The Interface magazine – May 2019 by B2e Media

T E C H / T E L C O / F I N T E C H / D I G I TA L I S AT I O N / A I / M A C H I N E L E A R N I N G

Issue 2 / May 2019 / www.theinterface.net

A customer-centric digital transformation

ACCELERATING TOWARDS DIGITAL EXCELLENCE CTO Rogelio “Nooky” Umali, talks digital disruption at FWD Philippines

EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS

What will it take for 5G to thrive?

EXCLUSIVE ANDERSEN EV

Charging made smarter

The #1 Low-Code Platform to Build Enterprise Apps Thousands of happy customers like:

outsystems.com

Welcome to the May issue of Interface magazine! Our cover story this month features FWD Philippines’ CTO Rogelio ‘Nooky’ Umali, who gives us the lowdown on how he and his team have been disrupting the life insurance sector through innovative development, to produce some popular products and a highlyvalued customer journey. “We ensured that every single leg of a customer’s journey was assessed and then identified which parts were the real pain points. The solutions were then focused on resolving these pain points. So, we started to design solutions that our customers really needed before starting the development process by working together with the customer experience team rather than in silos.” Elsewhere in this month’s packed edition, we spent some time with Ed Clark, Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to talk about the digital transformation of the student experience. The digital strategy at St. Thomas followed a round of technical enablement. “It wasn’t just a case of ‘how do we just make everything more digital?’ The transformation aspect of it for us was that we wanted to actually differentiate ourselves within this universe of higher ed institutions,” Clark explains. “Creating an ecosystem of offerings and support that you would not find anywhere else, would be our differentiated product. That’s where we’re hoping to get to.” Elsewhere, we have interviewed the guys behind innovative EV chargers Andersen EV, Cranford Group’s Rachel McElroy, who addresses the skills gap in tech and ‘CIO of the Year’ Vennard Wright from the Washington Water and Sanitation Commission. We have also listed the 5 biggest challenges to face the roll-out of 5G, and listed the best events and conferences addressing the tech sector.

I hope you enjoy the issue!

EDITOR IN CHIEF Kevin Davies CREATIVE LEAD Mitchell Park SNR. PROJECT DIRECTORS Andy Lloyd Heykel Ouni PRESIDENT & CEO Kiron Chavda

– K evin Davies, Editor in chief Content@b2e-media.com

PUBLISHED BY

CONTENTS

F WD PHILIPP I N E S

6 4

CONTENTS

Use these menu icons throughout the magazine to navigate back to this page

ST THOMAS UNIVERSITY

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR 5G TO THRIVE?

22 ANDERSEN EV: CHARGING MADE SMARTER

WSSC: THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF A UTILITY

88 EVENTS

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

Accelerating towards digital excellence Kevin Davies PRODUCED BY K i ro n C h avd a WRITTEN BY

FWD INSURANCE’S CTO ROGELIO “NOOKY” U M A L I E X P L A I N S H O W A D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N A T I T S P H I L I P P I N E S O F F I C E , H A S A C C E L E R AT E D I T S T I M E T O M A R K E T W I T H A R A N G E O F I N N O VAT I V E N E W P R O D U C T S

s markets ripe for disruption, the financial sector in the Philippines is open season with only around 30% of the population possessing bank accounts. With just 2.5% of the population having life insurance, there was a juicy 97.5% to try and engage for life insurers FWD Philippines. Rogelio “Nooky” Umali started as CTO of FWD Philippines back in 2016 and his first challenge was to launch a product – and a new digital platform – in just 30 days. Nooky went straight to work with the developers and product teams. The timely launch of the product was to coincide with the anniversary of a bomb attack in southern parts of the Philippines in Q4 of 2015 and Umali went straight to work putting together a new product that gave its customers peace of mind by having financial protection should they die from a terrorist attack anywhere in the world. This was amplified by another attack in Q3 of 2016. “We needed to act swiftly because we had a very short window of opportunity,” Umali explains. “That was August and 8

FWD PHILIPPINES

Nooky has been in the IT Industry for 25 years. Specializing in the field of Applications Design Development, Business Intelligence &amp; Project Management covering the Government sector, Financial / Banking and Telecommunications Industry.

Rogelio (Nooky) Umali C T O FWD Philippines

He started his IT career in the public sector working as a programmer for the Philippine Navy Computer Center in 1992. He later moved to the private sector in 1994 by joining the Banking Industry. As AVP for IT, he was in charged of the development and maintenance of core Mainframe applications for Financial Systems (CASA, ATM, Loans and GL). He also worked as a technical consultant for the largest banking consortium in the Philippines working on Inter Bank Fund Transfer systems and policies. He was part of the elite Core Committee acting as Technical Advisors for the automation requirement of the biggest banks in the country. After his successes in the Banking industry, he wanted to try new IT challenges in the exploding industry of telecommunications. He joined the biggest Company in the Philippines in 2007 starting as a Data Operations Manager manning the 24 x 7 team for the Financial Services group. After a year in Operations, he moved back as a Development Manager overseeing a 60 man team of Database, Web, Portal &amp; Report Developers and Business Analysts. In 2011, he focused on Project Management handling a team of Technical PMs covering Financial, Telecommunications and Digital technical projects. His team created the Technology storyboard which became the blueprint for the Technology Roadmap for Services. He managed a portfolio of technical projects in excess of 2 Billion Pesos (50M USD). In 2013, he was tasked to oversee a new growth area in the company by managing the Mobile Applications (Apps) and API Program of the Tech Group. He was mandated to lead the innovation of Mobile Apps development. In 2015, he returned to the Financial Industry, serving as IT Director for Manulife.

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

The #1 Low-Code Platform to Build Enterprise Apps Thousands of happy customers like:

outsystems.com 10 FWD PHILIPPINES

“ W E A C Q U I R E D A NEW LOW-CODE P L AT F O R M W E C A L L A SUPER POWER T H AT A L L O W S U S T O BUILD SOMETHING V E R Y Q U I C K LY W I T H SUPER SPEED” Rogelio (Nooky) Umali C T O FWD Philippines

the instructions came sometime in September. So, we needed to acquire a technology that allowed us to develop while regulatory processes were still underway.” The launch of the Anti-Terrorism product represented the first time FWD Philippines had used a low-code development platform, delivered by global enterprise software company, OutSystems. First, Umali and his team changed the tools they were

using followed by adaptations of the agile methodology behind the development. So, while the product was awaiting approval from the regulators they were already building the new low-code platform from OutSystems. “We acquired a new low-code platform we call a super power that allows us to build software with super speed; using rapid application development,” Nooky explains. “We actually cut down the initial 30 days development to launch a product, from concept to production, in just 21 days.” w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

FWD Insurance taps Globe for secure, reliable, cost-eﬀective plug-and-play connection among branches

L-R: Kristian Buan, Asst.IT Head, Rogelio Umali, FWD Insurance Chief Technology Oﬃcer; Meanne Quiambao, Globe Business Vice President for Sales; and Abby Cardino, Globe Business Vice President for Product Management display the Globe SD-WAN box.

