Digital Innovation Magazine - April 2022

MONTESSUIT MediaKind’s Damien Montessuit on the future of media and entertainment

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Our Spring edition of Digital Innovation has landed, featuring four exclusive interviews, together with our usual line-up of thought-provoking tech features. We are passionate about creating fresh digital content designed to inform and inspire, and it is thanks to our great interviewees that we are able to deliver month after month.

April’s cover story comes courtesy of Damien Montessuit, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at MediaKind. It is the second time we have had the pleasure of interviewing Damien – you can read it in full on page 6.

Danielle Harris Director d.harris@ithink.media

Turn to page 38 for our exclusive with Eric Kadyrov, CEO of PrivateTechNetwork. Eric was in Kyiv when we spoke, so it was surreal to discuss Venture Capital and private investment whilst his country was preparing for war. Our thoughts go out to Eric and his team.

Tom Barnes Director

What’s more, we talk setting an industry standard with Faisal Ashfaq, Head of Supply Chain Management at RAS (p64), and all things supply chain with Spring’s former VP of Global Supply Chain and Operations, Patricia Ahufinger (p88).

Daniel May Senior Digital Designer

t.barnes@ithink.media

design@ithink.media

Plus, don’t miss our report on the AR and VR European technology market (p54), Bitpanda’s acquisition of Trustology (p28), and this issue’s intriguing start-up of the month (p102).

Wishing you a successful month!

+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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MediaKind’s Damien Montessuit on the future of media and entertainment

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AR and VR technology is a growing market in Europe

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An exclusive interview with the CEO of PrivateTechNetwork, Eric Kadyrov

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This issue’s start-up of the month is Bizfluence

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Faisal Ashfaq, Head of Supply Chain Management, explains how RAS has set an industry standard

54 52 France wants to boost the European tech ecosystem

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C OV E R STO RY

Damien Montessuit, Senior Vice President, Global Sales at MediaKind, shares his insights into the future of media and entertainment. ediaKind has continually delivered the technology and expertise that has shaped and led the future of global media and entertainment. Its story is rich with innovation – and one of trust. MediaKind is owned 49 per cent by the 6

global telecommunications firm, Ericsson, and 51 per cent

by One Equity Partners. Many of the world’s leading service providers, operators, content owners and broadcasters use its platforms and solutions to respond to the demanding expectations of their viewers.

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But whether it’s a major sporting moment or a breaking world news story, MediaKind has always been a catalyst for live television. And although the industry landscape has evolved considerably over the past three decades, MediaKind’s focus remains to deliver highquality live experiences. Only today, it has a remit to inspire and push the boundaries of the streaming era. This future will see live content delivered without any limitations, at the same level as traditional broadcast quality, at scale, to any screen or device, across linear, ondemand and OTT services. That’s no mean feat.

The hallmarks of live streaming: high quality, reliability, and scalability Damien Montessuit leads MediaKind’s global sales and business development efforts and is at the forefront of driving his company’s vision for the future of high-quality live experiences. He explains, “Think of any live event you like, anywhere worldwide. All high-value live content bears the same hallmarks; it must adhere to the same standards of high quality, reliability, and scale.

Creating content is relatively straightforward, but the challenge is manifestly different when you need to distribute it across different countries, continents, and 9

“We helped deliver stable, high-quality live OTT coverage of the final stages of the UEFA Champions League competition in August 2020. Over one million concurrent streamers watched the final of the competition on SFR’s service – its largest ever OTT audience at that time” networks. The streaming world is another beast altogether.

“Ensuring reliable, low latency streaming to large volumes of concurrent traffic is a significant undertaking, even for the most robust networks – every second counts, as audience expectations are resolute. They expect everything to work seamlessly. This was a major consideration when we worked alongside Altice Portugal’s MEO last summer to enable its live OTT coverage of UEFA Euro 2020. One of MEO’s key remits was to significantly reduce end-to-end video latency and ensure a broadcast-quality stream to its viewers across Portugal on Android TV devices. The project was a great success. It followed a similar collaboration with Altice France’s SFR, where we helped deliver stable, high-quality live OTT coverage of the 10

final stages of the UEFA Champions League competition in August 2020. Over one million concurrent streamers watched the final of the competition on SFR’s service – its largest ever OTT audience at that time.”

Damien cites how MediaKind’s efforts also extend beyond the world of live sports and into other areas, such as virtual festivals and conference shows. He first refers to a direct-to-consumer (D2C) project between MediaKind and

Microsoft. The two companies initially combined to develop a dynamic video streaming blueprint to deliver the 2020 Chattanooga Film Festival to an audience of 30,000 independent movie lovers. Attendees enjoyed a series of short and fulllength feature films, presentations, and panel discussions, both live and on-demand.

Damien adds, “And that became the benchmark for us to develop a unique solution with Microsoft, which saw us enable the first all-

digital CES (Consumer Electronic Show) trade show in January 2021.

In just 60 days, we built the entire D2C platform and delivered the live stream to international audiences.

This comprised a mixture of exciting live and on-demand media, spanning exhibitor video content, interactive showcases, media events, conference programming and keynote speeches. The live streams were delivered to tens of thousands of concurrent attendees, while more than 100,000 people accessed the CES content on11

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demand for a month following the event.”

Stepping into the metaverse Over the last decade, the world has undergone a first wave involving the creative crossing of technologies.

Cloud, IP transformation, digital supply chain, new consumer viewing behaviours, social media expansions, mobile, and the proliferation of devices brought multiple concurrent disruptions

providers’ thinking at Mobile World Congress 2022. In past years, the deployment of 4G has contributed to the rise of universal streaming to fuel the pipes. As 5G is deployed, we will see the rise of VR, AR and XR content and experiences built for and in the metaverse. NFTs could have a strong influence on the future of media and entertainment. For example, we could see increased content converted to NFTs on the fly to allow fans to monetise their work on their own terms.

“As technology continues to improve, new technologies emerge, such as hyperscale computing in the cloud, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR), not to mention everything related to blockchain and NFTs” into the market. Damien says this first wave led to a very competitive market in which operators, broadcasters, content owners and sports federations had to react.

