ANZ EDITION FEBRUARY 20 19 anz.businesschief.com
Wellbeing through technology transformation
A COLLABORATIVE SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATION
Airservices Australia
Digital transformation at an industry leader most influential brands City Focus
ADELAIDE
Reinventing a manufacturing hub
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FOREWORD
W
elcome to the February issue of Business Chief Australia and New Zealand Airservices Australia, Australia’s air navigation provider, oversees 11% of the world’s airspace and provides aviation rescue, firefighting services and air traffic control to the country’s airports. Niki Waldegrave spoke with Chief Information Officer Chris Seller about the firm’s digital transformation journey and the reputation for industryleading safety and innovation it has facilitated. “We have some excellent foundations in place today and we need to build on these to position for the future. Strong customer service focus and deep ATM expertise matched with the right technologies and partners are the keys to harnessing information,” Seller says. For this month’s Leadership piece, we speak with Delphix’s General Manager
and Vice President of Sales in APJ, Richard Gerdis, regarding the firm’s successful expansion strategy across the APAC region, and how digital transformation is combined with a focus on clients and strategic partnerships to expand Delphix’s reach. For this month’s City Focus, Harry Menear explores the Australian city of Adelaide, an emergent hub for tech startups in the region. In our February Top 10, we rank the tallest buildings in the region. Don’t forget to check out our in-depth company profiles for Bupa Australia and New Zealand, University of Technology, Sydney, Accent Group, Generali, Level Crossings Authority and many more. Enjoy the issue! Marcus Lawrence. marcus.lawrence@bizclikmedia.com
a n z . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
05
CONTENTS
10 AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA – A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
34 Delphix Letting data flow across APAC
Nuggets:
merging nd security a ce convenien through blockchain
44
TRANSFORMING THE BOARDROOM: INSPIRING WOMEN IN STEM
54 64
78 City Focus
88 Sustainability on a massive scale
APAC’s most influential brands
CONTENTS
102 Bupa Australia & New Zealand
152 Accent Group Ltd
174 Level Crossings Authority
128 University of Technology, Sydney (NSW)
192
240
Generali Global Corporate & Commercial
OSM Maritime Group
206 AXA Singapore
222 MARSH
262 Essilor
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA – A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 10
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA’S VISION IS TO BE VALUED AND RECOGNISED AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER IN THE PROVISION OF SAFE AND INNOVATIVE SERVICES TO THE AIR TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY. ITS CIO, CHRIS SELLER, TELLS NIKI WALDEGRAVE HOW ITS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS DOING JUST THAT WRIT TEN BY
NIKI WA LDEGR AVE PRODUCED BY
ANDY TURNER
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
11
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
A
irservices Australia is the country’s air navigator provider, managing 11 per cent
of the world’s airspace while providing air traffic control, aviation rescue and firefighting services. Owned by the Australian Government and governed by a board of directors appointed by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Airservices Australia manages domestic and international air traffic operations for more than 154 million passengers on more than four million flights annually. The industry and workforce have faced increasing 12
disruptions over recent years, driven by new airspace entrants, continual growth in commercial aviation, new business models and digital technologies. As a result, Airservices – which has a $1.08 billion turnover and owns and operates a number of systems and services that are connected both internally and externally – reintroduced the role of chief information officer in May 2016. Chris Seller, who has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry in some of Australia’s largest organisations including Westpac, Qantas and Jetstar, got the role, and established the Information Management and Data Services group in 2016. “This was a key message to customers, stakeholders and staff of Airservices’ commitment to move towards to customer-centric information service delivery,” Seller, who leads a 400-strong FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
“ AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA’S VISION IS TO BE VALUED AND RECOGNISED AS AN INDUSTRY LEADER IN THE PROVISION OF SAFE AND INNOVATIVE SERVICES TO THE AIR TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia
13
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
POWERING YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Find out more
ASG GROUP’S GROUND-BREAKING PARTNERSHIP WITH AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA “The largest move to the cloud in Australian Government history” will be completed at the end of 2018 thanks to ASG Group’s five year contract with Airservices Australia. The positive project update is a result of the engagement with ASG Group as its IAAS partner to deliver its corporate information technology services as a managed service. It provides these services via Vault Cloud, a platform certified by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). “The first stage of the technology overhaul has been to migrate the support for all the technical infrastructure that runs the business side – email, the agency’s systems of record, the desktop environment etc to an ‘as a service’ model,” says Chris Seller, Airservices Australia’s chief information officer. “ASG Group was awarded this infrastructure as a service contract and partnered with an Australian cloud services company – Vault Cloud. The migration to Vault’s secure private cloud environment has occurred over the last six months resulting in one of the largest and most successful cloud migrations undertaken by an Australian Federal Government agency to date.” The migration, which includes around 88 servers and 130 applications including SAP core ERP systems is largely complete, with all systems serving around 3500 staff relocated from Airservices’ Canberra offices to both the Canberra Data Centre and the Vault Cloud platform. ASG has demonstrated capability at managing large scale, mission critical and highly sensitive tasks for government customers, including providing Victoria’s Department of Justice & Regulation (DJR) with a secure platform for the cloud hosting of selected applications. By partnering with ASG, the move to cloud has delivered significant performance improvements for Airservices, and ASG’s Chief Operating Officer, Dean Langenbach, says, “As we have proven in the past, and once again through our work with Airservices, ASG is the genuine alternative to Australia’s traditional Tier 1 providers. “We have brought to Airservices our trade mark commercial model, which has agility and flexibility at its core. And, with that, our proven capability in cloud transition and business transformation.” “We’re local, we have the expertise, and we are invested personally in every project. Our parent company NRI – one of the world’s largest business consultancy and technology solution firms – has made enormous financial and resources commitments to ASG’s mission. We are more enabled and ready than ever before.” - Dean Langenbach, ASG COO
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION FOR THE FUTURE Along with its cloud migration, the transition to a managed services delivery model provides Airservices with a number of benefits, including improving service quality and availability, reducing overall information technology operating costs, enhanced information security and increasing service flexibility. ASG’s five-year contract includes the delivery of a solution encompassing several key components: •Cloud Services Provision of ASD certified cloud computing capability (provided by Vault Systems) with industry best practice security, redundancy, and failover capabilities. ASG’s cloud services will also deliver both public and private capability allowing for segregation of secure and protected workloads. •Consumption of services ASG provides with a range of services on a consumption basis with monthly service costs based on Airservices’ actual consumption of key services. •Transformation A significant component of the journey to cloud capability is the transformation of ICT Services from on-premise to cloud, upgrade of end user computing, rationalisation of server infrastructure, and optimisation of the server and data layer for application performance improvement. •Innovation and Continuous Improvement As a strategic partner, ASG has been engaged to assist Airservices to identify and execute initiatives to improve business efficiency and agility, while seeking to drive down operational costs. Supported by a jointly managed Innovation Fund, ASG and Airservices fund key initiatives across the business.
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
“ WE ARE MODERNISING AND SIMPLIFYING OUR ENTIRE TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT. BASED ON EMERGING AVIATION INDUSTRY TRENDS, IT IS CLEAR THAT WE WILL NEED TO PLAY A BROADER ROLE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF ALL AIRSPACE FOR POTENTIAL USERS” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia 16
team, says. “We are modernising and streamlining our entire technology environment. Based on emerging aviation industry trends, it is clear that information driven services will need to play a broader role in the management of all airspace for all current and future users.” He insists key programs to refresh the organisation’s telecommunications network, cybersecurity capabilities, technology infrastructure, corporate and business support systems are critical enablers to support its business agility ambitions. “Our strategy has focused on driving new and innovative technology outcomes, both internally and by working with industry partners to enable new operational efficiencies and customer services,” he adds. Airservices Australia’s partners include NEC, Nokia, Telstra, Optus and SITA for telecommunications, Vault Cloud and ASG Group for technology infrastructure, SAP for business systems, and organisations like Saab, Frequentis, Metron, Ingegneria Dei Sistemi (IDS) and Thales Group for its air traffic management (ATM) systems. Airservices is fundamentally transforming its information and technology services by integrating its Operational (Engineering) and Enterprise (ICT) capabilities to ensure it capitalises on the significant engineering and
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘24 HOURS IN AUSTRALIA’S AIRSPACE’ 17 safety-critical design capabilities within
performance-based operations –
the organisation, while introducing more
delivered through system and informa-
contemporary ICT skills and techniques.
tion integration based on a modern,
Five strategic imperatives have been defined that will shape the development of Airservices Australia’s information and technology roadmap: 1. Customer focused Information
scalable, and standardised enterprise architecture. 3. Automation and digitisation – designed to enable business agility and improve information capture,
Management – secure real-time
processing and human-to-system
information exchange across customer
interactions.
and stakeholder groups through the
4. Modernised, secure and agile
implementation of contemporary
ICT services – that support evolving
information management, analytics
business needs through the implemen-
and reporting practices.
tation of modular, scalable, commod-
2. Modernised ATM capabilities for
itised technology infrastructure and a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
C OMPA N Y FA C T S
Airservices Australia: • Has a $1.08 billion turnover • Is the county’s air navigation provider • Is owned by the Australian Government and governed by a board of directors appointed by the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport
20
• Manages domestic and international air traffic operations for over 154 million passengers on more than four million flights in a region covering 11% of the world’s service • Provides air traffic control, navigation and aviation rescue, aeronautical data and firefighting services • Reintroduced the CIO role and established the Information Management and Data Services group in 2016
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
“ O UR STRATEGY HAS FOCUSED ON DRIVING NEW AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY OUTCOMES, BOTH INTERNALLY AND BY WORKING WITH INDUSTRY PARTNERS TO ENABLE NEW OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES AND CUSTOMER SERVICES” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia
telecommunications with isolation for protection of regulated safety critical components. 5. Cyber Security enhancements
a digital organisation, with a focus on information management and more contemporary technology to support a more efficient, agile business. “One of the biggest things that we did, was to sit down and map out what our priorities are,” he says. “How do we take an organisation, which is one of the most highly respected, and arguably one of the best air navigation providers in the world, to actually build on that capability, to make it better, and take it beyond the capability that we’d already achieved?” That work spawned an ambitious 5-year technology roadmap. “This roadmap sets out a digital transformation strategy essential for us
– to detect, prevent, protect, resolve
to achieve our ambition. The first thing
and respond, enabling strict compli-
that was clear, was that when you’re
ance requirements for critical national
coming from a very asset centric
infrastructure while ensuring future
engineering organisation, you need to
developments can occur at a pace with
start looking at the culture, and move
confidence and trust in the integrity,
away from being an owner/operator,
confidentiality and availability of our
someone who builds things and oper-
information and systems assets.
ates them, to somebody who can
Seller claims one of the biggest
identify how to source fit-for-purpose
changes to the organisation has been
solutions, whether they be internal or
the shift in the thinking from being an
externally provided, and integrate them
engineering organisation, focused
to solve business problems.”
on asset management, to becoming
The first stage of the technology a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
21
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S U P P LY C H A I N
overhaul has been to migrate the support
The next stage of the infrastructure
for all the technical infrastructure that
transformation will be to modernise the
runs the business side – email, the
agency’s complex telecommunications
agency’s systems of record, the desktop
infrastructure.
environment, etc. to an ‘as a service’
“Our operations are highly dependent
model. ASG Group was awarded this
on reliable and resilient telecommuni-
infrastructure as a service contract
cations. Our network covers much of
and partnered with an Australian cloud
the Australian continent and has grown
services company — Vault Cloud.
organically over many years to meet
“The migration to Vault’s secure private
the needs of our air traffic operations
cloud environment has occurred over
and business systems. We have recently
the past six months resulting in one of
done a full review of our future telecom-
the largest and most successful cloud
munications needs and how future
migrations undertaken by an Australian
space-based services will integrate
Federal Government agency to date.”
with our terrestrial services. We have
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Chris Seller has over 30 years experience in the IT industry and his career has included senior executive level roles with accountability for technology strategy and transformation, infrastructure and operations, enterprise architecture, strategic sourcing, organisational change management, program management, and applications development with industry experience extending across financial services, aviation, commercial software development, and cartography. Chris’ role as CIO for Airservices is ensure the right technology systems and organisational structures are in place to prepare for the changes occurring in the global air navigation services industry. a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
23
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
“ O UR MAJOR POSTURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT WE’RE A VERY SAFETY-ORIENTATED ORGANISATION, AND WE ARGUE THAT WE ARE ONE OF THE MOST SAFETY CONSCIOUS ORGANISATIONS IN THE COUNTRY” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia 24 begun the work on this modernisation program which will take about 2 years to complete.” Another big driver for the digital strategy is the ambitious Digital Information Program, which will deliver enhanced information management capabilities and a broader information driven strategic direction through to the end of the next decade and beyond. “That’s our ability to aggregate the data from a myriad of sources across our operational world, and our back office, into a standardised platform that then allows us to securely and efficiently process and distribute that FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
information, both internally and externally,” Seller explains. “Previously, we hadn’t thought about how we might apply analytics beyond our basic operational needs but we believe we have the capability and know-how to add value way beyond what we have traditionally done. Much of the data that we manage in our environment, if we apply the right analytics, and the right transformation processes, becomes valuable – helping our customers and partners work smarter and perform better.” DIG I TA L S T R AT E G Y
The five strategic imperatives defined to shape the development of Airservices Australia’s roadmap and portfolio of initiatives are: 1. Customer focused Information Management — this requires secure real-time information exchange across customer groups and the development of master data management, analytics and reporting processes.
“This platform, and the transformation in our information management capabilities, are two really big priorities that we’re working on at the moment. The organisation is very keen for us to drive those initiatives as fast as we can.” When modernising such an environment with more contemporary capability, security threats are a real issue. As a consequence, Airservices Australia is undertaking a major cyber security programme. “Our posture has always been that we’re a very safety orientated organisation, and we argue that we are one of the most safety conscious organisations in the country,” he says. a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
25
Commitment beyond technology.
The height of air traffic management.
At Saab ATM, we are dedicated to creating aviation systems and services that enable safe, predictable and efficient operations. We deliver innovative solutions to air navigation service providers, airports and airlines at over 100 locations in more than 45 countries. As a global provider of ATM solutions, we transform operations, turning innovative ideas into reality.
saab.com.au
S U P P LY C H A I N
“But we’ve started to introduce the concept that, ‘can we really be sure it’s safe if it’s not secure?’ If we’re going to aggregate this data and distribute it, people will want to know that that is being done securely.” “That gives us the best chance of delivering secure industry and customer outcomes more flexibly and faster than we’ve been able to do in the past.” he says. Another major initiative that builds on the capabilities being delivered by the digital platform is the Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) program. “Airservices has been an industry leader in the Collaborative Decision-Making concept, where Airservices, Aircraft Operators and Airports work together through the
“ W E THINK THAT THE SUPPLIER AND THE MANUFACTURER OF THESE SYSTEMS IS OFTEN BETTER PLACED TO DO THE LEVEL TWO AND THREE MAINTENANCE” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia
exchange of real time information to optimise air traffic network operations.
international flights into its demand
Significant benefits for the industry
and capacity program that manages
and travelling public can be achieved
traffic flow efficiency at all of the major
through implementing A-CDM which is
aerodromes across the country.
aimed at taxi time and air traffic flow management delay reductions.” Airservices Air Traffic Flow Manage-
“This is another example of an information based collaborative decision-making system”,” he explains.
ment program will be another world
“We have a system that looks at the
first, using software built by Metron, the
runway demand, weather and other
company will soon be able to integrate
operational constraints to calculate how a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
27
www.frequentis.com
Rethinking ATC towers Frequentis is actively driving the evolution of digital towers
Frequentis customers benefit from more than seventy years
across the world through involvement in major research
of experience in mission-critical air traffic control solutions.
programs such as SESAR, and by driving standardisation
The desire to innovate and develop technologies that solve
through working groups like EUROCAE, to enable safe
safety, capacity and efficiency demands is at the core of what
operations.
we do.
FREQUENTIS Australasia Pty. Ltd. 1 / 425 Nudgee Road, Hendra QLD 4011, Australia
many aircraft can land safely at any
to integrate international flights into the
particular time at a particular aerodrome.”
same programme. This will allow us to
“This morning, with very heavy fog in
provide real time network information to
Sydney we would have had to signifi-
the airlines so they can make trajectory
cantly reduce arrivals or departures
adjustments during the most efficient
for a period of time. What we do is run
part of their flight to best fit in with the
a demand simulation that sets the safe
domestic operations at their destination
movement numbers and we work with
aerodrome.”
the airlines to assist them to figure out
Another exciting development is
the impacts across the network and
the investment in Digital Aerodrome
what options they have if they can’t land
Services. The opportunity is to use
in Sydney. Do they cancel? Do they
multiple high definition camera arrays
delay? What are the operational and
to provide a digital view of operations
customer impacts across the day etc?”
at an aerodrome. This means air traffic
“We’re currently building the capability FEBRUARY 2019
controllers will be watching real time
S U P P LY C H A I N
“ TO SUCCEED, WE NEED TO CONTINUE OUR FUNDAMENTAL CULTURAL CHANGE” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia
high-quality video images – reducing emphasis on the traditional 360-degree view from a cabin high above a central point at the aerodrome. “This technology is in its early stages of its evolution and we see huge benefits in the near future as new capabilities like machine learning and pattern recognition are integrated to augment the services provided by controllers.” All these initiatives are also aimed at supporting Airservices Australia’s ambitious Air Navigation Modernisation Program, OneSKY, which is delivering the new joint civilian and military air traffic system (CMATS). “This is the first time in the world that
29 DIG I TA L S T R AT E G Y
2. Modernised ATM capabilities for performancebased operations — delivered through data and information integration based on a modern, scalable, standardised enterprise architecture. 3. Automation and digitisation — designed to enable business agility and improve information capture, processing and human-tosystem interactions.
this has been done at this scale, and a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA
DIG I TA L S T R AT E G Y with these many partners, anywhere, so there’s a lot of focus on that,” he explains. “And that will drive the predictability of passengers’ journeys.” Part of that program is already live and the core system that the air traffic controllers use will come online around 2024, cementing the technology as the most modern and up to date air traffic control system globally. With all of this technology transformation Airservices is exploring how to use its partners more efficiently without 30
having to become the technical experts for every system used in their operations. “We think that the suppliers and the manufacturers of these systems are often better placed to support us when
“ WE HAVE SOME EXCELLENT FOUNDATIONS IN PLACE TODAY AND WE NEED TO BUILD ON THESE TO POSITION FOR THE FUTURE. STRONG CUSTOMER SERVICE FOCUS AND DEEP ATM EXPERTISE MATCHED WITH THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGIES AND PARTNERS ARE THE KEYS TO HARNESSING INFORMATION” — Chris Seller, CIO, Airservices Australia FEBRUARY 2019
4. Modernised, scalable, secure and agile ICT services — that support evolving business needs through the development of modular, scalable, commoditised network infrastructure with isolation for protection of regulated safety critical components. 5. Cyber Security enhancements — to detect, prevent, protect, respond and resolve security incidents to meet the strict compliance requirement for critical national infrastructure while enabling future developments to occur at a pace with confidence and trust in the integrity, confidentiality and availability of our information and system assets.
it comes to detail design and maintenance activities, our role should be to ensure we are getting the best solutions and services required to maintain our operations to the highest standards.” he explains. “We must also embed agility and speed
S U P P LY C H A I N
$1.08bn Approximate revenue
1995
Year founded
3,500
Approximate number of employees
into our delivery. To succeed, we need
a strong service delivery focus and
to continue our fundamental cultural
deep ATM expertise. Their collective
change. Supporting this are technology
efforts over the past couple of years
services, solutions and business
have been outstanding. As we look to
partnerships that focus on innovation,
the future, we will need to embrace
automation and digitalisation – ruthlessly
change to ensure we balance these
driving standardisation as well as
foundations with the right blend of
creating new value outcomes.”
technologies and new capabilities to
“We are really proud of the team we
meet the challenges that lie ahead.”
have in place – we are building from solid foundation, with teams that have a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
31
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LEADERSHIP
Delphix: letting data flow across APAC
34
Richard Gerdis, Delphix’s GM and VP of Sales in APJ, discusses the tech firm’s expansion strategy in the APAC region and the loyal clients that make it possible WRITTEN BY
FEBRUARY 2019
M ARCUS L AWRENCE
35
a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com
LEADERSHIP
R
edwood, California-based Delphix is committed to wiping data friction away. Whether between
DevOps and DataOps teams or companies and digital transformation specialists, the need to share data in a rapid, secure and relevant fashion grows by the day. To achieve this, a growing number of
firms around the world are leveraging Delphix’s Dynamic Data Platform. Where there is technological advancement there is an influx of data that needs to be kept secure while remaining 36
accessible to those that need it. With this growth there is also increased demand for data specialists (of which there is a global shortage), database administrators and storage space for the data itself. Richard Gerdis, General Manager and Vice President of Sales for Delphix’s Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) operations, says the Dynamic Data Platform solves each of these problems for firms in the midst of digital transformation, as well as for new companies seeking a significant boost in data efficiency. Highlighting data consumers, Gerdis says that this increase in data volumes is matched by the amplified desire to harness it at speed. “What we’re seeing FEBRUARY 2019
is this huge rise in the amount of data and the number of projects being undertaken within organisations,” he says. “We’re really looking to move faster and to be able to manage that data across a much wider spectrum in an organisation.” Data operators, conversely, are contending with a huge increase in governance of risk that correlates with the sheer mass of data they must manage and maintain governance for. “Between your data
“When it comes to smaller niche partners, they’ve got incredible knowledge of the geography that they play in” — Richard Gerdis, General Manager and Vice President of Sales in APJ, Delphix
consumers and your data operators, we have what we call data friction. These teams are not working well together, and Delphix’s mission is really to eliminate that data friction and bring these two teams closer together. We empower the data operators, and we
make data quickly, easily and securely accessible for the data consumers,” Gerdis says. a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com
37
LEADERSHIP
CLICK TO WATCH : DATA MANAGEMENT CLOUD ENVIRONMENT 38
These objectives are underpinned
incredibly important when you’re devel-
by Delphix’s security practices and
oping and testing applications, if it gets
commitment to ensuring that the right
into the wrong hands it’s absolutely
data flows only into the right hands.
useless. It’s meaningless data.”
