Digital Innovation Magazine - March 2022

D a n n y Danny Berry, VP of HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain, on the critical role of digital technologies

E X C L U S I V E S

Luxatia International is hosting the 2nd World Digital Procurement Summit that will take place on the 3rd & 4th of March 2022. This virtual event will focus on the smart utilization of advanced technologies and the best transformation strategies of the digital procurement roadmap. The summit will serve as an ideal platform for key business stakeholders and technical experts to examine the benefits of the implementation of recent cognitive procurement technologies & the best strategies for reimagining the role of people in your procurement ecosystem. Leading experts from global brands will be sharing pr their experience on advanced data analytics, IoT, RPA, AI, ML, smart contracts and other disrupting tools in procurement. Don’t miss your chance to join the conversations contributing to the future of digital procurement during this 2-day event, filled with knowledge exchange and networking with your peers!

MEET SOME OF OUR SPEAKERS

David Storch

Charlotte de Brabandt

Nick Jenkinson

Head of Network Commercial and Contract Management

Member of the ISM Thought Leadership Council

Chief Procurement Officer

Allianz

Institute for Supply Management

Santander UK

Key Practical Learning Points • • • • • • • •

Introducing the Latest Advances of Digital Procurement Helping the Organization Respond to Procurement Issues and Priorities Building the Roadmap for Procurement's Strategic and Digital Transformation Achieving Next-gen Procurement With Advanced Automation & Data Analytics Unleashing the Potential of RPA, AI, ML and Other Digital Trends Embedding Blockchain Technology for Transparency in Sourcing Ex Extending Beyond the Tech-based Training and Upskilling of People Developing Soft Skills and Connecting Your Supply Chain Workforce www.luxatiainternational.com

We are excited to share the stories of three key players in our eagerlyanticipated March edition of Digital Innovation Magazine. Danny Berry, VP of HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain, is our cover star this month.

We thoroughly enjoyed chatting to Danny about the role of digital technologies in enhancing both customer experience and supply chain competitiveness. You can read our full interview on page 6.

Hapag-Lloyd’s Head of Procurement, Daniel Braune, and Director of Procurement Excellence, Julia Finning, talk to us about tackling sustainability whilst digitalising the company’s procurement function (p40). It was fascinating to learn more about Hapag-Lloyd’s digital roadmap for the future…

Watch this space!

What’s more, we bring you a third intriguing interview thanks to John-Paul Edwards, Chief Information Officer at Broadstone (p66). Broadstone is a leading independent provider of specialist pensions and employee benefit solutions for SMEs and large corporates. It was a pleasure to listen to John-Paul wax lyrical about creating happier, healthier and financially-inclusive outcomes for his clients.

D a n n y Danny Ber Pointnext ry, VP of HPE Chain, on Services Supply of digita the critical role l technolo gies E X C L U S I V E S

Danielle Harris Director d.harris@ithink.media

Tom Barnes Director t.barnes@ithink.media

Daniel May Senior Digital Designer design@ithink.media

Plus, we have a host of interesting features to pique your interest this month, from AI (p32) and VR (p80), to sustainability (p88) and all the latest happenings in the UK tech start-up space (p98).

Happy reading!

+44 (0) 203 890 1189 enquiries@digitalinnovationeu.com

Anna McMahon Editor editorial@ithink.media

All rights reserved. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in Digital Innovation Magazine. However, the company cannot accept responsibility for the claims made by advertisers or contributors, or inaccurate material supplied by advertisers.

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Danny Berry, VP of HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain, on the critical role of digital technologies

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We chat to Hapag-L Head of Procureme Daniel Braune, and Director of Procure Excellence, Julia Fin

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ELLIS’ multicentric approach to AI research in Europe

Lloyd’s ent, d ement nning

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The five key blockchain trends set to shape the technology space

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John-Paul Edwards, Chief Information Officer at Broadstone, on achieving the best outcomes for clients

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Is the EU planning to regulate the metaverse?

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The hottest tech start-ups in the UK capital

The green credentials of 5G and IoT combined!

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Introducing this issue’s start-up of the month, Robiquity

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C OV E R STO RY

ENHANCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SUPPLY CHAIN COMPETITIVENESS Danny Berry, VP Hewlett Packard Enterprise, discusses the critical role of digital technologies.

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DANNY BERRY SERVES AS VICE PRESIDENT OF SUPPLY CHAIN WITHIN THE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES UNIT FOR HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE, BRANDED AS HPE POINTNEXT SERVICES. THE SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANISATION CONSISTS OF THREE INTEGRATED TEAMS.

anny begins, “The first team is responsible for getting spare parts to our enterprise customers, this is the backbone of the organisation. Here the goal is to get the right part to the right place at the right time with the right quality and cost.

It’s simple to describe – it’s not simple to do! Our customers include 90 per cent of the Fortune 500, and HPE has built one-third of the Top 100 fastest supercomputers in the world – so part availability and speed are vital to serve our customers’ needs.

Following a diagnosis, we may need to have a part

at site or get it to site in a few hours, depending on contract levels. The interplay between our technical support centres, supply chain, and our field engineers needs to be frictionless. We are with our customers in their hour of need, 24×7×365, shipping parts to more than 170 countries.

That is our value proposition – our responsiveness, our ability to get things fixed, the assurance we can offer our customers.”

The second team is a sales operation, selling HPE genuine authorised parts to customers who do not have active support contracts or have 9

out-of-warranty products. Danny explains, “Cybersecurity is a big concern to many enterprise customers. You only have to read the news. Counterfeit parts or malware risks can lead to catastrophic consequences, security breaches, ransomware, data loss. Data is one of the most crucial assets a company has – so why risk it with bad quality parts?”

“CUSTOMERS ARE ALWAYS OUR #1 FOCUS AREA. ENSURING WE ARE DOING THE DAY JOB WELL TO GIVE GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS ALWAYS OUR PRIMARY CONCERN” The third and final part of this services supply chain is the Integration Services team, otherwise known as Factory Express Services. Danny explains, “We have Supply Chain team members embedded in our product factories across the globe. Customers have needs all along the spectrum, from simple asset tagging at one 10

end, right through to integrating a range of servers, storage and networking devices into a complete customer-ready solution – a turnkey solution involving complex hardware and software, ready to switch on fast and gain productivity. The team can enable a lot of customisation in a short amount of time, almost like the customer having their own factory.”

Many HPE Pointnext Services customers are undergoing massive digital transformations, leveraging the expertise the services organisation within HPE brings. Similarly, the supply chain team is in a constant state of evolution, driving customer centricity and identifying smart digital deployments.

“We base our strategy and plans around five focus areas,” explains Danny.

“Customers are always our #1 focus area. Ensuring we are doing the day job well to give great customer experience is always our primary concern.”

The next focus area is Optimisation. Danny continues, “As operations or supply chain professionals, we are always looking for the best balance point between a whole range of things like speed of 11

response, inventory investments, transportation, warehousing, costs and more.

“The third focus area are supply chain spaces where we want to Innovate & Transform. We examine our business, asking ourselves: ‘Will this improve a customer’s experience? Does this make a team member’s job easier? Does it help us improve a key metric?’ If it doesn’t pass 12

these types of test questions, it does not get done. As business leaders, we have all seen pretty slides that change nothing. None of the leaders I speak to across the industry have time for innovation for the sake of innovation – it has got to make a real difference.

This balance between ongoing optimising and transforming is tough – performing and transforming at the same time is always a challenge.

“Next comes our Big Picture focus area. In simple terms, that means hooking into and supporting the big strategic plays at an HPE Pointnext Services level and at an HPE level. It’s important that busy people in big organisations don’t work in a bubble – so getting very clear on the spaces where we need to support the big picture is important.

“And our final focus area is People & Culture. It’s our people who

develop strategies, drive the projects and change programmes, run the daily processes, come up with the smart ideas – our people are the foundation of everything we do.”

A key area of focus for optimisation in recent times has been part returns. Every time a part is replaced, the Supply Chain organisation works to recover the failed part.

