The Interface – September 2019

TEC H | TELCO | F I N T ECH | DIGITA LISATIO N | A I | MACHIN E LEAR NING

Issue 6 | September 2019 | www.theinterface.net

POWERING THE UK’S NO. 1 MULTI-BRAND & MULTI-CHANNEL RETAILER P74 EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

EXPLORING KEY AT T R I B U T E S O F T H E MODERN TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL

WELCOME TO THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF INTERFACE MAGAZINE This month’s exclusive cover story explores a true transformation of a beloved retail giant. We travelled to London to speak with Sainsbury’s Group CIO Phil Jordan, the driving force behind Sainsbury’s Tech, a brand-new technology division delivering integrated tech solutions across all of Sainsbury’s brands and channels.

The challenge for Sainsbury’s was how to escape the confines of a traditional structure, formed from its welldefined, successful brands, and nimbly provide a unified customer experience that allows it to meet its competitors head on. “I genuinely think, if you’re a technologist, retail is an unbelievable place to practise your trade,” explains Jordan.

We also have an exclusive interview with Bruno Schenk, Head of Digital Transformation at UPC Business Switzerland, who details how the telco and ICT provider is successfully navigating a digital transformation.

Elsewhere, we speak to Edward Rybicki, SVP and Global CIO of Vyaire Medical, as he details how a four pillar IT strategy enables digital prowess in the medical device market and Keon Van Loo, CIO of Renson Ventilation reveals how its investment in IT is enabling innovation.

Plus, we feature the five smartest factories, and

E DI TOR I N CH I E F Andrew Woods

CON T R I B U T I NG E DI TOR Dale Benton Kevin Davies

CR E AT IVE L E AD Mitchell Park

list all the top tech events and conferences from

VP T E CH NOLO G Y

around the world.

Andy Lloyd

I hope you enjoy the issue!

VP P RO C U R E M E N T Heykel Ouni

P R E SI DE N T & CE O Kiron Chavda

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

PUBLISHED BY

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CONTENTS

10

SAINSBURY’S TECH

46

CAROLYN CHIN-PARRY

56

VYAIRE MEDICAL

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

5

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CONTENTS

74

IAN MOYSE

102

5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

114 RENSON

86

UPC BUSINESS

134 EVENTS

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

7

POWERING THE UK’S NO. 1 MULTI-BRAND & MULTI-CHANNEL RETAILER W R I T T E N B Y

Andrew Woods

P R O D U C E D B Y

Kiron Chavda

V I D E O B Y

M a t t y Tr e t t

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y A n d y Ty l e r

10

11

Let’s meet the team behind Sainsbury’s Tech: a brand-new technology division delivering integrated tech solutions across all Sainsbury’s brands and channels…

S

ainsbury’s is a beloved British institution with a long-standing reputation for

quality and service, at fair prices, from its 1,400-plus UK stores for 150 years.

From a butter shop on Drury lane, the retailer now has a stable of several other equally lauded household names: Argos, Nectar, TU Clothing, Sainsbury’s Bank, and Habitat in the modern-day

12

SAINSBURY’S TECH

incarnation of the business.

are born from the digital sphere. How can

But existing within a highly disruptive

processes be accelerated, data pooled,

and competitive market, Sainsbury’s

and the customer experience enhanced

challenge, shared by many large-scale

across a number of brands? This trans-

enterprises, is how to escape the conf-

formation is a business-wide challenge

ines of a traditional structure, formed

but one in which technology is the primary

from its well-defined, successful brands,

catalyst and engine for change.

and nimbly provide a unified customer

Responsibility for technology across

experience that allows it to meet its

all of Sainsbury’s’ brands lies with Group

competitors head on, many of whom

CIO, Phil Jordan, a man who has overseen w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

13

massive transformations at the likes of

“I’ve always been fascinated by Retail.

Telefónica and Vodafone. Jordan is the

I think it’s the most exciting sector, where

driving force behind Sainsbury’s Tech,

brilliant technology in the hands of bril-

a brand-new technology division deliv-

liant people can really differentiate.”

ering integrated tech solutions across

From Sainsbury’s Holborn headquarters

all Sainsbury’s brands and channels. “I’ve

in the heart of London, Jordan explains,

brought a different industry and global

“I hadn’t really thought about joining

perspective,” Jordan says of his time

a supermarket when I was in telecoms,

working in telecoms through Europe and

but the more I met the people, the more

Latin America, “…and with that perspec-

I understood the journey of the business

tive, a more data and digitally-driven

and its scale, and the potential power of

vision of ‘retail tech’.”

our multiple brands and multiple chan-

When the chance to work for a mighty British brand came up, Jordan was intrigued.

14

SAINSBURY’S TECH

nels, the more interested I became.

Sainsbury’s has an incredible heritage,

150 years old this year with a rich history

customers whereas I think the big tele-

of innovation in food quality, products

coms companies struggle at times,”

and ethical and effective supply chains.

he says. “They are typically B2B, B2C,

Sainsbury’s continues to be a tech inno-

wholesale businesses and the defi-

vator from the first self-service stores,

nition of customer becomes a little

first manned and then automated check-

generic and abstract. There is noth-

out and then more recently the first to do

ing abstract about 26 million custom-

mobile scan-and-pay in the UK.”

ers a week choosing Sainsbury’s or our

As to the comparison between his past and present industries, Jordan reflects: “There are some obvious differences in margin, scale and international footprint but there are equally some interesting parallels. Telecoms companies have had to face the fact that building and owning a network creates a real barrier to entry but increasingly doesn’t differentiate.

It is great customer data, that drives insight and personalised services that run on those networks, that makes the difference. This is not that different to the shops for a retailer where differentiation is increasingly about the speed, convenience and personalised experi-

“ I’ve always been fascinated by Retail. I think it’s the most exciting sector, where brilliant technology in the hands of brilliant people can really differentiate” — P H I L J O R DA N GROUP CIO SAINSBURY’S

ence of shopping with us that customers want, wherever and whenever they choose to shop with us: online or in one or our stores,” he explains.

Another of the most significant contrasts between Jordan’s previous employers and Sainsbury’s is the ‘view of the customer’.

“Sainsbury’s has an obsession for w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

15

role to influence and facilitate the way people shop, directly affecting lives and supporting the communities we serve.”

Indeed, it is the customer who lies at the heart of Sainsbury’s Tech, the new division headed up by Jordan to provide the multi-brand, multichannel capability that delivers a seamless journey through its different brands. “I think one of the things we realised quite quickly is that we want to build technology that is multi-brand and also democratises the data in our business so we can always see a customer in 360 degrees irrespective of brand or channel. The fastest way 16

SAINSBURY’S TECH

to get there was to move our technol-

transformed to be digital, you’re not

ogists from the brands and form them

going to survive much longer. Retail

into a new progressive tech organisa-

Businesses that weren’t fast enough

tion that could build the capability that

to develop a great Digital Experience

delivers our vision. This is Sainsbury’s

in and out of physical stores are

Tech.” Jordan explains, “Everything we

going under at a rate of knots. Now

do is anchored around ‘What would our

it’s about data capability built on those

customers think of this?’”

automated and real time processes of

Jordan’s focus now is to “take great

a digital business and how quickly you

brands that operate brilliantly in a loosely

can turn insight into action. How quickly

coupled eco-system and form a world-

you can adapt the customer experi-

class, multi-brand, multi-channel shopping

ence based on personalisation. That’s

experience”. “What we really want is

why we’ve put so much emphasis on

for customers to fulfil all their shopping

data in this business and encouraging

missions with Sainsbury’s in a seam-

our colleagues to be actively analytical

less, personalised way that uses our

in all aspects of their roles.” And Jordan

understanding about what they want,

is swift to dismiss any suggestion that

where they like to shop and what’s

Sainsbury’s isn’t ready for this trans-

important to them,” he explains. “We

formation, “If you are still prospering

have a passion for making our custom-

as a business after 150 years, 37 prime

ers’ lives easier, to make Sainsbury’s

ministers, six kings and queens, you

a place where people love to shop, and

must have innovation in your DNA and

this is why we are bringing the technol-

a culture of experimental curiosity.”

ogy functions, systems and data together

Jordan points to data as the answer to

as Sainsbury’s Tech and building the

understanding customers when creating

systems and data capability that powers

a compelling and attractive proposition.

the UK’s no.1 multi-brand, multi-channel

“How do you use the data to understand

digital retail ecosystem.”

the customers and to make yourselves

It is clear Jordan and the Sainsbury’s

compelling when it’s no longer simply

Board see Sainsbury’s Tech as critical

a question of selling a network or open-

to engineering the transformation of

ing a shop near to someone?” he asks.

Sainsbury’s. “If you haven’t already

“When you look at the way people shop, w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

17

© 2019 Accenture. All rights reserved.

NEW ISN’T ON ITS WAY. WE’RE APPLYING IT NOW. See how we’re applying deep retail skills and new IT to real business challenges at accenture.com/technology

NEW APPLIED NOW

Accenture: an agile partner Accenture has been a key partner in the Argos and Sainsbury’s Tech journey. We spoke to Doug Blyth, Retail Technology Lead, about the company’s partnership with the retail giant.

Tell me a little about

How did Argos go about

requirements and simplify the

Accenture’s work with Argos

delivering this sustained

handover to support. It’s help-

prior to the recent work with

transformation?

ing to reduce overheads and

Sainsbury’s Tech.

In 2015, we started conversa-

decrease delivery times as the

Back in 2012, Argos was facing

tions about how to sustain this

teams deploy new microser-

major disruption in the market-

transformation in the long term.

vice-based architectures.

place and embarked on a bold

The outcome was a commit-

digital transformation strategy.

ment to a new delivery ap-

process to be part of and it’s

The goal was to turn their stores

proach. We worked with Argos

still ongoing. It made Argos one

into ultra-convenient digital

to set up a digital hub in London

of the leading examples of a

stores where a large range

and hire experts to help build in

large business with a complex

could be collected instore or

house agile teams, and reorgan-

IT estate that has successfully

delivered the same day, and

ise IT into small product teams,

transitioned to an agile product

Accenture was chosen as their

or function teams, as they called

team model across the board.

transformation partner.

them, with a mix of Argos and

This has been an exciting

Accenture people working as

So what does this all

series of changes based on the

one team. This shift has pro-

mean with the launch

‘hub and spoke’ model, where

duced a more focused and agile

of Sainsbury’s Tech?

larger stores were able to

IT structure that is focused

The move to Sainsbury’s Tech

channel stock to smaller ones.

on driving ongoing business

will create a new customer

First this enabled customers to

change through technology.

focused tech organisation that

Together, we delivered a

order online and pick up in store

On top of this agile method-

aligns teams and infrastruc-

in under four hours. Then it was

ology, we worked with Argos

ture around shared capabilities

expanded to same-day delivery,

to layer a DevOps approach.

rather than the Sainsbury’s,

which is now available in more

Rather than operating as a

Argos, Nectar and Bank brands.

than 90% of UK postcodes. And

separate break-fix organisation,

We have just agreed a renewed

now fast-track collection means

we seed some of our applica-

partnership arrangement to

customers can be in and out of

tion management team into the

drive further value across Sains-

stores in as little as 90 seconds.

function teams. This seamless

bury’s Tech and look forward to

This created an instore digital

connection between engineer-

helping them achieve this pro-

experience and enhanced the

ing and support helps prioritise

gressive vision.

online experience.

the backlog of fixes and new

and the different missions they have, whether they’re shopping for food or

you for your loyalty.”

