The Interface – Issue 15 by B2e Media

ISSUE 15

MAGA ZINE

W W W. T H E I N T E R F A C E . N E T

TOG E T H ER. AS O N E H OW SA I N S BU RYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FE D TH E N AT IO N

PLUS

How a modern commerce architecture can boost front-end developer job satisfaction

Five ways technology will aid economic recovery EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS FROM

Digital Transformation: The Trilogy Paul J. Bailo reveals Part 2 of his digital masterclass

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WELCOME TO A VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF INTERFACE MAGAZINE! The United Kingdom went into full-scale lockdown on March 23, 2020. For many enterprises, the stresses of a locked-down Britain, battling the virus COVID-19, centred around keeping businesses alive amid dramatic shifts in working practices. For others, it was a very different challenge. For the big supermarkets, lockdown represented an enormous logistical spike in operations during a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Supermarkets were literally feeding the nation. “It’s unprecedented to run a business like ours, a complex business that requires so much day-to-day intense transaction,

EDITOR IN CHIEF Andrew Woods

all remotely,” Sainsbury’s Group CIO, Phil Jordan explains. “We

EDITOR

had to maintain normal working conditions to an extent for

Dale Benton

people who were in stores – the vast majority of the people who work for Sainsbury’s have been instore during the pandemic – with social distancing and various other things we had to do, to

SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Callum Rivett

keep colleagues and customers safe. And doing all that while

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

everybody else who provides a support service to the stores

Nell Walker Kevin Davies

were not working in the same location. To be fair, we’ve done an incredible job, because we pivoted the whole company to work from home in a couple of weeks, and at no point did any of that ever cause any disruption to the stores.”

CREATIVE LEAD Mitchell Park

Executive Director of OTP Bank Romania, Sulaiman Abdulla,

VP GLOBAL FINTECH & INSURTECH

Manager of the Procurement and Contracts Section at UAE telco

Alex Page

We also have exclusive interviews with Constantin Mares,

regulator TRA and Patrick Kammermann, CIO at EF Education. Plus, we list 5 ways in which technology will aid the postCovid recovery and we feature another digital transformation

VP TECHNOLOGY Andy Lloyd Craig Daniels

masterclass with Paul J. Bailo.

VP PROCUREMENT Enjoy the issue!

Heykel Ouni Greg Churchill

PRESIDENT & CEO Kiron Chavda

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

PUBLISHED BY

CONTENTS

Sainsburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tech

6 Education First

How a modern commerce architecture can boost front-end developer job satisfaction

OTP Bank

88 Digital strategist Dr. Paul J. Bailo returns for part two of his leadership series to discuss digital transformation planning

Britenet

110

80 Ortoo

120 Five ways technology will aid economic recovery

130

TRA

142

TOGETHER. AS ONE H OW SAINSBURY’S FED THE NATION Interface Magazine talks to Sainsbury’s Group CIO Phil Jordan who reveals how the grocery giant tackled COVID-19…

WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY

A n d r e w Wo o d s K ir o n C h a vd a

he United Kingdom went into

unified, multi-brand Technology, Digital &

full-scale lockdown on March

Data Division, Sainsbury’s Tech, already

23, 2020. For many enter-

had one eye trained on any potential

prises, the stresses of a locked-down

disruption caused by Britain’s exit from

Britain, battling the virus COVID-19, centred

the EU and so, the lockdown meant it

around keeping businesses alive amid

could adapt and accelerate some of

dramatic shifts in working practices. For

these plans. “When the word came that

others, it was a very different challenge.

we were going into lockdown, we’d been

For the big supermarkets, lockdown

anticipating it,” explains Phil Jordan, CIO

represented an enormous logistical spike

of Sainsbury’s. “We spent a lot of time

in operations during a time of unprece-

thinking about what policy-makers were

dented uncertainty. Supermarkets were

going to do and the impact that might

literally feeding the nation.

have for customers, colleagues and our

Sainsbury’s and its newly established 8

COVID-19 REPORT

complex supply chains across multiple

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H O W W E F E D T H E N AT I O N

countries. We’d become attuned to that

putting brilliant technology into the hands

process as a result of planning for all the

of brilliant people”, Jordan said upon

various Brexit milestones of the last few

its launch. “Sainsbury’s Tech is all about

years.”

giving customers great experiences, leveraging data like a start-up, but at a scale

SAINSBURY’S TECH

they can’t offer while fostering a culture of

Sainsbury’s Tech was launched in the

experimental curiosity.”

autumn of 2019 and it is the customer

“It’s unprecedented to run a busi-

who lies at the heart of this new divi-

ness like ours, a complex business that

sion headed up by Jordan to provide

requires so much day-to-day intense

the multi-brand, multi-channel capability

transaction, all remotely,” Jordan

that powers the different brands: Argos,

explains. “We had to maintain normal

Nectar, Tu clothing, Sainsbury’s Bank,

working conditions to an extent for

Habitat and, of course, Sainsbury’s, “by

people who were in stores – the vast w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

majority of the people who work for Sainsbury’s have been instore during the pandemic – with social distancing and various other things we had to do, to keep colleagues and customers safe. And doing all that while everybody else who provides a support service to the stores were not working in the same location. To be fair, we’ve done an incredible job, because we pivoted the whole company to work from home in a couple of weeks, and at no point did any of that ever cause any disruption to the stores.” Innovation wasn’t limited to digital operations, either, as colleague and customer safety forced stores to adapt ways of working, including the checkout experience, and every aspect of where customers interact with colleagues, to try and make it as safe as possible. “We were doing that sometimes with very little information as to what was needed and what might happen,” Jordan explains. “By just being brave enough to do the right thing and iterate and innovate as we go, and make lots of small changes to make sure we’re reacting to customer needs across all of our estate, such as Argos flipping into being Prepay only, and then Pick-up In Store, for everything. And then scaling our Fast Track and our Delivery teams to try and reach all the customers. Seeing sales numbers much higher than expected without any stores being open is a great example of how we’ve innovated.” Mark Lowe is Senior Software Engineer, Retail & Labour Management. “COVID-19 represented a massive challenge in keeping the stores running for our customers, getting the stock out on the shelves, supporting

COVID-19 REPORT

S A I N S B U RY â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

Understanding customers better with Snowflakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cloud Data Platform

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? Perceiving the need to rethink processes and end data silos, Sainsbury’s chose Snowflake, and initiated their cloud data migration with a clear goal in mind: to democratize all of the data across the business.

make use of before due to the data being siloed is now available to query and run analytics against. Empowering many divisions of analysts across the group to make more enriched data driven decisions.

“Snowflake is helping us conquer the hard yards of what it means to rebuild a data ecosystem in the cloud and that gets right at the heart of our business strategy of knowing our customers better than anyone else” Helen Hunter said, Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s.

The result: by consolidating multiple disparate and functional siloed data assets, the granularity of reporting and the accuracy of Sainsbury’s real time data has been unlocked across the group through Snowflake’s cloud data platform housing an ever increasing volume of valuable data. This is enabling quicker decision making and a continuous enrichment of data in a centralised pool to make use of. With Snowflake’s instant scaling flexibility, elasticity and per-second pricing, performance constraints are no longer an issue.

Snowflake’s cloud data platform is right in the core of the so-called ASPIRE solution. This is Sainsbury’s own platform for fast insight and reporting across its multiple brands within the organisation. It connects the huge volume of data sources and ingestion systems to the organisations data consumers and analytical dashboards throughout a multitude of data workloads.

“Snowflake is helping us conquer the hard yards of what it means to rebuild a data ecosystem in the cloud and that gets right at the heart of our business strategy of knowing our customers better than anyone else.” HELEN HUNTER Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

When migrating, Sainsbury’s decided to go for a full cloud solution. The migration encompassed every aspect of the business from the data warehouse to the supply chain and loyalty programme analytics. They separated the project into phases and replaced incumbent technologies. Ingesting everything into Snowflake finally solved the data silos issue and democratised data analytics at Sainsbury’s.

During these difficult times, Sainsbury’s adapted rapidly and up-scaled their technology and business operations in a way that wouldn’t be possible without Snowflake. Sainsbury’s strives to know their customers better than anyone else so that they can provide great prices on products and services wherever and whenever their customers would like to shop online and in-store, with data being at the core of this and enabling them to continuously improve, optimise and automate. Snowflake could not be prouder to work closely with Sainsbury’s throughout this extremely critical and challenging time during the pandemic.

“We’ve been able to build new data products for the organization that users have never historically been able to access.” HELEN HUNTER Group Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s now has all of its data within one single place, removing what was obsolete and cleaning up codes and inefficiencies. Data that previously was not available to

our colleagues etc.,” he tells us. “And so, we looked at streamlining operations quickly wherever we could. We needed to create more shelf space for high volume lines and temporarily removed certain non-core lines, helping dress our stores for our customers to get what they wanted, quickly. We also had a massive shift in our store colleagues’ working patterns as well. As you’ll be aware, Argos and Habitat stores were closed and many of those colleagues were able to come and help out in Sainsbury’s stores as customers’ shopping patterns changed.” The fact that the entire store installa-

M A R K G A R S TA N G , S E N I O R E N G I N E E R I N G M A N A G E R – I N S TA L L AT I O N S E R V I C E S

tion team was homebased pretty much from the middle of March, meant working remotely with suppliers at the stag-

across the estate. During lockdown the

ing centre in Milton Keynes. The Store

team re-directed its efforts in support-

Installations team provides support for

ing the increasing demand for grocer-

store openings, closures, refits and

ies online, Click & Collect and devices

expansions and following the decision

for colleagues instore. “All the way

to lockdown had to instantly respond to

through this, we remained open and had

changes to store layout and the numbers

a small set of engineers out in the field

of checkouts etc., while at the same

reacting and responding to some of the

time respecting distancing measures

stuff we had to do just to help our store

in undertaking engineering work. Mark

colleagues,” Garstang explains. “We had

Garstang is Senior Engineering Manager,

to learn how to use Teams and technol-

Installation Services, which installs

ogy more to work remotely with suppli-

most of the technology to new stores

ers. We also had to learn how to work

COVID-19 REPORT

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN

under the new social distancing policies

about service availability at that point,”

and procedures coming into play to allow

Jordan explains. “We were just in a

us on site to undertake work. We became

period of rcrazy consumer panic. People

part of the critical force helping the store

buying more toilet rolls than they knew

teams pivot towards what was needed to

what to do with and various other things.

support our colleagues and our custom-

It’s like Christmas and Black Friday

ers in stores, such as improving our till

happening at the same time and out

capacity while the volume of our grocer-

of the blue. My fear is always that we

ies online went through the roof.”

must run the business at high intensity,

As the UK started to panic buy, Jordan

24/7 and we can’t afford to fail. And I’m

and his colleagues had to keep oper-

delighted to say we prevailed, and the

ations agile and scalable to unprece-

technology stood up amazingly well.”

dented demand. “My fear was always

Colin Smith, Head of Engineering for

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

COLIN SMITH, HEAD OF ENGINEERING FOR LOGISTICS

This image is pre-covid-19 16

COVID-19 REPORT

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN Logistics outlines those early days of lockdown. “It was a case of how quickly the business could respond to panic buying. We had an immediate demand placed upon us from our logistics operations team for more capacity. Bear in mind this happened pretty much in the space of a few days, where traditionally we prepare for Christmas 6-8 months in advance. And, to the credit of my team – ‘my family’ – we responded fantastically in an awesome way. We mobilised five additional facilities in the space of six days to deliver circa two million additional cases into the network to meet the demands placed upon the stores. Traditionally that would have taken one site, around three weeks, but we turned around five sites in the space of six days. Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly hard, and the team worked really long hours, but it’s really shown in how we got behind Feeding the Nation, by supporting our store colleagues on the front line.” As digital operations spiked as a result of raging demand, it was essential to keep that digital infrastructure strong and safe. Simon Grant, Senior IS Manager, Product Assurance and Security Testing. “Our first priority was

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

An adaptable, resilient and purpose-driven technology partnership is key to Sainsbury’s success TCS’s engagement with Sainsbury’s as a Strategic Technology Partner spans 13 years and we are now enabling their evolution into a Leading multi brand multi channel retailer of the future, by leveraging the power of TCS Business 4.0TM framework. In our experience, enterprises that have demonstrated Business 4.0™ behaviours - leveraging ecosystems, personalising at scale, embracing risk, and creating exponential value— have pivoted towards growth, transformation, and sustainability.

www.tcs.com

The COVID-19 pandemic has put enormous pressure on business communities everywhere. During such disruptive times, all businesses look to reliable partners to help them navigate the storm. TCS teams swiftly switched into to the new ways of working Leveraging TCS’ SBWS™ (Secure Borderless Workspaces) framework, and put in place robust control measures to ensure business as usual through a stable and secure estate to handle surged volumes and adapt quickly to changes. “During the pandemic, TCS has been working side by side with various teams from across Sainsbury’s to respond quickly to changing customer behaviour and helping in the mission to ‘Feed the Nation’. We are proud to partner in Sainsbury’s transformation to build a responsive and resilient supply chain thereby ensuring future-readiness,” said Shekar Krishnan, Head of Retail: UK, TCS TCS works closely with product families across Sainsbury’s to deliver a modern, efficient technology estate and we continue to deliver these outcomes using our Location Independent distributed Agile model. Sainsbury’s also benefits from our significant experience in technology and business transformation with global retailers. Sainsbury’s vision is to supply any product, from anywhere, to anywhere, wherever and whenever the customer wants, and TCS enables this using a solid foundation of

engineering and business expertise. A number of these initiatives have been active since late 2019, and the disruption caused by COVID19 did not impact TCS’ ability to deliver these outcomes ensuring that there was no impact on the ongoing program delivery. This allowed TCS to deliver a quick turnaround for critical business requirements borne out of the pandemic such as: • Technology changes that provided quick access to Sainsbury’s applications for elderly citizens, NHS staff and other vulnerable carers • Significant enhancements in the logistics and warehousing applications to support Sainsbury’s ongoing effort to “Feed the Nation”. • Quick turnaround in enabling regulatory and legally mandated changes to Sainsbury’s internal systems that allowed colleagues to work un-hindered during the crisis

colleague experience, reduction in dual systems for managers and improved data governance TCS has enabled a number of organisations to unlock value by leveraging the power of its strategic Algo Retail™framework, a playbook that integrates data and algorithms across the value chain. Sainsbury’s has demonstrated many of these traits in abundance. At TCS, we are convinced that Sainsbury’s appetite to take well-informed, measured risks and embrace a partner-oriented approach are strong indicators of its ability to deliver a customer-centric, datadriven transformation strategy. “Our longstanding partnership with Sainsbury’s has only deepened and thrived in this new, highly complex, volatile, and fast evolving marketplace. I believe it is a testament to the strong foundations we have built together to enable improved customer focus, extended market leadership, and accelerated business success,” Shekar concludes.

