60 SECONDS WITH Name: Ms Saj Sharif Company Name: Zen Consultants Ltd Web: zenconsultants.co.uk Q In five words or less, what does your organisation do? A Provide Bespoke Holisitic Accountancy Services
Q How long have your been in your current role? A 16 years
Q What does a week in your job look like? A Exciting as no 2 days are the same.
Satisfying as I know we are supporting and making our clients happy.
Q Your proudest moment with your organisation, or biggest ‘win’? A The way we pull together as a team to meet intense short deadlines. The SME & Employer of the years awards.
Q Your favourite top tip or quote in business? A “We take the tax out of taxing” and get excited about each clients tax efficiency.
Q How long have you been a member of the Chamber for and why did you join? A 3 years, I was invited to join by Richard Ellis, I could see value in being a member.
GET WITH IT Julian Slater
Saj Sharif
By Bill Magee Scottish Business Technology Writer of the Year
In this Digital Age when it comes to businesses searching for fresh ways to be innovative in uncertain economic times, the burgeoning Metaverse can appear the obvious way forward. But it requires careful commercial handling. Business and commerce is urged to counter such risks by ensuring it is working in secure cloud and hybrid cloud environments, as increasing numbers of employees work remotely.
For some it remains a niche online entertainment/social playground involving 3D video games incorporating augmented reality (AR) glasses and virtual reality (VR) headsets. To others it looks likely to become "successor state" to the entire internet. One thing is certain - it cannot be ignored. It is estimated the "Metaverse economy" will boast a global market value surpassing £10 TRILLION by 2030. Some businesses are already tentatively embracing, or thinking about engaging with such a futuristic immersive technology. The fear is it could be far too easy to get lost in such a huge entity that dwarves other tech innovations. Also, a new survey warns of serious privacy and safety risk implications ahead, where
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Michelle Hawkins, managing director for Accenture Scotland, told The Scotsman the metaverse represents an opportunity to view the internet differently. introducing VR and AR into workspaces increases security risks, attracting identity theft and ransomware. We're talking about a metaverse largely operating in the Cloud that can be challenging to protect. Especially when it comes to online harm, moderating real-time content along with safeguarding proprietary rights, payments and consumer protection.
Not as a disparate collection of sites and apps. Rather envisioning a "persistent 3D environment", where moving from work to a social platform is as simple as crossing the street. Just beware "bad actors" and deepfakes. It remains "business critical" that the actions and choices organisations make today will set the metaverse stage for the future.