Digital futures: Amazon Web Services (AWS) on digital transformation

At the first in our Digital Futures at Oxford series of thought leadership sessions, we heard from Phil Le-Brun, Director of Enterprise Strategy at Amazon Web Services (AWS). The session was opened by Stuart Lee, Oxford's Deputy Chief Information Officer, who set the scene for iTransform, our digital transformation programme.

Illustration only - digital transformation: Attributes of a 21st century agile organisation - Amazon Web Services

Phil Le-Brun shared his experience of driving major digital transformation programmes for large corporations and his views on what digital transformation means for the higher education sector. He told us how successful corporations approach digital transformation in a holistic way, shifting the focus away from the technology to create an agile cultures driven by users’ needs, rewiring how they do business to create new business models.

Phil also told us about the power of technology to transform societies through the creation of new skills, new jobs and new workspaces. He illustrated ways of driving success through clarity of purpose, clear principles, clear outcome measures and an understanding that the journey of digital transformation is not linear but iterative, and it requires the agility to adapt. 

For those unable to attend the session, a recording of Phil's talk is available for you to watch (requires SSO). You can find information about this series and future events on our innovation page, or the IT news and events page.

Further information and getting involved 

Digital Futures at Oxford is a series of thought leadership sessions organised by IT Services where we are inviting leaders from industry and external organisations to share their views on the future direction of digital in higher education. More sessions are planned for Hilary term, including the Future of education, Student lifecycle/Mixed reality, Cybersecurity, and Automation.

Join the conversation in Oxford's Digital futures community forum on Teams. If you would like further information about any of the sessions, please contact innovation@it.ox.ac.uk.