Meet the people who help our clients design and build innovative technology solutions to benefit their businesses as well as their customers: our subject matter experts aka SMEs. In this series, we’ll discover how they came to work in the industry and the changing role of technology in our lives. We’ll also get a glimpse into what makes them tick as people outside of work.
This time, our guest on Meet the SME is Brian Estep, our EVP North America and Global Mobility Lead, based in New Orleans, Louisiana. With his diverse background of military, engineering, and business experience, he’s a leader who loves to drive success.
Thank you for joining us, Brian. So, what has brought you into the tech industry and the mobility sector?
I entered the tech industry in 2000 as a software engineer after studying computer science following a counter narcotics career with the USCG (United States Coast Guard). I have always had a love for technology, so going into tech just made sense. I moved more to the business side around 2005 and became very focused on mobility in 2019. I am very motivated and passionate about Mobility as a Service (MaaS) for many reasons, one being the sheer size of the transformation this will bring to our world – this is massive! Another is how it affords me a way to directly impact increasing the world’s sustainability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
What has been the biggest innovation since you have been working in the industry?
There have been so many innovations that make mobility possible, but some of the most important are the advancement of 5G, cloud, edge computing and IoT. I would say that these are the core backbone for making mobility happen. Other advancements in things like real-time data and analytics, AI & ML, electric vehicles (EVs) and regulations/policies are also big contributors.
And what is the biggest challenge or opportunity you are seeing and what should businesses be doing to prepare for this?
That is a tough one to answer because it depends on where a business sits within the mobility ecosystem. One of the larger challenges that spans most of it is a standardised, consistent, and democratised marketplace for sharing and monetising mobility data. I believe this should be an open and shared platform to which businesses should be looking to contribute. A platform like this should not increase the cost of entry for MaaS users, though.
Another important aspect would be frictionless payments, as this will absolutely be expected by mobility users and needs to maintain the expected ease of use and privacy found today in transit. This needs to be part of a business’s strategy and not just left to the payments providers to figure out. I could go on and on from different points of view…
What is the Endava project you are most proud of and why?
There are so many, but one that springs to mind is the work we did with a fleet operator to expand their business by enabling EV car sharing, EV car renting, and EV final mile delivery services. We created entirely new revenue streams for the business while in parallel decreasing carbon emissions and improving the lives of the people in the regions they serve. The actual technology that was delivered – a beautiful new website and mobile app – is completely centred around the user.
What is an important learning in the work space that you would like to share?
Be bold and put yourself out there, take some risks before it’s too late. Make yourself useful and valuable to everyone you encounter, no matter their position or stature.
We’d like to close with a few more personal questions. If you could go back in time and visit any historic period, where – or rather when – would you go?
I would go back to the time of Jesus and witness His many miracles
What topic could you give a 20-minute presentation on without any preparation?
Mobility as a Service
Would you be brave enough to share one of your guilty pleasures with us?
Definitely ice cream
Finally, would you share a favourite quote with us to send our readers off with some inspiration?
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” (Peter Pan)
Thank you, Brian, for these views on mobility, work, and life. Everybody, stay tuned for more insights into the work and life of Endavans in the next part of our Meet the SME series!