Gigabit Magazine - April 2018

April 2018

DR I V I N G C H A N GE Daimler Trucks Asia CIO Lutz Beck on being behind the wheel for its data-powered transformation

TOP 10

Enterprise software companies

Digital Transformation Interview with Workboard CEO, Deidre Paknad

Report

Latest trends in the Artificial Intelligence space

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FOREWORD WELCOME TO THE April edition of Gigabit, another feast of information and insight for leaders of the digital industrial revolution..

Our cover story this month sees us sit down with Daimler Trucks Asia CIO Lutz Beck. The organisation, he says, “wants to connect everything”. It’s a neat summary of its Connected X strategy that has seen the company embrace a data-led future with IoT at its core.

Meanwhile, we get right to the heart of one of the biggest obstacles to effective digital transformation initiatives: Change management.

Deirde Paknad, CEO of Workboard, reveals the scale of the challenge and explains why her solution has gained popularity so quickly.

Moving to AI – a topic never far from any digital transformation story – we spoke to three separate experts to dig in on the latest developments in deep learning and neural networks. From advances that are speeding up AI training times, to revolutions in predictive maintenance and developing impressive applications for machine learning in mapping, there’s a lot to learn here.

Finally, we have a bumper stack of exclusive insights into real transformation journeys underway across a spectrum of organisations around the world. From financial services to hospitals, or from advertising to retirement homes – there’s a lot to learn here, too.

Enjoy the issue, and be sure to join the conversation in Gigabit’s Linkedin group, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Enjoy the issue!

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Integrating data, boosting

connectivity

P72

ASIA Daimler Trucks Asia / Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus

How can software drive your company’s digital transformation?

Noah Holdings DDB Worldwide Singapore Life

P8

USA State University NY at Downstate Medical Center Merieux Nutsciences Brightstar Corp OIA Global

CANADA

Events P66 Talend – riding the data wave

Pacific Reach Properties & Retirement Concepts

MIDDLE EAST

P22

Naufar Wellness and Recovery aswaaq

AFRICA Parliament of the Republic of South Africa Steward Bank FBC Bank Limited Bank of Namibia

EUROPE

P58 TOP 10 ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE COMPANIES

Cadent Gas Ltd AquaComms

AUSTRALIA Digital Reality

P46 >The office PC is dead, long live the smartphone

Breaking the barrier

Developments within Neural Networks and Deep Learning Evolutions

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D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

How can software drive your company’s digital transformatio Gigabit caught up with Deidre Paknad, Cofounder and CEO of Workboard, which offers software solutions help companies set, execute and manage their strategies effectively Writ ten by OLIVIA MINNOCK

s on?

Can you tell about your previous career and how this led to founding Workboard?

I’ve always been interested in solving process problems to increase revenue or results velocity and remove cost or risk – that’s been a central career theme from the roles I’ve had as well as the companies and product lines I’ve started or led.

After IBM acquired my last company in 2010, I led a fast-growth global business there; I found “trickle down” strategy alignment doesn’t work well and progress data doesn’t automatically “trickle up” in a large, global organisation. We spent a tonne of time and effort on town halls, operations reviews, status reports, collaboration sites, thousands of meetings and slide decks, yet had no single source of truth on the strategic priorities, current progress on key business metrics and how each team contributed to those priorities. I felt this was an essential requirement not only for management but for every employee who wants to be part of a company’s value creation equation.

My co-founder and I did what entrepreneurs do: we validated that the problem was much broader 10

April 2018

than any one company and created Workboard to address it. MIT Sloan has done a lot of recent research quantifying the problem: just 51% of top executives understand the strategic priorities and it drops to 18% at middle management and 13% at front leads and supervisors. It’s obvious that if no one understands your strategy, you aren’t going to achieve it. As markets and market disruptors move faster, iterating and activating strategic priorities very quickly is now an imperative – or the organisation risks falling behind

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

Deidre Paknad Co-founder and CEO of Workboard

companies with higher strategic agility.

Can you describe the service and benefits Workboard’s clients can expect to receive?

The Workboard Active Strategy Management solution helps organisations set, measure and execute strategic priorities faster.

We provide a data-driven, digital approach to defining, aligning and managing strategic outcomes to help organisations compete at market speed. Executives transforming their market or organisation use Workboard’s Active Strategy Management solution to iterate and more fully activate their strategic priorities. This first-of-a-kind

“Young companies instrument virtually every process while with large enterprises, there is a historical bias against adding tools” - Deidre Paknad Co-founder and CEO of Workboard 11

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y solution enables business leaders to drive alignment across the entire organisation, continually assess progress against business objectives, and iterate with greater agility.

It really gets to the three issues our customers face, which experts like MIT and HBR are highlighting more often. Firstly, strategic priorities are out of sync with market and they’re slow to iterate. Secondly, no-one understands the strategic priorities.

Thirdly, as a result of this, execution is inefficient and off the mark.

Our Active Strategy Management solution helps clients to iterate on their strategic priorities faster, “localise” the strategic priorities and success metrics to each team in the organisation for radical clarity, and streamline execution so the right work gets done and risks are well managed.

The software makes it easy to cohesively communicate and manage the strategic priorities and their cascade, track success metrics at each level, align workstreams and initiatives to drive target results, and orchestrate fact-based meetings to address risks and drive fast decisions. A Running Business ReviewTM gives leaders at every 12

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level a coherent picture of it all comes together and where the issues are.

What are the key qualities that make Workboard stand out from its peers?

Companies face an entirely new set of market challenges that require them to dramatically improve their ability to iterate and activate strategies quickly.

The old-school waterfall approach to strategy alignment was trapped at the top of the house and doesn’t work.

Workboard is creating an entirely new solution category to provide a data-driven, digital approach to defining, aligning and managing strategic outcomes to help organisations compete at market speed. As the pioneer of this new software category, our early lead, depth of understanding, unique Results Accelerator methodology, and the technology solution itself all set us apart.

What are the key industries you work with, and why?

While the need to activate, align and achieve strategic priorities is a universal business need, many of our customers are in the technology

sector which is both undergoing and driving a great deal of transformation.

CEOs of high-growth startups use Workboard to drive their marketchanging strategies faster and GMs of large enterprises use it to accelerate their transformation strategies – both kinds of leaders have high urgency to achieve bold strategies. I’m particularly proud that companies growing 100% year over year with tremendous operational excellence, such as

TrendKite, choose Workboard to better activate their strategies.

Nowadays, can businesses survive without comprehensively digitising their operations?

No, not in the long run. They will spend more to achieve less, miss market opportunities because they’re missing data, and be at a disadvantage in the experience they provide customers and employees.

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These losses compound over time, widening the competitive gap with their established competitors and leaving them utterly unprepared for disruptive competitors who attack from a different business vector.

BCG has an excellent study that found roughly a third of companies faced a sharp decline of 10% or more in total shareholder return over any two-year span, and another third of those companies deteriorate even more over the following five 14

April 2018

years. This suggests companies need transformative shifts at least once during any five-year window.

What advice would you give businesses facing the challenge of digital transformation?

I would advise business managers to be agile and strategic about the effort; look at opportunities to accelerate impact and reduce cost-of-process. The CEO or business unit leader must champion

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

“The CEO or business unit leader must champion the digital transformation and drive accountability for it” - Deidre Paknad Co-founder and CEO of Workboard

the digital transformation and drive accountability for it, pressing on despite friction, anxiety and resistance from those who won’t change habits. Also crucial is velocity: short sprints instead of long waterfall cycles. Establish short range success metrics and set a fast drum beat to achieve them.

In addition, be digital and datadriven in activating and managing the digital transformation strategy – driving such a transformation with a thousand PowerPoints and

meetings is absurd for a digital organisation, which you want to be.

It must also be recognised that communication is where strategy execution breaks down. Don’t overestimate your communication effectiveness or your team’s ability to remember – make sure you apply and translate your strategic priorities into their day-to-day work.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Workboard are an excellent mechanism to drive this. Lastly, don’t 15

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y silence heretics and change agents but find and cultivate them. The people who think you’re not changing fast enough are a gift, not a problem.

How do you ensure the workforces of your clients are skilled in making your SaaS solution work for their businesses? Can you influence a business’s digital culture?

To help build real competency in localising strategic priorities and aligning on outcomes instead of tasks, we have a unique coaching programme and methodology called Results Accelerator. In rapid succession, we coach teams from boardroom to front line to clarify and align on objectives and key results (OKRs) so that in two to three short weeks there is radical clarity and transparency as well as new alignment skill. Executives and front-line managers alike find it transformational and empowering.

We enable digital culture by enabling a digital approach to communicating and driving the strategy and business plan itself. Transparency, intelligent automation and data on an 16

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organisation’s strategy and mission are a centrepiece of digital culture.

Workboard is a digital results network that goes beyond a system of record to become a “System of Results” in which everyone in the organisation can see the overall strategic priorities, how success is measured and how each team contributes.

Does Workboard have any exciting new innovations in the pipeline or plans for the next few years?

We’re excited about a few innovations on the horizon. First, we believe conversation is the new user interface so we give users that ability to interact with Workboard entirely through Slack as a conversation. You can expect us to make several announcements this year extending the array of chat and voice options for interacting with Workboard. We are also deepening how we use machine learning and AI. Also, following Microsoft Ventures’ investment in Workboard at the end of 2017, we’re doing some very exciting integrations with Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Graph and other Microsoft technologies.

Every organisation has a set of

Video: Activating Strategic Priorities

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ever-evolving strategic priorities they want to achieve, and the vast majority want to iterate and achieve them faster. It’s inevitable they will systematically iterate, measure and manage them. Our ambition over the next few years is to be their de facto active strategy management solution enabling them to put their strategy in motion.

What do you predict will be the next technology trends impacting both large and small businesses?

The speed, data and efficiency advantage of fast-moving companies

over older enterprise companies will widen. Young companies instrument virtually every process while with large enterprises, there is a historical bias against adding tools.

Secondly, I think voice interface will be a tremendous change in how we work. Cortana and Alexa untether people from the machine at the end of their arms. It will shake up the way we work and our workplace in truly fundamental ways. Finally, AI will continue to have a huge impact: organisations that apply it to the highest value processes and interactions will reap the largest gains.

“As markets and market disruptors move faster, iterating and activating strategic priorities very quickly is now an imperative�

- Deidre Paknad Co-founder and CEO of Workboard

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April 2018

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

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Talend – riding the data wave Talend’s Ciaran Dynes, Senior VP of Product Management, on how the software integration specialist is delivering cloud technology solutions that process data at scale across a diverse range of business sectors Writ ten by DAN BRIGHTMORE

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N TALEND BEGAN LIFE over a decade ago targeting the issue of data integration within large enterprises.

The founders focused on traditional data warehouses and databases to see how they could be better connected after noting that vendors weren’t serving the market well with bloated software tools. It took the macro-level trends of the time, like open source and other frameworks such as Eclipse at IBM, and inspired by the movements towards developers doing things for themselves through free and open source, Talend offered a free tool companies could download to solve data integration problems.

“From there expansion skyrocketed into the adjacent areas of data quality, data governance, application and integration,” explains Talend’s Ciaran Dynes, Senior VP of Product Management. “Fast forward to the rise of big data, and in the light of internet-scale companies like Google and Yahoo also pushing the technology into the open source community, Talend was well placed to solve data problems at scale. Now, we are a leader in Magic Quadrant and Forrester’s Wave entering the next wave of innovation, which asks: 24

April 2018

how do you use cloud technology to process data at scale? Cloud is going to offer a fundamentally cheaper process so businesses of all sizes can benefit and we can focus on helping them get the best value from the data they have.”

Dynes maintains, with much of the IT world constrained, serverless processing is one of the key enablers right now. “The sheer complexity of running something so that it’s

optimised presents a real challenge at scale when you’ve got tens of thousands of processes running on a daily basis that have interdependence – if one fails, human intervention has to apply, so you need the skillset to recover from that,” he says.

“Cloud and serverless simplifies the process and complexity while reducing the cost, because not every company has access to machine

learning and data scientists who can build groundbreaking algorithms and stitch them together.”

Talend works with traditional business customers such as building merchants and pizza companies like Domino’s, keen to explore new processes. Image recognition of inventory is not commonplace among those delivering bricks and pizza, but Dynes believes companies can learn from the likes Microsoft and Amazon.

“Developments like image recognition and voice recognition through Alexa and Apple’s Siri are services with many untapped applications. And if they’re offered via the cloud, traditional companies can easily leverage the opportunities they provide.

By photographing the inventory in warehouses, image recognition can immediately show how many units of a particular item is in stock and have a real impact on customer experience.”

Talend works with other software and cloud vendors, which allows the introduction of system integrators to build on top of what it does or combine it with other vendors to deliver new solutions to the market. “In the UK, we work closely with Datalytyx delivering expertise in big data and how you 25

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

“Cloud is going to offer a fundamentally cheaper process so businesses of all sizes can benefit and we can focus on helping them get the best value from the data they have” – Ciaran Dynes, Senior VP of Product Management, Talend

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model that within a data warehouse,” reveals Dynes. “They partner with us and companies like Snowflake to build joint cloud service offerings for people looking to have a ‘data warehouse in a box’ solution. Talend provides the tooling so, for SMEs, and even slightly larger companies, it means they don’t have to stitch it all together themselves and can get a pre-canned solution, which can still be customised.” Talend also works with the likes of Capgemini, spending a lot of time with emerging partners in India to lay the groundwork for expansion and significant customer operations in Bangalore.

Dynes highlights Talend’s focus on product leadership with a ruthless execution to build the best product as something which sets it apart from other vendors in the market.

“We’re very product-centric and try to engage the customer to champion their story and build out something that will deliver real value for them.

When you start applying data to do something interesting it delivers great stories about what our customers do,” he says. “At Air France they asked: what if somebody was to lose their headphones? What if we could track somebody down via social

media using their seat number? It’s an amazingly simple thing to do, but something anyone can appreciate.

At the heart of that lies a simple algorithm gathering several strands of data and stitching them together instantly to achieve a result.” That level of customer service distinguishes Air France from other airlines so it’s something it strives to invest in. “Each and every traveller is unique,” confirms Gauthier Le Masne, Chief Customer Data Officer at Air France. “With our big data and Talend platform, we offer ‘made-just-for-me’ travel experiences, from purchase planning through the post-flight stage.”

Talend also helps Lenovo, one of the world’s largest PC vendors, eke out additional margin in a competitive market by analysing the heat maps of customer behaviours.

“What they’ve been able to do is analyse the products people buy and the configurations of laptops they are putting together to optimise that experience,” says Dynes, who explains Lenovo can now offer preconfigured iterations it knows are best suited to its buying community.

It’s an approach that has delivered an 11% increase in revenue per retail 27

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“It’s clear that data integration is becoming such a hot-button topic and only going to grow. It’s still a very technical area of the industry, but the outcomes we’re able to achieve are pretty spectacular” – Ciaran Dynes, Senior VP of Product Management, Talend

outlet, something Dynes rightly describes as “phenomenal” in such a challenging space, highlighting the results that can be achieved simply by analysing the data you already have.

“Our focus is to enhance customer satisfaction through marketing tactics,” says Marc Gallman from Lenovo’s Big Data Architecture Global Business Intelligence team.

“Combining all our data through Talend has helped us better know our 28

April 2018

customers and better serve them.”

Meanwhile, Talend is on track helping pharma giant AstraZeneca target revenue expansion of $7bn (from $18bn to $25bn). “On the financial side they’re looking at how they can reduce the overall cost of their reporting and better manage it,” explains Dynes. “It’s been a consolidation of eight different SAP systems globally to provide one single view of the ledger. It’s amazing how

transformative it can be to have that overview of financial reporting in a condensed period. It allows them to figure out which business units, regions and products are performing as they target further growth.

They’re exploiting big data and cloud technology, and internally they’re moving to push as much of their infrastructure to the cloud. There’s a cultural shift in the way they are proudly data-centric managing IT.” It’s

an assessment echoed by Prashaant Huria, AstaZeneca’s VP of Enabling Units: “Talend has a great vision of integration in the cloud. We have selected Talend for AWS connectivity, flexibility and licensing model.”

What trends is Dynes seeing in the industry, and how is Talend helping its customers embrace them? “AI can help unleash the value of unstructured data,” he asserts.

“We’re applying machine learning and natural language processing to existing data. For example, a lot of call centre information is people on the phone recording what the customer says, providing feedback on errors or faults. It’s all typed up and unstructured so trying to take that and filter it back to give a customer satisfaction score is quite challenging, if not impossible. Yet, with natural language processing capabilities we’ve added to the product, we’re able to go back to those customers who have those types of fields in their data and offer the opportunity to extract meaningful information.”

Dynes notes how Talend is working with large online retailers and using machine learning to tackle the phenomenon of shopping 29

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N cart abandonment. “What’s the likelihood of the customer going through to payment or leaving the site with items unpaid for?” he asks. “We all do it while checking prices for items against other retailers online. We’re trying to predict when this will happen, and why, so the retailer can offer this customer a voucher – which might be free shipping or a discount. You’ll see the 10% introductory offer used by many online retailers.

It’s not particularly sophisticated to offer that to every customer, so if you’re an existing customer what other things can they encourage you to try?

That’s a classic machine learning classification grouping and regression testing algorithm that we see quite a lot. The likes of Siemens and GE are already doing predictive maintenance on aircraft and wind turbines in this way.”

Dynes maintains that as companies develop their use of end-to-end cloud-based analytics tools, ethical use of data should paramount. “We’ve been pushing that agenda for a few years now. We can’t influence as a small company but the software industry has to take responsibility for its part in making sure people use information appropriately and keep it secure. Collectively as an industry these things have a very unsavoury negative impact, but technology can be used for good and that’s what we’ll continue to strive for.” He concludes: “It’s clear that data integration is becoming such a hotbutton topic and only going to grow. It’s still a very technical area of the industry, but the outcomes we’re able to achieve are pretty spectacular.”

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“At Air France they asked: what if somebody was to lose their headphones? What if we could track somebody down via social media using their seat number? It’s an amazingly simple thing to do, but something anyone can appreciate” – Ciaran Dynes, Senior VP of Product Management, Talend

Breaking the barrier Developments within Neural Networks and Deep Learning Evolutions Gigabit scans the intriguing developments that sit on the horizon of deep learning and neural networks through the eyes of three experts in the field. Each occupies a complementary space in the industry, creating a panoramic vista of the current possibilities of this still emergent science WRITTEN BY KIERON BAIN

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Latest trends within the AI Space

Risto Miikkulainen, Head of Research at Sentient Technologies To gain a better appreciation of the current state of play within the developing field of deep learning, Gigabit approached Risto Miikkulainen at Sentient Technologies.

This company is at the forefront of utilising AI to improve a number of complex digital operations, including generating customer engagement and conversions. We asked Miikkulainen to expand on the latest advancements in neural networks: “One of the most important developments has been the ability to run multiple evolutions within a single space. Whilst in the past we focused an evolution on a single

solution and progressed it along a learning gradient, developments from companies like Uber Technologies have changed our approach.

“We can now run multiple evolutions within a single solution space, which allows multiple solutions to challenge without putting all our eggs in one basket and then discovering there are unseen constraints to this approach.

In these cases, we seed alternative evolutions, which subsequently erodes development time because we can come to a desirable solution faster.”

What roadblocks does Miikkulainen believe that AI and deep learning must overcome to advance in the close future?

“One of the most intriguing challenges facing AI is the human bottleneck. Over the last decade we have gained experience in creating neural networks and learning evolutions in the academic space, but we lack commercial application. We are still looking for the industrialisation of AI, and great minds that understand the possibilities of this medium and can put it to work in real world situations.

“For instance, we perform a significant amount of work within 36

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

VIDEO: SENTIENT AWARE

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE the digital marketing space. We use specific algorithms to optimise pages for conversions. All too often the best performing candidate is the page that ultimately got lucky – it received a distribution of successes that sits somewhere on the outer edge of the bell curve. When companies put all their resource into this candidate, conversions drop. We solve this problem by looking at candidates in the neighbourhood of the most successful candidate, but ultimately we would like to better understand the space to create evolutions that produce the most accurate result.”

