Interface magazine – Jan 2020 by B2e Media

Issue 9 | www.theinterface.net

Building best-in-class procurement and sourcing

Mike Dargan, Group CIO of UBS exclusively explores the digital transformation of UBS

G N I F O O R P E R FUTU FOR E R U T C U R T S A INFR EL T O H L A T I G I D THE JON DAVIS, CTO OF VILLAGE HOTEL CLUB, EXPLORES HOW A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FUTURE -PROOFS A TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE

A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BUILT ON TRUST

WELCOME TO THE JANUARY EDITION OF INTERFACE MAGAZINE, OUR BIGGEST YET! Our cover story this month features an exclusive interview with Jon Davis, CTO of Village Hotel Club, who reveals how a digital transformation future-proofs a technology infrastructure. Village Hotels is currently undergoing a major digital transformation journey in order to better serve the modern guest and offer a

EDITOR IN CHIEF Andrew Woods

digital ready experience like no other. Village Hotel Club operates 30 hotels across the UK and by its own admission, its hotels are “much more than a bed for the night - they are a place to

EDITOR Dale Benton

meet, socialise, work and get fit” - a clear sign that the business

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

understands that the guest experience has changed massively.

Callum Rivett

We also have a revealing interview with Bill Barry, Vice President of Procurement and Sourcing at Access, one of the fastest growing paper and digital document services and storage providers in the world. Barry, upon joining the company in 2018, was tasked with a vision of building out a best-in-class sourcing and procurement function, developing and implementing the policies and procedures in order to achieve that vision. Elsewhere, we catch up with UBS CIO Mike Dargan and Carlo Aquilina, CIO of Maltese construction giant Vassallo Group. Plus, we list all the top events and conferences from around the world and highlight five top tech innovators to look out for in 2020.

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Kevin Davies

CREATIVE LEAD Mitchell Park

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Rebecca Side

VP GLOBAL FINTECH & INSURTECH Alex Page

VP TECHNOLOGY Andy Lloyd Craig Daniels

Enjoy the issue!

VP PROCUREMENT Heykel Ouni Greg Churchill Enjoy the issue!

PRESIDENT & CEO

ndrew Woods, Editor in chief A content@b2e-media.com

PUBLISHED BY

Kiron Chavda

CONTENTS

V ILL AGE HOT EL S

24 UB S

34 KPN

VAS SALLO

64 ACCE S S

A X A PAR T NER S

106 E V EN T S

94 5 T E C H INN OVATOR S TO LOOK OU T F OR IN 2020

2020 PRE-DAY SUMMIT CONNECTED ASIA 24 MARCH 2020

MAIN CONFERENCE 25 - 26 MARCH 2020 Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld, Bangkok, Thailand

INTELLIGENT CONNECTIVITY IN ASIA 1200+ ATTENDEES 120+ SPEAKERS 70+ SPONSORS & EXHIBITORS

Quote “INTER10” for 10% discount off conference passes

WWW.TERRAPINN.COM/TELECOMSWORLD2020

CARRIERS WORLD ASIA

NETWORKS VIRTUALISATION

TELCO 4.0

INTELLIGENT CONNECTIVITY

2020 SPEAKERS INCLUDE Anand Prasad

Andy HyunJoo Lee

Austin Menyasz

Azmal Yahya

Filippo Giachi

Jay Shah

Jukka-Pekka Salmenkaita

Katrina LunaAbelarde

Natasak Rodjanapiches

Nathan Bell

Pruthisith Prateepavanich

Rob Van Den Dam

Russell Lundberg

Sandra De Zoysa

Head of Technology Innovation LINE Corp

Global Telecom Industry Leader Leader, IBM Institute for Business Value

Su Ann Lim

Supot Tiarawut

Thomas Hundt

Yaw Yeo

CISO Rakuten Mobile

Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer MyRepublic

Pasd Putthapipat Head of Data Science Product True Digital Group

Stephen Kruger Head of Engineering Grab

Executive Director Global Business Group Korea Telecom

Director of AI & Machine Learning Elisa

Industry Head Telco & Technology Google

Director Public & Regulatory Affairs Telenor

CEO PLDT

Executive Vice President, Carrier Enterprise Telkom Indonesia

Vice Chairman, Creative Digital Economy Board of Trade Thailand

Executive Director & Secretary General Telecommunications Association of Thailand

CTO Bangkok Beach Telecom

CEO Smart Axiata

VP & Global Head of Solution Sales Docomo Digital

Chief Digital Officer M1

Group Chief Customer Officer Axiata

w Alibaba Group

Quote “INTER10” for 10% discount off conference passes FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

FOR SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES

Please contact Shruthi Hegde at Shruthi.Hegde@terrapinn.com or +65 6322 2712

Please contact Jonathan Drape-Comyn at Jonathan.DrapeComyn@terrapinn.com or +65 6322 2703

Village Hotels: Future proofing infrastructure for the digital hotel Jon Davis, CTO of Village Hotel Club, explores how a digital transformation future-proofs a technology infrastructure WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY

D al e Bent on And y L l oy d

echnology has undoubtedly redefined the very nature of modern business. Traditional

business and operating models are being restructured and realigned in order to embrace innovation to be ready for an increasingly digital future. No more is this seachange apparent than in the hotel and hospitality industry, where the modernday hotel guest is a very different and more technologically driven guest than those of years gone by. Not only has the hotel guest changed, but so has the competition. Gone are the days where price points and the physical hotel itself were key differentiators; in their place is connectivity and best of breed technology solutions. Guests will expect the same level of interaction and engagement with technology in their hotel rooms as they would in their everyday lives with the same level of seamlessness to their experiences and so hotels have had to look at how to enable this within their guest experience. One such hotel company is currently undergoing a major digital transformation journey in order to better serve the modern guest and offer a digital ready experience like no other, is Village Hotel Club. Village Hotel Club operates 30 hotels across the UK and by its own admission, its 10

VILL AGE HOTEL CLUB

“ A S A H OT E L W E N E E D TO U N D E R S TA N D W H E R E T E C H N O LO GY I S G O I N G B E C AU S E T H E G U E S T S O F TO D AY W I L L B E E X P E C T I N G C O N TA C T L E S S PAY M E N T S , O R A N A P P E X P E R I E N C E A N D I F YO U D O N ’ T H AV E T H AT T H E N T H E Y ’ R E G O I N G TO L E AV E YO U ” —

JON DAV IS, C T O, V ILL AGE HO T EL CLUB

hotels are “much more than a bed for the night - they are a place to meet, socialise, work and get fit” - a clear sign that the business understands that the guest experience has changed massively. “It’s a question of how we give our customers options to interact with us, options they have in their day-to-day lives,” explains Jon Davis, CTO of Village Hotels. “A hotel is no longer defined by being a place to find a bed for the evening. Our business is very varied. We have a thriving F&B department, bedrooms and a w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

MyCheck is the hospitality industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading payment and integration technology provider, offering various products that can be used separately or combined to equip hotels and restaurants with a powerful digital customer engagement experience.

TELL ME MORE

massive leisure facility and they all run

in place and to better serve its guests it

independently of each other, so as a hotel

needs to have a solid technology infra-

we need to understand where technology

structure, one that is agile enough to cater

is going because the guests of today will

to the rapidly evolving demands of the

be expecting the latest and greatest from

guest. This was most certainly the vision

our systems, whether that is contactless

for the company’s CEO in 2018, as he set

payments, self check-in or an in app expe-

out a plan to update or replace the exist-

rience. If you don’t have that then they’re

ing technology stack and bring all of the

going to leave you.”

company’s data into one collective space.

A typical Village Hotel Club comprises

A three-year strategy was laid out, with

high-tech bedrooms, Village Pub & Grill,

2019 being earmarked as a year of change.

Starbucks, Village Gym and the co-work-

“We looked at our whole tech infrastruc-

ing space VWorks, but in order to ensure

ture and mapped out what we wanted to

that it has the best in-breed solutions

achieve,” says Davis. “The first year has w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

“Access Procure Wizard is the backbone of our operation, ensuring we have transparency across our 31 hotels. We have revolutionised the way we operate with the help of the solution which in turn has improved efficiencies and supplier relationships across the group.”

I AT

IC &T

KETI

PRO

INT Y MA

HR, SCHEDULING

ERT

&P A

Jon Davis, CTO, Village Hotels

ENANCE

Access Workspace for Hospitality

ICS

EPo

Each module has been specifically tailored to address a control requirement within the hospitality industry with the objective of improving efficiency, increasing profitability and significantly streamlining processes.

Access Procure Wizard is the UK’s leading provider of software solutions for the hospitality sector.

Our comprehensive suite of tools integrate with each other, providing you with a single touch point to control all your business costs.

