https://www.xperience-group.com/news-item/girls-in-ict-day-gemma-mcanally-cao/
Name: Gemma McAnally
Role: Chief Applications Officer (CAO)
To celebrate Girls In ICT Day, we chatted to Gemma, our CAO, about her journey to date as a Girl in ICT and advice she would give to other women entering the industry.
I started my journey with Xperience back in 2007, so I’m with the company now approaching 16 years. I joined as a graduate fresh out of university on Xperience’s first ever graduate program. The program ran for a year during which we had assessments and milestones to meet. I joined as a client account manager specifically looking after our Pegasus ERP base. The year flew in and I couldn’t have had better mentors and advisors around me. I remember thinking how everyone just pitched in and really wanted us to succeed and that really hasn’t changed after all these years. That mentality of success, drive, ambition and passion is still hugely ingrained in the company.
As the years moved on so did my role. I moved into new business sales and then also took on more of the business applications product set, chatting to new and existing clients about their ERP and CRM business needs.
Things just continued and progressed from there and I now work with an amazing team as Chief Applications Officer. My role consists of reviewing our business applications product portfolio, working alongside the delivery team to deploy our solutions and determining how we can continue to provide solutions for our our clients to help them grow and drive their business forward.
If you want to be in a fast moving, ever evolving industry, choose tech. I love how fast our industry moves and I love how many products and services are available to organisations. There’s nothing more rewarding than taking a product, implementing it within an organisation, and seeing the positive impact it can have on the teams and the work they do. It’s so rewarding to be able to help a company grow and develop.
Traditionally tech was seen as male dominated and certainly it would have been something I seen in the early part of my career. But, but now it has grown, developed and evolved and is certainly an industry undergoing significant change as more and more females move into tech based roles. To girls starting off in this industry, and to anyone really, the best advice I can give is to ask every question you can think of and never be intimidated to do so, no matter who is in the room, or who you are asking, because no matter what it is I guarantee you it is not a silly one. This industry moves at lighting speed so asking questions, being inquisitive, is the only way to keep ahead. So… ask questions, stick your hand up, be nosy, make statements and never be afraid to voice your opinion!
From the day I started it was clear that what makes Xperience is the people and the statement is as true today as it was on my first day. We have the most amazing team working to drive the business forward and to deliver world class solutions for our clients.
No two days are the same and every day really is a learning day! We are in such a unique position where we get to work with such varying clients whose requirements span right across their and our business. It makes every day different and it also keeps us on our toes ensuring we as a team and business are changing, evolving and staying one step ahead. The learning never stops and you can always continue to do and be better, and that really is the best bit.
At the moment you can’t go past a tech blog or article without seeing something relating to chat GPT or any form of AI. It is certainly a disrupter but a very exciting one. AI has been with us for much longer than people realise however what chat GPT is showcasing is how it can play a part in a business in subtle and effective ways. It’s not about replacing everyone with a robot or a piece of AI tucked away inside a server, but exploring ways that its gradual introduction can lead to greater business efficiencies. This is certainly a space to watch and one to get ahead of the game on.
Interested in a career in tech?