Proximus ICT Solutions • May 2015

ictsolutions Issue 13 - May 2015

ict advice for business leaders

Mobility, flexibility & collaboration

Three requirements for your company Take things in hand

Wi-Fi in retail An opportunity for retailers Strategy & career Five tips to break faster A factory on your sideboard 3D printing power to the people Broadband Three reasons why fibre-optic is a sound choice

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EDITORIAL

In this issue 03 Editorial 04 Report 1st requirement for your company: mobility More and more companies have employees working at different moments and in different locations. As your customers become more mobile, they expect the same from you.

Close to the customer

08 Report 2nd requirement for your company: collaboration Do you know that feeling when a client keeps calling for a colleague you just can’t get hold of? A company only really works well when communication and collaboration are possible at all time.

C

10

Report 3rd requirement for your company: flexibility Companies need to be able to change tack in the blink of an eye—and their IT infrastructure must keep up with them.

Working in the cloud makes this easier.

13

Social media Van Marcke Group shares its experience

14

Interview “Our company is entirely cloud-based”

15

Solution Three reasons why fibre-optic is a sound choice

16

Background information Five tips to break faster

17

Solution Wi-Fi in shops

18

Tested A factory on your sideboard

19

Book Welcome to the glass cage

19

Review Smartphones: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

ompanies need to become ever more efficient, and keep their staff and customers happy. Although customers have a tendency to change their expectations, one thing never changes: they want it as soon as possible. Customers expect answers, fast—preferably yesterday.

It is in this context that your company operates. As a result, your team needs to be available at all time and everywhere. With today’s communication tools, this is perfectly feasible. Your co-workers can work anywhere and on a flexitime basis.

The main report in this ICT Solutions issue introduces you to what your company needs to respond swiftly to your customers’ needs. We point out three requirements present-day companies are expected to meet. First of all, you and your team need to be mobile. The second requirement is that collaboration and effective communication are of the essence. Thirdly, your service portfolio needs to be flexible and allow you to adapt.

These three requirements—mobility, collaboration and flexibility—are the central theme of all articles in this issue. We asked other companies how they deal with new customers expectations and challenges. Customer pressure, traffic issues and workers simply demand a new approach, new ways of communication with one another and new choices for managing your IT environment.

For, at the end of the day, we all need more business.

Proximus helps your company reach those targets with a host of solutions, superior network quality and downtime-free data centres.

We hope you will find this issue an enjoyable read.

Stefan Bovy Director Medium Enterprise Market Enterprise Business Unit, Proximus

Any questions?

For questions about specific ICT solutions, please contact our account managers or our network of Proximus ICT Experts (www.proximus-ict-experts.be).

Published by Belgacom Group | Issue 13, May 2015 | Responsible editor: Bart Van Den Meersche, Boulevard Roi Albert II 27, 1030 Brussels | Contact: Charline Briot, charline.briot@proximus.com I Design and implementation: Minoc Media Services bvba, Steenweg op Antwerpen 26, 2300 Turnhout | www.minoc.com May 2015 • 3

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REPORT

The world keeps changing and so do your customers. Your enterprise needs to be flexible and to adapt. In this report, we shall present three elements, a.k.a. requirements, today’s companies need to meet: mobility, collaboration and flexibility.

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REPORT

1st requirement for your company: mobility

Mobility: a plus for your company Today’s companies need to be mobile: more and more companies have workers in different time zones. Your customers, too, have become more mobile and expect the same from you. How can mobility increase your productivity while keeping both your customers and your team happy? We talked to three organisations that recently revamped their operations.

T

en years ago, life was still easy as pie. Showing up at the office was all one had to do, because that was where the infrastructure was: telephones, desktop computers, fax machines and the company’s data. Nowadays, almost anybody could work from home.

VDAB (the Flemish office for labour mediation) is a case in point. Their clients and services have become more mobile—job fairs and traineeships are all the rage. As a result, communication with their clients needs to be mobile, too. VDAB’s clients now have a host of access points to its services. This has forced the office to adapt and to accept a growing number of homeworkers. “This was set in motion about two years ago, at the launch of Google Apps,” recalls Paul Danneels, CIO VDAB. “It allowed our team to access all documents and files while on the move, and further boosted by an exponentially rising demand to use one’s own mobile devices.” Thanks to Google Apps, files and e-mails can now be viewed over the internet. “We jumped on the bandwagon, because we need to be open to the outside world.”

New Way of Working New Way of Working first and foremost means that time and place are less important than a job well done. Thus, workers are free to decide where and how they want to work. They are given the opportunity to organise their work in any way they see fit, which has become possible thanks to unlimited access to the network and ubiquitous connectivity. This is expected to result in better and more efficient service to the company’s clients.