The firm achieves this through data
As the Asia Pacific region experi-
masking, which itself is more secure
ences enormous technological growth,
than encryption through being far
particularly in Delphix’s ASEAN markets
harder to bypass. “With masking, we
comprising Singapore, Thailand,
take a field, for example our customer
Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the
record, and we mask it in that it may be
Philippines, Delphix is ideally positioned
your first name, my surname. It might
to capitalise on this market opportunity.
be someone’s credit card details and
“We’ve increased our new business by
somebody else’s address details. While
50% in the past six months and we’ve
it acts and looks like real data, which is
brought on eight new enterprise
FEBRUARY 2019
customers in the last six months in APJ,” says Gerdis, adding that the firm has doubled its headcount in the region over the same period. With each of its APAC customers renewing their year-to-date subscriptions, Delphix has certainly struck a chord with the market. To name a few, the firm counts Microsoft, Capgemini, Cognizant, Accenture and DXC amongst its customers. “When we look in Asia Pacific and Japan, we act to drive all of our business through partners,” Gerdis says. In Japan, Delphix has accelerated its growth via partnerships with technology companies such as CTC, KK Ashisuto and Inside Technol-
“As data grows, the resources required to manage that data become exponential as well” — Richard Gerdis, General Manager and Vice President of Sales in APJ, Delphix
ogy, leveraging routes into the market through established players. On 19 November this year, Japanese car manufacturer Mazda announced that it has selected Delphix’s data management solution, provided by KK Ashisuto, to harness DataOps for accelerated digital transformation and innovation. Delphix’s partner driven strategy has proven successful across the region, a further example being the business won in Australia through its alliance with Dimension Data. “When it comes to smaller niche partners, they’ve got incredible knowledge of the geography that they play in,” says Gerdis. “We have partners in Malaysia, for example, a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com
39
LEADERSHIP
2008 Year founded $100mn Approximate revenue
+ 400 Approximate number of employees
40
that have great experience working with
as one of these issues holding compa-
Malaysian organisations. They open
nies back during their digital transfor-
doors for us, and they’re an extension
mation programs. “As data grows, the
of Delphix in that they help to continue
resources required to manage that data
to drive those relationships and then
becomes exponential as well.”
help us deploy the solution as well.” Ultimately, Delphix’s expansion across
Delphix works with a healthcare provider in the region that has seen
the APAC region would not be possible
a 400% increase in its revenues over
without their high quality solution backing
headcount also quadrupled while
every step forward, solving real
its health insurance members tripled.
problems for firms wherever it is found.
“Over that six year period, their IT
Gerdis highlights resource constraints
headcount doubled. By using Delphix
FEBRUARY 2019
41
whilst their headcount doubled, their
however. “Delphix saved them a lot of
database administrator headcount
storage. They actually reduced their
remained constant, and that was through
storage from about five petabytes
the fact that we could actually provide
down to 300 terabytes. While we’re
self-service capabilities through to the
seeing data grow and the impact it has
data consumers. This really frees up
on infrastructure, Delphix is helping to
your database administrators and the
bring that down by lowering storage
traditional resources that manage data,
costs and streamlining the process for
to actually do their day jobs.”
data flow through an organisation. We
The resource-related benefits of
can do a lot more with a lot less.” As
utilising Delphix’s solution does not
Delphix looks to continue its expansion
stop with database administrators,
across APAC, Gerdis says the firm a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com
LEADERSHIP
will continue with its focus on ANZ, Southeast Asia, ASEAN and Japan, but that its ambitions do not end there. “We will look to expand our presence in Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and India in the near future,” says Gerdis. “The number of approaches that I get every week from organisations across APJ is astounding,” he continues. “So many people are seeking out Delphix and looking for opportunities to work with us, and I guess the reason being is we have a great product and we have 42
very vocal customers that are continuing to talk about Delphix.” Regulatory compliance is a big draw for customers across APAC seeking to adhere to it ever more closely, not just for “checking boxes for auditors and compliance officers”, according to Gerdis, but also for establishing good practices across the board. This transparency of compliance bolsters a company’s reputation, subsequently yielding stronger customer retention as well as becoming more attractive to prospective clients. “There’s no better advocate for your company than your existing customers, and our existing customers are FEBRUARY 2019
“There’s no better advocate for your company than your existing customers, and our existing customers are continuing to renew with Delphix” — Richard Gerdis, General Manager and Vice President of Sales in APJ, Delphix
continuing to renew with Delphix. They are continuing to invest and increase their footprint, and they continue to talk about the benefits that they get, not only from a regulatory compliance perspective, but also from speed to market and continuing to enhance innovation.”
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43
TECHNOLOGY
44
FEBRUARY 2019
: s t e Nugg
g n i g r e m d n a y t i secur e c n e i n conve h g u o r h t n i a h c block
45
r e d n u o f n i Blockcha s n i a l p x e n o ns h o J r i a t s a Al of e r u t u f e h w hy t s t n e m y a p s s e l h s a c e r u c se ive t p u r s i d e h lies with t technology… W R IT TE N B Y
CK O L IV IA M IN N O
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TECHNOLOGY
H
aving bank details lost or stolen is something many of us have experienced, but as technol-
ogy continues to disrupt the finance industry
the lengthy process of resolving the problem
seems increasingly archaic. This was certainly the case for Alastair Johnson, founder and CEO of blockchain startup Nuggets, upon losing his own card details. When he eventually received his replacement card, he had to re-enter new informa-
tion on dozens of websites and was struck by the 46
lack of both convenience and security at a time when data breaches were making the headlines. “You wouldn’t write down your mother’s maiden name, email address and national insurance (NI) number on a post-it note and leave it in every cash till on the high street – but in a digital sense we do that all over the place,” he comments. The experience prompted Johnson to found Nuggets, which promises to help customers “take back control” of their data in 2016. The ecommerce payment and ID platform allows users to store their payment details on blockchain technology to achieve a single sign-on method which means personal data doesn’t need to be shared with multiple organisations. “You can transact securely and verify your identity without somebody having access to that data and being able to take over FEBRUARY 2019
47
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TECHNOLOGY
“ You can’t compete against WeChat Pay and AliPay but you can add value to them” — Alastair Johnson, Founder and CEO, Nuggets
48
FEBRUARY 2019
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘NUGGETS – TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR DATA’ 49
your information. If a business doesn’t
Johnson cites two reasons for the
log the personal data in their central-
failings we see in the headlines. “There
ised silos in the first place, it can’t be
are people who don’t understand tech
breached,” Johnson explains.
and are being victimised for that and
With breaches at large tech compa-
there’s the other side where people do
nies cited as a ‘tipping point’, a recent
understand it and they’re trying to do
study by Gartner has found for the
best practices but those options where
first time that privacy is becoming
you have to log in with a username and
more of a priority over convenience for
password still exist.”
consumers – in 2009, it was reported
A key challenge for any tech company
that consumers remained unwilling to
then, no matter which platform is being
sacrifice convenience to keep their
provided, is to ensure convenience while
data secure. As organisations battle to
also assuring customers that keeping
develop their cybersecurity offerings,
their data secure is top priority – but for a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
TECHNOLOGY
Johnson’s single sign-on vision this presents more of an opportunity. “It actually gets more convenient with all the security, because you’re not passing around usernames and passwords: you’re verifying ID across a network. So, it’s a lot more secure and convenient – you get the best of both worlds.”
STAYING SECURE IN A CASHLESS SOCIETY In an increasingly cashless landscape, Johnson explains how a single sign-on 50
system using blockchain will enable various societies to complete the
“ If a business doesn’t log the personal data in their centralised silos in the first place, it can’t be breached” — Alastair Johnson, Founder and CEO, Nuggets
transition away from cash and even card. “Now we have the technology to leapfrog plastic with a funded digital
ID to that payment app, so it allows
identity which can then be associated
access to my payment but I don’t need
with a digital watch or fitness band. It’s
a plastic card that the numbers can be
crazy that we’re still relying on this bit
copied off?’”
of plastic with a chip to come through
Tying in with the development of
in the post a week after it’s been
open banking which will involve closer
cloned,” Johnson argues, adding that
collaboration and data sharing,
cashless has yet to go far enough.
Johnson feels that the future of ID
“Even though you have Apple Pay and
technology should be agnostic. “In the
Android Pay, we’re still adding a plastic
past, you’ve seen a lot of wallet apps
card of information to make that work
from different schemes, but wouldn’t
as a secure payment source. At Nuggets,
it make sense that they all tied back
were saying ‘why don’t I add my digital
to the same APIs and services? When
FEBRUARY 2019
51
mobile phones first came out, you
Pay, serving over one million merchants
could only ring other people on the
across Asia. This partnership will mean
same network – this only lasted about
Alipay and WeChat Pay users can use
six months. In the early days, everyone
a digital ID to make payments as
comes out with their version but at the
opposed to attaching these to a bank
end of the day, the agnostic approach
card. “You can’t compete against
is going to be a winner.”
WeChat Pay and AliPay but you can
In China, fast becoming the home of
add value to them,” says Johnson.
cashless payments, Nuggets has
“Currently you’re going back to plastic
entered into a partnership with mobile
to enable them – you’re basically
payment technology, service and
rerouting to the old system. The potential
solution provider QFPay, which is used
is that you have your login and maybe
by epayment giants Alipay and WeChat
your profile data within your own realm a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
TECHNOLOGY
but it can be used for those products and services.” In Asia and further afield, Johnson is keen to highlight the potential of ID technology for business, particularly for SMEs. “It enables small businesses, people at food festivals or taxi drivers to transact without that chunky terminal. The potential for the smaller is immediately accessible… and this can also benefit larger businesses as well.”
A BLOCKCHAIN BASED FUTURE 52
“ It’s a lot more secure and convenient — you get the best of both worlds” — Alastair Johnson, Founder and CEO, Nuggets
For Johnson, blockchain technology was a clear choice in implementing a more secure and convenient platform. “We spent time looking at other solutions to get to the same point – the key one being zero knowledge storage. Existing systems that do zero knowledge storage are quite clunky, and often they’ve got root level access to providers and such like. With blockchain, only the user has the key to their information,” he explains. “We have zero knowledge, we have the decentralised network, and we have encryption to an extremely high level – so blockchain ticked many boxes.” In addition, blockchain allows a kind of credit history to be set up due FEBRUARY 2019
Alastair Johnson discusses personal data storage @Retail Risk 2018
to the log it takes of every activity. “If you go and do 100 different payments to different places it demonstrates proof that you are a good actor on the network to the next person – you don’t have to be risk assessed.” For any blockchain founder – and Johnson isn’t just ‘any’ founder, having been shortlisted for ‘Blockchain Founder of the Year’ at the 2018 BMW i UK Tech Founder Awards – it is often necessary to play the part of evangelist for this
Seema Khinda Johnson, Co-Founder and COO, Nuggets
fairly new technology which is often mistrusted or misunderstood, but even in the past six months Johnson says the potential is finally being recognised. “It’s not just an intriguing tech conversation now – we’re starting to see real use cases coming out for blockchain and being applied. 2018 has brought the understanding of how consumers can react closely with the blockchain. In years to come, people won’t know or care if they’re on the blockchain; it’ll be fixed into life,” he anticipates.
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PEOPLE
54
TRANSFORMING THE BOARDROOM: INSPIRING WOMEN IN STEM Business Chief takes a look at what some leaders are doing to promote gender diversity in traditionally male-dominated industries, and the rewards they are already reaping… WRITTEN BY
OLIVIA MINNOCK
FEBRUARY 2019
55
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PEOPLE
T
hroughout the past year,
that Finastra sees itself as a regional
Business Chief has spoken to
sponsor of inclusion and diversity.
various business leaders about
“Something very close to my heart is
the importance of gender diversity,
creating a more diverse workplace –
especially in the traditionally male-
how do we get rid of unconscious bias?”
dominated field of technology. Several
56
organizations are taking big steps to
MENTORS AND ROLE MODELS
improve their gender balance and
Aside from efforts made by large cor-
promote female role models, while
porations, Gupta says it’s important for
many argue women must still work
women and men alike to be proactive
hard and motivate themselves and
and keen to learn. “While it’s important
one another to prove themselves in
to have role models, don’t wait for the
male-dominated sectors.
organisations to give you those models.
Speaking to our new FinTech Maga-
Go out and seek a coach who will listen
zine, Finastra’s APAC Marketing Leader
to you, is someone you trust, and is will-
Smita Gupta discusses the cultural
ing to commit time and be part of your
issues in creating a diverse workforce.
career journey.”
“People from each country have behav-
Vicki Batka, Vice President of Cisco’s
iours and attitudes driven by where
APJ Partner Organisation, echoes the
they come from, but it’s never too late
importance of mentoring, and she her-
to change,” she comments, adding
self acts as a mentor. She has noticed
“ If organisations want to fuel innovation, diversity and inclusion are key” — Smita Gupta, Finastra
FEBRUARY 2019
57
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PEOPLE
3%
of females say tech is their first career choice
27%
of females would consider a career in tech
16%
Stats taken from: PwC Women in Tech
58
of females have had tech suggested to them as a career
that for some, a conversation with an
‘I’ve got two; I’ll go for it’. Sometimes,
experienced leader is all it takes.
you’ve just got to go for it. I spend a lot
“Especially when I talk to females, usu-
of time talking to people about how to
ally they know what they need to do,
use their network.”
they just need someone to listen and
Gupta adds that those already in
help reassure them,” Batka comments.
leadership positions should strive to
As a mentor, she sees self-image as a
open up opportunities. “My call out to
key challenge faced by women espe-
women leaders, and male leaders who
cially in STEM fields. “A female will
have been successful, is to throw out
look at a job spec with 10 attributes
the ladder to the one behind them,
and say ‘I’ve only got five so I won’t be
whether male or female, and create
successful’, whereas a male might say
opportunities for others.”
FEBRUARY 2019
59
“ I think we see a lack of embracing opportunities in females. Sometimes, you’ve just got to go for it” — Vicki Batka, CISCO
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PEOPLE
“Role models are very important,” emphasises Andy Pearson, Managing Director at Santander UK Technology. “We are participating in the Thirty Per Cent Coalition where we have role models, both men and women, to mentor women in our organisation, and women at Santander are being mentored by those from other organisations.” Santander is committed to having a mix of men and women across its tech-led workforce. “Gender diversity is very important to us,” Pearson adds, commenting that Santander 60
was a founding signatory of the HMRC Women in Finance Charter.
HARD WORK AND MOTIVATION Acknowledging that “women in the world are coming into the room at a disadvantage”, Amy Jadesimi, Managing
“ If you want to be successful as a woman, you have to be able to work hard and be extremely brave and strategic” — Amy Jadesimi, LADOL
FEBRUARY 2019
Jadesimi adds that organisations can however facilitate this, coming back to the importance of having someone to look up to. “I like to think that we can help by publicising what myself and other women have been able to achieve, as well as publicising how important it is to governments and corporations to have women succeed.”
FOSTERING DIVERSITY What else can an organisation do to foster a diverse workforce, both between genders and more broadly? “It’s about how you create a more equitable workforce. As managers, Director of Nigerian oil and gas fabrica-
sometimes we are too blinded by the
tion and logistics base LADOL, says it’s
job spec. When I’m interviewing some-
still up to women to put in that extra bit
one, even if they don’t have the
of work in order to be recognised
immediate skill set I need for the job
among their male peers. “You do have
role, but I know they have the passion
to prove yourself – you have to be ‘bet-
and fire in their belly, I am willing to
ter than’ in order to be considered
invest in them and give them the oppor-
‘equal to’… if you want to be successful
tunity to thrive. We should look at
you need to be prepared to work hard.
identifying those hidden talents and
If you want to be successful as a
creating opportunities for those around
woman, you have to be able to work
us,” says Gupta.
hard and be extremely brave and stra-
Batka agrees that especially in tech-
tegic. Be brave enough to make tough
nology which changes so quickly,
choices. The tough choice in this case
softer skills like adaptability are impor-
is the choice society doesn’t expect.”
tant and a diverse range of people a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
61
PEOPLE
should be considered to fit the bill. “At Cisco, we’re hiring people from very diverse backgrounds, not just technology.” For Cisco, diversity takes many forms. “Some people just think ‘women’, but for our region it’s also about ethnicity. We’re quite fortunate in Asia: a lot of women work and lead businesses in the Southeast Asia region in particular. But you have other countries where they don’t. All we can do is lead by example. A lot of companies talk about diversity, but Cisco truly believes and demonstrates it.” 62
REAPING THE REWARDS
“As organisations expand and want to target various markets, a diverse team they can be your eyes and ears in giving you those insights” — Vicki Batka, CISCO
Gupta, among others, is keen to outline the very real impact fostering a diverse workforce can have. It’s no longer seen as a positive CSR step, but in fact ben-
Diversity of course extends to a vari-
efits an organisation’s bottom line and
ety of cultures, abilities and skill sets as
is becoming a key strategic advantage.
well as genders. “If you draw on a vari-
“Enough research has been done to
ety of cultures, this insight allows you to
show it impacts the bottom line and the
serve customers better,” says Gupta.
profitability of the organisation,” she
“As organisations expand and want to
explains. “If organisations want to fuel
target various markets, when you have
innovation, diversity and inclusion are
a diverse team they can be your eyes
key. With more diverse leadership teams,
and ears in giving you those insights.
companies can earn more from inno-
You can look at clients’ needs from a
vation with higher EBITDA margins
completely different perspective.”
as well.” FEBRUARY 2019
On a national and global level, vari-
63
ous studies have shown that
can help them and encourage people
supporting women in the workplace
who aren’t giving access to think differ-
adds significantly to GDP. “There is no
ently about what women can
country in the world right now that can
contribute.”
afford not to invest in and take advan-
Batka, too, is pleased with the tan-
tage of that,” comments Jadesimi.
gible results Cisco has seen in APAC
“Corporations could increase their bot-
and beyond thanks to its commit-
tom line by 40% just by supporting
ments to diversity, and looks forward
women. I think it’s really important to
to more progress in the future. “In the
show the economic rationale for those
old days, the IT industry was a boys’
women who don’t have a voice, an edu-
club,” she concludes. “Not anymore.
cation or other opportunities, so we
We’re here, and we’re different.” a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
sustainability on a massive scale 64
We speak to Shannon Thomas Carroll, Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T, to see how the telco giant is harnessing sustainability across its massive operations‌ WRITTEN BY
ANDRE W WOODS
FEBRUARY 2019
65
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
A
ligning the notion and practice of sustainability within the biggest companies on the planet is no small
undertaking and AT&T – founded by Alexander Graham Bell – is no exception. The world’s largest telecommunications company and ranked number nine on the Fortune 500, this
giant multinational conglomerate has just over 270,000 employees and posted a 2017 revenue of $190.5bn. This is a holding company whose operations spread out over numerous sectors and territories and to seek a sustainable road map at such a business 66
is as complex as it is integral. Shannon Thomas Carroll is Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T and possesses a rich knowledge of both the company’s operations and its sustainable practices as he works to reduce the environmental impact of the telco’s operations. His key accomplishments include “being the internal driver for large scale renewable energy, zero-waste, and supply chain human rights audits”. Carroll has been with the company for almost 20 years, having served in several different capacities across the 133-year-old conglomerate. “I’ve worked on a consumer side, the business side of the house and on the network side,” he explains. “So I’ve had lots of different FEBRUARY 2019
67
“ AT&T has an energy intensity goal, relative to its network, to be 60% more efficient” — Shannon Thomas Carroll, Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
roles. I spent a lot of time in project
mental sustainability while I was still
management, as well as with a couple
in supply chain and was lucky enough
different business units. I did project
to transition that into a full-time role
management and compliance for our
over on the corporate side. I took that
supply chain; that’s one of the things
supply chain focus and expanded it
that transitioned me into my current
to a corporate view. Now my responsi-
role. On the compliance side, you have
bilities are specific to environmental
things like environmental health and
sustainability within our operations.
safety and that was one of the transi-
So, anything that has an environmen-
tional topics that really got me interest-
tal impact within our four walls is, gen-
ed in this work. Then I just started
erally speaking, something I would
asking for more work around environ-
look at.�
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FEBRUARY 2019
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘AT&T HELPS RESTORE COMMUNICATIONS AFTER HURRICANE MATTHEW’ 69 AT&T has had a long history of corporate social responsibility, even if it wasn’t always labelled as CSR. “We
also seeing how we can have the most sustainable business practices possible.” One of the first things Carroll explored
have an extensive history of strong
when he stepped into his current role
energy management and corporate
was AT&T’s greenhouse gas footprint.
real estate management,” Carrol
Carroll monitored all the different
explains. “We looked at things like
aspects of scope 1, scope 2 and scope
waste water, and obviously there
3 through an inventory to gather the
are natural financial incentives to use
required information. “Once we had
those resources, but you also want to
that information, we had it verified by
look at being a good corporate citizen.
an independent third party,” he explains.
