Digital Innovation Magazine - May 2023

Mike Brooman, Head of Supply Chain at Community Fibre discusses providing London with fast, affordable broadband

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FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome to the May edition of Digital Innovation Magazine.

We relish the chance to bring you the latest news and tech stories from Europe each month, along with a wealth of exclusive interviews from leading industry representatives.

For our cover interview this issue, I speak to Mike Brooman from Community Fibre about the company’s strategies for supply chain innovation, sustainability and community service (p6). I sit down with Cyril Deschanel to discuss Tele2 IoT’s European expansion and passion for connectivity (p42). Daniela Lourenço tells me all about Tinka’s security innovation and plans to transform the deferred payments market (p66).

Our feature articles for May explore how digital twins can enable business transformation (p32), three ways to unlock the potential of engagement technologies (p56), CEO insights on the impact of AI on the finance sector (p86) and if fungi biomass is the food to secure our future (p96).

Last but not least, we shine a light on Viritech, the renewable energy semiconductor manufacturer from Warwickshire, UK that is our Startup of the Month (p106).

We hope you enjoy our latest edition. As always, if you would like to be considered as an interviewee or have a story for us to contemplate including in a future issue, do get in touch.

Embrace

Daniela Lourenço on building Tinka’s innovative new security and governance framework

enterprise transformation with digital twin technology

We sit down with Mike Brooman, Head of Supply Chain at Community Fibre

Community by name, community by nature

Mike Brooman, Head of Supply Chain at Community Fibre Limited shares insights into the internet service provider’s (ISP’s) strategy for supply chain innovation and sustainability, which never loses sight of serving its communities while in a context of rapid growth.

name, nature

Community Fibre is London’s largest and fastest 100% full fibre broadband provider for residents and operates exclusively across the capital. Its mission is to bring faster, more affordable broadband to Londoners, and serving its local communities is at the very heart of what it does.

ast year, Community Fibre Limited announced that it had signed a new finance facility of £985m, which will enable the company to continue to execute its rapid rollout of a full-fibre broadband network to 2.2 million London homes by the end of 2024.

Here to tell us more about its strategies for growth, innovation, sustainability

and

outreach is

Mike Brooman, Head of Supply Chain.

FULL-FIBRE SERVICE

Speed, service and reliability are at the core of the broadband Community Fibre provides.

“Unlike most other providers, we build, operate and own our dedicated 100 per cent full fibre network, all the way from the cabinet

Customer Service

The Altnets team provides an incomparable service to our clients. Their knowledge of the telecoms industry and strong relationships with our manufacturing partners means they can fully support you through the whole procurement process, save you time and money, and solve any problems arising in the supply chain.

Our team are there through every part of the procurement process. We support customers with future forecasting and strong communication throughout the procurement process in the case of any issues or shortages affecting the supply chain. We are focused on saving customers time and money on their telecoms builds, no matter how large-scale and complex.

Award-winning Altnets are the UK’s leading telecoms procurement specialists.

We offer bespoke, flexible and scalable supply chain solutions for the UK’s Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

90+ years of industry experience and close ties to manufacturers, industry bodies and ISPs means we understand the challenges Alternative Networks (Alt-Nets) face.

Our mission is simple: to improve reliability and efficiencies for our customers.

How do we do this?

By auditing your current supply chain, extensive forward planning and working with our manufacturing partners to provide you the best quality products while maximising return on investment.

Who are Altnets?

We offer internet service providers the ‘full package’: product procurement, supply chain management, planning, forecasting and scheduling.

We set up the business to be a one-stop-shop for telecoms builds, partnering with the UK’s leading manufacturers to reduce product delivery times and carbon emissions across the supply chain.

Our sales team reviews each customer’s current bill of materials, pricing and lead times to ensure they are getting the most out of their supply chain. We will always identify areas where we can speed up product delivery and save our customers money.

We provide complete support to our customers, giving advance warning of any complexities and bottle necks in the supply chain, providing confidence that they will receive the products needed in a timely manner to achieve their network build within required timeframes. Our unique freight-forwarding solutions save time as well as carbon emissions.

Our Values

What we offer

A completely tailored service for each client

Unparalleled knowledge of the global telecoms supply chain

Strong relationships with the world’s best fibre optic manufacturers, ensuring you access to the best products

Bespoke product design and development

The best return on your investment

Complete management of the procurement process from start to finish An award-winning team of expert supply chain specialists

to the property, therefore not relying on Openreach or any other provider’s cables,” explains Mike. “While a lot of companies advertise their internet as being fibre, often it's only fibre to the cabinet and then it's copper or coax from the cabinet.

“At Community Fibre, we provide a full-fibre network all the way to the home, allowing us to promise incredibly fast symmetrical speeds to sell to residential customers, with packages up to 3,000 Mbps and businesses up to 10,000 Mbps. Living in southern Lincolnshire, I'm struggling to get above 25 Mbps. I’m very jealous of what we can provide to our customers.”

INNOVATION/TECH

At Community Fibre, process and technology innovation are essential to securing these speeds and

“By working together with Altnets we were able to come up with new designs, new technologies and to develop a new product range”

reliability. But what does innovation look like at the company?

Mike answers, “We’re always trying to push the boundaries of modern technology and Wi-Fi connectivity for our customers. Considering we can provide 3,000 Mbps speeds into residential customers' homes you clearly need a highly capable product that can keep up with the rest of the connectivity issues customers may have. They're likely to have 10s of devices able

businesses. It provides the Velops which go into the customer's properties to produce the Wi-Fi signals. The way we collaborate with Linksys is game changing, because it’s able to adjust to our forecast on the fly.

“If we see an opportunity in the market where we think we're going to increase sales in a certain product range, Linksys has the flexibility to support us by delivering on shortened lead times, and

to connect around their home and they'll be expecting full Wi-Fi strength throughout their property.

“We work closely with our partners such as Linksys to stay on the front foot of that road map. We are moving forwards onto tri-band Wi-Fi 6, one of the more advanced Wi-Fi capability products. We also have roadmaps leading us towards Wi-Fi 7. We keep on top of that innovation and work with them to bring the best products to our customers.

“Linksys is critical to installation in our customers’ homes or

adjusting its manufacturing systems or processes to deliver faster at different levels of our product range.”

But speed is not the only concern for Community Fibre customers, the reliability of Wi-Fi signal, security and user capability are crucial factors too. This is where innovation in customer service provision becomes important.

Mike explains, “One of the things we really like to see is the ability for our customer services team to proactively resolve issues at customers' homes.

“Linksys is critical to installation in our customers’ homes or businesses”

Reliable & flexible mesh WiFi 6/7 solutions for ISPs

Linksys

35 YEARS of networking innovation.

“Rather than waiting for the customer to phone up to say they may have a problem with their Wi-Fi, we're able to monitor that network strength and capability across our entire network. When we see issues, we can be proactive against them and hopefully resolve any outages before the customer even notices because we've got such advanced reporting capability.”

Community Fibre is currently undergoing a full change in its Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

“We've basically overhauled our entire technical map,” summarises Mike. “Within the last couple of years, we moved from Google

to Microsoft suites. Everything is changing, upgrading and bringing with it some innovative solutions. We're also implementing AI into our customer services to be able to support them and look for patterns. By doing so, we're creating opportunities for our customers to resolve problems themselves without needing to necessarily phone us and speak to us in advance.

“It's those small innovations one step at a time that really make a difference when you add them all up.”

“We're also implementing AI into our customer services to be able to support them and look for patterns”

SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY

At Community Fibre, Mike’s role as Head of Supply Chain is to ensure the company uses the best suppliers, offers value for money and is always improving its products and services.