With millions of customer contracts to support globally, this is no 13

“WE NEEDED TO OPTIMISE THE PART RETURNS SITUATION ON MANY LEVELS. WE ALSO FELT IT WAS AN AREA RIPE FOR A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND INNOVATION PARTNERSHIP” 14

easy task. The Supply Chain network consists of hundreds of technology manufacturers and logistics partners around the world. Parts are planned and positioned in more than a thousand stocking locations globally, including regional distribution centres, country hubs, field stocking locations, as well as ‘smart spares boxes’, which are secure customerdedicated lockers directly on a customer’s site.

The team felt there was strong potential to improve the part returns space, as explained by Danny, “We were spending a lot of time continually optimising our forward supply chain. This is natural when you have a customer event – a sometimes critical situation you have to design for – but we had simply spent less time on the reverse supply chain part returns. We analysed our varied customer landscape and the wide variety of approaches in recovering parts that it created. We needed to optimise the part returns situation on many levels. We also felt it was an area ripe for a digital transformation and innovation partnership.”

Says Oliver Lemanski, CEO of OnProcess, “We began 15

“IT’S OUR PEOPLE WHO DEVELOP STRATEGIES, DRIVE THE PROJECTS AND CHANGE PROGRAMMES, RUN THE DAILY PROCESSES, COME UP WITH THE SMART IDEAS – OUR PEOPLE ARE THE FOUNDATION OF EVERYTHING WE DO”

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discussing reverse supply chain processes with HPE back in 2020. HPE wanted to apply a consistent global approach and to dramatically improve effectiveness. But it wasn’t just the case of chasing their customers and getting any part back – they needed intelligent, informed decisions based on real-time information. We worked together to get a much clearer insight into customers’ behaviour and tuned approaches based on these insights. Now one year on, around 97 per cent of HPE’s service part returns are handled automatically using our technology. Even though 2020 was probably not the best 18

year to launch a programme on such a global scale, HPE and OnProcess decided it could still be done; and, frankly, we proved it.”

Danny adds, “In simple terms, this is about delivering a superior customer experience and better sustainability. Global standard approaches, things like standard self-service portals allowing returns declaration, arranging pick-up, and printing shipping labels, are particularly important for global customers. We capture important returned part data right at source – for example, on mobile apps on field engineers’ phones – to analyse the data and drive better

decision making. There’s no point in transporting parts around the world, increasing carbon footprints, if we end up having to scrap it. We analyse data to understand if we should be doing ethical e-scrapping locally. We can also work with part vendors more effectively to determine the right course of action on defective parts that are in warranty. In parallel, we can work with repair partners more effectively regarding the repair and re-use parts that are out of warranty – this is our circular economy in action. We are proud of our efforts in sustainability across HPE, and this work is another step in the right direction.”

Digital innovation is changing customer experience in other spaces, across Supply Chain and HPE Pointnext Services. Traditionally, if a customer needed technical support, they would phone a support centre for a remote diagnosis, a part would be ordered as required, and an engineer sent to make the fix. HPE Pointnext Services are midway through an extensive Digital Customer Experience (DCE) programme with key service functions engaged including Supply Chain.

Central to DCE is a single sign-on customer personalised portal. This workspace captures a broad range of customer information including 19

The circular supply chain

Powering the world’s circular service supply chains The principles of traditional manufacturing supply chains that have served us for decades are now being seriously questioned. The ‘makeuse-discard’ model - where we extract the earth’s resources to make and build products that are shipped around the world before being used, then thrown away after we have finished with them - is now seen as a wasteful and unsustainable approach that does nothing for the world’s resources and contributes to dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

An alternative model based on what is called the Circular Economy focuses instead on designing products and their underlying components to be easily serviceable, and retained within their own supply chains by recovering them for refurbishment, reassembly and re-sale. The processes involved in these service events – in particular around the logistics of parts - is known as the service supply chain and is now seen as critical in driving sustainable practices and closing the loop on circularity.

But it is not just environmental reasons that are driving this move to more circular service supply chains. There is often huge value left within parts and products in the field, recovering that value can add millions to a business’s bottom line. In addition, the challenges in global logistics and the scarcity of materials and parts have made businesses re-think how they build resilience into their supply chains; and recovery of unused products and parts could just be the way to do it.

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A critical part of implementing a circular the processes used to recover products parts. It is often assumed that the expen would be prohibitive. Not so. Once proce payback can be immense. The cost of re materials is often substantially lower tha risk and volatile price variations are cont environmental targets can become muc

But it is not just about Recovery. Smarte supply chains focus around three main f

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r service supply chain are s, materials, and service nse involved in this recovery esses are in place, the e-using recovered parts and an procuring new, supplier tained, and of course ch easier to attain.

er more dynamic service functions:

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Plan

Deliver

Recover

which ensures service parts and inventory are available and in the right place to meet any relevant service level agreements

which ensures those service parts are delivered to customers according to those SLAs

which ensures as much value is recovered from parts used in the service event

Historically these functions have operated almost independently. The circular service supply chain however, links them together such that Delivery information informs returns and recovery schedules, recovery data provides real-time input into future planning cycles, deliveries inform planning processes on inventory and service needs, and so on. Importantly all of this should happen with those service-levels, or rather the service experience of the end-customer put right at the heart of the processes.

All sounds great, but the challenge is less about whether to implement a more circular approach to service supply chains but rather how to do it ….

The solution is digital and it starts with data It may sound obvious but knowing who and where your customers are and importantly what products they have and where they might be, is crucial if good after-sales service is desired. If that information is not easily available, wrong parts can end up in the wrong places, parts can be shipped when none were necessary, and failure warranties can remain unclaimed. Getting that information means starting with underlying data. The problem is that the data is almost always spread across disconnected systems and data siloes.

That’s why a smart solution to this starts with addressing the data problem first. A technology platform that connects those different systems and data streams into a unified form allows insight and intelligence to be extracted and the Plan-Deliver-Recover cycle to operate in a frictionless way. And such a technology platform would also facilitate new digital-first approaches to process execution such as customer self-service portals and apps, dynamic routing and returns logistics of parts based on new metrics such as environmental impact or customer experience – welcome to a new service era.

To find out more about OnProcess and the OnProcess Agora™ platform please visit www.onprocess.com

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“EVEN THOUGH 2020 WAS PROBABLY NOT THE BEST YEAR TO LAUNCH A PROGRAMME ON SUCH A GLOBAL SCALE, HPE AND ONPROCESS DECIDED IT COULD STILL BE DONE; AND, FRANKLY, WE PROVED IT” Oliver Lemanski, CEO of OnProcess

products, contracts, support cases, engineer visits, and real-time status on the environmental health of the customer’s IT infrastructure, providing feedback and proactive guidance helping them to avoid issues. Intelligent search capabilities guide customers to digital and video knowledge on demand for self-serve enquiries and troubleshooting. Customers can create cases and utilise AIenabled virtual engineers to assist in solving technical issues, or be connected to live engineers in a seamless manner.

“We are currently building supply chain capabilities into the DCE workspace to allow customers to order and track parts following an AI-guided problem diagnosis,” notes Danny. “We will then merge 22

Typical service supply chains are a web of disconnected, manual processes managed by siloed departments and systems. Information is difficult to share, inefficiency is rife, and precision is hard to deliver.

OnProcess Agora™ That’s why OnProcess developed OnProcess Agora Recover™, a cloudbased asset recovery solution that offers easeof-use, with self-service applications linked to a powerful network of data and analytics.

Built on the OnProcess Agora™ software platform, Agora Recover optimizes the asset recovery process - facilitating, tracking and expediting the return of assets and service parts from the field. In turn, this helps to dramatically reduce costs, increase revenue streams while improving customer experience, all while feeding those parts back into the value chain for increased sustainability.

Delivered as a fully managed business service, OnProcess Agora and Agora Recover are used by some of the world’s most recognized technology brands to drive new levels of service into their after-sales supply chains.

