DR OLA SPENCER
Group COO at Optegra Eye Health Care, explains how the company is embedding new technologies to improve patient care.
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FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to the April edition of INNOVATION Magazine!
e are delighted to share four exclusive interviews with you this month, alongside the latest global technology news and features.
Let’s collaborate…
For our cover interview, I have the pleasure of sitting down with Dr Ola Spencer, Group COO at Optegra Eye Health Care. We discuss how the leading international platform of specialist ophthalmic services is deploying medtech innovation, while simultaneously improving and streamlining the patient journey (
Innovation Magazine is a specialist technology platform with over 166,700+ readers.
Lee Meyers, Plant Manager at Ford Motor Company shines a light on the innovation and sustainability strategies underpinning Ford’s electrification journey, elaborating on the crucial role of the Halewood Plant in the UK as part of this exciting new chapter (
Our community consists of C, V and D level executives from a wide range of industries. A unique blend of thought leadership interviews and features that cover digital transformation, cloud & cyber, enterprise IT, artificial intelligence, machine learning and sustainability.
I welcome the chance to chat with Sayan Bose, Global Head of Industrial Manufacturing and Aerospace & Defense Industries at SAP. We explore recent innovations in industrial manufacturing, the role of operational excellence within the business and the secret to SAP’s
Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer at Evara Health, joins us to divulge the not-for-profit healthcare organisation’s technological initiatives transforming patient accessibility and
In our global tech features this month, we cover BlueHalo’s breakthrough in long-haul laser communication capabilities ( ), Oracle’s new AI Agent Studio ( Group’s partnership with Google Cloud to advance its global expansion through intelligent ), and IBM’s strategic collaboration with NVIDIA to help enterprises better manage generative AI workloads and agentic AI applications (p100
Last but by no means least, our Startup of the Month is Beyond Identity – the identity management platform eliminating phishing attacks (
We hope you enjoy our latest edition. As always, if you would like to be considered as an interviewee or if you have a story for us, please do get in touch.
editorial@ithink.media connect with me on LinkedIn.
Dr Ola Spencer shares how Optegra Eye Health Care is improving patient care with new technologies
BlueHalo announces breakthrough in long-haul communication capabilities
Lee Meyers explains is leading the electric transition
announces a long-haul laser capabilities
Oracle introduces AI Agent Studio
Sayan Bose highlights SAP’s industrial manufacturing solutions
108 Meet Beyond Identity, our Startup of the Month
62
Howard Rubin discusses Evara Health’s tech-driven approach to patient care
88 EasyPark Group partners with Google Cloud to support its multicloud strategy
how Ford electric vehicle 24 100
IBM and NVIDIA accelerate AI at scale with new collaboration
ENVISIONING THE FUTURE OF PATIENT JOURNEYS
Dr Ola Spencer, Group COO at Optegra Eye Health Care, explains how the company is embedding new technologies to improve patient care.
JOURNEYS
ESTABLISHED IN 2007, OPTEGRA EYE HEALTH
CARE (OPTEGRA) IS A LEADING INTERNATIONAL PLATFORM OF SPECIALIST OPHTHALMIC SERVICES, DEDICATED TO DELIVERING WORLD-CLASS EYE CARE.
ith a strong reputation for clinical excellence, Optegra has successfully performed over one million eye procedures, transforming the lives of patients across its 40 eye hospitals in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands.
Alongside its private vision correction treatments – from lens replacement and laser eye surgery to implantable contact lenses – Optegra treats cataract surgery privately and through its partnership with the NHS. It also provides treatment for glaucoma and Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), including Valeda, a first-ever treatment for the Dry form of AMD, bringing hope to patients for the first time.
Bringing together leading-edge research, medical expertise and stateof-the-art surgical equipment, Optegra performs over 170,000 treatments
annually, conducted by its worldrenowned ophthalmic surgeons.
Joining us from Optegra is Dr Ola Spencer, Group COO, to discuss the company’s innovations in medtech and its focus on streamlining the patient journey. To begin, Ola explains how the company is driving market leadership through innovation.
“Staying ahead of any eye care advancements across the industry is at the heart of our strategy,” says Ola.
“In order to achieve that, we’ve focused on a number of elements, including pathway standardisation.
“Across all the countries we operate in, we have developed a standardised patient pathway to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience. Whether a patient visits a facility in London or anywhere else, they will encounter the same structured journey – from their initial engagement and diagnostics
through to surgery and post-operative care.
“A key part of this approach is clinical standardisation. Every surgeon across the UK uses identical materials and surgical techniques, ensuring uniformity in care delivery. This consistency is not just about efficiency – it is fundamental to achieving exceptional clinical outcomes, enhancing patient safety and maintaining the highest standards of ophthalmic care.
“A key pillar of our strategy is the integration of digital and AI-driven healthcare solutions," says Ola. “Our transformation journey began in 2019, when we started migrating our infrastructure to the cloud and seamlessly connecting all our medical devices onto a single, integrated platform. This advancement enables our surgeons to access patient data and imaging instantly, anytime and anywhere, ensuring faster decisionmaking and enhanced clinical precision. The impact has been
profound – while many organisations still rely on printed eye scans, which offer limited functionality and diagnostic capabilities, our digitalfirst approach has unlocked real-time data analysis, AI-powered insights, and greater collaboration across our global network.
“Now we have these modes of transformation in place, we’re working on driving the value enabled for our patients and surgeons to work more effectively – for instance, by adopting
a paperless approach. We’ve now got a full patient portal that can be accessed by our patients entirely online – allowing us to be significantly more efficient, and the patient to feel more supported throughout that journey. We’re now able to conduct 25 cataract surgeries on the day, in comparison to the NHS, which does eight, which is vital in bringing down waiting lists. Our data is accessible at the same time the patient is prepped, so our surgeons have absolutely everything they need.
“I am a strong believer in adopting digital-first approaches including AI, to improve patient care, streamline healthcare pathways, and foster innovation in the ophthalmic sector.”
In order to achieve these seamless capabilities, Optegra is focusing on emerging technologies and assessing how they can enhance its existing strategy. Notably, the company is looking to AI to elevate the patient pathway.
“Our latest innovations have been focused on utilising AI to further our digitalisation initiatives,” explains Ola. “You see a lot of people talk about the benefits of AI in terms of cost reduction and back-office efficiency, but we want to see how we can drive more value for our patients and clinical teams. Therefore, we’re focusing on using AI at the forefront of the patient’s journey and follow-up appointments.
“If you think about the process of cataract surgery, every patient has
“OUR SURGEONS AND CLINICAL TEAMS ARE AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO”
Dr Ola Spencer, Group COO at Optegra Eye Health Care
to go through a 30-minute pre op assessment with a nurse discussing their allergies, comorbidities and medications.
