Business Chief EMEA Magazine - February 2021

EMEA EDITION businesschief.eu

FEBRUARY 2021

INFLUENTIAL STARTUPS

TRANSFORMATION INNOVATION

Deutsche Bahn

TRANSFORMING PROCUREMENT Deutsche Bahn’s Jan Grothe, discusses mutli-billion, multi-year rail technology infrastructure

G4S

MOTOR OIL

NTT LTD.

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FOREWORD

W

elcome to the February 2021 edition

“As with any change, the challenges are

of Business Chief EMEA.

training, partnerships with knowledgeable

This month’s cover features Jan Grothe,

vendors that can assist with implementa-

SVP Procurement Infrastructure at

tion and identifying champions within the

Deutsche Bahn, who provides us with his

organisation to make sure the strategy is

insight into managing multi-billion-Euro,

implemented completely and effectively.”

multi-year rail infrastructure contracts and the importance of digital technology; “There’s an amazing energy in the room

Elsewhere in the magazine, our top 10 takes a look at the Top 10 most influential women in European startup companies.

right now. Suppliers who have been slow

Do you have a story to share? If you

to adapt to digital, we can push them right

would like to be featured in an upcoming

now. I expect this to boost productivity.

issue of Business Chief EMEA, please get

We can use that energy and when the cri-

in touch at georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.

sis is managed, we want to focus on what

com

I call responsible procurement.”

Other leaders that feature in the maga-

Enjoy the read!

zine include Robert Copeland, G4S’s Group Procurement Director (CPO) on

Georgia Wilson

running procurement for the leading global technology-enabled security solu-

georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com

tions provider; SAP’s Vice President for all Spend and Workforce IT Solutions (SWIS), Nicole Berg on how she puts people and results at the heart of her leadership strategy, as well as GE Digital’s Matthew Wells on why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy and how organisations can get the most value.

b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

03

Between hope and possible there’s a bridge.

There from the beginning to where we stand today. And to where we will go from here. One company. One promise.

If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.

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PUBLISHED BY

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

Kieran Waite DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Georgia Wilson EDITORAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Sophia Forte Sophie-Ann Pinnell Hector Penrose Sam Hubbard Mimi Gunn

Sam Kemp Evelyn Huang Matthew Evans DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVES

Andrew Stubbings Kayleigh Shooter Daisy Slater Eve Howat MANAGING DIRECTOR

Lewis Vaughan EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Kris Palmer Mike Sadr Ryan Hall Ben Maltby Tom Venturo Stuart Irving Craig Killingback James Berry MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

James White Richard Turner Mark Cawston SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Jordan Hubbard

Stacy Norman

PROJECT MANAGERS

PRESIDENT & CEO

Karl Green Thomas Livermore James Richardson Michael Banyard Jo Pallister Jake Megeary

Glen White

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianicková PRODUCTION MANAGERS

Owen Martin Philline Vicente

b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

CONTENTS

14 DEUTSCHE BAHN INFRASTRUCTURE – TRANSFORMING PROCUREMENT

36 Executive compensation: the growing challenges in Africa

58 GLOBAL CORPORATE

REAL ESTATE TRENDS IN

Workplace transformation: before & after COVID-19

2021

48 GE Digital: why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy

78 IT Procurement in 2021 and Beyond: How to be Effective

88 72

MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN EUROPEAN STARTUP COMPANIES

106

120

Motor Oil

Orange Cameroon

136 Archroma

148 Howard Kennedy

164 AsiaCell

184 SAP

216 Mambu

198 G4S

230 Clear Channel International

258 Bombardier Transportation

244 Lonestar Cell/MTN Liberia

270

298 Arqiva

Notting Hill Genesis

284 NTT Ltd.

326 NTT Ltd.

312

338

IXcellerate

Doka

380 Ordina

394

354

SAP

The Student Hotel

408 Mondia Group

422 Danilo + ISG & UiPath

438 Playtech

450 House of InsurTech Switzerland

478 Evonik

464 Aljazierah Home Appliances

14

Deutsche Bahn Infrastructure – Transforming Procurement WRITTEN BY

SCOTT BIRCH PRODUCED BY

CAITLYN COLE & GLEN WHITE

FEBRUARY 2021

15

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DEUTSCHE BAHN

Jan Grothe, SVP Procurement Infrastructure at Deutsche Bahn, gives his insight into managing multi–billion–Euro, multi–year rail infrastructure contracts and the importance of digital technology

I

t’s fair to say that most supply chain executives had a metaphorical mountain to climb in 2020 and face an uphill task this year to

achieve the ‘next normal’. The irony is not lost on Jan Grothe, Deutsche Bahn’s Senior Vice President of 16

Procurement Infrastructure, who regularly climbs some of the world’s tallest peaks, and whose career path mirrors his passion.

“I love challenges. I love ambitious goals and I love mountaineering,” says Grothe from the rail and logistics giant’s Berlin headquarters. “So even above 7,000 meters, wherever in the world you are, it’s the same story. You have an ambitious goal, you need to prepare for this if you want to reach the top. This is the same in the mountains as it is in business.”

The DB Group is one of the world’s leading mobility and logistics companies, employing around 338,000 people around the globe. They design and operate the transport networks of the future, moving people and goods via an increasingly smart and sustainable system.

FEBRUARY 2021

17

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Technology and qualified personnel for top level safety and security 40 years of experience combined with permanent R&D-activities qualify CONDOR Group to be one of the leading suppliers of Deutsche Bahn in the field of safety and security service suppliers. Patented safety barriers, the integration of IoT-based Track Warning Systems and high profiled specialists grant workers and engineers on site an excellent level of personal safety.

Additional technologies as temporary noise reduction solutions, newest level crossing technology for work sites and the electronic qualification portal support the regular solutions.

Planning and regular surveillance of the rail-infrastructure with drones become more and more popular for Deutsche Bahn as well as worldwide. In close partnership with the operational railway experts CONDOR-UAV teams developed a wide offer of solutions from indoor drones up to long-distance UAV. Specific payloads, certified trainings and professional after sales service allow industrial use cases.

CONDOR – Safety Professionals on Track.

Secure your safety

Jan Grothe | Intro | Deutsche Bahn CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:57

19 2021 will mark Grothe’s 20th year at

have someone with them with an entre-

Deutsche Bahn, where he has steadily

preneurial approach – bringing things to

risen through the ranks to scale new

an end, making decisions and leading the

heights – both on a personal and com-

way. I had 50 people at that time for this

pany level – and overseen Deutsche

project and we were very successful. So

Bahn’s digital transformation

Deutsche Bahn actually was one of the

in procurement.

first companies in Germany which had

He had previous experience setting up

the full set of e-procurement systems,

platforms as a procurement consultant

e-tender systems, and auction tools. And

and was drafted into Deutsche Bahn to

this was at the very beginning of my time

develop their own procurement platform.

there, so this really was state-of-the-art

“I originally thought that this would be

at that time.”

a two-year project, and then I obviously

Always keen to take on a new chal-

stayed,” says Grothe. “That was because

lenge and push himself higher, it was not

the people were great and they loved to

long before Grothe was moving beyond busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DEUTSCHE BAHN

simply providing procurement platforms.

He found himself responsible for two regions (North and West) and heading up the procurement infrastructure.

“We were procuring something like one billion euros,” he recalls. “That is when I really learned all about these operational processes and supply management in those regions. Shortly after this, I was asked to come back to the central functions and set up a supplier management and quality assurance team.

“That was quite a challenge because we hadn’t had this before. The quality 20

engineers usually didn’t have anything to do with procurement and they weren’t operating as a real team.”

The following challenge facing Grothe was huge. He was tasked with not only

culture of the business and was one of the many initial hurdles he faced.

In 2019 Grothe took over the procure-

heading procurement strategy but also

ment infrastructure department with

implementing IT systems – putting pro-

almost 500 colleagues, facing a huge

curement at Deutsche Bahn through

challenge as the German government

a literal digital transformation.

recognized the importance of rail trans-

Seven years prior to Grothe joining,

port in its fight against climate change.

Deutsche Bahn was formed as a new

The resulting cash injections (currently

legal entity in 1994 out of a merger of the

EU12 billion in 2021 and rising to EU15

eastern and western rail companies. The

billion each year to 2025) mean that

workforce stood at around 500,000 and

a new strategy was developed and

in a drive to increase efficiency, that was

Grothe found himself responsible for

halved by the time Grothe arrived. He

a procurement budget larger than the

says that had a significant impact on the

GDP of Albania.

FEBRUARY 2021

Needless to say, this was a gamechanger. So where does the money go?

“Mainly, of course, in track and civil construction,” says Grothe. “So, for instance, bridges, stations, tunnels. We also invest heavily into the digitization of our track system, and that means mainly new signaling technology. That will allow us to increase capacity on the track by 20 per cent. And that’s what we need to do if we want to transport passengers and goods on the biggest network in Europe. It is currently operating at 100 per cent capacity on the main corridors, so we need to increase efficiency.

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Jan Grothe Title: SVP Procurement Infrastructure Company: Deutsche Bahn Industry: Rail

Location: Germany

2021 is Grothe’s 20th year at Deutsche Bahn, where he has steadily risen through the ranks to scale new heights – both on a personal and company level – and overseen Deutsche Bahn’s digital transformation in procurement. He had previous experience setting up platforms as a procurement consultant and was drafted into Deutsche Bahn to develop their own procurement platform.“I originally thought that this would be a two-year project, and then I obviously stayed,” says Grothe. “That was because the people were great and they loved to have someone with them with an entrepreneurial approach – bringing things to an end, making decisions and leading the way.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

21

DEUTSCHE BAHN

Strong Rail Announced in 2019, DB Group hopes to make a major contribution to Germany meeting its climate change targets.

“Germany will only meet its climate targets if we succeed in shifting traffic to rail on a massive scale over the next decade,” said DB CEO Dr Richard Lutz.

“Germany needs Strong Rail: for the climate, for people, for the economy and not least for Europe.”

The ambitious strategy includes 10 core messages:

22 1. Germany’s climate targets can only be met with Strong Rail.

Deutsche Bahn will achieve 100% of traction power from green sources by 2038, more than a decade ahead of its original target.

4. DB will add one billion new regional and local passengers.

This will be achieved by strengthening local rail services and integrating new forms of mobility. It will also be introducing smart services for transport in cities and in rural regions.

2. Strong Rail focuses on DB’s core business.

DB will assess its shareholdings based on their contribution to Strong Rail. DB Schenker is viewed as providing key support to DB Cargo. DB Arriva has little strategic relevance to building a strong rail network and will be sold.

5. DB Cargo will raise its rail traffic volumes in Germany by 70%.

DB Cargo will increase traffic volumes by 70%, for example by purchasing 300 locomotives. DB Cargo will increase its market share from 18% to 25%.

3. Long-distance transport will double its patronage.

DB’s long-distance transport will double its number of passengers to over 260 million per year. Over 30 major cities will enjoy twice-hourly connections.

6. DB will work with the German government to expand rail network capacity by 30%.

DB will add 350 million train-path kilometres (t-p km), a 30% increase in capacity, to the German rail network. This

FEBRUARY 2021

23 will be achieved by upgrading the system, utilising tech innovation and digitalisation.

7. DB will enter a new era with Digital Rail for Germany.

DB’s Digital Rail for Germany Group program will improve capacity, quality, reliability and efficiency.

8. DB’s stations will become hubs for stateof-the-art mobility.

Stations will be hubs of multimodal mobility and the centre of life in the city.

The goal is to double station capacity to host up to 40 million guests a day and to create seamless transitions between rail, bike or bus or new mobility services (such as car-sharing, e-scooters).

DB is hiring on a massive scale. Over the next few years, some 100,000 employees will need to be recruited for DB to reach its goals.

10. DB will have more trains and offer more connections than ever before.

DB is aiming to double seating capacity in passenger transport by increasing its longdistance fleet up to 600, with a focus on high-speed trains. Some 80% of the population will have access to the longdistance network.

9. DB will hire 100,000 new employees in the coming years. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

All from one source With more than 6,500 highly qualified employees at 35 locations worldwide and annual sales of around 1.7 billion euros, Max Bögl is one of the largest construction companies in the German construction industry. Since its foundation in 1929, the company’s history has been characterised both by innovative strength in research and technology - and configurable solutions of high quality and sustainable construction technology.

With forward-looking in-house developments on issues of our day and age such as renewable energies, urbanization, mobility and digitalisation, the Group is already realizing solutions for the megatrends of our globalized world. Based on many years of experience and competence in highprecision precast concrete construction, Max Bögl Group also positions itself as an important driving force in the development of innovative products, technologies and construction methods.

The use of BIM, lean management/ production and standardised project management ensure adherence to schedules and cost-effectiveness from the initial concept idea to the finished building product. www.max-boeg.com

Build your progress

Jan Grothe | Digital Transformation | Deutsche Bahn CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:06

25 “And that’s why we are talking about

The railway industry does have a repu-

introducing digital. Digitisation does not

tation for being slow on the uptake when

just affect signaling, we’re talking about

it comes to digitization compared to

IoT sensors e.g. at switches to help

some other industries, and that is partly

monitor and maintain tracks – which will

down to safety concerns. However, sup-

also ultimately reduce costs.”

pliers have also proved slow at moving with the times.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“When we digitized the interface to the

While Grothe has propelled procurement

suppliers, a significant number of com-

at Deutsche Bahn along its digital trans-

panies were actually not able to access

formation path, he admits that the pace

the platforms or auctions,” he says.

of change within the industry, and slow

“Three per cent said they weren’t able to

uptake of digital, has been a hindrance

work with emails! I couldn’t believe it.”

– with some of their suppliers even struggling with basics such as email.

Branding himself as an eternal optimist, Grothe focuses on the positive busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DEUTSCHE BAHN

aspects of the Covid pandemic when it comes to accelerating the digital transformation that suppliers are finding themselves having to adopt, plus the fact that DB itself was well prepared for a move to the cloud.

“We introduced the digitized processes three years ago and also introduced flexible working at the same time. So, everyone was able to work wherever they wanted and all the processes were digitized. When the lockdown came, we were able to switch 26

from one and a half days of working from home on average to five days a week, so it didn’t affect our productivity at all. That was a good sign. We were well prepared.

that migration at the beginning of 2020,

“We decided as a company four years

so we had no problems scaling up. Our

ago to migrate completely – and I mean

reaction to the situation also saw us

completely – into the cloud. We finished

accelerate some new functions and new

“ You have an ambitious goal, you need to prepare for this if you want to reach the top. This is the same in the mountains as it is in business” — Jan Grothe, SVP Procurement Infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn FEBRUARY 2021

ways of working together.”

PRESSURE ON PRODUCTIVITY It’s fair to say that Deutsche Bahn’s revenues have been significantly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, as passenger numbers were decimated and remain low, while the company is still expected to provide a public service. Fortunately, DB’s worldwide operating freight and

and we did some new things. We set up a rail bridge from Asia to Europe which delivered a lot of essential masks and other PPE. There was a huge demand in Germany for this so we did pivot and freight was not as affected as passenger transport. Rail freight is more or less on the same level as before the Covid crisis.”

One thing is for sure. The economic

€40bn+ Revenue in Euros

fallout of the pandemic will put even greater pressure on CPOs to deliver under extreme budget restrictions and pressures as those companies that emerge look to tighten their belts. Does this inevitably mean that there will be

295,000+ Number of employees

pressure on suppliers to cut their prices?

DB already enjoys a strong position when it comes to procurement thanks to its size and standing, so is there a danger that some suppliers simply will not

logistics arm, DB Schenker, stepped

be able to meet expectations in the

up and experienced higher demand

‘new normal’?

when it came to delivering vital sup-

“Generally speaking, I think there’s

plies – including Personal Protection

a huge pressure on productivity on both

Equipment (PPE).

sides,” says Grothe. “So, on us but on the

“In the freight and logistics sector, DB

suppliers as well. We have to find solu-

Schenker is one of our subsidiaries and,

tions and new contracts to ensure we

in air freight, there was a huge increase in

are in a better position, that’s for sure.

operations,” explains Grothe. “Even with

“You know, sometimes we have to

the rail freight at DB Cargo, it was okay,

give something. We have a very stable busi ne ssc h ief . eu

27

SPITZKE is a leading innovator for rail mobility.

With our areas of expertise – track, technology, equipment/ electrical engineering, large-scale projects/structural engineering, logistics and production – we are already creating the future of railway infrastructure. We develop and connect our business segments systematically to ensure that sustainable mobility remains permanently available. www.spitzke.com/en/home

“ When we digitised the interface to the suppliers ... three per cent said they weren’t able to work with emails! I couldn’t believe it” — Jan Grothe, SVP Procurement Infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn

one reason why Grothe prefers to work with long-term strategic partners. In the last few years, 80 per cent of DB’s business is procured from just 500 suppliers – whereas it was previously more than 3,000.

Grothe makes dealing with thousands of suppliers sound straightforward, and while it is clear he cannot handle them all personally, he does like to get hands-on

company and people like to do business

and ensure everything is on track and

with us because we always pay – and in

meeting the high standards set by DB.

times like these, that is quite valuable. So,

“I really like to see and meet personally

we have started initiatives to renegotiate

from time to time,” he says. “Once a year,

contracts that will work for us and

I do a whole day, spending time working

the suppliers.”

with a key supplier. This may be on

“This certainty is very valuable for a lot

a construction site, on a safety issue, or in

of suppliers right now and as some of our contracts last up to eight years, that can provide suppliers with perspective. With huge volumes, of course, they are in a position to lower (their) prices.

“On the other hand, the solution is innovation on both sides, so we do not just have to procure the same thing for a lower price. I would ask the suppliers to introduce better solutions for the same function.”

DB has roughly 20,000 suppliers, which creates its own challenges, and is busi ne ssc h ief . eu

29

DEUTSCHE BAHN

“ There’s an amazing energy in the room right now.

Suppliers who have been slow to adapt to digital, we can push them right now” — Jan Grothe, SVP Procurement Infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn

ACHIEVING WORLD-CLASS PROCUREMENT This hands-on approach and attention to detail are key factors in Deutsche Bahn achieving World Class Procurement status. In order to do that Grothe had to first recognize that benchmarking was essential to measure success, adapt strategy and meet ambitions.

He started looking into existing

a planning office. This is most valuable

measurement systems – not just in

as sometimes you don’t get the full

rail operators but the best procure-

picture. It’s always good to know how it

ment departments in the world – and

really works.”

came across the German consultancy

Digital Interlocking Systems www.inosig.de

Jan Grothe | Future of Deutsche Bahn | Deutsche Bahn CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:14

31 company h&z. This kind of transparency is

systems, the supply management and

a leap of faith for any organization as you

the people, and then we worked on

never know how highly you are going to

the biggest gaps that we could make

be rated, but Grothe was convinced it was

improvements on,” he says.

the right way forward and a starting point.

“We did another assessment in 2016

Marked out of 20 points on the h&z

and 2019 and it was great, good news

scale, and based on interviews with five

for the whole team. There’s still a way to

subdivisions, anything between 11 and 15

go because this is a moving target. You

is considered ‘professional’ while above

compare yourself to others and they do

that is ‘world-class’. Grothe, as well as

not stand still, they keep improving, so

the whole DB procurement team, was

we have to do that as well.”

happy to achieve professional status

In the latest assessment, DB ranked

from the first assessment in 2015 but

World Class in three out of the five cat-

was keen to improve.

egories, with the other two registering

“We looked at the processes, the IT

high scores in the Professional tier. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DEUTSCHE BAHN

Trusted Partners Grothe provides insight into some of DB’s strategic partners.

32

Spitzke – a leading railway infrastructure company that carries out new build, revitalization and repair work on railway systems, stations and bridges.

the new hybrid bridge system and learning with them, together. The idea is to save a lot of time and capacity, while also building which in the end makes savings as well.”

“Spitzke is one of our strategic partners trackside and was infrastructure supplier of the year in 2018. “What makes them special is whenever we see a strategic demand for adapting processes or introducing new technology, they will invest, learn quickly and adapt. They are agile and a very reliable supplier.”

Condor Multicopter & Drones – specialists in providing drone solutions for industry and critical infrastructure.

Max Bögl – one of the largest construction, technology and service companies in the German construction industry.

“Max Bögl handled mainly civil works for us and is a very reliable and innovative longterm partner. They are willing to drive innovations in order to achieve win-win situations. We are just about implementing

FEBRUARY 2021

“When it comes to safety solutions, Condor has not only been reliable over the last 10 years that we have worked together but also very innovative. Condor is always thinking beyond today and we are testing various drone services with them at the moment – for safety checks, for instance.”

Scheidt & Bachmann – one of the most successful manufacturers with more than 130 years of experience in signalling technology.

“Scheidt & Bachmann have always met the highest of expectations. Over the last couple

33

“ We initiated a whole transformation from a traditional procurement department to a procurement department which became awardwinning” — Jan Grothe, SVP Procurement Infrastructure, Deutsche Bahn

of years and during the Covid-19 pandemic, they stepped up at their own risk to always deliver for us on time. They are willing to invest heavily in supporting us in digitizing signaling technology, which is great.”

InoSig – provides signaling services for the rail technology industry.

“InoSig has been playing a minor role so far in terms of signalling, but we really appreciate them helping us reach our digital goals at track side and this is excellent, this endurance of the partnership. We love it all.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DEUTSCHE BAHN

THE FUTURE

six billion euros over the next two

It is impossible to consider what the

years. So, this is something like 12 bil-

immediate future may hold without

lion euros in losses compared to the

reflecting on 2020’s disruption. With

plan we had in 2019. We will be quite

so much turmoil and negative impact

happy if we get back to that level first

on revenue, it’s almost inevitable to see

and then talk about new plans,”

a return to ‘normal’ as being a significant

says Grothe.

achievement. And when you heard the

“But, we strongly believe that the

numbers involved for a company like

number of passengers and commut-

Deutsche Bahn, it’s easy to understand

ers will increase rapidly by 2030. This

why a return to status quo would be a win.

is still our assumption, and that’s why

“We expect to make a loss around

we invest heavily in our track and we

six billion euros [for 2020] and another

invest heavily in our rolling stock.

YOUR SYSTEM INTEGRATOR FOR DIGITAL SIGNALLING SOLUTIONS

Command and control, interlocking and level crossing solutions for railways in a digital age LEARN MORE

“There’s an amazing energy in the room right now. Suppliers who have been slow to adapt to digital, we can push them right now. I expect this to boost productivity. We can use that energy and when the crisis is managed, we want to focus on what I call responsible procurement,” he says.

“This means corporate social responsibility (CSR) from us and our strategic suppliers.”

Grothe admits that he has personally invested a lot into DB’s culture because he wants to make procurement the place to be within the company. So whereas just 10 years ago, no one really wanted to work in the procurement department because it was mainly seen as boring – just writing orders all day – the culture has shifted.

“I think we as a procurement management team have already made this “It will probably take us two years to

a great place to be,” Grothe concludes.

get back where we started but we

“We are close to world-class and people

expect everything to increase as pro-

are proud to work here.”

jected before.”

Grothe firmly believes that this is also an opportunity to learn and adapt, and to use Covid to push for even greater digitalization. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

35

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

36

Executive compensation: the growing challenges in Africa WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

FEBRUARY 2021

37

busi ne ssch ief. eu

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

Business Chief EMEA explores the growing challenges in South Africa when it comes to executive compensation

38

W

ith the effects of COVID-19 shining a spotlight on the executive compensation debate, Business Chief EMEA takes a look

at Deloitte’s 2020 Executive Compensation Report, as well as speaking to Tyrone Jansen, Associate

Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Consulting Africa to explore the current challenges in South Africa when it comes to executive compensation.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: THE CURRENT CHALLENGES AND ISSUES In Deloitte’s 2020 Executive Compensation Report, the consultant company outlines five trending challenges and issues in South Africa when it comes to executive compensation, the five trends include: COVID-19, having ‘skin in the game’, is the system broken?, what is fair and reasonable?, and how much is enough?

FEBRUARY 2021

39

busi ne ssch ief. eu

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

1. COVID-19

recover. The only unknown is whether

With organisations around the world

or not the ‘recovery’ will be a ‘V style

having faced the effects of COVID-19

scenario’ or a ‘U style scenario’ one in

since the outbreak almost a year ago,

which the base of the ‘V’ is prolonged,”

Deloitte details that “COVID-19 has

stated Deloitte.

become the major issue confronting

However, some leaders are expect-

the world and its impact, in one way or

ing to see an L-shaped recovery, with

another, will be long-lasting.”

life, society and capitalism fundamen-

With much being dependent on how

40

tally changing. While “the decisions

the pandemic continues to develop, as

companies make about executive

well as how we react and recover will

compensation in the short-term are

determine how organisations com-

unlikely to influence the ‘scenarios’,”

bat the short, medium and long

explains Deloitte, the company does

term challenges.

believe that they are likely to “assist

“In the context of executive compensation, there is already evidence that companies are making short-term adjustments to executive pay, on the basis that the economy will eventually

“ Policies will likely vary depending on the circumstances and the nature of the executive role in the post COVID-19 situation” — Deloitte, Executive Compensation Report 2020 FEBRUARY 2021

the companies in surviving whatever scenario unfolds.”

2. HAVING ‘SKIN IN THE GAME’

it is likely to challenge the standard

Next up in the report Deloitte reflects

policies when it comes to the relation-

on the concept of top executives hav-

ship between share value targets/

ing ‘skin in the game’ to “demonstrate

requirements and guaranteed pay.

their alignment with shareholders with

Deloitte expects that as a result of

share ownership.” Whilst this concept

this challenge “the hold that restricted

is subject to interpretation depending

share ownership has on executives

on multiple variables, Deloitte com-

will diminish, and the alignment that

ments that “whatever the rationale for

unencumbered share ownership

‘skin in the game’ is, if the measure of

offers will reduce. Companies may be

‘skin the game’ is the value of shares

tempted to offer more shares due to

that are held, whether unencumbered

their decreased value in relation to pay.

or restricted, COVID-19 will likely have

Policies will likely vary depending on

diminished their value.”

the circumstances and the nature of

As a result, should COVID-19 have a long term effect on the price of shares

the executive role in the post COVID19 situation.”

NEXT STEPS

“ I n the medium to long term as the economy rebounds and performance starts to turn, remuneration committees will have an increasingly tough balancing act of rewarding true out-performance vs market correlated performance.”

— Tyrone Jansen, Associate Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Consulting Africa busi ne ssch ief. eu

41

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“ New, simpler, alternate reward strategies may become more common in the short to medium term” — Deloitte, Executive Compensation Report 2020

With this in mind, Deloitte outlined four contributing factors to the complexity of executive compensation with the added context of COVID-19: 1. Whilst there is a increased disclosure of information, there is less insight in relation to the complexity of executive compensation

3. FLATTENING THE CURVE: IS THE SYSTEM BROKEN?

2. Both society and shareholder

When it comes to the processes

Committees in challenging positions

demands and placing Remuneration 43

behind executive compensation, Deloitte continues to experience an

3. Advice is reliant on surveys for

increase in stakeholders alleging that

companies and in some instances ill-

the process is “too complicated and

conceived benchmark

needs to be: simplified; subject to greater regulation; and more societally

4. Visibility of top executive pay to

orientated.”

executives has enhanced the demand

In its 2019 report Deloitte discussed the difficulties surrounding the promo-

for executives to be well positioned next to their peers

tion, implementation and policing of pay policies for executives that satisfy

Ultimately, Deloitte expects to see

the needs of all parties (shareholders,

COVID-19 prompt a re-evaluation

employees, society and regulators).

of executive pay with an increased

“This often has to be done in a com-

demand for simplicity. However, “much

plicated, volatile, ill-informed and

will depend on the progress of COVID-

sometimes hostile environment,” com-

19 as much as its lasting compact.”

mented Deloitte.

While evidence currently shows that busi ne ssch ief. eu

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

companies are voluntarily cutting executive pay as a gesture rather than for anything permanent, “countries have adopted policies of late to ‘flatten the curve’ with respect to COVID-19. It may be that when the COVID-19 nightmare is over, these same countries may take the concept of ‘flattening the curve’ on board and apply it to executive pay.”

RECOVERY

44

What is a U-shaped recovery?

A U-shaped recovery is defined as a type of economic recession and recovery that forms a U shape when charted. The shape is said to occur when “the economy experiences a sharp decline in these metrics without a clearly defined trough but instead a period of stagnation followed by a relatively healthy rise back to its previous peak.”

What is a V-shaped recovery?

A V-shaped recovery is also defined as a type of economic recession and

FEBRUARY 2021

recovery however, this type resembles a V shape when charted. “A V-shaped recovery involves a sharp rise back to a previous peak after a sharp decline in these metrics.”

What is a L-shaped recovery?

An L-shaped recovery is defined as a type of “slow rate of recovery, with persistent unemployment and stagnant economic growth.

L-shaped recoveries occur following an economic recession,” but without a corresponding steep recovery, depicting an L shape when charted.

4. WHAT IS FAIR AND REASONABLE?

4. Large numbers of semi employed

In extension of ‘flattening the curve,

people who are barely surviving the

Deloitte also highlights the issues

economic impact of COVID-19

around what is ‘fair and reasonable’ when it comes to executive pay?

In its 2019 report, Deloitte identified that the answer to such question is

5. The unemployed who can barely get by from day to day, struggling with the impact of COVID-19

dependant on seven variables which it expands on in its 2020 report with the

6. Politicians who are concerned

additional context of COVID-19:

with the disparities between the privileged and underprivileged and

1. Well paid executives who earn

unemployed, who understand that

more than enough to provide for their

growth in commerce and industry will

family now and future generations,

enhance the economy and lead the

who are striving to repair the damage

majority into future posterity

caused by COVID-19 7. The columnists who expose per2. The average person working to pro-

versity, corruption, and the disparity

vide for their family frustrated at being

between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’

unable to advance their position or pay, but thankful for still having a job which they may or may not appreciate is dependent on executive retention and performance 3. Union representatives working to address the needs for a fair wage, who may or may not be mindful that continued employment is dependent on executive retention and performance

“ COVID-19 has become the major issue confronting the world and its impact, in one way or another, will be long-lasting” — Deloitte, Executive Compensation Report 2020 busi ne ssch ief. eu

45

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

“ In the context of executive compensation, there is already evidence that companies are making short-term adjustments to executive pay, on the basis that the economy will eventually recover” — Deloitte, Executive Compensation Report 2020 46 “Most stakeholders will concede that executives should be paid well for their services to shareholders, to business and the economy, and society as a whole,” comments Deloitte. However the company poses the question of “what is ‘fair and reasonable’ in the context of executive pay?” and “more importantly, how should it be determined?”

In answer to this Deloitte highlights the increasing recognition, supported by the principles of King IV that, “total pay rather than any one component of pay, should be used in assessing executive pay.”

FEBRUARY 2021

W H AT I S K I N G I V ™ ?

King IV is the latest edition of the corporate governance code in South Africa. King IV builds on King III, which has been revised in order “to bring it up to date with international governance codes and best practice; to align it to shifts in the approach to capitalism (towards inclusive, integrated thinking across the six capitals) and to take account of specific corporate governance developments,” states KPMG. King IV is structured as a report which includes the King Code as well as supplements for SMEs, NPOs, state owned entities, municipalities and retirement funds.

The King Code contains principles and recommended practices to achieve governance outcomes.

King IV is a voluntary code – unless prescribed by law or as part of a stock exchange listings requirement – South Africa envisions that it will be applicable to all organisations and applied on a ‘proportionality’ basis depending on the nature, size and complexity of the organisation.

5. HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?

THE FUTURE

In its latest report, Deloitte reiter-

Commenting on the challenges outlined

ates from 2019 that “executive

by Deloitte’s 2020 report and reflecting

leadership is generally regarded

on the future for executive compensa-

as a scarce commodity and one for

tion, Tyrone Jansen, Associate Director,

which a premium should be paid.”

Human Capital, Deloitte Consulting

Those that have gained this seniority

Africa, details that “It largely depends on

via education, experience, innate

the situation that a company finds itself

skills, or a combination of all three,

in. Executives that perform well (relative

“generally feel that they should be

outperformance), still and should be

appropriately rewarded.”

rewarded well. Expect to see far larger

Deloitte expects to see that while

bifurcation between those that are paid

executives expect to “ live to a cer-

well as a result of outperformance ver-

tain standard and prepare for the

sus those that do not perform or perform

continuation of this standard into

moderately well. New, simpler, alternate

their retirement from active service.

reward strategies may become more

Post COVID-19 it will not be surpris-

common in the short to medium term for

ing if there is a general call amongst

firms that require a different means to

stakeholders that ‘enough

incentivise and drive certain outcomes

is enough’.”

and performance.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

47

H U M A N C A P I TA L

48

FEBRUARY 2021

49

Workplace transformation: before & after COVID-19 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON busi ne ssch ief. eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

Elie Khatami, Customer Support VP, EMEAI, Honeywell Aerospace speaks to Business Chief EMEA on the workplace environment before and after COVID-19

A

s we come to the close of January 2021, Business Chief EMEA we reflecting on the

workplace environment prior to the impact

of COVID-19 back in March 2020, we take a look

50

at the emerging trends in 2021 and how the aerospace industry has evolved due to COVID-19.

HONEYWELL AND THE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT PRIOR TO THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19 “Prior to COVID-19, our local support team had a strong physical presence at customers’ sites along with frequent leadership visits at our key customers’ location,” began Elie Khatami, Customer Support VP, EMEAI, Honeywell Aerospace.

“However, aligned with the current situation, we have adapted to a virtual presence but our focus on customer satisfaction remains the same. In fact, our focus has increased even more because we believe during these unprecedented times our customers need us more than ever.”

FEBRUARY 2021

51

busi ne ssch ief. eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

One of the key highlights for Honeywell Aerospace prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 included the company’s Annual Operator Conference.

“While we can’t wait to see our customers again at our conference, until then we will continue to share our product improvements, advancements and updates via webinars/podcasts. Lastly, we used to

THREE KEY TRENDS P R I O R T O C O V I D -1 9 :

organise our Technical Coordination Meetings, product training and others at our site which is now virtual,” adds Khatami.

52

Being a technology leader in the aerospace industry, Khatami explains that Honeywell Aerospace offers a diverse

1. Connected offerings for flight operations, flight efficiency and connected maintenance from a single user interface driving sustainability, optimising operations, and reducing costs with advanced analytics.

product and services portfolio covering engines and power systems, wheels and brakes, avionics, and electrical and mechanical components, to help make flying safer and smarter. When it comes to the company’s technology focuses and strategies prior to the outbreak

2. Cost savings via applications such as Honeywell Forge which has been implemented globally across a diverse range of airlines and aircraft, providing an immediate impact.

of COVID-19, Khatami explains that “Honeywell Aerospace is committed to our long-term goal of becoming one of the world’s leading software industrial companies by integrating products and services through connected technologies.”

FEBRUARY 2021

3. Improved customer experience by identifying growth opportunities and understanding the needs of customers in order to offer the best solutions.

HONEYWELL AND THE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT’S TRANSFORMATION FOLLOWING THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19

for our customers for whatever they

In comparison to the industry prior to

by means of virtual platforms and

COVID-19, Khatami explains that “the

our technical support engineers are

pandemic had an overwhelming effect

always on standby to remotely

across all industries, and we are pre-

connect and troubleshoot any

pared to adapt to changes and drive

technical issue.”

our strategy as situations demand.”

During the ongoing pandemic,

need, when they need and where they need,” adds Khatami. “We have increased customer touch points

Listening to its customers, Honeywell Aerospace has also imple-

Honeywell Aerospace has had to

mented changes to the way customers

reduce face-to-face interaction with

can interact with the company with the

its customers, “however we are mak-

introduction of its new Hub, which is

ing sure that we are always available

manned 24/7. “Some of the employees

Meet a #futureshaper: Elie Khatami CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:45

busi ne ssch ief. eu

53

H U M A N C A P I TA L

“ We are making sure that we are always available for our customers for whatever they need, when they need and where they need” — Elie Khatami, Customer Support VP, EMEAI, Honeywell Aerospace

54

in this Hub are highly experienced with

interactions with different Honeywell

more than 20 years of experience.

teams. We will also continue our focus

We have housed them together in

towards digitisation of order manage-

a single operations center at least until

ment via machine-to-machine with fewer

we are allowed to return to site but till

manual intervention to increase effi-

then it includes our Technical Field

ciency and speed. Our much improved,

Service Engineers, AOG fulfilment

easy to navigate and award-winning por-

team, Honeywell Connected team

tal is an exampleof enhanced customer

and Technical Pilots. This will allow

experience which we will continue to

much faster collaboration internally

improve,”adds Khatami.

to resolve customer issues quicker,” says Khatami.

In addition to these measures taken,

Reflecting on what it believes to be core technology focuses and strategies now - compared to prior to COVID-19

Honeywell Aerospace took actions

- Khatami comments that “core technol-

to reduce multiple contact numbers

ogy focus and strategies remain in place,

down to one. “We are also working

which is being further strengthened

on a ‘single’ case that will be used

by bringing new technologies from our

for all customer issues negating the

safety and hygiene side of the busi-

need for a customer to have multiple

ness.” With speed to market being

FEBRUARY 2021

THREE KEY TRENDS F O L L O W I N G C O V I D -1 9 : 1. Online tools which are becoming the norm, such as Honeywell Aerospace’s GoDirect Trade platform,“ a one-stop online trading portal for new and used Aerospace products.”

2. Aircraft Hygiene products such as Honeywell Aerospace’s UV Treatment Systems that are both efficient and cost effective.

3. Growing demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which in response Honeywell Aerospace has launched an array of PPE that not only protects

airports and airline workers, but airline passengers too. “Currently, we offer two versions of our Honeywell Safety Packs for air travel: one for passengers and one for the flight crew. To address growing demand for masks during the outbreak of Covid-19, we quickly ramped up production to make millions of the N95 masks in both the United States and India. Our facilities in Smithfield, Rhode Island and Phoenix in the US together produce more than 20 million N95 disposable masks monthly to combat COVID-19 in the US.”

busi ne ssch ief. eu

55

H U M A N C A P I TA L

C O M PA N Y G O A L S

56

“Honeywell Aerospace is committed to our long-term goal of becoming one of the world’s leading software industrial companies by integrating products and services through connected technologies” — Elie Khatami, Customer Support VP, EMEAI, Honeywell Aerospace

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The pandemic had an overwhelming effect across all industries, and we are prepared to adapt to changes and drive our strategy as situations demand” — Elie Khatami, Customer Support VP, EMEAI, Honeywell Aerospace 57 of the essence, Honeywell introduced its Honeywell UV Treatment System shortly after the pandemic set in. Airlines who have already deployed the UV Treatment System include JetBlue, Azul Airlines and Qatar Airways. “In clinical studies, ultraviolet light has been found to be capable of significantly reducing certain viruses and bacteria when properly applied at prescribed levels. The Honeywell UV Treatment System can treat an aircraft cabin in less than 10 minutes for just a few dollars per flight for midsize to large airline fleets.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

GLOBAL CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TRENDS IN WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

58

FEBRUARY 2021

2021

Those participating in the roundtable include:

JAMES LEWIS Managing Director, Africa and Middle East, Knight Frank

59

ADITI GOURI

R O B I N D AV I S

Head of Strategic Consulting and Research, Cavendish Maxwell

Business Development Director, Freespace

busi ne ssch ief. eu

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

Business Chief speaks with corporate real estate leaders from North America and the EMEA region to discuss the current landscape and global 2021 trends AFTER ONE MONTH OF 2021, COULD YOU DISCUSS THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE WHEN IT COMES TO CORPORATE REAL ESTATE? JL: The current landscape in corporate real estate 60

across the majority of markets continues to be that of uncertainty – with the pandemic greatly impacting market activity and transactions. In Knight Frank’s Africa Market Pulse Survey, which was conducted at the onset of the pandemic, office landlords indicated that only 20% of office leasing deals were proceeding normally, while a majority (40%) were experiencing delays.