To find out more please visit www.onprocess.com 23

“THE DIGITAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PROG REDEFINING HOW WE WORK WITH CUSTOME US WAY BEYOND A TRADITIONAL BREAK-FIX MODEL THAT IS PREVALENT IN THE INDUST 24

GRAMME IS ERS, MOVING X, REACTIVE TRY”

in our returns and part sales portal capabilities, to provide a one-stop shop for Supply Chain needs in the DCE workspace. The Digital Customer Experience programme is redefining how we work with customers, moving us way beyond a traditional break-fix, reactive model that is prevalent in the industry. As we migrate customers onto this platform, it is giving them a better customer experience.

They are getting answers faster and it gives them more control. We are working to migrate our entire customer base. DCE engages customers to allow them to get more from their IT investments and enable better business outcomes for them.”

Inside the HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain organisation, Transformation activities are being driven in a broad range of areas – some traditional, some with a more digital flavour. Danny explains, “The digital technologies talked about in Industry 4.0 offer fantastic opportunities, but they are not the cure all or a silver bullet for all situations. It’s always a blend. Some of our current work in the supply chain process space is a good example.”

The organisation is currently engaged in an end-to-end assessment of all day-to-day activities and processes using lean methodologies. All team 25

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members have broad based training in lean principles and are encouraged to move through yellow, green and black belt levels and lead kaizen-type process improvement projects.

Danny explains, “We are constantly driving our processes through a ‘standardise and simplify’ improvement cycle. We are also identifying opportunities for process automation. My Supply Chain organisation was a bit behind the curve on things like robotic process automation (RPA) – but we decided to jumpstart this by re-orientating a Supply Chain team with good core analytical skills. We are now progressing very quickly and using the capacity we generate to do more valueadd work. The last part of the process assessment work is the classic Do-versus-Buy question, continually assessing our process landscape to find possible candidates for outsourcing – so it’s always a blend of traditional and digital.”

Artificial intelligence is not just creating better experiences at the customer interface, it is being further integrated into Danny’s organisation. He and his team are engaged in an internal partnership with HPE AI data scientists and consultants. They have developed an ongoing programme of AI projects that

is focused on tackling a range of supply chain challenges. The goal is to make their supply chain more effective, but also to show customers how AI is being deployed in action – proof points and use cases to educate and inform customers.

Danny shares a simple example; “Supply chain professionals are swimming, sometimes drowning in a sea of data. It becomes a problem when that sea is polluted with bad quality data. Take Bills of Materials (BoM’s) for example. These are the product recipe lists we use in manufacturing and supply chain environments. The basis of most materials planning is a BoM multiplied or exploded by a forecast of some sort. Typically, BoM data is entered manually into IT systems, which is a process prone to mistakes. You don’t tend to see problems until after the fact, things like missing parts. We’ve partnered with HPE AI experts and have utilised AI algorithms to identify potential issues in our BoM database.

We have an enormous amount of BoM’s, we are supporting customers with parts for many years after products have stopped being manufactured, and we can use AI to correct issues in a much more efficient, almost surgical way. That is simply not possible using 27

“DRIVING DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION IS NOT A PASSING TREND FOR US, IT’S A BUSINESS ESSENTIAL, SIMPLE AS THAT”

manual approaches. If you then take a step back and generalise the problem of bad quality data at an industry level, how much data we have now and growing exponentially, AI is going to be the only way we are going to be able to get a handle on these types of problems.

“We are using AI to help us cleanse data like BoM’s and Contracts, but also using AI to improve and monitor key processes like part forecasting and part ordering, as well as drive supply chain network design improvements.

It’s exciting times in terms of digital 28

innovation, but it’s all based on a foundation of smart people.”

The conversation returns to the fifth and final key focus area in the HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain strategy, People and Culture.

Danny explains, “We encourage our team members to really own their careers, take some risks along the way with different jobs or rotational opportunities, and really adopt a ‘develop by doing’ approach. We have development programmes to support our team members at different stages of their careers

including interns, early career, and top talent. Our programmes typically consist of skills-based training, mentoring with leaders across the organisation, and teambased projects. We have good gender balance in our team, from early career to our mid-range job scopes, but thereafter, we identified something of a ‘broken rung’.

Supply Chain launched a female development programme to help ‘rebuild the ladder.’ We are currently in our second year of this successful programme, now seeing our female team members securing some

great new jobs and promotional opportunities – it’s inspiring to see this talent mobility. We are driving hard in the whole area of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). We have an active Supply Chain DEI council, with team member representatives from across our organisation. The council provides guidance and feedback, and drives trainings and actions at a grass roots level. Our Supply Chain organisation is comprised of a diverse employee base across 50 countries, many of whom are working from home. Driving 29

“CLOUD IS AN EXPERIENCE, NOT A DESTINATION. SUPPLY CHAIN CAPABILITIES RIGHT ACROSS ALL AREAS OF HPE WILL CONTINUE TO BE A CRITICAL ENABLER AND DIFFERENTIATOR ACROSS OUR ENTIRE PORTFOLIO OF HPE GREENLAKE CLOUD SERVICES”

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diversity, equity and inclusion is not a passing trend for us, it’s a business essential, simple as that.”

As for the future, Danny says Transformation is going on across all areas of HPE Pointnext Services and HPE. He explains, “There’s a major consideration going on in just about every company around digital transformation, but the degree of success and speed varies considerably. Companies are also in a massive dilemma regarding the cloud – should they stay in their onpremise IT infrastructure, or should they move their compute and storage needs to the public cloud? Bottomline, customers want the flexibility of cloud, but are concerned about security and losing control of their data. HPE is transitioning, bringing the cloud experience across all applications and data, from edge to cloud. During 2022, the entire HPE portfolio will be made available as a service through a range of subscription and pay-peruse offerings. Customers will get the financial scaling and flexibility they want, retain control, and enhanced security. Cloud is an experience, not a destination. Supply chain capabilities right across all areas of HPE will continue to be a critical enabler and differentiator across our entire portfolio of HPE GreenLake cloud services. We really are in very exciting times.”

For further information, visit www.hpe.com 31

A RT I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E

ELLIS is making progress with an ambitious multicentric approach to AI research in Europe.

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The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), the leading European AI association with a focus on scientific excellence, is developing an impressive project to create a multicentric European AI lighthouse.

nd it has recently presented the concept to members of the European Parliament and relevant stakeholders, asking for their support.

In an official statement, ELLIS argues in favour of this decentralised model for several key reasons; such as the flexibility and versatility arising from having a network of research units; the promotion of one of Europe’s key assets, its diversity; an increased ability to attract and retain talent; and the support of the adoption of AI advances and the subsequent wealth generation in several European regional ecosystems.

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exist if there were a single research centre or AI lighthouse for all of Europe.

Nuria Oliver, Scientific Director and co-founder of the Alicante ELLIS Unit Foundation and VicePresident of ELLIS Europe, has emphasised the importance of this vision to “turn Europe into an AI world power through the development of strong regional ecosystems.”

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Oliver says, “Instead of working as independent bodies, the crosscutting nature of AI emphasises the importance of working with such a multicentric approach. Proof of that is the existence of this model in the USA and Canada, both world powers in AI research and deployment.”

Moreover, such a multicentric focus enables the necessary contact between AI research and society

“Instead of working as independent bodies, the cross-cutting nature of AI emphasises the importance of working with such a multicentric approach” Nuria Oliver, Scientific Director and co-founder of the Alicante ELLIS Unit Foundation and Vice-President of ELLIS Europe

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“A multicentric laboratory with strong institutions in all parts of Europe will generate real innovation for Europe”

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through each of the locations where ELLIS units are based.

Europe’s ambition is to be a world-leader in AI: a leading light in technology development, a global hub for talent and AI innovations that benefit society, and a driving force for regulatory frameworks that foster trustworthy AI deployment.

Given the global competition for leadership in AI, achieving European excellence in AI will require ambitious investments in research, innovation and adoption of AI in Europe.

A multicentric laboratory with strong institutions in all parts of Europe will generate real innovation for Europe, best leverage Europe’s cultural diversity, and integrate European values in the development of future technology. This will ensure that Europe does not become a mere consumer of AI technology developed elsewhere, building on other values, but instead builds a genuine ‘AI made for and by Europeans’.

