T-SYSTEMS
T-Systems: agile transformation on a global scale
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
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T-Systems: agile transformation on a global scale
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T- S Y S T E M S
Ciara Mullan, VP of Transition and Transformation, discusses implementing transformation in a challenging climate
T
-Systems is one of the most renowned IT service providers of digital services in the world. Headquartered in Europe and
founded in 2000 in Germany, today the company operates in 30 countries, helping organisations to successfully navigate the digital transforma04
tion of their operations, something that’s become crucial for many since the Coronavirus pandemic began. Ciara Mullan, VP of Transition and Transformation, tells us about implementing change in a challenging climate. Mullan says her top priority is the customer. “It’s about getting it right for the customer. When we get it right for them, everybody wins.” T-Systems’ strategy focuses on four key areas: digitisation, the cloud and infrastructure and moving people onto it, security, and connectivity. “We leverage these areas to drive the strategy for our customers,” she says. Mullan explains that T-Systems’ CEO, Adel Al-Saleh, who joined the company in 2018, came with a real drive to transform the organisation internally. “He’s brought in a transformation and change
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T- S Y S T E M S
“ We know the speed of change will be rapid, so we need to think about how we manage that” — Ciara Mullan, VP of Transition and Transformation 06
agenda, focusing on our customers, lining up what we do internally with what our customers do and what they need. We can see this most recently in what’s happened in response to the coronavirus with our customers. It’s been a really trying time and an opportunity to test ourselves.” The pandemic led them to some positive outcomes. “If I think about what we’re able to do for customers, we had to quickly rise to the challenge of responding to coronavirus. We found that we have the procedures to work from home, we can quickly get our people to work this way, and we’ve also been able to see how capable we are when reacting to a crisis in an agile way.” It also had to act quickly to provide solutions to customers. “Over the course of one weekend a customer needed to double their network capacity in response to people working from home, and we could do that,” Mullan explains. In another case, a very large logistics company quickly received 15,000 encrypted connections for employees who needed to work securely from home, and it was also able to provide a US healthcare
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company with 500 laptops and a thou-
transformation. That is leading to a
sand VPNs. “These examples show
focus on reducing complexity, optimis-
what we’ve been able to do for our
ing speed and giving the right focus
customers as a result of our transfor-
to our customers.”
mation. And that’s what has to happen
The organisation’s Zero Outage
– we don’t know what’s going to happen
programme has been developed with
in the future, but we know the speed
the aim of minimising downtime and
of change will be rapid, so we need to
maximising business continuity. It
think about how we manage that.”
involves clearly defined processes with
“We’re transforming our tools and
fast recovery times, using state-of-the-
our operations. That means having
art platforms, and ensuring staff are
programmes in place, being of an
fully trained. “Everybody is trained in
open mindset and working with people
Zero Outage procedures which is all
that share our culture, on a cultural
about stability. On one hand we need w w w.t- syste m s . com
NAVIGATE YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WITH THE LEADER IN SD-WAN
See what industry experts say. Learn more at velocloud.com/leader
VMware and T-Systems partner on managed SD-WAN services We hear from Sasha Emmerling, Head of Marketing for the VeloCloud business unit at VMware, on changes in connectivity it is facilitating with T-Systems. When embarking on a digital or network transformation journey, enterprises need trusted partners to assist them in their endeavours. Sasha Emmerling is Head of Marketing for the VeloCloud business unit at VMware, which, via its SD-WAN product and other offerings, facilitates cloud connectivity at a time when it has never been more necessary. “Now, companies have applications trying to reach the cloud versus just the corporate data centre,” says Emmerling. “The old conception of branches connecting in a hub and spoke manner to the data centre just doesn’t make sense anymore. What we offer is direct connectivity to the cloud. So the applications don’t have to go this route of backhauling through the data centre to reach the cloud.” The convergence of network and security services is happening in the cloud. “The term is ‘secure access service edge’ or SASE,” says Emmerling. “What this means is customers can now get their network and security from a single vendor, but your architecture has to be designed for scaling in the cloud. That’s something we have been focused on from day one— providing customers with a way of reaching the cloud in a scalable and easy way.” VMware SD-WAN™ by VeloCloud® works with leaders in the field, including IT services consultant T-Systems. “Over the years, we have forged alliances with multiple service providers where they take our solution and integrate it into their service,” says Emmerling. “A service provider can take our SD-WAN solution and offer it as a managed service together with the connectivity services, but it goes beyond connectivity to
Sasha Emmerling @ VMWARE
upstream, managed services—such as security. That’s our relationship with T-Systems—they’re offering SD-WAN as an integrated, managed service to their customers in the European markets. We announced the partnership in September and right now we’re working on a joint go-tomarket strategy.” The collaboration of VMware and T-Systems represents a true partnership, as Emmerling explains. “Collaboration on go-to-market projects is important in general, but with telecom service providers and T-Systems in particular, it is critical. That’s because it’s a managed service. We are successful only if T-Systems is successful.” The partnership goes beyond the technology, running the gamut of services such as legal, operations, enablement and marketing. “Right now, with T-Systems, we’re going through this process and we expect astrong market showing—so stay tuned.”