The New Way of Working is multi-facetted. Proximus, too, has launched a New Way of Working project and allowed about half of its workforce to work from home one or two days a week, in joint consultation with their colleagues.

“Working from home is only a small part of the overall project,” explains Erik Hendrix, the business development manager at Proximus, citing three stakeholders who are involved in such a project: the facilities department that manages the premises, the IT department and HR. All three are concerned. The New Way of Working indeed requires a new office environment (with a growing number of flexdesks) as well as a matching division of labour.

According to Erik Hendrix of Proximus, the biggest challenge of any flexworking project is how the HR department deals with it. “They need to explain the concept to the entire workforce, i.e. 14,000 individuals.” Communicating this in the right way is key, as is a revised HR approach that includes flexible rewarding. At Proximus, for instance, workers can convert their time to money or the other way round.

Yet, a Flexible Way of Working first and foremost affects the workers themselves. When the financial solutions group DLL moved to a new building, the management decided to also revise the way in which people worked, and introduced both flexworking and working from home.

“We asked all our departments to share their ideas about what the new building should look like,” reports Wendy Nuyts, Country HR Manager at DLL. Every department was invited to appoint a spokesperson. “The response to this initiative was overwhelming.”

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REPORT

“Working closer to the customer”

Devices In addition to the workforce, HR and premises, mobile devices are crucial for a successful implementation. New devices indeed allow people to work almost anywhere.

Bandwidth has long ceased to be a bottleneck. Nowadays, people expect to be able to work anywhere: heavy traffic and external appointments often force them to work either from home or while on the move. Ultimately, more flexibility allows them to provide better service for their customers.

The latest generation of mobile devices makes mobile working easier than ever before, thanks mainly to smart iPhone and Android devices. Tablets are on the rise, too, in the corporate world: according to research conducted

by Computer Profile one company in four in Belgium has already switched to tablets. This migration towards mobile devices is expected to grow exponentially as the devices become more powerful.

Lots of organisations, like VDAB, offers their workforce discounts on the mobile devices of their choice and pay for their internet subscriptions at home. Paul Danneels: “Our 5000 workers can choose their mobile devices on a dedicated portal, and we take care of providing technological support in terms of security and accessibility. Emails, documents and the calendar are accessible in the cloud 24/7.”

Result At VDAB, maximum availability is considered a big plus, because workers no longer have to be on-site but can stage job fairs, meet potential employers and simply work from home. Thanks to Google Apps and the internet, they can now access all files and communicate with co-workers from wherever they happen to be and therefore spend less time at the office. This has boosted VDAB’s efficiency.

In addition to an efficiency hike, Erik Hendrix cites savings with respect to office space and fuel consumption as obvious advantages. And there is more: workers seem happier and more committed to their assignments. “90% of our workers stated that their job satisfaction has increased thanks to this initiative. After our New Way of Working project was launched, short-term sick leave dropped by 25%,” he gleams. “Obviously, we will have to wait a little longer to decide whether this trend is here to stay, but it is still a positive signal. Short-term sick leave, or absenteeism, is considered a good indicator of job commitment.”

Exactly how mobile are companies today?

Almost half of Belgian office workers (48%) are free to work from home from time to time Almost three in ten (29%) work at an office with flexdesks (the notion of dedicated desks is being dropped in part).

Owners of mobile devices using their own devices for and at work

Which privately-owned mobile device do you use for your work:

45%

21%

14%

Not quite a quarter of European IT managers (24%) believe that their company provides sufficient support for mobile work Companies that switch to tablets for job-related purposes:

2012: 9% - 2014: 24% Sources: Smart Business, Computer Profile, HP

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“We are based in different cities, but it feels as if we are in the same office.�

Explore. The direct connection between your locations.

Your data are accessible from any location at any time and remain thoroughly secure thanks to the private network which is managed entirely for you all over Belgium. Explore is also offered with glass fibre connections, increasing the overall speed even further.

More info at proximus.be/explore

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REPORT DOSSIER

2nd requirement for your company: collaboration

Let’s work together Do you know that feeling when a client keeps calling for a colleague you just can’t get hold of? A company only really works well when communication and collaboration are possible at all time. As that seems to be what your clients expect from you, how do you make it happen?

P

eople and companies tend to be in a growing number of different locations. Technology helps them keep in touch regardless. Delorge-Peerlings Group is a perfect example of this. About three years ago, this dealer of Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda and VW cars and utility vehicles merged with another garage owner and moved to new premises that are connected to the group’s sites.

This project exemplifies how your average SME could communicate.

1

All on the same network After moving to the new premises, Delorge-Peerlings Group decided to implement a new network and telecoms infrastructure. “The premises were built from scratch,” recalls the marketing and communication co-ordinator of Delorge-Peerlings, “which has allowed us to plan everything, including IT and telecoms, from the ground up.”