What are the positive environmental
“That was a great introduction to the
impacts of doing that? I see my role,
job because I got to touch all parts of
first and foremost, as looking into what’s
the business when undertaking a cor-
going to be best for the company, while
porate greenhouse gas footprint. From a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
70
there you then start looking at some of
important. You’re looking internally, but
the larger responsibilities, such as waste
you’re also looking externally. You’re
and how you dematerialise. What
trying to think strategically while you
projects have been done? What was
still have the practical responsibilities
successful? What wasn’t successful?
to get the job done.”
What maybe didn’t happen in terms of
As the scale of operations at AT&T
timing and can you pick up the ball again
is so vast, Carroll liaises with Chief Sust-
and start trying to work with what hasn’t
ainability Officer, Charlene Lake. They
been done? You have to be strategic in
operate at what Carroll describes as
your thinking. You’ve got to read the tea
the ‘inc. level’ or the corporate side of
leaves and see how the wind’s blowing
operations. “The advantage that gives
externally as well. There’s obviously an
us is we can go into all parts of the
importance to the business and what
business, essentially representing the
our stakeholders are asking of us is
company. What’s really important
FEBRUARY 2019
though is that we don’t just walk into
With support from AT&T’s corporate
the different business units and say,
level, Carroll and his team launched
‘This is what you’re gonna do!’ We have
10X Goals. AT&T’s renewable energy
to be good business partners, whether
investments are a part of this carbon
it’s internal or external. We’re very lucky
reduction goal, helping to enable
that sustainability really is at the core
carbon savings 10 times the footprint
of a lot of our work. So, as we go in to
of AT&T’s operations by 2025. “We
talk to our network folks or our corpo-
have somebody who works full-time
rate real-estate folks, or our supply
on that making sure the methodology
chain folks, they’re already doing a lot
is sound,” says Carroll. “We have some-
of this work. What we try to do is help
body who’s working on the numerator
frame that work and see what we can
part of that, making sure that our pro-
amplify; see what we can do better. We
ducts and services can deliver that.
just try to partner with them.”
You have me, I’m on more the denomi-
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71
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
nator side. I’m trying to shrink our own operational footprint so it makes it easier to achieve it. We’re very lucky. We are a large company, but we have the right amount of resources addressing sustainability here.” One of the challenges Carrol cites as specific to large-scale renewable energy is that first time you put the practice into action. Thus, off-site research is essential in getting these methods right. “We’ve obviously been looking at renewable energy options 72
for years and years and years. We did have some onsite solar and we just knew, because of our scale, that if we’re going to have a significant impact we needed to look offsite at the largescale renewable energies. We look at what others are doing and then try to
FACTS
• AT&T’s renewable energy website, provides an overview of the deals the company announced this year and their impact: Click here for website • AT&T’s 10x website, which outlines the 10x goal and includes case studies of the company working with customers to reduce their environmental footprint: Click here for website • AT&T’s sustainability reporting website, which includes the information from the company’s annual CSR report: Click here for website • The Energy Management issue brief: Click here for website
figure out if that’s something that could potentially work for us. You do a lot of
go from a relatively small renewable
research and then bring that research
energy concern to one of the largest
and those findings home. We would
corporate buyers in the United States?
then start stakeholdering those. I’d say
A lot of education has to be done,
the biggest challenge is because you’ve
in getting people familiar with new
never done it before, you have to edu-
terminology. I’d say that’s the biggest
cate a lot of folks on what it is and how
challenge; the newness of it all.”
it works and how the mechanics of it
In reference to large scale renew-
work. What does it mean for AT&T to
able energy, AT&T is one of the top five
FEBRUARY 2019
73
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
corporate renewable energy buyers in
even if people don’t know it by name,
the US. “The fact that we were able to
they’re doing the work. These are folks
scale up so quickly is a credit to the
who do sustainability for a living. We
professionalism we have on our energy
already have folks who are trying to
management team. I would say the
save as much water as they can. They’re
thing I’m most proud of is just the scale
already trying to remove as many kilo-
’cause what you’re really looking for is
watts as they can from the business.
impact. We’re proud of the 820 mega-
They’re already trying to be as efficient
watts we’ve done so far. We’re the
as they can.”
evangelists. We’re going around talking
AT&T has an energy intensity goal,
about all the benefits. The interesting
relative to its network, to be 60% more
thing is when you go into the different
efficient. Carroll wants to push more
business units, my experience is that
data through the network using the same,
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FEBRUARY 2019
or less energy. “We have a public goal around that. We have a public goal to
“A few years ago, we worked with EDF on our water footprint. We’re always looking at every aspect of our operations” — Shannon Thomas Carroll, Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T
reduce our fleet emissions by 30%. We have lots of public goals that are already tagged at this work and within the business units. They just have their heads down and are doing the really hard work to achieve this. When we come into departments and explain it’s really about the work that they’re already doing, the light bulbs go off and they become really good business partners. We’re constantly looking at the landscape in terms of the environment. A few years ago, we worked with EDF on our water footprint for example. We’re always looking at every aspect of our operations.” Technology is driving sustainability and AT&T is largely a technology company thus possessing a read edge when it comes to finding solutions. “I would say just about everything we do has a technology component,” Carroll explains. “For example, we’ve got a project called Icon. It’s basically our internal IoT solution, where we’ve put sensors on all types of internal equipment, including network equipment, a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
“ We’re proud of the 820 megawatts we’ve done so far. We’re the evangelists. We’re going around talking about all the benefits”
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— Shannon Thomas Carroll, Director of Global Environmental Sustainability at AT&T
FEBRUARY 2019
HVACS, water towers, everything you can think of. We then actively monitor that through our Icon dashboard and are able to look at predictive and preventative maintenance. Are things running as efficiently as they should? If they aren’t, how can we maximise their efficiency? There’s a lot of data out there, so the key is not just having accessibility to data, but being able to do something smart and good with it. We need to make good, smart decisions around that data.” “I think it’s important when you’re a company our size that you’re comprehensive. You need to have a short-term plan, a mid-term plan and a longterm plan. You have to think strategically, you have to look far down the line. You just can’t say you’re going to do this and that. You have to be transparent in the way that you do it. And you have actually have to do it.”
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CITY FOCUS
City Focus 78
FEBRUARY 2019
79
Business Chief ANZ takes a look at how the small, ex-industrial capital of Southern Australia is reinventing itself in the image of Pittsburgh, Austin and Silicon Valley WRITTEN BY
HARRY MENEAR
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
CITY FOCUS | ADELAIDE
S
ituated on the coast of Southern Australia, Adelaide has a population of 1.27mn, making it the 5th most-
populous city in the country. In the 20th century, the city became a hub for Australian manufacturing, with international car makers General Motors Holden, Chrysler and Mitsubishi calling the city home. Due to the 2009 recession, industrial production in Adelaide slowed, with the closures of multiple auto plants, including the Tonsley Mitsubishi plant, which shut down in 2008. In 2016, state Premier, Jay Weatherill warned 80
that Southern Australia was in danger of becoming a “rust belt,” in the vein of Detroit, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, however, Adelaide’s fortunes are changing. Rescue packages orchestrated by the Australian government, combined with the city’s rich winegrowing, culinary and cultural traditions have attracted outside investment and prompted early-stage innovators to migrate to the city. Weatherill said in 2016 that Adelaide’s future would depend on its ability “to use the artistic industries, the creative industries to also morph into their advanced manufacturing sector.” In 2018, the city appears to be well on its way to doing just that.
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CITY FOCUS | ADELAIDE
82 Damian Cave for the New York
is once again generating value for
Times observes: “This working-class
the region, now as an innovation hub
city is doing everything it can to recast
“with high-speed broadband, Ping-
itself as an innovation hub for South
Pong tables and room for hip start-up
Australia and the world.” Looking to
companies.”
imitate the transformations undergone
The 61 hectare site is being reborn
by cities in the US like Pittsburgh and
as a “major employment and education
Chattanooga, Adelaide, “like so many
hub interspersed with community spaces
rust belt cities worldwide… is trying to
and contemporary living options,” acc-
recover from a manufacturing decline
ording to WSP news. The facility, which
by hunting for innovation buzz — that
won the highest award for a large-scale
glow of techno-progress that can pro-
development at the 2017 Australian
pel a place from downbeat to in demand.”
Urban Design Awards, is part of the
After shutting down 10 years ago, the Tonsley Mitsubishi auto factory FEBRUARY 2019
South Australian government’s plan to rejuvenate and modernise the city.
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ADELAIDE VACATION TRAVEL GUIDE | EXPEDIA’ 83
‘ In 2016, state Premier, Jay Weatherill warned that Southern Australia was in danger of becoming a “rust belt”, in the vein of Detroit, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’
Cave notes that “clustering universities, start-ups and government support is, after all, the Silicon Valley model.” Global engineering and technology firm Siemens established a US$5mn maintenance and repair facility in Tonsley in 2015. Since then, other industry leaders have set up shop on site, including defence and private contractor SAGE Automation, and device manufacturer Micro-X. Adelaide’s size, cost of living, and receptiveness to new enterprises is also drawing small-to-medium-sized startups to the city. The Upsider caught a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
CITY FOCUS | ADELAIDE
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FEBRUARY 2019
‘After shutting down ten years ago, the Tonsley Mitsubishi auto factory is once again generating value for the region, now as an innovation hub with high-speed broadband, Ping-Pong tables and room for hip start-up companies’ up with James Stewart, founder and
displays – holograms – in the world.
CEO of two Adelaide-based startups,
Last month, the company created the
Coinstart and Kick.it, an online crypto-
first 5G volumetric video conferencing
currency educational tool and an anti-
system – in other words, a holographic
smoking health app, respectively.
phone call – in conjunction with US
Of the city, Stewart told The Upsider, “Adelaide’s small ecosystem works to my advantage. People in
telecommunications company Verizon in New York. Voxon CEO, Will Tamblyn, is an alum
the scene are really supportive and it’s
of Adelaide’s Flinders University, the
a cheap place to live. While it’s still
educational body married to the Tons-
a conservative city, things are chang-
ley Innovation District. Of his startup’s
ing – particularly with government
latest innovation he said: “Our goal is
doing bigger things, like the Tonsley
to show what’s really possible with
Innovation Centre.”
this new generation of wireless tech-
Voxon Photonics is also based in
nology. It’s not just for mobile phones
Adelaide. Currently, the seven-person
but has applications in everything
tech startup makes the most
from remote medical diagnosis to video
advanced 3-dimensional volumetric
games and video conferencing.”
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CITY FOCUS | ADELAIDE
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FEBRUARY 2019
‘ Currently, the seven-person tech startup makes the most advanced 3-dimensional volumetric displays — holograms — in the world’ Adelaide is also serving as a testing ground for foreign startups. UK autonomous vehicle manufacturer Aurrigo – part of the RDM Group – is currently using the Tonsley Innovation District to focus test its new Pod Zero autonomous vehicles. According to Business Cloud, “The Pod Zero has an operating speed of up to 24km/h, multiple battery options up to eight hours or 80 kilometers and, if not carrying cargo, can be fitted out to seat four people.” Tonsley’s precinct director, Philipp Dautel, spoke with Brand SA News in October 2017. “Google offices around the world are known for the way they have reimagined traditional workplaces,” he said. “We’re taking that concept one step further by completely rethinking urban redevelopments and integrating work, life and play to create a district that is productive, convenient and enjoyable.” Dautel continues: “I often compare [Southern Australia] to a start-up business because we’re small and humble… If you want to get stuff done as an entrepreneur, [Adelaide] is definitely the right place to do it.” a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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T O P 10
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APAC’s most influential brands Business Chief Asia ranks the top 10 brands in Asia Pacific, according to Forbes Magazine.
WRITTEN BY
FEBRUARY 2019
HARRY MENEAR
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T O P 10
Uniqlo Headquartered in Tokyo, the Uniqlo clothing brand is a subsidiary 90
of Fast Retailing. Founded in 1984, the brand originally traded under Uniclo (a shortening of Unique Clothing Company), but switched to Uniqlo following a typo on the company’s Hong Kong registration form. Uniqlo has over 1,900 stores worldwide, according to Forbes, and its brand was valued in 2018 at US$7.5bn, a 12% increase year-over-year.
www.uniqlo.com
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Panasonic Founded in 1918 and based in Kadoma, Japan, the Panasonic Corporation engages in the design, manufacture and sale of electronics, including white goods, health and beauty products, light fixtures, photovoltaic systems, air-conditioning equipment, car-use-multimedia equipment, mobile phones, projectors and digital cameras, according to Forbes. It is the oldest company in the top ten. The Panasonic brand was valued at $7.8bn, representing a year-on-year growth of 12%.
www.panasonic.com
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T O P 10
Huawei The only Chinese company in the top ten, Shenzhen-based telecommunications and technology company Huawei was founded by former 92
Chinese military officer Ren Zhengfei in 1987. According to Forbes, the company now employs 180,000 people across 170 countries and, with a 20% market share, is the largest smartphone distributor in China. In 2018, the Huawei brand was valued at $8.4bn, a 15% increase over 2017.
www.huawei.com
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Hyundai Seoul-based car brand Hyundai Motor was founded in 1967 and engages in the manufacture and distribution of motor vehicles and railways, according to Forbes. In 2018, Hyundai reported net sales of $85.9bn, its highest of all time. While the company’s asset portfolio has also grown by over $50bn over the past five years, 2018 represented a continuation of a decline in profits now amounting to $4.8bn. Forbes valued the Hyundai brand at $8.7bn in 2018, a 2% decline year-over-year.
www.hyundai.com
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06
NISSAN The Nissan Motor Company engages in the manufacture and sale of automotive parts and marine equipment, according to Forbes. Headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, Nissan is ranked 94th on Forbes list of the world’s Top Regarded companies, and 52nd in terms of revenue. In 2018, the company reported $1bn in revenue growth, up to $106bn, while also securing over 60% growth in profit, up to a tenyear high point of $7.4bn. Forbes valued the Nissan brand at $9.4bn in 2018, up 5% year-over-year.
www.nissan-global.com
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95
Lexus The luxury vehicle brand of Toyota Motor Company, Lexus was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Nagoya, Japan. Lexus is ranked by Forbes as the fourth-largest luxury brand worldwide behind third place Audi. The brand’s vehicles were deemed the most dependable new cars on the market for the past seven years by JD Power Associates. The Lexus brand was valued at $9.5bn in 2018, a 4% increase in comparison to the 2017 financial year.
www.lexus.com
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T O P 10
04
SONY Headquartered in Tokyo, the Sony Corporation engages in the development, design, manufacture and sale of electronic equipment and software. The company is ranked 42nd on Forbes list of top regarded companies, and 54th on its list of best employers for graduates. In 2018, Sony reported record profits of $4.4bn and a return to profitability after $393mn losses in 2017. Its brand is valued at $10.2bn, which represents a 23% increase in value year-on-year, the largest growth in brand value of any company in the top ten.
www.sony.co.uk
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FEBRUARY 2019
97
Honda Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the Honda Motor Company engages in the design, development, manufacture and sale of cars, motorcycles and power products. In 2018, the company reported record figures for sales, profits and asset valuation, with $138.6bn, $9.6bn and $151.7bn respectively. Forbes valued the Honda brand at $25.5bn in 2018, which represents a 6% growth year-on-year.
www.honda.com
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Toyota The Toyota Motor Corp is the largest manufacturer and seller of motor vehicles and auto parts worldwide. The company ranks 12th on both of Forbes lists of top regarded companies and the Global 2000. Toyota reported record figures for revenue, asset valuation and profits in 2018 with $265.2bn, $473bn and $22.5bn respectively. The Toyota brand was valued by Forbes at $44.7bn in 2018, representing a 9% increase year-on-year.
www.toyota.com
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CLICK TO WATCH : HIGHLIGHTS FROM TOYOTA CONNECTED DAY 2018
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T O P 10
Samsung The Samsung Electronics Company is headquartered in Suwon, South Korea, and is the largest manufacturer of electronics, computer peripherals and cell phones in Asia. The company employs 320,000 people, according to Forbes, making it the largest employer in the top ten by almost 200,000 jobs. In 2018, Samsung’s achieved a two-fold increase in profits, up from $19.3bn in 2017 to $41bn in 2018. The Samsung brand was valued by Forbes at $47.6bn in 2018, up 25% year-on-year, the second-largest increase in valuation on the top ten list.
www.samsung.com
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CLICK TO WATCH : SAMSUNG GALAXY – BE TOGETHER
FEBRUARY 2019
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Technology transformation at Bupa is improving lives in Australia and New Zealand WRIT TEN BY
OLIVIA MINNOCK PRODUCED BY
MIK E SADR
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
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B U PA A U S T R A L I A A N D N E W Z E A L A N D
Sami Yalavac, CIO at Bupa Australia and New Zealand, explains how technology can be used to improve health and lifestyle alongside operational efficiency
M
ore than just a health insurer, Bupa cares for its clients’ health and wellbeing across many aspects, from dental
and lifestyle to aged care, and most importantly providing funding at vital moments. The company maintains a strong commitment to connecting 104
customers with affordable and accessible care, not least across the ANZ region which makes up almost half of the company’s global business. This commitment rings true with Sami Yalavac, CIO at Bupa Australia & New Zealand, who drives the organisation’s technology transformation journey with a noble goal in mind. “It’s a great organisation with a great purpose – a day at work means you are helping people live longer, healthier and happier lives,” he enthuses, adding that the people involved in this mission make Bupa what it is. “There’s a really friendly, collaborative, supportive culture from the top down.” Indeed, of the 78,000 staff employed globally by Bupa, around 22,000 are based in ANZ. Despite making up approximately 45% of the company’s revenue, Bupa only entered the FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
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WHAT CLOUD-BASED IDENTITY MEANS FOR AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE
Australia: +61 283104484 www.okta.com
Healthcare in Australia has traditionally lagged behind most other industries in terms of technology adoption. Many hospitals, GP practices and other organisations still rely on paper records, handwritten notes, siloed data stores and IT systems, and even film-based radiology images. Information sharing across providers can be inefficient and data portability is rare. It’s not unusual to see patients in hospitals clutching paper cards with their personal treatment details, while communication, collaboration and coordination of care processes are all challenging. However, things are beginning to change for the better and digital transformation is increasingly at the centre of government efforts to cut costs and boost efficiencies while improving the delivery of key services. My Health Record, for example, is a crucial first step in centralising and digitising patient records, to ensure a better service across healthcare providers. Better use of technology in Australian healthcare would not only give patients more control over their health and well-being, but could also reduce the administrative burden for care professionals, as well as support the research and development of new medicines and treatments.