The new product, aided by the new OutSystems’ platform, launched in November, was called Peace. It was named the Most Innovative Insurance Product in 2016 and even the regulators were promoting the product. “They were saying: ‘I wish there were more innovative products like the anti-terrorism one from FWD.’ That was our first venture into creating something superfast and then iterated (even faster) while we were still awaiting approval. We considered the customer pain points very deeply 12

FWD INSURANCE

when we were developing that product, so we had focus group discussions and did the whole customer journey mapping to ensure that this really was something compelling enough for them to purchase at a price they could afford. Filipinos would not invest that much for insurance and so we had to be very sensitive about the pricing and lowered it accordingly to promote financial inclusivity.” With any transformation, people represent the biggest challenge, especially in adopting a new platform.

The cultural shift and its subsequent management are crucial to any business transformation. “The developers must really want to use it otherwise it won’t be effective,” Nooky explains. “I had to first convince the solutions development team that this was the right tool for us. I had to convince them that this was the platform that would allow us to quickly launch new products and services to the market.” The launch of Peace represented the first time FWD had used low code, with support from OutSystems, to deliver a high-quality user experience. “After we got regulatory approval, there were still some minor changes needed before the product could be deployed. Through the OutSystems platform, we were able to accommodate these last-minute changes and

“ W E H A D T O S E T U P A W A R R O O M S O T H A T E V E R Y D AY W E C O U L D M E E T A N D F I G U R E O U T W H AT W E N T R I G H T, W H AT W E N T WRONG AND HOW WE COULD IMPROVE IT” Rogelio “Nooky” Umali C T O FWD Philippines w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

“ W E E N S U R E D T H A T EVERY SINGLE LEG OF A CUSTOMER’S J O U R N E Y WA S ASSESSED” Rogelio “Nooky” Umali C T O FWD Philippines

FWD PHILIPPINES

meet the launch date.” “While the front-end development was being catered in OutSystems, we were using Candela (Labs), mostly on the backend for workflow automation and document storage and retrieval,” says Nooky. “There was a very structured automated workflow process from Candela. We needed to iterate faster on the front end because as soon as we launch a service online there would be customer feedback. We had to be quick on our toes to respond to the feedback because you can never get something perfect in 21 days. In order for us to address the feedback swiftly, we adopted a DevOps process.” “We had to put ourselves in the shoes of the customer and imagine the pain that they are undergoing while filing a claim due to a horrific accident or even death of a loved one,” Nooky explains. “This allowed IT to understand why we needed to respond swiftly. We had to meet halfway by accepting the business requirements even though it was incomplete or in a different format. We had to make some compromises to be agile.” Another challenge came in the form of poor digital infrastructure. The Philippines has the lowest internet speeds in Asia and the head office, situated in the central business district of Taguig City, needed fast connections to its branches located across the country. “We partnered with Globe Telecoms to experiment a new technology that allowed FWD a direct connection to the head office using a Wide Area Network solution called w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

SDWAN (Software Defined Wide Area Network).â&#x20AC;? This brought down the turn-around time in setting up the network infrastructure to connect the branches to the head office from 30 days to 10 days at a fraction of the cost. FWD became the first life Insurer to deploy SD-WAN in the Philippines. In 2018, two years after the launch of Peace, Nooky was handed another challenge: to overhaul the customer portal to increase utilisation within six months. FWD had to reengineer 16

FWD PHILIPPINES

the customer portal in 90 days. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This was a bit more difficult because it had more integration points unlike the Peace initiative where there were only five connections to the core systems and third-party platforms. This time we were looking at close to 50 connections minimum. The biggest challenge was the work effort on the development of back-end systems as well as the APIs. We had to think like a startup technology company by decomposing our monolithic core systems

into micro services and develop our API strategy.” Umali and his team put the customer experience at the very centre. “We ensured that every single leg of a customer’s journey was assessed and then identified which parts were the real pain points. The solutions were then focused on resolving these pain points. So, we started to design solutions that our customers really needed before starting the development process by working together with

the customer experience team rather than in silos.” The joint efforts from the different business units led by the CX team and the solutions team from IT allowed FWD to seamlessly work as cohesive unit. “We had to set up a war room so that we could meet and figure out what went right, what went wrong and how we could improve it. We blurred the department lines and focused on delivering an amazing new service for our clients.” Umali successfully launched a new, w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

revamped platform to replace the customer portal by a mobile application called TAPP. “Within the first three months of usage, we were amazed by the adoption of 17,000 user downloads. More importantly was the speed at which we were able to address complaints. Whenever there is a complaint posted in the app store and Google Play, it is responded to within 30 minutes by the CX agent. Technical issues are endorsed to IT DevOps within the hour. In some cases, IT were able to develop, test and deploy the fixes before the end of the day. Now, the next time the costumer logs on, he will see a new version of the app without downloading it from the app store, and that customer would provide feedback in the app store to say, ‘Thank you for fixing my problem FWD you really are not just an ordinary insurance company.’” Nowadays, the average ratings o n t h e a p p s t o r e s f o r TA P P i s 4.82 stars. “The team actually gets jumpy whenever there is somebody who rates us with 1 or 2 stars,” he explains. “The responsibility in resolving the customer issues is now shared between the business and IT.” FWD Philippines is also 18

FWD PHILIPPINES

experimenting on “smart” chatbots from Candela Labs that respond to different customer personas. “The initial batch of AI bots did not possess Einstein AIs, they are still entry level. We were experimenting on level 2 to level 3 bots, and it’s still a hit and miss. We have created customer personas for the bots to respond intelligently to clients. Through this approach we expect the bots to get better overtime.” FWD don’t just use AI for its chat bots. AI is also leveraged for cyber security to detect anomalies through advanced cyber security software

that apply sophisticated algorithms. “These allow us to detect anomalies quickly compared to a human.” FWD also made its policy contracts simpler to read as its research showed that policy holders did not read their contracts. “For those who do, they would not even pass page 3 due to the legal jargon,” he says. “We experimented by simplifying the terminologies and layman-ising the words and even included diagrams in the new contracts. We were amazed by the customer feedback as our clients are now reading up to page 11 of their contracts. The transparency

allowed FWD Philippines to develop more trust from our customers.” FWD’s innovations have resulted in numerous invitations to take part in fintech events, which is no mean feat for a life insurance company that is neither fintech nor insurtech. In some rare cases FWD Philippines has even been classified as a technology company. “Because of our growing brand awareness, brought by our innovative products and satisfied customers, we are really testing the boundaries of what a life insurer can offer,” Nooky enthuses. “FWD Philippines is not your ordinary life insurance company. We do things that are not expected of us. It’s about focusing on the real needs of our customers and using technology to resolve it. This is how you can change the way people feel about insurance.”