He explains, “As technology continues to improve, new technologies emerge, such as hyperscale computing in the cloud, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR), not to mention everything related to blockchain and NFTs. It was fascinating to see how AR, VR, XR, digital identities and the metaverse were at the forefront of all the 14

“Cryptocurrency is the foundation that will help fuel trade and digital ownership in the future. And this will help to spark the second wave of this journey to the metaverse. It will blur the lines between the online and offline worlds. To realise this future, all the players in the media and entertainment space must recognise the opportunity to build cloudmaturing technology and deliver a new type of immersive experience that will engage virtual audiences.

“The challenge of distributing live events at scale will become even greater when live events are

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generated in the metaverse. We will need to transition from a set of physical cameras in the physical world by embracing the possibility of unlimited sets of virtual cameras in the virtual world. We could see innovations from esports emerge – perhaps the opportunity to blend in commentary or replays ondemand. Video game engines are now powerful enough to generate any player’s perspective from any angle anywhere in a game. This is the direction that MediaKind is now exploring, as we believe this could be the way we experience live events in about 10 years from now.”

Damien believes the metaverse has undergone a significant transformation over the past 12 months. He says, “If you think about it, the metaverse is simply an 16

extension and the next evolution of how we already live our lives today through the internet. The streaming era could one day provide the building blocks for what could become a ‘meta-first’ environment, incorporating the power of streaming, cloud technology, mobile connectivity, and the user's needs.

When organisations have the talent and resources to establish and develop a streaming world without boundaries, their imaginations can run wild as pioneers.”

Although there is no one concept or agreement on what the metaverse will look like in the future, it’s generally considered to take the form of an immersive, digital alternative to the physical world experienced through virtual reality (VR). Here, virtual avatars will come

together to work, pursue hobbies, shop, play games, or simply gather to engage in online communities within a digital space.

Damien suggests the primary element that will fuel the immediate future of entertainment will be gaming; “Over the last two decades, we have seen IT merging with telecoms, and telecoms merging with media. Gaming is now the last pillar, and it is well-positioned to build the user experience of tomorrow. The gaming industry knows how to create a virtual world and develop truly interactive immersive experiences.”

Preparing for the next wave of innovation in media and entertainment The entrance of social media, streaming, ecommerce players and mobile manufacturers into the media and entertainment space has generated more stress and pressure on traditional players to adapt.

Damien continues, “MediaKind plays a role in helping more traditional players prepare for the next wave of innovation in media and entertainment services. Operators are evolving from aggregator of channels to aggregator of services.

They started this transformation

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to the cloud years ago and are more mature than broadcasters or content owners.

“I term it ‘Platformisation’. These efforts are well-known by the operators, but very new for broadcasters and content owners.

Platformisation is happening at every level in all three of these market segments, but each segment has reached a different level of maturity on their transformation journey to the cloud and digital platforms.”

“When it comes to delivering services to hundreds of millions of devices and generating hundreds of millions of streams per day, MediaKind relies on its strong network of trusted partners” The common denominator for broadcasters and content owners is that they need to familiarise themselves with subscriber management, billing system, commerce engine, digital advertising, user experience, and the additional services on top of these platforms.

Damien says that when it comes to delivering services to hundreds of millions of devices and generating 18

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hundreds of millions of streams per day, MediaKind relies on its strong network of trusted partners.

He elaborates, “In terms of smart devices, SDMC Technology and iWedia are key partners in enabling Android-based smart devices to consume content and provide the user experience that subscribers expect.”

In terms of innovative and advanced technology platforms, Hewlett

Bridge enables us to identify new revenue sources and build impactful monetisation solutions for operators, broadcasters and advertisers within their specific markets. Other partners such as Encore Interactive help us provide operational efficiencies for our largest operators in North America, while system integrators like Lutech assist our customers in deploying our end-to-end solutions offering.”

“When customers evolve to the cloud, their main concern is not to lose control and insights into their services.

Through a set of components and technologies, MediaKind addresses this need and proposes Managed Cloud Applications (MCA)” Packard Enterprise (HPE) is vital for MediaKind, as most of the video catchup, start over services and recording services delivered by most of the operators in the world are enabled through HPE technology.

Damien adds, “On top of that, we need to have the right ecosystem of partners to address our customers’ needs in terms of system capabilities.

Global technology partners like HPE also provide the expertise and resources to deliver complex, high-performing platforms for our projects. Our partnership with Video

MediaKind’s customers are increasingly asking for greater control over their operations as they begin their transformation into the cloud. Damien says, “When customers evolve to the cloud, their main concern is not to lose control and insights into their services.

Through a set of components and technologies, MediaKind addresses this need and proposes Managed Cloud Applications (MCA). This approach enables MediaKind to provide the right set of tools and engagement models for operators, broadcasters, content owners 23

and sports federations, so they are comfortable with their operations and can improve their operational efficiency.”

The future of entertainment: personalised and interactive

were all managed through our internet connection. It was the first time everyone realised how important internet connections are because they were often our only link to the physical world outside our four walls.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the humankind revolution towards the digital world. Damien explains, “During this tough time when we were all confined in our homes, we needed just two things – a fridge and an internet connection.

Work, education, collaboration, entertainment and social interactions

“The pandemic played a huge role in accelerating the transformation to the cloud on both the business and the consumer side, laying the foundations for the mass adoption of technologies that are the first step towards the metaverse. We can see how large corporations like Meta, Microsoft, Epic Games,

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Roblox and Disney heavily invest in the metaverse. All of those names understand the need to prepare for the new meta-first paradigm.”

So, how would Damien describe the future of entertainment?

He answers, “The future is all about delivering a higher level of interactivity and personalisation into the consumer experience. If you think about any type of industry, it will be about customer engagement and the platformisation of every service in every sector. Companies will have to provide different entry points to their service. Take the sports industry, for example. They need to find new ways to engage

with fans, whether through merchandising initiatives, ticketing, gaming, or social network engagement with the players. And it’s currently a very underutilised area within the sports industry. One of the most interesting findings from MediaKind’s 2021 Sports D2C Forecast, which analysed 40 sports’ rights-holders worldwide, was that just eight per cent reported engaging with some form of advertising on their OTT service. None of the 40 rights holders had an integrated betting service either. These are very big monetisation opportunities.

