Business Review Asia magazine - October 2017

www.businessreviewasia.com

O c tob e r 2 017

IBM & NORDGOLD

INNOVATING TO STAY AHEAD OF CUSTOMER DEMAND

TOP 10 ASIAN TECH COMPANIES

CLOUDS

OVER

ASIA

japan and the business of nuclear protection

FOREWORD WELCOME TO THE October edition of Business Review Asia.

Our lead feature this month is an interview with Joen Van Driel, VP of Oracle Digital Cloud Applications Asia Pacific, who talks to Leila Hawkins about the exciting challenges involved in selling cloud products across the region.

Next, Jess Shanahan discusses the business opportunities associated with nuclear fears in Japan following North Korea’s missile tests.

The tech industry in Asia is booming and diversifying, and this month we have brought you a handy list of the top 10 Asian tech companies.

Be sure to look at our exclusive company interviews, including our cover story on PCI Ltd in which Dominic Chan, Senior VP of Operations, speaks about the company’s digital transformation, as well as exclusives with Nordgold, IBM and Proserv.

We hope you find this issue insightful, and that you enjoy reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it.

As always, we welcome your opinion and feedback on Twitter at @BizRevAsia

Enjoy the issue! www.businessreviewasia.com www.bizclikmedia.com

F E AT U R E S INTERVIEW

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INSIGHT

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ASIAN TECH COMPANIES

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INTERVIEW

CLOUDS OVER ASIA BUSINESS REVIEW ASIA MEETS UP WITH VICE PRESIDENT OF ORACLE DIGITAL CLOUD APPLICATIONS FOR ASIA PACIFIC, JOEN VAN DRIEL, A MAN SELLING CLOUDS TO ASIA… W r i t t e n b y L E I L A H AW K I N S

INTERVIEW

JOEN VAN DRIEL has been selling clouds for a number of years.

With roles spanning Europe, north and Southeast Asia, van Driel is currently the Vice President of Oracle Digital Cloud Applications in Singapore, where he is in charge of a team of representatives currently selling Oracle’s cloud products across Asia Pacific. Here, van Driel explains how he was drawn to the role because of the exciting challenges it presented.

Van Driel worked in various different roles at Oracle until 2007, before returning earlier this year as Vice President. He came back to the organisation because it posed an interesting opportunity for him. “Oracle was late in the game for the cloud, let’s be honest,” he says. “But they put a lot of investment into it and hired people and so I got the opportunity to run and build a fairly large, new team, focusing on selling products. I love building teams,” he says. “There’s a lot of investment going on within Oracle, in this new organisation, not only in the cloud, but also in the new market. It’s a big focus area.”

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Oracle cloud applications

THE CLOUD AROUND THE GLOBE Before re-joining the organisation van Driel held roles at Google, Adobe and Salesforce, positions that gave him experience of the various markets, in locations as diverse as Dublin, Sydney and Hong Kong. “When you do business in Southeast Asia today, compared to a more mature market, there is a big difference,” he explains.

These variations, he says, include how fast people adopt new technology, the age of the markets, and how much the cloud and broadband internet are

CLOUDS OVER ASIA

a part of people’s everyday lives.

Van Driel cites Japan and the US as being some of the most advanced countries. “Then you have second tier [regions] like Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, bits of China, Taiwan and India. If you compare them to Europe, I don’t think there is that much difference between advanced countries like Japan versus the US and Europe. If you look at second tiers it’s more like Eastern Europe, which is more like the level of maturity of these markets in their adoption

of more advanced technologies.

“If you pitch a solution to Indonesia and you do the same in Hong Kong, you’ll get different responses,” he continues. “Also, people like to wait until more advanced countries have deployed or successfully adopted it. The problem is that most of it is cloud-based. You need to have a very reliable fast broadband internet connection. If you don’t have that then it will be a lot more difficult.

“In terms of security, the less developed countries tend to have less data in the cloud and they prefer to have it on the premises,” he adds.

“More advanced countries like Japan understand that it’s a better alternative to have data in the cloud instead.”

Over the course of van Driel’s career, the industry has changed massively. At Salesforce 10 years ago, the concept of the cloud was unknown. “I was one of the pioneers at Salesforce,” he says, “so I had to explain what the cloud was. Now, most companies know what it is and what the benefits are. There’s a big shift going on compared to 2007. Ten years later it’s a completely different world.

“Now, most of the time the clients have more knowledge about the 13

INTERVIEW products than you have yourself, because the consumption of information and the access to information has dramatically shifted, and is so much more accessible.”

ORACLE COMPARED TO THE BIGGEST PLAYERS

BETWEEN $50 AND $500MN RANGE IN SIZE OF ORACLE’S CLOUD CLIENTS

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Oracle’s clients vary wildly, between $50 and $500mn in terms of revenue.

Van Driel explains that while the organisation traditionally targeted the large enterprises, now with the deployment of the cloud, it’s easier to sell to the mid-market because the time it takes to deploy

CLOUDS OVER ASIA

“IN TERMS OF SECURITY, THE LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES TEND TO HAVE LESS DATA IN THE CLOUD AND THEY PREFER TO HAVE IT ON THE PREMISES” and provision it is much faster.

The change to using the cloud as opposed to hardware has been considerable. Most of Oracle’s products are not native cloud apps, whereas the solutions from Google and Salesforce are pure multi-tenancy cloud solutions. “If you use an app on your phone then it automatically updates to the latest version,” van Driel says, “because everybody is using apps and that makes it so scalable and interesting, because you don’t need to have a lot of work dedicated to every individual consumer. And that is effective.”

Another big difference is that Google operates from the consumer side, while Salesforce is a pure B2B player. “There are a lot of differences in terms of how they approach the markets and how their products work,” van Driel explains. “All have a common goal that the cloud will prevail because it is such a massive benefit compared to doing stuff on the premises.”

LOOKING AHEAD While companies are now targeting the cloud, having moved on from focusing on mobile networks, van Driel says the future lies in artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning. “That’s the success and also the biggest challenge, because we have to be careful with that. It [AI] all sounds very nice and everybody is riding the wave, but it needs to be useful as well. It’s all kind of fancy stuff, but in the end, it needs to increase productivity, and that’s the challenge we all face. How can we implement that technology into useful business cases and solve business problems?”