For further information on ELLIS, visit www.ellisalicante.org

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B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

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WHERE DIGITALISATION MEETS SUSTAINABILITY Hapag-Lloyd’s Head of Procurement, Daniel Braune, and Director of Procurement Excellence, Julia Finning, discuss the role of digitalisation in striving for the industry-leading procurement function.

apag-Lloyd is a worldleading liner shipping company, with around 13,900 employees and 418 offices in 137 countries. Headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, Daniel Braune is Head of Procurement and Julia Finning is Director of Procurement Excellence.

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“Professional Supplier Management is of utmost importance for our ambition of being the #1 for Quality in the industry” Daniel Braune, Head of Procurement

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Watch Hapag-Lloyd's corporate film

What Daniel believes makes procurement at Hapag-Lloyd unique is that it has a feel of being a start-up company within Hapag-Lloyd. He says, “We have driven so many changes during my five years at Hapag-Lloyd and yet we still have so much ahead of us, so it has the feel of a startup.”

How does Global Procurement contribute to Hapag-Lloyd’s overall strategy? Daniel says you must first consider what quality means for a shipping line. He continues, “Supplier reliability has a massive influence on our Quality Promises.”

Daniel talks about two types of business within Hapag-Lloyd – merchant haulage business (port to port) and carrier haulage business (door to door). The latter involves a large network of suppliers, and all of these need to be managed. Daniel explains, “It could be that our vessel is punctual, but we cannot rely on our truckers to be on time in a certain country. The entire supply chain from customer to destination involves a number of different suppliers that all need to function and be extremely transparent. This is where supplier management plays a huge role.”

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Julia and her team started to reassess all supplier management related activities on a global scale back in 2020, and planned carefully for a new blueprint.

Considering state-of-the-art approaches and incorporating them into a comprehensive whole, the entire supplier lifecycle systematic was set up to gain sustainable achievements and full transparency along the supply chain.

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She explains, “When onboarding suppliers, you want to have transparency of the basic data, the security that they comply with your rules and standards, and, of course, the code of conduct. Then the journey of supplier relationship management usually begins. To achieve a clear 360-degree view of our suppliers, we also continually keep track of them to ensure we are working with highly qualified suppliers, which match our high

quality requirements and targets.

We diagnose what has gone wrong in the past and identify the issues that we might face going forward.

Of course, we are running supplier benchmarking exercises across our organisation as well. However, we need real-time updates to rate

their performance. An annual performance score is not sufficient anymore.”

Daniel adds that the sheer complexity of a supply chain, or tender involving many cost factors such as performance and risk,

“Sustainability is in the genes of the company. For us, it means more than just complying with the law”

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Learn more at enterprise.craft.co

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makes it very difficult to manage.

You need the right digital tools to have a 360-degree total cost approach, especially when it comes to quality. Daniel says, “If you want to go from A to B with a 360-degree approach, you have to master many different factors, which is difficult. With risk, for example, we have been working on a complete risk management system because a container can be worth millions of dollars. The last thing we want is one of our transport suppliers to go bankrupt.

hence human rights have always been a very important topic for Hapag-Lloyd, but we are still working on our risk analysis and documentation obligations involving a cross-functional approach with our compliance and sustainability colleagues. In terms of risk analysis (incl. red flag screenings and 360-degree scorings, prevention measures, and corrective actions), we are currently deciding on the right digitisation approach to comply with this legislation in the future.”

“At Hapag-Lloyd Procurement, we pursue a start-up culture. The agile way of working helps us to implement good ideas straightforwardly, rather than just talking about them” Julia Finning, Director of Procurement Excellence

The consequences arising out of bankruptcy are disrupted supply chains and retained containers with our customers’ goods. You do not want to be liable for that risk.”

The German government plans to introduce the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, effective from January 1st, 2023, towards which Daniel, Julia and their teams have been working hard. Julia says, “We are, in general, very well prepared for the future requirements, 48

Daniel says sustainability is a big part of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, but the company is not just taking action as a result of these new rules. He adds, “Sustainability is in the genes of the company. For us, it means more than just complying with the law. We want to have the right suppliers in place in order to reach our ambitious goals. The shipping industry has massive improvement potentials in terms of sustainability, and I think we are on the right

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track. It is what the customer wants.”

Digitalisation in procurement is playing a key role in enabling Hapag-Lloyd to fulfil not only new legal requirements, partnering with Craft to gain full supplier transparency. Julia explains, “When we started the supplier management journey, we asked how we can bring more transparency into our supply chain. There are plenty of tools on the market, but we chose Craft because it provides an easy-touse supplier intelligence portal.

In procurement, you want to know as much as possible about your business partners. The tool gives full profiles of our suppliers, with daily alerts, and it is always learning what is important for us as a company. The alerts are categorised by topic and are both positive and negative, pulling everything from newspaper articles to social media posts, to provide us with all the information we need.

This gives us quantitative, objective KPIs for each of the suppliers to ensure that there is no bias in the ratings.”

Daniel adds, “We want to choose partners that fit not only with our requirements, but also with the ethos of Hapag-Lloyd. Craft showed huge experience in

“At Hapag-Lloyd, we have a productcentric IT organisation and an agile product development approach, therefore we prefer partners which comply with our way of working.

This is made possible

by Craft” growing as a company and in developing their functionality. We have been very happy to work with them, helping to develop their tool even further.”

Julia believes it is essential to be able to develop any tool in this way.

She continues, “It is a lot about continuous development. Once you use the tool, you might discover that further enhancements are necessary. At Hapag-Lloyd, we have a product-centric IT organisation and an agile product development approach, therefore we prefer partners which comply with our way of working. This is made possible by Craft. And if further enhancements make sense 51

to us, they will make sense to other customers as well. There are promising possibilities to develop this tool in the future and prepare for potential challenges.”

The Covid-19 pandemic was one such challenge that shook the entire supply chain industry.

Daniel remembers, “We saw huge disruption of supply chains around the world. We underwent many challenges, from shortages and huge demand, to extremely long waiting times of vessels outside the ports. We could not predict something like this would happen, but we were able to tackle the challenges by having improved the 52

visibility and transparency of our supply chain.”

Daniel feels that being agile has been one of the keys to HapagLloyd’s success. He continues, “As a company, being extremely agile is of utmost importance. Before Covid, the next days were a bit more predictable. Then the entire market turned around. Volumes were shrinking at the start of the pandemic, then six months later, it turned around 180 degrees. We faced huge demand and supply challenges everywhere in the world.

So, in two or three years, we have seen three completely different markets. A tender strategy you did

“We have started so many projects. One direction in which we are heading is e-procurement on both the operational and strategic side. We dream of one complete, automatic solution, connected to the different systems in place” Daniel Braune, Head of Procurement

a year ago will not work anymore.

The pandemic has shown us that we need to be extremely agile.”

As for Hapag-Lloyd’s digital roadmap for the future, where to begin? Daniel says, “We have started so many projects. One direction in which we are heading is e-procurement on both the operational and strategic side. We dream of one complete, automatic solution, connected to the different systems in place. In addition, we are talking about the advancement of technologies to prepare tenders, dashboards, linear performance forecasting etc. There is no complete solution out there.”

Julia adds, “At Hapag-Lloyd Procurement, we pursue a startup culture. The agile way of working helps us to implement good ideas straightforwardly, rather than just talking about them. Even when problems arise, we can always cope with them at short notice. Take, for example, our procurement suite that is causing challenges when it comes

to handling our massive amount of data. Logistics tenders are unique, or rather highly complex, especially when it comes to the analysis of possible awarding scenarios. The moment we recognised that we won’t achieve sufficient results with our current tool, we were able to adjust, and started a proof of concept to test an alternative application. The speed of implementation and good collaboration with our IT colleagues are our key to success.

We will definitely benefit from that for our future procurement applications.”

The sustainability topic has huge relevance in ensuring the company is doing the right thing for the future. Daniel concludes, “We really want to take positive steps to help the environment. Decarbonisation is one of our main targets in the years to come. We believe in it, and we are all super-motivated to be working on it.”