Focusing specifically on Sentient Technologies, Miikkulainen describes the innovation that’s taking place in the company’s research labs to progress the use of deep learning algorithms: “Some of the most interesting work has been combining the massive leaps forward in computer modelling with AI. One of the major limitations within the AI industry is when there is a dollar value attached to each one of the iterative tests that forms the basis of the evolutions within the deep learning algorithms. However, we can solve this issue by using a combination of advanced mathematical modelling 38

April 2018

that forms an environment within which the evolutions occur.

“One such project is our cyberagriculture program that we are running with MIT. We found that AI struggled to work with crop yields and care schedules in the real world, so we created a synthetic environment where we could grow different plants.

This allows us to formulate systems of crop management for all kinds of flora regardless of growing times.

Pecan plants take 200 years to grow in the real world and we would therefore require millennia to train AIs to manage these crops, but we can grow thousands of trees every minute in a modelled environment.

“Our focus was on growing basil. We found out how to grow to the maximum yield and for the best flavour profile according to mass spectrometry. But the really interesting thing was that we found that the computer could tell us something we didn’t know. We had assumed that basil needs six hours of sleep time with no light to maximise growth, but the AI had the basil growing in 24 hours of sustained light for the largest yields. This takes us full circle back to where we started, with an AI working on multiple strategies

“One of the most intriguing challenges facing AI is the human bottleneck. Over the last decade we have gained experience in creating neural networks and learning evolutions in the academic space, but we lack commercial application” – Risto Miikkulainen, Head of Research at Sentient Technologies

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that may not be obvious to people, in order to find the optimal solution.”

The Application of Algorithms

Charis Doidge, Research Scientist at Ordnance Survey How are deep learning developments being practically utilised by organisations throughout the UK? At Ordnance Survey, Charis Doidge is heading up a team working in conjunction with Microsoft, training systems to recognise features on aerial photographs for several practical purposes. In the initial phases of this project, the AI focused on identifying roofs. Gigabit asked Charis for more information about this project: “We are currently investing heavily in new sensed data and extraction techniques. Our ambition is to provide data for a future that is connected

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and autonomous, expanding our remit as we continue collaborating on ground-breaking smart cities, IoT, connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) and 5G projects.

“We have the building footprints of all structures within GB, and we investigated the prospect of automatically extracting roof type and adding this to our data. This builds upon the work previously conducted for roof type classification using Digital Surface Models with shallow machine learning networks and deriving building heights automatically for 3D city modelling.

“This included testing deeper machine learning networks, and cloud-based infrastructure, working with a Microsoft team to get an end-to-end process set up. We developed the techniques further and looked at deeper networks using different toolsets. We utilised

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE three systems that allowed us to evolve the overall accuracy of the process, creating a final deep learning system that was accurate to 90%.”

Doidge went on to detail some of the issues involved in the progress of the project: “Our biggest issue for the hack was learning how to create an end to end flowline on the cloud. Where we could store data, process it, classify it, and then utilise the output in a meaningful way. The Microsoft advisors and our OS experts successfully created a unique solution for the roof hack.

“We also had an issue with ensuring our algorithms worked in a general sense, and geography is deceptively changeable and complex across GB. Since the roof hack where we identified this problem for roof generalisation, we solved this by curating a more geographically

diverse data sets for our current deep learning training runs.”

Finally, Doidge describes other functions within the OS that are also utilising deep learning to achieve the required project outcomes: “We have various streams of deep learning at Ordnance Survey, as well as some traditional computer vision techniques and rule-based classification. These are all geared towards providing more for our customers and enhancing our offering to GB. Some of our upcoming projects include: ImageLearn: Our deep learning programme in which we are training a model on our RGB imagery and using a MasterMap topography layer as a highly detailed labelling method for the landscape. We hypothesise that we can decode the signatures of processes that have shaped the landscape, or

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“Our ambition is to provide data for a future that is connected and autonomous, expanding our remit as we continue collaborating on ground-breaking smart cities, IoT, connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) and 5G projects” – Charis Doidge, Research Scientist, Ordinance 4 2 A pSurvey ril 2018

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE the underlying explanatory factors hidden in the observed data to extract descriptors of GB. Rules-Based Classification: We have developed a rules-based classification system using a detailed ruleset curated by our research team, which can classify RGB imagery and height models to assess the landcover within. The current system has supplied the entirety of England to the Rural Payments Agency for them to accurately assess the hedge cover of rural land to correctly distribute EU payments.

Wider Research: The ImageLearn project is running in conjunction with the University of Southampton and the University of Lancaster.

One candidate is investigating the use of deep learning techniques on extracting previously undiscovered archaeological sites in GB from aerial imagery, LIDAR and height models.”

Exploring automation

Jonathan Wilkins, Head of Marketing at EU Automation It is easy to fall into the idea that AI strictly works in a controlled shadow world of processes that sits outside

our own. One of the places where AI meets the practical and very physical real world is in automation.

Gigabit asked Jonathan Wilkins at EU Automation about out how the manufacturing industry are benefitting from the latest developments: “Traditional robots are unable to respond appropriately when unexpected circumstances arise as they do not have the ability to forecast issues and achieve solutions.

Machine learning technology is allowing robots to make decisions, based on experience. For example, a robot collects data on a system’s activity and uses it to make decisions that improve the efficiency of its work. This reduces the resources spent during manufacturing.

“When an alteration is made to an automated manufacturing line, somebody must manually program changes. Machine learning enables the machinery to adapt to alterations in the process, without the need for human input. Predictive maintenance systems notify workers before a fault. This is accomplished by sensors, which detect abnormalities, indicating a fault. With machine learning technology however, 43

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predictive maintenance becomes more effective, because machines take note of all experiences that coincide with system faults and apply this information in future situations. It is even possible for a machine to analyse the data for each individual situation and decide the next action for itself. In some cases, the system may perform its own corrective function, otherwise it would alert an engineer. If the situation is particularly dangerous, it may shut down the system.”

What does Wilkins believe is the greatest barrier impacting the marriage of manufacturing processes and deep learning?

“One of the biggest challenges in the adoption of machine learning is data handling. Machine learning algorithms collect and analyse data, but irrelevant information can interfere with this process. Ensuring machine learning algorithms function in a way that benefits the business,

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manufacturers must understand their data and the exact functions they want machine learning to fulfil.”

Finally, Wilkins explains how he believes deep learning will be harnessed by his industry in the future: “Artificial intelligence is already being used to solve simple problems, such as AGVs overcoming obstacles, on the factory floor and along the supply chain. As the technology develops, we will see it being used to solve more and more complex problems.

“Soon, this could lead to the development of collaborative robots that work alongside humans. They would participate in business meetings and adapt to changing circumstances. These robots would benefit businesses by being able to interpret and analyse larger amounts of data than the human brain to make informed decisions about predicted outcomes from so called soft interactions.”

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CLOUD COMPUTING

>The office PC is dead, long live the smartphone

In the modern workplace, we are approaching the point of no return for desktop computers.

Gigabit identifies the smartphone innovations that will make up the workplace of tomorrow

> Written by SAM MUSGUIN-ROWE

CLOUD COMPUTING

EVER SINCE THE inception of the smartphone, it has slowly, yet systematically, chipped away at the need for a desktop computer. Rather than being perused intermittently, emails were suddenly pushed to your pocket. Consumption of news, social media and video streaming soon followed.

However, there remained a beacon of hope for the humble PC: the workplace. No one would ever wish to type a lengthy report, pore over a spreadsheet or code while pawing at a tiny handheld device, would they?

Fast-forward to present day, and the coalescence of burgeoning tech advances, cloud computing – even seemingly insignificant tweaks like responsive design – would suggest that, yes, perhaps they would.

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Your phone as a PC In the short term, expect to see a transitionary phase whereby the convenience of your smartphone is maximised by the familiar, bigscreen experience of a desktop.

Indeed, you will be using your phone as a PC. “Our data is already on the device, but it’s also synced to the cloud,” wrote UX expert, Avi Barel, on Medium last year. “So, it’s only natural to use our smartphones as desktop computers whenever we need to be productive and get the job done.”

Just like the IoT (Internet of Things) platform war that came before (or, for readers of an older vintage, VHS vs. Betamax), a handful of tech firms are seeking to establish their product as the de facto market leader. So far, Samsung has edged ahead with DeX – a Dock or Pad that transforms the newest Samsung devices into desktop PCs. Both boast Bluetooth

> “It’s only natural to use our smartphones as desktop computers whenever we need to be productive and get the job done” – Avi Barel, UX Expert

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> “I’m predicting that, by 2025, voicebots will become so prevalent, so powerful, and so useful in all areas of business and our personal lives that we won’t need smartphones anymore” – John Brandon, technology journalist for Inc 50

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CLOUD COMPUTING mouse and keyboard connectivity, access to various Android apps, plus all the usual ports, with the device itself a functioning phone charger.

Even more impressively, the DeX Pad, launched at Mobile World Congress in February, sees Samsung’s new S9 double up as a touchpad.

There are various alternatives.

Huawei Mate 10, for example, enables ‘PC Mode’ merely with a cable from phone to monitor. ASUS PadFone and Razer Project Linda use a slotted smartphone to power, respectively, a tablet and laptop (something that, if rumours and a 2015 patent are to be believed, Apple’s development nerds may well be flirting with).

And then there’s Microsoft’s Continuum for Windows 10, which pre-dates DeX and, like Samsung’s offering, allows your phone to run Office on one screen, while still accepting calls and texts on your smartphone. Problem is, to utilise Continuum, your phone will have to be made by Windows, which itself cuts to the core of the phone-PC issue.

There is not, and almost certainly never will be, a shared ecosystem for these pioneering products to coexist.

It’s something that will either see one

tech giant crowned king or, as with the long-awaited (yet thus far unfounded) smart home boom, all labour along with limited cut-through. Users, as often is the case nowadays, will see themselves handcuffed into brand loyalty, for little more justification than a yearning for an OS that works across all their high-priced gadgetry.

Mixed reality Although a 2017 study revealed 60% of organisations in the US, UK and Canada still used desktops as their primary device, a push to streamline operations could well see businesses bid farewell to row upon row of chunky keyboards and base units, pairing smartphones with cigarettepack-sized projectors instead. Fire up your virtual keyboard and, voila, any flat surface is now your desk.

Dave Sobel, Senior Director of MSP Evangelism at SolarWinds MSP, notes that while “laser projected keyboard and portable smartphone projectors haven’t quite made it beyond trade show floors to mainstream use” thus far, “the killer app that hasn’t been built yet is the desk that allows you to put your phone on the table, and the table becomes your interface and 51

CLOUD COMPUTING

display.” With the steady integration of virtual and augmented reality into mainstream culture – not to mention modern, click-free smartphones ridding the consumer’s need for real world keys – this may not be too far from becoming the new normal.

In September 2017, Microsoft had a patent granted for a “holographic keyboard display”, which would utilise a virtual keyboard plane to read a user’s gestures to simulate typing. What’s more, the patent describes a “HMD [head-mounted display] device” which, invariably, means the inevitable redux of smartglasses.

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Although Google Glass unquestionably tanked the first time around, smartglasses are primed to make a valiant comeback. From $2.3bn in 2016, investment in both AR and VR is tipped to hit $162bn by 2020. Physical offices, let alone PCs, might be rendered obsolete. The personal computer as we once knew it could, in theory, live inside a pair of virtual spectacles, with a worker navigating it 100% with hand gestures.

VR headsets will also allow transcontinental conferences to seamlessly take place, with colleagues that are thousands of physical miles apart sitting side by side in a meeting.

> ‘In September 2017, Microsoft had a patent granted for a Holographic keyboard display”, which would utilise a virtual keyboard plane to read a user’s gestures to simulate typing’

Distant future But, of course, today’s innovation is tomorrow’s ancient history. While they could soon elbow the PCs out from of our offices and into obsolescence, some experts are predicting the smartphone itself could be rendered extinct within a decade.

“I’m predicting that, by 2025, voicebots will become so prevalent, so powerful, and so useful in all areas of business and our personal lives that we won’t need smartphones anymore,” John Brandon boldly wrote in Inc last October.

Yes – Alexa, Siri, Google, Cortana and co, they’re intent on making your

iPhone utterly useless. Because why bother typing out that tweet, email, or even brewing yourself a cup of coffee when your digital assistant could do it for you, faster and better?

Redefine office technology The traditional desktop computer is not quite dead, though you could make a very persuasive argument that it’s currently on life support. The steady integration of PC-optimised smartphones (and vice versa) will be the gentle primer to what will undoubtedly redefine office technology. From there, it might just redraw what a workplace even is.

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Top 10 enter software com Wr it ten by H A R RY ME N E A R

rprise mpanies

A look at the world’s top 10 enterprise software companies ranked by revenue.

All figures are according to the Forbes Global 2000 and listed in USD

09 10 AMADEUS IT FISERV INC GROUP

Based in Madrid, the Amadeus IT Group reported a net revenue of $4.95bn in 2017, representing a growth in sales of over $0.6bn yearover-year. The company provides transaction processing solutions to the global travel and tourism industry, including full service carriers, lowcost airlines, hotels, rail operators, cruise and ferry operators, car rental companies and tour operators, travel agencies, both online and offline, according to Forbes. In addition to financial services, Amadeus IT also provides technology support solutions to its customer base.

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Wisconsin-based software company Fiserv Inc. provides electronic financial services, including the processing of electronic payments, account management, and cash management and consulting services to banks, thrifts, and credit unions.

The company reported a net revenue of $5.5bn in 2017. This represents a 10-year high point in sales for the company; its asset portfolio and annual profits also increased, to nine-year high points. The company’s management continues to execute strategy with 32 years of consecutive double-digit EPS growth, according to Seeking Alpha.

ADOBE SYSTEMS

08 07 HCL

Located in San Jose, California, digital marketing and media solutions company Adobe Systems reported a net revenue of $6.1bn in 2017, representing an increase in sales of over $1bn; revenue, asset portfolio size, and profits all reached a 10-year high. The company offers creative cloud services, providing access to its products, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe InDesign, as well as utilise other tools, such as Adobe Acrobat, according to Forbes.

TECHNOLOGIES

Indian IT services company, HCL Technologies reported a net revenue of $6.27bn in 2017. This represents a growth in sales of over $0.3bn yearover-year, bringing total revenue to a ten-year high point. The company provides holistic, multi-service delivery in the financial services, manufacturing, consumer services, public services and healthcare industries.

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05 06 SALESFORCE.COM

VMWARE SPECIALISES

Based in Palo Alto, California, VMware specialises in the development and application of virtualisation technologies with x86 server-based computing, separating application software from the underlying hardware, according to Forbes. The company reported a net revenue of $7.09bn in 2017, representing an increase in sales of over $0.3bn year-over-year. Last month, Dell CEO, Michael Dell, confirmed rumours that the sales company is in negotiations to merge with VMware later this year.

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INC

San Francisco-based company Salesforce.com inc. reported a net revenue of $8.39bn in 2017. This represents a more than $1.5bn growth in sales year-over-year, with the company also experiencing a return to profit ($179.6mn) after a five-year period of net losses. Salesforce. com specialises in customer relation management, providing services ranging from sales force automation, customer service and support, and marketing automation, to digital commerce, community management, analytics, application development, IoT integration, collaborative productivity tools and professional cloud services.

CDW

04 03 SAP

Illinois-based software company CDW provides information technology services to private corporations, government agencies, education, and healthcare institutions, according to Forbes.

The company reported a net revenue of $13.98bn in 2017, representing a sales growth of just under $1bn year-to-year. In addition to steady revenue growth over the eight-year period, CDW continues a return to profitability after consecutive negative profits in 2012, 2013, and 2014. With 8,516 registered employees, CDW is the smallest job creator on the top 10 list.

German software company SAP reported a net revenue of $24.41bn in 2017, making it the largest software company in Europe. This represents a $1.1bn increase in revenue year over year, bringing sales to a 10-year high point. The company provides enterprise application software and software-related services worldwide, according to Forbes. Last month, SAP announced a $2.4bn acquisition of US software sales firm Callidus to boost revenues from its cloud platform. CEO Bill McDermott said it would streamline its overall business this year to bolster margins, Reuters reports.

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02 “With 136,000 employees, Oracle is the largest employer in the top 10�

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With 136,000 employees, Oracle is the largest employer in the top 10. Based in Redwood City, California, the software giant specialises in enterprise software and computer hardware products and services, according to Forbes.

Oracle reported a net revenue of $37.43bn in 2017, representing a less than $0.25bn increase over the previous financial year, making this the smallest instance of sales growth experienced by a company in the top 10. However, Oracle achieved this small growth (along with a $100mn growth in profits) in the face of a massive, $20bn expansion of its asset portfolio.

“World software leader Microsoft reported a net revenue of $85.27bn, representing a $1.2bn decrease in sales year-over-year�

World software leader Microsoft reported a net revenue of $85.27bn, representing a $1.2bn decrease in sales year-over-year. However, the company reported an increase in profits of over $6.5bn, the largest growth in the 10-year period.

Microsoft revenue in 2018 has returned to growth, with cloud services continuing to boost Office revenues, as revenues grew by nearly 10% to $7bn.

LinkedIn revenues grew by 475% to $1.3bn, according to Forbes.

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E V E N T S & A S S O C I AT I O N S

Events The biggest and best events and conferences from around the world‌ Writ te n by AN D R E W WOO DS

E V E N T S & A S S O C I AT I O N S

RSA Conference 2018

Moscone Centre, San Francisco, USA 16-20 April An opportunity to learn about new approaches to info security and discover the latest technology and interact with top security leaders and pioneers. Hands-on sessions, keynotes and informal gatherings allow you to tap into a smart, forward-thinking global community that will inspire and www.rsaconference.com/events/us18

Blockchain Expo 2018 Olympia, London, UK 18-19 April

Arriving at London’s Olympia on 18-19 April 2018, Blockchain Expo brings together industry leaders for two days of world-class content from leading brands embracing and developing cutting edge blockchain technologies. Blockchain Expo is expected to attract over 6,000 dedicated blockchain delegates over the two days. Presented in a series of top-level keynotes, interactive panel discussions and solutionbased case studies with a focus on learning and building partnerships in the emerging blockchain space, Blockchain Expo will explore the industries that are set to be disrupted the most by this new technology.