Overall, however, market performance has continued to be influenced by a range of factors beyond COVID-19. These have included low commodity prices in oil dependent economies, currency devaluation, ongoing recession in countries such as South Africa and hyperinflation in markets such as Harare, which are adversely impacting demand and returns.

FEBRUARY 2021

61

busi ne ssch ief. eu

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

62

As such, we have noted that approxi-

increased number of cheques and,

mately 60% of the 28 cities in the prime

in some cases, lower headline rents

office market we track have recorded

to existing lessees. Extended rent-free

rental declines in the period to Q3 2020.

periods, increased CapEx contributions

AG: The social distancing and

towards fit-out, reductions in notice

movement restrictions brought on by

periods and early break penalties are

COVID-19 interfered with supply chains

also becoming more common. Sellers

and services in the UAE and around the

and landlords are expected to realign

world. With many business activities

asking prices towards the offer levels

interrupted in H1 2020, the office mar-

of purchasers and occupiers in the near

ket came under pressure. Businesses

term. Poorer quality assets are likely

reacted to the sudden change in market

to experience the largest decrease

conditions and vacancies began to

whereas premium stock will see a more

increase, leading to occupiers finding

evenly balanced duel between negotiat-

newfound leverage to negotiate. Now,

ing parties.

landlords are more commonly offering

However, Dubai’s non-oil private

incentives including deferrals, waivers,

sector continued to show improvement

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The current landscape in corporate real estate across the majority of markets continues to be that of uncertainty” — James Lewis, Managing Director, Africa & Middle East, Knight Frank desk space as a result of social distancing rules. Despite promising news of an effective vaccine, it is not yet approved, in business conditions as evidenced

and even when experts predict it may

by an increase from 50.9 in August

take many months before we can expect

to 51.5 in September of the seasonally

social distancing to become a thing of

adjusted IHS Markit Dubai Purchasing

the past. And so occupancy levels will be

Managers’ Index (PMI). A reading above

reduced for sometime.

50 indicates expansion. The office sec-

As a result of strict quarantine meas-

tor is likewise expected to improve in the

ures and lockdowns around the world,

quarters ahead as companies return

organisations have been granted time

to full capacity in 2021.

to take a step back and to assess how

RD: The current corporate real estate

demic even when it is time to return to

landscape is challenging owners and

the office. Workplace technology exists

occupiers in unimaginable ways. As

to help provide comfort and assur-

a result, organisations have a dilemma

ances. There are solutions in the market

on their hands. Workplaces are close

that offer the ability to sense and learn

to empty and there’s too much costly

when and where spaces are in use in

unused office space going to waste:

order to keep them clean and compli-

many offices are reporting 50% less

ant. Occupancy-based data can ensure busi ne ssch ief. eu

63

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“ Changes in the way that companies carry out day-to-day operations have been underway for years,COVID-19 has fast-tracked the adoption of technologies as social distancing and remote working have become more prevalent” — Aditi Gouri, Head of Strategic Consulting and Research, Cavendish Maxwell

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE INDUSTRY EVOLVE DUE TO THE PANDEMIC? JL: The pandemic has introduced a new dynamic for all types of occupiers in Africa. Hospitality, student housing and regional shopping centres are some of the sectors that have been negatively impacted so far. The office sector has also recorded reduced demand as a result of the shift toward remote working. While we are unlikely to witness an extreme shift to remote working, we anticipate that flexibility and collaboration are going to prove core values to any organisation going forward.

In the short to medium term, we will probably see a change in office layouts

heads of HR, facilities and corporate

and design, as the overall employee

real estate (CRE) are aware of individual

density remains low, and in response

and collective behaviors, allowing them

to pandemic containment measures

to make educated decisions on optimis-

across different countries. In the long-

ing real estate space while reducing the

run, office premises are likely to be

risk of transmission. Technology like

utilised as collaborative spaces, where

this can do everything from providing the

talent retention and health and wellness

usage and cleaning history of a given

for employees will be a key aspect of the

desk so employees know when it was

new office-as-a-service for corporates.

last used and when it was sanitised

In a bid to attract and retain tenants,

ahead of their arrival, to helping staff plan

the majority of the landlords are also

their day at work so they are assigned

proving more willing to grant lease con-

a safe space with the colleagues they

cessions and, in some cases, renegotiate

need to collaborate with.

existing lease terms. busi ne ssch ief. eu

65

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

Overall, In the longer term, we expect the majority of sectors to recover. For instance, sectors that span the entire human life cycle such as agriculture and healthcare continue to be in high demand. Niche differentiation in sectors such as office spaces and residential into grade A will also be critical, while the increasing need for connectivity will lead to high demand for data centres.

AG: Dubai’s office market witnessed a paradigm shift in workplace practices to adapt to social distancing precautions.

66

The widespread deployment of virtual

“ There has been much exaggerated talk of the ‘death of the office’.

In reality, we have seen a relatively small number of organisations looking to reduce their office footprint” — Robin Davies, Business Development Director, Freespace

conferencing has helped many companies remain competitive and contactless,

as the professional services sectors

especially in the professional services

experienced modest demand compared

industries. The effectiveness of these

to previous quarters. The technology

tools may vary by company and industry,

sector made up approximately 15% of

but some companies will reconsider the

enquiries, and with the UAE announcing

need for traditional, or pre-pandemic,

plans to prioritise digital economies post

office space going forward.

COVID-19, demand is expected to fur-

Currently, the market situation has

ther increase in the future.

fuelled growth of the technology and

RD: There has been much exagger-

digital sectors, underscoring the stra-

ated talk of the ‘death of the office’. In

tegic goals of Smart Dubai 2021. As

reality, we have seen a relatively small

of Q3 2020, many of the enquiries for

number of organisations looking to

office space continue to come from the

reduce their office footprint, despite the

construction and related sectors while

currently low occupancy levels. Instead,

healthcare, beauty and pharma as well

they are looking at creative ways to

FEBRUARY 2021

best optimise that space to support the

business objectives are met. As such,

return to work – and real-time data from

they are likely to work closely with HR

occupancy based sensors is fuelling

and risk departments as organisations

and enabling that creative approach to

tackle the challenges of infection control

space optimisation.

along with the health and wellbeing of

However, some organisations are now accepting that the home office

their people.

What technology and/or approaches

environment will be a permanent exten-

have you seen emerge in the industry

sion of their corporate estate portfolios

due to COVID-19, and how do these

and have been taking steps to ensure

compare to before the outbreak?

their staff are supported, comfortable

JL: Remote access has been the most

and productive for the long-term. One

prevalent technological shift as a result

of the key challenges for CRE heads

of the pandemic. Corporate real estate

entering 2021 will be to balance blended

has evolved, such as through the adop-

‘home and office work’ in such a way that

tion of online management platforms, to

busi ne ssch ief. eu

67

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

aid in client and property management during the pandemic. For instance, in the context of agency, technology adoption has evolved from online listings to virtual reality. As a result of movement restrictions imposed during lockdown, virtual viewings in the majority of markets have surged. Knight Frank Kenya’s website, for example, registered a 47% increase in users over the months of May and June compared to the previous year. Virtual tours have effectively allowed potential tenants and buyers 68

to have realistic ‘walkthrough’ tours

viewing and conferencing. However,

of the properties.

COVID-19 has fast-tracked the adoption

We have also witnessed an increased

of these technologies as social distanc-

focus on data and analytics in the corpo-

ing and remote working have become

rate real estate sector, effectively aiding

more prevalent. To facilitate transparent

decision makers to predict market per-

communication amid restrictions and

formance and plan accordingly.

social distancing, various property listing

While the transformation of real estate

platforms have launched interactive vir-

technology was already taking place

tual tours of properties without the need

pre-COVID, the pandemic has certainly

to physically visit them.

accelerated this trend, underpinning its

In terms of new approaches, the

importance, and we only expect these

Dubai government has introduced

trends to continue.

a virtual working programme that allows

AG: Changes in the way that compa-

professionals to work overseas

nies carry out day-to-day operations

while residing in Dubai. On an annual

have been underway for years with

basis, the programme costs AED1,054

disruptive technologies such as virtual

plus medical insurance with valid UAE

FEBRUARY 2021

business needs. To this end, two strategies are proving popular: • The ‘split group’ strategy involves separating employees into different weekly groups to support business continuity in the event that one group becomes infected • The ‘split desk’ strategy enables the alternating usage of desks between days, creating maximum usage of the space overall and more time for cleaning teams to react to the demand. coverage and a processing fee for each

Strategies like this require live data to

person. In addition, the Dubai govern-

be effective. Programs which monitor

ment recently declared an economic

occupancy rates will play a central role

stimulus package of AED500 million,

in enabling the most appropriate meas-

taking the total stimulus extended to

ures to be put in place at any one time.

AED6.8 billion, to support individuals

Organisations must understand their

and businesses in response to the

occupancy threshold for safe practice

pandemic. Many of these incentives

and to keep track of when that threshold

will benefit small and medium-sized

is neared.

enterprises (SMEs) and the likely

When it comes to technology, it can

trend to emerge from this will be rep-

help on all fronts. Employers will keep

resented by the increasing demand for

workplaces hygienic and allay people’s

smaller office requirements.

fears if they communicate the right infor-

RD: It is looking like the majority of

mation, at the right time and to the right

organisations will turn to a hybrid work-

level of detail – and the most effective

ing model to reduce the spread of the

way to do this is by providing employees

virus and accommodate employee and

with mobile apps and installing digital busi ne ssch ief. eu

69

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

“ The repurposing of office space to facilitate collaboration will be a trend for 2021” 70

— Robin Davies, Business Development Director, Freespace

signage throughout the workplace.

reminding employees to wash their

While there will always be a place for

hands and avoid touching their face,

static posters, digital platforms allow

though that is effective. Displaying live

for the instant and dynamic delivery of

data on socially distanced spaces to

messages at the exact point they need

use, cleaned space availability and

to be consumed. Research by Intel has

cleaning regimes in place will help to

also found that digital signage captures

guide staff and reduce cross-contam-

400% more views than static signage.

ination. Facilities teams can also use the

Digital signage will encourage

technology to both deliver methodical

employees to adopt and maintain the

cleaning practices and reassure occu-

desired behaviors, including good

pants by highlighting the preventative

hygiene and social distancing. But

infection control measures that they

this isn’t limited to flashing messages

are undertaking.

FEBRUARY 2021

pre-COVID, will continue to influence the market. These include market resilience, innovation and health and wellness trends.

Gardens and outdoor spaces featured at the top of home buyers wish-list in their homes of choice of at least 66% of the respondents in our Global Buyer Survey.

Closer to home, we have observed buyer preference towards gated communities or developments that avail open spaces.

RD: The repurposing of office space to facilitate collaboration will be a trend for 2021 because it has been proven that, for many, home working supports individual focussed work but less so for social activities. CRE heads will need to ‘sell’ the office to those who have had a positive home working experience to

WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE INDUSTRY IN 2021 AND BEYOND?

willingly get them back and maximise

JL: We anticipate that in the near-term,

carefully consider the experiences peo-

influences such as global tensions

ple have had whilst working at home.

between the US and China, the

attendance. Any office redesign must

Offices will likely be carved into crea-

Government’s abilities to effectively

tive spaces for collaboration, innovation,

tackle the pandemic, currency changes,

and will also be a place to simply wind

cost of capital and the shift to the ‘new

down and socialise. It will be important

normal’ will continue to impact per-

to ensure that the workforce is made

formance in the corporate real estate

aware of these investments now so they

sector in Africa.

feel confident that they will be kept safe

However, in the long term we anticipate that ‘big picture trends’ that existed

and supported when they return to the office. busi ne ssch ief. eu

71

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

GE Digital: why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

72

FEBRUARY 2021

GE Digital’s Matthew Wells on why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy and how organisations can get the most value THE ROLE OF MOBILE APPS IN A DIGITAL STRATEGY: WHY DO THEY MATTER? With the latest acceleration in digital technology adoption – driven by the impact of COVID-19 – the fundamental ways in which both customers and businesses interact with each other have significantly changed. A simple smartphone can act as not only a phone but a camera, entertainment, wallet, health monitor, social enhancer and shop.

When looking to implement a successful mobile app strategy, it is important for organisations to understand that a company’s mobile app strategy is not a separate entity, a business’s “mobile app strategies can play a critical role in a company’s overall digital strategy,” comments Matthew Wells, Vice President, Digital Product Management at GE Digital.

“Mobility enables information sharing across multiple locations in minutes, not days and weeks, while simultaneously reducing costs through optimisation.

It can also reduce operational challenges by eliminating administration of some manual processes, enabling a smoother and faster path to efficiency.”

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“ Mobile app strategies can play a critical role in a company’s overall digital strategy” Matthew Wells Vice President, Digital Product Management, GE Digital For organisations looking to incorporate a mobile app strategy into its digital strategy Wells explains For organisations looking to incorporate a mobile app strategy into its digital strategy Wells explains that, “as

WHY PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MOBILE APPS

71% to earn loyalty or rewards points for downloading

67% to receive in app only coupons or discount

64% to receive a discount on the first order

59% they are a frequent purchaser from the company

with any change, the challenges are training, partnerships with

controls. In addition, they can facilitate

knowledgeable vendors that can assist

worker location flexibility, support

with implementation, and identifying

external monitoring and contingency

champions within the organisation to

operations, and depending on their

make sure the strategy is implemented

industry, weather-proof operations.”

completely and effectively.”

While “a mobile solution provides

However, organisations that can

industrial companies with the ability

address these challenges, those in

to support remote and mobile worker

the industrial companies for example,

access to plant monitoring and control

stand to benefit from the ability

systems as well as the long-term

to “extend operations to the field,

flexibility and cost reduction benefits,”

enabling flexibility and increasing

reflects Wells, in order to experience

productivity and efficiency, as

such benefits “they should, identify

well as ensure worker safety and

and take multiple key considerations

operations continuity with secure

into account when implementing a busi ne ssch ief. eu

75

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

76

mobile strategy: Security, compliance

best approach is to focus on reducing

and reliability, access to controls and

downtime by enabling the process and

monitoring of user access, interactive

technical experts with data on mobile

permissioning, user capabilities, safety,

devices so they can effectively field

and equipment compatibility.”

questions from the workforce. More mature organisations should focus

GETTING THE MOST VALUE OUT OF A MOBILE APP STRATEGY

on leaning out their processes by eliminating fixed screens on the shop

When it comes to the best strategy

floor and enabling their workers to

and approach for digital mobile apps,

make control decisions anywhere.”

Wells identifies that it depends on the

Core aspects of a successful mobile

maturity of an organisation. “For those

app strategy include “focusing on

organisations new to mobile apps, the

optimising specific metrics like process

FEBRUARY 2021

“ With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets today, a mobile app is a critical component of many digital strategies” John Zink Former consultant at Centric Consulting downtime, as well as having a good UX to reduce the training requirements.”

It is also important to “keep pace with regulatory requirements, increase 77

capacity, and improve reliability when implementing an effective mobile strategy, and maintaining high levels of security and customer service, which can all have an impact on bottom line and operations continuity,” comments Wells.

Ultimately to get the most value out of a mobile app strategy, Wells concludes that “transformation of any sort requires a clear understanding of your current limitations, a vision of what the future

FIVE ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER WHEN DEVELOPING A M O B I L E A P P S T R AT E G Y

1. Enterprise planning integration 2. Customer journey mapping 3. Valuable capabilities 4. Google mobile usability scoring 5. Back-end readiness

organisation looks like, executive buy-in, financial support, new organisation models, and an understanding of the

organisation, training, and prioritisation

outcomes you want to achieve by

are key to getting the most out of a

implementing this strategy. Planning,

digital mobile strategy.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

IT PROCUREMENT

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IT Procurement in 2021 and Beyond: How to be Effective WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

FEBRUARY 2021

Business Chief looks at how organisations can be effective in their IT procurement strategies in 2021 and beyond

D

efined by The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) as “the processes and procedures inherent

in good, responsible procurement to acquire

technological products and services that meet the needs of business and supply chains,” the day-to-day tasks of an IT procurement executive may include market research, pricing negotiation, terms and conditions agreement for services and status of purchase communication with internal customers. “With an effective IT procurement policy in place, any business can execute its projects seamlessly,” adds Bao-Viet Lê, partner (Middle East) at Bain and Company.

BREAKING DOWN THE CURRENT TRENDS IN IT PROCUREMENT Currently in the world of IT procurement there are four key trends emerging: cognitive computing, cybersecurity, automation and the biggest being cloud. “Organisations around the world are moving away from legacy, on-premise, company-owned

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“ The need to build stronger, more resilient businesses and supply chains is uppermost in everyone’s minds as the effects of the pandemic are still being felt and IT systems play an integral role” — The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS)

data centres to leveraging the massive computing power of hyperscalers,” comments Tony Harris, global vice president, Business Network Solutions, SAP. “With businesses having to store large amounts of data, cloud computing assists not only in storing but also in processing and seamlessly transferring data without the use of external devices,” adds Lê.

When it comes to cognitive computing, Harris comments that “the second is a focus on cognitive computing, inclusive of big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning busi ne ssch ief. eu

IT PROCUREMENT

How an effective Procurement Strategy can deliver real business value CLICK TO WATCH

|

5:10

82 (ML) and robotic process automation

technology (60 per cent); robots (52

(RPA), given the enormous benefits

per cent); augmented reality (47 per

it can yield when done right. These

cent) and 3D printing (44 per cent)

technologies can help discover busi-

making this new digital business world

ness insights that might otherwise not

very exciting.”

be possible due to the huge volumes of

Finally, cybersecurity and risk. “As

data they can analyse quickly. These

more of our lives go online, and more

are also increasingly being used to

business processes extend beyond

automate repetitive tasks, enabling

the four walls of the organisation,

more staff to be freed-up to focus on

there becomes a heightened level of IT

strategic, value-added work.” Adding

risk. Organisations must do everything

to Harris’s comments, CIPS states that

they can to protect and defend against

“recent research highlighted that in the

cyber-attacks and data theft as this is

next five years businesses are looking

not only extremely damaging to their

at implementing autonomous vehicle

brand reputation, but can also be very

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Organisations around the world are moving away from legacy, on-premise, company-owned data centres to leveraging the massive computing power of hyperscalers” — Tony Harris, Global Vice President, Business Network Solutions, SAP expensive as a result of government and industry body fines,” states Harris.

CURRENT CHALLENGES FACED BY IT PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVES When it comes to the challenges faced

by IT procurement executives CIPS explains that “the market is in a state of constant flux, in which hundreds of products are launched each day. As a result prices can fluctuate widely.

We’ve seen changes of 66 per cent in a day. It’s a time-consuming task to keep on top of such trends. Sometimes ‘good deals’ go quickly and there may not be enough stock to satisfy your particular need which is frustrating.”

Other challenges highlighted by Lê include manual, operational activity and the capability to keep on top of

COVID-19 COVID-19 has increased the necessity to transform IT procurement. There are four key imperatives to conduct effective, f lexible and resilient operations: • Shift focus to more value-add activities: automate reporting, focusing on deep insights • Better responsiveness/speed to ‘market’: reduce timeline for contract negotiation • Improved compliance and risk monitoring: avoid overpayment or purchasing errors

• Stronger collaboration: share data in real-time with customers/ suppliers

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IT PROCUREMENT

TOP TIPS FOR BETTER IT PROCUREMENT PRACTICES Tony Harris Global Vice President, Business Network Solutions, SAP 1. E nsure business cases focus on total cost of ownership (TCO).

IT procurement can often have ‘hidden’ costs.

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2. A lign the solution with the needs of the business. Projects that require minimal people and process change carry less risk and tend to be more successful than those that aim for significant transformation. Where projects require substantial transformation, this is best done in phases to help ensure that each phase is successfully completed before introducing the next.

3. C hoose solutions that can easily adapt. Businesses must now be more agile than ever before and any technology solution underpinning the business needs to be capable of the same.

4. I nclude IT experts and other relevant business stakeholders early in the process. Too often the business line makes a selection on a piece of technology and then brings IT into the process at the end only to find that the technology does not meet corporate technical standards in some

FEBRUARY 2021

way. Likewise, having IT drive the process with no early involvement from the business stakeholders can result in a solution that is a perfect technical fit but doesn’t address the needs of the business.

IT procurement must be a marriage of IT and business to achieve optimal outcomes.

5. W here possible, seek to build strategic relationships with the supplier. This will provide potential co-innovation opportunities and help accelerate issue resolution should any arise.

Bao-Viet Lê Partner (Middle East), Bain & Company 1. R ecognise IT procurement as important source of competitive advantage.

2. C lear understanding of spend profile – transparency on past and future demand, characteristics.

3. D emand for real-time personalisation leads to product customisation, requiring supply base with higher risk profile.

4. L everaging latest technology to support analytics, supplier connectivity and business collaboration.

5. E ffective process to implement strategies, allowing for crossfunctional decision-making.

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Partner (Middle East) at Bain & Company 1. L ook at the lifecycle of the products and their total value, not just cost.

2. I nvolve all key stakeholders in product specification for not only buy-in when systems are launched, but a deeper understanding of the problem the IT system is designed to solve.

3. U se the insights available from Value Added Resellers and business to business marketplaces so you don’t have to start from scratch.

4. B e as clear as you can about specifications from the start but be prepared to move and re-think strategy if important information comes to light.

5. K eep ethical and responsible sourcing in mind. The tech industry has been caught out before by using suppliers paying meagre wages or the use of slaves in the supply chain.

“ With an effective IT procurement policy in place, any business can execute its projects seamlessly” — Bao-Viet Lê, Partner (Middle East), Bain & Company

digital IT Procurement transformation. “Typical challenges faced by IT procurement include a lot of manual, operational activity that take a lot of resources, large quantities of data across disparate sources; inconsistent taxonomies and KPIs, and increased need for collaboration across business partners and suppliers. In addition, many functions are advancing quickly in their digital capabilities, IT procurement will need to keep up, particularly when it comes to P2P suites, automated spend compliance tools, supplier portals for increased data sharing, and artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform decision and ID spend opportunities.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

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IT PROCUREMENT

86

Adding to the challenges outlined

tiers, suppliers and teams, potential

by Lê, CIPS reflects on the effects

weak points will remain hidden and

of challenges created by COVID-19.

no amount of digitalisation can solve

“The need to build stronger, more

the problem of ignorance of slavery,

resilient businesses and supply

turning a blind-eye to fraud and cor-

chains is uppermost in everyone’s

ruption or not achieving sustainability

minds as the effects of the pandemic

goals. Any digital programme must

are still being felt and IT systems

encompass the core values and

play an integral role. But without

needs of the business and align

end-to-end-transparency across all

to responsible business practice,

FEBRUARY 2021

organisations are striving to be “faster, better and cheaper, but still limit risks, with no additional funding,” while externally, “the supplier landscape is changing, sourcing of solutions not products and new ways of working are emerging.”

To address this evolution, Lê adds that “A dependable procurement system is one created to improve accuracy, efficiency and speed. To ensure that the IT procurement is effective, it is essential to ensure that everything functions competently as well as cost effectively. Additionally, unclear details and specifications, lack of transparency, inflexible suppliers and team, inaccurate date, collectively, could hamper the procurement process.”

Adding to Harris’s five best pracotherwise the benefits from IT systems

tices, Lê concludes that “three key

will not fully justify the investment.”

themes emerge: smarter procurement with advanced optimisation of

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF IT PROCUREMENT: THE BEST PRACTICES AND APPROACHES

faster processes, fewer errors, better

“The traditional role of IT procure-

controls and stronger risk monitoring;

ment is evolving, driven by both

and frictionless collaboration, enabling

internal and external forces,” says

increased collaboration (and agile),

Lê, who explains that internally

enhanced stakeholder experience.”

procurement spend; automation and agility, enabling greater efficiency,

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T O P 10

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FEBRUARY 2021

Most influential women in European startup companies Business Chief EMEA lists its top 10 influential women based on EU startups top 50 women in Europe making a significant impact in the startup and venture capital space Written by

Georgia Wilson

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10

Tamara Littleton CEO, The Social Element

Tamara Littleton is the founder and CEO of The Social Element. The company strives to help organisations understand the complex marketing landscape, by combining its consumer understanding, social media expertise and its global and local knowledge to build effective strategies. The Social Element describes itself as “a global team of geeky pioneers, using our social media superpowers to help our clients connect with their audience in the most powerful way.”

In addition to being the founder and CEO, Littleton is also the cofounder of Polpeo – a crisis simulation company – and is part of the Female Founders, a group of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the UK.

FEBRUARY 2021

09

Alice Zagury

CEO & Co-founder, The Family

Advocating for equal opportunity and supporting local talent, Alice Zagury is the co-founder and CEO of The Family, a startup accelerator program. Believing that “A great entrepreneur can come from anywhere,” The Family is a fellowship of founders which selects 50 startups from around the world to provide the support needed to develop a scalable organisation.

“Great entrepreneurs can come from anywhere. Sometimes though, the resources available to them locally aren’t the best. From other ambitious, daring founders to advisors and investors, you’ll have access to the best, not just the people near you. These opportunities are all gathered within The Family’s program,” states The Family.

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08

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Zoe Adaovicz

CEO & Co-founder, Neufund

As co-founder and CEO of Neufund, Zoe Adaovicz has founded multiple startups over the last 20 years. Acting as an advisor for German and Maltese governments, Adaovicz provides digitalisation advice.

Founded in 2016, by Adamovicz and Marcin Rudolf, Neufund is a fintech startup that strives to connect investors and entrepreneurs in a unique way. The company creates blockchain solutions and services including a fundraising and investing platform, an employee stock option plan (ESOP) manager, a light wallet and post-investment instruments.

“Funding and fundraising. Fundamentally reimagined. Neufund makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to invest and raise capital.”

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07

Sonali De Rycker Partner, Accel

Joining Accel Partners in 2008, Sonali De Rycker has held positions in influential roles for over 20 years. Rycker is an investor, her primary focuses include consumer internet, enterprise software and fintech businesses. Since joining Accel, she has invested in the likes of Wallapop and Spotify. Rycker also co-led a US$116.4mn investment in challenger bank Monzo.

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#2

FEBRUARY 2021

06

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Roxanna Varza Director, Station F

With a career that spans more than 10 years, Roxanne Varza is the director of Station F, a Paris-based startup campus. Station F is reportedly the biggest startup campus in the world with over 30 startup programs, 35 public administrations, 100 VC funds, four mentorship offices and 600 events per year. “We help entrepreneurs bring their ambitious ideas to life. Station F offers all the best resources and knowledge to help entrepreneurs grow their companies.”

Prior to being the director of Station F, she led Microsoft’s startup activities in France, ”showing startups love on behalf of Satya Nadella,” says Varza.

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To learn more about the American Express Corporate Program, visit www.americanexpress.com.

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05

Roberta Rudokienė Head of Startup Lituania

With a career in sales, marketing and government initiatives, Roberta Rudokienė is the head of Startup Lithuania. The organisation is powered by Enterprise Lituania – a government initiative – which is defined as a “one stop shop for current and future startups in Lithuania”.

Startup Lithuania strives to facilitate a national startup ecosystem, publish startup ecosystem news, provide a startups database and job marketplace, organise events, and consult, advise, network and educate the ecosystem and ‘futurepreneurs’.

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04

Paula Groves

Chief information officer, X Capital

Dedicated to advocating for the highly-motivated, but underrepresented minority communities in Europe, Paula Groves aspires to level the playing field when it comes to venture capital. Groves has over 30 years of experience in private equity, she currently holds the position of chief information officer at Impact X Capital.

Founded in 2018, Impact X Capital is a double bottom line venture capital company. Supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs across Europe, the firm provides its entrepreneurs with “access to industry experts and strategic resources, to ensure that portfolio companies receive critical input to realise their visions and generate long-term investor value.”

FEBRUARY 2021

03

Simone Brummelhuis

Founder, Borski Fund & TheNextWomen

Dedicated to investing in diverse teams and providing female entrepreneurs with capital and resources, Simone Brummelhuis is the founder of Borski Fund and TheNextWomen.

Founded in 2019, the Borski Fund was built on the conviction that “the investment diversity gap is real and much larger than is often thought, however that there are also ways to help close it. We believe that improving access to financing for female entrepreneurs that are looking to contribute to a better world is one of the key ways of addressing the investment diversity gap.”

Brummelhuis’s second organisation – TheNextWomen – was founded in 2009, the organisation provides female founders, professionals and investors access to knowledge, capital and networks. “We believe in new opportunities, new ideas, new perspectives and new exciting ventures.”

Brummelhuis has been recognised by The Guardian and Forbes as ‘one of the 10 Women to meet in Tech’ and one of the ‘20 women to follow on Twitter for Female Entrepreneurship and Business’, respectively.

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The Website and Magazine for Global Procurement Executives Join now for notifications about the upcoming launch and never miss an issue...

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02

Mette Lykke

CEO, Too Good To Go With a career that spans 17 years, Mette Lykke is the current CEO of social impact startup Too Good To Go. Founded in 2015 Too Good To Go strives to fight global food 102

waste, by inspiring and empowering everyone to take action against food waste.

“We are mostly known as the world’s largest B2C marketplace for surplus food and restaurants, cafés, supermarkets, bakeries, canteens and wholesalers in 14 countries connect with users of our app to save perfectly good food from going to waste,” states Too Good To Go. Nine years prior to joining Too Good To Go, Lykke was the CEO and co-founded Endomondo, a social fitness community app “designed to track your workouts, provide audio feedback along the way and offer guidance on how to reach your goal.”

FEBRUARY 2021

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FEBRUARY 2021

01

Maria Pennanen Co-founder, Accelerator Frankfurt

With more than 20 years of entrepreneurship experience, Maria Pennanen is the co-founder of Accelerator Frankfurt.

Founded in 2016, is an independent goto-market program focused on Fintech, Cybersecurity and Digital B2B startups.

Accelerator Frankfurt provides startups with mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and consulting and professional services. The goal of the program is to help startups win customers and raise funding.

In addition, the accelerator provides investment opportunities for those looking for stable innovation businesses, as well as offering corporations services that bring the innovative startup approach to companies that want to become innovation leaders.

“We believe that change in business can only happen with passionate people. We attract those people and help them grow.”

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WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

KRISTOFER PALMER

FEBRUARY 2021

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How COVID-19 has Driven Motor Oil’s Digital Transformation busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MOTOR OIL

Nick Giannakakis, Group CIO at Greece’s Motor Oil, discusses accelerating digital strategy, digitising manufacturing processes and the customer experience

I

n the months since the Covid-19 pandemic began, numerous industries have reported a fast acceleration in terms of

moving to digital processes. This certainly rings true for Motor Oil, an oil refinery based in Greece 108

that is one of the largest in Europe.

“In the last two months we’ve seen two years’ worth of acceleration,” its Group Chief Information Officer Nick Giannakakis says. It has also been a complex endeavour, as Giannakakis describes the company as “one of the biggest, most complex manufacturing refineries in Europe”.

Motor Oil has a strong export branch, with 78% of its operations coming from export sales that need to be facilitated via loading ports and vehicles.

As well as being an oil refinery they have a large retail operation, with hundreds of petrol stations selling non-fuel products as well as petrol, making up a large part of the business.

A key aspect of the acceleration caused by COVID was ensuring employees could continue

FEBRUARY 2021

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MOTOR OIL

“ In the last two months we’ve seen two years’ worth of acceleration” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

decided to not stop any of its investments in technology, which meant much of its digital programme could

to perform their daily duties remotely.

continue and it also ensured a good,

“We had to address the end user com-

continued relationship with their part-

puter experience for staff, to make sure

ners. That also meant it didn’t have to

they could still work collaboratively

delay its digital transformation.

from home and get the best possible performance,” Giannakakis says.

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While the pandemic of course brought challenges, Motor Oil

FEBRUARY 2021

Giannakakis is a believer in resilience in the face of adversity. To handle the challenges of COVID to the business, he says Motor Oil

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Nick Giannakakis Title: CIO

Company: Motor Oil

Industry: Oil & Energy

Nick Giannakakis has over 20 years of experience working in IT. Throughout his career he’s worked for Richemont in Switzerland, British American Tobacco in the UK, and in his native Greece for the Coca-Cola Hellenic Company. His current role is at Motor Oil, where he’s based in Athens.

He describes his style of management as being both a mentor and a team member, commenting that he prides himself on a daily basis of being able to combine these two aspects. He believes in the importance of being able to influence decisions working with senior executives.

He’s also a big believer in diversity. “We try to encourage everyone to bring a difference to everything they do,” he says. “When you are leading a tech department, and I have been on this journey for years and years now, you need to be able to focus on diversity. When I say diversity I also mean in the way of thinking, combining a more agile way of thinking and understanding the power of prioritisation.”

Giannakakis is collaborative, always a team player, and always keen to learn. “I don’t want to be left behind in this new reality, and I always try to bring new ideas to the table” he adds. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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ABOUT OTE GROUP OTE Group is the largest technology company in Greece and a member of Deutsche Telekom AG. It is one of the top three listed companies, with respect to capitalization, in the Athens Stock Exchange and is also listed in the London Stock Exchange.

OTE Group offers a wide range of services, under the unif ied brand COSMOTE: f ixed and mobile telephony, broadband services, pay-TV and ICT solutions. In addition, the Group in Greece is also involved in maritime communications and real estate.

In the f ield of System Integration, OTE Group has developed diverse capabilities and constitutes a leading partner of choice for businesses seeking innovative solutions in the f ields of Data Centers, Cloud, Information Security, Networking, Big Data and IoT. Leveraging strategic partnerships with IT market leaders and thanks to its large IT & Network workforce, it has delivered large scale and complex ICT projects, offering managed services to customers in Europe.

WE EMPOWER. YOU LEAD Focusing on continuously developing innovative solutions and building strategic partnerships with global IT leaders, OTE Group stands out to be a trusted technology partner for large business customers. By modernizing its IT infrastructure, as well as maintaining operational and people excellence, OTE Group delivers and supports sophisticated tailor-made projects.

The state-of-the-art services and solutions offered by OTE Group enable businesses dynamically to the new digital era and ensure their business continuity and efficiency.

The strategic partnership with Motor Oil for the implementation of an SDWAN (Software Defined-WAN) solution acts as an accelerator of the company’s digital transformation journey through a robust technology strategy.

Motor Oil is one of the leading players in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean region in the areas of crude oil refining and petroleum products. The company has large campuses all over Greece with distinct connectivity and communication needs. Some of the installations are in remote areas, where as others need to operate uninterrupted 24/7. At the same time, these installations need to have independent and safe access to the Internet and to cloud services, with an extremely high SLA, regarding both network and services as well as applications.

OTE has provided Motor Oil with a turn-key solution to modernize its corporate network with a Software

www.cosmote.gr

Defined-WAN implementation. The SD-WAN solution provides a virtual WAN architecture, with users controlling and managing the entire system via software running on a central platform. One of the main advantages of this approach is that it can offer a combination of communication technologies (MPLS, dedicated broadband Internet and LTE), to safely interconnect a company’s point of presence, while improving overall user experience and increasing productivity.

The Motor Oil project includes 30 sites all over Greece. OTE Group has selected Cisco Meraki SD-WAN services in order to provide Motor Oil a complete solution that includes the necessary connectivity, hardware equipment, a management platform and all the SLA agreements needed.

With the implementation of the SD-WAN project, Motor Oil will have achieved a simplified, fully secured network, with high availability and scalability. Both user experience and productivity will have improved. The company’s IT department has now more agility, being able to integrate new points of presence whenever needed and much faster. Also, the project provides better management of capital, as well as operational expenses.

Holistically looking at Motor Oil operations, OTE Group aims to empower our customer’s vision for having a leading role in the crude oil ref ining and marketing of petroleum products sectors in Greece.

MOTOR OIL

showed great resilience. They demonstrated this by creating new solutions.

“At the peak of the crisis we developed a digital planning tool that allows our employees to perform their daily business,” says Giannakakis. “When you have an organisation that needs to communicate by making hundreds of calls on a daily basis and do their jobs from home, having the same quality in terms of communication is a very important aspect.”

For the retail side of the business 114

the company used advanced analytics to deep dive into sales models, identifying relevant models that could predict future sales. This helped them develop solutions to scale up, such as a new pay at pump service which eliminates the need for customers to step inside a shop to pay.

Another change he has seen is the way the customer experience is framed. “Some say we’re living in the age of the customer, but I think we are beyond that,” he says. “Before COVID we were in the age of the platform, and COVID has brought the necessity of this platform because of the importance of having collaborative activities.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ It’s an industry that needs to change and with COVID this has been magnified and accelerated” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

“Customer interactions through

In terms of manufacturing, Motor

these platforms continue to be at the

Oil developed the concept of a smart

top of our priorities. We have seen

factory. Giannakakis explains this is

changes, and with a change in focus

focused on five pillars: digital engi-

sales have significantly increased, and

neering; digital production, where the

we want to be able to react to that cus-

remote operation centre is the north

tomer experience. I would say that now

star; digital asset management; digital

customer-centricity along with data is

workers and equipping them with the

the new priority for our business.”

relevant tools so they can perform their tasks; and the digital optimisation of processes.

“Everything to do with the smart factory is classified in those five pillars,” he says. “With the help of our partner ecosystem working in each of these pillars allowed us to achieve increased production, reduced downtime, reduced production cost, and focus on product optimisation.”

Giannakakis says that although COVID-19 has certainly accelerated all these processes, the need to do this already existed. “The challenges in the energy and oil and gas industries were already there. It’s an industry that needs to change and with COVID this has been magnified and accelerated,” says Giannakakis.

“At the same time you have two frontiers: you have to keep the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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1970

Year founded

5,000 Number of employees

business going with the new reality,

good for us to be able to go with a swift

while not losing time regarding the

pilot to learn and have a partner at

digital transformation.”

the same time ready to scale it up. We

Strong partnerships have been vital

need to be able to combine the value

for this. “I’ve always been a big believer

offering from International and Local

in having relevant partner ecosystems,”

partners in order to be able to maxi-

he says. “Companies like ours, who are

mize the impact.”

manufacturing and retail companies,

From the International field SAP is

cannot focus on technology ourselves,

an important partner for Motor Oil.

because it’s not part of our mandate.

“They help us with all of our transac-

We need to have a partner ecosystem

tions, whether it’s on the customer

around us to help us scale up and pro-

side or the manufacturing side. Every

vide us with the relevant innovation in

inventory and every shipment lives in

the areas and the priorities that we set.