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“I’m excited to continue working with some of the world’s leading operators, content owners, broadcasters and sports federations alongside our technology partners to help our customers realise the future of media” “Increasingly, I think traditional sports will replicate many elements from esports, particularly in how they blend interactivity, bringing virtual effects into the viewing experience. D2C propositions enable all sports service providers and operators to become orchestrators of their services and open the possibility of new two-way transparent dialogues between brands and consumers.

“The aggregation of services is extremely important. Every business is increasingly focused

on aggregating services and providing a single-entry point for customers or fans. The media and entertainment world is at a pivotal juncture in this regard. I’m excited to continue working with some of the world’s leading operators, content owners, broadcasters and sports federations alongside our technology partners to help our customers realise the future of media.”

For further information, visit www.mediakind.com 27

B L O C KC H A I N

A Digital Investment Platform for Everyone London-based fintech Trustology has been acquired by European unicorn Bitpanda.

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Austria’s Bitpanda has made its first acquisition in institutional cryptocurrency and decentralised finance custodian wallet provider, Trustology. Bitpanda plans to rebrand Trustology as Bitpanda Custody, giving the company the ability to perform custodian services in the UK alongside its EU operations. t will initially take custody of Bitpanda’s own assets across its retail, institutional and whitelabelling businesses, making it one of the largest digital assets custody providers globally.

Eric Demuth, co-founder and CEO of Bitpanda, said, “Everything we do is driven by the belief that blockchain technology and digital assets will profoundly transform the financial ecosystem, with the clear outcome that people around the globe will have the power to own their financial futures. Bitpanda Custody brings us one step closer to building a leading, fully regulated and secure digital investment platform for everyone, new investors and professionals alike.

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“We can now provide retail customers with world-class institutional-grade custody security” Eric Demuth, co-founder and CEO of Bitpanda 31

Christian Trummer CTO

“We can now provide retail customers with world-class institutional-grade custody security, and institutional clients will benefit from innovative custody solutions in order not to only overcome the challenges they face today, but also thrive in the years to come.”

Bitpanda was founded in 2014

by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek 32

and Christian Trummer as a crypto-trading company aiming to modernise investments in the era of digital assets.

Since then, the company has grown into a leading European investment platform, allowing people to invest in commissionfree fractional stocks, cryptocurrencies or precious metals from as little as €1.

Paul Klanschek CEO

Eric Demuth CEO

The addition of Trustology’s institutional-grade services is Bitpanda’s first step towards launching a Prime Brokerage, a service operating under a much larger umbrella of Bitpanda Pro, while significantly expanding the range of services provided to customers and partners.

Joshua Barraclough, Bitpanda Pro

CEO, explained, “Bitpanda Custody is part of our strategy to offer a fully comprehensive set of services to our client base and we can now combine an FCA-registered, institutional-grade custody solution with a leading trade execution venue.

“Recently, we have invested a lot in upgrading Bitpanda Pro 33

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exchange as well as boosting our liquidity partnerships, so that we can compete with the largest exchanges on execution capabilities. Now we are looking to massively increase our footprint and bring lots more clients to our venues.

“Bitpanda will account for over 700 employees spread across 10 offices, with its headquarters in Vienna” “Importantly, we are moving away from an asset under custody pricing model and are not penalising our clients’ growth. We have great plans in the pipeline and are doubling down on bringing new products to market, including building on Trustology’s leading DeFi functionality.”

After the completed acquisition and rebrand, Bitpanda will account for over 700 employees spread across 10 offices, with its headquarters in Vienna. On the acquisition, Trustology founder 35

Alex Batlin commented, “We are really excited to press the Bitpanda turbo button in its mission to make institutional crypto custody safer, faster and easier.

“Whether you are a service provider using our scalable, whitelabelled high-performance wallet automation platform, a DeFi institutional investor using our bespoke integrations to access DApps or breakout features like DeFi 36

“We are really exc Bitpanda turbo bu to make institution safer, faster

Alex Batlin, Trus

cited to press the tton in its mission nal crypto custody and easier”

stology founder

Firewall and transaction decoding, or a token issuer looking to remove barriers to purchase, you’ll get wider cryptoasset and jurisdictional support, higher insurance coverage and SOC 2 certification to go along with a competitor-beating pricing model.”

For further information on BitPanda, visit www.bitpanda.com Source: https://businesscloud.co.uk 37

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

We talk to the CEO of PrivateTechNetwork, Eric Kadyrov, about the exciting changes currently taking place in the Venture Capital and private investment sector.

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ric Kadyrov helps clients raise Venture Capital, as well as advising private customers on investments, specifically in pre IPO private technology companies globally.

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Eric Kadyrov

He launched PrivateTechNetwork two years ago to assist his clients in automating fundraising processes, as Eric explains, “Many Venture Capital deals are still done the same as they were 20 years ago. It is a slow, manual process, without using technology tools or any of the advances we have made in data science and AI. I launched PrivateTechNetwork with the objective of using data science and AI to automate Venture Capital fundraising processes and investments in private tech firms.”

It starts with a very basic question – if you are a start-up doing fund raising or an investor looking to invest in a tech firm, where and how do you get information on you targets? With new funds and new companies being launched almost daily, how do you analyse players, and navigate the ocean of information and hundreds of sources? One could read Crunchbase, Forbes or special 40

reports for weeks and still not have a complete picture of the fintech sector, that now counts many thousands of start-ups.

Search engines like Google will also give you thousands of results that will take a lot of time to digest. Eric says, “We want to have smart algorithms that will analyse all the various sources for you and give you answers at the touch of a button.

“The second basic question is one of optionality – as a professional in industry, I have a large network of Venture Capital funds, but it probably does not cover even 10 per cent of all options available. How do I know I am talking to the right counterparties and not flying in the dark?

“Our platform uses AI to identify and collect information on

Venture Capital funds and private tech investors and pre IPO tech companies globally.”