“I believe we have the most exciting

for general merchandise, there are many

dataset in the country,” Jordan enthuses.

life events that join it together. We

Through the lens of Nectar, and our digi-

know pet owners, so why can’t we be

tal channels we know a lot about our own

useful in helping you shop for pet food,

customers’ loyalty, shopping behaviour,

pet accessories or pet insurance? All

preference, taste, buying patterns, and

these examples are out there to help

when you consider the scale of our

people live their lives better. Wouldn’t

customer base, it’s a really interesting

it be useful if somebody could help you

view of the way the British public lives.

join some of these separate missions

We want to put all the data to work in

together, help you shop what you need

making it useful for customers in living

at the right value and in doing so, reward

their lives, whether that’s joining our

20

SAINSBURY’S TECH

“ I genuinely think, if you’re a technologist, retail is an unbelievable place to practise your trade. It’s where technology really is touched by everybody in the country” — P H I L J O R DA N GROUP CIO SAINSBURY’S

Helen Hunter, Chief Data Officer

shopping missions or starting to anticipate need, so we can make offers when they’re useful. There’s value for customers in that, and there’s obviously value for us as well. This only happens as we democratise it across our business and therefore applying data science techniques to it is critical. We are actively exploiting all types of data science, whether that’s algorithms and feature engineering, machine learning, or other approaches: this is Sainsbury’s Tech.”

Turning data into insight is not only w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

21

We get people like shopping smarter

WRITTEN BY Katy Liddell

Every aspect of our lives is

eyes firmly on the future, un-

sizes and colours.

enhanced through technology.

afraid to embrace new trends

We’ve evolved from newspa-

And retail is no exception. The

or experiment with modern

per inserts with specials, and

way that people shop across the

technology, particularly in the

customer call lines that solve

globe is changing, regardless

retail space. And it’s always

issues to chatbot apps and

of the product. You can now

about balancing how the

predictive advertising – that’s

purchase a ticket to the Earth’s

technology works and how it

the new normal. Undoubtedly,

atmosphere and complete a

affects people’s experience.

every business in the UK is

mortgage application entirely

For Sainsbury’s, that meant

undergoing a step-change,

online. With every market be-

helping to power Smartshop,

some embracing the technol-

coming increasingly saturated,

which combines the in-store

ogy, others merely catching

how do retailers stand out from

experience with the ease of

up. The future is one where

one another? Is it the price? The

mobile shopping. Customers at

understanding your new

specials? The selection?

its Holborn Circus Convenience

generation of customers is

store, Sainsbury’s trialled the

pivotal. Experiential in-store

changed over the years is that

UK’s first till-free grocery store.

experiences, real multichannel

we, as a society, are driven by

Its Smartshop Scan, Pay and

shopping and of course, great

emotions. Experience is what

Go technology enables custom-

value are the main areas that

matters most, and what lasts

ers to shop and pay for their

will help your business engage

long after the purchase has

groceries using just their smart-

with their demographic.

been completed. We remember

phones, transforming the in-

an effortless transaction or a

store experience for customers

With time comes a new gener-

frustrating online experience

and colleagues.For a large de-

ation. And, once we’ve cracked

and definitely share these with

partment store, it meant high-

how to serve Gen, Z the next

our networks using review

speed in-store Wifi so custom-

wave of shoppers is here to

sites or social media. With so

ers can access the store’s app,

take their place. A generation

much choice in 2019, what

scanning a product’s barcode

born into technology. What

separates retail stores comes

or searching by description for

works for today’s customers,

down to how your time there

whatever they’re after. Once

probably won’t for tomorrow’s

makes you feel. That’s what

they’d found a product, custom-

– which means there’s no time

drives customer loyalty.

ers can view a full summary and

to rest.

check in-store availability for all

The future is now.

One thing that hasn’t

O2 has always kept two

However, this isn’t the end.

for customers of Sainsbury’s Tech; it also builds on one of the first things that attracted Jordan to the retail industry: the opportunity to differentiate, “by putting brilliant technology into the hands of brilliant people”.

A UNIFIED CAPABILITY & TEAM “Sainsbury’s Tech is all about giving customers great experiences, ​leveraging data like a start-up but at a scale they can’t offer while fostering a culture of experimental curiosity,” says Jordan.

Sainsbury’s Tech faces an obvious initial cultural challenge in amalgamating two divisions from Sainsbury’s and Argos that have different cultures.

“Rather than make anybody feel that we were merging or trying to assimilate one into the other, we thought it was really important that we created something different and new. So, we’ve taken the technology and IT teams out of all our retail brands and formed a capability-based organisation orchestrated around three distinct multi-brand product engineering functions…

Digital; “Incorporating every piece of technology our customers can touch, whether that’s an instore self-checkout or the web, an app, or the E-commerce channel. We are putting all that together 24

SAINSBURY’S TECH

Tom Tang, Digital CTO

John Elliot, Retail CTO

to make that as seamless, simplified and elegant for our customers as possible in our eco-system. Our Digital CTO is Tom Tang”.

Retail; “Bringing together all the technology capabilities used by our colleagues and partners in executing processes and decisions in the commercial, supply chain, logistics and retail functions of our businesses. Our Retail CTO is John Elliot.”

Corporate; “Focusing on all the technology capability required for our corporate functions that power an increasingly w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

25

FIND OUT MORE

W W W.TC S . C O M

Shekar Krishnan, Head of Retail Business Unit, TCS UKI ‘think area’, where we support

completely align our structures.

partnership with Sainsbury’s.

Sainsbury’s in its digital trans-

This will help us jointly realise

Over the preceding years, TCS’s

formation leveraging the Busi-

the potential of the new Sains-

presence within Sainsbury’s

ness 4.0

bury’s Tech delivery model.”

grew significantly across the

both our business teams talk

organisation, seeing the com-

to each other, the partnership

point, TCS is very much aligned

pany deliver a number of larger

is not restricted to IT.”

with Sainsbury’s and focused

In 2007, TCS entered into a

supply chain and merchandising

TM

levers. Additionally,

Following the acquisition of

From an organisational stand-

on helping the company achieve

initiatives for the UK retailer. In

Argos, integrating Argos, Sains-

a leadership position in the UK

2015, TCS entered into a strate-

bury’s Bank and Nectar, Sains-

Retail market. One important

gic partnership with Sainsbury’s

bury’s formed Sainsbury’s Tech,

objective is to remove siloed

to run its IT operations, encom-

a brand-new technology divi-

working. “We are looking at an

passing application, infrastruc-

sion delivering integrated tech

end-to-end integrated view that

ture and service desk responsi-

solutions across all Sainsbury’s

brings significant optimisation

bilities. “Whatever is stocked in

brands and channels. Naturally,

and cost savings and allows us

the retail stores, whatever gets

this has seen the relationship

to implement changes much

transported through the supply

with TCS evolve further. “We

faster,” says Shekar. “The retail

chain, and whatever is published

are working closely with Sains-

market is undergoing a sig-

online; the TCS teams enable

bury’s in defining the delivery

nificant transformation. Many

that,” explains Shekar Krishnan,

model,” explains Shekar. “When

retailers are investing heavily

Head of Retail Business Unit,

we took over the application and

in transforming themselves

TCS UKI.

infrastructure operations back

to become more digital, more

in 2015, we proposed a bimodal

customer-focused, and more

tegic partner to Sainsbury’s?

approach by which we run the

automated and Sainsbury’s Tech

For Shekar, it’s a relationship

entire operations in a traditional

represents this.”

built on three core founda-

waterfall model and the develop-

tions, the trust between the

ment/transformation in an agile

bury’s, TCS will continue to value

two organisations, the stra-

model. As Sainsbury’s looked to

the success of Sainsbury’ very

tegic nature of the work that

restructure their organisations

highly. “It’s going to be extreme-

TCS does for Sainsbury’s and

for better collaboration and fast-

ly important to us, not only at

the multi-level connect be-

er business outcomes, we part-

the IT delivery-level but at the

tween the two organisation.

nered and shared the industry

business-level too,” says Shekar.

“We have built significant

best practices.” With Sainsbury’s

“This will further strengthen the

levels of trust through the

Tech, TCS has a team on the

great relationship our organisa-

connection we have between

ground that is working close-

tions have.

the two leadership teams,” he

ly with the Sainsbury’s team.

explains. “TCS works in the

“What we are trying to do is

But what makes TCS a stra-

As a core partner to Sains-

single and integrated business with the foundations and enablers of IT such as infrastructure and platform engineering. The Corporate CTO is Richard Newsome.”

Sainsbury’s Tech has also combined other key activities that span the brands; Service Operations; “We have put all our service operations together to leverage best practice, drive synergy and to ensure that we always show up consistently for customers. Martin Taylor is the Director of Service Operations.”

Technology Business Management; “We have created Technology Business Management as the glue between all elements of Sainsbury’s Tech and to drive the transformation, with a real focus on partners, programs, plans as well as the community and capabilities that are at the heart of our team.

Antony Cromb is the Head of Technology Business Management.

The vital areas of Data/Analytics and Information Security were previously transformed into multi-brand functions and form part of the Sainsbury’s Tech leadership team. These two areas are led respectively by; Data and Analytics; Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO), Helen Hunter Information Security; Chief InfoSec Officer (CISO), Munawar Valiji.

28

SAINSBURY’S TECH

“ So, we’ve taken the technology and IT teams out of all our retail brands and formed a capabilitybased organisation orchestrated around distinct multi-brand product engineering functions…”

— P H I L J O R DA N GROUP CIO SAINSBURY’S

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

29

Make your store thrive

No matter your size, where you operate, or what kinds of customers you serve, we’re here to help you create more meaningful interactions between you and your customers.

Is your technology creating the best experience for your customers and your business? With NCR, you’ll always know the answer is “yes.”

• #1 global provider of retail POS software • #1 in global self-checkout market share • Insights from servicing more than 6 million edge devices

To learn more, visit us at ncr.com/retail.

NCR and Sainsbury’s Tech: an agile partnership The customer is at the heart of Sainsbury’s Tech, a brand-new technology division launched by the retail giant to provide a seamless, unified journey through its different brands. NCR is working closely alongside Sainsbury’s Tech to support and develop this ambitious new initiative…

In terms of enhancing the customer

jewels in our crown,” says Kneen.

months of development work with

experience at enterprises as large

“And with Sainsbury’s, we’re leading

them to put some of its more funda-

as Sainsbury’s, there is perhaps

the way in terms of the complexity

mental products into the cloud.

no bigger partner than NCR, the

and the completeness of that ser-

NCR is very agile in its work

135-year-old Retail IT giant. A pro-

vice offering, and in terms of our

with a dedicated scrum team and

vider of front-of-store technology

knowledge of their environment.

a service support team that work

capabilities, such as EPOS terminals

Sainsbury’s Tech are investing in

with real time data to identify pinch

and self-checkout systems, as well

store technology as a differentiator.

points and areas of improvement

as bespoke programmes and service

Examples of that would be their

that feeds directly back into devel-

support, NCR (formerly National

investment in mobile shopping

opment. Working closely with Sains-

Cash Register) is a long-standing,

and their SmartShop app, which

bury’s Tech, NCR has significantly

platinum-trusted partner of Sains-

again, we’re fundamentally helping

reduced the time to market with

bury’s for managed service delivery

to support and deploy, as well as a

a new collaborative approach to

and store IT systems for more than

whole load of 2-D, or QR, scanning

testing. “That is the agile, innovative

16 years. “We’re in this business

capability to support the New world

approach we’re now taking, which

for the long haul,” explains Mark

of Nectar initiative. NCR is also now

I think is probably best-of-breed

Kneen, NCR’s Account Director for

supporting the whole of the Argos

in our industry,” Limbert explains.

