Skip to main content
The ANS Podcast

The ANS Podcast

By ANS Group

Introducing the new ANS Podcast, join our Bid Manager, Anthony and Director of Marketing, Olivia every week to get industry insights from Microsoft and AWS experts, thought leadership discussions and hear from like-minded digital leaders in your sector.
Available on
Apple Podcasts Logo
Google Podcasts Logo
Pocket Casts Logo
RadioPublic Logo
Spotify Logo
Currently playing episode

From Service Desk to the Board: Meet our new Technical Director, Joe

The ANS PodcastFeb 17, 2021

00:00
26:20
The Power of Yet with Beckie Taylor

The Power of Yet with Beckie Taylor

In a one-off, bonus episode of The ANS Podcast, Olivia and Anthony catch up with this years' WIT Ambassador, Megan Corlett and special guest, Beckie Taylor, Co-Founder of skills and development training provider, Tech Returners. They talk about overcoming imposter syndrome, closing the digital skills gap and understanding the 'Power of Yet' when it comes to a change in career or return to work.

Oct 28, 202153:35
Leading with honesty: A conversation with CEO Paul Shannon

Leading with honesty: A conversation with CEO Paul Shannon

The season 1 finale has landed and CEO Paul Shannon is in the podcast green room with Anthony and Olivia to talk all things leadership and success. Listen to find out why Paul was kicked out of university, what it's been like leading a company through a pandemic, why you should always be out of your comfort zone and the mantras Paul lives by.

Apr 07, 202155:53
How we're building the next generation of digital thought leaders

How we're building the next generation of digital thought leaders

In the penultimate episode of season 1, Anthony and Olivia catch up with ANS Legend and Chief Architect Jamie Sinclair to find out about our recently launched ACE program. Jamie is part of a team developing a suite of career development roadmaps designed to challenge and guide our top techies onto the next phase in their career. Whether that be in DevOps, Data & AI or Networking (with more paths on the way), we want to hlep build the next generation of digital thought leaders.

Mar 31, 202139:45
How we're getting together even when we're apart

How we're getting together even when we're apart

The past few months have been busy at ANS as we all rack up points during our latest CSR campaign. This week, Anthony and Liv catch up with James and Sheryl who are 2 people in the team championing the initiative. We're making it our mission to see out lockdown right by keeping moving, giving back, staying social and protecting the planet. Listen to the episode to find out how it works.

Mar 24, 202131:34
How does a product manager turn dreams into innovation?

How does a product manager turn dreams into innovation?

This week Anthony and Liv talk to ANS Product Manager, Ben Potts. He's only been with ANS a year and he's already making a positive impact on his own team and the rest of the business. They caught up to find out more about Ben's role, why a Product Manager is so important in the customer journey and what exciting things are on the horizon for ANS services.

Mar 18, 202140:01
Creating culture before building apps

Creating culture before building apps

This week, Ant and Liv invited Solution Architect, Adrian Woodrup onto the show to talk about how driving a digital culture is important in the world of App Dev. Our teams are helping customers create a modern working environment that centres around the use of technology. Adrian is passionate about culture and technology to say the least so we wanted to hear what he had to say about combining the two. And if you want to see that video Anthony is talking about, head to our YouTube page. 

Mar 10, 202141:05
Building aspirations with the HideOut Youth Zone
Mar 03, 202126:58
Educate & Inspire: How to become a Microsoft MVP
Feb 24, 202137:46
From Service Desk to the Board: Meet our new Technical Director, Joe

From Service Desk to the Board: Meet our new Technical Director, Joe

This week, Anthony and Olivia catch up with ANS Technical Director, Joe Wolski. Joe's time at ANS stretches 7 years and has recently stepped up to join Liv on the board. Find out how he arrived at ANS, his first strange experience of an ANS Christmas party, what's in store for the future and what trends he sees on the horizon in the tech industry.

Feb 17, 202126:20
What does it mean to be truly agile?

What does it mean to be truly agile?

We're back! Anthony and Olivia are kicking off 2021 the best way they know how, by talking to one of the most formidable women at ANS, Rachel Wood! Rachel has been Head of Professional Services for 4 years now and has made some huge changes in that time. Anthony and Olivia catch up with her to find out how she took the best parts of the Agile methodology and made it into her own, transforming the ANS PS team into squads, the challenges she found on the way and why it was the best decision they ever made. 

Feb 11, 202128:24
Can you build Pacman using Power Apps?

Can you build Pacman using Power Apps?

It's the final episode of the year and Liv & Anthony are talking to ANS traditional-dev turned low-code-dev-extraordinaire, Simon Cobb. Simon recently made the move from the App Dev team at ANS to the Business Applications team and has never looked back. This year, Simon challenged himself to recreate the classic arcade game, Pacman, unlocking so much potential in his own skills as a low-code developer. Find out what challenges he came across building the game and why he made the leap of faith into business applications.

Simon also built Pacman using Javascript and you can play it here https://www.simoncobb.co.uk/pacman/

Dec 15, 202022:35
Women in Tech: Why it matters more in 2020

Women in Tech: Why it matters more in 2020

Anthony and Olivia chat with ANS Women in Tech Ambassador and Development Delivery Manager, Helen Crowther on this years' WIT campaign. Helen shares her own journey into tech before taking a look back at some of her own highlights from the WIT campaign this year, including the countless events we've done, the connections we've made and the amazing women we've hired this year. And no, Covid19 was never going to stop us.

