Digital Innovation Magazine - November 2022

Futurmaster

Leveraging

SWISSCOM

The right partners and processes for a successful logistic strategy

DUNI GROUP

Welcome to our action-packed November edition of Digital Innovation, boasting six exclusive interviews from a host of inspiring industry leaders!

We talk cybersecurity and digital transformation with two of the fashion world’s leading tech experts, Dorian Skeete, Head of IT Security at Boohoo Group (p6), and keynote speaker and digital enthusiast, Maria von Scheel-Plessen (p82). It’s fascinating to hear how the fashion industry is navigating the online marketplace.

We catch up with Randy Drenth, Head of Logistics at Swisscom, for an update on the company’s successful logistic strategy (p24). Randy highlights three ingredients for any strategy to be a success – top management commitment, resources, and the right people.

Next up is Wilbert Baerwaldt, Head of Sourcing at Duni Group (p54). What are the current challenges for a supply chain professional? Over to Wilbert to tell us more…

Plus, we bring you an insightful interview with Julien Chidiack, Chief Cloud Officer at FuturMaster (p68). Julien is exploring the technology tools and trends that can be leveraged to support FuturMaster's customers in the future.

And don’t miss our features on the US investment of European tech start-ups (p42), and the opening of a new Samsara hub in Poland (p94), as well as this issue’s celebrated start-up of the month (p104).

We hope you enjoy!

Danielle Harris Director

d.harris@ithink.media

Anna McMahon Editor

Tom Barnes Director

t.barnes@ithink.media

Daniel May Senior Digital Designer

design@ithink.media

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We talk to Dorian Skeete, Head of IT Security at Boohoo Group

Samsara is opening European hub in Warsaw

Our Q&A with keynote speaker and digital enthusiast, Maria von Scheel-Plessen

BRINGING BRANDS INTO

We talk to Dorian Skeete, Head of IT Security at Boohoo Group, about his forthcoming plans for the company from a cybersecurity perspective.

Photos of Dorian © Nathan McDowell

IT HAS BEEN THREE MONTHS SINCE DORIAN SKEETE WAS BROUGHT IN TO HEAD UP INFORMATION SECURITY AT BOOHOO GROUP.

xcited to be taking on this new role, Dorian has been enthused by the security culture at the company. He explains, “From what I’ve seen, there are two parts to the security culture at Boohoo Group. You’ve got the culture within the IT team, and then the view of security by the board and the average employee. The culture within my team is brilliant. Most of the people have not yet reached a year of service,

so it is a fledging team and they are hungry to improve. Outside of my team, the culture at Boohoo is very good. We have low phishing rates when we send out our phishing campaigns, and we have people regularly interacting with the team, asking questions about how quickly we can get involved in their projects etc.”

Dorian has the full backing of the board to work on improvements over the

next three years by way of his cybersecurity strategy. Dorian says, “The strategy is split into two halves – what we are going to focus on in the next year to 18 months, and then the plan for the next three years or so. In the immediate future, the biggest piece will be consolidation of tooling and capabilities across the group. We have 13 brands in the group, and two of them sit on different tech stacks to the other 11. I want to consolidate the security tools that we use across Boohoo Group, integrating all the brands, to make it much easier

“I WANT TO CONSOLIDATE THE SECURITY TOOLS THAT WE USE ACROSS BOOHOO GROUP, INTEGRATING ALL THE BRANDS, TO MAKE IT MUCH EASIER TO MANAGE”

Dorian Skeete

to manage, whilst also enabling us to leverage savings at scale.”

So, how do you start the process of streamlining security processes across the group? Dorian answers, “Because 11 of the brands are on the same tech stack, it makes it a lot easier. From an IT perspective, we certainly don’t see ourselves as 13 disparate companies, as we all sit on the same OT and IT architecture. We have four distribution centres across the UK dealing with all the brands, so we are already very integrated, which makes my life much easier!”

Dorian and his team are currently working on ensuring collaboration between development and operations teams in order to integrate security in the software delivery cycle. Dorian continues,

“We recently hired a DecSecOps engineer, who will be taking the lead on this workstream, bridging the gap between DevOps and security. They are two separate departments that already have a good working relationship, and the DevOps team is very securityminded. I am hoping that the new DevSecOps role will help

to stitch it all together. One of his first tasks will be to look at our secure lifecycle development policy and see where improvements can be made.”

Dorian believes the key to building a strong team is diversity, which is something he is extremely passionate about. He explains, “Our teams are diverse in terms of age, background, ethnicity etc. It is a really good

“SECUREWORKS PROVIDE OUR XDR PLATFORM AND SOC MANNING SERVICE. THEY ESSENTIALLY PROTECT OUR END POINTS. THEY HAVE BEEN KEY TO THE WAY THE TEAM OPERATES, CERTAINLY ON THE MANAGED SOC SIDE, WHERE WE RELY ON THEM HEAVILY”

mix of people. I have pushed diversity in other organisations I have worked in because I do believe it brings something extra to the business, whether it’s different ideas or different ways of doing things. It helps to keep it fresh!”

Horizon scanning is a discipline where you constantly look towards the future and gather as much information as possible about future trends, so you can stay ahead of the game. Dorian says it is extremely difficult to do in the field of cybersecurity because there has always been the view that malicious attackers are one step ahead. He adds, “Everything we do in defence is reactionary, so horizon

“EVERYTHING WE DO IN DEFENCE IS REACTIONARY, SO HORIZON SCANNING IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT BRIDGES THE GAP TO MAKE US BE MORE PROACTIVE”

scanning is important because it bridges the gap to make us be more proactive.”

In terms of future threats and challenges, Dorian believes we can expect to see different techniques around phishing. He elaborates, “The majority of phishing is the type we know, but they are starting to

get more complex and cleverer in their delivery. It is not just about a malicious URL or email anymore, but more of a slow-burn i.e. trying to start conversations with people and sending emails that move into the social engineering side of things. This makes them a lot more difficult to detect using traditional secure email gateway capabilities.”

