Business Chief USA Magazine – September 2019

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FOREWORD

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elcome to the September issue of Business Chief USA.

This month’s cover story features technology and innovation giant IBM. The company needs little introduction, but in this issue, we take a closer look at the transformative business partner experience it has created.

with a renewed thrust for transforming the way in which it provides its services, and professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The latter is seeing an increased demand for services related to cybersecurity and cloud computing, reflecting the global appetite for digital transformation.

Mike Fino, COO for In our City Focus we Global Business take in Philadelphia, an Mike Fino, Partners, tells us that urban environment that IBM Partner Ecosystem IBM’s Partner Ecosystem is rapidly becoming a – which has been driven by major hub of industry and innovative tools and close commerce. In a similar vein, engagement – has fostered an we take a closer look at the top 10 exciting “growth mindset environment”. sustainable cities in the USA, including the likes of Seattle, Washington and Innovation remains at the forefront of Honolulu, Hawaii. this edition, as we take a look at the work of some of the leading If you have a story to tell, please email businesses across a host of sectors. harry.menear@bizclikmedia.com This includes electronics manufacturer KEMET Electronics, which is Enjoy the issue! celebrating a century of operations Harry Menear

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03

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CONTENTS

Transforming the partner experience with innovative tools and ongoing feedback

14 28 40 New order in

Automation for a new era of smart manufacturing

48 MIR IMRAN Serial entrepreneur, CEO of Rani Therapeutics and inventor of the robotic pill

58

68 City Focus

PHILADELPHIA

EXCITING SUSTAINABLE CITY INNOVATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Sustainable cities in the USA

78

CONTENTS

92 KEMET Electronics Corporation

110 Arizona State University

150 PwC

132 Prime Healthcare

164 Four Winds Interactive

CONTENTS

178 Corning Incorporated

192 PepsiCo

206 Soorty Enterprises

220 Cologix

240 Canadian Blood Service

254 St. John Ambulance Canada

266 Nova Scotia Power

14

IBM: transforming the partner experience with innovative tools and ongoing feedback WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

CRAIG DANIELS

SEPTEMBER 2019

15

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IBM

Mike Fino, Vice President & COO, IBM Partner Ecosystem, discusses the solutions driving enhanced sales operations for its business partners and the potency of client feedback

I

BM’s illustrious and prolific history has made the company synonymous with both technology and innovation. However,

Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners at IBM, says that IBM’s pedigree is never a foregone conclusion. “Our business partners have many 16

choices, and we want them to feel that partnering with IBM gives them access to the best technologies, the most effective experience, and the most efficient way for them to take care of their clients,” he explains. “While we are well on the transformation journey we began with our partners in 2017, there is never a point in time when we’ll say that we’re done improving, evolving our processes, or making tools better. The IBM Partner Ecosystem is a growth mindset environment.”

Over the past year and a half, IBM’s Partner Ecosystem team has transformed its tooling and overhauled partner engagement. They implemented a Global NPS (Net Promoter Score) solution that has since been propagated across IBM’s Global Partner Ecosystem, and the insights gleaned from the resulting client and partner feedback have been SEPTEMBER 2019

17

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IBM

“ We want our partners to feel that partnering with IBM gives them access to the best technologies, the most effective experience, and the most efficient way for them to take care of their clients” 18

— Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM

SEPTEMBER 2019

instrumental in improving the partner experience. “We use the feedback to help us set our priorities for transformation investment. Then, as we transform, we continue to use ongoing NPS feedback to ensure that we’re moving in the right direction,” says Fino.

Once a partner provides feedback, IBM responds within 24 hours to quickly establish a line of communication.

“We may not have all the answers in 24 hours,” adds Fino. . “But within that time we let them know that we heard them and we are working on a response.”

Extensive, systematic audits are

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘IBM PARTNERWORLD – COMPTA EMERGING BUSINESS OUTSMARTS WILDFIRES AND PROTECTS LIVES WITH IBM WATSON’ 19 conducted on the returned engage-

but they can also connect with other

ments themselves to ensure they are

partners with whom they can share

of a certain quality, and that responses

complementary skills. From a single

address specific raised concerns.

sign-on, IBM’s partners can leverage a

“This is where the power of NPS

trio of powerful tools in the IBM Partner

becomes apparent,” enthuses Fino.

Ecosystem that each enable them to

“Making client feedback a way of life

maximize their sales potential: Partner-

is really what moves the needle, and

World, Seismic, and Skills Gateway.

we’ve seen that over the past year

While each solution is powerful on its

and a half for the ecosystem.”

own, they provide exponential potential

Engagement with this feedback has

when used together. They are designed

enabled IBM to hone its partner

to be interoperable, enabling seamless

platform in such a way that partners

interaction between the three. Skills

are not only able to access vital

Gateway provides sales training,

information whenever they need it,

courses and tests; Seismic offers the w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

IBM

20 platform for client engagement as well as supportive sales collateral (kits, plays and assets) that is designed to enable partners to progress sales opportunities; and PartnerWorld serves as an onboarding and enablement tool that links with the cutting-edge, AI-driven Business Partner (BP) Connect solution, which facilitates collaboration among partners. “BP Connect is where the scope really becomes exponential,” says Fino.

“You’ve got your skills, your sales collateral, and now you want to find an IBM Business Partner with adjacent or ancillary skills that can fill gaps in your SEPTEMBER 2019

“ It’s a mantra for how we live in support of the IBM ecosystem: a burning desire to never be done, to always want to be better” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM

own expertise. By collaborating with another IBM partner, you can quickly and efficiently bring a solution together for a client without necessarily having to become an expert in all things yourself.”

Powered by IBM’s proprietary Watson artificial intelligence (AI) solution, BP Connect intelligently banks and cross-references partners’ skills to provide matches to the most appropriate and complementary partner for their own needs. Through Skills Gateway, partners can broaden and 21

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Mike Fino Mike Fino is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, IBM Partner Ecosystem, where he has overall responsibility for transformation and operations across IBM’s dynamic global ecosystem of business partners.

Mike leads agile teams that deliver measurable results, which are validated using client engagement tools, such as Net Promoter Score (NPS). Mike has 25 years’ experience leading key functional areas of integrated operations at IBM. Prior to his current role, he led enterprise transformation, sales operations and strategy for the channel. Before starting his position with the partner ecosystem, Mike served in leadership roles within supply chain management operations.

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IBM

22

“ Our competition is moving quickly, which means we need to move even more quickly” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM

SEPTEMBER 2019

23

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IBM

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“ By partnering with another IBM partner, you can quickly and efficiently bring a solution together for the client without necessarily having to become an expert in all things yourself” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM

deepen their skillsets; their completed training is recorded by BP Connect and makes them a more attractive prospect for others looking to collaborate on a project. “If you’ve advanced your skills from one discipline to four disciplines, you become that much more appealing – in terms of the different body of work or knowledge that you have – for other partners who may be seeking that expertise,” says Fino.

IBM has also infused additional AI capabilities into the ecosystem. The company uses AI to match its business partners with business leads that are

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25

IBM

26

“ We’ve built a system called SCORE which continually learns based on feedback, win-rates, and which partners are excelling at particular skills and capabilities” — Mike Fino, COO for Global Business Partners, IBM

SEPTEMBER 2019

appropriate for their skills and their historic performance with similar opportunities. “We’ve built a system called SCORE which continually learns based on feedback, win-rates, and which partners are excelling at particular skills and capabilities. It then considers all that information in near real-time and uses it to select and pass a lead to the partner that is best positioned to win or advance that opportunity.”

In sum, these components comprise a deeply powerful sales ecosystem that is designed to enable partners to

27

make the most of every lead, develop

bring to the table each and every day,

their skills, and build up a network of

that helps to ensure that, when choices

partners with whom they can develop

get made, the partners and clients

symbiotic sales relationships. The

prefer our business model over

powerful combination of these tools

everybody else’s. It’s a mantra for how

gives IBM a unique competitive

we live in support of the IBM ecosystem:

differentiator, proving to be an excep-

a burning desire to never be done,

tional asset in the marketplace. “Our

to always want to be better.”

competition is moving quickly, which means we need to move even more quickly,” concludes Fino. “Our partners always have choices. It’s about continuing to be relevant in the minds of our partners. If they see the value we w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

LEADERSHIP

New order in 28

WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

Alexei Miller, Managing Director at DataArt, discusses digital transformation and the ways technological and cultural change has transformed the way business is conducted

SEPTEMBER 2019

29

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LEADERSHIP

P

erhaps the most seemingly-inevitable change occurring now is the digital transformation of the global enterprise landscape. Business

models are being rewritten, entire industries grow

from a single startup in a matter of months, and those who are unwilling to adapt are disrupted into the Wikipedia subheadings of history. Digital transformation is an avalanche. The impact of a single snowflake on the top of a mountain prompts calamitous chain reactions that propel millions of tons of snow towards the world below.

30

Alexei Miller, co-founder and Managing Director of professional IT services firm DataArt, is someone with the capacity and experience to see the avalanche with clarity. “Life used to be simple.

There was business and there was IT. Business was kind of clueless, but they had the money, and IT had the expertise but none of the money,” he explains. The resentment-fuelled dichotomy was, Miller recalls, at least predictable. “Business hated IT, because they were always late or expensive or buggy; and IT always hated business because it saw business as clueless - unable to appreciate or take advantage of the miracles of technology, or something to that effect,” he shrugs. “Whatever.” And so this modern fable continued for many years, with “everybody happily hating each other.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

31

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LEADERSHIP

“ Now you can create new worlds; things are so messy that you can shape new opportunities for yourself” 32

— Alexei Miller, Managing Director, DataArt

Now, in mid-avalanche, Miller laughs, everything is “so much worse.

Everything is messier, because the technology changes so fast, it is impossible for a CTO – no matter how smart or qualified he or she is – to keep up.” At the same time, he explains, those traditional ‘business side’ people have become increasingly technologically adept. “They didn’t learn to use a computer in their 40s, like their parents’ generation,” Miller says. “Sometimes they know more about cloud, AI and so on, than their technology counterparts.” This world turned upside down by dramatic forces of entropy is, Miller insists, chaotic and messy, but ripe with opportunity. “It’s no longer clear who you’re selling to, what you’re selling or who’s making what,” he shrugs again. “You can choose to get depressed about it, because your life is more difficult now, or you can choose to see the fantastic opportunity. Now you can create new worlds; it’s so messy that you can shape opportunities for yourself.”

Miller approaches the future with a realist’s eye, both for technology and business

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION IN FINANCIAL INDUSTRY. ALEXEI MILLER, MANAGING DIRECTOR AT DATAART’ 33 strategy. Founded in 1997, DataArt has

manifestations of that in many walks

spent more than 20 years designing,

of life. I think, similarly, people seek

developing and supporting unique,

certain opportunities to create and

custom software solutions for enterprise

experiment,” he posits. This has

clients ranging from the Nasdaq to Apple

changed the values of the workplace

Leisure. As someone with over two

as well, Miller suggests. “It’s not

decades of experience enabling

just a place to make a bit of money.

companies to survive and thrive in

I’ve been very lucky that DataArt has

response to avalanches of change,

given me that opportunity to create,

Miller is a judicious embracer of these

experiment and generate experiences,

reconfigurations of the status quo.

not just money.”

“If you’ll allow me to be a little

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was

philosophical for a moment, people

an astounding polymath – an expert

are seeking experiences instead of

in and font of the leading philosophical,

things these days, right? We see

rhetorical, scientific, medical and w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

LEADERSHIP

astronomical wisdom of his time.

So expansive was his knowledge and ability that he is frequently described as ‘knowing everything’ about the time in which he lived. Obviously, mankind’s body of knowledge has come a long way since then. Whatever the probability of there once being a person who contained the combined sum of knowledge in the world, those days have been swept away by the fractalizing complexities of an advancing human race.

Looking at the current business 34

landscape, Miller notes that this is a realization that may not be as obvious to some as it should. “I kind of protest against this notion of a business leader who is all-knowing, all powerful and the idea that everyone around is just helping him or her. This cult-like thinking is a little bit too prevalent in American business culture these days.

I revolt against that,” he explains.

“Those leaders are the beneficiaries of gifts they’ve been given by people around them who are better than them in many ways. There are lots of people who are better, smarter, faster and prettier than me. I can be envious of their good fortune and try to SEPTEMBER 2019

control or take advantage of that fact, or I enjoy their company. If you’re able to build this structure where they work with you, but not for you, everyone gets to enjoy the process a little bit better.”

The pace of digital transformation is such that no one individual can hold even a single discipline entirely in their own head. Collaboration and deference to genius are the keys to finding a new form of order in an avalanche of chaos. As John Donne put it, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

“ I kind of protest against this notion of a business leader who is all-knowing, all powerful and the idea that everyone around is just helping him or her” — Alexei Miller, Managing Director, DataArt

To Miller, another success characteristic is the ability for companies to differentiate themselves, but approach the process with, again, a realist’s eyes. “Inevitably in this day and age, in order to be and stay unique, you need technology to support you.

And therefore, if you do things that are unusual, then these unique or special processes can’t be supported with cookie cutter products,” he says. “You cannot base your unique processes on something that lots of other firms can easily buy or subscribe to. You can hardly claim that you have unique CRM processes if you plainly use w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

35

LEADERSHIP

36

standard Salesforce software, like many thousands of other firms do.”

This is where DataArt’s expertise comes into play: not only working with its clients to create custom solutions, but also helping digest the newly-ongoing nature of digital transformations strategies. “Creating and sustaining unique technology is not for the faint of heart. The projects are never short, never cheap and never easy.” Miller notes that, while these projects can be immensely rewarding, they need to be undertaken by a firm SEPTEMBER 2019

“ You cannot base your unique processes on something that lots of other firms can easily buy or subscribe to” — Alexei Miller, Managing Director, DataArt

‘well, if it is successful, then it will take an infinite amount of time and an endless amount of money’.” The modern IT solution is sold, not once, but continually with its upkeep and ongoing development sold as a service. This is the new world that Miller sees as filled with opportunity.

Going forward, Miller intends to continue building and developing a company to which he feels “a sort of parental attachment”. Exhibiting between 20-30% growth each year, DataArt is continuing to penetrate further into the US and European markets. “In any professional services business, your reputation in the that is knowledgeable of and willing to

marketplace and the trust you have

accept the inherent risks. The timeline

with specific individuals, is pretty

for these digital transformation projects,

much the only current that you have,”

Miller explains, has also radically

he says. In addition to building up the

changed. “It leads to uncomfortable

currency of reputable trust, Miller and

answers to questions that previously

his teams will continue to “preach the

seemed very straightforward,” he admits.

gospel of digital transformation,” as

“For example: the simplest question an

well as focusing on the company’s

executive can ask is ‘how much is this

internal and ongoing journey.

going to cost and how long is it going to take?’” he chuckles. “When you have a finite object, you can ask these questions. In this brave new world, the honest answer to these questions is, w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

37

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TECHNOLOGY

40

AUTOMATION FOR A NEW ERA OF SMART MANUFACTURING We take a look at the possibilities and potential pitfalls of automation, examining a few of the companies heralding a smarter, more efficient and sustainable approach to manufacturing WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

SEPTEMBER 2019

41

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TECHNOLOGY

T

he drive for automation is showing no signs of abating, with new manufacturing centres increasingly requiring automation technologies

to be built in. ‘Smart’ manufacturing has become the watchword for companies in the industry.

The Siemens Smart Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Chengdu, China, for instance, opened on 21 May this year. Ericsson, meanwhile, is planning to open an automated smart factory in the United States in 2020.

42

In a manufacturing context, automation takes many forms. Whether that’s 3D printers removing human error from the equation, quality control software increasing throughput or robots able to assemble parts with unrivalled speed and precision. In recent years, this activity has been supercharged by the maturation of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Enabling the ‘smart’ manufacturing of the future, such advancements help to imbue automated solutions with qualities of human workers. A ‘dumb’ 3D printer will continue to print even if there has been a failure in the process, wasting resources.

A ‘smart’ solution employing AI and machine learning, however, could recognise failure and take measures to abort or restart the process.

SEPTEMBER 2019

“A TOTALLY AUTOMATED OR ‘LIGHTS OUT’ FACTORY HAS THE ATTENDANT BENEFIT OF NOT REQUIRING SYSTEMS NECESSARY FOR HUMAN WORKERS, SUCH AS LIGHTING AND HEATING, THUS REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION”

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43

TECHNOLOGY

The business case for increasing

A 30% rise in robot installations

automation is obvious, but anxieties

worldwide, for instance, was esti-

persist about the impact such tech-

mated to create an additional $5tn

nologies will have. Research by Oxford

in global GDP. The world is well on

Economics has suggested that, by

its way to meeting such targets,

2030, 20 million manufacturing jobs

with the number of robots used in

will have been lost to robots, with

manufacturing tripling in the last 20

those losses disproportionately affect-

years. A totally automated or ‘lights

ing lower-skilled workers and those in

out’ factory has the attendant benefit

poorer countries. Such an outlook is

of not requiring systems necessary

tempered, however, by the expected

for human workers, such as lighting

creation of as yet unknown industries

and heating, thus reducing energy

made possible by robots.

consumption.

44

“ IT IS CLEAR THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY AT THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA OF AUTOMATION” SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘FANUC: YOUR BUSINESS DESERVES PERFECTION’

FANUC

machines which might be capable of

To fulfil this demand, numerous

milling, punching or otherwise manipu-

companies are rising to the challenge

lating items dependent on the needs

across automation sectors old and

of their owner. Indeed, the company’s

new. The world’s largest industrial

name is an initialism of Fuji Automatic

robot manufacturer is Fanuc.

