EMEA Magazine October 2020

EMEA EDITION businesschief.eu

OCTOBER 2020

Data-Driven Digital Transformation in Commodities

Fintech Innovation Labs

Three Ireland Drives Digital Transformation CIO Stephen Reidy discusses the benefits of putting customers first with technology

Because making the world better is everyone’s business.

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FOREWORD

W

elcome to the October edition

the journey as easy as possible for people

of Business Chief!

to consume digitised services and the

This month’s cover features Stephen

cloud,” comments Sueess.

Reidy, CIO of Three Ireland. Reidy

Elsewhere in the magazine, Chedid

details the benefits of the company’s

Haddad, leading Strategy and Operations

transformation, which has enabled 5G

at Bain & Company (Middle East)

capabilities for its customers, as well as

highlights best practices and industry

its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

trends relating to strategic consulting.

“Three was a disruptor 10 years ago. But

Thomas Dieringer, President of JAGGAER

then, when we acquired O2 in 2014, it really

EMEA, meanwhile, details the benefits,

became the major player that it now is. We

best strategies and the impact of COVID-

provide a number of services, but our vision

19 for cloud computing technology.

is really about connecting people and

In addition, this month’s Top 10 names

connecting things. It’s about being the telco

the top 10 fintech innovation labs, ranked

of choice, to be relevant to people’s lives

by the year that they were founded.

and to provide them mobile telephony.”

Others featured in this month’s issue

Other leaders that feature in the magazine

include: Capgemini Financial Services,

include Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer

Tom Tom, FBN Bank Limited, Telkom

at Vitality on why delivering value and high

Business, Truevo Payments,

quality customer experience remains the

Mediterraneo Hospital and many more!

company’s core focus since its founding,

Do you have a story to share? If you would

as well as Roger Sueess, CEO of Green

like to be featured in an upcoming issue of

Datacenter, who discusses the company’s

Business Chief EMEA, please get in touch at

cloud transformation and hyperscale

georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com

capabilities in addition to its commitments to sustainability. “We’re excited to make

Enjoy the read!

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

03

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05

PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Owen Martin DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Georgia Wilson EDITORAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Erin Hancox Sophie-Ann Pinnell Hector Penrose Sophia Forte PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก

Kieran Waite Sam Kemp MARKETING DIRECTOR

Leigh Manning

Justin Brand Ryan Hall Ben Maltby Mike Sadr Kris Palmer James Berry Stuart Irving Craig Killingback Thomas Livermore

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

Shirin Sadr

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

James White

DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Kayleigh Shooter

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Lewis Vaughan PROJECT MANAGERS

Michael Banyard Jake Megeary

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Stacy Norman PRESIDENT & CEO

Glen White

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

CONTENTS

14 Centili

32 Leaders in Strategy Consulting

44 THE EVOLUTION OF TALENT STRATEGIES

58

Capgemini Financial Services: RegTech

Jaggaer: Cloud Computing – The Benefits and Best Strategies

Developing an Effective Social Media Strategy

84

96 70

Fintech Innovation Labs in the EMEA

114 Vitality

132 Green Datacenter AG

164 Telkom Business

150 FBN Bank Limited

192 176 Mediterraneo

Truevo Payments

202 Lufthansa Cargo AG

Hospital

220 Serverfarm

240 Three Ireland

258

276

Henkel

PIB Group

292 314 Telia

CRU Group

332

344

Ooredoo Kuwait

Ooredoo Algerie

378 Vistas Global

360 Commercial Bank of Dubai

396

416

Telstra Purple

Unisys

434 452 Cerner Middle East

EVONIK Industries

466

480

Mitsubishi Electric

Anheuser Busch InBev Africa

14

Centili: monetising digital experiences WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

OCTOBER 2020

15

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

CENTILI

Zoran Vasiljev, CEO, describes how Centili is continually assessing the market for its next opportunity for digital disruption

A

s the digital landscape continues to shift, companies can often spend so long fixating on the trends of today that they

forget about the potential innovations of tomorrow.

Centili is a company which manages to reconcile both perspectives; a fast-paced tech company 16

with its finger on the pulse and its eyes on the future. Founded in 2011, it is a business focused on global monetisation opportunities and driving growth through its superior customer experience and cutting-edge mobile payment solutions.

Helping its clients unlock heretofore unrealised revenue streams, customer opportunities and value, Centili is a driving force in the creative movement to monetise the modern digital experience.

Part of the digital investment industry for over 25 years, Zoran Vasiljev embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of a genuine thought-leader. Having secured several executive posts at several firms within the tech and telecoms sectors, and even founding his own (Affinitiv Consulting) in 2005, Vasiljev says that he recognised Centili as a “logical next step” in his career. “I’ve always felt that it’s OCTOBER 2020

17

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CENTILI

“ By understanding the frictions that exist in these industries and resolving them with our service offerings and platforms, Centili can build trust, relevance and become a ‘go-to’ company” 18

— Zoran Vasiljev, CEO, Centili

a company that has a great story and great potential. One way or another, I wanted to be involved with it; I actually first attempted to acquire the company at my previous firm. When that didn’t work out I decided, if I really believe in the organisation, then I’ll have to go and join it.” Never content to simply ‘play it safe’ throughout his career, Vasiljev states that he’s become used to taking chances and exploring the frontiers of the industry. Adept at finding new opportunities and developing value in emerging global markets, he finds the pursuit of overcoming challenges to be both enriching and rewarding.

Taking on the role of CEO in March 2020, Vasiljev’s disposition stood him in good stead to meet perhaps the most significant logistical challenge of the present century: the COVID19 pandemic. Refusing to cling to preconceived ways of operating, he says that his first few months of leadership have been exacting but that establishing a clear vision has seen the company navigate the most difficult aspects of disruption. “We have everything we need to take control of the situation and understand what

OCTOBER 2020

Centili — Potential for Change CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:31

19 is causing problems for the industry.

might need up to 12 months from

There will not be a time when busi-

now. Its credentials as a leading

ness will suddenly revert back to how

innovator are well established. In both

things were in December 2019; that

2018 and 2019, Centili was rated as

will never happen. However, Centili

a Tier 1 DCB vendor in an independ-

has developed a strategy to expand

ent annual survey conducted among

the company, motivate employees

MNOs (mobile network operators)

and demonstrate why our industry is

from around the world by the research

fortunate enough not to be affected as

company ROCCO. More recently, it

some others might be.”

came forward as the best rated car-

Centili itself is also well-poised to

rier billing company in its Innovators

meet this goal. After all, it is a company

2020 report. Regarding this industry

motivated by creating a difference

recognition, Vasiljev added, “It’s really

in the market and projecting what its

rewarding to see the curiosity and the

partners, customers and ecosystems

continuous conversation that is being busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Advancing ICT solutions beyond imagination.

Learn more

21st Century Technologies Wale Ajisebutu, the founder and CEO of 21st Century Technologies, has an ambitious goal - to achieve the extraordinary. Fuelled by a passion for technology and guided by the firm belief that Africa can be better connected to the digital world, he founded the company to use state-of-the-art infrastructure to provide world-class solutions.

The vision is to become the foremost integrated ICT solutions provider in Africa.

21st Century Technologies has formed a beneficial partnership with Centili, borne out of the desire to rewrite the history of technology in Africa.

“Our combined experiences and knowledge of technology is legendary,” says Ajisebutu. “I have always believed that one of the key elements of success is partnering with esteemed organisations such as Centili, principally to leverage on both companies’ core competencies to build the most advanced digital services in Africa.”

Ajisebutu believes 21st Century Technologies and Centili are similar in many ways. He says they both started out from humble beginnings, have experienced rapid growth, and are now having significant impact on the region and beyond.

“21st Century Technologies is a regional powerhouse with huge infrastructure and a mission to provide world-class solutions to our valued customers through highly motivated talent and strategic alliances,” says Ajisebutu.

“Our partnership with Centili will bring digital transformation to Africa which many economic sectors deserve. More importantly, it helps create a sense of focus and determination to succeed.”

There is an African saying that goes ‘If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’. 21st Century Technologies has chosen Centili to go far enough to transform business in Africa.

Partnership with Centili Working with Centili has allowed 21st Century Technologies to build the most compelling aggregator platform in Nigeria. This solution will propel 21st Century Technologies to become the number-one aggregator VAS business operator on the continent.

The partnership sees both companies creating digital services that will revolutionise everything from online retail to gaming, logistics to financial services, e-commerce to entertainment.

As well as creating affordable access to technology and information, they are building new products and services that are deeply

21st Century Campus relevant to Africa. Together, they are using technology to solve complex problems for key industries as diverse as healthcare and aviation, as well as empowering people to use technology as a resource for liberty.

Digital transformation As the world adapts to the new normal, 21st Century Technologies is accelerating digital transformation.

“We aim to position 21st Century Technologies as a company with operations across Africa to take advantage of emerging opportunities,” |says Ajisebutu. “We sincerely believe our activities will move Africa’s digital economy towards a new era, with the internet and data at its heart.”

Ajisebutu believes the time is right for tech companies to grasp these opportunities, and building on infrastructure is key. Over the years, 21st Century Technologies has invested heavily in holistic infrastructure with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities.

The current infrastructure includes: - 36MW data centre across Nigeria - Technology park - Innovation centres - Cybersecurity centre - An Academy - Software Development Centre - Fibre Optics network - Green energy buildings 21st Century Technologies is building the most compelling ecosystem and infrastructure that will change lives, empower customers, and deliver the future.

Learn more

CENTILI

Centili — Challenges CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:44

22

triggered by customers themselves,

sections of the verticals we are serving.

both existing ones and potentially new

But, at this moment, we’re observing

ones, signaling that they would like to

and considering, ‘Where does this fit

do business with us.” However, whilst

and how does it really add value?’

certainly an innovator, Vasiljev clarifies

Driving the future of the company

that any new developments are always

is its ‘Shifting Gears’ growth strategy,

tempered with intelligent consideration

launched shortly upon Vasiljev’s arrival.

as to whether it will benefit customers

An ambitious reimagining of Centili

directly. Blockchain, for example, is

aimed at progressing the company

seeing some interest in the payments

beyond being a payment gateway

sphere, yet Centili has not explored its

and towards being a true digital

use because, at least for the moment,

orchestrator, Vasiljev says that this

the technology is not ready. “There’s a

new roadmap also serves the purpose

lot of potential for blockchain in some

of gaining expertise in the industries

OCTOBER 2020

which Centili serves every day. “What

use of personal electronic devices

are the pain points in gaming, video

(smartphones, tablets and comput-

and music?” he asks. “What are the

ers) by customers means that data

pain points in entertainment, FinTech

analytics has grown in importance as

and ePublishing? By understand-

the company strives to achieve opti-

ing the frictions that exist in these

mal digital monetisation, as has using

industries and resolving them with our

AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms

service offerings and platforms, Centili

to help anticipate market changes

can build trust, relevance and become

at a faster pace. “We truly believe

a ‘go-to’ company.” The frequent daily

that a combination of conversations

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

Zoran Vasiljev Title: Group CEO

23

Company: Centili

Industry: Mobile Payments Location: London, UK Zoran Vasiljev is the Group CEO of Centili. He is an executive with extensive knowledge and legacy in building and running successful digital ventures. He is specialized in telecommunications, investment strategies, M&A, organizational transformation, marketing and product development, channel strategy and business development.

Zoran has more than 25 years’ international experience in digital media, telecoms, and management consulting. Before joining Centili, he led projects in the EU, MENA and APAC, holding top executive and leadership roles with Apigate, Axiata Digital, StarHub, Arthur D. Little, Value Partners and Peppers & Rogers Group. He joined Centili in March 2020.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

CENTILI

and payments is something that will

micropayments. “A lot of transactions

explode technologically. People

happening through Centilli are micro-

use their phones for two reasons:

payments,” continues Vasiljev. “In the

entertainment and conversation. If

gaming environment, for example,

you are able, in those conversations,

the whole industry revolves around

to actually embed monetisation

micropayments.” The company is also

and payments with instant booking,

cognizant of developing emerging

instant betting, instant buying, instant

markets where large swathes of the

redemptions and so forth, all in one

population might not even have a bank

experience, I think that could be huge.”

account; micropayments can help

Another innovation championed

24

create an ecosystem within which

by Centili is the move away from

the “unbanked” can be empowered

monolithic payment structures

and looked after. “There’s a great

and towards smaller, more flexible

role for us in the industry because we

“ Growth is one of our key words and digital monetisation is a playground” — Zoran Vasiljev, CEO, Centili

OCTOBER 2020

0000

Year founded

$X.bn+ Revenue in XX dollars

Centili — Fusion CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:47

0,000 Number of employees

recognise and cater to these niches

becomes apparent: “We’re just getting

with services. Real financial inclusion

started; there’s still 400 operators that

is about being part of the process and

we aren’t connected to yet.” Indeed, it

recognising that maybe we can jump in

could be argued that growth is Centili’s

and lend somebody a hand.”

raison d’etre; if it stopped being hungry

Currently partnered with over 280

for further expansion, the company

MNOs, operating in 80 countries and

would probably cease to exist. As

connecting with over 4bn mobile users

it continues on its quest to achieve

globally, Centili has already made a

an entirely frictionless payments

significant impact just under a dec-

experience, Vasiljev makes it clear

ade since it started. However, when

that Centili doesn’t dwell on its latest

asked how the company intends to

achievements for too long (such as

maintain a roadmap for further suc-

being featured in the ROCCO 2020

cess, Vasiljev’s boundless ambition

Innovation Report), rather it simply busi ne ssc h ief . eu

25

CENTILI

Centili Partnerships No company is an island and it’s often who it partners with that can make the difference between success and failure. Centili has the pleasure of working with some of the top digital trailblazers around: 21st Century Technology Ltd, Tencent, Infobip and iTaxi. Regarding how they are helping Centili to achieve its goals, Vasiljev had the following to say: 26

21st Century Technology Ltd Based in Nigeria, 21st Century was founded in 1997 with a vision to become the foremost IT solutions provider in the entirety of Africa. Owner of one of the most extensive fibre optic networks in its area, the company’s dedication to quality and innovation make it ideally suited to working with Centili.

“21st Century is a very interesting

OCTOBER 2020

example of a company that has great leadership. It’s a company that has recognised what else it can do with Centili above and beyond even our current roadmap and our offerings; it’s challenging us on a monthly basis with new ideas.”

Bigo Technologies Singapore-based Bigo Technologies is a fast-paced, agile company serving over 400 M users. Their Bigo Live, Likee and imo apps have taken Asia (and the world) by the storm.

“They’ve done remarkable work in short video space over the past few years,“ Vasiljev says.

“We share many of the core values, and we are currently working together to implement a telco billing project in Latin America.”

Infobip Infobip is our parent company; it’s a unicorn originating from Croatia. The company is a world leader in communication platforms as a service (CPaaS) and it’s helping us develop our monetisation capabilities. The industry is merging and crossfertilising the point where the experience of conversations and payments is always underlying everything else that you do online and Infobip is a global leader in understanding that.”

iTaxi A ride-hailing app launched in Poland, iTaxi is an innovative and convenient way for the country’s citizens to travel. Utilising one of the largest taxi fleets in Poland

and handled entirely through an easy-to-use app which makes booking and paying for a ride streamlined and convenient, Vasiljev identifies it as one of the most promising companies Centili currently works with.

“I’m confident that, since the launch of iTaxi, Centili will be in many more conversations asking for similar solutions. We’re very proud of that partnership and I’m sure we’re going to do more in that segment.”

One of the world’s most used dating apps, London-based Badoo has been a partner of Centili for many years now. “The relationship is rooted in deep mutual respect of people running it since the start, and it consistently produces business results in different markets,” Vasiljev remarked. “In terms of carrier billing, Badoo is one of the most successful companies out there.”

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

27

CENTILI

composes itself, assesses where the next challenge or competition may emerge from and then sets to work on improving its services for customers. “The continuous involvement and renewal of our platform, our ability to be flexible and adapt to the market’s needs means that, instead of taking two years to develop a specific model or feature, we can get it done within weeks.”

Keeping its eyes on the future, as always, Centili launched ‘Fusion’ in 28

August 2020, a flexible, hassle-free solution for bundling apps, services and other associated products.

Customers pay for the bundle through a prepaid or postpaid telco account, which then enables MNOs to add value to their service via entertainment and learning packages, as well as providing merchants with an additional marketing and user acquisition channel. “The inspiration for Centili Fusion was a result of our continuous conversation and understanding about what’s happening in the telco industry,” Vasiljev explains. “It was very important to launch a platform that allows for quick access to those relationships in OCTOBER 2020

“Monetising the evolving digital experience is what Centili is all about” — Zoran Vasiljev, CEO, Centili

29

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CENTILI

30

C EN T I LI ELEVAT E

Centili is heartened by the spirit of collaboration and understanding which is prevalent in the modern industry. As such, it has launched a webinar series titled Centili Elevate, a platform for industry leaders to trade insights and discuss relevant market topics.

“It’s good to see also that there’s more and more collaboration happening within our industry,” said Dina Janevski Farcic, Senior VP of Marketing. “The industry

OCTOBER 2020

should adopt an attitude that does not necessarily want to shape and retain talent indefinitely, but rather create a platform which allows them to be exposed to as many ideas, innovations and challenges as possible in order for them to become leaders of the future and maybe even partners. I think it’s very important to recognise the role that we all have to play in creating the leadership of the next digital generation.”

order to bundle specific offerings for the operators’ user base.” For some companies, 2021 is getting closer and closer, but Vasiljev is still focused on what needs to be accomplished in the last quarter of 2020. “2020 was nothing like what we originally planned and I think there’s still a lot of learning to come. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to get a headstart for 2021, which is going to be the year where Centili will be able to apply everything it’s learned with a lot of rigor and conviction.” Indeed, it’s clear that his ambition for Centili to become a global force in driving digital monetisation will propel the company energetically into its next great challenge. “Growth is one of our key words and digital monetisation is a playground,” he concludes. “It’s important for us to spend a lot of time anticipating what the next disruption might be, because monetising the evolving digital experience is what Centili is all about.”

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31

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

32

Leaders in Strategy Consulting Chedid Haddad, Director of Strategy & Operations at Bain & Company (Middle East) on best practices and trends relating to strategic consulting WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

GEORGIA WILSON

33

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

I

t is said that when it comes to the success of a modern transforming enterprise, the strategic consultant’s role is essential. Strategic

consultants provide a trusted partner for organisa-

tions, that address some of the toughest operational problems. “Strategy consultants provide clients with an outside view of options and tradeoffs that business leaders need to make in order to achieve their corporate mission and vision, or specific business objectives, these can include:

34

increasing revenue, reducing costs, acquiring a target company, or entering a new market,” explains Chedid Haddad, leading Strategy and Operations at Bain & Company (Middle East).

There are multiple scenarios where businesses would look to hire a strategy consultant. However, Haddad details that they typically fall into one of three categories:

NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM “When either a new Board of Directors is formed, or a new management team is put in place, the time is right to assess the current state of the business and (perhaps) sail into a new direction.

This typically entails developing a new corporate strategy and strategy consultants come in handy to help with this process.”

OCTOBER 2020

35

NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY “Strategy consultants are often brought in to help with a critical decision related to the ‘non-core’ part of business operations. The types of decisions encountered here include entering a new market with an existing product, acquiring a competitor, selling off a business unit, or launching an adjacent product line.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

An Introduction to Micro-battles CLICK TO WATCH

|

18:20

37

COMPLEX BUSINESS ISSUE

unbiased opinions, adept prob-

“Even while running ‘core’ business oper-

lem solving and short term results

ations, business leaders might be faced

with long lasting impact, and while

with tough decisions that can have a

Haddad highlights that “sometimes

long-term impact, such as how to price

the message that consultants will de-

a new product, how to improve the per-

liver is not necessarily what the ex-

formance of their business model, what

ecutives want to hear,” he stresses

organisation structure is best suited to

that at Bain & Company this is what

cater to productive employees, or what

it calls ‘True North’. “It means that we

compensation model to offer employ-

are guided by our unwavering com-

ees. Strategy consultants are hired to

mitment to always do the right thing

help in all of these situations.”

by our clients, people and communi-

Organisations that fall under

ties. We have a deep intellectual hon-

these categories can benefit from

esty, and the candor to tell it like it is busi ne ssch ief. eu

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

meant that we have needed to adapt to be able to work as one team, if we are in different locations. We have been surprised at the degree to which we have managed to achieve this and some of the best practices of remote collaboration could continue even once travel normalises again.” In addition Haddad has seen an increase in demand from government entities and the digitalisation of offerings as more and more businesses move to online services. “Strategy consultants have 38

traditionally collaborated with private sector companies. However recently several government entities, especially State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have seen the value in applying private sector philosophies into their operating in straightforward language, which

model, leading to more collaboration

can at times challenge our clients

with strategy consultants. In addition,

to think and act differently.”

with businesses moving to online ser-

Considering the current state of

vices and interactions, strategy con-

the industry, Haddad reports multi-

sultants have had to keep up with this

ple emerging trends when it comes to

trend and load up on digital capabilities

strategy consulting, such as the rise

to better serve their clients.”

of remote collaboration. “Strategy

When it comes to developing a busi-

consultants usually travel to be on site

ness strategy, Haddad explains that

with their clients. The global freeze

it needs to have three components

in travel as a result of COVID-19 has

in order to be effective which include

OCTOBER 2020

a baseline assessment, strategy de-

Once the starting point is under-

sign and results delivery plan. “There

stood, Haddad further explains that it

needs to be a thorough understanding

is then time to articulate a mission, vi-

of the starting point of the business,”

sion, or objective, along with the ‘what’

details Haddad. “This is achieved by

and the ‘how’ of the strategy, highlight-

conducting extensive interviews of the

ing the key priorities and enablers that

leadership team, the customer facing

will bring the strategy to fruition. Finally

employees as well as the customers

comes the results delivery plan, “this is

themselves, and by analysing key met-

where most strategies fail. They look

rics of the business such as financials,

extremely nice and ambitious on pa-

operational metrics, organisational el-

per, but practically they are impossible

ements, competitor benchmarks, etc.”

to implement. Experienced strategy 39

busi ne ssch ief. eu

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

WHAT IS A ST R AT E GY CONSU LTANT ?

A strategy consultant is an individual (or a collection of ) experienced specialist(s) who offer(s) advice on a wide range of management topics that support the development and implementation of business strategies.

Our clients trust us to work alongside them to help them address their toughest problems. Strategy consultants provide their clients with an outside view of options and trade-offs, business leaders need to make in order to achieve their corporate mission and vision, or specific business objectives, such as increasing revenue, reducing costs, acquiring a target company, or entering a new market.

40

- Chedid Haddad, leading Strategy and Operations at Bain & Company (Middle East)

OCTOBER 2020

consultants will think long and hard

consulting from two main sources:

as to what are the day-to-day activi-

COVID-19 ‘war rooms’ and companies

ties that need to be executed in order

in ‘boom’. Within the industry Haddad

to bring the strategy to life and see

has seen “several clients reach out for

increasing tangible impact.” Built cor-

help to put in place a plan to tactical-

rectly, this method needs one more

ly respond to the ongoing pandemic.

feature in order to be effective and

While at the same time developing a

that is “an empowered, decisive, and

strategy to come out of the pandemic

unified leadership team. If the lead-

in the strongest position possible and

ers of the business are convinced that

mitigate a second wave or potential

the strategy will take them to the next

similar pandemics in the future.” In ad-

level, they need to rise up, have the

dition to these types of clients, Haddad

courage to take difficult decisions, and

has also seen online marketplaces,

communicate the same key messag-

gaming platforms, healthcare provid-

es in a clear and memorable fashion,”

ers, and safety and security operators

adds Haddad.

HOW HAS COVID-19 IMPACTED STRATEGIC CONSULTING? With the COVID-19 pandemic having a huge impact on every industry and the larger global economy, Haddad reflects that “while each sector has had their share of ups and downs, strategic consultants have been sought after to help create a plan to sustain and manage the damage caused during the COVID-19 phase.”

Since the outbreak, Haddad has seen a surge in demand for strategy busi ne ssch ief. eu

41

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

42

TOP THREE BENEFITS OF A ST R AT E GI C CON SU LTAN T 1. Unbiased opinion: the biggest advantage of having a strategy consultant is the fact that they bring a different perspective to the table. Their in-depth knowledge and skills in a particular sector, or across a specific capability, helps build structure and provides an overall unbiased outlook at what the organization truly needs 2. Adept problem solving: strategy consultants internalize the learnings of every single client interaction they have in order to always provide their clients with the latest, sharpest, and most practical solutions possible. This allows to quickly identify the root cause of any critical issue and tackle it head on 3. Short-term results with long-lasting impact: strategy consultants look for both short-terms fixes, where there is less effort needed for immediate gain, as well as more in-depth solutions where a longer-term plan is needed to truly transform a business.

- Chedid Haddad, leading Strategy and Operations at Bain & Company (Middle East) OCTOBER 2020

43

see demand for their offerings soar ex-

embrace and look for further oppor-

ponentially during the COVID-19 pan-

tunities to serve the current booming

demic. “Several of these companies

industries that are in need of proper

were not ready for such a dramatic

direction. Second, as businesses start

change in the market and have worked

to deal with a post COVID-19 world in

with strategy consultants to help them

the next few months, the traditional

come up with an action plan to drive

demand for strategy consulting will

sustainable growth for their business.�

come back even stronger with new

Looking to the future for the strat-

challenges and new questions to ask,

egy consulting industry, Haddad

and strategy consultants will be ready

believes that the future is bright for

to answer them.�

strategic consulting after COVID-19.

Firstly, strategy consultants need to busi ne ssch ief. eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

THE EVOLUTION OF TALENT STRATEGIES Business Chief EMEA gains insight from Tom Tom, Webhelp and Alexander Manns Solutions on the evolution of talent strategies and best practices WRITTEN BY

44

OCTOBER 2020

GEORGIA WIL SON

45

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H U M A N C A P I TA L

"

O

ver the years, the conversation in HR has shifted from 'how to win the war for talent' to the more intelligent and strategic

realisation that people drive competitive advantage,” comments Arne-Christian van der Tang, Chief HR Officer, TomTom. Van der Tang has seen the conversations around talent strategies concentrate their focus on three key areas: • Skills: relating to how organisations ensure their people are constantly learning and progressing • Deeper engagement: creating and protecting a genuinely inclusive company culture that 46

attracts and retains talent • Personalisation: ensuring that employee experiences are tailored to drive success and provide support Agreeing with van der Tang, Gillian Campbell, Chief People Officer, Webhelp UK, says modern talent strategies are more geared towards acquiring individuals with intangible skills and potential, rather than a candidate’s time served and experience, with values becoming increasingly critical. “We are searching for talent that builds brands and can buy-in to organisational culture. We tend to want to look for good ‘organisational citizens’ and people who can learn and adapt their skills as things change, rather than the narrow candidate personas of the past. I think there is growing recognition that constantly moving people in and out of organisations is OCTOBER 2020

47

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" Over the years, the conversation in HR has shifted from 'how to win the war for talent' to the more intelligent and strategic realisation that people drive competitive advantage" — Arne-Christian van der Tang, Chief HR Officer, TomTom

costly and unsustainable while nurturing and developing your own people through intelligent redeployment and progression builds necessary talent,” comments Claudia Nuttgens, Global Head of Assessment and Development Consulting at Talent Collective, part of Alexander Mann Solutions.

THE BEST METHOD FOR DEVELOPING A TALENT STRATEGY “An effective talent strategy must have the company’s mission at its 49

e uro pe .busi busi nene ssc ssch hief. ief. com eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

T R E N D S I N TALEN T ST R AT EGI ES

50

Companies have been focused on becoming more agile in recent years and that process has been accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, it may have been the case that companies had talent programmes that only a small proportion of employees were taking part in. Now it’s clear how important it is that everyone is able to adapt and is supported through this process. Investing in an online learning system and making a wide range of learning and development options available is an essential part of future-proofing the workforce. In an unpredictable world, digital solutions are expected to be at the forefront of the business strategy, and that also applies to talent management.

OCTOBER 2020

Health and wellbeing is clearly a priority for everyone now also.

Our WebHEALTH employee wellbeing programme is a global initiative that focuses on factors such as fitness, nutrition, relaxation, financial wellbeing, and the working environment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have introduced new development and healthcare benefits. Mental health support has been a key consideration, so we established our virtual WebHEALTH well-being strategy. This included webinars on coping with stress, mindfulness sessions, a yoga guide and supporting materials, in addition to COVID-19 guidelines on safety, compliance and hygiene.

-G illian Campbell, Chief People Officer, Webhelp UK

" There is growing recognition that constantly moving people in and out of organisations is costly and unsustainable while nurturing and developing your own people through intelligent redeployment and progression builds necessary talent" — Gillian Campbell, Chief People Officer, Webhelp UK

core. It must be completely aligned with the business strategy,” comments Campbell.

Some of the key elements of an effective talent strategy highlighted by Campbell include: •H aving the right structure in place for employee engagement, rewards and developments •E stablishing the role of the leader within the organisation •D eveloping a diversity and inclusion programme • I dentifying internal talent - not just external talent - by developing dedicated initiatives for key groups in an organisation, instead of a onesize-fits-all approach •E nsuring that top talent is nurtured via their roles and projects With this in mind, Campbell further highlights some of the key features required in order to achieve an effective strategy. “Structured feedback from employees is immensely valuable. It gives a company a clear idea of their people’s values, goals and expectations. We encourage our people to engage with their peer representative groups and to tell us busi ne ssch ief. eu

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H U M A N C A P I TA L

" In today’s world, leaders play an even more critical role in the execution of talent strategy" — Gillian Campbell, Chief People Officer, Webhelp UK

what we should be focusing on via our engagement, mental health and wellbeing ambassadors.”

Adding to what Campbell believes are important features, Nuttgens com52

ments that “for any effective talent strategy - in my view - the features are joined-up approaches that are collectively owned and supported by

Agreeing with Nuttgens, van der

accountability, and align with the wider

Tang explains that “leadership is critical

organisational structure. I also believe

to nurturing a work culture that drives

workforce plans that are based on data

success. Finding a happy equilibrium

will increasingly be vital in a more flex-

between business goals and the needs

ible employment landscape.”

of employees is something that the

When it comes to the role of a leader

pandemic has majorly emphasised.

in developing and maintaining an

Leaders need to ensure that their team

effective talent strategy, Nuttgens

are motivated and skilled enough to

comments that ”leaders need to be

support key business functions. It is no

curious people and big thinkers who

longer enough to simply focus on inclu-

are not just interested in building func-

sion but rather this aspect needs to be

tional empires, and are happy to listen

tied into understanding the mental and

to their colleagues and experts.”

physical wellbeing of staff.”

OCTOBER 2020

53

In order to achieve this, Campbell

leadership behaviours you want to

details that, “a company should begin

see, and develop the induction and

by putting a leadership framework in

performance review programmes in

place to establish the behaviours that

line with these behaviours and the

are expected from those responsible

company culture. In today’s world,

for taking the business forward. At

leaders play an even more critical

Webhelp, we want our leaders to put

role in the execution of talent strat-

people first, to enable and inspire high

egy. Leaders need to ensure that

performance amongst their teams.”

their talent is able to learn, and has

Campbell also highlights that lead-

the capacity to do so while in the for-

ers need to be effective communica-

mal learning environment, and also

tors that value and encourage

through on the job practical applica-

respect between colleagues. “It is

tion, ensuring that coaching and

important to recruit in line with the

feedback are provided regularly.” busi ne ssch ief. eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

I N N OVAT I O N S DU E T O COVI D-19 Tools like Office 365, SharePoint, Teams, Mural, Miro, Parabol, and Google Docs are helping everyone to work more efficiently, and have been invaluable during the shift to working from home. They engage, empower and assist in the easy execution of tasks. These online tools enhance collaboration and also provide creative spaces for remote teams to exchange ideas and solve problems.

54

Technological innovations have slowly been evolving the entire talent acquisition and management landscape in recent years, but Covid-19 has certainly accelerated this. In the likes of talent assessment, digital end-to-end assessment processes which are available on-demand 24/7, with automated decision making and

OCTOBER 2020

candidate feedback options are increasingly being used. Virtual assessment centres are also more common and can deliver some amazing results with measurable benefits for all concerned. While the likes of digital assessment was increasing in use prior to the pandemic, the transition to entirely contact-free processes has proceeded at pace. However, these are more than temporary changes and it seems unlikely we will go back to traditional methods now the benefits in terms of reducing bias, time saved, reduced cost, and a more positive candidate experience are too compelling.

-C laudia Nuttgens, Global Head of Assessment and Development Consulting at Talent Collective, Alexander Mann Solutions

THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF A TALENT STRATEGY “One of the most common challenges facing HR and the workforce is the ongoing war for talent,” comments van der Tang. “Organisations across the board need to stay competitive in order to attract and retain top talent. However, there is now the additional challenge of needing to be able to meet staffing requirements whilst responding to the impacting factors of COVID-19. With businesses having to pivot for business 55

continuity purposes, talent strategies and activities may be put on the backburner for a period of time.”

Agreeing with van der Tang, Nuttgens emphasises that, “the

You need really visionary and assertive leadership for that.”

immediate challenges now are that

This is something that Campbell at

we are constantly having to change

Webhelp has experienced within her

and reduce costs. We are going to

organisation. “We have been evolving

have bigger pipelines of talent post

our organisational development strat-

COVID-19 as more individuals seek

egy over the last few years and one of

new employment opportunities.

the key points is to ensure an effective

Employers need to be fair but effec-

use of talent identification, planning

tive in the way they select, deploy

and management. Over this time,

and develop talent. In the end, the

we’ve implemented talent identifica-

real challenge is getting all the right

tion, assessed and mapped all leaders

stakeholders to work together to

and support roles. The main challenge

create and develop a talent strategy.

we experienced in this process was to busi ne ssch ief. eu

H U M A N C A P I TA L

" Leadership is critical to nurturing a work culture that drives success" — Claudia Nuttgens, Global Head of Assessment and Development Consulting at Talent Collective, Alexander Mann Solutions

56

OCTOBER 2020

create awareness for all the key decision-makers focused on the benefits.

As with most talent investments, it can take a couple of years for a strategy to bear fruit and the creation of suitable talent development opportunities for identified talent takes time to mature.”

However, van der Tang does contemplate that “on the other hand, this period of time also allows for teams to re-evaluate and refine their talent sourcing strategies, to be better prepared for the future. The benefit of doing so - and from having a talent strategy overall - is that it will allow the business to strategically source talent who align with the ethos and direction of the business, resulting in better staff retention rates, and improved employee experience.”

Agreeing, Campbell reflects that “one of the key successes we had in our talent strategy was obtaining support and sponsorship from our senior team. Now more than ever, it is critically important that we enable our people to take the time to develop themselves and prepare for future requirements.”