These include manufacturing, retail, financial services, legal, healthcare, insurance, energy, music, government, real estate and more. www.blockchain-expo.com/global/

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IP Expo, Manchester

Manchester Central, Manchester, UK 25-26 April The event showcases brand new exclusive content and senior level insights from across the industry, as well as unveiling the latest developments in IT. IP EXPO Manchester now incorporates six events under one roof including: Cloud & IoT, Cyber Security Manchester, Networks & Infrastructure , Data & Analytics, DevOps and AI. www.ipexpomanchester.com

infoShare

Gdansk, Poland 22-23 May Every year infoShare brings together thousands of people looking for a platform to learn, connect and evolve. Developers, startuppers, investors, executives, innovation leaders, marketers, and media who want to explore the world of technology. “infoShare is where you can share your story and make your ideas happen. Here you will find knowledge and inspiration, form meaningful relations and create a truly innovative technological society.” www.infoshare.pl

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E V E N T S & A S S O C I AT I O N S

Machine Intelligence Summit Hong Kong 6-7 June

Discover advances in machine learning and smart artificial intelligence from the world’s leading innovators. Learn from the industry experts in speech and image recognition, neural networks and big data. MIS will explore how machine intel will impact communications, manufacturing, healthcare and transportation. The summit will showcase the opportunities of advancing trends in machine learning and their impact on business and society. 30 speakers, 250 leading technologists and innovators, as well as workshops, seminars and debates. www.re-work.co/events/machine-intelligence-summit-hong-kong-2018

The AI Summit

Kensington Palace, London, UK 12-14 June Join 10,000-plus visitors, 3,000-plus delegates, 300-plus speakers at The AI Summit London – devoted to helping business cope with the fourth industrial revolution. Now in its third year, the world’s first and largest conference and exhibition to look at the practical implications of AI for enterprise organisations, the actual solutions that are transforming business productivity, the AI Summit aims to help the business leader, data scientist, engineer successful implementing their AI projects. www.theaisummit.com/london/ 68

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E V E N T S & A S S O C I AT I O N S

CeBIT 2018

Hannover Fairground, Hannover, Germany 11-15 June CeBIT is the largest and most internationally represented computer expo with 100,000-plus attendees and 3,000 exhibitors. CeBIT is a show and a conference programme for professionals that defines the latest trends, presents talks by high-calibre speakers and forwardlooking panel discussions, and showcases product innovations from all over the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to be in the spotlight at CEBIT in June of 2018. “AI is certainly one of the most exciting developments of our times, and one that is on the verge of revolutionizing our personal and professional lives. In fact, AI literally has the potential to change the world – reason enough for it to be featured in a big way at the upcoming CEBIT,” said Oliver Frese, the Deutsche Messe Managing Board member in charge of CEBIT. www.cebit.de/home

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‘The Webit Festival is the European edition of the Global Webit Series including speakers and representatives from European Commission, WTO and the Global Commission on Internet Governance’ WEBIT Festival Sofia, Bulgaria 26-27 June

The Webit Festival is the European edition of the Global Webit Series including speakers and representatives from European Commission, WTO and the Global Commission on Internet Governance as well as many tech and business leaders. Topics of discussion will include smart cities, cyber security and AI. The winners of the Webit Awards 2018 will also be announced. www.webit.bg

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Integrating data, boosting

connectivity Written by Catherine Sturman Produced by Kiron Chavda

Chief Information Officer Lutz Beck discusses how Daimler Trucks Asia is working to drive connectivity across the commercial vehicle industry and to transform it into a data driven organisation

H

ousing an envied and world-class reputation, Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA) has cemented its presence as a leader in manufacturing and transportation.

An integral subsidiary of manufacturer Daimler AG, the organisation has worked to transform its existing business model and diversify its portfolio, developing new products and services to sell to its customers in an ever-growing industry.

However, in order for this to happen, its core vision has remained clear – to drive connectivity.

“At DTA, we want to lead the commercial vehicle industry into the future and be number one in quality, innovation, customer satisfaction and places to work. We want to connect everything,” explains Chief Information Officer Lutz Beck.

“Our transformation is ongoing on an organisational level, but we are in the midst of a cultural change as well.”

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Lutz Beck

Chief Information Officer

Lutz Beck, currently CIO for Daimler Trucks Asia / Mitsubishi FUSO Truck & Bus, is a business savvy, and result driven Senior Executive with extensive international leadership experience and a can-do attitude. A problem solver, analytical thinker and pioneer able to manage critical and complex transformations with an innovative approach to get the job done. He has benchmarking experience working in large multinational companies in the automotive industry and led and motivated large global teams to achieve target outcomes. Beck is global and a leading key player having worked across multiple regions and cultures in the fields of digital strategy and transformation, business process re-engineering and improvement, project and program management, SAP template implementation, system landscape renewal and innovation technology management. A true expert on the international scene and digital forefront, motivating and a sensational leader pushing those around him to new heights.

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A DEEPER PERSPECTIVE.

For DTA to be able to achieve its vision of leading the commercial vehicle industry through the power of data, disruption is not only inevitable, it’s mandatory. “We need to use all the technologies and innovations available to redefine our business model,” DTA CIO Beck notes.

“We have to be a disruptor in the industry and disrupt our own company to prepare it for the future.”

The road less travelled.

Quality management steps into the spotlight.

80% of these recalls could have been detected in advance based on the historical data patterns.

That disruption began in an unlikely place, one that wasn’t well known for its innovation - quality management. Its department head Michael Moebius admits that what it lacked in futureforward thinking, it made up for in data. Data filters through quality management from over 150 countries, but its conventional analysis system was outdated and relied on siloed internal sources captured through traditional means.

As a result, quality and safety issue identification and investigation times were reactive, and focused on historical analysis after the problems had already matured. This long and sometimes inaccurate process yielded high warranty costs and delayed recalls.

Solidifying a futureforward foundation.

While the quality management department had access to a wealth of data, it didn’t necessarily know how to analyse it most efficiently. Beck confirms: “We were collecting data, but not using it in a way in which you could make decisions or create business models out of it.”

This gap in skills highlighted a key area of attention for Beck, who believes that the foundation for everything within a company is its people. It was this desire to lay the correct foundation for DTA’s digital transformation that led to the relationship with Deloitte. Ashwin Patil, Deloitte Consulting LLP Managing Director for Global Manufacturing Analytics, remembers: “We were able to gather folks from strategy, cloud, digital tech, data scientists—we brought key people to the table to help drive this.”

The power of collaboration First, Deloitte analysed all of the available data from 45 of the last major DTA recalls. This included structured data like metrics correlated with its vehicles to unstructured data, such as call centre records, warranty claims, dealer and technician comments and social media engagement. Based on this combined analysis, Deloitte discovered that

The opportunity to look even further into the future became possible with the introduction of live data through DTA’s launch of Fuso Super Great, its first connected truck and foray into the internet of things (IoT). As the truck is driving, geographical data and data from the vehicle’s system like oil pressure, coolant temperature and battery voltage is combined with the historical data, providing DTA with the insight to see the overall health situation of a truck. According to Moebius, this proprietary cognitive system, dubbed “proactive sensing”, enables DTA to implement “predictive intelligent maintenance and service planning, which ultimately helps us get ahead”.

The success of Daimler Trucks Asia and Deloitte’s proactive sensing project hinged on the teams’ desire to function as an innovative client relationship. They embraced the “flavor of a startup”, where constructive criticism flowed freely, enhanced by regular meetings at the staff and management levels to create an open environment for questions and ideas. Deloitte also took a second look at DTA’s internal resources and developed skill profiles to identify gaps in capabilities.

Smarter insights, stronger outcomes.

The proactive sensing project is expected to save DTA $8mn in warranty costs during the first 24 months and even more in recall costs. The system is also able to predict and prioritise quality issues 13 months ahead of its previous process, which helps keep customers on the road with less downtime.

“By doing this project, we were able to generate awareness for data at a management level,” Beck states. “The project helped us shape an overall business case for the big data topic. Now everyone wants to have it.

The whole company is pushing for it.”

The journey for DTA doesn’t stop here, however. The constant cycle of disruption continues, not only for the organisation and the industry, but also for the ever-changing world that is becoming increasingly reliant on connectivity, data and the internet of things.

avasudevan@tohmatsu.co.jp | Ajai Vasudevan,

Director Automotive, Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting

DAIMLER AG

Connected X Driven by its senior leaders, DTA’s digital strategy, Connected X, has seen the organisation overhaul its outdated infrastructure and application landscape. By deconstructing its back-end and legacy systems, DTA has rebuilt its internal processes through the use of new technologies, enabling it to move into an increasingly digital world based on a new digital foundation.

“By transforming into a datadriven organisation, the key aspects will be how we work with data and how we understand the data,” observes Beck. “Integrating all data is also in accordance with our

overall Daimler Truck Asia strategy.

“We defined our Connected X strategy based on three pillars – product, process, people – in a bid to drive Daimler Trucks Asia towards a data driven organisation and connect everything by fully utilising the Internet of Things (IoT),” he continues. “We needed to work on core elements such as digital products and services, data driven and modern methods and skill sets.

(Right) Daimler’s new, smart E-FUSO Vision One model

“By transforming into a data-driven organisation, the key aspects will be how we work with data and how we understand the data” – Lutz Beck - Chief Information Officer

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“On the product side we are focusing on improving new as well as existing production sites and vehicles by digital enabling them.

On the process side, we work on efficiencies through automation and robotics. On the people side, we

Data-driven technologies The need to collect and enhance all data has been essential throughout DTA’s aim to enable the business units to perform data driven decision-making and innovations. The combination of Truck

VIDEO: Deloitte Client Spotlight Daimler Trucks Asia

started to train, renew and scale up the team, bringing a combination of traditional IT skills and new digital skills which are required to run such complex transformations.

“There are not many companies in our industry that are doing this in such a way, so we have become a frontrunner in terms of digitalisation.”

connectivity and analytics helped the organisation in quality management (QM) processes to unlock saving potentials and business value.

By collaborating with Microsoft and Deloitte, DTA has integrated its internal data, as well as its external data received from both its sites and connected trucks. The ability to gain

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By collaborating with Microsoft and Deloitte, DTA has integrated its internal data, as well as its external data received from both its sites and connected trucks

VIDEO: Cognitive Technology in the real world of Daimler Trucks Asia

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real-time data has therefore enabled the development of new solutions and delivered significant cost savings across the board.

“There is nothing which we are doing which is not giving us either internal benefits or new business opportunities,” adds Beck.

“I do not have cases where we do not have savings or additional revenue streams achieved by introducing new technology.”

One key example is the development of DTA’s proactive sensing analytics.

Built in partnership with Deloitte, the two companies analysed a large number of QM information surrounding the health of DTA’s trucks. Through this, the companies found a number of patterns in the high volume of data received, paving the way for a solution to be developed.

Through proactive sensing, DTA is now able to detect issues in advance, reducing downtime and increasing the safety of its vehicles through predictive intelligent maintenance.

“It doesn’t matter if you talk about big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning or deep learning, all these new ideas are helping us to be number one in quality, innovations and customer satisfaction while being more efficient and more cost-effective,” notes Beck.

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DAIMLER AG

Mitsubishi Fuso has also developed and launched the all-electric light-duty truck eCanter which is in seriesproduction since last year, as well as the concept heavy-duty truck, E-FUSO Vision One. Developed from feedback received from customers, the E-FUSO brand will open doors to the development of further connected, electric-powered vehicles across DTA’s fleet, and will also work to reduce emissions whilst strengthening its position in the market.

Experimental technologies Although the organisation has worked to invest in new technologies and extend its areas of innovation, the need to mitigate potential risks within its IT operations has never been more important. Enhancing its cybersecurity has therefore become a key focus within DTA’s digital strategy, and a team has been established to proactively manage security patterns across its manufacturing operations.

Interestingly, the organisation is also looking at other ways to transform its production capabilities through the

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increased use of new technologies (such as robotics) and defined the concept of the Factory of the Future based on Industry 4.0 principles.

“If I look at the production, we can use much more automation and robotics in the manufacturing space. We are on the way to connect wherever possible our robots in order to collect real-time data, and based on that take real time decisions on predictive maintenance and other topics,” explains Beck.

“Secondly, when we are looking into our office environment, there is a lot of automation and efficiency gains which are made possible by using robotics. Therefore, we are looking at how we can gain further efficiency in the office environment through the use of robotics and are looking at automating processes which today are paper-based.”

DTA is therefore undertaking increased experimental research in using robots for specific topics. For instance, it is also utilising famous Japanese robot Pepper to look at ways in which it can boost efficiencies.

ASIA

“We defined our Connected X strategy based on three pillars – product, process, people – in a bid to drive Daimler Trucks Asia towards a data driven organization and connect everything by fully utilising the Internet of Things (IoT)” – Lutz Beck - Chief Information Officer w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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“It doesn’t matter if you talk about bi artificial intelligence, machine learn deep learning, all these new ideas are us to be number one in quality, innov and customer satisfaction while b more efficient and more cost-effect – Lutz Beck - Chief Information Officer

ig data, ning or helping vations being tive�

CASE STUDY How Daimler Trucks Asia utilised data-driven insights to proactively change the course of the entire organisation

DAIMLER AG

The power of collaboration By collaborating with Microsoft and Deloitte, DTA has integrated its internal data, as well as its external data received from both its sites and connected trucks

Proactive sensing technology has enabled DTA to detect potential issues up to a year in advance

The E-FUSO brand will open doors to the development of further connected, electricpowered vehicles across DTA’s fleet

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Competitive edge Through blending traditional ways of working with new ideas and technologies, DTA’s working culture and subsequent development and training of employees, has consequently undergone significant change.

“We are continuing to upscale our existing people in new technologies. This is an ongoing task which we do internally and with external support,” notes Beck.

“We also looked at the skillset in the market and employed people who had the required skill sets and brought them into the company. We have now built up skills on analytics, artificial intelligence and virtual and mixed reality. We are also taking on new people for our connectivity platform and for our connectivity for our trucks.”

It is clear that DTA will continue to disrupt the commercial vehicle industry, where it will seek to develop increasingly connected, tech-driven products and services for its customers. However, speed will remain essential in such a competitive space.

“This is a challenge, but we want to take that challenge and see how we can move forward and combine these elements with the new technologies coming in for our customers and for our organisation,” concludes Beck.

“We will need to see how we can further use technology to transform the organisation, our business model and how it will enable us to create new business services in the future.”

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The digitisation of wealth management Written by Dale Benton Produced by James Pepper

Through the creation of a Chief Digital Officer role, Noah Holdings embarks on an ambitious digital transformation strategy

“

The wealth management space is a pretty niche segment of the financial industry. Couple that with digital, which right now is one of the more popular areas of IT and technology, and what I’m doing with the company is going deeper and deeper into the cross-section between financial institutions, and technology,” says Ronald Fung, Chief Digital Officer at Noah Holdings.

Noah is currently undergoing a digital transformation, implementing new technology and innovation to better understand and ultimately better serve its customers.

Fung was brought into Noah in 2017 to oversee this transformational journey, bringing with him significant experience working in the financial technology space. It is this experience that provided Fung with a greater understanding of how technology

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and the role of digital has grown significantly over the last decade.

“In the past, the role of IT has always been more of a back office one, with a focus on process automation and making things cheaper, faster and more efficient,” he says. “Over the last 10 years, technology has actually moved right to the point in which it now reaches out to customers directly.

“Nowadays in the financial sector, you cannot split between whether technology is a supporting tool or the driver of the business itself.”

Historically, wealth management has been a predominantly very human, face to face-oriented industry. That human interaction has always come first, with data collection and technology coming second.

Fung’s role as Chief Digital Officer provides him with two core objectives for Noah.

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Ronald Fung Chief Digital Officer

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The first objective, leveraging big data “It’s about looking to better understand our customers and our clients through data, learning about how we work with them and becoming better each and every time,” he says.

The second objective is a little broader, tasked with bringing in and developing innovative technologies into the wealth management space.

“Innovative technology in the past has never really been the core focus, because applying the so-called ‘fancy gadgets’ is usually

“Nowadays in the financial sector, you cannot split between whether technology is a suppor ting tool or the driver of the business itself ” – Ronald Fung Chief Digital Officer

something that wasn’t really seen in the wealth management space,” Fung says. “But this is something that is happening more and more across the financial industry.”

As technology and the role of IT continues to expand beyond the traditional mindset of it being more of a supporting tool, more and more companies are beginning to feel a sense of pressure to implement certain technologies in order to keep up with competitors.

This, Fung believes, is a fatal flaw as it is important to understand exactly what technology can

ASIA

be applied and how it can actually better drive growth.

“At this point there are certain technologies that are just not applicable to the wealth management space, so it’s very important that I understand this and have a judgement of when the best time is to bring it into the business,” he says.

“In the financial industry, everything is number driven and so you have to be able to justify technology from a business case.”

Fung avoids implementing technology for technology’s sake by looking at it from a clear

perspective – the criticality.

When looking at the criticality of technology, Fung accepts that some technology is 100% critical and that not implementing it now will set the company far behind any competitors in the near future.

“You wouldn’t have a ticket to play in this game anymore,” he says.

One such example of critical technology is data and the leveraging of client information. Due to the very human nature of wealth management, this creates relationship managers that have a personal and clear understanding of clients and their

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“In terms of how we can apply these innovative technologies and how we leverage data to make our service better, make our product better and to have an ecosystem in making all things smooth, for all parties I’d say we are still at a very, very early stage” – Ronald Fung, Chief Digital Officer

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needs. This presents a situation where one could argue that there is no need for technology when the process is smoothly in place.

“The problem then becomes a matter of “you don’t know what you don’t know”, someone from the blind spot may be able to utilise big data or AI and creating a much clearer understanding of your clients,” says Fung. “Because they have such a deep understanding of your client, then they could completely take over your business and put you out of the game.”

As technology has continued to transform the industry, dictating the direction and strategic thinking or organisations such as Noah Holdings, how has the customer changed with it? With more and more technology advancements, providing more power to the customer, how has this changed the way in which Noah must respond to customers?

“Clients have been exposed to more and more technology in recent years and so they are now demanding more technology touch points and more convenient and

direct interaction with us,” says Fung.

“In fact, what this has done is enable the conversation surrounding technology to happen more frequently and to be more informed. Now, when we discuss technology, the expectation is much more realistic – we understand what technology can and cannot do in terms of supporting clients.

As those clients have changed, it’s definitely helped educate us as a business much quicker.”

Now in the second year of this digital strategy, Fung can already begin to look back on key successes achieved along the way. One of the biggest changes has been one of its strategy focus, in which Noah Holdings places greater emphasis on leveraging technology in delivering client impact. One such example is the role of Chief Digital Officer itself.

“We may be the only one in the industry to have a Chief Digital Officer,” he says. “and the key here is how Noah enables this role to introduce innovation like robo advisory and big data.”

In just one short year, Fung has

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already seen a huge shift in the business, looking to technology as a means of enabling far greater service and understanding for its clients. As he looks to the future growth of the company, he admits that there is still a long way to go.

“In terms of how we can apply these innovative technologies and how we leverage data to make our service better, make our product better and to have an ecosystem in making all things smooth for all parties, I’d say we are still at a very, very early stage,” he says.

“There is so much we can do as a business, for the business and, ultimately, for our clients.”

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Ronald at a company event

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INS PRO SER AT

SIDE IT AND OCUREMENT RVICES

Written by Catherine Sturman Produced by Kiron Chavda

DDB WORLDWIDE

Many companies are now exploring the advantages of utilising cloud technology. DDB’s Regional IT Director Wayne Moy saw its potential nearly a decade ago, and explains how the advertising firm continues to provide increased flexibility for its customers

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stablished back in the 1940s, multinational corporation (MNC) DDB Worldwide has become one of the oldest (and largest) advertising holding companies worldwide. Its strong brand reputation and work with both international brands, such as McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Exxon Mobil and Unilever, and national brands across Asia has enabled the firm to deliver innovative, personalised products and services to its clients on a global scale.

Working in the TV industry for a decade, Regional IT Director Wayne Moy joined DDB with the aim to overhaul the company’s fragmented IT infrastructure. Whilst it remains essential for DDB to adapt

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to different working cultures as a global enterprise, its operations are also influenced by the emergence of new digital tools and solutions.

“Many companies are moving towards the cloud. A decade ago, people in IT were very hesitant. I was laughed at for putting email on the cloud eight years ago, because people were claiming this to be insecure, but nowadays, if you don’t put your email on the cloud, you will be laughed at,” explains Moy. “Another area of global focus is IT security. People are increasingly conscious because it’s becoming costly for businesses, if their data is breached. IT security may be expensive, but a company’s reputation

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“Many companies are moving towards the cloud.

A decade ago, people in IT were very hesitant. I was laughed at for putting email on the cloud eight years ago, because people were claiming this to be insecure, but nowadays, if you don’t put your email on the cloud, you will be laughed at” Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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Veeam® delivers Availability for the Always-On Enterprise™.

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is priceless. It’s also very difficult space. With departments purchasing to hire people in this particular their own systems to undertake area, as it’s in high demand and similar functions, Moy worked to there is a significant skills gap. standardise DDB’s IT infrastructure “Additionally, there is an opportunity and procurement capabilities across in advertising for artificial intelligence its Asia operations with the support (AI) and machine learning,” continues of its parent company, Omnicom.

