Andy Williamson, SWAN Programme Manager

Andy Williamson

Job Title/Organisation: SWAN Programme Manager/Scottish Government

What does your role involve?

Delivering the Scottish Wide Area Network Programme (SWAN)

What do you consider to be the most imminent challenge in your line of work?

Using digital technology to enable cross public sector collaboration and cooperation and reduce the costs of doing so by enabling more collaborative procurements as we did with SWAN.

What has been the most rewarding piece of work you've undertaken?

Building a wireless network for the village where I live in South Wales before BT enabled the area with broadband.

How can Scotland bridge the digital skills gap?

By organisations embracing and getting involved with The Digital Scotland Business Excellence Partnership.

Which new technology excites you the most?

It’s not new, but we’re not exploiting wireless technology as we should be to ensure an ‘always on’ society.

What's your favourite app and why?

The BBC iPlayer Radio. So I can listen to Radio 4 Extra and the late 60’s, early 70’s radio comedies. Makes the tram ride to work more bearable.

What, for you, will 2016 be the year of from a technology/digital standpoint?

Hopefully - and finally - being able to access superfast broadband at home after state aid intervention paid BT to deliver it.