• Supported an accelerated rollout of collaboration and communication tools for all colleagues facing an entirely new day-today lived experience during lockdown • Automation initiatives in retail stores that helped reduce the time-to-market time by 60% and resulted in significant cost savings. • Integrated Sainsbury’s One Group-wide source of colleague and organisation data. Providing a consistent

Shekar Krishnan, Head of Retail: UK, TCS

FIN D O U T M O RE

S I M O N G R A N T, S E N I O R I S M A N A G E R , PRODUCT ASSURANCE AND SECURITY TESTING

the people and the team. Very quickly

ensure we could enable our colleagues

after going into lockdown, there was

to work effectively, whilst understand-

clearly a need to support the broader

ing what risks that might present, and

business. People had to adapt and

making sure we had the right controls

change their ways of working to perform

to keep Sainsbury’s and our custom-

their operations, which didn’t quite

ers, colleagues and data, safe. This was

work in a remote setting. Some exam-

particularly the case with our Contact

ples being systems you could only

Centres, moving these normally static

access by being connected directly to

teams to a remote working model was

the Sainsbury’s network and a require-

their biggest challenge as they had never

ment for a business to have connections

worked in this way before.”

from home. Clearly that can open more

Once the panic buying started to

risks, so our teams were really busy

subside, it was customer channel pref-

consulting on these immediate needs to

erence that started to shift, affecting scale while the operations teams were

COVID-19 REPORT

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN

working from home. “Given that none of

Relationship Manager at Sainsbury’s and

our teams are sitting together or with the

it was her job to keep relationships with

business stakeholder, how do we hear

tech suppliers open and delivering, as

and interpret and deliver on this real

they helped to support the growing digi-

adaptability and agility?” Jordan posits.

tal operation. “It was clear to us, before

“So, if the first wave of concern is can

lockdown started in March, that it was

we keep it running? The second wave

coming. So, we took an opportunity in

becomes ‘Are we agile enough? Are

the middle of February, whilst we were all

we adaptive enough, given that we’re

still together, to create a 90-day plan for

remote working, to meet the demand of

what we wanted to focus on, and deliver,

change?’ COVID-19 has seen endless

as a team, until the end of June.”

innovation in digital, as we scaled from 300,000 to 700,000 delivery slots a

CARING FOR THE COMMUNITY

week.”

One of the biggest concerns, nation-

Sarah Hirtenjohann is Senior Supplier

ally, was centred upon those members w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

OUTMANOEUVRING UNCERTAINTY, TOGETHER. As Accenture continues to be a key partner to Argos and Sainsbury’s, Doug Blyth, Managing Director at Accenture Technology, discusses how that relationship has gone from strength to strength in uncertain times. We talked last year about how

well as digital stores and

been doing to help make it

Accenture had helped Argos

collection points in Sainsbury’s

all happen.

on their successful Digital

locations.

Transformation and how you

These capabilities, coupled

Could you talk us through some

were about to help Sainsbury’s

with a shift to a more ‘product

of the ways Accenture teams

Tech transition to an agile

led’ agile delivery approach at

helped in this response?

delivery model. Has this been

Sainsbury’s Tech, have meant

In the first instance, our DevOps

tested during the COVID-19

that Argos has been able to

support team worked rapidly to

pandemic?

adapt fast. They’ve transitioned

help Argos adhere to the

What a rollercoaster year it has

rapidly to a ‘contactless’

government guidelines. At the

been. COVID really has turned

experience for customers,

same time, our Forecasting and

the retail industry upside down.

making it easier than ever to

Replenishment teams quickly

Despite this, Sainsbury’s and

shop online and ensuring

adjusted algorithms to account

Argos were well placed to

continued service to the British

for spiking demand and plan for

respond to the challenges.

public during these

both temporary store closures

The transformation journey we

unprecedented times.

and reopening. This enabled

discussed last year has been a

It’s meant that, despite the

Argos to open 100 more

big part of this success. For

disruption, Argos has seen a

collection points in Sainsbury’s

Argos in particular, it has given

10.7% increase in sales during

stores and reconfigure the supply

them class leading same day

the lockdown period. We are

chain to serve them. We also

omnichannel collection and

proud of the work our teams

helped scale up various services

home delivery propositions, as

within Sainsbury’s Tech have

to support increasing customer

Businesses needed to adapt quickly to the new pressures of COVID-19. Accenture’s Maddie Walker and Stéphane Crosnier share inspiring stories of how companies have re-invented their supply chains to meet changing demands and how this experience could help create more agile and resilient operations in the long-term.

demand for same day delivery.

How has the COVID-19

occasional shoppers turning

Elsewhere, we accelerated

pandemic forced Accenture

to digital channels. When

delivery on key programmes to

to evolve and change?

customers do venture out, there is

help meet new demands. One

All of these successes, and

currently a clear preference to

was an ongoing project to

more, were delivered with our

shop local. This change in

improve small item home

teams working from home in

channel mix coincides with

deliveries by shifting them from

the UK and India. This seamless

a change in mindset. Our

a single central delivery centre to

transition to home working

research shows consumers

regional fulfilment centres. We

was only possible because

are now minded to shop more

were entering the pilot

Accenture has already invested

healthily and with a greater

phase when lockdown started,

so heavily in enabling more

regard for sustainability.

presenting immediate

flexible working. It has been

For retailers like Sainsbury’s and

operational challenges. Some

really impressive to see how

Argos, the agility to respond

colleagues from the existing

this commitment has paid off

rapidly to these changing

delivery centre were required to

during the crisis.

dynamics – and outmanoeuvre

self-isolate while delivery centre

future uncertainty – will be key.

and home delivery volumes

What do you think the future

tripled. Despite this, the agile

of retail will look like?

To read more about how

model we have worked to

The world will clearly be different

COVID-19 has changed

establish with Sainsbury’s Tech

for Retailers post-COVID. We

consumer behaviour,

meant we could accelerate the

expect use of eCommerce to

take a look at Accenture’s

national rollout by 4 weeks.

rise by 160% thanks to new or

latest research.

M Y L E S N OTO N, S E N I O R E N G I N E E R I N G M A N AG E R

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of the community who would find lockdown especially difficult and it was also a high priority for Sainsbury’s. Myles Noton, Senior Engineering Manager, Discover, Decide and Loyalty. “We reintroduced a feature called Recurring Slots, prioritising customers to book recurring slots every week. A lot of that work was borne out of seeing the numbers we saw during lockdown, and analysing what people were doing,” he says. “The biggest part of the work we were doing was aimed at the elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers; we wanted to prioritise those, in addition to allowing other people to book slots. Obviously, there were many teams around Sainsbury’s trying to work out how to get more Delivery and Click & Collect capacity. How do we make sure elderly, disabled and vulnerable customers customers are prioritised? How do we make sure everybody else can get a Click & Collect slot?” Jordan is particularly proud of how Sainsbury’s identified and responded to the most vulnerable members of the community. “We’ve taken a customer base and said: ‘Actually, we’re going to assess a vulnerability qualification for the data we know about you and come w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

back to you directly and say we think you

do that above all our competitors, and

deserve, and you need, this delivery slot’.

before the government had given us

That’s incredibly innovative. We were the

any data. We also knew that some of our

first to do that. So, in all aspects of our

competitors, some of whom are consid-

business model, we’ve had to be innova-

ered to be digital-first grocery online

tive because there’s been such a clear

providers, had a much harder time than

need to apply change to what is a pretty

we did in keeping systems running under

well-established business and to do it

a great strain.”

quickly and to take some risk in doing it

Data analytics were vital to bolstering

as well. I think it’s absolutely bred a huge

Sainsbury’s response to the new trad-

amount of innovation. And I’m delighted

ing conditions and were provided by

to say that we’ve done that in a very

the Applied Data & Analytics team. “As

Sainsbury’s way.”

part of the COVID19 response, we had

“We used our own data to establish

offered to help the business in perform-

and qualify who was elderly, disabled or

ing key pieces of analysis,” says Steven

vulnerable and offered delivery slots to

Henson-Tyers, Data Visualisation &

them as a priority. We were the first to

Automation Manager, Applied Data &

“ It’s unprecedented to run a business like ours, a complex business that requires so much day-to-day intense transaction, all remotely” — P H I L J O R DA N , G R O U P C I O

COVID-19 REPORT

S A I N S B U RY ’ S T EC H - H OTWH EW C E OV F EIDD-19 T H E RNEAT P OI O RTN Analytics. “We addressed questions such as: ‘Should we shut our stores earlier in the day to enable restocking of shelves?’;

dashboards at speed as the situation

‘Are elderly, disabled and vulnerable

evolved. “We had to work with multiple

customers taking the opportunity to use

engineering teams to tactically deliver

the dedicated priority shopping hour in

data that had never been in Aspire (the

stores?’ We asked whether elderly, disa-

Group’s democratised data asset) before

bled and vulnerable were using prior-

and find new ways to merge the data

ity booking for online delivery slots, or

sets together and provide a clear and

whether we were losing sales by shutting

easy-to-use model to support the ques-

Argos stores or were customers moving

tions above. We then took the analysis

to different order fulfilment channels?”

and quickly turned around a brand new

Within the ‘viz team’, Henson-Tyers

MicroStrategy project within a week of

and his colleagues worked on a way

getting the data. We replaced the hand

to quickly and easily build the informa-

cranked models with fully automated

tion in a clear and consistent manner

dashboards that allowed further self-ser-

that allowed them to develop and alter

vice analysis. The output of our work

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

Born from Retail Built for Retailers

Sharing our experiences with retailers and partners for the most important customer journey â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the one you lead.

Customer journeys are more

systems be modern, con-

same-day pickup. Retailers

than a marketing term. They

nected and built on an agile

must now proactively engage

are the constant, fluid moments

architecture supporting

at every step - before, during,

– before, during, and after

proactive engagement. When

and after purchase. However,

a purchase – upon which your

this happens over 70% of

88% of retailers don’t believe

customer relationships are

retailers report that the new

they personalize effectively,

built. With customers making

value gained through cloud

most forecasts have insufficient

an increasing number of

migration goes directly to

inputs, and most CXO’s don’t

choices before, during, and

innovation projects.

know where to begin in the

Retailers also collect data

store. They rate AI/ML their #1

rience must be earned for

from a multitude of systems

opportunity, but the complexity

retailers to keep their custom-

when engaging customers and

to build and deploy leaves it the

er’s journey progressing to

must quickly bring relevant

#8 spending priority.

them. This means every choice

data together to form a com-

must be guided, which is only

plete picture of their customer’s

ers need the right partner to

possible by moving from

journey. With that visibility,

empower them and offer the

reactive to proactive retailers.

informed decisions can be

kind of unique experience nec-

In other words, leading their

made and more advanced

essary to address not only the

customer’s journey.

solutions – relying on that

unprecedented challenges of

data for conversion – can be

today, but the new opportuni-

has traditionally focused on

deployed. However, even when

ties coming tomorrow.

connecting channels one

modernizing and existing

experience at a time, now

systems through reinvention

only cloud born from retail and

finds itself requiring the

improves the source of data,

built for retailers. We share

speed, scale, and performance

over half of retailers report

Amazon’s own tested, proven

to embrace this challenge.

that they still can’t share data

innovation to help retailers rein-

Years accumulating “best

between systems and 88% are

vent their legacy applications

of breed” solutions – solving

challenged in making actiona-

for new value, complete their

for individual channels with

ble decisions. Fragmentation

view of customers for relevant

disparate technology – have

and a lack of real-time insight –

insight, and transform their

left many retailers paralyzed

especially at the edge – are

engagement for increased

by the complexity and cost of

significant problems.

sales velocity. From recommen-

after the purchase, every expe-

However, an industry that

following customer migration

Finally, sales velocity is a top

All of this means that retail-

That’s why AWS offers the

dation engines, forecasting and

from store only, to online, to

metric for most retailers, but

contact centers, to advanced

connected experiences, and

journeys put conversion oppor-

computer vision and store trans-

now complete journeys. 72%

tunities and rates at higher risk,

formation, AWS offers retailers

of CxO’s report an inability to

as consumers expect relevant

the same expertise we use our-

migrate to new technologies.

personalization; right place/

selves – a head start 20 years in

Simply engaging in customer

right time inventory; and stores

the making for retailers to lead

journeys requires existing

offering both immersion and

their customer’s journey.

has also been the platform that enabled other areas such as Future Finance with their dashboard of group flash and has helped drive Aspire to deliver multibrand, multi-channel versions of Store, Product and Sales.” Mark Garstang is Senior Engineering Manager, Installation Services and it fell to his team to support the incredible demand placed upon the stores. “We were able to very quickly turn our teams into supporting and reacting to an ever-changing situation. We were able to open more Groceries Online operations quite quickly. We supported the increase in demand for Click & Collect. We moved some of the team’s capacity into staging more handsets to allow Click & Collect colleagues to support the customer. All Argos standalone stores were temporarily closed. The only Argos capability was online and so we needed to offer our customers the chance to pick up products from Argos stores in Sainsbury’s supermarkets. So, we opened just under 100 extra collection points. So, as customer habits changed, we diverted our capability as a team, and while some of the team were still doing the planning to get back to their normal day job, a lot of the team were actually supporting the change in customer habits. We were 30

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having to do that under a remote way of working that completely changed how we interacted and operated together. And we want to make sure we never stop embracing the technology that helps us do our job. We really should take those learnings forward.” Sainsbury’s saw 100%, and in some cases 200%, growth, in online food, which has seen the grocer, more than ever before, put its mark on the online retail market. “The other thing I think’s been really clear is we’ve always been a big data company and a lot of the decision-making is driven by really great insight. We have a great data set. We’re talking about 27 million people shopping every week, with Nectar being the largest loyalty program. We launched Digital Nectar in October and it has more than five million active users of the app. So, when you add all that richness up, we really do have a great data set.” “As we move from responding to the crisis to the opportunities to rethink our business in light of the crisis, I am a believer that we can’t allow ourselves to go back to the way things were,” Jordan explains. “I think we’ve seen w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

From recovery to re-imagination In the last nine months, COVID-19 has forced many businesses to repivot their cloud strategy and become more agile and resilient. We have been supporting our retail customers understand new ways they can forecast drastic shifts in demand, manage mandated store closures, and continue to meet

evolving customer and business needs, or rapidly support millions of teams to connect remotely through use of our modern work solutions. We’ve worked alongside our customers, including Sainsbury’s to support their critical needs and keep their businesses moving forward.

We’ve helped them be able to continue serving our nation by rapidly scaling out remote working, keeping them connected, secure and informed, supporting both customers and colleagues. As we now start to recover and adapt to the ‘new normal’, our focus extends

We all need to take our part in supporting recovery from the socio-economic impact of COVID-19. I’d like to quickly touch on two key imperatives: How technology can support organisations and drive value, and how we can do this ethically and responsibly.

an accessible and inclusive way. Building on this we are also providing increased on-demand training and resources to aid re-skilling in digital skills, which is imperative given the increasingly key role technology will play in economic recovery.

In January 2020, Satya Nadella, our CEO, was invited to speak the keynote at the National Retail Federation conference in New York. He spoke of our ambition to help retailers create their own tech intensity and tech independence: “Retailers need to use digital to take what they’ve always done to the next level. Capability around tech intensity underlines all of this … you don’t want to fall behind, you don’t want to reinvent the wheel, taking pride in digital capability is key to success for the retail industry.”

