Contact Orla
"There’s a great deal of consolidation taking place in the telecoms industry, raising huge opportunities for the mergers that can help organisations join to become greater than the sum of their parts. But there are also deep pitfalls to avoid, and guiding clients around these is the biggest challenge for transformation directors."
At a glance:
Joined Baringa in
2016
Works across
Technology transformation
Favourite place
Touring the deserts of California and Nevada on trips to visit her husband’s family
In detail:
With a science background and a degree in physics, Orla joined BT’s graduate scheme, which allowed her to explore roles across the business – as a systems engineer, product manager for broadband, and in business development and strategy. Hungry for broader experience beyond telecoms, she moved to a large consultancy’s technology team advising on large IT sourcing and supplier migration programmes. She then joined a global technology vendor to build an EMEA consulting team implementing pioneering technology. In 2016, Orla came to Baringa to grow our technology transformation practice.
Orla advises and then delivers technology-enabled change programmes for our global clients. She designs operating models, plans organisation change and advises on cost reduction. As the industry fragments and develops, clients are looking to move from dated systems provided by one supplier to systems using best-in-class suppliers across categories. In these situations, Orla helps clients to build a compelling benefits case for the transformation, advises on sourcing, and plans the transitions to deliver seamless connections across technologies and suppliers. As a leader in our technology team, Orla identifies new trends and suppliers to ensure her clients always have access to the cutting edge.
Orla acts as a guiding advisor, focusing relentlessly on her clients’ interests, and helping them to navigate a complex environment of suppliers and solutions. Over her career, she’s learnt that people are at the heart of embedding every technology transformation into a business. This applies to understanding how to help client IT teams to better articulate their benefit to the wider business they’re part of. As the importance of technology in business increases, she finds focusing on people creates a virtuous circle – more capable client IT teams can more easily secure more funding for projects to improve customer experience, leading to better business performance.
Orla is married, with a two-year-old daughter who keeps her and her husband on their toes. A great music fan, she’s taught herself piano over the last few years, and still plays the violin, an instrument she first picked up as a young child. She keeps active with boxing and yoga and enjoys taking time to practise mindfulness.