Ingredients for efficient communication and collaboration Communication and collaboration take place on various channels, often simultaneously: 1 Telephone and voice traffic: this area includes land-line and mobile phones as well as the possibility to use computers as socalled soft-phones.

1 Messaging: essentially e-mail, but also voicemail.

1 Presence & instant messaging: This function allows workers to indicate their availability and to specify the communication channel via which they prefer to be contacted.

1 Conferencing: the possibility to set up virtual meetings or discussions.

1 Document sharing. for instance, applications like Sharepoint servers where business data can be consulted.

We appointed one supplier to take care of selecting and implementing the network and telecoms infrastructure, including as WAN, LAN and Wi-Fi, for all branches. And just to be clear on this: a WAN (Wide Area Network) is a connection of large-scale networks across the globe. As such, the internet is the largest and best-known WAN. A company’s in-house computer network is called a “LAN” (Local Area Network). WLAN or Wireless LAN, which many of us like to call “Wi-Fi”, is a wireless incarnation of a LAN. Delorge-Peerlings now has a uniform network and waiting customers can enjoy free Wi-Fi. Real collaboration is only possible when colleagues share transparent connections that create the illusion that they are all in the same location or network even while they are on the move. This may require a so-called VPN (Virtual Private Network). The data sent via a VPN connection are thoroughly encrypted, making such connections secure for sensitive corporate data. This means that anybody with the required privileges has access HQ’s data from wherever they are. VPNs are often used to allow mobile workers and reps to connect to the corporate network from wherever they are. The first step for secure collaboration: secure and transparent access to all applications and data.

2

Efficient communication The next step is less to do with connecting networks than it is with connecting people. After all, what really counts is that colleagues are able to communicate and that they are available to the outside world.

Whenever workers are scattered over different locations, efficient communication is crucial. One important aspect is to agree on a set of procedures, like entering appointments in an electronic business calendar.

Delorge-Peerlings Group decided to build the network and communication channels around how people work.

Mechanics, for instance, essentially use tablets. Another consideration was to implement an integrated communi-

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REPORT

“At Delorge-Peerlings Group, the network and communication channels are embedded in all business processes. We offer waiting customers free Wi-Fi, our mechanics use tablets for their work, and workers can collaborate thanks to the UC platform.”

cation strategy: “At first, we were only looking for a solution for our HQ,” explains the spokesperson. “But when we saw the potential of unified communication, we decided to expand the approach to also include the remaining four sites.”

Unified communication is a collection of technologies used to integrate all communication channels into a single application. UC encompasses all tools used to communicate with other people, even telecoms, so-called softphone applications for computer-based telephone calls, and e-mails, because e-mail has become the most prominent channel for business communication.

Delorge-Peerlings Group’s UC solution has made phone calls among and between co-workers and the various sites a lot easier and cheaper. In addition, this platform contributes to the quality of service. “Putting a customer through to the right colleague has become a doddle. We don’t even need to know on which of the sites they are.”

Wanted: co-worker That is just the beginning. An important feature of unified communications is the so-called “presence” aspect. This function allows workers to indicate their availability and to specify the communication channel via which they prefer to be contacted. Somebody who has a meeting, for instance, might accept e-mails but no phone calls. At the end of the day, this approach saves the Delorge-Peerlings team a lot of time. Plus, maximum availability is important for the group’s customers. “I still remember the days when we spent hours trying to locate a colleague. Nowadays, we can see where they are and whether it is okay to disturb them”.

Delorge-Peerlings is a good example of an efficient communications strategy—which again starts with people. UC requires all members of the team to be more transparent about their current activities by constantly communicating and sharing their availability with their co-workers.

Growth scenario A company that intends to grow in the future requires a system that can be expanded as and when necessary. The most crucial decision was to opt for a single centralised communication platform for the various Delorge-Peerlings sites. This is quite unlike what they did in the past, when each site had its own switchboard that needed to be maintained. Such a strategic decision provides a solid foundation for future expansion of communications tools and additional investments. They are currently analysing the feasibility of video conferencing applications. Plus, any site they may add to the group can be connected to the network in no time.

There already is a foundation for collaboration Which network technology or service do you use at the office?

(Survey among 600 Belgian companies) Fixed networks (LAN) Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) Video conferencing Unified communication Source: Smart Business 2014

71% 69% 18% 7%

Wi-Fi

69%

The number of e-mail users worldwide keeps rising

2.6 billion in 2015

2.9 billion in 2019

Source: The Radicati Group, 2015

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REPORT

3rd requirement for your company: flexibility

Faster and more 足flexible thanks to the cloud

Your company needs to be flexible. That is the third requirement we identified for this special report. You need to be able to switch quickly, and this also applies to your IT infrastructure. The so-called cloud assists you with this. To get you started, we interviewed several companies that have already migrated to the cloud.