SAP, so it’s a no-brainer for us to look

It’s exactly what we have done both

to SAP to also help us innovate.”

before and during the crisis.”

One of the largest local players

He explains that having partners in

is OTE. OTE has provided Motor Oil

various sectors help them to have the

with a turn-key solution to modernise

right focus and pilot new systems. “It’s

its corporate network with a Software busi ne ssc h ief . eu

117

Get reliable network coverage and security protection, fast.

A modern network must be able to respond easily, quickly and flexibly to the growing needs of today’s digital business. Must provide visibility & control of applications, users and devices on and off the network and Intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. Be scalable and automate the process to provide new innovative services.

Support IoT devices and utilize state-of-the-art technologies such as real-time analytics, ML and AI. And all these must be provided with maximum security and minimum cost.

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“ Whatever is good for the environment is good for the business too” — Nick Giannakakis, Chief Information Officer, Motor Oil

Defined-WAN implementation. The

119

“I think we are going to live in a new

SD-WAN solution provides a virtual WAN

reality where our priorities and our digital

architecture, with users controlling and

transformation will be accelerated, but

managing the entire system via software

also I think the traditional model was

running on a central platform.

always focused on two pillars: innovation

With the implementation of the

of the business model, and the opera-

SD-WAN project, Motor Oil will have

tional side,” concludes Giannakakis.

achieved a simplified, fully secured net-

“Now we’ve added sustainability into the

work, with high availability and scalability

mix too. It’s a strong directive from the

to improve both the user experience

European Union but also from across

and productivity.

the sector. Whatever is good for the envi-

Looking ahead, Giannakakis believes

ronment is good for the business too.”

the major oil players will all adapt to new ways of working post-COVID. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Digital & data drive Orange Cameroon’s virtual growth 120 WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

FEBRUARY 2021

121

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORANGE CAMEROON

Abdallah Nassar, Director of Engineering and Network Development, explains how a focus on data and strategic partnerships are driving growth

O

range Cameroon has been at the forefront of technological changes in west Africa for the last 20 years. Abdallah Nassar,

Director of Engineering and Network Development, 122

chronicles the key telco periods as “voice, data and virtualisation” and, in line with the group’s wider African strategy, highlights four key priorities for the next five years – digitisation, data, rural and ‘green’.

During our online meeting, we talk through each of the key areas. But it is a comment he makes halfway through which resonates and may explain why Orange Cameroon continues to see marked growth and receive prestigious network and coverage awards, most recently winning the nPerf (Best Network Performance for year 2019 and H1-2020 and Ookla Speedtest Awards for Best Mobile Network Coverage for H1-2020.

“Orange Cameroon is not only an operator – it’s also a Foundation,” he said. Established in 2009, the Orange Cameroon as operator and foundation

FEBRUARY 2021

123

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORANGE CAMEROON

€42bn 2019 sales

26

Countries in network

143,000

Number of employees worldwide 124

FEBRUARY 2021

EX EC U TIV E PROFILE:

Abdallah Nassar Title: Director of Engineering & Network Development Company: Orange Cameroon Industry: Mobile, data, communications 21 years of experience in the telecom domain, holding senior positions in Africa, MEA and Asia Pacific. assigned as CTO with key operators in West and Central Africa, CTO with Digicel Pacific, CTO with Vodafone and Chief Engineering and Network Development with Orange Cameroon. Assigned as Technical Operational Consultant for a governmental projects in North Africa, Middle East and Asia.

Holding a Management Information System degree, Chartered Computer Engineering from Manchester University. Certified as Executive Business Administration from Wharton School Pennsylvania.

Holding certificates such as MCP, MCDBA and MEP from Microsoft, UNIX certified, IT project with an I-Net and CIW certificates.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

125

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127 has played a pivotal role investing in the country’s development, channelling investment into basic education, healthcare for people with communication-related disabilities, professional training and culture.

Having an unwavering socio-economic outlook has definitely stood the company in good stead.

Two Cameroon concepts were

“Before the customer was following the operator, now the operator must follow the customer ” — Abdallah Nassar, Director of Engineering and Network Development, Orange

recently among 13 digital projects selected for the 2020 Solidarity FabLabs challenge, while the Orange Africa and Middle East Social Entrepreneur Prize cele­brates its 10th birthday this year. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORANGE CAMEROON

“ We are aiming to be almost 90% digital by the end of 2020” — Abdallah Nassar, Director of Engineering and Network Development, Orange

Over the last decade, the Orange Organization’s success has engendered huge respect among Cameroonians and provided a model for sustainability; Nassar is proud that only around one percent of his 500 to 600 direct employees are expatriates. “People here are very dedicated and have an open mindset,” he adds. Demographically and virtually, Orange Cameroon is on firm foundations for virtual growth.

He describes the company as the “one of the largest operators in Cameroon”,

128

although almost in the same breath says he sees itself as equal with the undisclosed front-runner. He tells me that Africans typically own two or three SIM cards, so achieving a dominant market share isn’t straight forward. Cameroon also has some distinctive dynamics given its Francophone-Anglophone mix.

Nevertheless, it has the biggest network “in terms of the number of sites, towers and coverage,” he said, with its customer base hovering between 8.5 and 9 million.

We start our discussion on digitalisation, a vast area which he likens to a spider’s web, and discuss some of the

FEBRUARY 2021

Spot Life Taste CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:30

129 key COVID developments, such as

investment right now is to keep your

‘My Office Everywhere’ and other initia-

quality in place,” he said. “Three to four

tives such as digital archiving, which

months wasn’t enough time to bet-

is simplifying RFPs and order taking.

ter under­stand customers’ changing

“Before the pandemic, it was 10 per-

needs, but it was enough to change

cent, but now we’re touching 50-60

the way we are working and investing.

percent in the digital terrain. We are

We are always putting the customer

aiming to be almost 90% digital by the

and market need in front of us.”

end of 2021. There is always the 10%

It’s no surprise to hear that data is crit-

which cannot be digitalised as we are

ical to Orange Cameroon, but it’s worth

working with the public and government.”

stressing how just pivotal it is to the

One key change to emerge from the

virtualisation push. “Five years ago,

pandemic has been the focus on quality.

the voice revenue started to decline,

“The top priority of each and every

now all investment is around data.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORANGE CAMEROON

“ Now all investment is around data. The virtual will be based on a solid data network” — Abdallah Nassar, Director of Engineering and Network Development, Orange

130

FEBRUARY 2021

253mn Customer base

208mn Mobile customers

We are heavily investing in new services, first to introduce 4G+ in country, and working on launching the new 4.75G. The virtual will be based on a solid data network.”

We move into the rural domain, where he is keen to emphasise its partnership with Canadian-based NuRAN

21mn

Fixed broadband customers

Wireless (Cameroon’s 26 million population is evenly split between cities and rural areas). “They have a very unique product, it’s a radiocoverage telecom product which is specifically designed for rural areas and can be quickly deployed,” he said.

Its rural network penetration stands at about 80 percent. “Geographically we are not yet there, we will still have five years to continue the rural coverage – many of them are small hotspots.”

Alongside NuRAN, he Huawei, which are working closely with Orange to cooperate in virtualization and Core Network development. “despite the serious competition and challenges that Huawei is encountering these days but still Huawei represent a very strategic vendor for Orange Cameroon and Orange in global. We are on fast development track with Huawei to busi ne ssc h ief . eu

131

H I T YO U R O B J E C T I V E S W I T H Z E R O I N V E S T M E N T.

SCALING WITH NETWORK-AS-A-SERVICE

solutions start here!

133

bring in advanced services to market

and cloud systems, and take another

such as Smart-Wifi, Cloud Services

four to five years. On completion, we will

and Virtualization. There is no end of

have fully modernised our network.”

plans with Huawei,” he says.

He adds that financial services will be a

Nokia and Orange embarked on a

key focus in future.

major 4G LTE regional roll-out in 2018,

Technology’s changes have been

which saw the former upgrade Orange’s

profound and there is “no comparison”

radio access network to enhance

between 1999 and 2020. “Before the

mobile broadband services.

customer was following the opera-

“This was the first step of monetisation

tor, now it’s the other way round – the

of the network,” he says “The radio is

operator must follow the customer,

almost completed and the second step,

and the vendor must follow the operator.

with Huawei, will focus on virtualisation

Moving from legacy to virtual concept, busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORANGE CAMEROON

“ I am ‘hands-on’ and a team player, and I do share my experience.

If my team is not dev­ eloping, I cannot develop myself” — Abdallah Nassar, Director of Engineering and Network Development, Orange 134

the entire technological mindset has

being finalized by the United Nations

changed.”

Economic Commission for Africa

On environmental matters,

(ECA). Nassar said one option could

Cameroon’s private sector is curr-

be to create more green solarisation

ently ill-prepared to leverage a spate

concepts and find hybrid solutions

of opportunities offered by the green

to minimise power consumption

economy but a comprehensive set

and pollution.

of measures, which “Government

While many developed markets are

should spearhead”, can turn the issue

swept up in 5G hype, Nassar says

around, according to a new study

much of West Africa remains on 2G,

FEBRUARY 2021

135

primarily because of the product and

government dialogue to see how it

power purchasing of the customer.

can develop its own technology and

“First we must convert them to 3G,

continue to grow the economy. “We

and then 4G. To talk about 5G now

have the will to invest more.”

on the continent is very difficult and costly. Are we ready in terms of frequencies? Yes. But we are not ready in terms of regulations, infrastructure and monopoly.”

He says it is maintaining busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Archroma: the journey towards digital transformation

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

136

FEBRUARY 2021

137

busi ne ssch ief. eu

ARCHROMA

We take a closer look at the technologies that have been powering the specialty chemicals company Archroma since its inception

A 138

rchroma is a global colour and specialty chemicals company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The firm was cre-

ated out of chemicals company Clariant’s textile, paper and emulsions business in 2013, a move that is crucial to understanding the company’s structure as of today, which has become more lean, more agile, more flexible and more direct.

The separation from Clariant was particularly focused on building an independent company. with best-in-class technology, expertise and people and was completed in less than a year.

Having since made a number of acquisitions, including BASF’s textile chemicals business in 2015, the company today has some 3,000 employees across more than 35 countries, operating 25 production sites. In Asia, Archroma has 1,200 employees, with Singapore being

FEBRUARY 2021

139

busi ne ssch ief. eu

Hi, we’re Salesforce. We help companies unify marketing, sales, service, commerce, and IT on the #1 CRM platform, so you can give every customer the personal experiences they love. Visit salesforce.com/eu/learnmore.

the global headquarters of the textile

manufacturing into line with the

chemicals business. Archroma’s

company’s wider ambitions to bring

Asia operations consist of all coun-

customers into the process at an

tries in the regions of South and

earlier stage. This focus on using

Southeast Asia, China, Korea, Japan

technology to improve the customer

and Oceania, with employees and

experience goes beyond manufactur-

manufacturing capabilities in almost

ing, with a web page where designers

all major countries.

can choose from over 4,000 colours

As part of the separation the company’s internal systems were

to use in their designs.

Archroma’s digital transformation

moved to the cloud, while crucial

journey has been supported by the

manufacturing technology is also

assistance of a number of partners.

being upgraded, with an emphasis

Salesforce has provided customer

on digitalisation. The goal is bringing

systems that are allowing Archroma

Archroma: Corporate video CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:22

a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com

141

ARCHROMA

“ As industry leader, we have the responsibility to keep on addressing the climate challenge” 142

— Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO, Archroma

to explore, for instance, ecommerce.

Supporting that process was integration partner Accenture, while IT organisation Everis delivered support services alongside advice. With Infosys, meanwhile, Archroma has worked from the start to develop a sturdy foundation of technologies.

By focusing on customers, and with the help of technologies such as improved manufacturing techniques, Archroma is pioneering a sustainable approach to the industry.

Backing up that pledge, the company FEBRUARY 2021

143

2013

Year founded

3,000 Number of employees

busi ne ssch ief. eu

NAVIGATING THE DIGITAL NEXT FOR CHEMICAL INDUSTRY Infosys is helping chemical manufacturers in Accelerating digitization for services, ecosystems, experience and value

Enabling mergers & acquisitions

Facilitating de-globalization and creating a flexible supply chain

Participating in circular economy

Building digital backbones with cloud, data lake, AI and API gateways

With over three decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we can help navigate you towards opportunity with AI-powered Core Agile Digital at Scale Always-on Learning The journey to digital has so many nexts.

Navigate your next with Infosys.

www.infosys.com

A Tale of Two Cities: Transforming the Fashion Industry with more Sustainable Colors & Effects CLICK TO WATCH

|

9:33

145

recently topped the Institute of

challenge our suppliers in terms of

Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE)

safety, health and environment, and

list of industrial chemical companies

to go even beyond our own strict

driving supply chain transparency.

policies and processes.”

In a press release, Heike van de

It also recently joined the Together

Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, said: “As

for Sustainability (TfS) global initia-

industry leader, we have the respon-

tive for sustainable chemical supply

sibility to keep on addressing the

chains. In another press release,

climate challenge, and to do every-

Andreas Wester, Chief Procurement

thing we can together to reduce our

Officer at Archroma, said: “As an

impact on the environment. This is

industry leader, we have the respon-

where the approach of the Institute

sibility to do everything we can to

of Public & Environmental Affairs

reduce our impact on the environ-

supports us. They encourage us to

ment. This is why we are very proud a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com

ARCHROMA

Consulting, transformation, technology and operations everis an NTT DATA Company is a multinational consulting firm that offers business and strategic solutions, development and maintenance of technological applications and outsourcing services. The company, which operates in the telecommunications, financial, industrial, utilities, energy, public administrations and health sectors, reported 1.43 billion Euro in turnover last year.

It currently employs more than 25,500 professionals at its offices and high performance centers in 17 countries.

Learn More everis.com/global

147

“As an industry leader, we have the responsibility to do everything we can to reduce our impact on the environmen”

to work with TfS and its members towards fostering sustainable sourcing in our respective supply chains.

This in turn allows us to offer safer and more sustainable solutions to our customers for manufacturing daily-use products in areas such as e.g. textile & fashion, packaging & paper, and paint & construction.”

— Andreas Wester, Chief Procurement Officer, Archroma

busi ne ssch ief. eu

148

FEBRUARY 2021

DEFINING DIGITAL IN THE LEGAL SECTOR 149

WRITTEN BY

RHYS THOMAS

PRODUCED BY

KRISTOFER PALMER busi ne ssc h ief . eu

HOWARD KENNEDY

TONY MCKENNA AND JONATHAN FREEDMAN DISCUSS HOW TECHNOLOGY IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF LEADING LONDON LAW FIRM HOWARD KENNEDY

H

oward Kennedy is a London-based, fullservice law firm with a storied history stretching back to the late 19th century.

Evolution has been key to its sustained success, adapting to overcome contemporary hurdles and 150

act as a stabilising force for its diverse and international client base. When Tony McKenna joined the firm six months ago, he was thrust into the middle of perhaps the largest period of adaptation in recent memory, the COVID-19 outbreak and a now familiar quandary: how does business continue amid the countless disruptions caused by a pandemic?

As IT Director, it fell to McKenna and his colleague Jonathan Freedman, Howard Kennedy’s Head of Technology and Security and a company man with 16 years at the firm under his belt, to swiftly transform the way their lawyers worked together, and how they interacted with clients. The vision was simple: “business as usual, but not in the usual place”, a strap line that has become a mantra for the firm’s overarching digital transformation efforts and ambitions.

FEBRUARY 2021

151

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HOWARD KENNEDY

IT’S ABOUT TAKING SPECIFIC PROBLEMS AND SOLVING THEM WITH TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESSES AND PEOPLE, AND ACTUALLY DELIVERING BETTER VALUE TO THE CLIENT — Tony McKenna, Head of IT, Howard Kennedy

Howard Kennedy faces obstacles that will be familiar to every business this year: connecting a now dispersed, home-based workforce to one another and to their clients, and digitising the most vital business functions to ensure

152

a smooth and seamless transition.

On the communications front, Microsoft Teams has been implemented to keep the more than 400 lawyers and support staff connected.

It was a crucial step in sustaining the organic collaborative environment of the office; Freedman reveals that more than 19,000 one-to-one calls were made between employees in the past 30 days alone. The transition was swift, in part thanks to Programme Horizon, an earlier initiative started by Freedman and his team in 2017 to spearhead the firm’s digital transformation.

“Programme Horizon was all about delivering a seamless integrated FEBRUARY 2021

digital platform,” Freedman says. “But

‘innovation’. This process leads up to a

it’s very much aligned to the five strat-

defined transformation, avoiding what

egy areas we’d like to achieve as a

McKenna calls a “cathedral solution-

business. Essentially, we said, ‘this is

type moment”, where staff are forced

how we’re going to use that technol-

to adapt to an entirely new system all

ogy to deliver what the business is

at once - a poor result for productivity

trying to achieve’.

and empowering employees. “Rather

The goal was to implement incre-

than a digital transformation - because

mental changes and technology

we’re a law firm this year, and we’ll be a

for purpose, rather than nebulous

law firm next year - it’s much more of a

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Jonathan Freedman

153

Title: Head of Technology & Security Company: Howard Kennedy Jonathan Freedman is the Head of Technology & Security at London law firm Howard Kennedy, with a background in Enterprise Architecture and systems engineering within the UK professional services sector spanning more than 18 years. His current role is focused on both the development and implementation of new technology within the firm and leading the cyber security program. In addition, he is jointly managing the firm’s internal GDPR compliance program.

He holds multiple industry certifications including, CCNA Security, Certified Ethical Hacker, TOGAF, CGEIT and ISO27001, with special interests in cyber security, ethical hacking, data protection, cryptography, secure systems design, mobile device security and technology innovation. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Breaches aren’t inevitable Menlo Security’s isolation Core™ technology stops malware, ransomware and zero-day attacks in their tracks — no ifs or but’s.

Try isolation for yourself today

Menlo Security: shielding business in the cloud Mike East, VP EMEA of Menlo Security on empowering business through air-tight, automated digital security in the cloud Mike East, Vice President EMEA at Menlo Security, leverages his considerable 30-plus years’ experience of the full IT ecosystem to steer businesses through the crucial security aspects of their digital transformation.

Menlo’s solution is clear and concise: “Menlo was born in the cloud and provides users with a 100% safe email and browsing experience by moving the fetch and execute functions of web browsing away from the network and brought back into the Menlo cloud.”

Web browsing and electronic documents are isolated on Menlo’s cloud, instantly tested for malicious content, before being rendered and returned safely to users’ devices. During a pandemic situation, such capabilities enable organisations to secure employee activity outside the confines of the corporate network, which in turn brings enormous value. By sidestepping the need for a VPN, businesses also often save money and can offer their employees a more seamless experience.

To power its own digital transformation and support hundreds of employees working from home, law firm Howard Kennedy’s Head of

Technology and Security, Jonathan Freedman, sought out Menlo.

“Jonathan was looking to isolate documents and protect its users from weaponised attachments,” East says. “Now when lawyers click on that document, essentially the execution of that document is happening in the Menlo cloud.

If it’s malicious, what we send back is a rendered view, which is completely harmless, on the user device. If it’s completely harmless, that also gets rendered back on the user’s device.”

As industries accelerate their digital transformation, East says “the convergence of software defined networks and security is only going to accelerate.”

And the Menlo team will be standing by: “Organisations should spend more time doing what they do, not building infrastructure to support what they do.”

Learn more

HOWARD KENNEDY

continuous improvement and that digital journey,” McKenna says. “It’s about taking specific problems and solving them with technology and processes and people, and actually delivering better value to the client.”

The removal of paper from billing and internal expenses has been an immediate upshot of the project, feeding into ongoing automation efforts to ensure Howard Kennedy lawyers are free to dedicate their expertise to clients, rather than routine admin tasks. Video conferencing technology has also rev156

olutionised the way the firm now works; during the UK’s government-imposed lockdowns, hearings and mediations continue uninterrupted.

“We’ve done quite a number of virtual hearings and virtual mediations, where normally you’d have people just gathered in a room. But now we’ve been using the technology, using the video conferencing, to achieve everything that they wanted to achieve,” Freedman says. “Our support teams have become a lot more proficient at supporting Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings, setting out multiple breakout rooms and ways to move people between different breakout rooms.”

FEBRUARY 2021

WE CAN COMPETE WITH [THE BIG LAW FIRMS] ON LEGAL TERMS, AND NOW WE CAN COMPETE WITH THEM ON TECHNOLOGY TERMS AS WELL — Tony McKenna, Head of IT, Howard Kennedy

But it soon became clear to Freedman, a security expert, that the firm’s once resilient data centre VPN could not handle the new strains of hundreds of offsite terminals: “The biggest challenge we had was the way our security was set up. We were using a full-tunnel VPN, sending all of the internet traffic back to our corporate data centre, and that coincided with the enormous surge in the use of video conferencing.”

Partnerships and access to “fitfor-purpose tools” would be vital to E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Tony Mckenna Title: Head of IT

Company: Howard Kennedy

Tony is currently Director of IT at Howard Kennedy LLP and chair of ILTA’s (International Legal Technology Association) European Program Council. As Director of IT, he is responsible for dayto-day technology services, business change, information security and technology innovation. As a senior volunteer leader for ILTA he chairs the annual European ILTA conference. Continuously improving technology service is mission critical to Tony, as is sharing his knowledge and ensuring everyone around him is given the opportunity to be the best they can be. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

157

We put security in the palm of your hand.

Now we’re putting it into everything you touch.

BlackBerry devices changed the world with their mobility and security.

Now we’re bringing our AI-driven security to systems across the world.

159

1940

safeguarding the law firm’s security systems, Freedman says, and it turned

Year founded

to third-party specialist Menlo Security.

£60mn+

and working on in the background was

Revenue in GBP

400

Number of employees

“One of the projects we’d had testing the Menlo Security project. The big thing was that we wanted to keep the security benefits of the traditional VPN, being able to filter and scan all of the traffic, but we wanted to remove the speed limitation with people working from home. We were able to implement Menlo’s technology platform, which allowed us to have staff go straight to the internet for their internet related busi ne ssc h ief . eu

HOWARD KENNEDY

BUSINESS AS USUAL, BUT NOT IN THE USUAL PLACE — Corporate Strapline, Howard Kennedy

160

FEBRUARY 2021

sites, but we didn’t lose any of the security of the traditional platform that we had before.”

McKenna admits that while a small period of learning and “ironing out bumps in the road” was necessary, the solution accelerated what could have taken months via more traditional means. “We are confident that by the early part of spring 2021 pretty much all of our core products will be in a position to take advantage of the elasticity of these hosted solutions, which potentially would have been more of a challenge for us in a traditional data centre environment,” he says.

This new way of working places Howard Kennedy on solid footing as we head beyond the disruption of the pandemic. “Our business aspirations are to grow our business, and therefore having a technology ready just to switch on in a dynamic way is a real business differentiator for us,” McKenna continues. “As we start to bring on other businesses or start to look at what we deliver against our strategic ambitions as a firm, we will be able to do that quickly and simply with the best technologies.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

161

HOWARD KENNEDY

WE SAID, ‘THIS IS HOW WE’RE GOING TO USE THAT TECHNOLOGY TO DELIVER WHAT THE BUSINESS IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE 162

— Jonathan Freedman, Head of Technology and Security, Howard Kennedy Further developments include AI implementation, further freeing staff from tasks that require little human input. “In terms of inefficiencies we’re just closing out a pilot of some AI technology that we’ve been working within a real estate area,” McKenna says.

“Improving efficiency is one thing, but it’s accuracy as well as improving the work/life balance of our colleagues.”

The pilot has already received positive feedback: ‘This is brilliant. Why

kind of statement from a lawyer,” McKenna adds. “It’s just great.”

Further ongoing projects will come

would I ever go back?’ one lawyer

to fruition in the coming months, and

replied. “And you just don’t get that

open up an exciting future for Howard

FEBRUARY 2021

163

Kennedy in the post-pandemic world

“We can compete with them on legal

competing against the ‘magic circle’

terms, and now we can compete with

of big law firms. “We’re well known in

them on technology terms as well.”

the market for being a straightforward, straight-talking firm,” McKenna says. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

164

Asiacell: Infrastructure, Culture and Customercentricity in Iraq’s Telecom market WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

FEBRUARY 2021

165

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ASIACELL

Amir Abdelazim, CTIO at Asiacell discusses the company’s digital transformation, and the role it is playing in the digitalisation of the Iraqi economy

I

raq is a nation on the mend. Decades of civil unrest, compounded by war with the US coalition in the early 2000s and the

ascendance of the Islamic State in 2014, put the country on the back foot for much of recent history.

Now, however, things are changing rapidly.

166

“The powers of darkness that took over this country and put it into survival mode are gone,” says Amir Abdelazim, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Asiacell, Iraq’s largest telecom operator.

Abdelazim, who joined the Asiacell team early in 2019, adds that the process of rebuilding Iraq is underway. For Asiacell, he believes that this historic period of time not only represents a significant opportunity for growth, but also a debt of responsibility that Asiacell owes to the people of Iraq.

“You can’t rebuild a great nation in 2020 without putting the telecom sector at the heart of your efforts,” he explains.

“Asiacell is at the heart of that effort. We’re the number one player in the Iraqi market. There’s a kind of inherent loyalty that its customers and employees have to the brand. Customers believe in what Asiacell FEBRUARY 2021

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“Our customers view mobile data as a bread and butter solution these days” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

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ASIACELL

“ As the leading provider in the market, your customers are already expecting the impossible from you. You should be ready to deliver the impossible to them” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

is delivering, but they also expect the very best from us.”

In order to capitalise on new opportunities, expand its footprint and live up to the expectations of its customers, Asiacell is undergoing an accelerated digital transformation project of a mag­nitude so far unprecedented in the history of the company and the country as a whole.

“Our customers are hungry for digital revolution,” Abdelazim explains. “If you want to maintain your position as number

168

one, and make sure that your subscribers are actually happy with you and growing in number, you have to actually give them the very best of the digital services they are hungry for.” We sat down with Abdelazim to discuss how Asiacell is radically overhauling its digital infrastructure, reprogramming its culture, and delivering the best possible range of services to its 14mn customers.

DEFINING THE JOURNEY “As the leading provider in the market, your customers are already expecting the impossible from you. You should be ready to deliver the impossible to them,” says Abdelazim. In order to deliver FEBRUARY 2021

AsiaCell Introduction CLICK TO WATCH

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1:54

169 on its customer promises, Asiacell

our business,” he adds. “So we started

has established two core pillars of

an ambitious program of restructuring

its transformation. First, Asiacell is

everything we do to become the digi-

working to ensure that its services

tal partner that every Iraqi customer

are as reliable as possible. And second,

looks for.” In order to use its digital

those services must be customer-centric.

transformation to deliver this reliable,

Abdelazim stresses that, “Every step

customer-centric service, Asiacell is

we’ve taken has been on these two legs.”

reimagining three core elements of

Digital transformation is more than just

its business.

a buzzword at Asiacell. For Abdelazim a powerful problem-solving tool. “We

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A DIGITAL REVOLUTION

made it our mission to use our digital

The first step for Abdelazim and his

transformation to deliver a reliable ser-

team was to assess the company’s

vice and to bring the customer inside

infrastructure capabilities in order to

and his team, digital transformation is

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Putting Asiacell in the world’s communication landscape Huawei has been a trusted partner of Asiacell since its inception & has been helping Asiacell reach the pinnacle of success throughout these years.

Asiacell, since its inception in 1999 has been pioneering the telecommunication landscape in Iraq. Over the past years Asiacell has been providing quality services to its 14 million plus mobile subscribers across country.

The world is changing fast and so is the technology trend and expectations of human society.

Communication is ubiquitous and we are at point where Mobile technology is touching every aspect of human life. We witnessed the global adoption of LTE & 5G at a massive scale due to the richness in services they enable.This is the era of massive connectivity & seamless service experience and telco operators worldwide has been doing their best to match the end user experience.

Asiacell, being the market leader is committed in bringing latest technology and Innovations that could connect every corner of Iraq and deliver best in class service experience for its mobile & Business customers.

To achieve this goal, Asiacell has partnered with Huawei Technologies, the world leader in End to End Telecommunication solutions. Huawei Technologies has been a trusted partner of Asiacell since its inception and has been helping Asiacell reach the pinnacle of success throughout these years. With massive changes happening across Telecommunication industry and new challenges coming in, Asiacell entrusted Huawei technologies for modernizing the network infrastructure .

Using industry leading innovative solutions, Huawei technologies modernized the Network infrastructure and it’s Architecture. 750 Kms of fiber infrastructure has been laid across the country to strengthen the capacity & redundancy which would enable smooth transit of end user traffic across the network without bottle necks.

Multiple Edge Data centers were built across the country to reduce the latency & enhance the service experience of subscribers.In order to fulfil the current, future demands of Mobile subscribers and Business community, The transport network would be driven by state of the art next generation technology such as SRv6 (Segment Routing over IPv6) which will guarantee deterministic

performance and ultimately ensuring the End user service experience and SLA commitments in terms of bandwidth, latency & availability.

Together with these changes the network has been geared up for future trends & challenges in the telecom industry.

One Small Step for Asiacell, But One Giant Step for Iraq Iraq first batch of Uptime Tier III certification data centers “Asiacell gets the first Tier certification in Iraq, We didn’t do the first one, we did the first two!” was announced by Amir Abdelazin, the Chief Technology and Information (CTIO) at Asiacell Communications. In fact, more than that. After the two uptime Tier III certification obtained in September 2020, Asiacell will receive Tier III design certification in the next three data centers, which means that Iraq has a local high-quality Cloud Data Center cluster from scratch. They will provide high-quality data center services to customers throughout Iraq (Remark: Uptime is the world’s most authoritative third-party organization for data center design and construction certification.

The TCDD(Tier Certifications of Design Documents of Tier III certification is the most accepted and widely used Uptime certification and is widely recognized by all industries around the world.)

The era calls for high-Tier Data Centers in Iraq In the digital era, people enjoy the convenience of big data, but also need to face data security risks.

The Government of Iraq has long taken note of the importance of the security of data assets, it has issued a clear document that if data generated in the country, and the data have to be stored and managed in the country.

ASIACELL

“ W e want to be the best choice for every organisation and digital partner in Iraq” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

172

identify the changes needed for it to be

the ground up in preparation for the

capable of supporting Asiacell’s goals.

move to 4G and beyond. In order to

As a result, Asiacell has begun a radical

better meet the expectations of a new

redistribution of its core network, from

generation of mobile users, Abdelazim

three sites in major Iraqi cities to 18 loca-

explains that significant changes are

tions across the country.

needed. “Our customers view mobile

“When you’re approaching digital

data as a bread and butter solution

transformation, you can’t ignore your

these days,” he says. “The expecta­tions

connectivity,” Abdelazim continues.

of millennials regarding how long a

With this in mind, Asiacell has reevalu-

website takes to load, for example, have

ated its connectivity capabilities from

required a lot of transformation from us

FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Amir Abdelazim Title: CTIO Company: Asiacell Industry: Telecommunications

173

Location: Iraq

Amir Abdelazim is an experienced senior telecom executive currently serving as the CTIO of Asiacell Communications in Iraq. His extensive career has seen him work in 27 markets across the Middle East and Africa as a technology leader and strategy implementer, specialising in delivering digital and cultural transformation in developing markets.

His previous roles have included CTIO of AirtelTigo Ghana, CTIO of Millicom Ghana, CTIO of Millicom Rwanda, Strategic Quality Director – Africa at Millicom (based in UK Corporate Office) and positions with Nokia Siemens Networks, Etisalat, Alcatel and Orange.

Abdelazim has an MBA in International Business from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, and a degree in Communications & Electronics from Alexandria University.

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ASIACELL

“ It’s very important to make sure that our data centres are built to the highest standard of technology” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

174

AsiaCell Digital Transformation CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

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2:03

to be able to deliver the kind of speeds and availability they expect.” Over the course of 2019 and 2020, Asiacell has made blanket 3G available across its entire network, as well as laying the groundwork for total 4G penetration.

In order to deliver a faster, more stable network experience for its customers, Asiacell is also undergoing an expansion of its fibre infrastructure. “We’re taking fibre very seriously. We started an ambitious program with a first phase rollout of more than 2,000km of fibre inside Iraq’s metro areas,” Abdalazim explains, adding that by 2023, Asiacell plans to introduce more than 10,000km of new fibre into its network.

“In any other market, this would have been a five to 10-year journey to accomplish. With the amazing team and amazing partnerships we have here in Iraq, we are more than halfway through the project already,” he notes.

“We’ve had network expenditure of more than $500mn in the last year alone.

We’ve deployed the latest technologies across our operations like artificial intelligence and the automation of functions like monitoring and optimisation of the network.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

175

ASIACELL

“By the end of 2021, we will have at least one data centre in each of the Iraqi governorates and five of them will be Tier III certified” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

176

AsiaCell Partnership CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

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1:52

international certifications and global acknowledgement of your infrastructure,” Abdelazim explains. Asiacell’s data centre portfolio is expanding massively across the entirety of Iraq.

In the past two years, the company has added 12 new data centres to its portfolio. Two of these facilities have already received Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute, with three more soon to follow.

“It’s very important to make sure that our data centres are built to the highest standard of technology,” insists Abdemazim. “By the end of 2021, we will have at least one data centre in each of the Iraqi governorates and five

BECOMING A FIRST-CHOICE DIGITAL PARTNER

of them will be Tier III certified.”

“We want to be the best choice for every organisation and digital partner

HAND-IN-HAND WITH CULTURE AND PROCESS TRANSFORMATION

in Iraq,” says Abdelazim. He notes that

Introducing new technology and revi-

this aim requires Asiacell to capture

talising infrastructure can only be a

two different segments of the market.

successful part of a digital transforma-

On the one hand, there are end users

tion if the human element is also taken

and on the other are corporate and

into account. “Change management is

SME clients.

probably the most important angle of

“Those enterprise customers demand

this transformation. Now that we are

reliability and trust, and one of the

delivering a lot of new technologies

best ways to earn that trust is through

and investments into our network, we busi ne ssc h ief . eu

177

ASIACELL

“Change management is probably the most important angle of this transformation” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

178

need to get our people ready for it,”

with the new infrastructure and modes

says Abdelazim, saying that cultural

of service delivery.”

change management must go hand in

He notes, however, that this isn’t a

hand with technological transforma-

simple case of throwing out the old

tion. Asiacell has, he explains, started

and adopting a new blanket system

a complete restructuring of its internal

across the whole organisation. “It’s

processes and operating model.

about applying the right style to the

“We’re using different restructuring

right team. We deploy agile methodol-

programs, different skill injections,

ogy to the teams that need agility.

different retraining programs and dif-

We deploy stricter, more process-

ferent partnerships in order to ensure

oriented transformation within the

that our team is working harmoniously

teams that need that approach.” With

FEBRUARY 2021

a diverse new range of strategies

THE RIGHT PARTNER FOR EVERY PROBLEM

tailored to the different needs and

In the modern business landscape,

functions of the business, Abdelazim

no enterprise can succeed without

believes that Asiacell is in the process of

strong partnerships. “Partnerships are

deeply embedding fact-based decision-

the way you do business nowadays.

making tendencies and an operational

You cannot do things alone,” says

excellence mindset into its teams.

Abdelazim. He adds that it’s important

Abdelazim adds that the transition,

to remember, however, that there is

from a company working hard to stay

no such thing as a good or bad partner,

operational during the hellish three year

just the right partner at the right time

reign of the Islamic State over the region,

to solve the right problem. “The way we

to one working to usher in a new era

slice up our business into the service

for Iraq’s digital economy, undoubtedly

delivery, infrastructure and opera-

requires an attitude adjustment.

tional segments, we make sure that

“You have to bear in mind that Iraq is coming out of some tough times, when the mindset of the organisation was more focused on just surviving,” he says. “The kinds of obstacles and issues that our team was facing on a day-to-day basis were unique. We’re talking about the disturbance of war and, in the middle of a conflict, still delivering a service. That survival mindset is fit for the purpose of that time. Now, if we want to be a part of the rebuilding and transformation of the whole country - not just the telecom industry - we’re going to have to change from our side.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

179

ASIACELL

we choose the right partner for us in each domain,” he explains.

“When you’re looking for a partner for your core business, you want a reliable partner. But when you’re looking to do things based around agile, fast-moving digital entertainment services, you need an agile, fast-moving partner.

We’re very careful in our choices of partners and suppliers to make sure that the mix is right and that our chosen partners harmonise with our team.”

180

NEW SERVICES The third step in Asiacell’s digital transformation is the introduction of new offerings to its customers. “We’re reimagining the services we provide to also become an entertainment partner to our customers - we’re going to be the go-to one-stop-shop for our customers when they want any digital service,” says Abdelazim. He notes that, when you account for the disruptive impact of COVID-19, Asiacell’s two decision pillars of reliability and customercentricity have proven themselves to be sound footing.

“With the sharp increase in e-learning, e-health, e-government - all of which FEBRUARY 2021

“If we want to be a part of the rebuilding and transformation of the whole country - not just the telecom industry - we’re going to have to change” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

181

Asiacell, in partnership with Huawei: Working on strategic technology projects CLICK TO WATCH

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1:00

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ASIACELL

have to be reliable - we were lucky that reliability was one of our core goals from the beginning,” he adds.

THE TRANSFORMATIVE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 Despite the painful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people across Iraq, Abdelazim reflects that that crisis actually accelerated Asiacell’s digital transformation. By taking both short and long-term measures, Asiacell has

“ I think we have a lot to learn about the shape of a post-COVID-19 world.

Customer behaviours will change, demand will change, and we will need to be more agile than usual to adap” — Amir Abdelazim, CTIO, Asiacell

weathered the pandemic’s first year, 182

and is preparing for a world that will never return to the way things were before March 2020.

“From my point of view, COVID-19 is here to stay - not as a virus, hopefully,

infrastructure rollout will lead to mass

but in terms of its impact on peoples’

4G adoption; the transformation of its

lives,” he explains. “I think we have a

culture and processes will grant it the

lot to learn about the shape of a post-

agility and commitment to fully utilise

COVID-19 world. Customer behaviours

its new digital capabilities; and its new

will change, demand will change, and

channels and services will help capture

we will need to be more agile than

new customers and ensure that its

usual to adapt.”

existing ones remain satisfied.

“The next phase of our digital trans-

INTO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

formation is about microservices for

The road ahead for Asiacell is being

our customers. It’s about making sure

paved by the digital transformation

that we’re closer to our customers

underway today. The company’s

with our distributed network core.

FEBRUARY 2021

183

It’s about making sure that our metro

development that we are doing here,

infrastructure keeps growing. And it’s

by then the market will be ready for

about making sure that it is reliable,”

those innovations. We are persistent.

says Abdelazim.

And we will always remain in the lead.”

“2021 is about 4G. It’s about metro.

And it’s about digital transformation.

2022 will be more about conquering the enterprise business in the country and becoming the no-brainer choice for our customers in that space. Beyond 2022, we’re looking at 5G, automation, smart cities, the introduction of IoT into the market. Given the accelerated busi ne ssc h ief . eu

184

Moving forward with people and partnerships FEBRUARY 2021

185

WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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SAP SE

SAP’s Vice President for all Spend and Workforce IT Solutions (SWIS) Nicole Berg puts people and results at the heart of her leadership strategy. She explains her approach and its successes.