Moy. “Whilst AI solves “Standardisation has problems like humans, helped get us gain machine learning bigger discounts is understanding for procurement, ‘DDB has a pattern, as we’re one big partnered which we can global company with VEEAM apply to how when purchasing to support consumers equipment, its disaster consume services or recovery products or systems. We also strategy’ services. see what is going on “Lastly, there in the world in other are opportunities in offices,” comments Moy. big data, which is being “Our standardisation used by Google and Facebook. It has also helped our IT teams focus targets different types of advertising on technical skills. Members are depending on the consumer.” able to be trained faster, reducing issues with compatibility.”

Cloud implementation Having moved DDB’s email systems Upon joining DDB, Moy found that a into the cloud, Moy has also migrated number of its operations were siloed, its office apps and company data. particularly within the procurement “Migrating our global apps to

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the cloud has enabled global access,” he says. “We don’t have to be worried about owning equipment, as it’s in a local data centre. Also, cloud technology helps us with business continuity.

“We’re very flexible and fast to offer services. We have the technical skills because we are limited on standardisation and infrastructure to certain brands.”

Enhanced flexibility Throughout DDB’s cloud transformation, multiple cloud

Video: The Link ‘Guide Dog’ DDB Group Hong Kong

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platforms have been implemented to enable the business to utilise both public and private clouds, providing further choice and flexibility to its clients.

Whilst Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has been instrumental to DDB’s infrastructure overhaul, the use of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft’s Office 365, Office Suite, email, and Azure, as well as Adobe, has seen the company’s operations become strengthened throughout the region.

“Clients tend to inform us of the

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cloud platform they prefer, which could be due to policy compliance or other preferential conditions where they need to use a particular cloud provider,” observes Moy. “If this is not the case, we will choose the platform which could be one where we have the most clients and have increased visibility.”

However, not all applications are placed in DDB’s cloud systems, as downloading large files would become increasingly timeconsuming. Large files are still archived to the cloud for backup.

Financial and client data is kept locally according to local compliance issues and for financial reporting, which needs to be generated at a rapid pace with minimal delay.

“Our Creative division completes artwork, photography or video. These files are over a gigabyte in size. This group therefore works with these files locally and they are housed locally.

It could take an hour to download such files from the cloud,” says Moy. However, the company’s latest project surrounds its disaster

‘DDB has worked with McDonald’s, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, Wrigley, and Unilever in the Asia Pacific region’

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“We have some countries, China for example, where laws dictate that private data cannot be stored outside of the country. We are therefore required to look for internal Chinese providers which will keep the data in China�

Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB

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recovery and backup strategy.

Partnering with Veeam, DDB is harnessing its software when taking snapshots of virtual machines (VMs), which also filters into DDB’s business continuity solution.

“VM snapshots are stored locally and they are quickly recovered if needed. We also store a copy of those VMs in the cloud and Veeam supports us in doing that,” says Moy. “These snapshots can be spun up in the cloud during disaster recovery (DR). If there’s a disaster in the local office, we are able to spin up the VMs in the cloud, where our data is also backed up for quick recovery. The cloud is our DR site.

This saves costs in actually creating and maintaining a DR site.”

Complex privacy laws Whilst Moy remains heavily involved in all projects which require IT operations across DDB’s Asia Pacific division, he acknowledges that the company will face a number of challenges surrounding the increased need for digital security, in order for the

business to comply with various governmental privacy laws.

“IT helps the business with all the systems, applications, and infrastructure including the cloud services, and also helps the business units relating to digital services,” he says.

“We have some countries, China for example, where laws dictate that private data cannot be stored outside of the country. We are therefore required to look for internal Chinese providers which will keep the data in China.

“Having a provider within the country helps with the privacy law and also with the speed and robustness of the product that’s being marketed,” Moy continues.

“These are all new laws which were not in place 20 years ago – this is on a global scale. In May, the General Data Protection Regulations in the European Union are set to shift, and we have to keep catching up with different laws in different areas. Are we going to move the data out?

How are we going to handle this?

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“Machine learning is an opportunity that we should invest time in because advertising in the traditional sense is slowly declining” Wayne Moy, Regional IT Director, DDB

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It’s quite a challenge for us.”

Additionally, DDB works with a significant number of financial and insurance companies, which request that the DDB’s IT team complies with the individual internal company data security compliance policies which each company houses,” adding another layer of complexity.

Strong team Despite this, DDB’s operations are underpinned by an exceptional workforce. At senior level, weekly meetings with influential management figures from across the business enable the company to discuss key issues which will impact DDB’s operations, both nationally and internationally.

“Everyone’s involved, even finance and procurement. We handle issues and talk about projects that are global,” notes Moy. On the ground, Moy expresses immense pride in his team and observes that it is one of the main drivers behind his long-term tenure at DDB.

“I work with a very good regional team. They are very dedicated to their roles and their work ethic is impeccable. The global IT management team includes great people and it’s a pleasure to work with them,” he says.

“I think the most important thing is that we listen to each other.

Listening is not enough; we have to respond to what we listen to. This creates respect. We listen to all the

issues, we listen to all sides and then we respond. We talk about it.

We each give our recommendations on how to handle an issue and we respect each other’s comments or questions. It makes a very good team that collaborates well together.”

Future growth DDB is home to many clients and success stories and will continue to look at future areas of growth within

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Established in 1949, DDB is one of the oldest and largest advertisers in the world

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the digital space. New technologies will reshape traditional business models, and DDB will need to further adapt the ways in which it supports clients in marketing products and services to remain one of the most prestigious MNC’s in the world.

“The internet of things and machine learning are really two areas that we should tap into,” comments Moy. “Machine learning is an opportunity that we should invest time in because advertising in the traditional sense is slowly declining.

Less people are watching traditional TV. They are watching online media. When they’re online we can capture data of what they like and dislike and their viewing habits.

“We can gear towards marketing towards specific people with specific marketing.

There are many advertising companies in the world but what differentiates us from the rest is the services or products that we can provide that others do not.”

Moy concludes: “These technologies are opportunities where we can provide services that others do not, and we will take this opportunity to develop new products and services to offer our clients. This differentiates us from the rest of the pack.”

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EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO REDEFINE THE SINGAPOREAN INSURANCE INDUSTRY Written by Dale Benton Produced by James Pepper

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SINGAPORE LIFE

In less than one year of operating in the market, and having acquired Zurich Life Singapore’s expansive customer portfolio, Singapore Life continues to push the boundaries of technology in life insurance “Born in Singapore, we’re the next generation life insurance.”

So says the mission statement of Singapore Life, the new life insurance provider that everyone is talking about which promises to deliver a better experience to the customer through technology. Following the acquisition of Zurich Life’s Singapore arm in early 2018, the company is expanding its footprint aggressively and growing its customer base significantly.

In the ever-changing world of insurance, one that is being driven increasingly by technology, the promise to deliver value through technology is as important now as it has ever been.

According to Singapore Life CEO Walter de Oude, despite the

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rise of technology and artificial intelligence across the industry, particularly within Singapore, the old life insurance industry has not kept up with digital innovation.

Singapore Life, founded in 2014, and fully licensed in 2017 was built around such a window of opportunity.

“The insurance industry was fundamentally broken in my view,” says de Oude. “There were significant opportunities for customers to benefit from technology, opportunities that were not being explored.”

“And so that’s what we did. We set up Singapore Life to do just that, to explore the potential for what a new insurance company could do better, with all the power of today’s technological efficiency.”

Walter de Oude CEO Prior to establishing Singapore Life, Mr de Oude was CEO of HSBC Insurance Singapore from 2009 - 2014. Starting out as an actuary, there is very little that Mr de Oude does not know about insurance.

Carving his niche in the highnet worth insurance and wealth management space over the years, de Oude and the Singapore Life team is all set to bring Singapore Life to you – with a unique market proposition that sets the stage for the new age of insurance

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“At Singapore Life; we are focusing on where customers have not had the kind of experience they should have had and find ways of providing that through technology” Walter de Oude, CEO, Singapore Life Over the course of his career, de Oude has lived and breathed this changing financial landscape.

Having held executive roles in actuary and banking as well as asset management, de Oude developed an understanding of how larger organisations work and how they can do more for the customer.

“Most big organisations are not always 100% driven by what customers truly want,” he says.

“Of course, the customer is important, but many institutions tend to be more focused in serving the needs of the organisation first. If companies are able to find something in the best interest of the customer, then that’s a bonus.”

“At Singapore Life; we are focusing on where customers have not

had the kind of experience they should have had and find ways of providing that through technology.” de Oude believes that the financial customers have been underserviced, particularly when it comes to life insurance. Customers don’t really want to purchase life insurance, it’s a hassle and time consuming.

So, Singapore Life strives to make the process of getting and managing life insurance as simple as possible, using technology as a means of achieving that.

This, de Oude believes, will provide more measurable value for the customer.

“We take the efficiency of technology and we transfer it into better value for our customers,” he says. “It’s all about taking

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Video: Singapore Life welcomes Zurich Life Singapore

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out the hassle of traditional user journeys and providing easy access to the insurance product consumers need without the pain they would have previously experienced.�

Promising to provide ease of access, removing pain points and creating a seamless experience is one thing, but with technology comes its own unique challenges. As industries all around the world are transformed through digitisation, how has the life

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insurance customer changed with it? de Oude believes that in this digital age, the customer is more time constrained than ever before and organisations need to be able to respond effectively in order to succeed.

“Providing an easily accessible service in a trustworthy and efficient way is actually what people value, possibly even more so than a good price,” he says. “Customers have

previously been put off life insurance because of traditional practices in the industry. At Singapore Life, we have taken steps to empower our clients with enabled artificial intelligence to create an environment of unified ease and transparency.” de Oude points to the traditional method of obtaining life insurance that required a medical check-up from a pre-assigned list of approved doctors in the first instance – a process that

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The Singapore Life team has now been replaced by interactive smart technology that can understand complex medical information.

This, he feels, is turning the tide for life insurance customers. Singapore Life is removing the pain points in order to encourage customers to take the initiative to purchase life insurance.

Singapore Life was registered first and foremost as a technology company, obtaining the necessary licences along the way in order to become a technology focused insurance provider. Now in sixth month of retail operations, de Oude has overseen this technological shift and is

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the first to admit that with digitisation comes with its share of challenges, especially in an industry that he described as “fundamentally broken”.

“With technology there are risks.

The difference in today’s market is that it’s much more bite-sized whereas before, it was mired in paperwork and red tape,” he says.

“With today’s technologies, you have to be nimble. You have to look at it as a continuous optimisation process, and there is always room for evolution and change. At Singapore Life, we are constantly enhancing and improving. It’s all

about implementing new user experiences as we need them.”

As technology continues to define the industry, trends begin to emerge from organisation to organisation.

Artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data and automation are just a few of the “buzzword” technologies that continue to dominate the fintech conversation. de Oude recognises that while these technologies are becoming more prominent, it is important to understand and recognise that a company must not fall into a trap of implementing technology for technology’s sake.

For him and Singapore Life, the organisation will always look at how technology can provide true value for the most important stakeholder in the acquisition funnel: The customer.

“While technologies like blockchain do have some really solid solutions for businesses, at the end of the day, the customer doesn’t always see it and it may not provide additional benefit to customer,” he says. “So, our view on technology has been and will always remain, focus on

“Having the Zurich portfolio has helped us to accelerate some of the development work we’ve needed to do, which in turn has put us in a better position for the future” Walter de Oude CEO, Singapore Life

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the technology that actually makes a customer’s life simpler. Be that removing filling out traditional brick-and-mortar paperwork, or simply adding in more technology enabled touchpoints.” Blockchain hasn’t yet reached a maturity for demonstrating customer value adding use-cases yet.

Following the successful acquisition of the business portfolio of Zurich Life Singapore, which has seen Singapore Life become responsible for all of Zurich Life Singapore’s customer policies, totalling SGD$6 billion of coverage for life, critical illness and disability benefits. Singapore Life is now clearly on the map. As a growing company, the opportunity to significantly cement its footprint in Singapore was one that the company could not pass on. de Oude views the transaction as a true meeting of minds between the two companies, providing Singapore Life with a leap frog opportunity, accelerating the company’s scalability.

From a technology standpoint, de Oude believes that the acquisition will play a key role in expanding Singapore Life’s positioning in the market.

“Having the Zurich portfolio has helped us to accelerate some of the development work we’ve needed to do, which in turn has put us in a better position for the future,” he says. “The way in which we’ve integrated Zurich’s portfolio seamlessly is a testament to how good our technology actually is.”

That statement is proof that the company has

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“The way in w integrated Zu seamlessly is good our tec Walter de Oude CEO, Singapore Life

which we’ve urich’s portfolio s a testament to how chnology actually is”

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the technology and capability to serve such an expansive portfolio of customers, and ultimately defining Singapore Life as an insurer of choice across the market. de Oude believes that an acquisition of this scale in such a highly regulated market represents a level of trust in the organisation that will allow it to “play in the big leagues”.

This, for a company in its first year of operation, is no small feat.

“To me it shows that we are viewed as a solid custodian for the

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customers,” de Oude says, “and with that comes trust and support from Zurich, from the regulators and from the insurance industry.

That trust places Singapore Life as a viable, reputable insurance company, with all of the added benefits of our impeccable technology supporting our services.”

For Singapore Life, it’s been a journey of growth and success.

Success, de Oude is keen to stress, defined by the better ways in which it provides insurance products to

its ever-growing customer base.

But at what point is Singapore Life at exactly along this growth journey? 2018 represents a year of consolidation as the company continues to bring onboard the Zurich Life customers and develop its product range, which de Oude feels will place Singapore Life in good stead moving well into 2019 and beyond.

What that future holds for Singapore Life, is potential growth opportunities beyond Singapore.

“Singapore Life is able to bring

innovation and technology from Singapore’s financial service sector to the globe in an efficient way.”

“We’re actually only less than a year old, but we are incredibly ambitious. Because our technology is expandable, there is no reason to suggest we can’t take our existing capabilities and expand that to other regions, so that customers in those markets can also benefit from the services that Singapore Life provides.”

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Flying the flag for New York’s healthcare provision and education SUNY Downstate Medical Center revolutionised medical education by bringing the teaching of medicine to the hospital bedside – now it is transforming the sector again through digital transformation

Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Andy Turner

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he State University of New York Health Science Center, better known to locals as SUNY Downstate Medical Center, has consistently made its mark as one of the nation’s leading urban medical Centers.

“We are geographically located in an urban area and provide healthcare for an underserved community,” explains Dr. Dilip Nath, Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Officer.

“We are the only academic medical Center in Brooklyn. We provide education, research, and healing. We care about local people and we also offer students a world-class education in healthcare, nursing, and other medical related fields of study. Additionally, we offer leading research facilities and we house the first State BioTech incubator.

“Now the question is, how do we transform this and provide high-quality care that our community deserves?” he asks. “How do we maximise every dollar to provide excellent healthcare, training, and research?”

Healthcare for a digital age Nath’s answer is simple. SUNY Downstate Medical Center is leveraging technology to automate, modernise, and transform its healthcare services.

In doing so, the institution is the driving force for efficiency, business agility, and providing topclass healthcare to Brooklyn’s 2.6mn residents.

As an alumnus of the State University of New York himself, Nath’s devotion to the Institution is unquestionable.

The first of his family to relocate from Bangladesh to the United States, Nath has risen through the ranks from Director of IT, to Associate CIO, followed by Interim CIO, and finally to his current role today as AVP and Deputy CIO.

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Dilip Nath AVP and Deputy CIO

“It gives me an immense pleasure to give back to the organisation that I went to myself and which teaches and educates hundreds of thousands of students throughout the state�

A recognised technology leader known for driving a strategic plan to achieve business goals, Dilip Nath is an accomplished Higher Education and HealthCare industry executive with over 20 years of experience in driving IT solutions measured by successful ROI, operational improvement, and organisational development. As Deputy Chief Information Officer, he leads a high-performing and responsive IT department consisting of almost 100 employees, while aligning technology initiatives with business objectives.

Nath brings a unique background to any organisation through his bravery, commitment to community activism, continuous mentorship through 16 years of experience as an Adjunct Professor, to his unmeasurable success as an accomplished AVP & Deputy Chief Information Officer.

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As a result, he has an inherent computerized physician order entry appreciation of the institution’s digital (CPOE), enterprise resource planning capabilities and understands what is (ERP), cost accounting, revenue needed to take it to the next level. cycle, and ADT Systems. However, “It gives me an immense pleasure this is just the tip of the iceberg. to give back to the organization that I went to myself and which Data, cloud technology teaches and educates hundreds of and more thousands of students throughout SUNY Downstate Medical Center the state,” comments Nath. is now beginning the next Recognising the stage of its digital significance of digital transformation. transformation, Working with Nath has helped IT firm Presido, to design and the institution implement many is preparing to clinical and redesign its entire financial systems, network infrastructure Year Founded including financial to ready itself for the and statistical reports digital age of healthcare. which provided the hospital Such a modern network and academic administration needs a modern data Center and this with greater accessibility to is another technological feat which is patient’s financial records. going to help transform the healthcare What’s more, he also spearheaded and education enterprise, says Nath. the rollout of enterprise-wide Ensuring the uptime of missionapplications such as imaging critical operations is more important solutions and was instrumental in than ever with data Center downtime achieving meaningful use, rolling out costing around $8,000 per minute, electronic medical records (EMR), according to an in-depth study

1860

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by the Emerson Network Power and the Ponemon Institute.

This is something which SUNY Downstate Medical Center has taken on board and, as such, the medical Center is exploring the use of cloud technology.

“The next thing that we’re working on is taking the digital assets we currently have and morphing them into a private cloud solution,” says Nath.

“This will provide a private, encrypted

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connection from our campus to the private vendors that we are working with, such as GAVS Technologies.

“If the network goes down, almost everything is down. The whole productivity comes to a halt and so this cloud solution is vital for our transformation,” he adds.

Accessible medical records EMRs have become an up-andcoming trend in the healthcare

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landscape and it is a modern innovation which SUNY Downstate Medical Center hasn’t overlooked.

More beneficial than a paper record, this tool allows healthcare providers to track data over time, identify patients who are due for visits and screenings, and monitor how patients measure against vaccination and blood pressure readings, with the ultimate aim of improving quality of care.

Most importantly, it allows a patient’s health record to move with them, but this only the start of its capabilities, says Nath.

“We’re also looking at how we can improve and optimise EMR,” he notes. “We’re working with another partner called Infinite and they are providing a solution whereby it doesn’t matter how many EMRs you have – when a patient shows up to your clinic, it will pull up their latest medical records. The whole goal is to modernise the healthcare we provide by automating our infrastructure and modernising our workflow.

“Then the next question is: what should we do with all of this data?” he continues. “We need strong

As the only academic medical Center in Brooklyn, SUNY Medical Center serves a large population –

over 2.6mn people

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analytics, and so we are actually in the process of deploying solutions such as Tableau to achieve this.

Then, in the future, we hope to use technologies such as artificial intelligence and predictive analytics so that we can not only provide reactive care, but also be predictive.

“There is currently a huge gap between the provider and the patient and all healthcare associates – that’s exactly why we are optimising our EMR,” he adds. “Integration is key in this. We need to integrate and exchange data amongst ourselves and with our patients and other care providers outside of our organisation.”

Challenges in the health tech space Bringing about a root-and-branch digital transformation is by no account an easy task, especially when the enterprise is partly responsible for the healthcare of Brooklyn’s 2.6mn residents.

However, this challenge is one the medical Center has taken in its stride.

“Delivery of care is a challenge as a whole, especially being an

“There’s no quick win. I am more interested in sustainable growth that brings added value to the organisation” – Dilip Nath, AVP and Deputy CIO

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urban area,” reflects Nath. “But transforming technology is much more challenging than in more developed areas because, for example, we can provide patient information through a portal, but when our patient goes home, some may not necessarily have a computer or wi-fi access.

“If we could change this, patients would not have to make a phone call or come and visit a clinic,” he adds.

“They would be able to communicate with their physicians through telemedicine and telehealth tools.

We could see more patients at home, rather than at our clinics. As much as we’re pushing this information as an organisation, there is a lot of work that we, and the government, need to do for the community itself.”