With quantum computing on the horizon, Dorian says it has the potential to do both good and bad things. He is keen to meet with his peers in the fashion industry to discuss the issues of the day and exchange ideas, as Dorian believes companies are stronger when they work together. He continues, “I think it

is important where possible to share information and threat pictures. What are your pain points and what have you been struggling with from a threat point of view? There might be some common ground we can find where we can help each other. It is a fledgling idea to host an industry meet-up at the moment, but something I would like to do in the future.”

Boohoo Group is able to leverage its ecosystem of trusted partners, especially on the tech side, as Dorian explains, “We have good relationships with many of our partners. We have a partners’ day every year, where we invite our major suppliers to sit down with us to discuss how they are supporting our business and how they might be able to

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“IN THE LEAD UP TO OUR PEAK PERIOD, CLOUDFLARE IS VITAL IN ENSURING THE AVAILABILITY OF OUR WEBSITES AND MOBILE APPS”

better support us in the future. Collaboration is something that Boohoo is very good at.”

Three partners with which Boohoo Group collaborates are Secureworks, Mimecast and Cloudflare. Dorian says, “Secureworks provide our XDR platform and SOC manning service. They essentially protect our end points. We also have a security operations centre that sits over all

threats for just one brand, but it has been such a successful technology for us that we decided to increase coverage of it to all of our brands across group. In the lead up to our peak period, it is vital in ensuring the availability of our websites and mobile apps.”

Dorian’s future plans are heavily stitched into his cybersecurity strategy, but he says he will be focusing on business continuity

of that. If they see any critical alerts, they act as our first line of defence to take care of those and escalate where necessary. They have been key to the way the team operates, certainly on the managed SOC side, where we rely on them heavily.

“Mimecast provide our secure email gateway and email protection services. They have been involved with Boohoo for a number of years, protecting us from phishing threats and business email compromises.

“Cloudflare used to be our protection against internet-borne

over the next few months, leading up to the company’s peak periods of Black Friday and Christmas. He concludes, “Over the next year or so, the consolidation piece will be key. It is going to shake up some of our suppliers, spurring them on to make improvements. I am really excited to work with our partners to bring all our brands into one ecosystem, which is superimportant for what we want to do moving forwards.”

For further information on Boohoo Group, visit www.boohooplc.com

“MIMECAST PROVIDE OUR SECURE EMAIL GATEWAY AND EMAIL PROTECTION SERVICES. THEY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH BOOHOO FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, PROTECTING US FROM PHISHING THREATS AND BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISES”

The Right Partners & The Right Processes

We catch up with Randy Drenth, Head of Logistics at Swisscom, to give an update on his company’s successful logistic strategy.

wisscom’s logistic strategy was developed during the pandemic in response to the various challenges that the situation presented. In an attempt to make the best out of the crisis in terms of learning opportunities, Swisscom used both its existing knowledge and new learnings to build the logistic strategy. Randy Drenth, Head of Logistics at Swisscom, elaborates, “The ICT, telecoms and supply chain market has been undergoing a huge transformation for many years. As a result of the global situation in the last two years, supply chain management became a top board issue. On the one side, you need resilience and stability, but on the other side, you need to explore challenges to rethink new ways of doing things and check if you are on the right path.”

Randy highlights three ingredients for any strategy execution to be a success; top management commitment, resources, and the right people. He continues, “These were my conditions to the management. They told me to see if what we were doing in Switzerland was in accordance with what industry benchmarks were doing, not only within the country but

also on an international level in terms of the challenges they were facing, the possibilities, and new learning opportunities, as well as the impact of these on cost, quality and performance. This showed huge trust in me, which I wanted to carry down through the team, the organisation, and our partners.”

Randy stresses the importance of forming key partnerships. Swisscom’s partners are treated as a part of its critical infrastructure. However, it can also be a challenge because resources are scarce. Randy adds, “You have to stick together because SCM has become not an easy road, but if you are on

the same journey together, you will be able to pull through. This requires mutual understanding and trust.”

In preparing tenders, Swisscom was able to learn so much about itself. Randy continues, “What are the specifications? Do we really have what we need? Is that sufficient from

an international perspective? Are there requirements that other partners could fulfil? We came from the standpoint where we, as a premium ICT provider, originally made a lot of things ourselves. We had the image of Switzerland being the best and that no other country could compete. But, during the tenders, we gained respect outside of our knowhow borders. For example, where there was a chance that something could be done better by other sources which were out of our reach in the past. As the global dependency is so huge, we had to challenge our internal practices in answer to what was happening in the world, drawing upon other resources we had not used before, such as system knowhow, scale effects, and processes from companies with experience in a high number of production units. As Switzerland is small, we need to explore all of these things to help us to be sufficiently equipped for the future.

“Swisscom’s partners are treated as a part of its critical infrastructure”

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After the tenders, the next step was for Swisscom to carry out technical proof of concepts, as well as visits, to reduce the possible number of alternatives to the ways of working. Randy says, “Doing visits during the pandemic was difficult, given the number of rules, security procedures and health considerations, but the trip contained a huge learning potential. Seeing what global best practices do, how they do it, and the challenges they face was really important for our own learning story. Mature processes, scale effects, big numbers, processes and systems enable competence and increased efficiency. We visited many sites, and it was refreshing to talk to people with so much valuable experience.”

Randy says that one of the biggest learnings was that the things they had expected to happen did not come not true, whilst other things they did not expect came true. He explains, “It was a total eyeopener for us. We exchanged learnings in a small multidisciplinary team. These impressions gave us the courage to do new things, develop new things, and test and implement them to change the supply chain or a particular partnership. This worked positively as far as our landscape of partners was concerned because they saw our decisions and the progress

we made. Some reactions were positive, with the partners wanting to come with us on our journey, whilst others preferred to stick to their own paradigms.”

In the last 12 to 15 months, logistics has been faced with increased costs and decreased availability. So, what is the answer? Randy responds, “You have to compare alternatives. Sometimes it is just a source, sometimes it is an entire chain competing. Some are resilient whilst others have difficulties, and you have to understand the reasons why. Even if they are not your partner or part of your own supply chain, knowing the reasons why will help you to be prepared for the future. The source of resilience lies often in being capable to adapt or develop.”

