Dominic Collard

Freelance Business Writer

United Kingdom

I am a freelance business writer. I work mainly on ghosted articles for senior leaders in technology, cybersecurity, fintech and marketing sectors. I was previously lead writer at Oracle, and editor at Pearson.

I also write blogs, speeches, customer profiles and case studies, short copy for advertising and marketing campaigns, video scripts and advise on content strategy.

To discuss commissions please email dominiccollard@gmail or call +44(0) 7796 774578.

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Portfolio

Latest work

IT-Online
08/11/2023
When it comes to AI, bigger is not better

AI is seemingly everywhere and becoming more pervasive. It didn't start with ChatGPT, but its arrival on the scene in November last year has ratcheted up the stakes.

Wonderhatch
11/23/2022
How Films Can Shape Our Future Spaces | Wonderhatch

The art and power of film is hugely important to us at Wonderhatch - we're a team of filmmakers and film lovers, and you only need to look as far as our recent work for BFI's London Film Festival to see that. Recently, our co-founder Marc Webbon was asked to speak at the American Society [...]

Rittman Mead
12/13/2022
Why Data Governance Is More About Enabling Good Than Stopping Bad

It seems like every day businesses are bombarded with reminders of the value of data. Data, we are told, leads us to make smarter decisions that deliver better outcomes. No arguments there. But we are constantly reminded of the dangers of data too; of the consequences of losing it, accidentally

Branding

Wonderhatch
Wonderhatch - pitch deck

In the digital era, your business is facing a new challenge. How to create enough content that keeps your audience engaged? How to make sure it is aligned with your brand values and business priorities? And how to do that affordably, without compromising quality?

Schibsted
Who we are | Schibsted

Schibsted is a family of digital brands with more than 5 000 employees. We have world-class media houses in Scandinavia, leading marketplaces and digital services that empower consumers. Millions of people interact with Schibsted companies every day. Schibsted's products and services help people make informed choices, live more sustainable lives,

Thought leadership

Thriva Solutions
How to #leanin in a male dominated industry

Professional women are not short of empowering mantras, but the reality can be far more challenging. It's all well and good for women to #leanin, but what if those calling the shots don't want to let them in? Alas, that remains a reality. The numbers show that women still struggle when it comes to workplace equality.

Finance Derivative
07/29/2023
A bank's ESG record depends on how its technology is built

ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) has become mission-critical for banks, from meeting regulatory obligations to aligning with customer values to win market share. Many banks have turned to technology to manage their ESG position. But technology is not a panacea.

Descrier
10/21/2022
Global uncertainty: maximizing the value of the technology you have

Supply chains are reeling from inflationary and workforce pressures; consumer demand is bracing itself for the full impacts of the cost of living crisis; climate change is no longer something happening elsewhere; while the machinations of geopolitics are spooking markets on an almost daily basis.

World Economic Forum
11/24/2022
Banking can harness cloud technology to hit net zero. Here's how

Cloud infrastructure can make huge emissions savings for banks. Image: rawpixel/Tong Chief Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Officer; Member of the Executive Board, Temenos Stay up to date: Banking and Capital Markets Follow Discover What is the Forum doing to improve the global banking system?

Executive profiles

Financial IT
6 Lessons I've Learned On My Way To The C-Suite

Compared to many of my contemporaries, I think my path to becoming a CFO has been a little unusual. For starters, I’m a woman and ‘we’ are still shamefully under-represented at Board level.

Forbes
A New MARS Mission: Fewer Amputees In The UK

Every hour someone in England has part of his or her leg amputated. Every two hours it's a whole leg. In addition to the human suffering, these surgical procedures cost the UK National Health Service around £4 billion a year, expected to rise to more than £7 billion by 2022.

Pearson
The boatman of Bangladesh

As a child living in north-western Bangladesh, Mohammed Rezwan had something that made an education possible. His family owned a boat.