Dec 02, 202027:37
Women in Tech: How to get started in mentoring

Women in Tech: How to get started in mentoring

During our second women in tech campaign at ANS, we've realised how important mentoring can be since there's a serious lack of female representation in the tech industry. We recently held a virtual event for our women in tech community to talk about how to get started with mentoring, how to find the right mentor for you, the differences between mentoring and coaching and why it's ok to put yourself out there to find someone.

The chat was run by our panel of mentoring professionals and enthusiasts:

🔘 Yvonne Matck - Founder of Coachere, a coaching, consulting and mentoring practise

🔘 Caroline Whyatt - Head of Digtial Innovation and Experimentation at PRS for Music

🔘 Helen Stansfield - Communications Manager at ANS

🔘 Helen Crowther - Development Delivery Manager at ANS and ANS Women in Tech Ambassador 2020

Nov 26, 202050:20
Being the CTO: Is it all blue sky thinking?

Being the CTO: Is it all blue sky thinking?

This week Anthony and Olivia welcome ANS CTO, Andy Barrow onto the podcast. Andy is joining the team as our 'roaming reporter' (from his home of course) to find out what is going on with our customers and partners right now. But first, we thought you should get to know Andy. In this episode, find out how he joined ANS, what his role as a CTO entails and what his predictions for the world of tech are going forward. 

Nov 19, 202027:26
Living through history: How we're building the future with our partners post-covid

Living through history: How we're building the future with our partners post-covid

Episode 7 sees Anthony and Olivia catching up with ANS' Head of Strategic Alliances, Leah Stiff. Leah tells us what happened when she tuned into Microsoft Envision this year, talking about why she found the event so refreshing, why we're leaving the old normal behind and how ANS can work closely with Microsoft to help build a positive future post-covid.

Nov 12, 202024:28
Why Covid proved digital connectivity should be your top priority

Why Covid proved digital connectivity should be your top priority

This week we're talking to Head of Digital Connectivity at ANS, Mark Johnson. Mark oversees all our digital connectivity services and has been instrumental in developing our connectivity offerings to align with the latest and emerging cloud technologies. In this episode, Anthony and Olivia find out how Mark got into tech during his military days and how connectivity has come to the forefront of organisations digital strategies during the recent pandemic.

Nov 03, 202022:34
Our Dynamics 365 acquisition 1 year on

Our Dynamics 365 acquisition 1 year on

It's been 365 days since we became a #Microsoft Dynamics 365 specialist after the acquisition of an important Dynamics 365 player, Alithya UK. On 2nd October 2019, we welcomed Adam Spurr and his team to ANS to begin an incredible year providing Dynamics 365 solutions to our customers.

Listen as Liv and Anthony interview Adam and our CTO, Andy Barrow, all about why Alithya and ANS were the right fit, how the team found it becoming part of a bigger company and what the next 12 months look like for ANS as we expand our digital services post-Covid. 

Oct 01, 202021:58
How BDO automated the client lifecycle with Dynamics 365

How BDO automated the client lifecycle with Dynamics 365

In episode 4, Anthony and Liv catch up on what it's been like returning to the office before we listen to our latest webinar with leading accountancy and business firm, BDO.

Mark Sykes, Partner at BDO joined us to discuss how they have leveraged Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM to keep current clients content and engaged, attract more clients and win more work.  Since implementing Dynamics, the organisation has been able to improve the client experience though improved insight, promote cross stream working and reduced waste and improve leveragability.

Sep 15, 202043:17
How we're using Microsoft Power Apps to reopen the office safely
Sep 11, 202026:20
How Essex and Southend-on-Sea Councils are tackling Covid-19 in the local community

How Essex and Southend-on-Sea Councils are tackling Covid-19 in the local community

Episode 2 sees us hear how Essex and Southend-on-Sea Councils are tackling Covid-19 in the local community with a case management system for coronavirus contact tracing at a regional level.  

Our guest, Paul Aldred, IT Business Partner at Essex County Council explains how the councils have leveraged ANS’ pre-built Microsoft Dynamics Case Management Accelerator to create, triage and action complex cases which are passed to them from the national Track and Trace system.  

Using this Accelerator, the councils are now able to contain potential Covid-19 outbreaks in locations such as workplaces, housing complexes, care homes and schools.

If you're interested in finding out more about our Case Management Accelerator, head here

Sep 03, 202040:32
Hiring through Covid-19: Why we’re taking on more apprentices in lockdown

Hiring through Covid-19: Why we’re taking on more apprentices in lockdown

In our very first episode, we're talking to our People and Development Specialist, Katy Rawlinson, about the amazing apprenticeship opportunities we offer, what it's like to be an apprentice at ANS, why we think ANS is the best place to start your career in tech and why we're continuing to grow our teams and hire inspiring people throughout lockdown.

Find out more about what it's like to work at ANS on our Instagram.

Sep 03, 202027:31
The ANS Podcast: Trailer

The ANS Podcast: Trailer

Think you know ANS? We’re about to open your eyes to what it’s really like. Join Olivia J, our Marketing Director and Anthony, our Bid Manager, every week as they fill us in on the latest from, ANS. No filter. Listen to the trailer to hear the moment Olivia asked Anthony to co-host our brand new podcast!

Aug 10, 202001:46