PrivateTechNetwork has built algorithmically a huge database of est 90,000 Venture Capital funds and private investors from information signals left in various public sources. Eric says, “Clients use the database as a fundraising tool. The system recommends a 41

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selection of funds, which is global, with clients in the US, Dubai and Europe. Communication via the platform means they receive funds faster, so rounds can close quicker, with more liquidity and cross-border options. We call it Venture Capital as a Service (VCaaS) platform. We also have non-tech clients – for example, insurance companies and investment banks – that use us as an information tool to identify tech trends and future winners, as

“Our typical client is a rapidly growing tech company in a specific market segment” we track private companies that are likely to make an impact in 70 sectors.”

PrivateTechNetwork has attracted over 40 clients since its launch.

Eric continues, “Our typical client is a rapidly growing tech company in a specific market segment. We have a company that is building a NFT marketplace for gamers, a neobank based in the UK, a company that is building a social network for pet owners in 43

Monaco, and one of the top three global job search sites. Most clients are digital, but some are nontech, using our platform solely as an information tool. The platform helps to speed up communication and get more liquidity options, collecting all the information in one place.”

Combining AI-driven intelligence with founder to investor communication tools and transactions technology 44

functionality, Eric says the platform uses AI and data science algorithms to capture insights. He explains, “Our technology expertise lies in Natural Language Processing, text and speech analytics in another company LanguaMetrics (www.languametrics.com) that I co-founded with partners in 2012. We develop algorithms to measure language and speaking proficiency automatically.

Products are used in more that 80

countries – in automatic language tests in schools by North West Evaluation Association, by Amazon for the call centre automation market, and by Stanford Research Institute.

“We also released a product called Fluency Rev that helps children to learn to read interactively and to communicate properly. It helps to assist where there is the problem of busy parents; its slogan is ‘no child should read alone’. Surprisingly,

reading proficiency, one of the most important social skills that children have to learn, seems to be a problem in many public schools, even in the US. Algorithms can model human interactions better, as even passing standard tests like TOEFL does not necessarily guarantee that a person has good spoken language and can be a call centre agent. It takes 10 seconds for the human ear to make the conclusion that you can understand another person.

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Algorithms can do the same and save lots of testing resources. Of course, there are many more future potential applications that one can imagine based on speech analytics – from security apps, to door locks based on voice recognition; from analysing how rational the speech is, to forming a ‘digital portrait’ of a person and identifying real-life parameters such as emotions, age, profession, income, or location.

“We use a subset of AI called text mining and Named-Entity

“PrivateTechNetwork’s platform mixes classical Venture Capital with blockchain-based equity tokenisation capabilities” Recognition (NER). The way it works is it analyses public data sources, and the algorithm automatically identifies Venture Capital funds, private tech investors and private tech companies. All the output is further analysed and the relevant data ends up on our database.

There is also an AI recommendation engine that recommends a set of contacts to make based on your parameters. It is kind of giant information radar that catches and 46

sorts signals from multiple data sources, giving you pre-processed, focused key information. It is a rather powerful concept, as with one single click, you can see all Venture Capital funds in a country or whole sector map of private companies not typically covered by analysts and researchers. You could see the funding and valuation history of a company in one easyto-read graph. It will also detect if a new company is launched in say the UK or Australia, and could potentially become an interesting investment target.”

PrivateTechNetwork’s platform mixes classical Venture Capital with blockchain-based equity tokenisation capabilities. So, is blockchain really capable of completely changing finance as we know it? Eric answers, “We have already seen a lot of transformation in classical banking and classical insurance. Neobanks are taking market share from traditional banks that have been around for many decades. This is also reflected in their valuations. Sixyear-old Revolut is now bigger in valuation than 100-year-old, reputable, established financial giants such as SocGen and Credit Suisse. Valuations of payment processors Stripe and Checkout are comparable to the valuations of Amex and Visa. It is quite unthinkable but real. What does the

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future have in store for thousands of retail banks, insurance companies, and various payment systems?

“I was amazed to see crypto transactions on blockchain wallets, recorded when one billion was moved in a matter of minutes for the fee of $50. The standard way of banking would probably take weeks, as well as escrowing accounts, many lawyers and 10 million in fees. This example speaks for itself. I think we are going to see all kinds of tokenised assets, starting with tokenised real estate, art, and tokenised securities, as it really addresses the value dilution and inflation problem of central banks. Blockchain and digital applications will then filter down to other areas such as supply chain management. It really has the power to change everything.”

With NEAR Protocol recently raising $150 million in its latest funding round, Bloackdaemon raising $207 million, and Fireblocks raising $550 million, accelerating their mission to help billions of people learn and use blockchain, Eric believes we will see a spike in the NFT (nonfungible token) marketplace. He continues, “The last valuation of the NFT marketplace OpenSea was $13 billion, and that’s starting from zero a few years ago. It reflects the fact 48

that people are trading and buying more NFTs, which shows how fast this trend is taking off.”

Eric seeks to bridge the gap between public and private investing, which he views as a fundamental problem in the industry. He explains, “If you want to invest in a company such as Apple of Facebook, it’s simply a case of pressing a button. But, there’s also a lot of fast-growing private companies, offering great investment opportunities in multiple

sectors. If you are not a professional Venture Capital fund, how do you invest in a market that is not transparent? On average in the private market, there are as many as three to five intermediaries per deal. When you buy shares, up to 10 per cent is lost in commissions to these parties. The market is therefore hugely inefficient. We are experimenting heavily with tokenisation to address this issue.”

One of the key advantages of using PrivateTechNetwork’s platform is

it makes the process of reaching out to Venture Capital funds much faster for its clients. Eric adds, “Clients can communicate with a number of Venture funds without having to spend weeks analysing which ones are available, with the system recommending funds based on previous deals etc. When it comes to private companies, we analyse 70 private sectors globally including AI, big data, blockchain, crypto, biotech and education.

Our algorithms allow us to identify which private companies are likely 49

to have the most impact on market segments. There is a lot of change taking place across the board, as tech starts to impact more traditional sectors like education, energy, agriculture, marketing and HR.” Speaking of changes in the market, the pandemic saw a huge rise in digital, as Eric explains, “When Covid happened, many people travelled less and started working online. Some of our clients had to figure out the balance between office work and remote working.