Numerical Control. With revenue

According to Robotics and Automation

reaching some $4.79bn in FY17, the

News, the company has installed

company is headquartered in the small

some 400,000 of its robots in facto-

Japanese village of Oshino.

ries worldwide. Originating as part of Japanese giant Fujitsu, the company

EMERSON ELECTRIC

became independent in 1972. It is

It is, of course, necessary to act with

most active in the field of numerical

intentionality when implementing

control systems, i.e. programmable

automated solutions, and consequently, w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

45

TECHNOLOGY

the services of automation experts are

Internet of Things (IoT) in industry.

often required. Multinational Emerson

Its Plantweb ecosystem integrates

Electric dedicates one of the two sides

products in the areas of production,

of its business to providing automation

reliability, safety and energy manage-

solutions, and in FY17 the company’s

ment. Emerson’s expertise extends

revenue reached $15.26bn. Providing

across a broad swathe of different

automation services to industry,

industries, including automotive, food

Emerson tailors its offerings to spe-

and beverage, oil and gas, packaging

cific clients, saying on its website that

and mining.

its expertise moves away from standard approaches developed in decades

WANDELBOTS

past. As part of this, one of the com-

As well as the work of established

pany’s focuses is on implementing the

giants such as Fanuc and Emerson,

46

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘EMERSON: AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS’

SEPTEMBER 2019

47 the future of automation will require

a universal language to teach those

the input of newcomers. Wandelbots is

robots in the same way, independent

a German startup with a focus on what

of the technology stack,” says CEO

the company calls a ‘human-centered’

Christian Piechnick in TechCrunch.

approach to robot programming.

Though automation, as we envisage

Having raised €6mn ($6.73mn) in

it today, has existed since at least the

series A funding, Wandelbots hopes to

1940s and the advent of numerical

explode and disrupt the existing sys-

control, it is clear that we are currently

tem of robot programming, which dif-

at the beginning of a new era

fers between companies and systems,

of automation. With AI, machine learning,

by introducing demonstration-based

drones and other technologies all driv-

machine teaching. Wearing a sensor

ing new developments in automation,

filled jacket, users can perform actions

manufacturing as we know it is being

which are then replicated by robots,

transformed, bringing new levels of

drastically reducing the time taken and

efficiency and entirely new possibilities

cost of programming. “We are providing

to industry. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

PEOPLE

MIR IMRAN 48

Serial entrepreneur, CEO of Rani Therapeutics and inventor of the robotic pill Mir Imran, inventor, founder and CEO of Rani Therapeutics, shares his story and discusses how his latest business is driven by the desire to innovate, create and solve one of the most pressing problems in modern medicine WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

SEPTEMBER 2019

49

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PEOPLE

A

s a serial entrepreneur, what would you say are the key qualities of a successful startup?

A successful startup is willing to take risks and fail frequently. Taking big risks, learning from every failure, and making an effort to fully understand every facet of a problem before pursuing a solution are important tenants to help create a culture that embraces innovation.

Choosing the right problems to address, too, is essential. If you are merely iterating 50

on other people’s ideas, you aren’t inventing.

Look at the big unsolved problems. Break them down. Understand them. Find solutions that no one had ever thought possible. I focus on big, unsolved problems and that has led to the creation of a number of disruptive innovations.

There can be big rewards that come from innovations like Rani Therapeutics, but there are also countless risks along the way. I have been fortunate to have had many successes in my career, but I also have had my fair share of failed concepts or lacklustre results. Before I had success with the first Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), I had two failed companies. I never let those failures bring me down; rather I saw them as SEPTEMBER 2019

“ I focus on big, unsolved problems and that has led to the creation of a number of disruptive innovations” — Mir Imran, Inventor, founder, and CEO of Rani Therapeutics

opportunities to learn and evolve. Each experience gave me further clarity, led to deeper insights, and helped inform future decisions. If I had given up after my early failures, life would have turned out very differently for me.

As someone with over 500 patents to their name, which technological development have you been most proud of so far?

I’m driven by identifying unsolved or poorly addressed problems in medicine. Over the past four decades, I’ve w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

51

PEOPLE

52 built a number of companies that have

vert biologic injections into pills, I saw

addressed multiple problems, from

that as a juicy problem to solve. The

lockboxes used by real estate agents

main challenge is that the gut hosts

to full-body airport scanners used

enzymes designed to break down

across the country and the world,

proteins. If ingested, biologic drugs

and radically improved treatments

are degraded before they can be

for chronic pain.

absorbed. That’s why you haven’t

While I’m proud of all my inventions,

seen oral insulin or oral Humira yet.

today I’m on a mission to solve one of

At Rani Therapeutics, we think we

the biggest challenges in medicine:

have solved the riddle with the

replacing painful injections with a pill

RaniPill™ capsule.

to treat hundreds of millions of patients with chronic disease. When I learned

Could you tell me a little about Rani

that pharma companies have tried and

Therapeutics and your new robotic

failed for more than 50 years to con-

pill? What advantages does the pill

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘RANI THERAPEUTICS’ 53 have over traditional subcutaneous

patient to be an ordinary pill, but inside

injections?

is a “mini auto-injector” that delivers

There are millions of people around the

the drug directly into the intestinal wall.

world living with chronic conditions that

Our robotic indigestible capsule has a

can only be treated with painful daily

special coating which gets it through

self-injections. Yet even when such

the acidic environment of the stom-

medicines are readily available, patient

ach. When it reaches the intestinal

compliance is very low. Patients don’t

wall, the RaniPill™ then transforms,

want to inject themselves and avoid the

revealing the mechanism inside. The

treatment even if it affects their health.

RaniPill™ aligns itself to inject a drug

Achieving oral delivery of biologics is

into the intestinal wall, where it is

considered the holy grail of drug deliv-

picked up quickly and circulated in the

ery, and we think we have come up with

bloodstream. The patient doesn’t feel

the solution with the RaniPill™ capsule.

anything because the intestines have

The RaniPill™ capsule appears to the

no sharp pain receptors. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

PEOPLE

While other organisations have followed our lead and are now pursuing similar concepts, Rani’s early start in the pursuit of a pill to replace painful injections has secured our position as a pioneer of robotic pills. We have conducted more than 100 preclinical studies proving that our technology works – and delivers the same amount of drug as a subcutaneous injection.

We have also begun testing in humans — specifically testing the safety and tolerability of the RaniPill™ capsule without the drug. Those studies were

54

successful, demonstrating that the RaniPill™ capsule deployed with no feeling or perception by the subjects and the remnants passed out of the body. We are moving towards human testing with the RaniPill™ capsule loaded with a drug (Octreotide, a drug used for the treatment of acromegaly) this year.

Given your experience as a leader of business units and enterprises, how do you ensure that you attract, utilise and retain top talent?

It is our intent to attract and retain innovative thinkers to help us build SEPTEMBER 2019

the future of biologic drug deliv-

talent regardless of a person’s age,

ery, and we believe our culture has

gender, or ethnicity.

helped us tremendously in that regard. I’m proud that today Rani’s

A criticism that’s often levelled at

workforce is more than 50% women,

pharmaceutical and tech companies

and that 20% are over 50 years old.

is that they’re increasingly driven by

Our employees are ethnically diverse

the business case as opposed to the

as well, drawn from more than 10

desire to innovate and improve peo-

countries. For me, building a well-

ple’s lives. How do you ensure that

rounded, holistically representative

Rani Therapeutics doesn’t lose sight

workforce means finding the best

of the goal of helping humanity?

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE 55

Mir Imran Mir Imran is the Chairman and CEO of Rani Therapeutics, an exciting company that has developed a unique approach for the oral delivery of large drug molecules including peptides, proteins, and antibodies. Imran is also the Chairman & CEO of InCube Labs, a life sciences R&D lab focused on developing and commercialising breakthrough medical innovations. Rani spun out of InCube in 2012. After attending medical school, Imran began his life as a healthcare entrepreneur in the late 1970s and has founded more than 20 life sciences companies since those early days, more than half of which have been acquired.

Imran’s passion is creating novel technologies that have the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of patients and has become one of the leading inventors and entrepreneurs in the field. Imran holds more than 500 issued and pending patents and is perhaps most wellknown for his pioneering contributions to the f irst FDA-approved Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD). w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

PEOPLE

“ We have a truly multidisciplinary team and that plays a critical role in understanding and framing problems, and ultimately devising solutions” — Mir Imran, Inventor, founder, and CEO of Rani Therapeutics 56

We believe the best business case —

reveal itself. Earlier in my career, I was

a sustainable business case – can only

quick to try to “solve” the problems.

be achieved when your products truly

I would spend time dreaming up the

improve people’s lives. Our single-

solution to a problem that I did not fully

minded focus is always trying to under-

understand. I soon learned that you

stand problems, faced by patients and

must take the time to understand and

to try to alleviate some of those prob-

appreciate the problem, look at it from

lems through innovation.

all angles, listen to other opinions, and

When it comes to building innova-

see what has been done before. If you

tive products, it is critical to start with

pursue solutions too quickly without

understanding the problem and do this

that complete understanding of the

from all facets. Once you truly under-

problem, you might miss the opportu-

stand the problem, the solution will

nity for a breakthrough.

SEPTEMBER 2019

What’s on the horizon for you, and for Rani Therapeutics? Where do you see your roadmap taking you in 2020 and beyond?

It’s an exciting time for Rani Therapeutics.

We’ve done hundreds of preclinical studies by delivering more than 1,000 capsules. We’ve tested nine drugs, including insulin, GLP-1 [for diabetes] and Humira [for arthritis] and we’ve demonstrated that the RaniPill™ capsule delivery is equivalent to subcutaneous injection. Later this year, we’ll be testing a drug called Octreotide which treats patients suffering from acromegaly, a condition resulting from the body’s pituitary gland producing an In the case of Rani, where we are

excessive amount of growth hormone.

working to improve the lives of millions

Next year, we’ll be testing several other

of people, I had to look at all of the ways

drugs in Phase 1 studies. We are getting

that previous approaches have failed

closer to bringing the RaniPill™ cap-

in order to come up with a radically dif-

sule to patients and improving the lives

ferent way to solve the problem. Rather

of millions. It’s an enormous challenge

than try to change the drug to make it

that keeps us focused and motivated

viable orally, which had been tried many

every day.

times before by other companies, I decided we needed to take a very different approach and instead change how the drug is delivered. Out of that concept, the RaniPill™ capsule was born. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

57

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

58

SEPTEMBER 2019

Chicago, USA

EXCITING SUSTAINABLE CITY INNOVATIONS AROUND THE WORLD Marga Hoek is a global thought-leader on sustainable business, international speaker and the author of The Trillion Dollar Shift, a new book revealing the business opportunities provided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals WRITTEN BY

MARGA HOEK

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59

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

60

C

ities are at the heart of national

won in cities. Cities play a major role in

and global growth. In an

achieving Sustainable Development

increasingly urbanised world,

Goals (SDGs). They clearly play a

cities are both the source and the

role in SDG 11 – sustainable cities and

solution of many global problems.

communities – but cities also impact

Not only do urban areas account for

many other SDGs.

over half of the world’s population,

We have a long way to go and little

but they also generate around 80% of

time: cities are becoming more sus-

global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

tainable yet to reach our goals, cities

Cities, however, are confronted and

much embrace more and also more

challenged to become inclusive, safe,

radical innovations. Those radical

sustainable and: smart. And because

innovations mean moving away

of its impact, one could say that the

from the conventional way of thinking

battle for sustainability will be lost or

and designing.

SEPTEMBER 2019

Cambridge, US

61

Zwolle. the Netherlands

ZWOLLE, THE NETHERLANDS Across the globe, we can encounter many inspiring examples of how to redesign our cities, simply by taking this other perspective. Let’s start in the country I was born, the Netherlands, and zoom into the small city of Zwolle.

Here, for instance, the plastic road was invented and created. A new modular bicycle path made from recycled plastics. It matches up to the equivalent of 218,000 plastic cups. So you cycle on

“ CITIES ARE BECOMING MORE SUSTAINABLE YET, TO REACH OUR GOALS, CITIES MUST EMBRACE MORE, AND ALSO MORE RADICAL, INNOVATIONS” — Marga Hoek, Non Executive Director and author of The Trillion Dollar Shift

waste! The road has higher longevity than conventional surfaces, can withw w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

stand extreme temperatures and it can

ing waterless sanitation solution for

be applied to parking lots too. No virgin

those who lack access to conventional

materials are needed and we have lots

toilets. With a simple subscription to

of (plastic) waste we need to dispose of.

a pick-up plan, households receive a waterless, resource-separating toilet

LIMA, PERU

combined with a weekly service that

Hygiene and water are huge challenges

collects waste directly from the home.

in low-income cities, mostly in develop-

Imagine the impact on health in poor

ing countries. So let us move to Lima,

slums where people suffer tremen-

the capital of Peru. An interesting in-

dously from diseases due to lack of

novation, X-runner, brings an appeal-

water, sanitation and hygiene.

62

Mexico’s Torre de Especialidades Medicas SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘CAMBRIDGE LEADS THE CHARGE FOR CLEAN ENERGY IN MASSACHUSETTS’ 63

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO Smog and air pollution is a huge problem in many cities like Mexico. The Torre de las Especialidades found a solution by creating a ‘smog-eating’ front for its hospital, absorbing the pollution from the air. The new hospital building in Mexico City is designed to transform air pollutants into harmless chemicals. The building has a facade made up of a new type of tile called “proSolve370e” which, according to its

“ DESIGNED TO TRANSFORM AIR POLLUTANTS INTO HARMLESS CHEMICALS” — Marga Hoek, Non Executive Director and author of The Trillion Dollar Shift

inventor Elegant Embellishments, can neutralise the chemicals produced by 8,750 cars every day. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

“ MODULAR SENSOR BOXES THAT WILL BE INSTALLED AROUND CHICAGO TO COLLECT REAL-TIME DATA ON THE CITY’S ENVIRONMENT” — Marga Hoek, Non Executive Director and author of The Trillion Dollar Shift

CAMBRIDGE, US 64

The city of the future will combine sustainable initiatives with the use of ICT and advanced technologies. Around the 1990s, as the digital revolution came up to speed, it was often assumed digitalisation would mean the death of cities but the opposite is the case. Smart, intelligent cities, that have sustainability at the heart of development, are considered to be a great place to live. Digital innovations can thrive, although they still have too little scale around the world. A great example is to be found in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which we can describe as an internet of pipes. A team of MIT researchers have developed a system SEPTEMBER 2019

Chicago’s Cloud Gate

to collect and analyse biochemical information from sewage water, which could be thought of as a ‘smart sewage platform’. The project is called Underworlds and it is being tested at this time.

CHICAGO, US The line of thinking about smart, sustainable cities is to use everything there is in a city in a smart and multifunctional way. This also implies to ‘simples poles’. The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes that will be installed around Chicago to collect real-time data on the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. AoT will be measuring factors that impact liveability in Chicago such as climate, air quality and noise.

Everywhere around the world we can find pertinent examples like these.

Since the world by now has become a global village; we can share all these examples and the knowledge behind them to transform cities into the best sustainable, smart cities they can be.

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

65

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CITY FOCUS

City Focus

PHILAD 68

Business Chief explores Philadelphia, a city famed for its historic role in the American revolution, its art and its culture.

‘The City of Brotherly Love’ is also a major hub of industry and commerce WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

SEPTEMBER 2019

DELPHIA 69

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CITY FOCUS | P C H I LC A D G EO L P H I A

T

he sixth-largest city in the United States, Philadelphia is the capital of the State of Pennsylvania and steeped in the history

of the American Revolution. Founded in 1682 by an English Quaker, Philadelphia played host to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 by the country’s founding fathers and is the home of many American firsts. The so-called ‘City of Brotherly Love’ is home to the United States’ first library, medical school, hospital, stock exchange and business school. By the 19th century, 70

the city had become a major hub of industry and the nation’s railroads.

Today, the city remains a center for commerce in the state, with its collective gross metropolitan product (GMP) being estimated at $490bn in 2018. While industries like communications and tourism continue to play leading roles in the Philadelphia economy – an estimated 42mn domestic tourists visited in 2016, contributing approximately $11bn to the economy of the city and surrounding area – the area is also emerging as a national hub for biotech investment. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, as of September 2018, the city had seen almost $775mn in venture capital investment in the previous 18 months. Currently, Philadelphia biotech firm Spark Therapeutics is undergoing a $4.3bn merger with SEPTEMBER 2019

71

Swiss company Roche, which is expected to be completed in 2020.

In addition to its tourism and biotech scenes, Philadelphia’s surrounding area is home to 15 companies on the 2019 Fortune 500 list. Of those companies, two of them have their homes in the city proper: telecommunications colossus Comcast, and food industry services provider Aramark. Business Chief takes a look at the two biggest companies from the home of the Liberty Bell, the Eagles and Benjamin Franklin. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

CITY FOCUS | PHILADELPHIA

ARAMARK

for eligible hourly employees to receive

Headquartered in the heart of down-

full tuition coverage for college

town Philadelphia, Aramark Corporation

degrees. The new program has been

has operated as a food service, facili-

designed specifically to help industry-

ties, and uniform services provider to

leading companies to connect and

the education, healthcare, business,

build relationships with universities.

corrections and leisure industries since its original founding in 1936. The

gram is part of a $90mn investment the

company employs more than 227,000

company made in its employees earlier

people worldwide and has been a part

this year that also includes

of the Fortune 500 list for 25 years.

targeted wage and benefit increases,

Committed to not only supporting its Philadelphia workforce, but all of its workers across the US, Aramark 72

The Aramark Frontline Education Pro-

as well as additional training and development, according to the company.

“Our mission to Enrich and Nourish

announced in July 2019 that going

Lives means we have a responsibility

forward, it will provide the opportunity

to help our employees achieve their

“ Our mission to Enrich and Nourish Lives means we have a responsibility to help our employees achieve their full potential and lead fulfilling lives” — Eric J. Foss, Chairman, President and CEO, Aramark SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ARAMARK: TAKING ON FOOD WASTE’ 73

full potential and lead fulfilling lives,” said Eric J. Foss, Aramark’s Chairman, President and CEO. “Education is key to making that happen and we are proud to provide this learning pathway to our dedicated frontline team members who want to advance their education and grow their careers.”