Blogs

Checkout
08/23/2022
Five ways retailers can prepare payments for the peak season rush

The six weeks of "peak season" in November and December can account for as much as half of a retailer's annual revenue. So, it's no exaggeration to say that what happens over that period, which includes Singles Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, can make or break a retailer's year.

Metomic
The first 100 days of a startup CISO

Every new employee wants to make an immediate impact. For those going into executive positions, this motivation often comes with the leverage to enact ideas and changes quickly. But opportunity can be a double-edged sword. For some functions, the stakes of getting things right from the get go are higher-no more so than with information security.

Exasol
Supercharge your MicroStrategy platform - with the right database

In today's ultra-competitive world, making the right decisions is no longer enough. You also need to make them faster - the key to success is intelligence with speed. For many businesses, their MicroStrategy platform sits at the center of this challenge. With the sheer amount of data that you can now feed into a MicroStrategy [...]

Temenos
Everyone's Banking Platform

As I look at the industry around us, I see more change today than I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been with Temenos. Consumers are demanding easy, seamless banking experiences. And disruptive technology is making this possible. This is fundamentally shifting how banking happens, where it happens and who it happens with.

Paddle
SaaS churn rate: What does good look like?

In its most basic definition, churn is the absolute number of customers that a business loses over a given period of time. Typically, churn is expressed as a percentage of the customer base. For example, a business with 100 customers in January, that then has 90 customers in February, can be said to have a customer churn rate of 10%.

Case studies

Wall St Journal
02/11/2019
Putting Databases to Work

Oracle Autonomous Database, which launched last year, has been gaining interest and users across the business world, as organizations see the real-world payoffs from using a "self-driving" database. Here's what those benefits look like for two very different organizations-one that's helping companies embrace new technology, and one that's discovering the secrets of our universe.

Checkout.com
Checkout.com powers a 19% jump in Toolstop's approval rates

Toolstop has been focused on supplying tradespeople with tools from the best brands at competitive prices and fast delivery since 1965. They have always had the same goal, to serve their customers better than anyone else. Their customer focused service has seen them become one of the largest online suppliers of power tools in the UK.

Business Reporter
10/27/2021
How to build a community for change

Red Hat's Allyson Kouao describes how she built a vibrant new chapter of Blacks United in Leadership and Diversity (B.U.I.L.D.), and explains what other budding community builders can learn from this.

Oracle
Kings Of The Road - The fleet management system steering a course to cloud success.

A few minutes in the company of Simon West-Oliver, and you understand why he’s so ebullient. As the director of sales and marketing for DRIVE Software Solutions, he has just notched up its one-millionth vehicle on the road. That makes DRIVE, the company’s best-selling software product, one of the most popular fleet management systems in Europe.

Linkedin
Escape from Haiti - a refugee's story

Haiti should be a paradise on Earth. Tropical air breathes down from its mountains, rustling the chorus of coconut palms into a gentle surrender of their harvest.

Reports / eBooks

Thriva Solutions
A guide to Diagnostics-as-a-Service - Why you need it & how to enable it

Think about the way businesses get their technology. Be it infrastructure, software, data, security, analytics...today, the norm is to buy the service, not the stuff. This 'as-a-service' model outsources hassle to third party providers with the capabilities and expertise to do a better job.

BVNK
Merchants guide to blockchain payments

Many use cases for blockchain technology have been developed to varying degrees of success, including digital assets as an investment, decentralised financial systems, and ownership reflected in a zero-trust ledger. One proven valuable use case is making payments faster, safer, and globally accessible.

Truelayer
Your guide to stablecoin | TrueLayer

Awareness and adoption of cryptocurrencies is steadily growing. One in 10 people in the UK have held crypto , while two in five respondents to a 2021 Gemini survey said they were "crypto-curious ." Trading and fintech apps alike are taking note, competing with exchanges to reach an expanding market.

Pearson
Pearson Annual Report 2014

Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in over 70 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through all kinds of learning.