On top of the need to provoke deep change within communities, Nath says the healthcare space also needs to have a significant culture shift amongst healthcare staff.

“Employing these technologies is a challenge but it’s really about

understanding the needs of our staff and how we can provide the technological solutions for the puzzles they need to solve,” he says. “That’s the key to success.

“Once they see the value of technology, it becomes much easier to deploy. Therefore, we take smaller steps, to pilot the technology and roll it out slowly – that’s how you change the cultural barrier or shift to a success. There’s no quick win. I am more interested in sustainable growth that brings added value to the organisation.”

Nath’s pride for SUNY Downstate Medical Center shines throughout our conversation.

This admiration and commitment to both the institution, its staff, and students also transcends throughout the Center’s technology strategy, and it is this which is helping the medical Center become a leading player in the healthcare space and serve the residents of Brooklyn.

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Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Andy Turner

TRANSPORTING

FOOD TESTING TO THE

DIGITAL

AGE

With over 100 laboratories spanning 22 countries, Mérieux NutriSciences is ushering in a new era of innovation with state-of-the-art food testing technologies

MÉRIEUX NUTRISCIENCES

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n a digital age saturated with data and information, transparency has emerged as the must-have ingredient for any successful consumer goods company. Whether its contaminants, pathogens, insecticides or pesticides, consumers are increasingly questioning what is in their food and consumer products.

This is where Mérieux NutriSciences fills a critical gap in the market.

As part of Institut Mérieux, one core mission drives operations at Mérieux NutriSciences – the desire to protect consumers’ health across the globe. To this end, the US-based company delivers a wide range of food safety and quality services to the food and nutrition, agrochemicals, pharma, and cosmetics industries.

Responding to transparency and globalisation As companies are compelled to work towards a more globalised and transparent future, Agnès Houpiart-Dupré, Vice President Digital Solutions, says that digitisation is helping Mérieux NutriSciences usher in a new era in the food

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“With social media, any event, especially negative ones, can spread quickly.

Yesterday it might be a local issue but tomorrow it will be global” – Agnès Houpiart-Dupré, Vice President Digital Solutions

testing and consulting sector.

“I would say investing in technology and digitisation is even more important than ever,” says Houpiart-Dupré. “With social media, any event, especially negative ones, can spread quickly.

Yesterday it might have been a local issue but tomorrow it will be global.

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Our Solutions to Ensure Food Safety & Quality

Auditing services “Consumers want more transparency,” she continues.

“They want to know what is in their food. They want to know where it comes from and that’s where technology comes in because, without technology, you don’t have a clear vision of every single action that happens to your food throughout the supply chain.

“Our customers are also becoming

more global. They are selling their products abroad and have more suppliers abroad, but they want to ensure that they have the same level of quality. This is really a big challenge and one which you cannot overcome without technology.”

Recognising the importance of digitisation in the food testing space, Mérieux NutriSciences has embarked on an ambitious digital

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Edward Rybicki Global Chief Information Officer

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transformation journey which has seen a complete root-and-branch transformation of its capabilities.

“More and more we’re seeing technology at the forefront of, not just how we’re doing our tests, but how we’re tracking the results, the quality of the results, the analysis that we can provide, and at some point even the predictive analysis we can provide,” says Edward Rybicki, Global Chief Information Officer.

“For us, technology has definitely taken a leap beyond automating a process. It’s really at the heart of what we’re doing.”

Digital evolution Experiencing what Rybicki calls an “inside-out transformation,” this digital transformation is having a far-reaching impact on both employees and customers alike.

For customers who are moving away from a detection to a prevention model, Mérieux NutriSciences’ technologies are helping help them anticipate tomorrow’s challenges.

The company has accelerated its digital focus by creating a business

unit dedicated to Digital Solutions which offers three core strands of digital services - EnviroMap, QualMap and myMXNS. Featuring state-of-the-art technology, these platforms go beyond traditional testing to offer real time access to information, transparency and data management to clients which are helping companies protect their brands and the consumers.

In parallel to this, the company is also driving internal efficiency by using technological platforms such as Labware, Freshservice, and Leanix. As a result, all of these innovative platforms culminate to promote a consistent global level of food safety and quality.

Leveraging data analytics Perhaps one of the biggest areas of focus for Mérieux NutriSciences has been data analytics. By building an integrated data management platform, the company’s enhanced data analytics is helping it grow exponentially.

“Internally, data and analytics have certainly been an area of

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concentration, especially because it is revolutionising the company’s we recognise that we don’t produce culture and the way it does business. a product, we produce information,” “We’re in the process of a major says Rybicki. “Now we’re taking architectural shift,” Rybicki states. that data and building a data “Like many companies, we’re shifting management platform which is to the cloud. We’re working on core at the core of our operations.” platforms that are helping us respond But data isn’t just about providing to changing needs quickly. In the past, numbers. It’s about providing data in we had a lot of structured, homegrown a digestible way that solutions that took a allows companies lot of time, effort and to interpret what this money to adapt. Now means for them on we’re able to shift a practical basis. much more quickly.

“It’s more about “I think we’ve Mérieux NutriSciences providing them with also seen a shift employs 7,000 people the right statistical in the way our and has over 100 analytics so that customer sees us,” laboratories spanning they can understand he continues. “In the 22 countries when, they have a food industry, things contamination, for are changing rapidly. example, where it Processes used came from, and what they should do to be done manually through older to fix it,” explains Houpiart-Dupré. technologies like Excel, and our customers realise that they can’t Transforming the customercontinue like that forever. They are employee dynamic happy to find a partner that has started This technological overhaul is this digital transformation because not only transforming Mérieux they can share with us, they can ask NutriSciences digital infrastructure, questions, and they feel supported.”

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MÉRIEUX NUTRISCIENCES

Crete laboratory

IS A SUBSIDIARY OF INSTITUT MÉRIEUX, WHICH WAS FOUNDED BY MARCEL MÉRIEUX, A STUDENT OF WORLD-RENOWNED SCIENTISTS, LOUIS PASTEUR AND EMILE ROUX.

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Mérieux NutriSciences: Our Science, Your Innovation.

Responding to consumer needs As industries become more global and supply chains more intricate, more variables and concerns can arise in the food testing space. With its detailed data analytics, Mérieux NutriSciences is able to answer the very specific needs and requests of its customers, including those they may not have even considered yet.

“Thanks to our digital solutions, we are able to create an advisory

relationship with our customers because we have better visibility and a data-driven approach,” says Houpiart-Dupré. “It allows us to be much more proactive in understanding our customers needs.”

Attracting and retaining talent and expertise By all accounts, the company’s digital transformation journey has been an impressive one, which has

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“When our customers within the food industry ask themselves what partner they want to work with to protect consumer health I want them to think of us” – Agnès Houpiart-Dupré, Vice President Digital Solutions

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helped to protect consumers’ health across the globe. This technological transformation is just one element of the company’s 50-year journey.

The Institut Mérieux was founded in 1897 by Marcel Mérieux, a student of world-renowned scientists Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux. With a wealth of scientific expertise, the company commits its experience in industrial biology to serve medicine and public health services across the globe.

As a subsidiary of this historic

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institution, Mérieux NutriSciences recognises that it owes its advancement to the expertise and talent of its staff. But with over 100 laboratories spanning 22 countries, how does the company ensure streamlined management and work culture?

“We try to have a federated approach, where there is one IT culture and one set of values that we try to live and act by as a team,” explains Rybicki. “However, we recognise the differences in the markets and work cultures because attracting and retaining a person in India is a lot different than in the US, for example. This approach makes sure that we’re attracting and keeping the right people.”

Close industry ties What’s more, the company also promotes strong cooperation within the industry by working with external partners which have the skills and competencies needed to work on new solutions.

“We have worked closely with Mirketa to help us develop our

customer portal and Centric is also helping us build our QualMap platform,” notes Houpiart-Dupré.

“We are also developing great partnerships with Amazon, Google and Salesforce as well,” adds Rybicki. “I think more of our services will migrate to these platforms.

We have good partnerships with some consulting firms, such as West Monroe Partners.”

A market leader By tapping into the latest industry know-how, revamping its digital infrastructure and realising the potential of new technologies, Mérieux NutriSciences has firmly cemented itself as a leader in the food safety and quality landscape. Thanks to its strong bimodal IT strategy, the company has truly revolutionised how it interacts with employees and customers, and so both Rybicki and Houpiart-Dupré remain optimistic about the company’s future legacy.

“While we are already a leader in our industry, in a few years’ time, I see us as a strengthening our position in consumer product testing, with food

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Merieux 50th anniversary

being at the forefront,” reflects Rybicki.

“I see us being a truly digital company leading the way in using data to offer better analysis and products. I see us helping global food and product companies make sure that what they are providing their consumers is going to be, not only sustainable and profitable but, of course, safe.”

“When our customers within the food industry ask themselves what partner they want to work with to protect consumer health, I want them to think of us,” Houpiart-Dupré concludes.

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DRIVING GROWTH with PROCUREMENT

POWER

ite Wh len by G |P rod uc ed an rm S tu ath eri ne by C Wr itte n

The consumer need to acquire the best wireless product or service on the market is one which is continually evolving. See how Brightstar Corporation’s procurement team has disrupted this market by delivering cost-effective, bespoke solutions for its customers

B R I G H T S TA R C O R P O R AT I O N

T

he use of mobile devices in the last 10 years has grown exponentially, influencing the way in which we live, work and communicate.

A recent report by the GSMA has shown that the number of people utilizing mobile services exceeded 5bn in 2017, and the number of unique mobile subscribers is also set to reach 5.9bn by 2025 which is equivalent to 71% of the world’s population.

Such growth has placed increased pressures on the telecommunications industry.

Owned by Softbank Group, Brightstar is an international mobile service provider that is a significant player in the wireless industry. The company simplifies the wireless world, making mobile technology accessible to everyone.

To do this, Brightstar looks after every stage of a device’s lifecycle, from the moment it’s manufactured to the moment it’s time to trade it in and re-market it around the world. Whilst it consistently competes with competitors to deliver exceptional, bespoke products and services amidst a complex minefield of consumer buying behaviors, the company has built a solid foundation from which to drive customer engagement.

Serving carrier, retail and enterprise customers across 80 countries, Brightstar’s integrated services have enabled it to deliver one of every 23 wireless devices across six continents, where it looks after every stage of a device’s lifecycle.

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Brightstar serves carrier, retail and enterprise customers across 80 countries

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Customer power Seamlessly linking with its customers’ businesses has seen Brightstar gain a significant edge over competitors to become the provider of choice on a global scale.

“Brightstar is known for innovation and helping customers solve problems. We listen to our customers to understand what kind of issues they’re facing in servicing their customers, and we innovate a solution to solve their problems,” explains Antony Harrat, Global Vice President of Indirect Procurement and Real Estate at Brightstar.

“It’s never been easier for customers to vote with their feet. Customers are researching and evaluating their purchase online before they step into a store and, in many cases, continue to do so within the retail estate.

Working with customers proactively to start to predict their customers’ next moves before they make it – potentially with another operator – is one way we’re enabling the industry to address these challenges.”

Universal appeal Witnessing the evolution of its customers’ demands, the millennial

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“IF WIRELESS CARRIERS CAN MOVE CUSTOMERS TO A LEASE MODEL, THE UPGRADE MENTALITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN OWNERSHIP” – Antony Harrat, Global Vice President of Indirect Procurement and Real Estate

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BRIGHTSTAR’S MOBILELIFE SOLUTION GIVES EMPLOYEES THE ABILITY GAIN ACCESS TO WIRELESS DEVICES, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE

generation in particular has created a raft of opportunities for Brightstar. The desire for choice and emphasis on budget remain strong drivers in the development of affordable and flexible buying or leasing options.

“Millennials have been associated with ‘Generation Rent’. They’ve been reluctant to buy items like cars, music and movies. Instead, they’re turning to new types of services that provide access to products and experiences without the burden of outright ownership,” notes Harrat.

“Millennials no longer want to own their device. They want to own

their data and photos, but they also want a new device as soon as it’s released. Generation Rent has given way to leasing plans where the buyer never owns the device and can return it for an upgrade after a contractual time. If wireless carriers can move customers to a lease model, the upgrade mentality is more important than ownership.

“We see opportunity in affordability solutions such as device leasing and financing through our Brightstar Flex service, for example, which gives consumers access to the latest devices and lower cost of ownership, and with device protection via our Brightstar Halo service.”

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Multi-use appeal There are approximately 80mn high-end used devices globally, and Brightstar manages up to 15mn of them. With such significant market share, the company has also transformed not only the way it collects devices, but the way in which it grades and returns them to market.

“Brightstar enables consumers to trade-in their used devices for a discount on a new smartphone, which makes devices more affordable. In turn, used smartphones are wiped clean and remarketed around the world at an affordable price,” says Harrat.

“We also offer innovative payment solutions so consumers can purchase or lease a device using affordable monthly payments. Making technology accessible also includes protecting consumers’ investments in phones by offering insurance, protection and warranty coverage.”

Its Echo service therefore grants the opportunity for buying back used devices in-store, online, via apps or over the phone, where customers can receive the best value on used devices through its global re-marketing network.

By looking deeper at the enterprise market, Brightstar analyzed all available statistics to further appeal to this segment.

Published research by Penn Schoen

ITS INTEGRATED SERVICES HAVE SEEN BRIGHTSTAR DELIVER ONE OF EVERY 23 WIRELESS DEVICES ACROSS SIX CONTINENTS

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Berland for Dell and Intel highlighted that 42% of 18-34-year-olds are likely to quit a job with sub-standard technology, in stark comparison with 25% of employees aged 35 and over.

82% of this category would also consider the use of technology on offer when considering whether to take a new job, the research found.

In light of such findings, Brightstar undertook its own research and identified that up to 40% of enterprises lack a strategy for mobile. The recent launch of its MobileLife solution seeks to close this gap. Built specifically for enterprises, it gives employees the ability gain access to wireless devices, anytime, anywhere.

“Companies are always looking to operate leaner and need to make difficult decisions around emerging workforce technology demands without the headache of managing allocation, in-life management and recycling in-house,” observes Harrat. “Another way we’re saving companies significant amounts of money is through selling or leasing certified pre-owned phones.

“Leasing also gives the end

consumer the device they really want for an affordable monthly fee.

This does not necessarily mean the ‘latest and greatest device, as even pre-owned devices can serve customer demand. The key to success in a saturated market is consumer choice, after all.”

Enhanced flexibility Brightstar has become increasingly innovative in its bid to deliver comprehensive, personalized mobile services, tailored specifically for its respective markets and customer demographics.

“Some trends are clear. There are different kinds of phones sold in different kinds of stores, but others are less so,” adds Harrat.

“Phones that perform better from a network coverage perspective do better in the metropolitan fringe areas where coverage may not be as good as in the central areas, and those areas are constantly changing. We develop algorithms to understand the choices people are making when buying a handset.

“It’s a very complex purchase

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“MILLENNIALS NO LONGER WANT TO OWN THEIR DEVICE. THEY WANT TO OWN THEIR DATA AND PHOTOS, BUT THEY ALSO WANT A NEW DEVICE AS SOON AS IT’S RELEASED” – Antony Harrat, Global Vice President of Indirect Procurement and Real Estate

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when consumers go and sign up to get a new phone. They choose the operator, pre-paid or postpaid plan, make a choice about what sort of store or retailer experience they want to have, online or through a call center,” he continues.

“At Brightstar, we use algorithms to train statistical models to make predictions about what an individual customer is likely to do so that retailers can understand and navigate all these nuances and reap the dividends.”

Procurement innovation Its vision to make mobile technology accessible to all is fully underpinned by its procurement division, where it has transformed outdated business models to drive a fully integrated, end-to-end customer service.

“We are not solely focused on indirect procurement, it is about supporting the business to operate wherever possible. From computers,

to software and office supplies and anything else of that nature – it is important to have an impact.

“The money we save by getting the best vendor not only helps us save money and improve our profitability, but we also get to find the best vendor for our clients.”

Internal cross-collaboration Looking at further areas of potential, Brightstar will continue working to provide exceptional value by launching innovative and products and services for employees. Its decision to centralize its use of travel agencies to one travel management company which will work across its global functions, is one such example.

“With the development of an expense management tool, not only did we reduce our costs and increase compliance as a result, but we reduced thousands of hours spent completing expense reports by scanning receipts that were taped to a piece of paper,” says Harrat.

Another important aspect of internal collaboration is working with champions.

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“The key is to work with ‘champions,’” cost, but also for procurement to “These are the experts and final users of bring its added value in becoming the services and/or products we need to more strategic in the way we spend buy,” Harrat continues. “Involving them our money and in our collaboration at an early stage helps us understand with the business,” explains Harrat. our requirements, the market and key The implementation of a new contract players. Then, it’s the communication management system, in addition to about the benefits for compliance and reshaping the approval process, has the benefits for our employees. provided Brightstar the ability to “We also benefit from retain all of its agreements, the expertise of our which will work to support shareholders, both its procurement some of whom are and legal teams. real technology “It makes us aware Brightstar was visionaries.” of the expiration established in Additionally, dates of these Brightstar promotes agreements, where we cross-collaboration can decide to renegotiate to enhance not only its or extend, avoid lapses in communication, but boosts services, and often use the same transparency across its divisions. master agreement,” reflects Harrat.

Both the procurement and legal “The legal team is tremendously team consequently work in tandem, important for procurement in providing a number of advantages particular. Many companies make for the business at large. the mistake to think about vendor “Our internal approval process risk management through the value for contracts includes the business of a contract, when in fact it is not owner and our procurement and about the value – it’s the liability for the legal teams. This was initiated not company that is most important.” only to have a better control over

1997

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Strategic partnerships “’Partner’ is a very important word and it’s extremely hard to find vendors that have a long-term goal to work with you. For example, thankfully we consider Newmark Grubb Knight Frank a partner for our real estate transactions,” he says. “Real estate is probably the most collaborative category and the one commodity where a procurement team needs the help of its broker on projects that can take many months to complete.

Our relationship is global and goes from disposition of asset(s) to leasing

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new space or even subleasing existing space. They have access to our existing portfolio and help us with market information and how to anticipate and make the best decision for our locations globally.”

Untapped potential Furthermore, Brightstar’s strategic sourcing capabilities have enabled it to reinvest increased capital, which will provide further room for innovation.

“When you become strategic and have opportunities that show real value, you are empowered to

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transform the way you source your products,” comments Harrat.

“For example, you can’t get by for long with day-to-day buying without visibility. As a result, all of our IT teams across six continents buy computers through a single portal. Using consistent hardware and ordering processes saves our IT team a significant amount of time.”

The rise of platforms from other industries will also motivate Brightstar to seamlessly deliver products and services which consumers want.

“The rise of Amazon is a clear sign of the way people buy and how smooth that process should be for employees purchasing what they need for their respective offices,” observes Harrat.

“It should be easy, user-friendly and the internal approval process should be managed on the back end for managers to quickly and easily approve or disapprove purchase requests. We are looking for a platform, but what we’ve seen so

far is that providers are US-centric and not global, which will not work for a company as international as Brightstar, so we will continue looking.”

On the business development side, the company views untapped potential in countries such as India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, where it can gain a further foothold.

Nonetheless, by taking full advantage of its global reach, the company is now able to anticipate issues which may be emerging in one region that have already been addressed in another. This will no doubt provide a competitive advantage to Brightstar.

Fully enhancing the value of its services, and ensuring its products remain tailored to respective markets at affordable prices, will ensure Brightstar succeeds in its long-term vision to provide accessibility for all, both now and in the future.

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FROM

SOURCE

TO STORE

A company that undertakes the shipping of raw materials and finished products around the world for global manufacturers needs creativity and a culture of analytics. Here is a look at the process OIA Global CIO Jay Hemmady has developed within a company that offers clients a unique combination of global logistics, packaging and materials sourcing solutions Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by Andy Turner

OIA GLOBAL

O

IA Global was founded in 1988 as Oregon International Air Freight.