He breaks down their supply chain strategy into five key areas: suppliers, sustainability, quality, value and global community provision.

Suppliers

“The relationships with our suppliers are crucial to strengthening the relationship with our existing supply

chain,” says Mike. “There are suppliers that we've worked with from day one, newer suppliers that have joined us along the journey and there are still suppliers that we haven't yet met that will help us across the finish line. Strengthening those relationships builds the resilience of our supply chain, allowing us to continue to build faster than anyone else and get our targets across the line.

“Supplier relationship management is a key priority for the team, not just this year but probably for the coming years as the shape of the business changes.”

But how do they nurture these relationships with suppliers?

“We strive to be open and transparent in our communications with our suppliers,” responds Mike. “We provide regular feedback and work collaboratively to identify areas where we can support each other and be innovative.”

For Mike and his team, true collaboration means working together closely with suppliers to strive towards mutually beneficial strategic goals. This might

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involve piloting new technology, delivering new methodologies or exploring different operational models. Other times, it is about approaching suppliers with a problem they could not solve internally.

Mike elaborates, “One example is when we approached Altnets with a couple of different product ranges that we were unable to continue to source, but needed to improve and upgrade. It wasn’t necessarily in its catalogue

before we spoke to Altnets, but by working together we were able to come up with new designs, new technologies and to develop a new product range. This allowed us to deploy something that is somewhat unique to our network and the way that we're working, but we believe will be beneficial to the wider alt-net community in the long run.”

“Melbye is another recent addition to our supply chain, as a fibre specialist wholesaler based in

“We have been using Melbye to support our growth in our build area, with the supply of ducting”

Scandinavia. We have been using them to support our growth in our build area, with the supply of ducting.

“They have been very quick to react to challenges within our supply chain, and we have been working closely with them in a number of critical product ranges.

“They have only been in the UK market for 4 years so have made great progress and we are excited to continue to work with them over the next stage of our company growth.”

Here Mike also lauds Community Fibre’s relationship with HellermannTyton.

“HellermannTyton has been one of our longstanding suppliers and they're constantly bringing new families of products and

ranges to market. We recently sent our technology team to its manufacturing facility to discuss exactly what we need and where we need it. This helps to shape a road map of development, and they work with us on a lot of our new products that are coming in.

Manufacturing quality equipment is a primary concern, but distribution is also important.

“HellermannTyton is able to store products for us, ship them to us

communications market and so their expertise is invaluable. They're often as much a partner or advisor as a supplier. Our technology team work closely with them, take problems to them and they solve the problem for us.”

Sustainability

“We don't want to just be building fastest, we also want to be very green and take care of our environment – not

when we need them but also deliver them to any number of our subcontractors,” adds Mike.

“Community Fibre work with about 20 different subcontractors in and around London. HellermannTyton has the flexibility and logistical capability to deliver to who we need, when we need and it is hugely beneficial. They've also got a stellar history in the technology industry within the

only in the areas we provide broadband but also the places we are influencing within our supply chain,” says Mike.

“When we buy technology, from the equipment in customers’ homes to the plastic ducting that goes underground, these components are not built in London, they're manufactured around the world. As such our community is not just our

“

HellermannTyton is able to store products for us, ship them to us when we need them but also deliver them to any number of our subcontractors”

London-based boroughs where we work, our community is global.

“We work with our supply chain to drive a sustainability agenda and that's throughout everything operationally and our supply chain. We are trying to promote sustainable sourcing, reduce our carbon footprint, work with suppliers to reduce theirs, develop environmentally friendly technologies, push for

a reduction in our single-use plastic and transition from using virgin material to using recycled materials.”

Quality

“In order for us to provide stable, fast broadband we need quality materials,” says Mike. “One of the focuses for my team is to make sure that we aren't just going in and trying to buy the cheapest

and then caring about the quality later. We're in this for the long run. So we buy high-quality products, we make sure that we're achieving the standards that we need to achieve – often exceeding them in the process.

“We cannot provide a customer 1,000 Mbps internet without having extremely stable high-quality products being put into their home. The units that we are putting into

customers' homes are high-end and future-ready technologies. We're constantly looking to push that boundary. We’re looking at what's the next road map along the line for the Wi-Fi whether it's Wi-Fi six-e or seven and where are we going to go from there?”

Value

“Clearly, we can't continue to sell to our customers at a

very competitive price if we’re spending money where we don't need to be – so we do focus on value,” states Mike.

“We like to think that it's not just about the price, it's very much a value piece. But value has to come at competitive pricing. We regularly review tenders on product ranges, partly because of our growth. Often, whatever we said we were going to buy last year, we're buying double. We expect to be able to drive a more competitive price as we have become a bigger player in the market, but also just making sure that we're really keeping an eye on our costs.

“But there's no point in spending money on something that the customer doesn't really care about and isn't interested in. If

“We want to be the biggest fibre to the home provider in London maintain, our best-in-class customer service and continue to support the communities that we work in”

pushing that tech boundary isn't what they're after, if what they need is a competitive price broadband, we pivot. We like to keep our supply chain lean and buy in what we need. We don’t want to have a lot of waste. It's good for keeping our environmental concerns in check, but also keeping our costs down.”

Community provision

“For us, community stretches all the way from our end users all the way up to our supply chain,” says Mike. “We're a London-based ISP and we recognise the importance of our local communities. But we work closely with our supply chain to ensure they're also respecting the communities they work in,

engaging with them and ensuring we're supporting them where possible too.

“For a lot of our subcontractors that are building and installing in London, they undertake their own community focus work. So they might be going and supporting local food banks, they might be working within schools or providing equipment and we really

help to make that happen and provide those local products and services and enable our supply chain to also focus on their community.”

Outreach

Community might be one of the five elements of supply chain strategy at Community Fibre but

the concept of service extends far beyond this.

Affordability is key. The company offers a range of packages at different price points to ensure their services are affordable for all Londoners, regardless of their economic circumstances. Two of the mantras at Community Fibre are ‘Bridging the digital divide’ and ‘Fairer broadband for all.’

The concept of serving the community is not limited to their broadband packages – it extends far beyond internet provision.

“We provide free 1,000 Mbps broadband connections to community centres in any areas where we're operating. We've connected almost 500 community spaces now in London,” Mike says.

“We offer digital skills training through our digital ambassadors. We train digital ambassadors in the local communities who can then move around in their districts and support anybody – for example vulnerable users, schools or classes – with digital skills training. That might include internet security, using emails, online banking, how to be

aware of avoiding scams and so on. I think that's a vitally important part of what we're doing. We're not just there to sell broadband to people, we're also there to support communities and vulnerable people in them.”

PRINCIPAL AMBITIONS

So, what is next for Community Fibre in the coming years?

Mike elaborates, “We want to be the biggest fibre to the home provider in London, maintain our best-in-class customer service and continue to support the communities that we work in and improve the lives of the people that we work with.

“Within this, we're working on improving our supply chain technology. From investing in new tools and systems to give us visibility of our supply chain, to better demand planning and warehouse management systems – we’re hoping that we can use technology to make our supply chain more agile and our inventory leaner. We also want to optimise our logistics to keep our carbon footprint and costs down and enhance our customer experience.”

To learn more about Community Fibre, visit their website communityfibre.co.uk

Added Value

CHARITY WORK

For Mike, the volunteer days Community Fibre coordinates are a cause worth celebrating.

“Everybody within the company gets an opportunity to spend a couple of days a year volunteering for a cause that is close to them,” explains Mike. “That's been very popular with a lot of our employees recently. We cover a range of causes so people can volunteer flexibly.”