As a result, there has been a lot of growth in different digital sectors, such as video calling, online

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conferencing, gaming, and media and entertainment. The latter presents a very fascinating story. What will happen after Spotify? What will the next model look like? We have seen AIgenerated content, from music to digital art, so I think there will be a lot of new and interesting media and content digital companies coming through.”

Eric refers to ‘the age of total disruption’ when many changes take place across the major sectors. He believes it is a very exciting time to be working in the Venture Capital and private investment sector right now. Eric continues, “Synthetic media is completely new. I think we will see 10 to 20 new companies in this space. Sustainability is a massive sector, and we track that one separately. We need to reinvent a lot of processes, given the carbon footprint from aviation fuel and cement manufacture, because climate change is a big problem. Agriculture tech is another segment that we track separately. There are some fascinating companies in this space such as Plenty in vertical farming, or Farmers Business Network and FarmDar in big data. These are companies looking to increase farming productivity by using big data and technology tools.”

“We have lots of exciting tech companies across the board and multiple sectors are being disrupted, not just AI and big data. It will be interesting to see how industries will work in the future because the pace of change is so fast” Eric believes it is critical to form partnerships with other companies to help shape the future. He adds, “For us, we rely on our clients. I work directly with a number of clients, advising them on mandates and strategy. It is something I really enjoy. It is all about thinking about how they can improve their processes to help contribute to the future landscape.”

One such client with which PrivateTechNetwork enjoys a long-standing relationship is MVP (Manhattan Venture Partners, MVP.VC). Eric says, “I have worked with MVP for about 10 years. They were one of the first merchant banks with a platform providing clients access to investment deals in the private technology space.

This segment grew quickly, but it was very small back in the day, so MVP are true pioneers. They provide access to some of the top technology names globally including SoFi, Coinbase, Udemy, Palantir, SpaceX, Cohesity, Turo, Epic Games, Revolut, Uber, Lyft, Patreon, Flexport, and many others.

They have first-class research of the

private tech companies and operate several funds as investment vehicles.

We set up a partnership to provide them with broad information on a global scale, as well as algorithms to identify future trends.”

As far as the future is concerned, Eric says he is focused on adding transaction functionality to the platform, as well as exploring the technology to create a private shares marketplace. He concludes, “It is a unique time in our history and maybe in the history of civilisation. With a rapidly growing world population, climate changes and future resources shortages, technology seems to be the only way to multiply resources and to find practical working solutions to these challenges. We have lots of exciting tech companies across the board and multiple sectors are being disrupted, not just AI and big data. It will be interesting to see how industries will work in the future because the pace of change is so fast.”

For further information, visit www.privatetechnetwork.com 51

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TECH

France has announced it wants to boost the European technology ecosystem.

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France has raised more than 3.5 billion euros to invest in European tech, amongst plans to rely on European start-ups to regain the continent’s digital sovereignty.

he Scale Up Europe initiative was launched in March 2021 by the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Cédric O, and the European Commissioner for Innvoation, Mariya Gabriel.

The collective brings together nearly 300 advanced start-ups and scale-ups, investors and experts whose objective is to reflect on ways to develop the technological champions of tomorrow.

Last June, the collective submitted a report to Emmanuel Macron, which included a series of 21 recommendations to encourage the emergence of digital giants 56

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in Europe. In response, Macron announced the objective of having “10 companies worth €100 billion by 2030.”

It comes in the light of strategies already deployed at national level to make the ecosystem of European tech start-ups a lever for regaining Europe’s digital sovereignty, boosted by very good results in recent months.

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“In 2021, Europe has created more unicorns than China,” said Cédric O, counting 321 unicorns (start-ups valued at more than €1 billion) and 26 decacorns (startups valued at more than €10 billion) in Europe by the end of last year.

“In the race with the US and China, the right level is the European level,” he added.

“Europe should not be afraid of its power. We are the world’s largest market,” said France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, alongside his German counterpart Christian Lindner.

Le Maire has unveiled a new ‘fund of funds’. Managed by the European Investment Fund (EIF), a subsidiary of the European Investment Bank

“Europe should not be afraid of its power. We are the world’s largest market” Bruno Le Maire, France’s Economy Minister

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(EIB), it is designed to top up existing venture capital funds and improve their financing capacity.

The aim is to create 10 to 20 European funds with at least €1 billion each (the continent currently has only two).

Philippe Huberdeau, secretarygeneral of Scale Up Europe, explained, “There is no shortage of financial resources, but the

“France’s Economy Minister indicated that an initial envelope of €3.5 billion will be injected into this new fund” financial resources that are properly European are rather directed towards the early stages of development of start-ups.”

It is precisely these last phases, the ‘late stage’, that should now be the focus of attention, he said, as they require the easy mobilisation of large amounts of money, which American funds, for example, can afford.

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“We were a start-up nation, we are going to become a nation of large technology companies. France has a vocation to be one of the nations writing the 21st century” Bruno Le Maire, France’s Economy Minister

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France’s Economy Minister indicated that an initial envelope of €3.5 billion will be injected into this new fund. The aim is to quickly reach €10 billion with the participation of other European countries in the coming weeks and months.

Le Maire added, “We were a startup nation, we are going to become a nation of large technology

companies. France has a vocation to be one of the nations writing the 21st century.”

As capital markets are becoming more mature in several European countries, the new challenge for start-ups is securing talent. Still, remote working, business solutions and upcoming EU policies could disrupt the landscape.

Source: www.euractiv.com 63

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

Faisal Ashfaq, Head of Supply Chain Management at Retail & Asset Solutions (RAS), explains why the company has attained major dominance in its market segment. etail & Asset Solutions (RAS), part of the Asset Solutions Group, manages stock integrity and assets predominantly in the retail market.

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There are four divisions, which Faisal Ashfaq, Head of Supply Chain Management at RAS, outlines as follows:

1. Retail and Pharmacy Stocktaking – counting within stores and warehouses 2. RFID – adding next-level technology to stock counts 3. Merchandising – taking the stock from the back door of the store to the shelves 4. Supply Chain

"We make sure the pinch points are monitored and audited for performance, ensuring that the right stock gets to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity (the 4R’s)" Faisal explains, “The division that I manage is Supply Chain.

