Business Review USA & Canada - October 2016

Expanding Vancouver’s technological footprint

October 2016

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STEPS

to a successful digital transformation

Special Report

Time for change How Kering has shifted to shared IT services

Michael Hirsh: The father of Canadian animation

EDITOR’S COMMENT

WELCOME TO THE

October issue of

Business Review USA & Canada This month features some very exciting content, including a special interview with one of the giants of the animation world, Michael Hirsh. Hirsh transformed children’s television, starting with the founding of Nelvana in 1971 – and he hasn’t stopped for breath since.

Also featured is an extended piece on Microsoft’s new Excellence Center in Vancouver; we spoke to Edoardo De Martin about how the business and the wider technological world will benefit from it. This month’s list is about how to successfully digitally transform your business, written by Sébastien Vugier of Axway.

October’s exclusive profiles include Kering, the owner of Gucci, YSL, and other luxury companies, which is altering its IT system to make it integrated across its brands; Forsythe Data Centers Inc. explains how it is innovating its security and coding; and MasterCard’s plans to develop selfie pay security and mobile wallet technology, with the view to use smaller, more agile partners to achieve its solutions more quickly.

Enjoy this edition of our magazine, and join in the discussion: @BizReviewUSA and @NellWalkerMG

Nell Walker Editor nell.walker@bizclikmedia.com

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CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

32 Kering

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PROFILE

Michael Hirsh: the father of Canadian animation TECHNOLOGY

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46 MasterCard

Microsoft: expanding Vancouver’s technological footprint LIST

24 Three steps to a successful digital transformation 4

OCTOBER 2016

C O M PA N Y PROFILES TECHNOLOGY 32 Kering 46 MasterCard 62 VistaJet International

CONSTRUCTION 80 Forsythe Data Centers, Inc.

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VistaJet International

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Forsythe Data Centers, Inc.

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PROFILE

Michael Hirsh:

THE FATHER OF Canadian animation

Business Review USA & Canada speaks with Michael Hirsh about his illustrious career in transforming children’s television for Canada and the wider world

Wr i t t e n by : N E LL WA LK E R

PROFILE

MICHAEL HIRSH, DESCRIBED as ‘the Canadian product of mixing Warren Buffett with Walt Disney’, is a giant in the animated television sector, having co-founded the renowned Nelvana with Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith in 1971, and continuing his career in children’s television to the present day. Nelvana has produced some of the most memorable and highest-quality cartoons of all time, including The Care Bears, Babar, and The Adventures of Tintin.

“When I was a kid, about four or five years old, I made my career choice,” Hirsh explains. “I wanted to grow up and either be Mickey Mouse or Superman. I watched a lot of cartoons and read a lot of comic books, and eventually realized that it would be easier to be Mickey, so that helped my decision.”

Hirsh’s path was set. He and his partners founded Nelvana on a shoestring – just enough for the business registration fees – and the

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first seven years were dedicated to learning the business.

“Every few years we’d risk everything in innovation,” says Hirsh. “Over 30 years at Nelvana, we had at least five major crises, all of which required different solutions.

At any one time it would have been better to declare bankruptcy, but we said ‘hell no’ and continued to work through the disruptions to find a solution. We lived on the edge and never stopped being risk-takers.

“When facing a business crisis, it was a hard lesson to learn how to manage it, how to solve the problems and get to the other side. It was challenging, but I learned how to keep everyone calm, cool, and collected.”

Taking risks paid off. Nelvana, in Hirsh’s words, gave birth to Canada’s animation industry, and created a global impact.

“A vast amount of people got their careers started through Nelvana,” Hirsh says. “They got trained

MICHAEL HIRSH

by me and my partners, and are now running their own successful studios – not only in Canada but in other countries. In the process, we pioneered many of the worldwide coproduction, marketing, and distribution techniques which have become standard industry practice.”

It’s no wonder Hirsh is recognized throughout the industry as a leading business and brand-builder. The company’s first big break came a few years after its inception, when George Lucas chose Nelvana to create a 10-minute Star Wars cartoon which led to two series – but even

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PROFILE

TEAM (Hirsh, Vandervelde, Kelly)

more important to the business was Hirsh persuading the owners of The Care Bears to have Nelvana produce their film and series. This placed Nelvana firmly on the map.

“We really focused on our core business: kids,” says Hirsh. “We then grew into computer animation with the acquisition of Windlight Studios,

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and from there we computerized our 2D traditional animation and added 3D. We started our own distribution company, allowing us to retain rights of our properties, and became very good at securing the rights to other valuable properties.”

Nelvana was sold to Corus Entertainment in 2000 for $540

MICHAEL HIRSH

million, and Hirsh continued as co-CEO until 2002. Two years later, he led a consortium, which acquired the remnants of Cinar Corporation, became CEO, and rebranded it as Cookie Jar Entertainment.

“Having sold Nelvana and staying on for two more years, I missed having my own company,” says Hirsh.

“In Cinar I saw the opportunity to build another kids’ entertainment company using the skeletal bones of what was already in place.”

Cookie Jar Entertainment went on to become one of the world’s largest privately-held children’s entertainment companies. It was acquired by DHX Media in 2012, at which point Hirsh became Executive Chairman and served on the board until the end of 2015.

Hirsh is – rightly so – extremely proud of having built Canada’s children’s television industry, giving opportunities to over 10,000 artists.

He has been granted the honor

of many awards over the years, including three Daytime Emmys, and his expertise has also earned him invitations to act as keynote speaker at various industry events and film festivals. But after working for so long in children’s television, how has the sector changed since 1971?

“It has gotten better and better,” Hirsh says. “All the changes that have happened in TV have helped made kid’s TV better. When I first started there was no real market in Canada, and the US had three stations with CBS, NBC, and ABC. Now, there are at least 1,520 kid’s TV channels in Canada and the United States is the same. Platforms like Netflix and Amazon have also added unlimited shelf space, creating greater opportunity for an even larger variety of programming, satisfying the needs of children and parents.”

Now, Hirsh is a principal with The Entertainment and Media Finance Group Inc., also known as

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PROFILE

TEAM. TEAM serves producer and distributors with innovative interim financing, merger and acquisitions, international production structuring, and financial advisory services, which simply furthers Hirsh’s longrunning contribution to the world of television programming.

As a consistently successful entrepreneur, what advice would Michael Hirsh give to others looking to gain a foothold in this industry?