Explore the company’s Community Investment hub at communityfibre.co.uk/ community-connect

FUNDRAISING

Community Fibre has raised more than £7,000 with the Lisa Howie Trophy, a yearly 5-a-side football tournament in memory of Lisa Howie.

Colleagues, landlords and contractors come together to field teams and raise money for causes in the communities served by Community Fibre.

WORTH A LISTEN

Mike recommends the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply podcast.

“They cover a huge range of topics that are very interesting for a lot of people within the UK supply chain, not just within alt-nets. They talk to a lot of logistics companies and retail companies and FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies. It's a fascinating set of topics that they cover.”

HOW BUSINESSES CAN TURBOCHARGE ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION WITH DIGITAL TWINS

TURBOCHARGE

The digital twin market is on the rise. Possible use cases are expanding across a range of industries as enterprises harness the technology to simulate, monitor and trial assets and procedures. Gartner analysts expect the market for digital twin technology to reach €167 billion ($183bn) in revenue by 2031. But what are digital twins? And how can they help businesses transform their enterprise?

DIGITAL TWINS ARE A VIRTUAL REPLICA OF REAL-WORLD PROCESSES OR FUNCTIONS.

hey enable an insightful simulation of a process, where users run scenarios to understand the impact of different decisions and circumstances. Digital twins quantify the impact of decisions in real time, providing information on effectiveness, performance and possible future outcomes.

By testing multiple ‘what if?’ scenarios within a virtual environment, businesses can determine the best course of action and transfer the learnings obtained in the digital setting to the real world. This provides several commercial advantages, such as increased frequency and speed of scenario planning, accelerated learning, better

and faster decision-making, and, ultimately, improved organisational outcomes.

How digital twins can help business leaders

To date, digital twin technology has typically been used in the industrial, aerospace and manufacturing sectors. However, more and more companies are recognising the value of

“BUSINESS PROCESS SIMULATION (BPS) ENABLES ORGANISATIONS TO BUILD TWINS OF THEIR WHOLE ORGANISATION”

incorporating digital twins into organisations' non-physical systems.

Business Process Simulation

(BPS) enables organisations to build twins of their whole organisation. Monitoring processes and predicting future challenges enables businesses to make strategic decisions and take proactive measures. Having seen the

simulated outcomes of decisions, utilising a digital twin, a business can then execute potential changes –or not – in the real world. For example, BPS can be used to forecast staffing requirements and will show an organisation how to improve efficiency in a business most effectively.

In an increasingly unpredictable economic

environment, companies must remain flexible with their strategic plans. To navigate this, advanced forecast models must be used to understand how today’s changes will impact future outcomes.

For example, many companies are experiencing labour shortages and increased expenses due to macroeconomic factors. By creating a digital twin of the organisation, businesses can explore how to address the future challenges of staff shortages and rising operational costs optimally or even prevent them.

BPS uses ‘what if?’ scenarios to evaluate the as-is process of a business and identify where challenges, such as insufficient capacity, may arise in the future. BPS can then ensure that resources are concentrated on process improvements and transformations that solve and prevent upcoming issues. It can determine how changes throughout a business

may affect its processes and, in turn, business objectives by connecting various processes across teams and departments, while connecting them to commercial KPIs.

Importantly, users are not restricted to historical values or statistical distributions when creating scenarios. Instead, digital twins can serve as a test of future expectations and policies to help determine how prospective changes will impact each step in the process. Using BPS, decision-makers can explore any number of scenarios, decisions and their consequences.

“AN INCREASING NUMBER OF COMPANIES ACROSS MORE AND MORE INDUSTRIES ARE RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF INCORPORATING DIGITAL TWINS INTO THEIR NON-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS”

Consider forecasting capacity requirements of an order-to-cash process. It is critical to forecast new orders received by an orderto-cash process and its influence on new orders is critical. These may be the orders in a sales funnel, marketing activities or opportunities in the lead-to-order process. Modelling the structure of these and how the scenario inputs affect case volumes

allows BPS to forecast future case volumes and suggest proactive interventions.

BPS digital twins are the best representations of a process with the most current information from live data sources. Incorporating the underlying process structure allows forward-looking simulations that are actionable beyond historical information.

The future of digital twin technology

An increasing number of companies across more and more industries are recognising the value of incorporating digital twins into their non-physical systems. By using BPS and digital twins of processes, enterprises can turbocharge their process excellence. By using forward-

looking simulations, what is discovered in a virtual environment can be applied to the real world. The resulting agility enables enterprises to determine the best course of action, maximising the return on investment with transformation initiatives and empowering continuous improvements.

Source: Silico

IOT LOVE: THE TELECOMMUNICA COMPANY DRIVEN BY PASSION, ENERGY AND DEDICATION

Tele2 IoT connects more than 10 million customer assets, putting it in the top 10 Internet of Things (IoT) providers in Europe. The company’s mission is to help enterprises transform their business through connectivity. Here to tell us more about their services, strategy and success is Cyril Deschanel, the Managing Director at Tele2 IoT.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS PASSION,

TELE2 IOT PRIDES ITSELF ON BEING A COMPANY FILLED WITH FRIENDLY AND DEDICATED IOT EXPERTS, WHO ARE THERE TO HELP ENTERPRISES AND THEIR PEOPLE, REGARDLESS OF THE INDUSTRY THEY WORK IN, THE CHALLENGES THEY FACE OR WHERE THEY ARE IN THEIR IOT JOURNEY.

t is the global IoT division for Tele2, a leading telecom operator in the Nordic countries. Connectivity is at the heart of what they do, alongside enabling services that help their IoT partners manage and analyse solutions in an intelligent, secure, costeffective and efficient way.

Cyril Deschanel, Managing Director at Tele2 IoT explains, “The present and the future is to connect assets and transform them from simple assets into intelligent assets. Our mission is to help our customers to connect everything they need to connect.”

SERVICES

But what do they bring to the European market?

Cyril highlights four main services that define Tele2 IoT’s market offering.

First, they bring the full suite of IoT technologies to their customers. “We offer solutions from 2G to 5G, and we were one of the first IoT providers to launch 5G more than a year ago,” answers Cyril.

“We also provide dedicated IoT technologies called narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and long-term evolution (LTE-M) machine-to-machine

communication solutions. These two technologies, NB-IoT and LTE-M, are dedicated to IoT and can reach devices that were not reachable in the past, for example underground, or that are batterypowered, such as an asset in your school bag, car or luggage like a tracker.”

Second, Tele2 IoT customer solutions are powered by CISCO IoT Control Center, its connectivity management platform (CMP) known as 2CONTROL at Tele2 IoT.

“It is the leading platform recognised by seven out of eight analysts as the best one in the market. Having the best platform powering our connectivity solutions while other providers struggle puts us in a strong position to support and reassure our customers,” says Cyril.

Third, Tele2 IoT’s service brings global coverage to support the international deployment of IoT projects by their customers with one SIM only to simplify their customers´ IoT deployments.

countries, which translates to more or less three operators per country on average, so our platform can help customers to deploy their solutions worldwide.”

Lastly, Tele2 IoT offers advanced SIM technology solutions to their IoT partners.

“We have the full suite of SIM technologies,” elaborates Cyril. “You can have a plastic SIM, a ruggedised SIM, a SIM chip or a virtual SIM, the iSIM and the eSIM.” These SIM technologies mean customers can deploy IoT solutions in a broad range of scenarios and devices and they are not locked in with us as an operator forever as they can switch to another profile through eSIM technology. I wish all operators would do the same as us to help democratise the IoT.”