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REPORT

I

T is becoming increasingly important for SMEs. In many cases, IT is even an inherent part of a company’s services, such as at Redcorp, one of the biggest B2B IT suppliers on the Belgian market. Redcorp is busy transferring its website to an external data centre where clients can place their orders. “We helped them build a site that supports over three thousand visitors a day,” says Gert Van Eynde, Senior Project Manager at e-nitiative, which manages Redcorp’s IT activities. The reason: clients who cannot reach the website (on time) are lost forever.

Flexibility was the main selection criterion: Redcorp can expand or shrink its website based on its customers’ needs.

The web infrastructure even comprises the internal IT environment. “As the website runs externally, we decided to add the IT infrastructure to it to build a homogenous environment capable of shrinking and growing as needed,” explains Van Eynde.

Classic vs. cloud After farming out its IT to an external data centre, Redcorp can once again focus on its core activity. “Guarantees regarding management and security can now be acquired as a service, allowing the company to work in a highly efficient way. All areas can be accessed via the internet and from mobile devices. This is a big advantage for the Redcorp team.”

Redcorp is a perfect example of the change of tack that is being implemented by many companies. Moving their IT to a different environment allows them to boost their response times. “I still remember the days when buying new physical servers to replace the previous ones involved a lot of copying as well as interminable software installations and synchronisation sessions. Nowadays, we can upgrade whenever the need arises simply by calling our provider,” muses Van Eynde.

Redcorp’s migration to the cloud was a deliberate decision. Their processing power and software are no longer located on their premises but “somewhere in the cloud”.

This move includes everything: software, storage capacity, processing power (performance), even the IT hardware.

Rather than buying hardware, the company now simply rents it.

The cloud, by the way, comes in different shapes and guises (see “Cloud incarnations for dummies”), which may very well mean that some companies are already in the cloud without realising it. There is also commercial software, like Microsoft’s Office 365.

The other approach is to consider cloud computing a strategic move—companies like Redcorp use external suppliers as an extension of their internal IT infrastructure. This approach focuses on using servers, storage capacity and software located in external data centres. Even though these two cloud approaches may be fundamentally different, their advantages are rather similar.

Gert Van Eynde Senior Project Manager at e-nitiative

Availability The power to adapt quickly is an important advantage of working in the cloud, as is continuity. This no longer only applies to companies like Redcorp, but also to traditional environments, like the education sector. The International School of Brussels (ISB), for instance, has 1500 students a day who log into its portal to consult their schedules. In addition, 300 employees access its management applications, some even from their homes.

Cloud incarnations for dummies SAAS (SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE): the most popular form of cloud computing. This is software that, rather than running on a company’s premises, is provided by an external party as a service.

IAAS (INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE): the IT infrastructure is rented to either replace a company’s internal hardware or to supplement it.

PAAS (PLATFORM AS A SERVICE): the cloud serves as a platform for developing SaaS software or even internal applications.

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REPORT

“Clients who cannot reach the website (on time) are lost forever.”

Whilst this platform used to run on impressive IT infrastructure, which required a lot of attention and effort, backup and continuity strategies proved immensely time consuming, and so, after a series of conclusive tests, several of ISB’s applications were moved to Proximus’s cloud environment.

Douglas Stone reports that this decision took a lot of pressure off the IT team: “We no longer need to worry about things like airco and electrical

What are the main advantages of cloud computing?

19% 19%

47% 47%

Always available

Scalable and flexible

5% 5% 21% 21%

8% 8%

Price Maintenance

Security

Which kind of cloud computing matters most to you?

Infrastructure as a Service

38% 38% Software as a Service

10% 10%

52% 52%

Source: Smart Business Strategies Datacenter & ZDNet, 240 Belgian companies (both SMEs and large corporations), 2014

Platform as a Service

power, license management or maintaining the server hardware, and we are glad this is over,” he says. “In addition, a ROI analysis shows that our migration to the cloud will also have a positive effect on our budget. Plus, it just looked like the right thing to do at this stage.”

Predictability Lowering IT expenses and achieving a positive ROI are only two considerations: the predictability of expenses is equally important. This was a serious consideration for yet another company that recently completed its move towards the cloud: AR&FP, which specialises in asbestos removal and fire protection.

Until 2013, AR&FP’s parent company took care of the entire IT infrastructure. AR&FP, for its part, needed more autonomy and therefore decided to install its entire infrastructure in the cloud. This was carried out in a phased approach, which started out with migrating their ERP environment (Navision) to the cloud, i.e. first the software, then the hardware. Next, all servers were switched off and the entire IT infrastructure set up in the cloud.

