About Zoltán Szalontay

Strategic and communication competencies based on strong technology and devices knowledge

I am an electrical engineer. I grew up surrounded by father’s tools and gadgets we used to build new tools and gadgets, hence planning, architecting, building and debugging tech solutions are all-natural to me.

Technology

My all-time goal is to acquire “reusable knowledge”. This is why I am a generalist. I have experiences in many aspects of information technology: programming, artificial intelligence/machine learning, databases, IT operation, identity management, security, networking and so on.

Strategy

I had been working with BDMs and CIOs for decades to create and carry out IT strategies that are aligned with business priorities, based on phased infrastructure and business productivity maturity models.

Among many others, I helped to develop IT strategy for the following companies: Allianz, Audi, HM, Hungarian Post, Hungarian Telekom, MKB Bank, MOL, MTVA, MVMI, OTP Bank, Richter, Tigáz etc.

I believe an IT strategy can be successful if it is able to handle the two speeds required by the business continuity and the need to increase agility. BYOD is one of those needs today. This phenomenon was also recognized by Gartner on their recent symposium and has been referred by the term: “Bimodal IT”. The solution to this dual speed is to transform the current device centric IT to a user centric IT. Usage patterns by corporate users can be classified to so-called Personas. These Personas describe the way the given user works in a certain situation. Usage patterns may vastly differ for Home Office, Helpdesk, Sales or Project worker scenarios, but the list is a lot longer. Personas may need different level of services, applications, security or even IT architecture.

The goal is to remain productive by giving access to services and applications under changing working conditions, regardless where the user is located and what device he/she is using. The User centric IT can support the Consumerization of IT with an intelligent infrastructure. It provides flexibility required by the different scenarios while maintaining end to end security.

Devices to collect data for Services

My other key focus area is connected devices. I am convinced that IoT (Internet of Things) will be a major story changer in the next few years. IoT has many technology aspects: sensors, communication, Big Data and Machine Learning, integration. Having been working in the solution business and partner ecosystem for decades, I can architect IoT-based services for solutions like these:

• Cloud based home automation systems built on the top of Telenor’s LTE network.
• Surveillance service for elderly people using fitness trackers, mobile phones.
• Coke or sandwich dispensers, similarly to connected ATMs, could alert the service provider when product or cash change shortage is predicted in the near future, not after the fact.
• Intelligent parking meters that collect parking habits to the cloud. Companion app for phones or smart watches display the nearest free parking slot – or the nearest street with the highest chance to have a free slot. Current mobile parking apps have access to a parking service to start/stop parking, retrieve balance, get notifications etc. Using these services consumes data, which is the ultimate goal of an operator.
• Live noise map. A set of Google Maps layers that are colored based on where, when what kind of noise was classified by a microcontroller device.