The application process for Aramark employees will begin in October, with the first batch of students scheduled to start in Spring 2020.

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

CITY FOCUS | PHILADELPHIA

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘INSIDE PHILADELPHIA’S TALLEST SKYSCRAPER: THE COMCAST TECHNOLOGY CENTER’

74

COMCAST

completed its $39bn bid for British

Telecommunications conglomerate

broadcaster Sky in October, meaning

Comcast is one of the largest owners

it now owns 75% of the European pay-

and operators of broadcasting and

TV giant, dramatically expanding the

television assets in the world, the larg-

firm’s global footprint.

est provider of internet services in the

This expansion and diversification

US and a leading home telephone ser-

is a key strategic goal for Comcast,

vice provider. The company is based

as cable subscriptions across the US

in the City Center West area of Phila-

continue to decline, replaced by

delphia and operates out of its own

streaming services like Netflix, Hule

dedicated campus. Its three primary

and Amazon Prime. While its NBCUni-

business units are Comcast Cable,

versal division is set to launch its own

NBCUniversal and Sky.

streaming service in 2020, the media

According to Fortune, Comcast SEPTEMBER 2019

giant is also taking steps to explore

“ The LIFT Labs program will provide these 11 startups with support and access to Comcast NBCUniversal leadership”

participate in the incubator program.

The companies, which range in scope from artificial intelligence (AI) to fitness apps, will spend the year participating in custom workshops, training sessions, and business meetings unique to the company and its LIFT Labs program throughout the course of the accelerator. Comcast is also promoting diversity in its selection of companies, with one third of the startups having a female founder.

“We are incredibly excited by the passion, drive, and foresight of the founders of these companies,” said Sam Schwartz, Chief Business Devel-

new innovative revenue options in its

opment Officer, Comcast, in a press

home town of Philadelphia.

release. “The program will provide

This year marks the start of the

them with support and access to

second round of the Comcast NBCU-

Comcast NBCUniversal leadership,

niversal LIFT Labs program.

and help them push their boundaries

“Spanning the entire fourth floor of

in new ways to produce more compet-

the new Comcast Technology Center,

itive and successful businesses.

LIFT Labs PHL is a unique place

At the same time, we will learn from

where startups can elevate their com-

some of the best new entrepreneurs

panies with support from mentors,

in technology.”

experts, seasoned entrepreneurs — and one another,” writes the company.

This year, Comcast has selected 11 startups from around the world to w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

75

CITY FOCUS | PHILADELPHIA

Comcast LIFT Labs accelerator The 2019 class includes: Diana AI SanFrancisco, CA

stats and odds into simple prediction games for the everyday fan.

Diana AI is a conversational business intelligence and analytics tool that enables non-technical users to access enterprise data and analyze it easily, using natural language via voice or text.

Founder: Matt Bailey (CEO)

Founders: Geeta Banda (CEO) & Teja Nanduri

Edisn.ai Bangalore, India Edisn.ai delivers interactive and personalized content to sports fans by applying its AI-powered player recognition engine to live video streams in real-time.

Founders: Ashok Karanth (CEO) & Akshay Chandrasekhar

Messy.fm Los Angeles, CA Messy.fm is the all-in-one podcasting solution for businesses, brands, and individuals to record, edit, and publish unlimited episodes for free.

Founder: Molly Beck (CEO)

NICKL Brooklyn, NY NICKL enables individuals and organizations to personalize and manage their digital content subscriptions in one place.

Founder: Sumorwuo Zaza (CEO)

GameOn Brooklyn, NY

Pivan Interactive Boulder, CO

GameOn increases live sports engagement by turning complicated

Pivan provides advanced training and analytics for competitive gaming

SEPTEMBER 2019

athletes, powered by computer vision and AI.

music-inspired fitness instructors choreograph and deliver classes.

Founders: David Sturgeon (CEO) & Constantine Tsang

Founder: Amira Polack (CEO)

Respeecher Kiev, Ukraine Respeecher uses AI technology to transform voices, allowing one person to speak in the voice of another.

Founders: Oleksandr Serdiuk (CEO), Grant Reaber, & Dmytro BielievtsovÂ

TakeShape Brooklyn, NY TakeShape enables one-click integrations that allow developers to easily combine data from the JAMstack without having to write new code.

Founders: Mark Catalano (CEO) & Andrew Sprouse

Sporttrade Philadelphia, PA

The GIST Toronto, Canada

Sporttrade is a peer-to-peer sports betting marketplace.

The GIST provides sports content, experiences, and community for women.

Founders: Alexander Kane (CEO), Greg Scott, & Henry Fuz

Founders: Roslyn McLarty, Jacie deHoop, & Ellen Hyslop

Struct Club Los Angeles, CA Struct Club elevates how

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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T O P 10

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SEPTEMBER 2019

Sustainable cities Business Chief investigates the 10 most sustainable cities in the US, based on WalletHub’s rankings of 26 different ‘green indicators’, which range from CO2 emissions to legislative support for smart energy policies and green industry jobs WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

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T O P 10

80

Portland Oregon

The largest city in Oregon, Portland is a modern cultural mecca, which translates into city planning initiatives that support its environmentally conscious populace. Known for its high number of cycle lanes and footpaths, the city boasts extensive public transportation investment and over 92,000 acres of green space. According to the Green City Times, the city generates a significant portion of its electricity from renewable energy (mostly hydroelectric), and is on track to reach 100% renewable sources by 2035.

SEPTEMBER 2019

81

09

Sacramento, California

As the seat of legislative power in California, Sacramento’s government has a strong hand in the sustainability of the city. The city has been working on its Climate Action Plan since 2012, pushing initiatives that encourage walking and biking, use of public transit, green building practices, use of solar energy systems, architectural design to reduce heat gain, recycled construction materials, and water conservation.

Californian lawmakers are particularly concerned with climate impact, as the state has seen severe drought and devastating wildfires ravage the landscape in recent years.Â

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T O P 10

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Seattle

Washington One of the nation’s largest technology hubs, Seattle is home to megalithic corporations like Microsoft and Amazon. As such, industry-driven smart planning forms a large part of the city’s sustainability initiatives.

Microsoft, for example, recently announced that it will be investing $500mn to solve the city’s housing crisis – counteracting the rising house prices brought on by the tech boom. Nicknamed ‘the Emerald City’, Seattle ranks in the top 10 cities worldwide for tree cover, and the city has also reached a 90% mix of renewable power in the last few years.

SEPTEMBER 2019

83

Fremont California

Located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, Fremont is a relatively small city that is dedicated to the concept of supporting “the ability of the current generation to meet its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.”

The city’s Carbon Neutrality resolution has laid out a roadmap to achieve a 55% greenhouse gas emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030, and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

The portion of the bay around Fremont is also set aside as a national wildlife refuge, which provides shelter to populations of migrating birds.

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T O P 10

84

Honolulu Hawaii

As an island city, Honolulu’s government, commercial sector and populace are all dedicated to maintaining a sustainable approach to urban planning. Current initiatives from the city’s 2019 sustainability report include: transitioning the city’s public transportation fleet to 100% renewable energy by 2035, making all island ground transportation 100% renewable by 2045, and achieving 100% carbon neutrality for the island of Oahu by 2045. The city administration has also introduced a 70% waste reduction goal by 2030.

SEPTEMBER 2019

85

San Jose California

Located just south of Fremont on the San Francisco Bay, San Jose sits near the heart of California’s technology industry. “Cities across the globe are stepping up to confront climate change and other environmental challenges with the kind of pragmatic, innovative leadership too often missing in the national and international dialogue,” said City Mayor Sam Liccardo. “Here in San José, we appreciate the grave cost of inaction and continue to embrace the opportunity to build a more sustainable community.” In 2018, the city launched its Clean Energy program that allows residents to opt into purchasing 100% renewable energy from the city.

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Irvine

California Situated to the south of the famously polluted Los Angeles, Irvine is a master-planned city in Orange County with a population of over 277,000 people. Built in the 1960s by the Irvine Company, the town is home to several large corporations and universities, including the prestigious UC Irvine. In 2018, the college was recognized as the nation’s number one sustainable campus by the Sierra Club, with the most energy-efficient campus and over 90% efficiency with regard to water usage.Â

SEPTEMBER 2019

87

Washington DC

Ranked highest in the nation by WalletHub for lifestyle, Washington DC frequently ranks highly in polls for both smart and sustainable city initiatives. The next stage of the city’s Sustainable DC plan involves over 200 actions and goals, including increasing renewable energy to make up 50% of the District’s energy supply, dedicating 20 additional acres to the cultivation of food, and reducing racial disparities in life expectancy by 50% by 2032. With the DC population expected to grow and change dramatically by 2032, the city is undergoing radical social experience change aimed at benefiting current and future generations.

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T O P 10

San Francisco CaliforniaÂ

A cultural, commercial and financial center, San Francisco has undergone a rapid reimagining over the past decade as the city has experienced a massive boom 88

in technology jobs. Like in Seattle, this has created tensions in other areas, with house prices and homelessness creating new challenges for the sustainable city planners of today to overcome. The city sends less trash to landfills than any other major US city, according to a CNBC report, and has made significant investments in solar power for municipal buildings – including 60,000 sq. ft of solar paneling on the roof of the San Francisco Convention Center.

SEPTEMBER 2019

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T O P 10

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SEPTEMBER 2019

91

San Diego California

Home to more than 1.4 million people, San Diego is the second most-populous city in California. The city is a multicultural hub of business, finance and scientific research. San Diego is committed to lowering its climate impact while remaining an economic powerhouse. In the city’s 2018 annual Climate Action report, it was revealed that, since 2010, San Diego’s GDP grew by 35%, while greenhouse gas emissions fell by 21%. A major investor in clean technology, investment in green jobs in 2017 rose by 27% in the transportation sector, 19% in zero waste, and 15% in energy and water-efficient buildings.

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92

KEMET ELECTRONICS: WORKING WITH PARTNERS TOWARDS A DIGITAL FUTURE WRITTEN BY

SOPHIE CHAPMAN PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

SEPTEMBER 2019

93

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KEMET ELECTRONICS

CHRIS HALL, VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AT KEMET ELECTRONICS, EXPLAINS HOW THE COMPANY’S WORK WITH PARTNERS HAS IMPROVED ITS EFFICIENCY, AGILITY AND FLEXIBILITY

K

EMET Electronics is a leading manufacturer of capacitors, inductors, magnetics and various other passive components critical

to circuit board assembly,” explains Chris Hall, the company’s Vice President of Global Information 94

Technology. The company operates more than 23 manufacturing facilities and 33 sales offices worldwide, predominantly in Asia and North America. In the last fiscal year ending in March 2019, the company shipped an estimated 54bn components to 188 countries and approximately 180,000 customers. KEMET components meet the needs of fast-moving market sectors including the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G and the electrification of the powertrain and other systems in automotive.

As the company is celebrating its 100-year anniversary, Hall reflects on how far the business has come. “KEMET is very proud of its lineage of innovation and pushing the market and our industry into the next realm of innovation. In light of that, one thing we really try to be innovative about is how we use technology, which will drive our position going SEPTEMBER 2019

95

$1.4.bn Approximate revenue (FY2019)

1919

Year founded

15,000

Approximate number of employees w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

KEMET ELECTRONICS

“ THE COMPANY IS VERY PROUD OF ITS LINEAGE OF INNOVATION AND PUSHING THE MARKET AND OUR INDUSTRY INTO THE NEXT REALM OF THINGS” — Chris Hall, Vice President of Global Information Technology, KEMET Electronics

forward and make us the vendor with whom everyone wants to do business with because of our ability to deliver.

We want to be the emotional favorite of our customers; even if we’re not the lowest price. This mindset is reflected

by KEMET’s mantras: ‘Easy to Design In’ and ‘Easy to Buy From’, the foundation of the company’s strategy.”

Hall joined KEMET in December 2017 to drive the technical transformation required to ensure the company comes out on top as the ‘emotional favorite’ of its customers. He made a point to say it was his role to insure IT

96

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE KEMET STORY’ 97 was aligned with and supporting the

business with technical capabilities;

overall business strategy. In order to

IT is becoming easier to buy from.”

meet this goal, technologies have been

The company has also seen the benefit

introduced to improve efficiency,

of mitigated costs as a result of its

productivity, flexibility and quality to

digital transformation strategy. “The

support the business into the future.

goal is to utilize technology’s ability to

“Digital transformation is bringing us

help manage capacity and make it more

into the 21st century and enabling us

visible in real-time. This will enable the

to not only catch up with digital change,

company to be more productive and

but leapfrog into the future and take

improve quality.”

the lead,” Hall explains. “We’ve become

KEMET is also working to ensure

more agile, and this has allowed us to

it better harnesses its data: “It’s no

respond to and complete projects in

secret that, in order to be a digital

hours or days rather than weeks and

company, you’ve got to be able to

months. We’re able to delight the

capture, harness and analyze data and w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

Helping clients achieve brighter business outcomes

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KEMET ELECTRONICS

100 use it to make decisions as near

quality, delivery and service,” reveals

real-time as possible.” Concurrently,

Hall. “The new smart, stable and

KEMET is researching ways to use

secure wireless infrastructure from

data to drive a lot of its projects;

Aruba, which we’re deploying in more

striving to find ways to operationalize

than 50 locations globally, will allow us

broad, enterprise-wide artificial

to leverage gigabit wireless connectivity

intelligence (AI) and machine learning

to streamline operations, support

(ML) projects.

enhanced collaboration and innovations

“As KEMET looks to the future, we

in customer service as well as being

know that secure, pervasive mobility

prepared for technological advances.”

and IoT technologies will be key to

By utilizing Aruba Central and Clear-

maintaining our position as the

Pass Policy Manager, KEMET can unify

preferred global supplier of electronic

network operations and assure a

component solutions for customers

security platform that simplifies the

demanding the highest standards of

deployment, management and service

SEPTEMBER 2019

assurance of its wired and wireless environments through a single pane of glass. Similar to Aruba enabling its LAN for the future, the company’s partnership with Open Systems is revolutionizing its ability to ensure QoS throughout its WAN and provide the needed performance levels users expect of the cloud. These partnerships in KEMET’s new infrastructure will allow the company to build upon its 100-year tradition of enabling some of the most significant technological advances in history and continue 101 E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Chris Hall Chris Hall has spent 19 years in the after-market services and electronics manufacturing industries. Rising through the ranks at JABIL, Chris developed a strong understanding of supply chain management, lean manufacturing, and cross-functional leadership principles. After 14 years at Jabil, Chris was part of the iQor acquisition of JABIL’s After-Market Services division and was promoted to Vice President of IT Solutions for the newly combined IT department. He spent three years developing new technology to support iQor’s joint ventures and general corporate strategy to become a Digital Enterprise. For the past 18 months, Chris has led KEMET Electronics Corporation’s IT transformation as VP of Global IT, where he oversees all aspects of IT strategy including infrastructure, systems architecture, and development.

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KEMET and Open Systems— True Partners in Digital Transformation Driven by a rich history of innovation, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, KEMET manufactures the electronic components that power our world. Under the leadership of Chris Hall, Vice President, Global IT, KEMET is executing the cloud-first strategy that provides a true strategic advantage.

Together, KEMET and Open Systems are architecting a digital transformation— working collaboratively to design a managed SD-WAN infrastructure that provides the capacity, speed, and visibility needed to best support current and future network demands.

The Open Systems platform provides KEMET’s 15,000 employees better access to global data and intelligence and delivers secure cloud-based apps to the entire organization.

“Open Systems gives us visibility to network traffic and the ability to

control quality of service into various clouds in our environment,” said Chris Hall. He continued, “In working with Open Systems, we’ve been able to experience the significant cost savings and reduced IT capital expenditures that SD-WAN in general promises, but a lot of companies aren’t able to realize.”

As the company considers the “smart” technologies of the future like blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT), KEMET’s newly optimized infrastructure is poised to deliver a connected workplace for years to come.

Hall continued, “Open Systems has enabled us to expand our perimeter.

As we deliver more applications to the cloud, we look forward to working with them as true partners in our digital transformation.”

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘KEMET – DRIVING INTO THE FUTURE’ 105

“ FOR A CENTURY, KEMET HAS REDEFINED THE POSSIBILITIES OF ELECTRONICS AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO FOR OUR NEXT 100 YEARS” — Chris Hall, Vice President of Global Information Technology, KEMET Electronics

driving toward our goal of being the reliable partner our business needs.

KEMET has also worked with Sirius to help with local area networks (LAN) upgrades in order to transport data from individual test devices to clients’ machines. The company must certify the data is appropriately monitored and traffic is segregated, enabling quality performance of services that are necessary to drive enterprisegrade IoT projects. “It’s very important that we get the infrastructure foundation of our digital transformation correct,” w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

KEMET ELECTRONICS

106

SEPTEMBER 2019

“ IT’S NO SECRET THAT, IN ORDER TO BE A DIGITAL COMPANY, YOU’VE GOT TO BE ABLE TO CAPTURE, HARNESS AND ANALYZE DATA AND USE IT TO MAKE DECISIONS AS NEAR REAL-TIME AS POSSIBLE” — Chris Hall, Vice President of Global Information Technology, KEMET Electronics 107 says Hall. “However, as well as infrastructure, we must also address how we actually move data and make it available to disparate applications, including AI. This is where Software AG comes in – the company is the information highway through which all that data integration is going to happen.

