Throughout the pandemic, the speed at which technology had to be adopted within businesses was accelerated like never before.

Public, private and third sector organisations had to quickly adapt, rushing to implement digital infrastructure and train staff to deal with technological updates and subsequent processes.

As the pandemic continued, it became clear that the third sector was going to need ongoing support to help it adapt to the new normal.

The Scottish Tech Army (STA) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in April 2020, initially established as a pandemic crisis response initiative.

Its aim was to recruit volunteers from the Scottish tech industry to help charities and other organisations to deal with the effects of the pandemic, delivering digital solutions to help them carry out their work more efficiently and at larger scale.

Now two years on, and the STA has helped hundreds of Scottish organisations, and is continuing to provide a boost to the community.

As it looks forward to the second anniversary of its foundation, DIGIT spoke with STA founder Alistair Forbes and head of partnerships Kirsty McIntosh about the Scottish tech for good ecosystem, and the importance of collaboration.

The Scottish Tech Army

Throughout its second year of operations, the STA has been focusing on its expanded mission of helping to build the ‘Tech for Good ecosystem’.

In the first 12 months after its inception, the STA organised volunteers to work directly with individual charities and volunteer organisations to help them to deliver their services more effectively.

Commenting on the STA work in 2021, Forbes says: “In the last year, a lot of our activities have been around looking to see how we can expand the network of connections within the Scottish tech for good ecosystem, building on a lot of tremendous work that’s already happening, but it’s happening in silos and in pockets.”

Forbes added that an increasing part of the activity has been about developing relationships with companies in the tech and tech-related sectors to tap into the resources that they have, including their skilled people, technology, or financial resources.

“We have developed relationships with several companies already, and we’ve had people coming in as skilled volunteers from those organisations and that’s certainly a big part of the programme of activities,” he says.

“Lots of companies offer volunteer days to their staff where they can go on company time and do volunteer work, but these are often not taken up to the extent they could be. We believe that part of the reason for this is that they find it difficult to find opportunities to put their highly developed talents to work. One of our aims is to help bridge that gap” Forbes adds.

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The team at the STA, which includes Forbes and McIntosh, as well as Joanna Allen, Head of Projects and Programme and Michael von Euw, Head of Applications, see the future of the STA as one of collaboration.

A big driver of this need for organisations to collaborate is the impact the pandemic is continuing to have across Scotland. Around £12 billion was lost in the UK third sector in terms of funding in 2020 alone, and the climate remains challenging for many of these organisations.

“I think it’s interesting, that the pandemic itself almost forced the issue of digital very much to the forefront. For some organisations, it was the only way that they were going to be able to deliver their support,” McIntosh says.

“It was a way of raising money because they lost their fundraising opportunities for things like sponsored runs and bake sales and all that kind of thing, so they needed to switch to a much more digital fundraising presence,” she adds.

Collaboration is key

One of the key things Forbes notes is that, so far, many of the connections made between organisations tend to be based on individual network connections.

Despite the importance of these connections, Forbes adds that he would like to see collation of these groups of interested parties around themes and see more collaboration between academia, industry, and government around responsible use of technology.

“We’ve looked at the various topics that are potentially amenable to the use of technology, and we’ve homed in on a few key areas including social justice, inclusion, and equality, skills and talent development and environment and climate change” Forbes says.

Forbes notes that though each of challenges could be tackled individually, gaining a more holistic understanding of what people face will make it easier to deal with them.

Forbes continues: “The outcome statistics for people who’ve been through some form of care in childhood are just dreadful.

“So, if we can help by making the links to address these challenges in a more holistic way, then, hopefully we can offer up more opportunities to make a real impact on them.”

Tech for good ecosystem

Forbes and McIntosh highlight the work and the evolution of the Scottish tech for good ecosystem in Scotland and celebrate the role and contribution of the STA volunteers, its Agents of Change, who help the organisations supported by the STA to deliver positive outcomes.

“One of the things we believe is important is to show the examples of ‘good’; of where Scottish tech for good initiatives work,” McIntosh says. Commenting on the impact that technology has had for firms since the STA started sending volunteers to aid Scottish organisations, McIntosh says that she is pleased to see increased interest in adoption.

“Many of the requests that we get from organisations are ‘I’ve got this piece of technology and I don’t know how to use it’ or ‘I’ve got this system and it’s not working properly’. So much of the work that’s being done is making sure that investments made in technology are being leveraged and giving them confidence to push it even harder.”

McIntosh adds: “Many of these organisations are paying for licences for technology but are probably only using around 10% of what they have at their fingertips.”

Scotland’s impact on the tech for good stage

With organisations like the STA operating in Scotland, the country is a spearheading collaboration and inclusivity in the tech for good ecosystem.

McIntosh says that the impact of the pandemic and the subsequent recovery is now being seen through issues like the rising cost of living but adds there is no reason why Scotland shouldn’t be doing more to change that.

“Technology has a big role to play there, and we want make people realise that it is possible there are things that they can, and should, do and we should take responsibility for it.”

Forbes agrees and adds that the need for collaboration – and Scotland’s role – on the global stage is enormous: “If we can demonstrate the greater impact that can be achieved through collaboration, that’s a model and it would be fantastic to be able to showcase that to other countries around the world.

“Estonia, for example, is very much a digitally native country, so that small country has had a massive influence and impact on the world and that’s in that sphere.

“If we can demonstrate in Scotland that we are able to build a strong and vibrant Scottish tech for good ecosystem. I think that’d be a great, great thing to be able to share with the wider UK and ultimately countries around the world.”

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