It’s also a fantastic chance to address the sustainability of our and your offerings. We have achieved carbon neutral objectives for our datacentres in January and we made a further commitment, evolving our mission to be carbon negative by 2030.

None of us in January could have foreseen that we’d hit fast-forward on our tech intensity and workplace modernisation to the level we have in the last nine months. We’re committed to continue partnering with our customers to help them respond to the immediate impact to their organisations and recover with flexible business resiliency models.

to the future of work. It’s the perfect time to re-imagine how businesses will operate, and how we can innovate faster, using data and analytics to gain new insights and streamline operations, whilst also optimising secure remote collaboration and connected workforces.

A big part in this capability is ensuring everyone is included in this recovery. We are committed to ensuring our products and services are designed for everyone, including over one billion people with disabilities. Our commitment allows us to ensure that you can deliver solutions that work for all your people, and allows you to interact with customers in

We are putting AI in the hands of those working to directly address sustainability challenges, investing $50 million in our AI for Earth initiative. With sustainability featuring as a leading priority for many of our customers, we are proud to be able to help them expedite their ambitions in this space through partnering with us. Finally, as we emerge from recovery, let’s work together to build a future with resilient and innovative customercentric services. This is a fantastic opportunity to reimagine your organisation and develop a technical intensity that allows you to recover faster, and emerge stronger, together. Jennifer Morrison Retail Industry Director Microsoft UK

Learn More >

an acceleration of consumer trends, a 10-year trend acceleration in three months, and I think we should avoid the rubber ball bouncing back to the past. But we’ve been listening, watching and talking to colleagues really carefully about the need to do something different in terms of working practices.” With the UK heading into Brexit territory very soon, Jordan is glad that the pandemic at least allowed Sainsbury’s to take a good look into its supply chains. “To some degree we can use this period as prep to really understand our supply chains and their vulnerabilities. We were also able to increase the capacity of some aspects of our supply chain really quickly. Again, something that would have taken us probably months to do. We were bold and brave in increasing our digital capacity and the capability of the logistics network, particularly in our supply chain. So, that’s been great.

“ COVID-19 represented a massive challenge in keeping the stores running for our customers, the stock out on the shelves, supporting our colleagues etc” — M A R K L O W E , S O F T WA R E E N G I N E E R , S A I N S B U R Y ’ S T E C H - R E TA I L & L A B O U R M A N A G E M E N T 34

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w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

HOW SAINSBURY’S USED BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TO SURVIVE COVID During lockdown, we decided that ‘Feeding the Nation’ had to be our priority. As our primary intelligence platform, we relied heavily on MicroStrategy to help us understand how to redirect our resources to achieve specific operational outcomes.” Helen Hunter, Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

n an industry built on marginal

Helen Hunter, Sainsbury’s Chief Data

be overwhelmed by dashboards and

gains, the ability to make

Officer describes the company’s

analytics. Sainsbury’s understands

better decisions, faster, is

vision, “Even in the recent past,

the power of aggregation, helping

what separates leading retailers

access to data was tightly controlled

to simplify the metrics they watch.”

from the competition. So when

by people with ‘IT’ in their

Sainsbury’s recently re-structured

titles—it was guarded and only

its operations into a single multi-

released after forensic scrutiny.

brand, multi-channel business, data

MicroStrategy is helping liberate

was at the core of its strategy.

our data to better understand our

During this transformation,

customers and our business.”

This simplification relies upon re-usable data objects from one trusted source. Barth elaborates, “The data used by the head of in store bakery is the same data used by the CEO. Organisations typically find it impossible to achieve consistency across departments.

Sainsbury’s Tech accepted the challenge of creating a single data

Even in the recent past, access to data

MicroStrategy enables this ‘single

management platform to make

was tightly controlled by people with

version of the truth’ for Sainsbury’s.”

access to information from across all

‘IT’ in their titles—it was guarded and

Sainsbury’s brands as frictionless as

only released after forensic scrutiny.

flowing water. “Sainsbury’s has been

MicroStrategy is helping liberate

incredibly bold in redefining its data

our data to better understand our

management landscape,” explains

the remedy for shelves emptying was

customers and our business.”

not buying more product; it required

Helen Hunter,

that distribution be adapted to match

Gary Strickland-Clark, Account Manager, MicroStrategy. “Every data store is being consolidated

Chief Data Officer, Sainsbury’s

COVID-19 intensified the need for effective decision making. For example, Sainsbury’s was quick to identify that

how and where people were buying. Hunter explains, “During lockdown,

to create an extraordinary enterprise data asset. It’s simple

“Democratising data means

we decided that ‘Feeding the Nation’

in concept, but at this scale the

everybody gets access to the

had to be our priority. As our primary

change is very challenging. Most

information they need,” adds

intelligence platform, we relied heavily

organisations lack the vision or

Nick Barth, Senior Sales Engineer.

on MicroStrategy to help us understand

the stamina to see it through.”

“Sainsbury’s uses MicroStrategy

how to redirect our resources to

to manage and automate

achieve specific operational outcomes.”

Historically Sainsbury’s used numerous software tools for data analysis, visualisation, and reporting. The new solution, however, required consolidating tools into a unified platform. “MicroStrategy was just one of a

complex reporting so thousands of Sainsbury’s colleagues are

CLARITY OF VISION

seeing exactly the information

MicroStrategy views Sainsbury’s with a

that’s relevant to them, where,

single strategic objective. “Whenever

when, and how they need it.”

we reach a decision, the question we ask is ‘what will make Sainsbury’s

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS TO ‘FEED

successful?’” says Strickland-

THE NATION’ DURING COVID

Clark. “We won’t compromise

“Sainsbury’s hadn’t appreciated

Sainsbury’s uses MicroStrategy

on trust; it’s too important.”

that MicroStrategy was designed to

to make informed decisions

be the single platform they were

about what customers want.

looking for, but with a new analytics

Barth explains, “Without a clear

team, they reviewed their options

intelligence strategy, it’s easy to

number of technologies being used,” explains Strickland-Clark,

and realised they could move MicroStrategy to the Cloud and do everything on the one platform.”

To learn more about how MicroStrategy can empower your business, visit microstrategy.com

w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

It really helped us with the peak volume

They’re productive. They don’t have to

period, when we were trying to fill the

commute. It frees them up from a loca-

stores and people were buying things

tion perspective, and we work really well

faster than we could ship them.”

this way. So, I think there’s a real opportunity for us to capitalise and to galva-

LONG-LASTING CHANGE

nise this as a catalyst for a change in

Working from home, which has affected

working practices forever. Everybody

millions across the globe, could be here to

coming through the same communication

stay for Sainsbury’s Tech. Jordan acknowl-

medium has democratised the business,

edges that for some, working in an office

so a hierarchy becomes less important. I

is more suitable and office environments

think the fact that people are talking from

will need to be open. “However, for the

their own homes makes you, as a leader,

vast majority, 80-90%, I think we found

look and feel more accessible. And I

that people like this [working from home].

think the online meeting is a platform of

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complex, big, multi-location environment, we’d end up with probably 30 cascade huddles, starting at the top, going into divisional directors, going into our senior management, going into certain teams. Since we started this, I run it on a Monday, and I talk to every one of the 1,700 people in Technology. We get a huge benefit of having one voice, one description of how the business is doing. So, I think that’s been transformational. It’s enabled by remote working. But I think when you work hard on engagement on top of remote working, it’s transformational and we collaborations where people feel more

won’t go back. It really cuts through

inclined to comment, to sit and talk, to ask

decision-making.”

questions.” Microsoft Teams provided a constant

Gillian Green, Colleague Experience Manager was charged with helping the

and reliable network through which

team adapt to remote working by provid-

every department within the organisa-

ing support to those who need it while

tion could communicate. Adoption of

onboarding new recruits. “My particu-

Teams within Sainsbury’s became 100%

lar focus is very much around diversity

across operations, as a virtual network

and inclusion and embedding that into

almost completely replaced face-to-face

our culture. So, before we launched

contact. “We would have been a busi-

Sainsbury Tech, a lot of work was done

ness that worked really hard to huddle

to create an employee value proposition

and cascade on a Monday to make sure

and my role is to continue the journey

people understood how we’re perform-

so the employee value proposition and

ing,” Jordan explains. “But because it’s a

the culture we’re talking about is really w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

embedded in the day-to-day experience for colleagues. I’ve been working to help drive inclusion within Sainsbury’s Tech through a lot of different initiatives to raise awareness and build empathy between colleagues through education.” “And then lockdown happened, and we wondered how we would get the value we’re looking for and still drive those connections and keep that passion alive.’ We had to rethink how we were going to create that in the virtual format without getting screen fatigue either because it’s a three-and-a-half-hour induction (for new starters). You obviously can’t do that for three-and-a-half hours straight. But I was delighted with the way we all came together and problem solved, looking at the different options and the ways we could break up the content. “We have a fantastic session at the beginning for the new starters where they have a completely open Q&A with STLT (Sainsbury’s Tech Leadership Team), which is Phil Jordan and his team. That’s a really valuable session for our new recruits who always come out of that buzzing and excited having listened to our leaders. We have really made Microsoft Teams and some interactive whiteboard facilities work for us in running introduction activities to start 40

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GILLIAN GREEN – COLLEAGUE EXPERIENCE MANAGER

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

The changing world of grocery fulfilment O2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rob Sandford talks insights, Retail Economics and fulfilment

In partnership with Retail Economics

Rob Sandford O2 Head of Business Sales

On 22 July, I was proud to present the findings from The Big Ask report, produced over the last year by O2 Business and Retail Economics. The aim of this report was two-fold: to take an honest look at how digitalisation is changing customer behaviours, and to provide insight on how retailers are using technology to attract, engage and sell to today’s more connected customer. You can read the complete report here.

The transformation of retail fulfilment One interesting finding was the overall preference (53%)* for physical fulfilment channels, like the high street (13.6%) and shopping centres (13%), over digital ones. This was underlined recently during lockdown. While demand for online delivery initially rocketed (Sainsbury’s nearly doubled their number of delivery slots, for example), there then followed a gradual increase in physical footfall, with each household averaging 14 trips to a retail store per month. O2 works with retailers across the UK to discover and analyse the way people move between physical locations. So, I’ve seen just how reductive ideas like the ‘death of the high street’ can be. In reality, people love the convenience of local shopping, and they still want to visit stores to experience products and connect with brands. It’s also clear that digital technology can still be a barrier to online shopping, even after widespread adoption and development of sophisticated logistics. All consumer groups said they’d shop online more if there were cheaper and faster delivery options, for example. One emerging answer to this lies in partnerships. A great example being how you can buy something on eBay, get it delivered to your local Argos, and then pick it up during your weekly shop. In addition to consumer convenience, this brings added security to online fulfilment as items are held in store for collection. I’m also excited about the new fulfilment options gathering momentum in retail, which could be the next step for grocers too. From robotic autonomous

deliveries to in-home delivery, these are opportunities for brands to provide exceptional consumer experiences through advanced connectivity and innovation.

More to uncover I’ve already been hearing from some of those who attended the event about what they found most interesting. But I’m curious to speak to more retailers and see whether there are any questions you’ve got about the findings, or how you can put them to practical use. I’d welcome any questions or comments you may have. You can reach me on LinkedIn or on robert.sandford@businesso2.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you.

w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t * Source: www.connect.o2.co.uk/the-big-ask-download-report

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“ I think we’ve seen an acceleration of consumer trends, a 10-year trend acceleration in three months, and I think we should avoid the rubber ball bouncing back to the past” — P H I L J O R DA N , G R O U P C I O

building those connections. “COVID-19 is very much on every business’s mind at the moment, and foremost in our minds is how we can support our colleagues from a flexible working perspective so that people can achieve a good work-life balance and really benefit from the ability to do a yoga session on a lunch break or go for a walking meeting and learn from the situation we’ve had this year. But honestly, I think we’ve been quite instrumental in keeping the communities together and keeping us focused and driving forward.” “There is such a collegiate feel to the organisation, the division, the team. It is absolutely fantastic,” enthuses Sarah Hirtenjohann, Senior Supplier Relationship Manager. “On a personal w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

This image is pre-covid-19 level, I could pick up the phone and

values-driven, to have a really clear

speak to any of the team if I felt I

emotive engagement vision like Feed

needed some support, and that is up,

the Nation,” says Jordan. “It’s been

across, or down, it does not matter. We

unbelievable for our business. We’ve

have a great team. We are very lucky.”

done things in days that would’ve

Jordan and his team clearly exude

taken months. We’ve expanded grocer-

a sense of pride in how their busi-

ies online. We temporarily closed and

ness was able to reach out to those

reopened stores. We changed the busi-

most in need during such dark times. “I

ness model of Argos, which operated

think there’s something really power-

as an online-only business for three

ful for our business, which is very

months. We spun the whole groceries

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online business on its head by offer-

brand, the business has prospered and

ing it to certain customers and not

I think the business has really grown in

others, and then Recurring Slots. And

stature. Not financially, but prospered

not only did we help feed the nation,

as a brand and as a business in the

but we also helped the nation adapt

community. I think we’ll always remem-

to the pandemic. This has been a terri-

ber 2020, wherever any of us go in

ble time for many, many, many families

the future. If you’re a technologist, and

and we’ve lost colleagues and custom-

particularly a Sainsbury’s Tech technolo-

ers. So, against that awful backdrop,

gist, I think you should always be really

we must remember that our colleagues

proud of the role we played.”

have worked incredibly hard. But as a w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

> How a modern commerce architecture can boost front-end developer job satisfaction < WRI T T EN BY

Br ad S oo, Pr o d u c t M a n a g e r, c o m m e r c e t o o ls H OW CA N YO U M A K E S U R E YO U R TA L E N T E D F R O N T- E N D D E V E LO PE R S F E E L S U P P O RT E D, A N D H AV E T H E I R S PEC I A L I ST N E E D S M E T ?

ith front-end developer skills in high demand, rising to the challenge of retaining the

best talent may already be a difficult task for organisations. Yet these highly skilled professionals are often faced with software and platforms that add a layer of unnecessary complexity, making them less efficient at their work. Without the proper systems in place, brands may risk losing front-end developer talent to companies with better systems to support their specialist needs. The current technology landscape is drastically expanding the possibilities of online commerce beyond a 'web shop'. While the new variety of devices, from voice assistants to smart home appliances, adds more range to front-end developersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; skill-sets, it should act as

Development at the front-end requires

a motivator for more rewarding work.

creativity alongside a variety of high-level

Instead, pressure to work faster as well

technical skills, including working knowl-

as continuing to complete mind-numb-

edge of HTML, CSS, plus JavaScript

ing, low-level tasks can be detrimental to

code libraries such as jQuery or React.

job satisfaction.