Checkout.com
eBook: Switch on the right payment methods

Discover how an effective APM strategy can boost sales. Choose the right payment methods - Failing to offer the right payment method will see almost two-thirds of customers abandon their purchase. Attract customers, make it easier for them to convert and keep the cost of transactions down.

Exasol
2022 predictions - 5 ways to gain a competitive edge

What should your data strategy incorporate over the next 12 months? How will your role as a data leader be recognized by the business? What are the trends you should pay attention to? Our experts have got together to develop a short guide to how you can take on 2022 successfully.

Event reporting

Forbes
Lessons Learned On The Front Lines Of Digital Business

LONDON-The North Greenwich part of London is an apt place to hold one of the UK's leading business events. In eyesight of the venue for Oracle Modern Business Experience is evidence of 30 years of modernization. Wasteland has made way for skyscrapers. An automated metro system snakes through towers, shuttling thousands to their offices and meetings.

Linkedin
Teaching - the art of the extraordinary in the everyday.

In the east end of London, the name of Richard Cloudesley rings loud. By all accounts a man of modest achievement, the school to which he gave his name is anything but. His life is a story that bridges 15th and 16th century England; his legacy is of a place that bridges gaps in the here and now - the gap between a childhood and a potential fulfilled.

Video scripts

YouTube
Walk the Walls

Want to level up? Our customers did by partnering with Red Hat Open Innovation Labs. Want to know how?

Personal essays

Linkedin
Four content lessons for SaaS businesses

I am just finishing a six month stint leading content at GoCardless, and prior to that at Oracle. Here are four things (though by no means the only things) I've learned about how to do content to make your SaaS business stand out.

Linkedin
The secret to A.I is something much more human

When I was a boy, I loved the stories of great inventors. Charles Babbage, the father of computers; Marie Curie and her pioneering theory of radioactivity; the Wright Brothers and their flying machine.

Linkedin
The myth of online networking

When I used to be professionally ambitious, I'd rock up at networking events all over London. They were not pleasant hunting grounds for me.

Linkedin
How the Bitcoin bubble could burst

Once viewed as the idealistic vision of cyber punks and whack jobs, Bitcoin is now mainstream. In little over a decade, it has gone from zero to a market cap of $607bn.

Archive (all formats)

Tech For Good
Making banking greener

Kalliopi Chioti, Chief Environmental, Social and Governance Officer at Temenos, on why banks need the cloud in the race to net-zero.

Divido
03/23/2022
Where will BNPL go in 2022?

The global BNPL market is set to be worth $3.98 trillion by 2030. But with regulators around the world now looking into BNPL, all with a view of protecting consumers, is it going to become harder for the market to grow? The incumbents don't think so. The BNPL market has been busy.

International Banker
05/30/2022
Why Composability Is the Future of Banking

The incumbent usually has the advantage, but this hasn't always been true for big banks-at least, not since the digital age dawned. Today, banks must meet customers' digital-experience expectations agilely and effectively, often encumbered by legacy infrastructure, while minimizing costs. But there is a solution: the composable platform.

GoCardless
8 questions to ask when choosing your payment provider

There's no one perfect payment method. Cards are convenient until they get lost or expire. Bank transfers can be quick but rely on the payer being prompt. Bank debit gives you control over payment timings, but it can take longer for your money to arrive.

Checkout.com
Five reasons for shopping cart abandonment

Shopping cart abandonment is both frustrating and expensive for merchants. Frustrating because much of the hard yards of acquiring the customer has worked and costly because all that investment is sunk without any return of revenue. There is a multitude of reasons that people abandon their carts.

TrueLayer
From sweeping to subscriptions - what's next for open banking VRPs?

Since the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fired the gun on Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) - the mechanism it has selected to let people automatically move money between their bank accounts - the UK's big nine banks have been busy building the open banking infrastructure to make it happen.