Whether it’s collecting data from our shop floor, pulling in data from our ERP systems, or being able to utilize data coming in from customers and vendors, it must be reliable. Software AG’s Webmethods platform gives us the ability to work in real-time.” w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

KEMET ELECTRONICS

108

“ WITH THE EXPLOSION OF DEVICES, OUR PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS WILL FUEL THE TECHNOLOGIES AND INDUSTRIES OF TOMORROW” — Chris Hall, Vice President of Global Information Technology, KEMET Electronics

As the company continues towards its digital future, Hall reveals what to expect: “For a century, KEMET has redefined the possibilities of electronics and we will continue to do so for our next 100 years. With the explosion of devices, our products and ​solutions will fuel the technologies and industries of tomorrow.” As one of the world’s most trusted partners for innovative component solutions, KEMET will be at the forefront of the manufacturing

SEPTEMBER 2019

109

industry’s digital revolution. “Leading

technologies. I’m privileged to be part of

into the future and the next five years,

KEMET, and excited to lead the digital

we have a continued focus on our

transformation that’s being prioritized

mission in making the world a better,

to make this vision possible.”

safer and more connected place to live,” he adds. “This will be achieved through our technologies and materials science – these will be critical in redefining industries, such as the electrification of automotive, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Industrial Automation, AI and alternative energy w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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Driving innovation and inclusivity through digital transformation WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

ANDY TURNER

SEPTEMBER 2019

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A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer at Arizona State University (ASU)’s University Technology Office (UTO), discusses the tech and strategies that have defined ASU’s modern, inclusive and prestigious reputation

A

rizona State University (ASU) has enjoyed a remarkable uptick in reputation in recent years, and its success comes

down to the efficacy of its digital transformation.

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“Over the past several years, specifically the last six, the university has grown exponentially in terms of improving both its academic presence and innovation schedule,” says Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer at ASU’s University Technology Office (UTO).

“Case in point: over the last four years, US News and World Report has rated ASU as the most innovative university in the country, ahead of giants like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford.” Evans credits this meteoric shift to the vision of ASU President, Michael Crow. “He has set forth a strategy to truly transform the entire university, both in the way we do business and how higher education works,” she says. “The vision looks to change the model of institutions fundamentally grounding themselves in exclusivity.

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A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

“ At ASU, we are proud of who we include.We are looking to give every student an opportunity” — Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer, ASU UTO 114

SEPTEMBER 2019

At ASU, we are proud of not who we exclude, but who we include.

We are looking to give every student an opportunity.”

This strategy – which has involved the introduction of new course program structures, remote study options and partnerships with companies such as Starbucks and Uber – has led to a surge in the university’s student headcount.

“We’re now climbing above 40,000 online students, and this puts the entire ASU student count at above

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘EMPOWER – HIGHLIGHTS OF ASU IT PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY DAY’ 115 111,000 in total,” says Evans. This

is not a simple ‘lift and shift’, noting

growth would not have been sustain-

that the transition has involved the

able with the university’s traditional

establishment of a DevSecOps

infrastructure, and tackling this

methodology, the use of automation-

challenge is the crux of Evans’s work

based tech and a people-oriented

at the UTO. “We need creative and

focus on reskilling existing staff

innovative ways to address this

to make the most of the changes.

demand, deliver excellent customer

“We have 300 code-based robots

service and keep a mindful eye toward

transitioning many of our on-prem

fiscal responsibilities.” To meet the

resources to the cloud without the

computational demands of such

need for human intervention, and this

a large student body, ASU is in the

frees up our staff to start developing

process of transferring most of its

new skills.”

on-premise infrastructure to cloud

Realigning existing staff with new

solutions. Evans stresses that this

processes is vital to the wider change w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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“ Bringing our teams together and having them vested in this transition has been as crucial as some of the technical projects we have delivered” — Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer, ASU UTO

management strategy, which Evans earmarks as the keystone of the digital transformation. To that end, ASU Chief Culture Officer, Christine Whitney Sanchez, has collaborated with her throughout their transformative efforts. “She and I have partnered to align our strategic goals and objectives, as well as give the organization a vehicle of empowerment,” says Evans.

“Bringing our teams together and having them vested in this transition has been as crucial as some of the technical projects we have delivered, if not more so. Through this cultural

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Dr Jess Evans Dr Jess Evans leads the Operations and Digital Transformation (ODT) team within the University Technology Office (UTO) at ASU. Through a transparent and collaborative approach to servant leadership, Jess works with her team to advance the mission of the university. The ODT portfolio spans multiple UTO departments that includes; network, server, storage, data center, public and private cloud services, identity and access management, enterprise architecture, enterprise systems, project and portfolio management, experience center (help center), desk-side services, customer engagement teams, training and event services, classroom support, new construction design, all budget and HR within UTO, and UTO service management systems.

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A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

118

transformation, we’ve given multiple

be enabling short-term success.

teams a voice and empowered them

“Sustainable success comes from

to assist with shaping how they work

working on culture, being credible,

in a truly agile way. We are iterating,

and leading in an intentional way.

we are learning, and we’re doing it

We, the UTO executive leadership

together as a group.” Evans says that

team, have made great strides

the effectiveness of ASU’s digital

in transforming how we operate,

transformation hinges on the strength

and we’re seeing the results permeate

of its cultural transformation. Any

throughout the organization.”

organization seeking to leapfrog a

Part of the challenge of effective

potent change management strategy

change management at ASU is

must address culture or they will only

reflected in a significant technological

SEPTEMBER 2019

119

opportunity: the vastness of the

an ever-expanding student body and

university’s network. In Arizona,

the Internet of Things (IoT) devices

ASU’s core footprint is comprised

comprising a growing smart campus

of four major campuses in the greater

infrastructure, has necessitated the

Phoenix metro area with an expanding

advent of ASU’s NextGen Network.

campus in Lake Havasu. In addition

Evans inherited an environment

to this state-based presence, the

whereby network operations were

organization has a range of small

wholly outsourced to a service

satellite academic areas in Washington

provider, and bringing that network

DC and California, with a another one

into direct control offers myriad

due in Hawaii soon. This geographic

benefits. “With the goal of having a

range, coupled with the demand of

hybrid model, ASU will have traditional w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

strategy, technology, transformation.

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121

engineers back on the table to lead

functions of the network to manage

architecture and design while

the workload of the university’s

collaborating with multiple partners

smart campus ambitions becomes

to hone our strategies and ensure our

significantly easier. “FY2019 was a

larger portfolio of services is enabled.

busy year for the network operations

The unique difference of this collabo-

teams,” Evans elaborates. “ASU

rative structure contractually requires

embarked on a very aggressive and

all parties (external and internal to

innovative approach to soliciting

ASU) to hold each other accountable

vendors through the RFP process.

for SLAs and performance metrics.”

The creative restructuring of how we

By bringing the network under

ask vendors to collaborate with other

the UTO’s influence, tailoring the

competing vendors to package the w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

£500.mn+ Total research expenditures 2018

1885

Year founded

17,000+

Approximate number of employees 122

SEPTEMBER 2019

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connecting and protecting

h y e t e c h n e t w o r k s . c o m

“Our goal is to have a completely infrastructure-free network in the long term, and that is truly radical” — Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer, ASU UTO

ultimate solution was a first for the procurement and technology disciplines. Through meticulous rigor, ASU selected the top solution and transitioned to new service providers within one fiscal year. A monumental amount of proposal reviews, contract negotiations and transition planning occurred through a large team of ASU members, along with many team members from our new partners. New service providers took control on 28 June 2019.”

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A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

The vision of the NextGen Network doesn’t end there, however. “If your network isn’t designed to handle that influx of traffic, you’ll come to a crashing halt, so we are going to design a software-defined network (SDN),” says Evans. “We’re holding a proof of concept ‘bake off’ between vendors to see who has the best SDN solution in the market, and we intend to elect a provider and put the first instance into production by January 2020,” she explains. In the long-term, 126

Evans says that the aim is to achieve something that no other known higher education establishment in the world has yet managed: a fully-fledged, serverless architecture. “Our goal is to have a predominantly infrastructure free footprint in the long-term, and that is truly radical: we will leverage our code and developer power to provision hardware both in the cloud and within strategic local physical locations. These goals are reliant on a well-designed and robust network that will handle the influx of large data traversing over the network.

We plan to hire engineers to help us develop and build these NextGen SEPTEMBER 2019

127

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trust a leader with global presence and local touch

technologies in partnership with whichever SDN partner we select.

Through this, we will become the first full-fledged higher education SDN on the planet. This transformation is truly cutting-edge.”

The breadth of ASU’s smart campus achievements and ambitions will grow exponentially with the establishment of the robust NextGen Network, but thus far they are well encapsulated in the organization’s smart stadium.

“We will become the first full-fledged higher education SDN on the planet.

This transformation is truly cutting-edge” — Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer, ASU UTO

Anyone attending games at the stadium must have ASU’s mobile app, 129

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘INSPIRING FUTURE EXPLORERS AT ASU’

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A R I Z O N A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

powered through a partnership with Ticketmaster, for ticketing purposes.

This monumental relationship saw Ticketmaster open its API to ASU, revolutionizing the ticketing operations at the stadium and entirely removing paper tickets from the process. More widely, the app has been integrated with Canvas, ASU’s learning management system, to offer students quick access to their schedules, campus maps, information regarding financial aid and more. Under the leadership of Chris Richardson, Deputy CIO 130

for Development, Mobility and Smart Cities, the app has been a resounding success: it has thus far enjoyed over 80,000 downloads from students, with an expanding focus to include faculty and staff features in the coming year.

Not only that, but preliminary IoT solutions have been prototyped in select suites at the stadium to monitor trash volume, stadium footfall and the frequency of guests sitting and standing.

Looking forward, this breed of intelligence and data gathering will be expanded in earnest across ASU’s locations. “The development team will help us with more IoT capabilities,” says Evans. “They have built a facial recognition program that will, in the SEPTEMBER 2019

“You need to transform your culture, your people,your back office processes.You need to be creative, and those changes must be made as a group” — Dr Jess Evans, Chief Operating and Digital Transformation Officer, ASU UTO

long-term, be combined with IoT

services,” concludes Evans. “You

programs to improve safety and

need to transform your culture, your

security on campus.” A greater

people and your back office process-

degree of smart lighting, vehicle traffic

es. You need to be creative, and those

and parking monitoring and more are

changes must be made as a group –

also in the works, and each piece of

a holistic end-to-end approach –

tech is set to upgrade the campus

in order to be sustainable.”

experience in a meaningful way.

Ultimately, this quality applies to ASU’s digital transformation across the board. “Digital transformation is not just transforming your digital

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Saving hospitals Saving jobs Saving lives SEPTEMBER 2019

Prime Healthcare’s digital transformation WRITTEN BY

AMBER DONOVAN-STEVENS PRODUCED BY

CRAIG DANIELS

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P R I M E H E A LT H C A R E

Will Conaway is the Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology at Prime Healthcare. Here, he shares with us how Prime Healthcare saves hospitals through digital disruption

“I 134

’ve been fortunate to work with several large organizations and with many remarkable people,” opens Will Conaway,

Prime Healthcare’s Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology. “Prime Healthcare’s hospitals have received hundreds of awards for clinical excellence, including more than 200 in the last year alone. Prime’s hospitals have ranked among the “100 Top Hospitals” 47 times, according to IBM Watson Health. This is a reflection of the commitment and dedication that our hospitals and clinicians make to our patients every day.”

In addition, Prime Healthcare has more Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients for four consecutive years (2016-2019) than any other health system in the country, according to Healthgrades.

Before his move to Prime Healthcare, Conaway worked with several more of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. “A little over a year and a half ago, I decided to join Prime Healthcare SEPTEMBER 2019

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P R I M E H E A LT H C A R E

“ To say the sky’s the limit for healthcare technology would be limiting” 136

— Will Conaway, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology

SEPTEMBER 2019

because it was a good fit both professionally and culturally,” he says. “I had a plan to become CIO of a large and distinguished healthcare organization, and I’m delighted to be part of Prime Healthcare.” Since Conaway arrived at Prime Healthcare, he has overseen significant growth of the IT department: “There is a renewed positive attitude, an increased vigor, a desire to be a celebrated department.

The entire IT leadership team has internalized the goal of becoming a world class IT department.”

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PRIME HEALTHCARE - WE’LL BE BY YOUR SIDE’ 137

THE TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY THAT SAVES HOSPITALS Conaway states that Prime Healthcare is adept at saving hospitals, and that expertise is at the center of IT and the organization as a whole. “When you consider that Prime Healthcare has gone from one hospital in 2001 to 45 in 2019, you can clearly see this is part of the organization’s culture and DNA,” he explains. Though Conaway is unsure when the next acquisition will be, he says that IT is integral to this decision-making process. He strongly feels that technology should be w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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“ We are very fortunate from a corporate level to have CMOs who are very interested and active in technology” — Will Conaway, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology

considered a part of all strategies, as do his fellow C-level executives.

“We are very fortunate to have corporate CMOs who are very interested and active in technology, along with divisional Presidents and CEOs who are engaged.” He goes on: “IT strategies only work when IT and other executive leaders communicate well with each other and establish agreedupon goals and objectives lucidly.”

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

139

Will Conaway Will Conaway is the CIO and Vice President at Prime Healthcare. Having held two long-term positions with Providence Health and Services and Dignity Health, he has extensive experience working with executive leaders across the country to identify and tackle current and future industry trends and challenges.

Concurrent with his executive roles in healthcare, Conaway is an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s ILR School, working with masters-level students in leadership, psychology, and negotiations.

He also serves on the Forbes Technology Council as well as an extensive number of boards across the Industry, and has participated in several Forbes Healthcare Summits.

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EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER CARE

many external forces.” He emphasizes

Conaway says that IT has internal

that consumers in the healthcare

and external customers: the patients

industry often become customers out

and their families, and the providers.

of necessity, and can be apprehensive

“Compared to 2001, Prime Healthcare’s

and anxious about interactions.

customers have nearly unlimited access

When it comes to technology and

to information, and they are much more

improving customer satisfaction,

informed about their healthcare needs

Conaway says that the Internet of

and expectations,” he says. “Patients

Things (IoT) has provided a new level

today tend to be more active in their

of personalization and convenience.

healthcare. As with any industry, the

Yet, despite healthcare’s position as a

needs of the customer will drive

hot market for technology, a business

changes, but at times IT in healthcare

needs to wait for trending products

can’t deliver to meet those expectations

to reach a reasonable price before

as quickly as would be desired due to

deciding to adopt. One innovation

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P R I M E H E A LT H C A R E

142

“ Many experts see virtual reality as a US$4bn business by the end of 2020” — Will Conaway, Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Technology

SEPTEMBER 2019

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘SAVING HOSPITALS, SAVING JOBS, SAVING LIVES’

reaching this point is virtual reality (VR)

IN-HOUSE INNOVATION

headsets, which Conaway has been

Prime Healthcare develops its innova-

evaluating for potential use in pediatrics.

tions in-house. “You don’t see this

“There is promising evidence with this

often in a healthcare system setting,”

technology in pain management, and

Conaway says. He is proud to confirm

many experts see VR as a US$4bn

that there are currently 30 proprietary

business by the end of 2020,” he says.

applications being used daily, and

“It’s exhilarating that healthcare IT

several more being rolled out across

allows non-providers to improve

the company’s sites. “These include

outcomes, and empowers providers

applications such as KryptosText

with opportunities to not only help

secure texting, a project management

their patients, but all patients and even

intake tool, a physician rounding tool,

future patients with the insights

and an infection prevention and control

gleaned from IT.”

application.” The organization also w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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P R I M E H E A LT H C A R E

has more applications that will improve the patient experience, as well as a budgeting tool. “We have an entire department dedicated to innovation, and we have recently launched our Innovative Design Enhancement Approval (IDEA) Portal that allows cross-team, cross-continent, and cross-level pollination, along with direct access to Senior Leadership approval for new initiatives.

We are anticipating great things for

•P rime Healthcare has been awarded the Top 100 Hospitals in the nation 47 times, including in 2019.

•P rime Healthcare has gone from one hospital in 2001 to 45 in 2019.

•E very two days the world creates as much data as it did from the beginning of time until 2003.

this innovation.”

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P R I M E H E A LT H C A R E

2001

Year founded

A PROMISING FUTURE Looking ahead, Prime Healthcare will build upon its strong foundations in the US. “To say the sky’s the limit for

40,000

Approximate number of employees

HQ

Ontario, California 148

SEPTEMBER 2019

healthcare technology would be limiting.” Conaway says. He affirms that this is driven by the collective belief of employees across the company and reflected in its mission statement: ‘to save and improve hospitals so that they can deliver compassionate, quality care to patients and better healthcare for communities.’ It’s a vision that he

describes as “truly peerless in the

obstacles into opportunities succeed.”

healthcare industry,” and one that has

With the commitment to empathetic

“created a family feel at Prime Health-

customer service, and building upon

care that unites all employees.”

the technical excellence of its IT

On a personal level, Conaway has big

department, Prime Healthcare will

plans for his department: “For Prime

continue to revolutionize the health-

Healthcare’s IT department, I will

care industry.

also focus on volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA).

The ability to be prepared and run scenarios will help us stay relevant.

Experience has taught me that there will be problems, and those who turn 149

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150

The existential business of digital transformation WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

SEPTEMBER 2019

PRODUCED BY

CRAIG DANIELS

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PWC

PwC’s Sub Mahapatra guides us through the existential nature of digital transformation, offering his advisory expertise on matters of cloud computing and cybersecurity

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C

ompanies who fail to digitize are quickly left behind, but it is not always clear how a digital transformation is best achieved.

Enter professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who are seeing an increasing demand for its expertise in areas such as cybersecurity and cloud computing. Management Consultant Sub Mahapatra has been with PwC’s New York network for more than six years.

A director at the company, he specializes in digital, cloud and cybersecurity transformations for the global consultancy’s clients. “I started my career as a software developer,” says Mahapatra. “I’m still a coder by heart; I love building things. And that’s basically what we do – internally as well as externally.

We help resolve complex issues and identify opportunities across various industries.