Developers are often tasked with making

Along with the changing commerce

changes to a front-end that's heavily tied

landscape, modern commerce architec-

to - and impossible to update without

tures, too, are emerging to meet market

also touching - the back-end, all while

needs and offer the potential to trans-

making sure the site doesn't go down

form the role of the front-end developer

during the process.

for the better. Eliminating time spent on tedious tasks 50

Spinning all these plates can be very challenging during the busy periods that

accompany trend-seizing promotions or

seasons in retail have been troublesome

seasonal sales. Not enough to sustain

for front-end developers previously, a

high traffic loads and not designed for

headless, API-based architecture will

scalability, these legacy platforms often

free up time for front-end developers to

have front-end developers scrambling

spend on more valuable tasks like re-im-

to fix bugs in the middle of the night just

agining the user experience, rather than

to maintain a functional interactive shop-

responding to code-breakages at all

ping experience.

hours of night and day.

With headless commerce, the backend is decoupled from the front. This

ACHIEVE FASTER TIME-TO-MARKET

means that even during periods of heavy

Running time-consuming end-to-end

website traffic at the front-end, the back-

testing has been a significant part of

end will not be affected. Where peak

the front-end developer job description w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

‘ M O D E R N C O M M E R C E W I L L H E L P F R O N T-E N D D E V E LO PE R S A N SW E R C U STO M E R D E M A N D FO R A S E A M L ES S A N D EXC I T I N G B U Y I N G EX PE R I E N C E ’

for years. Yet, performing extensive audits and bug fixes to align front-and back-ends can delay deployments significantly. When they are free to experiment easily and safely, front-end developers can see the fruits of their labour in much faster timescales. This is particularly important as new channels emerge and different ways to reach customers need to be addressed. Deploying creative new user interfaces to enhance the customer experience can be made much easier and become far less overwhelming a task using modern commerce infrastructure. Firstly, with a marketplace of third-party extensions and integrations which can be selected and simply plugged in. Secondly, with decoupled back-ends and frontends. As software developers carry out changes to the website, adding apps, store fronts, channels or even capabilities for voice assistants, virtual reality experiences or connected cars in the foreground, the background will remain blissfully unaffected. With no need to test for flaws created at the back-end, brands can efficiently launch new interfaces at speed to respond to emerging trends. Overall, armed with the ability to experiment, alterations require less negotiation from developers, allowing them to be brought online with relative speed and ease.

SHAPING THE CUSTOMER SUCCESS Communications between marketing and sales has been a troublesome disconnect for many digital companies in the age of online commerce. As the arbitrator between the customer and the brand, website w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

interfaces must fulfil criteria to suit both of these departments and the front-end developer must work within the limits of the available technology. Legacy systems and 'commerce-ina-box' solutions have limited front-end developers to fewer options in the past. Whereas now, open APIs and headless commerce systems are available which can be plugged in to any front-end and cultivate greater creativity to make more possible. Front-end developers should be able to work closely with sales and marketing teams to ensure websites are delivering a seamless customer experience that is on-brand and using technology that allows them to achieve their intended outcomes. This is where modern commerce systems have responded. Improving response times considerably

GREATER EASE OF APPLICATION MAINTENANCE

between departments, modern commerce

Those brands that still rely on legacy

systems speed up deployments, tweaks

systems may struggle to capitalise on

and iterations between approvals. With

front-end developer skills and creativity.

faster turn-arounds and the ability to

Ultimately, a system that is less prone to

experiment without technical repercus-

bugs when making changes harnesses

sions, front-end developers can ensure

the power to transform the role of the

that their valuable skills are being used

front-end developer from a website

most effectively to shape the customer

code caretaker into the valuable, skilled

experience to precise requirements.

user-experience artisans they are trained to be. It is crucial that front-end developers

react quickly to market trends, using their

without worrying about maintaining basic

skills to connect customers with brands

functionality of the back-end.

in the most effective ways. While adapt-

Brands get the most out of front-

ing interfaces to deal with temporary

end developers who are able to build

events such as flash sales or promotions,

new prototypes and deliver innovation

front-end developers can deliver direct

through new features such as microser-

benefits to the way a website looks and

vices. With a modern headless architec-

feels to the consumer. Where previously,

ture changes are agile, scalable and fast

websites would have to be shut down

so front-end developers can get more

for whole days to accommodate altera-

rewarding work done.

tions, website developers can now focus

So, with modern commerce infra-

applying their expertise to usability at

structure, brands have a better abil-

the front-end to gain a competitive edge

ity to understand and therefore more w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

effectively utilise front-end developer time and skills. No longer required to spend long hours on low value tasks, front-end developers can use their time to create engaging experiences. Modern commerce will help front-end developers answer customer demand for a seamless and exciting buying experience, delivery of total convenience and new features users donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t yet know that they want. As front-end experience design becomes an art, rather than a technical challenge, front-end developers will be tasked with recruiting a new set of customers, gaining a new competitive advantage and engaging loyal fans everywhere. With the freedom and flexibility to work fluidly, front-end-developers achieve greater satisfaction from their work and create real value and agility for brands.

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

STAYING SMALL WHILE GROWING BIG Patrick Kammermann, CIO at EF Education First, dives into the company's values and why they have driven every single decision in its digital journey towards ever greater personalisation for customers

WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY

N el l Wal ker Al ex P ag e

icture yourself traveling to a

First, a business which lives and breathes

beautiful place that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve

creating life-changing opportunities for its

always wanted to visit, prepar-

customers. EF is an organisation with its

ing to meet new people, make new

foundations in uniqueness and a desire

friends who are undertaking the same

to provide people, across the world, with

journey, and learn a language that will

the best possible learning opportunities

unlock whole new worlds for you. It

to broaden their horizons in immeasur-

sounds like a dream come true, yet so

able ways. Its business of international

many of us put all of these things off, no

language schools is one of its primary

matter how much we long to do them;

services, and what EF is commonly known

why? Because it sounds like too many

for; its mission is to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;open the world

moving parts, too much to organise, too

through educationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, create a cultural expe-

difficult to plan out?

rience for customers and facilitate the

This is not the case with EF Education 60

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

building of relationships in an increasingly

and all ages use EF’s services, from

connected world.

two-week courses to, potentially an entire

Through this, lives are changed. One

year. At the end of this time, they have

Spanish customer was a very nervous

earned new skills, new friendships, and

traveler, but described her experience

a far greater level of confidence in their

with EF in Rome as ‘unforgettable’, and

ability to travel to other countries and

that EF gave her ‘the opportunity to be

communicate with international peers.

happy’. Powerful words for a powerful

EF offers a comprehensive service for

service. EF’s international language school

anyone and everyone. It owns and oper-

business has language campuses in 54

ates all of its own schools, even offering

destinations across the world, covering 12

accommodation, and everything can be

languages, and over 150 study programs

personalised – all transport, the afore-

suited to any language proficiency level.

mentioned accommodation, and the

Students from over 100 nationalities

educational courses themselves. This is w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

Harnessing the power of cloud to accelerate digital transformation Our end-to-end services combine business and innovation strategy, experience design, technology consulting and best-in-class software engineering to deliver results on a global scale

WWW.EPAM.COM

EPAM, a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services with 36,000+ employees in over 30 countries, is on a mission to engineer the future. With nearly 30 years of software engineering heritage supported by continually expanding strategic capabilities, the company converts breakthrough ideas into real outcomes for its global customers.

EPAM understands that technology alone

Attitudes towards changing an existing software

cannot enable a company to digitally transform, which is why they are committed to helping its

solution are shifting, as Pascal Roth, EPAM’s Director of Business Development, explains “Companies want

customers think holistically about people, processes,

to differentiate; core systems are not particularly

platforms and data – key components to successful transformation programs. With hundreds of Fortune

good at interacting with new ecosystems; and software engineering has matured, meaning you can deliver

Global 2000 customers and a team of practical

value at a much faster pace. As a technology-agnostic

visionaries with experience in human-centric design thinking, innovation strategy consulting,

partner with expert engineering, design and consulting skills, these three elements play to EPAM’s strengths.”

and education and learning platforms, EPAM’s end-to-end service offerings are ideal for businesses needing to evolve as adaptive, digital organizations

The passion with which EPAM tackles the challenges

to disrupt the market.

it faces is clear, and its relationship with EF is made even more unique by the fact that their work together coincided with a global pandemic. EPAM’s Remote by

It is this proven and varied wealth of experience that caught the eye of EF Education First, an organization in need of an experienced team to

Design ™ approach has enabled the project to quickly adapt to remote working models and continue seamlessly, strengthening its position as a

help shape its technology vision. “EF wanted an expert opinion; a fresh pair of eyes,” says Laszlo Szacsuri, Solution Architect at EPAM. “The company

networked, distributed organization that doesn’t stop for a customer in need.

was looking to harness the power of cloud to provide more flexibility, release more valuable features and reduce time to market. EF had already embarked on a three-year plan, which included moving the majority of their code to the cloud, but they had a complex tech stack with over 10 years of custom development. From the beginning, we realized this could be a really amazing partnership.”

“We’re deeply proud of our work with EF,” says Laszlo. “As markets try to figure out the new normal, we didn’t let the current environment stop us from effectively helping our client grow. EF trusted us to be there for them during this unprecedented time, which is really rewarding and key to establishing a successful partnership.”

Laszlo and his team performed an initial tech stack review, which resulted in a proposed target architecture to overcome the legacy technology challenges. The team implemented a technical plan and a set of MVP applications iteratively over the course of eight months, proving their trust and reliability along the way whilst helping EF raise their own engineering standards. The automation involved has unlocked time for the business to focus on value-adding activities, as well as reducing overall time to market for new features. “The work we’ve done together has cemented EPAM as a partner that goes beyond the normal vendor-customer relationship to add real value,” says Laszlo.

Want to talk to us about your business needs? Get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you.

CLICK TO LEARN MORE

w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

something which sets EF firmly apart from

with offices in 50 countries, but we’ve

its competitors.

broken it down into smaller units where

In fact, the customisation is such that

anybody can make a difference and be an

progress is guaranteed, thanks to EF

entrepreneur,” continues Kammermann.

having its own academic language learn-

“Each individual leaves footprints; every-

ing system which ensures an approach to

body makes a difference. It even says

teaching and development that’s suited

in our handbook, ‘we want to stay small

specifically to its students. Its core values

while growing big’.”

are centred around success – they are focused on passion, innovation, atten-

The technology story

tion-to-detail, an entrepreneurial spirit and

This focus on the importance of every

the view that nothing is impossible.

individual, of passion, of entrepreneur-

“Our values are incredibly important,”

ship, it bleeds from every pore of EF as

explains Patrick Kammermann, CIO at

an organisation and out to the customer.

EF. “When I joined EF in February 2019, I

Its recent drive towards improved tech-

was amazed at the way you could actu-

nology has been much based around

ally feel the values around you, just walking through the hallways. We recruit and manage according to our values; we go as far as saying, ‘okay, this is a real EF person’. This is our secret weapon, and why we’re the best organisation in our space. Technology is important, but the reason we’re successful is the strong culture of values.” It’s true that this outlook isn’t necessarily common for a business of EF’s size; it’s such a large organisation, but in terms of mindset and passion, it’s almost a collection of start-ups all working towards the same goal. “We are a global organisation

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

Patrick Kammermann CIO at EF Education First Patrick Kammermann is CIO at EF Education First, the world’s largest privately-held international education company. His ambition is to make technology truly matter for EF’s business of international language schools, driving digital personalization along the value chain. He believes – as does EF’s founder Bertil Hult – that there are no problems that could not be solved with the right team. Prior to this role, Patrick built and led technology organizations of various sizes, mainly in the financial services industry. Patrick is passionate about anything digital and strongly believes in results through people.

increased personalisation and creating an ever-morebespoke service to our customers, while streamlining the back-office environment. From marketing, to sales, to creation of its academic courses and in-school activities, technology is always working away in the background. “We are not a technology company – we are a travel and education company,” Kammermann explains. “We don’t necessarily want to be absolutely leading edge in terms of technology for the sake of it, but we do have the ambition to lead the industry in terms of our digital offering. This is a continuous evolution for us, and technology plays an important role. A couple of years ago, there was a fear at EF that we might fall behind in technology use, which is when we increased our investments in building on that side of the business and bringing in additional partners who are experts in their area.” A major element of this shift has been building a global but cohesive technology team, with a three-year roadmap – one that aligns much more closely with the company’s core values than any previous technological ventures did. “Before Patrick Kammermann joined, EF was more

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

of a technical organisation,” explains

organisation, with agile processes. What

Livio Francescucci, Head of Engineering.

we look for in our tech team members

“There were lots of separate groups work-

is passion; of course, the technical skills

ing on separate projects, which mostly

need to be there, but passion is always

worked well, but it meant there was never

critical too, and integral to what we call

a sense of collaboration, of a common

‘the EF culture’.”

strategy. The company grew, and the

This team, focused on technology,

complexity of the system grew, and the

is only going to grow as EF’s needs

previous model started failing because

continue to evolve – especially since the

we needed interaction and integration

business has a pretty ambitious vision of

between systems.”

what it wants the customer experience to

Francescucci joined the company as

look like in future. “Eventually our custom-

a software architect, and saw fairly early

ers should be able to pick up their phone

on what needed to change. “We started

and start composing the trip of a lifetime,

streamlining our strategy and putting

and finalise it all with one tap of a button.

the right methodologies in place for

This requires a lot of additional tools to

those teams, creating a more organic

be built around the classic experience,

“We recruit and manage according to our values” Patrick Kammermann, CIO

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

and this mission can be reinforced using technology.

A personalisation transformation While EF has undertaken a shift in the way it uses technology, they prefer to think of it as a personalisation transformation which is fueled and led by technology. Technology allows continued evolution of a service, and the organisation is always striving to improve the customer experience. Ultimately, EF’s latest IT venture is all for the purpose of improving everything about the service, from the very first customer touch point to the very last – and beyond. This required EF to be highly flexible – which, fortunately, is something ingrained in its culture; it has to be that way, because the needs of the users are ever-shifting, and the very nature of technology is chameleonic. Never before has that flexibility been challenged in such an extreme way as this year. With COVID-19 sweeping the globe and shutting down educational facilities as early as February, EF had to shift quickly. Fortunately, it’s always been a flexible business. “That’s one of our strengths,” says Kammermann. “When COVID hit us, we had to shut down face-to-face teaching and, literally over one weekend, we moved all our students online and created 68

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

THE BUSINESS GOAL MARKETING Targeting potential customers on a highly individualized basis by working closely with Google and Facebook, amongst others. SALES Allowing customers to get in touch with EF through their channel of choice whenever and however they like, building an immersive experience SCHOOLS Students getting personalised adviceon what to focus on to maximise the learning experience. THE TECHNOLOGY GOAL Being cloud-exclusive, using standard platforms, i.e. software-as-a-service, and making integration the masterpiece. Working with carefully-selected expert partners. Building a superb team and highly skilled engineering organisation.

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

an online offering – called e-campuses –

to be the most important element of it, no

that very much mirrored the way we oper-

matter the journey, while what happens

ate in a physical setting. All schedules

behind-the-scenes needed to be much

were changed accordingly, the teachers

more streamlined; the heavy lifting would

worked remotely – the show must go on.”

be handed over to the cloud, mostly

Longer-term, COVID has meant that

Amazon Web Services, with no EF-owned

EF now has the basis of a strong model

infrastructure involved, and full connec-

in place for those who want to start their

tivity was needed to ensure staff and

studies online, creating even more flex-

customers could work from anywhere,

ibility for customers and catering to the

on any device, any time. EF calls this a

needs of each person as an individual

cloud-exclusive strategy.