CRM

Get in touch:

0845 340 4542

hospitality@theaccessgroup.com

www.theaccessgroup.com/hospitality

been about really driving change into the

allowing the company to make informed

business and focusing on change manage-

decisions moving forward.

ment and strong project management. We

One of Davis’ personal goals since joining

looked to put in a number of collaboration

the company 18 months ago has been to

tools so that everyone’s involved in the

create a culture of collaboration and so one

journey from the central office right across

of the very first things that was looked at

the hotels and that they understood what

was the way in which people within the

we were doing.” Village Hotels also set out

business communicated. “We’ve moved

to build what Davis calls the “data lake”

everyone away from the traditional email

where information is pulled from all of its

communication and the reams of infor-

systems into one area. Through a number

mation that get sent across the business.

of business dashboards that are aimed

People are receiving more than 150 emails

at all different departments and areas,

a day and we looked at how we can change

everything that happens in the business

the conversation and the way in which we

is tracked and stored within the data lake

talk to each other and share information,”

I T ’ S A B O U T A C O L L A B O R AT I V E A P P R O A C H . T H E R E ’ S O F T E N A S P E A R H E A D O F T E C H N O LO GY T R A C K I N G E V E R YO N E I N TO T H E N E W E R A , A N D I T V E R Y R A R E LY W O R K S B E C A U S E YO U ’ V E G OT A O N E P E R S O N C R U S A D E TO G E T T E C H N O LO GY A N D F O R E V E R YO N E E L S E I T D O E S N ’ T F E E L L I K E T H E Y ’ R E I N C L U D E D I N T H AT J O U R N E Y A N D IT ’ S A REC I PE F O R FA I LU RE I N M Y E Y ES —

JON DAV IS, C T O, V ILL AGE HO T EL CLUB

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Volara provides voice-based guest engagement software running on in-room hardware like the Amazon Echo. Customized to your property, Volara knows how to get your guests talking

FIND OUT MORE

he says. In order to achieve this, Village

technology and for everyone else, it feels

Hotels moved everyone from a Microsoft-

like they’re not included in that journey or

based environment across to G Suite for

delivery and it’s a recipe for failure in my

its collaboration tools. This allowed a more

eyes.” Davis believes that this is a reflec-

seamless and effective sharing of infor-

tion of the overall changing conversation

mation across 30 hotels across the UK.

surrounding technology.

Davis is keen to highlight that while there

Technology is now the driving force

are many departments that technology

behind significant business decisions and

touches, he and the company must remain

the challenge for him is one of explor-

focused on this journey that people are

ing how Village Hotels can use technology

going on together. “It’s about a collabora-

to change the culture of its business. He

tive approach. There’s often a spearhead

points to finance as an example and how

of technology, pushing everyone into the

technology is allowing the company to

new era, and it very rarely works because

move the finance team away from a very

you’ve got a one-person crusade to get

manual, Excel based approach, to a more w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

VILL AGE HOTEL CLUB

automated approach which in turn feed the

digital wallet to the journey that people

business intelligence tool for the future.

have on our internet booking engine.”

How this impacts the customer facing side

This collaborative approach brings

of the business gives Village Hotels the

together a number of different parts of

utility and speed to cater to the custom-

the business, including F&B, rooms and

ers’ demands. “We are able to build and

finance. These departments, as Davis

deploy projects that are customer facing

says, would often work independently of

very quickly,” says Davis. “So, for example,

one another. “It is through that collabo-

we can activate in-room voice communi-

ration tool that we now know everyone

cations with Alexa or introduce the Village

understands the goals of each department

Hotels app to the business. That app can

and how we can get there together,” he

allow guests to book gym classes, or a

says. “It gives us agility. In normal groups

hotel room and even order F&B. It becomes

our size it’s like turning a tanker, isn’t it? It

a full digital wallet in there thanks to our

takes a long time to change your course,

partners at MyCheck, it then matches that

so we have built our infrastructure to be w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

able to do that very quickly and be able to

we need to, but because we’ve got that

fail fast. We’ve created that culture now,

backing, we can do that very easily.”

which is great.” With 2019 representing

Bumps in the road are to be expected.

the year of change following the success-

No journey is ever an easy ride from point

ful implementation of collaboration tools

A to point B and companies will set out a

including a new property management

roadmap and factor in that things will head

system, central reservations tool meet-

in different directions along the way. With

ings and events booking system and

a CEO and a leadership team that is clear in

moved out to an online system and the digital wallet app, 2020 will be the year in which Village Hotels will begin to see the fruits of its labour. Success is never a guarantee, but in order to achieve any success at all there has to be a belief and a clear drive throughout the entire business and it starts at the very top. “It is a fairly difficult journey to go on if you don’t have the backing from people at board level,” says Davis. “We are blessed with a Chairman and a CEO who have absolutely bought into the vision of what technology can bring to the business. There will be bumps in the road, undoubtedly, but if you don’t have that buy-in, then those bumps in the road become mountains and there are things you can’t get over because people don’t really believe in what you’re trying to do. When you’ve got the buy-in from the top, the bumps in the road are just that, they’re bumps. We go around them, we go over them, we build a bridge over them if 20

VILL AGE HOTEL CLUB

Jon Davis CTO Village Hotel Club

Senior executive with verifiable year-after-year success achieving revenue, profit, and business growth objectives within start-up, turnaround, and rapid- change environments.Â Working for Companies such as Manchester United, Chester Race Company and The Compass Group, as well as his own consultancy business, Jon has used his extensive experience with hospitality technology systems and hospitality operations in both the UK and overseas, which requires deep understanding of critical business drivers in multiple markets.

communicating the vision and drive for the

the back of a pad or even a napkin, now

journey throughout the whole business,

it’s as easy as shopping on Amazon, where

the attention must then turn to the part-

we have chefs building baskets through

ners and vendors that will collaborate with

the tool; it’s changed the way F&B works.”

the business in order to actually realise the

Volara is key to Village Hotels in-room

outcomes of the journey. Over the past 18

technology as the number one provider

months, Davis has been working on build-

of voice solutions for hospitality. Village

ing improved tender processes, evaluat-

Hotels wanted to be the first company

ing vendors, doing proof of concepts to

in the UK to work with Volara. Four of its

ensure they are the right partner against

hotels now have Amazon Alexa function-

Village Hotels’ product roadmap. “We’ve

ality in-room that gives giving access to

future-proofed our tech infrastructure,”

hotel information, calling reception and

says Davis. “We don’t want to be halfway

concierge-type services, which will look to

through next year and having to look at

expand with another 10 hotels in 2020.

individual pieces of that puzzle again, and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to need to change this because of that vendor, or move this because that’s happened,’ and that’s been a key focus when selecting our partners.” There are three main partners that have enabled Village Hotels’ tech journey to date: Access Hospitality, Volara and the aforementioned MyCheck. Access Hospitality manage a number of the company’s back office systems such as the ERP system e-procurement functionality through its Procure Wizard tool. “Access are a strong partner for us and really underpin what we are doing as a business,” says Davis. “Procure Wizard is a revolutionary tool. When I started in hospitality, people were writing orders on 22

VILL AGE HOTEL CLUB

Despite working to a three-year plan, for Davis it’s actually about driving a culture

“ WHETHER IT’S THROUGH PROCESS, INCREASING SALES OR EVEN COST S A V I N G S , T H E U LT I M AT E G O A L I S T H AT T E C H N O LO GY I S N OT T H E R E A S A N I C E TO H A V E ; I T S H O U L D B E DRIVING BUSINESS CHANGE” —

JON DAV IS, C T O, V ILL AGE HO T EL CLUB

of perpetual innovation. Whatever the future holds, Village Hotels has made the systems and the infrastructure as flexible as possible to be able to do things quickly. “We don’t do projects anymore where there’s a start and an end date. That’s when that vendor partnership comes into play, where we’ll then start the innovation in terms of what we’re doing with the platform. “I think during 2020 we’ll start seeing the fruits of our labour and driving real business efficiencies so the people that we’ve got can start driving real business change. Whether it’s through process, increasing sales or even cost savings, the ultimate goal is that technology is not just there as a nice thing to have; it should be driving business change.”

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Mike Dargan, Group CIO of UBS exclusively explores the digital transformation of UBS M I K E DA R G A N , G R O U P C I O O F U B S ,

THE

W O R L D â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S L A R G E S T W E A LT H M A N AG E R D I S C U S S E S H O W U B S I S S H I F T I N G I T S D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y A N D T R A N S F O R M I N G I T S E L F I N T O A T R U LY D I G I TA L B A N K T H R O U G H AG I L E T R A N S F O R M AT I O N , E N G I N E E R I N G C U LT U R E A N D H O W T H I S I S C H A N G I N G T H E WAY U B S I S D E L I V E R I N G T E C H N O LO G Y F O R I T S C L I E N T S

WRIT TEN BY

DALE BENTON

LISTEN TO MIKE DARGAN’S PODCAST ON THE DIGITAL INSIGHT’S OUTPUT CHANNELS BELOW

MIKE DARGAN GROUP CI O OF UB S

CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON WITHIN UBS’ TECHNOLOGY DIVISION WHEN IT COMES TO THAT SHIFTING OF TEAM CULTURE? At UBS, the focus on the culture of our technology team has been something that’s been really huge. We see culture as the platform on which we ultimately do everything else. If we have the right culture, we can deliver on strategy, we can innovate, we can execute. We can therefore deliver great products and services for our stakeholders, and therefore for our clients. Like any platform, culture needs to be tweaked and maintained. 26

TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N O F U B S

WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGES COME FROM CULTURAL SHIFTS? NO TWO PEOPLE WILL RESPOND THE SAME WAY TO ANY FORM OF CHANGE, SO HOW DO YOU FACTOR THAT INTO THIS TRANSFORMATION? In some ways I wouldn’t call it a transformation. I think culture is something that is precious. The culture at UBS is good and special, but I think we’d always look to evolve a culture. So what we’ve done over the last couple of years is we’ve stepped up the focus on our engineers. So we’ve designed programs to raise that profile within firm. We’ve developed a technical career track. We’ve given them much more responsibility.