186

F

uture proofing is a core strategic mission for SAP. As the market for robust ERP evolves toward cloud and hybrid technol-

ogies, and challenger software providers bring new ideas into the field, it is critical for the figureheads to deliver meaningful transformation both in their product offerings and from within.

Nicole Berg is Vice President & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions at SAP (including SAP Concur, SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors & SAP Fieldglass). Her involvement in the company goes back 14 years, during which time she has held various specialist and management positions. She is known as a valued leadership personality, involving the ability to build, develop and grow teams into autonomous, self-developing and award-winning organizational units across all board areas.

FEBRUARY 2021

187

“To be able to transform a company you need to be able to transform your people and yourself”.

— Nicole Berg, VP & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions, SAP busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP SE

REAL VALUE “I think sometimes we tend to forget about the real values,” she says. “We can look at the stock and how the markets react, but it’s not just about earnings. We have the possibility to really make an impact as a company along the X+O Strategy, because at the end we want to make the world run better. That’s our vision, so we need to do everything we can with regards to our software products, our values and our people.”

188

What is SAP? CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

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1:14

1972

Year founded

€27.5bn Revenue in Euros

100,000 Number of employees

That last piece is critical to Berg’s role, and the Covid-19 pandemic has tested SAP’s approach to human capital, a test she thinks the company has passed with flying colours.

“We’ve walked the path before, and that’s why we were ready when the crisis hit us.” “I talked to a lot of friends during that time who couldn’t even have a proper Webex call because the network was going down all the time. So we were very grateful that we were enabled to work through that environment.”

“ That’s our vision, so we need to do everything we can with regards to our software products, our values and our people” — Nicole Berg, VP & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions, SAP

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Nicole Berg Title: Vice President Spend and Workforce IT Solutions Industry: Software A customer and end-user focused, energetic, goal oriented and empowering leader with 14-plus years of experience in consulting, application implementation, process optimisation, project management, strategy, global escalations, IT and transformation. She possesses a outstanding and passionate leadership style involving the ability to build, develop and grow teams into autonomous, self-developing and award-winning organisational units. A reliable and active team worker, she is proactive, confident and pioneering, with extraordinary communicational and interpersonal skills. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

189

Software, unleashed.

We help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation with an AI-driven, end-to-end testing and automation platform. With Tricentis, you don’t just release software. You unleash it.

Learn more

Tricentis and SAP: automation in software testing Tricentis’ founder and CSO Wolfgang Platz on the company’s software testing capabilities and its partnership with SAP Software testing company Tricentis has recently been chosen by SAP for a strategic partnership in the space, as Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Wolfgang Platz explains: “This partnership goes beyond anything that SAP has previously gone for with a vendor, because it is not just about reselling or sharing products. It is also about sharing development.” SAP’s choice was informed

by Tricentis’ reputation in the field. “We are viewed as the global leader in software testing, with about 2000 enterprise customers,” says Platz. “The who’s who of big industries such as insurance, financial services, banks, etcetera are with us, so there’s a large overlap of customers between SAP and Tricentis.”

Tricentis has been at the forefront of changing the software testing industry via automation. “It has changed because of us,” says Platz. “What we have brought to the table is the opportunity to achieve new levels of automation. In former days, software test automation always required programming skills. You needed to be a developer.

But we have changed this completely by evolving that process into a business discipline.”

Tricentis is continuing to innovate, adding new levels of automation by applying artificial intelligence and democratising access to testing.

“It opens up a completely new category of testers to become productive, because you don’t need to know anything about the technology in the background,” he says. One way that’s achieved is using AI to create an automated sequence from a video of a user interacting with an application.

Such innovations are lessening the burden of software testing - especially important for frequently updated software such as SAP’s offering. “People dislike upgrading because they need to test everything, so what they try to do is stay on an old version for as long as possible one customer didn’t update anything for eight years!” says Platz. “What we can do with our software is find out what the bare minimum of testing should be, so that you don’t face a risky go-live. Through that, we can reduce testing efforts by up to 85%, bringing huge benefits. This is what we bring to the market. This is what SAP found particularly exciting about us. And that is why we are now shaking hands.”

SAP SE

192

“ We are on a joint journey and we need to leverage the opportunity together where we can” — Nicole Berg, VP & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions, SAP

During the pandemic Berg has done several leadership activities to keep the team spirit and drive the organization to new heights with eg specific Covid related surveys, quick polls in all-hands meetings, new formats such as watercooler sessions, meeting-free Fridays, daily leadership crisis calls and several individual meetings. Questions she asked during that time have been

FEBRUARY 2021

193

professional and personal to ensure

opportunity and danger, but if you

everybody’s wellbeing, as much as

leverage the opportunity, you can go

a company can (eg about the mood:

on to be even stronger. And I really

“How do you feel?”; the environment

believe in that. So we are on a joint

“How can you cope with the home

journey and we need to leverage the

office environment?”; or the needs

opportunity together where we can.”

“What are the things you need from us as leaders?) I’ve been proud

FUTUREPROOFING

and inspired by how my people have

This demonstration of futureproofing

adapted. “There’s a nice saying from

for a pandemic that was widely unan-

Kennedy. He says that crisis is about

ticipated has not stilled Berg’s appetite busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP SE

for looking still further ahead. “Our role for SAP as a department is threefold; We act as technology enabler, product co-innovator and showcasing customer for our own products. With that my vision is to empower each of our 100,000 employees with best-in-class travel, procurement and HR solutions to fuel SAP’s growth.” Why? Because she believes that a great employee experience also enables a remarkable customer experience. “Therefore it’s important to listen to my employees, 194

our end-users and our customers,” she says. “To grow teams in organisations S A P ’ S P A R T NERSHI P WI T H T RI CEN T I S

Berg has a long-term footprint in terms of testing and test automation, as she did a huge outsourcing project years ago when she started in IT. One topic at the time was testing automation.

When she returned from maternity leave, she saw Tricentis was newly established in the magic quadrant and wanted to

FEBRUARY 2021

gain more insights. From a product point of view, a lot of test automation tools are made for developers and they are scriptbased. Tricentis is module based, and it’s easy to use from different user-groups compared with other tools in the market. Automation brings in the needed agility to testing and with that also enables digital transformations.

“ Strong Collaboration, Experience Management and a ground-breaking set up for growth are the top priorities for 2021” — Nicole Berg, VP & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions, SAP

195

means to listen and to help them to

ago. Berg said that to be able to trans-

come out of their comfort zones, inde-

form a company you need to be able

pendently of the role.” Stakeholder

to transform your people and yourself.

exchanges and customer meetings

And also to look into what you currently

have also been continued on a regular

have in your organisation and beyond.

basis, in the virtual set up. “So strong

Collaboration is a crucial pillar not

collaboration, experience manage-

only within the teams but also across

ment and a groundbreaking set up for

all involved parties. Berg set up and

growth are the top priorities for 2021.”

executed a new operating model for engagement with product develop-

TRANSFORMATION

ment and IT, engaged even closer

The prerequisite to be able to focus on

with her business across all board

these three priorities is the transfor-

areas and made sure her people’s

mation Berg triggered a year and a half

feedback was relevant. Another busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP SE

“ There’s a nice saying from Kennedy. He says that crisis is about opportunity and danger, but if you leverage the opportunity, you can go on to be even stronger” — Nicole Berg, VP & Head of Spend and Workforce IT Solutions, SAP pillar in Berg’s management philoso196

phy is the importance of “diversity of skills”. “When I was asked to transform the team it was clear to me that we need to have leaders with completely heterogeneous skill sets.”

I needed something different in all four areas of the organization.” She set about finding the right leaders for each department, all with different focus: analytical, structured, business demand-focused, customer oriented.

“I’m really proud and inspired by how all my people have been grown into self-organized teams” she concludes.

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197

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

198

WRITTEN BY

OLIVER JAMES FREEMAN PRODUCED BY

CAITLYN COLE

FEBRUARY 2021

G4S PLC’s

GLOBAL PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN

TRANSFORMATION 199

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G4S PLC

Robert Copeland, G4S PLC’s Group Procurement Director (CPO) discusses running procurement for the leading global technology-enabled security solutions provider

T

The British firm G4S – known for being one of the world’s leading security services providers – recently found time for senior

leader Robert Copeland to sit down with Supply Chain Digital to discuss the organisation’s experi200

ences of a year plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robert Copeland is G4S’s Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director, and has over 20 years in Procurement and Supply Chain.

To start our discussion, we addressed the elephant in the room, COVID-19. The global virus has cast shade over almost every aspect of the supply chain process, and it only seemed fitting to ask Robert about its effect on G4S activity.

“COVID-19 has impacted all organisations, some for the better, and others sadly for the worse. However, G4S has been incredibly resilient during the Pandemic.

In several regions especially in the US, demand for G4S security services increased to ensure customer properties and facilities were fully protected during the pandemic. In the UK G4S has played an important part in supporting national efforts by successfully FEBRUARY 2021

201

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“ I also want people to get away from their desks and truly understand why things are the way they are, and to pinpoint the problems we are trying to solve” — Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc

203 team adapted and worked hard during the first few weeks of the crisis to source and expedite over 10 million items of PPE, helping keep over 500,000 employees and our customers safe.

We teamed up with the G4S subsidiary

mobilising testing facilities across the

Hill & Associates Consultants Limited

country, including 18 regional, 92

one of Asia’s leading provider of special-

local & 65 mobile sites, requiring G4S

ist risk mitigation to rapidly go on site in

to rapidly recruit thousands of addi-

China to screen PPE manufacturers who

tional staff.

had never supplied G4S before, giving

With all of these programmes around

us greater visibility of the product qual-

the world in addition to day-to-day activi-

ity and business standards.

ties, the Procurement function has been

Beyond that, we had to ensure G4S

thoroughly challenged. The procurement

supply chains were responsive and agile busi ne ssc h ief . eu

G4S PLC

204

Trusted Partner: Thomas Kneale “Thomas Kneale has been G4S’ preferred supplier for contract quality, fire retardant bedding and bathroom textiles and prisoner clothing for nearly 20 years, providing sector compliant textile solutions for end users with differing needs and requirements across multiple business segments, primarily custodial,” says Thomas Kneale director Richard J. Manville. “Having invested in a specialist digital stock forecast system which permeates the whole of TK’s supply chain, the G4S/TK partnership has grown to now include Thomas Kneale operating an end-to-end,

FEBRUARY 2021

vendor-managed G4S stock holding, ordering and replenishment business model. This system operates on a fully accredited and audited supply chain evidenced by the Gold medal award to TK on the EcoVadis Sustainability platform. G4S is rightly vigilant and uncompromising that it’s supply chain is transparent, auditable and compliant to its sustainable objectives. Thomas Kneale fulfils these obligations meticulously operating only with fully regulated and audited factories in China and the Sub Continent.”

EX EC UTIV E PROFILE:

Robert Copeland Title: Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO) Company: G4S PLC Industry: Security Location: London, UK Robert Copeland is an experienced supply chain professional with over 20 years’ experience in multinational organisations both in the UK and abroad.

Having studied in the UK and France, he started his career at Peugeot Citroen (PSA) in Paris, returning to the UK to work at Danone and the Post Office before joining G4S in 2015.

Robert has built his reputation reshaping Procurement and Supply Chain functions in a digital age, allowing the supply chain to become a business competitive advantage.

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“ In a lean business like G4S, our stakeholders are won over by delivery – conversely, reputations can quickly be tarnished if change outcomes fall short of promises made”

At the same time, the business was preparing for Brexit, the divestment of its conventional cash business in 40 countries and the mobilisation of new major contracts won in 2020, including a new 10-year contract to operate the UK’s first resettlement prison, HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough.

The pressure has been with us at every step; however, I am immensely proud of the way our teams around the world rose

— Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc

to every challenge.

to adapt to customers’ requirements,

mation programme to enable operational

which in some cases changed overnight.

excellence and cost leadership.

Given the on-going refocusing at G4S in a competitive market place, Copeland talks about a major supply chain transfor-

In parallel, the procurement team led

When I visited the G4S Procurement

the development and implementation of

teams around the world, I spent time

infrastructure to enable the rapid recruit-

with the operational teams to get a direct

ment of thousands of staff to run the Covid

understanding of how the businesses

Test Centres across the UK, using the

operated. I noticed the work-wear supply

latest digital workforce management

chains were highly decentralised and

platform and recruitment partners such

often suffering from range proliferation

as HR Go. The cloud based workforce

(i.e. 60 variants of white shirts used in

management platform gives G4S real-

just 6 European countries) and large

time visibility and reporting, ensuring

amounts of stock obsolescence clut-

the entire recruitment process is com-

tering up storage areas.)

pliant, transparent, and controlled from end to end.

Work-wear is a major spend area for G4S with an annual spend of $50M busi ne ssc h ief . eu

207

G4S PLC

208

2004

Year founded

£7,758 m+ Revenue in GBP (2019)

570,000+ Number of employees

FEBRUARY 2021

supporting over 500,000 employees.

Anyone who has been involved in the transformation of corporate work-wear will attest to the fact that it is deceptively complex.

Work-wear is also an emotional subject and understandably so. The saying goes, ‘if you dress well, you feel well’ and this meant that any changes were scrutinised and challenged by many, from works councils to Managing Directors.

The business was interested in improving how they managed work-wear and reducing costs, but the countries often lacked the capability to implement sustainable change.

The competing dynamics of works councils, customer standards, staff churn, uniform customisations, bulk manufacturing lead times, mobilisation of new business (typically 30-day go-live from contract signature), seasonality, special events, quality and cost vs. garment design life, create a rather complex algorithm when blended together.

Since 1996 G4S has owned a garment manufacturer in India called IBG, which currently supplies 15% of G4S’s uniforms globally. IBG had a difficult relationship busi ne ssc h ief . eu

209

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As we developed the operating model, we identified 3PL as an option and one that had the potential to solve many of our problems. We evaluated the merits of both a fully outsourced 3PL solution alongside maintaining a direct relationship with a panel of manufacturers/ distributors. What we found during the detailed evaluation was that for a tight margin business such as G4S, a direct relationship with a uniform distributor, in terms of technical and service support along with a TCO price, outweighed the benefits of a 3PL solution.

In a lean business like G4S, our stakeholders are won over by delivery - con-

“ The digitisation of procurement at G4S has allowed my teams to focus more time on front-line projects and business growth and allowing us to accelerate our important supply chain ESG agenda.”

— Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc

versely, reputations can quickly be tarnished if change outcomes fall short of promises made, so a robust operating model was critical to withstand the operational pressures and demands exerted through the lifecycle of managing customer expectations.

Given that work-wear covers six continents, it was important to divide this programme into manageable phases, with the first phase being the UK & Europe in 2018. The first element was to develop the right operating model, which critically would allow G4S busi ne ssc h ief . eu

211

with G4S as an in-house supplier. Each

G4S, like many companies, over time

local country operation demands a high

can find itself becoming overly reliant

touch and responsive distribution service,

on and beholden to suppliers where the

and frankly, the demands are often

knowledge sits firmly with the supplier

unreasonable but this is driven by the

base. It can be a real struggle to get hold

needs of our customers. Whilst IBG was

of robust management information, per-

renowned for the quality of its products,

formance KPIs, accurate stock liabilities,

it simply could not compete on service

and in the case of work-wear a clear

with strong local distributors (200 sup-

understanding of the specifications and

pliers in Europe alone). This truly had

cost per wearer. Past attempts made by

become an existential threat to IBG

local business units had limited success.

and so the opportunity for the procure-

This presented a great opportunity for

ment team to help IBG pivot it’s business

the Group Procurement team to show-

model and to focus on its core strengths

case its ability to re-imagine the way the

was timely.

business thought about work-wear.

MONTH 2021

G4S Integrated Security CLICK TO WATCH

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213 to retain control, scale the solution and

audit our work-wear supply lines for mod-

leverage volumes with flexibility for any

ern slavery risks and ethical standards.

local and national requirements.

We also partnered with a boutique

The solution had to conquer key iss-

Dutch software house, EC Manage,

ues including the build-up of obsoles-

which developed a digital work-wear

cence stock, wearer level management

management system for distributors,

(including start and end of life), zero

able to give wearer level allocations and

based budgeting, cost per user track-

controls, the trick being to create flex-

ing, garment performance in the field

ibility without excessive working capital.

tracking, order vs user requirements,

Customer contracts often require G4S

working capital optimisation and

to mobilise a workforce numbering in the

inventory management.

1000s with 30 days’ notice.

To ensure the new operating model

The Procurement team ran several

met stringent business ethics, we collab-

complex prequalification tenders and

orated with EcoVadis to independently

e-auctions during 2018 to ensure the best busi ne ssc h ief . eu

G4S PLC

214

“ It is important to take the time to engage with the business and suppliers at all levels to find opportunities that are often known of, but not acted upon” — Robert Copeland, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director (CPO), G4S Plc FEBRUARY 2021

partners were selected to deliver the right economic and operational blend.

We appointed the well-respected UK based workwear distributor Incorporatewear Ltd, to to supply the six largest European countries, consolidating over 200 suppliers into one contractual relationship.

The project team had to undertake a major user trial phase as agreed with the European Works Councils to ensure that the optimised range was exactly right, often with very

215

positive feedback from the users,

Work-wear transformation has been

in parallel to the trials the supply chain

a challenging project, one that has seen

had to be fully Brexit proofed, able to

us navigate through some interesting

operate in all possible Brexit outcomes.

moments (including Brexit), but it has

The output of the programme in

also demonstrated the value of a truly

Europe delivered overall cost effi-

capable and trusted procurement func-

ciencies of 20%-25% (40% in some

tion, able to provide leadership and

countries), and a range rationalisa-

commercial credibility.

tion of around 60% across Europe.

This enabled G4S to reinvest some of the savings in targeted areas to improve the look and feel of the uniforms and the morale of our people. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

216

FEBRUARY 2021

Creating Infrastructure for the Fintech Era WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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MAMBU

Eugene Danilkis, CEO and co-founder, describes how Mambu’s pure SaaS banking platform is accommodating the evolving needs of modern banking

A

t first consideration, banking may seem like an unlikely focus point for the transformative potential of lean and agile

digital technology. Images of cumbersome vaults, 218

grand buildings and long-standing heritage colour the industry’s popular perception. However, whereas once rigid endurance was the measure of a bank’s success, now, particularly in the COVID19-affected world, the core distinguisher of quality in a leading organisation centres on change and the ability to adapt to it. Launched in 2011, Mambu was created in order to facilitate this operational shift for banking clients using a combination of future-ready tech and a visionary cultural philosophy.

“I always had a passion for combining my interest in technology with something a little bit more broad,” explains Eugene Danilkis, CEO and cofounder. “I wanted to figure out the way people interact with technology and how that information could be employed to design a great user

FEBRUARY 2021

219

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MAMBU

“ Real value lies in a mindset of always learning and always changing, and that goes for individuals as well as the business” — Eugene Danilkis, CEO and co-founder, Mambu 220 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Eugene Danilkis Title: CEO and co-founder

Company: Mambu

Industry: Financial Services Location: Germany Eugene Danilkis is the co-founder & CEO of Mambu. With a background in technology design, degrees in Human-Computer Interaction and Computer Science, Eugene is the driving force behind Mambu’s vision.

Eugene started his career as a programmer developing mission-critical software for the International Space Station. At Mambu, he now leads an international team that is helping banks and lenders, both greenfield and traditional, to shape the next generation of financial services around the world. Eugene combines his background in technology and design with an entrepreneurial approach, using technology to find simple solutions to some of the banking sector’s complex challenges.

FEBRUARY 2021

221 experience, injecting technology in the

financial products and digital experi-

right parts of the journey.” A computer

ences would have a massive impact.”

science major and genuinely passion-

What resulted was Mambu: the

ate about how technology interacts

world’s leading cloud native banking

with people, Danilkis gained experi-

platform, designed to lay the tech

ence first as a programmer and then

infrastructure required for organi-

as a team lead. It was while working

sations operating in the modern era.

in an interdisciplinary programme at

Enabling clients to own and focus

Carnegie Mellon University combining

on the customer experience aspect

tech design, business and psychol-

of their business instead of the techni-

ogy that he determined the value

cal, the company offers a unique

a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) plat-

opportunity for banks to upgrade

form could have in the finance sector.

rapidly. “You can configure the plat-

“We realised that giving organisations

form without having to get developers

anywhere in the world a platform

to customise the application, as you

upon which they can build and create

would with a lot of legacy systems,” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MAMBU

222

“ Effectively, our clients don’t need to invest massive amounts into the projects upfront; they pay for the service as they go, with the option to pay varied amounts for different elements” — Eugene Danilkis, CEO and co-founder, Mambu FEBRUARY 2021

A decade of changing banking CLICK TO WATCH

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MAMBU

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“ I wanted to figure out the way people interact with technology and how that information could be employed to design a great user experience” — Eugene Danilkis, CEO and co-founder, Mambu

FEBRUARY 2021

Mambu in 2020 - CEO and Co-Founder, Eugene Danilkis CLICK TO WATCH

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225

says Danilkis. “That has a tremendous

the projects upfront; they pay for the

benefit on the business side; it means

service as they go, with the option to pay

if you want to, let’s say, change how

varied amounts for different elements.”

your financial products behave, or how

Because Mambu is able to offer

you capture customer data, you don’t

banks the opportunity to add their own

need to go into the nitty gritty of the

customer-facing value, it substantially

code.” Because Mambu maintains and

accelerates product time-to-market

manages the platform, the ease of

and enables greater resource allocation

delivery is akin to a subscription ser-

agility. However, despite these benefits,

vice, one where continuous streams

Danilkis relates that the initial chal-

of updates are layered in such a way

lenge of the company was overcoming

that doesn’t disrupt the end-user’s

scepticism levelled at cloud, itself

business. “Effectively, our clients don’t

a new technology at the time. “Working

need to invest massive amounts into

with banks and banking regulators, we busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MAMBU

226

explained that there was actually

technology ecosystem. That experi-

a reduced risk by running the platform

ence enables us to determine the

in a public cloud environment versus

best way to use tools, the best way

a local data centre,” he says. “That

to integrate systems, and the best way

process was quite transformative

to manage change.” Change is a con-

for Mambu as a company, because

cept so integral to Mambu that it has

it really opened up the market where,

become one of the company’s core

initially, no-one was active in the cloud.”

cultural tenets. Aware that modern

Helping financial institutions realise

finance is evolving on a continual basis,

that ecosystems of resources could

Danilkis emphasises that flexibility

fundamentally be stronger than a siloed

needs to permeate every aspect. He

approach, Danilkis is proud that Mambu

continues, “Real value lies in a mindset

was among the first to start challeng-

of always learning and always chang-

ing the industry’s perception of what

ing, and that goes for individuals as

cloud could do.

well as the business. Our leadership

This focus on relationships extends

team doesn’t go into conversations

from the macroscopic to the more

assuming that we’re right; just because

specific. Mambu prides itself on

you’re a leader at Mambu, that doesn’t

a highly customer-centric approach;

mean you’re automatically more right

involving business analysts, solutions

than anyone else.”

engineers and product managers at

Danilkis states that the company’s

an early stage, it is able to quickly and

philosophy of flexibility coupled with

accurately determine the needs of

its advanced tech capacities meant

its clients and their customers. “This

that, when the COVID-19 pandemic

includes giving best-practice advice

struck, operations managed to continue

based on the hundreds of projects

relatively unabated. By maintaining

we’ve participated in around the world

an open office for those unable to

at technical level, as well as introduc-

work from home while also supplying

ing them to relevant partners in our

equipment and offering flexibility

FEBRUARY 2021

THE 1 0 P RI N CI P L E S OF COMPO SAB L E B AN K I NG

Introduced in Mambu’s complete guide, these points capture the essence of the concept succinctly for organisations intent on discovering what composable banking can do for them: 1. Ecosystems beat pre-integrated suites 2. Start with a composable platform

227

3. Think ‘cloud-first’ 4. Every component is self-contained 5. Everything must be exposed via open APIs 6. Building new connectors must be simple and straightforward 7. Scaling should be elastic and occur horizontally 8. Continuous delivery is better than over-sized updates 9. The flexibility of the software must be reflected in the commercials 10. Self-service developer experience is essential.

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MAMBU

228

to employees who wanted to work

He explains: “It effectively means that,

remotely, Mambu was able to focus

to really thrive in the current era, where

on helping those struggling with the

new technologies are coming onto the

logistics of the pandemic instead.

market and changing the conditions,

“We noticed that some customers

you have to be able to look for technolo-

were struggling and we identified

gies and solutions, either at a technical

several capabilities that they (banks)

level or business level, and combine

could offer their clients to provide

them rapidly to create value for your

a degree of flexibility on their payment

customer.” Focusing on building for the

terms, such as payment holidays or

future and ensuring competitiveness

payment rescheduling. Everything’s

in the long-term instead of simply

becoming much more digital, so

conforming to current trends, compos-

I think that’s accelerating a lot of

able banking eliminates rigid vendor

different initiatives.”

architectures and prioritises dynamic

Indeed, one key digital concept of

ecosystems that can develop opti-

which Mambu is an ardent proponent

mised solutions fast. “It’s essentially

is ‘composable banking’ - something

the philosophy that ecosystems will

Danilkis believes could be the ultimate

beat monolithic systems every time,”

solution for creating truly agile banking.

Danilkis summarises.

FEBRUARY 2021

Undeterred by COVID-19, Danilkis is confident that 2021 will be an exciting year for banking and particularly for Mambu. With new product launches and exciting initiatives on the horizon, he anticipates that the company will be

“ Fintech is the era that we’re living in” — Eugene Danilkis, CEO and co-founder, Mambu

able to expand deeper into the markets

tech companies become critical busi-

it currently serves and prepare for launc-

ness partners for how financial services

hing exciting new services. However,

companies are designed and built.” In

it is the change happening within the

this vision of the future, tech companies

industry itself that excites Danilkis the

will be part of a rapidly evolving, self-

most: a new, digitally-augmented vision

improving ecosystem that creates

of finance is emerging, one which places

a platform for building better banking for

Mambu at the epicentre of modern bank-

everyone. With its pioneering approach

ing. Not regarding fintech merely as an

well-suited to the post-COVID-19 new

industry, he declares that it could actually

dynamic, Mambu is sure to occupy

be considered more of an era, “Fintech

a prominent place in that vision.

is the age we’re living in,” he concludes.

“I think this decade will be a time when busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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230

Clear Channel International’s Digital Transformation

FEBRUARY 2021

231

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

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CLEAR CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL

Chief Technology Officer Ola Reppling discusses how Clear Channel International’s ongoing digital transformation is enabled by its culture

O

la Reppling holds the role of Chief Technology Officer at Clear Channel International, an out of home advertising

and infrastructure business. The company has a heritage dating back over a century, and has a bold vision to create the future of media.

232

“We have 17 different markets in Europe,” says Reppling. “For over 100 years, we’ve been helping brands meet people on the move. As a result, the culture is very customer-driven and focuses on solving customer problems.”

In recent times, the aim has been to combine that heritage and experience with new technology into a cohesive whole. A large part of this is to integrate Clear Channel International’s markets together, as Reppling explains, “we’re bringing all territories together as a single cohesive team, with a shared vision, purpose and mission.”

As CTO, much of Reppling’s work has been in enabling that transition and unification, to place more integrated processing at Clear Channel’s core.

One of the ways Reppling is doing this is by partnering with companies such as network solution FEBRUARY 2021

233

“We’re in the transition phase from being 17 small companies into becoming a corporate entity” — Ola Reppling, CTO, Clear Channel International

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BROADSIGN AND CLEAR CHANNEL: DIGITAL PARTNERS IN OUT-OF-HOME Chief Revenue Officer Martin Dollevoet on Broadsign’s partnership with Clear Channel and momentum in out-of-home advertising Broadsign is a global company providing software for out-of-home networks. “We work with almost all of the world’s largest out-of-home networks and not just on the digital side, but also paperbased out-of-home networks,” says Maarten Dollevoet, Chief Revenue Officer at Broadsign.

“Clients use the Broadsign platform for anything from ad serving to network operations, and also to manage and optimise their sales workflows - as well as connecting to new channels, like programmatic buying.”

The out-of-home industry has experienced considerable growth on the digital side, with market leader Broadsign being ideally placed to influence trends. One is digitisation, the evolution from posters and printed billboards to digital signs. “With the move to digital, advertisers are able to leverage its inherent flexibility to react in real-time to content changes, audience movement, as well as the ability to use data for improved audience targeting and to dynamically change screen content,” says Dollevoet. “Content is King, but context is everything. While we aren’t close to the Tom Cruise-style, Minority Report type of targeting, we can deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.”

One example was a recent campaign for takeout food, where the content automatically displayed a ‘pick-up’ message when the sun was shining, versus promoting the ‘home delivery’ option when it was raining.

When Clear Channel International was looking for a best-in-class content management system to support its digital transformation, it chose Broadsign and its offering. “The relationship has really flourished and has become a strong

Maarten Dollevoet @Broadsign

partnership. After the CMS, the team at Clear Channel wanted to leverage more of the platform to help them scale other parts of their business.

It added Broadsign Direct, a tool to help them scale their sales organisation so salespeople were able to respond to customer requests and RFPs quicker, and sell more of their network at a premium. What started out as an initial relationship on the CMS side has become a true partnership for the rest of the business.”

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had an undoubted impact on out-of-home advertising, changes in the online space have revealed fresh opportunities. “With the impact of what’s happening in the online world with privacy concerns and the disappearance of the cookie, we actually believe the momentum for out-of-home is bigger than ever.” broadsign.com

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Ola Reppling Title: CTO

235

Industry: Advertising Ola Reppling holds the role of Chief Technology Officer at Clear Channel International, a position he has held since July 2020. Reppling has been with the company almost two years, driving technology transformation in different roles.

In his role of CTO, Reppling is currently focused on building an effective and efficient ‘technology factory’ that will serve all business units with the technology needed for tomorrow’s business challenges.

With Reppling’s belief in rigidity at the core to enable flexibility at the edge, his work focuses on alignment, standardization and modernization, while also building a high performing team across 17 countries.

Reppling has a long career bridging technology and business to drive tech-fueled transformations in many industries including IT, Manufacturing and Telecoms. Reppling holds a MSc in Information technology alongside a MSc in Business from Uppsala University. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

CLEAR CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL

236

“Going digital means, one panel offers hundreds of thousands of opportunities” — Ola Reppling, CTO, Clear Channel International FEBRUARY 2021

provider Meraki. “With Meraki, we’re getting a real baseline of the right infrastructure,” he says. “We want to have SD-WAN and a proper network across all of Europe that we can rely on. Historically, we’ve had 17 different networks, and we had at least 10 different data centres with varying degrees of different clouds.”

The cloud itself is another focus, but Reppling is conscious of getting the balance right between a cloud-first vision and he reality at hand. “We want to get rid of physical servers, but the reality is that some of our applications

Clear Channel International: Creative Advertising CLICK TO WATCH

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1:24

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CLEAR CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL

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FE J AB N RU UA AR RY Y2 20 02 21 1

“We’ve changed the culture.

So, we really only need to enhance our digital capabilities” — Ola Reppling, CTO, Clear Channel International

239

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CLEAR CHANNEL INTERNATIONAL

need them, so we still need to have data centres for those. That’s why we’re working with CWL and Cloud Temple, to actually have a hybrid cloud approach alongside control over the data centres. CWL and Cloud Temple are helping us to make sure we have the ability to retire applications, refactor the ones that we can, and move towards the cloud.”

The company partners with Broadsign for the majority of advertising broadcast on digital screens. “Broadsign 240

offers us a unified platform to deliver digital content. One of the biggest

Clear Channel International: Making Brands Famous CLICK TO WATCH

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“It’s about making sure there’s rigidity at the core to allow flexibility at the edge” — Ola Reppling, CTO, Clear Channel International busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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Clear Channel International: Where Brands Meet People CLICK TO WATCH

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243 problems we have is organising the

such as ad-blockers and being able to

billions and billions of variations that

avoid potentially annoying customers

come from selling six or ten-second

by interrupting their content with ads.

slots for commercials across 15,000

That advantage has been compounded

digital screens, seven days a week.

by digital panels. “In classic out-of-

We generally steer away from promising

home, the refresh rate here is once a

individuals screens, in favour of focusing

week, or maybe once every two weeks,

on a specific target audiences. If our cus-

or even a month. But going digital means

tomer asks to be able to reach 10 million

one screen offers tens of thousands of

people with a certain demographic, we

opportunities in just one week.”

need to be able to fulfil that - which we can with partners like Broadsign.”

Reppling emphasises the benefits of out-of-home advertising over other forms, namely in avoiding problems busi ne ssc h ief . eu

244

MTN Liberia accelerates mobile payments and digital transformation WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

FEBRUARY 2021

245

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LONESTAR MTN LIBERIA

Chief Information Officer Titi Fakuade outlines how COVID-19 has produced unexpected benefits and discusses the operator’s plans for becoming a major digital player

T

he disruption from the global pandemic has yielded some unexpected benefits for Lonestar Cell/ MTN. The Monrovia-

based telco has capitalized on the growth in digital to strengthen its mobile payment services.

In contrast, customers, either through working 246

from home or consuming more data, have become more digitally savvy – which complements the company’s core vision to empower and provide everyone with the benefits of a modern, connected life. Therefore, we continue to evolve our technology and IT landscape to enable true innovations that provide business value to align with our goal to become a FinTech and digital player.

“The good thing about COVID-19 is it has accelerated adoption,” said CIO Titi Fakuade. “There are so many things we do now that pre-COVID we wouldn’t have engaged in – such as virtual conferences, meetings which require providing people with data and internet services wherever they may be. With the rise in Work From Home (WFH), people can work effectively while adopting these tools.

FEBRUARY 2021

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LONESTAR MTN LIBERIA

“ The good thing about COVID-19 is it has accelerated digital adoption. There are so many things we do now that pre-COVID we wouldn’t have engaged in” — Titilope Fakuade, Chief Information Officer, Lonestar Cell MTN

again, COVID indirectly helped facilitate demand. “There was a need to ensure that customers who couldn’t visit the service centers should be

“Mobile Money services have been

248

able to perform some services them-

a huge focus for us, and we have

selves through self service options

been able to implement ‘push and

and use of our digital customer service

pull’ strategies. Consumers have

channels. Combined with COVID-19

warmly received it, and the banks

social distancing requirements, we

were relieved as it freed up their

became even more customer-focused

spaces, and they avoided handling

and improved their experience with

cash.”

Lonestar Cell MTN.

Mobile Money marks the latest phase in an ongoing commitment to improving the customer journey – and

FEBRUARY 2021

While mobile payments were in place before the pandemic, banking services,

MTN Business Overview CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:34

249

such as international remittances, have

access exclusive offers and discounts.

been enhanced. “For Mobile Money,

Leveraging digital channels through

we’re looking at breaking new barriers,

social media has also helped grow the

having third party developers onboarded

brand’s profile.

through an open API within the next six to 12 months,” she said.

Other developments included a new instant messaging app ‘Ayoba’, powered

2000

Year founded

by MTN that allows people to chat with anyone regardless of whether they have the app or not. The App allows people to enter discussions without worrying about data – invaluable for fostering communication during lockdown – and

100 + Number of employees

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You dream it, We build IT Executing specialized front-end IT and Telecommunications engineering services.

IT & Telecoms solutions Security & Network Health Network Convergance STA Mobile

Build your dream

“We have to ensure that services

received enhanced focus. Around

are highly available, and customers

80 percent of employees worked

can get services on demand,” she said.

remotely during COVID, and the com-

E- learning is another key trend, which

pany could leverage seamlessly on the

has broken down the barriers, so now

technology. “E-commerce is here to

customers can join courses wherever

stay, with online purchasing growing.

they are.”

There is no turning back. We are living

Cybersecurity, another vital area

in an age of ‘the new normal’, “ she said.

whose profile has soared in tandem

“There was a need to be empathetic

with the WFH movement, has also

with the teams and strike a balance

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Titilope Fakuade

251

Title: Chief Information Officer Industry: Telecommunications Location: Nigeria Titilope is the first female CIO in the history of Lonestar Cell MTN and a true trailblazer. She is a seasoned professional with wealth of experience, spanning 19 years in highly competitive markets, 14 of those years within MTN family.

She has a proven track record in Telecoms & IT Leadership with a mantra of value creation, and consistently added value through technology, empowering teams to aspire to become next generation of leaders and maintain market leadership. Titilope holds a Master’s in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics. She’s a true hot-shot technology leader, proud wife and mother of two children. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

LONESTAR MTN LIBERIA

RAP I D- F I R E Q U E S T I O N S

What are the top three trends?

I see high-speed 5G and IoT growing in importance; cybersecurity as digital evolves; and data analytics.

252

How does Lonestar Cell MTN differentiate itself from competitors?

Our brand affinity, our customers, our vision and core beliefs.

We introduced programmes that connect with people and culture, such as the sponsorship of the MTN Liberia Music Awards, and initiatives such as MTN Plug and Prestige.

What are the key trends in 2021?

E-commerce is here to stay and mobile money.

FEBRUARY 2021

between engagement and isolation.

I had one-on-ones regularly to keep on top of things.”

As Lonestar Cell MTN’s network evolves, it looks at new technologies such as 5G. Still, she said that the priority now is exploiting existing technologies and big data and analytics,

“ We have started this journey driving mobile payments … this has actually given better experiences and placed the customer first” — Titilope Fakuade, Chief Information Officer, Lonestar Cell MTN “We have solutions that use robots, ensuring that we are constantly monitoring the network, and ensuring services are available from the huge demand of the customer base,” she said while “Chatbot and AI space are areas of opportunity.” As someone with a physics background, there is a need to be solutions minded, forward thinking and work well within a team.”

“Africa is a continent with huge digital which will propel the business forward.

potential; it’s evolving even faster after

“We have a lot of insights that must be

the pandemic. We see customers who

exploited for business value – that’s

were previously resistant now accept-

a continuous journey,” she said.

ing change, and they won’t return to

Virtualization technologies will take

the old ways. There will be a blend in the

greater prominence as Lonestar Cell

future – a lot of people still miss the per-

MTN looks to raise efficiencies in tan-

sonal interaction, depending on the

dem with greater workflow automation.

age segment.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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LONESTAR MTN LIBERIA

“ We have a plan to transform into a digital operator, under our ‘Oxygen’ transformation programme. To achieve this effectively, we will need our partners to work with us” — Titilope Fakuade, Chief Information Officer, Lonestar Cell MTN

Improve the quality & availability of all your digital services Billing Verification

QoS / QoE Monitoring

Tariffs Validation

Application Monitoring

New services Testing

Infrastructure Monitoring

Improve your services USSD / SMS / VOICE QUALITY / IOS / ANDROID / WEB MOBILE / API / LOGS

Build your dream

CO N N ECT I N G Y O U T H, HI GH EARN ERS AN D M ARGI N ALI SED Culture remains critical for rallying around a common goal and vision.