For further information, visit www.hapag-lloyd.com 53

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B L O C KC H A I N

Industry Pr

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We explore five key trends expected to shape the tech space in the years to come.

redictions

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Emerging technologies are all around us. Spotting a potential success story, understanding its market potential, and then applying the required talent to foster it effectively is important for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve.

Based on extensive research into the emerging technology ecosystem, here are five tech trends that we can expect to dominate the blockchain industry in 2022 and beyond:

1 Governments will embrace blockchain technology Blockchain technology can allow governments to conduct their business more effectively. As they continue to recognise the 58

potential of blockchain technology in regards to efficiency and public trust, governments will take advantage of its numerous possibilities.

In recent years, some governments have been experimenting with blockchain technology in a variety of activities and services including land registration, credentialling for education, healthcare, procurement, food supply chains, and identity management.

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For example, Estonia is using it to enforce the integrity of its tax and business registration systems, as well as electronic health records, while the UK is looking into the technology to track the distribution of welfare.

As governmental adoption of blockchain rises, many governments have been trying to deal with the problem of trust. As a result, the World Bank proposed a three-layer design and implementation framework to avoid any problems between technology and intended use. These same guidelines for blockchain adoption can be used by businesses as well.

2 A greener blockchain may help save the planet Blockchains are often criticised for the huge energy demands required to maintain their security. This was why Elon Musk cited changes to his viewpoint on Bitcoin automobile payments in January 2021.

We will probably see a lot of effort made to make blockchain technology 60

"When cryptocur blockchain tech save the env

rrencies go green, hnology may help vironment"

greener and offset its carbon footprint throughout 2022.

Carbon offsetting is one approach. For example, crypto tokens that are solely intended to acquire clean energy might give organisations the ability to demonstrate that their business operations comply with climate neutrality.

Another approach is to use less energy-consuming blockchain technology, which generally uses proofof-stake algorithms rather than proof-of-work. When cryptocurrencies go green, blockchain technology may help save the environment.

3 More countries will embrace cryptocurrencies as a legal tender El Salvador was the first nation to adopt Bitcoin in 2021 as legal tender, and several nations are expected to follow suit in 2022.

Developing countries are more likely to embrace cryptocurrency in the near future, owing to global inflation and rising remittance costs accrued by 61

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middlemen financial institutions that facilitate money transfers home by foreign workers.

4 The NFT market will continue growing but with a caveat

Another area where we will see significant development in 2022 is cryptocurrencies that are controlled by central banks rather than adopting popular decentralised coins. Many of these initiatives feature a digital currency that would work in tandem with the country’s fiat money.

The NFT (non-fungible token) market is expected to continue growing as more and more things go from physical to digital. The NFT marketplace provides users with the ability to assert their property rights over a digital asset.

The NFT 2.0 model will be less

"The NFT marketplace provides users with the ability to assert their property rights over a digital asset" about art and more about utility, gaming, social sharing, and gaining access to hyperexclusive communities. The metaverse concept alone will provide a wealth of new use cases for inventive NFT applications.

The risks and challenges that the non-fungible tokens market faces will require regulatory intervention, which will be critical for the future of NFTs.

5 Blockchain will be the most in-demand skill The year ahead will see a greater demand for blockchain and crypto skills.

The rising popularity of cryptocurrencies, the growing prominence of blockchain in various sectors, and the potential for growth in the blockchain industry all 63

"The technology landscape is constantly evolving, and we don’t know exactly what will happen in 2022 or beyond. One thing is certain though; the future is blockchain"

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contribute to a higher demand for blockchain and crypto skills.

Blockchain is now at a point where large corporations and governments, not just a tiny hyper-technical community of IT experts, are starting to comprehend its potential in terms of improving people’s lives and building more resilient organisations. As a result, businesses need blockchain experts who can assist them in applying blockchain technology to meet their business goals.

The technology landscape is constantly evolving, and we don’t know exactly what will happen in 2022 or beyond.

One thing is certain though; the future is blockchain.

It is the technology and community that will revolutionise how we do things for decades to come, and therefore, it is time businesses start thinking about incorporating it into their business model – if they haven’t already done so!

Source: www.forbes.com

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B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

John-Paul Edwards, Chief Information Officer at Broadstone, explains how the company is working towards achieving the best outcomes for its clients.

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roadstone is a leading independent provider of specialist pensions and employee benefit solutions for SMEs, as well as large corporates, with 1,600 clients, servicing around a quarter of a million members and beneficiaries. Its purpose is to create happier, healthier and financially-inclusive outcomes for these clients, which include employers, employees, trustees and beneficiaries.

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Based in the UK, Broadstone now has seven locations countrywide, with plans for further expansion, having invested heavily over the last few years in mergers and acquisitions.

John-Paul Edwards joined the company seven months ago as Chief Information Officer (CIO).

He says, “It is a really exciting time to join the Broadstone Group.

I have been impressed by the

"My passion as CIO lies in creating innovation through technology in order to make a difference" expertise, talent and knowledge we have across the different business units. The ambition of the group to embrace technology and be at the forefront of digital innovation to benefit clients and members has been extraordinary. My passion as CIO lies in creating innovation through technology in order to make a difference, ensuring client experiences are best in class. It is my job to guarantee the whole

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team feels inspired and confident in the technology they are using.”

The pensions and employee benefits sector saw rapid changes at the start of the pandemic, with businesses shifting online overnight and employees working from home in a short amount of time. John-Paul says, “We did two years’ worth of transformation in two months! The sudden growth in home working has quickened up transformation and enabled more opportunities for enhancing employee experience. For me, technology is the foundation to business opportunities.

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“The technology investment will continue to grow, and at Broadstone, our two investment priorities are on the digital and information technology side.

Our large number of technology initiatives touch a wide range of business opportunities and processes, so we are able to demonstrate the value of IT at both the initiative and corporate strategy level.”

John-Paul cites automation as an example. He explains, “The use of RPA and artificial intelligence in the pension space used to be considered too difficult to do

because every scheme is different.

However, the evidence that we have has shown us that complex processes can create opportunities for digital optimisation. It is crucial for technology teams to work even more closely with the business teams. When it comes to legacy systems, we need to be smart about which elements remain essential and automate them, and which elements we can look at differently.”

"Working with NexBotix has assisted us in connecting the technology with the business side to boost the productivity of the team and achieve the business optimisation outcomes we need"

Broadstone is partnering with NexBotix to help identify the right use cases and validate the right automation technology, whether RPA, AI, or natural language understanding (NLU). John-Paul elaborates, “Working with NexBotix has assisted us in connecting the technology with the business side to boost the productivity of the team and achieve the business optimisation outcomes we need.

Our end goal is to reduce the burden of paperwork and look at combining inputs from lots of disparate legacy systems.

It is not about automating for automation’s sake. To get to the hyper-automation stage, we need to standardise our processes, improve quality and cycle time, and implement adaptive governance processes. If we get that right, we will start to see a more multidisciplined team across the group.”

John-Paul sees today’s role of a CIO comprising of four jobs, stemming beyond the technology side and deep into the business.

He outlines the four jobs as follows: 1. Information and technology operations – making sure systems are stable for end users 2. Digital evangelising – encouraging and improving digital dexterity, ensuring other CXOs make better use of technology to become more capable in the business areas 3. Digital orchestration – orchestrating analytics and technology production of the business areas 4. Digital engineering – the actions we need to take to enable technology uses within and outside of IT for reliable, secure, integrated and scalable business solutions.

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The Journey to Hyperautomation As Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies become more pervasive and reliable, they’re becoming more accessible to a broader range of companies.

Hyperautomation is an increasingly prevalent approach which involves the use of multiple technologies that, when combined, enable faster scaling of business process automation across an organisation. A recent study by McKinsey & Co. found that over half of the work that people do can be automated, saving an estimated £20 Trillion in wages each year.

Deploying a hyperautomation strategy needs senior stakeholder buy-in and is delivered programmatically over a period of time.