Finance Derivative
10/09/2021
How The Financial Sector Can Prepare For The New Age Of Resilience

Richard Harmon, VP & Global Head of Financial Services at Red Hat. The EU's new DORA legislation is ushering in strict rules on technology use. Businesses should embrace it as a new way to unlock innovation. Ever since the 2008 global financial crisis, governments and regulators have been on a mission to build integrity [...]

The Paypers
Request-to-Pay is banking's new opportunity

With digitalisation no longer a question of 'if', Mick Fennell, Business Line Director - Payments at Temenos explains why Request-to-Pay is the natural next step.

ABA Banking Journal
02/08/2022
Anatomy of an Effective Bank CMO

Powerful forces of change are influencing how banks approach brand strategy. And this has profound impacts on the role of the bank CMO. One of the chief forces is the will of the customer-something not unique to banks. In every sector, customers are expecting more from brands than ever before.

ITP
Why IT professionals must learn to love chaos

Take any crisis right now—from climate change to supply chain shortages to global pandemics—and much of the narrative is around resilience and robustness. In other words, preparing for the worst case scenario, and being able to limit the damage if it happens. But in a business context, this well-intentioned view of risk-management can be short-sighted.

JAXenter
11/02/2021
Balancing the benefits of edge computing with the risks

Despite being a relatively new technology term, edge computing has already established itself. It has not taken long for businesses to understand the benefits of locating their compute services right where applications are running. Speed is the obvious one.

Enterprisersproject
Why customer-centricity means being ready to say "no"

Salespeople who want to know what customer-centricity really means could do worse than to look at early Hebrew literature; about 700 B.C. to be exact, and the proverbs of King Solomon. Along with advice on the nature of wisdom and the state of the soul comes this helpful nugget: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."

Linkedin
Employee engagement is a must; but how you go about it is a choice

Most companies will be familiar with the 2013 study from the Harvard Business Review explaining how a highly engaged workforce is a more productive one. Since then a library of similar research has built up, all broadly telling the same story; when your employees are engaged, they perform better.

the Guardian
06/15/2015
The Magna Carta enshrined our liberties - now we must fight for them again | Tim Farron

Standing modestly in a solitary field in Runnymede is a commemoration to a moment when Britain became great. The sealing of the Magna Carta - "the Great Charter of the Liberties" - 800 years ago today, effectively ripped up the idea that monarchs have an invincible and divine right to rule, and established the contemporary powers of parliament and the laws that continue to protect and liberate us today.

Linkedin
Open unlocks banks' potential

2022 at Temenos began with the exciting news that we are deepening our partnership with Red Hat, an icon of open technology. Over almost 30 years, Red Hat's belief in the power of open technology has been transforming industries - from telecommunications to manufacturing and now to banking.

Oracle
Successful Companies Have One Thing in Common: They Love Data

If the business world seems to move much faster these days, that’s because it does. For a long time, change happened slowly. Take economic cycles: in the 1900s it took about 19 years to go from the bottom of a recession to the top of a peak. Life moved at a steady, controllable pace. Businesses knew who their competitors were, and had plenty of time to adapt to the newcomers. It was all so simple.

Divido
02/14/2022
Why BNPL is an urgent opportunity for banks

Why BNPL is an urgent opportunity for banks The growth of BNPL transactions shows no sign of slowing. put the size of the global BNPL market at $3.98 trillion by 2030. That presents both a risk, and an opportunity, for banks. The risk is easy to understand.

Dead Happy
Halloween: why toffee with apple, and other traditions explained

Why toffee with apple, and other Halloween traditions explained Oh, sweet Halloween. We've been waiting to get sexy with you since last October. Netflix has released a new batch of horror films. Halloween candy has become a breakfast staple. We no longer have to explain why we're wearing a vampire cape while shopping for loo [...]

Checkout.com
MENAP Fintech Voices: The power of progressive regulation

The fintech sector is expanding in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) and regulators are evolving to keep up with and encourage this trend. Across the region regulatory sandboxes have been adopted and relationships between regulators and innovators are being strengthened.