“For us to continue to succeed, our empowering culture plays a vital role. Everyone believes in the vision to lead delivery of a bold new digital world, and we have a common belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a connected life. These impact our actions on a day-to-day basis.

Lonestar MTN has many partners, providing strategic collaboration, which is critical to continuous evolution of digital experiences for our customers. There is a need to ensure

Lonestar Cell MTN has developed specific products which meet different demographic needs: • MTN Plug is its youth proposition, focused around data and lifestyle benefits • MTN Prestige stems from understanding high-value customers, providing data packages and rewards tailored to their needs. These customers benefit from charity program by giving back to the society. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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LONESTAR MTN LIBERIA

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“ We see customers who were previously resistant now accepting change, and they won’t return to the old ways” — Titilope Fakuade, Chief Information Officer, Lonestar Cell MTN FEBRUARY 2021

they are ecosystem partners as the relationship cannot be one sided.

Some of the partners we have strategically collaborated are Secure and Trusted Alliance Services for infrastructure supplies, Comviva to provide mobile solutions and digital VAS and Kapptivate for quality of experience, monitoring, and testing.

257

“Partnerships needs to be strengthened as we progress on this

market, within the enterprise, and within the connected workspace.”

digital transformation journey,” she said. “We have a plan to transform into a digital operator, under our ‘Oxygen’ transformation programme.

To achieve this effectively, we will need our partners to work with us.”

“We will try to move into agile operations, enabling growth within the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION

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FEBRUARY 2021

BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION: DRIVING SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHN

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259

BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION

A reflection on Bombardier transportation history and how the organisation is striving to develop sustainable mobility solutions

F

ounded in 1942, Bombardier Transportation has 78 years of history in the rail and sustainable mobility industry. With a belief that

in today’s world it is “essential to offer high-quality, sustainable, safe and comfortable public transpor260

tation solutions to meet the capacity challenge,” Bombardier Transportation has more than 100,000 trains operating daily, that it is constantly investing into to drive sustainable mobility and the adoption of digital technologies.

Bombardier Transportation provides integrated solutions to provide substantial benefits and safety for operators, passengers and the environment, digital technologies the company is harnessing include driver assistance safety systems, alternative propulsion, predictive maintenance and high-performance signalling technology.

Operating in 200 cities in 60 countries, Bombardier Transportation’s vision is to move “people and goods in and between cities: safely, reliably and comfortably”. The company is committed to developing

FEBRUARY 2021

261

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Innovation is about doing more good We are an international group providing engineering services to design and implement technology-based solutions in many fields of application.

Read more about us today

263 and delivering innovative solutions that advance economic growth, foster inclusivity and protect the ecology in communities.

“Working with our customers, we strive to create holistic, high-quality mobility solutions that anticipate the needs of tomorrow and maximize value for customers and passengers already today.

As a team, we never stop moving to keep ideas, people and goods in motion.

Combining technology and performance with empathy, we serve as a trusted and strong local partner all over the world,” comments Bombardier Transportation.

“ As a team, we never stop moving to keep ideas, people and goods in motion.

Combining technology and performance with empathy, we serve as a trusted and strong local partner all over the world” — Bombardier Transportation busi ne ssc h ief . eu

BOMBARDIER TRANSPORTATION

Bombardier Transportation’s six smart sustainable mobility solutions “At Bombardier Transportation, we’re tackling these challenges head on.

Our smart mobility solutions combine energy-conserving technology with optimal safety, reliability and cost efficiency”

264

1. Converting to full batterypowered mobility

2. Fast construction with minimal environmental impact

With increasing numbers of railway companies and governments seeking clean alternatives to diesel. Bombardier Transportation provides its customers with battery technology for electromobility that can be used on nonelectrified lines. Currently the company is striving to eliminate diesel power on France’s rail network by converting its regional fleet into an eco-friendly battery propulsion operation.

Ensuring fast construction and minimal environmental impact, Bombardier Transformation’s driverless INNOVIA monorail system is equipped with technology for carbon neutral, emissionfree operations. The system is designed with urban application in mind to drive efficient and cost effective mass transit.

“Our most recent battery project is the TALENT 3 battery-electric multiple unit (BEMU), the first modern regional battery-powered train to enter passenger service in Europe. The battery train is emission-free and sets the standards for smart mobility, with a highly efficient propulsion system and a high degree of recyclability.”

FEBRUARY 2021

3. Reduce energy consumption by up to 15% with optimised driving In addition to its battery power technology to drive eco-friendly energy, Bombardier Transportation’s EBI Drive 50 technology is designed to help vehicle drivers conserve energy by helping to optimise their driving. “The system dynamically calculates track topography and vehicle performance and compares it with the train’s route and position,”

4. Reduce your vehicle’s weight “Safety, efficiency and flexibility are guiding principles in Bombardier’s product development,” comments Bombardier Transportation, with this vision driving its innovation, Bombardier Transportation helps its customers to reduce their vehicle weight with its ‘lightweight FLEXX Eco bogie’. The technology is said to ensure smooth and safe journeys for travelers in cities, due to its specific design features.

5. Automated vehicle inspection system for sustainable performance To provide its customers with a solution to improve efficiency and operation by forecasting key components and alerting to maintenance needs before they arise, Bombardier Transportation has developed an Automated Vehicle Inspection System (AVIS) to combat these challenges.

6. Reduce your energy consumption by to 35% with silicon carbide converters Striving to continuously innovate in the sustainable mobility industry, Bombardier Transportation’s latest energy saving technology enables its customers to further advance their sustainable urban transit systems with lower energy consumption and noise levels.

“We are very proud of the great strides we are making in reducing energy consumption and are thankful for the strong collaboration with our partners that made this achievement possible. It’s not only evidence of our deep local engagement in Sweden, but it also illustrates how Bombardier Transportation is committed to innovating a greener and more sustainable transportation systems.”

Integrating proven optical image and laser technology to capture key asset conditions with ORBITA, “Bombardier’s state of the art predictive asset management toolset, and the depot’s maintenance management system to deliver seamless automated, intelligent maintenance instructions to a technician.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

265

That’s why railway leaders partner with us to develop and test their systems, ensuring they meet the highest industry safety standards.

What about you?

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“ We are very proud of the great strides we are making in reducing energy consumption” — Bombardier Transportation

SUSTAINABILITY IN MOBILITY In 2009, Bombardier Transportation launched its ‘Climate is Right for Trains’ initiative. The initiative was launched with ambitions to reinforce the advantages of low-emission rail transport. ”Today, this declaration is truer than ever,” notes Bombardier Transportation. “It’s no busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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“ Safety, efficiency and flexibility are guiding principles in Bombardier’s product development” — Bombardier Transportation

FEBRUARY 2021

secret that the world is undergoing a period of dramatic change.

Population is booming and it’s estimated that by 2050 the planet will be supporting 9.8 billion people. At the same time, demographic shifts mean that over half of them will be gravitating to urban spaces with projections showing that by 2030 there will be 43 global megacities of over 10 million inhabitants each. This is all occurring in a context of dwindling resources and environmental uncertainty.”

To address these global challenges, Bombardier Transportation alongside its initiative ‘the Climate is Right for Trains’ not only deliver holistic solutions to combat these challenges, they are committed to continuous development of eco friendly mobility solutions that drive opportunities and prosperity, as well as driving the planet towards a sustainable future.

BOMBARDIER

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Notting Hill Genesis: A thriving digital transformation WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

KRISTOFER PALMER

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NOTTING HILL GENESIS

Rajiv Peter, Director of Digital Technology, talks technology transformation within one of the largest housing associations in London and the South East

N

otting Hill Genesis was formed in 2018 following the merger of two Londonbased housing associations, but the

company’s roots actually stretch back to the 1960s, when a group of local people gathered with 272

a shared vision to house low-income families and individuals in west London. This commitment hasn’t changed in the decades since.

Rajiv Peter joined the company in 2017, having started his career as a systems analyst to help local governments in England achieve digital targets. More recently, he was head of digital at PEX software. He has an MSc in Information Systems from the London School of Economics under his belt and researched technology in direct democracy and governance at the same school.

As the Director of Digital Technology at Notting Hill Genesis, he’s leading their digital strategy and technical transformation.

“From a purist point of view, there is no sector that can’t be digitised,” he says of implementing

FEBRUARY 2021

273

“There is no sector that can’t be digitised” — Rajiv Peter, Director of Digital Technology, Notting Hill Genesis

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NOTTING HILL GENESIS

“ Technology creation has become more affordable in the last five or six years. It’s within the realms of any organisation to create its own software” 274

— Rajiv Peter, Director of Digital Technology, Notting Hill Genesis

a digital culture at an organisation that has been established for over 60 years. “The core component of what we call digital is not tied to any sector.

These are portable skills, and these are portable technologies.”

“What has really changed is that we’ve moved from a system where external companies create software and we take it on to being more platform-based. Bespoke technology creation has become more affordable in the last five or six years. I think it is within the realms of any organisation to create its own software.”

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE HOUSING SECTOR The advantage of this is being able to offer a more streamlined total experience for colleagues and customers.

“In the past the problem was that you usually had one software company delivering everything, and they’re good at one or two things but at most of them they’re just ‘okay’. What we are moving towards is being able to pick and choose what you want, and then bring it all together with our own software. If you look at Amazon’s FEBRUARY 2021

1960s Year founded

website, there may be many systems underpinning it, but you as a customer don’t know they exist because it’s a seamless experience.”

$550m+ Revenue in US dollars

2,100 Number of employees

Before NHG started on this journey, it had minimal digital capability in-house, so it engaged with external suppliers to provide this capability and to create the building blocks. The next stage was for Rajiv to enhance that capability by creating a new digital department and hiring new staff. Now, Rajiv says, the company is in complete control of its technology and design; it

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Rajiv Peter Title: Director of Digital Technology Company: Notting Hill Genesis Rajiv Peter joined Notting Hill Genesis as Solutions Manager in 2017. Responsible for the group’s software engineering and digital architecture. During the group’s merger in 2018, he was made the Director of Software and Support and helped consolidate the systems of both organisations, integrating it into a single layer for both customers and staff that included payments, arrears, and repairs, called WorkWise. He was subsequently promoted to Director of Digital Technology.

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NOTTING HILL GENESIS

“ Using technologies makes us more efficient and cheaper to run; that goes into the profit which goes into building more homes” — Rajiv Peter, Director of Digital Technology, Notting Hill Genesis has started on the next stage and has 276

been working with offshore companies based in India. This gives NHG better value for money, scalability and commercial options.

In the longer term he sees an

A key aim for Rajiv is providing

opportunity to create revenue from

value to the business by making cost

technology. But for now, an immediate

efficiencies. “Housing associations

benefit for customers has been open-

are generally structured as charities.

ing new channels of communication.

Most of our surplus comes from com-

“They can now contact us 24 hours

mercial investments, so we have to

a day and they can digitally see the

create and sell properties, just like any

same information about themselves

other provider. The profit we make we

as our staff, because both are using

re-invest into our core business. Using

the same system. Just as if they were

technologies makes us more efficient

going on to Amazon to buy a product,

and cheaper to run, that goes into the

they can also raise a complaint, or

profit which goes into building more

request a repair at any time of the day,

homes” he says.

and it’s all recorded centrally.”

FEBRUARY 2021

Rajiv says the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for their digital journey this year. Staff had already been provided with laptops and a digital interface - WorkWise - so they were able to start working remotely almost instantly. NHG also used serverless, low-code technology to create a new app that connected to a database and provided dashboards to key stakeholders in the business, automated messages to teams, and emails with information such as which staff were off-sick. It also helped to identify employees who were happy to step

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

277

YOUR VISION, OUR PEOPLE Our world has seen major digital innovation. Technology has moved forward quicker than we could ever imagined.

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With over 20 years of industry expertise, our experience allows us to engage with you across a multitude of business sectors and markets enabling your organisation to adopt digital processes and offshore models to achieve outstanding results Our unique and flexible outsourcing model enables seamless integration with your process, bringing significant cost savings, whilst enabling you to focus on your core requirements.

Why are we different?

Neo Technology’s business model is focused on maximising the experience of its UK based senior team, with a flexible and agile approach to upscaling and downscaling FTEs for projects, delivering cost savings passed on to you.

This is made possible by careful segmentation and simplification of your requirements, enabling a streamlined approach to development, where the skills of the IT professional are focused on coding and leaving the nuances of requirement analysis and project management to the respective business leads.

Our ambition is to deliver efficient and exceptional technology solutions to differing business requirements, using an offshore model that works for you.

Notting Hill Genesis Partnership Notting Hill Genesis started their digital transformation journey recently with the launch of a new user portal. Having had the core of the platform designed and built by a third party, they decided to bring inhouse the challenges of system enhancement and maintenance.

Due to the combined growth in platform usage and ambitious development goals, Notting Hill Genesis found themselves needing to expand the capacity of their in-house IT team. This was approached with a mix of permanent and contractor staff. However, recruiting, on-boarding and training adequate IT specialists was a time-consuming and costly process and Notting Hill Genesis needed a more flexible solution.

Neo Technology partnered with Notting Hill Genesis to deliver an experienced sprint development team, for one of their key work streams. With a short onboarding timeframe, the team acquired the necessary knowledge of the technical stack and were quickly self-sufficient.

“ We are driven to deliver efficient and exceptional technology results by applying innovative and scalable solutions which benefits the customers ambition to drive down costs.”

The onboarding process, utilising Neo Technology’s senior UK based team, has empowered Notting Hill Genesis to refine strategic decisions across all their work streams. Today we partner across a range of work streams such as migration, integration & support and are the preferred partner in their Digital Transformation journey.

Having outsourced teams from Neo Technology, Notting Hill Genesis have extended their development capacity and negated their contractor management requirements. In addition, this has achieved substantial savings against their contractor costs.

Learn more | neotechsolutions.co.uk

NOTTING HILL GENESIS

“ A huge shift is going to happen and COVID is definitely a factor in this” — Rajiv Peter, Director of Digital Technology, Notting Hill Genesis

280

FEBRUARY 2021

in, where needed, if there was a staff shortage in critical services.

“This was one of the things that completely changed the minds of people in terms of what the possibilities are. Because we couldn’t work from offices all the paper-based systems presented a challenge, for instance invoices that would have previously been printed. Some of the manual systems we automated very quickly and were able to digitally track colleague workloads, for example in HR, to make sure that it was streamlined and evenly distributed. All these things were implemented very quickly; people were very keen to use the technology.”

AN EXCITING FUTURE Rajiv believes that we are entering the most exciting period since the internet was developed. “A huge shift is going to happen, and COVID is definitely a factor in this,” he says.

“One of the biggest things is probably 5G, and it will probably take about five years to roll out because it requires a lot more infrastructure than 4G, just because of the frequency bands it covers. This will be an enabler busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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NOTTING HILL GENESIS

for other complementary technologies around devices taking information, in other words IoT. “This is currently maturing, as the cost of these devices is falling quite rapidly.

You can then create a virtual world, which is a replica of the physical world, where you’ll be able to visualise a whole building or even a city. This will help us to make better decisions, both individually but also connecting to machines to make autonomous decisions and acting on them, both locally and centrally. If, 282

for instance, a lift stops working somewhere, that information can be passed to our system and the system could automatically send out a repair job to a supplier, who can then repair it.”

“It could also detect things that humans can’t detect, like water pressure reducing gradually over a long period of time, which could be an indication of something that’s gone wrong like a leak, or a generator losing power.

association. It’s also become far more

Then we can intervene much earlier

accessible thanks to pay-as-you-go

and treat the problem.”

cloud platforms.

Rajiv says that these uses of arti-

“This sort of automation will ramp up,”

ficial intelligence create a better

he says, “because citizen developers

experience for customers, but are also

and software developers can all use

more cost effective for the housing

those ‘human literate’ technologies to

FEBRUARY 2021

283

be more efficient. Things have moved from buildings to the private cloud, then to the public cloud by using one of the core providers like Azure, Google and AWS. In the future it will be spread out between different cloud providers but controllable from any one of them.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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FEBRUARY 2021

Leading the digital transformation journey WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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NTT LTD.

Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd., discusses the company’s approach to digital transformation for its client and society in general “We are enabling the connected future,” says Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd. “My passion is making technology meaningful for both businesses and society at large. That’s exactly what NTT Ltd. 286

does: it’s a company that wants to modernise and transform the business of our clients with the aim of enabling them to do meaningful things.”

Grunwitz sees the digital infrastructure it builds with companies as key to improving business results.

“Everything is data-driven, everything is connected, everything is digital, and it has to be secure. Digital infrastructure means everything from data center infrastructure, intelligent networking, agility, HR networks and of course the workplace of today – working from home, online events, video conferencing, collaboration, smart service desks and so on.”

NTT Ltd. sees itself as the technology partner for digital transformation as a whole. “However, it’s not only about digital transformation,” Grunwitz

FEBRUARY 2021

287

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NTT LTD.

“ If companies are not adapting now, they will disappear”

became part of one of America’s leading technology companies at that time, before moving on to Oracle when Sun was acquired, taking over the consult-

— Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd.

ing leader role for Northern Europe.

Then I had the opportunity at NTT Ltd. to run the cybersecurity business as

warns. “It’s also about digital survival.

Senior Vice President of Cybersecurity

Because if companies are not adapting

EMEA.” Partly thanks to his experience

now, they will disappear”

in cybersecurity, Grunwitz emphasises

Grunwitz started his professional

the fundamental nature of security to

career at a consulting company, which

digital solutions. “As I always say, you

was sold to Sun Microsystems. “I

will see no digital transformation without

288

Digital transformation

5

Future Disrupted: 2021 technology trends

1

Proactive and bold digital transformation is imperative, not a choice

2

In 2021, the link between business value and investment will become amplified

Steps to take in 2021

Almost 9 in ten (89.7%) organizations say that the competitive structure of their market is being disrupted by digital; with 22.0% reporting it as being ‘highly’ disruptive.*

4

Key trends for 2021

Organizations that hope to successfully persuade their Boards and shareholders to approve new investments will need to demonstrate tangible business value immediately and iteratively by adopting public and private cloud platforms.

Also, bear in mind that ‘home is the new branch office’ and this requires careful thought regarding how to optimize and secure your connectivity.

Now, more than ever, IT needs to be willing and able to respond to what the business need.

The ability to leverage public and private clouds to be agile and responsive to changing market requirements, is now essential

In our reshaped reality, new products and services have to be ‘ready tomorrow’ and there’s an expectation for time-to -market and time-to-value to be realized faster than ever

3

Increasingly, automation will lie at the core of successfully transforming digital businesses

Automation of processes and tasks that currently rely on manual human intervention will be the common element underpinning the most successful digital transformation initiatives, in the year ahead

Steps to take in 2021

Steps to take in 2021 Be mindful that automation can present its own challenges when it comes to effective deployment.

Consider adopting various combinations of public and private cloud to gain the agility you crave.

Workloads continue to shift to a combination of cloud platforms, with public cloud expected to grow 24.0% to 30.0% and private cloud in a service provider’s data center from 19.0% to 23.0% over the next year.**

However, don’t neglect onpremises solutions, which also have an important role to play.

5

Infrastructure will become the leading generator of data

Consider automation in the realm of customer experience … we foresee greater adoption of chatbots and AI-driven natural language processing bots.

Today, typical enterprise ICT ecosystems comprise a variety of products and technologies from different vendors.

•

The modernization of ICT and the associated automation of previously manual processes requires a mindset and skills shift.

Recognition of cybersecurity’s role in a business’ digital enablement will intensify

In years gone by, data was something you used for intelligence purposes and the infrastructure carried the data; infrastructure is now a major generator of data

Steps to take in 2021

Steps to take in 2021

Success lies in achieving the best end-user experience in this increasingly SaaS- and software-defined network paradigm, while maintaining adequate security.

Look at ways to intelligently blend network data engineering and science, together with AI and machine learning.

In both business and consumer environments, every time an individual connects and disconnects to a network, that information is captured, stored and ultimately acted upon to optimize or improve employee or customer experience.

Why •

This will put you in a position to push the boundaries of what it’s possible to do with data, in ways never before imagined.

It’s important to be clear about what you need to do from a cybersecurity standpoint to enable your digital transformation.

Our advice is to start with the foundations and then work up the stack.

*NTT Ltd. 2019 Digital Means Business Benchmarking Report ** Look out for more on this topic in our soon-to-be-published NTT Ltd. 2021 Hybrid Cloud Report, which will uncover more about the acceleration of those trends

FEBRUARY 2021

Kai Grunwitz; The introduction to Kai CLICK TO WATCH | 1:25

289

cyber security. Digital transformation

cybersecurity, for example, there’s a

requires trust in the systems you imple-

lot of automation to allow more agility

ment, because it’s all about data. Digital

in that area. Hospitals are another area,

solutions and networks are one thing,

with preventive maintenance solutions

but it has to be secure. For instance, a

to detect problems with medical devices

remote working environment needs to

and so on. In customer experience and

be innovative and easy to use, but also

contact centres, too, there’s a lot we

secure. Therefore, digital transformation

do with chatbots – using AI to change

goes hand in hand with cybersecurity.”

the way you interact with your clients.”

Emerging technologies such as AI

It’s in that customer experience

are omnipresent throughout NTT Ltd.’s

segment that NTT Ltd. partners with

offering, with the company having

Genesys. “We’re both long-term part-

developed its own translation and voice

ners, recognised leaders and experts

recognition solutions based on AI. “In

in supporting clients to maximise their busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MAKE CX YOUR KEY DIFFERENTIATOR WITH GENESYS AND NTT NTT Ltd. and Genesys partners to deliver a connected customer experience We are here to help you simplify your operations, empower your workforce, deliver best-in-class customer experience and stay ahead with NTT and Genesys.

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NTT AND GENESYS: WHY CLOUD

IS KEY TO CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Heinrich Welter, Territory VP EMEA Central and GM DACH, discusses Genesys’ partnership with NTT and the role of technology in customer experience Genesys offers its customers the ability to create great customer moments for end users, as Heinrich Welter, Territory VP EMEA Central and GM DACH, explains. “We power around 70 billion interactions per year, all focused around empathy - that is our utmost aim. What we provide is the ability for agents to deliver high quality interactions across all channels.” Doing requires advanced technology, and Genesys has duly been recognised in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. “What we do is powered by the cloud. That in itself is an innovation driver, but along with that we combine emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.”

Genesys has a longstanding relationship with NTT, dealing with large customers and clients with NTT as a systems integrator. “What’s really important is that NTT has made the full transition into the cloud.

As a systems integrator, you need to change to support cloud - because it is a different form of project. You need to be fully agile and adopt a different type of deployment methodology. NTT is creating the ecosystem required to successfully deliver cloud projects, because when it comes to the cloud, it’s about integration, bringing things together and making things work in an ecosystem - not doing everything yourself.”

That’s been especially important in the pandemic, with Genesys serving new customers who were deciding in days to go to the cloud. “With NTT, we were able to take them live after just 10 days,” affirms Welter. “So it’s a very deep collaboration on all levels, not only technology. As a supplier, you need more than tools, you need knowledge of how to use that technology, how to adopt it.”

Going forwards, Welter sees the cloud as only becoming more vital to providing good customer service, not least when combined with AI. “It really requires the cloud, because you’re talking about huge amounts of data processing, with the capabilities needed only given via the cloud. That’s why we need the close collaboration we have with partners who follow the trends, such as NTT, to make sure that clients understand that.” Welter further emphasises that all this is in service of helping its customers to become as customer centric as possible. “You need to make sure that all your organisation’s efforts are aligned around the customer - putting the customer in the middle and structuring everything around that.” genesys.com

NTT LTD.

292

customer experience journeys,” says

contact centers as the future, as well

Grunwitz. “We’ve been working with

as AI-driven, data analytics-informed

Genesys for a long period, particularly

automation solutions. That’s what we

in traditional on-premise call center

see with Genesys now and the pure

solutions. They provide the best solution

cloud approach. It combines good fea-

in that space.” As customer experience

tures from the past such as traditional

itself digitally transforms, moving away

telephony with a modern and agile

from disparate legacy platforms, the

environment, which is why we see

partnership is changing too. “Customer

our partnership with Genesys as the

experience now needs to be more

backbone of our customer experience

adaptable. We see cloud-based

business.”

Executive Profile:

Kai Grunwitz Title: CEO Germany,

Industry: Information Technology & Services

In October 2019 Kai Grunwitz was appointed Managing Director of NTT Ltd. Germany AG & Co. KG, part of NTT Ltd, a leading global IT services provider. For the prior five years Kai Grunwitz was responsible for the Cybersecurity business area as Senior Vice President EMEA of NTT Security. After studying business administration, he has held various management positions in the IT industry for more than 25 years, including at Oracle as Vice President Consulting Northern Europe and member of the Country Leadership Team, and at Sun Microsystems as Head of Professional Services Central Europe and member of the German management team.

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Kai Grunwitz: the story of NTT Ltd. Germany CLICK TO WATCH | 1:32

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Grunwitz is adamant that technology alone is not sufficient for a successful digital transformation. “You cannot transform without changing the culture and the way you do business, because technology is just one component of the

“ We are all aware that cultural change is not a sprint – It’s a long journey” — Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd.

overall transformation. If you’re trying to work in traditional analogue business

culture we build has to adapt as well,

models and processes, and just put

step-by-step. We are all aware that

technology on top of it, it will fail. Skill

cultural change is not a sprint – It’s a

development is a key area for that. You

long journey.”

need to change the ways people interact

That acknowledgment of the neces-

and processes are adopted.” NTT Ltd.

sity of change has served NTT Ltd. well

also practices what it preaches. “The

during the COVID-19 pandemic. While busi ne ssc h ief . eu

NTT LTD.

“ We will see a lot of hybrid working in the future” — Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd.

enabling our clients to collaborate most efficiently,” says Grunwitz. That’s not a situation that he expects to be temporary. “We will see a lot of hybrid working in the future – people are more open to new ideas now than they have been in the past. We’re seeing initiatives around smart city and smart mobility approaches, for instance. NTT Ltd. is at

294

some projects have slowed, others

the centre of this discussion, because

have become increasingly vital. “One

one of our ambitions is to not only create

of the areas we see prominently on the

technology, but to create technology for

roadmap at the moment is everything

good.” NTT Ltd. is duly engaged in pro-

around the modern workplace and

jects that align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to support society and transform in a sustainable way.

Going forwards, Grunwitz expects NTT Ltd.’s business to continue to

FEBRUARY 2021

Technology services Future Disrupted: 2021 technology trends

1

4

Key trends for 2021

Create efficiencies and optimize IT for better business outcomes

Cloud-based, on-demand platforms supporting remote working & client demand will need to be deployed – fast

Cloud adoption has increased significantly since the pandemic started… and it won’t stop

2

Increasing need for automation, process integration and optimization due to resource gaps

Compensate for a lack of human resources and specialist skills, reduce cost and improve the availability and overall quality of service delivery… and, most importantly, security

Steps to take in 2021

Steps to take in 2021

Some 91.6% of organizations say cloud-based IT is one of the top five most important technologies for enabling a digital strategy.*

3

Smart-source, don’t outsource

As organizations increasingly rely on cloud-based platforms and other advanced technologies, augmented reality, AI and 5G will also become more viable propositions.

Skills shortages persist: 43.0% of organizations say they do not have adequate resources/skills in-house to cope with the number of security threats.*

Collaborate with service providers to reimagine what cloud-enabled digital transformation now really means.

Surge in virtual, remote services and digital reality

4

Ongoing performance management of infrastructure to meet customers’ expectations, will become critical

Businesses will need to establish and entrench new ways to operate efficiently and effectively now that clients are looking to do everything virtually and workforces are predominantly virtual

Steps to take in 2021

Steps to take in 2021 Engage with service providers who offer deeper insights for clients through their own platforms, with AI and ML tools embedded.

AI and ML tools and resources are becoming less expensive, and more available to businesses around the globe.

Through highly personalized dashboards, you’ll be able to better spot connections and insights normally missed by manual human analysis.

Work with a trusted partner, rather than a transactional supplier. Among other initiatives, a seasoned services provider will help you harness the power of automation, reduce the amount of time spent on everyday tasks, and increase operational and cost efficiencies across your secure IT estate.

Areas of particular concern will include cloud security and governance – given the way in which the pandemic has changed our traditional notion of how we address security. Application modernization and ‘going serverless’ will usher in new application security considerations.

Prepare to deal with the additional complexity associated with distributed applications and data through cloud-delivered security and threat detection.

Find ways to gain increased visibility of service performance and ensure compliance with service level requirements.

*NTT Risk: Value research 2019

2019

Year founded

$11bn

Revenue in US dollars (Globally)

evolve. “We’re using more of our own IP around managed services such as hybrid cloud and managed security solutions. It’s more service driven than it was in the past, with us providing consultancy around innovations and transformation, but always in line with our technology partner landscape.”

Grunwitz says the company sees itself

40,000 Number of employees

as an integrator, combining its own IP with market-leading technologies. “NTT Ltd. faces the same challenges as our clients. I want to see NTT Ltd. become busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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NTT LTD.

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Kai Grunwitz; NTT Ltd. Germany future goals CLICK TO WATCH | 1:45

FEBRUARY 2021

297

“ I want to see NTT Ltd. become the leader for the digital journey in Germany”

the leader for the digital journey in Germany, in a way that also supports sustainable change in society.”

— Kai Grunwitz, CEO Germany, NTT Ltd.

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FEBRUARY 2021

Digital transformation for customer value WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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ARQIVA

Chief Technology & Transformation Officer Clive White discusses Arqiva’s ongoing digital transformation and the benefits it is bringing for itself, customers and suppliers

A

rqiva is a supplier of critical communications infrastructure and media services . Having recently divested its telecoms business,

it is now focusing on two market segments; the Utilities sector, leveraging its smart metering and satellite data communications operations, and the media 300

and broadcast sector, leveraging its long history in the provision of service to the UK’s Public Sector Broadcasters (PSB) and the broader media industry, as Chief Technology and Transformation Officer Clive White explains. “We’re the leading broadcast provider in the UK covering TV and radio. That also extends to other digital delivery services through satellite and over the top services. The other focus area is more broadly called utilities, which today is a focus on smart metering across gas, electricity and water utilities.”

In a changing industry caused by the introduction of new technologies such as streaming services, Arqiva is ensuring that it remains on top of innovation. “We are positioning ourselves to be the bridge between traditional and modern,” says White. “We do

FEBRUARY 2021

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ARQIVA

302

everything from analogue radio all the

exposed,” says White. “The Board

way through to video on demand ser-

recognised this shift and created a new

vices delivered over IP and satellite. So

role on the executive committee to own

we’ve got a broad range of technolo-

and drive enterprise-wide business

gies and services that we can integrate

transformation.” Arqiva is in the midst

and help the industry segments we

of a multi-year, large scale transforma-

serve in support today’s traditional

tion of both customer-facing and internal

delivery as well as position for the future

services. “We’re delivering an integrated

as well.”

programme of change covering finance

The digitalisation of the industry has

transformation, which involves the

revealed the potential of commensurate

implementation of a modernised Oracle

internal changes. “As we’ve moved

system, a transformation in our site asset

into a more connected world, silo and

management capabilities underpinned

legacy systems have become more

by a technology called Siterra and we’ve

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Given it’s probably the biggest change and transformation Arqiva has seen, we wanted to make sure we brought on board an experienced partner” — Clive White, CTO, Arqiva

303

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Clive White Title: CTO

Company: Arqiva

Industry: Telecommunications Location: Hampshire A high impact, executive leader and change catalyst with extensive experience of delivering sustainable change in challenging and complex blue chip business environments including Banking, Life, Pensions and Investments, Insurance, Telecoms, Consulting, Media and Technology. Operational/ Programme budget and benefits delivery management (£‘000m’s), Management Board member accountabilities and delivery across global and cultural boundaries. Deep specialism in designing and leading organisational and technology transformation and integration programmes and creating expert, high performing teams. Official Member of Forbes Technology Council.

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ARQIVA

HCL & Arqiva Partnership CLICK TO WATCH | 3:12

304 just launched a new integrated service automation platform on ServiceNow which has enabled us to retire four separate legacy systems. On the back of that, we’re integrating all of our network OSS systems into ServiceNow to drive further automation and efficiencies.”

Alongside that already comprehensive overhaul is an initiative to marshal its data through an ambitious programme of change referred to as Data and

“ Making sure you have an organisational change programme wrapped around your technology change is essential” — Clive White, CTO, Arqiva

Orchestration. This is identifying, clean-

of mastered data on a technology from

ing and centralising all critical business

Information Builders called Omnigen.

data into an ecosystem of connected

“We have aggressively moved to a cloud-

data stores leveraging “golden sources”

based suite of integrated systems,

FEBRUARY 2021

wherever we can” he says. “We are now

workplace initiative,” says White. “So

in the process of joining up our business

we’ve moved to Office365, deployed

processes via the integrated data plat-

mobile interfaces and digitised a whole

form, leveraging process re-engineering

bunch of processes, including starting

opportunities created by adopting ‘out of

to deploy digital signatures across all

the box’ services. So, we’re going from

of our procurement systems.” Digital

a quite manual and legacy set of discrete

Workplace is continuing to evolve, as

systems into highly automated, digitally

White explains. “We’re going into the

interconnected systems, enabling fric-

next round of Digital Workplace, where

tionless business processing wherever

we face up to the ugly history of ana-

possible and desirable”.

logue telephony and digitising that into

Also built into the transformation is

our new infrastructure. The ultimate goal

increased preparedness for the ongo-

is to make our entire operation digitally

ing COVID-19 pandemic. “Wrapped

enabled and able to work flexibly and

around the transformation is a digital

remote if and when we need it to be.”

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True Digital Transformation at scale and speed According to Harvard Business Review, 70% of all digital transformation initiatives do not reach their goals, and of the $1.3 trillion that was spent on digital transformation last year, it was estimated that almost $900 billion went to waste.

These figures serve to highlight the critical importance of having a competent technology partner that can help you navigate the labyrinth of change, and scale digital transformation across the enterprise to drive discernible business outcomes.

That’s where we come in. HCL’s Digital & Analytics practice helps organizations unlock the true potential of digital transformation, helping them move away from the surface level play of discreate digital projects focused on single initiatives to orchestrating the various digital pivots into a coordinated and disciplined digital strategy and roadmap. Our digital execution framework, FENIX 2.0, bridges the gap between digital strategy and execution and helps organizations in both defining transformation initiatives and in executing them by aligning operating models with best-in-class engineering practices. Thus, empowering them to transform for the next decade, today.

About HCL Discover the FENIX 2.0 Digital Execution Framework

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HCL: modernising Arqiva’s core systems and infrastructure Anand Birje, Sr. Corporate VP, Digital & Analytics at HCL, and Clive White, CTTO at Arqiva, discuss their companies’ recent collaboration “Arqiva is undergoing a massive business and digital transformation and we’re a strategic partner in their journey,” states Anand Birje, Sr. Corporate Vice President and Head of the Digital and Analytics practice at HCL Technologies. He explains that its partnership with telco Arqiva started in 2018 and has remained strong ever since. “HCL was chosen as a prime partner for its smart metering implementation programme, which was, to my mind, one of the largest of its kind in the world at that time.”

Clive White, Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at Arqiva, states that this initiative was highly ambitious. “We were looking to modernise all of our infrastructure and core systems and, very importantly, make good on the realisation of our integrated future,” he says. Achieving this meant placing data at the centre of the company’s operations to acquire the desired “single point of truth”. Arqiva’s highly progressive attitude and culture meant that it needed a partner with shared values in order to execute this vision. Following a thorough search for the right collaborator, “HCL came out on top.”

More than simply providing tech, Birje claims that HCL’s synergistic culture has enabled it to determine the best course of action for Arqiva, such as ‘sprint developing’. Speed to market is

paramount for the company, confirms White.

Arqiva’s enhanced agility also had an unprecedented benefit during the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic: “We established a digital workplace very early on; Arqiva was able to pivot the business overnight to working remotely for all our teams, apart from the operational teams and field engineers.”

From making the right technology investments to supporting enterprise-wide digital change, Birje emphasises that any transformation is more akin to a never ending journey of discovery than a linear process. “HCL is looking forward to undertaking that journey with Arqiva; there’s a massive transformation coming in the next few years.” White considers that, as the company shifts from being a ‘data managing’ to a ‘data-driven’ organisation, the possibilities for reinvention are likely to be significant, both for Arqiva and the market it operates in. “I think we are creating self-serve opportunities the more we reach out to our customers with portals, dashboards and data interfaces. We’re going to broaden those core business processes and expose our customers to as much of that as we can.”

Learn more

ARQIVA

While Arqiva was impacted by COVID19, like most organisations worldwide, the existing digitalisation efforts provided a great deal of resiliency. “We’d previously built that momentum around business change, which was somewhat fortuitous in terms of timing. On Friday the 13th of March we flipped the entire workforce - minus a small number of critical operations and field teams that needed to be on site and in the field - to working from home overnight, with minimal interruptions to service operations.”

White emphasises that the pandemic 308

has not impacted the scope of the company’s transformation plans, but rather the timeframe, with an extension of around three months to ease the introduction of new technologies and pace of change during lockdown.

Having spun up remote working so quickly, White believes that the technology has more than proved itself. “For too many years, the fear of remote working revolved around the perception that the technology would not work reliably at scale and that managing a remote workforce would be too challenging.

But that was wrong on both counts.”

Notwithstanding individual and personal circumstance challenges, such as those FEBRUARY 2021

“ It’s about fully embracing the digital landscape” — Clive White, CTO, Arqiva

309

with kids at home, it’s provided the ability

and then wonder why they’ve not been

to work smarter and more flexibly while

fully effective, not been liked and have

still delivering.”

come in over budget and late. So making

White credits a focus on culture as

sure you have an organisational change

driving the transformation programme

programme wrapped around your tech-

through. “Many organisations of which

nology change is essential.“

I’ve been part will spend a lot of money

Another factor in the transforma-

and time deploying systems and tools,

tion’s success has been the strength busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ARQIVA

“ For too many years, we heard that technology wouldn’t work at scale remotely, and that you couldn’t trust your people to work remotely” — Clive White, CTO, Arqiva 310

of key collaborators, such as integration partner HCL. “Given it’s probably the biggest change and transformation Arqiva has seen, we wanted to make sure we brought on board an experienced partner to be part of our ‘change spine’,” says White. “We went through an extensive process to pick the right partner for Arqiva in terms of our size, geography and ‘fit’, and HCL came out on top. They are integrated into our delivery teams, across our big delivery workstreams and supporting our integrated plan bringing best practice where appropriate and capacity where we don’t have it to maintain the volume and concurrency of change that we’ve got in flight.

FEBRUARY 2021

White’s immediate focus is on landing the transformation in the next 14 months.

“At that stage, we’ll have replaced all of our core systems, going from a legacy, siloed set to a fully integrated, automated and work-flowed business. We need to make sure that we’re maximizing the benefit that this investment gives us, with some big changes in terms of efficiency and ways of working that we’re deploying internally, but also starting to connect to our suppliers and our customers differently.” On that point, White is clear that the benefits are not just internal but extend to outside stakeholders. “We’re now starting to connect to our customers digitally, and we can get them to ask us to do things automatically via APIs. We’re starting to kill the phone and email to improve the level of connectivity between us, our customers, partners and suppliers. It’s about fully embracing the digital landscape and making sure that things are as automated and efficient as possible to offer more value to our customers.”