Today the company is a reflection of its success over the last 30 years in meeting the demands of industry for sophisticated logistical services. With over 1,200 professionals in 64 offices in 28 countries, OIA designs innovative solutions that optimise supply chains around the world. Household names in the global footwear, agri-industrial, healthcare, automotive, fashion, retail and athletic sectors outsource their supply chain functions, in whole or in part, to OIA. OIA’s three main lines of business are freight forwarding, third-party logistics (3PL), and distribution.

The first of these consists in arranging the collection and delivery of containers using air cargo or ocean cargo and extends to the paperwork and processing requirements for customs, all noncore functions for manufacturers and retailers alike. The distribution division, a vital part of the supply chain, comprises warehousing, cross-docking, and ecommerce fulfillment.

Increasingly though, companies that develop IP, design and manufacture goods in different parts of the world – like car makers or footwear brands – look for partners that can take all of the supply chain burdens off their shoulders, from raw materials right through to the customer’s door. A 3PL company like OIA may procure the raw materials for their factories, ship them to the factory, design the packaging the final product is sold in, and deliver

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“WE MOVED INTO THE CLOUD IN A BIG WAY” –Jay Hemmady, CIO, OIA Global

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“THIS YEAR WE SET FUNDS ASIDE TO TAKE ANALYTICS TO THE NEXT LEVEL” the packaging to the factories. The client puts packaged goods into an outer carton that goes onto a pallet, and these are assembled into a cargo container, shipped to the destination country, ‘de-consolidated’ and sent to local warehouses for distribution. All of this is handled

by OIA on its customer’s behalf.

This saves the manufacturer from finding carriers for the goods it

Jay Hemmady | CIO In 2015 Jay Hemmady joined OIA as Chief Information Officer with responsibility for the company’s global information services, network and related technology. Prior to joining OIA, he served as a Senior Business Consultant helping a variety of West Coast Fortune 1000 organisations with technology strategies and implementation.

Hemmady earned his technical and consulting credentials at EDS (now part of HP) and holds an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering.

produces: and in any case the carriers, whether shipping lines or airlines, don’t want to do the consolidation and de-consolidation work once they have landed the container at its port of destination. For manufacturer, carrier and 3PL provider alike this is a virtuous circle – because of the volumes it handles, OIA can obtain bulk rates that give the client a much lower cost to market.

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Managing the data and the volume of units involved is the work of IT. Three years ago, OIA appointed Jay Hemmady as its CIO, giving him the brief of optimising its digital platforms to meet the realities of the present and future supply chain. “We have to find ways to stay ahead of the industry and these changes,” he says. “As CIO my fundamental responsibility is to keep the IT systems up – to ‘keep the lights on and the trains running’. But at the strategic level we are moving fast into the realm of information and data, and using it to give a reliable service to our clients. In all three of our main business segments I am responsible for maintaining the information systems that ensure there will be no disruption in their supply chain.”

The business OIA does with footwear clients is now 100% electronically executed. Footwear factories place orders on OIA’s self-service portal and all further transactions involving transportation of raw materials into that factory, and of finished goods out from it, are handled in the same way. Three years ago, Hemmady came into a

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company that was anxious about IT, not understanding the important job it was doing in keeping the systems up and running, let alone trusting it to lead the way into new territory. “There is a movement away from the old ways to a new way of doing business, and as CIO I have to be on top of that.

For example, when I came on board there was a certain fear of developing custom software applications.” The company had had a belief that the way forward lay in commercial off the shelf packages (COTS). But being available generally, these give no competitive advantage, Hemmady says.

He had to encourage the leadership that developing business critical platforms in-house would be a good idea but before that, he needed to show the business at large that IT was already doing a good job for it. “For any CIOs the key is to keep the lights on and the trains running. If they don’t get that right, they don’t get the chance to do anything strategic.” In the first year, Hemmady set out to improve visibility into projects and the performance of his department. “We began to

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“THE WHOLE NOTION OF GOING TO THE CLOUD BECAME A MUCH SIMPLER DISCUSSION BECAUSE THEY FELT COMFORTABLE AND THEY HAD CONFIDENCE THAT WE CAN DELIVER WHAT WE PROMISED AND THAT IT WOULD WORK” – Jay Hemmady, CIO, OIA Global communicate and provide status updates more frequently and candidly.

That took up a lot of time. Instead of updating the executives quarterly we started doing it with all stakeholders weekly. There was so much to communicate, and more frequently,

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that it required the IT staff to shift gears and speed up considerably, but the benefits were enormous.”

The result? The mindset in the user community quickly changed.

The relationship improved, and an appreciation for IT materialised. More

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importantly, there was much more for new customers, giving them the collaboration between IT and the supply chain and inventory visibility business units. “For example, the they require,” Hemmady adds. notion of going to the cloud became Over the development period, a much simpler discussion because the spadework of development they felt comfortable and they had was gradually distributed between confidence that we can deliver what the USA, UK, Ukraine and India. we promised and that it would work,” “In addition to delivering software Hemmady says. “The exercise also development, I was able to encourage gave us the confidence to expand us to look offshore with a twofold the use of agile scrum purpose. One is to decrease methodology across the the time to market by board and increase the using the timezones degree of software effectively, and the development other one, of course, initiatives.” is the lower cost Nevertheless, until of ownership.” For Number of employees the first product freight forwarding, at OIA Global was launched, even his teams are the board remained now developing OIA anxious. After a year of Connect, another selfphased development and release service portal that allows OIA to OptiLink, the self-service supply chain present its own and its clients’ data portal on which OIA customers now on a single web portal. “Freight place their orders, was launched forwarding, for example, represents without a glitch. It has since replaced a significant portion of our revenue two of five difficult to upgrade and and profit is operational on a package costly to maintain legacy systems called CargoWise One from the and on a roadmap to retire the rest.

Australian application software “We can now easily deploy OptiLink specialist Wisetech Global.”

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OIA Global: Logistics Solutions, Creatively Packaged

Another thing that made the business leaders nervous was the idea of moving data and systems from data centres controlled by OIA into the cloud. But Hemmady was able to convince the CEO that this would not jeopardise the company’s IP and information. “We moved into the cloud in a big way. We have not finished the journey,” he elaborates.

“We still have equipment that has not fully depreciated that is still in our

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data centre. We are not reluctant to move everything to the cloud, but it makes economic sense to use both modes for now. We will think twice about buying new servers from here on in.” Going into the cloud is straightforward, he continues: “We signed up with the Microsoft Azure cloud, which provides all the tools and training you require. Though OptiLink is currently running in our data centre, it was migrated to the Azure cloud and proven out so we know it will works there. We haven’t decided yet whether or when we will make that the primary computing platform.” For now, the company continues to store its data at Atmosera, a co-location data centre at Beaverton, Oregon.

“We have racks and equipment in there that we manage. Before the advent of the cloud, companies like Atmosera were the best way to make use of third party colocation centres.”

On the distribution end of the supply chain, OIA has been using the Softeon warehouse management system (WMS). “It’s a sophisticated and advanced application package that allows us to run our ecommerce

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warehouses,” says Hemmady.

The software is robust enough to span over a variety of industries.

Modules built into the WMS such as its slotting and loading functionality help add value for many clients.

Even more importantly, it provides visibility in a high-churn environment.

Companies need to know what is in the warehouses so they can control their manufacturing timing and demand forecasting. In a fast-moving warehouse, knowing how many things you have available is not a simple task. “We are now in a position to give our clients on-hand inventory details from moment to moment,” Hemmady adds. “Companies are trying to minimise their cost of manufacturing

and inventory is a cost to business.”

BI Analytics is one of the bigger initiatives for Hemmady and his teams in 2018. “We give our clients a spectrum of business intelligence (BI) graphics but we have not looked at the evolution of BI analytics in a strategic way, so this year we set funds aside to take analytics to the next level. We are looking holistically at the whole data model of freight forwarding, warehousing and the supply chain sector. We want to start looking at the data and the patterns to predict what is coming in the future. Trend analysis and other things is what the customer is looking for these days.

We understand that and will be giving them that in the very near future.”

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INVESTING IN TO CARE FOR CANADA’S

RETIRING POPULATION

an

W Pr ritt od en uc by ed C by ath G er le in n e W S hi tu te rm

The Canadian healthcare industry is facing an uphill challenge, its ageing population in particular reshaping traditional models of care. Jason Gomes, Pacific Reach’s Director of Information Technology, delivers key insights.

PA C I F I C R E A C H P R O P E R T I E S & R E T I R E M E N T C O N C E P T S

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he healthcare industry is witnessing a digital revolution. Escalating healthcare costs, ageing populations and increased demand has led healthcare companies to overhaul traditional models of care, in favour of adopting a complete consumer-focused model.

The Canadian healthcare industry in particular is witnessing a significant shift. Up to 770,000 Canadians are now over 85 years old, a figure which keeps growing year-on-year, placing increased demands on current services. Since 2015, it has been reported that there are now more people aged over 65 years in the country than children under 14 years.

This changing demographic has led to an increased demand for home care and community led services, as well as the need for technology to play a central role in how care is delivered now and in the future.

Noting that tech-savvy Baby Boomers will be the next key generation to retire, healthcare providers and homecare services are looking at new ways to transform

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present service offerings and embrace new digital tools, which will guarantee that the consumer, resident or patient will be at the forefront of all care delivered, whether in an acute or homecare setting.

Enter Pacific Reach Established in 2014, Pacific Reach Properties & Retirement Concepts has steadily grown across Western Canada. Managing 25 care homes, the company also houses seven hotels under its umbrella, as well as commercial real estate and multifamily homes. Its growth over the last few years is impressive, but Jason Gomes, Pacific Reach’s Director of Information Technology, explains that its objective to deliver exceptional service, as well as its investment in personalised, digital tools, has been essential to its ongoing growth. “We have a lot of residents now that are more technologically aware. There are a lot of Baby Boomers coming in, where a lot of them bring their own devices,� he adds.

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Jason Gomes Pacific Reach’s Director of Information Technology

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Managing the digital transformation unable to scale in alignment with of both Pacific Reach’s retirement business growth. Rebuilding Pacific’s and hotel division, Gomes has technology backbone, encompassing introduced technologies, some of the removal of all assets from which, although small, have made a its data centre and starting from significant impact on users lives. scratch, the company has utilised He says: “When I was originally Dell Technologies, and replicated hired, one of the first questions I all its assets to a separate site. asked the ownership was ‘if you Throughout its transformation, were not owners and you Dell technology has been were potential residents embedded and replicated what would you look to a separate site, for in technology?’ enabling the Year Founded “It was very business to interesting to see adopt a disaster their reaction because recovery (DR) strategy they hadn’t thought of it and strengthen its that way. From something security across the board. as simple as wi-fi, to electronic “We’re now scalable and have medication management, to things seen no slowdowns or issues,” that will help the residents in the longcomments Gomes. “As we bring in term, that makes such a big impact new facilities, we’re able to quickly and difference right off the bat.” ramp sites up with a concept I built called “RC in a box.” We can deploy Strengthening its a fully tested solution which includes, technology backbone the Zero Client VDI hardware, Whilst looking at Pacific’s Virtual monitors, printers, firewall, switches Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and wireless infrastructure. deployments from VMware, Gomes “Being able to change the centre noted that the company would be into a more state-of-the-art center,

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we’re able to scale very quickly.

It’s made a huge difference.”

The company has also worked to embed wireless technology within every facility under its umbrella in order to cater towards a growing resident and guest demand.

“You definitely have to be

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cognizant of any type of brand standard when you put in a new technology – anything from the guest computers or the business areas to the wi-fi,” adds Gomes.

This strategy has also led to the revamp of Pacific Reach’s teleconference, internet lines, and

CANADA

770,000

‘UP TO CANADIANS ARE NOW OVER

85 YEARS, A FIGURE WHICH KEEPS GROWING YEAR-ON-YEAR, PLACING INCREASED DEMANDS ON CURRENT SERVICES’

telecom and mobility capabilities, all completed through a number of various partnerships. However, in order to drive down cost savings, in one area alone Gomes has worked to consolidate Pacific Reach’s partners by half, saving up to CA$750,000 in the process.

People focused Across its entire portfolio, Pacific has worked to embed both resident and guest focused technologies across its operations, where both its hotel and retirement division are guaranteed to cater towards delivering exceptional services.

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“REPORTING, ANALYTICS AND TECHNOLOGY KEEPS EVOLVING AND WE KEEP MOVING WITH THEM” – Jason Gomes, Pacific Reach’s Director of Information Technology

“We’ve got to be at the forefront.

We have to make sure our wireless is top of the line and our backend is solid. We want to make sure the guest experience is the best it’s going to be,” advises Gomes.

“There’s so many facets, even the way in which residents and guests connect. Is it a chargeable thing for the room or is it a free Wi-Fi? How do we limit it? Do they want to have tiered wi-fi, or do they want to have a standard? There’s a lot of things like that we have to factor in. I think that it’s a good transition from the retirement side as well as into the hotel because you have a better understanding to what people want.

“We are now looking at implementing more technology for residents, such as front-end kiosks

where you’ve got a directory, which is a touchscreen and interactive. We are also bringing in guest computers for residents with Skype capabilities as well as making it easier to plan their day by introducing digital signage” Health-tech investment Pacific’s digital transformation has also impacted its healthcare services when supporting residents at its facilities. From outstanding medical documentation, to the transformation of its nurse call systems to become completely location based, residents are now seen quicker; the safety of residents has increased and any incidents are managed effectively by registered and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs).

“When we first started, if a patient

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fell, staff would assume the resident was in their room, when in fact they could have been on the first floor. We have now changed that technology to be more locationbased, and this standardisation has also allowed for reduced interference across the line,” says Gomes. “I feel that the technology we’ve been putting in is having a significant impact on ensuring the residents’ safety and security.

“Another thing we’ve really standardised was changing out all our cameras. We’ve gone to Avigilon Systems, where we’re able to put higher resolution cameras in so we can detect falls, monitor residents and have that layer of safety and security that makes everyone more comfortable,” he continues.

“We’ve been working with a couple of companies so that we can predict with analytics when a person may fall or if someone is prone to falling. We can then say, ‘okay, well, based on this, we think this person will have a fall when they get out of bed at two in the morning or they’ll fall at four

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o’clock in the afternoon because they’ve done that seven times this last month.’ Nursing staff can now take a look and they can keep an eye on that person around that time.

“Reporting, analytics and technology keeps evolving and we keep moving with them. I think that resident safety and care will only benefit in the long-term.”

However, with the number of cyberattacks on healthcare companies, Pacific Reach is taking no chances surrounding the protection of resident data, and works with a number of security companies to ensure it remains ahead of the curve.

“It’s always a challenge to make sure the technology keeps apace with what’s out there for healthcare, staying at the forefront of things. You don’t want to be behind the eight-ball,” observes Gomes. “We want to always be in the forefront and be a leader in the field, and a leader of technology rather than a follower. If there’s a new technology that definitely makes sense, we definitely evaluate it.”

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“WE WANT TO ALWAYS BE A LEADER IN THE FIELD, AND A LEADER OF TECHNOLOGY RATHER THAN A FOLLOWER. IF THERE’S A NEW TECHNOLOGY THAT MAKES SENSE, WE DEFINITELY EVALUATE IT” – Jason Gomes, Pacific Reach’s Director of Information Technology

Continuous development Strengthening relationships with partners has therefore been crucial for Pacific Reach, particularly in the building of future projects, facilities or technologies to better support its residents and guests.

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“Working with partners and building that relationship to say, ‘we’d be happy to work with you and give you the business, but you need to work with us on the pricing as well as the quality of gear and the installation’. And having that give and take relationship and

CANADA

being able to consistently keep each other in the loop has made a huge difference as well,” Gomes says.

An edge above the rest Pacific Reach will continue to look at further opportunities for expansion, looking out for key trends within its hotel division, on top of its residential offering. Never resting on its laurels, the company maintains an astute awareness that its growth and digital offering go hand-in-hand, which will see it remain a leader in the field.

“We have a very good product. I think it ends up coming down to really providing the best for everybody, but at a better price that’s not going to break the bank,” concludes Gomes.

“We keep residents involved. The company has done well at making sure that the residents are put first and foremost. Considering that the business was started from a single home and has developed to one of the largest providers in Canada, I think the company has done extremely well.”

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Naufar: Leveraging new technology to support those in need Written by Catherine Sturman Produced by Craig Daniels

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IT Director Fady Saad discusses how the use of technology is leading the development of bespoke healthcare solutions, supporting Naufar’s work to reintegrate those with addiction back into society

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n the last five years, the population in Qatar has grown exponentially, attracting expatriates on a global scale. The healthcare landscape has shifted in alignment with such a changing demographic, attracting new talent and medical expertise, leading Qatar’s health system to be ranked 13th best in the world globally.

The country’s vision to deliver exceptional patient-centred care, as set down by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) and National Health Strategy 2011-2016, has also led Qatar to establish new projects, initiatives and services to cater to the health of its citizens.

One such area of focus is the global need for rehabilitation

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services for those suffering from addiction. In the US, misuse of opioids and addiction remains the lead cause of accidental death in the country, with alcohol misuse following closely behind.

The use of opioids includes heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, as well as prescription pain relievers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine and others, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).

However, the US is not alone.

Addiction has impacted health services globally, leading countries to increasingly innovate and disrupt outdated healthcare models and implement new, personalised

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“We tailor a programme for each Guest Client and lead them on a recovery journey” Fady Saad, Information Technology Director

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healthcare tools and solutions.

With an estimated population of 2.69mn, Qatar’s population has tripled in a decade. Whilst Qatari nationals equate to less than 15% of the country’s total population, its growing expat figures have led to an emerging need for wellness and recovery services.

“Within the whole GCC and the Middle East there’s a significant demand for these services,” reflected Information Technology Director Fady Saad.

“However, the stigma around addiction as a whole is a challenge.

We exist in a culture that does not quite understand addiction and does not really appreciate that it is a disease rather than a lack of good behaviour.”

Connected care The establishment of Qatar’s Public Health Strategy 2017-2022 is set to improve the health and wellbeing of the country’s population and promote understanding of a number of healthcare conditions.

The country’s bid to provide exceptional, connected patient care has also led to the development of a new, digital infrastructure as part of its growing e-health strategy, which will lead to the overhaul of traditional treatment models, the launch of bespoke, tailored solutions, and will grant patients increased choice and control over how they are treated.

However, this will not be without its challenges.

“The healthcare sector is facing major challenges, not just in Qatar.

This is even from my experience in the US,” observes Saad. “There are challenges around integration and being able to communicate data. There are a lot of issues around privacy and confidentiality of data. This also links to safety issues which come with patients.

“Nevertheless, the more you know about patients when they show up in an emergency room, the more you’re able to treat the patient. I think that has been one of the biggest IT targets in the healthcare industry over the last several years.”

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Introducing Naufar With a goal to provide a healing environment to assist those with behavioural disorders, Naufar has been established to treat substance use disorders as its primary focus and drive Qatar’s vision to provide exceptional, bespoke healthcare solutions to Guest Clients.

By adopting a five-star hospitality and wellness approach, Naufar works to look at our patients, who it terms Guest Clients, from a holistic

“The main goal of the organisation is to reintegrate addicts back with their families, into society and be productive” Fady Saad, Information Technology Director

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The team at Naufar approach, rather than simply an addiction or rehabilitation candidate.

“We are quite unique. We have a top end spa and recreation facilities, better than any other healthcare facility which I can think of. There’s quite a bit which we can offer that I think will contribute to meet Qatar’s national vision,” says Saad.

Looking at each Guest Client from multiple perspectives, Naufar works to tailor programmes that

help them on their recovery journey, reintegrating into society and living healthier lives. Individual and group treatment, alongside outstanding personalised services with a multidisciplinary approach has led Naufar to significantly improve Qatar’s traditional treatment models.

“In addition to providing psychotherapy and physical therapy services, Naufar offers residential and outpatient treatment

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programmes, daycare, recovery and engagement (Matrix Model) programmes.” adds Saad.