Here at NexBotix, we do things a little differently. We take a partnership-based approach with our clients. We’re currently working with the Broadstone Group to identify process use cases across the business that lend themselves well to automation. There are several Pensions Administration and Employee Benefits tasks that are highly manual, include digitised documents, and require data cleansing and data entry into multiple systems and databases. Some of these processes are complex and our solutions utilise advanced AI technologies including Machine Learning and Natural Language Understanding. The benefits are potentially huge in terms of time, operating costs and improved efficiency.

It also means that teams can focus on less manual tasks and on more rewarding

work that adds to client value, leading to significant improvements in employee morale and retention.

When an organisation is selecting a partner to work with, NexBotix believe that some of the following attributes are key to delivering joint success:

• Working closely and deeply with the

•

•

•

•

•

client to truly understand the detail of the particular processes, and all of the nuances that are associated with it.

Having our own in-house software meaning that we have full control of the solutions we deliver, as well as the ability to be more creative with our commercial model.

The ability to work with a large array of technology partners and vendors in the market, ensuring we can deliver a solution to suit the most demanding organisations or use cases.

Offering pay-as-you-go approaches based on utilisation or transaction volumes so that customers only pay for what they consume.

Delivering off-the-shelf solutions enable us to deploy capability to customers faster, also meaning we can allow customers to realise a quicker time-to-value.

Taking an ROI-centric approach means that customers have visibility

“Our partnership with Broadstone Group is focused on delivering value and benefit by accelerating the processing of time-critical activities in Pension Administration and Employee Benefits” Chris Porter, CEO of NexBotix

of predicted and realised business benefits before they implement.

• Customer Experience and Customer Success is really important to us and is a key business value we maintain at all stages of the customer journey.

• Finally, we’re creative and have a strong technology roadmap, developing new low touch, selfserve products, which we have established by spending time understanding the needs of our customers and through paying close attention to the marketplace and advancements in technology.

“NexBotix offer expertise and a depth of capability that we don’t yet have internally. We’re looking forward to jointly developing innovative and strategic AI based solutions for the business” John-Paul Edwards, Chief Information Officer, Broadstone Group

Working across multiple industries, NexBotix has gained invaluable experience which can be used to support new client engagements.

Clients have reported significant cost savings from using our software, typically over 50% of the current cost with each process deployed.

We’re often asked where a company should start their automation journey.

This one is very simple for us to answer. If you haven’t yet identified a candidate, then head over to your Finance department and have a chat with your FD about Accounts Payable.

Invoice Processing is guaranteed to deliver a positive outcome.

To get in touch with NexBotix and book a Product Demo or a free Discovery Workshop, you can contact us here: sales@nexbotix.com www.nexbotix.com

"A digital solution for deferred pension schemes called Sirius allows consultants to provide advice on deferred benefit pension schemes to trustees and sponsors based on real-time information" The CIO role has evolved over the years and John-Paul believes it will continue to do so. He adds, “As we start to see the business teams outside of IT make fuller use of the technology, the CIO role will expand. My role has become far more complex with the various mergers and acquisitions on top of the transformational tasks.”

One of the areas of opportunity for Broadstone is in its Investment Consulting business. A digital solution for deferred pension schemes called Sirius allows consultants to provide advice on deferred benefit pension schemes to trustees and sponsors based on real-time information. John-Paul explains, “Sirius shares insights on the funding level of the scheme and its end goal objectives. We 74

can start looking at integrated dashboards to monitor and consider investment options and their funding levels to achieve a client’s long-term objectives.

This is a great case of where the business is playing a role in technology-related decision making. That, for me, translates to the evolution of IT and the role of CIOs in a company’s change journey from a traditional to a digital business.”

conflicting solutions, adding to HR’s workload and disengaging employees. Our role at Broadstone is helping employers to bring together a complementary set of simple, easy to use solutions that work together harmoniously. Our SME digital hub is a solution to create a simple online experience targeted at SME’s looking to source and buy a workplace pension and a range of employee benefits, comprising auto-enrol, pension support, protection and wellbeing solutions and an employee engagement platform. The hub streamlines these processes and takes the burden away from small businesses that want to engage digitally but do not want lots of complications. They require access to their benefits in one place.”

A challenge John-Paul faces is the lack of interoperability between legacy systems in the pensions space and from providers in the benefits sector. It is hard for employers to know what they need to integrate with and how to access different benefits. JohnPaul continues, “The technology in the employee benefits space is all about bringing opportunities to optimise lifestyle and attract new talent, but there is a risk of

Beyond the SME Digital Hub, Broadstone is developing a multi-experience engagement platform to increase their reach of digital channels. John-Paul explains, “It gives access to different experiences and services through our ecosystem including hybrid integration, integrating different technology platforms, and connecting that with other ecosystems. We are continuing to develop this platform to provide a multi-experience interface to serve both employers and employees, with direct access to financial, physical and mental wellbeing and advisory services. This means we 75

can adopt a digital approach to employee benefits with increased accessibility, and employers can gain access to analytics on how staff are using the platform. They can then personalise it or have their own schemes. For more established businesses that want to focus on a wellbeing and benefit strategy, we believe our technology has the potential to reduce the workload of HR, as well as improving employee engagement, wellbeing, and retention.”

Many organisations face a longerterm challenge of building back

trust in their hybrid workforce. How can teams remain cohesive, staff feel supported, and relationships be built in this new working environment? John-Paul answers, “Digital workplace and employee experience technologies as part of our digital hub can support clients.

Internally at Broadstone, we too are expanding our use in employee experience technology to help employees feel they are working with the best technology, which matches what they use in their personal life. Softcat’s Office of the CTO helps us to explore areas in which we can exploit greater use

ARE YOU FUTURE-WORK READY? The way we work has changed, making it vital to develop a digital workspace that securely connects the people at every level of your organisation with the apps, data and devices they need to drive greater collaboration wherever, and however, they work.

We understand that your people lie at the heart of your digital workspace and building trust in these new ways of working is key.

We work with you to develop the best working environment so they can excel.

SOFTCAT. BUILDING TRUST INTO THE HYBRID WORKFORCE AT BROADSTONE.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT DIGITAL WORKSPACE, VISIT SOFTCAT.COM

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of digital and cloud infrastructure, and proactive cybersecurity to provide more anywhere-operations to our team. We can use our digital workplace program to understand the employee journey and spot any gaps. A lot of our clients are faced with exactly the same challenges, so our learnings give us the ability to listen to our clients and apply journey mapping techniques to

activities to tackle this problem.”

Digital technologies are revolutionising the pensions and employee benefits landscape, but John-Paul agrees that we can only fully embrace the technology if we work with trusted partners.

He explains, “Working with our partners allows us to explore what is happening in other industries.

"Softcat’s Office of the CTO helps us to explore areas in which we can exploit greater use of digital and cloud infrastructure, and proactive cyber security to provide more anywhere-operations to our team" make an impact when it comes to employee experience.”

John-Paul stresses that these challenges cannot be solved by technology alone. Strategies and a program of work need to be put in place to create the kind of opportunities that used to arise from watercooler moments. He adds, “Informal chats and inperson encounters are now less frequent, but you sometimes need to make contact with someone to show appreciation. You cannot do everything virtually — we are social animals. It is a combination of using employee experience technologies with in-person

Take online shopping, for example.

We are used to automation and AI in the shopping experience, so how do we apply that type of technology to our own industry segment? NexBotix and Softcat allow us to tap into use cases in other industries, where we can apply design-led thinking to automation approaches, streamlining them to help us achieve growth. Our partner network enables us to look at the strategy execution of our value proposition in more detail. It is about balancing the technology priorities to maximise the value proposition for Broadstone and our clients. I do not believe you can 77

do it all in-house. There is only so much investment we can make, so it is essential we leverage our partner network.”

With the shift in technology habits, Broadstone has a responsibility to guide employers through a market that is flooded with solutions. John-Paul explains, “It is increasingly challenging for employers to find the appropriate technology that will deliver their HR objectives. The businesses that are seeing wider access to multi-experience hubs, increasing the reach of digital channels, will become crucial. For many clients, the challenge is around having the right digital infrastructure, benefit offerings, partners in place, and understanding what data they have got. In employee benefits, data is king. Although much progress has been made in unlocking the potential of data-driven decision making, I believe there is a pivotal role that data insights play in the effective creation and deployment of an employee experience and benefit strategy. All other areas use data and analytics, but HR needs to do it more effectively. This is where Broadstone can help.