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C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E - R E G T E C H

58

OCTOBER 2020

Capgemini Financial Services: RegTech 59 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

busi ne ssch ief. eu

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E - R E G T E C H

Business Chief speaks to Elias Ghanem, Head of Market Intelligence, Capgemini Financial Services, on the capabilities of RegTech and the impact of COVID-19 WHAT IS REGTECH? RegTech is defined as the management of regulatory processes in the finance industry with the use of technology. Its main functions include regulatory 60

monitoring, reporting, and compliance via the use of cloud computing technology and software-asa-service (SaaS) to help businesses comply with regulations. Other technologies used within the industry include: Big Data, real time analytics, artificial intelligence, automation and Blockchain.

Within the industry, Deloitte believes that “RegTech promises to disrupt the regulatory landscape by providing technologically advanced solutions to the ever increasing demands of compliance within the financial industry.”

“ RegTech promises to disrupt the regulatory landscape” — Deloitte

OCTOBER 2020

61

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With such promise emanating from the industry, the consultant company defines the five key focus areas: 1. Regulatory reporting: allowing the industry to automate data distribution and regulatory reporting process via big data analytics, real time reporting and cloud.

2. Risk management: provides the industry with the ability to detect

“ Between 2009 and 2012, 50,000 new financial sector regulations were implemented between this period, which doubled further by 2015� — Elias Ghanem, Head of Market Intelligence, Capgemini Financial Services

compliance and regulatory risks, assess risk exposure and antici63

pate future threats.

3. Identity management and control: to facilitate counterparty due diligence and know your customer (KYC) procedures. The capability also helps with anti money laundering (AML) and anti-fraud screening and detection.

4. Compliance: provides the capability to monitor and track the current state of compliance and upcoming regulations in real time.

5. Transaction monitoring: provides real time transaction monitoring and auditing solutions that leverage Blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. busi ne ssch ief. eu

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E - R E G T E C H

TOP THREE TRENDS IN THE REGTECH INDUSTRY

64

Investments to increase: During Q1-Q3 2019, RegTech reported 103% YoY growth. 2020 will most likely witness the same momentum as corporate data breaches, consumer privacy concerns, and a wave of new GDPR-like regulations will create demand for technology tools that help enterprises meet compliance challenges.

Scaleups to lead: 2020 is expected to witness the RegTech companies move out of the innovation phase and focus on industrialisation of concepts.

OCTOBER 2020

With banks struggling with lower profitability and high cost pressures, scaleups in the RegTech industry are expected to witness higher traction.

AI at the forefront: Use of specialised, emerging and advanced technologies, such as AI, robotics process automation, and data analytics is poised to gain more traction.

Elias Ghanem, Head of Market Intelligence, Capgemini Financial Services

When it comes to the best strategy

needs for the outcome, the adoption

for adopting these RegTech solu-

strategy will vary from bank to bank.

tions, Elias Ghanem, Head of Market

“In most cases it has to be a mix of the

Intelligence, Capgemini Financial

three methods.”

Services explains that “there is no

However, with the recent outbreak

one size fits all strategy for banks and

of COVID-19, Ghanem details that

other financial institutes to choose

“the tendency at corporate level dur-

the way to adopt RegTech. They have

ing uncertain scenarios is to reduce

three methods to choose from – Build

big ticket investments. Thus, financial

(internally in-house), Buy (acquire

service firms will be keen to collabo-

a RegTech firm), or Collaborate.”

rate rather than building solutions

Depending on their internal capabil-

themselves, in order to speed up the

ity, time and resource availability, and

process and cut losses emerging out

the autonomy and differentiation

of managing risk and compliance.”

Explore the frontiers of the RegTech Universe CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:29

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65

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E - R E G T E C H

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF REGTECH? When it comes to the benefits of RegTech, Ghanem details that, “banks are struggling to keep up. Between 2009 and 2012, 50,000 new financial sector regulations were implemented between this period, which doubled further by 2015. In such a scenario, RegTechs offer multiple benefits.”

Such benefits include process improvements, “RegTechs standardise and automate processes, making them clearer and better defined. As a 66

result they reduce internal operational risks by minimising the possibility of incurring violations related to human error,” notes Ghanem. Other benefits include cost synergies. With one third of banks looking to expand their compliance teams and two thirds looking to increase their budget, Ghanem highlights the expectation that “RegTechs will help banks to drive cost optimisation. For instance, utilising RegTech to automate KYC checks could result in US$1bn cost savings for banks by 2024.” In addition to process improvements and cost synergies, “RegTech solutions can also decrease the processing time, thus helping the banks to OCTOBER 2020

“ RegTechs standardise and automate processes, making them clearer and better defined” — Elias Ghanem, Head of Market Intelligence, Capgemini Financial Services

T O P 1 5 R E G T E C H C O M PA N I E S

Regulatory reporting Alessa April Software AQMetrics Risk management 360factors Albany Group AlgoDynamix Identity management and control Accuity Actimize Agreement Express Compliance 6clicks 8of9 Abside RegTech Transaction monitoring Analyze N Control Allagma Technologies Alto Source: Deloitte

busi ne ssch ief. eu

67

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E - R E G T E C H

offer seamless and improved experiences to their customers,” he explains.

However, Ghanem details that while there are many benefits, RegTechs do come with their own set of challenges which shouldn’t be overlooked. “A key challenge in adopting RegTech is data security, followed by integration issues.” According to Capgemini’s World Retail Banking Report 2020, over 70% of banking executives highlighted data-related security concerns as a challenge to collaboration.

68

“ Due to the pandemic, there has been an uptick in financial fraud and call spoofing.

In the United States alone, high-risk calls were up by 30% after three weeks starting March 16” — Elias Ghanem, Head of Market Intelligence, Capgemini Financial Services

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE FINANCIAL AND REGTECH INDUSTRY “While COVID-19 has brought about uncertainty in all businesses,” and has certainly “impacted the funding of startups in different sectors including RegTech firms.” Ghanem believes that overall, “RegTechs seem poised to gain from this disruption. Due to the pandemic, there has been an uptick in financial fraud and call spoofing.

In the United States alone, high-risk

OCTOBER 2020

69

calls were up by 30% after three

led to a proliferation of RegTechs and

weeks starting March 16. Thus, banks

the increasing interest in firms spe-

and other financial service institutions

cialising in regulatory and compliance

will be keen to rely on RegTech for

solutions. This trend is now acceler-

robust regulatory systems to monitor

ated due to COVID-19, with executives

market activity and swiftly act on non-

of financial service firms feeling that

compliant or fraudulent transactions.�

risk and compliance are the most

In addition “with changing regulatory

important focus areas post COVID-19

scenarios such as the GDPR and

for sustainable business growth (67%),

evolving compliance requirements,

indicating the importance of identify-

incumbents have been exploring

ing threats and being prepared to

ways to adapt in real time. This has

ensure business continuity.� busi ne ssch ief. eu

S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

Developing an Effective Social Media Strategy WRITTEN BY

70

OCTOBER 2020

GEORGIA WILSON

71

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S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

Business Chief takes a look at how organisations can develop an effective social media strategy, and the benefits of having one

A

ccording to Deloitte, every minute over

4mn people in the world ‘like’ a post on Facebook, more than 1.5mn on Instagram

and 350,000 on Twitter. Combine these figures

72

with the continuously advancing capabilities of smart technology and connectivity, along with the development of 5G, social media channels are increasingly becoming a point of contact for customers and brands. “To meet these expectations, companies must adapt to the requirements of clients and adjust their social communication to current trends. If they fail to do so, consumers will simply enter into a dialogue with another brand,” says Deloitte.

WHY DEVELOP A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY? There are many reasons why organisations should develop a social media strategy. The channels are not just for posting; they are also a useful platform to drive advertising, marketing, communication and sales.

OCTOBER 2020

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“ Companies must adapt to the requirements of clients and adjust their social communication to current trends, if they fail to do so, consumers will simply enter into a dialogue with another brand” — Deloitte

In its report, Deloitte details that a dedicated social strategy will allow organisations to: • Plan content • Develop and maintain a brand identity, as well as distinguish that identity from potential competitors • React to potential crises • Increase competitor visibility • Build customer loyalty

HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY When it comes to building an effective social media strategy, Deloitte and Hootsuite highlight four key elements for building a social media strategy.

busi ne ssch ief. eu

75

S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

76

Aligning the strategy with the overall business goal

Understanding the audience and the competition

Whether an organisation’s goal

When implementing a social media

is to improve customer support,

strategy it is important to use the

or drive sales via marketing,

data available, as “knowing who your

Hootsuite explains that “the first

audience is and what they want to

step to creating a winning strategy

see on social media is key,” notes

is to establish your objectives and

Hootsuite. While many would believe

goals. Without goals, you have no

Facebook is ideal for reaching Baby

way to measure success and return

Boomers, Hootsuite reports that

on investment (ROI).”

there are more millennials than Baby

The best way to achieve this is by

Boomers on the platform. Therefore,

establishing S.M.A.R.T goals that are

understanding who is using what plat-

Specific, Measurable, Attainable,

form and what they want to see is vital

Relevant and Time sensitive.

for an effective strategy.

How to Create a Successful Social Media Strategy CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

2:02

V I S A’ S T O P 6 G U I D E L I N E S F O R D E V E L O P I N G O R I M P R O V I N G A S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y I N F I N A N C E

1. Create content that describes account services such as account security, financial planning and changes to existing products 2. Partner with bloggers, journalists or influencers to promote your brand 3. Develop and promote materials that educate consumers on initiatives, thought leadership and educational resources

4. Ensure your content is optimised for each channel 5. Use consistent voice, tone and messaging across all communications and marketing 6. Drive positive conversations about your financial institution through proactive consumer outreach 77

“ The first step to creating a winning strategy is to establish your objectives and goals” — Hootsuite

Part of developing a social media strategy should also involve competitor analysis. Hootsuite explains that

While each platform has its own

this is an easy way to identify what

rules, Deloitte highlights that it is also

works and what doesn’t on social

important to have coherence on every

media for a given sector.

platform, avoiding discrepancies. calling the hotline, contacting via the

Maintaining regular communication for each platform

form on the website, writing a letter

Having a social media presence brings

or making a phone call to Messenger,

a certain level of responsibility as an

the message must be coherent.”

organisation. In Deloitte’s report, the

“Regardless of whether the client is

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S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

78

company stresses the importance of

Evaluating and adjusting the strategy

not neglecting an account. “Lack of

Once a strategy is developed and

regularity will give the impression

implementation begins, it is vital that

of a lack of professionalism and can

organisations track and analyse the

be taken as a disregard for its own

results of the strategy. Hootsuite

clients.” Both Deloitte and Hootsuite

highlights that “you can’t assume

explain that a content calendar can

you’ll get it exactly right on the first

help maintain regular publishing.

try. As you start to implement your

OCTOBER 2020

79

plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t

THE TOP BENEFITS OF DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

work as well as you’d anticipated, ter than expected.” As a result it is

Brand awareness, brand loyalty and brand authority

important to analyse, re-evaluate,

Blue Fountain Media, a digital mar-

test and refine the strategy based

keting agency in New York, explains

on the outcome.

that social media is one of the most

while others are working even bet-

busi ne ssch ief. eu

S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

“ Lack of regularity will give the impression of a lack of professionalism and can be taken as a disregard for its own clients” — Deloitte cost-efficient digital marketing methods to increase a brand’s visibility.

“Implementing a social media strategy will greatly increase your brand recog80

nition since you will be engaging with a broad audience of consumers.”

The agency reports that by investing only a few hours per week, 91% of marketers said that their social marketing efforts significantly increased their exposure.

Brand loyalty, brand authority and

communicate directly with the business”, says Blue Fountain Media. The

customer satisfaction are typically

company also adds that “regularly

intertwined. As such, the importance

interacting with customers demon-

of regular engagement with custom-

strates that your business cares about

ers and developing a bond is crucial.

customer satisfaction, and is available

“Social media is not just limited to

to answer any questions that they might

introducing your brand’s products

have. Satisfied customers are eager to

and promotional campaigns.

spread the word about a great product

Customers see these platforms as

or service and they usually turn to

a service channel where they can

social media to express their opinion.”

OCTOBER 2020

your marketing mix is a gateway to your website, and every piece of content you post is another opportunity to acquire a new customer,” says Blue Fountain Media.

While social media doesn’t directly improve SEO ranking, Social Media Examiner reports that more than 58% of marketers using social media for one or more years see improved search engine rankings. “Being able to rank in the top positions for your keywords will revolutionise your traffic and continue to generate positive results for your business,” adds Blue Fountain Media.

Higher conversion rates and better customer satisfaction Increased traffic and improved SEO ranking

With the increased visibility gained

By harnessing social media platforms,

ence, every blog post, image, video, or

organisations can expand their reach,

comment could lead to a view on an

instead of limiting their inbound traf-

organisation’s website and increase

fic to direct or search engine traffic.

the traffic. “Over 51% of marketers

“Without utilising social media as part

claimed that taking the time to develop

of your marketing strategy, you’ll have

relationships with consumers showed

much more difficulty reaching anyone

positive results in sales. The better

outside of your loyal customer circle.

impression you make on a visitor, the

Every social media profile you add to

more likely they are to think of your

from creating a social media pres-

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81

S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y

“ Regularly interacting with customers demonstrates that your business cares about customer satisfaction” — Blue Fountain Media

82

OCTOBER 2020

business when the need for your

Finally, establishing a social media

product or services arises. Studies

presence creates a voice for organi-

have also shown that social media

sations and humanises the brand.

has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate

“Customers appreciate knowing that

than outbound marketing,” notes Blue

when they post comments on your

Fountain Media.

pages, they will receive a personalised response rather than an automated message. Being able to acknowledge each comment shows that you are attentive of your visitors’ needs and aim to provide the best experience.”

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CLOUD COMPUTING

84

Jaggaer: Cloud Computing – The Benefits and Best Strategies WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

GEORGIA WILSON

85

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CLOUD COMPUTING

Business Chief speaks to Thomas Dieringer, President of JAGGAER EMEA on the benefits, best strategies and the impact of COVID-19 for cloud computing

W

hen cloud computing first entered the mainstream in the late 90s, Thomas Dieringer, President of JAGGAER

EMEA saw several definitiations for the technology and its application. “Oxford Dictionaries defines cloud computing as using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store,

86

manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer,� he states.

One of the significant benefits of cloud computing detailed by Dieringer is the capacity for individuals to log on to a system any place in the world and work on documents, pitches, business opportunities or approve multi-million-dollar contracts.

Other key benefits of the technology are centered around cost, performance, security, speed, productivity, and reliability. “From a cost perspective, the initial expense of setting up hardware and software can be eliminated, as can the need for large onsite data centres. The cost associated with running these can be pervasive when you consider 24-hour electricity and cooling, a team of experts, and the

OCTOBER 2020

87

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“ Companies that invest in big data, cloud, mobility, and security enjoy up to 53% faster revenue growth than their competitors” — Thomas Dieringer, President, JAGGAER EMEA

areas should be considered for successful implementation and usage.

Some considerations include expertise and compliance - which have grown in prominence in recent years - governance, and migration.”

With “companies that invest in big data, cloud, mobility, and security enjoy up to 53% faster revenue growth than their competitors,” a large number of companies are investing and implementing the technology within

various servers. Performance-wise,

their operations benefiting from cost

cloud computing runs on a network

savings, increased collaboration, quality

of secure data centres, using the lat-

control, and loss prevention, Dieringer

est, and fastest, computing hardware.

also notes that, “during COVID-19 it

This also promotes higher speed,

has also proved imperative from a dis-

with companies able to access vast

aster recovery perspective, ensured

amounts of resources. At the same

automatic software updates, and

time, from a productivity perspective,

perhaps most importantly, created

IT teams are less restricted due to not

a competitive edge.”

having to deal with large amounts of

for greater continuity and can also

THE BEST STRATEGY FOR ADOPTING CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RIGHT WORKPLACE CULTURE AND MINDSET

help reduce costs.” However, with

When it comes to adopting cloud com-

these benefits Dieringer notes that

puting technology, Dieringer explains

while “the benefits of cloud computing

– using procurement as an example

far outweigh the challenges, certain

– that first and foremost “instead of

hardware,” comments Dieringer, adding that, “using the cloud is also more reliable. Backup and recovery allows

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CLOUD COMPUTING

“ The very essence of cloud computing is the ability to adapt to current market conditions by being agile and have the ability to up or downscale as the business requires” — Thomas Dieringer, President, JAGGAER EMEA

sinking time, money and resources

into developing a solution to cover all existing processes, procurement can get more out of new software solutions by first delivering a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that covers

90

TOP FI V E C LOUD COM PU T I N G T R EN D S IN 2020

1. Multi and hybrid cloud environments will continue to grow 2. Retaining compliance in an increasingly complex environment 3. Organisations will make it a priority to control cloud costs 4. Solution-focused partners

roughly 70% of the essential business requirements and processes first.

Once the team has started working with the new SaaS solution, you can strategically evaluate which of the remaining 30% of your processes you would like to cover.”

The next key aspect that Dieringer believes is worth remembering is that “implementation projects may take several months to complete. By focusing on achieving quick wins first, you and your team will be able to see the cost savings, a return on your investment, sooner.” In addition, in order

5. A Continued shift to tech on demand

“to avoid a low user acceptance rate

Source: VNT

project managers need to manage employee expectations with internal project marketing. Deliver an MVP and

OCTOBER 2020

The JAGGAER ONE Platform CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:21

91 make it clear that this is not the final

method that can help contain costs

product; elicit input from stakeholders

and reduce risks based on the ‘win

and users and build their suggestions

fast or fail fast’ principle.”

into the next iteration of the project.”

Ultimately Dieringer highlights

Circling back to an early part in Dieringer’s best strategy for cloud

that “digital transformation is about

computing adoption, he further

more than digitising existing manual

reiterates the importance of hav-

processes. Every function and depart-

ing the right mindset and culture.

ment that will be working with the final

“Approaching a large IT implemen-

solution should be included in both the

tation project can be a daunting

initial discussion and the subsequent

prospect. In addition to managing

sprint reviews. Finally to ensure that

the expenses, timelines, logistics

implementation projects stay on time

and vendors, you have to consider

and within budget, it is important

change management and user

to choose the right implementation

expectations. To overcome many of busi ne ssch ief. eu

CLOUD COMPUTING

the issues, first look to gain valuable input from actual end users during the design phase of a new IT project.

By getting a more accurate understanding of what end users need from a solution not only can you set expectations accordingly, you can also reach all of your goals more quickly.”

Dieringer goes on to explain that while “making sure you have the right team available to handle a project might seem like an obvious requirement, it can often go overlooked. Having the 92

right size team is only half the battle. The second step is ensuring that you have the right people filling those seats. Keeping the team small and powerful can keep projects moving quickly without overworking individuals or overcomplicating staff meetings.

Finally, focus on the outcomes, not internal history, politics, or processes to ensure successful implementation.

Use best practice examples, advice from experts, and partners with experience within the industry to support your implementations. To avoid restricting the development and the financial investment associated with it, refrain from looking inward to the organisation.”

OCTOBER 2020

93

“ To avoid a low user acceptance rate project managers need to manage employee expectations with internal project marketing” — Thomas Dieringer, President, JAGGAER EMEA busi ne ssch ief. eu

CLOUD COMPUTING

TO P F OUR GA RT N ER TREN D S I M PACT I N G THE AD OP T I ON C LOUD C OM P UT I N G

1. Cost optimisation will drive cloud adoption 2. Multicloud will reduce vendor lock-in 3. Insufficient cloud IaaS skills will delay migrations 4. Distributed cloud will support expanded service availability 94

Source: Gartner

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 FOR THE CLOUD COMPUTING INDUSTRY

infrastructure. Throughout the world,

When it comes to the impact of

result of COVID-19, regardless of the

COVID-19 for the cloud computing

industry, was the supply chain. Those

industry, Dieringer highlights that “there

directly responsible for the supply

has undoubtedly been an enormous

chain are those within the procure-

spike in the use of cloud computing as

ment and supply chain department.

a result of COVID-19. You only have

An extra barrier for those organisa-

to look at the uptick in the number

tions operating on-premise ERP, was

of people and companies using tools

the implementation of remote working

such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom,

conditions, resulting in many people

to appreciate just how much of an

unable to access their organisation’s

impact this will have had on cloud

network. The very essence of cloud

OCTOBER 2020

one of the largest areas impacted as a

computing is the ability to adapt to current market conditions by being agile and have the ability to up or downscale as the business requires.

Organisations considering implementing a cloud-based system or upgrading will almost certainly be looking to do this as a priority now.”

As with any major disaster, Dieringer details that while short term digital strategies and transformation projects may be put on hold in order to focus on the prevention of COVID-19, looking to the future Dieringer believes that “companies will take time to take stock and develop new plans and strategies to begin the first tentative steps to recovery,” and “cloud computing will

“ There has undoubtedly been an enormous spike in the use of cloud computing as a result of COVID-19”

play an essential role in that recovery.

For companies already adept at using cloud, they will look at additional ways of utilising it further. Those yet to embrace will undoubtedly implement the many cost savings, and ease of working it affords.”

— Thomas Dieringer, President, JAGGAER EMEA

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OCTOBER 2020

Fintech Innovation Labs in the EMEA Business Chief names the top 10 fintech innovation labs, ranked by the year that they were founded

WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

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T O P 10

10 DIFC Fintech Hive Founded in 2002, DIFC Fintech Hive is a leading accelerator lab, for fintech, insurtech, regtech and islamic fintech startups in the Mid-

10

dle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA). The accelerator strives to capitalise on the unlimited opportunities of the fintech industry, by

helping startups get their products and solutions in front of some of

the region’s most established financial services institutions. DIFC Fin-

tech Hive provides startups with the environment to drive innovation within the industry by offering; accelerator programmes, licensing, co-working support, a community of like-minded individuals and an

enabling regulatory framework. DIFC Fintech Hive is a Dubai Interna98

tional Financial Centre (DIFC) accelerator program. DIFC itself is one of the most advanced financial centres in the world, with 15 years of experience in facilitating trade and investment flows across the MEASA region.

2002 YEAR FOUNDED

Dubai HQ

OCTOBER 2020

09

2003 YEAR FOUNDED

Germany HQ

99

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08 Startupbootcamp

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T O P 10

2012 YEAR FOUNDED

England HQ

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07

07 Accenture Fintech Lab Innovation

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Deutsche Bank Innovation Labs

Founded in 2014, Deutsche Bank Innovation Labs connects startups to decision-makers at Deutsche Bank. By connecting with startups, Deutsche Bank supports the adoption of emerging technologies and a culture of innovation. Deutsche Bank also strives to improve and reimagine the way it serves its clients by adopting these emerging technologies.

Deutsche Bank Innovation Labs, provides startups with: - Access to influencers and decision-makers - Resources to refine and develop accepted products - Support in the integration of external technologies and services 103

2003 YEAR FOUNDED

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05 Barclays Eagle Lab Founded in 2015, Barclays’ Eagle Lab is “on a mission to support the UK’s entrepreneurial community.” By taking over under-utilised Barclays branches, the company converted the space into businesses incubator and maker spaces. Eagle Labs provides a range of services, including: co-working and office space, business incubation for high-growth businesses, business mentoring, access to emerging technologies, business networking, events, workshops and seminars.

“Eagle Labs is building a platform to connect the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to drive digital skills development to help grow the economy through innovation and change.”

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T O P 10

04

Accelerator Frankfurt

Founded in 2016 by Maria Pennanen and Ram Shoham, Accelerator Frankfurt helps startups reach the next level of their business development. With Frankfurt being an important hotspot for banks, investors, international corporations and startups, Accelerator Frankfurt provides a go-to-market program that accelerates B2B software startups for fintech, regtech, cybersecurity, insuretech, proptech and Blockchain. As part of the three-month program, Accelerator Frankfurt provides startups with mentorships, consulting and professional services, co-working space, raised funding and provide investment opportunities.

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2012

04 OCTOBER 2020

YEAR FOUNDED

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3 0 2017 YEAR FOUNDED

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03

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02 ING Katana Labs Founded in 2017 by ING, Katana Labs was funded internally for two years, until it became a separate legal entity in 2019. Katana Labs first started as an innovation project to build an augmented intelligence tool to drive sharper and faster price quotes for ING traders. Katana Labs was created in close collaboration between designers, software 110

developers, data scientists and market experts at PGGM. Katana Labs harness computational power and machine learning algorithms, to drive its vision to help dealers and asset managers make unbiased data-driven decisions for trade ideas.

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01 2020 Half Year Earnings: Interview with Thomas Buberl, CEO of AXA CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

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4:49

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OCTOBER 2020

Delivering a Valuable Experience for Customers WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

JAKE MEGEARY

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VITALITY

Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, explains why delivering value and a superlative customer experience remains Vitality’s core focus

I

n an insurance market beginning to take stock of the potential for digital transformation to improve the tradi-

tional business, Vitality is a shining example of a company approaching a centuries-old industry from a refreshing new angle. Founded in 2004, 116

the company’s enduring focus has been not only to provide first-class health and life cover but to actively improve the quality of its customers’ lives.

Summarising this approach as “good for them, good for us, good for society”, Vitality has even set the ambitious target of encouraging 100mn people to get 20% more active by 2025. Helping to explain how the company is achieving this and so many other impressive developments, Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, spoke with us on why driving value and a superior customer experience is so vital.

Priestley started with Vitality early on as a Sales Director for a joint project launched between South African company Discovery Ltd and Prudential PLC, one of the UK’s most established insurance companies. Now in his 16th year at Vitality - taking on the role of CDO in 2017 OCTOBER 2020

117

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Dynatrace: unlocking the science of operational performance Dave Anderson, Brand and Digital Evangelist, describes how Dynatrace can optimise company performance in an increasingly complex IT landscape A specialist in accelerating digital transformation, Dynatrace is a software solutions provider founded in 2005 and headquartered in Massachusetts.

“As cloud environments become more complex, the underlying software needs to work flawlessly,” says Dave Anderson, Brand and Digital Evangelist.

“Dynatrace provides intelligence into the performance of a company’s operations and critically applies a layer of AI to enable DevOps teams to work more efficiently.” The company facilitates this by enabling the fast comprehension of where performance issues in an environment are, either automatically or through direct investigation.

Recognising that digital transformation is no longer a choice but rather an inescapable and exponentially growing process, Anderson considers Dynatrace as essential providing its clients with “intelligence and confidence to ensure that these complex applications are working the way that they should.”

One of its partners in particular, insurance company Vitality, understands the value of Dynatrace’s technology and is taking it in exciting new directions.

“Vitality is a great client because it’s using our platform not just to understand their singular applications, but rather their entire digital experience.” After all, while insurance companies might be comparable in terms of products, it is by offering a superior customer experience that they

Dave Anderson @ Dynatrace

can truly differentiate and this is what Dynatrace helps them to achieve.

Stating that Vitality’s emphasis on insurance fused with incentive-based health and wellness resonates strongly with him personally, Anderson compliments the company for “really understanding how the performance of every system, API connection and call” factors into its success. It is by working closely with clients like Vitality that Dynatrace is able to determine how best to improve its own services, “Our culture is predicated on not settling for the status quo and continuing to innovate,” Anderson continues. “Dynatrace thrives on exactly the same transformation that our customers are undergoing.”

With a platform based on AI (artificial intelligence), one of the fastest growing enterprise technologies in the market, both in terms of adoption and development, Dynatrace’s proven services are likely to evolve concurrently, “You’re not going to see an end to the improvement of AI and automation.”

However, Anderson also acknowledges that an important portion of any digital transformation is actually strongly rooted in culture. “It’s not about tools or platforms,” he emphasises. “[Vitality] has a fantastic culture and that will allow them to continue to innovate. I’m really excited about what they’re going to do next.”

VITALITY

“ When I joined the company it was clear right away that Vitality had a very different proposition for health insurance” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

- Priestley says that what inspired him about the organisation was its aspiration to do something fundamentally different within insurance. “The industry had remained relatively unchanged for a long time,” he recalls. “It was an uninspiring marketplace with very similar product offerings. When I joined the company it was clear right away that Vitality had a very different proposition for health insurance.” That proposition was integrating insurance with wellness, something which he remarks has

120

started to scale exponentially since 2004. “Now, almost all of the players in the market have some kind of wellness component in their proposition.

However, at the time, I would say we were amongst the first to introduce it.”

More recently, the evolution of technology is another key development that Priestley has observed, specifically the ability to monitor peoples’ health remotely, conduct video consultations, utilise AI-powered diagnosis tools, symptom checkers and more. Far from being simply restricted to a GP surgery or hospital, modern healthcare can be brought directly to people’s homes and the OCTOBER 2020

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

Dave Priestley Title: Chief Digital Officer

Company: Vitality

Dave has worked within healthcare insurance for the last 24 years, where he has held a number of executive management positions with CIGNA Healthcare, PruHealth and now Vitality. Dave was a member of the executive management team which launched PruHealth in 2004. Over the last 14 years, Dave has played a key role in shaping the strategy from a start-up business to becoming established under the Vitality brand as the 4th largest player in the market with 10% market share.

Dave began his career as a pricing underwriter before moving into sales and distribution and was the Sales Director at CIGNA healthcare where he helped to grow the client portfolio to in excess of ÂŁ100M API and broaden the distribution strategy into new channels and markets such as sickness absence management and dental insurance.

Dave joined PruHealth to help launch the business and establish the distribution strategy and operations. After driving rapid new business growth, he assumed overall responsibility for distribution at Vitality following the acquisition of Standard Life Healthcare. More recently, Dave has assumed executive responsibility for digital acquisition and customer retention and is now Vitality’s Chief Digital Officer with responsibility for digital strategy and product management as well as the wider change portfolio.

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TCS is helping customers prepare for business 4.0 Vinay Singhvi, Business Unit Head of BFSI for the UK and Ireland, describes TCS’ commitment to helping clients navigate digital transformation

Vinay Singhvi @ TCS

TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) is a company that almost requires no introduction: one of the largest

started what has become more than a 10-year partnership with the brand, which now, according

and most innovative companies in India with a global reach and almost 450,000 employees, it is a true leader in IT and consulting services. “TCS is

to Singhvi, “has got one of the best brand recalls within the UK market.” Furthermore, their close integration goes beyond a simple supplier-client

one of the world’s largest and most recognised brands in its field. Our focus has always been to help customers drive their growth and transformation journeys,” states Vinay Singhvi, Business Unit Head of BFSI (banking, financial

relationship, as Singhvi describes, “We do not see ourselves as separate from Vitality. It’s about us working together to understand and implement their strategy and help them in achieving their purpose. Our teams that work as part of Vitality

services and insurance) for the UK and Ireland.

see themselves as more Vitality than TCS, that’s how deeply integrated they are.”

“The way we work is primarily about keeping customers at the centre and planning everything

A strong believer in preparing for the next

around them to ensure we are aligned to both their strategy and their business goals,” he explains.

generation of digitally-inflected business (business 4.0), TCS is prioritising a three pillar framework for

Fundamentally, TCS champions an approach that is cutting-edge without sacrificing the human touch, something that Singhvi considers will only become more important as technology keeps evolving. “It’s not about machines replacing

its customers to help them lead in the new normal based on ‘purpose-centricity’, ‘building resilience’ and ‘being adaptable.’” Singhvi also details the company’s ‘25 by 25’ vision: “25 by 25 illustrates that, in our view, by the year 2025, all our systems

humans; it’s about the augmentation that needs to happen and how hyperautomation and AI (artificial

and ways of working will be aligned, so that only 25% of TCS workforce will work out of TCS

intelligence) will enrich the entire human experience.”

facilities at any time. In this regard, we are very excited that TCS is taking a leadership position on new ways of working, not just in the UK but

Recognising early on that Vitality’s incentivebased health and wellness insurance platform held revolutionary potential for the industry, TCS

globally.

VITALITY

insurance industry has followed suit.

are consolidated into one easy-to-

The balance in incorporating these

manage platform for customers.

exciting new possibilities at Vitality,

124

Digital transformation has not been

he continues, lies in the unification

without its challenges; established five

of its digital and overall business

years before the ‘digital native’ era of

strategies. “It’s less about delivering a

businesses, Vitality initially began at

digital strategy in isolation and more

a disadvantage but quickly recovered:

about considering how the digital

“We were established on a more tra-

team can support the company in

ditional technology model with legacy

achieving its goals.” One of the sig-

systems in place,” Priestley states.

nificant journeys that this mindset has

“One of our most important challenges

led to is the creation of “one Vitality

has been reconciling our culture with

experience”, wherein health insur-

the digital world.” Investing time and

ance and life insurance investments

resources in building trust amongst its

OCTOBER 2020

Vitality - Digital Strategy CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:36

125 stakeholders by hiring teams of digital

implement relatively small changes

specialists to help accelerate trans-

in the experience,” he says.

formation, Vitality has succeeded in

One of Vitality’s core innovations

marrying tech advances with its core

is its member’s app. Available on both

purpose: making people healthier. The

iOS and Android, Priestley claims that

company’s new Advisor Hub, utilising

the app “really gets to the heart of

microservices instead of monolithic

what’s different about Vitality from tra-

alternatives, is a prime example of

ditional insurance products.” Serving

the new agility and efficiency being

as the company’s primary interface

unlocked. “Our strategy is aimed at

with its customers, policyholders are

breaking up those back end legacy

able to link their other health track-

systems into multiple components.

ing apps, Fitbits, Garmins, Apple

This allows us to iterate rapidly on the

Watches and other IoT (internet of

front end at lower cost by not needing

things) devices to it. The app then

to return to the back end in order to

converts physical activity data into busi ne ssc h ief . eu

VITALITY

“ It’s less about delivering a digital strategy in isolation and more about considering how the digital team can support the company in achieving its goals” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

not have been able to implement such a rewarding programme without the help of its many suppliers and partners.

One partner, TCS (Tata Consulting Services), has been instrumental in helping Vitality deliver its new services.

Based in Mumbai, India, TCS is a multinational IT and consulting company with a truly global reach of 149 locations spread across 46 countries.

‘Vitality Points’ and provides access to

Regarding Vitality’s special relationship

incentive-based rewards when they

with TCS, Priestley had this to say: “We

achieve certain point-based targets.

don’t have the scale as a business to

126 “The app will show how your points are accumulating and what rewards you’ve unlocked. We’re increasingly building more and more reward fulfillment into that interface,” he explains. For example, if a customer earned a certain amount of ‘Vitality Points’ for working out a pre-set number of times per week, they would be entitled to a free coffee, movie download or more. “It also holds your policy information,” continues Priestley. “If for any reason you need to quickly access your policy details, renewal day or something else, it’s all in there.”

Conceiving such an innovative way of encouraging people to stay healthy and active is impressive, but Vitality would OCTOBER 2020

be efficient at some of the technical

D I D Y O U K N O W?

Vitality has announced that Coronavirus (COVID-19) tests will be available to its health members as of 29 July 2020. The test will be able to accurately tell whether a patient has the virus currently or ever did in the past.

All tests will be provided though its partnership with DocTap, a face-to-face GP provider. “DocTap are proud to be working with Vitality in the fight against COVID-19. Our ambition is to provide the most accurate, convenient, affordable and fastest COVID-19 tests on the market, backed up by our outstanding team of doctors,� said Dan Faber, founder of DocTap.