“We signed a deal with a service provider for a monthly fee that includes all technical interventions. This allows us to control and anticipate our IT expenses,” states Didier Martens, AR&FP’s Business Support Manager. “The system allows us to revise the contract on a monthly basis, depending on our workforce, while nasty surprises regarding our IT expenses are a thing of the past.”

Caveats Although the three companies presented here are good examples of the cloud’s potential, there are also aspects one needs to bear in mind. In addition to the external data centre, the team that looks after it as well as your company is of prime importance. “Choosing the right IT partner was far from obvious. We were won over by the expertise and transparency,” explains Didier Martens of AR&FP. The relationship with your supplier and partner is important. Being able to rely on a local provider is always easier than working with an invisible provider in a different part of the world. After all, such a partnership is bound to become a long-term affair: after successfully moving all applications and data to an external data centre, nobody wants to take them down anytime soon.

A second aspect to bear in mind is a company’s policy in this respect. In most SMEs, for instance, accessing cloud services are not initiated by the IT department but by sales people or other managers who start looking for cloud-based solutions such as software, which may be exactly what they need but have disaster written all over them for the outfit’s IT manager or managing director, because nobody knows for sure how and where the data are managed and protected. Such a move requires watertight agreements.

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INTERVIEW

Watz

“Our company is entirely cloud-based” Watz is among the new players on the energysupply market. A young five-strong outfit, it supplies 100% Belgian and 100% green power.

Watz tries to set itself apart through a transparent approach and oneon-one service.

Gert Haubrechts: “Our company was set up in 2013. Our selling point was that we were able to start with a so-called ‘greenfield scenario’ and to adopt an all-new IT strategy. We decided against setting up our own IT infrastructure, because we wanted to focus on our core business— supplying energy. After all, one can only provide excellent service if one doesn’t have to spend too much time with accounting and other administrative chores.”

What did you put in the cloud?

Haubrechts: “Well, first of all our accounting software, because cloud-based accounting software has a number of advantages. Our invoices and direct debit transactions are managed by our accounting software, and bank details are matched automatically, which saves us a lot of time compared with manually entering such data.”

for customer-oriented activities. Plus, we have access to more information. We can check a customer’s financial status and history only minutes before paying them a visit, for instance. And during such a meeting we can already take the appropriate steps accountancy-wise. While on holiday, or during the weekend, we can check any time whether all is still well, which is crucial for the management team’s peace of mind.”

I reckon that accounting is only one aspect. What else does an SME like yours use?

“Our entire management software with respect to customer administration and energy providers is also located in the cloud. This also applies to our telephone

switchboard, because it allows us to work from home and to link to the switchboard using our mobile phones. Furthermore, we use our trusted Office 365 suite for our e-mails, documents and sharing those documents.”

Do you use any mobile devices for your work?

“At the office, our team uses desktop PCs, albeit with touch-sensitive screens, because they are simply faster and more efficient when you’re on the phone with a customer. I myself have a laptop, an iPhone and a tablet. I suppose I also use the tablet for my work, although I have to admit that I mainly use it to browse through documents, and for my own presentations.”

“All in all, we save almost two working days a month.”

Geert Haubrechts and his co-founder

Can you tell us how much time is saved by this approach?

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SOLUTION

Readily available bandwidth

Three reasons why fibreoptic is still a sound choice Nowadays, Belgium is among the global pioneers that lead the broadband pack. As our mobile networks are both reliable and fast, one may be forgiven for asking why a company should nevertheless choose a fibre-optic connection.

T

here are several reasons why a fibre-optic connection sounds like a wise decision for a company. Let us have a look at them.

Multimedia First off, the internet has become the backbone of the global business world: most business activities take place online.

Hardly any company can afford not to run an online shop where customers can place their orders. The speed of the computers we are connected to is of the utmost importance, as any stockbroker will tell you.

Whilst trading shares used to involve one’s physical presence at the stock exchange, most transactions are now performed in the electronic realm.

Secondly, people tend to exchange evermore multimedia data, like e-mails with Powerpoint attachments, video files of

newscasts, video conferences, websites with a large amount of pictures, etc. Research conducted by the network specialist Cisco suggests that by 2018, over 84% of all internet traffic will contain video data.

Thirdly, more and more software applications run “in the cloud”, i.e. in data centres operated by service providers rather than a company’s private servers. This is also a clever way for a company to leverage the service provider’s continuity strategy. For precisely that same reason, data centres are increasingly used for storing data.

Proximus has already connected 700 industrial zones to its fibre-optic network The result: heavy traffic This bristling activity inevitably leads to evermore data being sent to and from offices, with no end in sight. This is where fibre-optic comes in, because it has what it takes to support online data traffic for years to come. Whilst 100Mbps may be enough for your company’s current needs, 300Mbps or more may be required in five years from now. If your current system already supports higher data rates, you won’t have to install a new one when the time comes. Fibre-optic can indeed muster up to 500Mbps.