– as per EF’s ultimate goal. EF’s technology journey reflects this desire to be as

Putting it into practice

quick-to-react and bespoke as possible,

EF knew what it wanted – the next step

and its vision from the very start had to be

was to get its ducks in a row. Its approach

not process-orientated, but impact-orien-

is to buy standard solutions and custom-

tated. This means that the outcome had

ise them as required, while developing

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

its own software as little as possible. Fortunately, the software market is full of state-of-the-art tools, which for example allowed EF to replace its core sales system with an exciting new CRM solution, which was developed quickly and rolled out across the world in 2019. “We had our own home-grown system which was built in-house and had been used for over 10 years,” explains Anuj Kapoor, Senior Project Director. “We had a complete team sitting in Bangalore, with some of them in Zurich, and we did everything on our own. The problem came when we felt our technology was becoming stagnant, and we realised what we had couldn’t be sustained for another 10 years. So, we did a lot of research and decided a standard CRM solution would be the best fit for us; we chose one of the bigger players in this space, and there are so many different partners which work alongside them, making it super easy for us to buy whatever add-on apps suit us in a plugand-play way. Everyone really embraced it, and it became particularly useful once COVID-19 hit and we had to find new ways to connect with the customer.” One add-on app EF implemented was created by Ortoo, and it was a great example of finding the right solution on w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

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“ Our relationship with Ortoo refines the speed of what we do. The best thing about Ortoo is that the app is multidimensional – you can always add more complexity when you need to.” — Anuj Kapoor, Senior Project Director, Education First

the marketplace and getting it custom-

of distributing equal types of customers

ised to its own needs. The Q-assign app

amongst the team. Ortoo’s system is very

was implemented to fairly distribute leads

fair, making sure everyone gets equal

among salespeople, which was previously

opportunities, and that every customer

challenging thanks to EF operating in 50

gets equal attention as quickly as possi-

countries.

ble. Our relationship with Ortoo refines

“Each country can have multiple sales

the speed of what we do, and since we

offices,” Kapoor explains, “and every sales

implemented Q-assign, we’ve had no

office sells multiple products. Plus, every

complaints from salespeople; before, they

product has its own team, so there’s a

would complain about the lack of equality.

lot of complexity in identifying, based

The best thing about Ortoo is that the app

on where the customer is coming from,

is multidimensional – you can always add

who should be the person to take the

more complexity when you need to.”

call. Then, there’s the issue of not every customer being of the same quality as

Partnerships

the one before it, so we had to find a way

The world is shifting, and having all of w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

your expertise in-house is no longer an indicator of that expertise. Now, it’s

and passion for ‘their’ system. With EPAM, the tasks varied, support-

normal – and expected – for organi-

ing existing systems and building new

sations to partner up with technology

components, such as a functionality allow-

vendors to bring skills and wisdom to

ing automatic scheduling of students into

other businesses, and this became the

classes in a very sophisticated way based

sensible choice for EF after years of

on a genetic algorithm. The company

having all of its engineers in-house to

has proven extremely reliable, efficient,

maintain strong internal domain knowl-

and experienced in dealing with complex

edge and ensure everything was aligned

problems. “EPAM has a very broad set of

with the company’s cultural values.

skills and were able to provide an expert

EF had to look for partners that would

or a resource for every problem, and they

mesh with their own teams, understand

easily became part of the EF ecosystem,”

their needs and offer services which would integrate well with the infrastructure and processes EF already had. This led to the start of two new key relationships, with Britenet and EPAM. Britenet was instrumental in building and customising EF’s new CRM-based sales solution, with a collaborative spirit and high levels of expertise to support it. “They are a fantastic partner,” Kammermann explains. “They provide us the experts to customise and implement the CRM platform, where we struggled, internally, to have the right skills and capabilities. They provided us with a small, but qualified, team that was extremely dedicated – and still is.” More importantly, the business fits in with and supports EF’s core values, and it shows commitment 76

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

Kammermann continues. “They took over

technology partners have proven vital to

responsibility from us in a very structured

EF’s journey, its true success starts from

and quite sophisticated way, helping and

within. The in-house team is its greatest

pushing us where we had weaknesses.

asset, and its engineering background

EPAM was instrumental in bringing in

ensures that the organisation leads its

structures and understanding our issues.”

market in terms of both building and employing the correct technology solu-

The team ”I have almost never seen a problem

tions. The relationships with partners are very much based in EF already having a

that couldn’t be solved with the right

deep knowledge of what it has and what

person” - these are the words of EF’s

it wants, meaning it maintains self-reliance

founder, Bertil Hult, and they continue to

no matter what.

resonate throughout the business. While

As previously mentioned, a major

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

element of this is choosing the right

the tech space, making mistakes is okay.

people for the team, with the ‘EF atti-

It’s part of an entrepreneurial culture.

tude’ – namely, passion and a sense of

“Ultimately, we want to foster a fun

professional autonomy and responsi-

environment for our team. Connect with

bility. “There’s no such thing as ‘it’s not

peers and customers, have music going

my job’, here,” says Kammermann. “I feel

in the tech office, eat chocolate with your

quite strongly about this; we all have our

colleagues – we need to find a bit of

primary responsibilities, of course, but if

balance. Fun is an important component.”

there’s something that needs to be done, I don’t want to hear the excuse of ‘it’s not

What’s next?

my job’. We all do what needs to be done,

In spite of all the challenges 2020 has

and that lies in our mindset. We expect

brought, EF has no plans to slow down –

people to take responsibility for what

in fact, it has some very ambitious plans

they do, and in return, we make sure they

in place. As Kammermann says, nothing is

know that it’s okay to make mistakes. I

impossible, and the way EF has success-

can’t repeat that often enough – even in

fully dealt with the current pandemic is

E F E D U C AT I O N F I R S T

“Each individual leaves footprints; everybody makes a difference” Patrick Kammermann, CIO

proof of that. “The personalisation continues, and we will be strengthening the team and our partnerships to make sure that happens,” he explains. “We’ll continue to invest very much in digital marketing and digital advertising platforms, both SEO and PPC, in our analytics platforms, and building out our virtual sales offices, making sure customers can interact with us through any channel at their convenience. We want to be there for our customers no matter what; if you want to use your phone, you can do that; if you want a video conversation, that’s fine too; you can use WhatsApp, or WeChat, or talk to our chatbot – building those channels is an important element of what we have planned. “Plus, from the academic perspective, we will be investing heavily in offering the best possible learning experience in our schools – both physical and online classes – and we’re working on an app that provides students with highly personalised advice, based on their progress and past behaviours. Perfecting personalisation is our ultimate goal from marketing to sales, through to every element of our customers’ education journeys.”

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

The execution is the planning WRI T T EN BY

N el l Wal ker

Digital strategist Dr. Paul J. Bailo, returns for part two of his leadership series to discuss digital transformation planning

easy g is hard

WHERE DO YOU START WHEN IT COMES TO KICKING OFF A SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION? The critical piece to any digital transformation is the planning phase, and it is truly the hardest. I think the execution is easy – the planning is harder. The first thing organisations need to do is perform an evaluation and diagnose really what change is needed, because when we start talking about digital transformation, we’re talking about the core reason an organisation exists and how it functions. So we start thinking about transformation and digital: it’s the data, it’s the model, it’s the rethinking of how we get from point A to point B in the fastest, most efficient way. But we have to understand why this change is necessary; what is the goal here? What’s driving this? What’s that performance gap and what’s that opportunity gap? Then, in terms of the design, is it coming from the top-down or the bottom-up? Both work very well. Sometimes, in my experience, I’ve seen bottom-up actually stand the test of time, because if you start this digital transformation from the top down, it’s almost forced onto people. The third piece of this puzzle is delivery; how are we 82

THE EXECUTION IS EASY – THE PLANNING IS HARD

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

going to make this change? What are the

the right people developing the vision

actions that need to be taken? What skills

and strategy for change because they

will I need? And will this be effective?

may have been in that organisation way

The delivery is the easy part.

too long. In my personal experience, people who’ve been in an organisation

WITH REGARDS TO PLANNING, BEING ABLE TO PUT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT POSITIONS AND SEE THEIR QUALITIES AND STRENGTHS MUST BE A VITAL PART OF IT.

a very long time, their minds have been wired a certain way. For a digital leader, trying to plan this out, you can’t have that legacy thinking; the thinking has to be transformative.

Absolutely, and part of the initial evaluation is, do you have the right people? Someone could be really successful, historically, in an organisation, but in my own personal executive experience, it’s really hard to get the right people who have the digital mindset who’ve led these initiatives on an enterprise level, and who’ve been able to be successful in transforming large institutions into a living, breathing digital organism. And, on the topic of people, do they have the right skills? Do they have the right behaviour? Do we, as a team, have the right thinking? Do you have the right leadership in order to pull this forward? A lot of the time, the people that you may have in an organisation as a leader aren’t necessarily the right players; these are not the right people to get you to where you need to be. They may not be 84

THE EXECUTION IS EASY – THE PLANNING IS HARD

TRANSFORMATIVE THINKERS ARE ALSO VITAL TO CREATING A CLIMATE OF CHANGE.

it also helps in order to communicate the change vision and get people comfortable and happy with that.

Exactly – everything’s-people based. Digital transformation is all about the urgency, helping drive the fact that this

IN TERMS OF PLANNING, IS IT POSSIBLE TO OVER-PLAN A TRANSFORMATION?

is comfortable and that we can make

Yes. You have to figure out the appe-

this happen. It helps to get the right

tite of the people in the organisation, of

people to reinforce the right vision, but

how much information you want to give

right people, helping get that sense of

them and how much information they can D I G I TA L S T R AT E G I S T, PA U L J . B A I L O

digest. You have to regulate it and you have to have really have high level of emotional intelligence, as well as a high level of street sense, and to quickly be able to assess the organisation and the people around you. How much can they actually take without breaking them? And how much do you need to give them so that you can move the needle forward? This takes a lot of executive level leadership and energy. You should be the prophet of moving these organisations forward. You also have to be able to say, “We don’t have the plan; we need to go back and adjust it”. You will make a mistake and you just have to own up to it and keep moving forward, to push you to the

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST

implementation phase. When you get things right, the critical thing is to sustain it. Once again, it’s about the people, w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

THE EXECUTION IS EASY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; THE PLANNING IS HARD

“ You can’t have legacy thinking; the thinking has to be transformative” — D I G I TA L S T R AT E G I S T, PA U L J . B A I L O

the process and the technology, all weaved into one into this digital transformation initiative on an enterprise wide level. It is not easy in the planning phase, it is not easy to get the vision, and it is not easy to get people to see the urgency about this. It’s about never giving up and making it stick, because if you cannot implement and sustain the change, you waste a lot of people’s time, money and energy. A lot of the failures that I’ve seen in digital transformation have to do more with the culture, and not assessing the culture correctly and the behaviours and values that don’t align with digital planning and digital transformation. You have to be aware what that culture is in that organisation, and put a lot of energy and thinking around that and build a plan of how you’re going to insert this idea of digital transformation in that culture. Then, the organisation gets this idea of the urgency of change. Digital transformation will find its natural path, and there shouldn’t be any policing in whatever you do in terms of your digital transformation processes and any service or products that you build. It should be natural, like breathing air. There are only two constants in the world – seeking of eternal love, and change – so all we’re doing is what’s natural to us at the right speed, with the right impact, and the right feasibility, to get ahead.

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

OTP Bank Romaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digital transformation & a culture of trust Interface magazine speaks to Constantin Mares, Executive Director of OTP Bank Romania, regarding the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s massive digital transformation

WRI T T EN BY PRODUCED BY

Andr ew Woods Al ex P ag e

A digital transformation

company to become truly free, flexible

is as much about altering

and agile in its operations, there needs

the mindset and actions of

to be a culture of trust at every level of

humans as it is the implementation of new digital infrastructure, software and

the organisation. Constantin Mares is Executive Director

operations. A workforce, and a work-

of OTP Bank Romania, responsible

ing culture, that embraces change and

for the IT, PMO and Transformation

harnesses its potential, is integral to any

Offices. Constantin is an experienced

digital transformation. To create a fertile

technology leader within the banking

environment in which to grow a busi-

sector, having worked with ING among

ness and its digital operations requires

others. He is a firm believer that an

a bold and creative approach. For a

engaged and motivated workforce,

OTP

one that is aligned, and committed

especially big projects constantly

to a digitally-lead working strategy, is

delayed, and over budget,” he explains

key to unlocking the potential of any

from his Bucharest office. “We soon real-

forward-thinking enterprise.

ised that if we wanted to be success-

When Constantin took on his current

ful – and we desperately want to be

position at OTP, his first assignment

successful – we had to break the silos

was to strengthen the IT function ahead

and have a better collaboration between

of a major transformation programme.

the business and the support units at

Increasingly, OTP was finding that the

the back. We had to bring faster new

standard waterfall methodology was

features and products for our clients, to

holding the bank back from realis-

be closer to their needs so our projects

ing its full potential. “We were having

would create value for them faster.” w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

One of the first major challenges facing Constantin was the establishment of a team that could help deliver the transformation. At that moment, the whole IT department consisted of around 30 people. But the need for change was there because of changes in the market, changes in the banking regulations as well as the demands of the IT department. The colleagues from the team were high-calibre professionals, highly skilled and experienced, but they were overwhelmed by the numerous projects and activities. They needed to receive help at similar level of expertise.” Constantin went to work establishing a management team of 11 to cover all units consisting of business & process analysts, programmers & workflow developers, data analysts, project managers, process analysts, DBAs,

notoriously difficult. “To hire very skilled

network and infrastructure special-

people was seen by the CEO as mission

ists. “United as a management team

impossible,” Constantin explains.

we were able to overcome the inher-

“However, we enjoyed very good

ent difficulties of any transformations or

cooperation with our HR partners who

turn-arounds. Moreover, we were crazy

went to work on the job descriptions

enough to still enjoy our roller-coaster

and our advertising campaigns, which

adventure.” OTP then started to recruit

were very simple and straightforward,

for new people able to deliver change

making it very clear what we needed.

to a high level of expectation.

We highlighted the challenge and the

IT recruitment in Romania is

ambitions we had ahead of us as well

OTP

as the exciting projects.” Within a year,

arrivals understand the complex new

Constantin already doubled the team

environment around us. And of course,

and now, nearly two years on, the team

the new people were avid to learn and

has tripled in size.

very eager to contribute to the new

Recruitment is hard enough, but often

environment.”

the biggest challenge is the onboarding and integration of these new people

A culture of trust

into a rapidly changing workplace. “The

The working culture at OTP initiated a

core of the team was a minority all of

vibe of collaboration, fostering a fail-

the sudden,” he says. “But our managers

fast-to-succeed strategy. “We wanted to

and senior colleagues helped the new

be open, to ask for feedback, to allow w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

We deliver solutions that work

“With the help of SMP Solutions we were able to deliver the possibility of using mobile token application and create higher customer satisfaction.” – Constantin Mares, OTP Bank

At SMP Solutions, we have been committed to providing high-quality and efficient solutions for challenges in IT, banking and security technology for over 30 years. Our cooperation with OTP Bank Romania is a great example of helping our customers along their digital journey by providing them innovative solutions. We are proud that we could take part in enabling the Bank to meet their PSD2 SCA requirements by introducing a mobile token application for their customers. We are looking forward to helping our key client make their customer service more efficient by providing a digital queueing system and CRM solution for their branch network.