EXPANSION

By industry standards, Tele2 IoT is currently enjoying unprecedented growth.

“We have a core network that covers the world, but we don't have a radio network in all countries around the world,” says Cyril. “But we have roaming agreements with more than 450 operators in more than 180

“We are one of the fastest-growing IoT providers with 22 per cent yearon-year revenue growth. To put that in perspective, if you look at the top three IoT analysts, the average market growth is around 10-11 per cent. So we are growing twice faster than other operators in IoT,” says Cyril.

What is the expansion strategy underpinning this burgeoning growth?

Cyril explains that the company has focused itself geographically for the last decade which has helped secure its market position without overstretching itself.

“We have been focusing our growth on the northern Europe region for the last nine years: the UK and Netherlands, obviously Sweden where we have headquarters, and the Baltics,” says Cyril.

“We have also been growing a bit in USA and the rest of Europe, but

this has not been the focus because we want to be successful first in the main northern Europe region before we think about further expansion.”

Since this strategy has been successful for almost a decade, now Tele2 IoT is looking to move closer to the rest of Europe – France, Italy, Spain and Germany in particular.

“We are going to bring value and replicate our success stories in these larger countries that are very mature in terms of IoT adoption and have a need for a more digital, flexible, competitive and customeroriented connectivity provider,” summarises Cyril.

To explore these new markets, Tele2 IoT has recruited remote sales teams for these countries to gauge demand before contemplating where and how to expand.

But the goal is not merely to expand their services or reach, but also to

bring Scandinavian core values to the rest of Europe in the process.

“Scandinavia is famous for reliability, transparency and elegance. We want to share these strong skills from the Nordics,” says Cyril.

PARTNERSHIPS

At Tele2 IoT these Scandinavian values permeate their B2B relationships and service provision for customers.

“In general we do not want to be just a supplier for our customers

“We count CSL as a core partner to test or validate new services and the innovation we are working on”

– we want to be a supplier-partner,” says Cyril.

One such relationship Cyril highlights is Tele2 IoT’s work with the CSL Group.

“CSL is a UK-headquartered company that is a European leader in the security and health industries that require mission-critical connectivity solutions,” says Cyril. “So we not only provide them with our connectivity services but trial new offerings that we will bring to market. We count them as a core partner to test or validate new services and the innovation we are working on. That's the first thing we do with them.”

“But more than that we help them to address and attack new markets with their solution, powered with our connectivity services. We introduced them to our colleagues in the Baltic countries so that they can offer their IoT solutions to our local market. We help them to grow their business, which in turn helps us to grow together with them. So that's a winwin situation. That's why we call it a real partnership because many people talk about partnership, but it only goes in one direction. In this case, it goes both directions to help each other.”

INNOVATION

Tele2 IoT embraces this supplierpartner approach no matter what

industry or vertical they are working in or the size of the enterprise using their services. But to operate their horizontal strategy across diverse projects requires a comprehensive innovation roadmap to meet their customers’ requirements.

Cyril emphasises three main drivers of their innovation roadmap and strategy.

Firstly the company leans into the notion of adapting to feedback by hosting its Customer Innovation Forum, where all customers can provide insights into the challenges they face as an enterprise or request new features from Tele2 IoT.

Second, Tele2 IoT prioritises market awareness – they analyse the multifaceted elements of the IoT sector and make sure they remain at the leading edge of the industry.

Finally, they host Innovation Days within the company where colleagues take a few days to explore new ideas.

Cyril lauds the Innovation Days, “Even if just 10 or 20 per cent of the ideas bring value to our customers and to our company, we think it's the best way to take to encourage creativity from our people.”

Besides the strategic drivers for innovation at Tele2 IoT, technological and process

innovation are also vital to the company.

Expanding on their technological innovation, Cyril says, “We have implemented predictive maintenance mechanisms in our network. Imagine you have connected 2,000 drones in seven countries. You need to remotely control your drone across great distances but also keep in mind preventive or better predictive maintenance of the devices.

“So what we do is check the behaviour of the drones through our monitoring tools. We assess if there has been device misbehaviour in the last six weeks. Then we analyse the error and inform the customer in advance so that they know they have to look for a solution because something is going wrong. So we try to be the first alarm bell, even before the customer detects a problem.”

“We are the first and only IoT connectivity provider to give our customers access to our network monitoring tools”

Tele2 IoT strengthens this proactive approach to predictive maintenance with transparency by sharing its network tools with its largest customers as well.

“We are connected to 500 networks, and we are monitoring them 24/7,” explains Cyril. “But we are the first and only IoT connectivity provider to give our customers access to our network monitoring tools so they know in almost real-time what's happening in the network that our systems are connected to through our platform.”

Tele2 IoT takes these insights from the customer experience, learns from them and uses the insights to guide their internal process innovation and digitalisation approaches.

CHANGING NEEDS

Cyril shares how the company’s innovation strategies help meet the changing priorities of its customers.

“With new IoT applications emerging all the time, the needs and expectations of our partners are always changing. Fortunately, the new technology and solutions we develop help us satisfy these shifting demands and adapt our offerings.”

But what are some of the ways IoT customer priorities are changing?

Cyril highlights the growing demand for low power wide area (LPWA) networks, “We have launched LPWA technology but it's not only in our network – it’s also rolling out to operators who offer LPWA and with whom we already have roaming agreements around the world in 2G to 5G.

“We've also seen a shift in the needs of our customers related to cellular technology that can reach more devices, connectivity solutions that consume less energy when devices are battery powered and

lower overall costs of deploying IoT solutions.

“Now the next shift of technology that we anticipate from our customers in the coming years is the alignment with the technological development around AI and blockchain. We are closely monitoring the evolution of these technologies and the benefits they could bring in combination with IoT.”

PRINCIPAL AMBITIONS

Discussing the company’s principal ambitions for the coming years, Cyril describes how Tele2 IoT wants to be the most digitalised and

democratised IoT provider in the next three years.

Describing the company’s goals in the near future, Cyril says, “First it is to maintain our profitable growth journey. We have to be profitable as an organisation to reinvest to innovate and meet our customers’ needs.

“But if you look beyond 2023, our ambition is to democratise IoT. We want to make it as simple and as fast as possible for our customers to deploy their IoT solution and to progress in the maturity of their IoT journey.”

Cyril explains that Tele2 IoT will continue its democratising efforts by staying close to its customers and increasing the flexibility of its offerings based on the insights emerging from these relationships.

“We are already close to our customers with our forums, local presence and predictive and

“We have to be profitable as an organisation to reinvest to innovate and meet our customers’ needs”

transparent systems. But as we work with these partners to deploy more IoT solutions, we see the complexity of their needs increase. As more connections and assets emerge, the more data we can learn from. So we strive to increase our own flexibility to thrive in even the most complex situations in terms of pricing, support and technology provision.”

Sustainability will also remain a core component of Tele2 IoT’s strategies in the coming years.

“95 per cent of IoT solutions contribute to a more sustainable world,” states Cyril. “We want to focus on the ways we can have the most impact and Tele2 Group is a leading organisation and operator in terms of its sustainability agenda.”

IoT Love

In Autumn 2023, Tele2 IoT will celebrate its 10-year anniversary. Reflecting on this important milestone and the organisation’s growth in the past decade, Cyril describes the pride he feels for the company culture he and his colleagues enjoy.

“It is difficult to describe but it is part of our DNA. It is the passion we have for IoT and that is stronger than just engagement with IoT. We have high levels of expertise in the industry, we are passionate about our customers’ IoT applications and this translates to a passion – we want to transmit that energy and knowledge to our customers. We strive to be trusted advisers and friendly experts.”