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313

IXcellerate: ENABLING RUSSIA’S DIGITAL REVOLUTION WRITTEN BY

JOHN O’HANLON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

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IXCELLERATE

IXcellerate, one of the leading Russian Tier III commercial data centre operators in Moscow, is attracting global hypercloud operators into Europe's largest internet market

W

hat are the prerequisites for a successful entrepreneur? The ability to gain the confidence of investors is up there. Before

he ventured into the Russian market in 1998, Guy Willner had already raised seed capital and sub314

sequent funding for his first data centre company IXEurope, floating it on the LSE, surviving the burst of the dotcom bubble and eventually selling to Equinix for £555m. That’s a story in itself, however by 2008, having walked away from the job of European President for Equinix, he was looking for a new challenge. Another characteristic common among entrepreneurs is drive, ambition. Willner comes over more laid back than driven – in his case the driver is creativity. Both his parents were artists, and though their four sons all chose engineering, he says that in his case the creative gene has been a major asset, giving him the imagination to think differently and not to be daunted by entering uncharted territory.

The founding of IXcellerate certainly required these qualities. Already on the board of a number FEBRUARY 2021

2011

Year founded

100

Number of employees

315

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IXCELLERATE

“ PEOPLE DON’T REALISE THIS IS A COUNTRY TWICE THE SIZE OF THE USA OR CHINA, WITH HUGE DIVERSITY, DOZENS OF NATIONALITIES, ETHNICITIES AND CULTURES” 316

— Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

of companies including Teraco in South Africa, he was approached by the European Bank to chair a Russian data centre company. Thanks to the GFC that funding fell through but the opportunities presented by Russia, clearly an underserved market, had taken his interest. He teamed up with Clifford Gauntlett – a Russian speaker with 25 years’ experience working with tech companies there – to found IXcellerate and raise the capital required to build out some serious data centre capacity in Moscow. It wasn’t easy to find the right location, and they looked at at least 100 sites; however they now have a prime position inside Moscow’s equivalent of London’s M25 and were able to secure first-rate partners such as Arup and Mercury Engineering to execute the project.

There were many reasons why Moscow remained an underinvested market despite Russia’s evident global importance. Foremost among these was a perception among western players that the country is a country with alien customs, philosophy and unreliable business practices. “People

FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Guy Willner Title: CEO

Company: Information Technology & Services

Guy Willner, co-founder and CEO of IXcellerate, is one of the leading international experts in the field of building and operating data centers.

He is regularly named among top-50 most influential people in the data center, cloud computing and big data industry within EMEA ( Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Guy has been holding senior positions in high-tech and big data companies for over 20 years. In 1998, he founded IXEurope, starting with the construction of a data center in the suburbs of London and after nine years running a network of 14 data centers in Western Europe. In 2007, IX Europe was acquired for $ 555 million by Equinix, the undisputed market leader in data centers around the world.

After gaining industry experience Guy started to explore Emerging Markets and created IXcellerate. Known for his charisma, “out of the box” thinking and deep understanding of the market, Guy’s influence over the data centre market continues to grow, holding Non- Executive Board position with Lambda Helix in Greece and co-founding IXAfrica in Kenya. With IDC-G group chair Guy is frequently asked to advise newcomers and investors on market trends and data centre global development.

Guy graduated in 1986 from Oxford Brookes University with a BSc in Engineering. When time allows, he enjoys sailing and playing guitar.

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IXCELLERATE

318 are frightened of Russia,” says Willner.

does not mean relinquishing control

“People are happy enough to invest in

of a customer’s IT systems, and it’s

Singapore and the Middle East where

also his job to explain to IT people

democracy is not much in evidence.

that they still retain control of their

They may say: ‘Russians look like us so

systems, which will be more effectively

why don’t they behave like us?’ They

and securely located than they ever

don’t realise this is a country twice

could be by keeping them close. But

the size of the USA or China, with

Russia is now not merely catching up

huge diversity, dozens of nationalities,

but leapfrogging in many ways, with

ethnicities and cultures.” Like many

interesting e-banking innovations, very

emerging economies, he adds, Russia

fast technological development and

has been wary of outsourcing with a

even self-driving taxis being trialled

strong inclination to keep its data in-

on its streets. All this is inexorably

house. His team has been explaining

driving a new data centre revolution,

why outsourcing makes sense, that it

Willner believes.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ EURASIA PEERING IS A THE BEATING HEART OF THE DATA CENTRE” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

by Sumitomo Corporation, which had been investing in Russia for more than 60 years. “It was a fight as it always is

That’s now, but against this back-

in Russia,” he admits. "But that draws

ground it was quite an achievement

the best out of you, just as creative art-

to get serious backers for his project.

ists are often at their best when they

Nevertheless after talking fruitlessly to

are swimming against the tide of fash-

the European Bank for Reconstruction

ion or even perceived common sense.”

and Development (EBRD), in 2012 the

There have been setbacks, for

World Bank through its subsidiary the

example when his co-founder and

International Finance Corporation

business partner Cliff Gauntlett died

(IFC) came on board, soon followed

in 2014, of a heart attack at the age

IXcellerate Campus - 3D Overview CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:30

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IXCELLERATE

320

“ IN NINE YEARS WE HAVE COME FROM BEING THE OUTSIDER, THE FOREIGN INCOMER, TO BEING THE NUMBER TWO DATA CENTRE PLAYER IN THE WHOLE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate FEBRUARY 2021

six years has been impressive.

“Goldman Sachs came in as an investor in 2017, so now we are a very big business with over $100m invested, I00 staff on our books and more than 150 customers. In nine years we have come from being the outsider, the foreign incomer, to being the number two data centre player in the whole of the Russian Federation.”

Since 2016 Guy Willner has also been CEO of Eurasia Peering IX, which enables telecom operators, cloud solution providers, system integrators, content delivery networks (CDNs), ISPs, hosting companies, social networks and the like to exchange traffic seamlessly and optimise traffic routes.

“Eurasia Peering is the beating heart of the data centre. Peering is like a market place but instead of goods you bring content to the marketplace and of just 53. “Cliff knew everyone in the

connect it to users who may be on six

business so I felt very much on my own

or seven different mobile or broad-

when he died so unexpectedly.” It was

band networks, all connected to that

providential though that at the time the

internet exchange (IX), which is basi-

company was hiring a Russian CFO,

cally a collection of networks, network

Dmitry Fokin who was able to take over

operators and content providers - so

the reins of management. The build-up

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Alibaba and

of the business over the intervening

Tencent which are all on our Eurasia busi ne ssc h ief . eu

321

IXCELLERATE

Peering platform and a host of content providers like Wildberries ('Russia's Amazon') are present on the Eurasia Peering platform and able to exchange information with one another.”

The first data centre, Moscow One, was housed in a 6,000 sq m warehouse, on a leased site, he explains.

“We fitted a small part of it out as a data centre, started putting customers in there, raised more equity and fitted out more till the entire warehouse was full.” Today Moscow One 322

has 1,835 rack spaces and a power capacity of 13.7 MW. Soon an adjacent site also with a warehouse on it became Moscow Two, with 1,580 rack spaces and an additional 13,5 MW power. Moscow Two was inaugurated on October 3, 2019 by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, someone who is well known in Russia as Chairman of the Russo-British Chamber of

and chatting to everyone, insisting

Commerce. “Our Russian guests

on spending more time with the junior

were dumbfounded. Prince Michael

staff than with the leadership!”

is a Romanov by descent, a fluent

The first ten percent of building a

Russian speaker who is very popu-

business in an emerging market takes

lar in Russia – he gave a speech in

five years, Willner estimates. It then

Russian and then spent over an hour

takes two years to build up the next

and a half walking round the facility

40% and maybe 18 months to achieve

FEBRUARY 2021

“WE ARE POSITIONED VERY MUCH AS THE MAJOR WESTERN PLAYER IN RUSSIA, THOUGH WE ARE INDEED A LOCAL RUSSIAN BUSINESS” — Guy Willner, CEO, IXcellerate

the remaining 50%. “We started with

USA; after that the market began to

a little data centre. Then we found we

really take off so we had to build out

were getting customers colocating

five times that capacity and complete

with us, customers such as Bloomberg,

Moscow One. Suddenly we had

Refinitiv, Orange Business Services,

some big Asian hypercloud clients

Rackspace, NTT and many other

like Tencent and Huawei asking for

e-commerce and financial services

all the capacity we could provide. Our

companies from Europe and the

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IXCELLERATE

324

campus is now 26.5 MW. “It's like

to put another 15MW of IT load, that

expanding an airport, you try to build

equates to about 25 MW of grid power,

close to where you are: with all the

so the power capacity just on that

infrastructure already there it makes

Moscow North campus will grow from

sense to build your third runway along-

about 26 to 50 MW.”

side the others. Likewise if you have

The final push will start early in

all the networks coming in and upward

2021 with the acquisition of a site in

of 150 customers in your data centre it

the south of the city, a leap ahead

makes sense to build more capacity on

for this fast growing company. Here

that site. We have signed for another

he expects to end up with a further

parcel of land where we are going

potential of 150 MW, which should be

FEBRUARY 2021

325

sufficient for the next 5 to 10 years

reference player, with the regulatory

allowing IXcellerate to remain at an

and sanctions compliance, anti corrup-

optimum scale for the market. “We

tion verification and other security they

are positioned very much as the major

need – and they trust me too because I

western player in Russia, though we

have been in the industry since 1998!

are indeed a local Russian business so any new international customer of the nature of Booking.com, Apple or Nvidia with their new AI platforms, wishing to come into Russia will need to come to us because because we are the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

326

FEBRUARY 2021

Enhancing the performance of enterprise applications WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLIN PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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NTT LTD.

Andy Green, Senior Director Software GTM, explains how NTT is positioning itself at the forefront of 21st century IT and the fourth industrial revolution One of the world’s foremost technology and business solution providers, NTT has maintained a singular goal: developing technology for the benefit of wider society. Since its establishment as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) public corporation 328

in 1952, it has assiduously worked towards achieving this vision, eventually incorporating the latest innovations such as hybrid cloud, data centres and digital transformation, and always monitoring the changing needs of its customers. This ethos has allowed it to expand operations as NTT Ltd. (part of the NTT Group) beyond its native Japan to 57 countries, trade with 73, and provide services to more than 200.

As such, NTT is fully prepared to confront one of the most exciting paradigm shifts in recent times: the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Andy Green, Senior Director Software Go-To-Market, spoke with us to outline why NTT’s focus on application performance will be crucial to this effort.

FEBRUARY 2021

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NTT LTD.

“ NTT has become a onestop shop for any IT requirement” — Andy Green, Senior Director Software GTM, NTT Ltd.

driven by Cisco’s own transformation – a company with which NTT shares a significant history and mission.

Managing this process in European countries, Green brings his considerable expertise and industry knowledge, gained from previous roles at Cisco, among

Joining Dimension Data (now part of

others, to bear on a company that he

NTT Ltd.) in March 2018, Green was

describes as truly unique from competi-

brought on board to lead and accelerate

tors in the space. “Over time, NTT Ltd.

the transition of vendor solutions from

has acquired over 31 companies, each

hardware to software, predominantly

an expert in their respective areas. Not

330

FEBRUARY 2021

Together we do great things CLICK TO WATCH | 1:32

331

only do we have application development

looking at how we interact with our

capabilities, but we also own physical

clients, employees and the entire supply

data centres and core wide area network

chain. Generally, when you look at all

infrastructure. NTT has become a one-

of these, you will see that there is an

stop shop for any IT requirement.”

application at the core.” As such, NTT

The company’s tech transformation

remains vigilant in order to make sure

journey has been crucial to reaching

its message and goals are harmonized

this prestigious position, and Green is

by the conversations it has regarding

quick to narrow down how its evolution

these three elements.

has affected three key aspects: the

Optimal application performance

customer experience, the employee

is, in Green’s view, going to be indis-

experience and finally digital transfor-

pensable when it comes to fulfilling

mation itself. “Digital transformation

the promise of the fourth industrial

feeds into the other two, but it’s primarily

revolution. Conceived as the zenith busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Get ahead

of runaway complexity with a single pane of glass Gaining visibility and performance metrics

of all your applications is mission critical, but is not an easy task. Discover how organisations are using Visibility and Performance Management to manage complexity and deliver flawless digital experiences.

Learn more

of automation, wherein cloud, IoT

that will not have some form of digital

(internet of things) and AI (artificial

technology involved in it. When we

intelligence) software combine to

talk about IoT, it means that you need

produce efficient and self-optimising

to have a secure platform for building

operating systems, Industry 4.0

those capabilities, and this is where

could change the face of enterprise

NTT’s expertise lies.” The company’s

IT. Indeed, technology priorities have

emphasis on shifting away from hard-

changed within 95% of organizations

ware to software reflects an industry

during the pandemic, according to

macro trend that favours cloud compute

‘The Agents of Transformation Report

and storage over owning physical data

2020: COVID-19 Special Edition’ by

centre equipment. Green calls cloud a

AppDynamics. And the importance

“key part” of facilitating Industry 4.0 but

of high-quality applications has

clarifies that it is not without challenges:

never been more apparent. “There is

“Historically, you would have your appli-

practically no business in the world

cations in your own secure data centre.

You’d control what went in and out of it

2019

Year founded

and have a big firewall to protect it.

However, fast-forward to where we are now and very little is on-premises.”

Organizations’ appetite for auto-

$11bn

Revenue in US dollars (Globally)

mation and intelligence software, to answer to the needs of the consumer, has been whetted by the pandemic, and this has not gone unnoticed by NTT. “We’re seeing an increase in

40,000 Number of employees

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) usage, too,” Green states. “This has mainly been driven by the need for people to work remotely from home. Take NTT Ltd., for example: we have about busi ne ssc h ief . eu

333

NTT LTD.

Managed Services accelerate digital transformation CLICK TO WATCH | 2:53

334

“ Generally, when you look at [customer experience, employee experience and digital transformation], you will see that there is an application at the core”

there’s been a huge amount of investment,

— Andy Green, Senior Director Software GTM, NTT Ltd.

shift from an old to a new way of working.

but it does demonstrate that, if you invest in it, you can accelerate the transformation as well.”

It is important to note that changes underway do not apply to one sector or industry, rather they are a consummate The rate of change could be overwhelming for some companies, who must, nonetheless, ensure that they do not allow

40,000 employees and many are now

their essential applications to fall into

working from home. Both from a customer

obsolescence. Therefore, NTT advocates

and employee experience perspective,

‘Application Visibility and Performance

FEBRUARY 2021

Management’, a concept aimed at provid-

technologies and enable multi-layer

ing organisations with a ‘single pane of

troubleshooting. Notably, the com-

glass’ perspective on complex IT envi-

pany’s clients can also gain precise

ronments. Developed in conjunction

insights into the end-user experience

with partners like AppDynamics and

by viewing services from their perspec-

ThousandEyes, two of the leading solu-

tive, regardless of whichever application

tions in the Cisco product portfolio, NTT

or device they are using. This aspect,

can offer full-stack application visibility

says Green, is invaluable when it comes

and management in a centralised data hub,

to resolving problems. “For me, it’s

with an accompanying strategy designed

absolutely integral that all applications

to mitigate the risks of adopting cloud

are performing optimally. Are there

335

Executive Profile:

Andy Green Title: Snr Director Software GTM Industry: Information Technology & Services Andy Green is the Senior Director of NTT Ltd’s European Software Go-To-Market practice. From selling directly to the Colleges and Universities and the UK’s NHS Trusts, to mentoring tech start-ups since the London 2012 Olympics, Andy is now responsible for incubating and bringing to market new and disruptive technologies.

He has over 15 years in the IT industry, as both client, software vendor and technology integrator. He lives with his wife and daughter in Cornwall.

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NTT LTD.

“ For me, it’s absolutely integral that all applications are performing optimally [...] Our clients are able to understand what’s working and what isn’t” — Andy Green, Senior Director Software GTM, NTT Ltd.

to be improved? Our clients are able to understand what’s working and what isn’t across their entire application landscape”.

The events of 2020, although profoundly disruptive for business all over the world, have not altered NTT’s digital strategy for 2021 and beyond, on the contrary, it accelerated the company’s plans. Addressing the new security issues of remote working,

336

customer drop-offs during a transac-

NTT has, for example, begun operating

tion? What’s the reason for that; is the

with an ‘always on’ VPN, something

application not performing correctly?

initially scheduled for 2021, but which

Does the customer experience need

has been necessarily brought forward.

“The other things we are really focusing on is the rationalisation of our applications monitoring tools. These tools need to be seamlessly deployed and fully integrated to improve observability of the application landscape, ensuring we can glean valuable insights into how the applications perform, allowing the business and IT operations to make intelligent decisions.” By doing so, NTT not only gains greater visibility and management over its applications, but can also create trust with its clients and share first-hand experience.

FEBRUARY 2021

337

VISIBILITY & PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

•8 2% of organisations cite a focus on customer experience as providing a potential competitive advantage.

•5 8% believe customer experience can be a primary differentiator •5 5% increase in availability possible for businesses with “proactively supported” environments •1 0.5% decrease in critical outages can

be achieved through automation •8 8% of technologists report that digital customer experience is now the priority •8 1% of technologists state that COVID-19 has created the biggest technology pressure for their organization that they have ever experienced.

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NTT LTD.

338

“ Your own internal digital transformation, from automation to process improvement, will shape your response and I absolutely believe that all of these things will soon be running on applications” — Andy Green, Senior Director Software GTM, NTT Ltd.

FEBRUARY 2021

Summarising his position on what organisations can do to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution, Green is emphatic that application performance will be integral to positive business outcomes moving forward. To that effect, NTT, a company with world-class service capabilities partnering with world-class platform and software providers, like AppDynamics and ThousandEyes, has the expertise necessary to draw up a winning digital roadmap and can help facilitate that success. “It doesn’t take much now for anyone to jump onto Twitter and share a negative story about their poor customer experience,” he concludes.

“Your own internal digital transformation, from automation to process improvement, will shape your response and I absolutely believe that all of these things will soon be running on applications.”

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339

340

Delivering a Successful Procurement Transformation WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

FEBRUARY 2021

341

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DOKA GROUP

Doka’s Thomas Zsulits and Mirko Loos discuss their company-wide procurement and material group management transformation

342

D

ating back to 1868, Doka has over 150 years of heritage in the construction industry, providing its customers with

reliable, experienced and trustworthy services, “listening intently” to understand the world through the eyes of its customers. Describing the company and the services it provides its customers, Thomas Zsulits Director Global Procurement at Doka says, “Doka is a market leader in many countries when it comes to formwork for public, private or commercial customers. We are also on a good path to becoming market leaders in scaffolding.

Our most prestigious projects have been the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia. But also in infrastructure projects Doka is seen as the partner of choice for bridges, tunnels or cooling towers.”

FEBRUARY 2021

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DOKA GROUP

“ One of the biggest challenges, I believe, is the change from being in personal contact with our customers, partners, and supply partners to digital ones” — Thomas Zsulits, Director Global Procurement, Doka

Mirko Loos, Head of Material Group Management at Doka, explains that “before Thomas started at Doka three years ago, purchasing departments had only been existent in larger coun-

344

HOW DOKA TRANSFORMED ITS PROCUREMENT OPERATIONS

tries or countries with a production

Doka is operating globally. It formed a

Germany. Their main focus was on

global organisation three years ago

material disposition for production.

and have just undertaken another

Global agreements had been existent,

step to become a more effective

but sourcing was mostly done locally

and modern organisation.

or regionally, at max.

operation, like Austria, Slovakia and

“A new procurement structure was introduced in 2018, and it was meant to secure an effective material disposition on the one side, responsible for managing the P2P process and providing support to local stakeholders on day-to-day operational issues.

On the other side, a separate team was formed focusing on strategic work which otherwise would remain undone, like developing effective sourcing strategies, or delivering other typical FEBRUARY 2021

Doka upbeat construction – boosting productivity on site CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:00

345 value propositions to the organisation.

forming the backbone of procurement

The operational teams remained in

to meet all imminent needs of our inter-

the countries mentioned before. As of

nal stakeholders. They are close to all

2021, they will become part of support

internal customers and help MGM with

units responsible for operational pro-

their strategy implementations but

curement, invoice control and MDM

will also be a source of information for

and covering our regions Middle East/ Asia Pacific, Americas and Europe. Our strategic teams have since undergone the largest transformation from a split in local, regional and global teams into category teams as part of our global Material Group Management (MGM) and on the other side Supply Business Partners (SBP). Our SBPs are now

1868

Year founded

7,000 Number of employees

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DOKA GROUP

346

“ Digital will be a challenge for us all in the future.

We all need personal contact - especially in tough times [...] We have to think about a new way of cooperating” — Thomas Zsulits, Director Global Procurement, Doka FEBRUARY 2021

other procurement colleagues when

our operational procurement. And

it comes to understanding our cus-

alongside a proper P2P process, we’d

tomer’s pains and gains better.”

enhance our data with proper spend

In order to ensure a smooth

classifications and that way could

transition for its procurement transfor-

improve our spend visibility over time

mation, Loos adds that “from the very

– Crucial for effective strategic work.

start, there was the idea to put SAP/

“We’ve now introduced this solution

MM in place and have a catalogue

in our headquarters in Austria. It has

system to minimise the workload for

been a substantial project for us,

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Thomas Zsulits

347

Title: Director Global Procurement Industry: Construction

Location: Austria

Thomas Zsulits has more than 20 years of experience in different functions along the supply chain process. He gained broad experience in global leading companies like Bosch and Mondi, as well as in mid-range organisations across the globe. Degrees in electronics and later a Bachelor in BA supported his strong implementation and process skills. With his charismatic leadership skills he is used to being successful also in turbulent times and has proven his leadership skills in turnarounds, M&As, restructuring programmes and more.

He lives close to Vienna in Austria with his family. Beside his passion for the job and family, he runs a diving school where he loves to give people an insight into his passion for diving. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Safely en route in payment transactions: in the past with stagecoaches, today digitally We need somebody who knows how to manage challenging times safely. In more than 170 years of company history, there is a lot of reinvention: from a forwarding company with a stagecoach to a global company, American Express has always demonstrated “financial resilience”. Today, we ensure companies’ liquidity and flexibility with supply chain finance, virtual payments, corporate credit cards and travel agent accounts in over 140 countries—from business travelers through procurement to the finance department Constant change Lately, we have all experienced accelerated digitisation and thereby new demands on expense management. Managing corporate expenditures digitally, leanly and cost-consciously matters now more than ever. No matter whether it is about business travel expenses or other corporate costs.

Virtual payment solutions, like American Express vPayment, help simplifying complex cash flows and optimising payment flows—while improving the control of expenditures.

Targeted cash flow management Liquidity means freedom. Companies benefit from an extended payment term of 28 days after invoicing. Depending on the transaction timing, the actual liquidity advantage is even greater — up to 58 days. There is no obligation to tender the bank-independent payment solution for the optimisation of working capital. Using a silent procedure, no involvement of the creditors is necessary while cash discounts can be fully utilised.

Flexibility in liability and billing With the American Express corporate card programme, billing methods are flexible:

regardless of whether the expenses of travelling employees should be paid via private accounts or debited to the company account. The liability options can be selected flexibly.

Simple cross-border payments The high export share of European companies and the handling of international payments became crucial. Particularly important are simplicity in processing and hedging against exposure to currency risks. We offer a web-based payment solution for international transactions: for more than 80 currencies in more than 100 countries.

“Our customers experience how we respond to their requirements, develop innovative solutions and lead the way in the financial industry’s transformation.

We aim to create concrete value for our customers — and for their customers and suppliers. Long-term reliability and experience of a global company rooted in Europe, combined with genuine innovative strength and openness,” explains Sonja Scott, Country Manager American Express Germany and Head of Global Commercial Services Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Nordics.

“ The construction industry continues to grow worldwide, so the future will be very positive for Doka” — Thomas Zsulits, Director Global Procurement, Doka

highlights the importance of having the right culture in an organisation.

“It’s very important. In fact, it has been a major success factor for us. With our new structure, employees have to be proactive and understand our customers’ needs. At the same time, they have to lead our customers to get the best results in the interest of

and we are grateful for the support of

Doka. They have to be interested in

our partners.”

the numbers they see as well as to be

When it comes to effectively implementing a strategy like this, Zsulits

able to adapt to the variable requirements of our fast-evolving markets, 349

D O KA ’ S P A R T N E R SHI P WI T H AM ERI CAN EXPRESS

American Express is our incumbent credit card provider in the US. In 2019, we conducted an assessment for a global credit card solution in support of our Global Travel concept. What we found was that American Express offer a truly global credit card solution. Other competitors are strong in certain regions, but American Express had the largest geographical reach.

We’re seeing benefits in strengthening our partnership with American

Express as Doka is operating in 60 different countries around the globe. We are currently thinking of a hybrid solution with a different partner for ‘walking cards’, but overall, I would say it’s a partnership for us that we see potential in, and we’re very much looking forward to continuing those conversations.

Mirko Loos, Head of Material Group Management at Doka

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DOKA GROUP

350

customers, partners and organisation.

the biggest challenges I believe is the

So there has definitely been a need for

change from being in personal contact

mindshifts here, and this is something

with our customers, partners, and

we’ll have to continue to work on. We

supply partners to digital ones. The

believe this will be a key for the suc-

highest impact was probably on our

cess of our procurement organisation

risk management. The only tangible

moving forward.”

contact with suppliers was basically

Like many organisations around

our incoming goods inspection, the

the world, Doka has been faced with

rest had to be managed digitally or

challenges due to COVID-19. “One of

over the phone,” comments Zsulits.

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Mirko Loos Title: Head of Material Group Management Industry: Construction

Location: Germany

With 18 years of straight procurement expertise, Loos started his career in 2002 in the Strategic Supplier Management department at Mercedes-Benz near Stuttgart. In 2007 he moved on to join the anglo-dutch provider of online-paid content Reed Elsevier (later RELX Group), where he held different local, regional and later global roles in procurement. In 2018, Mirko joined Doka as Head of Category Indirect and has recently taken on the role as Head of Material Group Management.

He holds a degree in Business Administration from PFH – Private University of Applied Sciences in Goettingen, and he lives with his family near Dusseldorf in Germany.

FEBRUARY 2021

351

“ Leadership for me is typically the problem and the solution at the same time. The idea should be to work on oneself to reduce the number of mistakes that you typically do” — Mirko Loos, Head of Material Group Management, Doka busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DOKA GROUP

“ Globalisation is for us to have/run most important processes globally but be very flexible with our local ones” 352

— Thomas Zsulits, Director Global Procurement, Doka

To overcome these challenges Zsulits

their fears because nobody knows

continues to explain that to address

what to do in this situation right now;

the lack of personal contact, Doka

we are all experiencing this for the

increased the frequency of commu-

first time. So if you know their fears

nication with its partners, customers

and the situation they are in, you are

and employees. “We try to understand

then able to find a common way to help

the situation they are in. In the past,

each other. So together we are trying

discussions were more around techni-

to establish this new way of partnering,

cal topics – how are we solving this

which I believe – looking to the future

topic? How can we provide/improve

– will create a new way of cooperation

this service? – and now it is more about

when it comes to risk management.”

circumstances, financial balance, and

Further reflecting on the future for

support. It’s important to understand FEBRUARY 2021

Doka and the construction industry,

353

both Zsulits and Loos agree that as

to participate in this positive trend,”

populations grow so will the market’s

comments Zsulits. Adding to Zsulits’s

need for the construction industry.

comments, Loos concludes, “as the

“The construction industry continues

population grows, there will be a need

to grow worldwide, so I believe the

for construction, both on the infra-

future will be very positive for Doka

structure side, as well as on the private

because with this growth our services

housing side – and to echo what

and products will be needed even

Thomas said – I think Doka is set up

more than they are needed today.

really well to emerge from the corona

So the question is, how will we par-

crisis with new opportunities.”

ticipate in that growth? And I’m very convinced that with our products and our global structuring Doka will be able busi ne ssc h ief . eu

354

Reimagining Hospitality.

WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH PRODUCED BY

KRIS PALMER

FEBRUARY 2021

355

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THE STUDENT HOTEL

The Student Hotel is redefining how the hospitality business model works in a world of changing guest behaviour. And that means a new approach to technology.

C

hange has not been one of the watchwords of the hospitality industry, according to The Student Hotel’s Chief Digital and Experience

Officer Mark Liversidge. “The hotel business, in my humble opinion, hasn’t really changed in generations,” he says.

“It runs on the same formula. It’s driven by the same industry metrics with the same workaround to overcome the

356

shifts and changes that are going on around it.

“Brand portfolios delivered by the hospitality management companies are massive. They’ve got up to 20, 30 or 40 brands in their portfolios, yet fundamentally it’s all just been the same space and service with different carpets and wallpaper.

“The engine it works on is the same. Most of the guest utility is the same. The decision making of the business models is the same. It’s simply a drive to get more flags in the ground and operational rooms. Fundamentally, none of it is serving the evolution of the guest. And their ability to pivot is hugely constrained. Conventional hospitality technology does not allow them to move with fluidity or agility.”

What we’re trying to do is different; staying at TSH is not just about the rooms, it’s about a community experience.

TSH’s hybrid hospitality concept is designed to welcome students, tourists, neighbours, entrepreneurs and business FEBRUARY 2021

357

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THE STUDENT HOTEL

358

FEBRUARY 2021

EX EC UTIV E PROFILE:

Mark Liversidge Title: Chief Digital and Experience Officer Company: The Student Hotel Industry: Hybrid hospitality Location: Amsterdam

Mark is responsible for the technology stack, digital platforms and guest experience, placing technology at the core of TSH hybrid hospitality model.

Mark held a variety of executive roles in consumer markets with Orange, O2, CSL, Macquarie and Hilton Worldwide. He has a master’s in strategy and innovation from Oxford University and is a graduate in European Studies from Durham University.

Twice in the Global Top 40 Under 40, named Asia’s Most Influential CMO and awarded in branding, marketing, digital, mobile and retail design.

Mark advises sporting charities and is a passionate sportsman, currently a youth coach at Bath Rugby in the UK. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

359

THE STUDENT HOTEL

Mark Liversidge: 5 Points to Effective Leadership Mark Liversidge has honed his approach to leadership “over time, working across a broad spectrum of companies in different industry sectors, different organisation models, different ownership structures, different cultures globally and sizes of team from single digits to 700”. It comes down to five points.

1. Be culturally aware “It’s critical to be culturally aware. And that’s culturally aware in terms of the context of where the market operates in terms of geography both for your internal team and also your customers, and then the actual community culture of your business.

You have to understand that very quickly on entry into any organisation. And you have to keep that at the forefront of your thinking.”

360

2. Be contextually aware “This is where you go down to an individual level, understand each individual’s journey.

I don’t buy into leaders who think that people are going to want to stay with that company or that team for lifetime. That just simply doesn’t happen. It’s not normal.

So understand the context of an individual’s journey, where they’re at, what they want to get out of their time in your team, in your organisation, and where they want to go next. And be respectful of that and try to assist them on that. Because if you are open and engaged in that journey, then you will get more out of them while they’re with you.”

3. Set direct strategy and objectives “Every time I’ve observed failure, it’s because of a lack of harmonisation across the group of people. What’s important is to set clear direct strategy, objectives and timeline, then to step back and allow the people and the teams to work out the journey and not be prescriptive or descriptive in how they’re going to achieve those outcomes.”

FEBRUARY 2021

4. Put in the checkpoints “Have set communication and engagement cycles with the team, with your internal clients, and externally, with your partners and your customers. And I think it’s very important that people understand what that communication cycle is, so that they know they’re going to be engaged and given downward information, but also have the opportunity for feedback. And then with that communication, ensure commitment of action based on the collective observations and findings of that communication and engagement cycle.”

5. Give people space “It’s critical to harmonise around the individual. Give people space to explore their capabilities, allow people to step into the space that they feel they’ve got within themselves, allow them to make mistakes, allow them to challenge your thinking by trying things that maybe you, with your experience or perspective, don’t necessarily think is the right outcome, but then learn from them as they learn. In order to facilitate that, be super flexible in your engagement as an individual. And I see this as four roles that I have to play in engaging with somebody and the mix is dependent on the individual and where they’re at and what that person is like: between being a director, being a mentor, being a disruptor, and being a defendant.

The Breakdown And you think about those things, then in terms of the full package overall, to be an effective leader, my belief is that you have to spend two-thirds of your time in that last element, which is one-on-one individual time, and you’re spending 20 per cent on your strategy direction and your communication, and you’re spending 20 per cent on maintaining cultural and contextual awareness. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

361

THE STUDENT HOTEL

362

“ Activating all types of space use within a single harmonized technology system” — Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel

student accommodation (PBSA). That is also a rapidly evolving market, as higher education morphs from a concentration of 18 to 24 year old’s towards lifelong learning models, another trend Liversidge sees

people to learn, stay, work and play, all under

being accelerated by COVID. TSH’s hybrid

one roof. From hotel, student rooms and co-

personality begs the question of where

working spaces to auditoriums, gyms, event

The Student Hotel fits between hospital-

spaces and social initiative programming,

ity, workspace and PBSA. In fact, they are

Its a place where people can connect and

somewhat converging, as students demand

learn from one another while growing into a

higher quality accommodation while work-

vibrant community.

ers and travelers have increasingly fluid

The Student Hotel began life, as the name suggests as a provider of purpose-built FEBRUARY 2021

notions of how they go about their respective endeavours.

WORKING FOR CHANGE

that are going to be fluid in the immedi-

Like universities, who are coming to realise

ate future. The challenge for us, at TSH,

that they are not accommodation special-

is to bring them together harmoniously,

ists and would rather hand off to third party

each part clearly defined, and as a prof-

expertise, Liversidge believes the corpo-

itable business. Technology will play a

rate world is likely to see a revolution in

critical role in achieving this.

office space.

If you want to do things differently you

“Companies don’t want to be carrying the

have to overcome the constraints of con-

cost of large spaces in city centres or in major

ventional industry technology engineering.

hubs at high cost that is not fully utilised.

The Student Hotel has been pushing to

They’re going to want to hand that over to

break free of the “standards, systems

other people whose specialisms are in real

and platforms” that “just don’t exist to sup-

estate as a service and have more fluidity in

port our desired fluidity”.

what space they need and when they use it.

“We’re heading into a generation of more

MIDDLEWARE

363

freelance contract work, where people

“We’re on our transformation journey, and

will come together in teams on a fluid,

we’ve made some bets with innovators

organic, time-specific basis. You won’t be

and early leaders who are bringing smart,

contracted to a company so much as con-

dynamic tooling to the table to be a technol-

tracted in for a particular activity or project

ogy leader, breaking out of the conventional

within a company. And that company itself

architecture and systems that just can’t

may only exist for a certain reason for a short

cope with hybrid space use and operat-

period of time. People are going to say ‘I want

ional fluidity that we believe are the basis

the ability to step out of my personal space

of future business profitability and growth.”

and go to a dedicated workspace which

Middleware, Liversidge argues, is the key.

is set up for that and has the facilities and

“Middleware is a critical path for the indu-

amenities for that. And from a wellness and

stry because so many of these systems

mental wellbeing perspective, it should give

are linear and single use, but we’re trying

people that ability to mix face to face rather

to dimension our spaces to be multi-use.

than solely via a screen.

You need a logic layer that can connect

“So you’ve got three things in a state of flux

those individual systems and allow you to busi ne ssc h ief . eu

THE STUDENT HOTEL

364

FEBRUARY 2021

365

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THE STUDENT HOTEL

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FEBRUARY 2021

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busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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“ It’s all just been the same with different carpets and wallpaper” — Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel

the ability to start creating a core central customer data platform (CDP) with individual lifelong guest profiles.

“I would argue that a middleware logic layer is fundamentally going to be critical to almost any multi-product hospitality operator in the next five years while the operational systems try to catch up.

And then if you look at the key systems,

manage that flexibility. We partnered early

the property management system (PMS)

with Ireckonu who developed a middle-

in our category, they’re very limited and

ware logic layer specifically for hospitality

very linear. Most of them are based on the

and over the last couple of years has

same dimensioning, which is the historic

evolved into a rich product set that has

per room per night stay.”

369

enables us to move rapidly with our technology transformation.

The other big thing to address is that

PERISHABLE SPACE The problem, Liversidge maintains, is

we’re clearly now in the era of hyper indi-

achieving the optimal use of space. A fully

vidualization, which we see delivered by

booked hotel may have all its rooms

the digital retailers and service providers.

booked according to the legacy system,

People now expect you to understand who

but upwards of half of the ‘space time’ is

they are and serve them to their distinctive

never used. Once the time has passed, so

unique behavioral needs and journeys.

has the opportunity to leverage its use and

“And again, the hospitality space in its

sweat the asset for incremental revenues.

broadest context just doesn’t do that right.

The Student Hotel has been partnering

It actually has abandoned the original

with Mews Systems in delivering a PMS

fundamentals of hospitality in personal

which “will fundamentally allow us to drive

service and it’s now a homogenized thing

our dynamic space x time model more

at a time when everybody wants to get

intently in activating all types of space

that individualisation. So the other critical

use within a single harmonized technol-

thing about middleware is that it gives you

ogy system.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

THE STUDENT HOTEL

“ I’m having to design a technology architecture for a business model that’s never existed before” — Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel

That technology architecture is designed to deliver The Student Hotel’s brief as a hybrid space for blended living, blended use.

It’s a PBSA, it’s a city hotel, it’s serviced apartments, it’s a workspace, it has corporate busi­ness meeting, event and – increasingly –office space. Then there is lifestyle, it’s also a place to hang out in the day and night-time: gyms, wellness spaces, learning events, mini cinemas, gaming theatres and “what we call our living space, where all of those different tribes come together”.

“I’m having to design a technology

370

architecture for a business model that’s never existed before and is still nascent in its formula. It’s not fixed as to how it’s going to be. And I’m pretty confident that three years from now, it won’t look like we think it looks today. And three years after that, none of us know. So we have to have some agility in what we’re trying to design for today to be still purposeful within that natural five to seven year technology life cycle that we all live with.”

THE BLUE CUBE Liversidge’s approach is to abandon traditional hotel thinking and break down the space. “I simply think of a blue cube and that blue cube is a metre by a metre FEBRUARY 2021

Stay Curious. | The Student Hotel CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:08

371 by a metre. And we ask ourselves, how do

“The other side of what we’re thinking

we activate that blue cube – and we have

about is our guest. Our business success

hundreds of thousands – in the most opti-

is singularly going to be built on the iden-

mal and efficient way that people can use

tification and serving of an individual

them purposefully as individuals or groups?

guest who is increasingly expecting

And how do we make sure we’re turning

hyper-personalisation. So we’ve got

them over to other people to use as quickly

to make sure that we have an ability to

and as efficiently as possible? As an exam-

immediately capture people’s profiles in

ple, many coworking places will have a fixed

the broadest possible dimensions that

membership quota. And they’ll say they’re

we can at every possible opportunity, but

full, but you go there at 10 o’clock at night,

then intelligently and restrictively use them,

it’s empty. You go there at six o’clock in the

because we don’t want to be big brother.

morning, it’s empty. There are people who

We want to use it with respect, intelligently

have a need to use space in off-peak hours.

and infrequently, but when we use it, it

How do you reach them? And how do you

really is a moment that matters for the guest.

set up the technology to activate them?