Sainsbury’s. “And that puts us at

estate, equating to over 900 more

“Sainsbury’s is at its most innovative

the heart of their store operations

stores including over 280 within a

at the moment, and really trying to

because we’re supporting over

Sainsbury’s store, helping to bring

push the boundaries of what they

28,000 customer touch points,

together Sainsbury’s and Argos from

want to do, technically. They recog-

points-of-sale, and self-checkouts

a support service point of view.”

nise the value of trusted teamwork

across their 1,400-store estate,

Another important area of work

and we’re with them, every step of

comprising supermarkets and

for NCR is its programme develop-

the way as part of this joined-up

convenience stores.”

ment and delivery for Sainsbury’s

ecosystem.” Kneen echoes Lim-

Tech. Kevin Limbert, UK Head of

bert’s enthusiasm: “It’s genuinely

ing together to drive technology

Programmes, leads the NCR devel-

very exciting to be working with

across their stores, to provide faster,

opment team, working closely with

Sainsbury’s Tech at the moment. It’s

frictionless service to customers

Sainsbury’s Tech. “We brought the

a hold-on-tight type of excitement

by improving the whole point-of-

teams within NCR together as one

due to the speed at which they want

sale and self-checkout experience

team dedicated to Sainsbury’s.”

to introduce new things. NCR is

and NCR is integral in that regard.

Sainsbury’s has a very clear, publicly

proud to be a trusted partner and

“We’re very proud of the managed

stated vision of being a tech-led

collaborator with Sainsbury’s Tech

services we deliver. It’s one of the

retailer and NCR has just finished two

throughout its journey.”

Sainsbury’s and NCR are work-

MEET THE SAINSBURY’S TECH

delivering depth of the experience

LE ADE RS HI P TEA M

end-to-end, to a breadth of experience,

Tom Tang, Digital CTO

that’s more customer focused and

“Digital is customer facing and customer

front facing: more centred on our think-

focused. If you look at our websites:

ing in the round about the Sainsbury’s

Argos, Tu Clothing or Groceries Online;

customer whether they’re shopping

the mobile stores, or you look at the

at Argos, Habitat, Sainsbury’s or

in-store tills, these things are by far the

Sainsbury’s Bank. Our goal is to move

most customer-facing and impactful. In

from very brand specific customer jour-

a nutshell, delivery of digital customer

neys to a more rounded customer journey

experiences is now within the digital

and experience across Sainsbury’s as

technology remit.

a multi-brand, multi-channel retailer.”

Supporting Clodagh Moriarty, our Group Chief Digital Officer, we are

John Elliot, Retail CTO

putting all our energy into a shift from

“Sainsbury’s Tech is about us delivering

Phil Jordan, Group CIO

32

SAINSBURY’S TECH

the technology and the data that really helps us serve our customers in the best possible way. Customers increasingly want to shop with us whenever and however they need to. Technology really needs to be present and adaptive to our customer needs.

Everyone in the Retail Tech CTO domain is focused on the magic of designing, ranging, sourcing, buying, distributing, delivering and presenting the volume of product we offer. For me, what’s really exciting is seeing how technology can help revolutionise this w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

33

we serve, with digital and data capabilities.”

Richard Newsome, Corporate CTO “I’m accountable for the delivery of technical solutions through to a number of parts of the business that are absolutely at the centre of the way we’re structured going forward. For example, HR, finance, marketing, customer management centres, property and facilities. I think the real excitement about Sainsbury’s Tech, both for the business and for the colleagues who work for us, is to provide opportunities to deploy their technical skills across problems, which cross every one of our channels and brands. Whether that be putting technology in the hands of our customers, whether it’s putting great technology in the hands of our colleagues, whether it’s exploiting our fantastic data assets.

Sainsbury’s Tech is a place where every colleague has the opportunity to make a purposeful contribution. If you take the rate of change in the technology sector and the rate of change in retail and put those two things together, you pretty well get constant change.

The challenge for us is to make sure that we’re not just responding to that rate of change but are actually in the vanguard of enabling the company to move even more quickly towards a very digital multi-channel, multi-brand future.”

Martin Taylor, Director of Service Operations “It’s technology that is driving successful retailers.

Our customers are enjoying services from us, whether they’re shopping in the store, or ordering online and 36

SAINSBURY’S TECH

Richard Newsome, Corporate CTO

industry and make a contribution to the communities

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

37

“In short, partners have a huge role to play in our continued success. And those that are prepared to commit to and invest in the relationship and the Sainsbury’s business, will find us willing to do likewise for them” — P H I L J O R DA N GROUP CIO SAINSBURY’S then collecting in store, or receiving

tremendously talented colleagues, with

a delivery at home. Our tech impacts

pockets of real genius, are constrained if

people’s homes and lives, so we are

they’re hard-wired to the brands. Prior

passionate about providing both the colleague and the customer the tools to fulfil their needs in the simplest and most convenient way.

Service Operations is exciting because it’s always on: 365 days a year, 24/7, and this underpins everything from our online services to our logistics systems that enable the lorries to go and replenish stores. We pride ourselves on anticipating, understanding and resolving anything that could disrupt our customer experience.”

Antony Cromb, Head of Technology Business Management “As we seek to develop world class, multi-brand capabilities, we know 38

SAINSBURY’S TECH

Antony Cromb, Head of Technology Business Management

to Sainsbury’s Tech, the brilliant solu-

Technical Programme Management

tions we delivered for customers were

of our most complex, multi-team

achieved despite, not because of, the

enabled outcomes.”

way we were organised. Sainsbury’s Tech allows us to flexibly appoint our

Helen Hunter, Chief Data Officer

best people on the business’ top priori-

“Think for a second about the amount

ties and develop our people.

of data our business throws off, having

My team sits at the centre of Sainsbury’s

the UK’s largest loyalty scheme, a really

Tech, taking a view across the division, driving the transformation to create a brilliant tech team to help Sainsbury’s win. I’m accountable for division-wide supplier and software asset management; and the tech people agenda at large; planning and portfolio management; and the

Martin Taylor, Director of Service Operations Helen Hunter, Chief Data Officer

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

39

Born from Retail Built for Retailers

Fi

nd

ou

tm

or

e

Sharing our experiences with retailers and partners for the most important customer journey – the one you lead.

Customer journeys are more than

proactive engagement. When

and after purchase. However,

a marketing term. They are the

this happens over 70% of retailers

88% of retailers don’t believe

constant, fluid moments - before,

report that the new value gained

they personalize effectively,

during, and after a purchase - upon

through cloud migration goes

most forecasts have insufficient

which your customer relationships

directly to innovation projects.

inputs, and most CXO’s don’t

are built. With customers making

Retailers also collect data from

know where to begin in the

an increasing number of choices

a multitude of systems when

store. They rate AI/ML their #1

before, during, and after the pur-

engaging customers and must

opportunity, but the complexity

chase, every experience must be

quickly bring relevant data to-

to build and deploy leaves it the

earned for retailers to keep their

gether to form a complete picture

#8 spending priority.

customer’s journey progressing to

of their customer’s journey. With

them. This means every choice

that visibility, informed decisions

ers need the right partner to

must be guided, which is only pos-

can be made and more advanced

empower them and offer the

sible by moving from reactive to

solutions - relying on that data

kind of unique experience nec-

proactive retailers. In other words,

for conversion - can be deployed.

essary to address not only the

leading their customer’s journey.

However, even when moderniz-

unprecedented challenges of

However, an industry that has

ing and existing systems through

today, but the new opportuni-

traditionally focused on connecting

reinvention improves the source

ties coming tomorrow.

channels one experience at a time,

of data, over half of retailers

now finds itself struggling to find

report that they still can’t share

only cloud born from retail and

the speed, scale, and performance

data between systems and 88%

built for retailers. We share

to embrace this challenge.

are challenged in making action-

Amazon’s own tested, proven

able decisions. Fragmentation

innovation to help retailers re-

breed” solutions – solving for

and a lack of real-time insight

invent their legacy applications

individual channels with disparate

– especially at the edge – are

for new value, complete their

technology – have left many re-

significant problems.

view of customers for relevant

Years accumulating “best of

tailers paralyzed by the complexi-

Finally, sales velocity is a top

All of this means that retail-

That’s why AWS offers the

insight, and transform their

ty and cost of following customer

metric for most retailers, but

engagement for increased sales

migration from store only, to

journeys put conversion oppor-

velocity. From recommendation

online, to connected experienc-

tunities and rates at higher risk,

engines, forecasting and contact

es, and now complete journeys.

as consumers expect relevant

centers, to advanced computer

72% of CxO’s report an inability

personalization; right place/

vision and store transforma-

to migrate to new technologies.

right time inventory; and stores

tion, AWS offers retailers the

Simply engaging in customer jour-

offering both immersion and

same expertise we use our-

neys requires existing systems be

same-day pickup. Retailers

selves – a head start 20 years

modern, connected and built on

must now proactively engage

in the making for retailers to

an agile architecture supporting

at every step - before, during,

lead their customer’s journey.

significant online operation, the 5th largest clothing business in the UK, a bank, hundreds of stores, thousands of colleagues, and millions of customers. My job is to catch and collate this data and turn it into information which is accessible for colleagues across the business; and then to explore creative ways to make that data serve our business differently; ultimately improving what we do for our customers. Sainsbury’s is an actively analytical culture. We’re constantly asking ourselves: how can we put our data to work to help us address the biggest opportunities we’ve got in the business?

How can we use data to change the way we make decisions?”

And on being part of Sainsbury’s Tech rather than the functions you might usually find in an analytics and reporting team, Hunter says, “One of the most exciting things about being a data professional in these times is the fundamental disruption driven by cloud; the separation

Munawar Valiji, Chief Information Security Officer

of storage and compute and what this means for our ability to manipulate data

careers and really flourish in the high

at scale. Being part of Sainsbury’s Tech is

challenge, high support environment

fabulous, because it means our data and

that exists within Sainsbury’s Tech.”

machine learning engineers are part of a much bigger engineering community, and

Munawar Valiji, Chief Information

there’s so much more scope and breadth

Security Officer

for those individuals to build T-shaped

“Turning data into insight is all about

42

SAINSBURY’S TECH

creating an offer that makes our

experts, technologists and data

customers’ lives easier. We can

experts who have a common

only achieve this if we put their

purpose and vision to get the job

privacy and security at the heart of

done. They want to be known for

everything. The Sainsbury’s Tech

making a difference in a time

Infosec team is a fantastic group of

where the industry is going through

professionals; passionate security

phenomenal changes.” w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

43

PA RT N E R S

is the collaboration and partnering with

Partners play a critical and pivotal

some of these major enterprises that

role in the creation and operation of

has helped steer Sainsbury’s Tech.

Sainsbury’s Tech and the eco-system

“We rely on TCS for the global footprint

it operates within. “What distinguishes

and industrial strength in providing robust

partners from suppliers is,” according

world class infrastructure and applica-

to Jordan, “that partners get to do the

tion operations.

tough stuff with us. By nature, they’re

“Then there’s Accenture who continue

multi-year, wide-ranging and complex

to be at the heart of our application

relationships and have to be built on

management and development plans

a strong foundation. Otherwise you tend

in many parts of the business.

to find it fractures really quickly.”

“Partners like Snowflake are support-

“In short, partners have a huge role to play in our continued success. And

ing us as we rebuild our data ecosystem

those that are prepared to commit to

in the cloud to get right at the heart of

and invest in the relationship and the

our strategy: of knowing our customers

Sainsbury’s business, will find us willing

better than everybody else.

to do likewise for them,” Jordan explains.