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

Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner: Supply Chain for Chief Supply Chain Officers and Chief Operating Officers, Gartner

Denni Chief Inteva

LIST LAT

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SAM ACHAMPONG REGIONAL HEAD & GENERAL MANAGER, MENA A

is Hodges, Information Officer, a Products

Martin Starcke, Director Global Operational Procurement LEO Pharma

Mike Dargan, Group CIO UBS

TEN TO OUR TEST PODCASTS

G FCIPS, AT CIPS

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST on any of our output c h a n n e l s b e l ow

ANDERSEN EV

Charging made smarter WRITTEN BY

Elliot Francis

INTERFACE HEARS FROM ANDERSEN EV’S CO-FOUNDER AND TECHNICAL DIRECTOR DAVID SIMPSON ON HOW THE DESIGN-LED START-UP IS HARNESSING THE TECH TO BRING SMART ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING TO THE RESIDENTIAL MARKET

ndersen EV was born

we’re not making a futuristic

of its founders’ frus-

car gadget with flashing lights.

tration at the lack

It’s an architectural accessory

of smart, and stylish, home

and one that should be discreet.

charging systems for electric

The second pillar is technology.

vehicles. Back in 2015, techni-

Both Jérôme and I have worked

cal director David Simpson

in the IT industry and appre-

(and his co-founders Mandy

ciate what’s needed to bring

Simpson and Jérôme Faissat)

the advances in commercial

could see the potential to build

charging to the residential

a business in tune with the ramp

market. The third important

in e-car and hybrid vehicle sales.

factor is that we’re proud to

“We saw a real lack of innova-

be a British business devel-

tion in home charging,” recalls

oping products sustainably.

Simpson, who was keen for

We’re not c ontri buti ng to

the company to find its niche

a throw-away culture; our

utilising cutting edge design

boxes are upgradeable.”

with high-quality materials.

The big technological chal-

“Our business is built on three

lenge for Andersen EV was

pillars… Design is paramount;

how to bring smart charging

A N D E R S E N E V: C H A R G I N G M A D E S M A R T E R

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

A N D E R S E N E V: C H A R G I N G M A D E S M A R T E R

to a consumer audience in a way that

difference’ which is about setting

wasn’t complex to use. “It should be

expectations and exceeding them

just like setting up your Apple TV or

with transparency across the board

your Google Chrome card so we’ve

– from pre-sales to installation

aimed for a user-friendly way of

via user experience and customer

setting up your charge point to the

support. “We’ve tried to build on

cloud,” explains Simpson. “We’re

American standards,” he adds.

also keen to develop features that

“We’ve assembled a whole API spec

build a service for customers who

which means you can plug our prod-

are asking: How can I charge faster?

ucts into a smart home and simplify

How can I charge more efficiently?

the smart energy experience. They

We want to help them navigate the

are accessible to our customer to

smart energy landscape and build

control and monitor via a range of

on machine learning to make more

devices – iOS, Android, Alexa etc –

user-friendly, economic products.”

using our Konnect app. It’s key to

Simpson explains the ‘Andersen

tracking energy costs, aiding smart energy use at the right time of day

“ … PART OF THE THINKING BEHIND ANDERSEN EV WAS TO SIMPLIFY THE TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOP FEATURES BENEFICIAL TO THE GREATER GOOD” Davis Simpson CO-FOUNDER & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR ANDERSEN EV

and integrating with solar power systems to avoid use of the grid.” Simpson notes there are still big eco challenges for electric vehicles to overcome… “A Tesla, for example, is 45% efficient from energy source out of the ground to forward motion – with all the wastage throughout the manufacturing process, wind resistance and transmitting energy across power lines it’s just 45%. And with wireless charging, when you can’t be bothered to plug the vehicle in to a charge unit, you’ll lose 10% of power so it’s only 90% efficient w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

operationally.” Simpson points

to this, Simpson is excited to

out it might not sound much of

be on the road to certification

a sacrifice but if a whole street

with three major car manu-

is doing that it clearly indicates

facturers. “Our boxes have a real

a challenge for the EV indus-

synergy with some of the

try to address to boost its eco

premium automotive brands,”

credentials, which is where he

he says. “We already have many

feels the Andersen difference

of their customers coming to

can make an actual difference

us indirectly because the key

today. With the benefits of

message we offer is customi-

wireless charging perhaps five

sation. All we do is live and

years away, Simpson identifies

breathe charging but the car

the emerging trends of vehicle

manufacturers have other

to grid, local battery storage and

challenges, which has created

the integration with solar as

an opportunity for us.”

vital to the progression of the

More than just a pretty box,

home EV market. “You might

Simpson stresses a charge

not be able to have an oil refinery

point is a mission critical

at the bottom of your garden

item. He’s proud the indus-

but you can generate enough

trial grade electronics and

electricity for the journeys you

PCBs found in Andersen EV

need to make,” he adds.

products are all designed

Andersen EV has recently part-

in-house and manufactured

nered with Novo Energy, a leading

in the UK, guaranteeing that

energy consultant to some of

the supply chain delivers the

the UK’s largest companies

correct parts to the highest

delivering energy purchasing,

quality standards. But what

energy management, energy

about when the supply chain

regulation, energy construc-

can’t deliver what you need?

tion and sustainability polices,

One of the biggest challenges

to deliver smart energy and green

for the company was find-

air into its charging units. Allied

ing a cable with the necessary

A N D E R S E N E V: C H A R G I N G M A D E S M A R T E R

ANDERSEN EV - HOW ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S MADE

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

flex but still capable of sustaining heat to charge. To meet its particular specifications Simpson collaborated with a UK supplier to design his own bespoke Evoflek cable for the wall mounted A2 unit. Next, he’s keen to develop a motorised winder for the cable for winding and unwinding. The tech behind the finished product is bespoke too: “Every time we upgrade Konnect, we’re giving our customers more from their hardware,” pledges Simpson. With a lot of customers keen to make the most of that hardware and charge faster, Andersen EV will be standardising its boxes (such as the forthcoming floor mounted untethered P1) to be future proof at 22kw, allowing speed benefits for those who want to get their home electricity supply upgraded to 3-Phase. Its customers are already ahead of the curve with 20% upgrading against a UK average of 1-2% of homes 3-Phase equipped. Conservative forecasts estimate 140 million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030 so the potential market for Andersen EV is huge. It’s a sign of the times that vehicle manufacturers are approaching Simpson and his team to meet the needs of a market 32

A N D E R S E N E V: C H A R G I N G M A D E S M A R T E R

“ W E’RE LOOKING INTO DEVELOPING A MIDDLE-WARE SOFTWARE PRODUCT THAT ALLOWS US TO USE THE EXISTING UK INFRASTRUCTURE MORE EFFECTIVELY” Davis Simpson CO-FOUNDER & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR ANDERSEN EV w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

set to expand massively from the

just $140 today as indicative of

four million EVs currently in use.

dynamics changing.

