• Scotland
• 5G
• Innovation

Written by Louise Stokes, Director at Digital Leaders

As part of this year’s DL100 Awards, we once again asked each of our 12 Regions to name their choice of DL Local Champion for 2018, and the names are in. Once more, they reflect the cross-sector community that make up Digital Leaders in the UK. We have representatives from SMEs, Central and Local Government, Academia, Charities and Enterprise.

Alison McLaughlin is the 2018 Digital Leaders Local Champion for Scotland!

Alison McLaughlin is the Director for Sopra Steria’s Devolved Government Business in Scotland and Northern Ireland.  Having been with the company since its days as Newell & Budge, Alison has been key to the company’s sustained growth in Scotland – particularly in Public Sector.

Alison is a strong advocate for Digital Transformation.  Being a mother of a disabled child, Alison has first-hand experience of the very real benefits to people’s lives that technical innovation presents.  This experience has fuelled her motivation to build and lead a business that supports public sector clients to transform their services with the benefits for users at the core.

Within Sopra Steria, Alison has pioneered new service offerings based on user driven design and implemented new tools and ways of working to create a positive work environment and increase productivity.

Alison’s teams have worked on some of the government’s ground breaking digital projects across the UK including mobile solutions for prison officers, online land-based management systems for farmers, user-focussed compliance solutions for coastal fisheries offices and discovery work for implementing the newly devolved social security powers in Scotland.  

Under Alison’s leadership, Sopra Steria has supported a number of digital initiatives in Scotland including:

1. DigiLeaders. Having recognised the value of DigiLeaders in England, Alison was keen to support building a regional branch in Scotland and Sopra Steria were the first sponsors for DigiLeaders Scotland.   
2. SOCITM Top Talent. Sopra Steria is the sole sponsor of this programme which is aimed at developing digital leadership in Scotland’s public sector. Alison and her team are also active contributors to the programme.
3. Digital Participation. Sopra Steria was one of the first signatories of Scotland’s Digital Participation Charter and the company has supported a number of initiatives with direct funding, fund raising and staff personal contribution.  Alison was also a founding member of the Digital Participation Programme Board in Scotland.
4. Women in Tech.  Alison is actively involved with Women in Tech  and encourages and supports her team’s involvement in School STEM initiatives, BCS Women and Scottish Women in Technology (SWIT)

Her board experience includes: ScotlandIS, the Digital Participation programme board for Scotland and the Scottish Government Digital Advisory Board

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