HEALTHCARE GOES DIGITAL In the rush to streamline processes and empower patients by migrating to cloud and app-based systems, identity and access management (IAM) has become vitally important. Gartner Research VP and industry expert, Barry Runyon, believes the growing infrastructure, system and support requirements of healthcare organisations (HCOs), alongside increasingly tight budgets and staffing challenges, are driving them towards greater cloud adoption. Cloud services are already being used in some cases to support content management, medical record systems, portals and clinical collaboration. Gartner’s Forecast Overview: Healthcare Provider Market, Worldwide, 2018 predicts this shift to the cloud, stating that “healthcare systems have been sceptical about the adoption of cloud, but cost pressures and the need to reduce capital expenditure have been changing that mindset. After enduring several high-profile breaches and realizing the maturity of various cloud providers (both in expertise and scalability), healthcare systems are finally less sceptical than they used to be about the cloud. Growth of as-a-service solutions will continue rapidly in several areas, such as hosting, storage, security, networking and disaster recovery.”*
patient data and IT systems. Data released this year by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) revealed that the healthcare sector was the most targeted by hackers, with nearly a sixth of all data breaches affecting a healthcare business. Identity as a Service (IDaaS) is the most reliable choice to ensure HCOs can leverage the transformative benefits of new digital platforms whilst staying safe, secure and compliant.
ENTER CLOUD-BASED IDENTITY Australia’s HCOs need a way to accelerate access to patient data while minimising password management problems. They need strong, multi-factor authentication (MFA) to negate the risk of phishing and password stealing/ cracking/guessing attacks. And they need to do all of this to stay compliant with current regulations. Doing so in a userfriendly way and with a dwindling budget is increasingly challenging. This is where single sign-on (SSO) can help, but organizations should be aware that legacy IAM tools are fast becoming obsolete. The truth is that on-premises IAM tools are a poor fit for the kind of modern, cloud and app-based systems HCOs are increasingly adopting. They’re costly, time consuming to integrate and are inflexible, requiring significant ongoing maintenance and upgrade work every time a new app is added. To manage an environment as complex as typical hospital, for example, you need to outsource IAM to the experts. IDaaS is the answer: securing access at the cloud app layer rather than the perimeter and providing granular visibility into all apps, users and devices from a single interface. It’s also highly scalable — new apps and users can be added and managed with ease — it’s reliable, easy to set-up, and there’s no unnecessary downtime. Cloud-based SSO enables approved doctors, nurses and others to access any cloud services with just one username, one password and one session. This helps improve productivity by reducing the time spent logging into each application; reduces costly helpdesk password reset requests; and improves account security as users are less inclined to use the same simple password for all apps. It becomes even more powerful when backed with MFA for extra account security, which means attackers can’t guess, steal or crack log-ins in any meaningful way. For HCOs currently exploring modernisation projects, IDaaS can provide a foundation for a secure transition.
However, HCOs are a major target for hackers, and even mistakes by employees can expose highly sensitive
FIND OUT MORE
B U PA A U S T R A L I A A N D N E W Z E A L A N D
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE’ 108 Australian market around 16 years
Dental, and eventually won some
ago having partnered with HBA, which
government tenders,” adds Yalavac.
Yalavac describes as “a really success-
Throughout this growth and
ful business with a successful leadership
development, technology has moved
team”. A healthy national economy and
to the fore as a key driver and is now
a relatively young population open to
central to the business, with Yalavac
new developments assisted Bupa’s
citing that 90% of funding and internal
entrance into the Australian market,
investment within the business goes
with the organisation having gone from
toward technology transformation
strength to strength over the last 12
programs. “It’s an additional enabler
years From health insurance, new
for business survival and business
business areas were explored
growth,” says Yalavac, as customers
including health coaching and
increasingly look to access services
telehealth. “We then entered the Aged
via digital platforms. In addition, the
Care market, moving on to Optical,
fragmented nature of healthcare in
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
Australia (with separate services across dental, optical, aged care and other areas) makes technology vital. “Technology is the glue that holds pieces together, making it easy to access information, get guidance and do transactions.”
DATA ACROSS SECTORS Across the many elements of Bupa’s business and healthcare in Australia and New Zealand more widely, Yalavac is keen to emphasise that data is key. From providing funding to introducing technology into people’s lives to monitor
“Technology is the glue that holds pieces together, making it easy to access information, get guidance and do transactions” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
their health and lifestyle, capturing real-time data can be vital in providing the insights Bupa and its clients need. “Through their demographics and real-time abilities, we can provide health coaching and advice,” he explains. “As data collection increases, we can even detect some of the events happening in the body to proactively warn people to see a specialist or access a test. Data is your fuel,” he adds. “You might have a brilliant car with a great engine, but without fuel you can’t go anywhere.” As well as using data to improve the health and wellbeing of Bupa customers, Yalavac is also using data and insights to improve the colleague a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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Digital transformation: Do you have the right strategy? For many organisations, digital innovation is focused on the customer experience. Most companies understand that to become future-ready, to gain competitive advantage, they need to build trust and loyalty through experiences that delight their customers. Omnichannel strategies, hyper-personalisation and innovative products and services are all part of this new customer experience. But that’s only part of the equation. At its core, digital transformation is business transformation, and that makes it a people and organisational issue. Transforming the employee experience is just as important as transforming the customer experience. A stellar employee experience attracts talent and boosts workforce engagement, productivity and retention — which directly improves a company’s financial performance. Such companies out perform the S&P 500 by 122% and are 21% more profitable than companies with poor employee engagement. It’s all about the human impact. Fortunately, companies don’t have to start from scratch with employee experience. They already have a valuable tool at their disposal: the playbook they’ve used to enhance customer experience. By applying purpose driven, human-centred and customer-centric principles to the employee experience and internal business processes, companies create sustainable business value through increased cost efficiency, productivity and growth.
Ultimately, employee experience drives customer experience. For example, Bupa, one of the world’s leading health companies, recognised that it needed a transformation to achieve dual business outcomes: be an effective champion for customers, and enable and inspire its people. Avanade Advisory supported Bupa’s transformation across multiple domains to accelerate its journey toward a more digital business. Avanade supported Bupa’s customer experience and personalisation program to deliver the right message to the right members at the right time through the right channel. Avanade also helped Bupa set future-ready enterprise architectures and define key digital building blocks including cloud foundations, integration fabric and modern engineering disciplines. In partnership with Avanade Advisory, Bupa also transformed its information services operating model and ways of working to better-equip its people to be effective champions for customers, embrace agile disciplines and collaborate seamlessly across the business through cross-functional teams. Digital transformation requires a careful balance of investment in customer- and employee-focused innovations. Avanade Advisory can help you develop practical strategies to make your digital transformation easier and accelerate business outcomes. LEARN MORE
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AVA N A DE
Partnering for transformation
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Avanade has been a key partner throughout Bupa’s technology transformation. Bupa’s goal to be an effective champion for its customers and provide outstanding experiences is strongly supported by Avanade. Bupa engaged the consulting and services company to help develop a strategy that would deliver personalised customer experiences, ensuring high-quality clinical outcomes and value for money. As Bupa continues to focus on customer experience, this is driven by providing employees with that same positive experience. As such, Avanade has enabled Bupa to transform its workplace, enabling and inspiring its staff to best serve end users. Yalavac’s strong vision to develop Bupa’s business model involves bringing disciplines like marketing, sales, service and production closer to customers – and a digital innovation partner like Avanade is instrumental in this transformation. FEBRUARY 2019
experience of the IT function. Over his three years as CIO the colleague NPS (Net Promoter Score) has improved from -16 to +30 in one year, reaching +20 in the second year and now standing at +30. As technology disrupts every industry and the lines between sectors become increasingly blurred, Yalavac has improved the customer experience with the clear understanding it’s not his
TECHNOLOGY
113
own sector he is competing with. “Customers are not comparing us
lessly and efficiently, most often driven by tech. “The customer looks for
with our competitors as they aren’t
whatever the best experience is in the
usually with another health fund or
market, regardless of industry, and
insurer at the same time,” he explains.
expects Bupa to do the same thing.”
“Instead, they compare us with banks and travel agencies and likes of
EFFICIENCY ACROSS A BROAD MARKET
Amazon and Airbnb.” Customers
Technology drives growth at Bupa
compare their experience with Bupa to
not only through customer satisfaction
their experience accessing any other
in creating a seamless user experience,
facility, and this must be done seam-
but also in improving operational a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
The customer experience is always right. Make experience your business.
For customers, great experiences are great differentiators. And there’s only one company that’s a leader in everything you need to deliver them. That’s why market leaders choose Adobe to help them understand their customers, manage their campaigns, and deliver great experiences that keep their customers coming back. But you don’t need to hear it from us, see what analysts and our customers think.
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efficiency within a business that spans a broad and somewhat disparate landscape. As CIO, Yalavac is responsible for an IT team of over 600 people across 7 locations, and he credits technology as essential to helping people work together while maintaining that it can also bring significant culture shifts that must be managed across teams. The secret? “Communicate the vision and purpose really well, so everyone understands what we need to achieve and why,” he explains. “You then keep communicat116
ing back the progress: where you are, what’s left to do, success stories and lessons learned.” Effective communication is vital to assuring IT professionals of their position within the organisation in relation to its overall mission and goals. “The role of CIO is of course being responsible for technology, but we should also see our job as a business leader and part of the executive team. The CIO is a trusted consultant and partner and if you don’t play that role you will miss opportunities because in the future, more and more business growth will rely on technology.” Yalavac has taken steps to ensure the IT professionals he manages are viewed, FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Sami Yalavac As Chief Information Officer, Sami Yalavac is responsible for delivering high-quality, reliable and performance-enhancing technology services across Bupa. Having joined Bupa more than 12 years ago, Yalavac has held a number of technical and senior leadership roles across various Information Services teams, where he has driven significant performance and service improvements for the business, our customers and our people. Since becoming CIO in February 2016, Yalavac has led the transformation of Information Services to become more customer-focused, agile, collaborative and efficient, which has improved the colleague and customer experience as ref lected by significant improvements in employee and colleague Net Promoter Scores. Yalavac was recently recognised externally for his track record as a transformational leader making a significant business impact, when he was placed in the Top 3CIOs in Australia, as judged by CIO50. In addition to more than 30 years of information technology experience at a variety of industries spanning multiple continents, Sami’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Computer Engineering, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Quality Management.
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TECHNOLOGY
“The role of CIO is of course being responsible for technology, but we should also see our job as a business leader and part of the executive team” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
the teams really close to the business and close to the customers – ‘What’s happening over there? What are the exact pain points?’ – and then we start thinking about how technology can solve those. Without that mindset, you never efficiently deliver results. You’ll have a huge data warehouse but no idea what to do with it.” Aside from focusing on customer needs and business growth, Yalavac also maintains that creating an environment people enjoy working in and can grow and develop in is paramount. “A positive environment attracts and retains talent, keeping everyone
and view themselves, as members of
connected to business outcomes,
the business’ overall teams – they are
customer expectations and strategic
not just referred to as the technology
partnerships” he says. Engaging his
team, but some members might be
people and developing a collaborative,
referred to as the ‘claims’ team, for
agile culture has been a huge focus for
example. “IT departments are part of
Yalavac since he became CIO. He has
the business – there shouldn’t be a
invested in building a high performing
separation of business and IT. We all
leadership group and giving his leaders
have the same responsibility to make
the skills to coach their teams through
sure this organisation delivers the best
change. In November 2017, he also
service for the customers. We’re here
launched the Tech-A-Gender program
to deliver the company’s purpose, not
to attract, inspire and develop female
deliver the technology.
talent into technology roles at Bupa
“In our IT department, we try and get
and the team have a vibrant program to a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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B U PA A U S T R A L I A A N D N E W Z E A L A N D
D ATA M AT IC S
A strategic partnership
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An important partner in Bupa’s digital transformation, and an example of a relationship Bupa hopes to carry on, is Datamatics — a global provider of consulting, IT, data management and business process management. In what has grown to a 16-year partnership, Datamatics has been instrumental in setting up a delivery centre for Bupa. The relationship has been mutually beneficial with Datamatics leveraging Bupa’s knowledge about insurance business processes and Bupa enhancing operational effici– encies while significantly reducing cost of maintenance and support, with support offered 24/7 on core business operations.
celebrate and support cultural diversity. Indeed, this focus has yielded significant results: since Yalavac began transforming the department the employee NPS in the IT team has grown from +2 to +48, the highest in the organisation which averages at +16. Overall operational efficiency has seen exponential benefits from technology transformation done the right way and in turn serves to motivate staff toward the wider Bupa mission.
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“We’re using RPA to make processes and transactions much quicker, cheaper and higher quality so we can utilise out people for more advanced, knowledge-based activities rather than just repeating boring tasks. We’re redefining our workplace strategy with technology as a key enabler.” For example, Bupa has implemented collaboration tools like Office 365, cloudbased solutions, video conferencing
“IT departments are part of the business – there shouldn’t be a separation of business and IT” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
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space where it’s easy to collaborate and gives you flexibility and agility.”
STRATEGIC PARTNERS Implementing so many new digital solutions cannot be done alone, and as such Bupa must work to maintain partnerships with key vendors as part of its transformation journey, with global names ranging from Microsoft, Fujitsu, Oracle and Infosys to ServiceNow. Yalavac is clear on how this must
“A positive environment attracts and retains talent, keeping everyone connected to business outcomes, customer expectations and strategic partnership” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
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Does industry collision shatter or shape our future thinking?
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rather than just buying services from these organisations. We keep sharing our changes, inviting them to meetings and when we organise innovation days we include our vendors so they can understand our problems and join in.” For example, customer experience technology giant Genesys has been involved in transforming Bupa’s contact centres through artificial intelligence. “We share the challenges we have with them and develop solutions for our contact centres, such as speech-to-
“Our approach is to try and create long-term strategic partnerships rather than just buying services from these organisations” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
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“We have the responsibility to address and reduce the cost of health and improve access and quality of health provisions” — Sami Yalavac, CIO, Bupa ANZ
FEBRUARY 2019
text, or using AI to try and understand a customer’s emotions and what they need.” Another such collaborative partner is software giant Adobe, whose marketing platforms and tools are utilised by Bupa. “The platform allows you to understand your customer and manage campaigns, but also has a decision hub based on the information you log,” Yalavac outlines. “These solutions all form an ecosystem supporting one another and the only way to achieve this is through long-term
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£9.8bn Approximate revenue (2014)
2002
Year founded in ANZ
78,000
Approximate number of employees 127
relationships with organisations.
government budgeting or funding
Everyone can access these compa-
challenges. We’re seeing affordability
nies but now every organisation can
issues in the market: customers are
utilise them well.”
less and less able to buy insurance
These vendors will be part of Bupa’s
products, or simple dental check-
ecosystem as the company contin-
ups for example. We have a respon-
ues to grow, and Yalavac outlines that
sibility to address and reduce the
Bupa will also look to startups to
cost of health and improve access
find new solutions across a changing
and quality of health provisions.”
landscape. “We keep working with startups, technology organisations, government, hospitals, even competitors, to address customer problems, a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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GLOBAL IMPACT ENABLED BY DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
WRIT TEN BY NIKI WA LDEGR AVE PRODUCED BY MIK E SADR
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UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS) FOSTERS CONNECTION, COLLABORATION AND CREATIVITY. ITS CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER TELLS NIKI WALDEGRAVE HOW UTS’ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS SHAPING ITS TOMORROW
130
R
Ranked Australia’s top young university and ranked 10th globally in the QS Top 50 Under 50 in 2019, the University of
Technology Sydney (UTS) is a leading public technology university, with 45,000 students and 3,800 staff. UTS is known for its emphasis on real-world research, as well as its unique approach to learning and cutting-edge facilities. Since its inception UTS has been founded on strong industry links, and the exchange of resources and expertise with its industry partners continues to be a core part of its identity today. This is seen in research partnerships with industry and a strong practice of students completing industry internships, in line with UTS’s model of practice-oriented learning. This all translates into a complex set of requirements for IT support. “The technology environment at a modern university is complex” says UTS Chief Information FEBRUARY 2019
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TECHNOLOGY
Officer, Christine Burns. “On one hand we are running a significant business
ting edge audio-visual technology.” The smart application of these var-
and, like large organisations in other
ied technologies has been integral to
industries, we face challenges such
the continued growth and success of
as how to automate and streamline
UTS. On many levels the university has
processes, improve staff experience,
undergone a vast amount of change
and get the most from marketing tech-
in recent years, and the digital trans-
nologies. On the other hand, we have
formation led by Burns, supported by
research-specific challenges such as
Deputy CIOs Peter Gale and David
supporting extremely large and diverse
O’Connor, has played a crucial part.
data sets (and having these large data
In 2008, the university began its
sets move around our network), and
decade-long, $1bn-plus “City Campus
learning-specific challenges such as
Master Plan” - a significant enhance-
a growing campus filled with cut-
ment of the university’s physical cam-
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Christine Burns Chrissy has worked closely with senior leaders across the university to develop an IT transformation strategy and is responsible for its implementation. Chrissy has operational responsibility for a team of more than 250 people across IT, Printing Services and Audio Visual Services functions. In line with the university’s vision, Chrissy oversees a large portfolio of IT capital projects to support teaching, research and engagement and maintain the university’s technology footprint.
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UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
pus. This has resulted in a range of
Faculty of Science that includes a vast
new and upgraded buildings and open
‘Superlab,’ which can host a range
spaces to support both research and
of simultaneous teaching sessions
the way the organization approaches
across different subjects. Determin-
learning. This includes a technology-
ing how to enable this posed a range of
rich building to house the Faculty of
technical challenges for the IT team to
Engineering and IT. In addition to the
solve. Perhaps the best known build-
innovative collaborative teaching and
ing to date has been the iconic Dr Chau
student spaces, the building itself
Chak Wing Building which houses the
incorporates a vast array of sensors
UTS Business School, designed by
that are used in UTS research. It has
Frank Gehry, the architect responsible
also included a new building for the
for the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. Like the other buildings this includes an array
134
of innovative learning spaces – such
“THE TECH LAB IS A REALLY IMPORTANT FACILITY FOR ENABLING OUR ACADEMICS TO COME TOGETHER AND INNOVATE WITH INDUSTRY, AND THAT’S PART OF THE VISION FOR WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THAT SPACE” — Christine Burns, CIO, UTS
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
CLICK TO WATCH : UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
as 360 degree collaborative classrooms. In 2018, the university launched its new UTS Tech Lab, where engineering and IT researchers from diverse fields work in close partnership with industry and government to develop new innovative technologies. This facility is the size of several aircraft hangers. “The University has a really strong background in industry partnering and partnerships,” explains Burns. “The Tech Lab is a really important facility for enabling our academics to come together and innovate with industry, and that’s part of the vision a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
135
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TECHNOLOGY
for what will happen in that space.” UTS’s research footprint has ex-
number of ground-breaking initiatives. One of the most recent is “Provisioner”,
panded rapidly over the past decade
a framework for research data man-
– both in volume and global impact.
agement and curation of research data.
