How Steven Pereira, Branch Executive Committee Member, ACS Victoria is finding his way through the COVID-19 crisis
16th June 2020
Find out how other VIC BEC members Craig Horne and Ghislaine Entwisle are finding their way through COVID-19.
Highlights
- Steven Pereira shares with us how COVID-19 has impacted his life and work and what changes he made to get thorugh the crisis
- His advice to younger tech professionals is to "work not for mere pay, but from a real desire to serve".
- He also shares how ACS membership played a crucial part in their teams transformational journey, right from establishment of skills and capabilities to process, IT team and culture.
1. Where are you, and what is daily working life like for you right now?
I am currently working from home in my new home in Bentleigh, Victoria. GS1 started having its employees WFH from early March and currently over 95% of staff have been remote working. My daily routine has been to regularly attend the 3 times/week virtual gathering of our Incidence Response Team. We started meeting daily but have reduced our regular meet. Then apart from scheduled meetings, I will spend time either preparing for these or the necessary planning paperwork. We are in our budget planning process and am also planning for our next 3 year strategic business plan. Because of the access of my workstation at home it is easy to leave it during quite times of the day and return to it during the evenings. I love the flexibility of remote working.
2. What do you enjoy most about working in the tech?
We have a vision in our IT team, “Evolving Technology, Inspiring Success”. I believe that inspiring success of our users, the business and eventually our members should be the driver for whatever we do in IT. This give me the greatest satisfaction.
3. What is the key piece of advice you’d give to your younger self?
The one piece of advice I was received when I was younger and worth repeating is “Work not for mere pay, but from a real desire to serve. Do not look down on those given into your care, but be an example”.
4. Within your current role and team, what’s the biggest achievement you’ve celebrated as a team?
The biggest achievement by far had been the transformation of our Office applications to Office 365 and at the same time migrating our enterprise systems to MS Dynamics 365 CRM and Finance & Operations. It was a two year transformation program of work which started when the business case to change was accepted by the senior leadership team. We knew it needed to happen, and it came as an early ‘Christmas present’ in November 2015. While we celebrated along the way, it was a massive acknowledgement when we ‘crossed the line’ on time and on budget in 2018.
5. How has ACS membership supported your organisations journey in tech?
The subscription in ACS membership for the entire IT team was a crucial part of the transformation journey. It was not only about our systems, but also our process, our IT team and culture. The initial part of our transformation was the establishment of the skills and capabilities of the IT team based on the SFIA framework.