We are in the process of building that up on busi ne ssc h ief . eu

THE STUDENT HOTEL

372

2012 Year founded

FEBRUARY 2021

13

Number of hotel locations

500+ Number of employees

our proprietary front-end platforms, based on the core middleware and operational management system.

TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECTURE “We’ve built an entire new front-end, which essentially is our shop window, with a new website and the booking engine. We’ve built our own new proprietary spaces. We built a website using React JS. To give you an idea of who else uses React JS, people like Netflix and Airbnb. And why do we want that? Because it enables us to modify and deliver faster, stronger UX, as well as critically, really leading-edge capabilities to have dynamic and changeable experience, which is going to be fundamental for us in telling our brand story and experience, along with capturing revenue opportunities.”

The new booking platform, now into phased deployment, again breaks away from the traditional linear single hotel product booking engines, moving to a multi-product basket to deliver a distinctive branded shopping experience as TSH seeks to sell packages meeting individual guest and group needs, to wrestle back control of the customer from the intermediary distribution platforms and build a customer lifecycle model. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

373

THE STUDENT HOTEL

374 Finally, there is data, a crucial pillar of the

middleware logic layer, and finally complete

knowledge economy, “how we start to

swap out and standardization of our on-

understand the value of the data we’re har-

property technology.

vesting and the sensitivity and meticulous

This latter proprietary technology stack

control to utilise that data to benefit both

is called HiB (Hotel Tech in a Box), which is

the individual customer and for the company

dropped into each of our operating proper-

by aggregating that into macro indicators.

ties, identikit right down to the cable layout

All of these elements of the technology

in the equipment rooms and integrates with

architecture are being delivered to put the

deploying HP Aruba hardware for optimal

individual customer in “total” control of their

connectivity and space monitoring.

own journey.

And we’ve overlaid that with PRTG

“We’ve made three massive transforma-

monitoring over more than 4,000 data

tions in the last 15 months; delivering a new

points so that we can, from a single

website and booking engine, transformation

central perspective, constantly monitor,

of our operating management system and

moderate and control our technology

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Middleware is a critical path for the industry” — Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel

broadcast quality connectivity and enables use our meeting spaces differently, which has been super, super successful already.

“COVID has re-emphasised we’ve made the right decisions in the direction we’re taking with our technology, showing the critical need for the flexiest, most agile systems.

Furthermore, COVID hit in the middle of our transformation program and created a

stack which harmonizes between the op-

huge challenge of project delivery, which

erational systems and the actual property.”

I’m very proud of what was achieved, not only by my team, but our vendor partners,

SURVIVAL OF THE FLEXIEST

in still delivering on time and without any

It’s a system The Student Hotel has been

impact on business operations, really

able to stress test during the pandemic.

encapsulating the can-do spirit of TSH.”

“COVID has accelerated the stress and flux

As for the impact of COVID on the sector,

that’s coming on the hotel, workspace and

Liversidge says, “it will be Darwinian, those

leisure categories. If it had been a year

that have planned and deployed the flexi-

earlier it would have been a horror show for

est technology architecture will thrive and

us because of all the singular systems, so

grow, while the operators that are stuck

we have been fortunate to deliver the new

with the out-of-date and linear product

core systems and take advantage that part

technology stacks will struggle to respond

of the design has our own Api to enable fast

to the dynamic changes in the market and

deployment of new guest experience ser-

meet customer expectations.”

vices. One thing that we quickly invested in

And beyond COVID-19? “Space is

was a belief that organisations would

going to be redefined. Let’s focus explicitly

need enhanced broadcast to reach their

on the hotel bedroom all over the globe: you

dispersed teams and audience, so we cre-

know what you’re going to see. You walk

ated and delivered the TSH Media Studio,

in the door, the wardrobe is to the left, the

which essentially is building on the deployed

cubicle bathroom is to the right. Straight busi ne ssc h ief . eu

375

THE STUDENT HOTEL

“ We’ve made three massive transformations in the last 15 months”

376

engage in your public spaces. By and large it is the same fixed formula, yet customers have differing needs for space at differing times. We are delivering lounge

— Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel

tribes at different times of the day.

ahead: double or twin beds. In front of

SUSTAINABILITY

that a desk on the wall with a TV above it.

Sustainability will also be crucial to hos­

And probably a bit of shelving and one

pitality and technology in the future,

comfy chair in the window. And that has

says Liversidge. “I fundamentally believe

not changed in literally the better part

the way we build and operate property

of a century.

will change and this will be driven by

spaces that are set as hubs to provide for the needs of the differing customer

“People are going to look for different

the financing. The financial markets will

spatial experience, they are going to want

drive and demand smarter more envi-

a private space to rest and revitalize, a

ronmentally sound thinking about the

cocoon, a space designed for wellness.

physical asset because people are making

Why is there a desk when people now

a 20-year investment. Those investment

want to work collaboratively? Get that

managers are smart enough to know

out of there. Starbucks has been the des-

that five years from now a very heavy

tination of choice for people grabbing a

metric of value is going to be based on

workspace for the better part of 20 years

your green footprint.

around the globe, that should be a natural

“We’re working super, super hard on this.

use of hotel/living space. Just rethink and

We’re trying to use sustainable elements

reimagine the whole space. Maybe people

and base components in all of our buildings.

want individual cooking in a room, or VR

I’m very pleased to say that we opened

gaming, or exercise without going to the

in Delft a couple of months ago where all

hotel gym. How do you design space

our public spaces, workspaces, as well

for that? And you’ve got to create more

as the in-house restaurant are designed

inspiring and flexible space for people to

with circular design principles. We see

FEBRUARY 2021

T S H K E Y PA R T N E R S H I P S

RUFUS LEONARD

IRECKONU

Rufus Leonard is a creative agency

IRECKONU’s hybrid middleware solu-

that built The Student Hotel’s website

tion is designed specifically for the

and retooled its content manage-

hotel industry and connects systems,

ment system (CMS). Underpinning

either on-property or otherwise, into

the experience is an innovative hybrid

a single platform allowing for instant,

hospitality UX that is user-centric and

accessible visibility of operational and

goal-orientated, rather than one-size-

guest profile data.

fits-all.

MEWS

HP ARUBA HP Aruba is a wireless networking tool

Mews is an advanced property man-

allowing for control of access points,

agement system (PMS). Founded by

traffic management and network mon-

a team of former hoteliers, the Mews

itoring. It also allows networks to be

Hospitality Cloud was designed to be

controlled remotely and can perform

the most open, extensible property

complex tasks such as prioritising

management software in the market.

bandwidth for certain customers.

the property as a live operating lab to

collectively as a harmonized technology

test circularity and sustainability in the

team. After a lifetime of partnerships

built environment. We’re exploring smart

with businesses, governments, sports,

building design and management, and

entertainment and charities, Liversidge is

behind this we are making conscious

both enthusiastic and pragmatic. As far as

choices in technology deployment and

technology is concerned, it’s not about the

its use to bring energy efficiency.

technology (“it’s all good tech if they’ve got to the shortlist”), but about the people.

BEDFELLOWS

“It’s really about where they’re going,

TSH digital and technology group operates

how quickly, and identifying how that can

with substantial outsourcing, built around

be harmonised between both parties for

four key partnerships [see box] working

mutually beneficial time-based outcomes busi ne ssc h ief . eu

377

THE STUDENT HOTEL

“ Let’s just sit down, be open, supportive and reharmonise on the new way forwards.

And go again. This open and pragmatic approach is the reason we have delivered our transformation during this global crisis” — Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital and Experience Officer, The Student Hotel 378 and milestones. There are going to be moments of failure with technology.

You have to accept they’re going to happen and have tolerance on both sides. And that

STINKY FISH

tolerance is based on that harmonised

“And the other side of this is ‘stinky fish’.

milestone plan.

You’ve got to have truth and reconcili-

You break it down into an annual horizon

ation when something’s gone wrong to

and a quarterly horizon, then accept that

make sure you don’t make the same error

there’s going to be a bit of a zigzagging

in future and it doesn’t cloud the working

journey to get there. And that gives you

relationship. And another dynamic you

a degree of manoeuvrability when you

will handle in deploying any leading-edge

have those inevitable ebbs and flows of

capability – which happens in technology

any relationship. You need a collective

a lot – is that if you pick a fast growth

group of people on both sides who have

company as your partner, you’ll inevita-

a connection with each other and see

bly stop being the shiny new customer at

themselves as one team.

the top of their client list at some point.

FEBRUARY 2021

379

You’ve got to address it on both sides,

new way forwards. And go again. This open

acknowledge it and ensure your interests

and pragmatic approach is the reason we

are protected in formal documentation

have delivered our transformation during

and informal people connections, while

this global crisis, preparing our business

openly supporting the partners growth.

model to grow as we move into the future”

“This openness has been really important with the Covid situation. Right now we’re having constant conversations with our core partners because all our timelines are changing for reasons that are, in most cases, out of all our control. So let’s not all get upset about it. Let’s just sit down, be open, supportive and reharmonise on the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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FEBRUARY 2021

381

360° SECURITY WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORDINA

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FEBRUARY 2021

Vincent Meijer, CISO at Ordina, explains why security should be built in, not bolted on

“W

e are a local player,” says Vincent Meijer, CISO and Head of Information Security at Ordina. The Netherlands-based IT

solutions company is heavily focused on the Benelux market, perhaps surprisingly in a world of globalised solutions. But for Meijer it is key to 383

delivering value.

“We talk about areas of expertise, but we get even more value because we are a local player. We understand Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourgisch culture and how things work out there and we focus on building expertise and knowledge of certain branches – sectors – in these countries.

“We have a deep understanding of those kinds of businesses which, added to our expertise, can really move them forward and put them a step ahead. You can have just the expertise and fold it into a context you don’t understand, but you will only bring the company forward in a technical way.

We look at it a little bit more holistically and see how we can deliver a total concept or solution by combining expertise from all our company.”

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORDINA

“ We deliver a total solution by combining expertise” — Vincent Meijer, CISO | Head of Information Security, Ordina

it in a more holistic way – and look at where you can adjust it or apply it in your value stream process. If you do that, you

HOLISTIC SECURITY

can move and anticipate change really

Meijer talks about holistic security enthu-

quickly because it’s just the way you

siastically, and calls his work ‘security

work. But if you keep on addressing it

transformation’. “I don’t think security is

as an add-on or an afterthought, that’s

a goal in itself,” he says. “It’s just a piece

going to be really, really difficult.”

which needs to be there as a standard 384

in, and to build it in you need to look at

way of working. So it needs to be built

Why? “It was already difficult, but it’s going to be impossible to grow in this digital transformation everybody’s into.

And the risks are growing.”

Meijer explains that new legislation passed in the Netherlands puts the duty of care on suppliers for security matters. It’s “a big topic at the moment” because although many suppliers wanted to put security at the heart of

FEBRUARY 2021

Data Migration CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:51

385 their solutions, it adds costs and clients

change and an increasing number of

were reticent about paying the per-

employees engage with their work via

ceived mark-up.

personal devices. “A lot of companies

“That was always a difficult discus-

designed their programs on the office

sion, because if the supplier thinks their

network, not just their IP networks

competitor is going to propose a solu-

but also the people networking in the

tion without [security] and I’m going to

office and in the office space. So, for

propose one with it, I’m going to lose

example, the awareness programmes –

the offer. So it’s a big step from both

there are posters all over the company,

sides to increase security, and that’s

in the toilets, in the coffee bar, but

a good thing, I think.”

no one’s going there so the question arises: how do I reach my people?”

HYBRID WORKING AND SECURITY

At a more technical level, Meijer also

Covid-19 has also accelerated secu-

points to home networks that lack

rity concerns as working patterns

the enhanced security of corporate busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ORDINA

386

“ It’s important to realise you can’t do all the security on your own” — Vincent Meijer, CISO | Head of Information Security, Ordina

network monitoring solutions. “A lot of

we create value for our customers

companies I speak with have a huge

hasn’t changed, only the context of the

blind spot there, so they need to antici-

environment where, when and how we

pate it to increase visibility again. And

create that value did change.”

again, we are continuously looking at

The problem for companies who

what value we can create. So the way

haven’t previously consolidated their

FEBRUARY 2021

security arrangements are strug-

security arrangements more effec-

gling in managing and maintaining all

tive and better to manage in order to

their security controls and it almost

become more resilient.

becomes a goal on itself. “Hopefully a lot of people are going to take a little

ZERO TRUST: NO HERO?

step back instead of rushing forward,”

“I keep hearing about a ‘zero trust’

says Meijer. “A better goal should be to

philosophy during Covid conditions,

make it simpler instead of adding more

and this is where you don’t trust any-

complexity to it. So we help companies

thing and therefore might think you

to remove complexity and make their

have to check everything. Using this

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Vincent Meijer

387

Title: CISO | Head of Information Security Industry: Information Technology & Services With more than 20 years of experience in IT, Business and Security, Vincent has worked on many challenging cyber security projects for appealing organisations both national and internationally.

The last decade he has been focusing more on understanding and learning about organisational business models and their processes in order to integrate security within the value stream instead of using the traditional afterwards compliance-driven approach.

In addition to his assignment to integrate cyber security within the business strategy as Group CISO for Ordina Benelux, Vincent also fulfills the role of business director for Ordina’s Cybersecurity & Compliance services. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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#1 ENDPOINT SECURITY VENDOR FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

“ A lot of companies I speak with have a huge blind spot on hybrid working security” — Vincent Meijer, CISO | Head of Information Security, Ordina

hierarchies play a role in whether the customer can be sold on the argument. Difficulties arise when security officers are still traditional some-

approach might end you up in a never

where in IT and not positioned within

ending and unmanageable situation,

the business itself. It’s an easier sell

I think, because that’s going to be too

when, as at Ordina, the CISO is also

much and really complex. Yet if I look

an executive position. This important

at this change, I can actually remove

transition to really integrate into the

complexity because I can look at the

business could take up to five years,

office environment at the same level

he says.

as the home environment. I don’t trust them, but I only have one scenario to

FINDING A PARTNER

manage. We’re not ever going back, I

Internally, Ordina wants to create value

think, to the old situation. We’re going

but the same is true of its partnerships.

to a hybrid kind of model, and then the

“You have to seek for partners to be able

office becomes a more public environment with a different function – to connect, to socialise, to find each other in person – and that’s why my office network is going to look more like my home network.”

Meijer’s mantra of building security in, rather than bolting it on, is part of this simplified approach to holistic security. But organisational busi ne ssc h ief . eu

389

ORDINA

O R D I N A: 3 CO RE VALU ES

• We discover

390

From craftsmanship towards staying ahead in your profession. We are curious and open to new things. This helps us to identify opportunities and threats and to figure out what that means. Every day we discover how our talent can be optimally used. How we can further develop our craftsmanship. To be at the forefront of our profession and to proactively help customers to remain ‘Ahead of change’.

• We connect From collaboration towards taking responsibility for the result. We are open-minded, inclusive and entrepreneurial. That helps us to make connections and to build relationships. Ordina takes FEBRUARY 2021

responsibility for the result by collaboration through High Performance Teams. Proactively connecting the inner with the outer side and vice versa, to achieve an optimum result. Win-win situations with the best results for every stakeholder.

• We accelerate From customer knowledge towards digital lead. We are customer focused and we strive for quality. That helps us to look forward and helps our customers to accelerate. Through our business propositions we proactively develop the best solutions for customers. Ambitious solutions that make the difference.

They positively surprise and help customers to take a digital lead.

“ Security is a shared responsibility” — Vincent Meijer, CISO | Head of Information Security, Ordina

with their product but didn’t have the expertise to follow up on alerts within the customers context. “They realised that that wasn’t actually their cup of tea, so they needed to find a partner who was good at that, and can bring customer and business context

to offer a total solution for the problem

to the product. So that’s why we joined

in the market. You have to find a partner

forces, because we design it within the

who is really excellent at what they do,

context of the organisation and we

so we can join forces and increase the

can follow up in case of an incident.

value of something we deliver together to the customer.

ESET, an antivirus company, is one such partner. They are happy

“It’s important to realise that as a good security services provider you need to work with partners in order to deliver end-to-end solutions.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

391

ORDINA

1973

Year founded

€372mn Revenue in euros (2019)

392

2,650 Number of employees

“You can’t do everything by your-

customers which can only be solved

self, especially all the security. It’s

with these combined services then

just too broad. It’s too much, it’s too

you’re in really good condition.”

intense. And a partnership has to be a two-way street, otherwise it’s

RISK OWNERSHIP & ACCOUNTABILITY

more like a supplier-client relation-

Finally, Meijer wants to impress

ship. It needs to be from both of you,

about the importance of risk own-

and if you can solve something for

ership. “A big job is to help the

FEBRUARY 2021

393

organisation understand, and organ-

“Otherwise we’re going to end up

ise that accountability in the right

being at a loss, or running behind

places in your organisation. We

it forever.”

need to see security as more of a shared responsibility for everybody in the company and organise it so everyone can take their piece of accountability. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

394

SAP: The Jazz of Digital Transformation WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

FEBRUARY 2021

395

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SAP

SAP’s Lars Friedrich, Andreas Spahn and Maria Fay on the balance between innovation and structure powering its approach to digital transformation

S

AP’s regional customer success team - Lars Friedrich, Andreas Spahn and Maria Fay - takes care of innovations in strategic cus-

tomer engagements for middle and eastern Europe.

Friedrich has a musical analogy for what the team set out to achieve: “We act as innovation brokers, and 396

we look upon the incubation and innovation team as a Jazz combo. We help customers to become digital sprinters and build sound innovation capabilities with the power of SAP’s innovation ecosystem “From a Jazz point of view, it’s about bringing the tracks together to build up a full song at the end.

That’s what we encourage our customers to do - finding the right beat to adopt innovation phase by phase and step by step.” That musical metaphor also underlies the philosophy that they believe companies must adopt to achieve digital transformation. “It’s not just about KPIs, but rather the whole symphony. You can’t simply use technology to make every process perfect, but you can make sure that everything that you do inside of the process makes sense. And then, once the process has been properly structured and the people are enabled, the technology can come in.”

FEBRUARY 2021

397

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP

The Business Innovation Framework for SAP S/4HANA is the structure under which such transformation occurs.

Increasingly, companies are digitally transforming their core businesses, but achieving that is highly complex.

“Many customers have built highly customised applications over the years. It’s a very complicated landscape that they have, and then, on top of that, they are considering: ‘how can I get from my old enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to a new ERP like 398

S/4HANA?’ Then there’s the question

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Lars Friedrich Title: Innovation & Technology Director Industry: Computer Software Lars Friedrich is a business and technology director at SAP, integrating digital into all aspects of the customer strategy from digital organization mindset shift, tech-driven business process innovation, and unleash the power of data and network. Lars supports customers across industries to become digital sprinters, improve their business performance, and to build sound innovation capabilities. He empowers the SAP innovation ecosystem to rethink products and processes for the digital age. With his international experience in Japan, Finland, and South America, he learned the tools to synergize the core competency of the organization and inject speed into the operating model.

FEBRUARY 2021

of all the new technologies like machine

SAP is not content to simply bring cus-

learning or robotic process automation

tomers up to the modern digital standard,

that everyone is talking about and figur-

but goes further to identify technologies

ing out what that means to the company.”

coming down the track. “What we do

To cut through that fog, SAP has

is help the customer to identify which

developed a systematic and structured

technologies can add additional value

approach to help customers identify

on top of the standard offering, and

which digital technologies in SAP’s vast

technologies that are on the horizon. The

portfolio could add additional value to

next generation of business software

their core businesses. “We have a lot of

that our colleagues from New Ventures

different tools and methodologies from

and Technologies are exploring right

design thinking to SAP Activate, which

now includes brain computer interaction,

is our very own SAP methodology for

gaze control of software or homo-

business transformation in terms of ERP.

morphic encryption and further

We also have a huge portfolio of intel-

emerging technologies.”

ligent technologies, and that is important because when we talk to customers,

While that lies in the future, Fay points to a number of concrete examples

they really want to know what robotic process automation, or machine learning, or even blockchain means to their business.” The innovation ecosystem encompasses a broad range of partners, including its venture arm SAP.iO for new product incubation. “We have many different experts across industries and business units that are all there to support the innovation journey of a customer.

The whole ecosystem is very unique in the market, and really differentiates us from other competitors.”

“ Companies like SAP quite clearly have a full sustainability strategy, but the question is how to reach out to the midsized and older companies” — Lars Friedrich, Innovation & Technology Director, SAP busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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SAP

regarding how technology can help improve business processes. “In the supply chain area it’s possible, based on historical data and machine learning, to predict how long it takes to process and ship the sales order. That, of course, allows customers to better plan their processes and in general improves customer relationships in the supply chain.”

Other examples in the supply chain space include IoT sensors to monitor products in certain conditions. “You can track temperature, humidity, vibration, 400

“ SAP has a strong internal ecosystem of various teams coming together in the jazz orchestra – from technology foresight to startup scouting” — Dr Maria Fay, Senior Innovation Architect (Middle & Eastern Europe), SAP

impact and so on. That is critical in industries like pharmaceuticals or consumer

One of the elements that sets SAP

products where it’s better to learn as

apart from the crowd is its partner eco-

soon as possible if there is any damage.”

system, which informs and interacts

Such examples cleave closely to

with the business innovation framework.

SAP’s ambition with its customers’ digital

SAP and its partners, together with

transformations, as Spahn explains: “It

customers, accelerate innovation

makes sense to streamline your core

adoption, providing the governance,

processes, but, at the same time, you

methodologies and technologies for the

must identify where advanced technolo-

situation at hand. “SAP is an ecosystem-

gies could add additional value to your

oriented cooperative with over 21,000

business processes. Where do you

industry, technology, start-up partners

need to skill up your people or future

and research institutes. We believe that

proof your workforce in order to not lose

the collaboration with partners is key

ground on your competitors in the race?

for our customers,” says Friedrich. “We

It’s important to address the two worlds

integrate and take advantage of a per-

at once.”

forming ecosystem to solve customers’

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401

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Dr Maria Fay Title: Senior Innovation Architect (Middle & Eastern Europe)

Industry: Computer Software

Dr. Maria Fay is a Senior Innovation Architect at SAP, leading engagements with strategic customers in Middle & Eastern Europe to create value and improve processes with next-generation technologies. With over 10 years of international experience in technology and business consulting, she develops new methodologies and services and is a lecturer on digital business models. Having earned her PhD investigating the relationship between big data analytics and business value, Maria is passionate about the future that new technologies from machine learning to quantum computing can bring. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP

digitalization shift. We onboard partners into niche areas to gain trust and once we have identified a backlog of use cases we hand-over delivery to certificated providers.”

Apart from the partner ecosystem, “SAP also has a strong internal ecosystem of various teams coming together in the jazz orchestra – from technology foresight to startup scouting,” as Fay explains. “SAP’s Innovation Center Network is working with visionary startups leveraging 402

SAP’s business cloud platform, one

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Andreas Spahn Title: Senior Innovation & Technology Manager Industry: Computer Software Andreas Spahn is a business innovation and technology consultant who is passionate about solving business problems using digital technologies. Self-driven strategist and innovation broker who is extremely well connected within SAP’s innovation ecosystem. Andreas supports customers across industries to optimize their business processes and to navigate through the uncertainty of innovation, from ideation to implementation of the innovative (custom) solutions.

He knows how to play the garnet, from Design Thinking, Business Model Development, Lean Startup, agile Project Management (PMI certified), all the way to Scrum. Beyond realizing innovation projects, he set up a strategic partnership with global industry players, like Schaeffler.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Reducing the innovation budget in the long term can have a major impact on competitive capabilities in the future” — Andreas Spahn, Senior Innovation & Technology Manager, SAP services and networks. All those elements are crucial to ensure customers are leveraging the latest knowledge data model and technologies to build

and achievements. “

products and support customers on

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

their transformations. Another team

has naturally affected SAP, just as it has

has expertise in the context of sustain-

its customers. Consequently, SAP is

ability and developed an Impact Lab for

offering solutions and services to help

Sustainability – a format to apply hori-

out. “One of many examples is called

zon-thinking of environmental, human,

the business operation self-healing

economic and social factors into cus-

service,” says Fay. “It’s a comprehensive

tomer organisation, and identify sweet

out-of-the-box AI platform to support

spots for new business opportunities

automation in the business operations.

and co-innovation. More and more we

In other words, if allows fast deployment

are opening up internal formats for our

of various use cases from restoring

customers, like the SAP One Billion

unplanned outages to interactive sales

Lives program, which empowers social

order issues resolution.” Spahn points

entrepreneurship with SAP products,

out that while the natural instinct in such busi ne ssc h ief . eu

403

SAP

challenging times is to cut innovation

Sustainability is of ever-increasing

budgets and focus on what is necessary

importance in the business world, and

to survive, this can be self-defeating.

the efficiencies digital transformation

“Reducing the innovation budget in the

unlocks go a long way to helping out. “Big

long term can have a major impact on

companies like SAP quite clearly have

competitive capabilities in the future.

a full sustainability strategy, but the

After all, it’s the digital maturity level

question is how to reach out to the

of a company that is a good indicator of

midsized and older companies,” says

the level of resilience to coping with

Friedrich. “They also need to look into

these situations.”

what sustainability actually is and how

The team emphasises that the key

they could set up their enterprise to

benefits of the digital transformations

achieve it. That’s why we’re setting up

SAP enables are not just monetary.

a framework for sustainability called ‘the

Digital Transformation CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:17

405 sustainable enterprise’. That answers

of its USPs, as Rettig explains. “As

the questions of how a company can use

a company in Germany, we have local

digital technologies to operate in a more

SAP experts within a global organisation,

efficient, and more sustainable manner.”

and our mission is to drive the intelligent enterprise. That involves a focus on

NAGARRO ES

SAP and enterprise resource planning

“Nagarro ES is an SAP full service

to build an enterprise architecture that

provider, meaning we implement, and

works for the company involved.”

consult our customers on SAP software.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has

We’re also part of a global company

accelerated efforts towards digitalisa-

which focuses on technology not only

tion, specifically cloud solutions, as

with regards to SAP, but beyond,” says

Manuel Sedlak, Teamlead SAP Cloud

Julia Rettig, Director Marketing at

Services, explains. “We’re seeing the

Nagarro ES. The company’s expertise

companies we work with jump into digi-

when it comes to SAP products is one

talisation. Almost every customer we’ve busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SAP

406

worked with in the last year has thought

Nagarro works closely with its cus-

about whether it’s now time to jump

tomers and SAP as part of a triangular

to S4/HANA, and whether that should

relationship to get the best out of its

be an on-premise or cloud solution.”

SAP implementations. Sedlak gives as

Nagarro had first hand experience of

an example its work with a customer.

the efficacy of S4/HANA cloud, and the

“We were asked to be the implementa-

flexibility it offers, having used it for the

tion partner, but having a relationship

past four years. “We were one the first

between ourselves, the customer and

customers in the world to use S/4HANA

SAP is really important for the overall

cloud. That’s why we decided to bring

success of the project.” That triangu-

this to market, and with this approach,

lar relationship is reinforced by quick

we were able to find new customers

responses should a problem arise. “We

with whom to discuss the cloud suc-

identified a problem with a sales order

cess story.”

that couldn’t be deleted from within the

FEBRUARY 2021

“ We look upon the incubation and innovation team as a Jazz combo” — Lars Friedrich, Innovation & Technology Director, SAP

about a new configuration platform, for instance, that is in development and will potentially go live from the begin407

ning of 2021.”

Rettig sees Nagarro’s full service, independent approach as standing it system,” says Sedlak. ”We raised a ticket

in good stead for the future. “Customers

and I was in direct contact with the cus-

want to participate in all the latest

tomer success manager on SAP’s side.

technologies, but they need to do the

Within half an hour, we were able to find

homework. That’s where we come in,

a solution, so it took just 30 minutes from

because we not only have the cloud

reporting that incident to having a resolu-

perspective, but also do on premises

tion from SAP.”

projects. For us as a partner, it’s impor-

The extent of the relationship between

tant to consult our customers with an

SAP and Nagarro has meant the two can

open mind. We don’t want to push them

exchange ideas. “As a partner, it’s really

into a corner where they don’t belong.

great to have a tight connection with

That’s why we’ll continue to take a holis-

SAP,” says Sedlak. “We are currently dis-

tic view with our customers.”

cussing some products with SAP which are coming next year. We are talking busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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FEBRUARY 2021

409

Connecting Markets Through Digital Experiences WRITTEN BY

RHYS THOMAS

PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MONDIA GROUP

We hear how collaboration, people and data are the keys to unlocking global ecommerce in emerging markets

F

rom Dubai, Brad Whittfield, Group Chief Financial Officer at Mondia Group, oversees a global network of regional offices span-

ning Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Today, however, he has been packing his suitcase.

Later this week he will fly to Europe to spend some time with the Mondia teams and to meet with Mondia’s countless valued partners. The irony of heading a 410

company that prides itself on connecting disparate parts of the planet through technology, while himself flying 3,500 miles for an in-person meeting, isn’t lost on Whittfield; genuine relationships are paramount to success.

Mondia helps companies connect with their customers through digital experiences. It provides the technology platform, the acquisition and engagement know-how and the extensive content catalogue – through its long term partnerships with the likes of Warner Bros and Universal. Essentially Mondia manages the end-to-end user journey. It underpins its digital content business with Mondia Pay, a flexible, direct carrier billing infrastructure which allows customers to pay through their phone bill - a fintech innovation driving current growth into new markets and sectors.

FEBRUARY 2021

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MONDIA GROUP

412

“You must have a top-down data-driven mindset and fundamentally make all decisions based on it” — Brad Whittfield, CFO, Mondia FEBRUARY 2021

A technology business by definition, Whittfield says Mondia is a “very unique company” at heart. Its approach stems from an internal culture of collaboration and innovation – despite the team being spread across many countries around the world.

“Our platform and product teams are based in Germany and Spain. We have a development and delivery hub of almost a hundred people based in Cairo,” Whittfield says. “We have offices in the UAE, Egypt across Europe and throughout Africa. So we have a really diverse group and we invest a lot into creating a one

team environment, having everyone

and that’s why we really do create teams

engaged in our products and services,

that are purposely located everywhere.”

and having everyone engaged in our

Through this international network,

core values: customer-centricity, inno-

Mondia serves some of the world’s big-

vation, collaboration.”

gest telecoms operators, including O2,

Having people “on the ground” with

Etisalat, Orange, Telefonica, and Vod-

insight into regional dynamics and user

afone alongside a host of other B2B

behaviour is key, says Whittfield. “If I

customers. Mondia’s products and

were sitting in Dubai, I wouldn’t neces-

services empower these operators to

sarily get a sense of what’s happening

engage their users through digital

in Africa. I wouldn’t be able to comment,

experiences, but its ambitions go far

so we have to have that sense of engage-

beyond that. Whittfield and the execu-

ment and collaboration, no matter what,

tive team firmly believe in extending 413

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Brad Whittfield Title: Group CFO

Company: Mondia Group

Brad Whittfield joined Mondia in 2019 as Group CFO and Executive Board Member. He has nearly two decades of international finance experience, with specialisms in rapid growth, funding and IPOs. He spent 10 years in Mergers and Acquisitions at the Big 4 consultancies based in London and the Middle East, and was recently recognised as an industry leader, voted a Top 10 CFO of 2020 from Industry Era, and winning acclaim as Best Emerging Global Finance Leader 2020 by Acquisition International.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MONDIA GROUP

their internal culture of collaboration to partners and, indeed, other startups and tech services.

“We’ve got a lot of longstanding relationships, but we really challenge ourselves,” he says. “We do not want to relax and sit on the fact that we’ve got these longstanding relationships.

We want to be their true innovation partner. What do our customers want next? As an executive team, we ask ourselves this every day.

“With technology nowadays, it’s not necessary - and probably not advisable to build everything yourself,” he continues.

“There are a lot of companies out there doing awesome work. It’s about creating this ecosystem where you can provide a suite of technologies and services.”

One recent such partnership is with mobile communications giant Vodacom Group, an agreement spanning five countries across Africa, a continent where much of Mondia’s immediate growth plans lie. Though individual countries are at different stages along the path, much of Africa and the broader MENA region can be characterised by a stark dichotomy: high tech literacy and adoption, coupled with a population that FEBRUARY 2021

415

“We invest a lot into creating a one team environment, having everyone engaged in our products and services, and having everyone engaged our core values” — Brad Whittfield, CFO, Mondia busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MONDIA GROUP

416

Mondia Introduction Video CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

|

3:36

417

“ As telcos are heavily regulated, direct carrier billing is rightly perceived to be an extremely safe way of payment”

is grossly underserved by traditional finance institutes. It is here that Mondia is innovating.

“In the last few years, we’ve really grown a presence in the MENA region and now our focus is to digitalise Africa” Whittfield says. “We see Africa as a huge opportunity, not only for the B2B business, and our digital content, but also for our direct carrier billing platform, Mondia Pay.” “In emerging mar-

— Brad Whittfield, CFO, Mondia

kets, many people don’t have bank accounts, but they’ve got two mobile phones. That’s how they participate in busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MONDIA GROUP

418

FEBRUARY 2021

digital commerce. Our transaction volumes are more than doubling every year – which is extremely exciting.”

Mondia’s direct carrier billing also expands beyond the walled garden of its own services, extending to Spotify, Deezer and other market-leading streaming and download services.

The possibilities are endless; users in the future can pay for physical goods through Mondia Pay; they might visit a restaurant, enjoy their meal, and at the end of the evening charge the whole thing to their phone bill. For many, it has unlocked access to the global ecommerce market, says Whittfield, and “from a user’s perspective, it’s a very simple experience and journey”.

Cultural perceptions also play a vital role in advancing Mondia Pay across the territory, an insight gleaned only thanks to Mondia’s emphasis on regional teams and localised, tailored services.

“As telcos are heavily regulated, direct carrier billing is rightly perceived to be an extremely safe way of payment,” Whittfield says. “Particularly in the Middle East and Africa region, where security and safety is such an important part of the perception of paying online” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

419

MONDIA GROUP

60

Countries globally

300

Number of emloyees

14

Office Locations

420

“ What do our customers want next? As an executive team, we ask ourselves this every day” — Brad Whittfield, CFO, Mondia FEBRUARY 2021

Underpinning Mondia’s push to “digitalise Africa” and other underserved regions is data. “You must have a top-down data-driven mindset and fundamentally make all decisions based on it,” Whittfields explains. “You really ask the data questions, and you can see the data providing the answer and user stories: we made this experience, this is how people reacted, and this is how you can see it in the data.”

90mn Monthly visits

80mn

Monthly pieces of content

900mn Payments processed monthly

Mondia invested heavily into its data

421

busi-nesses that didn’t acknowledge

strategy over a number of years and

the importance of data five years

the company is “really starting to feel

ago are now scrambling and are at

that benefit”.

a real competitive disadvantage.”

“When you have this data-first mind-set, you make much quicker and much better decisions. For me, it is less about the actual technology and more about the effective use of that technology and ability to collect, extract and interpret meaningful data.” says Whittfield. “The tech busi ne ssc h ief . eu

422

Increasing Corporate Valuations with AI AI,, RPA and Automation

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

JANUARY 2021

423

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DANILO MCGARRY / UIPATH / ISG AUTOMATION

Danilo McGarry, Chris Duddridge, UiPath and Wayne Butterfield, ISG Automation discuss how automation technologies can impact a company’s valuation

T

he benefits of automation can sometimes be communicated nebulously. In fact, automation technologies such as RPA

can sometimes positive impact a company’s valuation, as three industry experts describe.

Danilo McGarry is an automation industry 424

thought leader, with extensive experience in the industry. “I’ve been doing this for about 15 years before it was called automation,” he says. “I worked in many different industries - banking, oil and gas, healthcare - and I used to have my own consultancy firm as well. So I’ve been a client, a consultant, and I’ve also been an advisor to most of the automation companies out there today. So I understand the market well.“ That experience has convinced McGarry of the noticeable positive impact it can have on company valuations that stems from introducing automation technologies. “One way a company is valued is by taking the revenue of the company and times it by a valuation multiple that can be acquired from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) tables,” says McGarry.

FEBRUARY 2021

425

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

“The other way is by taking the EBITDA,

a P/E ratio too. Either way most valuation

the earnings of a company before inter-

methods take revenues or bottom line

est, tax, depreciation and amortization,

earnings as the starting point to reach a

and then times that by a valuation mul-

company valuation value”.

tiple as well. That multiple is basically

Automation can have a noticeable

determined by the price other similar

impact on such valuation calculations,

companies have been sold for in the

as McGarry explains. “If you have a

past.” McGarry adds that “Without get-

successful client-facing automation

ting too technical valuation methods

programme helping you generate reve-

can include discounted cash flows

nue, then that increases your revenue

(DCF) or earnings after tax multiplied by

number, if you have a higher revenue to

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE : T:3000 mm

Danilo McGarry Title: Globally recognised automation industry thought leader and practitioner Industry: AI & Automation Previously one of the Heads of Artificial intelligence & Machine Learning at CitiGroup (3rd largest US bank, 17th largest Financial institution globally). Also previously senior management of Automation (RPA/Ai) in UnitedHealth Group (#5 on the Fortune 500). Advisor to the European Union Commission Ai Alliance.

Published in The Times Newspaper, Bloomberg InfoMoney and other leading publications. Danilo is an experienced international keynote speaker and recognised as a global thought leader in the realms of Automation, RPA, Ai and Innovation.

Ranked as top 10 people in the world for Automation

by Thinkers 360. Previous companies worked for include Motorola, JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Canada, UnitedHealth Group & CitiGroup.

427

DANILO MCGARRY / UIPATH / ISG AUTOMATION

428

“ A s automation can help a company save or make money, and because of the way valuation calculation methods work – that then means that a successful automation programme has a direct impact on the valuation of a company” — Danilo McGarry, Globally recognised automation industry thought leader and practitioner

multiple by the same valuation multiple then that gives you a higher valuation end of the day. Also, if you’re looking at making savings in the company internally through automation, then your EBITDA will be healthier than it was before - both because you’re helping the company save money and also getting more clients because of higher capacity.” The twin impact of savings and revenue generation make automation a no-brainer if it is done by a team that knows what they are doing.

