committed to making a positive impact on our people, customers, communities and the environment.
Unfortunately, human-centricity has become something of a buzzword in the tech industry, but when it comes to brass tacks, tech providers still focus on positioning their products or services as the ‘silver bullet’ to every organisational challenge and aspiration.
At Endava, we’re pushing for a paradigm shift – making people-centricity the goal and technology simply the means by which we get there. We endeavour to be the technology partner that is a seamless extension to our clients’ in-house teams, collaborating to support the business as the organisation digitises. In doing so, bring clarity to design, risks analysis and technology delivery, thereby empowering organisations to rapidly and effectively achieve lift-off and meet goals. The end benefits are widely known – optimised processes, reduced costs and increased revenues.
What kind of clients and market do you serve?
Endava’s customer base is broad and varied – spanning verticals that include everything from banking and government, to automotive, aviation, retail and insurance. But one thing they all have in common is a desire to advance their business through the right application of technology. For some it could be a full technology transformation moving from monolithic deployments of 15/20 years ago to the containerised and cloud-based scalable solutions of today; for others it could be bring a refresh of their digital channels, taking advantage of the current and future technologies to give themselves a competitive advantage or even developing and launching a digital-only Neo Bank. We are also seeing requirements that emanate from the relatively new field of RegTech, meaning customers are focusing on risk reduction within their technology and supply-chain, improving operational performance and stability as well as security. All of these have technical solutions that can be deployed to address them. The key is being clear about the problem domain and what it is you are trying to fix. Many customers focus on symptoms (i.e. the things that have gone wrong), rather than analysing and truly understand the root causes. This leads to short-termism that mitigates the immediate issue but does not address the underlying problem.
Can you tell us about Endava’s unique approach in the crowded consulting/Digital Transformation space?
The MENA region’s enterprises have commendable digital aspirations. They desire to compete on the global stage and are keen to build the digital services to match. Many have therefore gravitated towards technology partners that strongly advocate ambitious, though inherently complex, risky, multi-year projects. While the potential of these projects is commendable, often when it comes to implementation, complexities and collaboration gaps snowball, leading all too often to digital investments falling far short of their mark.
Endava is unique in that we combine market-leading expertise in consultancy, advisory and design with turnkey solution delivery. We focus on an iterative approach to innovation, choosing to break with the traditional term of Digital Transformation in favour of digital acceleration. Instead of undertaking complex, risky, multi-year projects, we deliver constant, scalable, sustainable innovation. With our help, enterprises in the region have been able to accelerate their ability to take advantage of new business models and market opportunities. By co-creating with customers and delivering dynamic platforms and intelligent digital experiences in an agile way, we help our clients fuel the rapid, ongoing transformation of their businesses.
You’ve talked about the need for the board to champion Digital Transformation, could you explain why you advocate this approach as opposed to the set precedent of CIO/CTO/CPOs being in charge?
The need for a shift towards board-led Digital Transformation stems from the fact that short-term tech decisions are leading to long-term consequences like tech debt. While CIOs and CTOs focus on immediate needs, they may overlook the strategic implications. Boards, not beholden to quarterly targets, are therefore better positioned to champion a more holistic approach. By integrating technology considerations into long-term business strategies, boards can mitigate the risks of tech debt and foster sustainable innovation.
This of course necessitates a cultural shift towards balancing quality with speed of delivery. A highly effective way to do this is by embracing what Endava calls digital acceleration – impactful iterative advancements. Boards must understand evolving organisational needs and technology landscapes, driving a stewardship mindset for innovation. Ultimately, prioritising excellence over mere pioneering can yield success, as exemplified by Apple’s longevity. Board involvement in innovation ensures a comprehensive approach, aligning tech initiatives with overarching business goals, and positioning organisations for enduring success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
How do you ensure different teams in your organisation work together especially with Endava’s offshore delivery teams?
The keys to any successful collaboration are clear communication and constant transparency. Fostering a company culture based on these principles starts with having the right people. Our close to client teams are laser focused on what we call ‘right-teaming’, an oft forgotten art of bringing the right people together from the right parts of the business to deliver an outcome. This can mean subject matter experts, architects, UI designers, testers, cloud experts, project managers – you name it. We bring that team together with the client to develop the shared vision. There is no individual glory to be sought given the scale and ambition of projects that Endava undertakes, and success is only possible when all stakeholders together under the same banner. It is why we live and breathe our ethos.
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