YEAR UBS WAS FOUNDED

1998

GLOBAL HQ

Zürich, Switzerland w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

HOW DOES THAT APPROACH TIE INTO A WIDER VISION OF UBS BECOMING SOMETHING OF AN ENGINEERING POWERHOUSE? Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve launched a Distinguished Engineer Program. It has three levels: distinguished engineers, distinguished fellows, and then certified engineers, which really lets engineers progress along a technical career path, if you like, rather than a managerial one. It also recognises technical achievements with things like badges. In the first 24 hours of launch we were really overwhelmed by the demands. We had 600 people register on the first day, and things like that show us that there is massive demand by our engineering talent and that they want to focus on building things and solving problems. Technology at UBS is critically important. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very large part of UBS overall. Now the core of UBS is and will continue to be banking, but I think banking will transform more and more to be digital interaction, technology enabled, et cetera. So the importance and power of what the engineers do directly and in the background will become more and more important. WHAT DOES AGILE MEAN TO YOU, AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS ARE YOU DOING TO TAKE THIS AGILE APPROACH? In some ways, I dislike the word, but in some ways, I love the word. So we need to, as an organization move more and more to being agile. But what does that mean? We want to have expedited delivery done in combination with our partners and really having teams of engineers sit with business product owners and really drive things together. So they need to sit together under a shared vision for that product, 28

TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N O F U B S

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

understand the same challenges and

600 global participants with people coming

opportunities and then build the best possi-

together over a very short time period,

ble solution for our clients.

focusing on the solution, bringing the solu-

Now, we’re doing that in different ways. In

tion together, spinning up a solution overall.

the investment bank we’ve got hybrid pods,

Now these are done in different industries,

which is a model that puts co-development

different environments. They can be done

with business and technology together. And

for hiring, they can be done for just cracking

really, I mean I think the way this has been

up a solution. But these are really cool ways

launched is pretty cool. So it does away

to get people focused, involved, and bring

with the concept of us in tech and them in

that culture, if you like, almost back to the

the business, but it’s really about shared

day to day.

ownership to deliver products. It’s working. Teams are happier, outcomes are better, new products are emerging faster and driven improvements are happening effectively all the time. In the digital factories, which we have across the globe, these are really well established across a lot of industries, but we’re seeing a lot of success with the adoption of this model in wealth management. And the proof point is, we’ve done almost a hundred thousand releases to prod through this year, which is over 10% more than last year. So we are getting more done, better, faster, cheaper. I UNDERSTAND THAT UBS TOOK PART IN A HACKATHON EVENT RECENTLY, HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE A HACKATHON? The hackathon here at UBS had a little over 30

TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N O F U B S

“ I F YO U LO O K AT W H AT YO U H AV E I N L I F E , YO U ’ L L A LWAYS H AV E M O R E . I F YO U LO O K AT W H AT YO U D O N ’ T H AV E I N L I F E , YO U ’ L L N E V E R H AV E E N O U G H .” —

M I K E D A R G A N , GRO UP C I O, UB S HOW ARE YOU WORKING TO EMPOWER YOUR WORKFORCE AND PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE WORKFORCE OF UBS? The most important piece around a culture is how it evolves and how people learn and adapt. I think it’s important almost at any age. Empowerment I think is increasingly important. We are due to see a lot of change powered by technology within banking overall. I mean, we’re seeing it in all areas. The banking landscape is evolving fast and we need to make sure that our digital strategy enables us to stay competitive. I think the onus for every individual, for every leader, for every participant is evolving and learning. So I think there are many aspects where the industry will change. There are many aspects we know about, there are many aspects we don’t know about. There will be new technologies and/ or ways to use those technologies. So I think it’s also, you know, not to get too buzzwordy, it’s about being very nimble and flexible. ON A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LEVEL, HOW DO YOU CONTINUOUSLY CHALLENGE YOURSELF AND CHALLENGE YOUR WAY OF THINKING SO THAT YOU STAY AHEAD OF THE CHANGES IN THE MARKET? I’m lucky and privileged that I get to meet many people. I get to listen to many people and learn from many people, w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

LISTEN TO MIKE DARGAN’S PODCAST ON THE DIGITAL INSIGHT’S OUTPUT CHANNELS BELOW

TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N O F U B S

both within UBS and in the broader market. Recently weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been obviously hiring a number of people who have brought in new perspectives and expertise. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a whole bunch of people within UBS who I think day to day bring in that expertise from what they do, and what they do day to day, as well as market participants that we meet. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE KEY TO ACHIEVING SUCCESS IN A TRANSFORMATION? I think there are really two parts. The first is be curious. Find out what you can learn, what you can experience, what you can you do or question about how you operate and how others operate and how you can bring that into what you do. And the second, and I give this advice a lot, is to understand how you continue to be a better version of yourself. Not someone else, but yourself. Challenge yourself to question how you can continually self-improve the person you are, and the one you want to be.

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

The digital transformation of customer service WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n PRODUCED BY A n d y L l oyd

KPN

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Martijn Franssen, Director of Digital Transformation, discusses how KPNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital transformation looks to deliver the best omnichannel experience to customers

s the largest telecommunications provider in the country, KPN is well and truly the network of the Netherlands. For more than

135 years, KPN has set out to provide secure, reliable and future-proof networks and services to ensure that everyone is connected anytime and anywhere. As with any technology company, the key to remaining successful has been one of evolution. Over the years, KPN has continuously evolved as a company, in order to continue to provide the services that its customers demand and the network that the Netherlands needs. Though the digital transformation is nothing new, it undeniably defines the conversation for many industries and definitely increases the pressure within KPN to continue and even more to speed up - the adaptation process. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In order to fuel the transformation journey of KPN, we have to listen more carefully to whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on in the market. We live in the information age. Our customers have 36

KPN

Martijn Franssen, Director of Digital Transformation

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

KPN and Telecats win Customer First Partnership Award For over 10 years KPN and Telecats have been working together to continuously innovate and improve customer service for joint customers and KPN Customer Service itself. Since last year we have changed the way we work together: from a customer-supplier relationship to a partner model in which time-to-market and innovation are paramount. We work together in one scrum team, working in sprints on innovation, development and improvement. 30 seconds AHT per call;

KPN’S CUSTOMER SERVICE de-

correctly using speech recogni-

partment is the point of contact

tion, resulting in far fewer calls

for both private and business

being transferred. This has a

customers. Millions of KPN’s

positive effect on both customer

customer contacts take place

and employee satisfaction. With

Voice Response System (VRS)

by phone and increasingly via

the help of speech routing, we

has increased to 15%;

digital channels such as live chat

have set in motion a movement

and social media. This makes

within KPN Customer Service

in significant savings over the

customer service an important

where we no longer route a

past year; and

source for KPN when it comes

customer contact directly to

to improving service.

an available customer expert

the NPS was also met, increas-

only, but directly direct it to

ing by 17 points over the same

improve KPN’s service to the

the best solution. This can be

period.

customer, we are constantly

a customer expert, but also a

looking for smart ways to sur-

voice driven self-service tool,

Martijn Franssen (KPN)

prise the customer. KPN has a

a reference to a specific online

“Telecats’s innovative solutions

clear technological vision. KPN

page, or a live chat if the call

are technically in line with the

is on its way to ‘conversational

center is busy.

future architecture needed to

In order to continuously

service’ in which, in addition to

By routing calls using speech

• The number of redirected calls has been reduced by 20%; • Self-service capacity in the

• The new collaboration resulted

• The objective of not affecting

implement KPN’s digital strat-

automating the dialogue, it also

recognition, real-time informa-

egy. There is a real “cultural

aims to apply as much intelli-

tion is also available on possible

fit”. Telecats radiates a flexible,

gence and resolving power as

trends and the most frequently

modern approach in everything.

possible. An important step was

asked questions. In addition to

The obtained results are proof

the very successful implemen-

the standard daily, weekly and

of this unique collaboration.

tation of speech routing with

monthly reports, voice recogni-

With a clear voice for Customer

partner Telecats.

tion provides insight into cus-

Service in this collaboration, the

tomer service per subject. This

customer has become the basis

tomers to state a question in

collaboration in the past year

of innovation in the field of cus-

their own words. 90% of all

has proved to be successful because:

tomer contact. KPN and Tele-

questions can be classified

• Speech routing with CTI saves

cats place the Customer First!”