Personally, van Driel sees himself continuing to work in the field of disruptive technology for a fair time yet. “I see myself in a start-up or in a technology environment that I really find interesting. That’s what really excites me.”

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INSIGHT

japan and the business of nuclear protection

WITH NORTH KOREA NOW LAUNCHING ICBMS DIRECTLY OVER JAPAN, BUSINESS REVIEW ASIA INVESTIGATES THE GROWING MARKET IN THE ‘LAND OF THE RISING SUN’, FOR NUCLEAR SHELTERS AND ANTI-RADIATION APPAREL… WRITTEN BY: JESS SHANAHAN

INSIGHT THE WORLD GASPED on 28 August when North Korea leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch of an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) directly over Japan. North Korea was no longer being viewed as an archaic joke, beating its chest to no one but itself. North Korea was now a deadly serious threat.

For many Japanese people, already alarmed by the news filtering in of its neighbour’s supposed nuclear threat, the missile that flew over their heads this August confirmed their very worst fears. North Korea could hurt Japan.

The fear of the rogue state has been palpable in Japan for some time. Indeed, sales of nuclear shelters and respirators designed to deal with sarin gas have been rising steadily over the past two years.

The Japanese government has screened a 30-second, primetime warning on TV, advising citizens to take shelter inside concrete bunkers during an attack. The TV broadcast actually heightened the sense of fear, with many panic-buying food and supplies. Many Japanese towns have been conducting evacuation procedures since the first missiles landed within Japan’s exclusive 20

October 2017

THE AVERAGE PRICE FOR A SHELTER IS AROUND

$25,000

economic zone last March, and when North Korea celebrated its birthday recently, 60,000 Japanese people prepared to evacuate their homes.

Sales of nuclear bunkers have spiked also, with many manufacturers experiencing a year’s worth of sales in a month as the Japanese population looks to ‘shelter manufacturers’ to keep them safe in the event of a missile strike, both from a direct blast and the

J A PA N A N D T H E B U S I N E S S O F N U C L E A R P R O T E C T I O N

“THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT HAS SCREENED A 30-SECOND, PRIMETIME WARNING ON TV, ADVISING CITIZENS TO TAKE SHELTER INSIDE CONCRETE BUNKERS DURING AN ATTACK” after-effects of radiation or nerve gas.

Sales of Swiss-made air purifiers – that keep out poisonous gas and radiation – have wiped the shelves clean.

US-based company Atlas Shelters has responded to this demand by opening a new factory. President of the company Ron Hubbard says: “Our business is booming. We just opened a new 400,000 sq ft factory in Texas with Japanese investors, with the view

to supply the Japanese market.”

This response from companies around the world goes to show that the Japanese are definitely preparing for the worst. Hubbard continues: “Today we sent bunkers by ship to Japan. We will export hundreds of small shelters to Japan yearly now, primarily for new homes being built. The average price is around $25,000, but we have models 21

INSIGHT ranging from $9,999 to $10mn.”

Sales of bomb shelters first began rising after last year’s US election, at least for Gary Lynch, General Manager of Rising S Bunkers in Texas. He told the Miami Herald in January that sales were up 700% since President Trump was elected. Like many shelter companies shipping worldwide, Rising S Bunkers is “steady with orders” across its markets. We spoke to him about the recent demand from Japan - he says: “The Japanese people are extremely worried about the uncertainty caused by Kim Jong Un.” Osaka-based Seiichiro Nishimoto’s shelter manufacturing company has seen inquiries rise dramatically since the start of the year. Another Japanese company, Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, is offering a shelter for up to 13 people costing £171,028 – or 25mn Japanese Yen. Most of the companies supplying bunkers to the Asia region right now, however, are based in the US. US defense contractor Norad Shelters has seen an increase in business around the world, not just from Japan. Principal Mechanical Engineer Walton McCarthy says: “Demand has grown for underground shelters as a result of the North Korea 22

October 2017

missile testing, it has doubled in the last two months for corporate, personal and military clients. The problem now is that many shelter manufacturers are flooding the market with unrated shelters that provide little or no protection against radiation.”

This means that while a shelter might protect from a bomb blast, they don’t take into consideration the aftereffects of a nuclear weapon. McCarthy says: “Consumers [are] desperate to purchase shelters without asking the manufacturer to state what level of shielding the shelter provides.”

McCarthy has written extensive guidelines for buyers looking for shelters to ensure they get the right level of shielding under the threat of a nuclear attack. To keep shelter prices down, some companies install substandard air filters, giving only overhead detonation figures when other factors need to be taken into account, and don’t list radiation figures coming from air ducts and entrance ways.

It’s not just US companies that are seeing an up-tick in sales either.

Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, a shelter builder in Western Japan, has received eight orders this month,

J A PA N A N D T H E B U S I N E S S O F N U C L E A R P R O T E C T I O N

“DEMAND HAS GROWN FOR UNDERGROUND SHELTERS AS A RESULT OF THE NORTH KOREA MISSILE TESTING, IT HAS DOUBLED IN THE LAST TWO MONTHS”

two more than its usual total for an entire year, Reuters reports.

Those building bunkers tend to keep it quiet, but in speaking to a number of shelter companies across the world, it’s evident that the recent political climate in Asia is affecting sales in the region. This goes beyond the growing number of survivalists (also known as preppers) in the world – already a multi-billion-dollar industry – and extends to everyday

people who are looking to the skies and wondering ‘what if?’.

As this threat grows and North Korea tests more and more missiles, so the demand for shelters will continue to rise. While the threat of a nuclear strike is a terrifying prospect, it serves to grow a very niche market both in Asia and worldwide.