“Whenever times get tough, visualize Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner crossing over the canyon, never looking down and just getting to the other side. The cost of you looking down is falling. Keep moving forward and stay focused, envision your goals, and they will be achieved.”

MICHAEL HIRSH

“At any one time it would have been better to declare bankruptcy, but we said ‘hell no’ and continued to work through the disruptions to find a solution” – Michael Hirsh

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TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft: expanding Vancouver’s technological footprint Business Review USA & Canada speaks to Edoardo De Martin, Director of Microsoft Vancouver, about the new Excellence Center’s impact on the technological world

Wr i t t e n by : N E LL WA LK E R

footprint

TECHNOLOGY

AS REPORTED BY Business Review Canada, Microsoft recently opened the doors of its Excellence Center in Vancouver.

It is a facility intended to create advanced products for the global market, develop British Columbia’s technological talent pool, and inject millions into the local economy.

Business Review USA & Canada speaks to Edoardo De Martin, Director of Microsoft Vancouver, in an exclusive interview about the project, and its current and future impact.

The initial question is: why Vancouver?

“Vancouver is a terrific place for development,” says De Martin. “It is one of the world’s most beautiful cities, has a growing tech ecosystem, offers access to great computer science talent from local universities, contains a diverse workforce, and it’s close to Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond.

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VANCOUVER’S TECHNOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

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TECHNOLOGY

“Vancouver is a terrific place for development” “We have history in British Columbia, with game development operations that go back almost a decade, and there’s a lot more we can do here. While tech is certainly strong in Waterloo, Toronto, and

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Montreal, Vancouver has some very unique advantages.”

Microsoft made its announcement about the development of the center on May 1st 2014, but it had been in development for many years. The

VANCOUVER’S TECHNOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

building was specifically designed to best harness the staff’s creativity – De Martin explains how: “Teams have plenty of open work spaces that are loosely defined by white boards, couches and other

seating areas to use for brainstorms and meetings. There are also a variety of meeting rooms that allow for ‘heads-down, focused work’ and small-to-large team collaboration.

“We have an Espresso Bar, a

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TECHNOLOGY

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game room, two 150-person multipurpose rooms, and an open stairway that connects our two floors. The Microsoft Vancouver office is also home to a maker space called The Garage where employees can step away from their desks and explore creativity through hands-on project work with 3D printing, laser cutting and even embroidery.”

The aim of the center was to gather talented Canadians together, utilizing skills of the best and brightest to help in the development of future technologies. Microsoft Vancouver will bring over 750 working positions to the local area, injecting more than $90 million in direct investments to the city annually. Across British Columbia, the economic impact is likely to be $180 million per year.

But what has the center done already for its surroundings?

“Vancouver has a growing tech ecosystem that we are excited to be a part of,” says De Martin. “The video game talent that the city is known for is ideal for 3D development and we’re leveraging that for Microsoft HoloLens development.

The potential for mixed-reality tech in redefining Windows 10 and 21

TECHNOLOGY

personal computing is tremendous.

We’re already seeing the platform impact creativity and productivity in a number of different industries.

“We’re also continuing to bring talented people together to collaborate and innovate. We’re hiring across all teams and have an internship program that brings 50 students per

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year from top Canadian universities to Vancouver for an entrepreneurial program that empowers them to build apps from the ground up.”

As it develops its technologies, its staff, and the economy around it, Microsoft Vancouver will also be working on some of its best-loved brands and franchises, such as

VANCOUVER’S TECHNOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Gears of War and NFL for XboxOne and Windows 10, Skype, OneNote, and applications for HoloLens. De Martin sees only positivity in the future of Microsoft Vancouver, a facility which is already influencing the world around it for the better.

“Our hope is that Microsoft Vancouver will help the global

organization continue to expand its development presence in the city,” he concludes. “The center will serve as an engine for technological innovation, drawing on talent, entrepreneurs and innovators to create product breakthroughs while contributing to Vancouver’s tech ecosystem.”

“We’re continuing to bring talented people together to collaborate and innovate” 23

LIST

Steps to a successful digital transformation What are the most important aspects of a successful digital transformation?

Sébastien Vugier, SVP Global Sales Solution Center at Axway, gives Business Review USA & Canada his perspective

Written by: SÉBASTIEN VUGIER

LIST

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES ARE part of our daily lives. Smartphones, social networks, the Cloud, Big Data and the Internet of Things have dramatically changed each and every sector of the business world.

Like a tidal wave sweeping over our economy, little by little since the 2000s half the Fortune 500 companies have been wiped off the list. For many companies founded prior to the digital era, digital transformation represents a real challenge, one that can only be met by reconsidering their very fundamentals.

Physical and virtual worlds coalesce It’s a fact. Digital is stepping up the pace of trade and strengthening what is now international competition, particularly with the arrival of the ‘born-digital’ newcomers.

Traditional economic models are fast becoming obsolete, and the way in which companies interact

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with their customers, partners and employees has undergone a radical transformation in the wake of realtime and interactivity demands.

From data centers and mobile devices to physical environments, new approaches have evolved to provide a better customer experience.

The emergence of these trends has seriously challenged traditional business relations, systems and processes; indeed it has rendered them completely obsolete.

It is fascinating to see just how much the line between the physical and digital world is blurring. The lack of distinction between these two worlds is forcing companies to redefine their business model. And this is the true challenge of the digital business: greater agility within innovation efforts, and a stronger desire to improve the customer experience.

This reconsideration is fundamental, for it is the only way for companies to meet, or indeed, exceed customer

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LIST

expectations. Technology has introduced and provided customers with access to all the new solutions and services. Everything is instantly within their reach, they can now buy anything they want, from anywhere and anyone. Their product and service reviews are published and shared straight away. ‘The age of the customer’ is truly upon us, 28

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and the power is no longer with the supplier, but with the consumer.

The value chain The success of a business model now lies in companies’ ability to connect easily to the people, processes and objects connected within the value chain.

This transition is often laborious,

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since organizations must begin by establishing digital connectivity channels and then build digital services before they can even focus on the digital experience.

Obviously, the task’s complexity depends on the maturity of the company embarking on its digital transformation, as well as the state of its IT infrastructures and environments.

However, three fundamental aspects must be considered to support the digital transformation: Connectivity and digital channels: The volume of data now created and stored by companies has reached unprecedented levels.