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VITALITY

Vitality - Challenges CLICK TO WATCH 4:48

128

OCTOBER 2020

|

“ Philosophically, Vitality focuses on the outcome we’re looking for and then works out what technology solution would be best” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

delivery skills necessary; we’ve found it far easier to find a partner to supply those skills. TCS is a partner that really understands our business: Vitality’s fast and dynamic culture is different to other insurance companies. TCS realises this and that’s allowed it to embed within our teams; we don’t call on it simply when we’ve got a big project; TCS helps us to continually improve our customers’ experience across the board.”

Vitality’s commitment to providing its customers with the stellar level of service it has become known for was thoroughly tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our number one priority was the welfare of our staff,” Priestley declares, “but we also had to make sure that they could still deliver first-class service to our members.” Mobilising its IT operations department to quickly find a workable solution, he reports that the company managed to accommodate its full complement of staff (1,500) with remote working capabilities within a period of approximately 10 days, a significant logistical achievement. In parallel, Vitality rapidly innovated its customer proposition by adding a new category of benefits under the banner busi ne ssc h ief . eu

129

VITALITY

“ If you just concentrate on trying to deliver value for your customers and creating an exceptional experience, more often than not, you’re going to do the right thing” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

users. “Philosophically, Vitality focuses on the outcome we’re looking for and then works out what technology solution would be best.” Not allowing the technology itself to guide his approach, Priestley says that the current applications of blockchain would not benefit the company’s customers at this time, although explorations of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) had revealed their potential for ‘proactive servicing’. “You can then

130

of ‘Vitality at home’. This involved nego-

reach out to customers and ask, ‘How

tiating commercial arrangements to

can we help?’ We’re also using ML

provide members with discounts linked

models to power personalisation in the

to physical activity and integrating with

experience, as well as RPA (robotic

these partners so that a fully digital end

process automation) to speed up

to end experience was up and running

admin and allow our staff to focus on

within three weeks of lockdown starting.

value-adding work instead.”

“That was a big success for us; we

Although 2020 has been a cata-

were still able to provide comprehen-

lyst year for change across so many

sive wellness benefits to our members

aspects of life globally, Vitality retains

by capitalising on our cultural assets.”

the same level of commitment to

In many ways the achievement encap-

making people healthier that it always

sulated the thoroughness of Vitality’s

has. There can be no mistake: the

strategy and demonstrated its adept

insurance industry is changing, with

digital skills. It also demonstrates

or without COVID-19, but the desire

Priestley’s insistence that any tech

for digital transformation which

innovation introduced has a functional

the pandemic’s restrictions have

purpose in delivering quality service to

introduced is here to stay. “Things

OCTOBER 2020

Vitality - AI + Robotics CLICK TO WATCH

|

4:46

131

will be different to how they were,”

to achieve their goals. That’s

says Priestley. “For Vitality, that’s a

what keeps Vitality so grounded.”

good thing because we’ve always

Ultimately, Vitality demonstrates

thrived on evolution.” When asked to

that an insurance company’s worth

summarise what has enabled him to

is derived from its ability to improve

spearhead such a successful digital-

the quality of its customers’ lives and

business strategy, he emphasises

devoting itself wholeheartedly to

that customer-centricity is always at

that goal. “If you just concentrate on

the forefront of his mind and always

trying to deliver value for your cus-

yields the best results. “People

tomers and creating an exceptional

always show a lot of interest in talk-

experience, more often than not,

ing about particular technologies,

you’re going to do the right thing.”

but what’s more important is focusing on how to support customers busi ne ssc h ief . eu

132

OCTOBER 2020

133

SIMPLIFYING CLOUD TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY busi ne ssc h ief . eu

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Roger Sueess, CEO of Green Datacenter, discusses the company’s cloud transformation and hyperscale capabilities alongside its commitment to sustainability

A

ccording to Gartner, by 2025, 80% of enterprises are set to migrate away from on-premise data centres, instead out-

sourcing to third party data centres and in clouds.

Colocation represents, therefore, an unstoppable trend in the market.

134

Given this trend, increasingly companies are wanting to move away from CAPEX-heavy onpremise solutions and find new, more flexible methods to benefit from the cloud while accommodating legacy systems. Many are therefore seeking a hybrid cloud solution, utilising both private and public cloud, along with a provider to host their systems.

It is precisely this market which Green Datacenter, a leading Swiss provider of data centre services, caters to. Defining itself as the leading data hub for enterprises, integrators, and cloud providers, the company is rated as a leading provider by the independent market research company ISG. So far, Green has three data centre locations in Switzerland: Zurich West, a colocation campus

OCTOBER 2020

135

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GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ YOU HAVE TO COMBINE ECOLOGICALLY SOUND SUSTAINABILITY WITH WELL THOUGHT OUT ECONOMICS” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

a hyperscale campus. Just last year we opened the first Swiss hyperscale data centre. We implemented the design principles and the type

136

with three data centres, Zurich City,

of efficiency that those types of

designed for the finance sector, and

clients are looking for.” Green is

Zurich North. Currently, the company

in the process of opening a fourth

is preparing to open a fourth location.

location, which will be another fully-

Green is also expanding one of the

fledged hyperscale campus. “We’re

existing sites. “Two of the locations

very excited about that, because it

are data centres within the urban area,”

will give us geo-redundant capabili-

says CEO Roger Sueess. “The third is

ties beyond what we have today.”

This is an exciting time for data centres as their importance keeps growing. The economy is becoming more digital every day and the data volume is increasing. “You might not think that there’s much behind data

OCTOBER 2020

Roger Sueess explains how sustainable Green’s data centres really are CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:16

137 centres, but actually there’s a lot of

geographically diverse and ‘capacity

innovation – particularly when it comes

pinched’, Green is unlike its competi-

to sustainability and efficiency,” says

tion. While some data centre providers

Sueess. While efficiency reduces

are focusing on hyperscalers, smaller

costs for providers and custom-

ones only focus on colocation. Sueess

ers, Green also wants to reduce the

emphasises that Green combines

ecological impact by developing sus-

both and offers the ramp up to the

tainable solutions. Suess believes that

public cloud with connectivity and

ecological sustainability and economic

hybrid-platforms – especially on an

success do go together. It takes expe-

international level. “We’ve been invest-

rienced staff, he says, as well an open

ing to become the enabler for our

and creative work culture to achieve

clients to connect to the Far East.

ambitious goals.

We pride ourselves on having the

In Switzerland, where the data centre market is fragmented,

fastest connections to several other locations across Asia.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Energy solutions, turnkey, reliable and efficient AKSA plans, delivers and installs emergency power systems, combined heat and power plants and transport refrigeration machines with its own specialized staff.

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Green will keep a strong focus on

with a very different growth paradigm.

colocation and hybrid IT architecture

A smaller, colocation-type business

for mid-sized firms, yet it also has

may require a couple of kilowatts in

the ambition to significantly grow its

power. Mid-size companies might

data hub for hyperscale businesses

require a couple of hundred kilowatts,

and companies, with the Zurich West

maybe a room to themselves. At the

campus’ configuration enabling organ-

hyperscale level, you’re talking mega-

isations to benefit from short paths

watts, and they’re extremely precise

for the networking of their IT infra-

in how they want to have things set up.

structures – a key advantage for future

Uptime is the highest priority because

hybrid IT architectures. “Hyperscalers

their services are so broadly used,

are a very different type of clientele,”

and then there’s expansion capability.

says Sueess. “The way they look at

That’s why we’re investing further and

consuming capacity is in big volumes

will build an additional Metro campus.”

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

Roger Sueess Title: CEO

Location: Switzerland

Industry: Information Technology & Services Roger Sueess is the CEO of Green Datacenter, a Switzerland-based company providing data centres and colocation services. “I started back in the day doing a computer science and electrical engineering baccalaureate at university. My background in development, starting as a consultant and freelancing, was quite helpful because I started to learn how to leave an impact on people.

I spent around 20 years within the banking industry in different roles, at two of the biggest Swiss banks. And then last year I joined Green as CEO.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

139

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Sueess is passionate about the imperative for cloud transformation, which Green is well placed to assist with.

He explains that, especially for the bigger companies, moving to the cloud means having to change their culture, the way they develop and the way they consume services, all while remaining secure.

Accordingly, the company has created the Green Cloud Ecosystem, which involves the company and assembled partners offering a unique proposition that allows them to harness legacy sys140

tems, using private cloud offerings, while also having direct access to a variety of public clouds. “Usually, there’s a danger of diluting yourself if you try to do everything,” he adds, “but we’ve assembled the right team of like minded partners to get that done for our clients.”

While the Green in the name originally referred more to bringing connectivity into more suburban and rural areas, the company has fully embraced its more modern connotations. This includes undergoing a transformation that has seen additional emphasis placed on its core values. Green, Sueess notes, is a part of the company’s DNA and drives its focus on sustainability.

OCTOBER 2020

141 DI D Y O U K N O W?

• 5 data centres around Zurich • Currently operating 15,000 m2 of data centres space • 48 carriers connected • Expansion plans for further 3 data centres in Lupig, plus several additional data centres on a new Metro-Campus • Realised the 1st data centre for hyperscalers in Switzerland • Last completed data centre in Sept. 2019 (investment: 70 million CHF)

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON HAVING THE FASTEST CONNECTIONS TO SEVERAL LOCATIONS ACROSS ASIA” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

142

OCTOBER 2020

That commitment has led to sev-

the beginning, affecting everything

eral concrete achievements. “Since

from building design to rack arrange-

the beginning of the year our data

ment – a complex task considering the

centres are powered entirely by sus-

interplay of different parameters, and

tainable energy. We encourage our

something in which Green has gained

customers to choose their energy

considerable expertise. As a result, its

mix accordingly.” Sueess is also clear

data centres achieve a power usage

that sustainability and profitability are

effectiveness of 1.19 when working at

not mutually exclusive. “It’s impor-

maximum capacity, an achievement

tant to get that balance between the

essentially impossible to match in

profitability that you still need as a

companies’ in-house data centres.

business with the right solutions from

As with all companies around the

a sustainability perspective.” Green

globe, Green has had to reckon

therefore builds sustainability con-

with the ongoing COVID-19 pan-

siderations into its data centres from

demic. Effectively dealing with it

Roger Sueess explains Green Datacenter’s role in the industry CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:31

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

143

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Ihr Partner im Datencenter fĂźr Elektrotechnik.

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145 was especially critical for Green, as

very digitally and flexibly, the fact that

Sueess explains: “For us, being criti-

it’s pushed 95% of our staff out of the

cal infrastructure, it was important to

office and into their homes now lets

let people know they could rely on

us say quite confidently that we can

us. We had to keep the business run-

push that envelope even further.” That

ning, so we very quickly switched to

approach has borne fruit, for instance

digital channels.” Instead of simply

in the 24 hour switch to home working

weathering the storm, Green has

for the company’s support centre.

found the pandemic to have increased

With the proliferation of technolo-

the pace of pre-existing plans. “It cer-

gies requiring more and more powerful

tainly accelerated some of the things

levels of connectivity, Sueess is con-

we wanted to do. Roadmap-wise, it

fident that Green is perfectly placed

hasn’t really changed. I think what it

to thrive going forward. “The whole of

changed for us as a company is that,

society is adopting Big Data, 5G, gam-

while we have had the ability to work

ing, streaming, even IoT and the edge. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ GREEN IS A PART OF OUR DNA AND IT STANDS FOR SUSTAINABILITY” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

146

OCTOBER 2020

147

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GREEN DATACENTER AG

148

“ WE’RE EXCITED TO MAKE THE JOURNEY AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO CONSUME DIGITISED SERVICES AND THE CLOUD” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter OCTOBER 2020

Roger Sueess: leadership adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:22

149 We’re excited to make the journey as

Swiss business, connecting compa-

easy as possible for people to become

nies across all industries with ultra-fast

digital and get to the cloud.”

speeds and low latencies. As the only

That mission statement reflects

carrier-neutral Swiss data centre pro-

the breadth of Green’s offering and

vider with over 25 years of experience,

why it attracts the customers it does.

Green will continue to be trusted and

With step-by step cloud solutions

respected for both its connectivity and

and broad partner ecosystems, its

commitment to sustainability.

tailored solutions include data centreas-a-service, private cloud and public cloud. Operating five data centres across three sites for geo-redundancy, Green’s high density data centre (the first in Switzerland) is a lynchpin for international cloud providers to access busi ne ssc h ief . eu

150

OCTOBER 2020

151

DIGITAL DISRUPTION IN BANKING WRITTEN BY

JONATHAN CAMPION

PRODUCED BY

JUSTIN BRAND

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

FBN BANK (UK) LIMITED

Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer of FBN Bank UK, tells us that by harnessing banking tech, his team is working better this year than ever

I

n the business world in 2020, as in all parts of life in this most testing of years, we all seem to be ‘looking for the posi-

tives’. It is clear that positivity to Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer of First Bank of Nigeria UK, is not an empty buzzword, but something that comes 152

naturally. Positivity is something that Castro has in spades – and, as we learn during a wide-ranging and animated interview, it has been the driving force behind FBN Bank’s success in recent years.

THE THREAT OF COVID-19 TO THE BANKING SECTOR Castro’s optimism is on show when the conversation turns to the turbulence of the last five months.

When he says that the Covid-19 pandemic has forced FBN Bank to adapt to a new reality, he adds that this has been welcome. “These challenges have allowed us to learn, and to eliminate the ways in which we are inefficient. This allows us to do more of what we are doing well, and actually to learn and evolve. Being under stress has allowed us to push our boundaries”.

OCTOBER 2020

153

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

FBN BANK (UK) LIMITED

“ If you don’t push yourself, you don’t learn.

This is how our team felt at the beginning.

It was difficult, it was challenging – but now they are not just doing it; they are enjoying it” — Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer, FBN Bank UK 154

Discussing how the coronavirus crisis will change the banking sector in the long-term, Castro is similarly bullish: “The future is going to be different to what we used to. There is no doubt we are not coming back to what we had. But if we take the opportunity to eliminate our inefficiencies, we can learn, we can become much more collaborative, and much more data and technology driven”.

HARNESSING NEXT-GENERATION TECHNOLOGY Castro joined FBN Bank two years ago, tempted by an ambitious new project after a successful 17-year career in consulting. He was tasked with overseeing the bank’s digital transformation, at a time when adopting the latest technologies was becoming ever more crucial for the finance

OCTOBER 2020

Digitising FBN banks operations CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:10

155 industry. In light of what has happened

customer experience to our institu-

to in-person banking in 2020, making

tional clients in the UK and Europe.

sure that FBN’s remote banking keeps

As Castro talks about spinning

its clients happy is now a matter of life

various unfamiliar plates – AI machine

and death for the organisation.

learning, cloud systems, 5G, automa-

With the investments made in

tion, data analytics – with the margins

Oracle’s next-generation banking

for error shrinking by the day, his

solution, FBN Bank is now at the

innate positivity shines through once

forefront of payment innovation.

more. “Before you needed to create

With an ISO20022 based data model,

the data warehouses, for people to

SWIFT gpi, PSD2 and open banking

self-serve. Now we have intelligent

technology leadership, modern tech-

algorithms, machine learning, like an

nology architecture, and machine

enterprise Google Search function-

learning for STP improvements,

ality Io-Tahoe, where our business

FBN is now able to offer a superior

users can search for the type of data busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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

Santiago Castro Title: Chief Data Officer

Company: FBN Bank (UK) Limited

Industry: Banking

Location: London, UK

Santiago joined FBNUK in 2018 and has been in charge of directing and overseeing the digital transformation of the Bank delivering a robust data governance, and information management and automation of the Bank’s processes and services. He is also providing data, technology & business leadership to facilitate cultural change, communicating with diverse teams to take projects from start to finish by aligning people, processes and technology into one integrated vision. He has delivered several technology projects, supporting business governance with data and better reporting, creating automated risk management controls, and improving transaction monitoring analysis to ensure compliance.

Before joining the Bank, Santiago worked in various consulting firms for numerous clients in finance, insurance and other industries. He has 19 years’ experience in providing business leadership and overseeing transformational change, working in management consulting and stakeholder engagement. In addition, he has overseen extensive technology implementations, change management and project oversight.

Santiago has experience in communication focused on successful delivery, technical excellence and user adoption while developing relationships with diverse partners and clients. Santiago holds a Master in Decision Sciences from the London School of Economics.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

157

FBN BANK (UK) LIMITED

158

OCTOBER 2020

“ It’s about being competitive and resilient. As you become efficient, you also become more resilient” — Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer, FBN Bank UK

159

Managing challenges within the workplace culture CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:01

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Increase the visibility of unstructured data.

Improve security, efficiency, and regulatory compliance.

Streamline data migration

Apply rich media analysis

Manage regulatory compliance

Respond to DSARs

Discover sensitive data

Clean up ROT data

Discover more ›

“ Augmented intelligence is bringing in technology as an ally. I think that is kind of my style: it’s really about helping people, empowering them to realise their own capabilities” — Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer, FBN Bank UK

example, automation. In bringing in machines as an ally to our people, we have created a lot of automation that has helped us to actually reduce

that they need. They can now leave

time on dealing with repetitive types

the machine to go discover the data

of tasks, and in doing so becoming

for them, which gives them more time

more efficient”.

for other things”.

Of all the technological solutions

FBN BANK’S DIGITAL STRATEGY

that FBN Bank has introduced, Castro

A topic that Castro keeps coming

is most keen to credit automation

back to is resilience; being prepared

and machine learning for improv-

for all scenarios. Under his leader-

ing efficiency. “Technology is key

ship, FBN Bank had the foresight to

because it allows us to collaborate

invest in digital solutions that enable

more. Now we can share the same

and simplify remote banking for its

data platforms, where we all interact.

clients – and remote working for its

With a little automation, we can actually communicate and help each other more easily”. In many companies, staff see automation at best as a hindrance, at worst as a threat; but at FBN, it creates harmony. As Castro puts it: “A lot is about trying to realise efficiency gains, trying to empower our employees to do more with, for busi ne ssc h ief . eu

161

FBN BANK (UK) LIMITED

staff – before the coronavirus outbreak

yourself, you don’t learn. This is how our

forced consumers and employees out

team felt at the beginning. It was difficult,

of physical banks. Castro recognises

it was challenging – but now they are not

that the banking sector as a whole was

just doing it; they are enjoying it”. Castro

much better prepared for this situation

continues the metaphor: “Flexibility and

than it would have been five years ago.

collaboration only work because we

Becoming efficient five years ago has

empower our people with technology,

allowed them to be resilient today:

and with the right skills, to be able

“It’s about being competitive and

to always learn and jump in and help

resilient. As you become efficient,

their colleagues”.

you also become more resilient”.

He illustrates the point with a meta162

The biggest factor in the digital journey is the total commitment of top

phor. “Actually it’s a little bit like when

management. After this is invest-

you want to learn to swim. You need

ment in the right technology. Unless

to jump in the water. If you don’t push

the team owns and understands the

How FBN Bank creates a smart team CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

1:56

“ Being under stress has allowed us to push our boundaries” — Santiago Castro, Chief Data Officer, FBN Bank UK

because the fintech startups that are born into next-generation technology are already comfortable with this completely new model”.

FBN is at the forefront of digital technology. Its core banking technology partners have enabled the

technology and its benefits, they will

bank to deliver superior corporate

face hurdles in its implementation and

banking services that leverage

the outcome will be sub-optimal.

best of breed technology, such as

He also acknowledges that in the

microservices architecture, API first

banking world, companies pay a

approach, machine learning and

heavy price for standing too long

Artificial Intelligence.

on the diving board. “Now, if you stop, you will be left behind. And that’s kind of what has happened to the very big established companies.

Their life expectancy used to be hundreds of years – now it’s 20 to 30, busi ne ssc h ief . eu

163

164

OCTOBER 2020

Telkom and Yep!: Transforming into the Platform for SMBs WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

165

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TELKOM BUSINESS

Lunga Siyo, CEO of Telkom Business and Yep!, reveals the technological and cultural transformation enabling it to become a one-stop platform for SMBs

T

elkom is a diversified group of companies, which started out as an incumbent fixed line operator in South Africa. Over the

years, it has diversified into a mobile business and an IT business, alongside Towers and Property and a network infrastructure business. Lunga Siyo heads 166

up the small and medium business division of the company, which evolved out of its Yellow Pages business. “We had three entities within the group that were servicing these small and medium businesses,” says Siyo. “An IT company, BCX, selling IT solutions, then a fixed line operator selling voice lines and data and broadband. Yellow Pages was selling marketing services and advertising. We’ve combined all of those three entities into one we initially called Telkom SMB.” The organisation has since evolved, however, into a brand known as Yep!. “It’s a marketplace business, in essence,” says Siyo. “We wanted to serve our customers using a digital marketplace rather than physical stores or via telephone, just to make it easier for businesses. Think about a bakery. They want to make sure that they bake cakes, and sell them to OCTOBER 2020

167

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TELKOM BUSINESS

“ What we needed to do was to first look at legacy systems, look at processes and start automating them” — Lunga Siyo, CEO, Telkom Business and Yep! 168

their customers. They don’t want to be bogged down in administration and the services that enable them such as broadband, telephony, IT. They also want to market themselves.”

Yep!’s offering caters to both such impulses, as Siyo explains: “We can create a marketplace for them so that they can drive traffic into their own physical stores, while also creating new revenue streams through digital channels. We started by linking up small businesses with customers. Beyond creating an online store, we were creating an entire ecosystem of products and services

OCTOBER 2020

Telkom and Yep! CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:30

169 that small businesses could buy from the

do was to first look at legacy systems,

platform itself, starting with connectivity

look at processes and start automating

products, but also looking into adjacent

them. For instance, the credit scoring

solutions such as financial services.”

process previously involved an individ-

Making that a possibility has required

ual taking your details, going to another

internal transformation at the company,

team, looking at the credit check and

which Siyo has overseen. “We wanted

only then could they tell you what kind of

to serve our customers better. Now,

product that you qualify for.”

instead of calling someone at a contact

That process has now been auto-

centre, you can actually go online and

mated through an online, web-based

self service. You can buy more products

platform which relies on APIs to interact

online via an ecommerce platform for

with legacy systems. “These systems

customers.” Another big focus has

have been put in place to make sure

been on improving the capacity to sign

that we can transform ourselves as a

up new customers. “What we needed to

business, but also to transform how our busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Copyright Š 2020 Accenture. All rights reserved.

EXPERIENCE MATTERS Your customer experience powered by our transformation experience Digital commerce can account for 50% of B2B revenue, but to unlock that revenue, your digital marketplace has to be smart enough to feel simple. B2B buyers think just like consumers—because they are.

Accenture has the proven experience to make your user experience matter.

customers interact with us,” Siyo says.

The technologies involved in the trans-

has been another cornerstone of the company’s approach, with the use of

formation have been various, but one

robotic process automation (RPA) tech-

of the standout examples has been the

nology widespread.

harnessing of data, whether it be struc-

Accompanying Telkom on its journey

tured customer data or the unstructured

have been a number of key partners.

variety. “Data is key,” says Siyo. “The

BCX, a sister company, is one such

question is how do you pull that together

example, offering extensive IT capa-

and create a view of the customer in

bilities with both homegrown and third

terms of what they have with you, and

party software. “They’re a systems

what they might actually be buying

integrator, but they’ve also developed

elsewhere. That actually allows us to

systems themselves, such as RPA,

create better solutions, or even look at

which we utilise. They’re our technology

products that we can aggregate on their

partner, who works with us to create our

behalf and offer to them.” Automation

platforms.” Consultants Accenture play

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

Lunga Siyo Title: CEO

Company: Telkom and Yep!

Industry: eCommerce

Location: South Africa

Lunga Siyo is an experienced business and ecommerce executive leader, an expert in creating, executing and scaling digital as a strategic capability in many organisations. A consummate business leader with extensive experience in Business Management, P&L, Finance & Accounting, Sales & Marketing and an Executive in a listed entity, he holds a Bsc honours in Accounting and is an MBA graduate. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

171

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS COMPLEX, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED.

FROM THE INNOVATORS BEHIND BCX WE BRING YOU OUR NEW DIGITAL WING

SIMPLY NAVIGATING THE COMPLEX FIND OUT MORE

Our most important customer is yours.

“ These systems have been put in place to make sure that we can transform ourselves as a business, but also to transform how our customers interact — with us” Lunga Siyo, CEO, Telkom Business and Yep!

a particularly important role in the user

Our customer research approach

experience design process. “Everything

and design philosophy ensured that

that we develop is led by experience

human-centric experiences were

design,” says Siyo. We first listen to the

placed at the core of the Yep! brand

customers and then we design a cus-

and value proposition in this new digi-

tomer journey. Accenture helped us to

tal channel. Accenture is proud to have

develop customer journeys that meet the

contributed in bringing this vision to life

demands of our customers. Most impor-

and leaving a lasting impact in terms of

tantly, we were looking for a partner that

new ways of working and a ‘lean start-

is not just a digital marketing company

up’ culture at Telkom SMB.”

or a consulting firm, but a firm who really

Alongside the introduction of tech-

understands customer service, as they

nology has been an attendant focus

do, and can develop seamless customer

on culture. That cultural evolution has

journeys for our platform.”

also helped to make articulating the

Greg Cress, Digital Innovation and

vision for the introduction of technol-

Client Account Lead for Accenture

ogy easier. “We started implementing

in Africa, adds: “Right from the outset

an agile way of working from a tech

of the project we connected with

development perspective, with daily

Telkom’s vision to build a digital mar-

stand ups, scrums, sprints and all of

ketplace unique to the needs of the

those things,” adds Siyo. “To create a

South African small business owner.

business case, you have to know what busi ne ssc h ief . eu

173

TELKOM BUSINESS

“ We started implementing an agile way of working from a tech development perspective” — Lunga Siyo, CEO, Telkom Business and Yep! 174

Yep! Overview CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

2:55

do on a daily basis? How do you drive proper outputs from your own people that are driven by certain key indicators that would add value to your business?

You look at productivity and output.” It’s also provided an opportunity to accelerate Telkom’s approach into ecommerce by virtue of changing consumer patterns in response to COVID 19.

Thanks to the changes that have been put in place, Siyo is confident that the company is very ready to thrive, even with the current circumstances. “We’ve become a platform business, completely - aggregating both the demand and supply side. We’re evolving out of being just a normal telco, into a platform you’re developing and how much money

player that is able to help small busi-

you’re going to make out of it before you

nesses scale and grow.” That tallies

can get any capital released to change

with his wider mission to grow the South

the organisation.”

African economy by allowing small busi-

Common to all organisations the

nesses to thrive and contribute more.

world over, COVID-19 has impacted

“Right now they probably contribute

Telkom’s way of working. Remote

around 25% towards our GDP. We think

working has left an impression, with

it should be around 50- 60%, more like

plans to change policies and enable

in developed economies. Large enter-

flexible location and working hours. Siyo

prises don’t drive GDP growth - small

emphasises the fact that this requires a

businesses do.”

change in management style. “How do you manage people that are working virtually instead of focusing on what they busi ne ssc h ief . eu

175

Truevo Payments: Driving Digitalisation and Innovation 176

WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

JUSTIN BRAND

OCTOBER 2020

177

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

Charles Grech, Chief of Operations at Truevo Payments, on the evolution of Truevo Payments and the digital transformation trends within finance

J

oining Truevo Payments in 2014, Charles Grech, Chief of Operations at Truevo Payments has been a part of the licensed

financial institution for six years. Grech began his career in finance in 1995 at the Bank of Valletta.

178

Grech has also held positions and co-founded Agechecked.com and PNNY Consult prior to joining Truevo Payments.

“Our motto is simple,” explains Grech when asked about the evolution of Truevo Payments’ business strategy. “It’s everything for entrepreneurs. Our founder’s vision dates back 20 years ago, to try and make a significant difference within the payment industry. We have a very clear business niche in mind, which is to provide a supportive network for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The company itself has evolved over many years, taking one step at a time. First came the technology, then came the license, and now we are adding more and more products to create an ecosystem to facilitate the growth of businesses in a quick and cost-effective way.”

OCTOBER 2020

179

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

“ Our motto is simple.

It’s everything for entrepreneurs” — Charles Grech, Chief of Operations, Truevo Payments

Truevo Payments has three core values which inspire everything they do.

1. Make a difference 2. Think BIG 3. Put your heart into it Founded in 2013, Truevo Payments first began operating under the name Swish Payments. In 2017, the financial institution rebranded to Truevo Payments. “There were a number of reasons why the company decided to rebrand,” says Grech. “The first one is like any other business would do,

180

OCTOBER 2020

An insight to Truevo’s challenges they have confronted CLICK TO WATCH

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3:14

181 to ensure that there is not too much

grow is to drive digitalisation and

saturation on an existing brand name.

innovation within its operations.

The word ‘swish’ is not only a verb but

With this in mind, Grech details

is also used by a lot of other organisa-

that “being a fintech company, I

tions within the market. As a result,

believe we have a natural advan-

the company worked on creating a

tage because the technology came

new, bold brand name which would

before finance, not the other way

make a statement. We wanted a brand

around. Frequently, within this

which would continuously adapt, and

industry, fintech companies that

ride the evolution that is always taking

were primarily financial but in time

place within the industry. We strove

adopted the technical element,

for something that symbolized and

do not have the technical people

asserted our vision and value.”

required. At Truevo Payments our

Part of the company’s efforts to help entrepreneurial businesses

founder and CEO has a technical background. I, myself am a software busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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Truevo, ACI: enabling cross-border merchant expansion Charles Grech, COO, Truevo, and Andrew Quartermaine, VP of Customer Success, ACI, on the importance of collaboration and partnership for merchant expansion Watch Here Payment solution company Truevo provides merchants an end-to-end offering from acquiring to payment processing across Europe. It’s a mission that, according to Charles Grech, the company’s COO, requires a strong partner ecosystem. “We realised that there was a lot of opportunity for us in expanding our offering, so that we could provide our customers with an end-to-end solution.

For this, we needed a gateway solution which could provide relevant local and cross-border payment options, as well as global connectivity to the ever-growing number of alternative payment methods.

We also needed it to be delivered in a fast and timely fashion by someone who could scale with us.”

ACI’s support for Truevo comes from multiple angles, as Andrew Quartermaine, VP of Customer Success at ACI, explains: “ACI provides the technology to support and enable customers such as Truevo.

Our global Secure eCommerce solution enables safe international business expansion for Truevo and their merchants, giving them the ability to deploy tailored payment and fraud strategies for each channel and market. We provide our global Secure eCommerce as a whitelabel gateway that carries the Truveo brand and supports their end-to-end solution offering to their merchants.”

ACI has worked with Truevo to understand its requirements. “ACI is a large company

with a lot of expertise and a long history in technology,” says Grech. “After going live, they followed up to make sure any problems encountered were efficiently dealt with.” That support means ACI delivers on the three main areas Grech identifies as key for its partners and the solutions they deliver: agility, innovation and flexibility. “I can firmly say that we have achieved these three factors in our partnership with ACI.” The strength of the relationship is further due to the mutual compatibility of the two organisations. “Truevo is the type of customer we enjoy supporting – innovative, global and growing rapidly,” says Quartermaine. “They wanted a secure gateway with global reach to support their rapidly expanding merchant base. They understand the importance of meeting their customers’ needs and we work collaboratively to make sure they have all the tools and payment strategies they need to do that.”

Both companies maintain an eye on the future and are dedicated to finding innovative ways to enhance the consumer payments experience, protect against the risk of fraud, while increasing conversion for merchants. www.aciworldwide.com

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

Truevo’s thoughts on new trends CLICK TO WATCH

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3:30

184

and electronic systems engineer,

offerings and continuous investment

not to mention our CTO and all of

in research and development (R&D)

our technical team. Nowadays I do

and technical innovation. “One of

not believe that you have any other

the main elements we are working

choice but to upskill or onboard

to roll out in the coming months is

talent that have technological

to significantly upgrade our fraud

knowledge, in addition to financial

management capabilities and

knowledge in order to embrace the

onboarding processes by adopting

speed in which technology is evolv-

machine learning technology. Over

ing, because it is changing so fast.”

the last few years machine learning

When it comes to innovation,

and artificial intelligence (AI) have

Grech highlights the importance

been a bit of a buzzword. However,

of finding a balance between being

I believe that many companies are

fast to market with its new product

starting to see the benefits now of

OCTOBER 2020

these technologies. While you can

adopting new opportunities such as

automate business functions, there

machine learning and AI.�

are limits. By harnessing the power

Alongside its adoption of machine

of machine learning, you can benefit

learning, Grech details that when

from optimisation and predictive

looking to enter new industries,

capabilities. Ultimately, when it comes

“one first needs to have certain

to innovation it comes back to that

knowledge and competence and

balance of being first to market when

the data set in that industry. Truevo

rolling out new products with the lat-

Payments has been operating since

est improvements in technology and

2016 and we are now in our fourth

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

Charles Grech Title: Chief of Operations

185 Company: Truevo Payments

Industry: Financial services Location: Birkirkara Charles Grech is a seasoned payments executive with 25 years of experience in design, management and operation of payment systems and payment businesses. He has managed large scale projects such as migration to chip on both acquiring and issuing businesses, systems migration and migration of national currency. Charles is a software and electronics systems engineer. Previously, Grech managed various areas of the payment card business in Bank of Valletta plc. And was co-founder of the online age verification provider agechecked.com. Today, Charles Grech is Chief of Operations at Truevo Payments, a card acquiring and financial services company servicing European businesses. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

TRUEVO PAYMENTS AND ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH ACI WORLDWIDE

At Truevo Payments the company has several partners at various levels which can be classified into three main areas: suppliers and vendors, customers and regulatory authorities. “There are many entities that we work with and over the years - since we have a large variety of products - instead of having different providers for different services, we have tried to stick with people who are there for the long term. ACI Worldwide is one of them,” commented Charles Grech, Chief of Operations at Truevo Payments.

186

Grech has worked with ACI Worldwide for 20 years and in that time he believes that when it comes to partner relationships “when everything is working fine, that is the easy part. It is the time when there are problems that I really appreciate our partners. When something goes wrong, when the reliability of the partner is put into question because we need backup, ACI Worldwide is one of our reliable partners. They join us in our ambitions to put the customer at the forefront and offer a best in class product. It is this common goal and reliability which has made such a relationship last this long.”

OCTOBER 2020

“ Being a fintech company, I believe we have a natural advantage because the technology came before the finance, not the other way around” — Charles Grech, Chief of Operations, Truevo Payments

amount of flexibility, because while you can invest in the best technical platforms in the world, at the end of the day those using the tools need to have a mindset that is willing to adopt the changes. I also believe that it is equally important to have a mentality where you are willing to

year of business operations, as a 187

result we are now trying to organise our data so that when the time is right - which is now - we can harness the data and use it for our machine learning. However, I think that there needs to be a certain transition time until a dataset is mature enough to be indicative of one’s business purpose, which, being in our fourth year, is where we are now and will continue to improve in the background.”

To successfully implement these strategies, it is important to have the right starting point. “In order to facilitate digital transformation, it takes a certain mindset, people need to be willing to change and have a large busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

188

OCTOBER 2020

“ Nowadays, I do not believe that you have any other choice but to upskill or onboard talent that has technological knowledge, in addition to financial knowledge” — Charles Grech, Chief of Operations, Truevo Payments make a continuous business transformation. There is no process that is set in stone because technology, business and customer requirements continuously change. This is something that we also integrate within our core business processes - the concept of continuous improvement, doing little changes but all the time.”