Often IoT Love spurs Tele2 IoT employees above and beyond the call of duty. Recently, one of their customers had issues on their side and the Tele2 IoT team worked day and night to resolve the problems, even though they weren’t directly connected to their services. After working together to resolve it, the happy customer brought three cakes to Tele2 IoT offices as a sign of their appreciation, which Cyril recalls fondly as a goosebumpinducing moment.

“Company culture is one of the pillars in our organisation and part of that is the values we embrace as employees. At Tele2 IoT we live the values of the Tele2 Group, and we also embrace another value on top of them, which we call ‘IoT Love.’

“IoT Love is not only externally focused for customers or the market, but it goes between employees as well,” summarises Cyril. “We have high levels of collaboration and communication to enhance our internal relationships and work-life satisfaction.”

For more information, visit the Tele2 IoT website at tele2iot.com

ADDED VALUE

BOOK RECOMMENDATION

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Ola Rosling

On why he has purchased this book for colleagues, friends and family, Cyril explains, “It gives readers an optimistic outlook on the reality and the future of our world on all kinds of topics such as the economy, wars and education. Of course this doesn’t deny the tragedy of events like pandemics or the war in Ukraine. But it shows readers that if you listen only to certain sources, you might have a rather negative outlook on what's going on in the world.

“The Factfulness authors gathered 2,000 documents to build the book and it really demonstrates how the world is better than we think. This book is important because it inspires me first and makes me want to inspire others. But it also relates to the purpose of IoT. We have a positive mindset and want to make a better world, whether this is to make businesses more efficient and sustainable or to make people happier and safer.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

Cyril is looking forward to hosting and attending IoT Talks in Stockholm in November 2023, Tele2 IoT’s premier annual event.

“It’s the largest IoT event in the Nordics which we organise as a thought leadership event around the market in general. We invite our customers, partners, prospects, analysts, journalists and strategic suppliers. So the whole ecosystem of IoT is represented and it's around 200 people in a beautiful location.”

For the latest updates on Tele2 IoT events such as IoT Talks, head over to the company’s events website www.tele2iot.com/ events

3 WAYS TO UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF ENGAGEMENT TECH

When new solutions fail to live up to expectations, frustration follows. Here are three ways to ensure engagement technologies deliver business value.

COMPANIES ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT PRESSURE TO TRANSFORM WHERE AND HOW THEY INTERACT WITH CONSUMERS TO REMAIN COMPETITIVE.

BUT more and more organisations are failing to get the results they expect from their investments in engagement technologies.

As most of us comfortably adopted the ‘new normal’ of hybrid lifestyles, where we shift constantly between physical and digital worlds, seamless experiences have become the expectation, forcing marketing leaders to rethink their interaction strategies and question how effective their technologies are in supporting them.

Wide-scale digital transformation has changed the future

Demand is not the only force exacting pressure on marketing leadership, supply is too. The number of engagement solutions has increased by 24 per cent since 2020, with 9,932 now pitching for attention and business across the ecosystem. The acceleration of wide-scale digital transformation has increased the number of new entrants offering niche functionality and industry-

specific products and services – at lower costs than their incumbents.

In particular, the significant growth of aggregators – systems that enable greater cohesion of technologies – is enabling more flexible and tailored technology stacks, providing opportunities to combine best-ofbreed solutions that meet organisations’ needs more efficiently.

With reports of strong performance and ROIs being touted across business networks and social platforms, it’s easy to understand why marketing leaders are putting their

“POORLY FORMULATED CUSTOMER STRATEGY CAN OFTEN BE A CAUSE OF AN APPARENT FAILURE OF ENGAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY”

existing investments under the spotlight.

Here, Murray Allan, the Director of Customer Strategy & Engagement at Optima Partners, suggests three ways organisations can ensure their engagement technologies are efficiently delivering value for the business and yielding the returns stakeholders expect.

1) Start with a welldefined customer strategy

Poorly formulated customer strategy can often be a cause of an apparent failure of engagement technology. Ultimately, even the best technologies will not deliver business value if they’re driving the wrong outcomes. Effective customer strategies start with a deep understanding of the value opportunity and

dynamics of the customer base, alongside how they change over time. Factors you must consider include:

• Scale

• Reach

• Current and potential value

• Shared personas and behaviours

• Needs and interests

• Motivations and frustrations

Next, you must clearly articulate how to unlock that value through key value drivers – the series of actions and behaviours that generate positive customer and business outcomes.

The fundamental inputs engagement technologies rely

on are tactical, data-driven interactions – key value drivers become the objective for these. The more customer outcomes that drive positive business value, the greater the return on investment.

2) Evaluate technology thoroughly before investing

When it comes to technology, sometimes it can be difficult to separate a bold promise from what is commercially viable.

Many organisations find themselves swept up in the publicity and marketplace hype and invest in technologies before fully comprehending how they will be applied and supported

in the business. Before investing, evaluate all new technology against a well-defined set of capability requirements, and link these back to business objectives.

By avoiding scope creep and overinvestment in capabilities that are unnecessary, underutilised or too advanced for the business to support, the company can prevent the wastage of resources.

Murray says, “Capability requirements should methodically capture not only technical business needs, but also establish how the technology will be used. Wellcrafted requirements will

support a more comprehensive vendor evaluation and make it easier to delineate between solutions, which is often the biggest challenge.

“Before committing and investing, decision-makers should construct a sound cost-benefit analysis to fully understand the levels of risk and reward, and to validate the commercial mechanics involved in how the technology will deliver value. Examine any tolerances in assumptions, inputs and probabilities by modelling an array of outcomes and assess the envelope in which the business is willing to operate, making sure any thresholds are valid and realistic targets.”

3) Deploy efficient operating models to leverage technology effectively

Some organisations place immediate blame on their technologies when things are not going to plan – citing gaps or limitations in capability and compatibility as key driving forces for underperformance.

While this can be the case sometimes, in most situations businesses overlook how the technology is being applied, used and supported by the organisation.

As a result, investment in engagement technologies can be cyclical and the cost of behavioural change is often underestimated, with ‘rip-and-replace’ an all-toocommon solution that does not actually treat the problem. This behaviour consumes technical and business resources at great cost and is likely to create significant technical debt.

But technology is not always the issue or the answer. Any technology must be supported

by an efficient operating model to be effective. To ensure it is being optimally applied, fully utilised and effectively governed within the business, you need to build the correct competencies, content and workflows around it.

The process takes time and must be carefully planned and managed by the right people, which is necessary with any operating model change. Many organisations fail to understand the changes required or those yet to occur around their technologies. As a result, they try to do or expect too much too quickly from them.

For the process to be successful, you must invest time to define and plot a realistic capability roadmap to ensure technologies are properly embedded within an organisation’s operating model. By unlocking those efficiencies, a successful implementation can ultimately drive an increased return on investment.

Source: Optima Partners

RESPONSIBILITY, TRANSPARENCY AND SECURITY: THE FINTECH STARTUP STRIVING FOR MORE REGULATIONS

Daniela Lourenço, Chief Information Security Officer at Tinka on innovating the company’s security and governance framework while disrupting the deferred payment market.

BORN FROM THE DUTCH ONLINE RETAIL GIANT WEHKAMP, TINKA IS A DEFERRED PAYMENT PROVIDER BASED IN THE NETHERLANDS.

ince 1960, Tinka handled payments for Wehkamp but as of 2019 the company embarked on a new chapter as a standalone enterprise. It now serves two million customers and handles more than 90 million transactions per year.