Speech routing allows cus-

www.telecats.com 38 TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N

OF UBS

become streetwise; they possess more

“Having worked with KPN previously,

knowledge around a business than ever

so much had changed in the company

before, and, more importantly, they are

by the time I returned, particularly when

more demanding as they can move to

it came to internal culture,” explains

competitors at the click of a button. As

Franssen. “The company has become

such, we have to think about how we

smaller, more lean and mean. Working

can retain them. This places greater

in silos is history, it has become much

emphasis and responsibility on customer

more open and collaborative. But also, the

service. Because who else than its care

years in between have helped me find my

representatives can truly represent the

own energy which appears to come from

voice of the customer?” says Martijn

putting down a vision and start changing

Franssen, who is leading the change

an organisation in order to realise it.”

within Customer Service as Director of

So the time was right to return to this great company, which is undergoing a

Digital Transformation. With almost 20 years’ experience

significant change once again as it looks

working with KPN initially as a business

to create a seamless experience for its

controller and then cutting his teeth in

customers. Franssen recognised this

a number of international roles within

need and when he was brought in to lead

the media and the insurance industry,

this transformation, the end goal was

Franssen was given the opportunity by

clear. “The overall goal is to be where our

KPN to deliver the digital transformation

customers are in such a way that they will

of customer service.

have easy, seamless journeys across

“In order to fuel the transformation journey of KPN, we have to listen more carefully to what’s going on in the market” — MARTIJN FRANSSEN Director of Digital Transformation

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

all our channels driven by a digitalisa-

whilst not everyone was convinced that

tion of our way of working,” he says.

live chat was the way to go. There is

“Make life easier and more personalised

always the fear that opening an extra

for the customer by becoming the best

channel will result in additional traffic.

service provider in the Netherlands. This

“However, I don’t believe a customer

helps retain your customers and drives

will contact KPN via any channel just for

your company value.” How he looked to

chitchat,” he says.

achieve this was by a digital transformation of Customer Service, which was to take place in three phases. The first phase was focused on boosting live chat. As KPN encouraged customers to start their journeys on the website, it was also about acknowledging the fact that not all visitors could easily navigate it and simply needed support in order to prevent them from losing trust and from picking up their phone in case of a next issue. “Our belief was that we would serve the people starting their journey online, but we could also provide immediate answers to customers that needed us throughout their journeys. This then would also allow us to improve the quality of the online journey, because we could ask the customer immediately why they needed our help and what was missing on the website.” In order to establish a substantial population of live chat engagements, serious investments were required 40

KPN

“What I became aware of during the last few years is that the

transformation speed has a lot to do

but there was method in it. “We noticed

with being creative. It is about iden-

that there were a lot of high costs

tifying opportunities and convincing

attached to this asynchronous channel,”

stakeholders on the basis of little bits

he says. “More importantly, customer

of evidence in order to continue.”

satisfaction was quite low. So, there was

In order to increase live chat volumes,

a clear incentive to close that channel

KPN shut down its email channel.

and reinvest the resources into the live

Franssen admits this could arguably be

chat population.”

seen as ‘unfriendly’ customer service

With steadily growing live chat

Conversational experts Customer Service, Wieger den Boer and Aviva Dassen

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Conversational development team Technium

KPN

volumes, KPN immediately began to see major improvements in its Net Promoter Score (NPS) as detractors were exchanged for promoters. This was even more the case once customers were proactively offered a live chat. To further grow its live chat population, attention turned to its web care team. Taking a similar approach, KPN looked at introducing live functionality and introduced social chat, which acted as a bridge from the social media channels to the live chat. “Once the customer had a transactional question, such as receive a copy of their invoice, we would offer them a link to live chat and start changing the channel,” says Franssen. “Once we did that, again we started to see the NPS improve and the costs go down.” Live chat reached its peak of around 30.000 engagements a week once voice-to-chat was introduced within the Voice Response System (VRS) in case waiting time became too high. In hindsight, it became the trigger to start blending voice and non-voice skills to optimise variety for and productivity of our agents. Franssen is also keen to highlight that it has never been about realising a certain volume of live chats, the goal was to make sure KPN’s customers could rely on the company and could be on channels which they are used to. “In the meantime, the volume has reduced in cases where voice turned out to be more effective within a specific customer journey and vice versa,” explains Franssen. “On top of that I expect that live chat will soon be cannibalised by messaging. It will be either self service, voice or messaging.” A transformation of this scale asks w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

TH E D I G I TA L TR A N S F O RM ATI O N O F U B S

Walk-In Customer Service, S amuel van Gelder and Iris Kuit

a lot of the existing workforce to rethink

that something’s happening and they

the way they work and take on new

can contribute,” he says.

responsibilities. Some, naturally, may be

“We are doing this with our own people,

fearful or express hesitance in adopting

but also with our external partners such

this new way of working. This is where

as Continuum and Webhelp. So, we visit

a strong sense of change management

the call centres at different locations and

and support is key. Franssen points to

look at what we are doing and where,

a number of ways in which he and his

as customer service, we are heading.

team communicate the value of the

It’s also an opportunity to show why we

transformation to the individual, as well

need them because if we really believe

as the organisation, as a means of fuel-

that that voice of the customer should

ling a belief in the journey. “It’s about

drive our change, then our people are the

showing them the use cases and show-

key representatives in engaging with the

ing them what we are going through

customer and providing us with the right

with this transformation. By showing

signals for change.”

evidence you start fuelling the belief

Phase two of the digital transformation w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

saw Franssen focus more on the digitalisation of other customer touchpoints

how they developed the speech domain. “They supported us in optimising the

starting with voice, the biggest offline

way we are routing our calls. By look-

volume. KPN implemented speech recog-

ing at the data and monitoring essen-

nition technology to track down the intent

tial KPIs (like repeat callers, handling

of the customer and to remove voice

time, transfer rates, sales conversion),

response system menus. “The problem

we try to improve our performance on

was that too many people were involved

a daily basis.” This approach, Franssen

and that it was only about routing to an

feels, has been incredibly successful, as

available agent,” says Franssen. “At my

it reflects the importance of partners

request, we minimised the number of

acting as real partners and not simply as

stakeholders and organised a small agile

service delivery.

organisation made up of internal staff and

The smaller and dedicated team made it

our supplier Telecats to ensure that the

easier to have fruitful discussions about

company could increase the velocity in

the direction KPN was heading in. Not

KPN

“What I became aware of during the last few years is that the transformation speed has a lot to do with being creative. It is about identifying opportunities and convincing stakeholders on the basis of little proof points in order to continue” — MARTIJN FRANSSEN Director of Digital Transformation

only to ensure that routing quality would

a short URL to provide them with our

be higher but also to digitalise the voice

online self care functionalities.”

response system. The motto was changed

Not only has the deflection rate

from routing to an available agent into

increased, it has also increased visibil-

getting the best (digital) solution. In many

ity on its customers due to boosting

cases this would still be one of KPN’s

customer recognition. This has enabled

agents, but increasingly it’s becoming

data driven routing decisions to ensure

directed to self care tooling as well. “This

that KPN will reduce customer effort

has taken a flight by introducing our visual

while also optimising KPN’s results. “For

IVR (interactive voice response) which

example, if a customer calls us and we

turned callers into website visitors,” says

do see that he or she is suffering from

Franssen. “If a question concerns a topic

an outage, we will proactively inform the

which is related to a self care solution,

customer and offer the opportunity to

we offer our customers to accept an sms

keep the customer informed,” he says.

including

“Same applies for customers with billing w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

issues who need extra support to solve their difficulties; data tells us to transfer them to a desk where we have more time to give the right support.” Customer data will soon become the main driver for business decisions; the actual question of the customer will still be considered as crucial input, but will be part of broader consideration. Franssen believes this will be a tough balancing act, but a balancing act all the same. “KPN offers everyone the highest standards possible, but at the same time the market is changing and has changed radically,” he says. “There’s constant pressure on margins and on costs, so we have to become more intelligent. We have to become hyper personalised using real-time data insights in order to reduce customer effort on the one hand, but also to spend our money wisely so we can continue to offer premium services. In order to realise this, we need to enrich our customer data and increase our focus on the usage of machine learning to help us identify what is good for which customer on a specific moment.” As for data, there is an important role for customer service as well. “We use our customer engagement to understand who the customer is and what they really need through which we can confirm - or not - whether provided next best actions are sufficiently accurate. This is supervised learning with the help of our customer agents. The effect is that customer service, perhaps more than ever before, is quickly moving the heart of the organisation.” With the successful completion of phase one shift to online - and major inroads being made with phase two, it became time to move on to the third phase, which is 48

KPN

Mark Wessel, Product Owner Conversational Technium w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

“ The effect is that customer service, perhaps more than ever before, is fast moving towards the heart of the organisation” — MARTIJN FRANSSEN Director of Digital Transformation

about the shift towards automating the

dialogue, but more and more by using

conversation with the customer. A shift

customer journey data,” explains

driven by the rise of natural language

Franssen.

processing. machine learning and the

“In order to speed things up we again

increasingly availability of real-time

started in our own domain within the live

contextual data. Though it is still about

chat channel. It made sense because, in

recognising the customer and their

customer service, we feel the pressure to

intent, it will be more interactive than

make sure we are effective and efficient.

ever before. “We are creating the abil-

By introducing a chatbot and automat-

ity to track down the question behind

ing conversations, we are showing a good

the question just like we have done

business case for why we are doing it.” In

within Customer Service over the last

less than a year and a half, almost all chat

decades. Not only on the basis of a

sessions start in the bot. This already

KPN

we acknowledge that our customer also needs to get used to a chatbot,” explains Franssen. The collaboration with Nuance is based on a true partnership as well, where both parties closely work together to increase the maturity of the chatbot. “Over the coming months, this journey will evolve further, our chatbot will become a digital assistant becoming the impersonation of this conversational phase. An assistant which will be equipped with the same tools and insights as our customer representatives, and which will be connected to a number of touchpoints across KPN like Myron Laagland, Product Owner Conversational Customer Service

our messaging channels, TV and voice,” “If we manage to create the basis for a true digital assistant having its presence

already accomplishes a double-digit

across all the touchpoints, I am confi-

deflection by offering self care, whilst

dent we can truly improve our customer

customer satisfaction remains high.