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TOP 10

TOP 10 ASIAN TECH COMPANIES From Forbes’ list of the ‘world’s biggest companies’, we reveal Asia’s 10 largest tech companies by market cap …

Written by: OLIVIA MINNOCK

TOP 10

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NETEASE Netease is based in China and provides computer, online and tech services including online and mobile games, such as the ever-popular World of Warcraft. According to Forbes it holds a current market value of $36.8bn. The company turned a profit of $1.7bn last year and currently has assets of $8.4bn. Netease was founded in 1997 and was a major part of the development of internet services for China and as of December 2016 the company had 15,948 employees

09 FANUC Fanuc is a Japanese robotics developer and holds a market value of $39.6bn according to Forbes and has assets of $13bn. Founded in 1956, the company now has over 259 local offices, including a dedicated European network with 28 subsidiaries which provides sales, technical, logistics and service support.

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SONY Tech giant Sony, founded in Japan in 1946, holds a current market value of $40.4bn with assets totaling $151.7bn.

Sony Corporation now employs over 128,000 people in different divisions: TV & Video, Audio, Medical, Smartphones and Internet, and FeliCa (contactless ID technology).

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07 CANON Multinational corporation Canon holds a market value of $41.6bn and according to Forbes held $44.1bn worth of assets at the end of 2016.

Established in 1937, the company founded in Japan, provides business solutions, consumer imaging, broadcast and communications, medical systems and industrial products. Canon currently employs over 190,000 people around the world and has 256 subsidiaries.

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06

KEYENCE Founded in 1974, Keyence produces automation and inspection equipment such as code readers, sensors and laser markers. Based in Japan, Keyence holds a market value of $48.3bn with assets of $10.4bn.

Last year Keyence made a $2.8bn profit. The company serves over 200,000 customers with 200 offices in 44 countries, and also features on Forbes’ list of the ‘World’s most innovative companies.’

05 HON HAI PRECISION Hon Hai trades as Foxconn Technology Group and is a Taiwanbased electronics contract manufacturing company. It holds a market value of $54.4bn and last year made a profit of $4.6bn; the company holding assets of $80.4bn. Foxconn was founded in 1974 and says it aims ‘to increase the affordability of electronics products for all mankind’. According to the Financial Times it employs over 1mn staff.

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T O P 1 0 A S I A N T E C H C O M PA N I E S

04

03

BAIDU

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS

Chinese company Baidu became incorporated in 2000 and is one of the largest web services company in the world. Baidu can be described as the Chinese version of Google and currently has 45,887 employees.

It also features highly on Forbes’ ‘Asia’s Fab 50 Companies’ list with a $59.9bn market value. Baidu made a $1.7bn profit last year and currently holds assets of $26.2b

A household name based in South Korea, Samsung currently holds a market value of $254.3bn. Samsung Electronics itself was founded in 1969 as part of the Samsung group and provides semiconductor, telecom and digital convergence technology.

It works across 60 countries and has over 200,000 workers. Its 2016 profits are listed as $19.3bn and it has $217.1bn worth of assets.

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02

ALIBABA Found in 1999, China’s answer to Amazon holds a current market value of $264.9bn. The group has offices in 15 countries including Australia, the UK and the US. The online retail giant has a total of 50,092 employees as of March 2017. Alibaba aims to help merchants, brands and businesses engage with users and customers via the internet and its profit for the last year totaled $5.7bn, with $70.7bn worth of assets.

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01

TENCENT HOLDINGS

China based company Tencent Holdings holds the highest market value of all Asian tech companies on the list at $277.2bn. It profited $6.2bn last year and currently holds assets of $57bn. Tencent started in 1998 and provides internet value-added services and online advertising as well as games and apps, IM services and online literature services as well as developing software and cloud services. It currently employs 40,678 people.

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PCI: Electronics manufacturing made simple W R I T T E N B Y: DA L E B E N TO N P RO D U C E D B Y: C H A R LOT T E C L A R K E

PCI’s cell manufacturi

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ing division

S U P P LY C H A I N

Through a transformation programme taking things “back to basics”, PCI has positioned itself to ride the oncoming wave of digitisation

P

CI Limited (PCI) is an Electronics Manufacturing Serviced (EMS) company headquartered in Singapore. The company offers a comprehensive suite of services, extending to all points in the manufacturing outsourcing cycle. This comprises of design, manufacturing engineering, material sourcing and procurement, assembly, testing and logistics. From the launch of new products to improving the competitiveness of existing projects, PCI remains dedicated to enhancing value at every step of the supply chain.

“We are a customer centric EMS company.

Apart from design and manufacturing electronic products for our customers, we are also capable in managing the entire supply chain for the customer,” says Dominic Chan, Senior Vice President, Operations - PCI. The goal? To be the EMS partner of choice for companies that require a highly competent service, one that can meet their complex demands.

A fully diversified company, PCI works with some of the leading businesses in a number of

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SAFE Secure, Align, Flexible, Ethical

“PCI is one of Velocity’s most valued business partner in the Asia region. We would like to congratulate Dominic and his dedicated teams at PCI on their recent successes!”

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S U P P LY C H A I N

industry sectors, including industrial, commercial, consumer, automotive and medical.

Customer complexity As the Senior Vice President of Operations, Chan is all too aware of those complex needs and, more importantly, how quickly they can change.

“The electronics industry is so dynamic, and with that the supply chain demand is ever-evolving,” he says. “For me, that means that the supply chain and operations of the company have to be versatile and responsive, providing innovative solutions that can meet those changing and unique requirements.”

It is this need to be agile, to be innovative and to be able to offer the right solution to the right

1972

The year that PCI Limited was founded

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PCI LIMITED

customer in the face of a changing customer expectation, that saw PCI embark on a transformative journey eight years ago, one that would “take things back to basics.

This journey saw the company invest significantly into three key areas that would completely transform the its supply chain operations, enabling that agility and versatility.

“We need to be able to respond rapidly to customer’s evolving needs and keep up with the pace of our industry. We needed to think big, but operate small,” says Chan.

Through this investment, PCI

“The supply chain and operations of the company have to be versatile and responsive, providing innovative solutions that can met those changing and unique requirements” DOMINIC CHAN Senior VP Operations

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bolstered its workforce with training Programmes, equipping them with the right skillsets and to improve their work processes and problem-solving abilities.

The company also identified what Chan describes as “technology enablers”, which saw the implementation of a new ERP system (SAP) and linking it with PCI’s Manufacturing Execution System (MES) in order to enable a far greater control of the production shop floor.