Simpson believes the transition will

“Our sales are up 25% each month,”

be rapid and that over the next ten

reveals Simpson, who expects the

years consumers won’t consider

company to grow significantly over

buying anything else. He cites

the next 12 months thanks to £1.5m

the price per kilowatt of battery

recently raised to fund European

power down from $750 in 2011 to

expansion. This will include

A N D E R S E N E V: C H A R G I N G M A D E S M A R T E R

challenge in the UK is around charging more smartly and delivering a better user experience. “We’re looking into developing a middle-ware software product that allows us to use the existing UK infrastructure more effectively, utilising machine learning to build proton models for a more efficient charging experience. This would work for local authorities and housing associations who want to install charge points but can’t afford to dig up the streets everywhere.” When it comes to keeping that business traffic flowing, what has Simpson learnt during a varied career, including a stint at General Motors, that will help Andersen EV stay in the right lane? “You shouldn’t build something just because you can,” he warns. “If you’ve got a very complex product with lots of features, it’s very hard to scale it. Therefore, part of the thinking working on new models with the

behind Andersen EV was to simplify

goal of finding a niche in the new

the technology and develop features

build market to take advantage of

beneficial to the greater good.”

changes to European law which will

With the dynamics of the EV industry

increase the number of charge points

changing fast, coupled with a ramp in

that must be made available on

eco tech, the smart money is on the

future developments.

Andersen difference reaping rewards

Simpson believes the future

for Simpson and co. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF A UTILITY WRITTEN BY Kev i n D av i e s

L IST E N TO T H IS P O D C A ST on any of our output c h a n n e l s b e l ow

T H E WA S H I N G T O N S U B U R B A N S A N I TA R Y COMMISSION (WSSC) PROVIDES SAFE DRINKI N G WAT E R A N D WA S T E WAT E R T R E AT M E N T F O R TWO COUNTIES IN MARYLAND. THE COMMISSION I S O N E O F T H E L A R G E S T WAT E R A N D WA S T E WAT E R U T I L I T I E S I N T H E U N I T E D S TAT E S A N D SERVES APPROX. 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE IN A 1,000-SQUARE-MILE (2,600 KM2) AREA. V E N N A R D W R I G H T, T W I C E V O T E D ‘ C I O O F T H E YEAR’, IS THE MAN ENTRUSTED WITH DRIVING M A S S I V E C H A N G E S A C R O S S T H E U T I L I T Y. H E R E H E S P E A K S E X C L U S I V E LY T O I N T E R FA C E … e (the WSSC) are governed by local governments. The two local counties we serve are Montgomery and Prince George’s County in Maryland. Let’s just say that there can be a lot of bureaucracy and red tape. There were two different things I did when I started here, to make sure that we’re more effective in terms of our contracting. We needed to speed things up. First off, we put a contract vehicle in place called Consulting and Technical Services based on a model that existed in the federal government for quite a while. So, it’s where we pre-qualify a number of 38

different companies across seven functional categories. And those functional categories range from everything, like project management to data centre to cabling and technical writing. And once those companies are pre-qualified, they’re given a master contract. It really cuts down on the amount of time it takes for us to go through the full solicitation cycle. The second thing we installed was a procure-to-pay system that really streamlines the process from identifying requirements, to putting a contract in place. It automated the full workflow. That helps us to speed up the time it

W S S C – T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F A U T I L I T Y

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

takes for us to get things done. We’re always looking for ways to automate and be more efficient. We still have a-ways to go, but we’ve made a lot of progress. Procurement is one of the areas where we get a lot of flack for the amount of time it takes to get things done. But I’m also trying to make sure that there’s more visibility in our forecast, so we’re looking further out and being more deliberate about the things we need to get done, so that we can give the procurement department and our legal department a heads-up that those things are coming to speed the process up. We have a work asset management system in place too. That’s an Oracle product; we’re a very big Oracle shop. What we’re doing right now is putting the next version of that in. It wasn’t as simple as just an upgrade, it’s actually a full-blown implementation. We worked with the various departments and organisations within the commission to understand their processes. We’re actually building that into the system and making sure we’re standardised across the board and that there’s visibility in terms of where things are in the process, and how we’re going to move forward with tracking all of our assets. 40

FUTURE TECH TRENDS Artificial intelligence is a huge opportunity for us. As a matter of fact, we’re bringing in 18 interns this summer, focused on artificial intelligence. So, I see that as being an opportunity, in that we have a massive amount of data here in our utility. Obviously, we have thousands of miles of pipe across the two counties that we’re supporting and we have lots

W S S C – T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F A U T I L I T Y

of different assets that have data points attached to them. We also have internal infrastructure that is also generating data. And because of the massive amount of data we are generating and creating and storing, there really is no way that any human can make sense of all of those different things or make associations across all of the different data sets. So, what we’re looking at doing, is applying artificial intelligence to make sense of those different things. Let’s say someone were to call in and say, “Hey, I noticed that my water was brown yesterday”, well, we

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

could go to our lab results and see that, based on the lab results that were generated yesterday, there was someone working in that area. And automatically we make an association between the call that came from our customer, to an event that happened, without someone having to physically go and look through all those records and lab results. Of course, artificial intelligence can do that quickly. But, we’re also looking at applying robotic process automation on top of those manual things, so we can speed it up a little bit more. So, I’m hoping to take it a step further and be able to do some machine learning. Once we train the system to go through the different algorithms, they’re able to generate new use cases for us and be a little smarter about the way we make those associations across data sets. The biggest project we’re working on right now, and which has been taking the majority of my time, is that we’re putting a new billing system in place. Our existing billing system, believe it or not, is on a mainframe. But we’re moving right now from a 16-tier rate structure with an inclining block, to a four-tier rate structure. But in order for us to move to that new rate structure, we have to move to a new billing system. Keeping in mind the fact that we have 1.8 million customers across 480,000 accounts, there really is not a lot of room for error. VENDORS AND PARTNERS I make sure I not only have strong relationships with existing vendors, but I also develop new relationships with vendors that might have technologies or practices that we might want to take on here at WSSC. I try to make sure that I get out 42

W S S C – T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F A U T I L I T Y

“ W E ’ R E A L S O L O O K I N G AT A P P LY I N G R O B O T I C P R O C E S S A U T O M AT I O N O N T O P O F THOSE MANUAL THINGS” Vennard Wright CIO, WSSC

to conferences periodically to see new trends or new technologies. But also, on Wednesdays, every Wednesday, we meet with a different set of vendors and have them answer a series of questions about what it is that they’re offering that has an alliance with something we’re trying to do here at WSSC. I also try to make sure, in addition to that, I have conversations with those strategic partners we are doing business with. Examples would be Dell, HP, Cisco. So, periodically, I touch base with them to make sure we’re taking full advantage of those technologies or services they offer. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

DIVERSITY Something else I noticed when I got here, was that there were not a lot of women working as managers in the IT department. So, I was very deliberate about making sure that the diversity was not just racial or age related, but that there was also gender diversity. As a father of three daughters, I’m very conscious of that. Two of my three daughters are interested in IT, and I think it’s important for them to see women IT leaders. And one of the biggest things and something of note, is that here at WSSC, we have the first woman CEO in our 100-year history, which I think is incredible. So, to that point, I want to make sure that diversity is also reflected in the IT department. I’m very deliberate about making sure that, for manager positions or positions that are very visible, we’re also interviewing women. But not just interviewing women, but giving them an opportunity to move into positions and be successful. We encourage our women leaders here to be very visible, to go out to give speaking engagements and different things like that to make sure they have opportunities to advance in their career. And probably, at this point, 44

“ W E ’ R E B R I N G I N G IN 18 INTERNS THIS SUMMER, FOCUSED ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” Vennard Wright CIO, WSSC

about a year or year and a half ago, I also hosted a session here at WSSC, around women IT leadership where I brought in different CIOs to talk about the challenges of being women IT leaders. That was a very well attended session. So, I had the former CIO for NASA, Linda Cureton. I also had the CIO from Prince George’s Community College, Rhonda Spells-Fentry and Denise Donohue who is a Business Architect for NetCraftsmen. But in

W S S C – T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F A U T I L I T Y

addition to those three, I also had my Information and Security Compliance Officer, Christine Grooby. They participated in a panel discussion, where they talked about how they got to where they are and some things that were impediments to their career. Hopefully, that gave a pretty good feel for what their journey was, but also encouraged other people who were in attendance, about ways they could be more effective in furthering that agenda.