In this day and age, we are solving our clients’ business problems with technology.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

$41.3.bn+ Approximate revenue

1998

Year founded

250,000+ Approximate number of employees

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PWC

ADVISING No two of PwC’s client engagements

“ Data is everything these days” — Sub Mahapatra, Director, PWC

are the same. In cases where the company has a pre-existing relationship with the client it can begin with a simple conversation. “If we have an existing relationship in place, then we’re way ahead in the curve,” says Mahapatra. “They pull us in to talk about what problems they are facing, and how we can help them. If you don’t have that relationship in place, we have various ways to approach. For example, our BXT – business, experience and technology – sessions for discovering

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SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PWC GLOBAL EXPERIENCE CENTERS’ 155 and exploring the right solutions for

forms, with engagements varying in

their complex problems. We work with

size based upon exactly what PwC has

our clients to clearly understand the

been brought in to achieve across the

problem we are trying to solve. Do they

spectrum of cloud, AI, data analytics

just want to get into the digital world,

and cybersecurity. The constant is

or do they want to solve a business

PwC’s commitment to continued

problem – increase their revenue, or

support. “We have a very broad

expand their customer base? We work

offering from an advisory perspective,

with them to understand exactly what

but we don’t just strategize and then

problems we are trying to solve by

go away. We are there to help the client

brainstorming with the right stakeholders

realize the value we are trying to

in the room. Then, we lay out a plan for

envision for them.” Mahapatra provides

them: this is what we think you need to

a case study referencing a recent

do, and this is where we can help.”

engagement with a large telecom

This help can take many different

company, which is rolling out 5G. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

PWC

156

Aside from the technical and logistical

secure the network, they want to use

aspects of achieving the rollout as

cryptography and blockchain. Addi-

quickly as possible, Mahapatra and his

tionally, they want to provide smart city

team are also ensuring the introduction

solutions as a part of their 5G offering.

of all the associated technology suites

Going forward there is the opportunity

contained within a modern product

to bring a whole suite of products for

launch. “Similar to various industry

all the different areas.” It is PwC’s role,

players, most of the telecom compa-

therefore, to help clients build efficient,

nies are now changing their business

interconnected solutions that enable

models to be technology companies,”

them to take their offering as a whole

says Mahapatra. “Whatever data they

to the market, as well as adhering to

gather via 5G, they want to leverage to

data privacy regulations and protecting

do more – and because they want to

an individual’s personal data.

SEPTEMBER 2019

DATA AND THE CLOUD Mahapatra details the holistic outlook companies now require in the area of cloud solutions, where previously they may have focused on a single platform.

Only by having access to services across the spectrum can the strengths of each be harnessed. “We have various different public cloud vendor partners, primarily AWS, Azure and GCP, which is now Anthos. Initially, we trained our people for a specific platform. However, these days clients are looking for multi-cloud solutions, or a hybrid solution architecture. A lot of our Fortune 100 clients are saying, ‘can you provide us a perspective to aid us E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sub Mahapatra Sub is a Director in PwC’s advisory unit where he focuses primarily on the technology, infocommunications, entertainment, media and communications sectors.

His focus areas include IT process reengineering, finance transformation, product development, program portfolio management, project management, change management, mobile services and process reengineering.

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“ A ll the telecom companies are now changing their business models to be technology companies” — Sub Mahapatra, Director, PWC

analytics is an essential competency.

We have our own homegrown tools for data analysis with AI models on top of that. Based on the client situation, we use our internal data analytics tool to make sense of data through AI and machine learning.”

One of the main benefits of PwC’s cloud offerings is the associated reduction in cost. By moving away from hardware, expenditure moves from a capital to an operating cost – but Mahapatra points out that it is worth planning for an orderly transition, for a number of reasons. “A lot of clients are taking small steps, and going from hybrid cloud to multi-cloud, or maybe a specific cloud vendor. Mostly, however, they are more efficiently deciding what exactly they want to migrate, and what

in cherry picking services from all of

kind of things they want to keep in the

these different vendors?’, as they all

cloud versus what they want to keep

have pros and cons.”

on their own premises. We are helping

Ease of data processing comes

our clients not only migrate to the

hand in hand with cloud computing,

cloud in a phased manner but also to

integrating disparate data sources in

choose the right cloud native function-

a central location. These sources can

alities in the areas of AI, ML, IoT, etc.

include proprietary PwC software as

so that they can reap the benefits of

well as focus groups, interviews and

the cloud without putting their data at

surveys. “Data is everything these

risk. That’s where our expertise comes

days,” says Mahapatra. “On top of that,

into the picture.” w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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PWC

CYBERSECURITY The presence of data in cloud storage makes PwC’s cybersecurity offerings even more crucial. “These days, no one is safe even after having a proper cybersecurity governance and risk management solution in place. There could be hackers in your enterprise systems, and you don’t know.”

Mahapatra points to a number of solutions, starting with the cybersecurity and privacy specifications built into the cloud vendors utilized by PwC, which PwC integrates into its clients’ existing 160

cybersecurity environment. PwC is also always on the lookout for the next generation of cybersecurity technologies. Currently, the company is looking into employing Exabeam’s security information and event management software. “We have seen their demos, and we may want to explore leveraging them for our User Behavior Analytics initiative. They have a great UI and analytics platform, and we would like to explore it further to see if they’re open to developing their tools in different areas, as well as having some kind of structure in place that would allow PwC and Exabeam go to market together.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

Beyond that, Mahapatra details PwC’s concept of ‘Crown Jewels’.

“We find what kind of data our clients want to keep to themselves, and the extra security they want to have. We work with them to find out where that data is residing, if that data is at risk, or if it is in transit, and we create a whole data protection layer alongside it.” Such prized data requires the most robust solutions, such as encryption, but Mahapatra warns that there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach.

“Encryption always creates several business problems. The most important are impacts to performance. In cases of large data volumes we usually talk about pseudonymization instead.

That is where we put security at a field or column level; a more dynamic, data-centric approach. Obviously, we also find out if there is any PII data to ensure we recommend the right data governance framework to our clients.”

This is one of many areas where PwC’s specialization comes into play, ensuring that data is matched with the correct cybersecurity techniques.

This in turn contributes to PwC’s growing business in the sector. “Our cybersecurity practice is growing by w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

161

PWC

20% at least, year over year,” says Mahapatra. “Clients look for our help because they want to understand what kind of benchmark data we have; where the market is going and what necessary steps they need to take to avoid disruption and obtain a competitive advantage. They also want to validate the particular strategy which they have in mind, and we can advise them if it is the right area to invest in, as we have been providing end-to-end solutions for a lot of different customers in this area.”

162

No matter the technical prowess, technological solutions cannot be instituted and maintained without internal support, and Mahapatra

“ It’s not about shiny objects.

Tinkering is insufficient” — Sub Mahapatra, Director, PWC

emphasizes the need for dialogue within all levels of an organization.

“Ten years ago, it was just the CIO who was discussing digital transformation.

Today, we engage with the CEO and sometimes the board as well. The first thing you need to get is senior executive buy-in, then put the strategy in place, and finally have a plan to execute that strategy.” Such is the demand for, and necessity of, designing and developing digital transformation

SEPTEMBER 2019

163

solutions that one of Mahapatra’s

them understand that it’s increasingly

biggest challenges is in hiring and

clear that we are entering into a highly

retaining the highly specialized talent

disruptive extinction event. Enterprises

required to drive digital transformations.

that don’t transform themselves will

Ultimately, for Mahapatra and PwC,

disappear completely.”

digital transformation is not about small efficiency optimizations. It is about survival. “It’s not about shiny objects,” says Mahapatra. “Tinkering is insufficient. CIOs should be talking about it all the time with their boards and C-suite, mobilizing the entire company, because tech is existential. I’m trying to help w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

164

Vision of excellence: when innovation meets enterprisegrade digital signage WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

CRAIG DANIELS

SEPTEMBER 2019

165

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FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE

Sebastian Gnagnarella, Chief Technology Officer at Four Winds Interactive, explains how the innovative digital signage disruptor is transforming multiple industries

L

ook around you. Regardless of location, there’s every chance that in the last 24 hours, you have received information from

visual communications technology. Today, digital signage makes an impact wherever people work, shop, travel and learn – the technology, from high166

impact video walls to innovative wayfinding touchscreens, is at the forefront of the digital-first world.

Few companies are as pioneering in their respective fields as Four Winds Interactive (FWI), the world’s leading software provider for enterprise-grade digital signage networks. The organization’s cloud-based software platform, recognized as the most advanced and flexible digital signage solution available on the market, powers hundreds of thousands of screens worldwide. FWI’s digital signage platform powers the majority of the hotels on the Las Vegas strip; they are behind every deal screen used by Visa and the digital communications on Royal Caribbean Cruise ships; and, last but not least, they are being used to drive the digital workplace transformation of leading businesses worldwide.

SEPTEMBER 2019

167

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FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE

“ We have the most powerful digital signage platform available” — Sebastian Gnagnarella, Chief Technology Officer, Four Winds Interactive

“We have the most powerful digital signage platform available,” says Sebastian Gnagnarella, Chief Technology Officer of FWI. Having joined the business a little over a year ago, Gnagnarella has overseen its growth as part of his wider focus on FWI’s overall technology and design strategy.

Since development of the company’s cloud platform began in 2012, Gnagnarella states, “Our focus is on ‘pure cloud’. We use the latest cloud technology to help us scale and to ensure that we offer the very best customer user experience, taking

168

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘WELCOME TO FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE’ 169 digital signage to the next level. The way in which we use technology really is a huge differentiator in the sector – there’s no other company that’s innovating in the same way.”

FWI Cloud is a collaborative data management solution providing a multi-channel interface, displaying any type of content on any screen within a customer’s digital signage network.

It is, says the company, “Built with an obsession for the user experience and an unyielding passion to make content contribution and management easy”.

For Gnagnarella, this is the overriding w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE

170 factor in every decision. “Our UX and product teams are deeply involved with our customers, looking at how they engage with and use software, analyzing trends in digital signage, understanding their feedback and working on several iterations of new features just to be sure they are the very best they can be. In addition, our professional services team is adept at really understanding what the customer needs. And all of that combined gives us a platform that absolutely delivers for our customers, and for our customers’ customers.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

“ The way in which we use technology really is a huge differentiator in the sector – there’s no other company that’s innovating in the same way” — Sebastian Gnagnarella, Chief Technology Officer, Four Winds Interactive

Unlike many competitors, which

the same software to build a specific

tailor bespoke solutions to specific

application for a cruise ship, a flight

customer needs, FWI provides all

information board, a wayfinder or an

customers with every feature of its

employee engagement sign. A quick

software. It is, says Gnagnarella,

search on Google will bring up plenty of

a testament to FWI Cloud. “It’s the

companies that say they provide digital

difference between offering a product

signage, but there are only a few, if any,

and a platform. I believe we have the

that offer a platform like ours that can

most powerful digital signage authoring

be scaled as easily across application

tool available, which allows us to use

types as it is across locations.”

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sebastian Gnagnarella Sebastian is responsible for developing and implementing Four Winds Interactive’s overall technology and design vision and strategy, overseeing Product and Platform Development as well as Sales Engineering and Digital Experience. His mission is to develop world-class technology through the implementation of state-of-the-art best practices and methodologies, with a clear focus on building applications that drive the business. Sebastian has been passionate about software development since the age of six and has more than 15 years of experience in consulting for Fortune 500 companies, designing and executing complex technology projects as well as leading multi-talented teams. Mr. Gnagnarella also holds positions in Advisory Boards for companies like Salesforce and ViaWest. Prior to joining FWI, he was Inspirato’s Senior Vice President of Technology and IT leading Technology, Product and IT, and he held a variety of technical and management roles at TeleTech Holdings including Chief Architect, Director of Technology and Senior Manager of Client Solutions.

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FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE

172

SEPTEMBER 2019

2005

Year founded

450

Approximate number of employees

173

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As part of his role, Gnagnarella has

signage to better engage employees,

overseen the growth of FWI’s develop-

increase productivity and decrease

ment team, which has doubled from

common workplace challenges.

around 40 to 80 under his leadership.

Gnagnarella explains that the company

This team takes on everything in house,

is particularly strong in these areas,

he says, working across engineering,

with three solutions available to the

product and UX work. Development is

market. These include FWI® ENGAGE™,

ongoing, with new features “that every

a suite of solutions aimed at employee

customer will benefit from,” released

engagement, digital meeting room

as often as every two weeks. Along-

management solution FWI® BOOKED,

side this, come larger updates and

and FWI® DIRECT, which offers a

launches every quarter.

flexible wayfinding and directory

A recent area of focus for the

solution. “When a workforce is

business is workplace digital transfor-

engaged, companies are more

mation, which involves the use of digital

profitable, people are happier and

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘FWI ENGAGE’

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175

FOUR WINDS INTERACTIVE

176

“ We have a platform that has been tried and tested over 14 years and that absolutely delivers for our customers, and for our customers’ customers” — Sebastian Gnagnarella, Chief Technology Officer, Four Winds Interactive

SEPTEMBER 2019

work is carried out more effectively,” he explains. And FWI practices what it preaches, too. A project commenced in 2010 to create an internal visual communications network for FWI’s employees led to an employee engagement rate 133% higher than the national average.

A further mark of the company’s success was its addition to Vista Equity Partners’ portfolio in early 2019. FWI is the only digital signage provider in the portfolio, which hosts more than 60 of the world’s leading SaaS companies.

Vista only focuses on high-growth,

177 market leading companies and

networks and “evolving with the

Gnagnarella describes the investment

technology ecosystem” that already

as a great differentiator for the

exists. “New technologies such as

business that will allow it to “invest

AI and machine learning are being

even more in our technology develop-

considered for future development,”

ment, but also to continue our upward

he adds. “However, in the meantime,

trajectory of market domination in the

we will continue to ensure that every

fields in which we wish to lead.”

feature we add to the platform goes

To achieve this, Gnagnarella says that the key aim for the coming years

towards ensuring we remain the strongest in the market.”

is to continue developing the FWI Cloud platform, while simultaneously creating tools that are intuitive to use, breaking down barriers for collaboration on enterprise-wide digital signage w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D 178

leveraging supply chain collaboration and procurement consortiums for a successful supply chain WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY

CHARLOTTE CLARKE

SEPTEMBER 2019

179

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C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D

Tom Kruse, Global Head, Supply Chain Collaboration & Consortiums, Global Supply Chain Management at Corning Incorporated, discusses the importance of supply chain collaboration amidst its transformation journey in the manufacturing industry

A 180

s one of the leading innovators in materials science worldwide, Corning Incorporated is used to being in the

ascendency. Established in 1851, Corning has become a major heavyweight in the glass manufacturing space, with its products used in applications including smartphones, automotive interiors, large-size televisions and displays, and even pharmaceutical packaging. Tom Kruse, Global Head, Supply Chain Collaboration & Consortiums of Corning, understands the importance of procurement to his firm’s operations and believes it is considered a vital priority. “As a manufacturing company, supply chain and procurement are front and center of everything that we do,” says Kruse. “It’s an old adage, but every dollar that we save contributes directly to the bottom line of the company and reduces our adjusted manufacturing costs.”

SEPTEMBER 2019

181

“ As a materials science and technology manufacturing company, supply chain and procurement is front and center to everything that we do” — Tom Kruse, Global Head, Supply Chain Collaboration & Consortiums, Corning Incorporated

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C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D

182

Corning has a range of business

the suppliers via e-auctions and nego-

lines including products that serve and

tiations,” he says. “You can do value

enable the latest trends in the optical

engineering, optimize and manufacture

communications, mobile consumer

products more effectively, but what

electronics, life sciences vessels, auto-

we’ve found is the next threshold is

motive, and display markets. “Overall,

really to work with other like-minded

we manufacture a really mixed product

organizations and highlight the impor-

line with our clients, customers and

tance of supply chain collaboration

other multinational companies in mind,”

and to leverage procurement consor-

Kruse explains.

tiums where applicable. We can look

He stresses that the key to success is

at it from two ways in our collabora-

a clear procurement strategy. “There’s

tion: either combine our volumes if

only so many times you can keep going

our products align and go to market

to the well and reducing costs from

together or approach it from a suppli-

SEPTEMBER 2019

183

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Tom Kruse Mr. Tom Kruse is currently based in Singapore where he is the Global Head of Supply Chain Collaboration & Consortiums within the Global Supply Management organization at Corning. Mr. Kruse has over 20 years of strategic procurement and supply chain management experience in high-tech, manufacturing and service environments. He has lived and worked in three geographies, has established new Procurement organizations and developed and implemented Procurement transformation strategies.

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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CLICK TO WATCH : WHERE IS CORNING? 185 er’s perspective and say: ‘We’re buying

seeking out new consortiums or Group

these 10 cubes of packaging from the

Purchasing Organizations (GPO’s), in

same suppliers that you’re buying from,

different markets to understand what

it’s just that you’re buying different

they’re doing and how we can benefit

products – but by combining our spend

by joining them,” explains Kruse.

together, we’re making it more attrac-

“Ultimately,we measure the savings by

tive to the suppliers’.”

evaluating the contribution to operat-

Corning has overseen a rapid trans-

ing margins (COMs) and decide how

formation in the number of consortia it

we can make them perform. Other than

has become involved in over the past

savings we need to ask ourselves: what

few years. Having participated in just

other value can we gain from them? For

one consortium two and a half years

example, we’re pursuing market intel-

ago, the company has experienced a

ligence, understanding best practices

major surge, with the figure increasing

and working with other organizations

to 11 in a short space of time. “We’re

to exchange information.” Some of w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D

186

1851

Year founded

$11.4bn+ Approximate revenue

50,000

Approximate number of employees

SEPTEMBER 2019

187

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C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D

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Corning’s key supply chain collabora-

manufacturing sector, companies must

tion partners include Chain IQ, who

adopt and embrace new technologies

is a leading global Sourcing Service

in order to remain a leader in the field.