To fully exploit the potential of this trend and transform this data into useful information, companies must 29

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3 S T E P S T O A S U C C E S S F U L D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

introduce digital business processes and connect the data flows of each silo, using integration technologies like APIs, secure data transfer (MTF) or EDI. Digital services: Business service exposure and use via digital channels is broadening professional relations and offering customers greater added value. For example, by incorporating dozens of different applications (Uber, Yelp, etc.), Google Maps allows the co-creation of value between Google and its commercial partners. These services are far from being reserved exclusively for companies specialising in new technologies. These days all sectors can use API, from retail and finance to the hotel industry.

This allows organisations to exploit their services in an innovative way, creating new revenue potential.

Digital experience: The set-up of a digital platform is essential to both the creation of new economic models and the success of a

digital transformation. Banking services, for instance, have evolved dramatically, and customers can now consult their information on their mobiles and online and not just at their branch. Omnipresence is a strong customer experience.

Amazon is another excellent success story. Over the years, the company has developed new business models with the set-up of digital platforms. Previously limited to book sales, Amazon is now a Cloud giant, holding its own against the biggest IT companies.

Shrewd managers and directors who adopt these changes, allowing their organizations to capitalize on digital technologies are able to navigate this new environment quickly and successfully. It is a transition undertaken by a growing number of companies that can see the business potential heralded by the digital revolution.

Embrace digital transformation with confidence, not fear, and focus on what makes it possible.

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TIME FOR CHANGE

Written by Lucy Dixon Produced by Vince Kielty 33

Kering is home to some of the biggest brands in the world, so it needs IT solutions of a similar quality. Business Review USA reports on the company’s huge technology transformation

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ndres Montoya knows a lot about implementing huge IT and technological changes at major corporations, which is exactly what he was hired to do as CIO for the Americas at Kering back in 2014. He says: “Our Group CIO was asked to lead and deploy a shared services for IT globally, so that was the task that I was given – the opportunity to deploy, develop and create an IT shared services for Kering in the Americas.”

Kering is a world-leading accessories and apparel group, with luxury and sport and lifestyle brands – from Gucci and Stella McCartney to Puma and Cobra – under its umbrella. Digital is a strategic, CEOlevel priority for the group, so it makes sense that Montoya was brought

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in to ensure its internal IT services were of the same high quality as the clothing Kering’s brands produce.

When Montoya started, each of Kering’s brands had just been transitioned out of managing its own IT resources, which was a very complex situation, as you can imagine. “The company wanted to move to a shared services model,” says Montoya. “Leveraging skills from within the big brands, allowing the emerging brands to benefit from the knowledge that already existed in the organization.” In order to ensure a successful shift to shared services, Montoya began by listening. He says: “I had a lot of conversations with my internal customers: presidents of the different brands, the heads of the different departments like

img cr: FashionStock.com / Shutterstock.com

Model walks the runway during the Gucci show as a part of Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2016

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1963 The year Kering was established

img: shutterstock.com

FA S H I O N

finance, store operations, marketing, sales, logistics, and customer service. Having those conversations made it clear that transformation was going to be a big challenge.”

Understandably, some people were resistant to such a large change – as well as being skeptical about the success of the project – so Montoya’s collaborative approach was key.

Time for change A general fear of change led to a lot of questions aimed at Montoya, as the individual brands worried about losing control of their IT services.

He adds: “Listening to stakeholders before making any decisions on how to create a shared services for IT in a sustainable way was essential.

Gradually building the right culture takes a little longer but it will be cost effective and it will be something we can sustain moving forward. Brands needed reassurance that Kering IT had the right skillset and enough people to deliver the services needed along with the right level of support.”

Keeping costs down has also been an important part of Montoya’s strategy,

particularly as Kering IT is charging the individual brands for its services, whereas in the past they would manage what was spent on IT within their own budgets. This means brands would be asking more questions about what it is getting from Montoya’s team, as IT is seen as a cost.

A few months after Montoya started, after these essential conversations with stakeholders, he could begin to strategize the right approach to implementing shared services. And his move was to launch different programs under the banner ‘turn around and transform’, highlighting the sense that Kering needed to go in a different direction and then implement new things. He explains: “IT is the first organization in the company to jump into shared services, so we are breaking new ground. We want people to understand that it was no longer a brand-specific organization, it is a shared services for all brands. Each brand has its own culture and Kering has its own culture, so we need to assimilate people to a new culture, changing the ways of working.”

Under the ‘turn around and

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transform’ programme, Montoya created around six different sub-programs. He explains: “One was around governance, one was around project management and the third was around quality.

People tend to confuse IT quality with testing, but it goes far beyond that. We had to change the mentality to understand that quality affects everything that you do, in IT it is important to document everything that you do and make sure that it is repeatable. There is a saying in IT: ‘we need to move from implementation to deployment’ as implementation is what you do the first time and deployment comes next, a copy and paste. That was a concept we wanted to bring in. I don’t want to be in the business of implementing every single time.” Cognizant has been working with Kering on this part of the transformation. “One of Cognizant’s main strengths is quality and it helped me create a quality management system (QMS) and assisted with change management in the teams. The Cognizant team saw and understood my vision, helping me to make it a reality today.”

Team communication Another program is communications, specifically how Kering communicates internally, to avoid the problem of applications teams not talking to network teams, for example. Several communications workshops were offered to the entire Americas IT organization addressing specific needs, with the help of specialist agency Katen Consulting, to encourage

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August_0802 / Shutterstock.com

an exchange of ideas, effective communication, and a sharing of the issues faced. Montoya adds: “We need to bring teams together and make sure they will communicate and they will understand each other’s needs and how each team works together.” In addition, feedback was provided by the brand presidents and heads of different departments.

“They said the communication from IT needed improvement so I want to provide effective and open communication. I want to change our internal customers’ perception of IT.” The second part of Montoya’s communications program involves getting specifics of its main support users and stakeholders, so a series of focus groups have been arranged to tackle this issue. “In the focus group we started to discuss the meaning of our customer experience metric, it is made up of six different individual measurable elements. Our initial rating was low, below 40 percent. We implemented an action plan against specifics from the focus group to ensure we responded to all feedback.

One way of addressing the

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perception of IT within Kering’s brands, was to work on the level of support offered, which was another of Montoya’s programs. He says: “Support was not homogenous across the whole region. I would get really good service here in New York City but if I were to move somewhere else within the group, the service level would decrease drastically. So we introduced the new enhanced support model. We wanted to word it in a way that people understood that we were not completely getting rid of support but it was an enhanced model.” The success of this program is based on a personalized approach, bringing IT closer to Kering’s internal customers.