“Collecting the data is not the issue, it is interpreting it. My team is helping to develop tools that 78

are valuable for our consultants and clients in consolidating data into a single truth. Insights and understanding factors into employee health, for example, will help mitigate the risk in benefit spend, providing an overview of the spend and opportunities for predicting changes in the future. Technology and the use of data will help HR and reward teams to spend smarter, create better employee experiences,

and therefore have an impact on people’s wellbeing and performance.”

Benefits technology is set to play a pivot role in engagement and communication, which will be key for many businesses harnessing their capabilities.

John-Paul concludes, “The ability to strengthen the relationship between employer and employee is essential. Investments in

Broadstone’s technology is built around ‘people business’. It goes back to our main purpose of creating happier, healthier and financially-inclusive outcomes for our clients. Getting that blend between the human-digital interaction is something very exciting. There are some great opportunities for us and our industry.”

For further information, visit www.broadstone.co.uk 79

V I RT UA L R E A L I T Y

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The EU is concerned about the dominant role of Facebook owner, Meta, as businesses jump into this new virtual world.

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ACCORDING TO A REUTERS REPORT, THE EU IS LOOKING AT WHAT ROLE REGULATORS SHOULD PLAY IN THE GROWING METAVERSE, A NETWORK OF VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ACCESSED VIA DIFFERENT DEVICES. he metaverse came into focus after Facebook changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc, and started a 10,000-strong hiring programme to help build the virtual space, triggering concerns about the social media giant’s possible dominance.

Major fashion brand Adidas and financial heavyweight PwC are also preparing to lure consumers into curated metaverses, which will allow customers to purchase products, access services, socialise, and play online games.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU commissioner in charge of 82

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competition, said, “The metaverse is here already. So of course we start analysing what will be the role for a regulator, what is the role for our legislature.

“Everything we do must be fact-based and based on the information that we can get... We need to understand it before we

can decide what actions would be appropriate.”

The EU is already concerned about Facebook’s collection and use of data, and EU regulators are currently drawing up new legislation that will dictate how user data on the bloc’s citizens is transferred to the US.

THE METAVERSE IS HERE ALREADY. SO OF COURSE WE START ANALYSING WHAT WILL BE THE ROLE FOR A REGULATOR, WHAT IS THE ROLE FOR OUR LEGISLATURE

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Meta warned in its recent earnings release that it will consider pulling Facebook and Instagram out of Europe if it is not allowed to keep transferring European users’ data back to the US. Developments in EU metaverse regulation will likely be watched with interest by the UK’s

own antitrust regulator, the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA). The UK watchdog’s digital markets unit and digital regulation cooperation forum are conducting exploratory work regarding the metaverse as part of their horizon scanning.

The CMA has plans to meet with businesses and stakeholders

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TPRELIMINARY VERSIONS OF THE METAVERSE EMERGED IN THE EARLY NOUGHTIES, MOST NOTABLY SECOND LIFE FROM SAN FRANCISCOBASED COMPANY LINDEN LAB

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to discuss immersive technologies in Spring 2022.

But Meta is not the first or only company working on building this new digital world. Preliminary versions of the metaverse emerged in the early noughties, most notably Second Life from San Francisco-based company Linden labs.

At its peak in 2007, this particular virtual world had an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 active users.

Video games like Fortnite and Roblox, and virtual social worlds like Decentraland, can all be considered part of the metaverse already.

But, what is clear is that authorities need to better understand this space before they can consider introducing regulations designed to protect consumers.

Source: www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk

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

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Can connected technologies help save the world?

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elecommunications and technology firms the world over are focused on delivering 5G and IoT solutions – as well as a litany of complementary techs like artificial intelligence, machine learning, edge computing, data analytics engines and more – in service of enterprise digital transformation. These enterprises are investing in technology-enabled business outcomes that create new efficiencies, reduce 90

operational costs, and open up new revenue-generating opportunities.

Both the buyers and the sellers in this equation are looking to monetise their investments, whether that’s the network, the sensor, the software, the platform, the bundled product, or the end result.

While these stakeholders work on implementing and deriving value from execution on technology strategies, they’re also pursuing a separate but

“Murphy said that sustainability is “not just about helping yourself. It’s become a business imperative” very much related goal – sustainability.

The logic around corporate sustainability initiatives has two primary thrusts: first, with increasing urgency around carbon emissions, power consumption and other macro environmental factors,

implementing green practices where possible is the right thing to do; second, a more efficient, sustainable business is very likely to be a more profitable, more valuable business.

When you consider those two thrusts in a larger, longer-term context, a more 91

sustainable world with a more predictable future environmental outlook is inherently more stable.

And stability is good for business.

Discussing the relationship between sustainability and business success, Ericsson North America Chief Technology Officer Mike Murphy pointed

“By using 5G the way it was really intended to digitise and automate vertical industries, we can further reduce the energy consumption” out that investors and financial firms now consider sustainability a critical factor in determining the long-term value of a business.

Murphy said that sustainability is “not just about helping yourself.

It’s become a business imperative. And so it’s a business imperative in general, and our customers 92

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are putting demands on us to support them in this regard.

And that’s showing up in RFPs… The whole ecosystem is moving towards a situation where business success demands a strong sustainability program as well.”

Murphy added that it’s possible for operators to break the 94

historic energy curve wherein 5G networks, despite being denser and supporting more data transmissions, can use less energy than 4G networks. He explained, “Practically what that means is network modernisation, so upgrade of equipment.

Energy-smart operations, meaning how you use it, and looking at different renewable

energy sources. But we believe by doing it right, you can actually reduce total energy consumption over time from where we are now.”

From there, the combination of and 5G and IoT can create a virtuous cycle of innovation and sustainable outcomes.

Murphy explained, “By using 5G

the way it was really intended to digitise and automate vertical industries, we can further reduce the energy consumption. You see a connection between multiple points here… It’s a happy feedback loop or flywheel.”

To read the article in full, visit www.rcrwireless.com 95

The COO at Sara Assicurazioni charts the company’s successful digital transformation journey

Michael Voegele, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Philip Morris International, explains why encouraging female representation is more than just a box-ticking exercise.

T-Mobile Netherlands

The team talks mergers, an extensive IT transformation program, plus continued customer improvements in quality and efficiency

portance of the digitalisation of or customers, and why cloud he company more scalable.

Danny Berry, The Vice President of ointnext Technology Services Supply Chain

BRUARY 2021 BUMPER ISSUE!

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Scale up Driving forward the next generation of European tech giants

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"The team were professional and diligent throughout" Leigh Feaviour, CTIO for BT’s Supply Chain

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ory e x c l u s i v e

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TOP 10

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The UK capital’s start-ups have not lost any of their appeal to investors.

London’s start-ups have weathered Brexit and a global pandemic, and have yet attracted more investment than ever before.

According to figures from Tech Nation’s annual report, UK start-ups attracted

a record $15 billion in VC funding in 2020, with London now fourth globally for tech VC funding, behind San Francisco, Beijing and New York. Here, we present 10 of the hottest tech start-ups in London right now.

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ZOE A health science company founded by Tim Spector, Jonathan Wolf and George Hadjigeorgiou, ZOE is committed to helping people live to their fullest by looking at the food they eat. The journey started 25 years ago, when Tim studied 13,000 twins, their genes, gut microbes and lifestyle. He was surprised to discover that even identical twins, who share all their genes, have very different responses to the same foods. So there is no one right way to eat – the key lies in understanding your own biology. ZOE was born three years ago when Tim joined forces with Jonathan and George, whose backgrounds are in AI and consumer apps, together with nutrition researchers from leading academic institutions. Their cutting-edge research is made available publicly to anyone who wants to join ZOE on this journey. Wolf said, “Rather than dieting, ZOE leverages data so that people can adjust their nutrition in a sustainable manner. Users are sent a kit and asked to provide a stool sample, use a continuous glucose monitor and do a finger-prick blood test to gain insights into their gut microbes, blood sugar and blood fat.”