“We are showing people in society how people have changed. We have some success stories where people have come to Naufar and they have successfully completed our programme and reintegrated into society. They have also courageously spoken about their issues and their addiction and how they’ve overcome it.

Reintegrating Guest Client’s been one of the biggest successes and advocates for meeting some of the challenges around stigma.”

“We’re not just focusing upon one thing, we’re covering people’s wellness as a whole,” he continues. “We’re making sure that they are well

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‘The GCC healthcare market is projected to grow at a 12.1% CAGR from an estimated $ 40.3 bn in 2015 to $ 71.3 bn in 2020’ Alpen GCC Healthcare Report 2016

as a human being not just focusing on the addiction. We see ourselves as being recognised as a centre of excellence in the region.”

Bespoke solutions Naufar has designed a facility that emphasises providing comfort and hospitality. Guest Clients are able to obtain services which are top end, with visual aids, audio equipment and bookable rooms all on offer.

As part of the country’s vision, Naufar’s implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) has seen the

organisation build both an exceptional IT team and clinical team. Working together, its partnership with EMR provider Mindlinc has seen Naufar tailor its systems towards the needs of its Guest Clients, giving it an edge over other service providers.

“Qatar is in the process of implementing its e-health platform to share data and integrate all stakeholders in healthcare. We’ve tailored a lot of things in order to standardise how care is delivered to patients and collect discrete and consistent data,” says Saad.

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“The more you know about patients when they show up in an emergency room, the more you’re able to treat the patient. I think that has been one of the biggest IT targets in the healthcare industry over the last several years” Fady Saad, Information Technology Director

“It’s typical that people invested in a product, rather than the efforts required for customisation of that product. We had limitations in terms of how we select an application, but we have tailored a number of things to support how care is delivered to Guest Clients at Naufar and built forms in the EMR to try and capture a number of disciplines.”

Personalised tools By collaborating with Gartner, Naufar has strengthened its capabilities surrounding the treatment of addiction

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and the utilisation of personalised tools. “Gartner gave us suggestions, articles, connected us to expert analysts where we can get into more detail about a topic that we needed to make a decision on,” says Saad.

“They also helped in contracts review and negotiation tactics.”

Its partnership with VAMED has also enabled Naufar to carry out key IT upgrade projects in under two years, which in turn ensures the delivery of consistent positive Guest Client outcomes. “For 18 months, employees from VAMED were basically my IT

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team, flying in resources whenever needed in order to make sure that we succeeded,” added Saad.

“We engaged with VAMED for a number of reasons. Number one is their healthcare expertise. Number two is that they build hospitals and rehabilitation centres around the world, so were able to inject the resources and expertise quickly. They have been an instrumental partner in achieving what we have done and what we’ve achieved as of yet.

Such improvements have been further developed through Naufar’s

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Partnering with Cisco has seen Naufar implement the Medical Grade Network SAP has been instrumental to Naufar’s IT transformation

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partnership with KAAR Technologies, where the organisation has adopted digital tools from SAP to optimise its business processes. “Since we have S4 HANA, which is the in-memory database of SAP, it enables us to initiate the BI/analytics components which will see us gain the building blocks for Naufar to contribute to the bigger picture of addiction through research outcomes and enable the delivery of exceptional services,” says Saad.

Lastly, Naufar’s partnerships have been strengthened through its data centre and managed services provider, MEEZA, who have injected technical expertise to develop

its infrastructure foundation and provide Naufar with the proactive monitoring services to protect Naufar’s digital investments.

Clinical approach Similarly to any other chronic disease across the healthcare sector, Saad explains that addiction requires the use of advanced data and technology to make informed decisions in order for the organisation to provide exceptional support and treatment.

In its drive to stitch together a complete view of a Guest Client, Naufar’s multidisciplinary approach sees it utilise data and analytics to create a bespoke plan for each Guest Client. Capturing data from each clinical discipline, all findings are documented within each Guest Client’s personalised multidisciplinary report (MDT). The report seeks to consolidate all essential information on the progress of each Guest Client and highlights how Naufar can work to support each client’s wellness goals to place them on the road to recovery.

“We do things differently. We’re

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not standard rehabilitation – we make it unique, less stigmatising and more rounded, rather than the focus on the addiction,” stresses Saad. “A lot of clinical staffers are interested in moving away from this stigma of addiction in order to address the actual needs of our Guest Clients this way.”

Data sharing capabilities With this in mind, Naufar has focused heavily on recruiting exceptional staff to drive its vision to fully embrace IT and technology to develop personalised care within the treatment of addiction. Saad credits Naufar’s success of the organisation to the commitment and hard work of its team. He highlighted the competence, attitude and approach of his IT team and their ability to integrate within the business as partners has been a major contributor to the success.

“Most importantly, our Guest Clients, our dedicated staff, the families of our Guest Clients and our national stakeholders are all instrumental partners in making

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Naufar a success,” he adds.

To further promote its reliable, transparent and secure communication capabilities, Naufar’s readiness to the country’s e-health strategy for a joined-up care model has seen it look at new ways to share data and support different sectors of healthcare, now and in the future.

Its collaboration with Cisco has seen the organisation implement the company’s Medical Grade Network, which also details a framework for the organisation to meet specific Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance requirements and

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TECHNOLOGY

connects with the need to promote the sharing of health data in Qatar.

“This has made sure the foundation block for our IT is driven by top end technology to secure our data and leverage communication. This then enabled us to build applications on a strong backbone,” explains Saad.

Changing attitudes Through its bid to leverage technology to create exceptional, patient-focused solutions to treat addiction, Naufar will increasingly work to increasingly share data to further its knowledge sharing capabilities. The organisation will also gain the ability to provide

localised statistics relating to its niche area surrounding the treatment of addiction going forward.

“I think on a national level we will then be able to inform, change policy to treat addiction a bit differently,” concludes Saad.

“We want to establish ourselves as a centre of excellence to mark our footprint and show the community that we’re moving people from a vulnerable state and reintegrating them back in society. The push is there, and the initiative is there to show people we are unique and can make a change in the treatment of addiction.”

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How aswaaq brings technology to the forefront of retail Written by Catherine Sturman Produced by Craig Daniels

Understanding the needs of its customers, aswaaq aims to guarantee an exceptional shopping experience every time through the use of innovative technologies

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edicated to the customer experience both online and instore, aswaaq has undergone a significant digital revolution across its entire service portfolio. Grasping that the traditional ‘weekly’ shop has become a somewhat outdated concept, shoppers are now shifting towards purchasing goods on the go, driven by the adoption of increasingly busy lifestyles and transforming expectations surrounding not only the quality of perishable goods, but the way in which such products can be accessed, bought and stored.

Established 10 years ago, aswaaq has won a number of awards surrounding the quality of its products and ongoing focus on personalised services. “Our concept is really to provide services in communities

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around the city of Dubai. The city is growing, and it’s difficult for people living on the outskirts to get the essential services that they otherwise require,” observes Deputy CEO, Affan Al-Khoori. Joining aswaaq back in the mid-2000s, Al-Khoori has seen the company grow exponentially, seeking ways to gain an edge over the competition by catering to the changes in consumer preferences and evolving pace of the retail market.

“We don’t aim to become a destination store like much of our competitors,” adds Al-Khoori. “We’re more convenient. In a way, we’re trying to make customers comfortable so they come more frequently. We try to make the shopping experience as fast as possible, which is the opposite strategy of what big stores are

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doing by increasing the amount of time the customers spend in their store.”

Personalised shopping Guaranteeing convenience through utilising digital tools, aswaaq provides a complete interactive shopping experience for its customers, both online and in-store. The company’s new unmanned store particularly highlights how customers are continuing to embrace new digital services, such as fingerprint technology. Customers are able to enter the store through this technology, purchase products and check out without using cash or credit card, as all services are linked to the customer’s mobile phone, explains aswaaq’s

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Affan Al Khoori Deputy CEO

Graduated from the University Of Colorado in 1999, Mr. Affan Al Khoori started his professional career as an Area Manager with Emirates National Oil Company Group; a petroleum retailer with a chain of convenient stores across the UAE. This has given him the opportunity to interact with a large customer base in a diversified market environment, be part of a development team and introduce new concepts to the local market.

In 2006, Mr. Affan Al Khoori joined aswaaq L.L.C, one of the subsidiaries to the Investment Corporation of Dubai (the Investment Aram of Dubai Government) as a Category Manager. His experience in the retail market and acquired knowledge supported him in securing the Director position of Merchandizing and Buying Department. Soon, His professionalism and knowledge appetite led him to an Executive Director Level. By the end of 2012, Mr. Affan assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer followed by his current position as The Deputy Chief Executive Officer to continue his journey of developing aswaaq and bringing it to the forefront of retail market.

Innovation and Future Director, Manoj Vijayan.

Additionally, the company’s collaboration with LS Retail, Philips, Aisle411, GBM and Valuelabshas seen not only the development of its mobile app, named aswaaq Reach, but has enabled customers to gain the ability to build personalised shopping lists. Once complete, the use of Philips’ Visible Light Communication provides customers with a mobile navigation system (or mobile map) of the store, suggesting the quickest routes for customers to locate items and whether they are available.

“We’re trying to take the concept of convenience to a new level,” says Al-Khoori. “We want the customer to have a positive shopping experience. We’ve created this unmanned environment that is within communities. The product range will be designed and will accommodate the needs of that specific community.”

Through machine learning, regular items on a user’s shopping list will also be suggested, prompting items that may have been forgotten, as well as further information surrounding potential deals or discounts on items that may be of interest that day.

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Customer loyalty Nonetheless, customer engagement remains vital for aswaaq. Discarding its physical loyalty card five years ago, the company’s digital loyalty program, named Wafa, has become fully integrated with a customer’s mobile number, where all services can be now accessed. “We have almost 80,000 customers on this app. We don’t have a card, it is now completely mobile,” notes Vijayan.

“Our loyalty card is something we started 10 years ago. However, most loyalty cards focus very much on members being UAE nationals,” observes Al-Khoori. “So, we took that idea and built it up, so that we are now able to include everybody who’s living in Dubai and cater for up to 200 nationalities, for the people who are living in the heart of Dubai.”

Through the use of this digital platform, aswaaq is able to track the popularity of its products and the frequency in which its customers visit its brick and mortar stores, where they can gain and redeem traditional loyalty points. All items on offer also have a unique QR code, which is utilised by customers at aswaaq’s self-checkout services, creating a completely seamless customer experience across the board.

“This loyalty program applies to everybody. It is free to join and can pay up to 10% cash within the next month,” explains Al-Khoori. “So, it focuses a lot on the loyalty of our customers, where they will be eligible to gain points leading up to 10% in

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“We try to make the shopping experience as fast as possible, which is the opposite strategy of what big stores are doing by increasing the amount of time the customers spend in their store” – Deputy CEO, Affan Al-Khoori

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Manoj Vijayan

Director Innovation & Future

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terms of savings they can earn.”

Additionally, aswaaq’s commitment to its customers has also been strengthened through a partnership with Noor Bank. The launch of the Noor Credit Card has provided a multitude of advantages to its customers. “Our loyalty programme is built on a one-step format, which is 1% return on any purchase below AED 1,500 during the period of a month, a 5% return on any purchase below AED 3,000 a month and 10% return on any purchase above AED 3,000 in a month,” continues Al-Khoori.

Growth potential With such focus on providing an exceptional customer experience, aswaaq is continuing to look at areas of further growth. With plans to build four new community centres in 2018, the company is also behind the construction of a new distribution centre.

“The distribution centre will be 300,000 sq ft and is expected to

open by the end of 2019,” reflects Vijayan. Placed in the centre of Dubai, the facility will seek to service aswaaq’s operations, such as its supermarkets, online centres and trading businesses, enabling it to further cater to the rising demands of its customers for years to come.

“Looking at how things are moving, especially here in the UAE, people’s lives are becoming busier.

The hypermarket concept is still strong, but people are turning more towards convenience and even online, although not much right now.

But, we see the times moving more and more towards online and having the convenience of getting things done faster,” concludes Al-Khoori.

“Time is expensive and is something our customers are acutely aware of.

This was one of the first things that we stacked on when we gauged the look of our store to become something friendlier in terms of something that will hold your customers in place now and in the future.”

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Driving digital democracy in South Africa With a driven digitisation journey, the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is using technology to elevate the country to new heights Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Greg Churchill

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OUTH AF R ICAN BUSINESSES are taking digitisation seriously. The nation’s digital revolution is gathering pace thanks to its diverse economy and impressive mobile infrastructure and as a result, the country has emerged as the most digitally mature country on the continent, according to a report

by Siemens.

Technological innovation is a strong engine of growth, but it’s not just changing the nation’s economic and business landscape — it is also helping to promote an e-democracy.

DRIVING A DIGITAL DEMOCRACY Channelling experience from both the private and public sector, and educational qualifications from amongst others Columbia University, Fort Hare and Witwatersrand Universities, Unathi Mtya, CIO of the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, understands the inherent value technology can add to both business and the democratic process alike.

“As explained in the Inter-Parliamentary Union framework for a democratic Parliament, Parliament should be representative, transparent, accessible, accountable, and most importantly, effective,” she explains. “As CIO, I lead the ICT division in Parliament and this aims to use technology and digital tools to contribute towards a digital democracy. We use technology to promote a responsible people’s parliament and to improve the quality of life of South Africans.”

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The stunning view over the city lights of Cape Town

South Africa is seeing a rapid growth of tech industry

was clearly evidenced at this year’s Africomm, the largest tech-focused event in the continent. Although a record-breaking number of visitors, exhibitions and speakers may have come and gone, the event highlights the lasting impact tech is set to play in South Africa’s future.

Giving a keynote address at the event, Mtya outlined a clear blueprint for creating a winning ICT strategy. Citing the need to add value for customers, to start with the end in mind, and to truly understand customers’ needs, Mtya discussed how an ICT strategy w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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can be developed and implemented in both public and private sector.

A DRIVER OF CHANGE “Gone are the days where ICT is just a supporter,” Mtya observes.

“ICT acts both as a driver and an enabler nowadays. I’m quite passionate about how technology can add value to business. It justifies how a company should continue to invest in ICT in support of its major business objectives.”

Digitisation at the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is, by all measures, a team effort. With an understanding of the latest technological trends, continuous investment and innovation, digitisation has played an important role in parliament for some time.

“No matter what industry you’re in, disruption has always been there,” she says. “Economies are changing, industries are changing and it’s because they’ve been disrupted. In parliament, there are several digital initiatives that are really improving the way parliament operates. This is how we’re contributing to our digital democracy.”

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MEMBER-CENTRIC APPLICATIONS Implementing a state-of-the-art app called My Parliament, Mtya and her team are helping members to be more effective in their oversight work. This will contribute towards the public’s understanding of how the South African Parliament is serving them whilst also making operations smoother and efficient for members of parliament.

“Our objective was to design, develop and implement, a membercentric application that’s capable of presenting relevant, accurate and timely information to members of parliament in their mobile devices,” comments Mtya.

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SOUTH AFRICA IS THE MOST DIGITALLY MATURE COUNTRY ON THE CONTINENT, ACCORDING TO A REPORT BY SIEMENS The ICT division initiatives, in particular the rolling out of My Parliament App, has the honour of being supported by the ICT Focus Group, chaired by House Chairperson of National Assembly Honourable Cedric T. Frolick.

The ICT Focus Group is a joint forum of designated National Assembly (NA) and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Members of Parliament who reflect political party spread, race, gender and national demographics.

It continuously strives to influence and support the effective use of ICT in Parliament and promotes

“ As explained in the IPU’s framework for a democratic Parliament, Parliament should be representative, transparent, accessible, accountable, and most importantly, effective” – Unathi Mtya, Chief Information Officer

initiatives towards improving public participation and public engagement.

REDUCING PAPER TRAILS Like any organisation, the parliament has core business divisions such as a finance division, a HR division, and more support divisions. By automating and modernising these processes, digitisation is helping make parliament’s workflow more responsive, capable, and accessible anytime, anywhere.

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with just a touch of a button on their devices,” Mtya adds. “It leverages different technology platforms to enhance the way the member performs their day-to-day duties. Through this ease of access, we’re trying to improve efficiency and it’s helping us to be more responsive as parliament of the people and to improve the quality of life of South Africans.”

On top of this, parliament is also using digitisation to encourage continuous improvement, more integration, and sharing of knowledge.

In an environment which generates an abundance of paper when creating laws, bills and legislation,

digitisation is helping to make the parliamentary process more efficient.

Parliament Television goes digital The ICT division also has a unique Broadcast & Audio Visual Technical support unit responsible for broadcasting parliamentary sittings and committee meetings. In doing so, it helps to fulfil the strategic objective of creating an institution that is responsive to the needs of the people of South Africa through public participation and involvement.

Currently parliament is ready to produce up to 16 live televised feeds to the mainstream broadcasters and with the television equipment installed

“We use technology to promote a responsible people’s parliament and to improve the quality of life of South Africans” – Unathi Mtya, Chief Information Officer

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it is 95% broadcast on the digital terrestrial television (DTT) platform.

TRANSFORMING THE COUNTRY Digitisation is making an affirmative change at the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa and this is subsequently catalysing change for the country at large. Digital disruption is shaking up traditional business models in South Africa and in doing so it is creating opportunities for tech entrepreneurs and startups across the country.

“Parliament needs to be digital and interactive,” explains Mtya. “Therefore, the use of technology – whether that’s making sure that there are effective tools for members and staff of parliament, or that mobile applications are enriched with userfriendly parliamentary information, or

improving recording and production, for instance – is helping us contribute to our digital and interactive parliament.”

“I think it goes without saying that digitalisation is also creating new opportunities for the country and continues to do so, especially for startups and tech entrepreneurs,” she adds.

“It’s been a game-changer. It’s helping people launch new startups anytime, anywhere. It also provides opportunities for people to solve their own problems that they understand best rather than waiting for a company somewhere else in the world to solve it. Digitisation is affecting every industry. It’s giving companies a competitive edge. If an organisation doesn’t appreciate the power of technology and digitalisation, they will be left behind.”

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Parliament of the Republic South Africa’s Unathi Mtya and her ICT division colleagues

EXECTUTIVE BIO Unathi Mtya studied Bachelor of Science at the University of Fort Hare and majored in Computer Science and Geographic Information Systems. She also completed the GIBS Executive Development Programme (SITA) as well as the Professional Certificate in CIO Practice at the University of Witwatersrand. She recently graduated with a Master of Science in Technology Management degree from Columbia University in New York.

Mtya’s career has her feet placed firmly in both the private and public sectors. Starting at First National Bank, she has followed a path that took her through business ICT at BCX. After this she joined the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in a number of management roles, culminating to the role of CIO heading Internal IT. Here Mtya established the Integration and Interoperability division, and also led the Converged Communication division. She is now with Parliament of the Republic of South Africa as Chief Information Officer.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES Identified as the second largest economy on the continent, South Africa has firmly cemented itself as a leader in the tech space. But with rapid technological growth, what challenges are facing the sector in the country?

“One thing I think is key is increasing access,” reflects Mtya. “In a society like South Africa, the more access that is in young people’s hands the better, because then they are able to participate in the economy, they are 238

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able to start their own organisations, they are able to create startups.

Increasing access and also lowering cost of data is something that I think could bring about a positive digital economy and promote tech literacy.”

On the path to digitisation, the South African parliament isn’t alone.

Parliaments across the globe are beginning to understand the inherent value of digitisation for the democratic process. To promote innovation, Mtya accompanied a multi-party

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delegation which forms part of the ICT Focus Group as they travelled to Denmark, to learn more about the country’s technological innovation, including that of the Danish Parliament (Folketing). She is keen to collaborate with other parliamentary IT teams.

“Like any other industry, I think it’s important for us to see what we can learn from different governments and what they can learn from us,” she says.

“Because you face similar challenges, you can learn how the others have solved some of these challenges.

Sometimes you’re embarking on similar initiatives and you’re able to share knowledge. Done responsibility, it brings about lots of benefits.”