That expansion has led to enormous
Provisioner provides UTS research-
demands on the IT team for software,
ers with storage in an automated and
compute, storage and data manage-
managed way. The initial implementa-
ment support. UTS has been lever-
tion of Provisioner links into a curation
aging cloud technologies since 2012
platform for microbial imaging called
to simplify its infrastructure and gain
OMERO that can generate several ter-
access to capabilities that are increas-
abytes of data a day from microscopes.
ingly difficult to obtain on-premises. The IT team has fostered a number of
“One of our key strategies is that we want to do research that is re-
innovations to support the university’s
producible, so that when research is
researchers. UTS has rolled out a
done, it’s not based on somebody’s
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
David O’Connor As Deputy Chief Information Office, with specific responsibility for strategic planning and enterprise architecture, David’s teams help drive the university’s strategies though the smart and innovative use of technology. He has recently led a significant business transformation delivering a new ‘product line’ based technology investment and delivery framework, which also incorporates a shift to agile delivery methodologies and various enhancements to the IT operating model.
137
UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
138
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
“THE TECHNOLOGY IS REALLY TRANSFORMING THE WAY THAT RESEARCH IS DONE. THIS IS MUCH BROADER THAN JUST MAKING IT EASIER TO STORE, AND PERFORM CALCULATIONS ON RESEARCH DATA” — Christine Burns, CIO, UTS
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139
Get the report
TECHNOLOGY
subjective click on a particular but-
gree visualisation of data, is also used
ton, but we can reproduce the results
by those same researchers to look
from the data,” explains Gale. “Or,
at bacteria under a microscope in
if new data becomes available, we
a highly-visual way,” he explains.
can provide the exact same com-
The intention of Provisioner is to be
putational environment to that data
a framework that supports a multi-
set. Provisioner facilitates that”
tude of different technologies and use
Gale says another reason this
cases. “We are actively working with
capability is important is because
other research disciplines so that they
it allows UTS researchers to use
can plug directly into Provisioner.”
a variety of technology tools to access
Leveraging data as an asset can be
the same data. “Our immersive Data
instructive in a completely different
Arena, which is a purpose-built
research discipline, and Gale gives an
physical space allowing the 360-de-
interesting analogy of iceberg obser-
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Peter Gale Peter joined UTS in 1991. He has over 20 years experience in the Australian Tertiary Education sector leading the delivery of IT technical services at UTS. He has managed IT operations in the Faculty of Information Technology, developed an eResearch computing and support capability, and managed all IT Technical Services for the University. He is currently Deputy CIO, IT Infrastructure and Operations, responsible for the development and delivery of data centre services, cloud services, voice and data networks and eResearch computing and storage platforms.
141
UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
• More than 150 companies partner with UTS • It has more than 45,000 students and more than 3,800 staff • In 2008, the university made a $1.2 billion investment to fundamentally change the way it delivers research, teaching and learning through its decade-long UTS City Campus Master Plan 142
• UTS has been moving apps to the cloud since 2012 • Its Data Arena allows the 360-degree visualisation of data • In April 2018, UTS launched Tech Lab • Office365 was deployed in 2017 • There are 2,200 wireless access points across its campus • The UTS chat bot can answer 130 common questions students would ask • Amazon Redshift-based data analytics platform is being used for a range of solutions
TECHNOLOGY
“THE UPTAKE INTERNALLY IS ACCELERATING AND WE’VE NOW GOT HUNDREDS OF RESEARCHERS USING THE STASH PLATFORM” — Peter Gale, Deputy CIO, UTS
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UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
144
vations made by 19th Century whal-
explains that data visualisation enables
ers as an example. “In the past, they
researchers to ask fundamentally
would just keep logs to show the ship’s
different questions than they would
journey,” he says. “Now, it is possible
have been able to do it in the past.
to use 19th century whaling ship logs
“So, the technology is really transform-
to map the recession of the Ice Shelf
ing the way that research is done in
in Antarctica over time. So, you get
more ways than just making it easier
information from one particular dis-
to store, and perform calculations on
cipline, and then later if you maintain
it.”
it well, you can use it in a completely different discipline to inform research.” The Date Arena Gale mentions is
Some of the technology in the Data Arena is world first, including the ‘Data Arena Virtual Machine’ – a virtual
a completely immersive, three-dimen-
machine on a USB stick that research-
sional visualisation space. Burns
ers can plug into their laptop, to utilise
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
“WE ARE A PUBLICALLY FUNDED INSTITUTION, WE DON’T HAVE MILLIONS TO INVEST IN UNDERLYING TECHNOLOGY CAPABILITY THAT MIGHT NOT PRODUCE RESULTS FOR SEVERAL YEARS, WE NEED TO BE MORE NIMBLE AND EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES OF CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES WHEN IT MAKES SENSE” — David O’Connor, Deputy CIO, UTS 145
the entire functionality of a data arena
the researchers because ultimately
on their laptop. “This basically enables
it needs to make their job easier.
us to replicate the data arena for
Wherever there are opportunities for
development as widely as we want,”
automation, for example in the creation
adds Burns.
of data management plans, we take
UTS values cross-university collabo-
them. One of our goals is to remove
ration, and has teamed up with other
as much administrative overhead as
institutions to develop a research data
we can from our researchers, it’s an
catalogue, “Stash”, which is already on
ongoing process”. “This is just one
its third iteration. “The uptake internally
example of our broader evolution from
is accelerating and we’ve now got
project-thinking to product-thinking”
hundreds of researchers using the
says O’Connor, “In the modern IT world,
Stash platform,” says Gale. “We design
very little is launched and finished.”
and develop in close consultation with
The team has also needed to be a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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TECHNOLOGY
147
flexible and creative in response to learning and teaching needs at the
as PhD research opportunities. In order to deliver all these chang-
university. For example, Burns and
es Burns’ team has been through a
her team were required to act fast to
process of transformation. Burns
implement cutting-edge technology
identifies two key factors which have
to enable the rapid set up of the UTS
supported development of the agility
Animal Logic Academy – a unique
required to deliver against the fast
collaboration between UTS and digital
moving demands of the university.
animation and visual effects produc-
The first is that the team has invested
tion studio Animal Logic. In a world
considerable effort in its IT architec-
first, this award winning educational vfx
ture and the second is that it has
studio launched in 2017 and offers an
worked hard on developing a user
industry-led and first-of-its-kind Master
centric approach to every aspect of
of Animation and Visualisation as well
its operations. a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
148
One foundation of the team’s IT
drivers, one being financial, because to
architecture is the platform strategy
invest in the type of on-premises data
developed by O’Connor. For example,
infrastructure to do the innovative work
Amazon Redshift was selected as the
we had in mind would have cost a small
university’s core data platform. UTS
fortune. We are a publicly-funded insti-
was one of the first organisations in
tution, we don’t have millions to invest
Australia to use the Amazon Redshift
in underlying technology capability that
data platform for a range of solutions,
might not produce results for several
including providing lecturers with key
years, we need to be more nimble and
information that enables them to bet-
embrace the opportunities of cloud
ter tailor their approach. “It was a bold
technologies when it makes sense.”
move at the time, but a good move,” reveals O’Connor. “There were several FEBRUARY 2019
In its quest to develop a UX capability, the team drew on existing expertise
TECHNOLOGY
£1.5bn Approximate revenue
2002
Year founded
1,800 Approximate number of employees
within the university’s Faculty of Engi-
IT team have done with Dr Tuck Wah
neering and IT. “There are some unique
Leong, a UTS researcher who special-
and exciting aspects to being an IT
ises in human-centred approaches of
team within a university of technology”
inquiry and technology design. “Work-
says O’Connor. “Certainly having so
ing with Dr Leong has been absolutely
many experts in the room can have its
fantastic” says Burns. “We have used
moments” he quips, “however there
his insight to guide many of our pro-
are some really nice intersections of
jects, every year we put a selection
academic and professional skills and
of IT staff through one of his subjects,
experience that we have been able to
and we have also leveraged the exper-
harness which would be impossible
tise and drive of his PHD students”.
in any other industry”. One example of this in action is the work that the
Looking forward, the trio are excited about the part that technology has to a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
149
UNIVERSIT Y OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS)
play in the university’s future. UTS has just released its new long term strategy “UTS 2027”. Staying true to its collegial and collaborative culture, UTS took a unique approach to the development of its new strategy, ensuring that the strategy was informed not by the ideas of a few, but instead by the ideas of its huge community of staff, students, alumni and industry partners. Through workshops, advisory boards and an ideation technology platform (which was a huge success), com150
plex themes and ideas were shaped and moulded into the final strategy. The IT team has played an important role in the development of the strategy. “We are moving to a world where technology really is at the heart of business strategy,” says Burns. “It’s exciting that the IT team has been able to show some thought leadership in the strategy development process.” While the UTS IT team is through its first phase of technology transformation, further change is required to support the required digital enablement for the university’s new strategy. Burns likens the next stage to a ‘Mission to Mars,’ saying they are now looking at FEBRUARY 2019
“THERE ARE SOME REALLY NICE INTERSECTIONS OF ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE THAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO HARNESS WHICH WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY” — David O’Connor, Deputy CIO, UTS
TECHNOLOGY
than ‘business requirements.’ This enables us to make reasonably solid bestbets without having 100% of the information, which is no longer possible.” O’Connor reveals there’s enormous goodwill across the IT team towards the university’s mission, and says the team’s culture is supportive of the need for ongoing change. “That has really enabled the journey of developing, learning new skills,” he concludes. “It does a take a constant vigilance, to see the new side and not let the wagon wheels run in the old rut all the time. But I think we’re getting there.” Burns adds that “what is critical is that every member of the team has a mindset which is about constantly learning, developing, and re-skilling. We’re committed to developing that mindset and our focus is on bringing everyone along. We’ve invested a lot of where the university needs to head,
effort in cascading down workshops,
and which skills and technology are
investing in the team, and getting
needed for this. Planning for the fu-
feedback into what we do. These are
ture is always difficult, says O’Connor,
big challenges, but we have proven
particularly as the pace of business
again and again that we have a team
change continues to increase. “We
that is ready to take the next step.”
tend to think in terms of underlying capabilities that will be required, rather a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
151
ACCENT GROUP 152
A SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATION Accent Group LTD boasted record profits last year and moved 6.3mn shoes — that’s one in five in Australia – thanks to its recent supply chain transformation. Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology and Supply Chain Manager, Mark Rizza, reveal the secrets behind their omnichannel strategy
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
153
WRITTEN BY
NIKI WALDEGRAVE PRODUCED BY
GLEN WHITE
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
G
one are the days of successful retailers surviving on bricks and mortar alone. To be at the forefront
of retail now, businesses need a booming digital presence. Accent Group Ltd – formerly RCG Corporation Ltd – is on the ASX and delivered its FY18 results in August, revealing a record underlying net profit after tax of $47.1mn, up 17.9% on the prior year. The business – which has more than 460 stores across Australia and New Zealand – has delivered strong 154
returns over the past five years through its brands including The Athlete’s Foot, Platypus, Hype DC, Timberland, Vans, Dr. Martens, Saucony, Merrell, Palladium, Sperry Top-Sider, Stance, Supra, Subtype, and kids’ funky online brand The Trybe. Its recent success is thanks to a major collaboration across many business units involving a stunning digital transformation over the past 24 months, which involved a one key stream full supply chain transformation led by Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain and Technology, and Supply Chain Manager Mark Rizza.
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
“We want to make sure we’re the best retailers out there. Our CEO always says ‘We don’t do average’”
155
— Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
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A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ADOBE EXPERIENCE : CUSTOMER SHOWCASE – MARK TEPERSON, CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, ACCENT GROUP LTD 156
“The rate at which this business rolls out projects is not matched anywhere else I’ve seen” — Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
FEBRUARY 2019
“Our digital team led by Mark Teperson, our Chief Digital Officer, in conjunction with our technology team have effectively enabled 13 websites for the business in the last three years,” Greenstein reveals. “In terms of the space that we play in – athletic leisure footwear and general footwear – we’re fortunate that that space has been growing and we’ve been able to open up more stores across Australia and New Zealand, which has also contributed dramatically to our growth. “But so has listening to our customers.”
S U P P LY C H A I N
Online sales are growing fast –
that to give it a bit of context, our
Accent’s FY18 digital sales are up
business tradition started as a whole-
131% on FY17 and up c88% YTD in
sale business and over the last decade
FY19 – with approximately 40 to 50%
or so has ramped up its retail presence.
of online sales now coming directly
“As that footprint has got bigger, having
from the stores, of which the majority
more stores and hitting the market with
are omni-enabled. New functionalities
these technological capabilities is
including ‘click and collect’, ‘ship from
allowing the business to leverage its
store’, same day delivery and endless
460-store network to drive growth
aisle, are all now enabled
with a true omnichannel strategy.
“We initially projected at 20 or 30%,
“We’ve also enabled new warehousing
so you can imagine the overflow of that,
capability which again, using state-
and what that means in store land…”
of-the-art automation at our new Toll
adds Rizza. “Adding another layer to
operated Preston facility in Sydney, will
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Tim Greenstein is the General Manager of Supply Chain and Technology at Accent Group Ltd — Australia’s largest footwear retailer with over 445 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Tim has extensive experience in a variety of retail disciplines, focused on Supply Chain, Technology and Ecommerce. Tim has developed a reputation as a change agent, leading several key high-profile change and strategic projects at Accent group through working with the business to deliver transformative change across The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, Platypus Shoes, Skechers, Vans, Merrell, Timberland, CAT, Saucony and Sperry. Tim holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is a Director of a not for profit board.
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A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
158
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Mark Rizza is head of Supply Chain for the Accent Group Limited. Mark is responsible for procurement, international and local logistics as well Customer Care for Brands such as Platypus, Hype DC, Vans, Skechers, Dr Martens and Timberland. Mark has 15+ years of experience in this space and has worked for both local and global retail brands in an executive capacity such as Lululemon Athletica and Bras’n’Things. Mark is highly experienced in transformational projects using his passion for people an approach of simplifying complex issues to deliver what is best for consumers. Mark has completed his MBA through the Australian Institute of Business.
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
“You have to have web and ERP platforms that are capable of handling complex integrations these days”
159
help us handle the business growth, increase volume and improve speed to market requirements, which ultimately advances the service to consumers.” Accent recently constructed a purpose-built digital hub of excellence in Melbourne, which concentrates the digital expertise under one roof. There’s not one all singing, all dancing system these days in a big business that handles things end to end, and so Accent has utilised its current providers, as well as new providers to
— Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
With Smart Omichannel Order Management
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info@fluentcommerce.com
The Athlete’s Foot —
As fast as their customers with Fluent Commerce Fluent Commerce is an Australian software company, headquartered in Sydney. They offer smart omnichannel order management allowing retailers to be easier, faster and more convenient to shop with than their competitors. It means fulfilling orders in the most cost effective and quickest way possible whilst offering the customer as many delivery and pick up options as possible. Accent Group wanted to create a single, streamlined technology stack in their transition from multi- to omnichannel customer engagement. Fluent Commerce was chosen for their order management requirements as this allowed them to turn their stores into mini distribution centres, enabling click and collect and ship-from-store.
Digital sales increased by 170% in the first six months of implementing ship-from-store. The Athlete’s Foot now operates seamlessly across channels, its digital arm an extension of the store network. Through Fluent Commerce, they are also able to access real-time inventory throughout the entire operation. This opens up all available stock to all consumers no matter where they are and which channel they choose to shop on; not just the stock available in the warehouse. The Athlete’s Foot are making out-of-stock situations a thing of the past.
Taking things further, ship-from-store capabilities also ensures that Athlete's Foot can implement an endless aisle strategy, allowing in-store associates to ship out-ofstock items directly to the customer from another store the following day. This means breaking the pattern of discounting stock that doesn't sell in a particular store or losing sales altogether, by redistributing stock according to customer demand and location.
fluentcommerce.com
S U P P LY C H A I N
“ Fluent Commerce is used for The Athlete’s Foot to manage click & collect fulfilment with their in-store technology” — Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
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enable its omnichannel strategy. The
for orders to be taken online and sent
websites’ eCommerce platform is
to different stores or warehouses for
Magento and Accent uses three key
fulfilment, in a particular and ideally
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
seamless way, in particular sequences,
systems – Apparel 21 , Erplyand Pronto
based on certain rules that the business
across its group of stores.
requires in terms of being effective.
“You have to have web and ERP
“Another key system aspect, certainly
platforms that are capable of handling
for our store enablement, was the ability
complex integrations these days,”
to effectively use third party software
explains Greenstein. “From our core
(middleware) providing us with intelli-
systems, we needed to facilitate that.
gent shipping and fulfilment solutions
The technology must enable the ability
to assist us in handling the freight a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
C OMPA N Y FA C T S
• Accent Group LTD has more than 446 stores across Australia and New Zealand • In 2017/18 total digital sales grew by 13% • Accent Group has delivered strong returns over the past 5 years • Accent is on the ASX, and its total shareholder return over the past 5 years is 177% • It has 13 new websites across Australia and NZ, with two launching next year • Omnichannel sales are on track to reach 15% target of total sales within two years • Accent’s online sales are growing fast — 131 per cent in 2017 164
• Approximately 40 to 50 per cent of online sales now come directly from the stores, of which the majority are omni-enabled • Customer care is front of mind going into 2019 • 24/7 coverage will include across live chat and email • Live chat launched in October across Vans, Skechers, Timberlands, Doc Martens and Platypus, with Hype DC and The Athlete’s Foot coming soon • In the past 12 months, 3.5million customers registered through its various loyalty programs • Platypus launched same day delivery service in July 2018, more will be rolled out 2019 •Accent has hubs in Melbourne, Sydney and Manila • In just the last two months, Accent secured the rights to the Supra brand and launched kids online brand, The Trybe
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
and dispatch flow, particularly from our store network.” The middleware, in Accent’s case, have three applications, given the numerous business divisions – Temando, Fluent Commerce and Shippit – which allow for distributed order management at stores, as well as integrations with numerous freight providers to produce the freight labels and support the multi option freight requirements to make the store process more seamless. Fluent Commerce is used for The Athlete’s Foot to manage click & collect fulfillment with their in-store technology. Its successful next day and same day delivery services is due to its existing relationships with Australia Post’s StarTrack Courier and Direct Courier. Being one of the first businesses to roll this capability out nationally across all stores, Accent hopes to ensure its delivery capability is never far from the customer and will safeguard it from online competitors such as Amazon, which recently launched in Australia. “Interestingly, some of these purely online players are starting to play around with the physical stores,” muses Rizza. “Many Pure online players have or are a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
“ We’ll never lose focus on our roots here in Australia” — Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
166 contemplating a physical store presence, with Catch of the Day launching a pop-up recently. “We’ll look to cover everywhere, and because we’re utilising our store footprint to assist in the fulfilment process, our aim of faster delivery nationwide will be greatly assisted by this capability. “We have a really good opportunity, given our current enabled capability across stores and digital, at solidifying, growing this further and continuing to build on our digital and store strategy, so that we can stay at the forefront of the marketplace.” FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
Customer care is also front of mind going in 2019, with 24/7 coverage, including across live chat and email. Live chat launched in October 2018 across Vans, Skechers, Timberland, Doc Martens, Platypus, Hype DC with The Athlete’s Foot coming soon. “Two and half years ago, we had one team member that looked after retail and ecommerce,” laughs Rizza. “Now, we have more than 25 people based at the hubs in Melbourne, Sydney and Manila, and that’s only going to get bigger. It’s driven by consumers demanding out attention and demanding increased support, and also our stores’ demands for support. “We started live chat with some of the smaller brands and in a short space of time it’s taken off quickly. To put in perspective, over the last few weeks, it went from being a few tickets to now being nearly a quarter of overall volume through the chat channel, and that’s with us currently really only covering business hours, so we know for a fact that consumers want to talk to us.” Obviously, such a digital transformation has been a huge culture change in the business, with the technological a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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“Our digital transformation strategy included Temando, a multi-carrier shipping solution that supports our vision to provide our customers with a great way to submit returns online –– helping us deliver consistent customer experience no matter how busy it gets.” — Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
Find out more: bit.ly/DemoTemando Temando, a Neopost Shipping company
S U P P LY C H A I N
improvements putting increased onus onto the store teams, and what their day to day roles look like. In some cases, staff have
“Part of the learning for us is that we’ve created roles that we didn’t expect to create,” says Greenstein. “We had a view of how
gone from being purely
some of the requirements,
salespeople to having to
monitoring procedures
manage order fulfil-
and some of the
ments, and the group
operational processes
ensures that with every innovation that’s rolled out and executed, full training programmes and mechanisms are
would work, but what it’s actually led to wasn’t quite what we thought. “As a result, we’ve had to tweak
there to support the team, who still
and create new roles to deliver and
need to be able to trade and fulfil the
help with the process management
consumers’ needs.
of all these functionalities that we’ve built on, as these roles never existed in our business before. So, it’s been understanding and navigating the training path well.
