A Chat With Toby Parkins, Co-founder and Group CEO at Tech Delivery Partner: Headforwards

Tell us about Headforwards

Headforwards is a technology delivery partner that works with a global client base of businesses navigating transformation. We’re a team of software engineers and technology experts that help our clients define, build and integrate the right software and solutions for their business and manage it securely.

I co-founded the company in 2011, working with NTT to establish a business model. We founded the business around beliefs that enabled Agile delivery, with self-organising teams and bringing the right expertise onto the right projects. We still work to these principles today, frankly because it works.

What do you think makes this company unique?

I’m not sure any company is unique these days, but one of the things we have always been consistent on is really emphasising the importance of the right expertise in order to deliver the right software and technology solutions. In the early days all of our teams were hand-selected for each client and dedicated to each client.

Our model has evolved now as clients are looking for more project-based work, but we still craft a team for each project. As my co-founder Craig Girvan always says, “You can recruit a bunch of developers but that doesn’t give you a team”. It’s the team element that delivers the best results.

What is the biggest challenge for transformation success?

There are always emerging technologies that leaders are under pressure to implement as quickly as possible. In our experience, they are seen as game-changing technologies, but true transformation goes beyond the tech and software and helps to solve business challenges. Ultimately, a broken process won’t be fixed by technology.

Communication always plays a critical role in successful transformations. Any change an organisation undertakes with new tech can encounter resistance, particularly if the developed solutions don’t meet users’ needs. People are more likely to embrace change if it makes life easier and allows them to become more productive. One of our clients had a solution built by a systems integrator and delivered with minimal collaboration; it failed. Within three weeks we built a proof of concept that outclassed the previous product – effective communication ensures you build what users need and like.

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

We’ve launched the Headforwards Digital Academy, offering software development coaching to develop skills and bring new talent into the industry, for ourselves and our clients. There’s something really healthy about having that full-life-cycle approach. Organisations must be thinking more about tech teams as a blend of talent rather than numbers of people for effective transformation.

In response to client needs, we have also built out an advisory arm to the business which offers cyber security, architecture review and software delivery assessment services. We also offer a Fractional CIO service led by Pete Reed, our lead Advisory partner, previously CIO of AXA Health.

What can we hope to see from Headforwards in the future?

We are ambitious for business growth, so I expect you’ll be seeing a lot more of us! We’re keen to expand our reach and work with more organisations using true engineering expertise to deliver superior outcomes and develop new capabilities. A lot of our clients are innovating, and we’ve been running some really successful POCs and MVPs that accelerate their trajectory.

We also engage in how we can support the growth and development of the sector. I’ll be working closely on the Headforwards Digital Academy and how that can be developed so the industry works alongside education and we get highly deployable talent coming through.