“It allowed us to collect more data,” says Chan. “And with that we could improve our overall performance.”

PCI also heavily invested in a system integration, one that revamped its entire quality system and certifying it to a number of standards, including ISO 9001 (Quality Management System (QMS), ISO 13485 (QMS for medical) and ISO/TS 16949 (QMS for automotive).

This particular level of investment was rewarded, with PCI receiving the Singapore Quality Class, a business excellence mark issued by SPRING Singapore.

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S U P P LY C H A I N

A challenging landscape No transformation is without challenge, and to transform in the way that PCI has over the last eight years is certainly no exception.

“The greatest challenge, really, is helping all the team members adapt to change,” says Chan. “We know that in our industry, the only constant is change. In each project implementation, we continue to pay attention to training. The key to mastering a specific skillset or capability within the organisation is to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn.”

Amidst the quest for versatility and agility, PCI is supported by its supply partners. For Chan, in the eyes of the customer the supply chain is

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PCI LIMITED

as strong as its weakest link, and the continuous challenge that PCI faces is identifying and working with the right partner who has the right capabilities for the company’s needs.

“It’s important to know where our own strengths and weaknesses are, and to find the right supply partner who can complement us in the right way so that we can elevate on one another’s strength to offer the best value proposition for our customers,” says Chan.

As one of the key areas for investment, technology has played a

“We know that in our industry, the only constant is change. In each project implementation, we continue to pay attention to training. The key to mastering a specific skillset or capability within the organisation is to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn” DOMINIC CHAN Senior VP Operations

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significant role in the transformation of PCI, and with the pace of technological change growing faster and faster, will continue to drive growth.

“It’s important to keep abreast of the latest developing in technology innovation. IT gives us more options in approaching any kind of challenges that we may face,” says Chan.

But as many companies innovate and implement new technologies, there can be the temptation to innovate for innovation’s sake.

Chan, however, understands this changing landscape all too well.

“Not all technology may be relevant,” he says. “It is more important to know what we need, and what the technology can offer, rather than to just be always ahead of the technology innovation curve.”

Powered by people A major core value for the company is its people, and PCI goes to great lengths to secure the services of its skilled workforce long term, with a large portion of its staff being with the company for more than 10 years.

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PCI LIMITED

The vision for the company is to continue to be the EMS partner of choice for OEM companies who are leaders in their own field” DOMINIC CHAN Senior VP Operations

“Each year, PCI has a long list of long service award recipients during our annual dinner and dance,” says Chan.

“This is something that we at PCI are proud of. We have an open work culture which brings about sufficient trust amongst peers and management that everyone is working towards a common goal of continuous improvement.”

While the company truly values the talent and the workforce already in its family, the company cannot ignore the future and the workforces of tomorrow. In Singapore, talent acquisition is a challenge for a number of manufacturing companies and so

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S U P P LY C H A I N

PCI works hard to attract the younger generations into a career in the industry.

“We run a management trainee Programme to recruit and nurture fresh graduates with high potential.

We give them a chance to participate in key projects together with more experienced colleagues, providing them access to senior management, while their career progression is being monitored by a mentor,” says Chan.

Over the last 30 years, PCI has grown, continued to innovate and remain as a manufacturer of choice, but the company cannot rest on its laurels.

Chan speaks to the age of digitalisation, with electronics manufacturing outsourcing continuing to expand at a rapid rate, with PCI being well positioned and consisting of all the right capabilities and experience to ride this wave and propel it to greater heights.

“The vision for the company is to continue to be the EMS partner of choice for OEM companies who are leaders in their own field,” he says.

“This is achieved through a strong spirit in continuous improvement, and achieving excellence in all the strategic projects that we do.”

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On cloud nine with IBM Written by: Fran Roberts Produced by: James Pepper

IBM

Eric Schnatterly, Vice President IBM Systems for Cloud Platforms, Asia Pacific, talks about the company’s latest pipeline of innovation in the cloud and data space

I

BM is one of the most recognised and admired brands in the world.

The business has been building on its brand for more than a century, with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, IBM enjoyed explosive growth, but it’s future was never completely secure. During this time, the company had to survive two World Wars, the Great Depression, and multiple industry transformations.

Then came the 1950s, a period of rapid technological change, with budding computer technologies – electronic computers, magnetic tape, disk drives, programming – creating a slew of new competitors and market uncertainties.

IBM had been a leader of the mechanical age, but success in the electronic age was not a certainty.

In fact, some analysts at the time,

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predicted doom for IBM, as the IBM install base of mechanical tabulating machines were under assault by upstarts and well funded companies offering electronic computers. In 1951, the US Bureau of Census – an IBM client, dating back to 1889 – turned to Remington Rand to provide the electronic computer UNIVAC. CEO Thomas Watson Jr was so concerned that IBM was too slow in adapting transistor technology that he issued a corporate policy in 1957, declaring the use of solid-state circuitry in all machine developments.

Of course, history shows that IBM successfully navigated this technology shift and went on to dominate the electronic computing era. Sixty years later, some analysts have declared the end of IBM’s industry leadership, pointing to

TECHNOLOGY

the threat of cloud computing on IBM’s traditional computing install base. Just like Watson did in 1957, the new IBM is responding to yet another technology shift, declaring artificial intelligence and cloud computing as strategic imperatives.

“I’ve witnessed, lived through and experienced first-hand the different eras of IT and computing over the past several decades,” observes Eric Schnatterly, Vice President IBM Systems for Cloud Platforms, Asia Pacific. “I’ve been working hard on navigating and transforming my team to be able to capitalise on the new era, which is driven by new consumption models and fuelled by data. We all now fully understand that data is the new natural resource. We all participate in a global economic model, which is based on trust, and therefore, to have a secure set of data is paramount. This natural resource has helped drive IBM’s transformation over the past decade. IBM is dedicated to turning data into insights, transforming the way people work.”

During the early part of Schnatterly’s career, IBM was best known by those

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IBM

outside of the IT industry for the IBM PC, which became an industry standard and spawned many new businesses and industries. While intended for business enterprises, the PC extended its reach into the consumer space, giving retail consumers visibility to this large, business machines company.