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A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
“ We’re definitely in the phase of a growing business: new digital presence, opening new stores, acquiring businesses, as well as looking for brand opportunities that we can bolt on to our 170 existing business” — Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
“The business has a strong focus
“We want to make sure we’re the best
on stock integrity and stock trade
retailers out there,” explains Green-
mechanisms, as this is key to ensuring
stein. “Our CEO always says we don’t
the end to end omnichannel experience
do average – we try to be different and
is effective and accurate.”
really make a difference and it’s part of
They both concur that in order to succeed at Accent, employees need commitment, drive and a “can do” attitude. FEBRUARY 2019
the ‘make it happen’ culture to make sure we try and recruit the right people. “It’s very important to retain talent and give people the opportunity to grow
S U P P LY C H A I N
Promotional banner for The Athlete’s Foot
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within the business. We also need people that can be very agile, the rate at which this business rolls out projects is really not matched
“Certainly, from the supply chain point of view, if you’re coming here just to have a day to day job of one task, that’s not going to fly
anywhere else that I’ve seen in my time,
because our business continues to
so you need people that can come in
grow and evolves so quickly that you
and be ready to move, depending on
need to have people that can thrive in
your role of course.
that environment – it’s not for everyone.” a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
A C C E N T G R O U P LT D
Accent’s footprint and capabilities
set to increase when Accent moves “Part of the are at some point internationally potentially learning for to Asia in 2019. “We’ll never lose focus on our roots us is that here in Australia,” adds Greenstein, “as we’ve created demonstrated by our recently opened Platypus Superstore in roles that we 600sqm Melbourne Central and a Pitt Street didn’t expect Sydney Superstore opening mid-2019. But we’re starting to explore how we to create” broaden our footprint is the next stage,
— Tim Greenstein, General Manager Supply Chain & Technology
172
especially as the digital economy continues to grow.” The long-term visions of the AGL Supply Chain team are focusing on that speed to consumer portion. At board level, it’s to create greater opportunities from a vertical product perspective too. Accent recently secured the rights to the Supra brand, launched kids’ specific online brand, The Trybe, and also purchased premium footwear brand Subtype, which plays in the premium space with one store and an online presence. “Our strategy at the moment is very much to continue to invest in store infrastructure where it makes sense and where we see growth, while obviously driving all the other channels
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
$676mn Approximate revenue
1981
Year founded
5,000+
Approximate number of employees 173 at the same time,” adds Greenstein. “Our CEO and board are very proactive in finding brands that are going to
and speed, is becoming more and more critical. “We must make sure that we can keep
align with us and help us solidify that
up with the requirements of what the
leadership space in the athletic
customer wants while always being
footwear or the leisure footwear space.
flexible and able to make sure that we
“We’re definitely in the phase of a growing businesses; new digital presence, opening new stores, acquiring
deliver and meet their requirements,” he surmises. “Customers these days have a diffe-
businesses, as well as looking for
rent way of operating and engaging,
brand opportunities that we can bolt
and what’s convenient for one is not
on to our existing business.”
actually the same for another, so the
From the market perspective, the
time to be able to keep up with the
consumer continues to come up with
demand and need is going to be a critical
new ways and new requirements of
factor going forward.”
wanting product – how they purchase, a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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FEBRUARY 2019
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Back to the future: The Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project WRIT TEN BY
NIKI WA LDEGR AVE PRODUCED BY
GLEN WHITE
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The Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project has changed the face of Victorian suburbs. Its project director, Brett Summers, tells Niki Waldegrave how blending the old with the new has made city living and commuting easier for future generations.
176
T
he train line from Melbourne CBD to Cranbourne and Pakenham is Melbourne’s busiest rail corridor, crossed by some of
Australia’s most congested roads, where boom gates were down for up to 82 minutes during the morning peak. With a number of fatalities recorded at level crossings on both that corridor and others, in 2015 the Victorian Government tasked the Victoriabased Level Crossings Removal Project with removing 50 dangerous level crossings by 2022 in addition to other infrastructure upgrades across section of Melbourne’s rail network. One of its showpieces was the $1.6 billion Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project, an intensive logistical exercise led by project director Brett Summers. One of Australian’s biggest construction plans, the Level Crossing Removal Project delivered the FEBRUARY 2019
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LEVEL CROSSINGS AUTHORITY
project with an alliance in conjunction
ment, the Level Crossing Removal
with the likes of Lendlease, CPB
Project has already seen 29 level
Contractors, WSP, Aurecon and Metro
crossings removed out of the original
Trains Melbourne.
50 and following the result of the
They removed nine level crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong in
crossings were prioritised for removal,”
Melbourne’s southeast by elevating the
says Summers.
Cranbourne/Pakenham line over the road in three distinct sections.
178
recent election, an additional 25 level
The Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project saw the build
Due to the program’s success, the
of five new stations and 321 piers, each
government has expanded on the rem-
up to nine metres high. Its 40,000 ton-
oval of 50 crossings to now eradicating
nes of steel and 588 concrete beams
75 by 2022.
weighed more than 85,000 tonnes,
“A flagship program for the govern-
This was always seen as a relatively controversial project because we put the train line up in the air — Brett Summers Project Director, Caulfield to Dandenong at Level Crossing Removal Authority
FEBRUARY 2019
and opened up 22.5 hectares of space
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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘CAULFIELD TO DANDENONG: CONSTRUCTION AT MURRUMBEENA’ 179 – the open space is 11 times bigger than
metres in some areas such as between
the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
Caulfield and Hughesdale. Many of the
thanks to building six kilometres of new
locations had residential properties that
elevated bridges.
backed right up against the corridor –
But the stakes were high. “It is the
of the 113 houses that were eligible
busiest rail corridor in Melbourne,”
for purchase by the government under
explains Summers, “so it has the most
a Voluntary Purchase Scheme, 74 have
amount of people moving backwards
settled to date, meaning the construction
and forwards, and we had to keep them
was very often right next to people’s
moving pretty much the whole time
homes and back fences. As a result, they
getting them from point A to B, while
pulled in the big guns by deploying a blue
we built this job in and around a live
straddle carrier, which allowed the 2000-
train environment.”
strong workforce to build above the exist-
The biggest challenge was that it’s a very tight rail corridor – less than 20
ing train line, while the trains continued to run underneath. a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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FEBRUARY 2019
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C OMPA N Y FA C T S
• In 2015 the Victorian Government tasked the Victoria-based Level Crossings Removal Project with removing 50 dangerous level crossings by 2022 in addition to other infrastructure upgrades across sections of Melbourne’s rail network. • One of its showpieces was the $1.6 billion Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Projects. • The last of the major works were completed around about October 2018 and the 17-kilometre-long shared user path and the linear park is now open to the public.
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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LEVEL CROSSINGS AUTHORITY
2015
Year founded
360+
Approximate number of employess
182
Instead of lifting beams in a tradition-
is used throughout Asia, usually to launch
al method using cranes, needing lots of
big road structures, and it’s something
open space to truck the beams in, they
the team saw and thought they would
were instead lifted and transported long-
adopt to the rail environment. The project
itudinally down the corridor for installation
also used a track-laying machine. An
between Caulfield and Hughesdale.
Australian first, these machines move
“It’s the first time that has been done
up and down the new elevated rail line
in Melbourne but it meant that we didn’t
to place pieces of track, using hydr-
need to use adjacent land,” he explains.
aulic technology built for efficiency
“It was, obviously a huge logistical and
and precision.
safety challenge – but safety is at the
While the main benefits of the track-
forefront of everything we do, and lots
laying machine are speed and safety, it
of planning went into it.”
also played a key part in installing noise-
The technology for the straddle carrier FEBRUARY 2019
reducing features of the design, including
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concrete ‘plinths’ – a quieter, smoother
open to the public for a few months
alternative to the traditional sleepers
and it’s well-used by the community.
laid over stony ballast.
We have people using the basketball
The last of the major works were
courts, the table tennis tables, the
completed around October 2018 and
playground equipment, joggers and
all the space underneath the train line
cyclists, families riding their pushbikes
– the 17-kilometre long shared user path
along the entire length of the park.
and the linear park – is now open to the public.
“I’ve been out there myself for a jog and a run along the linear park. What has
“This was always seen as a relatively
really been probably one of the proudest
controversial project because we put
moments for the project team and myself
the train line up in the air,” he reveals.
is that it has really changed the face of
“So, in the early days, there was a bit of
these suburbs and the way that these
trepidation in the community about what
people interact around the train line.
it would look like at the end. But it’s been
“It’s opened up the entire suburb and
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Brett Summers With more than 20 years’ experience as an engineer, Brett Summers took up the role of Project Director at the Level Crossing Removal Project in April 2015, overseeing an unprecedented overhaul of the Cranbourne/Pakenham line with the Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project. Brett is no stranger to working on major rail projects across Melbourne, having held previous managerial roles for a number of years withthe Regional Rail Link Authority and Department of Transport.
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LEVEL CROSSINGS AUTHORITY
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made their lives easier to get from point A to point B.” Social inclusion is a very strong policy at the Level Crossing Removal Project, and something the
“We’re very conscious that, whilst we were building new infrastructure, we wanted to recognise and look back and reflect on the past that’d come 185 before us” — Brett Summers Project Director, Caulfield to Dandenong at Level Crossing Removal Authority
program is extremely proud of. Whether it’s consulting train drivers and the end operators on the line about
tice is also something that was at the
signal designs, helping veterans out
forefront of everything the project did.
with a job in the construction industry,
From installing solar panels to using
or helping local underprivileged families,
the wood from original stations to make
Summers says: “With every dollar that
seats and playgrounds scattering the
we spent on this project, we tried to
corridor, to restoring station buildings
always find a way that we could return
– it worked with the Chisholm Institute
some benefit to the community.”
of TAFE to restore the original heritage-
Sustainability and world’s best-prac-
listed Clayton station building – Summers a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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FEBRUARY 2019
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“With every dollar spent on this project, we tried to always find a way that we could return some benefit to the community” — Brett Summers Project Director, Caulfield to Dandenong at Level Crossing Removal Authority
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LEVEL CROSSINGS AUTHORITY
22.5
Hectares of open space created
6km
Of new elevated bridge
Memorial plaques and monuments honouring soldiers who served in armed conflict along the corridor, including at Clayton and St Albans are also a nice touch, and the project works with Veterans in Construction, which helps secure veterans a pathway in to the construction industry. There used to be an Avenue of Honour where trees had been planted
30,000 188
New trees and shrubs planted
explains it was important to retain the history. “It’s marrying the new with the old,” he says. “In the seating backs we’ve installed at all these stations, we recognise the history of each of the individual places. So, whilst it looks like a brand new station you can catch the train from, there’s actually old historical images and photos so you get a sense of what that area used to look like. “Again, we’re very conscious that, whilst we were building new infrastructure, we wanted to recognise and look back and reflect on the past that’d come before us.” JANUARY 2019
for veterans. The project took the seeds from those original trees and planted them early on to grow saplings, “and we
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recreated that original Avenue of Honour
project planted more than 30,000
in this remembrance space,” he adds.
trees and shrubs.
“The feedback was hugely positive
On the rail lines, both the train
and we had our first Remembrance Day
passengers and the drivers have been
ceremony there on the 11th of November.”
complimentary about the new tracks,
The team also needed to remove some very old river red gums during the project
replacing ones that were up to 100 years old.
and again, they took the seeds from
“You don’t get the clickety-clack and
those and planted them back the rail
bouncing backwards and forwards of
corridor. “It was something we were very
an old train,” he explains. “And when
conscious of and hold as a badge of
they hit these new sections, there is
honour – the fact that we have repopu-
a significant change in the look, the feel,
lated with some of the original species
the sound of how the train behaves. It’s
of plants,” he smiles, revealing the
very, very smooth.” 189 C OMPA N Y FA C T S
• The Level Crossings Removal Project have removed nine level crossings between Caulfield and Dandenong in Melbourne’s southeast by elevating the Cranbourne/Pakenham line over the road in three distinct sections • Due to the program’s success, the government has expanded on the removal of 50 crossings to now eradicating 75 by 2022 a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
LEVEL CROSSINGS AUTHORITY
“ The proudest moments for the project team and myself is that it has really changed the face of these suburbs and the way that these people interact around the train line”
190
— Brett Summers Project Director, Caulfield to Dandenong at Level Crossing Removal Authority
FEBRUARY 2019
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Although the level crossings have been removed between Caulfield and Dandenong, the same Alliance is also undertaking work to upgrade signalling and power infrastructure along the entire Cranbourne and Pakenham lines, in preparation for the introduction of High Capacity Metro Trains. Victoria is investing $2.3 billion in 65 next-generation High Capacity Metro Trains, which are a fleet of electric multiple unit trains on order for use by Metro Trains Melbourne on the Melbourne rail network.
191
They will eventually become the primary rollingstock used in the Metro Tunnel when it opens in 2025 and are due to enter service in mid-2019.
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Generali: 192
A customer-centric insurance provider fuelled by digital disruption WRIT TEN BY
L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY
A LE X PAGE
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
193
a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
GENERALI
Generali has made a name for itself as one of largest global insurance providers. Now, it’s taking on one of its biggest digital transformations yet to sustain its customer-centric reputation
194
W
orldwide, it seems the insurance sector is on the cusp of momentous change and nowhere can this be seen better than at
Assicurazioni Generali. Offering everything from corporate insurance to life and health insurance, Generali has quickly become a household name, often cited as being Europe’s third-largest insurer, the leading insurer in Italy and the second largest in Germany. Now, it’s earning its stripes for another key facet of the business: the further innovation and digital transformation process, as stated in the new Group Strategy. At its Global Corporate & Commercial division, a specialised unit within the company, Generali provides services such as property and casualty insurance to complex multinationals and large domestic commercial entities alike. Hayden Seach, Head of Global Corporate & Commercial Asia, is convinced that this digital transformation is not only FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
195
helping the company better manage its portfolio and relationships, but it’s also helping it deliver more informed risk management to its clients. Historically, insurance has been associated with a product or contract between a customer and their insurance company covering risk. In stark contrast, Generali believes it offers services beyond this, going the extra mile to deliver a service-orientated experience for its customers. “We focus on providing service-led propositions,” Seach explains, “therefore we position a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
GENERALI
“ At Generali, our focus is on being agile, flexible and adaptable so we can meet the needs of our clients” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia
196
FEBRUARY 2019
ourselves as a company that responds to customers’ needs as a partner, rather than selling them an insurance policy or product.” Technology has undoubtedly been a key part of this strategy, and so Generali has devised a careful digital transformation plan to ensure its customers get the top-class service they deserve every time. “At Generali, our focus is on being agile,
TECHNOLOGY
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE EMERGING RISK – GENERALI GROUP’ 197 flexible and adaptable so we can meet
a global level. Generali is also using
the needs of our clients in a timely
a customer relationship management
manner,” adds Seach.
(CRM) tool from Microsoft Dynamics
At GC&C, digital tools involve data
which allows it to manage and maintain
consolidation, business enablement,
customer relationships, track engage-
customer service and business
ments and sales, and deliver actionable
management. When it came to data,
data. Because Generali also provides
Seach says that the company “recog-
loss prevention and risk engineering
nised it had an enormous amount of
services to its customers, it has also
data available to it” as a multinational
utilised Maximo by IBM to make the
insurer but that it wasn’t effectively
related reports, actions and results
“leveraging this to its full potential”.
electronically available.
To promote data consolidation and
But data consolidation is only the
portfolio analytics, the business rolled
start. With its digitally-savvy mindset,
out a Corporate Data Warehouse at
Generali also plans to enable the a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
Trusted Digital Advisor We help insurers connect the dots across the globe and region – becoming customer-led, operationally smart Connected Enterprises
Anticipate tomorrow. Deliver today. kpmg.com/cn
Š 2019 KPMG Advisory (Hong Kong) Limited, a Hong Kong limited liability company and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved. Printed in Hong Kong.
TECHNOLOGY
business further with a home-grown
Underwriting Workbench which
system called Gen-e-risk, short for
supports the full underwriting process,
Generali eRisk system. “Providing
from request for quotation to the
multinational insurance solutions is
binding stage. In turn, Seach says this
a very complex process,” observes
will allow the firm to “deliver technical
Seach. “This system enables us
pricing, risk assessment and portfolio
to provide multinational insurance
management as well as offer geoloca-
solutions to large and complex
tion and tracking information”.
customers, across multiple territories,
Today, insurance businesses face
compliantly.” As part of its digital
a new hurdle: how to become more
transformation journey, Generali has
customer-centric. However, this seems
developed a new system called
to be a challenge which Generali is 199
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Hayden Seach I current hold the position of Head of Asia; for Generali Global Corporate and Commercial. I am also a member of the Board of Future Generali (India) Insurance Company Limited. I have worked in the Insurance Industry for 25 years, holding various global and country leadership positions. Other board memberships I’ve held include: Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (Oman) SAOC. ( June 2010 — March 2011), Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (Middle East) Limited EC (alt) (February 2009 — March 2011), Glencairn Group (South Africa) (August 2005 — December 2007).
a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
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200
tackling with ease. “We take the data-
and premiums status. Additionally, the
driven insights that we have from the
business is launching an Electronic
Corporate Data Warehouse and we
Policy Insurance service. Aligned with
present it back to the customer, allowing
its green strategy, this roll-out also
them to view the performance of their
aims to “promote better policy
business,” notes Seach. “This enables
documentation management for the
them to create better risk management
customer”, according to Seach.
of their own business.” “We are also just about to launch
The fourth component of Generali’s digital transformation journey lies in
a Client & Broker web portal,” he adds,
business management. By consolidat-
highlighting how the service will offer
ing its data, Seach says it helped to
a documentary repository and will also
bring “full transparency” to the busi-
provide details on service delivery
ness, allowing it to better manage and
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
201
“ We position ourselves as a company that responds to customers’ needs, rather than selling them an insurance policy or a product” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia
track the performance of areas of the business like production, underwriting and finance. “Internally it provided us with a much better portfolio management capability,” he says. “The transparency of our portfolio has really enabled us to focus on profitability and portfolio performance. We’ve got a whole customer view, which has enabled us to deliver better results for our shareholders.” “I think another thing that I’m really proud that we’ve managed to deliver a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
GENERALI
is a more informed risk management to our customers,” he adds. “Our customers are able to get the claims data analytics that we provide.” This has had real-life, tangible impacts for customers, he asserts, citing a major multinational hotel chain as one key beneficiary. “We were able to analyse and present to them incidents which were happening within their hotels around the world. So, for example, one hotel had a slip-and-fall problem at one of their buffet lines. Using data 202
analytics, we were able to isolate the cause of the problem and help them design a risk management control.” In this instance, it meant implementing a service attendant rather than having a self-service model to prevent spillages. Indeed, Generali Global Corporate & Commercial has taken a forwardthinking approach to innovation, tapping into some of the latest technology trends shaking up the market. However, when the pace of innovation progresses at a rate of knots, how does the company keep up? “At GC&C Asia we’ve leveraged partners like KPMG who have been a fantastic supporter to us throughout our FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
journey,” Seach observes. “I think leveraging partnerships have really helped us drive our agenda as fast and effectively as the market requires.” But this isn’t the only challenge facing the company. Seach points out how his division also had to contend with legacy systems, the scale of change and the challenge of implementing this strategy worldwide. “It really requires a strong leadership focus to cascade this approach to the relevant teams within each of our businesses,” he says. It’s this strong guidance which will help the company it navigates a realm of new emerging technologies and strategies. “Leveraging robotics and other
“ We’ve leveraged partners like KPMG who have been a fantastic supporter to us throughout our journey” Hayden Seach, Head of Generali Global Corporate & Commercial Asia
emerging technology is the next phase,” notes Seach. “Our value proposition requires a lot of analytics and feedback to our customers and we can’t underestimate the amount of work that goes into that. This technology will reduce the turnaround and customers will be able to receive more live-time data feedback on incidents so they can manage their own risks and exposures more effectively.” In the world of insurance, compliance is paramount and whilst Generali is already using a s i a . b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m
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GENERALI
160
Countries completed insurance solutions 204
71,000 Employees
1831
Year founded
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tools like its CRM system and constant reviews to safeguard this, Seach highlights how the company is also exploring the use of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) for the future. Change is underfoot at Generali: the company is investigating the use of trailblazing new technologies and is working hard to nurture the right culture necessary for change but ultimately, for Seach and his team, the most important thing is to remain laser-focused on its service-led customer experience. “Our service beyond policy approach is something that we’re really proud of within Global Corporate & Commercial,” Seach reflects. “Looking forward, if we can continue to be the best deliverer of corporate insurance to our customer that would be something that I would be delighted with.” In order to do this, technology is set to be a vital part of Generali’s future strategy, but when the end-goal is customer-centricity, it’s by no means a silver bullet. Seach affirms that whilst technology is a “clear enabler” which can help make the company more customer-centric, it won’t ever “replace the face-to-face environments that we’ve prided ourselves on here at Generali”.