Whilst bandwidth used to be expensive, rates are now tumbling. Plus, fibre-optic

lines are symmetrical, providing realtime access to data in a remote location. VDSL and cable lines, on the other hand, are asymmetrical (i.e. with different download and upload speeds). In fact, unlike copper wires (used for cable and VDSL lines), fibre-optic is not prone to interference, and therefore provides a consistent data transfer quality.

Managed services Like any cable-based technology, fibreoptic requires a cable to work. This may require earthworks to provide the cable connections where they are needed. Companies like Proximus have already done a lot in that respect. Over 700 industrial zones already have fibre-optic links. Companies outside those areas would obviously also benefit from faster telephone lines.

While the cables themselves are important, the “managed services” that go with them ultimately ensure continuity.

Companies requiring permanent access to online services may consider installing a redundant (backup) line that uses an altogether different route, to ensure that they have access to their data come what may.

More information Are you curious about the network infrastructure in the area where your company is located? See www.proximus.be/opticalfiber or send an e-mail to opticalfiber@proximus.com

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SOCIAL MEDIA

Van Marcke Group shares its experience

Which social media are good for your company?

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Pinterest. Which social media can be good news for your company? We looked at how Van Marcke Group, a distributor and retailer of bathrooms and heating boilers, and their social media coordinator take advantage of social media.

“O

ur philosophy has always been to provide relevant information,” explains Philippe Borremans, Chief Social Media Officer at Van Marcke Group. “We have been using an internal ‘social’ system for our workers for over five years. Although this could be thought of as a corporate incarnation of Facebook, we also created a real Facebook page about four years ago. Gradually, we expanded our social media expertise—and we keep learning as we go.”

Van Marcke, a Belgian family business, has taken advantage of social platforms for a number of years. Nowadays, the company hosts several Facebook pages: “One for end-users and several for our

various shops and installers. We also have a Twitter feed, which is essentially used as customer service channel, a corporate blog and a Pinterest page where both we and our customers post interesting interior design ideas.

Using the potential of social media efficiently and consistently is only possible if you already know what is being said online about your company

Such guidelines do not need to go into great detail. “As we believe we can trust our co-workers’ common sense, our guidelines only take up one and a half A4 page, and that may already be more detailed than necessary.”

The second aspect, says Borremans, is the importance of monitoring. “Using the potential of social media efficiently and consistently is only possible if you already know what corporate information is available online. Study what is being said about your company, your business sector and the subjects you care about. Even if your company doesn’t yet use Twitter or Facebook, you’ll find a lot of information.”

Borremans attributes this broad approach to the group’s diverse customer base: “Whilst we sell directly to end-users, we also provide a broad distribution channel for installers. We therefore need to cater to vastly diverse user profiles. Our overall audience is somewhat bundled on major platforms like Facebook.”

Guidelines Borremans knows from experience which aspects to pay attention to. “First of all, everybody—and by this I mean each and every worker—needs to know exactly how best to use social media. If the entire team is aware of the company’s approach, of what is acceptable and what’s a no-no, there should not be a problem.”

Philippe Borremans, Chief Social Media Officer at Van Marcke Group

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Five tips…

…to break through faster How did Alexander the Great, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, and YouTube icon Michelle Phan made it to the top in no time? How do certain start-ups go from 0 to a seven- or eight-figure turnover in a matter of months?

W

hat does it take to make it, either as a person or as a company?

Below please find five tips to make that break. These are taken from “Smart Cuts”, a book written by the entrepreneur Shane Snow.

1

Lateral thinking Companies that perform well are good at making lateral moves, which is exactly what successful people do: rather than climb the ladder faster, they simply switch ladders. Nintendo started out as a printer of playing cards besides trading in taxis, rice and hotels before eventually spotting the potential of computer games.

2

Work out with the masters Mentors have been key to many a success story: Socrates was Plato’s mentor who then coached Aristotle, who, in turn, assisted Alexander the Great.

The same applies to companies. Research shows that entrepreneurs who had a coach or mentor managed to raise seven times more funds and to grow 3.5 times faster than entrepreneurs left to their own devices. Even Steve Jobs, Apple’s worldfamous visionary, relied on coaches to stay on the cutting edge.

3

Choosing the right wave You don’t have to be the most accomplished surfer to become world champion, provided you know which waves to choose, says Shane Snow. That explains why seasoned surfers spend over an hour “reading” the sea before a race. The same applies to the corporate world. “Google’s Gmail started out as a tiny project, yet Google was already at sea, waiting for the wave of online applications when it took off.”

4

Seize the moment(um) The American-Vietnamese makeup artist Michelle Phan saw her chance when Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video clip was released. She made an alternative YouTube clip that explained how to use make-up to become a Lady Gaga look-alike. This clip went viral, and Phan eventually secured more views than “Bad Romance” itself.