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people to make mistakes and try new

engaged and involved. We can now

things,” Constantin explains. “We were

achieve results faster and it’s more fun

able to instil this trust in our people. We

and fulfilling for us.”

become a place where people can transparently discuss with their managers

The launch of Apollo

about issues or barriers preventing them

“Apollo program was two-fold,” Constantin

to achieve our objectives. I think this was

explains. “First, we wanted to double our

one of the key success factors in achiev-

market share and grow significantly in

ing this transformation.”

our business segments. The other side

A new 360-degree feedback system

was a transformational view of the way

was introduced with staff being asked

it was working and adopting practices

to address what they should start doing,

from Agile methodologies. That’s why

what they should stop doing, and what

we formed Apollo, where we addressed

they should continue doing. According

the business efficiency and the sales

to Constantin, this method of giving and

processes while initiating the visualis-

receiving feedback was instrumental

ation aspect of the bank. We wanted

in creating and strengthening that trust

to be more present and closer to our

base, essential in any successful organ-

online clients to create a better customer

isation. “When you have this kind of

experience.”

trust, people are more comfortable to try

Apollo saw OTP moving into a unified

things, to make decisions, to be great,”

digital strategy, freeing the company

he enthuses. “Because people like to be

up from traditional silos and outmoded

great. People like to be successful and

ways of thinking and working. A new

to achieve. So, we started to empower

spirit of collaboration linked the differ-

the team more. Instead of managers

ent departments as more and more

telling them what to do they would now

people bought into the new joined-up

tell us what to do. We would no longer

approach. Constantin and his team

impose from above regarding the best

could then look into procuring the tools

way for them to go about things. This

and software needed to realise their

completely changed our priorities and

new ambitions. “First of all, we looked at

people are now much more enthusi-

the tools we needed in IT to be able to

astic because they feel appreciated,

secure this growth. We invested heavily w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

in infrastructure and upgraded our core banking system, and changed the set-up, the operating system and database system (end-of-day and end-ofmonth processes run now 6 times faster than before). We replaced more than 1,400 user workstations. We migrated our data center into a tier 4 professional data center with redundant and dual-powered instances of servers, storage, network links and power cooling equipment. Then we upgraded the communication infrastructure (including the remote access capabilities) and security infrastructure. We started with our own processes such as the Demand Management Process and made the decision to adopt JIRA. Many local branches received technological refits, bringing them up to date with modern banking. The organization was enhanced created new functions for test management, IT relationship management, IT asset and contract management, RPA developers or BPM developers. To make sure this rapid growth is sustainable on long run, we created an elite squad of IT architects. We also created a Transformation Office staffed with Scrum masters, Lean 6 Sigma Black Belts and Agile coaches.â&#x20AC;? 96

OTP

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

These organizational and techno-

The goal of the transformation was

logical advancements were quickly

to significantly improve productivity

embraced and highly appreciated by

and efficiency of the customer-facing

business departments. They facilitated

employees by consolidating applica-

for much better understanding between

tions, automating processes and visual-

departments with greater transparency

ising customer data and insight. This

when it came to requests for invest-

became our second transformation

ment. “They (business groups) stopped

pillar, after strengthening the IT infra-

challenging every proposal or solution

structure. We had a wide range of busi-

they received from IT,” says Constantin.

ness needs that it wanted to meet with

“We went from business having to ask

a help of a next-generation technology.

for an application, to an understanding

We evaluated numerous software solu-

of the business need and the solution

tions available on the market and opted

proposed. They started to trust us to

for Creatio as the best fit for their busi-

provide them with the solution. We went

ness. The combination of the system’s

from the status of service provider to

low code, process automation, and CRM

status of trusted business partner.” Historically, sales and front office staff faced a myriad of applications that they had to know and understand just to engage with the customer and so this was duly shelved in favour of a more linear approach to reduce the time spent in back-office activities, when they could be more customer facing. “This was because our front offices were engaged in redundant activities, or non-value-added activities,” Constantin explains. “Our growth strategy required a new set of tools and a different approach.

OTP

“Our managers and senior colleagues did a great job in on boarding the new colleagues, helping them understand the complex new environment around us. And of course, the new people were avid to learn and very eager to contribute to the new environment” — C O N S TA N T I N M A R E S , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OTP BANK ROMANIA

technology ticked all boxes for us. The core project task was focused on streamlining a wide range of front-office and middle-offices processes. Since the scope was extensive, the delivery was divided into several stages. The first delivery stage covered some of the key business needs such as creating a 360-degree customer profile, setting up product catalogue, optimising opportunity management processes, and automating consultation processes. Delivery 2 was dedicated to automating the processes related to current account opening for individuals. Upon delivery 3 phase, the system was integrated with Enterprise Content Management software, which allowed for unified document management. Creatio solutions helped us deliver the large-scale digital transformation project effectively. The new approach allowed the project implementation team to test new functionality, gather valuable feedback,

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100

U N D E R S TA N D I N G E Q A N D H I R I N G F O R I T I N A P O S T- PA N D E M I C W O R L D

and make needed changes at any

manages the entire customer facing and

stage. Thanks to the intuitiveness of the

back office workflows that we need for

user interface and the ease-of-use of

a smooth onboarding experience. And

Creatio’s solutions, the bank was able to

we are planning to implement new digi-

achieve a high level of user adoption at

tal customer journeys using FintechOS

an accelerated pace. In addition to that,

technology in the next months and years

the bank has embraced low-code devel-

to accelerate digital transformation

opment approach. Low-code technol-

success.

ogy allows for modifying the processes

“For our customers, first impressions

quickly and adjusting them to the

count, so we were very excited to roll

ever-changing business needs without

out FintechOS’s onboarding solution.

heavy reliance on deep technical skills.

And, hitting the market in such a short

The third transformation pillar was, according to Constantin, the most

time is a great achievement. It also helped implement an enterprise

important. The move from traditional

service bus (ESB), which in terms of IT

bricks and mortar banking to a more

architecture, is a major achievement,”

digitalized customer journey was now

says Constantin. The ESB has given

seen as a standard requirement for OTP

OTP much more agility and flexibility

and the team started to think about how

with regards to communication between

they could enhance each layer of OTP

applications and departments.

for its customers. “Having a solid base

Another example is the enhance-

for growth and having internal ineffi-

ment of securities investment services

ciencies sorted out, it was time to take

for private banking and affluent bank-

care about our customers and improve

ing customers. We moved ahead and

their experience starting with their

selected Dorsum, Hungarian solution

very first step: onboarding into OTP.

provider and implemented its advisory

FintechOS’ capabilities turned out to

facing solution, the Wealth Management

be well-suited for our business needs,

Platform. Dorsum designed the func-

supporting the deployment of an auto-

tional scope of the platform together

mated, end-to-end digital onboarding

with the private and affluent business

customer journey very fast. The new

areas. In line with business and oper-

solution delivers and automatically

ational goals of the Bank, functional w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

101

capabilities of the new digital solution

measurable.

help the advisors to have a real-time

We continuously simplified our star

360 degrees view of the client port-

products and we were among the first

folios, detailed overview of transac-

banks in Romania to introduce new

tion history, portfolio performance and

payment methods: ApplePay and OTPay

investment costs (fees paid), to seam-

for Android platform. We also launched

lessly communicate with the clients, to

new simplified versions of Internet and

build tailor-made advisory and client

mobile banking to allow our customers a

meeting workflow. Of course, all of

smoother interaction with OTP.

these fully in line with the regulatory requirements, such as eg. MiFID2.

The data warehouse

The new digital solution is able to

The fourth pillar of transformation saw

improve the quality and accuracy of

the installation of a new data-driven

the advice, make the advisory and

‘backbone’. OTP invested in a data ware-

client meeting workflow faster and the

house system and started to implement

KPIs and effectiveness of the advisors

its visualisation by using data in making

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102

OTP

info@creatio.com

UK: +44 20 3384 0040

decisions. “. We believe and I believe that

deliver in time new hardware tokens to

in this century, using data is key. We need

our customers and we have created the

to make fast and informed decisions.

possibility of using mobile token appli-

We created a single version of truth,

cation in order to move towards to digi-

augmenting all the data from all different

tal transformation and create higher

systems into one warehouse. We also

customer satisfaction.” “As SMP Solutions is committed in digi-

invested in a visualization layer. We now use Tableau when presenting the data to

tal solutions, we will ensure together an

the organisation.”

intelligent branch queueing and ticketing system in order to optimise the wait-

Success through partnerships

ing time and the personal interactions

With a project of this magnitude and

at the branches,” Constantin enthuses.

complexity, partners are essential to

“The new solution will assist our custom-

OTP’s success, something Constantin is

ers to reserve timeslots remotely for

keen to stress. OTP decided to rely on

personal appointments, while serving

core strengths of such partners imple-

their convenience we will be able to

menting new EU directives of PDS2 SCA

ensure their safety more effectively

in 2019. We created a strong coopera-

during the period of COVID-19.”

tion between OTP and SMP Solutions

The value of a great partnership

that resulted in an adequate solution

really hit home earlier this year when

of providing two-factor authentication

lockdown struck in Romania. OTP’s

method for our customers. With the

work with Dell Technologies and SMP

help of SMP Solutions we were able to

Solutions over the previous two years

“We were able to instil this trust in our people. I think this was one of the key success factors in achieving this transformation” — C O N S TA N T I N M A R E S , EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OTP BANK ROMANIA

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

103

In this picture, from left to right: Nicolae Doca, Daniel Lazar, Isabela Ibraim, Liviu Dragomir, Constantin Mares, Adrian Circel, Alina Donciu, Cristian Marcu, Ciprian Zane Missing from picture: Dragos Serban, Catalin Ileana, Adam Salomon, Florin Gologan, Camelia Drenscu, Bogdan Firican, Ioana Nedelcu, Irina Popovici, Andreea Plesa, Miruna Dinu

had placed the bank in a compara-

Constantin explains. “The fact that we

tively comfortable position when the

achieved this in a very short time frame

pandemic struck with the digital back-

– in two weeks we had 97% of the

bone of the bank continuing to oper-

people from headquarters working from

ate as if they were back in the office.

home – is also attributable to our part-

“On the infrastructure side we like SMP

ners from Dell Technologies and SMP

Solutions, which is a partner of Dell

Solutions. They immediately understood

Technologies in this infrastructure area,”

what was going on. They were standing

104

OTP

next to us and helped us in these crazy

how the mindset and people’s behav-

times.”

iour adapted so quickly when we went

In terms of how OTP addressed or

through a crisis period.” It was felt by

reacted to the pandemic, are there any

some at OTP that working from home, in

learnings that have happened during

a paperless environment just wouldn’t

this time that Constantin might take

work. “However, in a matter of weeks,

forward with him, post COVID? “Yeah, I

guess what? Business functions were

would say it was very interesting to see

increasing following a decrease in w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

105

month three. By July, we were back on track and even above the levels before the pandemic. We are still working with no paper, and we are still working from home and I would say this is an important take away. I mean every crisis has opportunities and I think this was the opportunity resulting from this particular crisis.” Another key takeaway of this period for Constantin is the new level of understanding between managers and their teams. Again, it goes back to this culture of trust. “I think it’s very important that the management comes to the people, understands their problems and takes decisions to support the teams,” says Constantin. “The management team cares about the health and the wellbeing of the people and so provided some specialised client psychologists for our people should they need to call such a person.” Bolstered by a new digital backbone and organisational structure OTP is now able to research and develop new products at speed, including the recent chatbot. “In three weeks, we launched this chatbot with end-to-end integrations from the website, in which the customer could go through the process

106

OTP

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

107

in a completely automated way, rather

mindset shift also applied to our busi-

than interacting with a call centre oper-

ness colleagues would not even dare to

ator. This channel was used by 55% of

believe that the implementation could

the clients asking for a debt release, a

be done in such a short time frame nor

significant number. We were not esti-

that such an implementation would have

mating such a big success or such a

such a big success for the client.â&#x20AC;?

big impact for a newly launched chan-

OTP is now a much more agile and

nel, but it was very easily embraced by

flexible enterprise, fuelled by an intox-

the customer (having more than 60,000

icating spirit of collaboration, creating

interactions in less 3 months). This

new products at speed and seamlessly

108

OTP

attracting and onboarding new clients

once. We have so many things to do that

through its state-of-the-art customer

it is very fulfilling for me and something

journey. It’s clearly an environment that

I’m enjoying a lot. To see this change in

has engaged Constantin. “To work in

the culture of the organisation, to see

such a rapidly growing environment and

people more open, more vibrant and

to be able to implement transforma-

happier at work is a good accomplish-

tions on so many levels is very fulfilling

ment and a great motivation for me and

for me, because I get to apply all my

my work at OTP.”

management experience, all my banking experience, and people skills all at

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

109

Skilful suppor t Tomasz Dziki, VP of Britenet, explains what it – as an IT expert – offers, and why EF Education First chose Britenet as a trusted partner

WRI T T EN BY

110

N el l Wal ke r

111

ased in Poland, Britenet is

it. We’re not from management school

a software development

– we’re from technical school – but the

outsourcing business with

company is quite big now and we’re

an impressive track record for expertise and success. Tomasz Dziki, the

building it up year-by-year.” The impressive level of growth Britenet

Vice President of the business, was one

has experienced allowed it, in 2017, to

of its founders back in 2006; 14 years

capture the attention of EF Education

ago, three university friends – all Java

First. EF had hired a Salesforce architect

programmers – decided to take on the

who worked with Britenet in a previous

challenge of launching a business. Fast

company, and had a very positive expe-

forward to now, Britenet has grown

rience with the business, so they recom-

between 25 and 30% every year and

mended it to the CIO. That was the nudge

has over 700 employees. “But we are

EF needed to approach Britenet, and its

still three programmers!” Dziki says. “So,

team of around 60 Salesforce developers

for us, the big challenge is how to run

at this time, to help it achieve its goals.

the company and continue improving

112

BRITENET

The journey with EF

to understand what the requirements of

The initial challenge in kicking off this

the customer were. It also helped ensure

new professional relationship was the

the experience was a positive one.”

speed at which EF wanted to get its

Plus, it helped create the speed EF

project rolling – something Britenet was

required. Britenet is a company which,

entirely equipped to deal with. “They had

especially from a Salesforce perspective,

architects, but they also needed some

tries to build its own competencies by

developers, and they decided that they

itself by hiring university graduates and

needed someone to help them,” Dziki

teaching them vital skills. All of its people

explains. “They had their own team in

– including almost 100 Salesforce devel-

Bangalore, of five developers, but they

opers – are trained in-house; “It’s the best

were juniors, and they needed people

way to get skilled people.” says Dziki.