When IBM decided to exit what had become a commodity offering, some thought that was the end of IBM. “When it was announced that we were divesting our PC business,

IBM has produced

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TECHNOLOGY

many folks thought: ‘Well, IBM is out of business, they’ve sold their business,’ and yet PCs were just one small part of the business, and just as IBM did with time clocks, punch card machines, and the Selectric typewriter, it divested the old to transition to the new,” Schnatterly remarks.

“We’re an enterprise company and as such we have transformed into higher value systems, software and services, delivered via the cloud and targeted at extracting insights from data. My team is focused on the infrastructure that supports the full continuum of cloud delivery models, and designed for analysing mass volumes of data.”

Unlocking the potential of data Data – said to be the oil of the digital age – is something that IBM wants to help its clients exploit. “Our strategy is to help clients transform into cognitive enterprises and that means that they need to make better use of the data that they have,” advises Schnatterly. “There’s statistics that estimate that 80% of the data out there is what they call ‘dark data’ – it’s

not visible to search engines and sits trapped behind firewalls and within the confines of datacentres around the globe. For the most part, this resource goes untapped which means we are gaining no insight from it.

“What IBM is trying to do with our clients is to help them unlock the potential of the data that they have and to combine this with other data sources, to extract insight and differentiation. Historically, clients have done this through business intelligence programs and queries that they’ve created. They would build a data warehouse and they would have algorithms, big elaborate queries and reports that they run against the data, trying to use the results to make better business decisions,” details Schnatterly.

Creating rule-based programs to support the making of decisions is the old method. Now, companies are converting these rule-based algorithms into machine learning algorithms.

With cognitive-based systems, the machine learns as it goes. “The whole idea is to use algorithms that learn from data on the fly, thus allowing

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the system to find hidden insights without being explicitly programmed where to look,” explains Schnatterly.

There is a lot of exciting work going on in this space, and IBM is credited with having reinvigorated the field of artificial intelligence with the popularity of Watson – IBM’s cognitive system that beat Ken Jennings and Brad Netter on the TV game show Jeopardy. But Watson is just one of many offerings that IBM delivers to help clients inject artificial intelligence into applications, business processes, and procedures.

“We have a software platform called PowerAI, which includes the most popular machine learning frameworks, languages, libraries, tools, and their dependencies, and it is built for easy and rapid deployment.

Complementary to PowerAI, IBM also offers a collaboration platform, called Data Science Experience [DSX], where folks can come to learn, create, and collaborate about AI and deep learning,” advises Schnatterly.

DSX supports the complete data science lifecycle, helping data scientists bring their familiar tools such

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as Jupyter, RStudio, HDP, to curate data and create complex machine learning models and deploy these models into production. “Hortonworks, who IBM has selected to provide the Hadoop-based data platform, offers DSX to their clients because they see the need and value to marry big data with the complete data science lifecycle,” Schnatterly adds.

Another recent development is the growing and necessary use of hardware accelerators to mine this vast amount of data and to execute the AI algorithms. “IBM Power Systems offer unique, and industry leading capabilities, especially in the area of acceleration, that are unlocking new use cases for AI. Together with Nvidia, IBM offers GPU acceleration, but with a unique twist. You see, within the system, the GPU and GPU memory appear as a peer to the CPUs and system memory, with system level speed and bandwidth. Put simply, this means faster access to data, faster machine learning, and better business outcomes,” says Schnatterly.

“The need for systems that can handle the demands of AI, larger data

“I’ve been working hard on navigating and transforming my team to be able to capitalise on the new era, which is driven by data” – Eric Schnatterly, Vice President IBM Systems for Cloud Platforms, Asia Pacific

IBM

models, and distributed deep learning clusters, will fuel the growth of my business,” Schnatterly continues. “Of course, we will continue to provide the infrastructure for core banking, telco billing, ERP, and large databases, but we see the growth coming from cognitive systems – and this is our sweet spot. Our systems are designed from the ground up to handle AI better than all other alternatives, which allows us to navigate this latest shift from a position of strength.”

Head in the cloud In addition to machine learning, IBM is embracing cloud technology.

Whilst written usage of the term ‘cloud computing’ dates back to a 1996 business plan written by executives at Compaq, the concept only began gaining momentum a decade later when companies such as Google and Amazon began using ‘cloud computing’ to describe the new paradigm in which people were increasingly accessing software, computer power and files over the internet instead of on their desktops.

The cloud is not a place or

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destination, rather, it is now best characterised as a set of capabilities.

“This is not always well understood,” comments Schnatterly. “Largely due to the success and growth of public cloud providers, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), some folks confuse the cloud with a place to which you move your data and workload. However, a public cloud is just one type or delivery model for cloud services. In fact, there are multiple ways and places from which to deliver and consume cloud services.”

As most businesses looks to embrace the cloud, IBM is engaging with them around workloads and data, to architect the best cloud model and to deliver the best business outcomes.

“Some of our clients prefer to run some of their applications and workloads from the public cloud, for which the IBM Cloud would be a possible solution.

However, it is highly unlikely that any company would choose to move all their workloads and data to a single cloud provider, so it is important for IBM to allow clients the flexibility to support and maintain a multi-cloud platform strategy,” states Schnatterly.

“Since these multiple cloud types

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may include public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and hosted private cloud, IBM stands apart as one company that can address all cloud types and requirements. IBM’s list of enterprise clients is the envy of the industry and we are working with and helping these clients with their transition to the cloud, no matter the type, but architected to suit their unique requirements – and we know these unique requirements better than any other.

“When my team engages with a client, we take a workload and data approach, which leads to a recommended architecture.

Sometimes, such things as latency requirements, data locality, or even governmental regulations, will dictate the need to build and deploy cloud capabilities within the client’s own datacentre. Make no mistake, this is still a cloud, as such solutions still allow variable consumption and costing, self-service and automated provisioning – all the capabilities that one attributes to cloud service providers. But in this case, the cloud provider is the company’s own IT shop,” explains Schnatterly.