service as we can offer an unambiguous

One of the reasons that this approach

though personalised customer journey

has been successful is a result of KPN’s

optimising the deployment of self-care

partnership with Nuance. Nuance’s plat-

tooling in combination with our ever-

form Nina made it possible to quickly put

needed and appreciated emphatic and

KPN’s customer service representatives

intelligent customer service experts.”

in position so they could start building dialogues. “At the same time, the platform features helps our conversation specialist to optimise the conversation in order to minimise customer frustration as w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Vassallo Group: a digital transformation built on trust W H E N M A LTA - B A S E D C O N S T R U C T I O N A N D P R O P E R T Y E N T E R P R I S E VA S S A L L O G R O U P E M B A R K E D O N A C O M PA N Y- W I D E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N , I T L O O K E D T O C I O C A R LO AQ U I L I N A TO B U I L D T H E E N T I R E I N F R A S T R U C T U R E , O P E R AT I O N S A N D I N N O VAT I O N S AT T H E G R O U Pâ&#x20AC;¦

WRI T T EN BY

Andr ew Woods

CARLO AQUILINA CI O OF VA S S A LL O G RO UP

alk through the streets of the beautiful island of Malta and you will not be able to escape

the work of the Vassallo Group. Property, hospitality, education and healthcare, the Maltese construction and property company completely reshaped Malta following the devastation caused by the Second World War. Indeed, Vassallo Group embarked on a mission to ‘rebuild the nation’ to its former glory and beyond. Building on its strengths, the Group carries a legacy that is over 70 years old, and over the years has diversified its operations that have brought about expansion and investment. Today, Vassallo Group, stands at the forefront of several differ-

Carlo Aquilina was approached to take on

ent sectors in the local market that include

the role of CIO at Vassallo in 2015, having

property and construction, furniture and

spent a while building up an IT team at a

interiors, elderly and disability care, cater-

manufacturing enterprise. “When I started

ing, hospitality, architecture and educa-

in manufacturing, IT needed lots of work.

tion. The Vassallo Group is a large, complex

We started from scratch. We built up the

enterprise and represents a unique chal-

whole IT department and the whole team.

lenge to its IT function, which provides

When Vassallo approached me, they

technological solutions and support to all

offered me that challenge again as they

of the companies and their users.

really lacked IT. It was a real challenge, but

VA S SA L LO G RO U P

I built my team and we started on what

with the project: to start from scratch. I

needed to be done.â&#x20AC;?

gave the board of directors a number of

Vassallo Group previously had a share-

options. Should we go on premise, should

holding in an IT company and this sister

we go with another hosting company,

company was providing IT, but the level

should we go hybrid, should we go cloud?

of support was not sufficient for their

The main ambition was very simple and

local clients, thus Aquilina was asked to

I was given six months to come up with

build the IT function that would serve the

a solution where we gave our clients,

1,900-plus employees and its extensive

our clients, meaning our users basi-

client base. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When I joined, I was tasked

cally, a brand new environment with zero w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

“ I WAS GIVEN SIX MONTHS TO COME UP WITH A SOLUTION WHERE WE GAVE OUR CLIENTS, OUR CLIENTS MEANING OUR USERS BASICALLY, A BRAND-NEW ENVIRONMENT WITH ZERO DOWNTIME. IT WAS ALL FIREFIGHTING IN THAT FIRST YEAR” —

C A R L O A Q U I L I N A , C I O, VA S S A L L O GRO UP

VA S SA L LO G RO U P

downtime. It was all firefighting in that first

invest in anything and everything is top

year.”

of the range. Of course, it also helps to be

Vassallo went 100% cloud with Microsoft

paying operational costs and not capital

Azure, which Aquilina believed to be the

costs. That was the way forward and then

best short-term, and long-term solution.

they (the board) embraced it. There was

“We’re a Maltese company. We’re not an

a number of partners who approached us

IT focused company. IT is here to provide

to do this, to help us with this migration.

service to the business. Our business

I chose CyberSift, which was a start-up,

is not IT. We’re not a gaming company.

actually.” An advantage to working with a

All of our products are Microsoft, and

start-up is that they’re not encumbered by

so it was an obvious choice to move to

a large kind backend and can move auda-

Azure.” Vassallo agreed to go 100% to

ciously and quickly and this was certainly

the cloud, having drawn a blank against

an appeal to Aquilina and his team. “I

the large capital expenditure associated

knew one of the technicians; a brilliant

with on-premise. “With cloud, you don’t

engineer and that helped. Plus, the price w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

we were given was also from a start-up

are doing.’ All they needed to know is that

perspective.”

we were moving from server A to server B.

CyberSift viewed the chance to work with Vassallo with similar relish and the then start-up provided a specific engineer

They did it for us because it was their software, their app, their solution.” With any large-scale technologi-

to be onsite with the IT team at Vassallo

cal transformation there are challenges

for the full duration of the migration.

although Vassallo seemed to evade many

“Whatever I was asking, I was getting,”

of the pitfalls through great organisation.

Aquilina explains. “‘Okay, we’ll do it for you, but you’ll have to promote us, after.’ Now I’m promoting them. So, we had engineers working for us and I didn’t need to grow my team. In fact, we’re a very small team.” The key thing Aquilina and his team built in that crucial first year was ‘trust’. “I had the trust of the board of directors because every time they asked me something, I satisfied their request. So, there was trust. At the end of the day, it’s a family-owned company. Trust is very important.” Aquilina and his team were given six months to deliver the project and took 2-3 three months to design and implement the infrastructure. The following three months, they contacted suppliers, before moving the software. “If it’s on premise or on cloud, there was remote access. It was teamwork, everyone pulling the same rope. Whenever one of the suppliers told us, ‘Listen, we’re not available this week. Let’s do it next week. We’ll slot in someone else. We’ll set meetings. We’ll explain what we 58

VA S SA L LO G RO U P

“I don’t think we had actually the biggest

can we do?’ We worked late at night so

challenges because it was all planned

that we could achieve it. It was all based

out. We used to meet every day with the

on trust and teamwork. It was a case of

engineer who used to work for us and my

open-heart surgery because the busi-

team. It was a case of ‘What happened

ness wanted to work. The business kept

yesterday, what happened today, what

on working even though we were doing

is going to happen tomorrow and why?

open-heart surgery. We had that support

Are we on track? Yes. If not, why? What

from everyone. Everyone understood that

this needed to be done. We had support

ready and a solid base or foundation, I

from everyone, from all the partners, from

want to give something back to the busi-

Microsoft, everyone.”

ness. We implemented an ERP solution,

Even though digital transformation

which Finance, Logistics and Operations

involves technical infrastructure, software,

are using. I don’t want the directors to go

servers and cloud, people are still integral

into board meetings with huge amount

to a successful outcome. “Yes, they are

of papers. I want them to go in with just

extremely important,” Aquilina explains.

a laptop. The data is live. We’ve already

“There are the users, the customers and

done that for one of the companies and

the IT team. We are a very small team and

it’s working. You can connect to the TV to

that really helped, because a huge team

project live data. That is business intelli-

would require lots more organisation and

gence. We’re working on the other compa-

more hand holding. It was me who was

nies too. Now that they know what they

both sponsoring and managing the project.

can get, everybody’s bombarding us with

I had the lead engineer who was doing the

requests. Of course, we’re taking our time

actual work, remotely. They had an assis-

and that is ongoing.”

tant administrator who was assisting. People are so important.” Vassallo Group holds an annual internal awards and in 2016, the IT department was awarded ‘Best Customer Focused Department’ even though it had been, in Aquilina’s terms, firefighting. We were there constantly, anytime, any day of the week. The team and I were presented with this trophy, which proved my theory that the company had move to something much more stable.” Now Vassallo Group is reaping the benefits of this transformation. “IT-wise, we are working on a business intelligence project. Now we have the infrastructure 60

VA S SA L LO G RO U P

“ W I T H C LO U D, YO U D O N ’ T I N V E ST I N A N Y T H I N G A N D E V E RY T H I N G I S TO P O F T H E R A N G E . O F CO U R S E , I T A L S O H E L P S TO B E PAY I N G O P E R AT I O N A L CO STS A N D N OT C A P I TA L CO STS . T H AT WAS T H E WAY F O RWA R D ” —

C A R L O A Q U I L I N A , C IO, VA S S ALL O G RO U P

From BI, Aquilina wants to harness the power of AI in board meetings. “I want to give them the facility to project live data, but I also want to give them the facility to change the data accordingly. They will see the results with AI.” Recruitment could be a big beneficiary of these initiatives too. “What if we employ 100 people? AI will work out the costs, work out the benefits of employing that many people. Then you can take an educated decision. ‘Should we employ 100 or 200? Let’s put in 200 more employees. What’s the cost?’ AI will work out the costs as well as the benefits. That’s all in progress. However, these are very sensitive tools that we need to use and if the tool gives you the wrong information, then you will make the wrong decision. I explained this to the board and they gave me the time needed to do it properly. We have to be very meticulous. They understood and told me, ‘Whenever w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

VA S SA L LO G RO U P

you’re comfortable, we can start using.’ The CIO has to have 100% trust from the board of directors, because if there’s no trust, they keep on asking, ‘But why and how?’ That is the way forward.” Providing technological infrastructure, new software and cyber security for such a large company means that Aquilina’s hands are certainly full. “We support about 1,900 employees and 500 users. I can afford to have a relatively small team because we have a solid base, and a solid infrastructure. I have a wonderful team. I recruited everyone from outside the business. I didn’t find anyone here, so they all respect me. We’re all friends at the end of the day, although I am their manager. We talk about anything and I help when needed. So, there’s trust from them and the senior management, which I believe is extremely important. It’s a wonderful place to work.”