In terms of changing customer demand and behaviour, Randy

“During the pandemic, Swisscom built up new partnerships with international best practices in repair logistics”

says, “During the pandemic, customers stayed at home. After April, they started travelling again like they did before the pandemic, so distribution for residential, enterprise and B2B customers changed. Secondly, the number of smartphone repairs decreased, and the trend continued even after April because customers started to pay more attention

to protecting their devices, being so dependent on ICT and being faced with increasing device prices. With the device prices going up, the spare part prices also did. The market for refurbished devices is growing. Customers’ lives changed in many ways whilst the quality of the hardware devices also increased. The need for an instant repair is still there, but the

overall numbers have decreased hugely.”

In addition, the behaviour of Swisscom employees, as well as interactions with its partners have also changed as a result of the pandemic. Meetings have become shorter, with more frequent calls in between. Randy adds, “Not seeing each other physically does not mean we

cannot make contact on a regular basis. I take more calls each day now, and using these new opportunities opens up possibilities to be more agile and quicker to market.”

Employees are no longer expected to travel huge distances for a single meeting. Instead, they now use the time more intensively to achieve results, perhaps combining several meetings or site visits. Randy says,

“For many people, this is a huge change. It saves a lot of time and kilometres. We do not impose rules, but search for flexibility to work together on quality time and issues. If you do it correctly, it reduces a lot of stress. We had to change during Covid, and we had to talk about it openly. For instance, what is agile to us? How do we implement it? How are scrum meetings organised? It is also about reducing or cancelling meetings if you don’t need them.”

strategy, for example. We reuse, resell and recycle materials, as well as reducing returns because the forwarding is improved with greater transparency. We made this an agenda point with all our partners. If there is a pressure to be more efficient when it comes to returns, you automatically reduce waste.”

Swisscom established a new hub on the recycling side. Randy says, “We enabled the chain to get to

Cutting down on travel also ticks a box when it comes to sustainability, which is a huge part of Swisscom’s core strategy for the future. Randy explains, “We believe sustainability is an asset, so it is not just an add-on. If you list sustainability as a core part of your strategy, it means reducing waste, reducing kilometres, and looking for more sustainable ways for transportation. Sustainability then becomes a core issue, and you will add value if you do it correctly. We put circular economy at the core of our work in terms of our recycling

know our processes by making them transparent, which meant we could bring old materials out of the network to them, so they could process them in a proper way. The materials they process can be sold as raw materials on the market again. It is a total recycling chain. It has been quite a transformation and is still not entirely done, but it has been a huge success so far. The cost of selling raw materials on the market is many times higher than the cost of the processing. Having the right partner and the right

“The cost of selling raw materials on the market is many times higher than the cost of the processing. Having the right partner and the right process in place has enabled us to extend revenues over costs”

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process in place has enabled us to extend revenues over costs.”

Dedicated logistics partners handle all of Swisscom’s network infrastructure. Randy continues, “For almost 20 years, we outsourced our most important network operations for cabling and infrastructure logistics to partners. We have been working with them for many years. They do the coordination in the chain and have a lot of knowhow when it comes to buying materials also for neighbour industries, so we have given them more responsibility over the years, which has helped us in terms of availability in times of major disruption.”

During the pandemic, Swisscom built up new partnerships with international best practices in repair logistics. This grants access to unprecedented process and engineering knowhow, which adds weight to Swisscom’s sustainability agenda. Randy adds, “As they dispose of global resources, multiple OEM and operator contacts, as well as experience from engineers with

a good understanding of the different technologies, we have been able to challenge ourselves and bring us further in terms of technical process competencies to refresh and refurbish materials. As a market-leading operator with global suppliers and customers, we depend much on what is best practice on a global scale. As quality is so important in our network, we need partners that have local glasses, but can also bring knowhow from their global experience to help us to improve.”

With mass-market logistics providers, Swisscom has longyear partnerships, enabling the company to stably fulfil customer demand during lockdown and supply crisis times in the past two years. Customers did not experience any changes during the pandemic compared to the time before. Randy explains, “Together with our partners, we work closely on digitalisation and standardisation of logistics processes. Shop delivery of Swisscom is highly efficient and sustainable, as it includes return and waste management in an

“Dedicated logistics partners handle all of Swisscom’s network infrastructure”

overnight loop procedure that mainly uses railroad transportation and only trucks for the last mile. The shipping containers reduce logistics efforts in the shops to enable focus on the customer, and are equipped with newest technology for testing new methods for track and trace. Through our collaboration with logistics providers, we can more easily adapt to market changes and offer new services to customers together.”

easier or even source such highly competitive processes.”

The number of shipments to customers in the last five years has decreased, given the fact that services have become less dependent on hardware, and cloudification and virtualisation mean less decentralised hardware is needed. Randy adds, “Because the customer is using more digital services, logistic efforts are

“Together with our partners, we work closely on digitalisation and standardisation of logistics processes”

So, what’s next for Swisscom in terms of increasing digitalisation and reaping the fruits of its labour? Randy answers, “Digitalisation goes on. We need to standardise in order to be compatible on a process level. We have a lot of own processes, and standardising those will increase quality and efficiency. In the IT world right now, there is a movement from hardware towards software as well as service. This means the customer is less dependent on hardware, as many innovations are on a software level. If you have the right partners with a global knowhow, they will enable you to standardise

reduced, and it also becomes a sustainability case too.”

As for the future, Randy believes that next to resilience, data security and data privacy are becoming key to all logistics providers and partners. Customers increasingly use devices for financial and other personal needs. He explains, “There is no alternative that working with customer data has to be organised in a safe and dedicated way. Logistics is not just about the hardware, but also includes software, apps and customer data. For example, when

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there is data on a broken device, you need safe logistics processes in place, especially when there is a crossing of a container, border or a different organisation, which is daily business in supply chains. It needs to be secure like banking processes, and track and trace is key, especially in return, but also in staging, wiping and recycling processes.”

As the most sustainable telecom organisation in the world, Swisscom needs to deliver the best logistics to fulfil its core strategy. Randy concludes, “A focus on being the best is part of the core work that my team and I do every week. It is exciting work, and I am very proud to be part of such a forward-thinking organisation.”