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Eric Schnatterly

Vice President IBM Systems for Cloud Platforms, Asia Pacific For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by people’s ability to create art from a blank canvas; to build a house from stacks of wood; to sculpture a human figure from stone; ...to create beauty from nothing. This passion for building and creating original pieces of art and objects of worth, put me on a path to becoming an IT executive with over 30 years of experience.

My love for art and design, led me to study architecture and facilities engineering at college. This led to an Internship at IBM’s Facilities Engineering department, ultimately leading to a job offer, upon graduation. While at IBM, I discovered new ways to feed my passion for creativity and design, but now extending to areas of high-technology. I became an evangelist for neat technology solutions and designs, leading to a position in sales. I had a real knack for helping clients visualize the “art of the possible” in the design of technology solutions that delivered tangible and positive outcomes. I also learned that I had a real knack for helping inspire large teams to do the same, leading to management and executive roles, in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

The facts and figures may not be works of art to most, but I am proud that I helped create and then lead a team that delivered $1bn of revenue and significant market share gains. I am proud that I lead a business where we create value for our client’s every day.

Today, I am the leader of a passionate team of sellers and technical specialists, working hard every day to exceed our business metrics, but it all starts with CREATING technology solutions that we would proudly display in an art gallery.

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“When it comes to cloud services, I have many routes to market. I also have partners and alliances with other firms that provide hosting services. Some of my partners have global delivery centres, from which they provide cloud services to clients, using IBM provided infrastructure – systems, storage, and software. For example, TCS – a global systems integrator – provides cloud services using IBM mainframes, power systems and storage, to some of the largest clients in the world. Some of our ecosystem partners are local or regional managed service providers that address data sovereignty issues. This provides the trust and localisation that some people are looking for versus maybe a global, public cloud provider, with whom there is no established trust or relationship.

“You see, my client may be a bank, who buys IBM systems and storage to install within their own private cloud, or my client may be the cloud service provider, who sells my infrastructure solutions as-a-service to the bank. I have to cater to all types of buyers – enterprises that choose to buy our systems and storage and

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install it in their own data centre and the providers of cloud services.

“Some of the enterprises do have us manage it for them in the data centre, others pick and choose and have a hybrid approach. Therefore, some of the stuff they do themselves, some of the stuff they subscribe to as a service, and we work with them to provide the glue that allows all of that to work seamlessly together, be secure and ensure trust is maintained.

This transition to the cloud – it’s not a threat to me, it represents a great opportunity,” Schnatterly states.

The transition to the cloud has opened up IBM’s technology to segments of the market for whom it was previously economically unviable.

“Now that things have transitioned to the cloud, I can provide infrastructure at hyperscale to big data centres that can provide this infrastructure as a service to clients not based on a server or a big storage subsystem, but based on just their compute needs and their storage needs, no matter how small,” Schnatterly explains.

“I can get very granular and we can now price to just the compute

and storage needs through subcapacity, which can be carved up smaller than a server, smaller even than a virtual server, right down to a subset of a core. You can sell and make granular your compute and storage, and we can reach a whole new audience, which was never a market I could get to before. So, this represents a big opportunity.”

New opportunities Understandably, Schnatterly is optimistic about what the future holds for IBM. “All of this bodes well for me and my team because those demands will drive new projects and opportunities for my team to engage with clients on solutions and infrastructure to help them deliver the performance, and keep it up and running in a secure and trusted way,” he concludes.

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INGENIOUS SIMPLICITY Challenging convention in the energy sector Written by: Laura Mullan Produced by: Mariana Lee

With the decommissioning sector booming in the Far East, Proserv has established itself as a market leader in the industry. Mathieu Al Kharfan, President for Asia-Pacific, explains how this has been achieved with technological prowess and ‘ingenious simplicity’

S

ometimes the brilliance of a business is in its simplicity and no one understands this better than Proserv.

As a leading global energy services company, Proserv provides products, services, and bespoke solutions to clients across the drilling, production, and decommissioning sectors.

Aiming to be the fresh alternative in the industry, Proserv combines technical ingenuity with design, engineering, manufacturing and field services expertise, to support clients throughout the lifecycle of their assets, with a focus on maximising operational performance and efficiency.

“We are really trying to challenge the conventional views, processes, and thinking which has been in the

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industry for years,” says Mathieu Al Kharfan, President for AsiaPacific. “‘Ingenious Simplicity’ is not just our company tagline, it is an ethos embedded into everything we do and stand for; from the way we approach our design & engineering right through to how we implement our work processes and support the delivery of projects.”

Ingenious Simplicity Proserv’s company ethos is a unique and refreshing approach which is helping clients minimise cost, risk, and liability.

“Historically, the industry has often over-engineered,” Al Kharfan says. “Companies tried to show how smart they were by creating something complex and allegedly

ENERGY

“You can have the best technology portfolio in the world but if you don’t have the best people then you’re not going to have the same level of performance” – Mathieu Al Kharfan, President for Asia-Pacific.

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PROSERV

“Our supply chain is critical to helping us deliver sustainable, reliable and quality services because we need to find partners who can support us as a global leader with a global footprint”

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more technologically advanced, but all of that complexity means added risk and unknown things go wrong. Our tagline that we lead by is ‘ingenious simplicity’ and by that, we always ask ourselves ‘what does our client need?’, ‘what are they trying to achieve?’ and ‘how can we achieve it in the simplest way possible with minimal amount of risk and cost?’

That’s what makes us unique.”

The idea of engineering simply is a new concept to energy services but it is one which has brought Proserv numerous successes. Sam Hanton, Vice President for Proserv’s Subsea Services division, says: “The whole industry is having to get its head around this different approach. It’s a completely different mindset.

“We really strive not to overengineer solutions because nowadays the energy infrastructure isn’t going to be there for 25 years, it’s going to be decommissioned in six months. It doesn’t need that kind of longevity or complexity so we’re helping to educate our clients and also the contractors to help them get efficiencies that maybe they

haven’t realised that they could get.”

Leading in the decommissioning sector The industry’s decommissioning sector is booming and nowhere can these reverberations be felt more than in the Asia-Pacific region, where the market was almost nonexistent a couple of years ago.