with knowledge and good skills. We sent

After starting with that one skilled

EF the same guys who had worked with

Britenet employee, the Salesforce team

the architect who recommended us in his

for EF became five people, plus an ETL

previous company, which made it easier

developer for integration sites and, more

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

113

recently, a .NET technology expert, to work with the customers. This meant that EF would have the breadth of service it needed. “It’s important, for a company with a wide range of technologies, to not have to find different companies to suit different systems,” Dziki explains. “For example, if they have Java, that’s no problem for us. If they have SAP, we can help. It’s part of our business strategy to ensure our customers don’t have to find other companies; no matter their needs in software development, we can support them.” Three years on, this relationship has matured into a vital support system for EF. The organisation had a lot of software, with a CRM supporting thousands of customers with thousands of records. There was a huge amount of data, and the system kept growing bigger, so the challenge lay in how to maintain a consistent level of quality and functionality. “When you start a project, at the beginning, it’s simple, because you’ve created the project and have all the working parts where you want them,” says Dziki. “But as soon as you add new functionality, that changes. So the biggest challenge for us was adding new functionality without affecting quality, for the sake of the customers.” 114

BRITENET

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

115

Continual quality

Europe is fortunate to house a lot of tech-

This focus on quality maintenance has

nical universities, and this is a particular

ensured that Britenet avoids many prob-

boon in Poland, where nearly everybody

lems in future; its strategy is firmly long-

speaks English, limiting language barriers.

term. “A few years into this, we’re in a

Additionally, there’s the simple fact that

good position,” Dziki says. “There’s a

the company’s rates are very competitive.

good balance with the new functionali-

“But it’s not just about rates – it’s about

ties, and the system is in great condition.

making sure our customers trust that we

The challenge, as I mentioned, is main-

provide good skills and, overall, they

taining quality as this project continues

have a good system with no problems,”

to get bigger. There’s a temptation to not

says Dziki. “This is the most important

worry about that as long as we provide

factor. We are very good to partner with.”

the functionalities in the cheapest way,

So what should customers be taking into

but looking at the system from a busi-

consideration when choosing a techno-

ness perspective, you just need to have

logical expert, like Britenet, as a partner?

good quality at a good price. EF under-

“First of all, it’s strategy. In the case of

stands this balance because they have a big system. Plus, from their point of view, we’re responsible for the whole project, and they trust us with that. There will be opportunities in the future to make the system smarter and make the process more remote, especially thanks to COVID-19 pushing remote working.” The unquestioning trust EF has had in Britenet, right from the start, is a major element of what made this project so successful – that, and the technological competency which puts Britenet at the top of its game and warranted the initial glowing recommendation. Eastern

116

BRITENET

“Our people are very experienced with good skills, and our cooperation with EF proves that” — TOMASZ DZIKI VP OF BRITENET

EF, it was a good option for them to choose a company with a wide range of technologies; some might suit having a partner for each system, but it’s much harder to manage them, that way. It also means that, when there’s a problem, it’s harder to work out who’s responsible for solving it. So finding a company which can take care of everything is step one. “The next step would be finding an international company that can provide the support for it, although it would be interesting to find the sub-contractors of these companies because they’re the people who really fight on the market and have to be good quality. Lastly, try to find a company that matches your own values, that you get along with. For Britenet, EF is a very important customer, and they like to meet, so we take a plane to go and spent time with them. Bigger, international companies don’t have the time to do that – you’re not as important to them. We will do this for our customers; we’re a good company, we’re competitive on the market and we have the technical specialists to solve any problem. Our people are very experienced with good skills, and our cooperation with EF proves that.”

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

117

118

BRITENET

The impact on EF “Britenet has been a fantastic partner,” says Patrick Kammermann, CIO of EF. “They helped us develop the CRM platform and provided experts to customise and implement it, where we struggled, internally, to have the right skills and capabilities. The small but highly-skilled team they provided was extremely dedicated – and still is. They also fit extremely well with our core values, in terms of getting things done, being entrepreneurial and building the platform. They showed a lot of passion, and whenever we need them, they drop everything and help us out as if they were part of our organisation. I’m very impressed by them – they do care about us and want us to be successful, and are an excellent fit with what we do. They have become a trusted partner.”

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

119

Ortoo & EF Education First: Building a High Performance Sales Team on Salesforce Ortooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Darren Carpenter and Aaron Poulton discuss how the business worked handin-hand with EF Education First to create a state-of-the-art assignment system

WRI T T EN BY N ell Wa lke r

120

121

prime fighter in the corner of any business which needs its support, Ortoo devel-

ops workforce productivity apps for Salesforce, allowing growing organisations which use the Salesforce platform to build high-performance sales and service teams. The business was launched in 2010 by Leon Crisp, who originally created two apps dedicated to the Salesforce CRM platform: one named Email-to-anything, and one called Q-assign. The aim was – and is – to solve business challenges that Salesforce itself doesn't or isn't able to address directly. Q-assign, specifically, helps teams within companies organise themselves properly, and to create and distribute tasks to the right people at the right time. “The real focus is productivity,” says Darren Carpenter, Technical Customer

providing strategic help and guidance as

Services at Ortoo. “We're really inter-

well, which is key.” It's no surprise, then,

ested in creating improvements there.

that EF chose Ortoo as a partner. EF

We work with customers to build the right

wanted to make sure opportunities were

solution for them, and those customers

distributed fairly – fairness being a core

typically stay with us for a long time.”

part of its company DNA – and that made

“The support we offer is a big differentiator between us and some other inde-

this partnership a valuable one. “This keeps harmony in sales teams,

pendent software vendors,” adds Aaron

where there can otherwise be a lot of

Poulton, Head of Business Development.

internal politics and people kicking up a

“We act as a partner; we're not just

fuss because somebody has had more

providing technology or an app – we're

opportunities and leads than them,”

122

ORTOO APPS

Poulton explains. “A lot of big compa-

and we're flexible. A business might

nies don't have a systematic method for

think their requirements are very unusual

distributing leads, and senior staff get to

or difficult to achieve, but we talk them

cherry-pick the best ones. Without that

through a solution and prove that we're

process, things can quickly get out of

the ideal people to work with. Simplifying

control.”

complexity is what we do.”

What EF really required was a service

The inherent flexibility of Ortoo is

that could be delivered swiftly. “Speed

something that inevitably gets passed

was a big issue for them,” says Carpenter,

onto the customer; EF has a very fluid

“and every customer is unique. We come

model of working, and Ortoo is able

in and we understand that uniqueness;

to match that way of working. “Before

we don't have a cookie cutter approach,

COVID-19, they used to set up markets w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

123

and pop-up stalls very quickly, selling education services,â&#x20AC;? Carpenter explains. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The fact that we could then create a solution around that particular pop-up store, which might just be on a street corner in Paris, proved very effective for them. They wanted to make sure that no matter when an opportunity came in, or where from, it would be dealt with in 15 minutes.â&#x20AC;?

The challenge Of course, before the partnership could really become cemented, Ortoo and EF had to address the specific challenges that needed to be tackled. EF's previous lead assignment system was an unscalable one, difficult to manage and causing issues between salespeople, some of whom felt the leads weren't being assigned fairly. The new system had to get the lead to the right rep at the right time, balance workloads across the whole team, and it had to be simple-to-use for local managers to take the burden off the IT team. Firstly, for the organisation's larger offices, sales leads were being routed to salespeople based on territory, meaning some reps were completely overloaded while others were left waiting. Aside from location, the other factor to determine where opportunities were diverted was the program; the amount of work any specific rep had on didn't come into the equation, creating an unequal workplace. Additionally, when it came to things like absences or holidays, leads had to be re-assigned manually to the reps who didn't have as much work on; EF wanted to automate this and create a much fairer system, ensuring all reps received an even number of high-quality 124

ORTOO APPS

â&#x20AC;&#x153; We absolutely work with our customers and prospects to configure the product to their specific use, case-by-case, from day oneâ&#x20AC;? Aaron Poulton, Ortoo

w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

125

opportunities. With over 4,000 assign-

prospects to configure the product to

ment rules to manage, and 50+ requests,

their specific use case, case-by-case,

every month, for workload changes, the

from day one,” says Poulton. “The idea

business needed help. It was dealing

is to get it absolutely optimised to what

with millions of opportunities, as a global

they want before any money changes

organisation, meaning a truly scalable

hands. Then it becomes a 'puppy dog

solution was required.

sale' – you've got this lovely little puppy,

Q-assign was perfect for the job at

it's just perfect, so of course you're going

hand, but the schedule was tight. Ortoo

to sign the contract and be incredibly

worked quickly with EF to design the

happy about it. That's the way we work.”

solution, the configuration and the imple-

The ease of working with EF was

mentation; just three months after the

bolstered by the fact that this is an organ-

initial demo, the solution went live. “We

isation which understands technology,

absolutely work with our customers and

and was keen to create real change with

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ORTOO APPS

an expert. “A good partnership depends

system – prior to Ortoo – generated a

on the scale and the willingness of the

certain degree of negative feedback

customer to learn,” Carpenter explains,

from salespeople feeling hard done

“and EF definitely was very technical.

by, the fact that there have been no

They know Salesforce well, and they

complaints since Q-assign's implemen-

absolutely push the product, in terms of

tation is a major win for Anuj Kapoor,

capability and function. They absolutely get it – they get the

THE SOLUTION

value of us and of our product.”

A system which examined the quality of the opportunity before deciding who to assign it to

The impact Where EF's previous

A pilot was launched in France, where there are 11 offices with five different teams in each A Round Robin system combined with quotas, with leads distributed fairly New system takes into account program, Sales Office, post code, language, and SCT call type Each region has full control over assignments The system has now been rolled out to other countries after a successful trial The changes were implemented without the need for Salesforce IT admin, meaning a rapid approval process.

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ORTOO APPS

Senior Project Director at EF. “With thousands of new customers getting in touch, all the time, and the inherent complexity of working across 50 countries, we needed a much better system for figuring out who should be talking to which customers, and when,” he explains. “Now, everybody gets equal opportunities, and the system is personalised, allowing customers to get in touch in the way that suits them. Ortoo has allowed us to refine the speed of that, and what I personally really like about it is it's multi-dimensional – you can always add more.” Most importantly, the days of salespeople feeling like they're missing opportunities is over, and customers are getting their undivided attention in a way that works for everybody. For both EF and Ortoo, this was a hugely satisfying project. “What impressed me was the speed of roll-out,” says Carpenter. “In terms of licenses, they are one of our biggest customers, and the speed with which they launched it was impressive.” “It's also driving our product, Q-assign, into new areas as well,” Poulton adds. “That's helped develop the product itself. EF has had a big impact in the direction of the product, and a major influence in terms of the product itself. This has been a very beneficial partnership to us.” “EF has absolutely been a part of development and will be going forward,” says Carpenter. “We absolutely appreciate their input.”

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Five ways technology will aid economic recovery 130

WRI T T EN BY

N ell wa lke r

As the world slowly establishes a new normal, we reflect on some of the technologies which will contribute to a successful economic recovery

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Technology thrives during times of need Necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. According to Digital Information World, solutions created during desperate times endure, and drive economic growth long into the future. For example, The Great Depression birthed the electric razor and car radios, among other technological advances, while Microsoft and Apple got their start during the oil crisis recession in the 1970s. The current pandemic has presented us with the opportunity to change the way we live and operate, exposing weaknesses in systems we previously relied on and allowing us to make them better. People are searching for ways to adapt, and technology will always lead this march.

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F I V E WAY S T E C H N O LO G Y W I L L A I D E C O N O M I C R E C O V E R Y

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F I V E WAY S T E C H N O LO G Y W I L L A I D E C O N O M I C R E C O V E R Y

Increased investment in cyber security According to the 2nd Global Business Barometer, teleconferencing platforms have, arguably, received the most attention as a tool for business to adapt to the changes brought on by COVID-19; however, for many businesses, the current focus is on security and risk. Forty-four per cent of respondents said cyber security would become â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;much more importantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, followed by the related areas of data privacy at 42.5%, and risk management and cloud computing at 39.9% each.

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Remote working Businesses forced to either shut down or send their staff home to work during lockdown have been able to enjoy the silver lining of decreased costs of running their workplaces, giving them a little grace to ensure they survive and, hopefully, thrive as the economy reboots. Technologies such as video conferencing and project management software have meant that a lot of companies working from home have still managed to make a success of this time, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highly unlikely that they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t emerge from this with revised remote working policies in place. A Nowsourcing infographic states that as remote work, technology, and internet access continue to develop, workers will have the option to leave big cities, escaping the high cost of living and bolstering small town economies in the process.

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F I V E WAY S T E C H N O LO G Y W I L L A I D E C O N O M I C R E C O V E R Y

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F I V E WAY S T E C H N O LO G Y W I L L A I D E C O N O M I C R E C O V E R Y

Adoption of home technology Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s due to working from home, home schooling, a need to create alternative revenue streams or simply for the sake of socialising with friends and family, there has been a massive uptake in home technology â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both hardware and software. The aforementioned infographic shows that sales and use of these technologies keeps growing: sales of Chromebooks have risen by 400%, webcams 179%, monitors 138%, headsets 134%, and keyboards 64%. Additionally, Zoom gained an extra 190 million new users in three months, and G Suite gained a million new paying businesses in February alone.

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5G infrastructure Despite bizarre conspiracy theories linking 5G to COVID-19, it is still fully expected by experts to help boost post-pandemic recovery by introducing new possibilities for tech products. 5G isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t an upgrade of 4G, as many people believe, but a brand new mobile system. For businesses, it will create increased speed and bandwidth, improved battery life for remote IoT devices, enhanced security, better WAN connections, 100 times the traffic capacity, and 100 times the network efficiency â&#x20AC;&#x201C; among many, many other advantages. Rolling out across 2020 and 2021, 5G will be a huge boon in our post-COVID recovery.