“Telefónica O2, have been alongside Sainsbury’s for the past two years

T H E B I G G E ST C H A L L E N G E

as it shifted its wide area networks,

Making any changes while you continue

local area networks, WiFi and mobile

to trade intensively is hard and the

through to Telefónica.

transformation from brand to capability

“AWS have been critical in helping

at Sainsbury’s is significant. “The oper-

Sainsbury’s deliver its ‘cloud first’ strat-

ational intensity of serving millions of

egy with “real successes in moving

customers, filling shops every day and

many products and services to the cloud

trading as one of the UKs largest Digital

with fantastic performance, cost and

Retailers in the most competitive retail

resilience impact.

markets in the world whilst driving a

“Partners like NCR are a long-standing

major structural change is a great chal-

collaborator with Sainsbury’s on front-

lenge and one we are excited to take on

of-store technology capabilities, such

as a leadership team,” Jordan explains.

as tills and the SmartShop application. It

Sainsbury’s Tech officially went live

44

SAINSBURY’S TECH

this month although it was operating back in July. “Now, we’re able to say, ‘We’re here! This is Sainsbury’s Tech.’ And more importantly than anything, we can start recruiting and encouraging talent to Sainsbury’s Tech,” Jordan enthuses. “I genuinely think, if you’re a technologist, retail is an unbelievable place to practise your trade. It’s where technology really is touched by everybody in the country and Sainsbury’s Tech is the power that will propel Sainsbury’s into the UK’s no.1 multi-brand retail business. It doesn’t get any better than this!”

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

45

Humanising digital transformation with Carolyn Chin-Parry, a digital leader and Asia’s IT Woman of the Year 2019…

WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n

46

47

C A R O LY N C H I N - PA R R Y Digital Leader

Recently crowned IT Woman of

YOUR MOST RECENT ROLE WAS

The Year at the 2019 Women IT

CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, WHAT

Asia Awards, Carolyn Chin-Parry is a true digital leader, having

DID THIS ROLE ENTAIL? The role was about looking at emerging technologies and helping drive digi-

worked with a number of compa-

tal strategy and transformation. Rather

nies around the world to embrace

than be a CIO, from a more traditional

digital transformation. We caught up with Carolyn as she speaks of

sense, focusing on IT operations, infrastructure and data centres, the role was more up my alley around emerging tech-

the challenges facing transforma-

nologies, wanting to explore how digital

tion as well as the successes as

transformation impacts organisations.

we explore her passion for humanising digital transformation...

I wanted to focus my career on helping companies to future-ready themselves for what’s ahead. No matter how large and how profitable a company you are today, it is not a guarantee of how well you do in 5-10 years’ time. A lot of my passion is built around transformation and wanting to make sure that companies can survive this next wave of what people call the digital era. Not just looking at it from a technology viewpoint, but from a holistic viewpoint. People think of digital transformation from a technology viewpoint whereas I don’t. I see

48

C A R O LY N C H I N P A R R Y

“ Everyone is at a different maturity level and even if you’re a similar sized industry player within the same industry and market, it doesn’t mean that your journey for transformation to survive looks the same” — C A R O LY N C H I N - PA R R Y D I G I TA L L E A D E R

digital transformation from a business

as C-suite. A lot of it depends on the

survival viewpoint.

company culture as well as the senior leadership to be able to drive a mean-

WHAT CHALLENGES DO COMPA-

ingful transformation journey. Some

NIES FACE IN EMBRACING DIGITAL

players have woken up to realise that

TRANSFORMATION?

they are lagging behind, and other

Every company in every industry is on

players are a little bit more advanced

a different journey. Everyone is at a differ-

through that journey.

ent maturity level and even if you’re a similar sized industry player within the same

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO BE ABLE

industry and market, it doesn’t mean

TO COMMUNICATE THE VALUE OF

that your journey for transformation

TECH ACROSS AN ORGANISATION?

to survive looks the same. If you look

Traditionally most people would have

inwardly, every company has a different

looked at technology or IT as a cost

culture and appetite for risk as well as

centre. In this new era of Industry 4.0,

exploration around transformation.

technology is a value creator and an

You also have very different board of

enabler to survive. You need to give

directors that sit on your board as well

concrete examples to those who may not w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

49

have been converted yet.

world is evolving.

If you look at Forbes Magazine back

Most senior leaders really need

in 2007, the front cover was the CEO

to think about digital as a matter of

of Nokia. The headline said something

survival and to remember that the

along the lines of, “One billion custom-

return on investment on digital trans-

ers. Who can catch up with this cell

formation is usually several years.

phone king?� We all know where Nokia is

It’s not just several months. For that

right now. When you start talking about

reason, I think they really need to do a

companies that were so strong who

lot of planning and designing of what

actually failed in the end; they failed to

that should look like, where to take

innovate, they failed to realise that the

risks, where to invest and also to know

50

C A R O LY N C H I N - P A R R Y

“ I feel that in Industry 4.0, it has the ability to be either the era that causes the most unemployment or it could be the era that causes the most diverse inclusive workforce” — C A R O LY N C H I N - PA R R Y D I G I TA L L E A D E R

severely disrupted. They had the option to continue in the horse and carriage industry, which was very much dying or they had the option of saying to themselves, “Look, I know nothing about the car industry, but why not be one of the first few to get trained in this area because hopefully through retraining, I’ll get the right skills that would help future-proof my career.”

I think we’re at that similar point right now where people have very traditional jobs and those jobs are very much morphing and changing. Some are being completely replaced and others are just being augmented. It’s about a mindset shift. It’s really about no longer expecting to be in the same job or industry forever. These days’, people should expect that they could possibly be in multiple different industries, and differ-

that this is for the betterment of both

ent types of jobs that are not linked to

the company as well as the people.

each other at all during a point in their career. There will be a need for people to

HOW DO YOU OVERCOME THE CHAL-

be very open to being re-trained in areas

LENGE OF CHANGING A WORK-

that they’re completely unfamiliar with

FORCE AND A WAY OF WORKING TO

and hopefully adopt a lifelong learning

EMBRACE THE NEW DIGITAL ERA?

attitude.

A long time ago the horse and carriage

The retirement period might look quite

industry was disrupted by the car manu-

different because I think people are aging

facturing industry, which meant that

for a lot longer. So they might start their

a lot of workers and professions were

retirement later, but because there’s a w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

51

lot of short term contracts and the gig

It requires a lot of government, industry,

economy that’s around now, people

and education providers to come together

might actually do a little bit of work, retire

to have open discussions, to collaborate,

for a few months, a little bit of work, and

to hook together to make this work. It’s

retire for another period of time.

not going to be easy and I don’t think

I feel that in Industry 4.0, it has the abil-

that anyone has all the answers.

ity to be either the era that causes the

Technology is providing more new

most unemployment or it could be the

jobs than it replaces them. Quite often

era that causes the most diverse inclu-

you find that the jobs that are impacted

sive workforce. But for that to happen,

are impacted only from a task related

we actually need to plan and design

viewpoint, but the full entire job is not

ahead to have a more inclusive and

completely redundant in most industries.

diverse workforce.

There will be a portion of the job that could be done by AI robotics, but there are

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO CREATE

also other portions that require a more

A WORKPLACE THAT’S ATTRAC-

humanistic approach.

TIVE TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF WORKERS?

WHAT IS KEY TO EMBRACING

What’s really needed is a lot of open

THE EVER-CHANGING PACE OF

dispersion workshops for planning by

INNOVATION?

different groups of people so that you

Accept that things change really quickly,

get proper representation from Gen Z,

and that the softer skills are abso-

millennials, Gen X, the Baby Boomers,

lutely key. I think that humans need to

and so forth. Regardless of how you want

be more human and robots need to be

to think about it, we’re all aging. At some

more robotic. When I say that, most jobs

point, we wouldn’t want the younger boss

usually still require a human element.

to say, “Hey look, you’re too old, too expe-

There’s also the ability to keep learn-

rienced and too expensive. We don’t need

ing and be retrained. It’s paramount for

you anymore.” We all are living till about

people to read frequently. When you

90 to 100, and so on. Being able to stop

do that, you get into an operational

working at 55 or 60 is not very viable for

cadence within yourself to be exposed

most people.

to different thought leaders, different

52

C A R O LY N C H I N P A R R Y

researchers and different technologies in

good at and marrying that with your

terms of what’s out there because every

passion and also hopefully becoming a

industry is being impacted to some

lifelong learner means that no matter

degree or another.

how far the technology changes, you’re

In terms of your individual career it’s

flexible, you’re open, and you’re allow-

okay to be selfish because the days of a

ing yourself to be trainable. I don’t think

lifelong employer are gone and the only

that’s anything to be worried about

person that you can rely on is your-

because I’m a so called a transformation

self. Understand what are you truly

expert and digital leader. In 5-10 years’

passionate about. What are you natu-

time, if I don’t continue learning, allow-

rally good at? Some people are naturally

ing myself to be trained, being exposed

good at speaking, at convincing people.

to different points of view and research

Other people are good at empathy and

I could be out of a job myself because

compassion. Other people are better

all that technology is going to evolve so

with machines.

quickly and the only thing I can rely on is

Knowing exactly what you’re naturally

having a very open approach in terms of

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

53

learning, gaining new skills and being in

I think that that’s a case of employ-

the driver’s seat in terms of wanting to

ers and leaders, being true leaders and

drive my career a certain way.

stepping up to take care of everyone

The key ingredient is to keep an open

within the workforce, including those

mind. Lead with courage instead of fear.

who may have been excluded from

If you allow yourself to always be train-

the workforce. I think that technology

ing and learning and reading frequently,

has the ability to be a more inclusive

you’re always going to be a step closer

enabler. reaching out to people who

to understanding what that disruption

may have previously been excluded

could look like to and prepare yourself for

from work such as people who come

it.

from very remote villages. It could be It’s not going to be easy and I don’t

people who might be single mums who

think anyone has got the answers, but

may not be able to get free time outside

54

C A R O LY N C H I N - P A R R Y

“ If you allow yourself to always be training and learning and reading frequently, you’re always going to be a step closer to understanding what that disruption could look like to and prepare yourself for it” — C A R O LY N C H I N - PA R R Y D I G I TA L L E A D E R

of their home or it could be people with

just the numbers. Because in reality

special needs who may not be able to

I would say that the shift in inves-

work in a standard office environment.

tor sentiments also now look at

Everyone has skills to contribute to

the values of the company. Who is

the workforce and it’s about leaders

the CEO? What does he stand for? I

working to come up with jobs that don’t

think all these things are very impor-

exclude people. For that to happen, we

tant for leaders these days to really

need to allow ourselves to be trainable

think about. It’s no longer just about

and open to bring new things.

numbers. It’s no longer about share-

I would love for most employers or

holder value. That’s important, yes.

all employers moving forward to take a

But you should also know that inves-

stance in terms of putting the people

tor sentiments have changed, to

first and not necessarily looking at

hopefully a more humanistic one. w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

55

Technology intersection in the medical device market WR IT T EN BY

D a l e B e n to n P R ODU CED BY A n d y L l oyd 56

57

Edward Rybicki, SVP and Global CIO of Vyaire Medical, explores how the company embraces digital innovation in the medical devices market

W

orking in the modern technology space is challenging, regardless of industry.

Technology is transforming and disrupting industries the world over at an increasing rate, presenting a time of both great opportunity and great challenge. This has seen the role of the CIO change and evolve from its traditional roots as simply a leader of IT or technology in a company. This is most certainly the case for Edward Rybicki, SVP and Global CIO at Vyaire Medical. Over a 20 plus year career, Rybicki has played “just about every role you can play in IT� across a wide number of industries. Now in his role as Global CIO of Vyaire Medical, Rybicki is responsible for all corporate IT

58

V YA I R E M E DIC A L

on a global scale. But, as he highlights, it goes beyond that. “It’s about helping the business make sure that it’s running in a secure and stable way and helping it enhance its operations through the implementation of technology,” he explains. “But it’s also about helping the business make broader changes as the market around it changes and so I am also heavily involved in the product side of things too.”

Vyaire Medical is a manufacturer and marketer of more than 27,000 unique medical products for respiratory diagnostics, ventilation, airway management and operative care consumables. As CIO, Rybicki sits at an intersection, where key strategic goals of the organization w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

59

Your partner in complex data and analytics solutions When your business demands faster access to more data, count on Wavicle Data Solutions.

We specialize in data and analytics solutions that leverage cloud platforms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and other advanced technologies that drive smarter decisions and stronger companies.