It is about making sure the integrity of the stock is correct throughout the supply chain from supplier, as it goes through the retailer’s supply chain network, to the back door of the store.

Our experience gained from a combined total of over 100,000 hours spent auditing within supply chain highlights that there 66

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are several common pinch points within this journey where there is the opportunity for things to go wrong. We make sure the pinch points are monitored and audited for performance, ensuring that the right stock gets to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity (the 4R’s).”

The Supply Chain division at RAS has been going strong for over 20 years. Faisal puts it down to the company’s ethos of understanding its customers and working together with them. He adds, “Our retention is almost 100 per cent as far as value of service and service delivery are concerned. The services we offer are bespoke to each of the customer’s requirements.”

According to Faisal, all the services offered are based on four core workstreams within supply chain:

1. Goods coming out from the supplier and into the retailer (inbound) 2. Stock that is picked by the retailer, broken down into smaller handling units and sent out to the stores (picker accuracy) 3. Stock that is marshalled and loaded onto the lorry 4. Deliveries direct to the store

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Faisal continues, “Each four points of the journey has the ability to cause negative impacts to store stock files and consumer availability. Our experience over the last 20 years has taught us that the numbers are not as important as understanding the root cause of the problem.

We work closely with our customers to resolve any root cause and validate the solution.

The importance we put on relationships has enabled us to attain dominance in the market.

We are the only organisation that provides an end-to-end service in the UK and Europe.”

Historically, suppliers delivered stock to retailers, and retailers checked it themselves, notifying the supplier if a delivery was short. If the supplier believed the delivery was accurate, then a debate might ensue. RAS took the goods-in concept and added an element of faith. Faisal explains, “As an independent party, we check a 5 per cent sample of stock and inform both the retailer and the supplier of the error rate immediately, with the option to query the result. Because an independent party is checking the delivery, the retailer pays immediately in good faith, and

"The importance we put on relationships has enabled us to attain dominance in the market. We are the only organisation that provides an end-to-end service in the UK and Europe" the supplier takes the bill in good faith. However, if at the end of the cycle we identify that there was a 1 per cent error rate in the sample we have checked, the supplier pays that charge back to the retailer without argument, assuming the 1 per cent error was across the 95 per cent of stock that wasn’t audited.”

This concept is known as Good Faith Receiving (GFR). It is acknowledged by the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), and the concept supports the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCoP) for its fairness to both supplier and retailer. Faisal adds, “In the last five years, the majority of the top 10 retailers in the UK are solely

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using GFR as a function for goodsin. It was this single service that created an industry standard and dominance in the market.”

RAS worked with a number of their customers on this program, Sainsbury’s being the first major retailer to help create the initial process. Faisal says, “RAS and Sainsbury’s worked on the concept

"We would not have been able to attain an industry standard without having customers that want to work alongside us, whilst also giving us the opportunity to work with them" together. It became the world’s longest pilot, as we were still in a preliminary phase after three years. We tweaked and improved the program as more retailers came on board, taking a lot of learnings from our customers along the way.”

Faisal believes you cannot be successful without working alongside respected customers.

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He continues, “We would not have been able to attain an industry standard without having customers that want to work alongside us, whilst also giving us the opportunity to work with them. It is a two-way relationship – they give us the opportunity and we give them valuable data and insight with return on that investment. When it comes to GFR, you are making the supply chain faster, more efficient, and more accurate. And when it comes to picker accuracy, we are telling the retailer why things are going wrong so they can do something about it.”

Speaking about last-mile deliveries, Faisal highlights the importance of the last 30 per cent of the supply chain, which is unique to each customer’s requirements. He explains, “As an industry, it is not just one check in isolation, but a series of checks within the supply chain that must be done at the same time. Imagine a pipe that carries water containing several leaks. If you put your finger over the first hole, it will not stop the subsequent leaks, but the water will flow out faster from the other holes. Similarly, you have got to have a solution for all of the pinch

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points or the loss and shrinkage will continue.

“If I am checking picker accuracy across a pallet, I am looking for the odd over or short. However, if the entire pallet or cage is in the wrong marshalling lane and put on the wrong lorry, the impact would

of its partner, Denso Wave. He elaborates, “We thrive on using the latest technology, providing our customers with the smartest solutions available in the market.

There is a big difference between a handheld scanner that takes three attempts to scan a barcode, and a scanner that takes the

“We thrive on using the latest technology, providing our customers with the smartest solutions available in the market” be potentially 20-50 cases. It’s important to have the stock there to pick in the first place, but it is more important to manage the last mile because this has the ability to make the greatest negative impact. If a cage destined for store A ended up at store B, store A’s system will think the stock is there and store B’s won’t. Working in reverse and putting emphasis on the last mile has more beneficial impact than working on the first mile.”

RAS heavily relies on upward relationships with its customers, which Faisal says would not be possible without the support

barcode in an instant regardless of angle, and Denso provides us with this technology. Customers often come to us with a problem that requires quick mobilisation and Denso helps us deliver the latest technology on time, which is invaluable in terms of our delivery onwards.”

Faisal considers audits to be essential to ascertaining performance and understanding where your problems lie. He explains, “If a buyer asks a supplier to send 10 cases of apples, but the supplier only sends eight cases, the retailer loses out on two fronts – firstly, the store only receives eight 73

when they need 10 cases, and secondly, the retailer paid the supplier for 10 but only received eight. The supplier performance therefore needs to be managed, but it works both ways. The supplier might send too much stock and if it is a short-life product, it will go to waste, and we are all extremely conscious about food wastage.”

"We regularly take a long, hard look at ourselves and ask how we can innovate and be more effective in terms of our service types and delivery" Referring back to the example of the pallet put in the wrong marshalling lane and going on the wrong lorry, Faisal continues, “If the audit is not there, you do not have the opportunity to correct errors in real time. In cases where it cannot be corrected, we provide the root causes for customers, underpinned by the intelligence, in order that they can make key changes within their business operations.”