“Two years ago, we took that assessment out of our hospitals and replaced it with a virtual clinical team, which has helped us offer a more flexible way of working with people. Once we’ve got a referral coming in, patients will get a text message telling them that Iris, our virtual assistant, will call them. Using this software, we’ve now completed 17,000 pre op assessments (POA) in the 60+ age demographic with 99% data accuracy. We get around 1,500 POA per week, but Iris can process them without any limitations – freeing up our clinical team and getting the patient into surgery faster. Also, this provides added flexibility and convenience to patients who can complete the assessment at any time of their choosing – day or night. Iris conducted 63% of our pre-op assessments last month, and we’re excited to continue to expand
our use of it, with an excellent 95% Net Promoter Score (NPS).
“We’re now utilising AI in our follow-ups. Once you’ve had a clinical surgery, you have to have an additional assessment with an optometrist, which can be challenging for elderly patients who often need support to travel to those appointments.
“Instead, we’ve utilised Iris to call patients post-surgery, conduct the assessment and book them into their second eye surgery. This frees up about 1,000 hours for our optometrists, which helps them focus on new patient
demand, as well as allowing our patients to access surgery faster. We’ve done around 6,000 of these automated follow-ups across 12 of our 18 clinics, and we’re continuing to look for ways to leverage those capabilities further.”
With AI playing a key role in streamlining the patient journey, Optegra is now turning its attention to deploying it to address some of the industry’s most pressing problems, Ola elaborates.
“The health sector currently faces a significant challenge in attracting new generations of clinical professionals,”
notes Ola. “In the UK, this issue is particularly pronounced when examining the ratio of healthcare workers to the rapidly growing elderly population.
“We’re supporting the NHS by training junior surgeons with our AI surgery platform, trained by some of the industry leaders, and giving these medics access to high-volume cataract surgery. This platform can analyse how the junior doctors perform surgery and then develops an improvement plan, offering elements they need to focus on in terms of incisions – significantly accelerating their progress and precision.”
Ola stresses that these surgeons and clinical teams are instrumental in the implementation and development of any innovations at Optegra.
“Our surgeons and clinical teams are at the heart of everything we do,” says Ola. “When it comes to any new change initiative, we strongly believe that the surgeons are the ones who should be leading it, because they’re the ones who can best identify the areas that will drive the biggest value –for them and the patient.”
However, none of these projects would be possible without Optegra’s core value of transformation, which shapes how the company approaches any new innovations.
“Deploying high level projects while maintaining our standard of
operational excellence is always a challenge,” says Ola. “To overcome that challenge, you must ensure you’ve got the right people in the right places to drive change.
“Our digital projects aren’t IT projects, they’re business projects that sit at the centre of our strategy at an executive level. Therefore, we need blended teams to support the development of our projects – always with a consultant surgeon at the helm. Alongside that, we’ll have a clinical team to support the project, made up of optometrists and nurses. Only then will we look at the partners and the technology input that we might require.
“When it comes to any new AI initiatives, we see various challenges comprised of 10% as technology, 20% is data and 70% is change management. Prioritising transformation within your business operations and bringing teams together to shape and define a solution is fundamental to our success. Even when we shifted to a paperless environment, we needed clinical input to build it in the most efficient way, because they know how our patient pathways work best.
“We also make sure we start small when deploying new innovations, so we can test every possibility. From there, we’re able to learn quickly, clearly defining KPIs and measures before the wider rollout. With this approach, we may fail fast, but we learn even faster. After conducting so many projects, we’ve learned that you need to
“WE’VE BEEN WORKING WITH CONNEXAI FOR AROUND FIVE YEARS NOW AND IN THAT TIME, THEY’VE HELPED US FULLY CENTRALISE OUR CALL CENTRE”
understand an initiative on a granular level to drive any real change.”
While this approach is key to the company’s growth, strategic partnerships also play a significant role – particularly in the tightly connected healthcare industry.
“We learned very early on in our journey that you never achieve anything alone,” says Ola. “At Optegra, we’re within a healthcare ecosystem. When you’re within that connected environment, you need to identify key strategic partners that can align around your strategy, your ways of working and your principles. In choosing these partners we know we have to be very selective, which is why we work with ConnexAI.
“We’ve been working with ConnexAI for around five years now and in that time, they’ve helped us fully centralise our call centre. Originally, phone calls from our patients were going into hospital receptions where it could take some time to get an answer. ConnexAI
brought all of these calls into a single platform, which helps us better connect with our system. With this solution, we’ve been able to get our call resolution down from 15 minutes to 30 seconds.
“Since then, we’ve been looking at further transformations, utilising AI to enhance our patient journey, reduce manual admin workloads and optimise treatments. This has saved us so much time and transformed the patient journey in terms of driving clinical outcomes. It’s been a great partnership, and we’re looking forward to further collaboration.”
By optimising treatment, this partnership is simplifying Optegra’s approach to patient-driven care.
“At the very core of our strategy is a patient-first approach to healthcare,” says Ola. “This encompasses personalised care, transparent communication and premium medical expertise. So, we’re looking at every patient to ensure they receive the right tailored treatments that align their eye health, lifestyle and vision goals with what they need.
“This is why we’ve prioritised developing a seamless patient journey – it’s absolutely critical in providing that premium level of care for the patient. At the same time, we want to hear the patient feedback, hence a few weeks post-surgery, all our patients will receive a patient feedback form run by an external party. In 2024, across the group, we achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS)
of 83%. If you compare that to the industry benchmark of 50 to 60%, we are miles ahead. However, we’re still vying for continuous improvement by taking patient feedback on board.
“At Optegra, we are not just performing surgeries – we are setting the future standard for ophthalmology through AI innovation, pathway standardisation and operational excellence. By leveraging technology, data, and best practices, we are improving outcomes, optimising efficiency, and delivering world-class patient care.
“We see ophthalmology becoming more predictive, personalised and technology driven – reducing preventable blindness and improving vision outcomes globally,” says Ola. “That’s what’s most fundamental in terms of where we’re heading now, and we’re putting our energy into achieving that.
“For us, that means a huge focus on enhancing AI and our diagnostic capabilities. If we can diagnose patients earlier in life, then we’ll be able to shift into a preventative and predictive eye healthcare management model, with AI playing a core role. We’re excited to continue to develop these capabilities alongside our existing sustainability targets, with emerging technologies and innovations in low carbon surgical techniques underpinning anything we do.”
Learn more about Optegra here.
Turn over for Added Value with Ola
ADDED VALUE
ESCRS
“We’re always looking for ways to promote healthcare innovation, and one way we do that is by attending conferences,” says Ola. “Once a year, we attend and present at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (ESCRS) congress, which showcases the latest advancements in laser and cataract surgery. I love events like this, because you get to have real discussions about reshaping vision care across the industry.”
TRAILBLAZING HEALTHCARE
“I really enjoy listening to ‘The Bleeding Edge of Digital Health’ podcast by Mike Moore,” says Ola. “This podcast spotlights innovative companies and trends in the medtech sector. It’s great to get such a comprehensive overview of what’s happening across the industry, and how healthcare is transforming.”
OLA RECOMMENDS…
“There are some great books that highlight recent developments in the industry,” says Ola. “AI in Health: A Leader’s Guide to Winning in the New Age of Intelligent Health Systems by Tom Lawry very much aligns with what we’re trying to achieve and has been so helpful in helping me understand ways we can improve outcomes for our patients.”