Provider (SSP) and OMNIA Partners,

Kruse affirms how crucial digital trans-

the largest GPO in the US. “Both

formation is to Corning’s decision-

organizations have proven to be vitally

making processes moving forward.

important in our collaboration journey

“We have different internet platforms

and we work closely with them to

where we exchange information

seek out new opportunities across

externally with collaboration partners,

different markets and categories,”

suppliers, like-minded organizations

Kruse explains.

and customers,” he explains. “We’re

With the introduction of Industry 4.0

working on this with a great sense of

and the Industrial Internet of Things

urgency because we recognize that

(IIoT) over the past few years becom-

digitalization and digital transforma-

ing increasingly prevalent in the

tion are becoming vitally important to

SEPTEMBER 2019

us.” Whilst the implementation of new technology can often seem like a good idea, there is no value in introducing new systems that do not enhance the current processes already utilized by companies. Kruse affirms that the only way to achieve his company’s goals is by learning from mistakes. “You’re never going to

“You have to make technology useful for you in order to shape the direction you want it to go in” — Tom Kruse, Global Head, Supply Chain Collaboration & Consortiums, Corning Incorporated

189

than the current one you already have – you just have to use trial and error. You have to seek this new technology, try it, incubate it and keep what works for you as well as understanding how you can be consistently successful with all of

improve it to enable better practices.”

the different technological and supply

With sustainability in mind, Kruse rec-

chain collaboration elements,” he says.

ognizes how important recruitment

“It’s not a given that the new technology

is to ensuring long-term success at

you’re introducing is going to be better

Corning. “In my particular area, it all w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

C O R N I N G I N C O R P O R AT E D

Breakthrough Innovations 1879: Light Bulb Glass Corning developed the glass encasement for Thomas Edison’s lightbulb and a mass-production process that made them more widely available.

190

1947: Cathode Ray Tubes Corning revolutionized the television industry by inventing a process to mass-produce TV picture tubes.

1970: Optical Fiber Corning developed the very first opticle fiber capable of maintaining laser light signals over significant distances, paving the way for fiber optics in telecommunication.

2007: Corning ® Gorilla® Glass Corning developed a revolutionary glass that’s thin, light, and damage resistant, making it an ideal cover material for consumer electronics.

SEPTEMBER 2019

boils down to people. I have to

few years. “I think we just need to con-

constantly find the right peo-

stantly seek out new innovations and

ple in my organization to help

understand them as much as we can in

drive our collaboration and

order to help embed them into Corning

consortium interests forward,”

and make them work for us,” Kruse

he says. “I will then help to find

concludes. “You have to make technol-

and shape a successor who will

ogy useful for you in order to shape the

continue to drive this forward, adapt

direction you want it to go in.”

to change and modify when required to be changed.” Looking to the future, Kruse harbors clear goals of where he wants his supply chain and collaboration function to be over the next

191

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192

PEPSICO LATAM: DRIVING INNOVATIVE SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS IN A HIGH PERFORMANCE MARKET WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

DENITRA PRICE

SEPTEMBER 2019

193

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PEPSICO

PEPSICO LATAM HAS BEEN UNDERGOING A SIGNIFICANT SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSFORMATION AS THE COMPANY AT LARGE CONTINUES TO STREAMLINE AND OPTIMIZE THE EFFICIENCY OF ITS OPERATIONS

P

epsiCo’s portfolio of evocative household names has a foothold in every major market around the world, and delivering

those products to consumers in the most effective manner possible has become a company-wide 194

strategic imperative. For PepsiCo’s operations in Latin America (LATAM), the centralization of procurement has been an ongoing endeavor for the past several years and the transformation is reaping dividends. As a key region for PepsiCo’s wider balance sheet, optimization of procurement and logistics in the region stands to have a significant impact on success at large. The procurement function is, in effect, essential to the company’s wider growth strategy. When new CEO, Ramon Laguarta, came in last year, there was a refinement in the company’s vision focused on how PepsiCo can become the leader in convenience food and beverages by winning with purpose rather than just performing – and this mentality is central to the company’s supply chain transformation.

SEPTEMBER 2019

$64.6bn Approximate revenue

1898

Year founded

250,000+ Number of employees worldwide

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195

PEPSICO

“ THE FIRM’S STRONG PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT IS TIED INTO THE SUCCESS OF ITS NEW FLEET MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES”

With its LATAM operations accounting for around 11% of PepsiCo’s global revenues, optimizing supply chain and procurement operations in the region is essential for continued growth at both a national and global level.

Leveraging relationships with suppliers worldwide is key, along with the capacity to negotiate on a global scale whilst simultaneously servicing and supporting local markets. In 2012, previous CEO Indra Nooyi set a goal of securing $1.5bn in cost savings through streamlining and incrementally upgrading the company’s productivity,

196

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PEPSICO SUPPORTS RECYCLING IN LATIN AMERICA WITH INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS’ 197 citing the firm’s positive performance

of this ambitious goal. By combining

in the five volatile preceding years

procurement and operations, both

for world economies. “Our goal is to

delivering more cost-effective ways

continue on that earnings trajectory

of purchasing and enabling the supply

over the next five to 10 years, fully

chain with new technologies – such

recognizing that we need to make

as the new fleet management system

changes to the way we operate to

– quarterly productivity has been

address the challenges identified in the

enhanced significantly both on a local

review process,” said Nooyi in a press

and wider level.

statement at the time. “2012 will be

Partnerships have been particularly

a transition year, in which we will be

crucial to the cost-saving strategy, as

taking the appropriate steps to build

more effective relationships can yield

a stronger, more successful company

higher quality solutions at cheaper

going forward.” Latin America, as a

rates. Not only that, but the complex

region, has been vital to the realization

nature of Latin America’s established w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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Beyond that, the brand is responsible and will set the pace for the strategic future field of autonomous driving for the entire Volkswagen Group, aiming to become the leading company for individual mobility and interconnectedness by 2025.

Mission: we transport success.

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is fully concentrating its activities on the fundamental changes taking place in the industry and to the changing customer requirements. Therefore, we pursue a clear strategy for our future business – called GRIP 2025+ (Growth, Responsibility, Innovation, People) – allowing us to design the necessary transformation, to stay competitive and to secure the long-term success of our brand.

For all our products and mobility solutions, we aspire to minimize environmental impact along the entire life cycle – from raw material extraction until end-of-life disposal – in order to keep ecosystems intact and to create positive impacts on society.

Compliance with environmental regulations, standards and voluntary commitments is a basic prerequisite of our actions.

Facing the task of shaping mobility in a cleaner, safer and more efficient way with our vehicles and services, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, too, just like the other brands of the Volkswagen Group, is committed to the target of the Paris Summit on Climate Protection, which aims to restrict global warming and to target a fully CO2-neutral balance by 2050, for example.

The opinion and feedback of our customers is very important to us. That is why we always work closely together with them when developing new products. In addition, a huge capital employment enables us to consistently push the transformation towards zero-emission mobility. With the all-electric e-Crafter, ABT e-Caddy and ABT e-Transporter (the last two developed together with our strategic partner ABT), our portfolio contains solutions for urban traffic that are already sustainable now.

Expected in 2022, the fully electric ID. BUZZ, which has entirely developed anew, will be one of our most important products for the future and is our technology carrier for autonomous driving.

In the end, working together responsibly in all areas of the organization, developing and involving enthusiastic and talented employees, and working together as one team with the best partners of the industry are the crucial things that enable us to live up to our promise: we transport success.

For more info on Volkswagen Commercial Vehicle’s Fleet solutions, visit: www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de/de/geschaeftskunden/grosskunden/kontakt-international.html

PEPSICO

200

and varied markets necessitates

source locations. The aforementioned

a high degree of expertise on the

regional and intra-regional quirks are

business side to initiate and maintain

similarly vital to consider when it

such relationships. Every country

comes to both partner selection and

has its particularities, so having the

the application of innovative techno-

necessary talent and capability

logical solutions. Driverless vehicles,

to connect with the correct partners,

for example, are not currently viable in

provide the right efficiencies and

places like Sao Paolo and Lima due to

scale relative to different countries

both infrastructural and technological

is essential for PepsiCo’s delivery

limitations. However, these limitations

of its supply chain objectives.

have not prevented the company from

PepsiCo proactively and regularly

establishing a new fleet management

assesses its partners and ensures it

solution in the region replete with

is leveraging the most cost-effective

benefits to productivity, efficiency,

SEPTEMBER 2019

201

logistics, sustainability, driver safety

implications for enhanced sustainability

and more. Focusing on safety and

are a particular boon as consumers

making sure hard braking, hard

around the globe become more

cornering, inefficient acceleration

conscious of the environmental

and so forth are reduced has reaped

impacts of the products they buy.

myriad benefits, improving the

The firm’s strong partnership

employee experience along with wider

management is tied into the success of

ranging results. Beyond safety, the new

its new fleet management capabilities,

fleet management system has a much

too. Leveraging key relationships with

broader reach: the platform pilot is

expert fleet managers to augment its

seeing a reduction of 10% in both

ability to build and deploy customized

idling and travel distance, significantly

systems has enabled PepsiCo to boost

reducing fuel consumption and

efficiency, automatic dispatching,

greenhouse gas emissions. The

roadside assistance, and more. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

PEPSICO

202

“ IT’S CLEAR THAT THE POTENT INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGIES AND BLENDING OF THEIR CAPABILITIES HAS BEEN KEY TO PEPSICO LATAM’S SUCCESS”

SEPTEMBER 2019

203

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PEPSICO

204

“ PEPSICO PROACTIVELY AND REGULARLY ASSESSES ITS PARTNERS AND ENSURES IT IS LEVERAGING THE MOST COSTEFFECTIVE SOURCE LOCATION” SEPTEMBER 2019

These efforts have resulted in a 90% reduction in associated administrative work, enabling employees to focus on more fulfilling value-added activities. No single technological solution or platform is responsible for or capable of securing such successes, however, it’s clear that the potent integration of technologies and blending of their capabilities has been key to PepsiCo LATAM’s success.

The transport management system is tied into the telematics system, the last mile system, the route planning systems and so on, enabling the best qualities of each solution to be available in the same place.

Taking a broader view of business operations, growth of the company at a global level, and the focus on a clear strategic vision are collectively bringing PepsiCo ever further forward as an example of procurement and supply chain operations done right.

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

205

206

GROWTH THROUGH SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

NATHAN HOLMES

SEPTEMBER 2019

207

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SOORTY ENTERPRISES

SOORTY ENTERPRISES IS CONDUCTING AN ARRAY OF INNOVATIVE SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES, ALONG WITH A ROBUST CSR PROGRAMME, TO ESTABLISH ITSELF AS THE LEADING SUSTAINABLE DENIM MANUFACTURER

T

he denim industry is a notoriously inefficient user of natural resources, but few are more aware, concerned or

proactive about this fact than Soorty Enterprises.

While its global operations span Bangladesh, Turkey, the Netherlands and the US, the firm’s 208

deepest roots remain in its home country of Pakistan, a region being disproportionately impacted by climate change relative to its emissions. In 2015, a heatwave in Karachi claimed 2,000 lives and Asad Soorty, Director of Operations at the company, laments that such disasters will only become more frequent. “This coastal city, once with pleasant temperatures and a nice sea breeze, is almost perpetually parched,” he says.

“About 60% of the country’s population is food insecure, and almost 45% of kids are experiencing stunted growth. All of this is now; and we haven’t yet moved into the era where Pakistan will be the eighth most climate change-affected country.”

He stresses, however, that this exposure to the realities of climate change has not focused the company’s sustainability ambitions on Pakistan, SEPTEMBER 2019

209

Soorty Denim Mill is equipped with the latest Infrastructure w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

SOORTY ENTERPRISES

“ W E EXIST ON MANY PARTS OF THE VALUE CHAIN, HELPING OUR CUSTOMERS TO IDENTIFY THE LATEST FASHION TRENDS AND THE WHITE SPACES IN THEIR MERCHANDISE OFFERINGS” 210

— Asad Soorty, Director of Operations, Soorty Enterprises

alone. “This is a prime example of a country that needs to utilise its arable land more effectively: rather than growing cotton, we should be growing food crops. We want to be a part of this change, and we are working hard to disrupt the industry. But we don’t see it as a Pakistan-centric issue. Climate change isn’t a problem bound by borders; unfortunately, its solutions are.” He adds that, as a textile company, Soorty stands to make a significant impact: the textiles industry, by some estimates, produces more CO2 than the aeronautical and maritime industries combined, as well as being responsible for around 20% of industrial wastewater, globally.

Soorty’s efforts to curb its environmental impact represent some of the most practical and innovative strategies in the industry, and they are driven by adherence to William McDonough and Dr Michael Braungart’s internationally-recognised Cradle to Cradle (C2C) standards. “We want to have a symbiotic relationship with the environment,” explains Mr Soorty.

“We think that the C2C design philosophy is the way to go for the entire

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE SOORTY REVOLUTION’ 211 fashion sector, and it’s a philosophy

Head of Sustainability of the garment

we subscribe to wholeheartedly.” C2C

division, who is responsible for driving

product certification is awarded to

Soorty’s manufacturing processes

products following a rigorous assess-

towards fully sustainable solutions:

ment procedure across five sustain-

“We have adopted the Tonello UP denim

ability categories: material health,

washing technology, enabling us to

material reuse, renewable energy and

process the garments with a liquor

carbon management, water steward-

ratio of 1:2 and thereby process 1kg

ship, and social fairness. Soorty’s

of fabric using just two litres of water.

proprietary Zero Waste Water dyeing

In the conventional process, the ratio

process has been used in a range of

is as high as 1:8, so we have reduced

denim fabrics that have been certified

water usage in this process by 75%.”

Gold against these metrics. The

The company is also using nebuliser

complexities of the next-gen solutions

technology that dyes the garments

are explained by Sarfraz Cheema,

through a water-chemical cloud, itself w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

SOORTY ENTERPRISES

Laser Technology for jeans dry processing is now a commodity in Soorty Enterprises 212

saving 95% of the water used conventionally. The bleaching process is perhaps the most impactful, as it uses no water at all, Cheema explains.

“To bleach, mercerise and decolour the garments, we use ozone, which is a very aggressive gas,” he says.

“Ozone makes it possible to complete these processes without any chemicals or water. It is reduced to Oxygen after being used.” Any wastewater is collected and treated at the company’s Effluent Treatment and part of it goes through the reverse osmosis plants for reuse in the manufacturing cycle.

Soorty has its own jeans recycling facility, where it collects leftover SEPTEMBER 2019

6.5mn m

2

fabric capacity per month

1983

Year founded

1830 tons yarn capacity per month

denims and creates recycled cotton

Chughtai, Manager of Corporate

from it. This is blended with virgin

Communications and CSR for Social

cotton to minimise the need for fresh

Sustainability and Community Rela-

cotton to be grown and processed.

tions, replies, “I think it depends what

Along with its work towards sustain-

you mean by ‘success’ – we don’t view

able manufacturing, Soorty is also

our CSR as separate from the busi-

engaged in myriad corporate social

ness, because it isn’t. If we don’t exist

responsibility (CSR) projects as a

to have a positive effect on society,

means to benefit society, alongside

there will be no society for us to exist

mitigating its environmental impact.

in. If we can do that then yes, we will

When asked about the company’s

be successful.” Whatever your definition

successes in this area, Mobeen

of success, it cannot be denied that

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

213

Asad Soorty A graduate of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, is an Director at Soorty Enterprises. Asad worked in consulting for a short period of time before realizing that his interests lay elsewhere. He joined his family company in 2015 with a vision to create succession, and thus sustain the company’s inclusive growth. Asad began with a 6-month training program where he rotated between the different departments and divisions of the company. This was followed by a 6-month stint as Manager Process Excellence at one of Soorty’s production units. These grassroots perspectives, coupled with his strong academic background, has allowed him to settle well into the company and begin taking charge. In his free time, Asad enjoys playing football and volunteering.

His passion for volunteering has led him to the Robin Hood Army, where he is an active volunteer and member of the core team of the Pakistan chapter. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

THE ERA OF CONVENTIONAL STONE-WASH IS OVER TAB WASH IS THE FUTURE OF JEANS WASH Proud partner of Soorty for the Chemical Innovations

Soorty has conducted a series

In August of this year, we launched

of impactful CSR programmes and

a unique project in Pakistan: the Soorty

initiatives across Pakistan, including

Enhancing Women Service (SEWS)

those in education, health and social

project. It will enable and encourage

welfare, but its CSR program is evolving

the employability and empowerment

beyond conventional interventions.

of women from low-income back-

“In the last few months, we have focused

grounds – the first such UN SDG-com-

our efforts on two primary issues:

pliant, multi-partner venture launched

mitigating climate change and empow-

by a for-profit entity in Pakistan, to help

ering women,” continues Chughtai.

underprivileged families.” Chughtai

“Female empowerment is of special

stresses that climate change, however,

significance in the developing world,

is the core existential crisis of our times,

where women find it much harder to

and Soorty is leveraging innovative

secure their God-given rights or

technologies outside of its manufactur-

access to basic services, such as

ing processes to address the challenge

healthcare, education and justice.

head-on. “We are in Phase 2 of our

SEPTEMBER 2019

“ W E DON’T VIEW OUR CSR AS SEPARATE FROM THE BUSINESS, BECAUSE IT ISN’T. IF WE DON’T EXIST TO HAVE A POSITIVE EFFECT ON SOCIETY, THERE WILL BE NO SOCIETY FOR US TO EXIST IN” — Mobeen Chughtai, Manager of Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, Soorty Enterprises

Ozone Gas is being used to replace conventional bleaching, saving lots of water

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sarfraz Cheema As the Chief Operating Officer at Soorty Enterprises, Sarfraz Cheema oversees the production of over a million garments per month. He also serves as the Head of Sustainability for the garments division and strives hard to reduce the overall carbon foot print and set bench marks for the rest of the industry to follow. Sarfraz has been a part of Soorty Enterprises since 2005. Being a chemical engineer, by training gives him an edge in understanding fast moving fashion and the associated wet garment processing. He is considered a pioneering expert in the field, having spent over two decades in the Textiles sector.