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES I got that call while I was working for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) which was subsequently acquired by HP. I was working there as Chief Technology Officer at the time when I got a call asking, “Hey, would you be interested in being Director of Technology for a political campaign?” And, I thought it sounded like a cool opportunity. So, I said, “Hey, yeah, sure.” So, I went to an interview, and w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

#FUTUREFORWARD halfway through the interview, they said, “By the way, did you know this is for Hillary Clinton?” I said, “Wow, no. I didn’t know that. But that’s great.” At the time, she was a senator from New York, and I was being interviewed to work on her senate re-election campaign. So, I went through five interviews in total, and the fifth interview was just Hillary Clinton and me. So, it was just me and Hillary Clinton in her office and I was incredibly nervous because this was the former First Lady of the United States and it was 46

just me and her talking. And so, she started off the conversation by saying, “You know Vennard, you know way more about technology than I do. So, I’m not going to talk to you about technology.” We ended up talking about a number of different topics. Everything from books I’d read, to the movies I watch, to barbecues. But, the whole point was, she was getting a feel for me as a person because she saw that as being critical. Even more than my IT expertise, she wanted to make sure I was going to be a good fit for the

W S S C – T H E D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N O F A U T I L I T Y

political campaign. My oldest daughter, Kayla, had an opportunity to meet her in person and take a picture with her. And going back to what I said before, it showed her that women can be anything they want to be. For my daughter, to see someone that powerful in that position, I believe that she doesn’t see any limitations, just based on the fact that she’s a woman. I also try to make sure that I’m as visible as possible. And the reason I do that, is, going back to when I was on Hillary’s campaign, was that

I remember thinking, “Wow, there’s no one else on this campaign on the senate side, or on the campaign side that looks like me.” There were no other minority males and I was wondering why. And I realised that, we just don’t understand how to get those positions. I had never seen a black CIO. I had never seen someone who looked like me in that position. So, I want to make sure that, when I go to these schools, when I go to speak to young people, that they see me and believe that it’s possible w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

A customer-ce digital transfor Kevin Davies PRODUCED BY A n d y L l oyd WRITTEN BY

entric rmation 47

We speak to Edmund Clark, Vice President for Information Technology Services, Chief Information Officer, University of St. Thomas regarding a holistic, collaborative approach to transforming the student experience… hese are challenging times for higher education with increased tuition raising expectations and new establishments popping up to challenge the old guard. Universities and colleges are having to work hard to improve the student experience and improve results while keeping one step ahead of the pack. Ed Clark is CIO at the University of St. Thomas, based in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Clark joined in July 2015 to ramp up technology capabilities at the University of St. Thomas in order to create differentiation in a highly competitive market place. Founded in 1885, the University of St. Thomas is Minnesota’s largest private university, with approx. 10,000 students from 50 states and 63 countries, boasting metropolitan campuses in St. Paul, Minneapolis and Rome. “On a very basic level, I was brought in to improve technology and increase our online learning,” Clark explains. “We wanted to be

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

TWIN CITIES - 2019 - NONPROFIT CIO OF THE YEAR WINNER

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

The University of St Thomas is a

Trailblazer

Edmund Clark CIO & Chief Digital Oï¬&#x192;cer

Learn more about Salesforce for Higher Education at www.salesforce.org/highered

m ore prof itabl e. We w anted t o be more relevant. We wanted to increase our brand. We wanted to support students in unique ways that they won’t get at other universities. These bigger goals allowed me to pursue a digital transformation strategy here.” The digital strategy at St. Thomas followed a round of technical enablement. “It wasn’t just a case of ‘how do we just make everything more digital?’ The transformation aspect of it for us was that we wanted to actually differentiate ourselves within this universe of higher ed institutions,” Clark explains. “Creating an ecosystem of offerings and support that

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

Edmund Clark V P FO R I N FO R M AT I O N T E C H N O LO GY S E R V I C E S , C I O, U N I V E R S I TY O F ST. T H O M A S Current Position and Past Experience Ed Clark has served as the Vice President for Technology, CIO, and Chief Digital Officer at the University of St. Thomas since 2015. He recently received the 2019 ORBIE CIO of the Year award (Non-Profit sector) for his work at St. Thomas. Before stepping into his current role, Dr. Clark was Vice President for Technology and CIO at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Ed also held a position at the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts as the division’s CIO for 10 years. He has been awarded for his work on strategic initiatives and recognized for his efforts in diversity and inclusion. His articles have been featured in a wide variety of journals and industry publications. He has also been asked to present at numerous national conferences. Personal Details and Community Involvement Ed loves to travel around the world with his wife, Dona, and try the best local cuisine at each destination. He reads constantly, from science and technology articles to essays on philosophy and the latest fiction. He loves cheering for his four children at their plays, sports contests, and academic competitions. If you catch him with a free moment, he will probably be writing a new song on his guitar. Education, Honors and Achievements Dr. Clark earned his B.A. in English from Florida State University and his MS in Management of Technology from the University of Minnesota. In 2016, Clark earned his Ed.D. in Education from Minnesota State University, Mankato. During his doctoral program, Clark was inducted into the Minnesota State University Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society

you would not find anywhere else, would be our differentiated product. That’s where we’re hoping to get to.” The student journey strategy aims to provide a seamless experience for the client from application and registration through to learning and graduation. In order to provide the student with a holistic journey through the various stages of a higher education, Clark and his colleagues decided to try and break down the traditional silos of university process to try and achieve a shared leadership strategy. Increasingly, universities are placing the client – the student – front and centre of its activities, as part of a customer-centric journey that encompasses all of the establishment’s operations and strategies. “Shared leadership, I think, first and foremost comes down to having a common goal that everybody can resonate with,” says Clark. “So, one of the things I’ve been working on with my peers and colleagues across the institution is, if we say, ‘Look, we’re going to differentiate St. Thomas from everywhere else. How do we differentiate?’ It’s got to be around w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

the student experience.” “If I go into a room and we’re all arguing about silos and how to approach cer tain tasks, we can usually settle most arguments by saying, ‘What would be best for the student’s experience at this point in their journey?’ That has been a really powerful way to approach it, because as we do journey maps we address processes or procedures that have been built over time to help the administrative units but at the expense of the students. Being able to show, ‘Hey, this is really frustrating, or hard, for students to get through. They ’re not even under standing the reason for it’ helps us re-think the whole thing. This helps us revamp our approaches in a way that, truthfully, I haven’t seen a lot of other universities do.” The University has had some big wins already, from its onboarding systems through to event management and student retention. Clark sees it as “really unique” to approach operations from the student point of view rather than the administrator’s (or “silo”) view. As a CIO, Clark finds that technology is already part of every aspect of campus life as 54