Learn more
T- S Y S T E M S
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to do things quickly – and we can do
in joint developments and projects,
them – but we have to do them safely.
as well as technology and sales
By leveraging those fundamentals to
alliances. So we’re really getting
the company it helps ensure the digital
genuine benefits.”
transformation goes smoothly.” Also important is having a strong
It has a particularly long-standing relationship with VMware, which it has
partnership model in place. Mullan
been working with since 2005 on
explains this ensures the company
virtualisation and cloud solutions,
is doing the right things both for its
helping T-Systems customers expand
customers and itself. “Our partner-
and secure their virtualised IT.
ships with leading technology and
“The point of these partnerships is
software enterprises are really one
to pave the way for digitalisation, pro-
of our strengths. For customers,
moting growth and innovation for the
we’re collaborating with specialists
enterprise, and T-Systems is certified
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :
Ciara Mullan PhD Title: VP Transition & Transformation
Location: Bristol, UK
Ciara Mullan began her career as a Research Fellow at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, where she first started enjoying working on technological innovation. After a couple of years there she moved back to the UK and into industry, working on customer facing programmes for HP. She then moved into IT and worked on the delivery of multi-million pound technology programmes across various industry sectors. Throughout her career Mullan has worked on delivering programmes, particularly focusing on customer delivery, but says her current role as VP for Transition and Transformation is “really taking it to another level”, working with customers across different geographies and cultures. Mullan describes herself as having an open mindset, whether it’s being open to challenging the business, to getting the ideas from colleagues and her team, learning and moving on quickly, and having an agile, flexible approach. Rather than manage people she believes in leading and guidingpeople through the business and steering them in the right direction. “It’s about moving away from management and being pragmatic, thinking of the big picture and being objective in what we need to do. Get the right people in and let them do the right job.”
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T- S Y S T E M S
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2000
Year founded
$8bn Revenue in US dollars
to participate in key strategic partner programmes by industry leaders like SAP, Microsoft and VMware. In addition, because these are two-way partnerships, we need to make sure that our own high quality standards are
45,000 Number of employees
met, and we work with more than 20 partners who contribute to our Zero Outage programme to improve customer satisfaction.� Customers give T-Systems their feedback via its annual TRI*M survey,
“ Our partnerships with leading technology and software enterprises are really one of our strengths” — Ciara Mullan, VP of Transition and Transformation
and in 2018 it was in the top 10% of the European ICT benchmark. COVID-19 has made people think differently about the way they work, which Mullan believes will continue to drive plenty of change. “It presents a real opportunity to challenge what is normal. Even people who were maybe reluctant to change will think that because they were able to and did it very quickly, they should continue to challenge themselves.” Looking ahead, Mullan believes things will continue to move at a fast
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T- S Y S T E M S
“ Technology itself is going to increase its digital position with mobile, Big Data analytics and the Internet of Things” — Ciara Mullan, VP of Transition and Transformation 14 pace. “The market for IT and telecommunications was undergoing radical transformation, and that will continue. There’ll be more focus on quickly moving to the cloud and outsourcing business. We’re seeing more demand for transmission speed, mobile services and increasing 5G. We’ll continue to bring connectivity and intelligence to help our customers with new business models, and focus on new levels of productivity and transforming the customers’ experience. “Technology itself is going to increase its digital position with mobile, Big Data analytics and the Internet
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T- S Y S T E M S
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“ I think the next five years are going to be very interesting, with lots of opportunities” —Ciara Mullan,
VP of Transition and Transformation
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of Things. We’ll continue to be in there
by mobility, and also by cybersecu-
with high expectations for the business
rity, which of course is in the DNA of
technologies, some of which are in
T-Systems. I think the next five years
the earlier stages of adoption, such
are going to be very interesting, with
as robotics and AI, or even blockchain,
lots of opportunities.”
but they’re all coming to the fore. “What we can see, along with other suppliers and other people we work with, is that the traditional IT business will decline and will be taken over by the digital transformation, by the cloud, w w w.t- syste m s . com
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