Reflecting on the payments industry as a whole, Grech details that “one of the biggest challenges within the industry is the evolution of a much more onerous regulatory landscape. If you go back even three years, there were fewer regulators and local governments wanting busi ne ssc h ief . eu

189

TRUEVO PAYMENTS

190

“ In order to facilitate digital transformation, it takes a certain mindset. People need to be willing to change and have a large amount of flexibility” — Charles Grech, Chief of Operations, Truevo Payments

to control the industry. Therefore, companies like us needed to make a significant number of changes in the way we conduct our business processes and our systems.

Another major challenge for business is the onboarding process, which is why as part of our operations we are focused on trying to shorten the onboarding time as much as possible, which I believe at this stage we have laid the necessary foundations.

Currently we are working on providing

OCTOBER 2020

Truevo’s digital transformation process CLICK TO WATCH

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191

entrepreneurs with the ability to build

Certain aspects of the industry, such

a homogenous set of components,

as document signing and meetings

instead of purchasing off the shelf

with regulatory authorities, had

systems that are disjointed.”

to be done in person. Now these

Contemplating the impact of

processes are forced to be done

COVID-19, Grech explains how the

remotely. Even authentication of

pandemic has brought about per-

individuals can be done successfully

sonal digitalisation for customers as

online now. From that perspective, I

they are more accepting of digital

believe it will help shape the future

payment methods that are contact-

of the industry by expediting it in a

less. In addition Grech explains that

digital direction.”

he believes “COVID-19 has removed earlier bureaucracy in payments. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

192

OCTOBER 2020

The Digital Evolution of Procurement WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

JUSTIN BRAND

193

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MEDITERRANEO HOSPITAL

Pavlos Tamvakis, CPO at Mediterraneo Hospital, discusses the evolution of its procurement operations alongside its digital transformation journey

W

ith 15 years of experience in the medical field, Pavlos S. Tamvakis, CPO at Mediterraneo Hospital, began his

career in the pharmaceutical industry conducting imports and exports for pharmaceutical drugs in the European Union (EU). After a few 194

years in the industry, Tamvakis moved into the medical device sector, where he was introduced to Mediterraneo Hospital. “I came to provide Mediterraneo Hospital with some medical devices, and they offered me the chance to set up a purchasing department for the hospital, which I have now been running for the past eight years,” says Tamvakis.

When Tamvakis first came to the hospital there wasn’t a procurement department. “They had certain individuals managing procurement in each department sending purchase orders to the suppliers. By doing it like that, we did not have an overall clear picture of all the purchase orders.

As a result one of the main implementations I made when I joined the hospital was developing a centralised procurement department,” OCTOBER 2020

195

2000

Year founded

€36m+ Revenue in Euros

350

Number of employees busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MEDITERRANEO HOSPITAL

“ The main difference between our procurement operations before and now is that we have a clear picture of our procurement year on year” — Pavlos S. Tamvakis, CPO, Mediterraneo Hospital

comments Tamvakis. In addition to establishing a centralised procurement department, Tamvakis worked with his team to set up an e-store for the hospital. “The e-store allows people who need certain items to access the B2B store and make their purchase order on a centralised system, that notifies the procurement department and suppliers via email,” adds Tamvakis. In doing this, Mediterraneo Hospital has reduced its paper-based methods for its procurement. “This centralised system

196

also provides the hospital warehouse with visibility on what to expect coming in and out of the hospital, as well as what each department requires,” explains Tamvakis. For certain purchases made in the e-store, the products require approval, to implement this within the system, Tamvakis is working on an approval system, where for expensive products people can describe their requirement for the item and what it will achieve, which can then be approved or declined via the system.

This system began development in the summer and is expected to be complete in October 2020.

OCTOBER 2020

“The main difference between our

of what our people and patients

procurement operations before and

are using for the operations, but we

now is that we have a clear picture

didn’t have a very clear picture of

of our procurements year on year,”

our disposables.” Since develop-

comments Tamvakis. Mediterraneo

ing its procurement operations,

Hospital has two types of procure-

Mediterraneo Hospital has clearer

ment, one disposables used in the

transparency over its disposables.

hospital, and one specifically for

“We know the exact quantities of

operations. “In the past we have

what we have bought, which depart-

always had a clear picture

ment uses them and how many

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

Pavlos Tamvakis

197

Title: CPO

Company: Mediterraneo Hospital

Industry: Healthcare

Location: Greece

Pavlos S. Tamvakis is an accomplished CPO who partners with senior management to mitigate and manage procurements through strategic planning following all regulatory compliance. Having followed courses in ISO Certifications, MDR 745/2017, ISO 13485:2016, ISO 9001:2008 and CFA Common Assessment Framework, he builds efficiency in procurement processes and implements new technologies in business operations with cost effectiveness always being his main goal. His continuous efforts have led to significant operational changes in the digital procurement transformation of the hospital over the past 8 years, making him an asset to the organization. Being challenged is what drives his success.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MEDITERRANEO HOSPITAL

patients we have throughout the year. As a result we have a clear picture on our average daily costs, which we didn’t have before,” adds Tamvakis. With the adoption of new technologies and implementation processes, the hospital continuously develops its visibility into its procurement, gaining further insight into the hidden costs of the hospital.

When it comes to the industry as a whole, Tamvakis has seen an uptick in the purchase of large quantities. “To ensure that we have

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“ When establishing new collaborations with multinational companies, it’s important to have mutual trust” — Pavlos S. Tamvakis, CPO, Mediterraneo Hospital

Mediterraneo Hospital CLICK TO WATCH

|

4:01

199 enough materials to last the next

focusing on the hidden costs, such

month or throughout the year, we

as the time it takes to conduct a task

will buy stock for six months. This

and how it can be done more effec-

is something that we never used

tively, as well as reducing the amount

to do because we knew that the

of waste produced at the hospital.”

suppliers and distributors would

Since joining Mediterraneo Hospital,

have the quantity that we needed.”

Tamvakis’s department has devel-

Another trend Tamvakis is seeing in

oped partnerships with companies

the industry is the focus on hidden

such as Molnlycke. As part of its oper-

costs. “Due to competition being

ations, Mediterraneo Hospital tries

harsh, everything is quite cheap to

to establish direct line partnerships

purchase, so you can’t really get

with multinational companies to get

much cheaper prices, instead we

better prices for those working in the

are looking at ways to reduce costs.

hospital and its patients. “Molnlycke

At Mediterraneo Hospital we are

is a Belgium based company that busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MEDITERRANEO HOSPITAL

“ We are using automations in our warehouses day to day, but we also have two surgical robots, one for laparoscopic and one for orthopaedic surgeries” — Pavlos S. Tamvakis, CPO, Mediterraneo Hospital

provides the hospital with sterile 200

packs used in operations. Our partnership with Molnlycke took three years to establish due to the changes we made in the way that the hospital operates in order to increase the speed of our operations.” Molnlycke has also helped the hospital to diminish its costs by becoming a provider of personal protective equipment (PPE). “We didn’t originally buy our PPE from Molnlycke, but by switching to Molnlycke it has opened our eyes to the hidden costs and reduced a lot of the headaches during the current situation, which we would not have been able to do without our strong collaboration.”

OCTOBER 2020

When looking for strategic partners, Tamvakis stresses the importance of mutual trust. “When establishing new collaborations with multinational companies, it’s important to have mutual trust and a sense of safety. Another factor is track record. We like to work with big companies to ensure that if something goes wrong, we have a big company behind us to find out the answers and solutions.”

Looking to the future, Tamvakis sees a lot of automation happening. “We are using automations in our warehouses day to day, but we also have two surgical robots, one for laparoscopic and one for orthopaedic surgeries. We’re seeing more and more new technologies emerging which is exciting and important to drive paperless operations. I believe this is something that not only healthcare will experience, but a lot of other sectors too.” Tamvakis also reiterates the importance of identifying hidden costs in the future. “There are a lot of costs that we have not taken into account in the past, but they do make a difference over time.”

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

201

Lufthansa Cargo: Accelerating Digital Amid COVID -19 202

WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

203

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

LUFTHANSA CARGO

Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, and Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation at Lufthansa Cargo, discuss the rise of digital in air freight

L

ufthansa is one of the world’s most renowned airlines. With hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, the organisa-

tion is committed to operating one of the most technologically-advanced and fuel-efficient fleets 204

globally. Its division, Lufthansa Cargo, is a leader in air freight and serves 300 destinations across over 100 countries.

Jochen Göttelmann is the Chief Information Officer at Lufthansa Cargo. Over the past 18 months, Lufthansa has refreshed its existing infrastructure and applications significantly. “We’ve defined a clear data centre strategy and it will mean that every new project and application will be cloud native,” says Göttelmann. “The cloud strategy came just in time for the coronavirus pandemic. We could seamlessly make our staff work from home with our cloud-based collaboration and communication platforms. On the business side our main focus remains on the modernisation of our sales applications and the implementation

OCTOBER 2020

205

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Your partner for air cargo logistics 4.0

Air freight is a key driver of the German economy, especially in times of crisis. As an IT service provider, Lufthansa Industry Solutions is using its technical expertise combined with industry know-how to play a key part in shaping the digital transformation in the air cargo industry. We asked Rainer Liebhart, Vice President Air Cargo Logistics, what challenges the industry must now face.

Mr. Liebhart, the airline industry is particularly affected by the Corona pandemic. What is the current situation with air freight?

Rainer Liebhart: Until now, the Corona crisis has affected passenger traffic far more than air freight in Germany. The present shortage of belly capacity in passenger aircraft is currently leading to capacity bottlenecks across the market, resulting in a temporary increase in cargo rates. Having said that, the air cargo business is highly dependent on the global economy. It is precisely these prospects that are an indication of some difficult years ahead for air freight.

Will the crisis give new impetus to digitization in air freight?

Liebhart: I would speak less of a new impetus and more of a different one – a higher speed. More than anything else, the crisis has demonstrated just how much easier digitization makes arriving at better and thus more controlled and conscious decisions, including in extreme situations. In particular, the digital services offered and the interaction at the customer interface will be a key differentiating factor on the market and thus significantly influence success.

What do air cargo customers need to do now to be prepared for the future?

Liebhart: It is now a case of increasing the speed of digitization in the relevant

disciplines substantially. One especially decisive factor will be who can offer a good product on the market and to customers that is easy to understand and, most importantly, easy to book. The booking platforms we are all familiar with from the consumer sectors are also gaining ground in the cargo business.

And it is precisely here that you must stand out from the competition with a market-driven price, a simple process and value-added digital services. It will be important to know and better understand your customers, the market, and the competition. Smart algorithms will allow you to predict behavior accurately and respond to it automatically.

What can Lufthansa Industry Solutions do to help its customers achieve this?

How innovative is the aviation industry and what projects are pioneering?

Liebhart: It’s varied. We focus our efforts on both disciplines for our customers: cutting costs and increasing revenue opportunities. Regarding costs, we help through the deployment and operation of our DevOps platform for example, which is available for our customers to use. Additionally, the combination of our industry and technical expertise allows us to help our customers not only obtain the right data, but also draw the right conclusions from it and implement it technologically in automated systems. Our experience in designing and implementing customer interfaces and background systems allows us to save customers a lot of time, resulting in speed advantages.

Liebhart: In terms of innovation, the industry is not as bad as it is often portrayed. However, we must not forget that the industry is subject to a great deal of regulation, meaning a lengthy decision-making and approval process awaits many innovative projects. But I am convinced that the speed is increasing despite the tense economic situation, especially in the case of those projects that contribute greatly to the company’s business. Despite the difficult overall situation, I am pleased to be able to carry out projects with my customers at such an exciting time, projects that will help to change logistics lastingly and make it even better than it already is in many respects.

LUFTHANSA CARGO

of new digital services to our clients.”

At the end of last year, the firm introduced a new dynamic pricing and has recently launched a smart booking API to increase the connectivity to their partner and customer network. The next big milestone will be a completely refreshed client-facing booking frontend in November. Göttelmann is also helping to renovate the internal sales system like CRM and the pricing tools.

“It’s clear our current priority lies with the sales side, however, we continue 208

to invest in our other domains too.

In handling, we got rid of our legacy host application already some years ago, and now have a state-of-theart IT platform which is the base for customer oriented process innovations like eFreight, targeting for 100% paperless document flows, or selfservice terminals to reduce waiting time for the truckers. In addition, a completely new production planning system is introduced for the internal capacity planning, steering and monitoring in our Frankfurt freight hub. And last but not least, we have migrated our analytics environment to the cloud and will also modernise our traditional OCTOBER 2020

“ We want to drive digitalisation in the air freight industry to offer our customers better, faster and more convenient services” — Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation, Lufthansa Cargo

#GoDigital

CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:01

209 BI and data warehouse over the next

services,” he says. “We’ve been quite

years to better support data-driven

busy over the past one and half years

decisions. We still invest lots in IT and

but the global situation is very differ-

plan to continue that as we move for-

ent now. Although we already had

ward as well.”

some good solutions in place prior to

Boris Hueske, Head of Digital

COVID-19, we extended our services

Transformation, states that the

on digitised processes. For example

impact of digitalisation accelerates

the high share of electronic docu-

the change happening in the logistics

ments we receive in the meantime

and transportation industry. This also

allows us to pre-check the information

requires the right perspective on IT

provided by the customer on a ship-

and data as a production factor. “We

ment and give feedback upfront on

want to drive digitalisation in the air

completeness and correctness which

freight industry to offer our customers

makes the freight delivery at the air-

better, faster and more convenient

port much easier and faster.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

A Partner in Pricing PROS is an important partner in our digital transformation.

With PROS real-time pricing solutions, we’ve revamped how we provide services to customers while giving our internal teams the tools they need to work with greater speed and efficiency.�

Lars Mueller L U F T HA NS A C A R G O Director of Pricing

pros.com

info@pros.com

Learn more about the PROS solutions that are transforming businesses now.

“ COVID-19 has sped up a number of initiatives to drive automation and support new working models in a bid to connect our clients and partners” — Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, Lufthansa Cargo

“We’ve accelerated the rollout of our new pricing services, for dynamic prices, the spot quotations. The automated price calculation is based on analytics available for our customers 24/7 which makes it easier to get an offer. We improved our API services for our customers which allows direct bookings by customer interfaces through the API into our system. The tracking services through the API are improved and provide an automated update if there’s a change in the shipment status. We’ve had a full set of improvements during the

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

211

LUFTHANSA CARGO

212

1994

Year founded

$2.5bn+ Revenue in US dollars

past 18 months based on digitalised processes, the improved IT infrastructure and new technology focusing on customer-driven services.”

Hueske adds that he believes that logistics still has work to do to catch up with other industries that are further along on their digital transformation journeys. “Compared to other sectors logistics is a little behind the

4,500 Number of employees

digitalisation development but also in logistics digitalization accelerates and was massively accelerated by the COVID19 crisis,” he explains. “The industry still has papers left in the processes that accompany shipments

OCTOBER 2020

and is still working on modernising

at Lufthansa. “It’s clear that COVID-19

backend IT systems. One topic we are

has a severe impact on our invest-

working on is to further digitalise the

ment capabilities as an airline group.

booking process of further services

But it has sped up a number of initia-

that couldn’t be booked through

tives to drive automation and support

online services yet. It’s really about

new working models in a bid to con-

driving the digital processes forward

nect our clients and partners,” adds

for our customers. Our core pro-

Göttelmann. “I believe that some of our

cesses shall become digital, real

projects have even accelerated over

time and convenient.”

the past few months as a result of the

Göttelmann believes the coronavi-

crisis. IT always has a cost component,

rus has actually acted as a catalyst for

but is also a strong enabler to make

the acceleration of digital initiatives

a business run more efficient and to 213

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

Jochen Göttelmann Title: CIO

Company: Lufthansa Cargo

Industry: Air Freight

Location: Frankfurt

After studies and a PhD in mathematics, physics, computer sciences and economics Jochen Göttelmann started his professional career as software developer at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. After several IT positions in reinsurance and IT consulting he spent 12 years at Allianz Global Investors before he joined Lufthansa Cargo as CIO in 2015. He always worked in IT with a high business focus, dedicated to apply technology to enable business and drive digitalisation.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

LUFTHANSA CARGO

“ It’s now more important than ever before to determine what is adding value to the company and what no longer serves us” — Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, Lufthansa Cargo

214

OCTOBER 2020

215

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Microsoft enables digitalization in logistics for resilient, intelligent supply chains Learn more

drive costs down through automation

our portal or APIs. We’re seeing a

and digitalisation.”

large trend in online booking because

“It’s all about information and trans-

it is the most accurate information

parency,” adds Hueske. “It’s important

available and the customer is in need

to provide customers with as much

of this information at the moment.

information as early as possible,

We’ve been lucky that we’ve been pro-

whether that’s about the capacity

active enough in the past to develop

available or shipment status. But, this

solutions and we’ve got some good

is centered around the availability of

services in place for our customers

data and the right interfaces through

and accelerate that rollout.”

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

Boris Hueske

217

Title: Head of Digital Transformation Company: Lufthansa Cargo Industry: Air Freight

Location: Frankfurt

Boris Hueske has a degree in business administration of the Philipps University Marburg with a focus on logistics and finance. Within 20 years of industry experience in logistics, transportation and airfreight he took over management positions at DB Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, XPL and Aerologic in the fields of supply chain management, sales, strategy, JV management, finance, revenue management and digitalistion. Since 2018 he is responsible for defining and achieving the Digital Transformation approach of Lufthansa Cargo with activities in automation, new digital services and digital business models.

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LUFTHANSA CARGO

PA R T N E R M E N T I O N S

218

Lufthansa Industry Solutions: The internal company with a strong cross-industry expertise is one of the most important partners for Lufthansa Cargo’s digital transformation mainly in the business domains Sales, Analytics and Revenue Accounting.

As an IT service provider they combine technical know-how with process and industry knowledge and entrepreneurial thinking.

PROS: Lufthansa Group has had a longstanding, strategic partnership with PROS for its deep expertise in pricing and revenue management, and more recently, quoting that powers Lufthansa Cargo’s booking and pricing platform. PROS has established itself as a strategic SaaS partner for Lufthansa Cargo’s digital OCTOBER 2020

transformation by powering accelerated quoting, delivering real-time pricing, modernizing the customer experience, and eliminating revenue leakage through consistent, disciplined pricing management.

Microsoft: Microsoft enables Lufthansa Cargo’s digital transformation substantially as supplier for cloud services. Since we started the cloud transformation, all new software products are designed cloud-native on the Microsoft Azure PaaS and IaaS layers. Also our new CRM system is based on Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft Teams has been introduced Lufthansa Group-wide already in 2019, enabling seamless communication and collaboration throughout the whole crisis.

“Compared to other sectors logistics is a little behind the digitalisation development, but this has been massively accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis” — Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation, Lufthansa Cargo Hueske recognises that the global

With the future in mind, Göttelmann

situation has been difficult to navigate,

adds that focusing on what is actually

particularly for airlines, however, he

generating value is essential moving

stresses it is why it’s key to gain ground

forward. “From an IT side, it’s all about

on harnessing efficiency in digitalisa-

continuing to modernise the landscape

tion. “It’s a very unique situation in air

to enable the digital transformation,”

freight and for airlines at the moment,”

says Göttelmann. “It’s now more impor-

he explains. “COVID-19 has majorly

tant than ever before to determine

impacted the industry and we have

what is adding value to the company

to consider that in the future too. We

and what no longer serves us. That’s

had significant reduction in capacity

the challenge for us; we need to revise

in our markets on the passenger side,

our service portfolio. We also have to

with almost 50% of the capacity being

ensure we’re flexible and enable our

provided through passenger aircraft.

planning and governance processes to

We don’t know how fast this will change

be faster and more agile.”

either. However, it shows the importance of data insights and analytics. We confirm our goal to have greater data insights and leverage data in the best way to improve services and transparency for our customers.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

219

220

The Evolution of Data Centre Management WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

221

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SERVERFARM

Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing at Serverfarm, discusses the history of Serverfarm, how the sector has evolved and current industry trends

I

n a digitally-driven world led by automation and optimisation, the critical infrastructure powering such innovation is

undergoing its own transformation. A perfect storm is pushing the business community to embrace new ways of streamlining IT and data centre operations – in order to keep pace with unprecedented capacity 222

demands while minimising costs.

As a company that’s been at the forefront of the sector for the past 20+ years, Serverfarm is at the heart of that effort, helping service providers and enterprises digitally transform their IT and data centre environments. In an often challenging business climate, Serverfarm sees automation, efficiency and sustainability as the path forward.

“Quite early on in our life as a company, we identified two things,” explained Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales and Marketing. “The first thing that we spotted towards the end of the nineties is that the real estate part of data centres - the buildings, the land and the locations that they reside in - are actually very inefficient. In fact, in terms of real estate assets, data centres are probably the least efficient.”

OCTOBER 2020

223

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SERVERFARM

“ We spotted towards the end of the nineties that the real estate part of data centres — the buildings, the land and the locations that they reside in — are actually very inefficient” 224

— Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

Shenoy explains that the reason behind this is because most data centres have much more capacity than is, or can be, utilised. “We saw this as an opportunity in that market to really help customers become more efficient. We would buy data centres from customers and lease back just the portion that they needed. For us as a company, this marked our first change in our operating model from being a real estate acquirer into a real estate operational company. As a result, we started to run these environments for companies.”

In the 10 proceeding years, Serverfarm came to its second conclusion: that the same inefficiencies in the real estate space were beginning to emerge in the infrastructure space.

“The way that people deployed physical infrastructure, mechanical and electrical systems, IT, and network and storage environments was also inefficient. Again, most companies were building more capacity than they needed. The end result for us as a company meant that we started to become a much broader operating company in terms of the sorts of services that we were providing to our customers.”

OCTOBER 2020

As a result of these changes to

Serverfarm developed its award-win-

its operating model, Serverfarm has

ning InCommand Services to achieve

moved further into the IT environ-

this goal for customers. InCommand

ment over the years, helping with

is an integrated service platform

capacity planning, asset management

that brings together people and pro-

and change management so that it

cesses into a portal-based solution

can bring together the three main

for maximum data centre operational

elements that make up a data centre —

efficiency – creating a cloud-like expe-

the real estate, the facility environ-

rience for data centres.

ment and the IT environment. “When

When it comes to digital innovation

you bring those three together, that’s

at Serverfarm, Shenoy believes that

when you can really make data cen-

in the last 10 years there has been a

tres reliable and efficient. You cannot

relatively big shift in the market.

make a data centre efficient by simply

“Firstly, the large hyper-scale cloud

focusing on one of these elements.”

providers have come into the market

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

Arun Shenoy Title: SVP Global Sales and Marketing

Location: London

Industry: Information Technology & Services Arun Shenoy is responsible for developing the success of Serverfarm’s Data Centre colocation and InCommand Services business globally. He joined Serverfarm from Schneider Electric where he was Vice President of the IT and Data Centre business in the UK & Ireland. Arun has previously worked at major companies including Intel, ABB, IBM and Romonet in general management, sales and marketing roles with over 20 years in software, services and technology markets. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

225

SERVERFARM

226

OCTOBER 2020

227

“ Simply buying and deploying a platform isn’t enough, you have to change and refine the processes and ensure that you have the right people” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

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Changes in the Industry CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:16

229 to solve a very important problem -

Other trends Shenoy has seen in the

increasing efficiency and agility when

industry include the need for capac-

it comes to building and deploying

ity. “In the last six months, the need for

applications that their businesses

capacity has been continuing to grow,

needed. Cloud became a very obvious

and with the industry becoming much

solution for that.” However, Shenoy

more mature and industrialised, it is

doesn’t expect the data centre indus-

interesting to see the shape and size

try to be completely cloud based for

of this change. The industry isn’t just

at least seven to ten years. “Most will

building faster and bigger, but also dis-

adopt a hybrid approach. As a result,

tributed. This evolution is driving these

in order for companies to maintain

hyper-scale environments.” In parallel,

reliability and efficiency when it comes

another trend Shenoy has seen in the

to physical infrastructure, I believe our

industry is edge computing - “the idea

role in the industry is to help custom-

of creating a much more distributed

ers solve these challenges.”

internet and network of data centres,” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SERVERFARM

Serverfarm Partnerships

i3 When it comes to collaborative partnerships li ke i3 and Serverfarm, Ansett explains that “respecting each other and what the other person does, avoiding situations 230 where people become dogmatic, and a general sense of just wanting to do a good job,” are essential.

“Serverfarm finds data centre assets and develops their potential in ways that others can’t see. We are the engineering side to this – that is we provide consulting and engineering services purely in mechanical, electrical and power.

Their approach is different and the reason it is a successful partnership is because we understand what they are trying to achieve,” adds Ansett.

“Collaborations like this are vital.

Together, we get on with it. In order to do good work – which is why i3 exists - you need OCTOBER 2020

collaboration, you need skill and you need motivation. This partnership provides all three.”

“ In order to create enormous benefits and value opportunities for our customers, we require a selection of strategic partners.”

— Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

Serverfarm & NYI Webinar: Our New Disrupted Reality: The Future of Internet Infrastructure CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:02:15

NYI Phillip Koblence, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NYI co-founded the company in 1996. “At NYI we run mission critical data centres, offering customisable hybrid solutions and high-touch managed services across the United States (US). We focus on optimising infrastructure and providing a seamless client experience by cutting through complexity and hype.”

When it comes to NYI’s partnership with Serverfarm, Koblence explains that “the unique thing about Serverfarm is that they fill the gap in the industry when it comes to data centres and critical infrastructure. You have this large multinational organisation that has a culture and customer experience focus that aligns almost perfectly with what we have been preaching to our customers for over 20 years.”

Salute When developing a successful partnership, Jason Okroy, Co-Founder and CEO at Salute Mission Critical explains that, “highly tuned processes executed by disciplined staff enabled by technology produces world class results. Seldom do you see all three of these come together and with Salute Mission Critical and Serverfarm’s combined strength we become unique and set apart from all other providers.”

For its partners Salute Mission Critical supports IT infrastructures.

“We support the day to day operation of the business – security, remote hands, engineering,” adds Okroy. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

231

SERVERFARM

232

OCTOBER 2020

“ The industry isn’t just building faster and bigger, but distributed too. This evolution is driving hyper-scale environments” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

he explains. “As a result, anything that is IoT related - smart homes, smart cities, smart government, digital transformation - has driven the market to really grow in parallel in these two areas. So very large hyper-scale facilities, but also a much greater deployment of distributed edge environments. Which, in turn, makes data centre management a much bigger challenge, and the processes and people much more important.”

Running in tandem to these trends is the data centre sustainability question: how can the industry do its part to fight

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233

SERVERFARM

climate change while still delivering the capacity that the world needs? The answer, for Serverfarm, is in repurposing existing facilities instead of building new ones.

To analyse the carbon savings potential from the reuse of an existing facility, Serverfarm asked an independent consultant, HKS, to calculate the carbon cost of using an existing data centre compared with a new build of the same scale. Buildings and construction directly represent around 234

39% of all annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to HKS. HKS analysed Serverfarm’s completed Chicago facility, a six-story building of just under 150,000 square feet with a capacity for housing more than 4,000 server cabinets. Reusing this building eliminates the carbon emissions for a standard new construction building, resulting in a modeled 88% embodied carbon emission reduction.

More and more, enterprises and service providers look to data centre professionals to make their IT operations more sustainable – and, therefore, efficient. When it comes to helping their customers, Serverfarm OCTOBER 2020

235

“ Modernisation versus new build means reduced greenhouse gas emissions now, which is our greatest urgency” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Why react to change when you can drive it?

As specialists in data center MEP consulting engineering, i3 Solutions Group has achieved global recognition for its design expertise, future thinking and innovative approach.

Find out why companies and countries choose i3 Solutions Group for more responsive, reliable and efficient data centers.

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NYI, a trusted global managed infrastructure partner, offers flexible, hybrid datacenter solutions across cloud, colocation and bare metal with powerful connectivity capabillities to support the growing demands of a digital world.

Learn More

Ed Ansett @ i3 Solutions CLICK TO WATCH

|

5:00

237

explains that their data centre man­

With customers striving to discover

agement as a service (DMaaS) is

the right way to deploy technology,

more than just a platform, it’s the

software and hardware tools, Shenoy

people and processes too. “DMaaS

believes that, “most organisations find

is the ability for any organisation to

this challenging because they are only

truly understand what they have,

solving one part of the problem - the

where it is, how it is being used, and

technology. Simply buying and deploy-

how useful, reliable and efficient it is.

ing a platform isn’t enough, you have to

In other words, having an overall view

change and refine the processes and

of the entire infrastructure coming

ensure that you have the right people.”

together in one environment. To do

In order to help its customers, part-

that in the most effective way possible,

nerships with other companies such

organisations need to bring together

as i3, NYI and Salute are incredibly

the people, processes and platforms.”

important, and a big part of its strategy. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

SERVERFARM

238

NYI Partner Video CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

7:43

“Part of that is down to the complexity of the work that we do for our customers, which requires an ecosystem to come together. In order to create enormous benefits and value opportunities for our customers, we require a selection of strategic partners. This is not something that we can do on our own. In fact, it’s not something that any company can do on its own. Bringing together the right partners is critical.”

By teaming up with some of the most experienced, cutting-edge partners in the industry and listening closely to evolving customer needs over the past 20+ years, Serverfarm has emerged as an innovator and disruptor in the data centre management as a service (DMaaS) space. Serverfarm is now delivering DMaaS at over 100 locations across 40 countries. DMaaS, to Serverfarm, goes much deeper than simply offering DCIM software in the cloud; it delivers a fully managed service for busy C-suites who want to focus on their core business. It’s the answer to the latest demand from enterprises and service providers alike.

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239

Three Ireland: digital transformation for the customer WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH 240

PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

OCTOBER 2020

241

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THREE IRELAND

Stephen Reidy,CIO of Three Ireland, tells us about the benefits its transformation has enabled for customers, the dawn of 5G and its COVID-19 response

T

hree Ireland is one of the major players in the Irish telecommunications market, as its CIO, Stephen Reidy, tells us.

“Three was a disruptor 10 years ago. But then, when we acquired O2 in 2014, it really became the major player that it now is. We provide a number of 242

services, but our vision is really about connecting people and connecting things. It’s about being the telco of choice, to be relevant to people’s lives and to provide them mobile telephony.” The business has a broader strength in the B2B space. “We provide a lot of services around managed security, we take on people’s call centres, and so there’s a lot we offer around the whole mobile space.”

As CIO, Reidy has overseen a comprehensive, wholesale digital transformation. “We’ve recently concluded and delivered a completely new IT stack. A new CRM system, billing, ecommerce, self-serve, order management, rating, integration and a big data platform and storage infrastructure. So pretty much across the company, we’ve delivered a lot of new technology and changed a range of systems.”

OCTOBER 2020

243

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THREE IRELAND

“ Three is very ambitious, always striving to be better and to be the best it can be” — Stephen Reidy, CIO, Three Ireland

244

OCTOBER 2020

Three Ireland - AI + Automation CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:55

245 Before that came the systems

When it comes to data, Reidy has

change involved in the merger of

ensured Three has a comprehensive

the Three and IT technology stacks,

approach. “We have Hadoop, a data lake

which presented its own challenges

which we procure through our partner

and opportunities.“Big, complex

Amdocs. We have a BI platform from

transformations are very challenging

Teradata. We use IBM’s Datastage for

because they require a lot of focus,

our ETL platform, and we are about to

commitment and even belligerence.

go live with a new and exciting real-time

For me, it’s key that there’s top down

next best offer /action engine, which

support from the C-level across the

we’ve also procured through Amdocs,

organisation. Because it’s generally

and all of these platforms are built on

never just an IT transformation, it’s a

flexible and scalable storage infrastruc-

business transformation. That’s some-

ture with data protection from Dell.”

thing that was key to our success.”

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THREE IRELAND

246

Such technology is used in line with

a particular type of agility - which you

a strategy of understanding the cus-

often can get from cloud as opposed

tomer’s needs. “We want to be able to

to an on premise solution. But we have

offer our customers relevant services

very much a hybrid setup, appreciat-

at relevant times. So, like many telcos,

ing that public cloud isn’t always the

the question is: ‘how do we monetise

right answer.”

the data that we have in a more efficient way?’”

Reidy is not considering, as some

Emerging technologies have also found their place in the transformation, such as the machine learning used

are, a wholesale move to cloud

in its aforementioned next best action

systems. “We use the cloud where

/ offer engine. “AI is something we’re

appropriate,” he says. “That’s based

looking at to improve our efficiency.

on cost benefits, or where we need

In terms of our customer care, we

OCTOBER 2020

247

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

Stephen Reidy Title: CIO

Company: Three Ireland

Industry: IT

Location: Ireland

Stephen Reidy has been Chief Information Officer for Three Ireland since 2014. Stephen has responsibility for Three’s IT systems. Prior to taking up the role of Chief Information Officer, Stephen was Head of Technology for Telefonica O2 Ireland from 2011. Previous roles include Director of IT, Head of Programme Management, and Head of Service Management for Orange/EE in the UK whom he joined in 1993. Stephen has extensive experience across all technologies and specialises in driving transformation and collaborating across complex organisations. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Limerick. busi ne ssch ief . eu

Three modernizes with Dell Technologies At Three, data generated by new business operations and systems was overwhelming legacy infrastructure.

So Three turned to Dell Technologies. The solution?

A modern, scaleable PowerMax storage platform from Dell Technologies, powered by Intel™ Optane™.

With PowerMax, Three reduced billing runs by a factor of five and experienced a 26% reduction in hardware footprint, along with a 24% reduction in power. What’s more, Three is now ready to do even more with data, including AI and machine learning functions.

Modernize Your Business

How Dell Technologies enables Three Ireland’s transformation Jason Ward, VP and General Manager at Dell Technologies Ireland, on the technology support it provides to Three Ireland.

Jason Ward is VP and General Manager at Dell Technologies Ireland. He has extensive experience managing teams across Europe, and favours exactly the culture in place at Dell.

“If you’ve got a very happy and contented workforce that have a good work life balance, and are all focused on the customer, leadership becomes quite an easy job,” he says.

The company’s mission is to create technologies that drive human progress. “Our vision is to become the most essential technology company, from the edge to the core, from data centres to the cloud and everything in between.

We as a company can help organisations transform themselves from the world of legacy IT right into the digital world we’re in today.” Its efforts are delineated into a number of complementary offerings, as Ward explains. “Dell, as a family of companies, has created technologies and solutions that feed into four categories. We go to market around Workforce transformation, security transformation, IT transformation and digital transformation.”

One such beneficiary of Dell’s approach has been Three Ireland. “We’ve been working with them for five years now. One of the great things about working with Three and Stephen Reidy, the CIO, is that they are a real disruptor in the marketplace in terms of telecommunications and mobile.” That disruptive capability has required Dell’s technology. “We’ve been working with them primarily around supporting them on their core business systems. Support systems, analytics, CRM, and the management of data across Three is critical to their business requirements, and that’s very much how we’ve partnered with them to support that.”