For further information on Swisscom, visit www.swisscom.ch

“For almost 20 years, we outsourced our most important network operations for cabling and infrastructure logistics to partners”

The system for translating world-class European science to market is gaining strength, with US investors eyeing up European technology start-ups. But, more work is needed to get EU investors on board.

ccording to Mark Ferguson, Chair of the Board of the European Innovation Council, “American investors in European companies made more money from them than they did from investments in American companies. Nothing succeeds like jealousy, so when people who have invested in European companies

have come good, then that will encourage more people.”

Ferguson was speaking in a session on EU progress in connecting research, technology and innovation across the chain, from science funded by the European Research Council (ERC), through to translational projects

“The agenda, launched earlier this year, aims to make Europe a global innovation leader by supporting deep tech innovation and start-ups”

backed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and commercialisation and scaleup in start-ups supported by the European Innovation Council (EIC).

The aim is to get the three programmes working in synergy, to enhance opportunities for innovators in the deep tech sector on the continuum from the lab to the market, in line with the EU Innovation Agenda.

The agenda, launched earlier this year, aims to make Europe a global innovation leader by supporting deep tech innovation and start-ups, which frequently find there is a lack of European venture capital for scale-up.

But now, with important US investors turning to Europe and making high profits from their investments, attitudes to the deep tech sector are changing. This should encourage risk-averse EU venture capital firms to follow US counterparts.

With Europe on the right path, it is now up to the EU-funded programmes to build on this

and establish synergies with other European and national funds. As one example of the strengthening of the innovation ecosystem, Ferguson cited Heart Aerospace, an EIC-backed company developing electric planes, which sold 30 aircraft to Air Canada a few weeks ago. He said, “It is really interesting the first order didn't come from Europe but from Canada.”

The three funding programmes are delivering good results in their own right, but as they hand off from one to another in the innovation chain, further value is added to the outputs of each programme.

As Maria Leptin, President of the ERC, noted, 60 per cent of the EIC’s transition grants to validate and

demonstrate technologies have been awarded to researchers who held ERC grants to carry out their basic research and who then went on to win ERC proof of concept grants that are awarded to assess the innovation potential of ideas arising from ERC funded projects. She said, “I think that is pretty convincing (evidence) that

there is a complementarity and that this complementarity works well.”

In addition, 25 companies funded under the EIC transition call were previous ERC proof of concept holders, according to Ferguson. Out of 164 companies that have received funding from the EIC Accelerator, 45 received prior support from the EIT, as part

“EIC and EIT are also set to launch an innovation internship scheme in the third quarter of 2023, to create opportunities for over 600 researchers, EIT students and graduates”

of one of the institute’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities.

The three programmes are setting up joint schemes to further promote these connections. For instance, EIC and ERC organise workshops on new technologies that bring together leading researchers from the ERC and companies backed EIC, with investors.

EIC and EIT are also set to launch an innovation internship scheme in the third quarter of 2023, to create opportunities for over 600 researchers, EIT students and graduates.

Nektarios Tavernarakis, EIT Governing Board Chair said that this initiative “not only addresses the scarcity of highly qualified talents on the European innovation job market, but also enables researchers and innovators to get a real entrepreneurial feeling, that will be useful for their future career orientation.”

Source: www.sciencebusiness.net

“this initiative enables researchers and innovators to get a real entrepreneurial feeling, that will be useful for their future career orientation”

Nektarios Tavernarakis, EIT Governing Board Chair

to Overcome Today’s Challenges

Wilbert Baerwaldt, Head of Sourcing at Duni Group, discusses business solutions to the current supply chain challenges.

Group is one of the leading creators of sustainable and innovative concepts for the set table and takeaway.

t offers a range of high-quality and environmentally-sound products, such as napkins, table covers, and candles, along with packaging and packaging systems for takeaway.

Wilbert Baerwaldt, Head of Sourcing at Duni, explains, “We want to sell articles to the market that can be used during dinner occasions, as well as

events where people gather such as weddings and other celebrations. The articles that we bring to the table are fashionable, colourful and practical in design.”

Until recently, the concept of single-use products was viewed as convenient, but this is now being

challenged by the drive to close the loop and be more sustainable. Wilbert continues, “We are working hard to keep up with changing customer demands. In France, for instance, new legislation banned single-use plastics from the market. Many countries develop similar laws to reduce waste. For us, it meant that customers were not able to buy parts of our assortment and that we had change our offer. We are putting a lot of effort into making our products more circular through cooperation with other organisations. This process is driving the organisation forward in new, exciting territory.”

The journey of becoming more sustainable does not come without its own set of challenges, as Wilbert explains, “It is an interesting time, but reducing our Scope-3 emissions is a top priority. It is critical for the environment, as well as our customers because they are increasingly asking for more sustainable solutions. From a procurement perspective, we have to run the business in the current environment, which is already extremely volatile due to the war in

Ukraine, summer weather patterns, and lack of raw materials. A lot of factors are making it more difficult to source the materials that we need on time and in full. At the same time, we are on this journey to become more sustainable, so we need to expand our network and make sure we always have access to the newest technologies from our suppliers to reach our goals. This is valid for energy and materials.”

The Covid-19 pandemic was a huge disruption to supply chains everywhere, and according to

“Our operation’s organisation is set up in a flexible way so that we can meet demands of our customers”

Wilbert Baerwaldt, Head of Sourcing at Duni Group

Wilbert, companies are not quite out of the woods yet. He says, “When the first wave hit Europe, many countries went into lockdown, and up to 90 per cent of our employees were on short working time contracts. It had a massive impact on our organisation. We are now in the opposite situation where a lot of people in Europe are again going out for dinner, while many are also still sick, so we are facing challenges with producing all the products that are needed in the market. At the same time, there is a lack of materials in some areas

because of disruptions in the supply market, like the sanctions imposed upon Russia. To mitigate some of these effects, we are working continuously to make sure we develop our employees so that they have broad competences and can support where it is most needed. Our operation’s organisation is set up in a flexible way so that we can meet demands of our customers. Although this is still an uphill battle, we are making good progress and are getting stronger by the day!”

The organisation is divided into two separate business units:

1. The business unit selling mainly napkins and table covers to hotels, restaurants and retail chains, and

2. The business unit selling food packaging solutions to a variety of customers like takeaway restaurants.

Wilbert adds, “At the time during Covid when restaurants were not allowed to receive guests, they

were getting more requests from people to prepare food to take home. The takeaway business unit therefore flourished during Covid, which has helped us to get through the last two years.”