“No matter which way you slice it, if the

FEBRUARY 2021

Danilo McGarry | Automation and Valuation CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:00

429

automation programme is successful,

positive impact of automation is far

if it’s global, if it’s there to help the com-

greater than what can be tracked or

pany and it’s run successfully, it can

measured on paper.”

have an impact on the bottom or the

Wayne Butterfield concurs, empha-

top line – making potential impact on

sising that automation can cut costs in

valuation. The only tricky element to

other ways. “Reducing the number of

this is tracking this positive impact

errors that your organisation makes is

back to automation itself. Many of

another way you can cut costs. We offer

automation’s benefits are tangible but

many brilliant things in the workforce as

hard to measure given how involving

human beings, but one of the things we

such programmes can be, because

don’t offer is robotic consistency.”

of this it is often nearly impossible for a

Butterfield started in the automa-

large corporation to track all the bene-

tion space in 2010, while working at one

fits it brings effectively. Often the

of the UK’s largest telco firms, using busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DANILO MCGARRY / UIPATH / ISG AUTOMATION

“We offer many brilliant things in the workforce as human beings, but one of the things we don’t offer is robotic consistency” — Wayne Butterfield, Global Head of Intelligent Automation Solutions, ISG-One

430 the technology to create operational

process side too. Hyper automation

efficiencies and reducing external

technologies allow companies to scale

spend on Outsourcing. “Being an early

in size, while keeping their people costs

adopter of any technology comes with

under control, as Butterfield explains.

its challenges, but also provides an

“With automation, you’re looking to

opportunity to tread new ground, and

reduce costs, increase throughput

innovate in the Enterprise. Butterfield is

and grow revenue, this trifecta is why

Global Head of Intelligent Automation

Automation is valued so highly. Back in

Solutions at pure play automation firm

the day, RPA was called operational

ISG Automation. “We assist clients big

agility software - but now RPA is a

and small on their automation journeys,

globally accepted term,” he says.

usually starting with RPA, but not stop-

Such technologies also allow

ping there. Differentiated performance

companies to scale in size, while keep-

does need more than just technology,

ing the same number of people, as

so we specialise in the people and

Butterfield explains. “With automation,

FEBRUARY 2021

FP ISG FEB 2021 CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:52

431

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Wayne Butterfield Title: Global Head of Intelligent Automation Solutions Company: ISG Automation Wayne is an automation pioneer, thought leader and practitioner based in the UK. He heads up the AI & Cognitive Automation Practice for ISG Automation globally and is responsible for assisting ISG Automation clients on their journey towards AI, as well as hosting the weekly Bots & Beyond Podcast.

He pioneered the use of RPA and chat bots while at Telefonica O2 & BT, and has helped hundreds of Clients on their own automation journeys since joining ISG Automation. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

DANILO MCGARRY / UIPATH / ISG AUTOMATION

“ Removing repetitive, timeconsuming tasks that doesn’t add to the value of what an organisation is delivering [...] frees up time” — Chris Duddridge, VP Sales, UK & Ireland, UiPath

432

FEBRUARY 2021

you’re actually keeping your costs the same, but you’re increasing the amount of revenue that you can generate.”

That sense of unlocking productivity is reiterated by Chris Duddridge, who adds that “By removing repetitive, time-consuming tasks that doesn’t add to the value of what an organisation is delivering, it actually frees up time to drive far more into product design, or spending time with customers, for instance.

Duddridge is VP Sales for UiPath in the UK and Ireland. The company started with screen scraping and has developed into a leading end-to-end automation platform vendor. Our products are designed to support every organisation and employee within that by essentially unlocking all of the manual, repetitive, unnecessary tasks that we all do on a daily basis.”

The more that the concrete financial sense of automation is realised, McGarry believes, the more senior executives will buy in to introducing automation technologies. “Once people and companies realise the direct link of automation to the bottom line and thus to a company’s valuation, that should then reinforce the level of sponsorship from senior level management. It’s important, therefore, to busi ne ssc h ief . eu

433

DANILO MCGARRY / UIPATH / ISG AUTOMATION

UiPath “Together”: Automation in a Fast-Changing World CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:52

434 emphasise education so that people get

behind the automation programme.

on board, because the more people

So you do it again, it goes pretty well

know about automation in the company,

and you think: this is interesting, let’s

the quicker transformation will happen –

scale it. Then it goes to the third round

it’s a journey.”

where it really ramps up and starts

Having that knowledge in mind

paying for itself. That’s the three-hit

inevitably helps overcome the often

automation wonder or automation

bumpy early adoption stages, what

cycle most companies go through as

McGarry refers to as the automation

they mature in their automation journey.”

three-hit wonder. “You normally start

Getting to that stage requires belief

the first time and fail because you

in the technology, as Duddridge reiter-

haven’t taken it seriously enough.

ates. “I can’t think of a single technology

Either you haven’t put enough money

project that can deliver a return on

behind it or enough seasoned pro-

investment from day one. Realistically

fessionals who have done it before

there is an investment period involving

FEBRUARY 2021

“Companies that already had automation before COVID started had a significant competitor advantage” — Danilo McGarry, Globally recognised automation industry thought leader and practitioner

435 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Chris Duddridge Title: VP Sales Company: UiPath Location: UK & Ireland Chris Duddridge is VP Sales, UK & Ireland, for UiPath. He leads the UK and Irish teams in their mission to drive automation adoption in the region, helping customers achieve their automation goals using UiPath’s best-in-its-class hyperautomation platform. With more than 20 years in sales and technology, he is an experienced sales leader with a track record of helping small teams rise to market leader status. Passionate about technology, Chris is inspired by the potential of automation to transform the future of work. Highly motivated by teamwork, his key areas of interest are incentivising collaboration, creativity, and customer focus.

uncover your automation potential

Let ISG Automation show you how to scale your intelligent automation operations.

It’s not easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard.

Our expertise will guide you on your automation journey and beyond.

Learn More at ISG Automation

“ Even with the right team and tech partnerships it takes time for an Automation programme to mature and bear fruit” — Danilo McGarry, Globally recognised automation industry thought leader and practitioner

the companies who had already gotten on board who were able to thrive.

“Companies that already had automation before COVID started had a significant competitor advantage,” says McGarry. ”Once COVID happened and everybody was scrambling to log in from home and get all that working smoothly, meanwhile, robots were functioning fine in the background keeping some vital processes alive. Companies that had

building capability, training people and

mature automation capabilities definitely

managing the change.” Butterfield adds

had an edge during COVID, and will

that a clear plan needs to be in place

again in any future pandemic or crisis’s.”

from day one. “You don’t want to stop,

Danilo emphasises that time must be

reevaluate your needs and end up doing

taken into consideration, however. “It’s

something different. Trying to do it on

important to note that even with the right

the cheap and not thinking strategically

team and tech partnerships it takes time

enough will mean the investment doesn’t

for an Automation programme to mature

provide what is expected. There are a lot

and bear fruit so that top and bottom line

of things that you need to be thinking

benefits can reap rewards. For such a

about, but getting the strategy correct

transformative programme such as

is vital.”

Automation and AI, it takes an all-inclu-

The benefits of automation have

sive environment to make it really work.

been demonstrated by company

Also, with any such transformative pro-

resilience in the face of the ongoing

grammes, it is a journey that can often

COVID-19 pandemic. With a number

take one to two years before it starts to

of reports highlighting automation as

bear fruit and potentially make any

the sector seeing the highest cash

impact on the company’s valuation”.

injection during the pandemic, it was busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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SECURITY TRANSFORMATION AT THE HEART OF CYBERSEC 439

WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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PLAYTECH

As the world shifts its working patterns, and faced with an already complex set of technology stacks, Playtech’s Daniel Liber discusses security transformation

W

hile Playtech is a technology company with gaming at its core, it takes no chances with its security strategy. That’s a challenge

because the company has developed and acquired a number of technology platforms, all of which need to be rationalised in its security brief. And its custom440

ers – household name online gaming platforms with reputations to protect – need it to look after their best interests.

The task of keeping a lid on the company’s systems and data is head of information security Daniel Liber.

Liber, who like many Israeli technologists got his start through the country’s military service programme, joined Playtech three years ago and climbed to his current role. “It’s a great school for security management positions,” he says. “You learn so much from so many talented and experienced people.”

Things have changed dramatically over the course of Liber’s career. He reminisces about the development of the internet from the dot com bubble of the early 00s to now, pondering the milestones – smartphones, the internet of things – that have marked the technological transformation in the interim.

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PLAYTECH

RISE OF THE PERSONAL DEVICE Personal devices, Liber thinks, have been maligned in security circles. Yes, they offer an increased attack surface and personal details are more likely to be compromised, but at the same time Joe Public’s attitude to privacy has changed.

“Privacy doesn’t make most of end users worry. People today give away information relatively easily. You can see it on social media. When you lost your credit cards, that used to be a big issue. Now you just cancel it and everything is okay.”

442

Transparency is top of Liber’s list when it comes to management. “It’s important.

Everybody should feel as if they have an understanding of what’s going on from the top level down to the person doing the hands-on engineering. When there’s a shared strategy and objective to the company, everybody should feel as if they’re part of it.”

The second thing on his list is saying yes (even conditionally) and the third is sticking to facts and numbers. “There are a lot of hunches and gut feelings in security,” admits Liber, “which is okay and sometimes important. But eventually, when you need to make a decision, it should be balanced between having FEBRUARY 2021

“ Having a good relationship with your vendor means being able to look forward to the upcoming years in terms of security transformation” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

443 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Daniel Liber Title: Head of information security Industry: Computer Software

Company: Playtech

Location: United Kingdom

Daniel Liber is current Head of Information Security at Playtech, a leading gaming platform provider.

Daniel has over 15 years of experience in different positions such as security consultancy, engineering and management, and working across different industries – automotive, finance, telecom and software companies.

Daniel also participated as a speaker in several global security conferences including OWASP, BSides, Tel Aviv Cyber Week and local Defcon and ISACA chapters. He also holds B.Sc. in Physics and MBA, as well as several security certifications, as well as participating in management programs from top universities. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

PLAYTECH

INTRODUCING TREND MICRO CLOUD ONE™ A security services platform for cloud builders. Secure your cloud migration and future cloud projects without slowing you down.

See how we’ve made cloud security beautiful at TrendMicro.com/HybridCloud For more information: trendmicro_israel@trendmicro.com

445 the full view of information and taking an educated decision.”

Hunches are okay then?

“Sometimes there is a lot of focus on the characteristic technicalities of the vulnerability, rather than the context,” he says. “So it looks scientific but there

“ There are a lot of hunches and gut feelings in security” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

is information missing. Where the vulnerability is and how it could be used

digital transformation. It sits at the inter-

and how difficult it is is information that

section of technological frontiers and the

could be used to determine the overall

needs of users, customers and employ-

vulnerability impact.”

ees. And it is particularly important at a time of change.

WHAT IS SECURITY TRANSFORMATION?

“The hottest topic at the moment is

This holistic view informs what Liber calls

working from home,” LIber says. “It is

‘security transformation’ as an arm of

obviously about getting companies’ and busi ne ssc h ief . eu

PLAYTECH

“ The orchestration of tools and visibility across different technology stacks is extremely critical right now” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech users’ IT needs to align in a new working model, but more than that, it is about changing attitudes.

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“Teams had a limited transformation state of mind. Now they know that every couple of years they will have to ask

“Doing proper mapping is very impor-

the question: what’s next? Some were

tant, and then you have the question of

already doing that because of previous

how you tie these things together. You

security challenges – the shift to the

might buy several tools from the same

cloud, for instance – so to some extent

vendor or different tools from different

we were pretty ready to have a smooth

vendors, but you need to find a balance

transition into working from home.”

of managing them which supports your

Another pillar of Liber’s security transformation is orchestration. “There are

company’s needs. You have to balance your priorities.

so many technologies we need to cover,

“Eventually the idea is to try to narrow

so the orchestration of tools and visibility

down this stuff as much as possible, into

across different technology stacks

a single dashboard or as few places as

is extremely critical right now, espe-

possible – just for the sanity of your ana-

cially for incident response and security

lysts – and it’s becoming harder as more

operations teams.

and more tools are added.”

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COMPLEXITY VERSUS UNIFICATION

personal devices as they wish while

At Playtech, the company has moved

companies can be assured that security

into a hybrid environment of on-premise

isn’t compromised.

and cloud infrastructure, and pushed to

Security transformation isn’t a task

consolidate “small islands” of technology

to be taken on single handed and Liber

services into a more unified platform. It’s

is particularly impressed by Playtech’s

been a boon from a security perspective,

partnership with Trend Micro. Unusually,

particularly as the pandemic has forced

perhaps, the seed of the relationship was

more users to work from home.

hyper geographic: the two firms both

The problem, as Liber sees it, is one of

had small offices in the same building.

employees using their personal devices

“They gave us a lot of attention,” Liber

for work. A possible solution, he thinks,

recalls. “They sat down with us during

might be to “somehow containerise

the proof of concept and we gave them

part of your personal computer”. This

some feedback and we got immediate

approach allows employees to use their

responses. They were amazing with how busi ne ssc h ief . eu

PLAYTECH

448

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Privacy doesn’t make most of end users worry” — Daniel Liber, Head of information security, Playtech

they helped us to shape the implementation of their Deep Security products based on our environment and needs.

“Having a good relationship with the vendor is important for several reasons, firstly that when you implement a product or service you will bump into some kind of issue or question, and the feeling of getting good service or customer support is always nicer than when it doesn’t happen. But it’s also about being able to look forward to the upcoming years in terms of security transformation.

Sharing the road map early allows you to predict and better plan your work.

“I also think it’s important to keep it light, which might sound silly but negotiations and discussions can be quite dry, so sometimes the personal touch can really help the procurement and commercial processes.”

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BRINGING INNOVATION, ECOSYSTEMS AND SCALE TO INSURTECH WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

JAKE MEGEARY

FEBRUARY 2021

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HOUSE OF INSURTECH SWITZERLAND (HITS)

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FEBRUARY 2021

Pietro Carnevale and Stefano Bison detail the founding of House of Insurtech Switzerland and its mission to drive innovation in global insurtech

O

fficially founded in December 2019 as an independent subsidiary of Generali Switzerland, the origin story of House of

Insurtech Switzerland (HITS) actually reaches back further to 2017.

“At that time Generali Switzerland created an innovation function,” explains Pietro Carnevale, CEO of HITS. “As Head of Strategy and Innovation, I had the opportunity to introduce new working methods. The insurance industry also realised that, in order to make innovation even more valuable and sustainable, it had to open up and start collaborating with new varieties of partners.” What followed was a partnership with the fintech incubator and accelerator F10, which not only gave Generali Switzerland access to startup ecosystems but also enabled it to create a space for collaboration, networking and valuable information sharing. “We called the result ‘Corp Up’, and its success led the company to research the potential for improving its ecosystem, capacity for innovation and scaling capabilities ten-fold. HITS was the answer,” states Carnevale. This was the birth of HITS as an independent entity.

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HOUSE OF INSURTECH SWITZERLAND (HITS)

“ FUNDAMENTALLY, WE FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN CORPORATES AND STARTUPS CREATES VALUE FOR BOTH PARTIES” — Pietro Carnevale, CEO, HITS

HITS operates on three pillars: ‘opening’, ‘connecting’ and ‘doing’. In effect, the hub creates a customercentric framework for the future of insurance by providing opportunities for startups to flourish and scale-up through innovation. Summarising HITS’ approach in this regard, Carnevale says, “Fundamentally, we firmly believe that

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

454

Pietro Carnevale Title: CEO of HITS Industry: Insurance

Location: Switzerland

CEO of House of Insurtech Switzerland (HITS), a Swiss based insurtech hub which focuses on building partnerships with startups to co-create and scale-up innovative solutions. Joined Generali Group in 2014 and Generali Switzerland in 2016 as Director of Strategy and Innovation leading the set-up of the local innovation platform and The Innovation Garage in 2018.

Board Member of F10, the leading swiss Fintech Accelerator in Zurich. Passionate about Digital, Innovation, Strategy and Transformation within Financial Services. Equipped with a master degree in Engineering from Milan Politecnico and post-graduation training in Digital at IMD. FEBRUARY 2021

partnerships between corporates and startups creates value for both parties.”

Corporations gain a three-fold advantage in speed (time to market), flexibility (costs and investment) and new talent.

Startups, on the other hand, are granted market access that would otherwise be near-impossible for new organisations to penetrate quickly, while also gaining industry expertise, capital resources and rich long-term scaling opportunities.

It could be argued that the overall

necessitated the creation of HITS’ three pillar strategy, with a central focus on

benefit presented by HITS for start-

digital transformation and innovation,

ups is obvious. However, what is the

and significant investment of both

gain for Generali itself? “The Generali

money (over €1bn) and time, including

Group is one of the most significant

projects such as those supporting 360°

participants in the global insurance and

Advisory, its pan-European mobil-

financial services market. In Europe

ity platform, and the development of

we are the leading insurer and we are

B2B2C ecosystems.

present in over 50 countries around

“The Group and its companies are

the globe,” states Stefano Bison, Group

pushing themselves beyond the bounda-

Head of Business Development and

ries of traditional insurance and offering

Partnerships at Generali Head Office.

services and products that, often, it is

“In 2018 we’ve launched our new strategy

not necessary to develop in-house for

aiming to become ‘lifetime partners’ to

a number of different reasons,” Bison

our customers, offering them innovative,

continues. “This is why we actively seek

personalised and integrated solu-

partnerships in adjacent industries like

tions. These aren’t ‘just’ products; we’re

those dominated by big techs or other

bundling various value-added services

incumbents, as well as with digital native

together.” Delivering this strategy

startups – often, the most intriguing busi ne ssc h ief . eu

455

HOUSE OF INSURTECH SWITZERLAND (HITS)

456 ones.” Generali is a firm believer in ‘open

state-of-the-art ‘fast-track’ procure-

innovation’ and seeks out collabora-

ment processes and innovation funds

tors who champion it in a similar way. In

mitigate the historical difficulties of

practice this takes on both external

partnering with startups.

and internal dimensions: externally,

Although Generali is meticulous in its

the company leverages wide net-

planning, this is not to say that the pro-

works of partnerships with incubators,

cess is without risk on both sides of the

accelerators and open innovation

equation, as Bison explains: “We tend to

platforms to gain valuable insights

prefer evaluating startups operating in

into insurance trends, build a syner-

at least one of our major markets across

gistic cultural perspective with smaller

Europe, Asia and Latin America, and that

companies, and source solutions for

already have minimum market traction

specific projects. Internally, mean-

(few corporate clients and some access

while, bespoke support structures

to revenue). In this way we partially

are created to serve the dual needs

reduce the risks that are, in any case,

of Generali and its partners, while

inevitable when working with early stage

FEBRUARY 2021

companies.” Carnevale adds, “At HITS

to anticipate customer pain points and

we follow a rigorously messy innovation

address them in the overall design.

approach going from ideation, proof of

HITS tailors its value proposition to

concept (POC), minimum viable product

startups based on the candidate’s level

(MVP), and finally iteration with custom-

of development, with a primary focus on

ers until we get to an MVP that we can

pre-Seed to post-Series A companies.

try to scale.” With POC taking between

“For the ones in pre-Seed or Seed, we

30 and 60 days, and MVP between

help lower their burn rate by provid-

three and six months, local or interna-

ing free office space in our 600m2

tional scaling can commence once the

‘Innovation Garage’ in Zurich and get

value hypothesis of the project has been

their first paying customers. This is

validated. Then, analysing trends and

particularly relevant for B2B startups

gauging strategic priorities, HITS is able

where lack of credentials and track 457

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Stefano Bison Title: Group Head of Business Development & Partnerships Company: Generali

Location: Italy

Stefano Bison is in charge of the Unit responsible for sourcing, originating and launching, at Group / global level, new business initiatives and new (strategic) partnerships with startups or other leading companies, triggering business innovation / transformation in the Generali Group. He is an ex-management consultant (Senior Manager at The Boston Consulting Group) and, previously, investment banker (at Lehman Brothers – FIG M&A, then Nomura after LB bail-out). In his spare time he also acts as an angel investor and entrepreneur mentor to various startups. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Where innovation meets industry F10 is where innovation meets industry, helping today’s talent create tomorrow’s technology.

It is an ecosystem of startups, corporates, industry experts, and investors, with local hubs in Switzerland, Singapore, and Spain. Its mission is to stimulate worldwide collaboration to further innovation across industries. Visit our website and watch the movie to find out more about F10.

Visit our website

“ GENERALI IS PUSHING ITSELF BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF TRADITIONAL INSURANCE AND OFFERING SERVICES AND PRODUCTS THAT DON’T NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE DEVELOPED IN-HOUSE” — Stefano Bison, Group Head of Business Development and Partnerships, Generali Switzerland

record can be a killer,” says Carnevale.

“For pre-Series A or beyond, we instead provide references to investors, help their business development within Generali, and provide access to our network. Finally, because of Generali’s global presence, HITS provides the perfect launch base for scaling up and internationalisation, should the startup be ready for it.” He reports that initial indicators point to smoother financing, higher valuation and better longevity for startups who opt to partner with HITS, as opposed to not.

EFMA Innovation Award CLICK TO WATCH

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HOUSE OF INSURTECH SWITZERLAND (HITS)

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2019

Year founded

10

Number of employees

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One prominent example put forward

by Carnevale is LINGS, a communitybased on-demand insurance company, an enterprise not dissimilar from American insurtech Trōv. Founded in November 2017 as Generali Switzerland’s first corporate startup venture, LINGS has proven popular with its targeted community (“bikers and photographers”), has gone on to successfully scale internationally and has already built a presence in two European markets.

In addition to Generali, numerous other partners contribute to the value of HITS’ ecosystem, either by filling skill gaps, providing valuable ‘cultural links’ or technology. “Partners like Google and Salesforce are fundamental not only for the tech expertise, know-how and solutions they bring to us, but also to give speed, future-proof sustainability, weight and credibility in the market,” says Carnevale. It should also be noted that companies who got their start as a direct result of HITS can also become valuable collaborators too, as was the case with insurtechs ‘vlot’, Billte and Imburse. “Thanks to vlot’s technology, Generali can quickly test innovative busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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HOUSE OF INSURTECH SWITZERLAND (HITS)

462

“ ...BECAUSE OF GENERALI’S GLOBAL PRESENCE, HITS PROVIDES THE PERFECT LAUNCH BASE FOR SCALING UP AND INTERNATIONALISATION, SHOULD THE STARTUP BE READY FOR IT” — Pietro Carnevale, CEO, HITS

of our work is our investment in under-

standing how using artificial intelligence will provide value-added services and smooth interactions to our customers in

solutions in the area of risk protection.

the future.”

While together with Billte and Imburse

When considering what success in

we are developing a product to make

the mid- to long-term would look like for

saving money easier and more acces-

HITS, Carnevale is emphatic that realis-

sible for young people. Another cool part

ing the initiative’s joint value for both

FEBRUARY 2021

463

corporates and startups is essential.

that this doesn’t indicate we’re not

“We’ve not yet figured out all the ‘right’

innovating enough.” HITS and Carnevale

ingredients,” he caveats, “but, despite

are palpably hungry for success and

being in the early days of our journey,

with such a thorough grasp on develop-

most KPIs that we measure compared

ing insurance companies to their full

to previous year are giving positive

potential, it’s difficult to imagine that they

signals: speed is increasing (six-times

won’t achieve it. As the project grows in

better from first talk to first day of work-

maturity, increases cost effectiveness,

ing, and two-times faster average time

improves accessibility and enhances

from prototype to MVP); our startup

scalability, the standing of HITS in the

ecosystem has expanded six-fold and

insurance market as an innovation

our delivery capacity four-fold. Lastly

leader is likely to grow simultaneously.

we’re experiencing a low failure rate (<30%). However, we need to be careful busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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FEBRUARY 2021

DIGITALISATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS DURING A PANDEMIC WRITTEN BY

OLIVER JAMES FREEMAN PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

Naiyer Hussain, Supply Chain Director of Aljazierah Home Appliances, takes the time to discuss digitalisation of supply chain operations during the COVID-19 era

W

hen you consider the new norms and values established in 2020, I don’t doubt that you consider COVID-19 to have been the dicta-

tor that defines them; and, it’s certainly the case that 466

the global pandemic has been an influencing factor, but we would be amiss to claim that it is the only one.

In fact, the true defining factor of this year has been the genius of human innovation and adaptability - especially when it comes to supply chain operations. It’s the collaborative efforts between individual humans at different stages of the supply chain that truly made the difference as the world stood in the looming shadow of adversity.

A man who knows all about that unity through collaboration is Naiyer Hussain, the Supply Chain Director of Aljazierah Home Appliances, manufacturer & retailers of Home Appliances & HVAC equipment ranging from water coolers and heaters to refrigeration units and freezers across Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.

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ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

“ Digitalisation in supply chain is required for improved decisionmaking capabilities, which allows companies to bridge the gaps across endto-end supply chain.”

— Naiyer Hussain, Supply Chain Director, Aljazierah Home Appliances

Although Aljazierah was the first manufacturer of its kind in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East, it’s no longer alone in its particular marketplace - in fact, it has global competition. To the question of, “what put’s Aljazierah ahead of its competitors,” Naiyer succinctly stated that “the leadership and vision of the CEO, CFO, and Vice President are all vital to Aljazierah’s success in our respective markets, and those three individuals underpin the reason why we’re ahead of the competition, right now. As it stands,

468

“Aljazierah was started in 1968 by the

we’ve successfully nurtured strong part-

late Mohamed bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi,

nerships with both our customers and

a visionary entrepreneur. It was the

our suppliers, which ensures that both

very first factory of its kind in the Middle

ends of our businesses supply chain

East to produce home appliances.

remain on-top. As a company, we also

Today, Aljazierah has nine production

have a tendency to explore options and

facilities for water heaters, water cool-

find multiple solutions to the problems

ers, evaporative coolers, gas cookers,

that we may face; we treat each problem

refrigerators, washing machines and

as a case study and the executive arm

plastic components. Our products are

of the organisation put in the hours to

well known in Saudi Arabia, and we are

brainstorm and come up with probable

now exporting products to almost all of

solutions together, as a team.”

the Middle Eastern markets. We have

When it comes to the supply chain

also expanded into the African markets,

operation of any organisation with the

through the use of one production

size and scope of Aljazierah, many

factory in Sudan,” Naiyer told Supply

industry-leading companies choose to

Chain Digital.

either use one supplier that can provide

FEBRUARY 2021

469 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Naiyer Hussain Title: Supply Chain Director Company: Aljazierah Home Appliances Industry: Home Appliances Location: Riyadh Naiyer is a senior leader possessing vision and skills to design, develop and monitor E2E supply chain. He performs comprehensive projects around supply chain, digital supply chain transformation and change management strategies to improve visibility across supply chain to achieve reliable, responsive, agile & cost-efficient supply chain including operational excellence. He managed global procurement of CAPEX & OPEX in most modern manufacturing plants. He directed supply chain re-engineering for a paradigm shift from production-driven to a demand-driven business model, leading to a higher percentage of sales and production with high inventory turnover. He participates and speaks in supply chain conferences & seminars across GCC. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

FP ABOUT US Aljazierah Home Appliances FEB 2021 CLICK TO WATCH

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WE DO IT BETTER

Made

in

Italy

Leader in safety valves for electric storage water heaters w w w. r i t m o n i o . i t

“ It has been important to recognise the reality of the situation and acknowledge that all companies have limitations - even ours.”

— Naiyer Hussain, Supply Chain Director, Aljazierah Home Appliances

March 21st, onwards. Considering the fact that the pandemic had been rife in China since December of last year, Aljazierah was already on high alert with the intention of mitigating any supply chain risks.”

“We started moving inventory to regional warehouses to balance the risk, and we also made arrangements within factory premises for the rest of the workers to work in regulated, safe

all of their goods and services, or they go

conditions, so protect each individual

the other route and use several, work-

whilst also preventing the spread of

ing in unison. In Aljazierah’s case, Naiyer

infection throughout our labour force,”

told us that “we are made up of several

the Supply Chain Director added. It’s

interdependent global partners. All our

clear that Naiyer, just like every other

suppliers are highly skilled and profes-

leader in the field, didn’t want to lose

sional in their areas. They keep the high

human resources to the virus, given

value of partnership agreements, and

that “expected shortages of materials

continuously work on product innovation

and services were already the biggest

and process optimisation, for the sake of

challenge - and a major pressure for me,

our customers.”

personally. Aljazierah had to ensure the

On the subject of COVID-19 - the

safety of our people whilst also maintain-

elephant in the room, really - it often

ing a constant flow of goods so that our

seemed that Asia, Europe, and the

stocks didn’t bottom-out. We oversaw

Americas were hit hardest by the virus.

a reduction in work timing from 18 hours

Naiyer revealed that “Saudi Arabia also

to just six hours for logistics and ware-

had COVID-19 cases and the govern-

housing projects. It was a challenging

ment implemented curfews and highly

time, but, again, good teamwork and col-

restricted everybody’s movement from

laboration got us through it.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

“ The team here makes each crisis into a case study and, together, through collaboration, we fix it so that the next time a similar situation occurs, we are prepared to tackle it.”

— Naiyer Hussain, Supply Chain Director, Aljazierah Home Appliances

You’ve most likely heard the claim before, but many professionals across the supply chain industry and its subsidiaries, have been suggesting that digital transformation accelerated by approximately a decade in 2020 alone, due to the innovations that had to take place to ensure business continuity and survival at the height of the pandemic.

To this, Naiyer told us that he “absolutely agrees with the notion that COVID has accelerated the digitalisation process in almost all sectors. Prior to the pandemic, there was already a conceptual shift

FP COMPETITION Aljazierah Home Appliances FEB 2021 CLICK TO WATCH

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473

towards digital, but when the world went

unavoidable. To ensure that we provided

into isolation, the pace of that digital

our customers with our essential ser-

transformation accelerated ten-fold so

vices, we obtained permits and licenses

that companies could adapt to a world in

from the Saudi Arabian government, so

lockdown. Without digital tools and tech-

that we could continue operations dur-

nologies, it would have been impossible

ing the lockdown, and we had to obtain

to continue running the show.”

police permits for the transportation of

“In truth, we were not fully prepared

goods and workers - we even relocated

at Aljazierah. We lacked many tools, but

to areas outside of containment zones,”

our team used their experiences and

Naiyer added.

skills to work under abruptly changing

Naiyer shared that Aljazierah would

environments. We made many decisions

be looking to implement any of the tools

to reduce the impact of the pandemic on

and technologies that the company was

our business - but minimal damage was

previously lacking and emphasised the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

1968

Year founded

Riyadh Location

500+ Number of employees

474

FP DIGITIZATION Aljazierah Home Appliances FEB 2021 CLICK TO WATCH

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475

importance of them when he told us that

though. At Aljazierah, as with every

“digitalisation in supply chain is required

other company around the world, they

for improved decision-making capabili-

also need to embrace the technology,

ties, which allows companies to bridge

“because it makes our business process

the gaps across end-to-end supply

easier, and we can then replicate our

chains. Also, micro-segmentation with

goals into digital advancement and repo-

digitalisation increases the overall profit-

sition the tech for remote handling. This

ability of operations across the chain by

must also collaborate with our business

allowing for more actionable, targeted

model, reduce cost, and save time.”

choices that will - theoretically - have

In the coming years, if the world

a positive effect on the overall supply

continues to struggle with unexpected

chain management experience.”

viruses and natural disasters, it’s likely

The Director was quick to add that it

that the new norms of 2020 will remain.

isn’t only about implementing the tools,

Now, at the height of lockdown, global busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ALJAZIERAH HOME APPLIANCES

supply chain networks struggled with the spike in demand for products purchased through eCommerce - a problem that will potentially continue into the New Year and further. Naiyer told us that “eCommerce sites alongside traditional sales channels and showrooms have made the supply chain more complex and, due to the convenience of the amalgamation, we now have to deal with higher customer expectations for faster deliveries.

Managing customer expectation is the biggest challenge that we will all face 476

moving forward - an additional step that increases the complexity for upstream and downstream partners along our networks.”

Naiyer’s final comment to Supply Chain Digital provided some wisdom that the many C-Suite executives could do with following; to the question of leadership and managing a company through a time of volatility and uncertainty, he said, “I am trying to keep calm during this crisis. I still sometimes get stressed during a period of crisis, as you might expect, but if you can keep a cool head, you can strategise around the negatives.

Aljazierah intends to keep production running, avoiding stoppage and FEBRUARY 2021

“ As a company, we also have a tendency to explore options and find multiple solutions to the problems that we may face; we treat each problem as a case study and the executive arm of the organisation put in the hours to brainstorm and come up with probable solutions together, as a team.”

— Naiyer Hussain, Supply Chain Director, Aljazierah Home Appliances

FP CHALLENGE Aljazierah Home Appliances FEB 2021 CLICK TO WATCH

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minimising downtime; while doing so, it is important to recognise the reality of the situation and acknowledge that all companies have limitations. The team here makes each crisis into a case study and, together, through collaboration, we fix it so that the next time a similar situation occurs, we are prepared to tackle it.”

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FEBRUARY 2021

DIGITALISATION OF THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

479 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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EVONIK INDUSTRIES

Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH, on the importance of technology in the chemical industry, the impact of COVID-19 and digitalisation

480

A

fter graduating with an engineering doctorate in the field of fluid dynamics and Rheology, Henrik Hahn, Chief Digital

Officer of Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH, began his career at Evonik Industries more than 20 years ago, in the process technology and engineering department. Afterwards, he moved to chemical research and development, headed a corporate start-up, later joining the corporate strategy department before taking his current role.

When it comes to establishing a digital innovation strategy, Hahn says that Evonik Industries first approach to establishing a strategy is to establish how the strategic business unit and functional departments can benefit from the use of digital technologies and take advantage of a data centric approach. “Innovation is not fulfilling any self purpose. We are trying to make it a part FEBRUARY 2021

481

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EVONIK INDUSTRIES

BRINGING IN NEW TECHNOLOGY MEANS CHANGE, THEREFORE YOU COULD ARGUE THAT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS NOTHING MORE THAN A BIG CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM 482

of the strategy for a specific strategic model, putting people at the heart of this realisation. While I believe it is unlikely that the chemical industry will see a real disruptive transformational change, it will be lifted into the digital age. So we are looking to see how new technologies and data centric approaches can support our overall strategy and drive efficiency.”

However, Hahn emphasises that “bringing in new technology means change. Therefore, you could argue that digital transformation is nothing more than a big change management program. As a result, everything starts

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

with being aware that we are about to change not only internal processes but processes relating to external operations.” Breaking down digital transformation into four elements: create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings, Hahn explains that along this journey, each element must be informative and inspirational for people as well as understandable as to why the transformation is taking place. “The people dimension is key. It’s not just about technology, it’s much more about people, trust and

FEBRUARY 2021

We are Evonik - Leading Beyond Chemistry | Evonik CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:34

483 explaining why we believe that digital

where other industries have been

transformation is something that will

lost.” Hahn further comments that in

occur in our industry. Without people

today’s digital era, “representatives

even the best technology will never

of our industry have broadened the

materialise if people do not under-

technology discussion from a produc-

stand the benefits.”

tion or R&D standpoint, to harnessing

In the chemical B2B space, Hahn

technology in the administrative

reflects on the industry’s technology-

space relating to the digitalisation

centred approach. “With engineering,

of corporate finance and human

technology and sustainability at the

resources, taking advantage of artifi-

heart of most industries, being an

cial intelligence (AI), robotic process

early adopter - particularly when it

automation (RPA) and blockchain.

comes to production and technol-

With every aspect of our business

ogy - has ensured that the chemical

being affected by technology, we

industry has sustained its place,

need to ensure that we have the busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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foundations in the form of data to enable this technology.”

When it comes to digital transformation at Evonik Industries, Hahn details that “looking into the production space, everything is centred around smart operations and interconnectedness.

As a result, network and IoT solutions can be utilised to improve the flow of information and improve access to insights within the production plants by taking advantage of sensor technol-

BEING AN EARLY ADOPTER - PARTICULARLY WHEN IT COMES TO PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY - HAS ENSURED THAT THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY HAS SUSTAINED ITS PLACE, WHERE OTHER INDUSTRIES HAVE BEEN LOST

ogy and data exchange. From a supply 485

chain perspective, machine learning models increase the efficiency of the entire supply chain network. Then, from a marketing and sales perspective, ecommerce is becoming increasingly important in the B2B space and chemical industry, not only to benefit from transactional efficiency gains, but

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

also the ability to operate and engage almost 24/7 with potential and existing customers.” Another key aspect for Evonik Industries, that has only increased with the impact of COVID19, is the ability to enable remote interaction. “Not only in the current pandemic situation it is advantageous to utilise immersive technologies like busi ne ssc h ief . eu

EVONIK INDUSTRIES

486

augmented and virtual reality to con-

where do trends come from and where

duct interactions with our customers

are they being driven forth? Which led

remotely providing expertise on prod-

me to Alibaba and IBM, for example.

ucts and applications.”

Partnerships in my view are really

In order to drive the company’s

essential in order to develop innovative

digital transformation, Hahn explains

business model components, driving

that as part of his role as CDO, he is

collaboration and learning from others.”

tasked with looking into opportunities

Expanding on the impact of

for partnerships within the industry and

COVID-19, Hahn reflects that “in

cross industries. “We have a couple

comparison to other sectors the

of partnerships with large technology

chemical industry is doing relatively

companies as well as smaller compa-

well. I believe that the reason for this

nies and startups. When we started our

is that the industry is still generating

transformation journey, I asked myself:

output. At Evonik Industries we are

FEBRUARY 2021

taking it very seriously to comply with

where a company finds itself isolated.”

social distancing while maintaining

Post COVID-19, Hahn explains that

our production. A particular challenge

“it’s of course very hard to tell what

that I have seen within the industry

the future will look like, but I think the

is isolated supply chains. At Evonik

chemical industry itself is robust and

Industries – probably as well as in

we will more or less manage to get

other companies – we need to ensure

through 2020 without too much trou-

that we mitigate the risk of having an

ble, as our world relies on the chemical

isolated supply chain. When it comes

industry. Without chemistry the world

to international supply chains, it is very

would be dull, dark, and simply dis-

important not to undergo a situation

astrous. We would have no iPhones,

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

487

Henrik Hahn Title: CDO

Company: Evonik Industries

Industry: Chemicals

Location: Germany

Henrik Hahn (52) is Chief Digital Officer at Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital. Hahn studied Process Engineering and within his Doctorate research in the field of fluid dynamics and rheology he developed a framework for turbulence phenomena using data analytics and modelling techniques. He also obtained a degree in Business Administration and Industrial Engineering and is experienced in information economics and game theory. He has previously worked in various management positions in the area of innovation and technology including the responsibility for a Corporate hightech startup and joined Evonik in 1999. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

EVONIK INDUSTRIES

488

FEBRUARY 2021

INNOVATION IS NOT FULFILLING ANY SELF PURPOSE. WE ARE TRYING TO MAKE IT A PART OF THE STRATEGY FOR A SPECIFIC STRATEGIC MODEL, PUTTING PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF THIS REALISATION 489

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

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EVONIK INDUSTRIES

AT EVONIK INDUSTRIES WE ARE TAKING IT VERY SERIOUSLY TO COMPLY WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING WHILE MAINTAINING OUR PRODUCTION

490

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

FEBRUARY 2021

2007

Year founded

€13.1bn+ Revenue in Euros

32,000 Number of employees

no LED lighting, no almost anything.

Almost everything in our world is centered around chemistry, from the food we eat to health care to mobility.

The chemical industry, in other words, acts as the industry of the industries.

Therefore I’m really optimistic that even if we face challenges we will have a bright future and act as an innovation engine, to enable new or better product solutions.”

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491

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