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HOPIN The aim of Hopin is to give event organisers the ability to recreate the in-person event experience as closely as possible, but online and all in one place. Whether you’re hosting a live training workshop, bringing your company’s remote team together, or launching a full-scale digital conference, it’s easy to create an engaging Hopin event for hundreds of thousands of people. In a future where all events are likely to have a virtual component, it is about making sure this isn’t a lesser experience – but rather an equally meaningful and effective way of coming together and connecting. Founded in 2018, demand for the services of this online events start-up has soared since 2020. Founder Johnny Boufarhat said, “When the pandemic started, we had about 10,000 customers on a waitlist. Our mission is to make the world feel smaller and connect people.” Now in 42 countries, Hopin employs over 500 people and has 95,000 customers. Its next mission is to produce events specifically designed for the hybrid workplace.

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HOXTON FARMS As the race for the perfect lab-made steak continues, Hoxton Farms co-founders Max Jamilly and Ed Steele think they have the key to tasty meat alternatives: cultivated fat. The London-based start-up aims to produce animal fat without using animals, combining cell biology and mathematical modelling to make a better kind of fat. Starting from just a few cells, Hoxton Farms grow purified animal fat in bioreactors to produce a delicious, cruelty-free and sustainable ingredient that looks, cooks and tastes like the real thing. Hoxton Farms has raised £2.7 million in seed funding to finance the research and development. The round was led by Founders Fund, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel.

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OMNIPRESENT Omnipresent was created to solve the challenges we face when starting our business thousands of miles apart and managing remote teams. The start-up believes entrepreneurs should be focused on growing their business and accessing the best global talent, rather than on the admin required to make that possible.

Providing every employee with the tools and support that will make them feel part of a team no matter where they are, Omnipresent is becoming a global remote-first company, helping you every step of the way in the work-fromanywhere world. Omnipresent’s co-founders Matthew Wilson and Guenther Eisinger say their tech leaves companies “more time to do what matters, and less of the boring admin.” In January 2021, the company closed a $15.8 million Series A funding round to expand its presence globally.

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GREYPARROT Through AI-powered computer vision software, Greyparrot provides indepth data insights to stakeholders in the resources and waste sector, giving them vital information they have previously not been able to access.

Offering a complete waste composition analysis solution that automates the manual process of sampling and auditing material through intelligent monitoring and analysis, Greyparrot’s AI monitoring unit can be retrofitted across different conveyor belt environments without changing existing infrastructure. The integrated AI model recognises the composition of large waste flows in real time at a granular product, brand and material level, while the waste analytics dashboard is completely configurable and customisable, displaying instant live data analytics reports and insights to inform your decision-making. Greyparrot aims to tackle the problem of waste by providing the software to monitor and sort it at scale. Founded in 2019 by Mikela Druckman, Ambarish Mitra, Nikola Sivacki and Marco Paladini, the company is focused on making its software accessible to emerging markets, where many items are sent for recycling.

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BEAM Born out of its founder Alex Stephany’s idea to crowdfund for homeless people by combining talented caseworkers with smart technology, Beam offers homeless people a new support network, crowdfunding career opportunities and helping them to find and keep new jobs. Founded in 2017, the social impact start-up has helped secure work for more than 300 people since its launch. Stephany says he created Beam because he wanted to build “world-class technology for the most disadvantaged people in the world.” In the last year, the problem of homelessness has become even more important, so Beam repurposed its crowdfunding technology to provide emergency supplies such as sanitary products, food, textbooks, and tablets for children. Stephany added, “Our most important KPIs are not our financial KPIs. They are what we call our social KPIs: people starting jobs, and also people being housed.”

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MARSHMALLOW Founded by identical twin brothers Alexander and Oliver Kent-Braham in 2018, Marshmallow brings affordable car insurance to underserved groups such as immigrants, low-income and unemployed people, or students, who pay more than average because they don't fit into traditional insurance underwriting.

Supporting you in your hour of need with insurance that is easy, affordable and on your side, Marshmallow’s ambition is much bigger than that. The company plans to invest in ways to make you feel safer, by developing a culture of trust, allowing you to test out bold ideas and explore new ground. At the end of 2020, the insurtech company reached a $300 million (£231m) valuation following a $30m Series A funding round.

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FABRICNANO Biotech start-up FabricNano’s goal is to replace all fermented and petrochemical products in the world, such as plastics, with biomanufactured alternatives. By designing artificial cells that produce chemicals 100 times faster, the aim is to ditch many of the chemical processes that make manufacturing one of the most polluting industries in the world. Founded in late 2018 by Grant Aarons and Ferdinando Randisi through the Entrepreneur First program, FabricNano is powering the bioindustrial revolution by enabling manufacturers to produce using the fundamental building blocks of life.

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WHIRLI Whirli is a toy subscription service founded in 2019 by Nigel Phan, which aims to promote sustainable consumerism. Whirli purchases toys directly from leading manufacturers, which subscribers can borrow and then swap for something new whenever their child gets bored. Users receive Whirli tokens to spend on toys from a huge library, with over 1,000 toys to choose from, including the latest must-haves. You can keep the toys for as long as you want before sending them back for a credit of the equivalent tokens, which you can swap for something else. If your child falls in love with a certain item, they are free to keep it, and you will be charged a less-than-retail price. With a range of subscription plans and a fun and interactive platform with which to engage, what’s not to love?

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GOPHR Gophr has built a platform focused on courier needs, unlocking greater opportunities for couriers and fleet operations. Since 2014, Gophr has committed to bringing transparency, efficiency and speed to an industry that it believes has lacked any real innovation over the last 30 years. After spending its first year researching, learning from industry professionals, talking to courier fleet operators and customers of all sorts, and immersing itself in the courier community, Gophr was launched five years later. Its tight-knit team of tech-heads has built smart technology from the ground up.

Total oversight, real-time ETAs and route optimisation are just a few of its features. Today, its customer service ratings are three times the industry average because of its commitment to transparency. Gophr is on a mission to disrupt the courier space for good, with the aim to bring people, and their stuff, closer together.

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IN THE SP OTLIGHT

START-UP OF THE MONTH

IA service provider, Robiquity, has announced several new hires on the back of rapid growth across the business last year. obiquity is the UK’s leading ‘pureplay’ intelligent automation (IA) services provider, enabling its clients to achieve digital transformation by introducing automation at the core of business processes. Working with major industries such as retail, financial services, telco, insurance and manufacturing, Robiquity delivers robotic process automation (RPA) to help organisations improve customer service, fuel rapid growth, and boost efficiency.

Robiquity works with clients by looking at their current processes and understanding how they can adopt an automation-first approach, which, in turn, provides huge benefits, from customer interactions to end-to-end value chains and business support functions. Robiquity says it usually finds circa £500,000 110

of in-year benefits potential, in terms of value of time saved helping their clients to discover productivity gains, customer service improvement, error reduction, and improved compliance.

Launched in 2016, the company is headquartered in Manchester, with operations in London, Dubai, Egypt, Canada and North America. The business has gone from strength to strength over the last six years, and currently employs over 90 people globally following a 120 per cent growth in turnover in 2021. Clients include AO.com, Pets at Home, Land Rover, Schroders Personal Wealth, B&M Retail, Opus Energy, Finastra and Virgin Media.

Tom Davies, CEO of Robiquity, said, “We are seeing a real shift in the use of automation from basic cost efficiency to becoming a real

“Our clients are growing faster, with streamlined, automated processes that release their people from mundane tasks” Tom Davies, CEO of Robiquity enabler of growth, productivity, customer service improvements, and employee satisfaction. Our clients are growing faster, with streamlined, automated processes that release their people from mundane tasks.

“Our success in the financial services, retail and telco sectors has

allowed us to take real examples of hard benefits delivered to customers and use those to build repeatable propositions, which can be scaled across our target markets. We are looking forward to the year ahead as we continue with our ambitious plans for continued expansion in the UK and globally.”

For further information, visit www.robiquity.com 111

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