Get more value from your data than ever.

www.wavicledata.com

Post-merger data consolidation reduces reporting time from days to minutes Following a series of acquisitions, Vyaire Medical turned to Wavicle Data Solutions for help consolidating data from nine ERP systems. We talked with Wavicle’s big data lead Ranjith Ramachandran to learn how a new cloud data architecture drives a holistic view of enterprise data and near real-time reporting.

One of the biggest challenges that arises when companies merge, is the merger of their data. Each company brings its own valuable data and each has its own systems for storing, managing, and reporting on this data.

Each of these systems will have its own way of defining a customer, naming a product, or calculating financial metrics. As a result, it won’t be long before the organization is frustrated by the time and effort it takes to get

“It was really difficult for the company to consolidate data from its many legacy systems,” Ramachandran explains.

“It would take two to three hours to create standard enterprise reports. Other reports could take five or six days of gathering data from the multiple systems and combining it manually using Excel spreadsheets. Clearly, this wasn’t sustainable. All areas of the business needed faster access to consolidated data for order

late multiple country languages; and standardize master data from all systems.”

Wavicle and Vyaire built a data warehouse using Amazon Redshift on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform.

Along with data integration and orchestration using Talend, this solution gives Vyaire a massively scalable infrastructure that can quickly capture data from around the world, store it in a single location, and feed it to a single

consolidated reports across all systems – perhaps daily sales or inventory for all products.

This was the challenge faced

by Vyaire Medical, a global manufacturer and marketer of products for respiratory diagnostics, ventilation, airway management, and operative care consumables.

After a series of acquisitions, the organization found itself with nine enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, including SAP, Microsoft, and several other applications, some of which had been in production for at least 20 years.

management, sales analytics, inventory management, and accounts payable and receivable, to name a few.”

“Vyaire invited Wavicle to collaborate on a data strategy and architecture to aggregate and standardize the data from its many ERP systems,” Ramachandran continued.

“This is a global company with 27,000 unique products and a desire for near real-time consolidated data. The solution had to store and process massive volumes of data; move the data fast; trans-

unified reporting platform. The solution synchronizes master data to ensure customers are defined and accounted for consistently across all data.

This three-month project has given Vyaire a single, consolidated view of its data from all ERP systems on a scalable environment that will easily and cost-effectively grow as the company and its data requirements grow. Standard reports and queries that used to take anywhere from 3 hours to 6 days, can now be complete within minutes. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

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meet the changing technology demands from the market. He highlights that this has changed his role of CIO as he now intersects with parts of the company’s product lines and how it does business differently as a direct result of technology. Rybicki points to strategic goals centered around managing data. “We want to manage our internal data so we can run reports and analytics to understand how the company is improving,” he says. “But we are also harnessing data to be able to provide applications and insight to our customers in ways that can help them improve their operations.” He highlights one of the company’s more “classic” products, a ventilator. Ventilators are becoming smarter and are communicating back to customers so that customers can then predict when a user can breathe without the need for a ventilator again. This is in stark contrast to traditional situations in which the users were reliant on doctors and respiratory therapists to monitor their process. “This is where it’s about helping the business change as the market around us changes through technology.”

Key to any technology implementation, particularly in the healthcare industry, is an intimacy and an open dialogue 62

V YA I R E M E DIC A L

“ From an IT perspective we are very much involved in how we pick innovation waves and identify trends in technology that we can grab onto and determine what’s relevant for the business” — EDWARD RYBICKI SVP AND GLOBAL CIO VYA I R E M E D I C A L

w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

63

with customers. For Vyaire to be able

What this means for Rybicki and the

to provide products that are both rele-

role of IT is that he is actively involved

vant and innovative, it has to understand

in the formation of company strategy.

what is happening in this ever-chang-

“I’ve worked with larger companies that

ing market. Rybicki highlights that the

have a harder time pivoting,” he says.

company can do this more effectively

“From an IT perspective we are very

than some of his previous ones because

much involved in how we pick innovation

of its standalone foundations. Launched

waves and identify trends in technology

as a joint venture in 2016, Vyaire is a

that we can grab onto and determine

startup company built on the backbone

what’s relevant for the business,”

of a 65-year track record of pioneer-

“At the end of the day, you have to

ing, innovating and advancing respira-

make sure it aligns to your goals. So if

tory diagnostics, ventilation and anes-

these new technologies are really going

thesia delivery and patient monitoring.

to help us align to accomplishing the w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

65

company's goals, great. If a 20-year-

growth. “This is an area again where

old technology also helps us align to the

it's this non-traditional IT. How does

company's goals, well then that's fine,

IT actually help our business grow?”

too, right?”

explains Rybicki. “At Vyaire we are

Identifying a strategic roadmap is

embracing digital strategy and are start-

crucial to achieving any growth and ulti-

ing to build software, which is pretty

mately success. Vyaire IT has four key

far outside what you would think for a

pillars of its strategy that are defined

medical device company. But it is the

by business outcomes in which each

way business is going in the new world.

business function can identify how it

We collect a lot of data through our

can help and align with these strate-

devices that can then be packaged for

gies. Pillar one, is a foundational pillar.

better intelligence and offered to our

“The goal is written around a secure,

customers so they can do their jobs

stable, and scalable set of technologies

better. It's all on a backbone of technol-

to run the business. So that's just kind

ogies. So that's where my team looks

of running the business in a secure way

directly at can we use technology to

and a stable way,” explains Rybicki. “You

drive and grow our business.”

have to make sure that the environment you have today is stable and secure and is able to grow with the business.”

The second pillar is built around the concept of business excellence and operational excellence. In short, using technology to help the functional areas of the business to operate more effectively. “So whether it's HR, finance, sales, marketing etc. it’s about asking how do we work directly with them?” he says. “Understanding their goals and working to implement technologies to help them there.

The third pillar looks at business 66

V YA I R E M E DIC A L

“ You have to make sure that the environment you have today is stable and secure and is able to grow with the business” — E D WA R D RY B I C K I SVP AND GLOBAL CIO V YA I R E M E D I C A L

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V YA I R E M E DIC A L

The final pillar is IT maturity, something that Rybicki admits, “everything is riding on.” The first three pillars are dependent on this fourth pillar, as Rybicki explains: “How do I make sure the internal operations of my department are mature?” he says. “We actually use COBIT as an external framework.

It's an IT framework that says, "Here's what an IT department does. Here are all the functions and here's levels of maturity of what you can do." We use it to assess ourselves on how mature we are so our IT maturity pillar is just about making sure that we're investing enough to make sure that it can enable all those other goals.”

As technology continues to disrupt and redefine the ways businesses operate, it is crucial that they do not focus entirely on investing in the technology and disregard investing in the people at their disposal. After all, technology is no good if there is no one there to use it. When Rybicki joined Vyaire, 90% of the company’s IT requirements were outsourced due to the company going through a carve-out as a division of a larger medical device company into a new standalone company. Now, as a fully standalone company, Vyaire is in growth and innovation mode and so the w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

69

company is in the process of reducing that figure to around 50%. This means that Rybicki is hiring a lot of new talent into the IT space while retraining the core existing people. “As an example, we have around 15 data centers around the world that we are consolidating and moving to the Cloud to be more nimble.

The people that were maintaining those were in-sourced and outsourced personnel. All of those people will change because the skills to maintain a data center in the cloud is much different than a physical server room,” explains Rybicki. “So we are retaining our internal people and providing them with opportunities to grow their skillset.”

With Vyaire embarking on a new journey as a standalone company, Rybicki is keen to highlight that any company operating in the IT space requires the support of external vendors to navigate

“ At Vyaire we are embracing digital strategy and are starting to build software, which is pretty far outside what you would think for a medical device company” — E D WA R D RY B I C K I SVP AND GLOBAL CIO V YA I R E M E D I C A L

the volatile and exciting marketplace.

Using the data center migration as an

management, information security,

example, Rybicki highlights Amazon,

and EDI),” he explains. “They also

Zensar and Wavicle Data Solutions as

assisted with our application strat-

key partners that are instrumental in

egy and are working across our project

navigating that particular journey.

portfolio which is helpful, as they

“Zensar is a key partner for us as we are using them across a broad range of services (Infrastructure operations, applications maintenance, data 70

V YA I R E M E DIC A L

can bring “end-to-end” services to support our transformation.”

“Wavicle is also a key partner as we build out a robust data architecture

and management practice,” he says.

Rybicki is also keen to point to the

“Managing the many data sources and

fact that while the company is doing its

building a flexible data architecture

utmost to build skills internally it cannot

are key to Vyaire’s business strategy

grow without its vendor network.

and Wavicle has been a key partner in

“The IT industry is one that's excit-

that area. Their flexibility and exper-

ing because it moves so fast,” he says.

tise have really enabled us to gain

“When any company wants to make

maturity quickly and positively impact

that huge jump forward, not an evolu-

business operations.”

tionary jump but a revolutionary jump, w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

71

Edward Rybicki SVP and Global CIO Vyaire Medical A highly accomplished and forward-thinking Senior Technology Executive with 20+ years of achievement setting and executing technology strategies for private-equity, private, and public global corporations. Edward has a proven record of success as part of executive leadership teams to align top-level business and technology strategies— fostering sustainable revenue growth and delivering top levels of efficiency and internal/external customer service through sustainable innovation. He has broad-based expertise in the planning and execution of strategic turnarounds, culture change initiatives, technical project portfolios, systems operations, and diverse service delivery efforts.

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it's really key to leverage the external experts for that.”

The IT space is, as Rybicki notes, exciting because of the speed at which it is continuously transforming. In order for Vyaire to succeed from a technology perspective, Rybicki understands the responsibility that rests upon his shoulders as the CIO to understand how to put the puzzle pieces together from both a technical and process perspective. “You have to know when to jump on something new that really helps fill a gap, but you also have to be mindful of jumping on something new that feels good but it doesn't really accomplish what you want,” he says. “You can waste a lot of time and a lot of money, or you won't accomplish what you hoped to accomplish. That's where it's really important to align these new innovative technologies to what your business is trying to achieve.”

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ACCEPTANCE, RECEPTIVENESS AND THE ABILITY TO CHANGE. IAN MOYSE, SALES DIRECTOR OF NATTERBOX, EXPLORES THE KEY ATTRIBUTES OF THE MODERN TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n

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I

an Moyse, EMEA sales director at Natterbox Limited explores what he describes

as one of the most important skill sets in the modern day, which is the need for acceptance, receptiveness of innovation and digitisation, and the ability to be agile as a technology professional.