Connect with Ola
Ford’s electrification journey: Innovation and sustainability in the front seats
Lee Meyers, Plant Manager at Ford Motor Company, on leading the transition to electric vehicles.
journey: sustainability
Ford Motor Company (Ford) has been at the heart of the automotive industry for over a century, and the company is all about pushing boundaries – especially when it comes to innovation and sustainability.
ithin this, Ford is on a mission to lead the shift to electric vehicles, and its Halewood plant in the UK is a big part of that pursuit. Once a transmission plant, Halewood is now transforming into a high-tech facility that builds power units for EVs. This is a huge step in Ford’s journey towards a greener future, and the business is excited to be making it happen with the help of its incredible team.
Lee Meyers, Plant Manager at Ford joins us for an exclusive interview, offering his insights into this exciting chapter in the company’s history.
Please can you tell us a little bit about your journey at Ford, how you’ve evolved with the company and what your role looks like today?
“I’ve been with Ford for over 30 years now, and it’s been an amazing ride. I started as an apprentice at
Dagenham, and over the years, I’ve moved through various leadership roles in production, operations and engineering.
“One thing that’s remained constant is how much this company evolves – and I’ve had to evolve with it. One memorable example is during the COVID-19 pandemic when we pivoted within weeks to build ventilators for the NHS, a project where I was the production lead.
“Now, as Plant Manager at Halewood, my job is to make sure everything runs smoothly as we transition to making EV power units. It’s a mix of big-picture strategy and day-to-day problem-solving. The shift to EVs is one of the most exciting changes I’ve seen at Ford, and being part of this transformation is something I’m really proud of.”
In recent years, the transformation of the Halewood Plant has been a
huge effort for you and your team. Where did this decision arise from and what have been some of the major successes and lessons along the way?
“The decision to transform Halewood into an EV power unit facility was all about looking ahead.
“The world is moving towards electric vehicles, and this team knew we had to be part of that shift. Investing £380m into the plant means we’re securing
jobs, keeping Halewood at the cutting edge and making sure we’re ready for the future of mobility.
“One of the biggest wins has been our team’s ability to adapt. Switching from building traditional transmissions to EV power units is a huge change, but our workforce has stepped up in every way.
“We’ve provided extensive training, brought in new technology, and
“With our investment in technology, sustainability, and our people, we’re making sure Ford stays a leader in the EV revolution”
Lee Meyers, Plant Manager at Ford Motor Company
completely restructured parts of the plant – and our team has embraced it all.
“That said, it hasn’t been without its challenges. Change on this scale is never easy, and one of the key lessons we’ve learned is how important communication is. Keeping everyone informed, engaged and confident in the future has been a top priority.
“We’ve also had to rethink our entire supply chain, update our infrastructure and integrate new processes while keeping things running smoothly.
“The key to making it work? Collaboration. We’ve worked closely with our fantastic teams, suppliers and even the UK government to make this transition a success. And now, we’re proud to say Halewood is a major part of Ford’s electrification journey.”
Where has innovation factored into this journey, and how does Ford embrace it?
“Innovation isn’t just about new products – it’s about how we do things better, smarter and more
sustainably. Innovation in isolation can only get you so far. Our innovation teams collaborate throughout Ford to ensure we share our ideas while also replicating successful innovations from elsewhere.
“At Halewood, we’ve embraced cutting-edge technology to make our transition to EV power unit production as seamless as possible.
“One example is using digital twins –virtual models of our production lines that let us test and optimise things before making real-world changes.
“This has helped us save time, cut costs and improve efficiency.
“Sustainability is also a huge part of our innovation strategy. We’re working on reducing energy use, cutting waste, and incorporating more eco-friendly materials into our processes – we are already using carbon-neutral energy supply at the plant, but we are always looking to do more.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure we’re building a futureready facility that keeps Ford ahead of the game.”
What implications did this, and will this, have for your supply chain strategy?
“Moving to EV power units has meant a big shake-up in our supply chain.
“The parts and processes for EVs are different from traditional transmissions, so we’ve had to rethink everything from sourcing materials to logistics.
“Another big factor is partnerships. We’re working closely with our suppliers to make sure we’re getting
the best technology and materials for our EV power units. And with digital tools giving us better visibility across our supply chain, we can stay ahead of potential issues before they become problems.
“Looking forward, we’ll keep refining our strategy to make sure our supply chain is as strong, efficient and sustainable as possible.”
Looking ahead to the future, what will the coming years hold for the company?
“The future is electric, and Halewood is right at the centre of it.
“In the coming years, we will be scaling up production, improving efficiency and continuing to innovate to stay ahead of the game.
“With our investment in technology, sustainability, and our people, we’re making sure Ford stays a leader in the EV revolution. It’s an exciting time, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.”
Learn more at ford.co.uk.
Connect with Lee
Industry focus delivers results:
How SAP helps futureproof industrial manufacturers
As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology.
The company has worked with its industrial manufacturing customers for over 50 years to define end-to-end processes that unite business-critical operations spanning finance, engineering, supply chain, customer experience and HR. SAP’s solutions empower industrial manufacturing companies to design, sell, manufacture, and service highly customised and intelligent products and solutions – driving differentiation and sustainable growth.
Joining us today from SAP is Sayan Bose, Global Head of Industrial Manufacturing and Aerospace & Defense Industries, for a conversation spanning recent innovations in industrial manufacturing, the role of operational excellence within the business and the secret to SAP’s success.
To begin, Sayan outlines the role of a robust strategy when delivering value for industrial manufacturing companies.
“In my role, I’m really focusing on looking at our entire portfolio of software applications, technology platform and business AI and how they
can serve the industrial manufacturing industry,” says Sayan. “This way, we can ensure that our customers get the value they need – through leveraging our software to run their entire business processes.”
However, a critical tenet of building this strategy is staying ahead of market trends – challenging in an industry that can often change suddenly and unexpectedly.
“The pace at which the industry is changing means that we need to continually implement new technologies and reinvent processes to make sure we’re able to offer best-inclass software,” explains Sayan. “Our customers have projects they need to deliver, so we assess the technology that will be best deployed in the context of their business processes and how it will impact those processes to ensure we can offer them the value that they need.”
For SAP, ensuring the success of the software it deploys is paramount.
“When we look at cloud applications, we need to ensure that our software
offers the ability for our clients to cover their entire value chain including hireto-retire, procure-to-pay, design-tooperate, and record-to-report,” says Sayan. “Our applications need to ensure every process works together and eliminates fragmentation but also that our customers can select what they need in a modular fashion. This ensures industrial manufacturers can continue to grow at their own pace and stay ahead of any potential problems.
“Embedding technologies like AI into these processes also guides our customers in their decision making, helping them avoid making mistakes and minimising the business risks
that come with changing customer demands, and even geopolitical and market movements. Being able to leverage business data from processes, to feed business AI models which in turns improves the processes is a key differentiator for SAP.
“Another important element we’re looking at is sustainability. This needs to be a key dimension of how any business operates, from high-level strategic initiatives to daily operations. Our cloud applications offer specialised solutions to serve the complexities of individual industrial manufacturing companies, including circular manufacturing processes and regulatory reporting –
so they operate successfully in the real world.