Tinka is on a mission to become the most recommended and responsible buy-now-pay-later provider – championing security, transparency and simplicity in the process.

Daniela Lourenço, Chief Information Security Officer at

Tinka is here to share insights into how the company is

“WHAT WE WANT TO GUARANTEE IS TRANSPARENCY FOR THE CONSUMER”

building an innovative new security and governance framework to serve its customers’ best interests while transforming the deferred payment market in the process.

Daniela starts by explaining how deferred payment providers are not regulated like credit products –but Tinka is looking to change that situation.

“What we're striving for is to get buy now pay later products regulated,” says Daniela. “So we've been liaising with the European Commission to have a more responsible way of lending money to people and to make sure that affordability is, of course, the main criteria.”

Elaborating on the notion of responsible lending, Daniela continues, “We make sure that the products we offer, although they are not regulated now, are

presented as if they were regulated to have a sustainable way of offering credit and avoid making things difficult for people.

“With many players in the deferred payments sector, you only need an email address and telephone number, sometimes only a name and email, to secure buy now pay later credit without any background checks. They do not check if customers are actually able to repay, which in our view is very dangerous because it encourages people to get into debt.

“What we do instead is consider all the products that offer something

similar to credit to as regulated – so for us that means making affordability checks mandatory. We also want to make sure that by regulating this part of the market all the costs associated with lending are transparent. There are sometimes hidden charges or hidden interest rates with deferred payments. They accumulate and then collection agencies get involved. What we want to guarantee is transparency for the consumer. If the consumer knows how much they can borrow, what they must pay in return and any costs that are associated with the offer, laid out transparently, they can make sensible and informed decisions.”

So how do security and governance factor into the transparent, sensible deferred payment products provided by Tinka?

SECURITY

Daniela joined Tinka in 2022 to build the company’s security roadmap and posture as a standalone enterprise moving from a retail to a fintech mindset. By making this transition, Tinka needed to incorporate new regulations and requirements into its operations.

The security roadmap and governance policies at Tinka gravitate around being futureready and as robust as possible, while also keeping the company’s mission in mind.

Automation and native solutions free up the capacity to focus on the human element of cybersecurity at Tinka. Daniela reiterates that the company’s core mission has two layers: to be the most responsible and most recommended deferred payment provider. Striving towards these goals comes with responsibility, which demands high levels of security provision.

“So as a fintech provider, we always remain one step ahead in

terms of requirements and what is right for the consumer but also for all the stakeholders,” says Daniela. “This means meeting or exceeding the regulatory frameworks of the Netherlands and the EU.”

Here, Tinka is always looking ahead and anticipating new legislation, including two major regulations that will take effect in 2024.

First is the NIS2 Directive –the EU-wide legislation on cybersecurity. It provides legal measures to boost the overall level of cybersecurity in the EU. It modernises the existing legal framework to keep up with increased digitisation and an evolving cybersecurity threat landscape. By expanding the scope of the cybersecurity rules to new sectors and entities, it further improves the resilience and incident response capacities of public and private entities, competent authorities and the EU as a whole.

The second important piece of legislation Tinka has in mind as a company is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) which will make sure the financial sector in Europe is able to stay resilient through severe operational disruptions.

After performing a gap analysis comparing regulatory and legal frameworks to the state of play at Tinka, Daniela explains how the company deploys the right framework providing a robust set of group controls from globally recognised institutions.

“I like using the NIST Cyber Security Framework which is from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is very complete, very thorough and it is being used by many industry peers because it's a more proactive approach than, for example, following ISO 27002.”

Tinka is also innovating in terms of its cybersecurity by putting native solutions first and automating as many processes as possible. These measures are not only there to protect customers and stakeholders, but they are also time-saving mechanisms to focus on training colleagues and the human element of cybersecurity.

“I'm really proud to say that our employees, or our ‘Tinkans’ as we call them, are very much cyber aware,” says Daniela. “They have even spotted some really sophisticated, fraudulent attacks. Involving them has brought that maturity that unfortunately you do not see in the industry often. I'm delighted that we've built

Tinka and Levi9: The Ultimate Partnership for the Future of Payment Solutions

At Levi9, we pride ourselves on helping our customers achieve their ambitious goals with cutting-edge technology solutions.

In 2022, Tinka faced a significant challenge of separating from its parent company, Wehkamp, while also innovating the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market and diversifying its products and customers. As Tinka had a vast amount of historical Structured Query Language (SQL) data to manage, a seamless transition without affecting business continuity was vital.

Our team proposed a groundbreaking hybrid cloud setup, leveraging an existing Direct Connect line between Tinka’s data centre and Amazon Web Services (AWS), to move ~20 VMs & ~30TB of SQL data in a fast and cost-effective manner, ensuring a smooth migration in just six months. By modernising its infrastructure with a fully maintainable, resilient and reproducible setup, Tinka has unlocked new opportunities for growth and diversification.

The collaboration with Levi9 enabled Tinka to achieve several key objectives:

• Secure storage: The new account system allows Tinka to store sensitive customer data, including personal information, in a secure and compliant manner.

• Exclusivity: The system is designed specifically for Tinka and its customers, ensuring a tailored experience.

• Seamless integration: It connects securely with Tinka’s microservices and backend infrastructure, enabling streamlined operations.

• Empowering customers: Tinka’s customers can now securely view and modify their data, giving them control and transparency.

• Agent access: Tinka agents can securely view and modify customer data, improving their ability to provide exceptional support.

• System compatibility: The new account system allows for secure data modification and viewing across various systems.

• As this account system becomes the foundation for Tinka’s customer interactions, it opens up new opportunities for the company to onboard additional merchants, driving growth and success.

Our innovative approach and expertise can help your business thrive in the ever-evolving IT landscape. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve your goals.

“DANIELA IDENTIFIES

FOUR MAIN FACTORS: SOCIAL ENGINEERING, SUPPLY CHAIN VULNERABILITIES, CLOUD EXPLOITS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)”

that maturity – we understand the need for innovating and for transforming to be digital first and we get technology to work for us. However, let's not forget about the colleagues that are actually people and they are targets like any other person and I'm very proud that we've built that resilience.”

But what are some of the most pressing security concerns that Tinka considers threats to consumers and stakeholders?

Daniela identifies four main factors: social engineering, supply chain vulnerabilities, cloud exploits and artificial intelligence (AI).

“Social engineering is on the top because it can be used either towards the customer, by impersonating Tinkans somehow, trying to defraud our own

employees for immediate financial gain or they will try and get data that is for immediate financial gain or to weaponise data.

“Credit information is very sensitive and of course very profitable in underground markets, so I think that's the top threat.

“Second, correlated to that, we have supply chain vulnerability. For clarity, this is not that we fear that our supply chain will attack us, but it's the fear that attackers might

leverage our supply chain to get to us if they compromise a partner.

“Third we have cloud exploits. As we are digitally driven and cloud-first, hostile attackers might exploit the services that we work with as a company. We work with big players like Google, and we build trust relationships with those services. But it is an increasingly common way of compromising one cloud service to get to another cloud service and performing that movement across services is

something we are also cautiously concerned about.

“Lastly, something else that has been coming up, of course, is AI and deep machine learning.