YOUR EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN DRIVEN FROM THIS PASSION FOR TECHNOLOGY, BUT THEN YOU MOVED INTO SALES. HOW MUCH DO THE TWO INFORM ONE ANOTHER? Well they’re very different. I guess there’s different DNA in you to do both. What do I miss about programming? I’d say the creativity, that you

the fundamental construct you work

start with a blank canvas, so to speak,

under is similar.

and you create something that does

What helped me overcome the lack

this for users, creation. So not quite

of experience I had and knowing what

art, but is that sort of feeling that

to do, was I learnt the technology

you’ve created something.

quickly. So that became my crutch, so

Sales is a very different DNA. The

to speak, for the early years, where I

big difference I think is, with sales

have a deficit here, I may not be the

you don’t get a yearly review. You

sharpest in the box at negotiating so

have to constantly change and trans-

I had something else that gave me a

form. Whereas programming, it

different value to the customer. I think

might be a different language, but

what it has given me the benefit to do

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A C C E P TA N C E , R E C E P T I V E N E S S A N D T H E A B I L I T Y TO C H A N G E

a lot of roles today, is the capability to be agile. Humans have this propensity to change and adapt. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here today, right? We wouldn’t be a dominant species on is learn things quicker. When there’s

the planet, if we hadn’t been able to

a new product, I understand the funda-

adapt to new things coming along, new

mentals to build upon.

threats, new emergence, and all the rest of it. I always profess to people

HOW IMPORTANT IS TO STAY ON

that a valuable skill today is accept-

TOP OF TECHNOLOGY TRENDS AND

ance and receptiveness and ability to

TO UNDERSTAND THE DEMAND

change, and change again, and change

THAT DISRUPTION IS HAPPENING

again. We’re seeing it less and less

QUICKER THAN EVER BEFORE?

where you go into a job and you’re

One of the skill sets, and not just in

going to be there 30 years, and do the

sales or working in the tech sector,

same thing day in, day out, and come

but across, I won’t say everything, but

out the end of it, the end of a career. w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

77

There’s all this talk about robotics and

cloud telephony system. We’ve done the

AI replacing jobs. But what you should

system fully inside Salesforce. So we’re

be thinking is, how does it either trans-

the most integrated telephony platform

form what I do, or the skill set I’ve got?

for the Salesforce platforms, whether it

How can I apply my experience and skill

be service cloud, sales cloud, force.com,

set in a different way to stay relevant, no

etc. on the planet.

matter what technology does to change

You could say it’s a niche market,

around us? We’ve seen it in standard tech-

but it’s a very big niche market, on

nology. You have to adapt and learn new

enabling customers who have invested

skills, relevant to the technology of today.

in Salesforce to also put their telephony in the cloud, and put the two together. So

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR ROLE

that two plus two equals seven, two plus

AT NATTERBOX

two equals eight.

I am a sales director of Natterbox and we have built, from the ground up a 78

Using data that you have about customers, whether it be opportunities,

A C C E P TA N C E , R E C E P T I V E N E S S A N D T H E A B I L I T Y TO C H A N G E

“ I ALWAYS PROFESS TO

the market. It means the average

PEOPLE THAT A VALUABLE

or small size company now has the

SKILL TODAY IS ACCEPTANCE

option to select technologies that large

AND RECEPTIVENESS AND ABILITY TO CHANGE, AND CHANGE AGAIN, AND CHANGE AGAIN” — IAN MOYSE EMEA SALES DIRECTOR NATTERBOX

companies use, and digest them in an affordable fashion, there’s no price barrier any longer, of getting to start to do it. Everyone has access.

YOU BUILT YOUR OWN TECHNOLOGY? We’ve built our own tech because we’ve seen some players try and do this by

cases, support, tickets, to improve and

buying components but we wanted to

transform both your customer and your

own the stack because if you’re going

agent’s experience with telephony. To

to invest in this, you care about it.

do things that you couldn’t do with old

Therefore, it’s got to be resilient, with a

technology, and old telephony systems.

high quality of service.

We’re using live relevant data about the

It’s got to be extremely resilient,

customer to personalise and transform

because you’re setting the customer

their experience over the phone. Exactly

expectation, if you’re setting the bar

like you’ve seen on websites for years,

high, you’d better deliver. The analogy

where you go to a website, it remembers

would be if you try and compete and put

who you are from a cookie, and starts to

up an electronic site like Amazon, but

personalise your experience and treat

your site’s not available, or the trans-

you differently.

actions don’t work a load of the time.

We believe you should be doing that

Great, it looks great, the intention’s

on the phone, and that’s the capa-

there, but this thing doesn’t stand up to

bility we give to customers. So it’s

it. It’s not reliable enough.

quite transformational. It’s all in the

We architected this ourselves, and we

cloud. One of the things that the cloud

chose Salesforce purely because we

market has done, and I always profess

wanted to be the master of one and do

and talk about this, is it’s flattened

it well. What we didn’t want to do is do w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

79

a little bit for customers, and go broad, and do this for 20 or 30 CRM platforms, but do a little bit and then stop. We decided we are going to do this to the extreme we believe the market needs.

Everything behind this has to use efficient, speedy cloud systems, because it’s real time. You have a conversation, you have an electronic voice, you want it to sound as human as possible, and it needs to be instantaneous. The customer isn’t going to wait two or three seconds as you would on websites. Our expectations are set high. It sounds easy but it is extremely complex under the covers. One of our goals we achieved was to make it easier for customers, to hide all the complexity in the back end, and give them an interface where they can configure this, and manage it very quickly themselves.

Salesforce, so you buy a CRM, yes, it

So if they want to make a change, it’s

gives you the ability to be more efficient

real time. Make the change and it’s live

in servicing customers, sales and do

across your whole phone system.

all these great things. But only if users use it, if users don’t put data into that

HOW DO YOU KEEP THE CUSTOMER

system, so when a customer calls and

IN THE CENTRE OF TECHNOLOGY

we pop the data on the screen, if there’s

DECISION-MAKING?

nothing there, the value’s not there, but

Go back to the old adage, as it’s always

you’ve bought the technology, but the

been, it’s people, process, technology.

people aren’t using it.

It’s embedding the three together. A CRM is a perfect example. I mentioned 80

Same with process. You’ve got to look at what is the optimal process and

A C C E P TA N C E , R E C E P T I V E N E S S A N D T H E A B I L I T Y TO C H A N G E

journey for your customer, and inter-

customer experience is being affected

nal journeys, and how do we optimise

by internal process and capability.

those? A customer may contact your

The question is then, can we take

business, they speak to someone and

technology, change our processes to

now that person to serve that custom-

leverage that technology, retrain the

er’s need has to go into three different

people, they use it in a different way,

systems, duplicate the data, copy it, all

and they have to support this, but we

this complex stuff, and it takes them

can now turn that around on the phone

four hours. Then they can go back to the

live, and give them an answer within two

customer. So the customer’s average

or three minutes on the phone? Your

turnaround is four to five hours because

customer experience has changed.

of that combination. Perhaps now the

I think that’s one of the pitfalls, having w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

81

worked in cloud now for about 13 years.

The nice buzz phrase. is, we can now transform businesses like never before.

We’ve seen businesses born in the cloud that we all know, like Uber and Airbnb and Amazon, who have changed the way we do stuff beyond recognition, to raise our expectations to heightened levels of we never had.

But the challenge in digital transformation is not the phrase, it’s how do you do it? You don’t just buy a new piece of technology. It’s not easy, because you’ve got to look at legacy systems, processes, the people you’ve got, buying the bit of tech comes in, but you’ve still got to handle all that stuff. That’s what makes it hard. The underlying cloud platforms are, it’s the race to zero. AWS, AZure and Google Compute are getting cheaper and more functionally rich by the month. So the barriers have gone to being capable to afford to do it and choose to do it. But there are still barriers, because these stories had been out there a while.

HOW CAN BUSINESSES EMBRACE INNOVATION AND PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE? What I say to people is what is your business? What is the product or service you sell? What’s the dynamic 82

A C C E P TA N C E , R E C E P T I V E N E S S A N D T H E A B I L I T Y TO C H A N G E

of your customer? Now if you’re a hairdresser cutting hair, you physically have to cut hair. So unless some incredible robot comes along in the future, that’s going to continue.

It’s about understanding what your business is, and what the persona of your customers are and how are they wanting to interact with you? It depends on generation as well. Millennials have been born, and Z’s certainly, into a world

“ W E’RE USING LIVE RELEVANT DATA ABOUT THE CUSTOMER TO PERSONALISE

where social media has always been there, and all of this tech we’re seeing, and Amazon, and apps on your phone for ordering is taken for granted. I would

AND TRANSFORM THEIR

argue, however, all of us that haven’t

EXPERIENCE OVER THE

come from that generation have proba-

PHONE. EXACTLY LIKE YOU’VE SEEN ON WEBSITES FOR

bly been dragged into it anyway, and we take it for granted as well.

If you’re in a business, forget what

YEARS, WHERE YOU GO TO

you do today. Go in a room with the

A WEBSITE, IT REMEMBERS

people who understand the history of

WHO YOU ARE FROM A COOKIE, AND STARTS

your business, or the dynamic of your market. Whiteboard, spend a couple of hours with some coffee and donuts, and

TO PERSONALISE YOUR

just chat through. If we were starting

EXPERIENCE AND TREAT

this company again today, what would

YOU DIFFERENTLY” — IAN MOYSE EMEA SALES DIRECTOR NATTERBOX

we do? And there is no restriction of, “Yeah, but we couldn’t...” forget that, your company does not exist. You have all left and gone to a startup. You’re going to start a competitor. What would w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

83

you do? And you would not build what you built historically.

The reason you did that is because it was the world you were in at the time you built it. There’s nothing wrong with what you did, but today, you would do it differently. That’s how your mindset needs to start. Then you work backwards. What, what’s the easy win? Is there anything of these 20 ideas we’ve come up with, where we can start to ...

This year we could do three of them?”

Because that’ll be hard in itself. But we can start to move along the journey of trying to move towards that. Because we’ve all agreed if we started the business today, that’s what we’d do to beat our own company. If you can think of it, someone else can as well, and someone else can do it, and they can potentially do it quite quickly.

We’ve got an exciting opportunity in that we’re going to see transformational stuff in the next 10 years that that none of us can imagine. All of it will be more and more affordable. But with that comes a lot of threats we didn’t imagine.

It’s an interesting time, and it presents an opportunity but only if you’re willing to change and grab the opportunity, and utilise what’s available to benefit your business and your career.

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A C C E P TA N C E , R E C E P T I V E N E S S A N D T H E A B I L I T Y TO C H A N G E

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UPC Switzerland and a Catalyst for B2B digital transformation WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n PRODUCED BY A n d y L l oyd

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UPC BUSINESS

BRUNO SCHENK, HEAD OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AT UPC SWITZERLAND, EXPLORES HOW THE COMPANY SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATES A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

I

In today’s technology-driven world, many stakeholders are seeking answers to the question: what is digital transformation? It is

something that we hear more and more as companies look to embrace a new era of business and industry through digital transformation. The challenge for many is discovering what it means for them. Over the last few years, there has been a shift in the role of the traditional CIO, moving away from managing an isolated business unit and becoming more of a business enabler. This is certainly the case for Bruno Schenk, Head of Digital Transformation at UPC Switzerland. Having started his career in the healthcare sector, Schenk moved into the technology space with UPC almost seven years ago.

Over this period of time, his role has evolved and he is now tasked with leading a transformation of business through a Simple & Digital program, called Catalyst. He has seen first-hand, the changing perspective of IT and, in particular, the definitions of digital transformation. “It takes discipline to re-think, re-design, re-model and w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

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TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS We are the motor of digital transformation twim GmbH provides consultancy services in the area of digitization. Innovative and customized solutions to help you master the digital revolution:

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Get in touch:

twim.ch

Successfully making the cultural transition with digital natives The digital revolution is only at its beginning; enterprises as well as current lifestyles are still strongly influenced by the industrial age. This contrast requires re-thinking which currently poses a major challenge.

Headquartered in the Swiss municipality of Zug, twim GmbH relies on the knowledge and understanding possessed by digital natives. As a result, it can support its customers as a key strategic partner in complex transformation processes.

Initiated at the beginning of the 20th century by the development of modern information technologies, digitization is a recent phenomenon: According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, the word „digitization“ was printed - relatively rarely - in national German daily and weekly newspapers at a frequency of 0.01% in 1975, and 1.09% in 1995. The frequency rose to 19.85 % just 20 years later in 2015, and 30.57 % in 2018.

From history books, we are familiar with the course and implementation of the industrial revolution, which had a tremendous impact on economic and social conditions in the 2nd half of the 18th century, and fundamentally changed living and working conditions in the following decades. The impact of this change is so great that about 20 years ago, a proposal was even made to name the period since the beginning of industrialization Anthropocene, to mark a new era in the history of the world.