“While our Cloud ERP and other cloud applications are at the core of what we do, SAP is also focused on the technology platform they run on. Our platform SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) supports application development and automation, integration and artificial intelligence capabilities.”
“We’ve spent the last few years embedding AI and machine learning and will accelerate this with generative AI (GenAI) within our applications,” adds Sayan “This is really important for our
“SAP has established partnerships with leading AI technology providers”
Sayan Bose, Global Head of Industrial Manufacturing and Aerospace & Defense Industries
industrial manufacturing companies, as they need to be able to speed up the adoption of AI capabilities, and scale the capabilities across their organisation so they can help every employee be more effective. Already delivered AI capabilities include using AI to provide recommendations to finish incomplete sales orders, keep customers information about order fulfilment issues by uncovering delays, their cause, and provide potential remedies. AI can support salespeople by developing recommendations tailored to specific customers for the most suitable products and configurations, and there are more on the way.
“In addition, in our platform we provide both AI services and an AI core: this gives our partners and customers the opportunity to embed their own expertise within our software and their own applications, so they can implement what is appropriate for them and build accordingly.
“To continue the momentum SAP has established partnerships with leading AI technology providers. We already have over 34,000 cloud customers that use SAP Business AI, and that number is only growing.”
While technologies such as these are crucial for the successful running of any business, Sayan stresses the importance of collaboration and its ecosystem as a partner for success.
“To be able to help maximise our customers investment,” says Sayan. “We work with our vast network of software and technology partner ecosystems to offer industry-specific and innovative solutions to extend our portfolio.”
In order to provide offerings relevant to its customer base, SAP prioritises maintaining a steady dialogue with them.
“We have ongoing conversations with our customers,” elaborates Sayan.
“From this, we can see that most industrial manufacturers are focusing on three main priorities.
“Number one is a need to offer more customer-centric solutions and services. For instance, if you’re selling a machine, you’re also selling the software that controls it and offers new capabilities. Often, machines are now more about the software than the hardware, and this adds a level of complexity to managing master data, configuring sales orders, as well as
the manufacturing installation and ongoing maintenance.
“By offering this suite of services, industrial manufacturers can offer more customer intimacy and drive higher profit margins, as well as being able to offer these new solutions in a subscription model, which can really lead to more innovative business models.
“Secondly, we’re noticing that these industrial manufacturers are starting
“Number one is a need to offer more customercentric solutions and services”
to develop more innovative and sustainable solutions in terms of equipment and machinery. With more businesses prioritising green initiatives. Industrial manufacturers are being driven to develop more sustainable and circular industrial solutions, but they also have to take into account costs and margins. This can be a difficult balance, which is why the third focus we’ve noticed with a lot of manufacturers is around standardising their operations. You need to look at your entire operations holistically so you can easily scale, be more resilient, and embed new innovations within your business practices.
“With manufacturers focused on these three pillars, we need to ensure that our portfolio of cloud applications will give our customers the ability to run their business today and yet still be able to innovate their operations effectively. A great example of that has to be our innovations within the AI space.
“One of our customers is Kaeser Kompressoren, who is a global supplier of compressed air systems. When we spoke to them recently, they explained that the process of configuring the right compressor for the needs of a specific customer was challenging to manage with their current data system.
“By leveraging our modular cloud solutions, including SAP intelligent
product recommendation with Gen AI capabilities, they were able to more efficiently configure complex compressors for specific sites. This has made a huge difference in terms of how they manage and produce products going forward.
“For us, this is a central example of what we’re trying to achieve. If we can bring technology into the context of the business, then these industrial
manufacturers are able to achieve what they have lined up for themselves – in this year and beyond.”
Sayan believes that having this focus on customers and industry-specific processes has been instrumental in SAP’s ability to thrive.
“Customer centricity has played a crucial role in our success,” says Sayan. “We’ve taken the time to really
invest in working with our customers to see how these applications can give them value before we bring it to the larger market space. This helps us understand how these capabilities work on a more intimate level, and has really given us that edge.
“SAP also invests significantly in engineering and development. With so many development centres around the world, we’re constantly looking at all dimensions of potential growth. Ultimately, we’re innovating for the customer by working collaboratively with them in an industry context.
“Alongside this, we’re very lucky to have such knowledgeable and capable people working for us. Being able to help customers really identify industry-specific capabilities makes a huge difference for them, and it’s something SAP does exceedingly well.”
Here, Sayan elaborates on how SAP has been able to build a strategy that ensures its solutions are effective in today’s market.
“From an operational standpoint, we have a few key dimensions that come into play when building a strategy,” says Sayan. “However, having a simplified go-to-market roadmap is key. In today’s world, companies are making sure that the software they use serves a specific purpose. If it doesn’t, then they will find a new option – which we want to avoid.
“So we need to make sure our structure is clear. When a customer adopts SAP, our responsibilities need to be aligned across that customer’s entire value chain journey, allowing our experts to work closely with them and help our customers adopt our solutions, and in the process develop a close relationship with them. By having this relationship, we’re able to get the feedback we need to further enhance our portfolio.
“We’ve built a clear, simplified partner ecosystem model, because we have such a range of partner relationships – from partners who help us enhance our software to partners who increase the presence of SAP in the marketplace. Our goal is to make it as straightforward as possible for these partners to work alongside us, as a key part of our go-to-market strategy.”
“SAP can facilitate growth for any industrial manufacturing company – from a small business to an industry titan”
and, most importantly, we understand the data in context of the process and the business. Going forward, if you want to leverage any new technology, data will be key.
With such a strong foundation, SAP is expertly positioned for the future of the market.
“SAP is in a good spot,” concludes Sayan. “We’re staying ahead of emerging technologies, we understand how specific industry processes need to come together
“It’s data which fuels these endto-end business processes and, combined with our applications and AI capabilities, it can be very powerful. When you put all of this together, SAP can facilitate growth for any industrial manufacturing company – from a small business to an industry titan.”
Learn more about SAP here.
Turn over for Added Value.
ADDED VALUE
HANNOVER MESSE
“I’m looking forward to our attendance at HANNOVER MESSE,” says Sayan. “We have a showcase where we talk about our capability to offer end-to-end business processes – from design to operation for manufacturing companies of all shapes and sizes. I’m very excited to have the opportunity to meet new and existing customers and discover how industry leaders are envisioning 2025 and beyond.”
Leadership strategies
“Simon Sinek’s thoughts on leadership have really shaped how I approach my own position,” says Sayan. “The way he frames leadership in terms of how you want to drive initiatives and bring about change really excites me, and I’m constantly reshaping the way I work in accordance with the things I have learnt from him.”
Sayan recommends…
“Over the years, I have been fascinated by Yuval Noah Harari,” says Sayan. “The first thing I read by him was Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and I’ve recently read his latest book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. I’ve loved learning more from his perspectives on the technology landscape, and these books have been such a useful tool for me to further my own opinions on these topics.”