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There is not an organisation in the world that was not affected by Covid, and RAS was no different.

Faisal remembers, “We had to be extremely agile. The majority of our business is in retail, food, fashion and apparel. The latter took a back seat, and food became the commodity during the lockdowns.

Retailers came under immense pressure to feed the nation, hence they did not want us to perform audits and hold up operations at this time, so the division downed tools to help them get the stock out

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of the door quickly and accurately.

It is this ability to work alongside retailers and on the same page that helped them through this difficult time.”

One of the reasons why RAS is the only end-to-end provider of its kind in the UK is down to its strength in innovation. Faisal explains, “We regularly take a long, hard look at ourselves and ask how we can innovate and be more effective in terms of our service types and delivery. We recently launched

Prosper, an in-house bespoke nextgeneration audit data capture and analysis platform. It has been a significant investment over the last two years. The customer now has the ability to not only view the results, but understand why the issue occurred and then manage performance – all in real time.”

Looking ahead to the future, Faisal concludes, “There are some very exciting times ahead in terms of visibility and transparency. RAS is working on an API solution with our

partners Entopy to give end-toend visualisation, which offers real-time insights across the whole delivery journey across multiple organisations. It is readily available to implement today, and will eradicate most of your shrinkage or loss in an instant.

The technology is there to offer possibilities both in and outside of retail. It will be interesting to see where this technology goes!”

For further information, visit www.retailassetsolutions.com

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

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A GROWING MARKET

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AR AND VR TECHNOLOGY IN EUROPE IS EXPECTED TO GAIN MARKET GROWTH IN THE FORECAST PERIOD OF 2021 TO 2028. he market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.2 per cent in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028, and is expected to reach US$92.11 billion in the next six years. Virtual reality is being widely used in various industrial applications, especially for training and research purposes, acting as a major factor for the growth of the market.

VR can be defined as a technology that creates a simulated environment through the use of computer technology. Virtual reality provides an immersed 3D environment to the user by 81

simulating various senses such as vision, touch, hearing, and even smell. Virtual reality uses devices such as head-mounted displays, projectors, and display walls for generating realistic visuals and sounds for providing the experience of the real world in the virtual environment. The person using VR can look around the 82

artificial world in 360 degrees, and even sense the virtual environment with highly advanced gears.

The growth of the virtual reality market has been highly increased by the integration of technology into the gaming industry. The gaming industry is using virtual reality to provide an enhanced

"THE DEFENCE AND AEROSPACE INDUSTRY USES VIRTUAL REALITY FOR TRAINING THE ARMY PERSONNEL BY PROVIDING VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS, HELPING TO REDUCE THE OVERALL COST OF THE TRAINING" build an optimum virtual reality experience are acting as a major restraining factor for the virtual reality market. experience to customers. The virtual reality headsets and projectors have been provided with fully immersive 3D visions and experiences, which are expected to act as a major driver for the growth of the virtual reality market. However, the complexities in user interface designing and integration of technologies to

The defence and aerospace industry uses virtual reality for training the army personnel by providing various environmental conditions, helping to reduce the overall cost of the training. The army personnel can experience parachute jumping, submarine conditions, aircraft simulations, 83

and combat scenarios without any loss of life or property through virtual reality. The increased use of virtual reality in defence is acting as another major factor for the growth of the market in the region.

"WE CAN CONSEQUENTLY EXPECT TO SEE AN INCREASED USE OF VR IN EVERYDAY WORKPLACE ACTIVITIES IN THE YEARS TO COME" Virtual reality therefore has a wealth of uses across various industries. Its market growth is down to a number of distinct factors, from cutting down costs to creating simulated environments that are safer for trainees. We can consequently expect to see an increased use of VR in everyday workplace activities in the years to come.

Source: www.analyticsinsight.net

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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.

D a n n y

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

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

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

Scale up Driving forward the next generation of European tech giants

ands

Designing a Supply Chain

sive IT ntinued and efficiency

The Pfizer Vaccine Sto exclusives

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We chat to two supply chain leaders behind the momentous vaccine roll-out

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

"Absolute pleasure working with the Digital Innovation team" Mun Valiji, Chief Information Security Officer at Sainsbury’s

"A highly professional approach" Andy Brierley, Vice President, Cloud Application Modernisation at IBM

ory e x c l u s i v e

"Digital innovation Magazine is a very flexible and professional team" Kim Larsen CTIO, T-Mobile Netherlands

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

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THE FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAINS:

FULL REAL-TIME VISIBILITY We talk supply chain strategy with the former VP of Global Supply Chain and Operations at Spring, Patricia Ahufinger.

atricia Ahufinger has worked in supply chain for over 20 years across multiple diverse industries.

She joined world-leading creator commerce platform Spring in 2015, and was at the company for seven years before taking on a new role earlier this year. Patricia explains, “I started Spring as the Regional European Supply Chain Manager and worked my way up to Vice President 89

(VP) of Global Supply Chain and Operations, overseeing all the supply chain that Spring had built. I have always been focused on the processes, end-to-end management and logistics, gaining a wealth of experience in this field during my time at Spring.”

Dedicated to powering commerce for the creator economy that has exploded in recent years, Spring now has more than nine million users.

Patricia says, “We have seen a rapid increase in the number of creators using the platform.

Spring allows them to monetise their efforts in creating content, so they can focus on what they do best, which is the creation process.”

Patricia describes the supply chain at Spring as ‘made to order’. It is a global network of carriers, suppliers and transportation companies that is regionalised, so the production network can be replicated in Spring’s main markets. Patricia explains, “We try to produce and fulfil all the orders as close to the customers as possible. If we see a market growing, we will try and set up our fulfilment network in that 90

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region. As of today, Spring has a very strong presence in North America, continental Europe and the UK. After Brexit, we had to reinvent our supply chain to make the experience smoother for our customers.”

Unlike traditional supply chain models, Spring is very demand-focused. This means they only manufacture when 92

an order exists, and do not rely heavily on forecasts.

Patricia continues, “It is very difficult to forecast because unpredictable events happen, as was the case with Covid.

We are therefore set up to produce only what has been purchased.”