Tata Consultancy Services, TCS, has been supporting Kering Americas with this program. Montoya explains: “TCS has been instrumental in this transformation for me. It created and deployed different teams in the region, making a huge difference to the stores, which is where I wanted to first change the perception of IT. Now we offer three different languages – English, Spanish and Portuguese – so people who were not able to call

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IT Services Business Solutions Consulting

Photographer: Diego Molina Photography Website: http://www.diegomolinaphoto.com/

Andres Montoya CIO Americas

the helpdesk before because they felt a little challenged or afraid of calling and having to speak in English, now they can call and speak in their own language. So the effectiveness is much better and TCS has been fundamental in supporting this.”

The most important of Montoya’s programs, for him, was about the people. “I wanted to focus on what is the target operating model and who are the people who are going to make this magic happen?” Montoya spent a year explaining the model to key teams within each brand and then introducing new roles to make the process smooth. “There are two new roles that I think are the most

Andres Montoya is an IT and Transformation leader with an experience of more than 20 years that spans multiple industries. He has led company transformations in IT, Operations, and Manufacturing. Led the configuration and development of multi-cultural and high-performance technology organizations, partnering with business leaders in large and complex global enterprises. He has significant international work experience in Asia, Europe, US, and Latin America.

Montoya is passionate about customer experience excellence, leading change, and leading teams; leveraging technology, communications, and quality to accomplish innovation and sustainable results. Throughout his career he has delivered significant savings in technology spend, increasing quality and skillsets. In the industry he has established strong partnerships with service providers, consolidated vendors, and identified the right technology for ongoing and future challenges.

He has delivered global ERP, CRM, and Analytics platforms including middleware and cloud based solutions. Combines short- and long-term IT vision/strategy, ensuring that IT fulfills its purpose in the company. Montoya holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of los Andes.

FA S H I O N

important and the first is the Business Relationship Manager. This is the liaison between IT and the customer, the brand. So it’s a person that is very senior in IT technology who has also worked in operations before, whether that’s manufacturing, finance, HR or logistics. But they transitioned at some point in their career into technology and now they understand technology. So they can speak the two languages. They can also relate easily to our stakeholders and the needs they have from a business perspective.” Such a multi-skilled person has not been easy for Montoya to find, not least because it is the first time such a position has existed within

Kering. He adds: “The first Business Relationship Manager was going to break ground so it was very important, very essential for the success of these roles to get it right the first time.”

The second new role Montoya created was the IT Store Operations Manager, who needed to have a thorough understanding of the IT needs of Kering’s stores. “This is an IT operational manager role because a lot of Kering’s business is done in stores so I needed to have someone that was like the voice of the store within IT. Someone that will spend a lot of time at the store, that will understand what are the challenges from a technology perspective.” The stores

Now we offer three different languages – English, Spanish and Portuguese – so people who were not able to call the helpdesk before because they felt a little challenged or afraid of calling and having to speak in English, now they can call and speak in their own language

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Photographer: Diego Molina Photography Website: http://www.diegomolinaphoto.com/

FA S H I O N

– clearly – are the key to Kering’s revenue, so it was important that there was nothing, from a technology perspective, standing in the way of each brand serving its customers.

In just two short years, Montoya’s plans have begun to have an impact on the brands. Big improvements are apparent in all of his key program areas – there is a tangible cultural shift and perception about Kering IT Americas.

Our customer experience metric rating stands above 80%. Increased transparency and collaboration in the relationship with its customers and a more fluid communication, both formal and informal. New skills have been hired; filling in important needs to deliver IT services to customers. And new partners have been integrated helping to consolidate and decrease the number of providers, reducing cost and increasing skill levels. A project management methodology was

deployed, with the help of Accenture and Cognizant who offered guidance and supported the deployment of a new agile Project Management Office (PMO). Other changes that Kering’s IT team has implemented include fortnightly status reports to help address many of the communication issues, alongside meetings with the brands on a recurring basis.

Quarterly review meetings have been established to validate and clarify on IT service volumes and the alignment with recharges, increasing trust on IT cost passed on to the brands. The focus on quality is, obviously, ongoing.

Montoya concludes: “Quality is a never ending program, but much of the work on making people understand what quality in IT actually is has been achieved. We have a strong foundation. That is part of this big transformation that we as a team have been working very hard to reach.”

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The digital equaliser Written by Tom Wadlow Produced by George Tweed

MASTERCARD

Mastercard is transforming the way millions of consumers are managing their money thanks to its innovating ethos and formidable talent base, developing technology which can bring vital financial services to unbanked people around the world

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hough it has been one of the world’s best-established financial operators for decades, it is arguably the past 10 years which has seen Mastercard’s most prolific innovation and transformation drive, spearheaded by a burgeoning talent pool and demand for digital.

Innovation has been part of the company’s culture since it was founded. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2016.

Robert Reeg, now President of Global Technology and Operations for Mastercard, has been a part of the company’s journey for 21 years and helped bring innovation

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to the forefront of the minds of the entire 10,000-strong workforce.

“Seven or eight years ago we asked all our employees to look at and rank us on a number of different attributes. At the time, innovation came in toward the bottom of that list,” he says. “This has been a huge focus point since, getting across that message that innovation is part of everybody’s job, not just the tech guys or one part of the group. We all have to think how we can do things better.

“I had no idea we would grow as fast as we have. The whole secular shift from hard currency to digital

TECHNOLOGY

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access to money has changed the way people think about how they buy things. The safety and convenience of electronic versus carrying around cash or writing cheques is now clear and Mastercard has played a massive part in that shift.”

Mastercard and its 350 mobile software engineers have been influential in deploying Masterpass.

“If you try to grow mobile technology on your own it takes a long time, so this acquisition allowed us to enter the market very quickly,” Reeg adds. “This is the next phase The dual benefits of digital in how digital money is going to be Two recent projects underline the managed – people need ease and double-edged benefits of safety in making payments and payments digitisation this is going to be key.”

Reeg mentions. The Indeed, security is first is Masterpass, the second major an omni-channel advantage of digital digital wallet over traditional service that has payments. A key been rolled out area of focus for Number of employees across the USA Mastercard has been at Mastercard and is available development of biometric to use at millions of verification, the company retail locations in dozens of is now piloting its Identity Check countries around the world. system, or what the media has been Masterpass is a result of one calling ‘selfie pay’. For transactions of MasterCard’s tried and tested up to a certain value, consumers approaches to innovation and can take a picture of themselves recruitment of talent – investments which is then verified when they go in disruptive technology companies. to make their purchases. This builds Indian digital wallet expert on the work already carried out on C-SAM was recently acquired by fingerprint technology, which saw the

10,000+

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MASTERCARD

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TECHNOLOGY

launch of the world’s first contactless payment card featuring an integrated fingerprint sensor in 2014.