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Building best-inclass procurement and sourcing WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY 64

D al e Bent on Hey kel Ouni

Vice President of Procurement and

Bill Barry Vice President of Procurement and Sourcing at Access, explores how engaging with the business proves crucial in building best-inclass sourcing

Sourcing at Access, one of the fastest growing paper and digital document services and storage providers in the world. Barry, upon joining the company in 2018, was tasked with a vision of building out a best-in-class sourcing and procurement function, developing and implementing the policies and procedures in order to achieve that vision. Within a year and a half of this journey, Access has already begun to realize the benefits in terms of the value crea-

ith the world of sourcing, supply

tion, savings and operational efficiencies

chain and procurement, under-

that the sourcing and procurement group

going significant sea change,

it can often be forgotten that one of the biggest challenges any company investing and reinvesting in their sourcing functions faces is one that centers around legacy. After all, investing in new and disruptive means of working that are often entirely different from what has been the case for several successful decades can be seen as a risky pursuit. Why fix what isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t broken? But for many, over the course of the last decade, there has been something of cultural awakening toward procurement and sourcing. No longer is the question around why, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more a question around what â&#x20AC;&#x201C; what can we do to bring more value to our business and our business customers? This is certainly the case for Bill Barry, 66

ACCESS CORP

has brought to the business. Over the past five years, Access has

of relationship-building in sourcing out to the various locations of Access and work

grown as a company largely through acqui-

to build rapport and to gain the trust from

sition. Part of this growth has seen the

each business unit and start to work hand

company work to develop and build out

in hand with procurement and sourcing.”

all of its centralized corporate functions,

In order to embark on this journey, Barry

including sourcing and procurement. “The

stayed true to a philosophy he has held

company saw an opportunity to better

with him throughout his career. This philos-

leverage the collective spend of the organ-

ophy is one of collaboration and support,

ization and the scale had gotten to a point

in which he has often sought out oppor-

where it made sense to try to coordinate

tunities in working environments where

and centralize that,” explains Barry. “Both

sourcing and procurement would not only

myself and leadership thought it was a

have senior level support but the func-

great opportunity to leverage the skill set

tion was also seen as a trusted business

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK IS BREAKING BOUNDARIES IN CRE OUTSOURCING and advancing the way owners and occupiers achieve their business objectives. With a premier suite of Global Corporate Services, including Facility Management, Transaction Management, Lease Administration, Consulting, Workplace Strategy, Technology Solutions and more, our clients are improving their real estate functions in ways they never thought possible. Businesses looking to the future look to Newmark Knight Frank. ngkf.com

ACCESS CORP

YEAR FOUNDED

2004

ACQUISITIONS

139+

partner. This he feels is what made the

and asked them all the same questions.

decision to work with Access something

How are they learning from their business?

of a no-brainer, as the senior level support

How are they managing their depart-

and the collaborative efforts throughout

ments? What are some of the pain points

the organization made for a unique fit.

and areas of opportunity? “I also asked

As with any journey, the first steps are

the business functions as to how they

often the hardest. Barry set out by taking

have dealt with making procurement deci-

simple steps and holding conversations

sions or purchasing decisions in the past”

with all senior managers across the vari-

says Barry. “It was really a case of trying

ous departments and functions of Access

to get an understanding of what they, w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

and by extension, the business, needed.” When Barry entered the business, he found himself in the unique position of not having a procure-to-pay solution in place and a very antiquated ‘as and when’ approach to sourcing and invoicing. “There was zero centralization of the function or even oversight of purchases. So, I started at the ground level and just tried to understand how each department was making those purchasing decisions and how they were doing it.” From this, Barry consolidated all of the feedback and information and began building out a vision of a best-in-class sourcing and procurement organization and in turn developed a roadmap to get there. Working closely with the company’s CFO, Barry set about building out this journey in six-month stages. The first six months of this journey was a journey of discovery, focusing on understanding the business and most importantly, where procurement can drive true value. The next six months saw the development of the processing

planning and communication, and then the

around how to act upon that, “bringing

following 12 to 18 months was focused on

some good hygiene to the business”.

business integration and supplier manage-

“By good hygiene, I mean that we can

ment, while still remaining focused on

get better control over our spend and get

communication and training, because at

the necessary policies and procedures we

the same time, we ended up making a deci-

need to get us there,” says Barry. “As part

sion to roll out a procure to pay solution. To

of that, the next six months was about

ensure it was successful, we were focused

ACCESS CORP

“ The company saw an opportunity to better leverage the collective spend of the organization and the scale had gotten to a point where it made sense to try to coordinate and centralize that” — B I L L B A R R Y, V P, S O U R C I N G A N D P R O C U R E M E N T, AC C E S S

business in order to maintain that position of a trusted business partner. Running alongside this was the implementation of a P2P solution that Barry feels was key in being able to show exactly what he was on communicating the change to the

looking to achieve and what it would bring

organization and training on the system.”

to the business as well as opening the door

This approach enabled Access to break

for the next stage of the journey. “The

down this roadmap into ‘very simple math’

so-called second stage is actually more

which allowed Barry to walk the business

like the second roadmap. We’ve already

through his thorough process, taking on

laid down the groundwork and now we’re

live feedback and making revisions and

continuing to operationalize it, ingrain-

tweaks that were communicated to the

ing best practices and really looking at w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

the spend to uncover where those addi-

process.”

tional areas of opportunity from a sourc-

“Had we not been constantly talking to

ing perspective are, versus what we were

the business we couldn’t put a solution in

doing before.”

place that would have fulfilled the needs

A journey like this, building a best-

of a large segment of our business. You

in-class sourcing organization from the

need to understand that you’re not going

ground up, will never be a cakewalk and

to solve every issue that revolves around

challenges are inescapable. Not only will

a specific philosophy or even the goals

there be risks and unforeseen circum-

you set in the beginning. But making sure

stances that can plague the journey, but

you’re at least addressing the vast major-

there will also be the moving of goalposts.

ity of them, in that you’re getting buy-in on

The end goals will evolve as the demands

the overarching goal – then you can manip-

of the business evolve and this is where

ulate the process underneath that’s going

Barry’s philosophy comes into play.

to drive you to that goal to account for

“It’s highly important that you stay engaged in the business. Our business is one that’s grown through acquisition, so it was imperative that I was continually talking to the business because throughout this journey, we entered not just new markets but new countries. All of a sudden, we took a business that was US based and set out in creating procurement practices here in the US to take them to an international level,” explains Barry. “It changes so much. For example, our vendor management is completely different now because with us now operating across multiple countries we now must screen our vendors on a global scale across numerous databases and lists more than ever before and that adds new complexities into the 72

ACCESS CORP

those potential changes in your business.”

“You need to understand that you’re not going to solve every issue that revolves around a specific philosophy or even goal statement that you said in the beginning” — B I L L B A R R Y, V P, S O U R C I N G A N D P R O C U R E M E N T, AC C E S S

One of the core elements of the building out of Access’ procurement and sourcing function is to create one that can be defined as best-inclass. But what does best-in-class mean and more importantly, how can a company know it has achieved it? It is not uncommon across procurement functions all over the world to look to their peers and to tap into their vast supplier and vendor networks to benchmark against them in order to truly define what best-in-class means to their business. With Barry, it is no different. “Very early on in my career I would get together with a number of my peers: investors, VPs and Directors of procurement across a number of companies we worked with. And we’d meet regularly and bounce information off of one another,” says Barry. “Even today, time permitting, we’d speak regularly through emails and look at the policies we’ve been working on and get insight from one another.” w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

“ I know what I think is bestin-class, but if it doesn’t fit the needs of the business then it’s not best-in-class” — B I L L B A R R Y, V P, S O U R C I N G A N D P R O C U R E M E N T, AC C E S S

ACCESS CORP

Barry also engages in documents published by a number of sources; the federal government, consulting organizations, etc, pertaining to their procurement and sourcing practices. Access works closely with consulting partners, not directly for consulting in the procurement space but rather their business insight. All of this comes together with an internal steering committee that will review any policy and procedure that’s drawn up before publishing. “Another philosophy I follow is; I know what I think is best-in-class, but if it doesn’t fit the needs of the business then it’s not best-inclass,” he says. “So again, it’s about feedback and engaging with the business and really listening to them. Only then can you become a best-in-class sourcing function.” As Barry has recognized, the future will not be a simple straight line. There will be challenges, opportunity and evolution. The goals will change and the roadmap may evolve, but the approach must remain the same: to listen, to engage and to collaborate. ‘The future for any business will be defined by your willingness to continue to evolve as your business changes,” he says. “I mean, I’ve been here a year and a half and I don’t think there’s a policy out there still, that’s on version one. There are changes that we’re making to address new challenges or new opportunities.” “But ultimately for me, and for Access, what we want is for that best-in-class approach to be ingrained in our philosophy and in our business that this is just how we do it. It’s no longer a case of ‘Oh, procurement’s making me do this.’ This is the way we do it. This is why we do it this way and this is way we’ll continue to do it.”