Woodworking
“Outside of work and reading, I really enjoy woodworking,” says Sayan. “Taking something from an initial plan to a project I’ve built myself gives me a huge sense of satisfaction. It’s also helped me form a closer relationship with my neighbour, who’s an octogenarian. He also has the same hobby, so we often exchange ideas, work together and give each other new challenges. It’s been a great way to get to know him better.”
Connect with Sayan
BLUEHALO: READY FOR
The defence and space manufacturer has haul laser communication
BLUEHALO: FOR ORBIT
has announced a breakthrough in longcommunication capabilities.
BLUEHALO, THE COMPANY
TRANSFORMING THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL DEFENCE THROUGH MISSION-CRITICAL INNOVATION IN THE SPACE DOMAIN, RECENTLY ANNOUNCED THE SUCCESSFUL MILESTONE DEMONSTRATION OF ITS TWO-TERMINAL LONGHAUL, MULTI-ORBIT LASER COMMUNICATION SYSTEM.
he achievement marks a significant breakthrough in the development of space-based laser communication technology with farreaching implications for national security and commercial sectors.
During the demonstration, two laser communication optical terminals completed pointing, acquisition and tracking sequences at transmit power levels supporting multiorbit, space-to-space satellite
crosslink amidst simulated challenges experienced in space environments, including jitter, extreme temperatures and lack of atmosphere.
The demonstration’s success highlights new capabilities for transferring high bandwidth data in space – enabling the secure exchange of more data at a faster rate, across further distances, including LEO, MEO, GEO orbits and beyond. With the successful prototype
“WITH THE TECHNOLOGY VALIDATED, BLUEHALO IS READY TO BEGIN QUICKLY PRODUCING THESE ADVANCED OPTICAL TERMINALS FOR DEPLOYMENT ON SATELLITES ACROSS ALL ECHELONS OF SPACE”
Mary Clum, President of the Product & Space Systems Portfolio
demonstration in an operational environment, BlueHalo has matured its optical communication terminals to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6.
“I’m incredibly proud of our team, whose dedication to the mission has led to this milestone – developing a space-based laser communication capability that is orders of magnitude greater than existing technology
on orbit today,” says Mary Clum, President of the Product & Space Systems Portfolio. “With the technology validated, BlueHalo is ready to begin quickly producing these advanced optical terminals for deployment on satellites across all echelons of space.
“It’s an urgent need to enhance our nation’s security posture – in
Image: bluehalo.com
space and on the ground – and support the rapidly accelerating demand for rapid transport of highbandwidth, mission-critical data. We’re ready."
BlueHalo's laser communication terminals are suitable for both national security operations and commercial satellite bus providers, offering a longer range, greater accuracy and higher reliability for free-space optical communications. The capability builds upon and advances systems previously developed and deployed by BlueHalo, many of which remain on orbit today.
Source: BlueHalo “BLUEHALO'S LASER COMMUNICATION TERMINALS ARE SUITABLE FOR BOTH NATIONAL SECURITY OPERATIONS AND COMMERCIAL SATELLITE BUS PROVIDERS”
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Innovating beyond barriers that limit access to quality healthcare
Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer at Evara Health, discusses the technological initiatives transforming the not-for-profit organisation’s approach to patient care.
barriers
Not-for-profit healthcare organisation Evara
Health was founded in 1980 with the mission to provide affordable healthcare services.
ased in Pinellas County, Florida, the organisation works closely with underserved, low-income, uninsured and underinsured communities to offer a high quality of care for a range of health conditions.
Joining us from Evara Health is Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer, to discuss the technological initiatives transforming patient accessibility and redefining quality care. To begin, Howard explains the importance of taking a data-driven approach in the healthcare industry.
“We consider ourselves to be a data-driven organisation, and that philosophy starts right at the top,” says Howard. “Our CEO is committed to running this company based on facts and data, and we utilise emerging technologies to achieve that. More specifically, we look at our digital transformation in four areas.
“The first of these areas is access. Patient accessibility is one of our key priorities, and we’ve transformed the organisation to be able to provide that access in greater capacity, by working on making it easier for patients to schedule appointments and find care closer to them in more disciplines beyond basic primary care.
“We’ve started using an AI-powered system to give our patients the ability to use virtual agents to schedule appointments, so they don’t have to wait until one of our contact centre agents is available. We’re also providing our patients access to our MyChart patient portal to ensure they can see their data, and we have one of the highest activation and usage rates among Epic customers.
“Our second digital transformation focus is efficiency – investigating how we can make ourselves better while reducing costs. We’ve now introduced
“It’s been a priority for us to invest in technology that can help us provide better services to our patients”
Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer at Evara Health
an application that allows our patients to check in and answer necessary information digitally, to avoid them having to wait in line at a front desk. We’re also using AI technology to help our providers be more efficient by utilising an ambient speech solution so they can spend more time directly with the patient and less time on the keyboard.
“The third area is quality. We’re one of the top ten federally qualified health centres in the United States for quality, and we’ve been able to establish that position by taking advantage of the technological innovations available to us to offer a higher quality of care. Our goal isn’t just to see patients, but to make the community healthier.
“Our final area of focus is customer service. We want to be the first choice for healthcare in Pinellas County, so we want to ensure we’re providing top-quality service to our patients. We send out patient satisfaction surveys after every visit, and our Net Promoter Score (NPS) numbers are in the eighties – significantly above the industry benchmark of 38 to 58.
“However, we are continuously striving to improve that number, elevating our digital capabilities to improve the services we offer and monitor our performance. It’s so important for us to not only improve our organisation but also grow our data so we’re able to continue to manage Evara Health based on facts and not just assumptions.”
With this ethos, the organisation has been able to make a real difference in the long-term health of its patients.
“It’s been a priority for us to invest in technology that can help us provide better services to our patients,” emphasises Howard. “For example, when assessing our patient data, we’ve found that many of our patients live in food deserts – making it very challenging to get quality food. So, we partnered with a local organisation to open three prescription food pantries.
“When patients come in, they fill out a food insecurity form. If the form shows that they have an area of food insecurity, their healthcare provider will write them a food prescription. There,
they can collect fruits, vegetables and even pre-made meals designed for patients who have specific medical conditions or dietary needs.
“It’s incredibly difficult for some of our patients to access healthy foods, which can significantly impact their health. We’re very lucky to be in a position where we can invest in our patient’s long-term health, and that wouldn’t be possible without us taking a datadriven approach.”
Evara Helth’s data-driven approach has underpinned the organisation’s Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) programme. Offering constant readings of patient vitals, this initiative is redefining Evara
Health’s capabilities in providing care for patients with chronic conditions.
“We started our RPM journey in 2022,” says Howard. “A real challenge for us during the COVID-19 pandemic was finding ways to continue to provide quality health care when we’re unable to physically see patients.
“Internally, we had discussed using remote patient monitoring to keep better track of our patients, and we were lucky enough to win a federal grant that provided us with the funding to enable that.
“We looked at quite a few partners for our RPM programme, which led
us to Health Recovery Solutions – due to the breadth and quality of their capabilities, as well as the partnership they offered us. It was important to us that whoever we worked with on this initiative is more than a vendor to us, and Health Recovery Solutions have been genuinely invested in this programme and its outcomes.