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

technology is embedded into everything the student does, whether it’s selecting, or even taking, courses. UN LOCK ING TH E P OW ER OF DATA Data drives most strategies across business and a university is a veritable mine. “We know when students come in, we have their card data. We have the classroom data. We

have the partnerships across the university, to make sure all those systems integrate. I want to highlight that everyone here believes that data is going to be the key. In higher ed we typically have this stovepipe data problem, where there’s lots of great data people across the campus, but they all create their own stovepipes of data. It seems impossible to bring those clouds together into something common.” Clark has created a role for a chief data officer who has brought all these stovepipes together, so the data is a trusted and accurate source of information. “So, it’s data from the registrar, it’s institutional research, it’s all the IT stuff, all the systems,” says Clark. “That is key to digital transformation, because in the end you will be able to see problems before anyone knows they’re there.” In terms of agility across enterprise, a collaborative, shared leadership spirit also really helps. “Because then, we can all leap forward together. We’re all in the room together. We’re hearing the problems w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

“ We want to be more profitable. We want to be more relevant. We want to increase our brand. We want to support students in unique ways, that they won’t get at other universities” Edmund Clark V P FO R I N FO R M AT I O N T EC H N O LO GY S E RVICES, CIO, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

together and we’re solving them together.” Clearly to build a collaborative ecosystem you need collaborative systems. St. Thomas has a colla b o rat ive in t ranet that Clark and his team have created, based on Office 365 where departments and teams can share documents, access a ticketing system and lots of data systems. “We’re hoping to make the data available to anyone, 56

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

anywhere, on any device,” Clark explains. “This is going to allow us to react more quickly to the problems as they emerge. Then, when we have big wins that are clearly collaborative, that are clearly working well, we can build on them to get into bigger successes. One of our large wins in this space has been rolling out the Salesforce platform for the whole campus. We were trying to use it for an end-toend customer journey, starting from the time we recruit them, to the time they come in to take classes and even after they leave. We want to use it to reach out to our students while engaging our entire administration. For university purposes, this engagement thing is so critical.” One of the most frustrating processes that a student can undergo at any college is registration. “You have a certain number of classes. You’re almost fighting to get in. You of ten have a window: seniors go first, juniors second, so on and so for th. So, we’re tr ying to transform our registration process, through data that’s real time, and quick, and ver y responsive. They can see before w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

t h ey eve n re g i s t e r what’s available, which is also new. Then, also, if we can get fast enough, if we can get responsive enough, we can see that the class is full and can open a new section immediately. We have our system in the cloud so that we can scale up and scale down as demand on our

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

systems increases and decreases. This creates a much snappier, more responsive experience for the students, where many places would see their systems bog down. These are some of the things we’re tr ying to do right now. The students are really excited about that.”

TH E AC H I E V E M E N T G A P In the United States, the average two-year graduation rate at two-year colleges is less than 20%. Graduation and retention are typically very low. St. Thomas recently created a two-year college, the Dougherty Family College, to help address the achievement gap for impoverished

students and students of colour in Minnesota. However, the president at St. Thomas has set an ambitious goal of an 80% graduation rate, which is four times the national average. “It is so inspiring, but can also seem so impossible, you know? So, here’s the goal, it’s a shared

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

goal, we’re all in the room trying to figure out. ‘Well, how are we going to achieve this?’ So from a technology perspective, being able to use Salesforce and say, ‘Look, we’re going to have some really advanced tracking of touch points of key data’ is key. When they go to class, the day they talked to their tutors. Did they have lunch today? How are their grades doing? How’s the progress looking?’” “Creating that system with Alvin Abraham, the dean of that two-year college guiding it, has been a huge shared win. I will say, we did not hit the goal in this first graduating class. We were aiming for 80% and we ended up getting, I think, around 60%. But when you consider that is still more than three times the national average, that’s already a huge win. Now, we’re not satisfied, we’re going to keep aiming higher, and we think we’re going to move that upward. But, that kind of win is great for the students, and it’s obviously great for our initiative here. Furthermore, you can use these win areas to become huge innovation hubs. Each of these collaborations becomes an 60

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

“ It wasn’t just a case of how do we just make everything more digital? The transformation aspect of it for us was that we wanted to actually differentiate ourselves within this universe of higher ed institutions” Edmund Clark V P FO R I N FO R M AT I O N T EC H N O LO GY S E RVICES, CIO, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

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

innovation hub that can be diffused throughout the organisation.” In terms of collaboration, St. Thomas links all the different departments together through a range of services such as Office 365, OneDrive, SharePoint, and an intranet as well as a common project management platform Jira, where people can come in and look at the status of their projects and move forward. “In terms of our collaborative platforms we also use Microsoft Teams which is a big thing we’re rolling out right now. So, people can chat in real time across 62

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

departments and so forth,” Clark details. “Higher education, historically, was intentionally built to be siloed. There’s a department of this and a department of that. And an administrator of this and an administrator of that. That’s a purposeful d es ign. But when it c o m es t o d igi t a l transformation, this needs to be broken down. The only way to do that is by creating these collaborations and these shared wins.” LEARNING EXPERIENCE Clark was also asked to lead the university’s efforts to get into online learning. “This private, Catholic university, has amazing face-to-face facilities, but we were looking to add more convenient ways for students to access their education. So, we’re really committed to technology-enhanced learning. We’re obviously committed to online learning as well. By building on our experience from designing and delivering online and blended learning, we’re hoping to move into gamifying content and creating competency-based modules to break down course work, and increase the kinds of things that students can do in a blended format. We are rapidly increasing use of the flipped classroom format where they can look at lecture material outside the classroom, and then have a more impactful discussion inside the classroom. One huge advantage for students is that they can take coursework even when their location or work schedule would have made the old approach impossible, such as during summer internships. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

“ We’ve gotten such rave reviews from the students. They’re used to coming in and taking these face-to-face lecture-based things. We’ve grown online learning here by over 300%, and our summer enrolment by 1000%. So, it’s been a pretty huge shift here for us.” Clark and his team are also developing initiatives using AI and IoT, including work with the library on a chatbot that can help students with research by looking up a piece of material and help acquire it from a system of partner libraries. “We also have another chatbot we’re trying, a virtual assistant, like Alexa where you can talk to the speaker and ask what your schedule is today, when your classes are. It can also give you a reminder: ‘Hey, you know you have a quiz this afternoon!’ Those are some of the things we’re trying to do in that space.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST THOMAS

“ Shared leadership, I think, first and foremost comes down to having a common goal that everybody can resonate with” Edmund Clark V P FO R I N FO R M AT I O N T EC H N O LO GY S E RVICES, CIO, UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS

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

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH WRITTEN BY

Kevin Davies

Interface caught up with Rachel McElroy, Sales and Marketing Director at Cranford Group, a Cloud resourcing specialist, to discuss the skills gap in UK tech.