As present-day witnesses, we are experiencing the digital revolution from such close proximity that we cannot yet simultaneously grasp and gauge its extent and development. Evidently

and indisputably, the dimension of this

ving had to adapt to digitization culture,

development is at least equal in im-

but instead being originally based on

portance to industrialization, but most

it. The enterprise‘s mindset regarding

likely much greater.

technological, financial, ecological and human requirements as part of digital

To cope with this social and digital

transformation at companies stems

transformation,

require

from a direct and unmediated fulfilment

a mind set which sees workers not

of these requirements in its everyday

enterprises

only as a resource. If duly practised

business. Through cooperation with

at enterprises, digitization raises the

established businesses currently making

motivation and potential of employees.

the digital transition, twim knows and

Successful digitization begins in the

understands the challenges and tests

mind.

faced here.

We see ourselves as a partner of our customers in the field of digitization. With the perception needed to consider their requirements and recognize their expertise as well as experience as key success factors, we support their enterprises during digital transformation.

Deepak Kumar, CEO twim GmbH Though complex, digital transforma-

twim received an opportunity to imple-

tion offers tremendous advantages to

ment a smart solution demonstrating

enterprises.

its native approach for UPC Schweiz

Decreasing process costs, shorter

GmbH. In partnership with the custo-

reaction times, new market opportu-

mer, a decision was made to advance

nities, improved customer & employee

the elaborate procedure of manual

experience, and increased competitive-

IP allocation not on the basis of the

ness are just the start.

original process. Instead, twim was

Competitors are inevitably compelled

commissioned to develop, as an entirely

to face the challenge for the sake of

new concept, a special software

higher profitability too. However, if this

which not only simplifies the process

compulsion is the sole driver for a

and makes it more efficient, but also

company‘s digitization project, without

fully automates it in Salesforce.

simultaneous implementation of a comprehensive cultural change invol-

Its native handling of digitization allows

ving all employees, then the project

twim to integrate, into all services forming

will fail.

part of its solution portfolio, strategies not limited to technological or financial

As a young enterprise where exclusively

aspects, but also promoting cultural

digital natives dedicate themselves to

change at enterprises as a whole,

counselling companies in digitization

and thus also fulfilling ecological and

projects, twim benefits from its not ha-

personnel-related requirements.

“ T HE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS A CONTINUOUS INNOVATION PROCESS, WHERE YOU REVOLUT THE BUSINESS

BY FOCUSING TO DEFINE NEW VALUES, EFFICIENCIES AND CUSTOMER NEEDS” — B RU N O SC H E N K H E A D O F D I G I TA L T RA N S FO R M AT I O N UPC BUSINESS

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UPC BUSINESS

re-shape the business while ignoring IT restrictions in the first stage,” he says. “The digital transformation is a continuous innovation process, where you revolutionize the business by focusing on defining new values, efficiencies and customer needs to create a unique customer journey and experience, mainly focused on digital touch points.”

Schenk’s role requires him to act as a business-centric person that makes all the triage system decisions, driving the right streams and initiating the right trades in order to bring the ideas on paper to the lives of both internal and external stakeholders of UPC. A key part of his role is driving the digitalization program Catalyst.

The program prioritizes data-centric and future-forward technology such as AI and machine learning. Along with a future-ready digitized customer experience, the program aims to unlock higher revenues by supercharging sales, increasing efficiency and optimizing the entire customer lifecycle. “Where once manual processes and switching screens made selling a cumbersome process, today guided selling and automation have transformed sales productivity. Sales professionals can now worry less about processes and focus on selling and providing value for customers,” explains Schenk.

“We had a mixture of legacy systems, self-built CPQ engines and contract solutions that we needed to replace with a cloud-based solution. These systems were built to fulfill specific needs and couldn’t change to meet evolving customer expectations and technology requirements,” he explains. Schenk ascertains that a clear way of increasing revenue is through intelligent marketing and customer-based interaction, such as w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

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journey automation and innovation in

Members worldwide. The TM Forum

customer interaction. For example, digi-

currently has more than 850 compa-

tal offer approvals cut customer approval

nies generating around US$2 trillion in

times from 3 days to 15 minutes, reducing

revenue. These projects bring together

up to 3 steps.

companies large and small to create inno-

The disjointed patchwork of systems,

vative solutions to common challenges,

glued together with mainly manual

demonstrating how this can be achieved

processes, slowed the sales cycle and

by leveraging key TM Forum best prac-

clouded data visibility. Fragmented tech-

tices and standards.

nology also made launching new products

Naturally, being part of a globally

and the provision of a fast, accurate and

collaborative forum has its advantages

coherent customer experience across

and Schenk highlights one clear boon:

every channel increasingly difficult.

vendors with the right capabilities to

The Catalyst program is a concept

drive value for UPC. “A big benefit for us

developed by the TM Forum, which sees

and the telecommunication division of

a number of proof-of-concept projects

the TM Forum is that there are a number

developed collaboratively by TM Forum

of major vendors that can deliver the

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right capability to your business in order for you to drive the change,” he says. “From a cost perspective, you can reduce your investment costs needed to bring up a system and benefit from proven solutions in other markets.”

UPC embarked on this transformational Catalyst program in late 2018 when the company created a road map on how to drive the program. The first item identified was the need to replace its current sales CRM systems. Expected to be completed in autumn 2019, UPC will have a new system in place that will increase the efficiency across the entire marketing, sales and operations. Following this, UPC will look to implement the marketing automation suite and in 2020, the company will aim to have completed the digital step forward from self-care to self-service. In around 12 months’ time, the goal will be to have implemented an entirely new CRM system.

In any transformational program, particularly one centered around new and improved systems, it is important to be able to understand what is and what isn’t the ‘right’ technology. Schenk admits as much: “The right technology is a complex question which needs to fulfill the requirements of your business, governance, customer, legal and more,” he says. “No matter what the technology is, the program challenges remain the same to ensure continuous improvements, and the introduction of future-proof capabilities, communication to the business and involvement of the organization and more.”

“We don’t rely on software questions of what, when, or how they need to be adapted because new 96

UPC BUSINESS

Bruno Schenk Head of Digital Transformation UPC Business An experienced technology professional, responsible for CRM, Projects, Processes, IT & Business Requirements in B2B. Having started his career in the health sector to create and define processes and standardise health sectors in the hospital space Schenk moved to UPC as the Head of Digital Transformation, overseeing the future of transformation, driving business change for business services for UPC and is also driving the catalyst project.

“IN ANY TRANSFORMATIONAL PROGRAM, PARTICULARLY ONE CENTERED AROUND NEW AND IMPROVED SYSTEMS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS AND WHAT ISN’T THE ‘RIGHT’ TECHNOLOGY” — B RU N O SC H E N K H E A D O F D I G I TA L T RA N S FO R M AT I O N UPC BUSINESS

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A game-changing commerce platform built for the subscriptionbased services economy Unlock higher revenues through commercial innovation, increased efficiency and exceptional customer experiences on Salesforce

technologies evolve faster. You need to find a simple and digital way to adapt

model, each time.”

A key challenge in any transforma-

your entire business processes, oper-

tion is trying to strike a balance between

ating models, and more in a short time

performing and transforming. After all,

period. That’s why we focus our trans-

while a business looks to improve inter-

formation on designing the next 20 years

nally, it cannot simply press pause on its

of our business and driving the changes

entire operations. “The challenge here is

across the organization to achieve our

nothing new for us. The difficult aspect

ambition. All this with the help of an IT

lies in understanding how you can move

architecture vision based on an 80/20

or alter the service model behind the

out-of-the-box solution. We design an

technology to make it simple and digital,”

almost full end-to-end digital customer

explains Schenk. “So, let’s say we have

journey. The approach taken drives us

150 different portfolios from a service

to shape the business and the operating

base of around 200,000. In the end, it’s w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

99

a question of understanding your tech-

and have one self-care

nical drive and on which level you need

and self-service portal in

to stop in order to do a hard, technical

place so that customers

migration. We tried to achieve a smart

can manage their portfolio

way by approaching the challenge with a

services and needs in one

commercial approach to secure a portfo-

single portal, thus reduc-

lio uplift by means of marketing and sales

ing all manual or agent

automation.”

interaction by around

Here, UPC looks to a commercial migra-

80%. As a technology

tion because it can contact 60-80% of its

professional in an industry

customer base with the remaining 20%

that continues to rapidly

contacted through proactive calling. If a

evolve, Schenk knows

base of around 5% remains in the end,

it’s easier said than done.

UPC will then move to hard migration and

What then will remain key

look to move or terminate the customer’s

to success for UPC?

service. “This is necessary because you

“The main key would be to have an

need to bring the old data source to the

innovative solution for the customer so

new systems with an almost completely

they can manage their services more

new data structure,” says Schenk. “It’s

independently and effectively; a digital

difficult because if you remain within the

customer journey,” he says. “I do see a

legacy structure (e.g. data, processes,

challenge coming from the introduction

values) then you have a problem sustain-

of 5G, not from the technology in itself,

ing the new system and introducing new

but the new customer behaviors and

capabilities based on new data structure.

needs that will arise from it. We will have

That’s why you need to think about how

to be ready for that and so we are already

to make the transformation smooth and

working on it!”

simply digital.”

With a clear roadmap laid out, Schenk can already begin to think about work beyond the Catalyst project. He is convinced that the business is well on track to completely roll out its programs 100

UPC BUSINESS

“A KEY CHALLENGE IN ANY TRANSFORMATION IS TRYING TO STRIKE A BALANCE BETWEEN PERFORMING AND TRANSFORMING” — B RU N O SC H E N K H E A D O F D I G I TA L T RA N S FO R M AT I O N UPC BUSINESS

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n

DESCRIBED AS A LEAP FORWARD FROM TRADITIONAL AUTOMATION TO FULLY CONNECTED AND FLEXIBLE SYSTEMS, THE IDEA OF A SMART FACTORY IS ONE DEFINED BY DATA AND CONNECTED SYSTEMS THAT CAN LEARN AND ADAPT TO NEW DEMANDS. HERE, WE LOOK AT FIVE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SMART FACTORIES, AS IDENTIFIED BY THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

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1

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (LE VAUDREUIL, FRANCE) Recognised as one of the most advanced manufacturing sites in the world, applying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies at scale, Schneider Electric’s le Vaudreuil factory is a shining example of a smart factory. The factory has implemented the latest digital tools such as EcoStruxureTM Augmented Operator Advisor, which enables operators to use augmented reality to speed up operation and maintenance, delivering between 2% and 7% gain in productivity. Its first implementation of EcoStruxureTM Resource Advisor delivers up to 30% energy savings and contributes to continuous improvement over the years.

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

2

JOHNSON & JOHNSON DEPUY SYNTHES (CORK, IRELAND)

First established back in 1997, the DePuy Synthes medical device manufacturing facility has seen a multi-million dollar expansion in recent years to better embrace digitalisation and Industry 4.0. One

of the biggest investments Johnson & Johnson made was in the Internet of Things space. By connecting machines, the factory used IoT technology to create digital representations of physical assets (known as digital twins) that lead to advanced machine insights. These insights allowed the company to lower its operating costs while simultaneously reducing machine downtime.

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3

BOSCH AUTOMOTIVE (WUXI, CHINA) Opened in 2013, the Wuxi

Key examples include the imple-

plant has been embracing data

mentation of Bosch Nexeed

analytics over the last few

PPM (Production Performance

years. The goal? To remove pain

Manager) which allows for

points including delayed data

predictive maintenances or

availability and even poor qual-

real-time process and machine

ity of the data. With a clear

condition monitoring. By using

roadmap ahead, an industrial

advanced data analytics, Bosch

4.0 framework, Bosch began

is able to deeply understand

implementing machine-condi-

and eliminate output losses,

tion sensors to capture data and

simulate and optimise process

improve the quality of said data.

settings and predict machine

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

4

HAIER (QINGDAO, CHINA)

The SmartFactoryKL was built

been driven by clear strate-

as a means of paving the way

gic goals that drive innovation

for ‘the intelligent factory of

and in 2019; the goal is to see

tomorrow’. It is the world’s

the implementation of artificial

first manufacturer-independ-

intelligence in manufacturing.

ent Industry 4.0 production

Artificial Intelligence led trans-

plant, acting as an exhibition

formations include an ‘order-to-

of the power of high quality

make’ mass customisation plat-

and flexible manufacturing and

form and a remote AI supported,

how it can be efficiently imple-

intelligent service cloud plat-

mented. Over the last four

form to predict maintenance

years, SmartFactoryKL has

needs before they happen.