That’s involved the use of some of Dell’s latest and greatest technologies, such as flexible and scalable high end storage infrastructure known as PowerMax. “PowerMax underpins virtually all of the mission critical workloads and appli-

Dell Technologies partner video cations that Three needs. PowerMax changes the game for Three business applications. It is designed with a multi-controller, active/active scale-out architecture and industry standard, end-to-end NVMe and SCM powered by Intel Optane™ technology. Inline, global dedupe and compression add extreme efficiency to their data centre - we’ve reduced the time it takes for billing runs to one fifth of what it was. All of the core, mission-critical systems from billing right through to real time analytics and AI for customer data are being supported by our underlying PowerMax technology, whichis very exciting.”

Going forwards, as the telecommunications industry evolves with the likes of 5G and software-defined data centres, Ward is confident that the partnership will also go from strength to strength. “The fundamental basis of a good partnership is firstly understanding what our customer’s objectives and challenges are,” he says. “We work closely with Stephen and his team to understand Three’s business requirements and what they are trying to achieve as an organisation. Only from that can we architect our solutions. We value the relationship tremendously, and we’re looking forward to continued expansion and growth over the coming years.”

Three’s ultimate seamless omnichannel customer experience Three delivers on its promise to make their customers’ lives easier

In the quest for a full, business-driven digital transformation to support its consumer and enterprise customer base, Three Ireland engaged Amdocs to fully manage the project from end to end.

Powered exclusively by Amdocs DigitalONE Experience360 Layer, the fully-digital, omni-channel customer experience drives personalized, proactive actions for customers, agents and employees in real time, on any channel. The interfaces were created using design-led thinking and a “build-once-deploy-many” widget approach.

Three and Amdocs were recently selected as finalists in TM Forum’s Excellence Awards in the Customer Experience & Trust category.

Contact us to learn more.

© 2020 Amdocs. All rights reserved.

Three Ireland - Data Strategy CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:55

251 use AI in our chatbots, so we have a combination of human interaction and automation. We also do a lot of robotic process automation (RPA), where we’re using technology for repetitive activities, as opposed to people. That frees them up to do more value-added activities.”

Three’s transformation was enabled by the assistance of a number of key partners, such as software and services provider Amdocs. “It’s certainly a partner relationship, and we work well together. Amdocs are always looking at where they can add value to our busi ne ssch ief . eu

THREE IRELAND

Three Ireland - The Cloud CLICK TO WATCH

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2:55

252 business. When we have challenges in our transformation or in terms of delivery, we always work on those challenges together.” Reidy emphasises the fact that Three’s trusted partners mutually deliver value to each other. “Transformation requires both parties to work and be successful together. With Dell, we procure the majority of our laptop and computer estate through them, as well as leveraging their PowerMax platform for our storage infrastructure. Tech Mahindra, in partnership with Amdocs, provides us with a lot of operational and delivery OCTOBER 2020

“ It’s really about how we can continually evolve and enhance the customer experience”

5G is the next frontier for the telecommunications industry, and something for which Three Ireland is excited to enable. “We’re certainly very busy at

— Stephen Reidy, CIO, Three Ireland

the moment,” says Reidy. “It obviously

services, both here in Ireland and in

IT systems.” Reidy sees the benefits

India. BT is very much a crucial partner

of 5G as being transformational for

for us in the IP space. The technologies

society at large. “It’s very early days,

that we use are complex and they all

and like most new technologies, there’s

have to interact and integrate with each

a lot of promise there. I don’t think it’s

other. So it’s very important that our

going to happen overnight, but it’s very

partners don’t just work well with Three,

exciting and it will be very interesting to

but also with each other.”

see the use cases and how supporting

involves new radio and new core technologies, and that integrates with all our

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253

Tech Mahindra is proud to support Three Ireland in their recent transformation. Accompanying Three Ireland as they RUN, CHANGE and GROW. Supporting current and heritage IT business

RUN BETTER CHANGE FASTER

Partnership through transformation

GROW GREATER

Working together as the business evolves

Tech Mahindra is committed to both Ireland and Three Ireland and we look forward to a prosperous and successful future together.

technologies develop over the coming years to make widespread 5G a reality.”

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Three’s activities and required an agile response, as Reidy explains: “It’s brought forward certain activities and pushed others back.

“ We’ve recently concluded and delivered a completely new IT stack” — Stephen Reidy, CIO, Three Ireland

Clearly, in terms of how we work

forever, depending on how long social

as an organisation, it’s fundamentally

distancing is in place, and so on.”

changed how we work - as it has

Reidy is clear that the principal

for most companies worldwide.”

benefactor of Three’s transformation

He also sees the pandemic as pushing

has been the customer. “We’re always

companies into a broader digital journey.

looking to do more. It’s really about

“I think it will have a fast-track effect,

how we can continually evolve and

particularly in the retail space where

enhance the customer experience.

people have been forced online. In

We’ve delivered a digital transformation,

the long term, that’s going to change

which has brought a lot of new digital

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255

THREE IRELAND

“ It’s really about how we can continually evolve and enhance the customer experience”

256

— Stephen Reidy, CIO, Three Ireland

OCTOBER 2020

257

interactions with customers, and that

its partners have achieved. “It’s been

journey will continue with the advent

a very rewarding experience, for me

of new technologies. With AI, with 5G,

personally, for my team, for the com-

there’ll be a lot more services that we’ll

pany at large, but also very much for

be delivering and servicing, joining the

our customers. Transformation is not

dots and making sure the customer

something that you start and finish at

experience is easy to use. Making sure

a particular time. It’s a continuum. And

that we provide reliable services to our

we’ve learned in the last few years how

customers so that they can rely on us to

to succeed and continue to be agile.”

provide them with connectivity - particularly now the ability to work from home.”

Reidy’s proud of the effects the transformational work his team and busi ne ssch ief . eu

HENKEL ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES: DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 258

WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

259

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

Head of Digital Operations, Dr Nick Miesen discusses digital transformation of operations and the power of data

A

passion for digital technology, and it’s power to drive business optimisation and operation excellence, underpins much

of Dr Nick Miesen’s career. Miesen, who has more than 12 years’ experience in areas as diverse as 260

aerospace, chemicals, supply chain and manufacturing, and fast-moving consumer goods, brought that experience to Henkel Adhesive Technologies at the start of this year. Since, he has been responsible for driving digital change in the organisation’s supply chain, supporting Smartfactory capabilities roll-out across the organisation and leading the company’s Global Digital Quality programme.

As one would expect, Miesen is well versed in the latest digital technologies. He is also a vocal proponent of the importance of perfecting the operational basics that underpin those technologies. “Looking retrospectively at the concept of digital transformation, particularly four or five years ago when I was working at AkzoNobel, there was a fair amount of hype around digital.

That’s over,” he says. “Companies are realising OCTOBER 2020

261

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

there’s a lot of tough work in adopting digital strategies and that there’s no

“ The foundation of any digital transformation is the people”

silver bullet. If your processes aren’t standardised and you don’t have the basics in place then worrying about the ‘sexy’ tech like AI or VR just won’t work - you’ll stay locked into the experimental phase.”

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

Miesen elaborates on the ‘digital backbone’. This refers to the infrastructure, strategies and processes in place that enable technology adoption to be maximised and bring operational

262

excellence. “It’s really important to

OCTOBER 2020

Henkel Adhesives: Don’t Let A Little Fastener Become a Big Problem CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:51

263 not be blinded by new innovations,” he states. “From my perspective, the foundation of any digital transformation is the people - I’d rather have 1,000 highly capable individuals trained in the basics than a couple of master coders. That strong foundation across the organisation lets you build out the entire decision making process, to properly analyse and problem solve and achieve the low hanging fruit first.

There’s a bigger picture, of course, and a full strategy but only focusing on that just isn’t a sustainable approach to building operational excellence.” w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

HENKEL ADHESIVES

264

In January this year Miesen joined

us house all our data in a single sys-

Henkel Adhesive Technologies as

tem. That’s a great starting point for

Head of Digital Operations and was

digital, and not something I’ve seen in

tasked with building a digital supply

other companies I’ve worked with.

chain. The business, which is a lead-

“But, objectively, I saw very early

ing solutions provider for adhesives,

on that there was the potential to

sealants and functional coatings

do much more with the data,” he

globally, was already in a strong posi-

continues. “For example, there was

tion digitally, he says. “I found the

a lot of data around introducing new

business to be really advanced, and

platforms and systems, but not a lot of

quite visionary in terms of that digital

utilisation of that data and that’s really

backbone I mentioned. We have a

where I saw my role coming in - to take

major programme being finalised to

advantage of and build on the great

consolidate all SAP systems and let

work that has already been done, to

OCTOBER 2020

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

265

Nick Miesen Title: Head of Digital Operations Company: Henkel Industry: Adhesive Technologies Location: Amsterdam Red thread in Miesen’s career is data for business optimisation, from Operational Excellence (L6S) to Digital Transformation.

He has over 12 years’ broad industry experience in aerospace, chemical and FMCG. Miesen worked in various roles, mainly in innovation or supply chain, at the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Deloitte, AkzoNobel and Heineken. In 2016 he cofounded an Advanced Analytics startup, Jugaad.

In the beginning of 2020 he started as Head of Digital Operation at Henkel Adhesives Technologies. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, a MSc in Physics & Astronomy and is certified (Master) Black Belt. w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

bring in those low hanging fruits and

“ The high-level strategy is to build digital operations”

build out the basics in the best way.”

Since joining Henkel, Miesen has led the company’s Global Digital Quality programme, which aims to predict and improve product quality, he has strategised, planned and deployed digital programmes and

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

sought out opportunities to introduce new technologies to the business.

“The high-level strategy is to build a digital supply chain,” he says. “But, it’s important to be very clear on what

268

that actually means.

“First and foremost, it’s about the seamless flow of data both ways that’s the backbone,” he continues.

“But within that are several smaller objectives. You need connectivity, for example. So, data needs to be transferred and centralised and then you need visualisation of all that data. That plays into the global quality function I am responsible for, as if you can have a global solution whereby we can track and visualise any variations in quality of material input and finished goods.

Having the whole organisation globally able to visualise all that data gives the ability to make better decisions and OCTOBER 2020

269

work towards operational excellence

regressions, then move along the level

and create customer value.”

of complexity so that you can gain

With this step in place, Miesen

greater understanding by using statisti-

explains that the focus shifts first

cal analysis,” he says. “The next step is

towards being more predictive and

to add intelligence to those statistics,

then bringing greater intelligence

which enables you to analyse, prove,

and algorithms into the process. The

predict and understand anything.

former, he explains, revolves around

“Those, for me, are the key steps in

using the data collected to model

the sequence of building that digital

processes, from the simple to the very

supply chain. We move from simple data

complex. “You start with simple linear

to advanced data analytics, and as we w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

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271 do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and

“ We move from simple data to advanced data analytics, and as we do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and our customers”

our customers. It’s quite conceptual but it’s a very clear and defined process.”

While for Miesen the process is clear there are, he concedes, still challenges to overcome in digitising a supply chain operation. “We still have data in different systems and formats. The biggest hurdle is getting that data into the right place and in the right order.

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

To a degree, the analytics and visualising of the data is the easy part. The big challenge is found in knowing which sets of data to address first, in trying w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

HENKEL ADHESIVES

to align the different ambitions and functions of the various stakeholders and standardising the operations process. If we do that, it’s really the biggest step to take forward.”

Henkel’s size, too, poses challenges to operational excellence.

Miesen and the team are responsible for optimising operations across 140 sites. “I don’t need to explain that, to implement a digital journey across so many facilities means you have to work smart. This is why we’re adopt272

ing a Smartfactory approach, which includes a manufacturing execution system (MES), a robust ERP layer and a host of other smart tools,” he explains. “It’s a really powerful technology to have available, particularly as we have a long-term strategy to move towards full automation at our sites.” Furthermore, on the subject of enabling digital transformation, Miesen adds, “I see the development of the Vegam system as the answer to a customisable digital future; a digital twin with the ability to create an interactive layer with the ERP systems is a powerful tool, from the shop floor to the board room.”

OCTOBER 2020

1876

Year founded

€20bn+ Revenue in euros

52,000 Number of employees

w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

273

HENKEL ADHESIVES

Of course, since Miesen joined the company in January, the world has seen significant disruption as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. For businesses in every sector, the impact has been enormous, forcing a shift in both how existing operations are carried out and, in a broader context, in the implementation of new technology.

Naturally, Henkel prioritised the safety and wellbeing of its employees while ensuring it could continue to operate and supply its customers.

274

“The biggest change, like everyone else, was in facilitating a remote working environment,” says Miesen.

“I think, collectively, we are all very proud of Henkel’s response to the cri-

“ Data is power and to have that database in place will enable the next step”

sis, particularly across such a broad and diverse business. It’s definitely brought several new technologies into the picture too, as well as refocused everyone’s views on using technology. For example, things like augmented reality innovations have

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

OCTOBER 2020

come into focus with us deciding to use Microsoft’s HoloLens system, which will facilitate remote workshops, remote audits and more. More

275

broadly, I think this will change some

our understanding of exactly what the

of the more conservative thinking

customer wants. Data is power and to

around technology and business.”

have that database in place will enable

Disruption aside, Miesen is resolute

the next step - to the lab, to the testing

in his commitment to Henkel’s digital

facility and intelligent modelling. That’s

journey. His immediate focus remains

where you’ll see the real benefit of this

on building an innovative digital sup-

journey, it will absolutely keep us ahead

ply chain while changing the way that

of the curve.”

Henkel does business to be more agile and lean. “If we build our processes to be better and use our data in the most effective way, this will feed into our product development processes and w w w.busi ne ssch ief. eu

276

Setting out a vision for modern insurance

WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

JAKE MEGEARY

OCTOBER 2020

277

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

PIB GROUP

Paul Johnson, PIB Group CIO and COO, explains how professionalisation, data and automation has allowed the company to drive a significant expansion campaign

I

t’s a rare accomplishment when a new company is able to make a bold impression on the market within its first few years,

yet this is exactly what PIB Group (‘PIB’) has done.

Founded in 2015, the organisation’s strategy has been marked by a dynamic and fresh approach to insurance which has already seen it summit the UK 278

market and become a genuine leader. Combining the latest data insights with years of industry experience, it is able to offer customers a superlative and comprehensive service. Receiving financial backing from multinational equity corporation The Carlyle Group, PIB’s campaign for growth, both through acquisition and organically, has so far seen 30 businesses brought under its umbrella from nearly every corner of the UK since 2016.

Prior to beginning his journey with PIB Group in 2018, Paul Johnson, COO and CIO, claims that a conversation with Brendan McManus (PIB Group CEO) convinced him that the company was an exciting prospect he had to get involved with.

“I was consulting for a new startup blockchain bank at the time,” he recalls. “But, after speaking to Brendan and listening to the PIB Group story, I OCTOBER 2020

279

“After speaking to the CEO and listening to PIB Group’s story, I became genuinely excited about the company and felt a real ‘click’ with the executive vision” — Paul Johnson, CIO and COO, PIB Group

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COMBINING TECHNOLOGY WITH CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY Andrew Martin, Egnyte’s Managing Director, UK, discusses how the company is assisting PIB Group in its digital transformation journey.

Recognising the value of cutting-edge technology combined with a strong, customercentric work ethic, Egnyte is an intelligent content platform to access, share, and manage content no matter where the work happens. Specifically, working with one of its key clients, PIB Group, Egynte has been helping it define a vital data management strategy to maintain its high-quality services in a shifting insurance landscape. “For enterprises these days, the focus isn’t just on digital transformation,” explains Andrew Martin, Managing Director, UK. “Really it’s about data transformation and helping our customers formulate a strategy regarding their structured and unstructured data.”

Fascinated by both technology and sport at a young age, Martin says that he has been able to incorporate his leadership and team management skills from the latter to drive his coordination of Egynte’s EMEA-focused operations. Priding himself on an ability to see problems from the customer’s point of view, Martin explains that the philosophy of the company’s founders - Vineet Jain (Chief Executive Officer) and Rajesh Ram (Chief Experience Officer) - drew him in and inspired him to join. “Fundamentally, they’re two guys who found a problem that they couldn’t solve at their previous organisations and decided to create a company to address it.”

Claiming that, in a direct comparison with its competitors, Egynte’s cloud-first usually emerges victorious, it is Martin’s opinion that the time is right for further market expansion.

With over 16,000 customers accrued since it was founded in 2007, the company has a solid grasp on its core capabilities and is now assessing the market carefully to anticipate the needs of tomorrow’s clients. “The business started with moving document file servers to the cloud without negatively impacting the user experience or speed

Andrew Martin & Darrell Cook @ EGNYTE

degradation. However, with a client like PIB Group, we have to manage millions of files across thousands of employees while they’re also trying to onboard multiple new acquisitions every year.” To give a more accurate impression of the scale of the onboarding: PIB Group has brought over 40 businesses under its umbrella in less than five years.

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most difficult logistical challenges of modern business, Martin proudly states that Egnyte’s strong relationship with PIB Group has seen the latter through its implementation of remote working processes. “Paul Johnson (COO and CIO at PIB Group) has said that, through PIB Group’s usage of our technology, the company has had no challenges making content and data available to all their employees wherever they want to work.”

What was once a static and relatively limited vendor relationship has developed over the years to become a fully-fledged partnership, one underpinned by mutual recognition of the value of customer-centricity. “Darrell Cook (Customer Success Manager) runs our relationship with PIB Group, not my sales team,” Martin emphasises. Cook himself adds: “That dynamic allows us to really understand its business, goals and problems, therefore making it easier to find solutions.

That’s something that I think Egnyte does very well: we listen to the customer and find out what they want to see in the future.”

PIB GROUP

“I’m always interested in how we can provide a much better service to our customers, and artificial intelligence (AI), robotic process automation (RPA) and bots can provide that” — Paul Johnson, CIO and COO, PIB Group

282

became genuinely excited about the

That teaches you a lot in terms of how

company and felt a real ‘click’ with the

to lead in the most optimal and pro-

executive vision.” Bringing a diverse

fessional way for your employees.”

range of skills accrued in tech firms,

In fact, when asked to describe

financial institutions and even the

the workplace culture at PIB Group,

Royal Navy, Johnson says that know-

Johnson easily summarises it as

ing many aspects of the sector has

‘engaged’ and ‘collaborative’. “One

allowed him to adopt the agile, flexible

of the things I enjoy most about PIB

work ethic required in such a fast-

Group is the culture,” he adds. “The

moving company. “My experience

COVID-19 period has emphasised

has been very varied, including the

even more that our employees are the

acquisition of organisations, inter-

engine of the company.” Maintaining

national growth and then suddenly

a corporate yet entrepreneurial spirit,

having to switch to cost optimisation.

wherein everyone feels that they can

OCTOBER 2020

contribute, underpins PIB’s need to

AI-powered analytics will be at the

stay nimble, particularly as technology

forefront of the industry in the near

continues to disrupt the traditional

future is beyond doubt for him: with AI

norms of insurance. The developing

algorithms capable of building highly

application of smart automation is one

accurate customer data profiles and

aspect which particularly interests

sophisticated understanding of the

Johnson: “I’m always interested in how

market, insurers will be able to provide

we can provide a much better service

better advice and suggest the best

to our customers, and artificial intelli-

products for their customers’ needs.

gence (AI), robotic process automation

Customer-centrism is key for PIB

(RPA) and bots can provide that. I want

Group because it is the company’s

the company to ensure that our people

outstanding reputation in the mar-

can focus on servicing our customers

ket which has enabled it to expand

rather than simply on processes.” That

so rapidly, including new locations

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

Paul Johnson Title: CIO/COO

Company: PIB Group

Paul joined PIB Group in October 2018. His career started at the Royal Navy where he was responsible for maintaining Electronic Warfare, Comms and Weapons. He then joined a technology a company that supported a range of systems before moving to NatWest Bank, as well as other roles in financial services, consultancy for IBM and the airline industry. Recent positions have included Executive CIO and COO/CIO at GMAC, Lloyds Bank and Aldermore Bank. Paul has more recently been involved in developing a new BlockChain based bank and is also an Independent NonExecutive Director on the Board of a Maltese Bank and was an Independent Non-Executive Director of a UK Bank. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

283

Guest Interview with Brendan McManus - CEO of PIB Group CLICK TO WATCH

|

41:50

285 in mainland Europe. It is a respect,

unavoidable. Establishing a strong

Johnson goes on to say, which is only

baseline technology level across PIB

deepening as time goes by: “One

was an important step in levelling-out

of the keys to our success has been

the playing field. This was accomplished

through professionalising the way in

by utilising cloud to provide an easily

which we integrate new acquisitions

scalable tech framework that could

from a business operational perspec-

be deployed from the smallest to the

tive, a technological perspective and

largest new acquisition. “I’m currently

absolutely from a governance compli-

building a new data set that we can

ance perspective. We have to be very

use to provide better customer service,

considerate of how we work for the

propositions and advice to our growing

interests of our customers.” However,

customer base,” Johnson adds.

as more companies are onboarded, the

However, although he has set out

issue of mixed progress on the journey

a clear vision for digital transforma-

towards digital transformation becomes

tion, Johnson says that it hasn’t been busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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“The insurance world has got together to help and PIB Group was one of the first contributors to the project” — Paul Johnson, CIO and COO, PIB Group

group,” he says. Sharing PIB Group’s customer-centric ethos has been pivotal in creating this cross-party consensus, which, in turn, augments services, overcomes technological barriers and promotes a quality experience regardless of which aspect of PIB Group interacts with.

Although visionary leadership is an important aspect of PIB’s success, Johnson emphasises that partnerships

without difficulty. “One of the biggest

with select companies are also critical

challenges is actually maintaining that

to its everyday operations. Seeking

data and retaining visibility over a very

truly synergistic relationships which

long period of time.” Building a large

will uphold the tenets of engagement

archive of policies for the contingency

and collaboration which PIB Group

that they may need to be accessed

encourages amongst its own people,

in the future, PIB Group holds some

the company values openness, clear

information which is over 40 years old.

communication and transparency

Another obstacle has been achieving

above all else, something which has

cultural unity across the company’s

been accomplished with companies

myriad enterprises in an effort to

such as Websure, Applied, Mimacast

avoid a siloed community, underscor-

and Egnyte to name a few. Regarding

ing the reason why collaboration is

the latter, a software company that

placed at the heart of everything. “A

provides a cloud platform for enter-

lot of those brands have had value in

prise systems, Johnson said, “The

their own right in the past, but what

great thing about Egnyte is that it

they realise now is that, if we can

provides an integrated system that is

bring them all together, the power of

also data-secure. It’s flexible too, so

one entity is greater than a disparate

we can conduct scenario analyses busi ne ssc h ief . eu

287

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optimisation much faster.” Littlefish,

language to explain its services.

a UK-based managed IT solutions

“Littlefish is a relatively new incum-

provider, is another partner in this

bent, but it’s been a valuable conduit

vein. An energetic disruptor in its

between PIB Group and a number of

sphere, Littlefish prides itself in suc-

other partners,” Johnson explains.

ceeding where larger ‘usual suspect’

“Our relationship has been absolutely

alternatives usually fail. Able to tailor

excellent: it isn’t just a supplier; it’s a

solutions to the precise needs of

real collaboration. It’s genuinely been

its customers, it is also a company

a joy to work with Littlefish.”

C O V I D - 19 SU PP O RT FU N D

PIB Group is part of a COVID-19 Support Fund - a charity established to help address the social disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson had this to say: “The insurance world has got together to help and PIB Group was one of the first contributors to the project. The idea is to provide financial assistance and advice to charities, the NHS and other parties that need support as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown and the significant impact it’s had on so many lives.

“I think, overall, PIB Group is very aware of the impact that not only the virus has had but also the resulting complications of other diseases such as cancer. We are always looking to get involved with worthwhile causes in order to make a difference.”

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

289

PIB GROUP

290

“A lot of those brands have had value in their own right in the past, but what they realise now is that, if we can bring them all together, the power of one entity is greater than a disparate group” — Paul Johnson, CIO and COO, PIB Group

OCTOBER 2020

2015

Year founded

£128mn+ Revenue in pounds

1,400 Number of employees

Reflecting on the company’s progress

Group continues to be successful: if

throughout 2020, Johnson remarks

customers are kept satisfied, growth will

that, despite the incredibly challenging

naturally occur. Even more excitingly,

economic climate, expansion for PIB

Johnson says that the 2021 strategy

Group has carried on unabated. In fact,

intends to maintain this remarkable

in certain areas, it has even acceler-

pace, with plenty more acquisitions

ated. “Our focus at the beginning of the

in the pipeline. With a solid customer

year was centred on growth. Obviously

base, unified corporate culture and new

protecting our employees has become

data-based tech taking the company to

an even greater priority, but we’re still in

even greater heights, it appears that PIB

a position to keep serving our custom-

Group has developed a winning formula.

ers in the very best way possible.” This hints at the reason why, perhaps, PIB busi ne ssc h ief . eu

291

292

Telia Inmics-Nebula: business transformation as a service WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING OCTOBER 2020

293

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

Jarno Kekäläinen, CEO of Telia Inmics-Nebula, on the company’s one-stop shop approach to offering services such as cloud, automation and connectivity

T

elia Inmics-Nebula is a Finnish technology company formed from the merger of three predecessors, and a subsidiary of

telecommunications firm Telia. That background gives it a broad and exciting remit, as CEO Jarno 294

Kekäläinen explains: “We used to have a company called Datainfo, which was very focused on mobile device management and very innovative in terms of its business model. For example providing the devices as a service instead of having companies buy them. That lets them manage their cash flow, and when they return them at the end of the contract they don’t have to worry about environmental factors.

“Then, in 2018 we acquired a company focused on PCs and other devices for the modern workplace. In the current pandemic, we’ve helped companies set up remote working with Microsoft Teams and Office 365, but there’s also the server side, with data centre installation, assembly and so on. Thirdly, we acquired Nebula, which had its own

OCTOBER 2020

295

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

“ [Our] vision is to devote more time to what matters, whether it’s our people, how we digitise work or how we free up customers’ time” — Jarno Kekäläinen, CEO, Telia Inmics-Nebula

companies together, it’s an exciting offering because you can come to us as a one-stop shop,” says Kekäläinen.

“There’s connectivity from Telia, and

296

private cloud called Cloud 9, as well as

we have a Helsinki data centre which

offering public cloud services like AWS,

provides colocation and virtual servers,

Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.”

meaning you can get rid of on-premise

In its current form, the company

services altogether. Our customers

combines and offers a wide breadth

have access to all the capabilities that

of services, allowing customers to

the cloud offers, such as cybersecurity.

rely on it to cater to multiple needs

And then we have web hosting, ecom-

at once. “Now, with these three

merce services, devices from mobiles to laptops and we also provide an end-user service desk.” With such a comprehensive offering, Kekäläinen sees the company as offering a full

OCTOBER 2020

Telia ONE | One partner is enough CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:55

297 spectrum of service. “Companies can

what’s the best way to solve them

get from us all the tools they need to

using our partners. We mix and match

run their business, and if they run into

these capabilities into a bespoke

problems, then they can get support

solution for our customers and help

24/7. It’s business as a service.”

them along the cloud path. We take

One of the most important services

our expertise to our customers, to let

offered by Telia Inmics-Nebula is

them know how we can help them not

assistance with its customers’ cloud

only reduce costs but also provide

journeys. “Virtualisation and getting

revenue-driving possibilities. That’s

rid of hardware is one side. But then

something quite unique to us – we

another element has been providing

want to understand their capability

professional services or consultancy

for innovation and enter into a true

where we actually work together with

partnership with customers.”

the customer to find out the problems that they have, and try to figure out

One of its offerings is dedicated to bringing a business platform to busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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Enterprise edition -laitteita on saatavana kahden (2) vuoden ajan** •

Yrityksen toiminnot voidaan varmistaa laitteiden yhtenäisen elinkaaren ansiosta

* Lähde: Gartner, Inc. A Comparison of Security Controls for Mobile Devices, tammikuu 2019. Tutkimuksessa oli käytössä Samsung Knox ja Knox Platform for Enterprise. ** Tuotteen elinkaari alkaa tuotteen maailmanlaajuisesta lanseerauksesta.

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

300

companies who might otherwise deem it out of reach. “While everybody loves to talk about large-scale, multi-

2018

Year founded

million dollar companies, I see the future as really being on the smaller side. If we look at Airbnb, for instance, some years ago, they were tiny but grew from nowhere. Our future is about providing a business platform to smaller companies who can really stand to benefit.” Kekäläinen has plans to further bolster the benefits of the platform. “It’s currently about online OCTOBER 2020

€160 mn Revenue in euros

500+ Number of employees

presence and ecommerce, but it could

Facebook advertising, and so on, still

be fused with advertising, for example,

at a fixed monthly price.”

and marketing at a fixed monthly price,

The company’s work is facilitated

but in the near future, it will become

by a number of important partners.

this platform where small companies

On the hardware side, Telia Inmics-

can get the benefits of bringing dif-

Nebula works with the three major

ferent partners into their businesses.

players in the Finnish market. “We

We’ll be making it simple to order

work with Lenovo, HPE and Dell, and

Google search engine optimisation,

we have a long-term relationship with all

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

Jarno Kekäläinen Title: CEO

301

Industry: Information Technology & Service

Company: Telia Inmics-Nebula

Location: Finland

Jarno Kekäläinen was born and raised in Finland, but decided to move to the United States and complete a Bachelors and Masters degree in Marketing and Business Strategy. He joined the Telia company in the year 2000 and has been working in software engineering, company mergers and business control.

Since 2011, he has led numerous initiatives regarding business transformation, successful go-to-market initiatives and turning internal operations into new business opportunities. Robotics and AI is one of those initiatives. Since May 2019, he has been the CEO of Telia Inmics-Nebula.

He firmly believes, however, that to be successful, you need to lead people through change, and only then technology will follow. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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According to KSAT’s ICT Manager, Jari Hakala, “F-Secure’s solution was really the first product in this area that seemed to meet our needs It had the AI-driven technology to detect advanced threats based on data collected from our IT environment.”

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

of them. I also have to mention one of our partners ALSO, with whom we have had a long-term relationship, getting the devices customer-specific preinstalled to wherever our customers are in Europe.

“With Dell, we also work with the majority-owned VMware which provides virtualisation software and services.

When it comes to mobiles, we have a long-term relationship with Samsung and Apple, and we also work with them on audiovisual devices.” With the coro304

navirus pandemic forcing companies to scale remote working capabilities in short time frames, the company’s partnership with F-Secure has proved vital.

“They provide really solid products in terms of cybersecurity. And if something does happen, which fortunately is very rare, we also work together in terms of recovery and what can we learn from this situation.” Amazon, too, is an important piece of the puzzle. “We’ve used their computer vision solutions, AWS for running pilots and proof of concepts with our customers and they’ve helped increase our level of expertise through a set of Amazon certification programs for employees.”

OCTOBER 2020

305

Telia - Company Overview CLICK TO WATCH

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4:17

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3:20

307

“ Is big good? Or is small and nimble even better?”

— Jarno Kekäläinen, CEO, Telia Inmics-Nebula

Americas and Asia, so we are able to connect you to anywhere in the world.” The benefits and possibilities of such connectivity have the potential, Kekäläinen believes, to fundamentally change the way businesses are run.

“We work with hyperscalers and big partners like Amazon and Microsoft,

The company caters to all sizes

and we create our own services to be

of customers, with comprehensive

operable wherever. It’s really about

hyperscale capabilities. “As part of

true globalisation. And I feel that this

the Telia company, which is a tier one

will disrupt our thinking about how

operator, we have connections to

businesses are being run. Is big good?

everywhere in the world. We have

Or is small and nimble even better?

sea cables connecting Europe, the

Now technology allows us to work busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

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308

OCTOBER 2020

“ It’s an exciting offering because you can come to us as a one-stop shop” — Jarno Kekäläinen, CEO, Telia Inmics-Nebula 309

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2:33

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311

“ We mix and match these capabilities into a bespoke solution for our customers” — Jarno Kekäläinen, CEO, Telia Inmics-Nebula

from scratch, experience which he brought over to the company. “We’ve set up a new product that can provide

from anywhere, across the world, the

customers robotics from the cloud

answer might be collaboration, shared

instead of building your own environ-

ecosystems, speed and agility rather

ment. We’re there to provide support

than centralisation.”

for different companies who are

Aside from cloud, Telia Inmics-

deploying their own robots in a cloud

Nebula is equipped with a bevy of other

environment.” This kind of automation

technological solutions. Kekäläinen

is also used internally. “We are launch-

had prior experience at Telia with set-

ing an intelligent automation robot to

ting up its robotics and AI practices

improve our logistics processes. It’s busi ne ssc h ief . eu

TELIA INMICS-NEBULA

312

at an early stage, but we’re also look-

We thought it would be useful if we

ing at providing such services to

could have an ecosystem wherein

external companies with computer

companies could publish their 3D

vision and those kinds of things.”

AutoCAD designs and sell them on our

Kekäläinen is committed to explor-

portals. We’re also figuring out a way

ing innovative uses for all kinds of

to utilise recycled plastic, which along-

technology, and has duly invested in

side onshoring manufacturing could

a 3D printer. “I gave it to our experts to

play a part in saving the planet.”

figure something out. Especially with

Kekäläinen has seen an increase in

coronavirus, it’s become difficult to get

demand from the ongoing COVID-19

even cheap plastic parts delivered.

pandemic. “As soon as the coronavirus

OCTOBER 2020

and meetings. “One company gave us a thank you note, saying that we had helped them make a two-year digital leap in less than two hours by getting these remote-working environments up and running.”

Telia Inmics-Nebula’s hardiness in the face of such challenges leaves Kekäläinen assured of the company’s bright future. “Merging three companies with three cultures together was always going to take time, but it’s starting to deliver real results.

Employee commitment and satisfaction is increasing. People are talking the same language and adopting the same vision. That vision is to devote more time to what matters, whether it’s our people, how we digitise work hit, we had a huge spike in demand.

or how we free up customers’ time so

First of all, at the service desk, we

that they can reinvest in what matters

were getting 30-40% more calls from

for their customers.”

people asking for advice on how to set up Microsoft Teams, how to get a VPN up and running and so on. So it’s actually accelerating our business in that way.” The company’s ability to weather the coronavirus storm has seen it able to provide invaluable assistance to its customers as well, through webinars busi ne ssc h ief . eu

313

314

Data-driven commodities digital transformation WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

CAITLYN COLE

OCTOBER 2020

315

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

CRU GROUP

Will Blake, Director of Technology & Analytics at CRU Group, discusses how data and data analytics is driving change in commodities

T

he digital transformation of every industry sector means that an immeasurable amount of data is being generated by

businesses, industries and consumers worldwide every day. The effective harnessing and analysis of that data can generate significant value to companies through the greater understanding and insight 316

of trends, and better prediction and forecasting that allows robust strategies to be delivered.

The latter is where CRU comes in. The Londonheadquartered company uses data to offer unrivalled business intelligence on the global metals, mining and fertiliser industries through market analysis, pricing assessments and consultancy services.

The content and insight provided by CRU gives a complete view of the commodity market, enabling operators and industry participants to make critical business decisions.