“We started this journey by enrolling our Accountable Care Organization (ACO) patients into the RPM programme by having our teams visit
“Health Recovery Solutions provided us with two different modalities for the RPM programme. The first is the kit we began with, which was pre-configured for the ease of our patients. The second solution is mobile based, where we provide the devices and the patient loads the application on their phone.
“Some of our patients felt more comfortable using their phones while others preferred the kits, so we’ve been able to alter our approach depending on the individual patient, and we’ve
“We looked at quite a few partners for our RPM programme, which led us to Health Recovery Solutions – due to the breadth and quality of their capabilities, as well as the partnership they offered us”
Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer at Evara Health
patients at home and help them set up their health kit – containing a tablet, a Bluetooth scale, a Bluetooth pulse oximeter, a Bluetooth pressure cuff and, in some cases, a Bluetooth glucose monitor.
“From there, we began expanding the programme to patients with a variety of chronic diseases over the course of six months – initially focusing on patients who had at least three chronic conditions, then two, then one. At the same time, we began deploying the mobile version of the programme.
been seeing great results since we started rolling this out.
“For example, we had one patient who our nurses noticed had extremely high blood pressure readings. They quickly called this patient, and it turned out he was having a heart attack, without even realising it. We were able to get him to a hospital and have a stent put in, which may have saved his life.
“We have a number of stories like this that really demonstrate the value that RPM is bringing to our patients, and in
Healthier communities, stronger centres
HRS’s remote patient monitoring programme, Patient First Primary, is designed to create a win-win –improved community health outcomes and a stronger health centre. We understand your centre’s success depends on the well-being of the populations you serve.
For Your Patients:
We offer 24/7 clinical monitoring, ensuring they’re never alone. Unlimited telemedicine visits bring convenient, accessible care directly to their homes. Dedicated patient engagement teams provide personalised support, empowering them to take control of their health.
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We provide seamless EMR integration, streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burdens. Expert billing and audit support maximises revenue and simplifies claims. End-to-end logistics management frees your team to focus on patient care. Our programme also directly supports value-based care initiatives, boosting HEDIS performance and strengthening your reputation.
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• More than technology, it’s about people. HRS has been recognised for its dedication to patient-centred care, receiving top honours from KLAS, Frost & Sullivan, US World News and Avia Marketplace. We’re committed to partnering with you to deliver the best possible care for your community.
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Experience the Patient First Primary difference. To schedule your free demo today, visit: www.healthrecoverysolutions.com.
2024 we saw a 19% improvement for our patients with hypertension and a 20% improvement for our patients with diabetes in our RPM programme.
“So we’ve really seen that this technology is helping our patients get healthier, which is why last year we expanded the programme again, this time with a focus on maternal health for underserved communities.
“Expectant mothers can develop gestational diabetes or hypertension during their pregnancies, which needs to be addressed fairly quickly. We had one mother on the programme who began showing some indicators for hypertension, and we were able to identify that and get her to the hospital
before it had any impact on the mother or baby.
“This programme has been of tremendous value to us and our patients. Currently, we have approximately 100 patients on the programme, and we’re hoping to get another 50 over the next six months.
“We’ve always known that there would be huge value to this programme, but the cost wasn’t feasible to us initially. However, RPM services are now covered under Medicare and Medicaid insurance, which has transformed the reimbursement picture for us and made it possible to extend the programme beyond our initial federal grant.”
According to Howard, working alongside a partner like Health Recovery Solutions has been critical in expanding Evara Health’s capabilities.
“We look at Health Recovery Solutions as a partner, rather than a vendor,” reiterates Howard. “We’re working with them on a number of initiatives – they have a fantastic portal that we use to manage our programmes and monitor our patients, and we’re looking to incorporate that data into our Epic EHR system to give a more comprehensive overview of their health.
“However, one thing we have to very carefully monitor with this is the amount of data. A great thing about our RPM programme is that
it takes constant readings from our patients, but including that amount of data on their health record would be unnecessary and overwhelming – for both the patient and the doctor assessing them. We’re currently working with Health Recovery Solutions to implement that information in a way that is most valuable to our patients and our providers.”
Beyond the RPM programme, the organisation is also working with Health Recovery Solutions on a pilot programme for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM).
“Typically, most of our patients use traditional finger prick glucose monitoring,” says Howard. “There are
a few vendors out there now that use CGM, where you have a tab on your arm or stomach that continuously sends glucose information to either a device or your smartphone.
“This saves patients from having to prick their finger regularly, which can make a huge difference for people and increase compliance rates. As a diabetic, I hate having to do finger prick tests, and a lot of patients feel the same. This could make a real difference in glucose monitoring.
“Initially, Health Recovery Solutions couldn’t incorporate CGM devices into their programme when we first started working with them, but they’ve been working on integrating several CGM
vendors into their system. We’re now working very closely with them to begin a pilot CGM programme for our patients. Overall, Health Recovery Solutions have been a great partner for us in terms of helping us widen our capabilities, and they’re always looking for ways to help us help our patients.”
As Evara Health looks ahead, the organisation is focused on building on its digital capabilities to continue to improve accessibility for its most vulnerable patients.
“We’re looking at a number of different areas as we turn to future initiatives,” says Howard. “A key one for us is AI. Like all organisations
“We’ve done a lot of work to map out where our patients are located in relation to our centres to build our understanding of the areas we consider healthcare deserts”
Howard Rubin, Chief Information Officer at Evara Health
today, we’re focusing on where we can improve our operations and provide a better service to our patients. We want to make ourselves more efficient but in a thoughtful and prescriptive way.
“We’ve developed an AI Governance Committee, responsible for ensuring that we don’t do anything that has
the potential to harm patient data. We’ve been able to improve patient accessibility using our contact centre AI solutions. Right now, that solution is limited to a select number of appointment types but we’re looking to expand it further to any of the appointment options that we offer.
“Another important consideration for us as we look ahead is partnering with more organisations in our community. We’re looking to work with various behavioural health organisations, hospices and other organisations so we can jointly benefit our patients. Alongside this initiative, we’re also looking to open more locations.
“Currently, we have 17 facilities and three mobile centres across the county, but we want to continue to expand our footprint for our patients who don’t have access to their own transportation.
“We’ve done a lot of work to map out where our patients are located in relation to our centres to build our understanding of the areas we
consider healthcare deserts. From there, we’re working on utilising our existing technological capabilities to provide better levels of access for those patients.
“As we increase our footprint, we’re also looking to provide more services – particularly for underserved/insured communities. There are a lot of specialty services out of reach for our patients, so we want to offer a more all-encompassing coverage for our patients.
“Today we offer almost a dozen different specialties, and we’re hoping to expand those services even more in the near future. Dermatology is a big area we’re looking at – we’re based in
Florida and there’s a lot of sun, but there’s very few dermatologists who will take Medicaid patients. What we’re working on now is finding ways to provide dermatology services to those patients.”
But while the work being done by Evara Health as an organisation is critical, Howard emphasises that none of it would be possible without the entire team behind it.