“Biometrics is the next frontier,” Reeg says.

“The issue you have now is people hate trying to remember 20 unique passwords, which actually aren’t that secure, so there is a double benefit here of convenience and security at the same time. I believe that in the next five years biometrics will become the primary method of verification.”

Expanding Mastercard’s reach The Masterpass launch and acquisition of C-SAM is one of many examples of Mastercard acquisitions bearing fruit in terms of yielding expertise. Although a lot of development is carried out in-house, the company has made that house significantly larger via a series of acquisitions during the past few years.

Reeg continues: “One of the most significant was the acquisition of Orbiscom in 2008, headquartered in Dublin. They had a product we really liked that we have re-named ‘In Control’, that helps people manage where and who uses their digital money.

“Even more significant than the product itself, however, have been the people we acquired, and they have been key in changing the landscape of innovation at Mastercard. Their CEO Garry Lyons became our Chief Innovation Officer.”

Another acquisition, this time in the marketing sphere, was the purchase of APT in Virginia in

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2015. Its Test and Learn product helps companies tailor investments and maximise bottom-line impact by harnessing analytics to design, measure and calibrate marketing, merchandising, operations and capital initiatives.

Start Path Acquisition is not the only route Mastercard has taken with partner companies, however. The Start Path programme provides initial support in start-up technology companies, whether it be capital, mentorship or office space to help them get off the ground.

As part of the programme, companies interested in working with Mastercard apply for the different cohorts. Mastercard selects companies from those applicants and partners with them to help them scale up operations. By granting start-ups access to its global ecosystem and customer bases, it is also widening its own knowledge base in the process, as well as offering another way to infuse innovative thinking into the organisation.

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Features of the initiative include a six-month virtual programme and two immersion weeks in different Mastercard cities, with no commitment required of the start-ups to offer equity in return. Mastercard employees from different disciplines help mentor the companies, as well.

Honing talent Alongside the shift in consumer behaviour to digital payments has been a shift in Mastercard’s internal approach to technology and innovation, with tremendous emphasis on gearing the company towards younger recruits.

“The largest part of our workforce today is made up of millennials, so it’s key to make sure our workforce is aware of how quickly things are changing in technology, so we are best positioned to take advantage of new opportunities,” Reeg says.

“There’s no way of saying how many members of our team work in innovation, as we are all responsible for it at Mastercard. Maybe 15 years ago you could separate technology or innovation people from others in

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ROBERT REEG

President, Mastercard Global Technology and Operations

Rob Reeg is president of MasterCard Operations & Technology (O&T). In this role, Reeg oversees the strategic processing platform, global network and quality of technology operations at MasterCard. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, he serves as a member of the company’s Management Committee.

Prior to joining MasterCard, Reeg held IT and business leadership positions with Sprint Corp., Cleveland Pneumatic, Totco Inc., and Conoco Inc. Reeg serves on the University of Missouri-St. Louis Leadership Council, Washington University’s Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research, Washington University’s Professional Degree Programs Academic Advisory Board, and the United Way of Greater St. Louis’ Technology Committee.

Reeg received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

He also served as a captain in the United States Army Reserve for eight years.

MASTERCARD

the business. This blending is just going to keep on happening and we no longer separate technology from business – the traditional R&D team ethos is ebbing away.”

Reeg also points to the role CEO Ajay Banga has played in transforming Mastercard into a business that resonates with millennial, tech-savvy workers.

“The motivations are different to when I was joining workforces in the late 1970s,” he adds. “Attracting and retaining great talent from schools and colleges is much more competitive than ever before.

We know that by challenging smart people to come in make contributions right away, we offer a different and more compelling experience and a great place not only to start, but grow a career.”

The company offers a reverse mentoring initiative, which sees younger employees share their digital knowledge with more senior colleagues, who in return provide mentorship on the wider business and valuable career advice.

“For someone like me, I get

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coaching on the latest social media tools, and having someone who is straight out of college who has been immersed in technology their entire lives is such a help in this process,” Reeg says. “In return I can help them in terms of advancing their career in the business. It’s a win-win for both parties participating, and helps make Mastercard a stronger company overall with this relationship building.”

Retention and inclusion While attracting and developing employees is paramount for an innovating organisation such as Mastercard, making sure talented workers stay on at the company in the medium-long term is equally as important.

Extensive paternal and maternal assurances, financial wellness programmes, flexible working hours, incentive schemes and education support are among the benefits on offer to staff. A culture of inclusion, tolerance and diversity is also at the forefront of Mastercard’s approach to the working environment, led by Chief Diversity Officer Donna Johnson.

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“We know that by bringing together employees of diverse background who combine their thoughts, experiences and background, we can advance innovation and offer more meaningful products and solutions to our customers and cardholders. It’s that simple – making sure you empower employees to share their ideas and as a leader, you listen. Our people truly are an amazing asset as we think about what’s next in payments.”

“I’ve been here 21 years – I never thought I’d work anywhere 21 years,” Reeg adds.

“It’s one of those places where you wake up in the morning and want to come into work.

We work with great people in an exciting area where the business is always changing.”

Mastercard is also active in encouraging more women to pursue careers in technology. “The issue in most developed countries is that there are fewer and fewer women going into hard sciences,” Reeg says. “We have a programme called Girls4Tech where we start in middle school trying to help influence girls and show the types of careers that they can have in technology. Many young women come in not sure if a career in tech is for them – but once they go through the program, they see many more options in front of them.

It’s both refreshing and encouraging to see.”

Girls4Tech has just completed research which identifies the top two reasons for girls aged 12-19 not wanting to pursue a career in STEM (science,

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“I believe that in th years biometrics w primary method o

Robert Reeg, President of Glob Technology and Operations

he next five will become the of verification�

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technology, engineering and maths) subjects – difficulty of study and a lack of interest in the subject matter. This is where Mastercard’s employees come in. Launched two years ago, more than 5,000 girls and 1,000 members of staff have taken part in the programme across 11 countries. Mastercard has also penned agreements with Be Better and UN Women to take Girls4Tech to China and Singapore respectively, with the goal of reaching another 54,500 young women.