Understandably, delivering such a comprehensive suite of services requires a robust and innovative technology and analytics strategy. Will Blake is responsible for driving this strategy. Will is a highly experienced technology leader, having spent

OCTOBER 2020

317

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

CRU GROUP

“ Companies are producing reams of data and, at the same time, using a lot more to improve their operations” — Will Blake, Director of Technology & Analytics, CRU Group

that exploited the value of data in this way, so that experience has certainly given me a greater understanding of

318

more than 15 years at CRU and, pre-

the challenges around information and

viously, close to two years working as

data, as well as how we can effectively

a geophysicist in a seismic exploration

solve the issues our customers face.”

team. Data has been an overarching

During his 15 years at CRU, Will has

theme throughout his career, as he

witnessed data, and the effective

explains: “Geophysics is a data inten-

analysis of that data, play an increas-

sive role that requires the handling

ingly important role in the business

of large volumes of information – the

strategies of customers. “It’s been

oil industry was really one of the first

a huge transformation,” he notes.

“Generally speaking, data is a lot more prevalent and is consumed from a host of different and new sources, such as increased automation and so on.

Volume-wise, we’re dealing with so much more information that we analyse, so it’s a significant change.

OCTOBER 2020

CRU’s strategy on data gathering CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:14

319 “Take the mining industry as an exam-

can they improve production rates and

ple,” Will continues. “Companies are

safety, but provide greater availability

producing reams of data and, at the

of data and information to analyse.”

same time, using a lot more to improve

CRU has been operational for just

their operations. There’s a big increase

over 50 years. And while the company

in IoT devices at mining sites and satel-

has always been at the forefront of

lite geospatial analysis for monitoring

primary research and analysis, Will

purposes, for example, which help to

explains that the exponential growth

boost productivity, eliminate unnec-

of data and innovative technology

essary costs and allow for the move

has led to the company’s own digital

towards predictive maintenance. At

transformation journey. “We started

the same time, we’re seeing an accel-

as a paper-based publisher that would

eration in the drive towards automated

publish thousands of industry reports

mining and self-driving vehicles, which

each year. And, because we have clients

can operate around the clock. Not only

in 90 countries worldwide, we’d have b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

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“Digital transformation has fundamentally changed the way that organisations view and consume data,” says Omri Kohl, cofounder and CEO at Pyramid Analytics.

“We’re now in an environment where data is an absolutely critical asset—if you want to have a competitive advantage and to capitalise on any opportunities in the market, you need to leverage all data available to you. It’s the most significant cultural change in how people develop and scale companies. Just look at Facebook, Google and Amazon, they’re all hugely successful and all driven by data.”

CRU Group, a valued Pyramid customer and leading commodities analysis company, has undergone a significant digital transformation of their own. CRU offers analysis, forecasting and pricing services for the mining, metal and fertiliser industries. As such, its business is built around the effective analysis and use of data. “We’ve been working with CRU for roughly five years, enabling them to scale and provide effective data to their customers,” says Steve Cowell, Head of UK & Ireland. “At that stage, the company was embarking on its own digital transformation and had a lot of data in

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silos and spreadsheets. They were looking for an advanced analytics platform that would allow effective data modelling, improved security and governance.”

“We’ve spent a lot of time working with CRU to help them democratize and visualise their data and achieve real consistency across the organisation— ultimately transforming sales revenue reporting and driving portfolio growth.

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CRU GROUP

322 to transport that information to them

information easily elsewhere. To be

by courier. Similarly, the data collec-

successful, we have to add value and

tion was also quite a manual process.

interpretation on top of that informa-

“What’s really changed is the acces-

tion, which CRU is very good at.”

sibility of data,” he continues. “Clients

To manage this transformation

used to be happy receiving a report

and add value, Will explains that CRU

once a year, or once a quarter, but now

“pulled back to the information and the

we’re no longer willing to wait for that

content, rather than focus around the

information – technology makes eve-

technology, which people do have

rything instantaneous, so our whole

a tendency to do. The latest tools don’t

cycle has had to change in terms of

necessarily matter that much, for us

what we produce and how we produce

the focus has always been the acces-

it. It’s no longer about pulling informa-

sibility of data and information,

tion together and presenting it to the

the understanding of what our custom-

customer, people can often find that

ers need to help them make effective

OCTOBER 2020

business decisions, and how often and

any investment. Similarly, Will

in what format do they need it. Only

notes that the business has focused

once we have the answer to those

on building on its core in-house

questions do we consider the technol-

technical and data skill sets in order

ogy necessary to deliver on them.”

to deliver effectively to custom-

One essential implementation was

ers. “Data is pivotal, so we keep that

a cloud-first strategy, he explains.

expertise within the business. We

CRU consumes content from a mul-

partner with other companies on

titude of locations globally, and by

things that we don’t see as core to

working in the cloud the business

our direct business, so networking

is able to achieve the flexibility and

communications, front-end website

technical delivery to maximise on

development,” he adds.

323

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Will Blake Title: Director of Technology & Analytics Industry: Commodities research and analysis

Location: London

Will has over 12 years of experience in technology across a range of disciplines including data analytics, cybersecurity, digital product development and cloud infrastructure. He is currently Director of Technology & Analytics at CRU and has responsibility for digital development initiatives and global technology services.

He is also a member of the CRU executive team and has wider responsibilities across the business including product development and compliance. Prior to CRU, he worked as a geophysicist for a seismic exploration company in the oil industry. He holds a MSc in Geophysics from Durham University and a BSc in Geology from Bristol University. b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

CRU GROUP

An insight into how CRU gathers content for its consumers CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:23

324

“ For us the focus has always been the accessibility of data and information” — Will Blake, Director of Technology & Analytics, CRU Group

OCTOBER 2020

325

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

CRU GROUP

CRU specialises in market-leading research built on robust and transpar-

els that inform CRU’s forecasting

ent methodologies. Regardless of

under the strapline of ‘where com-

specific sector or operation, its cus-

modities meet economics’.

tomers typically use the content and

326

is also used to build proprietary mod-

Information provided by CRU helps

information provided to inform critical

organisations navigate challenging

business decisions such as whether

market conditions. This has been

to enter a certain commodity mar-

evidenced most recently in the compa-

ket, for example. It also offers price

ny’s work during the global COVID-19

assessments from a team of specialists

pandemic. Like all companies, CRU

in London, Beijing, Mumbai, Pittsburgh,

faced the challenge of shifting to a

Shanghai, Singapore and Santiago.

remote working business model. “It’s

Will explains that primary research in

been very challenging,” Will highlights,

these areas covers supply, demand,

“but as we have offices in Beijing and

price and costs analysis; the content

Shanghai, which both enforced home

An insight into how CRU efficiently dealt with the global pandemic CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

2:42

“ We’re also looking to drive a lot of automation and to improve our range of data sources, including satellite analytics” — Will Blake, Director of Technology & Analytics, CRU Group

service, which has been embedded in our existing products. Our economics team has been closely analysing the impact of this disruption on global GDP and other economic indicators as our outlook shifts from what’s happening now to what the future looks like for our customers.”

As to that future, Will describes a rapidly changing market that is showing the first signs of stability.

working in January, we were better

Forecasting, he notes, always has

placed to plan for any potential disrup-

a degree of flexibility, but CRU is

tion. On 23 March we moved the whole

experiencing commodities custom-

global business – around 300 people

ers seeking answers to longer term

– to home working and it’s worked

questions, which demonstrates the

remarkably well. Our cloud strategy

response to COVID shifting from

proved to be very resilient and was

a survival mentality to one of strategi-

a key enabler in allowing business

cally planning for the future.

to carry on effectively.”

The company has also been engaged in dedicated COVID-19 analysis to better understand how the virus is impacting commodities. “Disruption to supply chains has been significant,” Will states, “as well as short-term demand reduction. Alongside this, we’ve been tracking operational status of mines, smelters and refineries with our dedicated disruption tracker

DI D YO U K N OW?

• CRU sets and publishes over 500 commodity prices each week • CRU has 300 employees spread over 8 offices on 5 continents • CRU analyses over 40 different commodities

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

327

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CRU GROUP

330

For CRU, future plans revolve around continuing to develop core services and the implementation of new technologies, says Will. “We still have work to do to harness the volumes of data we need and make it more accessible – it’s a never ending evolution in that respect. We have just purchased a new data platform that will drive this growth and offer OCTOBER 2020

“ Our cloud strategy proved to be very resilient and was a key enabler in allowing business to carry on effectively” — Will Blake, Director of Technology & Analytics, CRU Group

331

a greater range of analysis. We’re also

of power generation, and carbon emis-

looking to drive a lot of automation and

sions and environmental sustainability.

to improve our range of data sources.

Both will contribute hugely to how our

The latter includes satellite analytics,

customers operate and they’ll form a

which provides an enormous wealth

key strategic area for us to move into.”

of information at a global scale.”

“In terms of our business, there are two big trends that will drive what we do: increasing electrification of transport and the changing structure b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

332

OCTOBER 2020

Ooredoo Kuwait: Combating COVID-19 with Smart Solutions WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

333

OOREDOO KUWAIT

How Ooredoo Kuwait is helping organisations stay connected during COVID-19 and, as restrictions lift, resume business operations with smart solutions

F

ounded in 1999 as Wataniya Telecom, Ooredoo Kuwait is a member of the Ooredoo Group. The group rebranded

its name to Ooredoo Group in 2013 following its significant growth leading up to 2013, which transformed the company from a single market 334

operator, into an international communications company. Commenting on the rebrand in 2013, Ooredoo Group’s CEO Dr Nasser Marafih said it signaled its readiness to take the company to the next level. “It is our belief that we can better serve our global customers by leveraging the combined resources and assets of a strong, unified global business under one brand. We also believe that rebranding now will help us to maintain our momentum in the face of new realities for the industry, signalling our commitment to become a global force.”

As part of its operations in Kuwait, Ooredoo provides tailored mobile, broadband internet and corporate managed services for consumers and businesses. “Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people’s lives and its belief that it can OCTOBER 2020

335

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Diyar United Company PA R T N E R S I N T E C H N O L O G Y

Anything IT Our solutions and services have been carefully selected to add value to our clients, while also addressing industry specific challenges in various sectors including government, homeland security, oil, financial services, telecommunication, transportation, education, retail and health.

We are committed to continually pursuing technical innovation, expanding our international technology alliances, investing in our intellectual property portfolio and differentiating our services to contribute to the advancement of our society, citizens, governments and countries.

When it comes to anything IT, we always deliver

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stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential,” says Ooredoo.

Ooredoo is also committed to empowering Kuwait’s society by driving digital transformation and enriching people’s digital lives. To achieve this,Ooredoo Kuwait strives to be a ’one stop shop provider’ of leading integrated communications in the region that are simple, transparent, responsive, reliable, trustworth and innovative.

“ Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people’s lives and its belief that it can stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential” — Ooredoo Kuwait 337

COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING ITS CUSTOMERS With COVID-19 having a significant impact on organisations around the world, Ooredoo has reaffirmed its continuous commitment to supporting its customers. In support of the Kuwait government and its entities, to adhere to all instructions issued by the official authorities in Kuwait related to the current situation, Ooredoo Kuwait has implemented several initiatives since the outbreak in order to ensure that customers stay home.

1. Collaboration with the Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) busi ne ssc h ief . eu

OOREDOO KUWAIT

338

OCTOBER 2020

339

to provide its customers with free 5GB

“We aim to continuously serve

internet and free calls for a month.

all our customers with high qual-

2. The launch of its ‘Be Safe. Be Home.

ity telecommunications services,

Be Online’ campaign. The campaign

while keeping in mind the safety and

features digital offers and services

precautionary measures to ensure

designed to support customers as well

the safety and well-being of all

as maintain connectivity and communi-

employees. We are also committed

cation of information.

to ensuring the safety of our custom-

3. Implementation of its ‘Work from

ers and employees while ensuring

Home’ strategy in order to maintain

that the Company’s business and

safety within its operations, to protect

core functions continue to operate

the health, safety and well being of its

smoothly during this volatile period,”

employees while maintaining busi-

comments Ooredoo. “In these difficult

nesses operations.

times, we understand the importance busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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“ In these difficult times, we understand the importance of staying connected with each other” — Ooredoo Kuwait

staying indoors. Ooredoo continuously evaluates peak Internet data usage to stay on top of that demand,” it states.

INNOVATIVE SMART SOLUTIONS TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 While being online and staying connected at all times is essential to organisations who have migrated their

of staying connected with each other.

operations online, for those emerging

Whether conferencing with co-work-

out of the lockdown such as the supply

ers, reaching out for help and support,

chain, manufacturing and retail sec-

accessing sources of education and

tors, Ooredoo Kuwait has launched

entertainment, or staying connected

innovative smart solutions for those

with friends and loved ones, we know

preparing to ‘return to life’.

you depend on us to stay safe, stay home, and stay connected.”

In its continued effort to support its

The innovative smart solutions provided by Ooredoo Kuwait include: multipurpose thermal cameras, walk

customers, Ooredoo Kuwait has an

through thermal detectors, sanitizer

important network of people work-

gates equipped with thermal detec-

ing to keep its customers connected

tors, facial recognition, contactless

“Our engineers and technicians take

attendance systems and social

great pride in offering our customers

distancing solutions equipped with

Kuwait’s best and most reliable net-

artificial intelligence (AI) analytics.

work to meet the expectations of our

These solutions provided by Ooredoo

customers. Being online and staying

Kuwait to mitigate the impact of

connected at all times remains essen-

COVID-19 and help organisations

tially important to all our customers as

return to work, reiterate the organisa-

they expect uninterrupted connection

tions commitments to being a pioneer

and strong network coverage while

in Kuwait for digitalisation, as well as busi ne ssc h ief . eu

341

OOREDOO KUWAIT

“ We aim to continuously serve all our customers with high quality telecommunications services, while keeping in mind the safety and precautionary measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all employees” — Ooredoo Kuwait its ambition to keep up with the latest 342

trends within technology and ensure the safety and well being of others.

“Ooredoo is committed to ensuring the safety of all employees reporting back to work in the next phase, and for this reason, we are providing a number of smart solutions customised for companies,” says Abdulaziz Al-Babtain, Chief Business Officer at Ooredoo Kuwait. “The world has changed since the onset of COVID19, and we must adapt to the ‘new normal’. It is our duty to protect the nation by ensuring the availability of smart solutions to control the spread of COVID-19. Ooredoo provides a number of smart solutions used by OCTOBER 2020

our enterprise customers to prepare for phase two in which employees will gradually report back to work.

These smart solutions include multipurpose thermal cameras used to monitor employees’ temperatures and report high temperatures.”

Harnessing the capabilities of AI Ooredoo Kuwait tools will not only allow organisations to utilise facial recognition and contactless attendance but will also optimise safety by enforce social distancing with line crossing analytics to keep employees within the own work area, as well as providing the capability to track compliance with health guidelines “Ooredoo is keen to ensure the safety and well-being of the employees and customers of its clients, and we will continue to provide our clients and the government with all their needs during this phase and we ask God to protect this great nation and its people from all harm,” concluded Al-Babtain.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

343

344

Powering Algeria’s digital transformation WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING OCTOBER 2020

345

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OOREDOO ALGÉRIE

Timos Tsokanis, CTO at Ooredoo Algérie, discusses the company’s role in enabling a societal digital transformation — and its response to COVID-19

O

oredoo Algérie is a leader of digital transformation in Algeria, as its CTO Timos Tsokanis explains: “We contrib-

ute to the economic development of the country through an ambitious growth strategy. Customer 346

satisfaction is at the heart of our interactions, and we’re a responsible, caring company both for our employees and society at large. Algeria is the largest country in Africa with a surface area of over 2.3 million square kilometres. It has a young population and a strong demand for internet access supported by very rapid penetration of smartphones. Therefore, national mobile coverage requires massive investment to be able to offer quality voice and data services to more customers across the country.”

Ooredoo is intimately involved with Algeria’s own national digital transformation, having made significant investments in the development and modernisation of its network in the country. “We have invested, in total, hundreds of billions of dinars, since we started in 2004,” says Tsokanis.

OCTOBER 2020

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OOREDOO ALGÉRIE

“ There’s a saying I like that goes: ‘trends are our friends’” — Timos Tsokanis, CTO, Ooredoo Algérie

“We continue to invest tens of billions of dinars in every investment cycle that we go through. We’re expanding, we’re modernising our network with the focus, of course, being on newer and more efficient technologies such as 4G. I believe that the sheer volume of investment proves beyond any doubt our solid commitment to this country.”

The opportunities for partnerships and digital ecosystems creation in Algeria are extensive. “Belonging

348

to the most dynamic telecoms

OCTOBER 2020

Ooredoo CLICK TO WATCH

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1:30

349 group in the EMEA region, Ooredoo

aggregator for the two major pay-

Algérie taps into the know-how

ment channels of the country. We

and ecosystem jointly developed

collect and distribute content, and in

by our Alliance,” Tsokanis explains.

general we are at the heart of digital

“We have strategic alliances with

services, bringing together the ser-

global digital players, global and

vice provider with the end customer.”

local content creators, distributors,

That level of integration is to the

social media platforms, merchants,

benefit of the Algerian economy

payment channels and banks. By

at large. “One of our objectives is

nature, we are in the pole position

to contribute to the burgeoning

for seeding such ecosystems.” The

Algerian digital ecosystem. This, in

critical role it plays as a telecommu-

turn, will contribute to the diversi-

nications provider allows Ooredoo

fication of the national economy.

to unite customers with services

We’re ready to work with our stake-

across Algeria. “We’re already an

holders to support Algeria in its busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Enabling connectivity and trust everywhere Learn more

ZTE Boosts African Operators’ Digital Transformation What is ZTE digital transformation progress and suggestions for operator digital transformation?

In recent years, ZTE has made in-depth innovations in related fields through digital transformation.

During the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, ZTE has expanded our IT equipment resources flexibly to promote efficient collaboration among customers and partners. Ensure Work Resumption and Production Resumption is carried out in an orderly, efficient, and safe manner, trying to reduce the impact of pandemic on the R&D and production effectively . Our digital transformation results include: Digital office: Build a mobile, online, self-service, and intelligent office cloud platform. Digital operation: Empower the agile combat team to lead business changes; enable flexible orchestration of business activities; implement risk visualization and intelligent decision-making through real-time presentation of operation analysis/forecast and data&AI empowering business.Digital R&D: R&D operations are carried out in the cloud, cross-regional online collaboration is implemented, and the R&D period is shortened by 50%. Digital Commerce: By building a perfect digital collaboration platform for customers, partners, and suppliers, the digital commerce drives the process optimization and transformation of both parties to achieve a win-win situation of reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Facing the challenges of Covid-19 Pandemic and global economic uncertainties, MEA operators are under the pressure of both business growth and revenue growth slowing down. Digital transformation can promote services and business model innovation, bring new grow th, and empower operators to cope with risks. Therefore, digital transformation is an imperative for operator transformation. ZTE’s recommendations for digital transformation are focusing on two capabilities and promote three major transformations, namely, front-end product innovation capabilities and network agility rooted in the back-end. Based on the construction of two major capabilities, ZTE can promote operation transformation, network transformation, and talent and organization transformation, and achieve ecological transition from pipeline connection providers to digital service providers ultimately.

How does ZTE help operators cope with the challenges brought by traffic growth? How to view the development prospect of 5G in Africa?

In Africa, 4G networks will still take an irreplaceable leading position in the coming 2-3 years, with operators’ investment in 4G networks taking a leading position.

4G and 5G networks will coexist and develop for a long time. To cope with the challenges brought by user growth and traffic pressure, and to fully consider network evolution, it is suggested that the operators upgrade and reconstruct the existing 4G network while embedding 5G capabilities, which would make it more convenient for

Wu Jianjun Vice President, ZTE Corporation future evolution towards 5G network and facilitate the coordinated development of 4G&5G. It is recommended to take 5G as an effective supplement, while focusing on mobile broadband customer experience improvement and new service development. ZTE is a provider of endto-end 5G solutions. Its highly integrated virtualized Core network platform of ZTE Common Core can support 2/3/4G/5G/Fix at the same time, and the base station and RF platform series support multi-mode multi-frequency band and 4G/5G coordination at the same time. ZTE has successfully delivered 5G in South Africa and Uganda, and will work closely with operators and partners to make 5G and innovative communication technologies become the driving force for enabling African industrial development to generate more economic growth.

How does ZTE assist Ooredoo in digital transformation?

Ooredoo is one of the world’s leading telecom operators.

ZTE has a long history of cooperation with Ooredoo in wireless, wired and terminal fields. We have provided wireless networks for the core region of the capital of Ooredoo Algeria, achieved full deployment of 4G services, and built leading data network in Algiers, facilitating the digitalization process of Ooredoo Algeria.

Facing the challenges brought by Covid-19, ZTE has used smart tool to perform network management and analysis, realize remote deployment and ensure network delivery.

In addition, ZTE has provided network-wide O&M for the OML(Ooredoo Myanmar) network, deployed UniSeer intelligent O&M system and provided full lifecycle management service solution. The joint deployment of the VMAX system based on in-depth insight network and the Cloudstudio GA system featuring real-time management fully integrates the processes, organizations and tools in OML, and brings brand-new O&M management concepts, measures and modes to Ooredoo. In the future, through the precision cloud concept, we will tailor differentiated cloud-network collaboration solutions for Ooredoo, fully assisting Ooredoo in digital transformation to achieve stable and sustainable business growth. zte.com.cn/global

OOREDOO ALGÉRIE

352

digital transformation for several

The character of Ooredoo’s

years.” Ooredoo has duly started a

transformation incorporates both

number of initiatives to support the

external and internal developments.

country’s digital ecosystem. “We

The former has seen introductions

have adopted strategies such as

such as a touchless customer acqui-

I-start, T-start and Oobarmijoo.

sition and sales process, as well as

These programmes aim to help cre-

a new generation of plans which

ate a knowledge-based economy

allows customers to control spend-

derived from local competence and

ing using an app. Internally, Ooredoo

talent, as well as content creation.

has been just as busy. “We have

Since 2013, Ooredoo has supported

digitised the interaction between

more than 20 startups in our own

employees and the company

incubator — a large part of which are

through a new HR application. We

initiated by young students.”

have also introduced new tools to

OCTOBER 2020

“ You overcome obstacles and reluctance to change with communication” — Timos Tsokanis, CTO, Ooredoo Algérie

improve network planning and make sure we optimise our every investment and measure our cost for every unit of revenue.”

Tsokanis is clear, however, that before automation, it’s important to first simplify. “Otherwise one can spend tons of money and achieve nothing,” he says. “You overcome obstacles and reluctance to change by communication. First decide where you want to end up and by 353

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

Timos Tsokanis Title: CTO Company: Ooredoo Algérie Industry: Telecommunications Location: Algeria During his broad career in Telecommunications, Timos has been a Board member, leading the areas of Technology & Operations, including customer-facing functions. He has held positions of increasing responsibility in the largest telecommunication groups in the world, including Ooredoo, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and WIND, across five countries and three continents. He has an exciting track record of accomplishments and successful transformations, using digitalisation to surpass customer expectations and ensuring overachievement of stakeholders’ mandates. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

OOREDOO ALGÉRIE

ERI CSSO N

354

In Algeria, Ericsson is committed with his partner Ooredoo in a longstanding partnership that led to many successes along the digitalization journey. While supporting Ooredoo Algeria in building a powerful and flexible BSS environment, the joint technological efforts are allowing an improved time to market and a better customers experience, through a Convergent Charging & Billing Solution.� Explains Lyes Bensebti Key Account Manager Ericsson Algeria.

OCTOBER 2020

The Ericsson Business support system (BSS) strategy is designed to support a low-risk but effective step-by-step evolution to the Digital world that is being built with 5G and IoT. The solutions are catalog-driven and preintegrated with other Ericsson solutions such as self-care, analytics, OSS and Core, and also support available standards for multivendor integration.

More information about Ericsson BSS solutions are available on the dedicated group website here.

ZT E

Ooredoo Algeria and ZTE started their cooperation in 2016. ZTE provides wireless networking for the Ooredoo Algeria’ capital region, achieving full deployment of 4G services with leading data performance. Over the past few

years they have built up their strategic partnership, and hope to expand cooperation in more domains to enhance the relationship in the future with more win-win achievements.

355

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Looking for the flexibility to charge for anything? Equip your BSS to lead you into the future. Ericsson Digital BSS is the complete solution you need to continue your evolution to digital.

Ericsson.

The quest for easy. ericsson.com /digital-bss

If you want to monetize 5G, start here

“ One of our objectives is to contribute to the burgeoning Algerian digital ecosystem” — Timos Tsokanis, CTO, Ooredoo Algérie

with Algerian law, we use that data to analyse the behaviours and needs of our customers, improve their experience, enhance our business offerings and direct our investments.

No decisions are taken in the company without being supported by the proper analysis. It is the only way to make sure we make the most impactful changes as efficiently as possible.”

Analysing the quantity of data

when. Then you design how to get

produced increasingly requires the

there with more steps and quick wins

deployment of emerging technolo-

at every step of the process. Keep

gies such as AI. With the exponential

customers and employees informed

increase in available data, AI solu-

and motivated, admit mistakes, do

tions are overtaking more bespoke

not be afraid to undo things that

models. “It is with these new technol-

didn’t work and experiment con-

ogies that the vast amounts of data

tinuously. Every mistake is a great

in our networks and systems can

lesson learned for how to do better

be assessed, combined and used to

on the next step.”

reveal trends and opportunities that

One of the technologies crucial

are invisible to the naked eye. We’re

to enabling the transformation was

currently working on a number of ini-

the proper use of data. “There’s a

tiatives in collecting, processing and

saying I like that goes: ‘trends are

understanding data to improve the

our friends’,” says Tsokanis. “There’s

customer experience and maximise

an incredible amount of trends and

every dinar we invest in Algeria.”

information in the huge quantities

Like all other companies, Ooredoo

of data that are daily processed by

has had to weather the storm

a telecom operator. In accordance

caused by the ongoing COVID-19 busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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OOREDOO ALGÉRIE

“ We contribute to the economic development of the country through an ambitious growth strategy” 358

— Timos Tsokanis, CTO, Ooredoo Algérie

OCTOBER 2020

pandemic, playing a crucial role in Algeria’s response. “We helped Algeria deal with COVID-19 through a wide network for teleworking and also facilitating remote education in cooperation with the authorities and the ministries,” says Tsokanis.

“We were already working on digitising customer experience through contactless sales processes and digital offers, so we’re very well positioned for the New Normal. Our ambition is not to just facilitate the new way of doing things, but also excite our customers in the process.”

That ambition leads Tsokanis to tie Ooredoo Algérie’s future with that of the country itself. “It’s going to be bright and exciting, just like the future of this country and its people — some of the most young, energetic, resourceful and smart people I have ever met in my career.”

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360

Commercial Bank of Dubai: Leading Digital Customer Service WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING

OCTOBER 2020

PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD

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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

Stefan Kimmel, COO, explains how COVID-19 created digitisation opportunities in banking and why customer-centricity is essential to CBD’s operations

A

lthough the COVID-19 pandemic is causing the banking sector to necessarily reassess so many of its core processes,

there is one focus that should always remain the same: good customer service. Formed in 1969, the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) was built on 362

a solid foundation of determination to improve the lives of the UAE’s citizens. Originally a joint venture between Commerzbank, Chase Manhatten Bank and Commercial Bank of Kuwait, CBD became a public company in 1982 and continues to be so to this day. The bank maintains a steadfast dedication to customer-centricity skillfully combined with visionary leadership, thereby allowing it to navigate the latest technological trends and produce optimal outcomes.

Joining the company in February 2020, on the eve of the global coronavirus lockdown, Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, says that the pandemic was a “curveball” at the start of his tenure to say the least. “I hadn’t even had the chance to meet all of my staff before everything was suddenly via

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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

“ After many years of telling clients what to do, I figured I wanted to get my hands dirty. Of course, it’s far more challenging but it’s also a lot more rewarding”

364

— Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai

tory, trajectory and outstanding track

Microsoft Teams or Zoom,” he recalls.

and profitability that captured his atten-

Coming from a long-term career working

tion, as well as its promising commitment

at some of the world’s most renowned

to digital transformation. The latter, he

consulting firms, Kimmel recognised

explains, is a direct result of CEO Bernd

the opportunity of working at CBD as a

van Linder’s clear and committed long-

chance to put his consulting advice into

term strategy.

execution. “After many years of tell-

more challenging but it’s also a lot more rewarding.” It was the bank’s proud hisrecord of consistent revenue growth

Part of the new vanguard of ‘next-

ing clients what to do, I figured I wanted

gen’ COOs, those who maintain a

to get my hands dirty. Of course, it’s far

tech-focused outlook and holistic (non-siloed) team structures, Kimmel combines this with his outsider experience gained from working as a consultant. Having gained a solid understanding of what good performance means in a banking context, he is determined to achieve nothing short of the finest results for a bank in the Middle East. When considering how these outcomes will be achieved at CBD, Kimmel emphasises that technological advances will be crucial, although not, perhaps, in the way that

OCTOBER 2020

CBD Digi Account CLICK TO WATCH

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0:40

365 many people think. “There’s always

integrated into their cloud platforms

a lot of talk about everything that’s

is mind-boggling,” continues Kimmel.

going on in the market. However, I’d

“Regardless of whether it was AI (artifi-

say, in recent years, technology has

cial intelligence), DevOps, or any other

been far more ‘evolutionary’ than

cutting-edge technology, it would have

‘disruptive’,” that is to say: it has been

previously taken large investments

maturing and better applying emerg-

spread over several years to develop.

ing tech rather than creating new

Now, everything is an API (application

paradigms entirely. Part of the reason

programming interface) and you can

for this lies in banking’s status as a

just plug it in; you’re not stuck with a

highly regulated industry, but the other

10-year-old infrastructure, you can lit-

is a direct result of a core technology:

erally just switch one API for another.”

cloud. “If you look at the big platform

CBD is a bank wholly committed

providers – Google, Amazon, Microsoft,

to lean and agile thinking in its tech

etc – the number of capabilities they’ve

infrastructure, but Kimmel knows that busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Partners in Possibility Collaboration drives business results and consumer value in commerce and financial services.

Proud to partner with Commercial Bank of Dubai

fiserv.com

Driving Transformation for Commercial Bank of Dubai Fiserv is one of the key partners facilitating Commercial Bank of Dubai’s modernisation campaign. Here, we explore how the company became a leader.

Fiserv is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals move money and information in a secure and reliable manner. A strong believer in the power of technology to enable solutions for daily challenges and conscious that innovation can take on many forms, the company’s approach is cogently summed up in its core aspiration, “To move money and information in a way that moves the world.”

Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) is one client in particular that has been reaping the benefits of working with Fiserv. Partnered since 2009, CBD has benefited from using FirstVision™, a single platform, to support all their credit, debit, prepaid and merchant acquiring

Looking ahead and considering the constantly shifting financial services landscape CBD, and other clients in the region, will benefit from FirstVision facilitating fast-track deployment for new capabilities using high level parameter controls and advanced, real-time APIs. The platform will deliver operational and compliance efficiencies whilst ensuring CBD are able to provide a high level experience for all their customers.

Partners in Possibility Collaboration drives business results and consumer value in commerce and financial services.

Proud to partner with Commercial Bank of Dubai

fiserv.com

A leading global provider of payments and financial technology with a presence in over 100 countries, Fiserv exhibits a full-spectrum client base including financial institutions, corporations and merchants. Serving millions of clients through approximately 44,000 associates, an exceptional workplace culture has netted the company consistent industry praise: Fortune has ranked Fiserv among the ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ for seven consecutive years. Distinctly down-to-earth and customer-centric, Fiserv focuses on solving the real-world problems people face: “People aren’t thinking about financial services, but they are thinking about when their next bill payment is due, or how they are going to save to buy a house,” says Jossan Maalouf, general manager, Middle East & Africa at Fiserv.

“Money is a part of our everyday lives and we’re committed to enabling people to move and manage it with ease, speed and convenience.”

processing needs whilst also utilising fraud management and prevention capabilities.

This scalable, resilient and robust system ensures consistent service delivery and performance, coupled with localised support in the UAE.

“The potential for payments transformation in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is massive. It is a market with around 350 million cards in circulation (credit, debit and prepaid) and, at this stage, the MEA digital payments market remains highly underpenetrated because it is still heavily reliant (80%) on cash payments,” states Maalouf . “The MEA region has the lowest proportion of digital transactions with a ratio of 17% compared to 74% for North America and 51% for Europe. Therefore, the growth potential is significant in this region.” working, not just in the UK but globally.”

Learn more today

COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

368

this is only half the battle. While most

and development of teams them-

executives in the banking space know

selves. “We bring in fresh talent when

what ‘good’ looks like, it is, neverthe-

it’s needed, but we primarily focus

less, fully realised by few because of

on training and upskilling. Doing so

numerous real-world complications

requires us to constantly stay on top

(legacy infrastructure, budget limita-

of our game and drive that transforma-

tions, sub-optimal team organisation,

tion along with them. I was blessed

etc). Where CBD makes the difference

to come into an environment that has

is in two key areas, both linked with

that top-level ‘buy-in’,” says Kimmel.

a superior cultural outlook. The first

A mid-sized bank with dynamic team

is maintaining a clear vision starting

structures and closely aligned man-

with senior leadership and permeat-

agement capable of making changes

ing the whole organisation, while the

fast, it has ultimately been these key

second involves consistent investment

differentiators which have seen CBD

OCTOBER 2020

surpass its competitors during the

its IT and operations teams, CBD was

challenging circumstances of COVID-

able to make the transition to remote

19: “Most organisations, not just banks,

working without any deterioration of

had to stop investment, stop hiring, or

its service levels. In fact, reflecting on

even let go of staff. Because CBD had

the effect that the pandemic has had

that clarity of vision and focus, we did

on banking generally, Kimmel goes

the opposite.”

on to state that coronavirus may have

However, despite its strong culture,

inadvertently spurred on the next

which allowed it to weather the onset

wave of both tech and customer ser-

of COVID-19, Kimmel makes it clear

vice transformation. “The commonly

that the challenge has been no less

agreed notion and sentiment now is

difficult, “It was very hard initially; no

that COVID-19 has been one of the

bank is naturally set up for a scenario

biggest digitisation boosters we’ve

like that.” Through the dedication of

seen in a long time, because, all of

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

Stefan Kimmel Title: Chief Operating Officer

Industry: Banking

Location: United Arab Emirates Stefan has over 20 years of experience in digital transformation, technology management and innovation with a range of globally leading organisations, including BCG, Oliver Wyman and IBM. Prior to joining CBD, he was the Leader Digital Technology, Financial Services at PwC for the Middle East. Stefan holds a Master’s in Business Management from the University of Nuremberg as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Georgia in the US. Joined CBD in Feb. 2020.

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369

We are proud to be working with CBD to accelerate their payments modernization and digital To maintain its leadership position as the transformation programme region’s ‘bank of tomorrow’, CBD identified Grow your bank the world’s most in launching the need for with greater flexibility advanced cloud payments solutions new service propositions, higher straightthrough processing, API enablement, volantetech.com and real-time payments readiness as key payments modernization goals.