There are two types of production model at Spring:

"Given our demanddriven supply network, we were able to be agile and flexible during Covid, shifting our production to where it could happen" In the first model, the products that we offer are created for immediacy. Off-the-shelf items are created, cut, printed and shipped in 24 to 48 hours. The product is more customised in the second model, with different patterns, silhouettes etc. Both models are about making sure the creators do not have to put up any money upfront, so there are no financial risks.”

1. Immediate fulfilment – the direct production of any order that has been placed in the platform.

2. Pre-sales – the consolidation of a number of orders during a pre-sale window. (Production only occurs when the window is closed.)

Patricia says, “The difference lies in the complexity of the product.

Speaking of unprecedented events, Patricia says Spring did not escape the impact of Covid, although the company was set up to weather the storm successfully. She says, “Given our demand-driven supply network, we were able to be agile and flexible during Covid, shifting our production to where it could happen. We experienced country lockdowns, labour shortages, stock shortages and delays in 93

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ports, but our initial set-up put us at an advantage. We are very interconnected with our partners in our network, and integrated with their systems, so in a matter of weeks, we could shift production depending on which production centre was up and running. There were delays due to the carriers having massive backlogs and longer transit times, but we managed to assign production and fulfilment

because we had a really good couple of years from a production perspective.”

Spring’s partnership with Lane Seven Apparel is a great example of a strong, long-standing relationship. Patricia explains, “It is not for us to suddenly find out that Lane Seven will have potential delays due to the backlogs at the port because we know where everything is at

"Lane Seven has been very flexible in helping us understand our demand in terms of volumes and quality of the product" orders to those partners that were capable of helping us.”

Demand exploded in the ecommerce ecosystem in 2019 and 2020. Patricia believes one of the keys to Spring’s success has been the relationships it has with its partners. She elaborates, “The way we treat our partners is extremely important. It has to be a close relationship because they need to adapt as fast as possible.

Covid actually strengthened many of these relationships

all times. This helps us massively because we can make sure products used in our platform and put in front of creators do not have major delays. Lane Seven has been very flexible in helping us meet our demand in terms of volumes and quality of the product. Creators want higher quality products and a good customer experience in terms of the reliability of the stock when promoting one of our designs.

Lane Seven work closely with us, sharing all the stock information 95

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"Full real-time visibility is a musthave for supply chains today.

You need to be interconnected, which is one of the things that Spring has always done"

we need to make informed decisions. They have been a great partner to Spring and will continue to be.”

So, what can a company do to improve its supply chain resilience and agility? Patricia answers, “The first step is to look at how you view your supply chain. You cannot have visibility with just your Tier 1 suppliers. It is crucial that you understand who you work with. It is not enough to rely on the last part of your chain either. You need to know where things come from and be able to map out the whole lifecycle of a product.”

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"Customers don’t want any more greenwashing. They are concerned about where their products come from, and you have to prove it"

Patricia summarises as follows: 1. Your approach – know where your products come from, do your due diligence, and identify risks where the supply chain could be broken if an unexpected event happens e.g. if you rely heavily on single-source suppliers, find alternatives.

2. Trust the IT systems – get integrated with a platform that allows you to connect with all your suppliers, collaborate online, and have full real-time visibility.

Patricia adds, “Full real-time visibility is a must-have for supply chains today. You need to be interconnected, which is one of the things that Spring has always done.”

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Being able to prove a product’s ESG performance level is also becoming increasingly important for supply chains. Patricia explains, “Customers don’t want any more greenwashing. They are concerned about where their products come from, and you have to prove it. At Spring, we started looking into the

materials we use, as well as asking for certificates when onboarding partners, so we know that they are doing their due diligence and making efforts to be more sustainable. When you source a new vendor, if you want a longstanding relationship, there has to be a match in terms of their vision of what the world should look like.

I think companies are making progress with their sustainability agendas, starting with visibility and taking steps to correct the things that need to be corrected.”

For large organisations with traditional supply chains and decades of history, change can be a difficult task. But people are 99

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starting to challenge the status quo, as Patricia explains, “The old model of outsourcing everything single-source to Asia or Central America, only thinking about the cost, is simply not working anymore. This is because these companies will struggle to adapt if there is disruption in the market, as well as requests to be more sustainable from customers, governments, and every single player.”

As for the future of supply chains, Patricia concludes, “It is exciting to see how companies are starting to adopt the Industry 4.0 approach, and looking into opportunities for near-shore production. Technology is allowing this change to happen. You can see more efficient, on-demand production set-ups alongside the concept of the microfactory, which is now becoming reality, as many big companies are starting to invest resources in this area. In the next five years, I believe we will see examples of brands bringing a portion of their production closer to the customer, as well as implementing microsite production sites.”

For further information on Spring, visit www.spri.ng 101

IN THE SP OTLIGHT

The vision for Bizfluence is a censorship-free ecosystem where small-to-medium-sized business owners and professionals can network with each other and build their businesses or careers. izfluence is a business-oriented social network, a community, and a platform that is focused on building real relationships and real business with real people. It is an endto-end ecosystem for entrepreneurs and professionals to come together and transact business on an intuitive platform with all the tools and

features they need in their day-to-day operations.

As a social media network that concentrates on small and medium business development, Bizfluence provides the ultimate networking tool where up-and-coming businesses can connect with their target demographics, develop professional relationships, and ultimately thrive on a platform with an equal playing field.

Many other business-related social media platforms are dominated by large corporations. Their resources and influence allow them to mould the conversation to their convenience, which makes it far more difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to shine.

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“The company has raised over $500,000 in funding and has approximately 15,000 organic users” Developed from the feedback of real users, Bizfluence is fully customisable to individual requirements. You can build your content feed with the hubs that pertain to your business by filtering your language and geographic location. There are also chats so users can connect with their audience directly. New features for this year will include the ability for users to book meetings and

calls, and buy products and services through verified profile transactions.

The company has raised over $500,000 in funding and has approximately 15,000 organic users. This success has galvanised the team to pursue investors to enable them to scale the platform and realise its true potential.

For further information, visit www.bizfluenceapp.com 103

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