“These are threats because they make the simplest attack more sophisticated. They offer ways of counteracting and evading already existing security systems. For instance, AI can learn how to evade antivirus systems because it will study how they work. So let's say an

“WITH THE BLENDING OF HIGHLY ADVANCED AI MACHINE LEARNING AND ATTACKS THAT YOUR SYSTEMS MAY NOT BE ABLE TO DETECT AND REPORT ON TIME, YOU THEN MUST RELY ON THE HUMAN TO DETECT, SPOT AND COUNTERACT IT”

attacker runs a scan and he finds out that the anti-spam system of your e-mail will block any e-mail that isn't coming for more than 50 people at night. So what the machine will do is send 49.

“So AI and deep learning are adaptive in terms of the security systems and it's allowing for more flexibility in protections and responding to new threats. But the threat actors are already two or three steps ahead. So indeed, it's both a benefit and an unknown risk that we are still experimenting with.

“If you join AI and social engineering together, you have a very powerful attack to deal with.

“You have advanced technological ways to perform an attack combined with old school delivery techniques, like a social engineering attack. Phishing, vishing, smishing, all those acronyms that mean one thing: people being deceived or being exploited by exploiting their willingness to help or because people are exhausted or people are

distracted, so it exploits what some call ‘human weakness.’”

But Daniela rejects the overused phrase ‘human weakness.’

“Some of my peers see the human as the weakest link,” says Daniela. “I personally hate that mentality because the human can actually be the strongest link. With the blending of highly advanced AI machine learning and attacks that your systems may not be able to detect and report on time, you then must rely on the human to detect, spot and counteract it.”

“So that's why I don't believe that humans are the weakest link. They may be the strongest link in fact. Humans are the only safeguard we have if we enter the age of quantum computing. We need to realise this and focus on the human element – it is very important.”

SCALABILITYPARTNERS

With these innovative and robust security policies and governance

systems in place, Tinka is now looking to scale its operations.

Some immediate priorities at Tinka include scaling its human resources and technical assets to complement their work from anywhere policy.

Crucial to these endeavours is Levi9.

“Levi9 provides us with expertise for SMEs especially in the development area throughout the organisation and with their human resources we can maintain Tinka as an assetlight organisation,” says Daniela.

“We have benefitted from the expertise and resources that are available from Levi9 and the relationship works very well. Sometimes it is difficult to understand where Tinka ends and Levi9 begins because we work so well together that it is hard to understand who is internal and who is external. We have a five-year relationship with them, and it is not common to have that informal and very close collaboration for so long.

“WE HAVE BENEFITTED FROM THE EXPERTISE AND RESOURCES THAT ARE AVAILABLE FROM LEVI9 AND THE RELATIONSHIP WORKS VERY WELL”

Fasttrack Modernisation: Unleashing the Power

of Cloud-Native Architecture with Levi9

Is your business grappling with an inefficient and overly complicated hybrid cloud infrastructure? Are you curious about the benefits of cloud-native architecture but unsure if it applies to your organisation? Enter Levi9’s Fasttrack Modernisation Assessment –a three-week review designed to help you unlock the potential of your IT landscape.

Levi9’s comprehensive assessment is tailored for companies with legacy IT systems or complex hybrid cloud infrastructures. If you find that your applications are monolithic, difficult to change and prone to breaking unexpectedly, Levi9 can help you identify the right time and approach for a massive transformation.

The Fasttrack Modernisation Assessment begins with a one-hour intake meeting to discuss your business objectives, technical challenges and scope of work. Levi9’s experts will walk you through the critical factors to consider when modernising your IT landscape.

The assessment, carried out iteratively in 2-4 weeks, evaluates your workloads, current architecture and codebase. Levi9 will analyse the benefits and costs of moving to a cloud-native architecture and create a tailor-made approach for migration and modernisation in case of a positive business case.

By leveraging Levi9’s 18+ years of experience in designing and using cloud architectures, you can transform your IT landscape into a nimble, microservices-oriented modularised architecture. The outcome of the Fasttrack Modernisation Assessment includes independent expert advice, a modernisation plan, high-level timelines, proposed architectural design, cost estimation and an approach to transition from the as-is to the target situation.

Levi9 has successfully migrated and modernised complex application landscapes for clients such as Essent, Volkswagen Pon Financial Services, PVH and Tinka. Their pragmatic approach has resulted in running cost reductions of over 25 per cent, a 100 per cent increase in the velocity of development teams and a 30 per cent reduction in the cost-to-change.

Don’t let your legacy IT systems hold you back – choose Levi9 to help you embrace innovation, increase productivity and unlock the true potential of your IT landscape.

The ultimate goal at Tinka is to use its influence as a responsible and transparent deferred payments provider to make the buy now pay later markets regulated.

For 2023, this means looking inwards to review the company’s products and confirm or verify if they remain the best, most affordable and responsible choices for consumers in the Netherlands.

But Daniela explains that Tinka’s strategies for scaling their operations, with partners like Levi9 onboard, arose from the context of becoming a standalone company from Wehkamp in 2019.

“We need to build up on what we left behind, most mostly in terms of architecture and ICT assets. We need to learn, as I say, to walk on our own. Although we've been doing this for 60 years, now it is under Tinka's name, with our rules, our principles and virtues,” summarises Daniela.

Added Value

Company culture

Working at a fintech startup 60 years in the making with a clear mission and virtues is refreshing for Daniela and she celebrates the company culture at Tinka.

“In terms of the culture at Tinka, we don't go by the values because they can seem like something that is static or on paper – but we do live by our virtues. These are captured in the Tinka initials: it’s about being truthful, intrepid, nurturing, knowledgeable, and all in.”

Bigger picture

Daniela’s background is not in IT – her alma mater was in communication and cultural studies, topped up with an executive master's degree in cyber security.

For more information visit the Tinka website at tinka.nl

Her academic and postgraduate training influences her passion for educating people on cyber security because it not only improves awareness for Tinka as a company but society more broadly.

“It is vital to understand the culture you are in to communicate your message in a way that it can be understood,” elaborates Daniela.

“That is where the cybersecurity industry fails sometimes because

approaching, we have many people that still do not know how to handle a computer or phone and we have this huge discrepancy between what we are able to do and what people, in general, are able to do. And this discrepancy creates vulnerability.

“So what I really would like to see is for the industry, in terms of cybersecurity practitioners, to learn how to communicate and not forget who is involved and in the trenches.

“Maybe this involves a customised approach to understanding the risks that people actually face on the ground. In security, there is no onesize-fits-all. So you need to engage, it's our responsibility as practitioners to verify if the audience understands the message, that we look out for what is important to them and how we can help protect them – not the other way around.”

Follow Daniela

"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

"Digital innovation Magazine is a very flexible and professional team"

Kim Larsen CTIO, T-Mobile Netherlands

HOW WILL AI TRANSFORM THE FINANCE SECTOR?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to play an ever-increasing role in financial services and will “fundamentally reshape” the industry for firms, consumers and markets, according to the CEO and founder of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory, asset management and fintech organisations.

TRANSFORM

igel Green, CEO of the deVere Group, says “Despite the lack of familiarity for most people, AI is a technology that’s transforming the way we do business, interact and, without exaggeration, how we live.”

He highlights two recent developments for context.

Microsoft recently announced that its suite of productivity tools is being enhanced by artificial intelligence software and pushes ahead in a race against tech giants such

“AI IS A WIDE-RANGING TECH THAT ENABLES PEOPLE TO RETHINK HOW WE INTEGRATE INFORMATION, ANALYSE DATA AND USE THE RESULTING INSIGHTS TO ENHANCE OUR DECISION-MAKING”

Nigel Green, CEO of the deVere Group

“JEREMY HUNT USED HIS FIRST BUDGET TO OUTLINE THE EARLY STAGES OF A NEW QUANTUM STRATEGY, WHICH FORMS PART OF THE GOVERNMENT’S PLANS FOR BRITAIN TO BECOME A SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUPERPOWER”

as Google, Baidu and Adobe to commercialise AI technology.