Compliance with global and regional crossborder initiatives, and easier integration to blockchain networks, were also important criteria. At the core of this modernization

The CBD and Volante Technologies Partnership effort is Volante’s cloud-native VolPay, providing unified end-to-end processing of domestic and international payments, including foreign exchange/FX, real-time and cross-border payments. By deploying VolPay in the cloud, the bank is able to achieve all its modernization objectives, while benefiting from increased business resiliency, reduced operational and infrastructure costs, and greater innovation for its customers.

We are proud to be working with CBD to accelerate their payments modernization and digital transformation programme Grow your bank with the world’s most advanced cloud payments solutions volantetech.com

“ There’s always a lot of talk about everything that’s going on in the market. However, I’d say, in recent years, technology has been far more ‘evolutionary’ than ‘disruptive’” — Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai

capabilities have received widespread industry praise, including ‘Most Innovative Bank’, ‘Best digital bank’, and ‘Best mobile app’. According to

a sudden, our clients couldn’t come

Kimmel, “the journey started in our

into the branches anymore.” In line with

digital channels – building capabili-

this, CBD subsequently announced in

ties and making them slicker. We will

a July press release that digital adop-

continue to add more and continuously

tion among its customers had risen

improve our customer experience

significantly. Kimmel states that this

and improve it. Digital transformation

migration provided the bank with a dual

is a never ending journey.” It is by

learning opportunity: learning how to

combining a digital interface with its

optimise functionality and convenience

customer-centric ethos that CBD

for the online platform, and also finding

strives to create value, something

out how CBD’s in-branch experience

which, Kimmel admits, is often no easy

can be improved to drive engagement.

Customer-centricity and digital transformation go hand-in-hand at CBD: a kind of conceptual möbius strip wherein each simultaneously develops and reinforces the other.

With developments already well underway prior to the start of Kimmel’s tenure, CBD’s digital banking busi ne ssc h ief . eu

371

COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

1969

Year founded

AED1.412bn Revenue H1, 2020

372

AED 530m Net Profit H1, 2020

1,300+ Number of employees

OCTOBER 2020

“ The commonly agreed notion and sentiment now is that COVID-19 has been one of the biggest digitisation boosters we’ve seen in a long time” — Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai

373

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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

task. “Every organisation these days gives that as their vision statement, but it’s difficult to drive that message through.” To accomplish this goal, the bank maintains performance management KPIs for every employee backed by operating procedures to ensure each customer interaction is quality controlled to a high standard. “After any changes, we ask our customers for real-time feedback,” he continues.

“If they don’t like it, we keep improving it. CBD is constantly investing 374

“ CBD is creating leadership in digital customer-centricity and digital customer services. For me, that is the mantra we are pursuing” — Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai

in the journey and driving customer

that it will increasingly do less and less

satisfaction.”

in-house, as that’s no longer sustain-

Pivotal to the development of CBD’s

able or competitive,” explains Kimmel.

digital transformation has been the

As such, he provided examples of two

establishment of strong partner

collaborators: Ingenuous and Fiserv.

ecosystems with trustworthy and

A decision-support company based

influential companies. “The direction

in Melbourne, Australia, Ingenuous

banking is heading towards means

distinguishes itself through extensive global experience in its field and specially-tailored strategies for its clients. “Ingenuous is working with us in the compliance space. As you know, compliance is an ever-growing field of increasing complexity and demand.

The company has been working with us on KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) to

OCTOBER 2020

375

C B D : D R I VI N G CU ST O M ER S A T I SFACT I O N When it comes to good customercentric operations, Kimmel believes that speed, quality of response, transparency and cost are important metrics for measuring success. He provides the following example of CBDs development protocol during its recent digital onboarding cycle:

“If it takes a customer 20 screens to open a digital account, that equates to about six minutes and will likely incur higher drop-off rates. CBD has managed to reduce the number of screens for the process on our digital app to five, meaning that it can be done in less than a minute. That’s a much better customer journey.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI

“ CBD will continue to develop its alreadystrong channels like the retail space, but we have a pipeline of new and exciting capabilities lined up” — Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai

in genuous

constantly improve and enhance our compliance capabilities.” Fiserv is a global leader in fintech and innovative payments experiences to suit the modern world. “CBD is working with Fiserv in the omnichannel space; it is an enabler that allows us to switch between ATMs and kiosks, which is an important aspect of driving a uniform experience across the different channels CBD operates in.”

Reflecting on what CBD has accomplished in 2020 despite the disruption,

intuition

Melbourne | Australia

“Delivering fraud prevention and compliance solutions with innovative and differentiating features.”

One Platform Real-time

Latest Technology Flexibility

Schedule your demostration of Intuition today

377 Kimmel states that he is proud. However,

starting with SMBs (small-medium

he quickly adds a caveat that, at least

businesses) and then scaling up to

in the new, tech-driven world of bank-

more complex entities, the bank will

ing, everything is always in a state of

be continuing its winning combination

‘becoming’. “In the technology space,

of tech-enabled customer-centric oper-

nothing’s ever finished because

ations as it moves into 2021. “CBD is

there’s always something new on the

creating leadership in digital customer-

rise. CBD will continue to develop

centricity and digital customer services,”

its already-strong channels like the

Kimmel emphasises. “For me, that is

retail space, but we have a pipeline

the mantra we are pursuing.”

of new and exciting capabilities lined up, including automation and AI-based controls and the constant renewal of our IT architecture.” Currently on the verge of facilitating full digital onboarding in the corporate space, busi ne ssc h ief . eu

378

Delivering operational resilience and excellence WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

379

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VISTAS GLOBAL

Suraj Thampi, CEO at Vistas Global, discusses the company’s unique value proposition and how crises can become opportunities

I

n 2005, Momenta Global was founded as a specialist in business process management (BPM), restructured under Vistas

Global in 2013 to reflect its development into one of the Middle East’s most unique and cohesive business services providers. Spearheaded by 380

Suraj Thampi, an entrepreneur credited as having helped to pioneer business process outsourcing in the Middle East during the late ‘90s, the company now serves many Banking & Financial Institutions in the region. Alongside this strong portfolio of clients in financial services are a selection of telcos, academic institutions, automotive manufacturers, and sporting corporations operating in the region which have each benefitted from Vistas’s bespoke, region-specific service delivery, customer-centricity, growth mindset and key partnerships.

Rapidly gaining the regional footprint and clout to compete with Global Services players both from both sides of the world, has been enabled by a series of core focuses that have 2specialized the company’s capacity to boost the operational capabilities and efficiencies of its clients. At all levels, a OCTOBER 2020

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VISTAS GLOBAL

“ Most global companies and leaders in the field end up failing or being less effective when it comes to catering to these regionspecific qualities” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global

customer-first & Innovation – driven culture is combined with feedback across internal and external channels, and a democratic approach to leadership drives creative inclusion and agility. Meanwhile, the firm is focused on developing and acquiring intellectual property (IP) under its Vistas Innovation labs. Some of those IP’s includes: • OmniHub, a Omnichannel Platform that can deliver omnichannel, single-view services that are integrable, resilient, and capable of closing framework gaps

382

delivered by global industry leaders.

• Trustnow, a Cybersecurity Product that can deliver Access Management to Critical and Sensitive data environment. Adler, a business Process application product offering Human Capital Management.

• Salus, a HSSE (Health Safety Security & Environment) application that comes integrated with integrated & IoT enabled Surveillance solutions.

“Global best practices are always considered frameworks for digital operations, and we usually end up adapting those frameworks to customize it to local sentiments and ideologies, whether cultural or operational, that OCTOBER 2020

Client event of Vistas

383 makes it a success compared to others

cost models and profit models, and

who try western factory models which

focus on the outcome for the client.”

falls through in the region” Thampi

Concentrating on regional business

explains. “Most global companies and

needs, particularly in the develop-

leaders in the field end up failing or being

ment of its own capabilities to bridge

less effective when it comes to catering

framework gaps for best practice, has

to these region-specific qualities. That’s

bred innate flexibility into Vistas’s offer-

where we’ve been able to carve out a

ing. The pandemic has provided new

niche for ourselves; we’re able to take

opportunities in the challenges, namely

the global frameworks and create new

in the movement of people and goods,

ones from them that are locally suited

that has actually been a great enabler

whilst keeping those best practices in

of Vistas’ existing market propositions

mind. In doing this, we are able to plug-in

that comes with ability to deliver cut-

our Innovation labs IP’s to existing tech-

ting-edge and reliable solutions to its

nology of the customers, drive efficient

clients during this period of uncertainty busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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VISTAS GLOBAL

386

Elite client Qatar Financial Center Ministers on outcome based models. However,

our telemarketing units servicing telco

the company’s in-house technological

companies and redistributed what used

assets has ensured that it could react

to be the 3 specialized contact centre to

dynamically and make best value to

enable people to work from home. All of

emerging needs of its customers .

this is from a platform that we’ve built. It

“We ended up creating platforms and

took us 30-35 days to be able to design,

capabilities for our companies locally,”

build and roll this out, and this is an exam-

Thampi continues. “We’ve been moving

ple of where we have been able to adapt

our HR systems towards self-service

very quickly. Everything we do is based a

and distributed architecture for our

lot on the technology we have in-house.”

contact centres, back office CoE’s

This is where the roots of Vistas’s

adapting to Covid and its effects on

strong operations, and the clarity

business over the last six months. We’ve

of its growth strategy, are found.

had engagements where we have taken

“Every specialization is different, and

OCTOBER 2020

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

Suraj Thampi Title: CEO Company: Vistas Global Industry: Information services

Location: Qatar

Suraj Thampi is CEO of Vistas Global, his fourth venture in the Middle East following his successful development and sale of three other enterprises in the region over the past 20 Plus years. Thampi is a seasoned leader with a remarkable eye for entrepreneurial opportunities, and has served as Director, Managing Director, Chairman, or CEO for several organisations.

Through these experiences, Thampi has developed a broad range of specialisms, including: outsourcing, business process management, strategy, operations management, facade engineering, glass processing, communications, managed services, and more. His cross-border business strategies have a root in Thampi’s background, with his parents having moved from India to Doha in 1979 where he was raised until attending university in the US. “When I was at university, I started an outsourcing company where we were doing voice campaigns for the likes of Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile,” he says. “We branched out to the UAE and India, and at that time, 1998, outsourcing was really picking up and there was a lot of momentum around leveraging global capabilities. There were cost pressures in the Western markets to build up efficiencies, and we saw that as an opportunity to set up new businesses and niches, leverage our experiences, and build a great practice in business process management.” Since then, digital transformation and increased regional interest in outsourcing have enabled Thampi and his teams to capitalize on emergent trends and deliver cuttingedge solutions to companies seeking to maximise operational efficiencies, with Vistas Global being a culmination of learnings and blueprints for success drawn over Thampi’s career as a business leader. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

387

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VISTAS GLOBAL

390

the contextual use of a technology

product suites don’t have available.

platform is the biggest challenge a

Our IP’ss are very niche and, being a

company has when adopting new solu-

tech company ourselves, we have the

tions into their operations,” Thampi

strength to develop these internally and

explains. “When we develop IP, these

usually don’t have to outsource our-

products are usually standalone, inde-

selves. We learn from the management

pendent platforms that bridge a gap

of our clients about where those gaps

for this market. The need for this is

are, and we deliver the solutions.”

owed to unique needs or requirements

Looking forward, Thampi says the

that global majors may not be able to

COVID-19 pandemic is yielding fresh

address, or it may be too expensive

opportunities for both the company and

to be able to adapt them, so we end

the Middle East’s technological adop-

up doing that while the rest of it is

tion. “Generally speaking, the region is

about bridging that gap in offering that

lagging behind more mature markets.

OCTOBER 2020

“ When we develop IP, these products are usually standalone, independent platforms that bridge a gap for this market” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global

other leading market analysts. The research data states 95% of organizations surveyed during the pandemic, and 88% of technologists report that digital customer experience is now the priority. For example, according to one of AppDynamics survey recent 81% of technologists state that COVID-19 has created the biggest technology pressure for their organization that they have ever experienced.

Reason being: this region is very young.

This view of the region’s burgeoning

Leveraging convertible frameworks

digital prospects for growth combines

for machine learning, AI and automa-

with Vistas’ resilience, and the criticality of

tion is a challenge when the process

its offering for clients, to create a potent

hasn’t been completely figured out,”

case for expansion. “We’re in a unique

he says, referring to local sentiments

situation where, each time there’s a crisis,

and requirements that necessitate

we see an uptick in our business,” Thampi

a tailored approach and how this

elaborates. “The current situation is the

has impeded transformational uptake.

same. For us, we see a lot more advan-

“Over the next few years, spurred by the

tage for our clients in terms of being able

pandemic-inspired frenzy to adopt more

to support them through this, so we’ve

technology, I think there will be a steep

had to look at how we can scale up our

adoption curve and that challenges will

bandwidth to service all of our clients’

be addressed more quickly than before.”

requirements. The biggest challenge is

Considering the Research data

getting the right people to scale up oper-

across Customer Experience that

ations and adapt with those needs. Our

Vistas has leveraged with its key part-

strategy is growth, and the route to that

ner partners like AppDynamics, the

is apparent and clear, we just need to be

application intelligence company &

able to cater to that and scale up quickly.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

391

VISTAS GLOBAL

P ART N ERS

392

“AppDynamics, Perpetuuiti, Oracle Netsuite & BMC Software are all key partners of ours, and each have their particular role in what we deliver to our clients.

relationship is to do with application management and increasing operational efficiency for varied customer environments.”

Perpetuuiti has been a partner of ours for over six years, bringing disaster recovery, business continuity solutions, and intelligent process automation to the table. It’s been working with us to deliver a continuity platform for most of our customers, looking at any kind of breakdown or crisis, and it’s been able to adapt very quickly to the pandemic situation. Perpetuuiti is vital to delivering solutions to our customers, and we have a lot of projects that we’re working on for robust operational frameworks.

“We have a similar relationship with BMC as a key partner, which specialises in IT operations management and IT service management. When it comes to any technology-driven operations, we collaboratively deliver infrastructural solutions for our customers. We’re currently working on sizable projects here for governments, utility companies and more.”

“AppDynamics is another great relationship for us, offering great client relations, and much of our

“Oracle Netsuite is the latest strategic practice investment that Vistas is undertaking to expand its capabilities to ensure the Process Excellence in the Digital Operational Services to its clients and larger ecosystem of its Process Solutions.”

- Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global

OCTOBER 2020

Vistas’s firm cultural foundations are

within the organisation. We like promot-

set to serve as the springboard for this

ing internally and fostering a culture of

desire to scale at pace, with Thampi

growth, but we recruit at the grassroots

having taken huge interest in talent

level and are a big champion of recruit-

acquisition throughout his career. He

ing fresh graduates and putting them

takes pride in the longevity of employ-

through different aspects of the busi-

ees’ careers at Vistas, and the benefits

ness to see where they excel. We allow

that this continuity of workers provides.

mistakes and learning to discover what

“We take a long-term view to foster

our employees are really good at, and

employment within the organisation,”

we’re also big believers in people hav-

he says. “The average person at the

ing multifaceted skill sets. Additionally,

company has been working here for

we don’t like to have operational silos,

more than five years, and they have a

so we don’t want our employees to

clear succession plan for their careers

become super specialised in one area

Elite client Qatar Financial Center Ministers busi ne ssc h ief . eu

393

VISTAS GLOBAL

- they can be good at multiple things,

technology that drive its operations.

and we’re able to provide that train-

When it comes to the pandemic and

ing, the technological and operational

its impacts on business, Thampi

understanding, that will enable them to

closes with this: “What doesn’t kill you

deliver value to our customers.”

makes you stronger, so we just need

People and customer-centricity

to hunker down and work through this,

are at the heart of everything Vistas

and become better. That’s what we’re

Global has accomplished in its rise

doing and what we’re advocating for

to the top of the Middle East’s busi-

our customers, and together we’ll

ness services delivery industry, and

come through this and be better.”

its strong performance and ability

394

to continue serving customers with

KEY PARTNERSHIPS FOR VISTAS

new products during the COVID-19

Vistas has partnered with many

pandemic are emblematic of the

companies that includes Technology

progressive management style

Products companies and niche part-

and forward-thinking approach to

ners who form a sub component of our

“ We’re in a unique situation where, each time there’s a crisis, we see an uptick in our business” — Suraj Thampi, CEO, Vistas Global

larger strategic initiatives.

The top 3 partnerships for the year 2020 for Vistas includes AppDynamics, Oracle Netsuite & Perpetuuiti.

As Digital grips the world with more and more committed business outcomes. AppDynamics platform happens to be a great choice for us to integrate some of our Innovation lab IP’s to be able to make the client business processes more effective with confirmed application performance, management & ability to seamlessly ensure service availability.

OCTOBER 2020

2013

Year founded

1,300 Number of employees

395

AppDynamics suite of Application

Oracle Netsuite is the ERP plat-

Intelligence products provides

form that Vistas is adding to its

real-time visibility into our clients’ IT

Process Management Capabilities,

environment so you can connect per-

to ensure a strong offering for its

formance to business outcome

customers’ Process Transformation.

Perpetuuiti happens to be a

Netsuite Platform integrated with

core part of Vitas Innovation labs

Vistas’ Functional Services and the

enabling process automation abili-

associated Innovation labs IP’s, it

ties to OmniHub platform. This has

would be fuelling larger options of

helped Vistas to launch its Digital iVR

transformation across processes,

(Intelligent Virtual Response) across

platforms and people.

its Contact Centers & Helpdesk Process offerings. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

396

OCTOBER 2020

397

Unleash the power of data with Telstra Purple

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

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

TELSTRA PURPLE

Executives from Telstra Purple’s Data and Analytics Domain explain how they support customers on data journeys through insights, advice, roadmaps, and analysis

T

elstra Purple is the consulting arm of global telecommunications company Telstra. Its mission is to assist clients

with IT and business challenges, covering an array of functions such as security, cloud, data and digital transformation.

398

With a global team of over 1,500 experts, including a 100 strong team of consultants in London, UK, Telstra Purple offers a breadth of skills across the world. “By putting purpose and people at the core of everything we do, we bring the experience, capacity and tools to help businesses achieve digital success” says Bradley Hopkins, Head of Data and Analytics, Telstra Purple EMEA. Telstra Purple’s offerings are spread across four complementary solution areas and skill bases.

“Those four areas are strategy and transformation, cloud and modern workplace, security and networks, and data and analytics,” says Hopkins.

“Typically, we deliver advisory work to help clients on their journey, whilst assisting with the end-to-end implementation and delivery of those solutions.”

OCTOBER 2020

399

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

TELSTRA PURPLE

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401

“ You can have the best tools in the world, but they’ll be redundant if you haven’t got the correct procedures in place.”

— Ed Bullen Head of Data Engineering and Data Science, Telstra Purple EMEA

DATA IS OMNIPRESENT Businesses produce and process data more than ever before, and it has become increasingly important to derive value from it.

“Historically, a business’ value was measured in terms of physical items manufactured and sold or fixed assets – the buildings, premises and machinery that it has,” says Ed Bullen, Head of Data Engineering and Data Science, Telstra Purple EMEA. “In the present day, however, businesses are realising that their value actually stems from, and resides in, b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

TELSTRA PURPLE

the data that they have. This includes data about their customers and operations, how well and efficiently they can operate based on that data, and the interactions and transactions that they have with suppliers and clients.”

Data then represents an untapped source for many companies, which is precisely where Telstra Purple comes in. “Everything we do in terms of designing our projects and solu-

“ We helped Genomics England reduce their IT costs because we were able to map projects and application activity to the cloud and IT billing costs” — Ed Bullen Head of Data Engineering and Data Science, Telstra Purple EMEA

tions is to help companies drive more 402

revenue, reduce costs and increase their competitive advantage by

Continues on page 405 →

“ We helped Genomics England reduce their IT costs because we were able to map projects and application activity to the cloud and IT billing cost” — Ed Bullen Head of Data Engineering and Data Science, Telstra Purple EMEA

OCTOBER 2020

C A SE S T UD Y:

How a single data strategy empowered Genomics England to sequence the future of British healthcare As Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, noted, “The future of healthcare will be more personalised, more predictive, more preventative – using data to target those who need support to lead healthier lives.”

The 100,000 Genomes Project, run

by Genomics England and funded by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, is just one example of the truth of that statement. Initially created to sequence 100,000 genomes to better understand rare diseases and cancers, the success of the project led to its expansion to sequence up to five million genomes in the next five years, bringing with it an extortionate amount of data.

Telstra Purple was tasked to provide the right data strategy in order to bring together fragmented data sets, ensure privacy and security for

sensitive and confidential information, and to provide insights into costefficiencies to help as many people as possible.

Genomics England ultimately needed to transform from a research organisation to a big data one. They were understandably spending a lot of money on IT technology each month and so Telstra Purple worked with them to provide enhanced visibility and access to the data to make their decisions quicker and more accurately.

As a direct result of the partnership, project coordination became much more efficient, as Bullen explains. “The people managing the projects were able to operate more efficiently when they saw that there was overlap in terms of research work. In addition to this, we helped Genomics England reduce their IT costs because we were able to map projects and application activity to the cloud and IT billing costs. We were able to cut out duplicate and redundant cloud and IT infrastructure to reduce the costs quite significantly – especially important for a mainly public-funded organisation.”

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

403

TELSTRA PURPLE

extracting more inherent value from

provide access – putting in place a flex-

their data sources,” Bullen emphasises.

ible, secure data service for applications

The roadmap for data transforma-

and users. And finally, you can then

tion must ultimately be tailored to every

move to insights and value, using the

company and their level of data maturity.

data to build new processes and predict

Nevertheless, there are some key ten-

new things. That’s the general pattern,

ets, which Telstra Purple cleaves closely

but within that we see a lot of variation

to. “It starts with discovery,” says Bullen.

from company to company.”

“Identify what is currently in place and what is required. Then you move on to

SECURITY CONCERNS

a curate phase; making sure all your

The blockers preventing companies

data flows are catalogued and tracked

from fully embracing such a data

in a governance framework. Third is to

transformation come chiefly in the

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1:45

405

“ By putting purpose and people at the core of everything we do, we bring the experience, capacity and tools to help businesses achieve digital success” — Bradley Hopkins Head of Data and Analytics, Telstra Purple EMEA

form of security concerns and legacy IT systems. “There can be data silos across business units – not just technical, but political,” says Hopkins.

“Breaking down those data silos can be a significant challenge when there’s a legacy IT set-up.”

As for security, companies dealing with sensitive data are naturally cautious. “We work arm in arm with our internal security team to ensure that we can deliver secure data insights,” says Hopkins. “But certain customers, especially in sensitive industries like healthcare, b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

TELSTRA PURPLE

legal, and bioinformatics, have com-

our systems to meet regulatory com-

pliance risks associated with that

pliance requirements. That makes

data. The majority of all legal data

what could be a simple project more

held is confidential, being stamped

challenging and complex.”

as ‘’confidential’’ by definition. The question becomes: how do you then

DATA GOVERNANCE

start building data science models on

Telstra Purple’s Data Governance

private data?”

Assessment tool helps businesses

Though a challenge, this is not

take control of their master data and

insurmountable, as Bullen explains.

understand their data landscape

“Even with the most secure systems

to provide business benefits quickly

in the world, we still have to design

and effectively.

406 E X ECU T I V E P ROF IL E:

Ed Bullen Title: Head of Data Engineering and Data Science at Telstra Purple EMEA Ed leads the Data and Analytics consulting team for Telstra Purple in EMEA. He is currently focussed on building an expert Data Science and Data Engineering team with a focus on applying data and analytics to solve real-world problems that deliver genuine value to Telstra’s clients. In addition to this, Ed has many years of handson experience designing and implementing data systems in the Banking, Insurance and Bioinformatics sectors as well as a period working for a major database vendor.

OCTOBER 2020

407 E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Bradley Hopkins Title: Head of Data and Analytics at Telstra Purple EMEA Bradley has developed and led a consultancy discipline within Telstra Purple to deliver pragmatic data, analytics and AI solutions.

With extensive experience in customer relationship management, technology vendor management and solution design, Bradley is helping clients understand complex problems and create unique approaches to drive value from data that supports business goals. Bradley is also a founding advisory board member of Data Journeys – a community for sharing experiences and innovations in the data industry – and is proactively working to shape the relevance and application of data in the constantly evolving global market. b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

TELSTRA PURPLE

409 “Ideally, all data should be cataloged in a central repository, but data governance is as much about a process and approach as technologies,” says Bullen. “It’s best achieved by applying first principles of best practice at the data platform level. This means all data movement, data change and storage must be achieved with a strategic toolset combined with the right processes

“ We can actually talk to companies about their solutions, leveraging all of our experience and expertise and all the great work we’ve done” — Bradley Hopkins Head of Data and Analytics, Telstra Purple EMEA

and procedures. You can have the best tools in the world, but they’ll be useless if you haven’t got the correct procedures in place.”

Continues on page 414 → b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

TELSTRA PURPLE

410

Yafaa Ahres of Telstra Purple is the

practitioners who own or inf luence

Founder and Head of Data Journeys,

the data strategy. “Our membership

a forum launched in 2019 for leaders

is diverse, we have a mix of CXO, IT

who want to ‘turbo charge’ their

Directors, Heads of Technology – and

organisations by leveraging data.

that’s on purpose as this doesn’t tend

‘’My mission when I joined Telstra

to happen. Data and IT have different

Purple was to build a data analytics

roles to play in the data journey, and

community from scratch, for

as data generally sits separately to IT

technology leaders to access a creative

(with some exceptions), having both

and collaborative environment to

sides of the conversation is very useful

fast track the development of their

to understanding how best to work

business and people,’’ she says.

cross functionally,’’ says Ahres.

Ahres built an enviable following

“The idea is to have a mix of people

amongst the data community and CIO/

from different industries so we can

IT leadership on social media, and

all learn from one another, and help

drove a lively series of well-attended

each other accelerate our respective

meet-ups. In the first year alone,

data journeys.”

over 330 people interacted with the community.

“It is our goal to create a

There’s a focus on real-life examples.

“The community is a massive help in fighting the guesswork on our members’

membership where the collective

data journey. At each meetup, we have

wisdom will help each of us navigate

a case study where we bring a practical

from where we are now, to where we

example, and we have clear objectives

want to be, faster and with greater

for each meetup. That’s something that

impact,’’ says Ahres.

our members, the community and as a

The community isn’t limited to those with “data titles”, but rather is open to any senior IT/tech OCTOBER 2020

whole really like about Data Journeys.”

That real-life applicability means examples can’t just be whitewashed.

“The most important reason why

of any communications that we have,”

someone would want to be part of

says Hopkins. “I think that during a

Data Journeys is because it’s a safe

time of COVID-19 and such uncertainty

haven for sharing the good and the

– a very uncomfortable time for us all

bad,” says Telstra Purple’s Hopkins,

at the moment – you often only feel

who also sits on the advisory board of

as strong as your network. If we can

Data Journeys. “It’s okay to talk about

help just one person in the community

both. It’s not just all good news stories,

connect to someone else and help

because often the bad is where the

them feel better, or secure their job or

real learnings are.”

give them a new opportunity, I think

That frankness engenders a real

we’d have done a really good thing.”

sense of community that spreads beyond the organisation. “We have people talking to each other outside

“ If we can help just one person in the community connect to someone else and help them feel better, or secure their job or give them a new opportunity, I think we’d have done a really good thing” — Bradley Hopkins Head of Data and Analytics, Telstra Purple EMEA b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

411

TELSTRA PURPLE

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Yafaa Ahres Title: Founder at Data Journeys and Marketing Specialist at Telstra Purple EMEA Yafaa Ahres is the Founder of Data Journeys and Marketing Specialist at Telstra Purple EMEA and has over 10 years of experience in B2B

412

Marketing working within IT, Technology and Telecommunications companies. Throughout her international career, Yafaa has been involved in Market Research & Analysis, Strategy, Product and Community Marketing. Yafaa has been fortunate to live and work in different continents, and experience multiple cultures around the world including China, Australia, Germany, and Jordan.

Her years of global experience has given her a pretty unique perspective on people and helped her bridge cultural differences to deliver desired results, champion accessibility, diversity and inclusion. Yafaa is a polyglot, and very much a creative thinker with an analytical mind at heart.

Working with the marketing team in the UK and in her capacity of community lead for Telstra Purple, Yafaa provides an opportunity for technology leaders to access a creative and collaborative environment to fast track the development of their business and people.

OCTOBER 2020

413

In a world of digital transformation,

industry. A blend of top experts –

a company’s connectivity and data

data scientists, data analysts and

will only become more crucial. “We

data engineers – who work in tandem

can actually talk to companies about

to fully understand the subject matter

their solutions, leveraging all of our

and create tangible and logical solu-

experience and expertise and all

tions. Our strength is our people.”

the great work we’ve done, for the likes of organisations like Genomics England,” says Hopkins.

That work is only possible thanks to the talent it has attracted, as Bullen explains. “We have a hugely talented and unique team in the b u s in e s s c hie f. e u

TELSTRA PURPLE

414

Telstra Ventures is a strategic growth investor in lighthouse technology companies that are commencing scale.

Telstra provides venture capital investment via a “Strategic Growth Investment” approach.

Telstra Ventures is an investor in a number of innovative data- and analytics-focused startups, as Saad Siddiqui, Principal for Telstra Ventures, explains. “The amount of data that we’ve generated in the last two years is more than what we’ve generated in the entire history of humankind. And over the last decade enterprises have collected more data on their customers and operations than they ever have and need to make decisions faster than they ever have.

“Some of the new challenges that are emerging are that new workflows need to be redefined to manage these new data sets. Secondly, all the data needs to be compliant with new privacy regulations. On the back of these trends we’re looking at interesting companies that can allow customers and enterprises to get insights faster.”

OCTOBER 2020

One such company is Incorta, operating the world’s first direct data warehouse.

Incorta can connect directly into source data to deliver insights faster than its competitors — ­ up to a thousand times faster in some cases. “They are behind the operations of some of the largest companies in the world,” says Siddiqui.

He also cites Trifacta, one of the world’s premier data preparation solutions: “Trifacta allows you to connect all different kinds of data – HR data, CRM data – in a single pane view with other tools and data sources. This becomes incredibly important in machine learning use cases because you need the data to be prepared.”

Another company in Telstra Ventures’ portfolio is Near, the largest source of

EXECUTIVE PROFILE:

Saad Siddiqui intelligence on people and places. “They have near real-time data on over one billion devices, which is used by some of the largest enterprises in the world to help with product analytics and understanding consumer behavior,” Siddiqui shares.

His final example is Corvus, which uses data analysis for cyber security insurance – an ever more important task as bad actors continually step up their attacks. “Corvus is a really interesting company, because they use their proprietary data to understand how robust an enterprise’s infrastructure is from a security perspective, and are able to price that risk in. Not only do they provide insights in terms of how well a company is handling its security position, but they also understand where some of the attacks might be coming from and see if they can help other customers protect against them.”

Title: Principal at Telstra Ventures Saad joined Telstra Ventures in 2016 and focuses on early to late stage venture investments in enterprise and infrastructure. He has led TV’s investments in NS1, Ripcord, Cofense, Incorta , Trifacta , Subspace and Boomtown. Saad enjoys helping enterprise technology teams tackle business challenges of creating a product that users love and scaling up their business. Prior to joining Telstra Ventures, Saad was an executive at Informatica where he led various acquisitions, venture investments, partnerships and product strategy.

Earlier in his career, Saad worked at Cisco Ventures & Corporate Development and worked as an investment banker at RBC Capital Markets and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

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

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Unisys: cybersecurity strategies in a digital revolution OCTOBER 2020

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WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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UNISYS

Industry-leading experts from Unisys discuss cybersecurity strategies, software and best practices that empower organisations to succeed amidst a digital transformation

U

nisys is a multi-billion dollar global IT organisation known for building highly secure, modern digital platforms.

Unisys provides multi-cloud solutions including 418

cybersecurity, targeting various sectors such as Digital Government, Lifesciences and Healthcare, Financial Services, and Travel and Transportation.

The organisation transforms and manages its client’s applications, data, networks and devices.

JP Cavanna is an Industry Director - Cybersecurity UK & EMEA at Unisys and is a strategist focusing on Unisys Stealth®. Since beginning his career in cybersecurity in 2003 with the Metropolitan police, he believes that cybersecurity has continued to become more challenging in recent years. “Since its inception, cyber is becoming ever more complex as we bolt on solutions to problems that we perhaps haven’t foreseen,” explains Cavanna. “As an example from many, the convergence of IT and OT is a big deal for businesses at the moment because that conversion OCTOBER 2020

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UNISYS

“ Since its inception, cyber is becoming ever more complex as we bolt on solutions to problems that we perhaps haven’t foreseen” — JP Cavanna, Industry Director Cybersecurity UK & EMEA, Unisys

brings a lot of tangible business outcomes for them but also brings a huge amount of risk too. This is because these operational technologies could only previously be attacked physically, but now if they are connected to an IT system, you can get to them from pretty much anywhere.”

At the beginning of 2020, Unisys announced the launch of the latest version of its award-winning Unisys Stealth security software suite. Stealth

420

strives to give its clients order, resilience and breathing room in their cyber posture so that they have the confidence to handle whatever happens and so providing assurance, reassurance and resilience to the business.

“We achieve this by using software defined perimeters and identity-based encrypted microsegmentation to create a zero trust environment, providing hyper secure end-to-end encryption of data between any two points, anywhere,” he explains. “This is in addition to unique capabilities in cloaking networks (so they become undetectable to attackers – ‘you can’t attack what you can’t see’), dynamic isolation, an OCTOBER 2020

Unisys - Cyber Security CLICK TO WATCH

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4:11

421 industry first that can isolate a rogue

of immediate action to respond to

endpoint or user in under 10 seconds,

security incidents, stopping attacks

and cyber recovery capabilities that

in progress. “The beauty of it being

will allow our clients to restore their

software is that it overlays network

golden copy data safely back into an

architectures and integrates with

infected network within minutes of an

applications and security toolsets that

attack occurring.”

organisations may be using,” explains

The Stealth solution addresses

Cavanna. “You don’t need to replace

threats associated with the ever-

anything, Stealth overlays it nicely.”

evolving digital landscape where

This overlay will help to visualise

adoption of cloud, mobile and IoT

network traffic and the nodes in the

continues to accelerate. Through its

computing environment. It collects

integration with security incident and

network traffic data that enables

event management systems, Stealth

the user to identify the nodes in their

provides clients with the reassurance

environment and their communication busi ne ssc h ief . eu

UNISYS

paths. “This capability works alone or

If you combine it with encrypted micro-

will integrate with other toolsets you

segmentation, what you do is you

may have in your environment giving

compartmentalise your network so if

unprecedented network visibility and

an attacker or malware gets into that

visualisation, an essential component

space, it will limit its travel within the

of a zero-trust environment,” says

microsegment and thus your network

Cavanna. “The Stealth capability con-

will be isolated from malware in time,

sists of several elements mentioned

i.e. in under 10 seconds.

at the beginning of this report, a par-

“Furthermore, this microsegmenta-

ticularly useful one of which is dynamic

tion provides granular visibility into

isolation. This identifies a rogue end-

your network and, if you want to

point or user and isolates it in under 10

create a zero-trust environment, it’s

seconds, which is incredibly powerful.

fundamental that you know exactly

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

JP Cavanna Title: Cybersecurity Director Industry: IT JP is a passionate cyber security leader with a career that spans 17 years. JP started his career in digital forensics with the Metropolitan Police Special Branch in London, before moving to the private sector in 2009. He has held several director positions building and managing cyber professional services businesses in large UK and global organisations, spanning a diverse range of industry sectors.