“We recently won a Stevie Award for our achievements in customer experience, which really means a lot to us,” celebrates Howard. “It shows the work we’re doing to provide for our patients is being recognised, and I’m so proud of the team we have here.
“In particular, I have to give recognition to Marie Menendez, our Telehealth/RPM Specialist. She’s done an incredible job in rolling out and managing our RPM programme and without her, none of what we’ve achieved would be possible.
“I can’t overemphasise the work and dedication our whole team have put into our initiatives, and it’s truly what makes Evara Health such a great organisation.”
Learn more about Evara Health here.
Marie Menendez
ADDED VALUE
The Health Choice Network
“We’re part of a collaborative called the Health Choice Network (HCN),” says Howard. “They provide us with our Electronic Health Record and several other technology and clinical quality services. With these services, we have the capacity to focus on what’s most important to us –providing the quality care needed to make our patients and the community healthier.
“What’s also so valuable about this collaboration is that it provides us with an opportunity to bounce ideas off of a group of other healthcare professionals. For example, a number of our sister organisations have come to us to ask about how we’ve implemented our AI-based contact centre, and we’ve been able to help them launch something similar.
“We were also recently looking for a new vendor for one of our devices, and I was able to go to a few peers within this organisation and get their insights instead of going to 50 different vendors. It’s an incredible support network, and it makes it so much easier to share information among a trusted group.”
Connect with Howard
Oracle introduces
New Oracle AI Agent Studio empowers customers and partners to easily create, and agent teams across
introduces
AI Agent Studio
empowers Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications create, extend, deploy and manage AI agents across the enterprise.
Oracle recently announced Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications, a comprehensive platform for creating, extending, deploying and managing AI agents and agent teams across the enterprise.
art of Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite, the new AI Agent Studio provides easy-to-use tools for customers and partners to create customised AI agents that address complex business needs and can help drive new levels of productivity.
“AI agents are the next phase of evolution in enterprise applications and just like with existing applications,
business leaders need the flexibility to create specific functionality to address their unique and evolving business needs,” says Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President, Applications Development at Oracle. “Our AI Agent Studio builds on the 50+ AI agents we have already introduced and gives our customers and partners the flexibility to easily create and manage their own AI agents.”
“Our AI Agent Studio builds on the 50+ AI agents we have already introduced and gives our customers and partners the flexibility to easily create and manage their own AI agents”
Steve Miranda, Executive Vice President, Applications Development at Oracle
AI agents designed in the Oracle AI Agent Studio seamlessly integrate with Oracle Fusion Applications and can collaborate with third-party agents to complete complex and multi-step processes. Oracle AI Agent Studio includes:
Agent template libraries:
With this, users will be able to create their own AI agents with pre-built templates paired with natural language prompts. Users can leverage the library of readymade templates to support a variety of business scenarios such as quotes, return order processing and shift scheduling.
Agent team orchestration:
Users can set up multiple agents to work alongside people on complex tasks through preconfigured templates. For greater control, users can add checkpoints and approvals throughout multi-step processes.
Agent extensibility:
Here, users will have the ability to modify and extend the 50+ pre-packaged Oracle Fusion Applications AI agents by adding documents, tools, prompts or APIs to address their specific industry and business needs.
Choice of LLMs:
Oracle provides users with access
to a variety of large language models (LLMs) to address specific business needs. Users can select from LLMs specifically optimised for Oracle Fusion Applications, such as Llama and Cohere, or plug in other external industry-specific LLMs for specialised use cases.
Native Fusion integration:
This will make it easier for users to quickly build enterpriseready agents by providing direct access to Oracle Fusion Applications APIs, knowledge stores and predefined tools without complex customisations – automatically preserving enterprise-specific business logic within AIpowered workflows.
Third-party system integration:
Users can connect Oracle Fusion Applications AI agents to third-party agents through secure APIs that support both immediate next steps and longrunning processes.
Trust and security framework:
Enables users to build and deploy agents that operate within a secure framework by requiring agents within the AI Agent Studio to always apply the latest Oracle
Fusion Applications security configurations, policies and access controls. This also allows users to build AI agents without the need to reconfigure security settings or sign new agreements.
Validation and testing tools:
With these tools, users can maintain trust and accuracy by verifying and monitoring results within AI-driven workflows. For example, built-in validation and testing tools help support reliability, repeatability, explainability, security and performance of AI outputs.
“With the agents already embedded in Fusion Applications and our new AI Agent Studio, customers will be able to further extend automation and ultimately achieve more while spending less,” summarises Steve.
Oracle AI Agent Studio delivers easy-to-use tools – including advanced testing, robust validation and built-in security – that will help customers and partners create and manage AI agents. Leveraging the same technology that Oracle uses to create AI agents, Oracle AI Agent Studio enables users to easily extend pre-packaged agents and create new agents
“AI-powered innovation is enabling our clients to reinvent processes and transform the way they work, driving a new performance frontier”
Lan Guan, Chief AI Officer, Accenture
to deploy and manage across the enterprise.
“AI-powered innovation is enabling our clients to reinvent processes and transform the way they work, driving a new performance frontier,” says Lan Guan, Chief AI Officer, Accenture.
“According to our recent research, agentic architectures featuring AI agents will enter the mainstream in 2025, with three times as many organisations
planning to invest in these capabilities compared to 2024.
“As we continue to work with Oracle to help clients across industries accelerate the adoption of AI, the new Oracle AI Agent Studio will allow us to orchestrate more powerful agents from Oracle, with Accenture’s AI Refinery platform to drive new levels of productivity and growth.”
Source: Oracle
EasyPark Group selects Google Cloud to advance AI journey
The mobility solutions provider has partnered with Google Cloud to accelerate global expansion through intelligent automation.
EasyPark Group, a leading provider of digital parking and mobility solutions, and Google Cloud recently announced a strategic collaboration to support its multicloud strategy and advance its AI journey.
y leveraging Google Cloud’s AI technology, EasyPark Group aims to accelerate global expansion through intelligent automation, enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation that transforms the mobility experience for users worldwide.
“Our partnership with Google Cloud marks a significant step toward realising our vision of creating more liveable cities through technology,” says Sandesh Bhat, Chief Technology Officer at EasyPark Group. “Together, we are redefining urban mobility –making it more convenient, efficient and sustainable
for users worldwide while enhancing employee productivity.
“As a product-led technology company, we are committed to delivering secure, modern solutions that address today’s mobility challenges and drive the future of urban innovation.”
In the initial phase of this partnership, EasyPark Group is leveraging Google Cloud’s AI capabilities to streamline employee onboarding and to integrate employees from recent acquisitions. To address this challenge, the solution – built on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform – uses Agent Builder to create an intelligent agent that serves as a companion for every employee.
This agent provides instant access to information, guides individuals through onboarding processes and facilitates the seamless integration of acquired team members.
“As a product-led technology company, we are committed to delivering secure, modern solutions that address today’s mobility challenges and drive the future of urban innovation”
Sandesh Bhat, Chief Technology Officer at EasyPark Group
Using Gemini’s advanced natural language processing and understanding, the intelligent agent can comprehend and respond to complex queries, including in multiple languages. It also offers personalised support and accelerates the learning curve for new and existing employees. This AI-driven approach helps enhance efficiency and improve the employee experience during the onboarding and integration phases of the employee’s journey.