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AXA Singapore: a customer centric digital transformation WRIT TEN BY
CATHERINE S TURM AN PRODUCED BY
A LE X PAGE
TECHNOLOGY
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AXA SINGAPORE
We spoke with AXA Singapore’s Chief Operating Officer, Eric Lelyon on developing customer centric products and services for its digitally savvy consumers
T
he Singaporean market is witnessing significant demand for life and health insurance products. Gaining double digit
growth across all product types, the life insurance market paid out more than S$5bn to policyholders and beneficiaries in 2017, with health insurance premiums also totalling S$374mn for YTD Q42017. 208
Singaporeans are now living to over 80 years of age, where longer lifespans, rising healthcare costs and an increased demand for new digital tools have placed increased pressures on existing insurance incumbents As part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s efforts to attract foreign investment to further ignite its economy, insurtech startups have brought new business models to the table, as well as new digital technologies, such as chatbots and mobile apps, helping insurance giants to step up to the challenge and remain competitive. Transforming its service delivery across an entire gamut of insurance services, from Life & Savings, to Health and Property & Casualty, AXA Group has invested in overhauling its outdated processes and adopting a new digital approach in order to cater towards this growing demand. FEBRUARY 2019
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AXA SINGAPORE
“ We are very proud of our digital transformation projects, where we have up to 90% adoption rate on our sales too” — Eric Lelyon, Chief Operating Officer
210
“Every one of our competitors is
well as its IT and transformation
utilising self-service tools. At AXA
projects, Lelyon has also sought to
Singapore, we deal with all lines of
protect customer data as part of his
business,” explains Eric Lelyon, Chief
role as Data Privacy Officer. As the
Operating Officer, AXA Singapore.
customer’s need for personalised,
“We have competitors within life
digital services continue to grow at
insurance and general insurance, such
scale, it will remain imperative for AXA
as motor, travel, home and health, but
to adopt customer-centric engage-
all of them are trying to sell directly to
ment strategies to win and retain the
the consumer or tying up with partners
trust of its customers, and embed a
to create a digital ecosystem.”
blended approach in delivering person-
Responsible for insurance policy, AXA’s local customer call centre, as FEBRUARY 2019
alised products and services at a corporate and individual level.
TECHNOLOGY
CLICK TO WATCH : AXA IN REAL LIFE REPORT 211
“In Singapore, our life insurance
choices and convenience for custom-
segment has been auto-equipped
ers. We are equipping our sales force
with Digital technologies across sales,
with innovative digital tools to engage
services and marketing. We are very
and close a case with customers in
proud of our digital transformation
minutes,� he says.
projects, where we have up to 90%
In order to reduce paperwork and
adoption rate on our sales tool. Our
enable faster policy issuance turna-
agents are selling most of our prod-
round, the business has therefore
ucts online, which will bring significant
worked to overhaul its backend
advantages. The next step for us will
capabilities and upgraded its outdated
be an offline version, which we will be
systems to provide not only cost-effi-
launching shortly, enabling agents to
ciency, but to minimise human error
sell faster, better and offer more
and deliver exceptional support to a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
121 System
An award-winning Point-of-Sale platform used by leading insurers to complete their end-to-end sales and service journeys
Financial Needs Analysis
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sales@eabsystems.com +852 2576 6000 www.eabsystems.com
TECHNOLOGY
213
its digital savvy customers. “There was a lot of transformation
customers. By taking an in-depth look at its distribution models, it has overhauled
in the backend because we didn’t need
a number of its processes, leveraging
anyone to do the processing anymore,
new technologies along the way.
but we did need to factor in regulatory
“With our life insurance, our agents
checks. However, we are now looking
make up more than two thirds of the
to change our back-end system as
business. We also sell insurance to the
well, for a system more flexible and
post offices, for example, as well as
cheaper to implement a new product,”
financial advisors (FA). We are also
states Lelyon.
exploring the increased value of APIs
Reducing its dependence on legacy
through an Insurance as a Service
systems and bringing a complete
proposition. We can do much more
omnichannel experience to the table,
on the General Insurance side, selling
AXA has sought to fully empower its
direct to the customer through the a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
AXA SINGAPORE
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TECHNOLOGY
AXA GROUP
€98.5bn Approximate revenue
1985 Year founded 160,000 The approximate number of AXA employees
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Power your onboarding processes. Empower your customers. Create a remarkable onboarding experience for your customers that offers realtime mobile engagement, the flexibility of anytime, anywhere self-service and omnichannel digital interactions. Combining capture, process management, e-signature and verification abilities, you create enduring customer loyalty and a competitive edge—all while ensuring compliance and automating due diligence.
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TECHNOLOGY
“ With our life insurance, our agents make up more than two thirds of the business. We also sell insurance to the post offices, for example, as well as financial advisors (FA)” — Eric Lelyon, Chief Operating Officer
217
phone or through digital means, but the
ties of consumer data. Investing in
intermediary must always remain. We
the development of a new security
are investing in checking-up on the cus-
protocols to safeguard all data under
tomer, ascertaining their needs before
its portfolio, AXA has partnered with
moving to a business process,” he says.
KPMG, undertaking a number of
Investing in new technologies and
assessments to ensure its effective-
business processes, the growing
ness, as well as implemented cloud
number of cyber-attacks is an area of
technology to further secure all
focus which has remained firmly on top
customer-related information.
of the agenda for AXA. High-profile
However, such change is not without
breaches have led to increased fears
its challenges. Transforming its organi-
on an international scale, particularly
sational structure and processes has
for businesses which hold vast quanti-
no doubt led to a cultural seachange a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
AXA SINGAPORE
A X A S ING A P OR E
218
Gaining double digit growth across all product types, the life insurance market in Singapore paid out more than S$5bn to policyholders and beneficiaries in 2017
AXA has sought to fully empower its customers. By taking an indepth look at its distribution models, it has overhauled its processes, leveraging new technologies along the way.
Singaporeans are now living to over 80 years of age, where longer lifespans, rising healthcare costs and an increased demand for new digital tools have placed increased pressures on traditional insurance companies
Two years ago, we rolled out an ambitious initiative locally for our front to back office transformation. We chose EAB Systems, HK as our lead system implementation partner and moved to the cloud for increased agility
AXA Group has invested in overhauling its outdated processes and adopting a new digital approach in order to cater towards this growing demand
We are utilising technologies from Kofax, Couchbase and Red Hat, choosing local software to complement our cloud-based solution
In order to reduce paperwork and enable faster claims turnaround, the business has worked to overhaul its backend capabilities to provide not only cost-efficiency, but to deliver exceptional support to its digital savvy customers
FEBRUARY 2019
We have onboarded about 1200 agents across different channels and launched all of AXA’s key products (21 in number) within an astounding one year time frame. We are now rolling this out across FA channel and this is the 1st time that AXA is opening STP solution for this group of distributors.
TECHNOLOGY
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AXA SINGAPORE
220
at AXA, where the move towards digital
areas where we have the new operat-
integration has created a ripple effect
ing model and the old operating model
across its operations.
working next together, it is not efficient
“We are using this fantastic new tool to allow straight-forward process where there is a lot of change at the
with regards to cost efficiency,” explains Lelyon. “I am working with two hands – one
organisation and the people who are
is to be definitive to the lives of our
working for us. At the same time that
customers and to go faster to enable
we are launching this new tool we need
a positive customer experience. The
to decommission the legacy. We are
second is to do with cost control, where
eradicating all the old tools one by one
I am looking at this further. The work
which will make us more agile. None-
will show it really has been the teams
theless, because we’ve got so many
of people in our company that are
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
“ With an emphasis on innovation, AXA will continually make insurance personal and simple at every touch point, utilising omnichannel data and solutions to better address the current and future needs of its customers” — Eric Lelyon, Chief Operating Officer
221
really understanding this and where
more services to the customer, particu-
we are moving to.”
larly on the health side where we are
With an emphasis on innovation,
exploring a growing interest in health
AXA will continually make insurance
and wellness solutions. We are really
personal and simple at every touch
excited about transforming our IT
point, utilising omnichannel data and
ecosystem, build stronger relation-
solutions to better address the current
ships with our customers where we
and future needs of its customers,
can take care of them.”
moving from a payer to a partner. “What AXA is trying to move to is more servicing. We want to become a partner of the customer, rather than a payer,” notes Lelyon. “We want to offer a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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G V NA I A
THE RIS DIGITAL TRAN WITH M
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T A I NG
SKS OF NSFORMATION MARSH WRIT TEN BY
L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY
A LE X PAGE
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MARSH
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AS THE FIRM UNVEILS ITS LATEST CMT RISK STUDY, WE SPEAK TO MARSH’S CMT PRACTICE LEADERS TO LEARN ABOUT THE RISKS BEHIND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND HOW THESE CAN BE MANAGED
L
ast year, the speed of innova-
success, this transformation doesn’t
tion kept up its blistering pace
come without its risks.
– and we can expect nothing
This is where Marsh offers a helping
less in 2019. This rings true in particular
hand with its latest CMT Risk Study.
for the communications, media and
Surveying 200 of its CMT clients
technology (CMT) sector, where the
globally, the insurance heavyweight
adoption of technologies from artificial
has identified some of the risks which
intelligence (AI) to the Internet of Things
are hindering CMT companies in their
(IoT) is quickly becoming the norm.
transformation journeys. Alexander
Yet, whilst technology is increasingly
Chao, Asia Communications, Media
heralded as the key to business
& Technology Practice Leader, believes
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
225
that one of the biggest hurdles revolves
to the back of the pack, making R&D
around R&D and financing. “The recent
mission critical. “They need to invest
market downturn, as well as the trade
heavily in R&D in order to find the most
war between the US and China, poses
advanced technology that will help
a great risk,” he observes. “Many
them survive in the CMT industry,” Chao
manufacturers, especially in Asia, have
adds. “If they make a wrong investment,
slowed down their capital expenditure
it will potentially cost a fortune and
because they don’t have a clear picture
generate a series of problems for the
of what the future holds.” Because the
CMT company.” Other issues like patent
sector is so innovation-driven, CMT
infringement or security could also
companies must keep up or risk dropping
hamper investment. a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
MARSH
“ T hey need to invest heavily in R&D in order to find the most advanced technology to help them survive in the CMT industry” 226
— Alexander Chao, Asia Communications, Media & Technology Practice Leader
The worries don’t end there: looking
hand, because CMT companies are
at the results for the 2019 CMT Risk
technology providers, they have liability
Survey, Thomas Quigley, US Comm-
if their technology fails to perform.
unications, Media & Technology
Whether it fails to ensure security or
Practice Leader, points out that the
simply doesn’t work as designed, it’s
top three risks identified by Marsh’s
a top liability risk.” Even if it is designed
clients are: data security and privacy;
well and is secure, there are still many
technology errors and omissions; and
ways technology can disappoint.
IT resiliency. “This shows why it’s so
“Maybe there’s an electronic interruption,
important to do a study specifically
maybe my backups didn’t work – there
for CMT companies,” he explains.
are several ways that technology can
“If you look across all industries, most
fail to work as intended,” notes Quigley.
respondents only talk about cyberattacks and data privacy. On the other FEBRUARY 2019
While some technology failures may seem minor, the ramifications of an
TECHNOLOGY
increase in the types of errors can be devastating. As technology becomes ubiquitous, Quigley says that “the severity of technology failures gets greater and greater every day”. Whether the technology is being used to protect personal records or to improve the efficiency of manufacturing operations, a failure of any kind can stop a business in its tracks. “If the fintech which supports my trading platform goes down for 30 minutes, that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses,” he says. “The more we depend upon technology, the larger the loss could be.” E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Alexander Chao joined Marsh Taiwan in 1998, and has almost 30 years of comprehensive experience in general insurance. Over the past 21 years, he has been servicing large clients in the high tech sector, offering advice in insurance program design, technical review, strategic risk review, and market relationship management. In 2016, Chao was appointed as the Regional Communications, Media and Technology Practice Leader for Asia, leveraging his deep expertise to spearhead business development initiatives throughout the region. Prior to joining Marsh, Chao started his career with MSIG Taiwan as the Head of Property Underwriting.
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MARSH
As the lines between the digital and physical become blurred, the consequences of technology failure are no longer just monetary: they could also be fatal. “We can also see bodily injury and property damage from technology failure,” highlights Quigley, citing autonomous vehicles as a relevant example. In previous years, if there was a car incident it was usually the driver’s fault but nowadays, this is quickly changing. “In autonomous vehicles, there are thousands of chips and millions of lines of code. As 228
autonomous mobility becomes more
“ A s autonomous mobility becomes more popular and as technology becomes commonplace in cars, it’s likely that liability will lie with the manufacturer” — Thomas Quigley, US Communications, Media & Technology Practice Leader
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Thomas Quigley leads Marsh’s Communications, Media, and Technology (CMT) Practice in the United States. He ensures Marsh delivers to its clients a deep understanding of the forces driving opportunity and disruption for CMT companies, and the innovative solutions required to address their rapidly evolving risk profiles. Quigley provides seniorlevel oversight and client service direction to our team of 600+ CMT colleagues. Quigley’s focus includes a broad range of sectors and emerging ecosystems including communications, broadcasting, publishing, digital media, social media, information services, hosting, software, IT services, financial technologies, mobile payments, sharing economy, autonomous mobility, personal electronics, hardware, and electronic components. FEBRUARY 2019
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229
popular and as technology becomes
edged sword is IoT. Communications
commonplace in cars, it’s likely that
giant Ericsson forecasts that there will
liability will lie with the manufacturer.”
be around 29bn connected devices by
As a result, survey respondents reported
2022, of which 18mn will be IoT-driven.
that they are increasingly being asked
From industrial IoT to connected cars
to take on more liability if an accident
and wearable technology, the
happens and can be traced back to their
possibilities for this innovation are
product or component.
endless – but so are the risks. Industrial
In last year’s edition of the CMT Risk
IoT is creating impressive efficiencies
Study, two-thirds of respondents said
in manufacturing operations but with
they believed that emerging tech-
unlimited connections, comes unlimited
nologies will increase risk complexity
ways to fail. “The biggest challenge, in
in the next three to five years. One
my opinion, is that IoT is unbounded:
disruptive technology set to be a double-
it’s limitless in terms of the number of a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
MARSH
230
“If you look across all industries, most respondents only talk about cyber-attacks and data privacy. On the other hand, because CMT companies are technology providers, they have liability if their technology fails to perform” — Thomas Quigley, US Communications, Media & Technology Practice Leader FEBRUARY 2019
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things that can be connected,” Quigley explains. “With lots of devices comes greater vulnerabilities because many of the firms exploring IoT aren’t truly focusing on the security.” This is where risk enters the frame: as more devices are connected, it creates more and more opportunity for one of the devices to fail, causing the system to go down. “For IoT to work you also need a stable and secure connection under the 5G environment,” adds Chao. “CMT companies need to invest a lot in R&D in order to keep up.” Some of the risks involved with IoT we may not even
232
be aware of yet. “I think we have to be
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
ready for surprises,” says Quigley
should be treated with risk insurance
candidly. “We haven’t experienced all
and risk transfer afterwards or
the different loss events that could
whether they should be treated with
happen yet.”
risk assessment and risk prevention
With these risks and uncertainties
at the beginning, a large majority of
taken into account, it isn’t all doom and
our clients agree that for over 75%
gloom. In a consumer-centric market,
of the risks the focus should be on
IoT has the opportunity to generate
upfront assessment and prevention,”
a unique customer experience and, with
highlights Quigley.
the right risk management strategy,
Chao echoes this, highlighting how
firms can sidestep the common pitfalls.
any problem which occurs could
Marsh, and indeed its survey
tarnish a firm’s brand integrity. “Once
respondents, believe that the secret to
a harmful cyber event happens, it can
tackling cybersecurity could lie in
destroy the company’s entire operation
both acting pre-emptively as well as
if they don’t have a contingency plan
reactively. “When asked whether risks
in place,” he says. “Risk assessment
CLICK TO WATCH : MARSH PIONEERS EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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MARSH
234
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
“Risk assessment and prevention analysis need to happen as frequently as possible. You need to recognise where the next risks are going to be. You don’t want to slow R&D down; you want to enable innovation by making sure you can do as much as you can to address risks before they happen” — Alexander Chao, Asia Communications, Media & Technology Practice Leader
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MARSH
236
“It’s about making sure that your IT is resilient and that broad industry events like the WannaCry attack don’t disrupt your operations. It’s also about protecting your intellectual property and protecting customer data” — Thomas Quigley, US Communications, Media & Technology Practice Leader FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
and prevention analysis need to happen as frequently as possible. You need to recognise where the next risks are going to be. You don’t want to slow R&D down; you want to enable innovation by making sure you can do as much as you can to address risks before they happen.” To tackle this, the pair believe that CMT companies should take a lesson from traditional firms and understand how the end customer is impacted when technology fails. Traditional, non-technology orientated firms could take a leaf out of their book too, recognising that, when it comes to cybersecurity, they shouldn’t just focus on data privacy but also need to talk about IT resiliency and other aspects of digital transformation. “Cybersecurity is such a broad term,” admits Quigley. “It’s about making sure that your IT is resilient and that broad industry events like the WannaCry attack don’t disrupt your operations. It’s also about protecting your intellectual property and protecting customer data.” Cybersecurity investment is a “never-ending story”, adds Chao, as hackers will always migrate and evolve. Risk management may seem a daunting task but Marsh believes it doesn’t have to be. To tackle this challenge, Quigley says that the industry a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
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MARSH
needs to “take risk data from multiple sources and use that to inform and quantify new risks”. On top of this, companies should go back to basics. “We find that just by getting people in a room with a clean whiteboard you can talk about new products and potential loss scenarios – it’s critical to the process,” he says. Marsh can help firms navigate this tricky terrain. As the world’s largest insurance broker and one of the largest brokers specifically 238
for CMT companies, it has a wealth of experience and insights that it can share with its clients. “We work
$6bn
Approximate revenue
1871
Year founded
30,000 Approximate number of employees
with thousands of other companies and industries across the globe,” highlights Quigley. “With all client confidentiality maintained, we can
As well as having the analytical
take learnings and insights from those
strength to aid risk management,
companies and apply those to CMT
Chao believes that Marsh’s talented
companies. We can help them think
team also gives the global broker an
about what the loss impact could be
edge. “For risk consulting, we have
if their technology fails to perform.
qualified risk engineers,” he says. “The
Thanks to this experience, we have
majority of our engineers come from
innumerable data points which we
the industry and so they have the know-
can use not only to brainstorm but to
how to craft the business contingency
model, quantify and develop solutions
plan for the client.” With annual revenues
for a whole set of emerging risks.”
of over US$6bn and more than 30,000
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
239
colleagues worldwide, it seems many
understanding technology is critical,
have put their faith in Marsh to help
understanding digital solutions is
them navigate the realm of risk
critical and understanding risk
management. Combining leading
assessment and quantification is
expertise, experience and innovative
critical. We’ve aggressively built up
solutions, Quigley and Chao believe
this capability over the past few
that, for any firm, putting trust in Marsh
years to meet our clients’ demands.”
is a safe bet. “As a broker, our history is defined by helping clients secure the insurance solutions they need,” reflects Quigley. “But we also recognise that a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
240
Competitive advantage through digital transformation WRIT TEN BY
HARRY MENE AR PRODUCED BY
MIK E SADR
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
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OSM MARITIME GROUP
We sit down with OSM Maritime CTO Chakib Abi-Saab to find out how the company is using AI, machine learning, IoT, drones, augmented reality, blockchain and automation to empower its 11,000-strong workforce
F
ounded in 1989, OSM Maritime has grown from a single crew-management contract to a fleet of over 500
vessels managed from 26 offices around the 242
globe. Business Chief sat down with OSM’s Chief Technology Officer, Chakib Abi-Saab to find out how one of the world’s largest maritime management companies is using breakthrough technologies to empower and unite its 11,000 employees. “Technology is not the solution to everything,” says Abi-Saab, “but it is a very important toolset that enables us to provide better and more reliable services, and facilitate greater transparency with our clients.” He explains that “as a whole, the industry has not adopted technology on a large scale. I think at OSM we have been very aggressive. We believe that business gains, transparencies and improvements in relationships, and efficiencies that we gain from technology FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
243
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TECHNOLOGY
equal a competitive advantage”. At the
access to correlations that we, as
heart of the company’s technological
humans, might not be able to see. We’re
transformation is its Maritime Opera-
expecting to move to the next level with
tions Centre, located in Singapore.
machine learning, so that we can perform
Abi-Saab presided over the Centre’s
predictive analytics and predictive main-
creation in 2018 and will oversee the
tenance which will become a cost
construction of a second facility in
savings to us and to our customers.”