Equaliser Mastercard’s inclusive culture ambitions stretch far beyond its own recruitment and outreach programmes. The ultimate endgame is to use digital payments technology as an equaliser across the world,

bringing vital financial services to unbanked populations.

By continuing to innovate and work with disruptive, fastmoving technology companies, Reeg believes Mastercard and its workforce have a crucial role to play in the future.

He concludes: “We have the opportunity to help shape the world and bring more people into the formal economy. There are two billion un-or-underbanked people in the world ­— and we want them to have the same access that anybody else has.

“This is something that we can continue to play a huge role in and be proud of leading. Technology is a great equaliser and we want to help level that playing field for everyone involved.”

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Data-led transformation Written by Nye Longman Produced by George Tweed

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In the second phase of its technology transformation, VistaJet is using technology to provide an offering like no other

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n the challenging environment of business aviation, every move is important and reputation counts for everything. Twelve years ago, VistaJet decided to split from the pack and offer a unique subscription model whereby discerning corporate and high net worth customers purchase blocks of flight hours, rather than a fraction or entire aircraft, to obtain guaranteed access to its fleet of over 65 business jets anywhere in the world.

Business Review Europe speaks to Chief Information Officer Pedro Nassif about the value that digitalisation has brought to the company’s internal processes, as well as what this means for both one-time and regular customers.

The business of aviation The market for business aviation is certainly rewarding, but competition is stiff, from players both big and small, old and new. By owning its fleet, VistaJet sets itself apart from competitors by focusing on providing

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“Delivering bespoke services can only be achieved using timely, targeted and accurate data.

So the approach to technology is to make sure that data is made available accurately, in real time to the right people” – Pedro Nassif, VistaJet CIO

Speed your way to the fastest cabin experience available

You email the quarterly numbers critical for the CFO’s presentation while your colleague is on a video conference call with headquarters about the new product launch. Next to her, the vice president of marketing is downloading the files for the annual report and live streaming the company’s latest ad premiering during the World Cup finals. Sound like a typical day at the office? It is, except for the fact that it’s happening while you’re cruising at 39,000 feet. This is the type of passenger experience new technologies like Jet ConneX (JX) from Inmarsat are enabling for business aviation customers around the world.

Connectivity for business aviation is not new – what is new is a service like JX that provides connectivity at higher speeds, with higher bandwidth and true global coverage. Rockwell Collins is a provider of the Jet ConneX service as part of its ARINCDirectSM offering.

“There are several existing technologies, but JX is a game changer,” said David Stanley, vice president, Business Aviation Cabin Services for Rockwell Collins.

“It provides the fastest broadband connectivity speeds available with usage plans that are similar to what you see with your home cable provider.”

rockwellcollins.com

Why do business jet operators care? Because passenger demand for connectivity is growing. “The desire for constant connectivity is actually driving the choices that business aviation customers are making in terms of which aircraft they fly,” notes Stanley. “If you have access to two aircraft and one has high-speed cabin connectivity and the other doesn’t, guess which one is going to be used more often? Passengers want the same experience on board an aircraft as they do on the ground, and they are making their preferences known.”

Global coverage Beyond speed, coverage is also an important factor.

“JX is unique in that it’s the first high-speed Ka-band broadband network that supports worldwide operations,” said Stanley. “It’s a global service with consistently high-level performance and quality of service, which is essential for international operators.”

Because a single company provides JX, business aviation operators can fly across time zones and provide continuous, reliable service to passengers, eliminating gaps in coverage that exist with older technologies.

Cost considerations: flat rate service plans create new economies of scale Stanley notes that one of the biggest issues he sees in the industry is confusion by business jet operators about the cost of using – or upgrading to – JX. While there are upfront installation and hardware costs associated with moving to JX, service contracts are based on a fixed, flat fee basis or an “all the data you can consume” pricing model. That’s a key differentiator from existing connectivity options, which are typically based on per megabyte pricing.

“As a flat rate service, JX changes the dynamic because it eliminates the need to manage cost on a per trip or per month basis. So, depending on the frequency of flight, JX could be a much more economical way to provide connectivity services to the cabin.”

Smart cabin routers make a big difference While passengers experience the speed and performance benefits of JX, new smart routers help business jet operators better manage the use of voice and data on board the aircraft – and more. But not all routers are created equal.

As aircraft get more sophisticated, they may have several connectivity solutions onboard. For example, perhaps JX for high throughput cabin connectivity, Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband for the flight deck as well as another for air-to-ground communications. “No one wants to get on board the aircraft and see multiple

networks to choose from – they just want one,” said Stanley. “And that’s what Rockwell Collins’ airborne data router does: it creates one network with the ability to prioritize traffic to effectively manage an entire suite of connectivity options through one device.”

A smart cabin router can also have a big impact on minimizing costs. Rockwell Collins routes data based on the lowest cost given the available networks, and the company’s airborne router knows which service or technology to prioritize based on the location of the aircraft. “So if you’re on the ground, our airborne data router switches off of SATCOM and goes to GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) because it’s a lot less expensive than using up satellite megabytes,” said Stanley.

Think of the future growth Technology is changing so quickly that, “You need to consider your needs not only today but in the future.”

Rockwell Collins’ airborne data router is modular in design, so it has been architected for future grown.

“Essentially, the router is really designed for the life of an aircraft. Regardless of what new technology comes down the road, its flexible design allows operators to adapt.”

Do the homework Thinking about transitioning to JX? “While the move to new connectivity solutions is exciting, you need to do your homework,” cautions Stanley. “We’re moving from basic satellite connectivity solutions on aircraft to literally creating an airborne network. Take your time and do the research. Business aviation operators need the expertise of a company like Rockwell Collins to be able to architect, configure and troubleshoot that network so they get the best results possible.”

For information on how JX from ARINCDirect can transform your cabin connectivity experience, contact sales@arinc.com.

ARINCDirectSM airborne data router

V I S TA J E T I N T E R N AT I O N A L

VistaJet app visual

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aircraft services that are truly like no other – providing its customers with a guaranteed aircraft, true flexibility and unmatched personalised service, all whilst offering the largest service area in business aviation.

“It’s like having your luxury car waiting for you outside your business meeting,” Nassif says. “You might be late, so you can tell us to wait. You might want to fly tomorrow instead of today; we can change the flight destination, the time, the date and even the passengers on board. This actually happens about three to four times on average per flight.”