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5

PROCTER & GAMBLE (RAKON, CZECH REPUBLIC) The second oldest plant in Procter & Gamble’s portfolio, the plant is one of the most advanced factories in the world.

With its implementation of an end-to-end synchronisation analytical model, the plant allows for simulation, agility and responsiveness across the entire supply chain. Such innovation has seen an increase in speed to market, inventory efficiency and an uplift in customer satisfaction of 116%.

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5 SMART FACTORIES CHANGING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

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No speed limit on innovation WRITTEN BY D a l e B e n to n PRODUCED BY A n d y L l oyd

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Koen Van Loo, CIO of Renson Ventilation, explores how the company’s investment in IT enables efficiency and innovation

B

y its own admission, Renson Ventilation is a rapidly growing competent company

that is constantly one step ahead of the game. In order to remain one step ahead of the game in an industry space as technically driven and niche as that of ventilation, sun protection & ‘outdoor living’ products, investing in innovation is key. For Koen Van Loo, CIO of Renson Ventilation, he and his team take their responsibility to innovate very seriously.

As Van Loo highlights, investing in innovation is within the very DNA of Renson.

“At Renson we deliver high quality products to a number of markets,” he says.

“So we operate in the upper end of the market, meaning our products are very well known for their exclusive quality.”

“We do that by continuously innovating and Renson invests heavily into innovation. Right now, more than 10% of the company is active in R&D. Once 116

R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

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I wish I could handle all of your difficult customers, but you are really, really good at it. www.zendesk.nl

upon a time, innovation was achieved by

fundamentals of the company. This

upgrading existing hardware but now we

is where Van Loo came into the busi-

look to create better and smarter prod-

ness in 2017. “The first thing we did was

ucts each and every time.”

create a performing IT organisation. This

Traditionally, like many others, Renson

saw Renson scale up its entire IT infra-

was a hardware-focused company in

structure. From here, we can now look

which it hadn’t invested much into the

at implementing IT projects that will

IT organisation across the company. In

continue to drive value for the business,”

recent years, to stay ahead of the game

explains Van Loo. “The main program

in a rapidly evolving market, Renson

that we have been focused on has been

looked to invest in its IT/ infrastructure

the upgrade of our old in-house built

and realised that in order to be able to

ERP system. This has been in place for

cater to the changing demands of the

around 25 years and we are currently

market it needed to upgrade the digital

replacing that with SAP S4 Hana.”

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“ Once upon a time, innovation was achieved by upgrading existing hardware but now we look to create better and smarter products each and every time” — KO E N VA N LO O CIO R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

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R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

Van Loo is keen to highlight that Renson’s digital investments are also in response to a market trend for mass personalisation. With products ranging from ventilation to sun protection and outdoor living, each being tailored to the specific needs and wishes of each client, Renson is no stranger to mass personalisation.

With the implementation of a new ERP system, Renson will be better placed to implement a new e-commerce module that will allow the company to configure its products even better to changing client demands.

Renson has always been a company driven by technology, but in recent years the company has embarked on a focused IT transformation that can be broken down into three programs. The first program, called Sunrise, is a complete overhaul of its ERP system.

For this, Renson will define a five-year program that will see a new implementation to better serve all of its internal businesses. The second program is linked intrinsically with the Sunrise program. Renson is opening a new plant, aiming to become the ultimate international reference for a comprehensive garden experience, showcasing all of Renson’s outdoor products together with outdoor solutions from its partners.

This ties into a wider automation project for Renson.

Van Loo elaborates: “We are living in fast evolving times, and more and more innovation is coming from connected devices. Nearly every new device we implement has IOT connectivity now. We are gathering a lot of data that is used to assist our customers and optimising their device usage,” “For instance, there will be a swimming pool and outdoor lighting products that work together. That w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

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Integrated security solutions.

For a fast, efficient, secure and enjoyable IT experience FIND OUT MORE +32 (0)3 877 82 93 info@secutec.be

data will inform the customer expe-

described by Van Loo as a ‘future proof’

rience and in turn, create and enable

portal, will allow for greater communi-

healthy spaces for our end customers.

cation between all stakeholders. These

In working together with our partners,

will include online stakeholders, archi-

that also ties into our third IT project

tects, installers, dealers, and multiple

around our stakeholder platform.”

organisation types. “There you have, in

This third IT program looks at the

a single platform, an ordering platform

complete renewal of Renson’s online

and a configurator to build your prod-

stakeholders platform. Renson’s exist-

ucts exactly as you wish,” he says. “You’ll

ing infrastructure saw multiple stake-

have digital twins of your products. So

holders operating within separate plat-

you can see if something in the product

forms, meaning that they were not fully

will work or not. You can customise and

integrated and each platform suffering

tailor the product and order replacement

from limited capabilities. This new portal,

parts with ease. You can control your w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

123

“ Some people call it customer intimacy, but the fact of the matter is, we want to deliver” — KO E N VA N LO O CIO R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

devices and receive feedback from them.

It’s incredibly important for us in terms of introducing new products that are tailored to specific needs. The ordering platform is an example of a program that will augment operational efficiency for Renson, while the other programs focus on the customer and adding value and better experiences for them.”

Stakeholder engagement is a cornerstone of Renson’s enablement of innovation. In bringing together and driving seamless communication within the stakeholder ecosystem, the company can better realise efficiencies and value both to itself as a business but also to the end customers. These end customers are very much a part of this ecosystem and remaining close to its customer base drives Renson, through its IT investments. Each and everything that the company does is designed with the customer in mind. “Some people call it customer intimacy, but the fact of the matter is – we want to deliver,” says Van Loo. “We want to be able to deliver made to measure solutions. This is evident in just how customised our products are, no product is the same as any other product that we’ve ever made. Even if our configurators aren’t able to configure following the wishes you have, we 126

R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

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127

have a separate engineering department that can build these products by working closely with the customer. It’s very important to us.”

Renson is very much a business-to-business organisation, or

Koen Van Loo CIO Renson Ventilation

in Van Loo’s own words a “business

Koen Van Loo is an experienced digital exec-

to business to business” organisa-

utive. He became a Master Business Engineer

tion. A dichotomy like this often means

in Management Information Technology at

that the companies will rarely engage

the University of Louvain (Belgium) in 1994

directly with the end customers. With

and started as a functional analyst and IT

Renson, the digitalisation programs

project leader for Partezis, a major healthcare

rip up this traditional perspective and

organisation in Belgium.

bring the company closer to those end

In 1998 he switched to ADMB (now Liantis),

customers. “Once upon a time we’d

one of the biggest social security players

simply have a photo of a person’s house

in the Belgian market, where he became a

that we use as a means of understand-

member of the board as a CIO.

ing what product they want and how it

In November 2016, he founded his own

would fit,” he says. “Our transforma-

company Awesome Singular Guidance for

tion means that we are delivering not

coaching and advising companies with their

only products but services too, mean-

digital strategies and operations. First mission

ing the contact with the (end) customer

was to advise Athena Graphics, a flexo print-

becomes more intense.”

ing prepress company, on its digital trans-

Renson has been operating since

formation as Chief Digital Officer. Besides

1909, establishing itself as a true market

some smaller missions on advisory boards, he

leader thanks to its drive to be one step

is now mainly active as CIO for the Renson

ahead and to deliver unrivalled prod-

Group, realising some major turnaround

ucts tailored to end customer needs, but

projects: setting up a performant digital

in order to have successfully achieved

organisation, a turnaround companywide

this level of success it has had to

greenfield SAP S4/Hana implementation and

embrace innovation from an IT perspec-

a complete new digital architecture to future

tive but also from an internal capability

proof the organisation.

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R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

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perspective. With the implementation of new IT infrastructure, the required skill sets have changed and while Van Loo is keen to stress that Renson already has a truly skilled workforce, Renson does look to educate and train its staff through the help of partners. “It is possible for us to find the people that we need with the right skills, but sometimes when it comes to specific skill requirements we use partners for that and we try to educate and train our own people with the knowledge that those partners have, thanks to their global experience,” he says. “As an example, we aim to have complete autonomy over our SAP integration in the near future and to get there we are benefitting from competence centres and we also have agreements with Delaware in which our people can ‘look over the shoulder’ of their staff and learn how to use their software as they go through the implementation of SAP.” With a number of IT implementation programs in place to lay down an infrastructure that will enable innovation and a clear investment strategy for building the capabilities of it’s workforce, Renson is firmly positioned to build on its market leading position and embrace the future with certainty that it can continue to 130

RENSON

operate for the next 100 years and beyond.

Van Loo is all too aware of the challenge, and opportunity, that the future has in store for Renson and he feels that in order to truly build on a century of success, the company must continue to embrace digital innovation. “As I look to the future of Renson, I want the company to look to further augment the digitalisation and the performance of its operations,” he says. “If there is a digital need within the company, then we in IT have to be a trusted experience centre. That means we should be able to inspire and help the business find the right digital solutions.” w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

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“As we look to implementing more digital programs, we have to really perform and form an idealisation to realise that in the most efficient way. We should be a very agile business, because the market is very agile and opportunities can change in the blink of an eye. We as an IT team that’s performing need to be able to follow that market agility seamlessly.�

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R E N S O N V E N T I L AT I O N

“ If there is a digital need within the company, then we in IT have to be a trusted experience centre. That means we should be able to inspire and help the business find the right digital solutions” — Ko e n Va n Lo o CIO Renson Ventilation

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EVENTS OF 2019/20 W R I T T E N BY Kev i n D av i e s

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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…

135

11.10.19 HACKCONF HackConf is Bulgaria’s premier software development conference, happening in Sofia. Organised “by developers, for developers”, it covers a wide range of software development topics, regardless of the tech stack. HackConf 2019 will include a full day of workshops on 11th of October, and two parallel tracks of talks during both conference days - 12th and 13th of October.

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EVENTS

25.10.19 VEGAS BLOCKCHAIN WEEK

The Second annual Blockchain and

advisors, and application developers

Cryptocurrency Technology event, World

will descend on Las Vegas to discuss

Crypto Conference (WCC), embrace

the most pressing topics facing our

major partnerships with other notable

emerging industry.

event organisers and work together to

WCC 2019 will afford 3 days of

deliver Vegas Blockchain Week, from

intense discussions, product demos,

October 25th to October 31st, 2019.

expert keynote addresses, panel

Executives, enthusiasts, and profession-

discussions with industry thought

als from global enterprise companies,

leaders, and announcements from

financial service providers, investment

the best and brightest in the industry

firms, traders, advisory & auditing

showcasing new products, ideas, and

institutions, blockchain focused startups,

commercially viable applications of

academic institutions, government policy

blockchain technology. w w w.the i nte r fa ce .n et

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13.11.19 BIG DATA LDN Big Data LDN (London) is a free to attend conference and exhibition, hosting leading data and analytics experts, ready to arm you with the tools to deliver your most effective data-driven strategy.

Discuss your business requirements with 130 leading technology vendors and consultants. Hear from 150 expert speakers in 9 technical and business-led conference theatres, with real-world use-cases and panel debates.

Network with your peers and view the latest product launches & demos.

Big Data LDN attendees have access to free on-site data consultancy and interactive evening community meetups.

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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.

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THE #1 DIGITAL PROCUREMENT CONFERENCE ON THE PLANET

www.digitalprocurementworld.com