L IST E N TO T H IS P O D C A ST on any of our output c h a n n e l s b e l ow

oday, we are discussing the skills gap in the UK tech sector and this is something you have a great deal of knowledge of… We’ve been working in the tech sector for a long time, so we’ve seen the shift from IT service management into cloud and DevOps roles, and certainly, you can see that with new technology comes the need for new skills. And a lot of these technologies are very, very new, so people aren’t coming out of college or university with those skills. And so, a lot of people are then needing to upskill. Companies are having to look at upskilling within their own workforce. A lot of these are companies are still going through quite a lot of change and transformation themselves as well as trying to support their customers through that change and transformation. It’s quite a tough time for businesses.

I RE AD ONE REP ORT SAYING THERE COULD B E AS MA N Y AS 600,0 0 0 VACANCIES IN THE UK T E C H S ECTOR. IS THAT RIGHT? Well, that doesn’t surprise me at all. You’ve got certain job roles 70

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH

that are in short supply in areas like cyber security, emerging technology, like artificial intelligence. Data analysts are in high demand. DevOps is quite a new phenomenon and although it has just turned 10 years old, as far as the technology side goes, there’s still quite a shortage of DevOps people, which means that the salaries are pushed up. The day rates go higher on contracts, and it becomes quite competitive to try and get those people that have the necessary and correct skills you need. Because ultimately, if you don’t get the right skills into your organisation, you can have all of the desire to transform and change and work towards a fantastic business plan, but if you haven’t got the people there that can deliver that, then you’re never going to achieve it. I guess it’s also going to hinder growth on a national level. Definitely. We speak to a lot of companies that consult into small and medium-sized businesses, and what they report is that ultimately, everyone has the desire to change, and the desire to become more technologically advanced, and be

a more digital company, but ultimately, they don’t have the people to deliver what they want to do. ACCENTURE WAS QUOTED SAYING THAT A DIGITAL SKILLS GAP COULD BE COSTING THE UK £141 BILLION IN POTENTIAL GDP GROWTH… Yeah, that’s right. And there was a recent Gartner Emerging Risks Survey, where they rated the global skills shortage in the third quarter of 2018, as the number three, biggest risk to organisations. And, in the last quarter

of 2018, it moved into first place. And at the beginning of 2018, the global skills shortage was not actually on the Gartner Emerging Risks Survey at all. So that just goes to show how things have really shifted, and organisations globally are recognising that there is a real problem here, because companies cannot do what they need to do, because there just aren’t the people with the necessary skills. SO, WHAT ABOUT SOLUTIONS? COULD WOMEN BE THE ANSWER? Absolutely. Yep, well 78% of A-Level w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

students surveyed in a recent survey couldn’t actually name a female who was famous in the technology sector. And only 5% of leadership positions in tech are held by women, which is massive. And in the UK workforce currently, there are only 17% women, so it’s a huge untapped sector, really. And there are a lot of good initiatives that are out there. Certainly, I’ve been speaking to Women in Leeds Digital recently, who are working hard in the city to bring together companies to support women working in the tech industry in that city. But ultimately, I think it goes right back down into the education system. And ultimately, how technology and IT is taught in schools. I was having a LinkedIn debate with somebody the other day, because I published an article about bias in artificial intelligence, due to the lack of women that work in that industry sector. And we were talking about computer science in schools, and the person I was speaking to actually runs a tech company and has done for many years. And I had said, “Ultimately, why does IT and computer science even need to be a separate thing?” Because by making 72

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH

“ …you can have all of the desire to transform and change and work towards a fantastic business plan, but if you haven’t got the people there that can deliver that, then you’re never going to achieve it” R a c h e l M c E l r o y, Sales and Marketing Director Cranford Group

historically would have been separated, now need to come to work together, because, you know, marketing is directly linked to technology, and your business goals are linked to technology. Everything links back to technology. So, it’s important, I think, to understand that everything is IT and tech-related. And by separating it out into just one GCSE subject, is not going to help.

it a separate thing, it becomes a mythical beast that’s inaccessible for girls, because it’s seen as a bit geeky, or a bit ‘for boys’. What organisations and businesses have recognised is that ultimately, IT isn’t a separate entity of the business. IT and technology are your business. Every business is built from technology and IT infrastructure. Businesses now, as part of the DevOps movement and everything else, are working in a unsiloed approach. So different people in different depar tments that

HOW WOULD YOU ADVISE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO TRY AND SELL IT TO YOUNG PEOPLE? That’s a good point, actually, because one of the things that came out of the LinkedIn discussion, was my closing line: “It’s all in the marketing.” And, if you speak to young girls – I have a 13-year-old daughter, so I can talk quite well on this subject – they think tech and IT is really geeky. They don’t understand that every app they use, their mobile phone, everything they do, is built from the back of somebody going, “Do you know what? This would make life easier,” or “Shall we build this?” And tech doesn’t have to be all about the coding. It can be, you know, user research, design. There’s w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

lots of different aspects. But it does come down to how you present that to teenage boys and girls, I suppose, but especially girls. I use the example to my daughter that, one day, an algorithm will predict what fashion trends are going to come out in the future, as she’s doing textiles as a subject. And I absolutely believe that if that isn’t already happening, that will certainly be happening in the next few years, because all it would take is for a machine to learn what trends have been out over the past 50 years, and then predict how many times flares came in or how often florals were in, during that 50 year sector. And you could actually then start to learn what was likely to be back in fashion and predict the trends. AND LOOKING AT THIS SUBJECT INTERNATIONALLY, ARE THERE ANY COUNTRIES THAT WE COULD LEARN ANYTHING FROM? Well, the interesting thing is, if you look at China and Asia and countries like Saudi Arabia and even Russia and Estonia, they have a lot of women in technology. And it’s quite a natural 74

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH

career path. So, it would be interesting to see how they go about marketing it, and getting people involved. If you look at Estonia as an example, they are a small European country, miles ahead of anybody else when it comes to technology adoption. And, a lot of women and girls are picking IT and technology as a career path. SO, DIVERSITY IS INTEGRAL TO TECH MOVING FORWARD? We’ve been doing quite a lot of research around diversity for our Cloud Leadership white paper and there’s

certainly some interesting comments coming out. Now, some companies that are quite diverse themselves when you look at their demographic, are saying that they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel there is a diversity issue in tech at all. I think the question is around diversity is being aware of it, and certainly trying hard at company level, and HR level to make sure you are getting a mixture of different people, because different people have different opinions, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proven through business that the more diverse workforce you have, the better results you get. If you look at emerging technology