Phan was clever enough to post her clip to YouTube on a Thursday, because YouTube’s homepage doesn’t change during the weekend, and so her clip remained up there for two additional days. This move started the ball rolling. Her clip scored over 800 million views and resulted in 5 million subscribers to her channel. Phan caught that wave to draw people’s attention to her earlier work.

5

Ten times better Lots of inventions, from Google. com to the iPod, became blockbusters because they were at least ten times better than anything before them.

“Rather than hit a homerun, you need to send that ball as far as the next city,” says Snow. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s (founder of Tesla) space project, wants to reduce space launch prices 100-fold thanks to reusable rockets.

Shane Snow, Smart Cuts – How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success, Lev, 2014, 270 pages ISBN: 9789400504110

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SOLUTION

Customer experience

Wi-Fi in shops More and more customers simply expect a Wi-Fi connection while shopping. Shopkeepers should see this as an opportunity.

“T

he retail sector is facing formidable challenges,” says Thierry Mossay, marketing specialist for Wi-Fi solutions at Proximus. Both retailing as such and pricing are under pressure: thanks to the internet, customers are better informed than ever, while e-commerce is really taking off these days. “Darwin also applies to the retail sector,” explains Mossay. He reckons that those who are able to embrace a rapidly changing situation

What a Wi-Fi connection reveals about your customers:  You can count the number of visitors to your shop  You can measure how long they stay  You know what part of your shop they visit  You can spot returning visitors, even if they come back after several days  You can implement a profiling scheme

stand a better chance to survive.

As far as the shopfloor is concerned, there is an additional consideration. More and more customers own a smartphone and like to connect to nearby wireless access points, preferably the ones in the shops they visit. “e-shopping provides online stores with a host of information about their customers: they know what their customers buy and want. Most shopkeepers are still unaware that they could gather similar information about customers who visit their outlets.”

Thierry Mossay refers to the Wi-Fi network many shopkeepers already use to support their business tools, such as scanners and payment terminals. Some even allow their customers to use their network. The advantage of granting customers access is that it allows you to analyse the shopping behaviour, to gather interesting information and to devise more efficient marketing actions.

What are the possibilities?

How does it work? It is already possible to gather a lot of information about customer turnover in a shop based on the customers’ smartphones, which don’t even need to connect to the shop’s Wi-Fi network for that purpose. “You can count the number of visits to your shop and measure how long they stay and where.

It is also possible to identify returning customers,” says Jacques Rouge, Wi-Fi product manager at Proximus. “As this information is anonymous, your customers’ privacy is not affected,” adds Rouge.

Individual measurements are also possible, provided customers log in by their own free will. “This is done by means of apps that keep your customers posted about special offers and promotions. For this to work, we recommend using a solution that allows for fast and easy registration. Most people don’t spend hours in your shop. An e-mail address or mobile number needs to be enough to keep in touch with your customers.” The third stage might be customers who log in via their Facebook profile, which provides shopkeepers with a host of additional data.

The above clearly demonstrates the potential of Wi-Fi for shopkeepers. The shopkeeper’s role is also expected to change from box shifting to pro-active pitches based on the information shopkeepers gather. Even though Wi-Fi has been available in shops for quite a while, its true potential is only just becoming apparent. “Some chains used to offer free Wi-Fi access to attract more customers.

Nowadays, shopkeepers can use it to gain a competitive advantage, so that offering free Wi-Fi more than pays for itself,” states Thierry Mossay.

More information

Me

Would you like to know more about your customers’

Wilt u

behaviour while visiting your shops? Send an e-mail to

voor u

thierry.mossay@proximus.com and we will contact and

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advise you.

naar g

May 2015 • 17

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30/04/15 16:35 mei 2015 • PB

TESTED

3D power to the people

A factory on your sideboard Today’s printers no longer confine themselves to paper. Thanks to 3D printers, anybody can “print” almost anything, like prototypes for an important project, with little or no technical background or skills. Yet, how much do 3D printers cost?

T

hanks to 3D printers, almost any home or office can become a factory, and while most of us know very little about 3D printing, this technology has become so user-friendly that anybody can put it to good use.

Rocket engines 3D printing is also called “additive manufacturing”, which sums the concept up pretty neatly: 3D printers are based on a process by which digital design data are used to build up a component in layers, by depositing a given raw material. These layers eventually lead to the finished product. In the corporate world, this technology is based on several kinds of materials. SpaceX’s rocket engines, for instance, are in fact printed rather than assembled.