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F I V E WAY S T E C H N O LO G Y W I L L A I D E C O N O M I C R E C O V E R Y

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The importance of supplier engagement We spoke to Sulaiman Abdulla, Manager of the Procurement and Contracts Section at the UAE’s TRA, to monitor the company’s procurement transformation WRI T T EN BY

Andr ew Woods

PRODUCED BY

Hey kel Ouni

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143

ided by new technology,

occurring thanks in part to the work of

and supported at boardroom

bodies such as CIPS (Chartered Institute

level for its deep insights into

of Purchasing and Supply), which has

every strata of a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operations,

spent ten years highlighting the strategic

procurement is now seen as a vital stra-

value of procurement in the region. Now,

tegic aid. Across the globe, traversing

certain companies and CPOs are leading

every industry, the CPO is fast becoming

the way in bringing procurement into a

a visionary with a 360-degree holistic

new dawn.

insight that can truly help businesses to strategize and accelerate growth. Traditionally, the Middle East has taken

Technology has increasingly become a major focus for the Middle East, with many nations vying to make the area

a little longer than most to adapt to the

a global center of technological excel-

evolution of procurement, but change is

lence and digital transformation as seen

144

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in the sector and reflecting the level of development of ICT in the UAE. The UAE has also remained first, globally, in the mobile broadband subscriptions index and advanced from second to first, globally, in the Mobile Broadband Internet Subscription Index. In terms of Internet users, the UAE moved up to 5th from 13th globally, while rising to 29th from 68th in the world, in the Fixed Broadband Subscription Index. TRA is working hard to achieve a number one ranking in this index in order to achieve the goals of the National Agenda: to be the first in the world in TII by 2021. In short, the role of TRA is to “encourage, promote and develop the ICT industry in the UAE”. And to facilitate an endeavor of this scale, you need a smart and agile in projects such as the upcoming Expo 2021, Dubai. The Telecommunications

procurement function. The procurement function at TRA

Regulatory Authority (TRA) of the United

is headed up by Sulaiman Abdulla,

Arab Emirates (UAE) was established in

Manager Procurement & Contracts, who

2003 to regulate the burgeoning tele-

joined in 2016 with a wealth of experi-

communications sector in the UAE and

ence having worked for different govern-

enable government entities in the field of

ment and private sectors. TRA is dedi-

smart transformation. The UAE is ranked

cated to developing and modernizing the

first in the Arab region and seventh

telecommunications system in the UAE

globally in the Telecommunication

through training, enabling and establish-

Infrastructure Index (TII), according to

ing related educational institutions, and

the UN E-Government Survey 2020 –

obtaining the latest ICT devices, equip-

surpassing many developed countries

ment, and facilities. w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

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UAE EMBARKS ON A DIGITAL JOURNEY

Infosys has been working closely with UAEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public sector, which has reposed trust in us to implement missioncritical projects. Infosys partnership has gone from strength to strength, and we have rolled out several countrywide e-governance initiatives

www.infosys.com

INFOSYS TO DRIVE E-GOVERNANCE How does a government save 45,600 working hours, 10 million person hours of waiting time, and 1,011 tons of carbon? The answer lies in Smart Governance. UAE Smart Government has been focusing on smart governance since 2015 to increase the efficiency of the government services by eliminating the physical visits for the citizens and residents. Infosys, a global IT consulting company, has been a key partner for National Plan initiatives launched by the Key Public Organizations Government Service Bus (GSB) Infosys has implemented several smart initiatives starting with Government Service Bus (GSB) backbone built in 2015. GSB delivers more than 200 services across 60 government entities, providing direct access to UAE residents.

New Baby Born Registration This initiative simplifies the process of registering newborns. a process that took six to eight weeks. parents can apply for the service once, and access several services in two weeks: • Issuance of birth certificate • Adding the baby in the family book • Registration of baby in the population register • Issuance of passport • Issuance of Emirates Identity Card

Ease of Doing Business digitize government services related to registering a business in the UAE. It is an integrated e-service that enables an investor to access several services within 15 minutes, including: • a trade license • a membership number in the Chamber of Commerce • a quota for three work permits • Establishment Numbers The initiatives reduced the number of visits by investors to government entities from 10 to 0 and reduced processing time from 2-3 weeks to 15 minutes. Also, the number of duplicate documents required by Government entities was reduced from 30 to 0.

UAE PASS National Identity Solution The UAE Pass, a national digital identity and signature solution, enables users to identify themselves to government service providers via smartphone-based authentication. It allows users to sign documents digitally. Find out more about how Infosys have been helping clients in transformation journeys. Reach out to us at askus@infosys.com

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“ Sometimes, people don’t really understand the CPO, procurement and negotiation. It’s not a transactional role anymore. It’s more about quality, new ideas and flexibility” —

S U L A I M A N A B D U L L A , M AN AGER, P ROCUR EM EN T & C O N T R AC T S , T R A

Upon his appointment, Abdulla initiated a massive procurement transformation at TRA by establishing a roadmap that would see procurement becoming much more than a merely transactional aid at the regulatory authority. “I wanted us to start developing people, governance and partnerships,” he explains. Abdulla initiated an extensive round of market research to gain feedback and insights from TRA’s internal and external stakeholders. “I really wanted to understand their requirements with an

148

TRA

increased focus on supplier engage-

perspective of operations outside the

ment,” he says, adding, “After all, they

standard quarterly timeframes that many

understand the market better than

departments adhere to. “I am interested

anyone else.” There has been a real shift

in looking at partnerships over 20, 30,

in the sharing of information and insights

40 years,” he explains. “Sometimes,

within the regulator, and externally

people don’t really understand the CPO,

with partners, since Abdulla took over.

procurement and negotiation. It’s not

Focused on collaboration with bodies

a transactional role anymore. It’s more

such as CIPS, TRA wants to increase

about quality, new ideas and flexibility.”

awareness and knowledge of the strate-

Transformation of procurement func-

gic value of procurement and now places

tion is a process, not merely a project

a massive value on supplier engagement

you start and finish. “We started this

and collaboration to create a longer-term

journey four years back by focusing on w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

149

LEADING GLOBAL EXCELLENCE IN PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CIPS, THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PROCUREMENT & SUPPLY, ISâ&#x20AC;¦

CIPS CLIENTS IN MENA INCLUDE:

THE PROFESSIONAL BODY A not-for-proﬁt organisation that exists for the public good, promoting and developing high standards of skill, ability and integrity among procurement and supply chain professionals.

QUALITY GUARANTEED CIPS qualiﬁcations are recognised by regulators across the world, including the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) in Dubai, demonstrating that they meet speciﬁc quality standards.

THE GLOBAL STANDARD CIPS Global Standard in Procurement and Supply sets the benchmark for what good looks like in the profession.

A COMMERCIAL ORGANISATION CIPS helps businesses and governments around the world to excel in procurement and supply, supporting them to improve and deliver results and raise standards.

A GLOBAL COMMUNITY We are the world’s largest professional body dedicated to procurement and supply with a community of over 200,000 professionals in over 150 countries, and oﬃces in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Europe and the USA.

WWW.CIPS.ORG | MENA.ENQUIRIES@CIPS.ORG w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t 151

technology enhancement, process re-en-

(internal and external) and includes a

gineering and people development in

commitment to add value to supply

skill set capabilities. You always start

chain management. “Most procurement

small till you reach big. Procurement

professionals are focusing more on

professionals and leaders have to under-

the internal stakeholders by having an

stand that success is a journey. You can’t

internal engagement plan with stake-

simply just jump from a manual work-

holders and an effective communica-

ing environment to artificial intelligence.

tion plan to understand their needs and

Transformation starts with automating

requirements. On the other hand, we

your manual processes, then shifting to

often see that the level of collaboration

digitalization and the analysis of the infor-

and engagement with the suppliers is

mation and data to reach to AI.”

low. Chief procurement Officers need to

The mindset of CPO, according to Abdula, should change from “competition to completion” in order to achieve greater value and sustain the growth of the organization. “This means, we as procurement professionals, should work more collaboratively with our internal stakeholders and suppliers,” he explains. “We complete each other in the process of supply chain in order to achieve a win-win strategy.” Abdulla has placed an increased importance on supplier engagement and collaboration at TRA, but why is supplier collaboration so important to TRA’s activities with regards to strategic procurement? According to Abdulla, it has become essential for companies to extract the best possible performance of the supply chain involving all parties 152

TRA

realize the value and the importance of supplier collaboration.” Abdulla details a number of benefits from this form of engagement. Project

“We have started engaging our strategic partners to develop the staff by closing the skills gap and providing a self-learning environment” —

S U L A I M A N A B D U L L A , M A N AG E R , P RO C UR E M E N T & C O N T R AC T S , T R A

timelines can be accelerated and project outcomes improved; for example, boosting business expectation and requirements while minimizing risk. There can be a massive development of staff by closing existing skill gaps which also boosts operations with regards to staff retention which, according to Abdulla, will relieve dependency on contractors and suppliers. Plus, value addition and cost optimization by reducing inventory levels will significantly improve the customer journey, allowing better visibility into customer demand, supplier performance and faster decision-making. “Effective collaboration with partners is all about sharing valuable information and transparency to achieve a common goal or target,” he says. “It also means that both parties are extending their efforts to achieve the value that both parties wish to reach. A ‘win to win’ strategy.” Recent studies highlight that organizations engaged with suppliers are 38% more likely to achieve their expectations and goals towards cost optimization and value driven procurement. According to Abdulla, levels of engagement or collaboration can often start w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

153

with the transactional level where both

is power,” Abdulla explains. “And it is very

parties share transactional data includ-

important for the organization to map its

ing purchase orders, invoices payments,

strategic planning towards a strategic

work orders, sales orders, inventory

level of engagement and collaboration

and contract terms to help the partners

with suppliers to achieve greater value

automate business processes and trans-

and outcome from the supply chain.”

actions and help in making best decisions. The level of engagement can also increase to a ‘strategic level’ where both parties are taking part in joint planning, redesigning of business and products by sharing high levels of value information. In this level, both parties share levels of risks and reward that can lead to better forecasting and planning that can reduce risk and enhance quality and better pricing plans, while boosting sales and operational planning and resolving critical issues and events. Collaboration is dominating many conversations in every conceivable industry and procurement is starting to truly benefit from the sharing of information. Abdulla is a true devotee to the collaborative way of working and believes that a network of shared information can unlock true potential from procurement and the supply chain while driving innovation through the discussion of ideas and suggestions. Staff capabilities can also be improved greatly through sharing thoughts and ideas. “Knowledge 154

TRA

Supplier relationship management or as Abdulla terms it, supplier value

Sulaiman Abdulla Manager, Procurement & Contracts, TRA A strong believer in Completion rather than Competition Methodology, Sulaiman has led different teams with different initiatives in value adding to organizations in the field of Cost Optimization and Supplier Management Particularly. Procurement is not Purchasing. Procurement is the main function (asset) for any organization to drive cost optimization and innovation by adopting best practices such as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Supplier Collaboration and Early Engagementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Change is the only constant in any organization to sustain so it is very important for procurement professions to adopt best practices in all industries from technology, to people, to processes. Sulaiman and his team have worked accurately towards predicting business demand to anticipate the market changes and develop the right approach to source products and services in a competitive way. They have achieved excellence in this domain through encouraging the use of practices and behaviors that enhance trust with partners and championing suppliersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; innovation capabilities and getting them involved early and actively.

155

management, requires an organization to shift from the traditional method of cost saving and negotiation to focus more on a ‘win–win’ approach which will empower the procurement team to be a business partner rather than a mere facilitator. In order to increase the collaboration level, organizations are required to get a holistic view across all suppliers before segmenting them in different approaches to identify the key suppliers who are adding value to the supply chain. “Segmentation of suppliers should not be focused on spend only,” he states “If you are going to increase the level of engagement and collaboration, then you need to consider different aspects while segmenting your suppliers. Some examples to consider are nature of projects, industry, spend, risk, innovation, performance and value. You also need to identify the supplier touch points in the supply chain processes. There are different areas where you can expand the supplier collaboration and engagement efforts to drive continuous improvement to the process. Apply an 80/20 methodology; focus on the 20% of your suppliers who generate 80% value to the organization.” Supply chain or procurement processes are always centered around long-term business, and not short-term relationships, according to Abdulla. “This how the CPO differs from the CFO. There are always challenges faced in any collaboration, especially for procurement professionals who are responsible for managing internal stakeholder, and supplier, collaboration while maintaining the different mindset of spending and saving the budget. As a public organization, I believe there are great stories of success we have achieved through early engagement 156

TRA

of our strategic suppliers on a national

just one supplier, but many suppliers or

level.â&#x20AC;?

consultants.â&#x20AC;?

TRA practices different types of early

Early engagement with suppliers offers

engagement, based on the way it cate-

benefits to both TRA and its suppliers

gorizes and segments its vendors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Early

and enables the government to better

engagement with vendors for new tech-

plan for, and mitigate, risk. Complex,

nologies, allows them to communicate

innovative or high-risk programs can

the desired responses and narrow down

be adapted to better utilize ICT indus-

on a specification to advise us as to

try capacities, providing government the

the nature of the subsequent procure-

opportunity to realistically measure and

ment. Another type of early engage-

analyze the capacity of the ICT indus-

ment is when we need advice on a new

try to contribute to strategic programs

market, product, or service from not

and engage early problem recognition. w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

157

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Suppliers might also know more about what is possible or not when facing technological uncertainty. Early involvement provides maximum opportunity for enhanced outcomes in terms of cost, quality, delivery and design. Early engagement with suppliers also allows the procurement team to leverage on supplier capabilities and achieve advantageous positions in the innovation and development processes. “Early supplier involvement not only enhances outcomes, but also enables suppliers to bring new innovations to the table. If technology is complex, we bring suppliers in and discuss design ideas issues and challenges. Early supplier involvement assists in both the quality and cost of the initial finished good, but also in the ability to keep the product in service after the sale,” he says. According to Abdulla, it is important to engage early and widely with the supply side, to give a supplier an opportunity to shape the requirement. Suppliers who are involved earlier can have a better understanding of the requirement, reduce time to market, create better business forecasting and better resources planning that can lead to a long-term business relationship.” Operating under TRA’s ‘newborn’ w w w.t h e i n t e r f a c e . n e t

159

strategy, one of TRA’s strategic level

in the workplace culture is seen by many

projects was achieved within 100 days by

as disruptive, but necessary. Among the

getting the strategic suppliers engaged

challenges Abdulla has faced, he cites a

earlier in the prototype phases. “There

lack of vendor’s cooperation, intellectual

was a daily collaboration with the differ-

property conflicts with vendors and the

ent strategic suppliers who were on our

overestimation of the development skills

premises to achieve the target,” Abdulla

of the supplier. Political issues arise too,

explains. “Clarity is very important while

such as, the reward structure for suppli-

engaging the supplier. In this project,

ers and a degree of fairness to those

the goal was clearly transferred to all

not involved as early as other vendors.

suppliers and changing the deadline was

“Understanding is so important,” he says.

non-negotiable.”

“There needs to be understanding on all

Abdulla believes that developing internal capabilities is a key factor to success.

sides.” With a procurement transformation

“We have started engaging our stra-

fully under way at TRA, Abdulla and his

tegic partners to develop the staff by

team have 36 KPIs to monitor its success.

closing the skills gap and providing a self-learning environment that leads to bringing different values to the organization; from knowledge adoption to applying best practices and utilizing the tools and toolkits. Regarding new tools and techniques, Abdulla can see a time in the not-too-distant future when artificial ‘emotional’ intelligence could be fully harnessed by the procurement function. As with any new business practices, there will be challenges during implementation. Change management is often number one in the most common challenges facing new processes and operations. A new way of working and a shift 160

TRA

“Early supplier involvement not only enhances outcomes, but also enables suppliers to bring new innovations to the table” —

S U L A I M A N A B D U L L A , M A N AG E R , P RO C UR E M E N T & C O N T R AC T S , T R A

However, how does Abdulla encapsulate procurement excellence? “Data is important. After all, without data you can’t improve anything. I place a high value on people, too. After all, you can have the best technology in the world, but if you don’t have the people and the brains, it’s useless. Procurement excellence is a continuous evolution and it’s all about driving value to the organization,” Abdulla explains. “Right now, people need to truly understand the procurement process to allow it to work at its full potential.”

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