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215

SOORTY ENTERPRISES

Forest Rescue Initiative, designed to reclaim arable land from the Thar desert,” says Chughtai. “For our tree planting strategy, we have partnered with Forests4All, a plantation network from the Netherlands, along with Danish botanical innovator Groasis to use its patented Waterboxx® technology.” Waterboxx® circumvents the difficulties of limited rainfall and a deep water table by passively watering saplings over the course of a year. “In the two or three months 216

required for a seedling’s roots to reach the groundwater, you must water them.

A vast majority of planted saplings simply die off because one: there is no water to give them; and two: there is nobody to water them. With Waterboxx®, you only need to add water once each year,” Chughtai enthuses.

“Under this initiative, we also plan on gifting an Urban Forest to Karachi City.”

As the company moves to expand its operations in the US, Mr Soorty is confident that the company has a value proposition that will keenly differentiate it in the highly competitive market.

“Our company is a global concern, from our multiple country of production SEPTEMBER 2019

Soorty Citizen Alpha Program Encouraging Industry visit for Students

“ S EWS WILL ENABLE AND ENCOURAGE THE EMPLOYABILITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN FROM LOW-INCOME BACKGROUNDS” — Mobeen Chughtai, Manager of Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility, Soorty Enterprises 217 E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Mobeen Chughtai Mobeen is a Communications and CSR Specialist with over 13 years of experience in the trade after finishing his training at the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan. He has experience handling both ends of the communications chain, having worked as the business reporting lead for Punjab at numerous media outlets and has served as a consultant to the Punjab Government on development communications. Having also served as the lead business developer for his alma mater, he currently heads the Corporate Communications and CSR portfolios at Soorty Enterprises – Pakistan’s largest vertically integrated denim manufacturer and exporter. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

SOORTY ENTERPRISES

218

“ TO BLEACH, MERCERISE AND DECOLOUR THE GARMENTS, WE USE OZONE, WHICH IS A VERY AGGRESSIVE GAS. OZONE MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO COMPLETE THESE PROCESSES WITHOUT ANY CHEMICALS OR WATER. IT IS REDUCED TO OXYGEN AFTER BEING USED” — Sarfraz Cheema, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Sustainability, Soorty Enterprises

SEPTEMBER 2019

219

model in Bangladesh and Pakistan

compliance.” It is a testament to the

to our design studios in Manhattan,

depth and brilliance of Soorty’s CSR

Amsterdam, Karachi and more,”

and sustainability strategies that they

he explains. “Soorty provides more

could not all be condensed into the

than just manufacturing. We exist on

scope of this profile, although it is

many parts of the value chain, helping

abundantly apparent that the estab-

our customers to identify the latest

lished brands in the US are set for

fashion trends and the white spaces

some fierce new competition in a

in their merchandise offerings. Our

world where the conscious consumer

strong R&D allows them to have

is rapidly becoming king.

innovative and high-performance denim, while our responsible manufacturing methods offer fully transparent factories that go beyond simple w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

220

Inside Cologix’s ongoing data centre expansion WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

TOM VENTURO

SEPTEMBER 2019

221

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COLOGIX CANADA

Sean Maskell, President and General Manager at Cologix Canada discusses the ongoing data centre revolution and how the company is remaining flexible and interconnected at the hyperscale level

T

he planet is awash with information. Every day, humans generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – reports, selfies, text messages,

high definition videos, infographics – in an (almost 222

equally) staggering number of ways. One of the most remarkable things about this ocean of bits and bytes is that 90% of it was created in the past three years. Our ability to move, scan, parse and store this data is fast becoming essential for the maintenance of a functioning digital society. At the core of this is the data centre, essentially a high-tech storage facility for servers that allow vast quantities of data to be remotely processed, stored and distributed. The data centre industry, predicted to achieve annual market values of around $174bn per year by 2023, according to MarketWatch, has undergone a radical evolution in the past decade, and the pace of change is showing no signs of slowing. Having worked in the data centre space since 2004, Sean Maskell, President and General Manager of the Canadian arm of Cologix, Inc, has witnessed SEPTEMBER 2019

223

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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COLOGIX CANADA

“ When I started in the industry, these were, I would say, not so cool places.

That’s evolved and continues to evolve” 226

— Sean Maskell General Manager Canada Cologix Inc.

SEPTEMBER 2019

this transformation first hand. “When I started in the industry, these were, I would say, not so cool places,” he recalls. “These were spaces overrun by massive amounts of copper cables, DS3 mux’s, DSX Panels and crusty old Telecom technicians – that’s certainly evolved over the years and continues to evolve even faster. We’re now witnessing sizeable growth in the industry, lead particularly by the hyperscale and Cloud Service providers. Enterprises are heading down the path towards digital transformation in a big way, as

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘COLOGIX LAKELAND / TAMPA DATA CENTER’ 227 they continue to move workloads to

are closer to the end user. This trend

the cloud, and their consumers expect

aligns tightly with the new methodol-

always-on connections with low la-

ogy, which involves multiple intercon-

tency to the internet of things (IoT). To

nected facilities built around central

make this happen, our clients require

carrier and cloud hubs, like spokes

robust interconnection and cloud on-

on a wheel.

ramp locations that push this consum-

“That’s really pushed the providers

able data closer to the edge, meaning

in Canadian and US markets to ensure

closer to the users that are demanding

sites are strategic for carrier and cloud

that information.” The major trend that

interconnection, which is something

Maskell identifies is the industry’s shift

that we’re very conscious of when we

away from the traditional conception of

build or expand our facilities to include

a single large data centre in a technolo-

hyperscale capacity,” Maskell explains.

gy hub like Los Angeles or Chicago, to-

“Our facilities are strategically located

wards capacity in tier two markets that

interconnection hubs, that allow our w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

Data centre experts deploy

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customers extensive carrier and cloud

tion, cloud on-ramp and colocation

choice within close proximity to their

services organization sees it work with

consumers.” With over 28 interconnec-

some of the largest technology com-

tion hubs and 5 hyperscale capacity

panies in the world. “Our client base

data centres across the US and Cana-

is one of the best,” Maskell enthuses.

da, Cologix is one of the leading tech-

“The five top technology companies

nology agnostic colocation service

in the world are in our facilities.” To at-

providers in the region. We sat down

tract and maintain relationships with

with Maskell to discuss Cologix’s four

that calibre of customer, Cologix has

impressive new data centre projects

become a preeminent source of exper-

across Canada and the US, as well as

tise when providing space, power and

the strategies and trends at the heart

cooling in locations that give clients the

of the company’s vision for success.

maximized opportunities for intercon-

Cologix’s identity as an interconnec-

nection. As an agnostic data service

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sean Maskell Sean Maskell is President of Cologix Canada and a veteran within the Canadian telecommunications industry.

During his 20+ years, Sean has founded and developed two start-up organizations within the ITC industry and merged the Telehouse Canada business with Cologix in 2012. Sean has a broad range of core competencies including; leadership, sales, business development, data centre design, and operation. He has focused and specialized in legacy data centre retrofitting, and innovative future proof designs. Sean has a remarkable history and remains passionate about the Canadian data centre landscape.

w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

229

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231

provider, Cologix has reinforced to

Facilities now have to scale to meet

Maskell the importance of accommo-

those challenges and demands in order

dating customer needs as they evolve.

to allow the client’s business to succeed

“One of the biggest lessons I have learned

over three, five or even 10 years. I do not

is to remain agile – that covers agil-

have a crystal ball that can predict what

ity from executive management, and

those changes and demands might be,

sales, but more importantly it’s agility in

but our facilities need to be designed,

terms of operations, construction and

constructed and operated in a way that

design,” he says. “Our industry is alter-

allows us to quickly add, remove and

ing rapidly: deployments are moderniz-

change the capacity for power, cooling,

ing, business plans are being reshaped

interconnection and so on.”

by emerging technologies and new

Embracing the industry-wide

innovative ways of delivering services

movement towards a dispersed and

are continually being rolled out.

interconnected data centre model that w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

COLOGIX CANADA

A TEAM AT THE HEIGHT OF YOUR PROJECTS

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SEPTEMBER 2019

6. Mitigate risk with easy-to-use preconnectorized EDGE and EDGE8 components that provide superior quality, improve functionality, and decrease installation time 7. With a global footprint, our manufacturing capacity and ability to quickly deliver products help you meet your installation timeline 8. A full-service provider, we support you from upfront design and engineering through post-installation testing and support

improves client experience and success is central to Cologix’s competitive advantage. “Each core data center in the markets Cologix operates encompasses an important and strategic interconnection site – that’s our focus,” Maskell explains. “But, as these interconnection facilities begin to fill up, we need additional capacity to stay ahead of our clients’ demand. To accomplish this, we construct that additional capacity outside of those interconnection hotels and connect the expansion facility by high-count fibre. This allows our clients seamless, low latency con-

“ Our industry is changing rapidly: deployments are changing, business plans are being reshaped within 18 months by new technologies and new ways of delivering services” — Sean Maskell General Manager Canada Cologix Inc.

nections, while enabling them to have the carrier and cloud choice that’s critical to our business.”

This is the methodology and mindset with which Cologix is building and upgrading new facilities in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ashburn, Virginia. “Cologix is within weeks of releasing an impressive and largest of its kind 40,000sqft, and 5MW of power in Vancouver (VAN3). Then, in Toronto we’ve just brought on-line an additional floor at our 905 King Street West facility (TOR2) – that encompasses 20,000sqft with 4MW of total w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

233

COLOGIX CANADA

“ Our facilities are strategically located interconnection hubs, that allow our customers extensive carrier and cloud choice within close proximity to their consumers” 234

— Sean Maskell General Manager Canada Cologix Inc. power.” In Montreal, the city where Cologix’s footprint is the largest (10 facilities) following its 2018 acquisition of Colo-D, the company continues to grow its offerings in one of the most favorable data centre climates in Canada. “When you look at our growth in the Montreal market, it in part comes down to a greener power delivery system and ideal weather conditions.

The cost of power, which is the lowest in the Canadian market, also helps.

This enables Cologix to pass along those savings to our customers,” SEPTEMBER 2019

Maskell explains. “We’ve just added 15 MW ready for service at our MTL10-H Longueil campus, and acquired an adjacent building to this campus to respond quickly to strong customer demand in the market. Additionally, we began engineering the utility for our MTL8-H Technoparc campus, which will offer 36MW.” The Ashburn project, which will be built on a plot of land at the core of Data Center Alley, will be something of a special project for Cologix. “We’re looking to build a 100MW hyperscale data centre,” says Maskell. Currently, for most companies that aren’t Google or Amazon Web Services, a 100MW data centre is a rare thing. Maskell sees the project as an embodiment of Cologix’s ongoing growth strategy. “It not only strengthens our commitment to the hyperscale market and the business that’s out there, but I think it’s a sign of demand for space that’s growing with it,” he says.

Looking to the future, Maskell doesn’t see the pace of data centre evolution slowing any time soon, and is confident Cologix has the right mixture of infrastructure and flexibility in order to rew w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

235

COLOGIX CANADA

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carbon60.com SEPTEMBER 2019

“ The biggest lesson I’ve learned is flexibility” — Sean Maskell General Manager Canada Cologix Inc.

spond. “I think one of the biggest shifts I’m seeing is the physical connection between the carrier or cloud provider and customer. This shift has evolved into a software defined network platform (Cologix Access Market Place), where the customer is in control. Clients have access to a robust network of providers and can initiate almost real time changes to their circuits and workloads as they see fit,” he says. As

237

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COLOGIX CANADA

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239 hyperscale growth continues to accel-

maintain its commanding position in

erate, Maskell believes that the need

the market. “We’ve got one of the best

for increased interconnectedness will

balance sheets in the industry,” en-

only grow with it. “It’s fantastic to have

thuses Maskell. “We’re the number one

a massive state-of-the-art facility with

data centre provider in Canada and

an endless supply of power and cool-

we’re going to continue to protect and

ing, but can it be interconnected? Is

strengthen that position.”

there a way for data to move in or out?” he asks. “It would be similar to building a beautiful five-star resort on a remote island without a ferry service. Regardless of how nice it is, no one’s going to come!” By continuing to expand its capacity and ensuring that capacity is interconnected, Cologix intends to w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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Inside Canadian Blood Services’ risk management driven data center migration WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

SEPTEMBER 2019

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CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

David Grant,Associate Director, Enterprise Services at Canadian Blood Services, discusses his role in the organization’s recently completed data center migration and ongoing digital transformation

T

he ability to gather, interpret and protect its data is increasingly becoming the metric by which a company survives or

perishes. Data has become, in short, the lifeblood of the modern organization. However, in the past 242

five years, the staggering speed at which IT advancements have swept across every industry has placed pressure on enterprises looking to house IT systems and data in onsite legacy infrastructure. “The sheer volume of IT services and the explosion of data means that it all has to be stored somewhere, and if it’s not in your own data center, it needs to be in somebody else’s. It’s led to enormous growth in capacity across the commercial space, and those new data centers have been built with the latest technologies which can quite often put your own in-house data center to shame,” explains David Grant, Associate Director, Enterprise Services at Canadian Blood Services. “When you look at the needs of the modern digital workplace, then attempt to retrofit your own data center real estate to give it the same capabilities as some SEPTEMBER 2019

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CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

of those commercial ones, it becomes

“ Canadian Blood Services is the first place where I’ve had the opportunity to make a difference to somebody’s personal life, as opposed to just improving the bottom line, or increasing shareholder value.

It’s a nice feeling” 244

— David Grant, Associate Director, Enterprise Services, Canadian Blood Services

enormously expensive and, in some cases, just isn’t feasible.”

With a career spanning more than 20 years in the data center space, Grant came to Canadian Blood Services in 2016. We sat down with him to discuss his role in the organization’s recently completed migration from two legacy data centers in Ottawa to commercially operated colocation facilities, a move calculated to ensure the safety and resilience of Canadian Blood Services’ vital IT operations.

Founded in 1998, Canadian Blood Services is the country’s lifeline, providing a link between the generosity of over 410,000 annual blood, plasma and organ donors from Vancouver to Newfoundland, and the patients that need it. “We drive the donor experience so that it’s as pleasant as possible in order to encourage people to continue in their generosity. At the same time, we continue to innovate and improve the products we offer, so that we can improve patient outcomes and ultimately save lives. It’s quite a mission to be involved in,” enthuses Grant.

“I’ve worked in IT for a long time, but Canadian Blood Services is the first

SEPTEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THERE ARE LOTS OF REASONS TO JOIN #CANADASLIFELINE’ 245 place where I’ve had the opportunity

transformation at the front end, we

to make a difference to somebody’s

have improved that donor experience.”

personal life, as opposed to just

However, as in most aspects of

improving the bottom line or increasing

industry, Grant admits that the

shareholder value. It’s a nice feeling.”

attention paid to upgrading systems at

Canadian Blood Services has

the front end had outstripped that paid

already taken steps over the last three

to the internal workings of the organiza-

years to improve its front end customer

tion. “That front end user experience

experience, digitalising booking

stuff tends to move pretty fast, but

processes and streamlining workflow.

not so much the back end plumbing.

“Donors generously give not only their

But, without that plumbing, the front

blood, but also their time,” notes Grant.

end isn’t really much use,” he explains.

“The last thing that we want to do is

In 2016, Canadian Blood Services

waste that time chasing bits of paper

engaged Gartner to review its data

around our clinics. By doing this digital

center strategy and the results w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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“ By doing digital transformation at the front end, we’ve improved that donor experience” — David Grant, Associate Director, Enterprise Services, Canadian Blood Services

one in our HQ and one in a building that houses most of the IT team. The distance between the two buildings was less than four miles,” Grant says. “In terms of disaster recovery (DR), that’s basically next door to one another.”

In September 2018, while Canadian Blood Services were midway through their migration, an unprecedented total of six tornadoes swept across Ottawa and Quebec, causing damage in excess of $300mn and leaving

revealed a particularly worrying

hundreds of thousands of residents

vulnerability. “We realized that our data

without power. “It was a timely reminder

centers were both located in Ottawa –

that the ongoing change in weather

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

David Grant David Grant is an enthusiastic IT professional with over 30 years’ experience in the provision and support of IT services in both private sector and government organisations. Focusing on Data Centers and IT Infrastructure he has led several successful initiatives around data centre migrations and consolidations, and IT infrastructure transformation. David has a successful track record in developing IT strategies to take advantage of new and emerging technologies and delivering success through strong leadership and effective team building.

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CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

patterns we’ve seen over the past five to 10 years is going to continue, and having two data centers that were literally next door to one another was probably not a good idea,” says Grant.

The review of Canadian Blood Services’ systems not only exposed areas in the organization’s data centers that had single points of failure – areas which would have been both costly and disruptive to upgrade to Uptime Institute Tier Three certification – but also the threat posed by the state of its DR plan. “Our contingency at the time 248

was a cold site about four hours to the south in an IBM data center. In the event of the loss of data centers in Ottawa, the DR strategy was to drive down there, collect the necessary hardware and then restore our systems from backup tapes. The estimated recovery time for an event like that was between one and six days,” Grant explains.

“When you’re a digital business, being down or out for 24 hours is a major issue. Being out for five or six days – well, you’re lucky if you survive.”

The need for revision of Canadian Blood Services’ data center strategy was, to Grant, clear. Change, however, needed to be effected as safely as SEPTEMBER 2019

possible. “We are a risk-averse organization, as suits people who are in the business of saving lives,” says Grant. “So, we adopted the colocation approach and went looking for a partner who could provide facilities in locations that were geographically diverse.”

Canadian Blood Services eventually settled on Rogers Communications, which now provides data center services in Calgary and near to Toronto (both locations are near one of the organization’s major manufacturing sites).

