Intuit is famed for its financial products but what people don’t often see is the meticulous skill and effort that go into designing these much-loved platforms. Here, in an exclusive deep-dive, Digital Bulletin speaks to a number of the company’s design team to find out how Intuit has carved out a reputation as one of the world’s most innovative design centres
Intuit is a company that was founded with design excellence in mind. When it was formed in the early 1980s, there were already a number of businesses offering software to help people manage their financial lives. But co-founder Scott Cook saw an unique opportunity to create a better product by focusing on delivering the value customers wanted the most — saving time with financial admin — through a simple and elegant solution. This was the beginning of Intuit’s original product ‘Quicken’ which became market-leading in a matter of just a few years.
Since then, the company has made its…
How the London borough of Harrow and Version 1 took on a major IT transformation and delivered lasting success in spite of the challenges.
Twelve months ago, amidst the most challenging of circumstances, a London borough embarked on a remarkable technology transformation on behalf of its quarter of a million residents.
This major programme for Harrow Council — in the north-west of the capital — involved an overhaul of its tech-services delivery model and the wholesale transition of its infrastructure from incumbent partners and a legacy data centre to the cloud. That it would be undertaken during a global pandemic and led by an IT Director just weeks into the job made the challenge all the more daunting.
“We had to create an entirely…
Slack’s Head of UK, Stuart Templeton, writes about how technology is continuing to strengthen business ecosystems and customer experiences
From the start of the pandemic, organisations around the globe have reworked their businesses in order to keep serving customers in a changing world.
While it’s been one of the most challenging years in history, by accelerating important transformations in response, we are now in a position to cement the long-term changes that will help businesses thrive in the future. Let’s be mindful not to go back to the pre-pandemic status-quo.
The most immediately obvious of these changes are employee centric. …
Tech For Good speaks to Godfrey Ryan, Kura’s CEO, about how technology can make home-to-school transportation safer, easier, and more sustainable
“We’re here!”, “Don’t forget your coat!”, “Have a nice day at school!” Every morning, the areas surrounding schools are buzzing with children making their way into the school, and cars and buses trying to park or leave. Anyone would describe the school drop-off as noisy and chaotic, but few pay attention to the effects that the daily concentration of vehicles in the areas surrounding schools can have on children’s health and safety.
Insurance industry figures show that 37% of local school areas in the UK had at least one child road injury every year from 2006 to 2011. In addition…
Great power comes with great responsibility, and that is particularly true of new technologies. Each month, Tech for Good discusses the potential benefits and dangers of technological advances that are coming to market. This month we ask: Is online learning better than in-person teaching?
Tech for Good?
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a new way of teaching — online learning — which is set to change education forever. Distance teaching is flexible, affordable and sustainable. The UK’s Open University has found that online courses equate to an average of 90% less energy and 85% fewer CO2 emissions per student than in-person courses. And the quality of teaching doesn’t suffer. A 2012 study from Babson/College Board showed that 77% of academic leaders believed that online education offerings were just as good, if not better, than traditional education.
The benefits of online education can already…
How can artificial intelligence keep people safe? Richard Zak, Microsoft’s Director for Public Safety and Jack Williams, Director of Portfolio Marketing at Hexagon, discuss how public agencies can leverage AI technologies to support emergency services and improve public safety
From firefighters, to doctors and even call centre workers, it takes a lot of people to keep a city safe. Now, one more agent has joined the watch: artificial intelligence.
Although the push for new technologies in the public sector has always been present, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated it. Globally, law enforcement agencies are expected to spend $18.1 billion on software tools and systems in the next two years. …
Viewing content in 3D using just our eyes has long been the stuff of science fiction. But leaps in technology mean volumetric video is making huge strides, with vast potential for consumers, public sector and businesses alike. Digital Bulletin speaks to Phil Baulch, Corporate and Public Sector Director, CTIO, BT Enterprise, to find out more
What is volumetric video and why is it important?
Volumetric video is a way of capturing a person, object or environment in three dimensions so that it can be seen remotely in 3D from any perspective — a bit like a holographic representation. It is one of the technologies BT is experimenting with at Adastral Park, an innovation centre backed by the UK government’s 5G Create funding initiative. There we have the “5G Edge-XR” — a diverse consortium of six specialist companies engaged in what, until recently, would have been unimaginable. …
Each month, Tech for Good speaks to one teenage entrepreneur about their incredible achievements in the world of tech, and how they’re contributing to making the world a better place.
Name: Michelle Hua
Age: 16
Born: Michigan, USA
Achievements: As a coder and competitive gymnast, there’s little that Michelle can’t do. The 16-year-old has won the $75,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award for its movement-tracking algorithm, that she developed during lockdown to help her with her gymnastics training. Her research for this project was later published in the journal Computer Aided Geometric Design.
I started doing gymnastics when I was really young, around seven or eight years old. My parents wanted me to do something outside of school to keep me active so they gave me the choice between more…
During an emergency, reliable data can save lives. Tech For Good speaks to the leadership of the East of England Ambulance Service about how a digital data lake can help managers make better decisions, and achieve faster and better patient care for the six million people they serve
The phone rings. “999 what is your emergency?” If the situation is life-threatening, an ambulance is expected to have reached the patient within eight minutes after receiving a call. In these cases, every minute counts and having accurate information about the emergency is essential.
But when patients welcome the ambulance services, they don’t want to repeat to the clinicians the same story that they’ve just told over the phone, and do it all over again once they reach the hospital. They don’t want to have to recall their medical history and previous treatments when they’re in a state of…
AWS is rolling out a new cloud skills training programme with the goal of helping people from underemployed areas while also mitigating the skills crisis that comes alongside the exponential growth in the adoption of cloud. Tech For Good speaks to the people behind it to learn how cloud skills can change lives
American web pioneer, co-founder of Netscape and Facebook board member Marc Andreesen, once remarked: “Every kid coming out of Harvard, every kid coming out of school now thinks he can be the next Mark Zuckerberg, and with these new technologies like cloud computing, he actually has a shot.”
But every kid is not coming out of Harvard, or even an education system that arms him or her with the skills necessary to succeed in the modern world. …