That same week Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the UK Government would launch an ‘AI sandbox’ to encourage ground-breaking research into

artificial intelligence. The Treasury confirmed millions of pounds in prize money up for grabs over the next decade.

Jeremy Hunt used his first budget to outline the early stages of a new quantum strategy, which

forms part of the government’s plans for Britain to become a science and technology superpower.

Elaborating on the importance of AI, Nigel explains, “It’s a wideranging tech that enables people

to rethink how we integrate information, analyse data and use the resulting insights to enhance our decision-making. AI is already changing the world and raising important issues for society, the economy and governance.

OFFER PERSONALISED CUSTOMER SERVICE, 24/7 AND RESPOND TO CLIENT QUERIES IN REAL-TIME”

“Whilst there are also concerns about the ethical and social implications of AI, such as privacy and bias, it has the potential to bring about considerable positive changes, not least in areas including healthcare, education, business and public services.”

The deVere CEO believes that finance is one of the sectors that will become defined by AI in the coming years for firms, consumers and markets.

“It will fundamentally reshape the industry,” Nigel insists. “One of the most obvious ways is that AI chatbots and virtual assistants can help financial institutions offer personalised

“AI CHATBOTS AND VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS CAN HELP FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

customer service, 24/7, and respond to client queries in realtime.

“It could also help financial institutions discover fraudulent activities by analysing large amounts of data in real-time and identifying unusual behaviour trends.

“As such, this will help financial institutions make better and faster decisions by analysing facts and figures and providing insights into potential opportunities or risks.

“We expect that algorithms can help financial institutions make more informed trading decisions

“BY PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES, IMPROVING EFFICIENCY, REDUCING COSTS AND PROVIDING BETTER SERVICES TO THEIR CLIENTS, I’M CONFIDENT THAT AI WILL CHANGE THE FINANCIAL SECTOR FOR THE BETTER IN MORE WAYS THAN IN MOST SECTORS”

by more accurately assessing market reports and, therefore, predicting future trends and patterns.”

It is also hoped that AI will help finance companies adhere to “regulatory and reporting requirements by automating compliance processes” and

identifying potential areas of noncompliance, adds Nigel.

He concludes, “By pushing the boundaries, improving efficiency, reducing costs and providing better services to their clients, I’m confident that AI will change the financial sector for the better in more ways than in most sectors.”

Source: deVere Group

ARE FUNGI THE FUTURE

FUTURE OF FOOD?

Berlin’s Nosh Biofoods raises €3.2 million for its fungi meat replacement.

DESPITE THE RANGE OF BENEFITS PLANTBASED MEAT SUBSTITUTES PROVIDE, THEY ARE FAR FROM PERFECT AS FOOD SOURCES. BUT BY DEVELOPING A FUNGI BIOMASS ALTERNATIVE, NOSH BELIEVES IT HAS THE SOLUTION.

ith an everincreasing global population, the food industry faces an urgent need to feed people in a sustainable manner and rethink existing food production systems. The production of animal protein, which contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, is ripe for disruption.

Berlin-based developers of traditional meat and other

sources of protein Nosh has raised €3.2 million in a seed funding round. The startup will use the capital to press forward with research and development projects, intensifying commercialisation efforts while gearing up for mass production.

The seed round was led by Earlybird Venture Capital and saw the participation of Grey Silo Ventures, Clear Current Capital and Good Seed Ventures.

On the decision to not only invest in but lead Nosh’s €3.2 million seed round, Earlybird partner Dr Christian Nagel commented, “Finding more sustainable alternatives to the current food system is key to fighting climate change, yet

plant-based options often fall short in terms of taste, texture and price.

“Nosh Biofoods’ fermentationbased functional ingredient platform can play a significant role in tackling these challenges.

Earlybird

“FINDING MORE SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVES TO THE CURRENT FOOD SYSTEM IS KEY TO FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE”

Dr Christian Nagel

partner

However, the potential goes beyond plant-based products – their versatility makes the ingredients a fit even for more traditional categories and products. We are excited to partner with the Nosh team on this journey and happy to

welcome our second FoodTech portfolio company to the Earlybird family.”

Alejandro Marangoni from the University of Guelph, a key advisor on the Nosh board said, “Many of the

processes developed are too expensive, lack nutritional properties and functionality, and are too energy- and waterintensive to qualify as truly sustainable. I always had the feeling that these options were not viable alternatives. The day I first held Nosh’s biomass in my hands, I realised that this could be the solution we’ve been looking for: structure, functionality and nutrition at a viable price through biology. This could represent the basis of the new generation of foods to feed humanity.”

Nosh Biofoods was founded in 2022 by Tim Fronzek, former cofounder of rebuy.com, and Felipe Lino, former Novozymes researcher and global R&D manager at AB-InBev.

The startup tackles food innovation head-on by unlocking the unrealised

“THE DAY I FIRST HELD NOSH’S BIOMASS IN MY HANDS, I REALISED THAT THIS COULD BE THE SOLUTION WE’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR”

Alejandro Marangoni University of Guelph

potential of alternative proteins using fungi biomass.

The company aims to transform the food industry in a way that is not harmful to people, animals or nature. In addition to developing a technological platform to produce a class of highly functional food ingredients, Nosh also develops animalfree proteins for human nutrition.

It aims to help manufacturers of animal-free products compensate for their disadvantages in terms of taste, texture and price so that they can reach mass markets.

Beyond plant-based segments, Nosh’s products can be used in dairy, meat, confectionery, bakery and beverage verticals.

For further information visit nosh.bio.

Source: Tech Funding News

Renewable energy

ounded in 2020, Viritech develops solutions and technology powered by hydrogen.

Based in Warwickshire, UK, the startup provides hydrogenpowered pressure vessels and control systems for machines, vehicles and aircraft.

Viritech is leading the world in the development of integrated hydrogen powertrains, harnessing the strengths of fuel cells, advanced energy storage and revolutionary vehicle control systems to deliver world-class solutions to the automotive, aerospace, marine and distributed power industries.

The company focuses on areas where hydrogen fuel cells offer immediate benefits — where power, range and duration requirements increase or long-term energy storage is required.

It is developing powertrains for high-performance vehicles, heavy transport/equipment, aircraft, boats/ships and offgrid energy.

Viritech’s strategy hinges on agile development processes to help Tier 1 suppliers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) accelerate the development of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) by offering radically more

semiconductor manufacturing

“Passionate cleantech engineers leading the development of hydrogen powertrain solutions for the automotive, aerospace, marine and distributed power industries”

efficient products and solutions within a complete FCEV ecosystem, combining high performance with easy implementation.

Viritech technologies tackle two key challenges of implementing FCEV powertrains:

Weight

Most FCEV powertrains are closer in weight to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) powertrains than Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powertrains. Viritech architecture targets weight parity with an ICE equivalent. For commercial vehicles, this means an FCEV can operate with the same payload and range as a diesel equivalent. In terms of operating costs, this is a game changer.

Supply Chain

Currently, many FCEV powertrain components are still in the early development stage – with prices and availability to match. Equally, there are few standard tools to integrate these products.

Viritech’s products offer considerable cost savings and because they are designed as an ecosystem, they can be integrated by vehicle manufacturers very easily. The startup designs every product to function within its ecosystem or on a standalone basis, so Viritech can supply a complete powertrain solution, or individual components, such as DC-DC Converters or FCEV battery packs.

Learn more at viritech.co.uk