A veteran of more than a few migration strategies, Grant is well aware that each has its own unique challenges. “We’re regulated by Health Canada, so there are a lot of protocols around testing and validation, which all had to be embedded into our strategy,” he explains. “We broke it down into a series of overlapping waves based around business capabilities: our blood management system, our donor management system, etc. Then, we further subdivided those into our non-production and production-based systems.” The process saw a huge number of careful, methodical tests, warranty periods and planned outages, that allowed the migration to be carried w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

249

CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

“ When you’re a digital business, being down or out for 24 hours is a major issue. Being out for five or six days - well, you’re lucky if you survive” — David Grant, Associate Director, Enterprise Services, Canadian Blood Services

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251 out effectively and with minimal risk.

“We did stretch our team quite a bit just to stay on top of the overlapping waves, but they were real troopers and they came through for us,” Grant recalls.

Another key metric in the success of the migration is the increased resilience of Canadian Blood Services’ DR plan. “It was calculated that the business could only tolerate four hours of downtime,” says Grant. To shrink the process of getting the organization’s IT infrastructure back on line from six days to four hours, Canadian Blood Services bought enough capacity in w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

its new colocation sites that the entire business can be run from either one.

“We replicate our VMware workloads from one data center to the other continuously. Should we lose a data center site, we use Zerto to reactivate those VMs in the other data center.”

Zerto is a Tel-Aviv-based virtual replication software company that specializes in providing operational continuity in the direst of circumstances.

The company’s duplication software was also, according to Grant, a key tool in the migration itself. “We used 252 Zerto replication to move the data from our Ottawa data centers to our new Rogers partners data center site,” he explains.

10 years ago, if a company embarked on a digital project, or bought a new piece of software, the expectation was that there was a finite price tag and completion date. In 2019, if executed correctly, a digital transformation project will cost an unlimited amount of money and take an unlimited amount of time. With the completion of the migration, Grant at the team are preparing to immediately begin reevaluating Canadian Blood Services’ SEPTEMBER 2019

“ We did stretch our team quite a bit just to stay on top of the overlapping waves, but they were real troopers and they came through for us” — David Grant, Associate Director, Enterprise Services, Canadian Blood Services

data center and DR strategies. “When

years, we’ve seen a lot of development

we were first doing this, a lot of the

in that space. I think our next data center

options and ideas getting thrown

strategy will look at what we’re still

around were things like, ‘Why don’t we

running in-house and in our colocation

move DR to the cloud? Why don’t we

facility, and determine what’s the next

move this to the cloud? Why don’t we

step for these systems.”

move that to the cloud?’ Even three years ago, a lot of those services were in their infancy and weren’t really to be trusted, and certainly not by blood operator - somebody who is committed to patients and donors and saving lives wouldn’t want to risk that,” Grant explains. “In the intervening three w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

253

254

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS AND LEARNERS AT ST. JOHN AMBULANCE CANADA WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

SEPTEMBER 2019

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S T. J O H N A M B U L A N C E C A N A D A

JAMES WILLIAMSON, DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY, AND SHAWN MCLAREN, CHIEF LEARNING OFFICER, DETAIL THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OCCURRING AT ST. JOHN AMBULANCE CANADA

A

cross the globe, organizations are employing technology to find new and improved ways of conducting their

operations, with benefits on offer to both the 256

newest startups and the most venerable institutions.

St. John Ambulance Canada (SJA) can trace its lineage back over 900 years, with the modern Canadian organization founded in 1883. The charity is dedicated to helping Canadians via health and safety training courses and first aid volunteers.

“We have two different aspects to what we do,” says Shawn McLaren, Chief Learning Officer.

“One is first aid training. We train over 500,000 people a year in first aid and CPR. There are various advancement courses – anything from a basic one-day course to courses that are 80 hours long teaching advanced first responder skills. The other side of what we do is our volunteering. We train people to become medical first responders. They still hand over to paramedics when necessary, but they receive upwards of 40 to 80 hours of training SEPTEMBER 2019

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ST. JOHN AMBULANCE CANADA – LEADERS IN FIRST AID AND CPR TRAINING’

258

to act as a bridge.” To fund its activities,

program of digital transformation

the charity relies on the first activity to

inside the organization. One of the

fund the latter, as Director of Informa-

challenges of operating a national

tion Systems and Technology James

charity, especially in a country as vast

Williamson explains. “We sell first aid

as Canada, is ensuring the smooth

training, and that is then turned into

communication of its constituent parts.

community service via volunteers and

“We are a federated organization where

first aid representatives at, for instance,

each provincial chapter is its own legal

sports venues, conventions, and other

entity, and our national office serves to

outdoor and indoor events. We also

supply the shared enterprise applica-

give back through therapy dog programs

tions. Right now, they are all hosted at

and similar services across the country.”

a data center run by a third party, but

To further support such activities, Williamson has helped to institute a SEPTEMBER 2019

as part of the digital transformation we are moving to cloud-based services.

“ FIRST AID IS A TRICKY THING IN THAT YOU CAN NEVER HAVE A FULLY ONLINE FIRST AID CLASS BECAUSE THE SKILLS HAVE TO BE OBSERVED” — Shawn McLaren, Director of Operations and Learning, St. John Ambulance Canada

That allows us to get away from expensive, cyclical hardware and capital costs and constant upkeep and maintenance.”

Williamson is seeking to build a strong base from which the charity’s activities can be supported. “We’re focusing primarily on foundational changes. We are moving to Office 365 and Dynamics 365 as a core platform since we already had experience with Microsoft’s existing legacy applications.

Then, we’re building upon that with a new website integration where we’re

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Shawn McLaren As Chief Learning Officer, Shawn leads the development of all curriculum as well as the educational process for the organization. In addition to this role, he acts as a national liaison for all matters related to first aid training. Shawn holds a Master’s degree in Adult Education with a specialization in Corporate Development and Knowledge Management. He has over 15 years experience in a variety of roles in learning and development environments in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining St. John Ambulance, Shawn was the VP of Learning & Development for Citibank, overseeing the Canadian consumer lending division.

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S T. J O H N A M B U L A N C E C A N A D A

building a learning management system. Ultimately, we want to look at volunteer management, fundraising, and automating manual workflows.”

To support that work, SJA has also been implementing upgrades to its network. “We’re working with Rogers to increase our bandwidth from a 50 Mbps connection to a gigabit. With everything being based in the Cloud, having a stable, symmetrical fiber connection is important.”

From these strong foundations the charity can perform its critical functions.

260

On the teaching side of the equation, opportunities have been found to introduce technology to benefit learners, as McLaren explains. “Our new learning management system that we’re planning to bring in will allow us to provide digital badges and an online presence for people to note their certifications, which will speed up the process.

We found a partner in D2L that meets all of our external and internal training needs.” An upgraded website is also aiding learning. “We’re reworking our website to a modern UI/UX, making it easier for people to search for courses, providing higher rankings in our SEO for the website and the ability to see SEPTEMBER 2019

the correlations in the courses people take,” says Williamson.

It remains important, however, to ensure a balance is struck between the digital and the physical, particularly in the realm of first aid training. “First aid is a tricky thing in that you can never have a fully online first aid class because the skills have to be observed,” says McLaren. “I’m not certain that we’ll ever see a fully automated online course. We can, however, with the inclusion of our state of the art LMS system, enhance the blended learning experience, and make it more appealing for people to take classes. Our typical first aid classes are two days, but a blended approach allows them to do eight hours of online training at their leisure before attending a full day course.” Such blended learning takes a number of forms at SJA, including a move towards using e-books for teaching. Another advancement takes advantage of an upgraded manikin.

“We’re slowly moving towards what are called feedback manikins. They measure the depth and speed of your push, and we’ve been piloting ones that will display that information onto a whiteboard for the whole class. w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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S T. J O H N A M B U L A N C E C A N A D A

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“ THERE’S SO MUCH OPPORTUNITY TO DO GOOD FOR BOTH THE ORGANIZATION AND PEOPLE OUT THERE” — James Williamson, Director of Information Systems and Technology, St. John Ambulance Canada

Adult learners like the idea of gamification, and having races is one of the functions we can do with it, which really engages people.”

The future for SJA sees the charity bring its work to new and exciting areas. “We’re expanding to law enforcement, military and aboriginal first aid programs,” explains Williamson.

“The goal is not only to be the biggest, but to be the best and to turn that revenue back into community service.

We’re also trying to refocus on engaging youth to become lifelong first 263

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

James Williamson James brings 25 years of experience in government, political and private sector IT: House of Commons/ Federal NDP (12yrs), The Bradford Group (5yrs), Disus Software/Atos Canada (5yrs) and Bell Canada (3yrs).

James brings a passion for people and end users and sees IT as a customer service role as the foundation to enable departments to meet their needs and focus on core competencies. James has managed many successful software development projects ranging from a $3mn voter outreach system, a successful cloud transformation project as well as development and integrations for several $30+ million ERP projects for US & Canadian multinationals.

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264

“ THE GOAL IS NOT ONLY TO BE THE BIGGEST, BUT TO BE THE BEST AND TO TURN THAT REVENUE BACK INTO COMMUNITY SERVICE” — James Williamson, Director of Information Systems and Technology, St. John Ambulance Canada SEPTEMBER 2019

aiders.” To coordinate that ever-growing stable of volunteers, future innovations will also focus on volunteer communication, as McLaren explains: “There are tools to allow self-check-in and mass communication to volunteers, top-down and bottom-up, that we’re looking to hopefully leverage in 2020.” Ultimately, the transformation occurring at St. John Ambulance is

265

always in the service of improving the scope and reach of the functions it provides. “There’s so much opportunity to do good for both the organization and people out there, which is what excites me about my position,” says Williamson. “Success is its own reward, and I look forward to seeing what version two, three and four of our transformation will look like.” w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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NOVA SCOTIA POWER’S TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY WRITTEN BY

DANIEL BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

SEPTEMBER 2019

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N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

NOVA SCOTIA POWER IS MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSFORMATION WITH A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY LEADER MIKE GREENE AND SENIOR TECHNICAL ADVISOR ROB MACNEIL EXPLAIN HOW THE LEADING UTILITY EMBRACES CHANGE

N 268

ova Scotia Power (NSP) is a fully-integrated power utility proudly serving 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial

customers across the province as its primary electricity provider since the early 1900s. A 1,700 strong team help manage $4.1bn worth of generation, transmission and distribution assets producing more than 10,000 gigawatt hours of electricity each year.

To keep up with an ever-evolving industry which is increasingly focused on sustainability, the power giant is embracing radical change with a move away from coal and oil-based generation. The shift to renewables prompts the need for significant transformation across the business to meet its 40% renewables target by 2020. Utilising a fuel mix of hydro, tidal, wind, coal, oil, biomass and natural gas to generate electricity, its facilities can produce as much as 2,453 megawatts of electricity delivered across 32,000 km of transmission and distribution lines throughout Nova Scotia.

SEPTEMBER 2019

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“ CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ARE A BIG PART OF THE EQUATION” 270

— Mike Greene, Operations Technology Leader, Nova Scotia Power

SEPTEMBER 2019

Mike Greene, Operations Technology Leader at Nova Scotia Power, is spearheading efforts to develop more flexible systems to manage its assets and both modify and optimise maintenance strategies. Preventative and predictive maintenance, along with surveillance activities and a more holistic and repeatable approach, are being leveraged to determine the company’s ongoing investments in its assets. Since 2010, NSP has been building an asset management function to care for all areas of the

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘POWERING OUR COMMUNITIES. EVERY DAY.’ 271 business under the same philosophy and regime. “Our goal is to understand their criticality to the business and put in place maintenance strategies that deliver intelligence about our equipment’s condition or health, so we’re able to risk-profile all of our major assets,” explains Greene.

NSP’s quest is to implement a sophisticated approach towards the application of technologies capable of condition-based maintenance and monitoring with predictive techniques to gather intelligence about its assets.

Greene aims to bring them into a single w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

272

environment to develop rules, rule

intelligence – from preventative and

engines and algorithms, applying

predictive maintenance to predictive

pattern recognition tools to better

analytics and operator surveillance –

understand asset health and guide

into the rules engine to offer an

decision making on maintenance and

improved real time view of our assets.”

investment. Greene’s colleague, Senior

The positive impact on efficiency

Technical Advisor Rob MacNeil, reveals

has been felt across the business.

more sensors are now being deployed

Previously the technical team would

in the field. “We’re able to instantly see

spend time searching for and managing

impending health issues,” he says.

information but less time actually doing

“Pattern recognition that absorbs

high-end analytics. One of the goals for

our sensor information and applies

NSP’s asset management program has

principles to find anomalies and give

been achieved: to provide intelligence

us early alerts, is rolling up all of our

capable of delivering actionable

SEPTEMBER 2019

insights from good data. The challenge lay in making sure the program’s deployment was smooth in providing a platform its users could trust.

“We didn’t want to deploy the technology first and then hope to get value from it later,” maintains MacNeil, who notes the importance of defining objectives first and then shaping technology to meet them once trials have proved the solution is scalable. “Mobile technology would be a good example of that.

Deploying in one plant, getting it right, and then moving on to other plants and minimizing organisational churn.”

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Mike Greene Mike Greene has over 25 years of experience with Databases, Information Systems and Plant Automation. He is currently the Operational Technology Lead for the Enterprise Asset Management Office of Nova Scotia Power, the utility for the province of Nova Scotia. He is responsible for the integration of NSP’s many OT systems with existing IT systems. He is actively involved with piloting new technology initiatives and expanding the NSP computer network. Greene has a BSc from Dalhousie University and diplomas in Business Computing and Petroleum Resource Technology from the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology.

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N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

274

$225mn Approximate revenue

1972

Year founded

1,700

Approximate number of employees

SEPTEMBER 2019

275

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“ DIGITAL APPLICATION IN OUR INDUSTRY IS STILL RELATIVELY NEW, SO FINDING MAJOR PARTNERS WHO SHARE OUR PHILOSOPHY IS VERY IMPORTANT TO US” — Rob MacNeil, Senior Technology Advisor, Nova Scotia Power

Greene echoes the need for experimentation with pilot schemes to achieve lasting results from a range of vendors. “In the new world of cloud deployment and software-as-a-service, it’s easy to find software to fill certain niches,” he says. MacNeil notes the importance of evaluating providers, so that NSP does not just purchase an off-the-shelf solution but looks at broad fleet-monitoring tools. “Digital application in our industry is still relatively new, so finding major partners who share our philosophy 277

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Rob MacNeil Rob MacNeil is a Sr. Technical Advisor with Nova Scotia Power (NSPI) and manages the Asset Management Office.

He was responsible for the design and implementation of a comprehensive Asset Management approach for NSPI’s f leet of generating units, and is presently leading the design and deployment of the Asset Management Program within NSPI’s Transmission and Distribution business.

MacNeil has been in the utility business for 30 years and has experience in Operations, Maintenance, Production, Engineering and Management. Born in Nova Scotia (Canada) he received a BSc from Dalhousie University and an Engineering Degree from the Technical University of Nova Scotia.

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N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

“ IN THE NEW WORLD OF CLOUD DEPLOYMENT AND SOFTWARE-AS-ASERVICE, IT’S EASY TO FIND SOFTWARE TO FILL CERTAIN NICHES” — Mike Greene, Operations Technology Leader, Nova Scotia Power 278 is very important to us… We’re often pushing the boundaries of their own technical capabilities, so we’re both investing in the future together.”

Across the industry, platforms are evolving into the cloud, which need to integrate within existing infrastructures.

“With some of the vendors we’re now looking at apps that we can deploy on iOS devices as we look at the tools of the future for our mobile workforce,” reveals Greene.

Greene and his team are keen to drive operational intelligence. “Do we need to do something now? Can we wait six months? Can we ignore it and SEPTEMBER 2019

279

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N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

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C O M PA N Y FACT S

• 10,000+ gigawatt hours of electricity produced each year • $4.1bn worth of generation, transmission and distribution assets • 500,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers

SEPTEMBER 2019

just monitor it until it is taken offline permanently? Because within our industry in Nova Scotia and in some of the North American utilities we have the ultimate aim of reducing our coal fleet,” he explains.

In working towards that, MacNeil highlights the need to be systematically flexible as the use of assets change.

“Where some units would have been base-loaded in the past, now they’re cycling, so you cannot maintain them in the same way. They have new failure mechanisms that need to be considered, and therefore your maintenance strategy and activities need to change.”

By taking a holistic approach to asset management, unlike more traditional environments where each plant makes its own decisions, NSP are able to make portfolio decisions. “We’re confident our investment dollars are going where they need to be,” says MacNeil. “We’re meeting the mission of each unit… It might be a base-load unit, a two-shifting or a flex unit. It might be a unit that needs to retire in a short amount of time. This process of detailed risk understanding enables us to function in those variety of realities for various generating assets, and therefore we’re hitting the w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

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N O VA S C O T I A P O W E R

282

“ WE’RE CONFIDENT OUR INVESTMENT DOLLARS ARE GOING WHERE THEY NEED TO BE” — Rob MacNeil, Senior Technology Advisor, Nova Scotia Power

right risks.” That positive impact can defer outages to the end of the life of a unit, saving millions of dollars.

Continuing its asset management mission has been vital for NSP and is transforming the way it uses all of its generating units as deep operational experience is applied to change. How has the process helped with Nova Scotia Power’s renewables goal?

“It’s part of our corporate philosophy to develop a greener portfolio of generation,” says MacNeil, who finds the tools, systems and processes

SEPTEMBER 2019

283

designed for NSP’s traditional generation

Change management and continuous

also fit well in the renewable world with,

improvement are a big part of the

for example, wind farms. “Our distribut-

equation. For us, they’re not just

ed-generation assets lend themselves

add-ons. It comes back to the

to the digital technologies and commu-

dedicated nature of our team. We’re

nication tools we’re deploying. We’ve

not doing this part-time; we’re fully

learned that the infrastructure we’ve

invested in sustaining these processes

established is well suited for renewable

and reaping the rewards.”

assets and that’s a win for us.”

For Greene, the right combination of people, processes and technology is paramount to future success: “There’s no one aspect that can be ignored so we put equal emphasis on all factors… w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com