Alongside private individuals seeking convenience and discretion, VistaJet has been trusted to arrange flights for a variety of high-worth individuals including several heads of state, as well as a high number of business leaders and entrepreneurs. Flying to well over 180 countries globally, the aviator is capable of tailoring each flight in line with the demands of its customers through a number of separate channels using bespoke

2004

The year VistaJet International was founded

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Thomas Flohr, VistaJet Founder and Chairman

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internal systems, traditional booking methods and a dedicated app.

VistaJet’s identically branded fleet of over 65 Bombardier Global and Challenger jets is currently the largest privately-owned collection in the world, but what is more staggering is its age: the company ensures that its planes are no less than 18 months old on average – a rarity in the industry.

Technology transformation Over the past five years, Nassif’s work as CIO has been to ensure that digitalisation is at the forefront of the company agenda. The first stage of this process, which started in 2011, focused on digitalising internal business processes in order to deliver more than 100 unscheduled flights per day as efficiently as possible – the next, still ongoing, has been to ensure that digitalisation has a

direct benefit to the customer.

“Technology is absolutely vital for our business processes,” he says, “Delivering bespoke services can only be achieved using timely, targeted and accurate data. So the approach to technology is to make sure that data is made available in real time to the right people, in order to deliver a world-class experience on every flight.

“What we are going through is quite unique. I don’t think that in the business aviation sector, anyone has the sort of commitment to technology that VistaJet has. We have built an end-to-end technology platform that we call GlobalView which allows our value streams to collaborate at every stage of the flight – from booking to billing.”

He explains that, when a customer calls or uses the Vistajet App to book a flight, the booking is recorded

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Number of VistaJet International employees

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J S S I B A C K S V I S TA J E T W I T H G L O B A L S E R V I C E C U LT U R E JSSI and VistaJet jointly announced the largest hourly cost maintenance program in history in May of 2013.

JSSI has enrolled close to 70 VistaJet aircraft onto its specialized programs to streamline their maintenance processes and deliver a predictable budget and higher residual value year after year.

From the beginning, it was obvious that VistaJet and JSSI shared a global approach to the business jet market, and an exceptional service culture. The success of the two companies continues to thrive today and are bound together by a common corporate culture.

GLOBAL BUSINESS VistaJet’s Bombardier fleet of business jets fly to 182 countries across six continents. They have multilingual staff around the globe ready to arrange every aspect of their customers’ flights, 24/7/365. It only makes sense that they receive that same type of global service commitment from their maintenance program provider.

Neil Book, JSSI’s President and CEO, states, “Our job is to provide VistaJet with peace of mind should they encounter a maintenance issue anywhere around the world. They have the strongest and most committed team behind them to bring their aircraft back to service safely and efficiently, so they can continue to deliver the world class experience they are known for.” JSSI’s Technical Advisors and key management staff travel the globe meeting with and evaluating maintenance facilities to identify key support locations that will service VistaJet in the most effective and reliable manner. No matter where any JSSI customer flies, aircraft maintenance expertise is always a phone call away and available within the region whenever and wherever assistance is needed.

J S S I – S E R V I C E C U LT U R E T O M AT C H Service is a rather broad term and is commonly an over-used and under-delivered benefit in today’s fastpaced business world. As the leading Global business aviation company providing seamless private jet travel across the globe, VistaJet delivers the ultimate level of service to their clientele every day.

In addition to providing budget stability with its financial service, JSSI adds another dimension of service to the basic maintenance program. VistaJet gains 24/7 access to the largest, most experienced JSSI technical and client services teams in the industry.

VistaJet and JSSI have complementary work cultures, as Neil Book explains, “At JSSI, our product is our entire system of people that make JSSI tick, 24/7, 365 days of the year. We have a team of passionate professionals that keep our customers flying. We are proud of the culture of collaboration, innovation, and integrity that we have inspired here at JSSI, while we continue to set the bar high for excellence in exceeding VistaJet’s expectations.”

Thomas Flohr puts it like this, “JSSI cares for their clients the way we at VistaJet do for ours: always willing to go above and beyond to rectify or prevent a situation that could impact our client. And most of the time, the JSSI people making the difference are behind the scenes. Our clients don’t even know about an issue avoided that could have kept them on the ground much longer than planned.”

“JSSI’s global support culture demonstrates the continuation of VistaJet’s Think Global strategy and its commitment to provide reliable, non-stop point-to-point global coverage with guaranteed availability,” indicated Thomas Flohr, Founder & Chairman, VistaJet.

Nick van der Meer, Neil Book, VistaJet Crew.

Far left L-R: Neil Book & Thomas Flohr.

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TECHNOLOGY

and managed throughout its entire life cycle in GlobalView. This enables every team (Operations, Catering, Customer Service, Finance, and Maintenance) to work simultaneously on preparing the flight. All while providing line managers with Management Information System (MIS), so they and other key stakeholders can track and understand what is happening in real time.

“That’s a big achievement because many companies working with platform systems specialising in a specific area struggle with the integration of this many to make them work,” Nassif says. “We are in a positive investment perspective – many companies will spend the lion’s share of their technology budget maintaining their systems and on operating costs – we keep that low and spend the majority of our technology budget on the future; on investment.

“This started with an internal phase where we looked at our functions and processes and created GlobalView.

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customers, which we are succeeding at because we know them all very well and can spot behavioural trends. Data enables a very personalised service – we know that Person A likes the cabin at 20 degrees and likes to be treated in a certain manner. It’s very specific.”

Collaborative partnerships VistaJet does not shy away from bringing elite partners on board to solve a variety of problems, and the

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“What we are going through is quite unique.

I don’t think that in the business aviation sector, anyone has the sort of commitment to technology that VistaJet has” – Pedro Nassif, VistaJet CIO

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relationships are usually integrated.

With a global staff base of 150, it has dedicated operations in South America (Monitora), Middle East (VentureDive), Eastern Europe (Digitally Inspired and Dreamix) and the UK among others. “Those companies work very closely with us – mostly with our project managers or business analysts,” Nassif explains.

Having engaged with the needs of its customers from day one,

VistaJet’s position in the private business aviation sector has been cemented. By leveraging the latest developments in technology in order to better understand the needs of its customers, the company has ensured that its offering is indispensable for businessmen and selective customers seeking connections anywhere in the world, at any time.

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Keeping cool in critical space Written by Jennifer Johnson Produced by Tom Venturo 81

F O R S Y T H E D ATA C E N T E R S , I N C .

