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|summary=Technology can seem frightening to people who don't have the background. In [[Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business by Andrew Hampshire|Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business]] Andrew Hampshire discusses the tech that can add quanifiable quantifiable value to your business and how to get the m ost most out of it. He and Sue had a lot to chat about when he dropped into Bookbag Towers.

Technology can seem frightening to people who don't have the background. In [[Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business by Andrew Hampshire|Creating Value Through Technology: Discover the Tech that Can Transform Your Business]] Andrew Hampshire discusses the tech that can add quanifiable quantifiable value to your business and how to get the m ost most out of it. He and Sue had a lot to chat about when he dropped into Bookbag Towers.

AH: I have been lucky to work with many brilliant CEOs and one thing a number of them have in common is the huge amount of time, passion and energy they put into their businesses. The frustration they felt therefore when they would have an idea of what they wanted to do with technology to take their businesses forward only to be disappointed sometimes by the results not quite living up to expectations was clear. Many of them put it down to themselves not being ‘tech -savvy’ or speaking that language and yet I always felt you could look at technology , not through a technology lens but a financial or practical perspective and what I wanted to do with this book was get away from the more technical aspects of technology and provide a more practical guide to really getting the most out of it.

AH: It was a little of both - my dad always worked in the city so I was aware of how financial services works and the opportunities it can provide. However , I actually started out with my own company building software for financial services. Once I hired my first programmers I then realised I was better at applying tech to solving problems than I was at actually building the tech myself (!) and hence my career went into broader operations management and business building. I love the drive and pace of the city and have stuck with it. I like to think I am good with money on a personal level and clearly working in financial services and investing helps in that regard.

AH: Yes I am fortunate to be able to work from home - our business is built on modern technology and everything is cloud -based hence moving to work remotely was something we were well prepared for. A challenge is keeping that team spirit and culture going when you aren’t all together in person. Pleasingly we’ve managed to retain that in our business and that’s a testament to the brilliant people we have and their passion for what they do. I have enjoyed seeing more of my young children and that has been a big positive. We have continued to work in the office on a limited rotational basis to allow for social distancing etc and that has been helpful. I am looking forward to returning to the office on a more full -time basis - the camaraderie you get from working with others is hard to replicate. I have read numerous articles over the past 9 months that focus on the fact that lockdown has taught us that many businesses can work from home now and question the role of the office in the future. However , I would say If there is one thing we have learnt from lockdown it’s how much we value and enjoy face to face interaction and being with other people!

I am going to say a combination of media storage and digital photo frames. When I was younger I loved going through the photo albums. We all take so many photos now but the majority of them live on our phones. As such unless you make an effort to get them printed into books they just get forgotten and you can only practically print a small subset of the photos you have anyway. We invested in a home media server and all our photos from cameras and phones go on to that. We then have digital photo frames around the house linked up to it so we get to see all our photos in frames around the house. It’s a great way to make sure you enjoy those moments again.

I would say digital process management software – organising and managing processes well is critical to the smooth running of most businesses and so having a system that can help manage that and even automate parts of it can be very value -adding. 

AH: From a professional perspective our firm is now 1 year into its 5 -year plan and we have ambitions to grow and build the business both in the UK and internationally over that period. As such that’s a key priority for me and everyone in the team.