Arendal, Norway in 2020. The Centre
As Chief Technology Officer, Abi-
enables OSM to monitor and manage
Saab is currently overseeing the adop-
the company’s global fleet 24 hours
tion of several new technologies to
a day. Abi-Saab explains that, with the
further enable OSM’s technical manag-
Centre in operation, “We not only have
ers to perform their roles. At the core
information that used to take weeks to
of each new technology, he empha-
gather, but the computer also gives us
sises, is the ethos that “technology is
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Chakib Abi-Saab Chakib is a business leader and technologist with 20+ years of experience aligning technology with operational goals. Chakib has led significant global projects in multinational environments and has played several key roles in global organizations like Baker Hughes Inc. and Bumi Armada Berhad. Chakib is now the Chief Technology Officer of OSM Maritime Group. Chakib’s main focus is always on the utilization of technology as a driver to optimize costs, improve productivity, increase returns, reduce risks, and create new revenue streams. His technology expertise is in connected assets, analytics, automation, and predictive environments. He is also experienced leading complex multinational digital transformations.
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OSM MARITIME GROUP
a way to give people the right informa-
best possible people to manage our
tion so that they can make decisions
ships. But the reality is that you cannot
based on what’s happening at that
have experts for everything on every
particular time, operationally and fin-
ship.” This is where one of OSM’s latest
ancially”. New initiatives that OSM is
pieces of technology comes into play:
aggressively testing or already using
augmented reality goggles. Allowing
include machine learning and AI, edge
on-ship staff to display in real time the
computing, augmented reality, drones
repair process enables OSM to “take
and blockchain.
advantage of the 11,000 people in the
“Imagine you are managing a ship
company for expertise that can walk
and one part of the engine breaks,”
our engineers through the solution,
says Abi-Saab. “Well, we in OSM do
because we can see what they see
the best possible job we can to hire the
and we can send diagrams that they
246
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘#TRENDSPOTTING WITH OSM & OUR AMAZING PARTNERS’ 247 see through the augmentative reality goggles,” explains Abi-Saab. “We expect that having these augmentative reality goggles on our ships will mean that challenges that could, today, disable a ship would be dramatically reduced. We will have people with the right expertise helping us resolve those problems. So, the efficiency gains will be dramatic.” OSM also operates a number of offshore oil & gas facilities. In the past, an operational event that required an underwater inspection would result in halted production for prolonged periods of time, while trained divers a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
OSM MARITIME GROUP
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TECHNOLOGY
“ Simplifai has proven to have deep understanding of processes combined with RPA, among other skills” — Chakib Abi-Saab, CTO OSM Maritime
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OSM MARITIME GROUP
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
“We believe that IoT is going to be the key to preventive maintenance” — Chakib Abi-Saab, CTO OSM Maritime 251
would be deployed for surveillance and
“Part of the immediate efforts to build
repairs. Now, Abi-Saab says, that
efficiencies through digitalization
could change. “When you stop a rig
includes working very closely with our
operation, you’re talking about hun-
partners of Simplifai to completely
dreds of thousands of dollars lost on
evaluate and re-engineer processes
an hourly basis. If you have a drone in
with the objective of then using Robotics
the water that can do the same job, you
Process Automation (RPA) to speed
do not have to stop the operations.
up the execution of repetitive tasks and
So, it not only increases safety but it
reduce manual intervention,” adds
increases profitability.” OSM is consid-
Abi-Saab. Simplifai is a holistic artificial
ering the adoption of drones for both
intelligence solutions company head-
underwater and aerial inspections in
quartered in Oslo, Norway. By using
combination with video analytics on its
Simplifai’s technology to automate
rigs and ships under management.
routine tasks, Abi-Saab estimates OSM a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
OSM MARITIME GROUP
C OMPA N Y FA C T S
• OSM: 11,000 employees, 25 office locations, a fleet of 500 vessels, and a 90% customer retention rate • Simplifai: OSM’s new partner, experts in AI solutions, particularly Robotics Process Automation
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FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
will be able to increase efficiency in
of machine learning, AI, IoT and edge
those areas by up to 50%. The adoption
computing to record the most relevant
of RPA will also bring scalability and
information from its fleet and parse it for
improved data quality due to the error
insights into operational solutions. “We
reductions inherent to automation.
believe that IoT is going to be the key to
“We are now an organization that takes
preventive maintenance,” Abi-Saab
advantage of data and business
says. “But we need to approach it very
intelligence to make better decisions,
smartly. You can find sensors for every-
and having error-free data means better
thing, but not everything that can be
decisions, and having only one version
measured should be measured and not
of the truth,” says Abi-Saab, adding
everything that should be measured
that “Simplifai has proven to have deep
can be measured. So we’re currently
understanding of processes combined
working to identify what are those areas
with RPA, among other skills.”
that, if we measure, would give us the
As well as tools for gathering and
efficiency gains that we are looking for.”
redistributing knowledge and raw data,
Uniting information from every indi-
OSM is dedicating itself to the adoption
vidual system OSM has in operation
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OSM MARITIME GROUP
within a centralised database, the
functions as a single harmonious
Operations Centre helps to prevent
ecosystem. “Having all the information
the company’s solutions from becom-
in a centralized database will give us
ing siloed. “We have experienced the
several advantages,” notes Abi-Saab.
same challenges as everybody else
“First is the ability to properly monitor
in the industry,” admits Abi-Saab. “Part
security. Second is the ability to properly
of the creation of the Operation Center
back up our data and restore it in the
comes in a second phase where we
event of an emergency or disaster so
will create a fully centralized database,
that we have proper business continu-
which holds information from every
ity. And third, it will give us the ability
system we have in the organization,”
to have smart algorithms of artificial
helping to ensure company’s tech
intelligence from our machine learning
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
255
software going through the data, so
edge computing, and machine learning
that we can get correlations that would
as part of a centralised database will,
possibly not be imagined by humans…
Abi-Saab believes, lead to significant
Similarly, we are looking at edge comp-
efficiencies for OSM, as the company
uting technology so that, not only
gains insights into preventative main-
will we have analytics onshore in the
tenance strategies. “Imagine that you
operation center, but the people who
have a fleet of ships around the world.
manage the ships also have access
Normally, the way maritime companies
to real-time analytics so they can
work is you have Vessel Managers
make better decisions.”
onshore and you have the Captains in
Identifying trends in ship maintenance using this combination of IoT,
the ships who are the people responsible for the operations of the ship. Now, a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
OSM MARITIME GROUP
256
“ Pursuing technology solutions will help us create technical ability, security, reliance and efficiency gains in everything we do” — Chakib Abi-Saab, CTO OSM Maritime
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
257
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OSM MARITIME GROUP
if a ship breaks in Brazil and then another breaks in Africa and another stops working in Europe, under normal circumstances each incident might be seen as an isolated case. But, if you have all the information in one centralized database, artificial intelligence can detect a trend, ships that are similar, or parts that are similar that are breaking. Then it starts telling you, based on the past history of Ships A, B and C that we should change a particular part of this type of ship because it’s about to break. That’s when you truly create value.” 258
OSM Maritime’s exploration and adoption of digitally transformative technologies is comprehensive and happening at speed. A large part of Abi-Saab’s role is to ensure the company’s slogan, “It’s all about people,” is respected and adhered to. “We believe that technology, without the support and knowledge of the people, would not be as efficient and would not give you the value that you need,” he explains. “We are focusing on aggressive change management plans that not only choose the proper technologies but also communicate to everyone in the organization that will be affected what is happening, why that is happening, and how that will affect them. Because the better people understand FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
259
the positive impact the adoption of technologies has on their job, the more their resistance to it is reduced.” For example, OSM is currently examining the possibility of a partnership with a company specialising in blockchain technology. The digital ledger technology would address a challenge faced by OSM crew members: paper certificates and documentation. “If those certificates are lost, it’s going to take them weeks, potentially months, depa nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
OSM MARITIME GROUP
$100mn Approximate revenue
1989
Year founded
11,000+
260
Approximate number of employees
FEBRUARY 2019
TECHNOLOGY
ending on where in the world they are, to get them back. Without those certificates, they cannot board a ship,” explains Abi-Saab. “If we have a blockchain solution that enables them to produce real time information about their training and certificates to ship owners anywhere in the world, then it would become quite an interesting solution.” 2019 and 2020 promise to be exciting years for OSM Maritime. Abi-Saab predicts that the next year will see a tipping point for the company, where “pursuing technology solutions will help us create technical ability, security, reliance and efficiency gains in everything we do today, with the aim to become a highly-predictive analytical, artificial intelligence and machinelearning-based organization in 2020.”
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Delivering the gift of sight through a robust supply chain transformation WRIT TEN BY
L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY
CHARLOT TE CL ARK E
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ESSILOR
Tasked with taking care of one of our most vital senses, Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor, is ensuring the company’s supply chain is up to the challenge 264
8
0% of the sensory informa-
Every day, Essilor manages more
tion that the brain receives
than 3,000 lens flows and over one
comes via sight, making
million product references, relying on
vision one of our most important
an expansive network of 34 produc-
senses. However, our eyes are complex
tion sites, 14 distribution centres and
organs and are rarely perfect: in fact,
481 prescription labs. This means that
nearly two out of three people suffers
efficient supply chain management
from vision problems. The invention of
is crucial. One professional at the
lenses has been an invaluable aid, and
helm of this robust supply chain is
with a streamlined, agile supply chain,
Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing
Essilor, is ensuring that customers
and Procurement Director of Supply
can get these vital solutions as quickly
Chain & Transport.
as possible. FEBRUARY 2019
With over a decade of experience
S U P P LY C H A I N
265
working at Essilor, Zhirnov has been
supply chain function to align it with
there every step of the way as the firm
the firm’s global vision. As a result,
has expanded its footprint through
Essilor’s network footprint now able
organic growth and local acquisitions.
to support more than 2mn unique
By drawing upon his expertise at
stock keeping units (SKUs).
Essilor from a local, regional and eventually a global level, Zhirnov says
A ROBUST, DATA-DRIVEN SUPPLY CHAIN
it’s given him “an entire understanding
Digitalisation drives Essilor’s global
of how the company functions, what
supply chain which is dedicated to
the current trends are, as well as the
producing and delivering over 540mn
needs of different countries”.
lenses a year with a high degree of
During this period, Essilor had to restructure its procurement and
personalisation for individual wearers. Over the past two decades, Essilor a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
ESSILOR
has developed a robust digital backbone linking its ecosystem of production sites, prescription labs and distribution centres with over 350,000 customers, to its lens design, ordering and fulfillment systems. It’s a highly data-driven operation, requiring millions of rapid digital exchanges between customers and every part of the value chain from receiving prescriptions and fitting details to sending manufacturing instructions to a lab. To ensure optimal speed, performance and reliability, Essilor has migrated certain steps as cloud-based services, for 266
example, a powerful calculator capable of generating lens designs to the more advanced personalized measures linked to the Group’s latest Varilux® X series™ progressive lenses. Essilor is already exploring the future of data-driven manufacturing with the creation of a concept Lab 4.0 at its Dallas campus, as well as exploring how artificial intelligence, machine learning, and collaborative robots can improve planning, production, and customer service. The secret behind Essilor’s explosive growth lies in its commitment to R&D, with more than €200mn dedicated each year to research and innovation. This allows the firm to offer exclusive products that distinguish it from its competitors, but with swathes of FEBRUARY 2019
“ Essentially, the supply will be doubled, the external logistics will be doubled and we’ll also have two different systems and organisations that needs to be combined” — Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor
S U P P LY C H A I N
customised products comes more logistical challenges. This is where Essilor’s worldclass supplier network lends a helping hand. “We have more than 30,0000 suppliers, of which 1,000 are logistics and supply chain vendors,” explains Zhirnov. “We classify these suppliers into three grades whereby we have 14 strategic vendors, 500 preferred vendors and the rest classified as others.” With such a complex network of partners, supplier relationship management is critical and as such Essilor has developed a thorough relationship management program which ensures that its strategic vendors have a mutually beneficial partnership. “It helps us understand what the partnerships are going to achieve, what our plans are, and how we can support each other to complete these missions,” he says. But why is supplier sustainability so important for Essilor? “We believe that if we work hand in hand with our suppliers, together we can increase the positive impact of our business in the communities where we work,” notes Zhirnov. “For the past two years in our Sourcing and Procurement team, we’ve set out to involve our network of suppliers in different ways. In addition to driving compliance with Essilor’s responsible business practices, we engage suppliers in three key areas: promoting visual health through awareness raising a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
267
ESSILOR
and screening actions; responsible
and his team. To tackle this, Essilor has
sourcing from economically vulnerable
developed a shrewd strategy to drive
populations; and positive environmen-
down freight costs in the form of regional
tal initiatives through sharing best
docking hubs. In essence, this means
practices and implementing eco-re-
that all products heading to Asia, for
sponsible approaches.�
instance, have one point of arrival by air freight. They are then distributed by
A GLOBAL POWERHOUSE, WITH REGIONAL EXPERTISE
road and air within the continent with
As is the case for any procurement or
“The concept is that we are entering
supply chain professional, managing
one continent by air freight at one
costs is a key consideration for Zhirnov
point and then we are leveraging our
help from local or regional partners.
268
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E
Vladimir Zhirnov Vladimir Zhirnov, who began his career as a part-time sales rep while in college, serves currently as Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor International. Based from Singapore, he helps to deliver value across the organization with global footprint in over 100 countries, 600 entities, and 33 manufacturing plants including wholly owned businesses, joint ventures and partnerships. Previously in his career, he helped to lead the transportation/ freight strategy for Europe.
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
partners to distribute our products throughout the country,” Zhirnov says. “If you have 30 plants and you are sending products to smaller markets, Malaysia for example, it’s quite costly to continuously feed into the country directly from across the global plants. Therefore, we send upstream shipments to our regional docking hubs and distribute products from there.”
“ We have more than 30,000 suppliers, of which 1,000 are logistics and supply chain vendors” — Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor
Similarly, Essilor distributes all its Middle Eastern products from Dubai 269
a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
DSV France : Service Marketing & Communication – communication@fr.dsv.com – Décembre 2018
You need it. We move it. Impossible n’est pas DSV
DSV – Global Transport and Logisitics We provide and manage supply chain solutions for thousands of companies every day – from the small family run business to the large global corporation. Our reach is global, yet our presence is local and close to our customers. 45,000 employees in more than 80 countries work passionately to deliver great customer experiences and high quality services.
fr.dsv.com | sales@fr.dsv.com
and all its European products from
Group’s capital is held by employees
Paris. Employing over 67,000 people
who are also involved in the com-
and developing its production and lo-
pany governance. “This decentralised
gistics footprint globally, this extensive
decision-making offers us transparen-
presence is a key accomplishment for
cy and the responsiveness to different
the firm. “We’re really helping to con-
regions,” he explains.
tribute to skills development in different countries,” Zhirnov says. Today, Essilor
CONCENTRATING ITS EFFORTS
has a global footprint spanning around
As well as selling a variety of lenses,
100 countries and as it continues to
Essilor has also claimed a portion of
grow this logistical challenge will only
the consumables market – providing
get greater. A key factor for Zhirnov is
vital tools and items needed to solder
ensuring regional needs are being met
parts and edge lenses, for example –
and this is in part achieved by giving
but this hasn’t come without its
employees a voice – 65% of employees
challenges. In the US market, for
are shareholders and around 4% of the
example, there were several players
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
271
within the group competing for a slice of the pie which threatened Essilor’s margins. By working closely with a third-party logistics (3PL) network design consultant, however, the firm has found data analytics to be a useful tool to tackle this hurdle. “We analysed all the inbound data, the sourcing data, and the customer-based data
“ We’re really helping to contribute to skills development in different countries” — Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor
to identify our core areas in the US,” reflects Zhirnov. By redesigning its a nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
ESSILOR
“ We ensure that the materials we are buying are not manufactured through child labour and don’t come from regions where minerals are extracted in an improper way” 272
— Vladimir Zhirnov, Global Sourcing and Procurement Director of Supply Chain & Transport at Essilor
consumables network, Essilor recon-
company’s merger with Italian eyewear
figured its distribution centre locations
company Luxottica, which owns brands
in the US and focused its efforts on
including Ray-Ban, Oakley and Sunglass
areas where it was needed most. This
Hut. This will not only propel Essilor’s
helped to drive labour, capex rationali-
and Luxottica reach farther into the
sation, reduce freight costs and more.
various markets, but it will also undoubt-
“It offered us better costs, lower
edly impact the firm’s sourcing logistics
investments and at the same, it ensured
and supply chain. Although this deal is
we designated channel champions so
still in its early stages, there’s a lot to
to avoid competing against each other.”
consider. “Essentially, the supply will be doubled and we’ll also have two
A HISTORIC MERGER
different systems and organisations
Another project which Zhirnov has a
that needs to be combined”, Zhirnov
keen eye on revolves around the
observes. So whilst this transition is
FEBRUARY 2019
S U P P LY C H A I N
factured through child labour and don’t come from regions where minerals are extracted in an improper way,” Zhirnov adds. On top of this, the firm has also set itself another impressive task: to eradicate poor vision by 2050. “It’s the most honourable part of why we go to work every day,” asserts Zhirnov, pointing out how 2.5bn people still lack vision correction today. Through forging partnerships with NGOs, national governments and the private sector as well as facilitating the development of local social entrepreneurs networks, Essilor hopes to understand local in its early stages, Zhirnov is confident
needs and barriers so that it can create
that the integration will be seamless.
vision care infrastructure that is both
Knitted into the fabric of Essilor’s core
purposeful and sustainable. In the
mission is its sustainable approach,
coming years, Essilor may grow its
and this hasn’t gone amiss when it
supply chain and procurement function
comes to the company’s supply chain
further, but it seems the top item on
and logistics management. As part of
Zhirnov’s agenda can be best summa-
its 2020 sustainability strategy, 100%
rised by the firm’s mission: “improving
of Essilor’s strategic suppliers will re-
lives by improving sight”.
ceive an external CSR audit and 100% of its preferred supplies will acknowledge Essilor’s Supplier Charter. “As part of this, we ensure that the materials we are buying are not manua nz .busi ne ssc h ief. com
273
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