Maize The more affordable printer variety, however, requires one of two readily available raw materials (called “filaments”): PLA or ABS. “PLA is a biodegradable substance made of maize (corn),” explains Jesse Buteneers, CEO of the 3D printing shop Trideus. “Plastic is chiefly used for decorative elements, like figurines. Yet, this substance is biodegradable and fragile to boot and therefore unfit for producing objects used in everyday life.” So what are the advantages of PLA? Buteneers: “Filament is a lot easier to handle for printing applications.”

Although filament is available in a rainbow of colours, be aware that most printers can only handle one or two colours simultaneously.

Whilst Da Vinci may do nicely for hobby applications, more sophisticated designs require a slightly more expensive printer.

ABS is a far more robust substance ready to take quite some abuse. “You can exert force to it,” explains Buteneers. ABS filament is better suited for objects used in everyday life, like an orange juice squeezer, for example.

You can create models of new building designs or test new objects without relying on third-party suppliers.

Filament Filament is sold as a long wire (about 100 meters) on a roll. The filament is transported to a hot print head, which causes the ABS or PLA to melt. The print head moves around and deposits the molten substance in the right places, where it solidifies. In this way, a 3D printer builds almost any object you can think of from the ground up.

Create your own models Although a lot of models for printing objects can be found online, users can also create their own. For professional applications, users will most likely create their own models. The good news is that virtually any 3D software supports all 3D printers. After saving your model (as an stl file), you can load it into your printing software, which analyses your creation and translates it into a series of commands the connected printer can execute.

This approach allows architects to create models of new building designs, and engineers to test new objects without relying on third-party suppliers.

An affordable printer like XYZ’s Da Vinci costs a mere €600, but may not be suited for semi-professional applications. Yet, although more sophisticated devices cost more, chances are that €2500 is all it takes to give shape to your latest product designs.

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Welcome to the glass cage

BOOK

Our GPS calculates our route, Facebook reminds us of birthdays, and Google answers all other questions. As we farm out more and more decision-making to our computer, we are faced with a growing number of side effects, states Nicolas Carr in his book ‘The Glass Cage’.

C

omputers are everywhere: architects use them to design buildings, solicitors to analyse evidence, and musicians to simulate musical instruments.

Plus, computers and automation still have a magic flair to them. Our grand-parents will probably never comprehend how a smartphone manages to recognise songs that are played at the local pub.

Unsurprisingly, the impact of IT is strongest in our (professional) lives. Just think of Google’s and other brands’ driverless cars, or the drones Amazon is using to deliver orders. Nicolas Carr believes that we are

headed in the wrong direction—computers make us lazy and give us a false sense of security. We need to reduce our dependence on computers.

Are computers smarter than humans?

Carr is not the only person to believe this: in sectors like share trading and care, excessive automation is starting to face resistance. Just think of those who were completely lost after relying too heavily on their GPS. Or of architects and doctors whose blind faith in IT has estranged them from their clients or patients. “What would

happen if doctors trusted medical software more than their own common sense?”

Nicolas Carr, The Glass Cage – Automation And Us, Maven Publishing, ISBN: 9789491845345, 2014, 334 pages

REVIEW

SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 EDGE

Sheer luxury Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge sports a remarkable look. Its curved screen is certainly unique, even though that may not necessarily be good news.

T

he Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is a devices for a life of sheer luxury.

Samsung is clearly targeting the same segment as Apple with its iPhones.

Don’t look for value-for-money—this device sports a deliberately unique design that will make you stand out with a screen rounded at the edges. While it is on, the screen creates the illusion that the images are located above the glass.

Refined power These curves also have a few drawbacks:

as the screen goes right to the device’s edges, picking up the phone from a desk isn’t always easy. It requires some training, but users eventually manage. If the curved edge is not to your liking, you can opt for the model with straight edges, the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Even without the curves, Samsung clearly focuses on quality. The proprietary Exynos processor has more horsepower than anything we have seen in a smartphone, while its graphic capabilities are more than up to scratch. The battery used to power all these features can be charged lightning fast. The fast charging function is on par with the variant offered

by other flagships with a cutting-edge Qualcomm chip.

Still, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge remains somewhat of an oddball. With respect to the Galaxy S5, Samsung has taken a giant leap forward—the S6 Edge truly is the brand’s new flagship. Although it does not outpower its competitors into oblivion, it provides an alternative for those looking for something special, even though its breath-taking design may not always be handy. By itself, this is already noteworthy in the oversaturated smartphone segment. We leave it up to you to decide whether that is worth €849 or more.

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16:34 mei 2015 • 30/04/15 PB

True business mobility is here.

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Designed for business and built with Intel® and Microsoft, the new HP portfolio of powerful, purpose-built devices will change the way your work gets done.

Need more information or want to order?

Contact an ICT Expert near you via www.proximus-ict-expert.be!

HP Elite x2 with the travel keyboard,1 the new 2-in-1 for business.

Powered by Intel® Core™ M processors.

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Intel, the Intel Logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

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