“As we continue our growth path, we need an efficient AI solution that is personalised, efficient and scalable within multiple use cases,” says Sandesh. “Google Cloud’s AI capabilities, particularly Gemini 2.0 and Vertex AI Agent Builder, allowed us to create a seamless and intuitive experience that has significantly
reduced onboarding time and improved employee experience.”
“This strategic alliance with EasyPark Group highlights the critical role of AI in driving operational transformation and workforce productivity,” says Eva Fors, Managing Director of Google Cloud Nordics. “By
“This strategic alliance with EasyPark Group highlights the critical role of AI in driving operational transformation and workforce productivity”
Eva Fors, Managing Director of Google Cloud Nordics
providing EasyPark with flexible AI solutions, we’re empowering the company to transform operational processes, enhance workforce productivity and ultimately deliver a superior experience to users worldwide.
“This collaboration is not just about streamlining onboarding – it’s about setting the stage for long-term, AI-driven advancements that will redefine how cities manage mobility.”
This successful implementation marks the beginning of EasyPark Group’s AI journey with Google Cloud, as it continues to explore the potential of AI to unlock new opportunities, make data-driven decisions, and accelerate global reach.
SOURCE: Google Cloud
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IBM taps NVIDIA AI data platform technologies to accelerate AI at scale
IBM has announced new collaborations with NVIDIA to help enterprises better manage generative AI workloads and agentic AI applications.
A 2024 IBM report found that more than three in four executives surveyed (77%) say generative AI is market-ready, up from just 36% in 2023.
ith this push to put AI into production comes an increased need for compute and data-intensive technologies. The collaboration between IBM and NVIDIA will enable IBM to provide hybrid AI solutions that take advantage of open technologies and platforms while also supporting data management, performance, security and governance.
Leveraging the NVIDIA AI Data
Platform reference architecture, these new solutions are the latest in the IBM and NVIDIA collaboration to build enterprise infrastructure for AI:
Augmenting unstructured data processing for AI performance:
With IBM’s new content-aware storage (CAS) capability, enterprises will be able to extract the meaning hidden in their rapidly growing volumes of unstructured data for inferencing, without compromising trust and safety, to responsibly scale and enhance AI applications like retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and AI reasoning. IBM Storage Scale will respond to queries using the extracted and augmented data, speeding up the communications between GPUs and storage using NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs and NVIDIA Spectrum-X networking. The multimodal document data extraction workflow will also leverage NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices, built with NVIDIA NIM. CAS will be embedded in the next update of IBM Fusion planned for the second quarter of this year.
Enabling more accessible AI:
IBM plans to integrate its watsonx offerings with NVIDIA NIM as part of a larger effort to provide access to leading AI models across multiple cloud environments. This
will allow organisations to leverage watsonx.ai, IBM’s enterprise-grade AI platform and developer studio, to develop and deploy AI models into their applications of choice while utilising externally hosted models. IBM’s watsonx.governance also allows enterprises to implement robust monitoring and governance of NVIDIA NIM microservices across any hosting environment. This type of interoperability is increasingly essential as organisations adopt agentic AI and other advanced applications that require AI model integration.
Increasing support for computeintensive workloads:
With more enterprises embracing generative AI and high-performance computing (HPC), IBM Cloud expanded its NVIDIA accelerated computing portfolio by announcing the availability of NVIDIA H200 instances on IBM Cloud. With its large memory capacity and high bandwidth, the NVIDIA H200 Tensor Core GPU instances are engineered to meet the demands of modern AI workloads and larger foundation models.
Transforming processes with agentic AI and NVIDIA:
“IBM is focused on helping enterprises build and deploy effective AI models and scale with speed”
Hillery Hunter, CTO and General Manager of Innovation, IBM Infrastructure
transform and govern end-to-end business processes with agentic AI using NVIDIA Blueprints, such as industry-specific workflows that require agentic AI at the edge. Example use cases include autonomous inspection and maintenance in the manufacturing industry or proactive video data analysis and anomaly response in the energy industry.
Optimising compute-intensive AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments
IBM Consulting helps clients build, modernise and manage computeintensive AI workloads across hybrid cloud environments leveraging RedHat OpenShift and NVIDIA AI. This includes technologies like NVIDIA
“AI agents need to rapidly access, fetch and process data at scale, and today, these steps occur in separate silos”
Rob Davis, Vice President, Storage Networking Technology, NVIDIA
AI Foundry, NVIDIA NeMo, NVIDIA AI Enterprise, NVIDIA Blueprints and NVIDIA Clara to accelerate high-compute, complex tasks while managing AI governance, data security and compliance requirements.
“IBM is focused on helping enterprises build and deploy effective AI models and scale with speed,” says Hillery Hunter, CTO and General Manager of
NVIDIA AI Foundry Service
Innovation, IBM Infrastructure.
“Together, IBM and NVIDIA are collaborating to create and offer the solutions, services and technology to unlock, accelerate, and protect data – ultimately helping clients overcome AI’s hidden costs and technical hurdles to monetise AI and drive real business outcomes.”
“AI agents need to rapidly access, fetch and process data at scale,
and today, these steps occur in separate silos,” says Rob Davis, Vice President, Storage Networking Technology, NVIDIA. “The integration of IBM’s content-aware storage with NVIDIA AI orchestrates data and compute across an optimised network fabric to overcome silos with an intelligent, scalable system that drives near real-time inference for responsive AI reasoning.”
Source: IBM
How identity management platform Beyond Identity is eliminating phishing attacks
s the digital threat landscape continues to evolve, organisations worldwide are adopting a zero-trust security stance to mitigate risks and strengthen defences. With this framework, organisations are being encouraged to take a ‘never trust, always verify,’ approach –continuously scrutinising users, devices and network resources.
However, many companies find it difficult to assess their architecture baselines and understand what next steps are needed to achieve optimal levels of zero trust implementation.
Beyond Identity’s platform is a gamechanger, addressing urgent security needs by combining passwordless, phish-resistant, multi-factor authentication (MFA) with innovative single sign-on (SSO) and risk detection capabilities.
Crafted to be a standalone alternative to legacy SSOs and identity
management, Beyond Identity ensures thorough management and mitigation risks with its Secure Access Platform.
“We have seen the vulnerability of legacy access management platforms in a series of terrible incidents concerning Okta, and with the recent CISA CSRB report stating major concerns with Microsoft’s identity management system, as it played a critical role in China’s attack on Microsoft cloud email services,” says Jasson Casey, CEO and Co-Founder of Beyond Identity.
“This challenging security environment demands a comprehensive disruption of workforce access management and highlights the necessity for organisations to implement identity and access management tools that are inherently secure.”
Learn more about Beyond Identity here.
“This challenging security environment demands a comprehensive disruption of workforce access management and highlights the necessity for organisations to implement identity and access management tools that are inherently secure”
Jasson Casey CEO and Co-Founder of Beyond Identity