In helping companies to prepare for what the future might have in store, Wilbert believes that digitalisation can play a key role. He elaborates, “Digitalisation is very important because it allows you to connect to your suppliers and automate transactional process steps. It requires

you to be disciplined when it comes to maintaining structured information about your suppliers in the system. However, suppliers do need time to familiarise themselves with these systems and some training is involved. Digitalisation is critical for our network, but it takes time, and technology is also developing fast so that it is sometimes hard to keep up. It is another dynamic that we must consider in our sourcing and purchasing activities throughout the year. The purchase-2 pay software providers also put a lot of time into the development of predictive methods. Are we late ordering due to lead time patterns from this or that supplier? Or the system advises us that we need to avoid a certain route due to weather conditions, for example. It could even propose certain new suppliers that might be relevant. It is an interesting and important area to follow.”

However, Wilbert also holds the view that it will be unlikely that a customer-supplier relationship will be operating on a fully digital process. Purchase-to-pay technologies will continue to face challenges to create a fully secure network. Within an increasingly volatile environment, we will fall back on relationships, as we have seen during the last six months.

Wilbert explains, “In order to secure deliveries and the availability of materials, it will be important that

“As buyers, we are the in using the technology, technology people. right people involved

the responsible category leader maintains a wide network of suppliers and has good relationships with all of them. Automation will get us far, but not all the way. There are simply too many service providers offering this connectivity in the value chain, both from the supplier side, but also from the buyer’s side. This complexity limits our possibilities to create a fully transparent and a 100 per cent connected network. So, relationship management is another key to success.”

So, how does a Head of Procurement decide which technologies to leverage? Wilbert answers, “It starts with finding out which technologies are appropriate for the question you are solving. You need to pay close attention to what is being developed and talk to potential suppliers to understand what their offer looks like. What are the key parameters to use when selecting a supplier? One consideration is obviously cost, but you also need to look at whether the technology is built on a combination of technologies or built from scratch, how advanced the technology is and whether there is the possibility to use the data, as well as how often it is being used by the market leaders. It is a very complex process. As buyers, we are the key stakeholder in using the technology, but we are not technology people. You need to get the right people involved to support you.”

the key stakeholder technology, but we are not You need to get the involved to support you”

With innovative green chemistry, we mimic nature’s own solutions and create sustainable materials and products of the future with cuttingedge technical performance and functionality.

An example of our green innovations is the entirely fossil-free and biodegradable binder that is used to replace plastic binders in nonwovens. Our binders are made from biopolymers derived from side streams in the food industry. By using Nobel prize winning organocatalysis we thereafter “click”-on the biopolymers to the cellulosic materials to improve their mechanical properties.

A great example where our biobased binders are used is fossil-free and home compostable premium napkins. With our technologies we have developed many more 100% biobased and biodegradable materials for different applications. We say the material has been Made Green Inside—for a sustainable future.

Read more about how we replace plastic in a number of disposable products at www.organoclick.com

The same is valid to reach the Duni Group sustainability targets. As these targets result in challenging activities, decisions have been taken to cooperate more with partners in the market, along with its own expertise. The Duni Group is cooperating with companies to ‘close the loop’ or to develop new materials. One of these organisations is raw materials supplier Organo Click. Wilbert says, “Organo Click is helping us to make some of our articles more sustainable. They are using new technologies and raw materials to make the materials that they sell into the market. They are quite advanced in developing these raw materials.”

“Organo Click is helping us to make some of our articles more sustainable. They are using new technologies and raw materials to make the materials that they sell into the market”

Wilbert adds, “We have a fantastic opportunity to keep suppliers closer to the organisation by supporting each other in how materials can be developed. I believe that the current challenges can only be overcome through cooperation. It will require a mindset shift when people start to realise that, as an organisation, we cannot be perfect at everything. We need to work together to take us further, so that we can then support others. It is extremely motivating, and very different to how we operated in the past. Cooperation is central, and companies have to be bold.”

There is currently very little alignment at European level on how companies can become more sustainable going forward, so they need to make appropriate decisions that will steer them in a certain direction. Wilbert says, “We are often in discussions about the next steps we need to take. Sustainability means different things to different people, and this lack of alignment can be a real problem for companies.”

“Different people bring different skillsets to the organisation, and having a good mix is key”

Outside of the boardroom, Wilbert enjoys mentoring, educating and supporting the development of individuals. He is also involved in activities with the University of Lund, where they investigate how sourcing organisations should prepare themselves for further future increased dynamic environments. Wilbert elaborates, “For me, mentoring is really important. It is all about communication and sharing your experiences so that others can learn from them. I am connected to a school where I am supporting with workshops on purchasing, sourcing, supply chain, logistics etc. It is essential to inform the next generation about the challenges we are facing to prepare them in the right way for their tasks.”

Wilbert believes that there should be more people from the business world entering into education. He concludes, “Good education strikes a balance between reallife examples and theory. I enjoy supporting colleagues in our organisation, as well as younger people coming into the industry. I have to be humble because we are often hiring people with competencies that I lack. Different people bring different skillsets to the organisation, and having a good mix is key.”

For further information on Duni Group, visit www.dunigroup.com

Leveraging Data, Technology & Business Expertise to Thrive in this New Era

Julien Chidiack, Chief Cloud Officer at FuturMaster, shares how his company is helping to support its customers to thrive in today’s challenging world.

uturMaster has been in existence for almost 30 years, providing supply chain planning and trade promotions management and optimisation (TPx) solutions, which are especially important in this day and age, as Chief Cloud Officer, Julien Chidiack, explains, “We are in tough times, with an accelerated transition to a new way of living, highlighted by global crisis such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, high inflation, and the shortage of energy. The market status quo has been completely disrupted. This disruption is challenging all businesses and functions, but particularly supply chain. Businesses must reinvent their way of operating to make better plans due to the high volatility and uncertainty in the market.”

At the core of FuturMaster’s market vision, there’s the strong belief that if you want to remain competitive

over the next three to five years, you need to be closer to your end consumers and leverage all the possibilities within your extended supply network, from your end consumers to your suppliers and their suppliers. Julien continues, “The challenge is that when you look to fully unleash the agility and resilience that exist in your extended supply network, you end up

facing complexity. At FuturMaster, we believe that this requires companies to be equipped with the right tools and technologies to manage the complexity, such as smart algorithms for global optimisation.”