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

like artificial intelligence, and machine learning, there’s a very big conversation going on. I’ve noticed that the mainstream media have been picking up on AI and ethics and the data that artificial intelligence and machine learning is built on. Because if you’ve got artificial intelligence being built by just a group of white, middle-aged men, then ultimately that data is going to have an inherent bias within it, because the data that you’re analysing is not actually diverse. So, anything you can then build on top of that data, will not be a true representation. And that’s particularly relevant if you look at the healthcare industry, because if you’ve got a drug for cancer or you’ve got an AI program that’s only ever been tested on the outcomes of a certain drug on men, then ultimately, all of that data that the program is learning from, regarding how that drug behaves for that section of patients, is going to be incorrect. Because it’s just based on men, as opposed to a mix of men and women. I N T ER MS OF THIS TAL E NT GA P, W HICH BIG T E C H NO LOGICA L SHIF TS COMING UP ON THE H ORIZO N W ILL CREAT E A N E VEN GREATER 76

THE SKILLS GAP IN UK TECH

“ A lot of these are companies still going through quite a lot of change and transformation themselves as well as trying to support their customers through that change and transformation” R a c h e l M c E l r o y, Sales and Marketing Director Cranford Group

D EM A N D FOR T HESE EM ER G IN G SKIL L S? As you go forward, certainly cyber-security is not going to go away in terms of demand, because as we generate more and more data, and share that data in more and more ways with the internet of things and connectivity and the beginnings of 5G and smart cities, keeping that data secure is going to be absolutely vital. I think we’re becoming much more aware of that with things like the Cambridge Analytica scandal with Facebook. Who has got our data, where is it, how is it stored and is it safe? So cyber security skills are going to continue to be very, very much in demand, and I think data analysts are going to be very, very sought-after. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR 5G TO THRIVE? WRITTEN BY Elliott Francis

THE BANDWIDTH AND SPEED OF 5G C O U L D U LT I M AT E LY R E P L A C E D O M E S T I C INTERNET CONNECTIONS USING WI-FI T O D AY. T H E P O T E N T I A L F O R 5 G T O O F F E R SPEEDS OF 10GBPS WOULD MAKE IT 100 T I M E S FA S T E R T H A N 4 G . B E F O R E W E C A N HARNESS ITS BENEFITS TO FUEL A SMART FUTURE THERE ARE FIVE KEY CHALLENGES TO OVERCOMEâ&#x20AC;¦

Frequency Bands While 4G LTE is operational on existing frequency bands below 6GHz, the move to 5G will require frequencies up to 300GHz. The mmWave spectrum operates between microwave and infrared waves encompassing frequencies in the 30-300GH range. However, despite its ability to deliver high data transfer rates signals donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t travel as far as in lower spectrum bands and are unable to pass through physical objects such as buildings or trees. While they are ideal for high capacity networks in specific locations, they are open to interference from atmospheric absorption and rain scattering the signal so more antennas will be required to bypass these shortcomings.

W H AT W I L L I T TA K E F O R 5 G T O T H R I V E

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

W H AT W I L L I T TA K E F O R 5 G T O T H R I V E

Geopolitical Pressures The development of the UK’s 5G infrastructure has become a political hot potato affected by the trade war between the US and China. Amid security concerns across the pond, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has implied the UK could put defence cooperation with America at risk if it agreed a role for Huawei in operating its 5G roll out. With technical discussions between the nations ongoing, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has spoken of the importance of maintaining the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries: “We have not made our final decisions in government. We are considering the evidence very carefully, but we would never take a decision that compromised our ability to share intelligence with our five eyes colleagues (the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), in particular the United States.”

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

03 Costs Analysts predict the world’s 5G market will be worth in excess of $250bn by 2025 with subscriber growth across Asia expected to account for over half of new users globally. However, to get to that point significant investment is still required. According to Heavy Reading’s Mobile Operator 5G Capex Forecasts, global spending on 5G, driven by auctions for frequency spectrums, is set to hit $88bn by 2023 when 5G roll out is expected to be in full swing. Carriers won’t be able to build a layer on top of an existing network, so investment in infrastructure is vital. Major cities will need to install repeaters to extend the range of lower-frequency band antennas to maintain consistent speeds in more densely populated areas before the 5G network matures.

W H AT W I L L I T TA K E F O R 5 G T O T H R I V E

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

W H AT W I L L I T TA K E F O R 5 G T O T H R I V E

Data Volumes

The volume of data is a key driver for emergence of 5G with 50 billion connected devices forecast by 2020. The amount of data carried on mobile networks is growing by as much as 50% each year with 25 exabytes (1 exabyte = 1 billion billion bytes) per month expected to be shared by 2020. This is expected to rise further due to the increase in device screen resolutions and advances in 3D video. Japanese wireless tech pioneer Anritsus advises: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The data capacity of end to end networks will need to be increased - not only the air interface but the whole access/core network. As new technology evolves then the bottleneck in the system may change, and so new data bottlenecks will need to be overcome.â&#x20AC;?

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

Latency Services Latency (or delay) must be reduced to enable true interaction between real and virtual environments as our devices are tasked with new technology such as augmented reality. The human brain is sensitive to time delays processing visual data thus true virtual reality services will require end-toend latency of less than 10 milliseconds. Steps in the link between device and server must be optimised for extreme low latency as well as the overall round-trip time. New signal/routing architectures will be required so it is expected critical low latency services will need upgraded infrastructure to locate the service/server close to the user to ensure latency is minimised.

W H AT W I L L I T TA K E F O R 5 G T O T H R I V E

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

EVENTS OF 2019

WRITTEN BY Kev i n D av i e s The technology industry can easily be described as the most mercurial and transformative. New ideas and innovations are fundamentally shifting the benchmarks of business performance, skills development and employment, among many other things. These technology conferences provide experts and industry professionals with a much-needed bird’s eye view of what’s happening now and what they can expect tomorrow…

04.06.19

www

INFOSECURITY Infosecurity Europe provides an excellent platform for meeting new and existing customers. Described as the sourcing and knowledge hub for Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s information and cyber security community, InfoSecurity features an interactive exhibition floor with over 400 cutting-edge suppliers, a far-reaching conference programme and a host of network-

22.05.19

ing opportunities.

www

DIGITAL ENTERPRISE SHOW The Digital Enterprise Show (DES) 2019 is all about digital transformation, another hot topic that should be on every boardroom agenda. The event includes a significant array of topics that are tailored to support business and professional alike. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relevant and trends-driven while allowing for networking and the opportunity to meet industry leaders.

EVENTS

06.10.19

www

GITEX GITEX Technology Week and GITEX Future Stars are two events that run concurrently and focus on the value and innovation of technology. The former includes plenty of discussion around the hot topics of AI, blockchain, robotics and cloud p l u s m e ga- t re n d a n a l ys i s a n d access to a wide variety of global thought leaders. w w w.th e in te r fa ce . n e t

04.11.19

www

WEB SUMMIT 2019 Described by Forbes as “The best t e c h n olo gy c o n fe re n c e o n t h e planet”, Web Summit will welcome over 70,000 people in Lisbon, who will be joined by the CEOs and founders of the world’s biggest companies, the most promising new startups, influential investors and leading journalists.

EVENTS

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

FLEXIBLE TRACEABILITY VIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Manufacturing Execution

System, Man-IT enables manufacturing companies to achieve un-paralleled results. Meeting OEM and regulatory demands for traceability, labeling, process enforcement, and sequencing while gaining higher yields, lower returns, greater efficiency, and streamlined raw, WIP, and finished goods inventory.

Make it right.