In the digital age, consumers demand speed and reliability in web services.

Companies are catching on — and realising that their own facilities can’t accommodate their IT infrastructure

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ata centers have never merely been houses for IT equipment — but as businesses increasingly come to rely on the facilities to store critical information, their security and infrastructure needs have grown more complex. Perhaps no one is more familiar with the demands placed on modern data centers than Forsythe Technology’s newly created expert entity, Forsythe Data Centers.

Last year, the company debuted a state-of-the-art facility in Elk Grove, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago.

“It’s really more than a traditional colocation data center,” says David Carlson, Vice President of Forsythe Hosting Solutions.

“It’s an innovation center.”

The Tier III Uptime Certified facility

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boasts 90,000 square feet of space and 30MW of IT load. More important than these numbers are the numerous options clients have for space, security and customisation within the building.

Forsythe allows customers to test, plan, construct and manage all of the infrastructure that goes into its dedicated private suites, resulting in a highly agile and scalable offering.

“Clients look to us from a technical perspective, to help them maneuver through the technical side of the conversation,” explains Steve Harris, Vice President of Data Center Development. Harris also cites Forsythe’s ability to help clients migrate, and later provide supporting services, as factors which make the company unique in the

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data center market. “We offer a full turnkey solution to clients who are looking for that capability,” he says.

In selecting a data center, any prospective client will want to ensure that their information is secure and that all of their equipment is kept sufficiently cool. Many of Forsythe’s customers are enterprises for whom privacy is also paramount, and they have found that the facility’s private suites offer them the peace of mind that a traditional ‘cage’ environment cannot.

“The cage environment was good ten years ago,” says Carlson.

“Going forward, the security and flexibility of a full six-wall suite is becoming increasingly important to some clients. It provides them the concept of having their own dedicated data-center-within-a-data-center.”

Forsythe ensured that the Elk Grove facility was in compliance with leading auditing and information security standards, receiving both SSAE 16 and ISO 27001 accreditation once the center was opened. “[Clients] can control security and have the audit capabilities they require,” Carlson

explains. “Each client has six to seven security points just to get into their space. Being in our facility really enables them to meet their own compliance requirements.”

Harris drew on his years of experience as the director of the company’s data center engineering practice when determining the specific features and services that the Elk Grove facility would offer customers.

Before the advent of Forsythe Data Centers, Harris managed a team which not only built and re-engineered client facilities, but also would also help clients to select a colocation provider anywhere in the United States. “In doing that engagement over and over again, we were able to see all sorts of provider facilities,” he recalls.

“Over time we got to see the good, the bad and the ugly.” His team would make “mental notes” when touring data centers, and were ultimately able to compile numerous examples of best — and worst — practice.

“With that collective mental file that each of us had, we were able to design a facility that included the

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best of the best,” Harris says. “And ensure that we didn’t make mistakes other providers had made.”

Forsythe offers private suites in a handful of sizes and configurations — from 300 to 4,000 square feet of contiguous space and 50kw to 1.5MW of power. However, a customer’s options for cooling increase significantly once certain dimensions are exceeded. “When you get to 1000 square feet, your private, dedicated, hard wall suite also comes with your own power and cooling that is dedicated just to you,” Harris says. “You control your humidity set points and you control your temperature set points.

“You’re helping to manage the environment of your data center and hopefully manage it in the most efficient way possible. We will help the client do that, as well, in order to make sure that the electric bill portion of their rent is as low as possible.”

Forsythe’s Elk Grove facility has achieved low Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) scores, indicating high levels of energy efficiency. Carlson credits the efficiency of the building to the company’s partnership with Emerson Network Power, a provider of critical infrastructure for data centers, communications networks and industrial facilities.

“We had PUEs as low as 1.27 and a lot of that is due, quite frankly, to the power and cooling equipment that we procured from Emerson, both from the UPS (uninterruptable power supply) standpoint and from a critical standpoint,” says Carlson. “We

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Number of employees at Forsythe Data Centers datacenters.forsythe.com

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are able to achieve those PUEs because of the equipment selected, designed and built by Emerson.”

The success of the partnership was due, in no small part, to both companies’ willingness to collaborate.

“We believe two things: a part that’s not there can’t break and a connection that’s not there can’t fail,” says Peter Panfil, Vice President, Global Power at Emerson Network Power. “The goal was to take Forsythe’s original concept design, look for ways to improve it and come 88

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up with an integrated solution.”

The result of the partnership is a data center equipped to meet a customer’s every need — and exceed their expectations. “They are unique in the things that they can offer to critical space customers,” Panfil says of Forsythe. “They are a unique combination that allows customers speed, scalability, reliability and quality. Those are the four things that every single critical space customer I’ve talked to says keeps them up at night.”

•

Building a data center from the ground up is an enormous undertaking—which is why companies are increasingly handing the job over to colocation providers. While Forsythe drew upon its years of experience to make the overall decisions and manage every aspect, it also drew upon the strengths of a team of mission-critical partners.

•

To begin with, Environmental Systems Design Global helped design and Turner Construction constructed Forsythe’s innovative Retail+ facility that achieved not only Uptime Institute Tier III certification of constructed facility for redundancy and resiliency, but also LEED Gold Certification for energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact, each on first inspection.

• ComEd worked with Forsythe from the early planning stages to ensure that Forsythe Data Centers’ power and redundancy requirements could be supported.

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Sunesys deployed a dedicated, dark fiber ring from Forsythe’s enterprise colocation facility to 350 E. Cermak, providing secure, private diverse paths to the carrier-neutral environment in the downtown Chicago area.

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Ciena® provided high-capacity, low-latency connectivity, secure, wire-speed encrypted connectivity solutions to Forsythe Data Centers for the dual, diverse metro fiber network connecting it to 350 East Cermak in Chicago.

• Dura-line provided an innovative air-jetted fiber (blown fiber) infrastructure system that enables continuous fiber to run throughout the facility with zero points of network failure, virtually unlimited fiber and bandwidth capacity, real-time futureproofing, no end to the fiber lifecycle, and up to 90% savings in time and labor for fiber installs.

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Anixter provided a wide array of product options for fiber, copper, patch panels, power strips, cabinet distribution units and other data center infrastructure components, as well as a product demonstration lab and consultative services to assist with product evaluation and selection.

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And last, but far from least, Emerson Network Power provided a number of innovative power and cooling technologies, including new, beta-stage Lithium-Ion UPS battery technology that Forsythe Data Centers is piloting at its facility.