My Agilisys journey: Zoe Wilson

Head of Enterprise Collaboration & Productivity, Zoe Wilson shares more about her role within Agilisys’ Workforce Productivity Business Unit. What is your role within Agilisys?  My current role is Head of Enterprise Collaboration & Productivity – a strategic role within our Workforce Productivity Business Unit. I work closely with some of our partners such as Microsoft to ensure we’re ahead of […]

Head of Enterprise Collaboration & Productivity, Zoe Wilson shares more about her role within Agilisys’ Workforce Productivity Business Unit.

What is your role within Agilisys? 

My current role is Head of Enterprise Collaboration & Productivity – a strategic role within our Workforce Productivity Business Unit. I work closely with some of our partners such as Microsoft to ensure we’re ahead of the curve from a technology perspective, and to help customers and colleagues alike really make the most of the productivity and collaboration tools within Microsoft 365.  I am also a founding member of our Agilisys Women’s Empowerment committee and am in the process of establishing an internal Agilisys Speakers Club!  

I don’t really have a typical day as every day is different! However, a ‘normal’ day could include product and collateral development, sales enablement, planning marketing campaigns, client presentations and workshops, responding to bids and tenders, or presenting at technology events.  

Tell us about your team 

I work as part of the leadership team for our modern workplace practice: Workforce Productivity. This is one of the largest business units in Agilisys with over 100 people. We have analysts, engineers, architects, and project and programme managers who work across all the technical workloads within Microsoft 365. As you can see, we have a diverse team and daily, I get to work with fantastic people who are constantly innovating and challenging what can be done with technology!

I also work in several project teams which cross over the entirety of Agilisys. This includes our corporate functions such as Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, as well as the other technology, account, and customer teams. It is a real pleasure working with so many different people who all go the extra mile to deliver for our customers, and who each brings with them their own unique experience.   

How did you get to where you are now? 

I’ve been in a leadership role for around 5 years now, but my background is technical. I have worked with IT and various forms of SharePoint over the past 15 years and have plenty of experience of using technology to solve business problems.

Over the years, I have worked my way up from first line and desk-side support roles, to more senior technical roles, and now into leading technical teams. This has given me a great understanding of the end-user, what their needs are, and the best outcomes that we can deliver for them.  

Prior to Agilisys, I worked for a real mix of organisations – with loads of public sector experience. I also worked within the oil and gas industry and for a large global real estate company (this comprised 80k+ employees)!  

Coming into Agilisys, this mix of experience was particularly useful in understanding the kind of challenges that our customers face.  My current role is my third role within Agilisys. I have been promoted twice in my time here – something which I think is testament to the growth and development opportunities within Agilisys! 

What do you enjoy most about your job and working at Agilisys? 

For me, there are a number of things which make Agilisys a great place to work. To name but a few: 

• The people. Agilisys as an organisation often talks about how the people are its key assets, and I really must agree with this. It is such a pleasure to work such a wide and diverse range of people from all types of backgrounds, at all different stages in their career and who bring such a wide range of skills, experience and viewpoints with them.  

• The technology. I love the fact that we get to work with the cutting edge of workplace technology. We often get to take part in Microsoft technology previews which enables us to share our passion for technology with customers.  

• The customers. I get a lot of pleasure out of helping our public sector customers. There is a real sense of achievement and satisfaction when you deliver technology which has a profound transformative impact on their ways of working, their processes and the general technology experience.  

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their career in SharePoint or Microsoft 365? 

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was to focus on the business outcome, remember who the end-user is, and really understand what it is you are trying to achieve.  

It’s also  important to keep things simple! For example, an old manager of mine ripped to shreds a SharePoint solution I created because for those using it, it added additional steps and effort into their business process. At the time it was a hard pill to swallow but he was right. It was such a valuable lesson to learn – one that I have never forgotten!   

Sometimes with technology, we start trying to come up with a solution which ends up being over-complicated – instead of keeping it simple and focusing on the business outcome we’re trying to achieve rather than the technology we want to use.   

From a learning perspective, there are also tonnes of useful resources online for SharePoint and the rest of Microsoft 365 – the best way to get started is to start! Get hands on, play around, watch the videos, read the blogs, and just get some practical experience. There has never been a better time to work with this technology than the present – with 15 years’ experience, I have never been as excited by the developments Microsoft are making than I am right now!