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

AXA Partners: Digital transformation by the business, for the business WRITTEN BY A n d rew Wo o d s PRODUCED BY A l ex P a g e

A X A PARTNERS

Emmanuel Touzeau - Chief HR and Communications Officer Copyright: AXA 2019 w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

We speak to Romain de Maudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;huy Chief Transformation Officer for Travel at AXA Partners, to see how the global insurer is harnessing the latest technology to reconfigure its offeringsâ&#x20AC;Ś

echnology is reshaping the world on both macro and microscopic levels. Industries,

enterprises, processes and products are being constantly reconfigured by the sheer disruptive speed and scale of technological change. The customer and his or her expectations are at the heart of any commercial shift, and the reaction to this on behalf of business is crucially people-led also, no matter how sophisticated the changes. In no market is the customer more focused upon than insurance. When a client needs coverage or help, insurers need to be swift and smart in all their internal and external operations in a market experiencing massive change and numerous challenges from customers and competitors. Insurers need to be 79

A X A PARTNERS

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION PARTNER Your Pass delivers a dynamic digital card that sits in the wallet and enables a real-time gateway to provide customers up-to-date information and one-button access to digital support. This is an ideal solution to "up-sell" and "cross-promote" products and services ie Medical Help, Concierge service while saving money versus other communication channels. Engaging with customers via their mobile wallet increases engagement and satisfaction. FIND OUT MORE

www.yourpass.eu info@yourpass.eu

“A good example of what we do is called corporate mobility; basically, business travel. We’re here to help businesses protect their employees when they’re abroad” — R O M A I N D E M AU D ’ H U Y C H I E F T RA N S FO R M AT I O N O F F I C E R , T R AV E L A X A PA R T N E R S

both global in reach, coverage and culture

ensuring that the subsequent work would

and yet local and empathetic in exactly

be ‘by the business, for the business’.

the same regard. As one of the largest global insurers,

AXA Partners operates worldwide on Travel with a physical presence in more

AXA’s purpose is to empower people

than 25 countries and therefore, one

to live a better life. AXA Partners – an

of the insurance offerings that is truly

AXA transversal business unit - designs,

global. “Our distributors are global,” says

implements and manages projects with

de Maud’huy, “and when you distribute

selected global partners and supports

to an online travel agent, they want the

AXA entities to develop successful local

same kind of experience wherever they

partnerships covering automotive, banks

sell the product. When you sell through

and credit cards, retailers, utilities and

an airline, the clients want the same

telecoms, digital players, public sector and

customer journey and experience. So,

non-government organisations. In 2018,

it’s global in the sense that it’s a global

AXA Partners’ revenues reached €3.03

24/7 operation serving global partners

billion.

which customers travel globally…”

Romain de Maud’huy drives digital

Digital transformation allows enter-

transformation of Travel at AXA Partners

prises such as AXA Partners to build truly

having joined the company in 2017.

global target operating models for global

The CEO at the time wanted someone

footprints that can then administrate

from the business to take the role, thus

across the planet. “We’re mostly in B2B2C w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

and so technology allows us to build only one set of products but with a different customer journey, according to the distributor,” he explains. “We can build a customer journey within the customer journey of our distributor, which all have their own personalities. I’m not just talking about connectivity through API, it’s really the different tools and the flexibility that allows you to build one set of products – so it’s really industrialised – while enhancing your distributor’s customer journey.” De Maud’huy built a very tiny transformation team within the different models they could have adopted. “We could have decided to do what most people do, which is to build an independent transformation team which goes full speed and is very efficient with everybody focusing only on that, but then the risk in that is that at the end of the year, you have built something which is not indicative of what the business truly needs. We decided to have a truly tiny transformation team to have a transformation ‘by the business, for the business’.” For de Maud’huy, speed is essential to a successful digital transformation as disruption in the market can happen very quickly. Speed is a key element, he 83

A X A PARTNERS

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

says, because you don’t want to asphyxiate your business with a never-ending transformation. “You want to work fast, because you want nice success stories to come quickly and regularly, to keep the funding across the project, but also to keep people engaged; to keep the energy, to keep the momentum,” he explains. “The first rationale behind the digital transformation at AXA Partners was to put back the customer at the center of everything. It was also about efficiency and not being disrupted down the road,” de Maud’huy explains. The work at AXA Partners is motivated by ‘simplify, simplify, simplify’. AXA Partners had a claims system with 12,000 contract templates in it. “We changed up and leveraged the AXA Group center of expertise’s contract building

quick wins, because if you do only the

tools,” de Maud’huy explains, “we went

former, people get bored and the energy

from 12,000 templates to just under 50.

disappears. Another killer is the mix

Simplify, simplify, simplify!”

between what you invest in the transfor-

The idea behind the digital transforma-

mation and what you invest in your BAU

tion at AXA Partners was a fundamental

to maintain your legacy tools a few years

revamp, while making sure that in 3-4

more. You have tools already working,

years’ time, all the moving parts continue

they’re not state-of-the-art digital, but

to move together and make sense.

they are working. However, if you invest

“What is essential is the mix between

everything in your transformation, you

what I would call essential, fundamental,

asphyxiate your business for 3-4 years

game-changer tools or processes, which

and if you don’t invest enough in your

are pretty heavy to change, and little

transformation, because it’s costly, then

A X A PARTNERS

“ Start your digital transformation with the basics, de Maud’huy suggests. “It’s building or confirming your vision; basically identifying your key differentiators” — R O M A I N D E M AU D ’ H U Y C H I E F T RA N S FO R M AT I O N O F F I C E R , T R AV E L A X A PA R T N E R S

it takes too long.” Start your digital transformation

customer experience is at the centre of it and in the travel business our vision

with the basics, de Maud’huy suggests.

at AXA Partners is to always have the

“It’s building or confirming your vision;

backs of our clients, in whatever they do,

basically identifying your key differen-

wherever they are. The key differentiator

tiators. I think too many people start

we identified in Travel in AXA Partners,

transformation thinking about tools;

is that we believe that we have an edge

but it’s really about your vision of your

in the medical assistance we offer; it’s

business and your key differentiators.

a real differentiator for us, because it’s

You build your target operating model

actually a life changer. It’s important for

around the customer journey that you

you to be reimbursed if your suitcase

imagine for your client, so it’s putting

is damaged, but it’s far more important

the customer back in the middle. The

that we care of your kids or repatriate w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

your partner if you’re traveling abroad. So, it’s really about your vision first, then identifying your key differentiators, and building your target operating model around your customer journeys.” Digital transformations affect people just as much as processes and tools. Change management can be a real challenge when implementing new operating models and systems and is often not anticipated enough. De Maud’huy likes to tackle that particular obstacle right from the start. “Technical, digital people, business people, tend to forget that change management is essential,” he says. “IT teams tend to focus on delivering their projects and the milestones of those projects, whereas the only thing we should worry about is the impact the project will have after it’s delivered, and the team has been dismantled. Change management is an absolutely key component. You have to work on it at the beginning of your project, because you need to do the change assessments, and train your sponsors. It’s not natural to be a sponsor, especially when you’re using different programmes or project techniques. Whatever you estimate you need to invest in change management, the truth is that you probably need to double it. One often undermines that component, sadly.” 87

A X A PARTNERS

Another problem with large organisations is how to integrate new and Agile modes of work within big corporations operating with a strict and strong governance. “Agile gives great flexibility, great speed, so that’s great, but the difficulty is most of the big corporations are ‘waterfall’ type of organisations. When you’re actually running Agile projects, you want people to think in Agile, to have daily meetings and to empower the team on their decisions. But many companies operate in financial quarters and have monthly meetings, yearly budgets and roadmaps.” De Maud’huy also cites issues surrounding the retaining of the right talent and creating alignment between business teams, IT teams and providers’ teams. “Your business people know the business, and what’s needed and will be able to imagine the business differently. If you take only people from outside the business, they might have loads of ideas, but they might completely miss the complexity and diversity of the business. However, if you take only people who have been doing the same process for years and years, it’s very difficult for them to imagine something radically different. That’s where diversity helps. It’s about managing that balance.” w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

“The PLEEZ app offers multiple services through simple voice command or chat access. With this innovation, ‘AXA Partners sets out to enrich its partners’ customer experience” — R O M A I N D E M AU D ’ H U Y C H I E F T RA N S FO R M AT I O N O F F I C E R , T R AV E L A X A PA R T N E R S