Consequently, he has deep experience in helping clients to create resilient security environments. He is a regular speaker at conferences, on specialist panels and in the media.

OCTOBER 2020

“ Stealth brings order, resilience and breathing space to your organisation” — JP Cavanna, Industry Director Cybersecurity UK & EMEA, Unisys

423

what is happening on the network,” he

ageing technology that has well docu-

explains. “We call the microsegmen-

mented vulnerabilities and limitations.”

tation of a network Communities of

Cavanna insists that the future of

Interest (CoI). Aside from the obvious

the software is bright and adds that

provision of least privilege for users

there are set to be even more features

accessing only that data and applica-

added in the near future. “Stealth is

tions they need to do their jobs, these

not a ‘new kid on the block’. It has been

CoIs help to protect legacy systems

protecting governments and commer-

in a network as well as IT/OT enabled

cial organisations for nearly 20 years

technology. This principle can be used

and is constantly being improved and

to provide secure remote access for

updated with new features. One key

employees and to reduce reliance

development feature this year is our

on the VPN for such tasks, which is

identity capability.” busi ne ssc h ief . eu

UNISYS

424

Stealth Identity™ is a biometric

better visibility, so you can see we’re

identity management software and

continuously seeking to expand and

it is a vendor-neutral, highly scalable,

improve the functionality of this very

multimodal, multi-channel, easy to

powerful software.

use, extensible and auditable sys-

“If you think about the challenges

tem that securely stores verified

of cybersecurity today, it’s all about

biometric identities and supports the

protecting data. In the old days, we

complete biometrics identity lifecy-

used to try and create an impenetrable

cle. “We’ve been protecting borders

fortress and protect everything at the

with it for 20 years,” he says. On other

perimeter,” he explains. “Now we’re all

features, “We’ve also enabled iOS and

connecting into company data, which

Android devices along with updated

is the most precious asset, by different

Stealth dashboards to provide even

means, be it corporate laptops, mobile

OCTOBER 2020

devices, tablets etc. So, where is that

malware speed, Stealth brings order,

perimeter today? The new perimeter

resilience and breathing space to

is arguably us humans. With its ability

your organisation.�

to reduce the complexity of your envi-

Anupriya Ramraj is Vice President

ronment, encrypt your data in motion

of Cloud Services at Unisys and has

hyper-securely between any two end-

spent a large portion of her career with

points anywhere, bring visibility and

Hewlett Packard Enterprise leading

control to your network with identity-

engineering efforts for cloud software

based encrypted microsegmentation,

and as Director of Cloud Practices

and to stop attacks in their tracks at

at DXC before transitioning into her

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

Anupriya Ramraj (Anu)

425

Title: Vice President of Cloud Services Industry: IT Anu is Vice President of Cloud Services and leads global cloud portfolio and delivery at Unisys. She has over 24 years of software management and product management experience in roles at Siemens/HP/ HPE/DXC. In her former role at DXC and HP/HPE as Cloud Services Director, Anu incubated and scaled public cloud practices and led operations automation and engineering efforts for HP public cloud. Anu is passionate about building an innovative, agile and collaborative culture with emphasis on digital transformation and customer obsession and holds three patents. Anu has a Masters in Computer Science from California State University, Chico and several cloud and agile certifications. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

UNISYS

426

OCTOBER 2020

“ Depending on whether you want to go to the Moon or Mars, you’re going to need a different set of landing gear and that’s how we view multi-cloud migrations”

— Anupriya Ramraj, Vice President of Cloud Services, Unisys 427

current role with Unisys in November 2019. Ramraj is responsible for accelerating and securing the cloud journey for Unisys customers leveraging CloudForte® software. She likens cloud migrations to a space odyssey.

“Depending on whether you want to go to the Moon or Mars, you’re going to need a different set of landing gear and that’s how we view multi-cloud migrations,” she says.

CloudForte is a comprehensive services offering to help accelerate secure migration and transformation of data and applications to a cloud that best fits the customer needs busi ne ssc h ief . eu

UNISYS

including private clouds, and hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Customers in the commercial and public sector leverage CloudForte and Unisys’ expertise to transition to the cloud. CloudForte managed services are subscription-based, so users can seamlessly access and innovate leveraging the full potential of cloud across any scale and optimise resources, facilitate day-to-day cloud operations, manage hybrid infrastructures and 428

drive down costs.

“We bring in our own unique IP and third-party products from our partners, value-driven processes, and certified cloud experts to offer the best solutions for our clients,” says

CloudForte enables innovation with

Ramraj. “Rapid provisioning and high

cloud services. For example, we have

availability are a key focus. A public

a large public university with over half

sector agency that was looking at

a million students and for this client

three months to provision any hybrid-

we set up a cloud data lake powered

cloud workloads due to a lot of manual

by AI services. We are now able to

processes they had in place. Using

predict and drive student graduation

Unisys CloudForte solutions, we were

rates with timely intervention. That’s

able to hyper-automate and bring

the power of cloud to drive the right

down the provisioning time to less

business outcomes.”

than 30 minutes with the right security and operational governance built-in.

OCTOBER 2020

“Cloud adoption needs a solid understanding of the shared responsibility

429

model for security between the organi-

are still responsible for the data

sations and the cloud providers. This

and access controls. Cloud Service

varies based on whether they are

Posture Management (CSPM) is

adopting IaaS (Infrastructure as a

increasingly important as organisa-

Services) vs. PaaS (Platform as a

tions have rushed to the cloud in the

Service) vs. SaaS (Software as a

pandemic, and need to realise that

Service). When customers are adopt-

mis-configuration is one of the leading

ing IaaS, they’re still responsible for

causes of security breaches.�

the workloads, e.g. making sure the

Newly released CloudForte

virtual machines are patched to avoid

capabilities include over 2,000 auto-

being vulnerable to the increasing

mated security policies and support

threats. In the case of SaaS, clients

for over 15 compliance standards busi ne ssc h ief . eu

UNISYS

“ I’m a firm believer in defence in depth and I don’t believe there is a silver bullet out there” — Jamie French, Director of Strategy and Portfolio Security Solutions, Unisys

430 (e.g. GDPR, CIS, NIST, HIPAA). They

Jamie French is Director of Strategy

include checklists that enable well-

and Portfolio - Security Solutions at

architected reviews across multi-cloud

Unisys and oversees TrustCheck.

deployments, accelerate application

French says that he sees cyberse-

modernization and secure Kubernetes

curity getting more challenging for

deployments. With a comprehensive

customers, rather than easier. “It’s

Cloud Management Platform and

getting more confusing for custom-

blueprints and accelerators,

ers to choose from all the options out

CloudForte helps organisations with

there because there’s thousands of

brokerage across their multi- and

companies that are claiming the same

hybrid-cloud environments, and pro-

things,” he says. “I believe in the zero-

vides an automated and optimised way

trust principles and philosophy and

to continually manage overall cloud

everyone says they do zero trust but

environments including cost, security

it’s important that if you’re a consumer

and performance.

that you strategically decide where you

OCTOBER 2020

should focus the security programme

posture and helps them understand

on because you don’t have unlimited

where they have risk and where they

funding to address these problems.”

should focus to reduce risk further.

TrustCheck is a new service that

“It’s a portal where we help custom-

draws on the strength of an analytics

ers understand risk in financial terms,”

model used in the cyber insurance

explains French. “When we looked at

industry to quickly and easily access

the market, we identified a communica-

the potential financial impact of cyber

tion gap where people were talking

risks. Unlike the other risk assessment

about implementing different projects

offerings, TrustCheck is a security

and would say they needed a next

service delivered on an annual sub-

generation firewall and would present

scription basis, providing security

this to decision makers. However,

professionals with updated information they didn’t see a return on investment on their organisation’s cybersecurity

and the language in the boardroom is

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

Jamie French Title: Director of Strategy and Portfolio Industry: IT Jamie French, Director of Security Portfolio and Incubation is a seasoned information security leader and practitioner with over 27 years’ experience. Throughout his career, Jamie has held a broad and diverse set of roles working with every major market vertical globally. Jamie has been focused on bringing innovative solutions to market which solve complex high value customer challenges and use cases as simply as possible. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

431

UNISYS

432 dollars and cents. TrustCheck trans-

in the right direction. However, now,

lates that risk and places a value on it.

companies have a bit more of a limited

There is a feature called scenario lab

budget in lots of cases and there is a

which offers the ‘what if’ scenario and

bit of tightening of the belt. Now, mak-

allows the user to apply a baseline to

ing a mistake might be fatal whereas

find the benefits and determine a cost.

before it might just have been a lesson

TrustCheck provides that level of con-

learnt. It’s a really important aspect to

fidence that an organisation is going in

consider today.”

the right direction.” French affirms hav-

French believes that the three

ing an agile and proactive approach to

solutions (Stealth, CloudForte and

the security landscape is essential. “It

TrustCheck), complement one another

was important before COVID but it’s

well. “I’m a firm believer in defence-

even more important now,” he says.

in-depth and I don’t believe there is a

“If organisations were doing some-

silver bullet out there,” says French.

thing to reduce risk and secure their

“Organisations need help understand-

organisation before, then it was a step

ing and communicating to boardrooms

OCTOBER 2020

433 about what to invest in, which is why

probably isn’t the way to go anymore

TrustCheck is so useful.” Ramraj

and cloud is becoming the choice,”

likens the three services as a layered

he says. “We have that ability with

cake when combined together. “The

CloudForte to ensure everything is

cloud providers are covering off the

considered properly. With Stealth, you

data centre and physical security,

have the security overlay and if you

we have the network elements that

implement Stealth with the micro-

we have Stealth to cover and the

segmentation it reduces your cost in

cloud workloads, configuration, data

relation to manpower and decreases

and applications are protected by

the reliance on dozens of different

CloudForte,” she says. “These prod-

security tools and reduces complexity

ucts are all complementary to address

massively. These three tools comple-

all the layers of that cake.” Cavanna

ment each other fantastically well.”

agrees and affirms that the three tools are a great foil for the other. “A lot of organisations are realising that VPN busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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OCTOBER 2020

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THE JOURNEY TO HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN busi ne ssc h ief . eu

CERNER MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

KARIM ABD-ELHAY, GENERAL MANAGER OF CERNER MIDDLE EAST, DISCUSSES THE COMPANY’S END-TO-END HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION

A

lthough Karim Abd-Elhay has only held the position of General Manager of Cerner Middle East and Africa since the turn of

2020, he has been with the company for 15 years.

This has both given him a wealth of experience upon 436

which to base his approach to leadership, and a unique insight into the digital evolution of the broader healthcare industry.

Abd-Elhay began his Cerner journey as a finance controller – a role that he says gave him a firm understanding of dealing with clients, structuring and building out financial strategies and contracts, and a general sense of the intricacies of the healthcare information system. He subsequently worked his way through several positions, including Operations Manager for the Middle East, where he actively drove expansion into other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar, and Strategic Business Executive.

In the latter position Abd-Elhay became immersed in business development and operational strategies, working more closely with clients and partners.

OCTOBER 2020

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“ CLOUD IS A JOURNEY THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT, BUT THERE ARE HUGE BENEFITS FOR OUR CLIENTS AND US FROM EMBARKING ON THAT JOURNEY” — Karim Abd-Elhay, General Manager (Saudi & Egypt), Cerner Middle East

“It’s a journey that absolutely let me understand Cerner and how the business operates,” he explains. “Navigating your way through the core areas of the business, particularly at a strategic level, and gaining that really diverse business and industry knowledge has helped me to hone the ability to focus on the bigger picture. Each of those roles involved understanding the long-term implications of strategy or investment, or any other decision-making, and that’s certainly shaped my approach to lead-

438

ing – I’m driven by long-term outcomes for me and the business, not only shortterm achievements.”

Cerner is an organisation built on a strong culture. The company, which alongside its Middle East operations has its headquarters in the U.S., provides intelligent, technology-driven solutions for the healthcare industry.

This includes a suite of digital solutions designed to streamline clinical workflows, network and security services, technology and consulting, end-to-end revenue management cycle technology and more. Each of these is underpinned by a philosophy that drives the business and is centered around OCTOBER 2020

Innovating for a healthier population together CLICK TO WATCH

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439 a belief in a world without medical

in an industry that is increasingly being

error that is underpinned by an inte-

driven by technology and digital trans-

grated, patient-focused system that

formation. “Innovation is really important

allows information to flow across the

– in our business, it has to be – but equally

health economy.

so is the simplification of that technol-

“We pride ourselves on our culture

ogy. A lot of our work involves looking

and vision,” says Abd-Elhay, “and every

at our client processes and delivering

person in Cerner, regardless of his

smart and innovative ways of getting

or her position or level in the business,

more out of them to improve both their

is expected to be driven by core pillars

business and the healthcare sector.”

that we all follow: respecting each other

Somewhat unsurprisingly, given

and collaborating together, delivering

his experience in the industry, Abd-

on our commitments, behaving with

Elhay is well versed in the pace of

integrity, innovation and simplicity.” The

change sweeping across healthcare.

latter, he notes, is particularly important

Technology is, he explains, playing a key busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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“ EVERY PERSON IN CERNER, REGARDLESS OF HIS/HER POSITION OR LEVEL IN THE BUSINESS, IS EXPECTED TO BE DRIVEN

BY CORE PILLARS THAT WE ALL FOLLOW” — Karim Abd-Elhay, General Manager (Saudi & Egypt), Cerner Middle East

A counter to the second point is that, as with countless other industries, the implementation of advanced digital technologies does bring efficiency both in terms of operations and cost. To this end, Abd-Elhay points to machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the greater use and understanding of data, as being primary drivers of change for the industry. These technologies, as he explains, are influencing every aspect of the healthcare chain. “Some are

role in the shaping of the future industry.

ripping up the traditional processes

However, the sector has been slower

entirely, such as machine learning

on the uptake of some innovative solu-

algorithms that support clinicians to

tions than others. “It’s not as advanced

deliver the best care,” he says. “Others

as some other sectors, like banking for

are more patient facing. Much of that

example,” he explains. “And that’s really

is focused on engaging the person to

because of the complexity inherent in

take an active role in preventative care

providing healthcare. Any decision you

rather than treating illness once it has

make, any new technology you imple-

happened, so technologies that aid

ment can have the ultimate impact on

a more proactive approach to offering

a patient and there are so many factors

healthcare.”

that must be considered in any new

This approach – to create a healthcare

adoption. Another concern around tech-

environment in which technology allows

nology implementation is cost; there

institutions, clinicians and caregivers, as

is a lot of discussion around how to

well as patients, to proactively improve

achieve all of the necessary objectives

health is a fundamental aspect of Cerner

with less resources, or certainly smarter

Middle East and Abd-Elhay’s vision.

use of resources.”

The company is in the midst of its own busi ne ssc h ief . eu

441

CERNER MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

442

“ DATA IS TRANSFORMING THE SECTOR IN A NUMBER OF AREAS, SUCH AS PREDICTION AND THE ANALYSIS OF PATTERNS OR BEHAVIOURS THAT WILL ALLOW A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF CERTAIN DISEASES OR ILLNESSES” — Karim Abd-Elhay, General Manager (Saudi & Egypt), Cerner Middle East

OCTOBER 2020

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CERNER MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

444

digital transformation, he says, that is

and the patient and helps the clinician in

seeing it embed these new innovations

the documentation and ordering, giving

into its own products and services. “On

more quality time for clinicians to spend

machine learning and AI, for example,

with the patients.”

we have our own algorithms that can

More broadly, Abd-Elhay explains that

help for identifying possible diseases

Cerner is focusing its efforts on ‘popula-

at an early stage and which are easy to

tion health’. “There’s a lot of data out

treat at that point. We also have a similar

there, but no one is aggregating it,” he

technology for analysing patient data

says, “whether that’s from information

and highlighting the possibility of sepsis;

available with healthcare organisations

this has seen a lot of success in reducing

perspective or the patient’s side (like

mortality rates. Similarly, we are working

physical activity, sleeping patterns,

on an AI-driven solution that analyses

diet, and many more). We realise that

the conversation between the physician

the percentage of patient health data

OCTOBER 2020

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

Karim Abd-Elhay Title: General Manager for Saudi & Egypt Industry: Information Technology & Services Karim Abd-Elhay, General Manager for Saudi & Egypt, responsible for maintaining a successful business relationship between Cerner and its clients, increasing client satisfaction, and growing Cerner’s business in Saudi & Egypt. Karim is a strong client advocate who focuses on value creation for Cerner’s clients, including client satisfaction and success measures. He has been successful in creating partnerships towards industry performance excellence. Through his previous clients’ assignments, Karim was able to help multiple clients to succeed in overcoming their challenges and excel in showing their success stories. This has been reflected in clients’ success metrics, improved efficiency and strategic changes.

Throughout his Cerner career, Karim has held several positions and contributed to the success of Cerner Middle East in different roles. He joined Cerner in 2006 during the initial setup of Cerner Middle East as a Finance Controller. His role exceeded the internal accounting and financial side to build relations with Cerner clients and help them in their financial planning and contracting needs.

Also, he held the role of the Operations Manager where he contributed to the growth of Cerner by building strategic relationships with Cerner’s partners and opening Cerner branches in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt. Before taking the General Manager responsibility, Karim was Strategic Business Executive for Middle East, through which he delivered great results for Cerner business and clients in the region. Prior to joining Cerner, Karim held several accounting/ finance roles with Americana Group. He also held several voluntary roles with the Institute of Management Accountants including the President of UAE Chapter.

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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447 available within healthcare organisa-

Of course, traditional business

tions are much less than what can

models and previous approaches to

be captured outside it. So, the focus

technology have been disrupted by

right now is on using that data to see

the impacts of the global COVID-19

how we can monitor the health of the

pandemic. For the healthcare sector,

population to actively keep everyone

Abd-Elhay recognises a quickening

healthy and to interact with people

of the trend towards remote health-

before they become patients. It’s an

care, telemedicine and limiting visits

area, due to our expertise, that I see

to hospitals unless absolutely necessary.

Cerner really excelling in and provid-

“There has been some resistance to

ing great value in our region. Data is

it previously,” he explains, “but COVID-

transforming the sector in a number

19 has just changed the landscape.

of areas, such as prediction and the

So, video conferencing with your

analysis of patterns or behaviours that

clinician, mobile visits and diagnoses,

will allow a better understanding of

telemedicine – all of these things that

certain diseases or illnesses.”

limit contact are just becoming more busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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448

“ I’M DRIVEN BY LONGTERM OUTCOMES FOR ME AND THE BUSINESS, NOT JUST SHORT-TERM ACHIEVEMENTS” — Karim Abd-Elhay, General Manager (Saudi & Egypt), Cerner Middle East

OCTOBER 2020

important. There’s also a noticeable shift in the importance of organisations being flexible in terms of their day-to-day operations and processes, how they adapt their environments to suit the needs of patients, how they can repurpose physical spaces and so on.”

Countless industry sectors continue to debate what the ‘new normal’ will look like post COVID-19. For Abd-Elhay, the increased use of technology and shift in approach to that technology will be permanent. Those organisations that have embraced innovative solutions have reacted better to the crisis and positioned themselves at the forefront, he explains. Cerner is one of those organisations. The company very quickly recognised the extent of the COVID-19 crisis and responded rapidly so as to fully support its clients. From updating its website with relevant information to actively being involved in the development of field hospitals built specifically to deal with the pandemic, the company has supported customers and the broader industry with its technology.

Naturally, to successfully deliver such measures and to keep ahead in the transformation of the sector, busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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CERNER MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

450

Cerner works with several technology

Also the business has a strong partner-

companies on developing impactful

ship with Amazon Web Services (AWS)

solutions . Abd-Elhay recognises the

to facilitate its migration to the cloud.

importance of strong collaboration with

“Cloud is a journey that doesn’t happen

partners, stating “there’s no need to

overnight, but there are huge benefits

reinvent the wheel while we can work

for our clients and us from embarking

with experts in their respective fields”.

on that journey, and from working with

For example, Cerner partners with

AWS. It eases the technology manage-

Imprivata to streamline and simplify the

ment for our clients and provides the

secure access of the caregivers to the

required computing power for the Big

system which leads to a more satisfied

Data and analytics tools that we need

end users and more efficient operation.

to apply to each client, and ensures

OCTOBER 2020

451

that we are able to provide the maxi-

us forwards and it’s certainly an area

mum value in our services.”

that I see Cerner dominating in the

Cloud forms only part of the future

future. The future of healthcare lies

journey of the business. This road-

in data and how to use that data to the

map, as Abd-Elhay explains, will be

best effect and I think we have a big

technology-driven. “That move to the

advantage in that regard.”

cloud will really power our clients and us into the next stage of our journey and enable many of the new and innovative solutions we intend to implement.

In terms of my vision, I think that the population health concept will drive busi ne ssc h ief . eu

452

OCTOBER 2020

DIGITALISATION OF THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY

453 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

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

454

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 OCTOBER 2020

455

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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 456

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

OCTOBER 2020

We are Evonik - Leading Beyond Chemistry | Evonik CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:34

457 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

21 GIobal Regions 63 Availability Zones Available Region Overseas Innovation Program

NO.3

1M+

2800+

Global Market Share

Paying Customers

CDN NODES Worldwide

200+

63

21

Countries and Regions

Availability Zones

Global Regions

Advantage Backbone of Alibaba group,the world leading retail commerce company. *source: Gartner Market Share: IT Service, 2019

Learn more

Backbone of Ant Financial, 1.2 billion annual active users, 20+ years' experiences in Fintech.

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 459

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

460

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

OCTOBER 2020

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 :

461

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

462

OCTOBER 2020

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 463

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

EVONIK INDUSTRIES

AT EVONIK INDUSTRIES WE ARE TAKING IT VERY SERIOUSLY TO COMPLY WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING WHILE MAINTAINING OUR PRODUCTION

464

— Henrik Hahn, CDO Evonik Industries and Chairman of the Management Board of Evonik Digital GmbH

OCTOBER 2020

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.”

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

465

466

Embracing digital and cultural - one does not work without the other WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

OCTOBER 2020

467

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MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC

Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA at Mitsubishi Electric, on digital and cultural transformation and embracing diversity

468

M

itsubishi Electric is a multinational manufacturing giant employing over 100,000 people globally. Creating

everything from air conditioning systems to satellites to robots, its reach can be felt in a huge host of industries. Roman Gaida is Mitsubishi’s Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, part of its factory automation business unit. CNC (computer numerical control) deals with the automated control of machine tools via computing. “We provide the software, the hardware and the drives for all CNC machines of our big OEMs, some of which we’ve been working with for more than 40 years now. Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, for example, which is one of the biggest producers of numerical controlled machines in the world. There are thousands of machines all over Europe which we service and provide spare parts for, as well as conducting repairs.”

OCTOBER 2020

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MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC

“ The time that we’ve gained with all these initiatives, we’ve used to develop new business models”

In such a highly specialised business, the transformation Gaida has overseen has necessarily been bespoke. “I can’t name systems, because everything was customised,” he explains. “At the beginning we made gap evaluations of things that needed to change because the needs and environments of our customers are changing.” One of the areas targeted for improvement

470

Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, Mitsubishi Electric

was making use of hitherto unused data. “We found we could use data for predictive maintenance or stock estimation.We worked together with EY and said to Dr. Bernd Rubel, at that time project manager at EY: ‘We have the knowledge and experience, you know how to create new designs and processes’.” That assistance resulted in new supply chain, repair and ordering systems, which Gaida estimates have resulted in 20-30% efficiency increases.

As a busy hub for machine parts, the company’s repair shop was also ripe to produce data on the reasons for part failures and so on, that could then be used to predict future issues. Just in time delivery

OCTOBER 2020

Mitsubishi – Computer Numerical Control CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:06

471 was another focus, especially

a minimal viable product and launch

important due to the global nature

it to market in the middle of the pan-

of Mitsubishi’s operations. Nothing

demic, which saw the use of Smart

was done merely for the sake of

Glasses for the technical depart-

it, however. “The time that we’ve

ment to see machine failures and

gained with all these initiatives,

give support even while not being

we’ve used for our customers and

allowed to travel.

to develop business models. Just

The technical transformation

in the last six or so months, we’ve

at Mitsubishi Electric has been

developed and started designing

achieved together with longstand-

remote services. We’ve also done

ing and Europe-wide acting partner

business model innovation and value

Atos, which makes an ideal partner

proposition workshops to see what

due to its understanding of busi-

our customers’ needs and pains are.”

ness processes, technical expertise

The department managed to create

in digitisation, as well as keen busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC

Mitsubishi – Roadmap (Coronavirus) CLICK TO WATCH

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4:20

472

understanding of the Mitsubishi

more in line with its automation aims.

Electric culture. “Sometimes it’s not

“Automation will be much more of

easy for third parties to understand

interest in the factories of the future

the way we do business and pro-

because of the shutdown and the loss

jects. But Atos could easily create

of production caused by having to

customised solutions for us from the

send everybody back home. If you’re

blueprints that we had”, Gaida says.

a food company or a pharmaceutical

As with all companies globally,

company, there must be automation

Mitsubishi Electric has not been

there.” Gaida doesn’t believe this

unaffected by the ongoing COVID-

will result in a loss of jobs, rather the

19 pandemic. Gaida is sure that

creation of more in new areas.

this has not impacted its roadmap

Gaida was already an advocate

however, instead accelerating the

of the kind of flexibility the pandemic

path it is on and bringing the world

has forced on companies. “For home

OCTOBER 2020

“ I truly believe that leading with targets is better than leading with office time” Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, Mitsubishi Electric

office culture, it’s been quite good,” he says. “For my department, it was an easy transition, because I already encouraged people before coronavirus to do a day at home or be more flexible. That’s because I truly believe that leading with targets is better than leading with office time.”

The company has a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, with Mitsubishi having created a company

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

473

Roman Gaida Title: Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA Company: Mitsubishi Electric Roman Gaida (38, and a father of twins) is the Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA. Before starting in this position in April 2018, Roman was Head of Sales & Marketing Europe and was responsible for all of the division’s European sales and marketing activities, including the Middle East and South Africa. Prior to joining Mitsubishi Electric, Roman was Global Business Development and Segment Manager for Oerlikon and was responsible for all business development activities of the Nitriding Business of Precision Component worldwide. Roman earned an MBA from RWTH Aachen and St.Gallen University, and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Industrial Engineering. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Together we create your future digital strategy Accelerating digital transformation by building and running SAP Customer Services Solutions.

Introducing our SAP and S/4 HANA capabilities

Mitsubishi – Traits of Leadership CLICK TO WATCH

|

5:08

475 in Japan to develop AI solutions within

“ Digital is 10% tech and 90% human”

products. “In the CNC world, and also in the robotics world, we will see the integration of many more artificial intelligence tools into our current products.”

Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, Mitsubishi Electric

Also launched within the last two months is MELFA Assista, a cobot solution that it already headed to the first customers.

Gaida is confident that the department remains on the right course, and is passionate about including team members in that direction. “We decided to create a project team in-between departments, which I tried to make as diverse as possible. busi ne ssc h ief . eu

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC

“ Automation will be much more of interest in the factories of the future” Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, Mitsubishi Electric

476

OCTOBER 2020

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“ A digital transformation is only possible with an underlying cultural journey” Roman Gaida, Department Head of CNC Mechatronics Division EMEA, Mitsubishi Electric

OCTOBER 2020

1921

Year founded

$40.9bn+ Revenue in US dollars

146,500 Number of employees

That meant people who don’t nor-

think that they could do it. As a

mally work together, but also, in the

female project leader, she made

male-heavy manufacturing world, we

decisions that were different to the

had one female team leader, Doris

norm, which led to fantastic new

Wolfgarten, who stood out and really

solutions. Most of the time, when

grew in the course of our projects.

people choose project manag-

“Previously, we’d had people who

ers, they fear that if they choose

had worked for 15 years as a team

someone less experienced, then the

leader and never challenged them-

whole project could come down. But

selves in such projects. It was a big

if you take those kinds of risks, they

target of mine that when I searched

will pay off in the end.”

for a project leader, I would choose people who might not necessarily busi ne ssc h ief . eu

479

AB InBev: Procurement and Sustainability Strategy in Africa WRITTEN BY

480

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

RYAN HALL

OCTOBER 2020

481

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ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV AFRICA

AB InBev harbours significant sustainability goals and is aiming to create a “company to last” through its green approach and initiatives

A

nheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is “building a company to last”, and this claim has historically been backed by its

strong consciousness of the environment and supply chain ethics. As procurement and sustainability have become more central to many businesses’ operations worldwide, so too has 482

their inextricable relationship. AB InBev is one company whose sustainability-driven business ethos hasn’t been born during this new era of climate consciousness; instead, it has been supercharged by it.

The realisation of the company’s 2025 Sustainability Goals, informed by reflection on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), relies on the strength of AB InBev’s procurement function in environmental and economic ethics, and in developing robust supply chains that ensure smooth business operations whilst having a positive impact on communities and the natural world. Across its global operations, AB InBev serves and operates in territories across the market readiness spectrum. At AB

OCTOBER 2020

483

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV AFRICA

2008

Year founded

$52.3 bn Revenue in US dollars (2019)

breweries and charge an incoming fleet of EV trucks, as an example, there are particular challenges in the Tanzanian market. The breweries in Tanzania, from the facility in the densely populated Dar Es Salaam to the spaciously located one in Mbeya, lack the support structures capable of sustaining large solar panel arrays on their rooftops. In

170,000+ 484

Number of employees

Mbeya, this can be rectified by using a ground-level solar field in the area around the brewery but, in Dar Es Salaam, space limitations and the risk of flooding close off the possibility of

InBev Africa, a microcosm of that spectrum can be seen across the continent’s markets, and rising to the strategic dynamism needed for this environment is a core focus of procurement.

AB InBev Africa alignment with the 2025 Sustainability Goals necessitates a region-specific approach to partnering for large-scale projects but, in some African markets, in-country expertise at the standard required can be challenging to source.

Using the company’s on-site solar power objectives, namely installing panels at sites to power both the OCTOBER 2020

© Hideki Machida - cleantechnica.com

Ricardo Tadeu, Africa Zone President at AB InBev CLICK TO WATCH

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3:17

485 developing a local solar field, meaning technology must catch up with the needs of the Dar Es Salaam plant.

This desire to run independently of the grid is compounded by the company’s wider emissions reduction targets, with electric vehicles (EVs) set to replace fleets around the world.

AB InBev Africa currently has one operational EV truck in its fleet, but its size limits it to journeys between its facilities and its smaller suppliers and customers. However, in the long-term, AB InBev aims to get a larger vehicle that can be used for the bigger bulk busi ne ssc h ief . eu

PIONEERING AFRICA’S SOLUTIONS TO CHEAPER, GREENER ELECTRICITY FOR BUSINESSES CrossBoundary Energy pioneered the Solar-As-A-Service model in Africa, which is now enabling businesses across the continent to enjoy cheaper, cleaner power with no upfront cost or technical risk. Customers just sign an agreement to purchase solar electricity and we provide 100% financing, installation, and all-inclusive maintenance.You only pay for the power produced. In fact, if it doesn’t produce, we’ll pay you.

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LEARN MORE

CONTACT US

S

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV AFRICA

D I D Y O U K N O W?

488

• AB InBev’s 2025 Sustainability Goals are split into five key pillars: Smart Agriculture, Water Stewardship, Circular Packaging, Climate Action, and Smart Drinking.

• Smart Agriculture – ensuring farming practices are powered by the latest technology and strategies to maximise yield, minimise spend, and mitigate environmental disruption.

• Water Stewardship – exploring novel methods to cut water usage and waste across operations.

• Circular Packaging – developing packaging that can be reused and recycled, as well as supporting the infrastructure that is vital to OCTOBER 2020

both encouraging and enabling consumers to return packaging to the manufacturing ecosystem wherever possible.

• Climate Action – working to cut greenhouse gas emissions across operations by deploying new energy technologies, developing on-site electricity generation solutions, optimising waste management, and optimising logistics operations to lower fuel consumption and switch to greener alternatives.

• Smart Drinking – fostering healthy attitudes to alcohol consumption across the breadth of AB InBev’s employees, partners, and customers.

deliveries to its key customers. The

efficiency, and a new fleet of LNG-

organisation’s overall aim is to source

fueled forklifts has been deployed

less fuel from an organisational point

across its continental operations. The

of view across Africa and reduce its

trial has been successful, with its LNG

carbon footprint in Africa.

forklift performing at 100% the same

Electricity, and the infrastructure to produce and use it sustainably, are

as a diesel equivalent.

Having signed a contract with

not the only solutions that AB InBev

Tetra4, 50% of its fleet has been

is deploying for its procurement

converted to LNG, resulting in a 15%

operations in Africa. Its plants, where

CO2 emissions reduction. Forklifts,

necessary, have been relaid to accom-

being nimble and easy to move in and

modate its forklift trucks for maximum

out of facilities, represent a far more 489

busi ne ssc h ief . eu

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV AFRICA

490

efficient method of transporting loads

higher performance at smaller sizes

around sites than trucks, and LNG

and weights, will be closely watched

itself is easier to store and more dif-

as solutions to energy demands

ficult to spill than diesel. Another key

around AB InBev’s African breweries

advantage over electric units is that

are addressed.

LNG forklifts do not require sizable

The fact remains that, owing to the

batteries and space to store them.

challenges of infrastructure, expertise,

The lifespan of the batteries would

and market readiness, developing

also be an unwelcome additional

sustainable procurement operations

variable, particularly as solutions

in African markets via locally sourced

to the company’s on-site solar ambi-

solutions is a considerable challenge.

tions are still a work in progress.

In order to rise to it, AB InBev has

Battery technology’s incremental

sought to solidify its supply chain

advances, namely in delivering

through a mentorship programme

OCTOBER 2020

491

for both its suppliers and customers.

capabilities and explaining the value

By developing their skills in business

that expanding those capabilities will

management, and coaching through

have for business growth, they are

operations, AB InBev works to grow

encouraged to seek the investment

the business of its suppliers and cus-

required to diversify their offer-

tomers to increase their capability

ings. In effect, AB InBev creates the

whilst boosting their own profitability.

partners it needs, and the partners’

This approach reaps dividends, with

success in the market is positioned to

more competitive and financially

grow simultaneously.

stable links in the supply chain opening up new possibilities for improved business and more efficient operations. By approaching suppliers with propositions beyond their current busi ne ssc h ief . eu

Driving insurers

digital future into a

At Cognizant, we’ve invested in the end-to-end capabilities needed to help insurance organizations not just do digital, but be digital. We partner with our clients to unlock new value and through the power of digital technologies and new ways of working, we help them evolve into more competitive, progressive versions of themselves.

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