Julian adds, “Another challenge for companies is to face hyper volatility. As the demand closer to consumers is less volatile, CSCOs can leverage

them. We also have more and more variables which impact sales. Using them leads to lower volatility but requires technology that is capable to forecast at scale; processing massive volumes of data, supporting auto cleansing, considering external variables which impact sales by automatically determining best-fit effects etc. All these transformations require the ability

to build flexible data pipelines and a decision-centric system.”

The ability to be agile in this new paradigm is a matter of survival for many companies. Julian highlights, “There have been many papers on this subject including one from The World Economic Forum (‘Readiness for the Future of Production Report’), which states that companies that are ready to adapt but are not doing it yet might face tomorrow alongside new contenders, which will challenge them. The new companies coming into this market naturally leverage technology to be more efficient, so this ability to be agile is very important.”

FuturMaster provides its customers with technology, a data-driven approach and business expertise to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. Julien says, “This differentiated approach enables us to build bestfit solutions that maximise the value creation for our customers and help them gain an edge over their competitors. Technology is an effective way to leverage the agility to be more effective. Our

platform is highly configurable, allowing us to build solutions for our customers that best fit their company’s strategy, their context, and their evolving needs over time. You cannot go to the market and take an out-of-the-box project that will solve your problems. By combining technology, a datadriven approach and business

“By combining technology, a data-driven approach and business expertise, we build best-fit solutions on top of our platform to help our customers maximise all the benefits”

Julien Chidiack, Chief Cloud Officer

CLOUD FOR BUSINESSES HYPERSCALERS AND CLOUD EXPERTISE

Public Cloud started over fifteen years ago and has brought added value for all industries. These days, best practices are numerous and guarantee that cloud solutions provide more agility, innovation and cost efficiency.

Before utilising Cloud services, companies must assess the client maturity on Cloud systems questioning:

• What would be the impact on the Business?

• How will people be supported during the transformation?

• Which governance should be put in place?

• What is the right platform/ architecture for the required solution?

• How to guarantee end-to-end security in different scenarios?

Companies need to engage in technical discussions and transformational ones, where experts that already delivered multiple projects advise on the right methodology and support. This ensures time-saving, avoids making the wrong decisions and the use of the correct framework.

STRONG PARTNERSHIPS TO SUPPORT YOUR CLOUD JOURNEY, AS COMPLEX CHALLENGES SHOULD NOT BE FACED ALONE

Storm Reply has been an exclusive partner of AWS and, since 2014, the company is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner. With over 500 projects delivered on AWS platforms, and a footprint in Italy, Germany, UK and France, Storm Reply has partnered with all industries to face the market challenges, by building multiple solutions and assisting each organisation with their AWS transformation.

FuturMaster has provided planning solutions for supply chain for almost 30 years; an industry that has been particularly disrupted in the recent years. FuturMaster believes that to leverage all the possibilities of the extended supply network, the organisation needs to be equipped with the right tools, technologies and the right partners. These are essential to manage the complex process of building an extended supply network.

As such, businesses are finding that they must reinvent their way of operating to make better plans, due

to the high volatility of the market. The partnership of Storm Reply and FuturMaster empowers customers to leverage the power of data through technology, so that they are able to maximise the potential within their supply network and build agility and resilience for the future.

SAAS SOLUTIONS ADVANTAGES OF USING SAAS SOLUTIONS, LEVERAGING HYPERSCALERS AND CLOUD EXPERTISE

Beyond the business value that a SaaS platform provide, to be successful these services need to ensure the highest level of security combined with the right level of performance. SaaS enables the reduction of the project timeline which benefits the company with lower costs and increases the scalability of the project (less integration needs). It also promotes innovation within the organisation with immediate releases available for all staff - outcomes that are only possible with hyperscalers (automated APIs and ready-to-use services).

With a hyperscaler, you can automatically scale up and down with servers, containers, etc in a few

minutes and automatically deploy the ready-to-use application. This reduces the installation and configuration time and can also reduce the software deployment issues.

The combination of SaaS and hyperscalers, allow for software upgrades to become available for all customers simultaneously with lower costs and resources than the ones required in the traditional model (upgrade package purchase to install it or pay for specialised services to install it).

SaaS offerings come with baked-in best practices and samples - bringing the new on-demand pricing model from Hyperscalers – which, enables proof-of-concepts or testing of the software functionality in advance for free.

Beyond the technical features that Hyperscaler brings, AWS is enabling software companies to reach new streams:

New clients can be reached, thanks to AWS global footprint

New size of business, thanks to AWS scale up and down

New resale model, thanks to AWS marketplace

expertise, we build best-fit solutions to help our customers maximise all the benefits.”

So, what are the advantages of using a SaaS solution that leverages hyperscalers and cloud expertise? Julien answers, “We work with global companies supplying new

technologies that we can utilise to improve our planning solutions. Since 2020, we have shifted towards providing our Bloom platform and leveraging the public cloud. On top of our technology and supply expertise, we now offer cloud expertise, so our customers can leverage the best of hyperscalers to

deploy their FuturMaster solution virtually everywhere. We are also developing technologies around the possibilities that the cloud unlocks to accelerate the time it takes to perform forecasts at scale and global end-to-end optimisation.”

A huge consideration for companies

today is sustainability. Julien adds, “Our platform is more sustainable because it leverages the cloud. By not running our own data centres, we are able to minimise our energy consumption, using on-demand and serverless technologies. We have a customer operating in South Africa, and thanks to the SaaS platform, we can deliver the infrastructure in South Africa without having to build a new data centre.”