Thanks to its expertise, track record and reliable brand, Proserv has positioned itself as a leading global partner in decommissioning services. In recent months, it has worked with Premier Oil in Indonesia; Chevron, through Baker Hughes, in the Gulf of Thailand; BHP, through Fugro, in Western Australia; and PCPP Operating Co., through Sapura Technology Solutions in Malaysia. But why has the company been so successful?

“We are seeing that a lot of operators are planning much further ahead,” explains Al Kharfan.

“They want reliable partners with track records and experience who can consistently provide reliable, high-quality work for them. A lot

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PROSERV

of operators now understand the market more and the risks they’re taking. It’s not just about costs it’s about making sure that when decommissioning is done there is no liability for them because that is where the biggest problems lie. There’s been a change in mentality and that’s been very favourable to us and our approach and we expect that to continue.

“The market in Asia-Pacific is growing quite significantly. Right now there are at least 150 platforms which we know are already due or scheduled to be removed, so we’ve positioned ourselves very well with those contracts to be the leading technology solutions partners for decommissioning in the region.”

An extensive, reliable supply chain The main challenge facing Proserv is keeping up with demand and developing the extensive supply chain it needs to deliver high-quality services.

“Our supply chain is critical to helping us deliver sustainable,

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“We offer ingenious solutions which are simple, fit for purpose, and cost-effective for our clients but most importantly, we have technology at our heart” – Mathieu Al Kharfan, President for Asia-Pacific.

reliable and quality services because we need to find partners who can support us as a global leader with an international footprint,” Al Kharfan says. “Alternatively, we also need to find people who are very well established in the region where we’re working and who can provide us with a high quality of product very quickly.

“Without our supply chain, there’s no way we would be able to deliver the recent $4mn projects we won in

ENERGY

The sun sets on a Proserv decommissioning project Asia-Pacific, and so the challenge for us has been to build and further that supply chain. We’ve got a very good problem to have in the industry in that we’ve got more demand than we can actually cope with - that’s the biggest challenge we face.”

Investing in talent In the belief that people are at the core of Proserv’s success, the company has invested heavily into developing

the expertise and knowledge of its staff. This belief is manifested in the Proserv Academy - a virtual learning resource which aims to facilitate, support and encourage aspirational learning within the company.

“You can have the equipment in the world but if you don’t have the best people then you’re not going to have the same level of performance,” notes Hanton, and it’s an opinion that Al Kharfan echoes.

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1,300

Number of employees at Proserv

“I have been with Proserv for seven years and I’ve really grown with the company,” reflects Al Kharfan.

“It’s important that we help our employees grow to allow them to reach their fullest potential. This is something that I have experienced first-hand myself at Proserv, and I want to be able to offer these opportunities to my team because they can only achieve the best for themselves and for the company if they’re given the chance to develop.

“If you offer flexibility and space for people to grow you can unlock their true capability. You don’t always have that in larger organisations but this is very much alive in Proserv.”

Thanks to its global expertise, technological innovation, and a unique company ethos, Proserv has thrived in the booming decommissioning sector.

The Asia-Pacific region has proved a promising market for the company and it’s one where Proserv aims to be a major player for years to come.

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Russia’s gold standard Written by: Fran Roberts Produced by: Mariana Lee

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Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, Nordgold has come a long way over the past decade.

Created as a division within the vertically integrated steel and steel-related mining company, Serverstal Group, it is renowned as an internationally diversified gold producer today

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O

ne of Nordgold’s key strengths have been its top management, which has been instrumental in the company’s expansion, both domestically and outside of Russia. Today Nordgold boasts over 8,000 employees, spread across six countries on four continents.

“I think we’ve had a pretty dynamic management team, with a particularly high appetite for development and they’ve never been afraid of taking on projects that are outside of their comfort zone,” explains Matthew

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Wilcox, Project Director of the Gross mine project. “They started in 2007 through investment in the first mines in Russia and Kazakhstan and moved with the acquisition of High River Gold into the African market along with the expansion in Russia. It was a unique situation when a gold company with Russian roots obtained assets in Africa and continued to develop them, doing quite well out of them.”

Nordgold’s entrance into the African mining market also marked the beginning of Wilcox’s journey with

the firm. “I was hired by Nordgold in November 2010 as the EPCM manager of the Bissa Gold project in Burkina Faso. About a year later I took over as the director of the project and another year after we poured first gold on that project. So that was a major milestone both for myself and for Nordgold – commissioning their first greenfield construction work.”

Following stints in Guinea at the Lefa mine, and a return to Burkina Faso for the Bouly mine project, Wilcox now works in Russia as Project Director

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Matthew Wilcox joined Nordgold in November 2010. He was responsible for the engineering design, construction and subsequent launch of Nordgold’s Bissa mine in Burkina Faso, which was delivered on time and on budget and is already exceeding production forecasts.

Wilcox holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in applied Chemistry and a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering, both from Curtin University in Western Australia.

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Matthew Wilcox Project Director – Gross Project

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for the Gross mine. “Nordgold’s big milestones from my perspective were the commissioning of Bissa and Bouly, and obviously now we’re looking forward in the next year to the commissioning of Gross,” he explains.

Golden opportunities

The construction of Gross will be Nordgold’s third greenfield project developed from exploration to production, following the successful launch of the Bissa and Bouly mines. “It’s a greenfield with aspects of a brownfield. There is existing infrastructure there but we’re basically rebuilding it all as a separate mine. It’s clean and easy in the fact that we haven’t had to pioneer there,” advises Wilcox.

Located in Yakutia, Gross is not Nordgold’s first foray into Russia’s Far Eastern region. “Gross is very close to the neighboring Neryungri mine, which was acquired by Nordgold in 2007. It was one of the initial acquisitions and Gross is a neighboring ore body to the Neryungri mine,” Wilcox adds.

New infrastructure

As part of the new infrastructure

system, much construction work has taken place at the Gross mine.

“We are constructing a 1,000-man camp, 10-bay truck workshop and a gold processing plant. Our output will be on average 230,000 ounces per year over the 17-year life of mine.

The gold mine itself is a 12mn ton per annum heap leach,” says Wilcox.