A X A PARTNERS

De Maud’huy realised early on that AXA Partners could not do everything by itself. A helping hand in locating and utilising technological talent, the world over, comes in the form of AXA Next; an entity in charge of innovation at AXA Group level. “It’s in charge of monitoring what’s happening in the tech world and so we have labs in several parts of the world. This division is also in charge of investing in start-ups through funds with AXA Venture Partners. It’s also in charge of identifying interesting business models, looking for entrepreneurs and incubating those business models with Kamet.” “We’re using one of the Big Five as an integrator on one of our main projects and it’s working very well,” he says. “The Group used them in Asia on a similar project, so the ramp-up was much faster as they knew how to work with us. There are so many things it will be difficult for us to be experts of all, and if you have a start-up which raises 20 million to work on AI, and it is focusing only on that, they will most certainly have an edge. Having your internal IT experts working with them on a mixed solution is probably to best way forward.” De Maud’huy believes the soul of AXA Partners’ digital transformation is in putting the customer at the center of the process. “At AXA, we are making the change from being a “payer” to being a “partner” to our customers. In traditional insurance, you only have contacts with your insurer when you pay or when you have a claim, and when that happens the customer might even feel like he or she is being treated like a potential fraudster. Basically, at AXA we are moving to another paradigm where we are the partner of our customer. A good example of what we do is in the corporate mobility w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

world; basically, business travel. We’re

reimbursement (through pre-defined

here to help businesses protect their

parameters). Reimbursement features

employees when they’re abroad. AXA

no human decision or discussion and it’s

Partners and its clients are benefitting

completely automatic. The advances at

from Travel Eye which harnesses innova-

AXA Partners are truly enhancing all of

tions such as feeding the platform with

the emerging technologies through the

live geopolitical or natural catastrophe

arms of the AXA Group’s Kamet division,

events, so they know what’s happening

which incubates technologies. “Kamet

in the areas where their employees are.”

has incubated the teleconsultation tech-

“Teleconsultation and parametric

nology, parametric technology, medical

insurance are also very interesting,” de

platforms we have in use and so through

Maud’huy explains. “In parametric insur-

that incubator, we can actually have

ance there is an external provider of

access to these technologies.”

that data which automatically triggers

A X A PARTNERS

AXA Partners also offers a completely

digital concierge based on AI produced

continuous basis to improve the services

with a French company based in

it offers. Dedicated experts take over to

Bordeaux. The PLEEZ app offers multiple

answer questions when required, with-

services through simple voice command

out impacting response time. PLEEZ’s

or chat access. With this innovation,

many services are based on AXA’s inter-

‘AXA Partners sets out to enrich its

national network of concierge service

partners’ customer experience’. PLEEZ

providers, which has evolved over more

helps make users’ daily lives easier by

than 20 years.

providing them with everything from

“YourPass is a central Europe e-wal-

recommendations to reservations when

let producer we work with in Czech

it comes to restaurant, transporta-

Republic. It’s very energetic, focused

tion, hospitality and culture and leisure

and innovative and we hope to be rolling

services. The app’s AI learns about the

out this solution in other regions soon.

preferences and tastes of the user on a

When you buy insurance, we would send

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

you an e-card with a link to the terms and conditions of your contract. When you are travelling, you have your boarding card so receiving your insurance details on an e-wallet is natural. It is also very useful to interact positively with the customer providing him or her with additional services such as PLEEZ or information on the destination. And the customer through the e-card can easily contact us would he or she needs us without having to look for our number or webpage or to travel with the PDF with the insurance contract details.” The digital technology we approve and provide will transform the way people are working,” says De Maud’huy and will be focusing less on process and even more on the customer. Ironically the technology allows us focus more on empathy and listening.”

A X A PARTNERS

Romain De Maudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;huy Head of Travel Transformation at AXA Partners Romain de Maudâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;huy is the head of the Travel business line Transformation at AXA Partners. He leads this digital and human multi-dimensional transformation over 20 countries dedicated at improving processes and capabilities. To shape an efficient and customer friendly Travel insurance business he leverages internal and external technologies and numerous change management initiatives focusing on innovation and customer centricity. Prior to that Romain was responsible of distribution through Partnerships at AXA Mexico. Within this role he oversaw the development of new and existing partnerships including the offer, the sales activation and the quality of service. He also spent 2 years as Head of Strategy and Corporate Finance at AXA Mexico. During the 2008 financial crisis Romain was heading the Investment Solutions department at AXA Investment Managers in London, after overseeing the AXA France account in Paris for 2 years. Romain initially joined the AXA Group Head Office in Paris in Finance and Strategy roles. He graduated from a French business school and holds a degree of proficiency in Mandarin from Beijing Language and Culture University and from Fudan University in Shanghai.

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

5 TECH INNOVATORS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2020 We look across the sectors to find some of the stand-out technological innovators looking to push on in 2020â&#x20AC;¦ WRI T T EN BY

Andr ew Woods

In mid 2012, after selling its display advertising technology business, a couple of ad-tech industry veterans got together to reflect on what really drove value in the ad ecosystem. It was soon crystal clear to the pair: highly targeted user data and the ability to turn that data into actionable insights increased the value of advertising considerably for all parties involved. Cue: DDMR (data-driven market research), which launched out of Austin, Texas. DDMR enables data-driven market research by maintaining a panel of tens of millions of unique global users that conduct billions of consumer behaviour activities every single day. w w w . d d m r . co m

5 TE CH I N N OVATO RS TO LO O K O U T F O R I N 2 0 2 0

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

Launched in 2017, ERC dEX is currently upgrading its utility token trading platform to facilitate compliant tokenised securities trading. Its mission is to create the most secure, robust experience for trading digital assets on Ethereum following SEC regulations surrounding the issuances of digital asset securities and trading and ERC dEX is certainly growing in both value and recognition at a crucial time for the sector.

www.ercdex.com

5 TE CH I N N OVATO RS TO LO O K O U T F O R I N 2 0 2 0

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

100

Recent television ads have aired this winter showcasing the UK online-only challenger Starling Bank. Launched in the UK in 2017 by Anne Boden, Starling Bank recently hit 1 million users and £263mn of new investment. The bank, which is currently promoting its new business loans, is on course to achieve profitability this year as a result of its award-winning innovative tech and user-friendly functionality. Can it seriously challenge the old guard? Many believe so. www.starlingbank.com

3 101

5 TE CH I N N OVATO RS TO LO O K O U T F O R I N 2 0 2 0

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

102

2 The growing financial aspect to sport is driving a whole industry of performance analysis and talent acquisition tools to help both sporting franchises and broadcasters. Taken from the world of autonomous vehicles, Move.ai’s computer vision and artificial intelligence software has been developed specifically for sport creating the fastest most accurate data output from any video feed. Combining the latest computer vision technology with AI and deep learning software, Move.ai is able to immediately capture speed, acceleration, distance, shapes and volumetric body form. A recent valuation of £2.59m shows just how well this sought-after innovator is performing. www.move.ai

103

5 TE CH I N N OVATO RS TO LO O K O U T F O R I N 2 0 2 0

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

104

Digital and remote healthcare are booming right now, as ageing populations place ever more pressure on private and public enterprises. Launched in 2010, New Yorkbased AiCure is an AI and advanced data analytics company, attracting massive rounds of funding ($24.5mn in 2019), that targets the healthcare industry. Its proprietary intelligent software captures and understands video, audio, and behavioural data to establish the link between patients, disease and treatment. AiCure, recognised as one of the world’s 100 most innovative artificial intelligence companies, announced significant 2019 company momentum, growing revenue by over 65% from the previous year.

www.aicure.com

105

5 TE CH I N N OVATO RS TO LO O K O U T F O R I N 2 0 2 0

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

106

EVENTS OF 2020 W R I T T E N BY Kev i n D av i e s

107

THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY CAN EASILY BE DESCRIBED AS THE MOST MERCURIAL AND TRANSFORMATIVE. NEW IDEAS AND INNOVATIONS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY SHIFTING THE BENCHMARKS OF BUSINESS PERFORMANCE, SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYMENT. THESE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCES PROVIDE E XPERTS AND INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS WITH A MUCHNEEDED BIRD’S E YE VIE W OF WHAT ’S HAPPENING NOW AND WHAT THEY CAN EXPECT TOMORROW…

108

24.02.20 MWC The largest mobile event in the world, bringing together the latest innovations and leading-edge technology alongside todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most influential visionaries. The GSMA MWC series (formally known as Mobile World Congress) is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest exhibition for the mobile industry and incorporates a thought-leadership conference featuring prominent executives representing global mobile operators, device manufacturers, technology providers, vendors, and content owners.

109

EVENTS

09.06.20 5G WORLD 98% of operators view attending 5G World as important to their job role, so come and learn, network and partner with 2,500 telecoms professionals at the only global event defining the future of 5G, where 63% confirmed operator speakers at 5G World are CxO and VP level.

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

110

08.06.20 LONDON TECH WEEK London Tech Week 2020 looks to be its biggest year yet, promising to bring some of the best minds together in Europe’s largest festival of tech! Last June, London became the backdrop for a week-long festival of tech and innovation. Bringing together over 58,000 attendees to enjoy hundreds of crowd-sourced events across the city, Tech Week 2019 was the biggest and boldest festival yet! Big thanks to our sponsors, partners, delegates and event hosts, we hope that you all enjoyed a successful Tech Week 2019 and built valuable new connections and relationships across the festival. Get involved in London Tech Week next year as the event looks to expand as the UK continues to innovate as a worldwide cutting-edge tech hub.

111

EVENTS

w w w. th e i n te r fa ce. n et

112

BE LIKE SAM

Are you leading a Procurement or Technology transformation? CPOstrategy & Interface Magazine offer a unique opportunity to showcase your story and give a voice to that journey Get in touch. Be like Sam and share your story!

FIND OUT MORE