According to Julien, the changing times call for a complete revolution of the way companies operate, as opposed to simply optimising what they have been doing for decades. He explains, “Rethinking your way of working so it becomes more sustainable in this new era is key. When you are dealing with a big project, it comes with a lot of history and context, so it would be very hard to do it all on your own. It might require new expertise that you have not built because it is not part of your core business. FuturMaster is a software editor first and foremost, so when we decided to move to a SaaS project, it involved a lot of different expertise. We

“We work with global companies supplying new technologies that we can utilise to improve our planning solutions. Since 2020, we have shifted towards providing our Bloom platform and leveraging the public cloud”

“Storm Reply is our strategic technology partner for consolidating the way we are working with SaaS. They have worked with us to define the new SaaS architecture and realise it over time”

quickly realised that doing this shift alone could result in problems with scalability etc, so we decided to leverage our strategic partners to help us in our transformation journey because they had the right expertise.”

FuturMaster views its partners as more than just suppliers. Julien says they have been selected because they really want the company to achieve its goals. Two such partners are AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Storm Reply. Julien elaborates, “AWS is a public

cloud provider and hyperscaler, which is the underlying platform we use for our Bloom SaaS platform. They provide all the global infrastructure, computer services and support to help us build an efficient platform. Storm Reply is our strategic technology partner for consolidating the way we are working with SaaS. They have worked with us to define the new SaaS architecture and realise it over time.”

Julien is excited by several projects that FuturMaster is currently

MAKING THE CLOUD WORK FOR YOU!

With over 500 projects delivered on AWS platforms, 600 AWS certified people and with a footprint in Italy, Germany, UK and France, Storm Reply has partnered with companies from all industries to faced the continuous market challenges, by building multiple solutions and assisting each organisation with their AWS transformation.

Storm Reply has been an exclusive partner of AWS and, since 2014, the company is an AWS Premier Consulting Partner.

Storm Reply works to understand each client context and expected outcomes; assesses the current scope and introduces innovative proposals, builds a solid foundation for the future, and implement solutions on AWS. Following best practice, Storm Reply commits to deliver to the highest standards, within restrictive timelines and leaning on its expertise to be jointly successful with our partners.

Businesses are finding that they must reinvent their way of operating to make better plans, due to the high volatility of the market. The partnership of Storm Reply and AWS empowers customers to leverage the power of data through technology, so that they are able to maximise the potential within their supply network and build agility and resilience for the future.

With over 12 competencies on AWS such Data & Analytics, Devops, Migration, IoT, Saas, Security, Financial services,

Energy, Retail and others, Storm Reply advises the clients that are just starting with AWS and those that are already engaged and need to accelerate their progress in a secured, technical and financial way.

With Cloud architects, Devops engineers, Finops experts, SRE, project leaders, and professionals specialised in change management, Storm Reply builds experienced teams that meet client expectations with clear deliverables and SLA’s. We are betting our reputation on each project.

“STORM REPLY HAS BEEN AN EXCLUSIVE PARTNER OF AWS AND, SINCE 2014, THE COMPANY IS AN AWS PREMIER CONSULTING PARTNER” www.reply.com

working on. He says, “Thanks to the SaaS solution, we will soon provide our customers with forecast at scale technology that allows them to do forecasts for massive volumes in a few minutes. We leverage serverless technologies in parallel – technology that scales based on the amount of resources that you need. You do not need to manage servers; you simply handle your code and make sure it can work on the technology, to parallelise calculations and make it faster. This ability even allows our customers to do their mass forecasts with more granularity.”

FuturMaster is also working on its data integration platform in response to customers asking for their APIs to integrate with FuturMaster. Julien adds, “In addition, we are looking at integrating with our customers’ own APIs to allow better integration between ourselves and the different systems of our customers. It is all about helping to prepare our customers for this new era.”

For further information on FuturMaster, visit www.futurmaster.com

Photo credit © Patrycia Lukas

Keynote speaker and digital enthusiast Maria von Scheel-Plessen shares her experience as a senior executive in the luxury industry.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE OF DIGITALLY TRANSFORMING THE LUXURY INDUSTRY?

The luxury industry has been historically fairly conservative and not necessarily a first-mover.

At the same time, as it’s often a retail-first organisation, there are a lot of opportunities, from supply chain to stores, to create phygital experiences, from marketing analytics to CRM.

Connecting the dots between the different departments is what drives me and where I see scale. It’s important to bring a representative from each function on board to ensure everyone understands and supports the journey.

HOW HAS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ASSISTED IN ENABLING A SEAMLESS USER JOURNEY AND OMNICHANNEL SET-UP?

The customer expects the same brand across all touchpoints, no matter if they purchase in store or online. Now more than ever, we need to offer one brand experience. Due to this, there has been a higher focus on enhancing the user journey, giving weight to different steps, and personalising the communication based on past purchases and browsing behaviour. The death of the cookies did not come in handy, so it’s time to invest in attribution modelling

and MMM, and into Media Science overall.

As e-commerce has become the flagship of the brand, the development has often been much quicker on online channels, as it’s measurable and easier to execute than renovating store concepts. Still, the shift in consumer behaviour has enabled prioritisation of omnichannel thinking in organisations.

Different mindsets towards the need to adapt, be agile, and be dynamic. I have faced a lot of discussions about legacy and why things are the way they are. This is also important and to be respected, but we need to look ahead, invent and simplify, automate, share the right insights internally to make the right

decisions even faster, and remain relevant.

Change is often seen as a threat until you know how to use it for your benefit. The connectedness between different tools and platforms, as well as speaking the same language, have been further challenges. The generational shift is another one.

WHAT KIND OF CHALLENGES HAVE YOU FACED AS A DIGITAL ENTHUSIAST?

To define the target stats; to sit around the table with all key functions and define the prioritisation roadmap in order of impact, the planning KPIs, and success factors.

To try not to take on too much at the start, but focus on one or two areas at max. Seek consultation

and external support from someone who is not as caught up in the daily activity of your company as you are, but comes with a fresh pair of eyes.

Educate and make success measurable. And expect failure at any point in time – we are all still learning when it comes to transformation.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO COMPANIES ON THEIR DIGITAL JOURNEY?

"IT IS CLEAR THAT BRANDS NEED TO ADAPT TO THE SET OF SOCIETAL VALUES, FROM DIVERSITY TO SUSTAINABILITY AND CIRCULAR ECONOMY"

HOW DO YOU CREATE A MEDIA AND MARKETING ROADMAP? HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO HAVE FULL TRANSPARENCY?