“It’s a primary gyratory Metso crusher 50/65 leading up to two GP 500 Metso cone crushers. Primary and secondary crushing are then followed by approximately 3.5km of overland conveyors to our leach pad.

The leach pad itself is retreat stacking

A huge Nordgold mining truck

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using TNT stackers and portable conveyors. The ore is then leached with cyanide solution that is heated with waste heat from our power station.

“Cyanide solution is collected using a system of under heap drainage and the solution is then sent through carbon adsorption columns.

The solution is adsorbed onto the carbon, which is then what we call the pregnant carbon. This is then put through a desorption column where it’s stripped of its gold. The gold is again converted to a solution, which is then electrowon to the point where it’s a high gold content sludge and then it’s put through a final refining step and it comes out as a gold bar.”

A great gold producer

Nordgold has conducted an extensive exploration programme to identify the Gross deposit and its reserves.

“It has a 17-year mine life, relatively soft ore, and it should be a strong, low-cost, great gold producer,” Wilcox reveals. “It’s highly recoverable through heap leach so that’s one of the great advantages of it.”

Once commissioned – Nordgold

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NORDGOLD

CLIENT SATISFACTION IS OUR SUCCESS Established in 1986, Como Engineers’ provide engineering services and specialist products to the Mining and Resource sector. We are committed to working collaboratively with our clients to deliver mineral processing and engineering projects on time and on budget.

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Nordgold’s Bissa CIL plant at dawn

anticipates this will happen in mid2018 – the Gross mine will make a significant impact on the business.

“We’re predicting about 25% increase in overall gold production from our current level” Wilcox observes. “It will take us well past the 1mn ounce produced goal, which is a remarkable level in the industry.”

Naturally, the Gross mine has resulted in substantial expenditure

by Nordgold. “The investment to date is about US$150mn but the final investment number including the mining equipment will be around US$250mn. Obviously,

that depends on the exchange rate between currencies. We’re financing it almost entirely from the cashflow from our other mines, so we’re not going into debt to build this project,” remarks Wilcox.

Climate challenges

Despite the advantages of the Gross mine, the site has also presented some challenges for Nordgold. “We’ve had to be fairly innovative to build and operate this plant in the weather conditions that we’re experiencing in the Yakutia region,” Wilcox explains. “We get temperatures down to -50 Celsius, so recovering gold, leaching and producing power are all challenging things in that kind of climate.”

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“Nordgold tries hard to bring zero harm and is supportive of the local community” Matthew Wilcox, Project Director – Gross Project

NORDGOLD In mining, every minute of production is important, downtime and interruptions to power are costly resulting in lost revenue and lost reputation. Reliable standby power is a must and who else would Nordgold look to for the provision of such power but Caterpillar. In the coming months, Vostochnaya Technica, Caterpillar’s Dealer in CIS, will install and commission two, 3516 generating sets which will maintain leaching

operations in the event of power failure.

The Cat 3500 engine platform is the industry standard for heavy duty diesel and gas engines worldwide. Cat’s 3516 generating sets offer the field-tested power capabilities and reliability that make them, and Caterpillar Electric Power, the go-to power source for work in some of the world’s most extreme environments. The first of their kind to be installed in Yakutia, these generating sets will be supported by Vostochnaya

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8,000+ Number of employees at Nordgold

Technica through the provision of a stock of consumable parts and the assignment of two support engineers who will provide routine and emergency service and maintenance.

Indeed, extreme temperatures is what Yakutia is famous for. Only Antarctica has recorded lower temperatures than some parts of this region in the extreme north of Asia. “We generally work down to around

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NORDGOLD -40 Celsius, at least outdoors, and then it becomes very hard on the equipment. Our plant will be allweather when it’s enclosed and will be capable of operating in Arctic climate conditions,” says Wilcox. “The plant should be operable even in the most extreme climate. It’s not exactly in an easy position – it’s got challenging topography, alongside access to the site itself but there’s enough gold and we have to work around these things.”

The Gross mine is certainly remote – it is located 100km from the nearest community. Despite this, Nordgold is keen to give back to the indigenous people of Yakutia. “Nordgold tries hard to bring zero harm and is supportive of the local community in all regions we operate,” acknowledges Wilcox.

In Yakutia, Nordgold supports communities that live on the territory where the Neryungri mine operates.

Indigenous people called Ewenki represent a part of this community. This ethnic group has been living in Yakutia for centuries and reindeer breeding has always been their traditional

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occupation. Apart from providing jobs for these people, building schools and houses for young professionals, the Neryungri mine helps the Ewenki to maintain their traditional lifestyle tightly related to the reindeer breeding – Nordgold provides herders with gasoline, goods and transport.

“Our approach certainly depends on the project and where it is.

Obviously, the community’s not as big a thing at Gross where it’s a very remote project, but certainly during my work on the Bouly project, we completed a resettlement project for 3,000 people,” Wilcox reveals.

Advanced explorations

In addition to Gross, Nordgold has several other projects it intends to develop. “There is our French Guiana project – Montagne d’Or – and then there’s exploration project Pistol Bay in Canada, and some other Russian projects. I think Nordgold is one the bolder companies and it’s already got a very well-advanced development pipeline,” Wilcox concludes.

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Reindeers live in the vicinity

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78 NOVEMBER 2017

FRANCE  PARIS PORTE DE VERSAILLES  PAV. 4

Heading for a collaborative & digital supply chain

• EXHIBITION • BUSINESS MEETINGS • CONFERENCES www.supplychain-event.com

20-23 MARCH 2018

FRANCE  PARIS NORD VILLEPINTE  HALL 6

International Week of Transport and Logistics

• 40,500 PROFESSIONALS • 800 EXHIBITORS • 100 CONFERENCES • 8 HIGHLIGHTS • THE INNOVATION AWARDS • SMART HUB by SITL www.sitl.eu

20-23 MARCH 2018

FRANCE  PARIS NORD VILLEPINTE  HALL 6

Materials handling exhibition for industry and distribution

• 15,000 PROFESSIONALS • 150 EXHIBITORS • CONFERENCES • THE INTRALOGISTICS EQUIPMENT AWARD • SMART HUB by INTRALOGISTICS

www.intralogistics-europe.com