As media is usually part of the marketing organisation and expresses the face of the brand across various touchpoints and channels, from paid social to display and print or OOH, it’s important to be aligned with merchandise teams. This ensures the product advertised is available, and the right targeting is being applied based on the marketing persona identified for a specific campaign, and the communication

is based on familiarity with the brand e.g. a new versus returning client. It’s important to have full transparency on customer actions, but not always possible. The more we know, the more we can customise and make the advertisement even more relevant based on a consumer’s behaviour, using synergies across different departments.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE IMPACT OF THE METAVERSE ON LUXURY FASHION BRANDS?

The metaverse is a great tool to leverage for experimentation in the gaming scene, to tap into younger audiences with specific, limited or even digital products. As everyone can identify themselves completely new through their avatar, it’s important to be a part of the discussion and to leverage the luxury value of self-expression. It

remains to be seen whether it will be a hype or has an actual longterm value.

Exclusivity and price points need to be monitored, and ethical reasons to be evaluated, as well as whether time online increases due to metaverse advertisement and engagements.

WHAT KIND OF CONSUMER TRENDS CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE IN THE NEAR FUTURE?

Hyper personalisation, social commerce, and many more innovations. It is clear that brands need to adapt to the set of societal values, from diversity

to sustainability and circular economy. We need to be mindful consumers and brands. This is a clear client expectation that drives authenticity.

DO YOU ENJOY YOUR POSITION AS A FEMALE ROLE MODEL? HOW DO YOU PROMOTE FEMALE EMPOWERMENT AND LEADERSHIP?

I want to use my voice and reach to raise awareness on the topic of female leadership, whilst motivating others to do the same. It’s important to step up for topics you care about and to challenge the status quo; to challenge the very male-dominated tech scene, for example. Many women are still hesitant to take on leadership positions, as they have often been brought up in a very conservative environment and might not have immediate role models to guide them. This is why mentorship is very important as well.

I have several mentees myself, having founded a Lean In circle (based on the book by Sheryl Sandberg) to connect young leaders with each other, and to prepare ourselves around topics such as rhetorical skills, negotiation etc. My mission is to start giving back, and to have more women around me who feel empowered to use their voice and lead others. I would love to found a female leadership academy, but have not had the time to do so yet. I believe there is great potential to get ready for the often tough and very political business world.

Maria von Scheel-Plessen, Director EMEA at Gucci, since December 2021 (Luxury Women to Watch 2021 & Business Punk Watchlist 2022).

For further information, visit www.mariavonscheelplessen.com

"MY MISSION IS TO START GIVING BACK, AND TO HAVE MORE WOMEN AROUND ME WHO FEEL EMPOWERED TO USE THEIR VOICE AND LEAD OTHERS"

Photo credit © Patrycia Lukas

Samsara is opening a new European hub in Warsaw, Poland.

Samsara, pioneer of the connected operations cloud, has announced that it is opening a new office in Warsaw, Poland, as part of an investment plan to expand its international footprint.

amsara’s latest expansion to its European operation, which now includes operational centres in the UK, France, and the Netherlands, will enable the company to provide exceptional support to its new, and existing, customers.

Philip van der Wilt, VP & General Manager, Samsara, EMEA, said, “Our EMEA business continues to expand at a rapid rate since we first established our European presence in London in 2018. As Samsara continues to grow and develop new solutions,

we’re expanding our global technology team with an office in Poland’s capital, where some of the world’s brightest engineering talent will help us transform the future of physical operations.”

The Warsaw office is expected to grow rapidly by the end of 2022, led by an engineering team focused on fleet telematics, which has been a driving force behind the company’s

“As Samsara continues to grow and develop new solutions, we’re expanding our global technology team with an office in Poland’s capital”

Philip van der Wilt, VP & General Manager, Samsara, EMEA

impressive growth. Samsara has grown from zero to $660M of ARR (annual recurring revenue) in just seven years, one of the fastest SaaS companies to achieve this milestone. Samsara also reported a 64 per cent revenue growth year over year, and more than 15,000 global core customers at the end of its last fiscal year.

Engineers in Poland will work on

Rick Carragher, VP of Engineering at Samsara,

added, “The creation of our Poland technology centre follows Samsara’s rapid progress. We chose to open our next engineering centre in Warsaw because of its

world-class computer science programs and the fact that Poland consistently comes top for producing outstanding tech talent.

“POLAND CONSISTENTLY COMES TOP FOR PRODUCING OUTSTANDING TECH TALENT”

Rick Carragher, VP of Engineering at Samsara

“The engineering culture that is embedded throughout Samsara means the new teams will be driven by a focus on customer success, underpinned by the engineering freedom to find innovative solutions to difficult problems. Our new team will work closely with customers across the world to provide an unprecedented level of realtime visibility of connected operations.”

Samsara has already begun to interview candidates as part of a holistic approach to finding talent that builds on the foundation of computer engineering skills, supported by a strong focus on problem solving. To find out more about Samsara's mission to increase the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of the operations that power the global economy visit, www.samsara.com.

Source: www.businesswire.com

unding is the fuel companies need to survive and thrive. However, the funding market is littered with confusing products, complex applications, and long waits.

Puzzle Funding was started to help businesses make sense of the business funding landscape and secure the finance they need.

Driven by a desire to assist businesses in achieving their ambitions, Puzzle Funding’s dedicated experts will guide you through the whole process to ensure you get the best deal possible. From founders moving their business to the next level, to entrepreneurs adapting to changing markets, Puzzle Funding can help every business owner find the funding fit they need to trade,

Puzzle Funding helps businesses to find the right funding fit.

plan, and grow successfully.

Founded out of a belief that business owners should be presented with lending options that fit their specific requirements, and that they should get funding decisions fast, since it opened for business, Puzzle Funding has helped SMEs secure over £20 million in funding. The company now has big plans to scale the platform in the months ahead.

Providing personalised quotes from more than 100 lenders, so that you can select the financing that best fits your business, Puzzle Funding

lives by the values of being brave, transparent, and always learning. The application process is easy, painless, and applying to get funded is free, meaning you can apply with confidence that your request for a quote will have no impact on your credit score.

To find out more about Puzzle Funding, visit www.puzzlefunding.co.uk

“Since it opened for business, Puzzle Funding has helped SMEs secure over £20 million in funding”