A TECH LEADER With a successful digital transformation underway, it seems the Parliament of the Republic South Africa is on its way to helping the government and country become a leader in the tech space.

Looking forward, the ICT division is exploring how robotics automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning can help it gain a competitive edge and improve its capability. By

“ Gone are the days where IT is just a supporter. IT acts both as a driver and an enabler nowadays” – Unathi Mtya, Chief Information Officer

leveraging such technologies, Mtya and her team are exploring ways that will strengthen the workforce and its delivery helping to bring the parliament’s vision for the future to life.

“In five years’ time I’d like to see how digitisation can help us offer a much more mature way of improving oversight and accountability in parliament,” Mtya says.

“I hope to see a much more aggressive level of openness, transparency, accessibility, and most importantly public participation. It’s about making sure that parliament becomes interactive and digital thereby relevant to the public.”

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PROMOTING FINANCIAL INCLUSION ACROSS AFRICAN BANKING

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Launched in 2013 following Econet Wireless Zimbabwe’s acquisition of TN Bank, Steward Bank is the first bank in the country to have convergence with telecommunications

H

eadquartered in Mauritius, with a foothold in South Africa, Burundi, Lesotho and Botswana, Steward Bank has revolutionised the way in which consumers engage with the banking sector.

As African nations have increasingly moved away from or skipped over traditional financial institutions, Steward Bank has developed its services in alignment with the country’s migration towards mobile platforms and digital tools. With over 1.5mn

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2013 The year Steward Bank was founded

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customers utilising its mobile platform, EcoCash, it is clear to see that they are now placing trust in new technologies.

With up to 80% of transactions undertaken through Steward Bank’s mobile banking app, Square, customers are now also able to utilise mobile wallets to store currency, further highlighting this shift towards digitally-led financial solutions.

“Zimbabwe is a country of approximately 18mn people. About 6mn of them are hooked onto the EcoCash platform which is controlled by the Econet Group. We wanted to tap into those people who were using mobile wallets and provide them with a banking solution that would complete the loop in providing financial services,” explains Steward Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lance Mambondiani.

“Our idea is always to utilise data, information, and the synergies we have with Econet, and then provide financial services to those people who are hooked onto the mobile network platform.”

“We are controlling up to a quarter of the market, which gives you an idea of

where we are operating,” he continues.

“We command quite a significant share of transactions on mobile platform, where we are processing up to 30mn transactions a month.”

“If you look at what we were doing last year, we were doing approximately 4mn transactions a month. This highlights the growth that we are seeing in the business, which is extremely exponential. With transactions undertaken on mobile banking, we are the leading institution.”

WHERE FINTECH AND BANKING COLLIDE Although Steward Bank has disrupted the traditional banking sector across Africa, Mambondiani is keen to stress that the business recognises itself not as a bank, but a fintech business with a banking license. By identifying the need for African nations to develop and adopt new financial capabilities, it sought to acquire a banking license back in 2013 when it was previously the sponsor bank for EcoCash.

“We are owned by a telecom, and therefore have the capacity of reaching

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more people than our competitors,” explains Mambondiani. “We’re playing a lot more in the innovation space so that we can see what we can do to match our technological capabilities with our banking capabilities.

“Our model and main interest has always been to simplify banking and guarantee financial inclusion when providing solutions that are relevant to Africa, for instance, Zimbabwe, which is market we’re serving.”

FINANCIALLY INCLUSIVE SERVICES Providing financial solutions which are cheaper and more accessible for all has been a significant driver for Steward Bank. Its decision to introduce free banking is one such example which, although a small difference, has created an earthquake in the way in which banking institutions are seeking to attract and retain customers.

“Introducing free banking has allowed customers to open an account without incurring monthly service fees. It was a new phenomenon because every other bank was

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charging some sort of monthly fee,” explains Mambondiani.

“We also went to the Central Bank and requested that they reduce the requirements needed for opening an account. The majority of the Zimbabwe population does not necessarily live in areas where they can conveniently produce a proof of residence. Some of them are ranching, some of them mine the rural areas, and some of them mine areas where proof of residence becomes difficult to do. That was our large drive towards financial inclusion.”

With such a vast reach, Steward Bank has also worked to launch mobile services to eliminate the need for its customers to visit its branches altogether. Encompassing internet banking, mobile banking, telephone banking and wireless services, its mobile app, Square, has become an essential digital tool.

Additionally, by providing credit and insurance on mobile, the business has witnessed exponential growth.

“Square is a very popular platform in the African region because a lot of people might not necessarily have

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“We wanted to tap into those people who were using mobile wallets and provide them with a banking solution that would complete the loop in providing financial services�

DR LANCE MAMBONDIANI Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer

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access to data. All the transactions you can do on the mobile platform, you can also do on the USSD platform in Africa, which covers all the payments that you can do for schools, for utilities or just if you want to do peer to peer payments, which can also be completed through the Square app,” Mambondiani adds.

PAYMENT REVOLUTION In order to remain aggressive within the development of its financial services, Steward Bank has also strenuously worked to overhaul its payments infrastructure.

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The recent launch of its point of sales system, Kwenga, has seen Steward Bank provide payment capabilities to SMEs and roadside shops in order to address some of the country’s cash challenges and support local communities.

“One of the things we identified was that most of the payments solutions around were for post machines, or when taking payment, situated largely within big retailers and merchants,” observes Mambondiani.

“We wanted to offer a solution straight to vendors to pay for selling tomatoes on the side of the road,

FACTS • 80% of transactions are undertaken through mobile banking app, Square • Introducing free banking has allowed Steward Bank customers to open an account without incurring monthly service fees • Steward Bank’s POS System, Kwenga, provides payment capabilities to SME’s • Steward Bank’s scheme, Facebook Banking, will seek to address frequent customer queries the company will receive • ZamaZama accounts have been packaged to include all the services an emerging SME requires • Steward Bank’s Globe Trotter Card is built in partnership with Visa

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for example. We are currently allowing up to five traders to share one machine, as we’re utilising an app which we have built, where the device will simply communicate with a trader’s account and enable more people to take payments.”

UNLOCKING VALUE Customer feedback has therefore been imperative to the development of new products and services at the bank. Collaborating with taxi drivers in the creation of Kwenga, for example, has been essential in developing products and services to address gaps in the market.

“The second thing that we’re doing is offering microloans to traders who are using the portal, because we can see the value of the transactions that they are doing,” notes Mambondiani.

“We are providing loans on the basis of the transactions that are going through the platform.”

By continually looking at the way in which new technologies can transform the customer experience, Steward Bank is also looking at the advantages of artificial intelligence

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“Our model and main interest has always been to simplify banking and guarantee financial inclusion when providing solutions that are relevant to Africa and also relevant to Zimbabwe” DR LANCE MAMBONDIANI Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer

STEWARD BANK TRANSFORMS INFRASTRUCTURE WITH SMART INTEGRATION SOLUTION Steward Bank engaged with ProSolutions to create a sophisticated integration solution designed to overcome legacy challenges in bank infrastructure and transform capacity capabilities. The goal was to rapidly develop and deploy a solution that could handle the increased load in the online banking and electronic delivery channels.

THE SOLUTION Real-time transactions - bank to wallet; wallet to bank; balance enquiries and mini statements are now sent from Liquid Telecom’s Postilion Switch to a socket hosted on i-Con. The platform decodes and maps the incoming requests to an OFS message in T24, the core banking system at Steward Bank. Then, based on the response from T24, i-Con sends back a response to Liquid Telecom. And all this takes place in under half a second.

“We are also now able to roll out new services quickly and the methodology is so much more efficient. We can introduce transactions that previously we would not have been able to do without the platform in place.”

TAKUDSWA MUZVIDZWA IS PROJECTS & ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, STEWARD BANK

First Floor, ACS House, 370 Rivonia Boulevard (North Close), Rivonia, South Africa | +27 11 573 6751 | info@prosol.co.za | www.prosol.co.za

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(AI). Its scheme, Facebook Banking, launched in March, will further seek to address frequent customer queries the company will receive.

“We’re trying to make sure that banking is digitised and is made relevant to the customer. Reducing friction and moving people more towards artificial intelligence will enable us to analyse the data received and look at potential areas of improvement surrounding the customer experience,” comments Mambondiani.

“AI is definitely a big part of our strategy. Our intention is to scale our number of customers from approximately half a million to around a million by the close of this financial year.”

SME ENGAGEMENT Whilst Steward Bank works to tailor its services which are left sidelined by other financial institutions, it is also looking at developing its services towards the flourishing SME space.

The development of the company’s ZamaZama accounts has therefore been packaged to include all the

services an emerging SME would need to succeed, whilst promoting collaboration across the board.

Built out of co-creation, Steward Bank has recognised the need to provide SMEs with tailored support on a number of areas: how they can open a bank account, build a website, address the challenges around access to market, write business plans and much more. “It’s almost like banking in a box in that we provide financial literacy,” adds Mambondiani.

“We also provide web development capabilities through Mozilla.

Partnering with four other group entities within the Econet family, we looked at delivering the services which we knew SMEs wanted. We didn’t want to just give SMEs a loan, we wanted to give them the tools of understanding what a balance sheet is or how to manage their resources.”

To instil positive relationships and create a constructive learning culture, SMEs are further encouraged to utilise an incubation pod at the bank.

Operating every Friday, it enables SMEs to meet, share ideas and access vital expertise both through

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collaboration and the use of its wi-fi capabilities. However, whilst many banks would make this a service a members only venture, the service is open to all SMEs who seek to access its services and engage with like-minded individuals or groups.

THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION The tourism sector is impacting a number of markets – with the financial sector being no exception. Whilst Zimbabwe remains one of the biggest recipients of foreign currency, or rather of remittance from Zimbabweans who are living abroad, Steward Bank has therefore developed its services

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to cater to this growing market.

“We wanted to provide a solution for people to travel outside of the country and still have access to some means of payment. We’ve partnered with Visa and introduced the pre-paid Globe Trotter Card. It allows a customer to load their own value on it and utilise the credit,” says Mambondiani.

“You don’t need to be a Steward Bank customer, and can access it through any Econet shop or Econet branch. In a bid to target up to 300,000 customers, we are now also distributing the card through some other retailers and supermarkets.”

Additionally, its partnership with

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“We’re playing a lot more in the innovation space so that we can see what we can do to match our technological capabilities with our banking capabilities” DR LANCE MAMBONDIANI Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer

World Remit has seen the bank deliver solutions to up to 4mn Zimbabwean citizens who are situated outside the country. By enabling them to tap into their remittance, they will remain a significant contributor to the country’s foreign currency inflow.

“World Remit is a very critical partner to us in targeting a number of Zimbabweans in various markets,” explains Mambondiani.

“World Remit is operating

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in a number of countries, but also terminates into a number of different countries. So, Zimbabweans can, in the UK for example, utilise World Remit to send money back home. And we use our last mile to make sure that money reaches to beneficiary much quicker.”

In order to further increase its reach, money will either terminate into a Steward Bank account, which will then be collected at one of its branches, or it can be terminated into an EcoCash wallet, which automatically gives Steward

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Bank access to approximately 5mn customers in Zimbabwe.

“I think that is the appeal for us, that anybody who is using World Remit can use either our EcoCash platform or they use the Steward Bank’s platforms and engines,” he adds.

INCREASED ACCESSIBILITY Through overhauling its entire delivery network and its core banking systems, Steward Bank has worked to build a fintech structure that has the capacity to address and serve its customers.

“We’re looking into the region to

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see what we can do to further expand digital banking services across Africa.

One of the things that we’ve identified is that the challenges in Africa or in Europe are almost the same,” comments Mambondiani. “We are currently in the process of looking at partnerships across Africa, in the form of establishing green fields or maybe a joint venture (JV) with various financial institutions in other African countries.

“We’re a digital bank, and want to deliver banking in a manner which is cheaper, easier and a lot more accessible. Our focus in doing

“Our intention is to scale our number of customers from approximately half a million to around a million by the close of this financial year”

so is using mobile as the centre of our product delivery. We are only one of three institutions that we know in the world that is fully owned by an MNO, only one of two banks in the world. Others are in the form of a JV or partnership.

“We’ve got a unique capacity of looking at banking differently and delivering it in a way that is relevant to Africa, reducing the cost of delivery because we are becoming a lot more digital.

“Lastly, we are interested in building a platform business, a platform banking system and structure, an open banking platform which allows other partners to plug into what we’re doing for the benefit of our customers.

“Our intention is to fully deepen financial inclusion and, therefore, we are providing solutions which are relevant to every Zimbabwean or financial access to the mainstream banking sector in a market which was previously excluded.”

DR LANCE MAMBONDIANI Steward Bank Chief Executive Officer

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Disrupting Zimbabwe’s banking sector

Through technological prowess and collaboration with fintechs, FBC bank is meeting the demands of Zimbabwean consumers Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Greg Churchill

FBC BANK LIMITED

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n no industry can digital transformation be seen better than in the banking sector.

Swapping old cash for mobile wallets and e-payments, customers have increasingly embraced the simplicity and ease that digital banking brings and, in Africa, it is no secret that the continent’s high mobile phone penetration makes the region fertile for such a change.

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Although it celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, FBC bank is a financial institution that has its feet firmly placed in the future.

Banking in a digital age A frontrunner in Zimbabwe’s digital banking landscape, locally-owned FBC is setting a precedent that digital and mobile banking is a critical chapter in the country’s future.

Zimbabwe’s banking market is evolving rapidly. The soaring growth of mobile financial services, specifically mobile wallets, has taken hold in the region as more and more consumers rely on their mobile phones.

Not only does this offer a more streamlined model of banking, it is also accelerating financial inclusion.

The African country has also uniquely switched over to a

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TECHNOLOGY

multi-currency system – using the South African Rand, the US dollar, Euro and more. For the local economy, using this system for everyday transactions can be understandably difficult.

With the rise of mobile use and an unconventional currency model, Agrippa Mugwagwa, Executive Director of Group Retail Banking & e-commerce, says that this is where FBC’s digital services offer a transparent solution.

“We’ve seen an upsurge in terms of usage of mobile banking, internet banking, and mobile wallets in the market,” he explains. “In fact, last year 96% of around $98bn, went through electronic platforms, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

“This change in the market presented us an opportunity to become an innovative and dynamic financial sector player,” he continues. “Now, everybody wants bank cards.

Everybody wants mobile banking and mobile wallets.

It gives them the flexibility they Agrippa G R Mugwagwa need to transact across the Executive Director Retail & Ecommerce

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market and, as a bank, we adopted open banking early. We foresaw the migration of payments from physical cash to electronic and have embraced the shift to digital banking.”

Collaboration with fintechs Open banking is the next step in the digital banking revolution. By shaking up the traditional, insular

nature of banking, this system allows banks to collaborate and learn from fintechs in the market.

In Zimbabwe, FBC is keen to leverage this change to transform the banking landscape and, more importantly, enhance its customers’ experience.

Keen to tap into this digital shift, FBC is collaborating closely

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with leading fintech companies to offer disruptive digital technologies such as application programme interfaces (APIs).

“At FBC we are focusing on opening up our ecosystems,” Mugwagwa explains. “As banks, we are designed more for process and stability. We don’t move with speed, but this is something which fintechs can offer.

They have speed, agility and expertise around data. They’ve also got a freespirited approach to innovation. This move to open banking facilitates integration with these third parties.

At FBC, we collaborate a lot and this is mutually beneficial for the bank, the fintechs and customers alike.”

“This change in the market presented us an opportunity to become an innovative and dynamic financial sector player” AGRIPPA MUGWAGWA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GROUP RETAIL BANKING & E-COMMERCE

From bricks-and-mortar to online Embracing the open banking ecosystem is one matter, but FBC is also making waves in the sector by moving away from traditional brick-and-mortar branches to become a digitally-engaged, digitally-focused brand.

“We are moving slowly away

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from the brick-and-mortar model because of the change in the demographic, whereby millennials or digital natives are becoming the dominant consumer of financial services,” says Mugwagwa.

“They don’t have much interest in using brick-and-mortar models,” he adds. “They are quite happy to use their devices to engage and transact with the bank. They prefer conversational banking via

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instant messaging. Hence, we are also looking at new innovations around artificial intelligence and around chatbots, for example.

We are more integrated into our consumers’ lifestyle. It’s not just about providing functionality. It’s about providing an experience.”

To facilitate this transformation, FBC has embraced the agent banking model and works closely with its partners – dedicated distributors

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“We are moving slowly away from the brickand-mortar model because of the change in the demographic, whereby millennials or digital natives are becoming the dominant consumer of financial services” AGRIPPA MUGWAGWA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GROUP RETAIL BANKING & E-COMMERCE

for its financial services – who sell its cards, insurance products, transaction and payments.

“This also means we now have a better reach,” Mugwagwa highlights, “especially in some of the places where it would have been viable for us to set up a branch.”

Putting the customer first In many aspects, FBC shrewdly foresaw the shift towards digital banking long before some of its competitors. As such, the company has tirelessly worked to revamp its technologies, deploy point of

President Agrippa Mugwagwa hands over Overall Superbrand 2017 award to Kudzai Mpunzwana of Nyaradzo Funeral Group

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sale infrastructure and integrated its bank with mobile wallets.

With technological ingenuity, FBC is accelerating its digital banking and e-commerce portfolio to offer services like no other.

However, amidst this impressive transformation, one thing has remained the same – the company’s commitment to its customers.

“What has changed the most and what has been most defining

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about us diverting technology is the level of customer engagement,” comments Mugwagwa. “Through multiple platforms we have availed the customer with access to the bank. We have built a 24-hour call centre which uses channels such as email, SMS, web chats, mobile and even WhatsApp to engage with our customers.

“We’ve ensured that our response times are timely and we’re also looking

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at embracing the new technologies to even make our platforms even more efficient. So, if you look at the volume and traffic of engagement that has come through all these multiple platforms, it is a rapid increase from what we used to have 10 years ago.

“The customer is confident that the bank has got their back because we are there to support them, meet their requirements, and respond to their queries in a timely

manner when issues arise,” he adds.

“We’ve also embraced social media in terms of customer engagement, and because of this I think the customer feels now they’ve got a bigger voice.”

Inclusive, innovative, disruptive At FBC, customer engagement has remained at the forefront of its agenda and, therefore, the Zimbabwe bank is also keen to include

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customers who have often been forgotten by financial institutions.

“Financial inclusion is an important issue at FBC,” Mugwagwa says. “As a result, our bank has set up an SME division that addresses the needs and requirements of smaller businesses.

We are also working to support specific demographics such as women and young people so that they can enter the mainstream economy through advisor support, an extension of credit, or other activities that help them realise their entrepreneurial dreams. On top of that, the use of our various electronic channels that have moved banking from the urban centres and opened it up to the countryside.”

The Zimbabwean economy has undergone some difficult times but, as a result, FBC has adapted and evolved to become one of the most innovative and disruptive banks in the market.

The Zimbabwean bank has astutely positioned itself as a market leader in digital service and e-commerce, and as inward investment into the country grows, it seems FBC is set to continue on its upward trajectory.

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Agrippa G.R Mugwagwa Executive Director (Retail Banking & e-Commerce FBC Bank, Zimbabwe) Mugwagwa is has over twenty years financial services experience and is an Executive Director – Retail Banking & e-Commerce with FBC Bank in Zimbabwe. Aside of primary distribution he manages innovation and the migration of banking and payments to emerging digital platforms. He is a leading expert and thought leader in Zimbabwe’s financial services industry. A keen digital marketer, Mugwagwa has been closely involved with the mobile banking ecosystem evolution in Zimbabwe and writes and presents papers regularly on the subject. He holds a business degree from the University of Zimbabwe, a Master in Business Leadership from UNISA, is a Project Management Professional (PMP®) as well as a Chartered Marketer (UK) amongst various other qualifications.

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Promoting fairness across the African banking industry

WRITTEN BY CATHERINE STURMAN PRODUCED BY GREG CHURCHILL

The Bank of Namibia has placed significant investment in implementing digital solutions to extend customer reach

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he African banking market has become a hotbed of innovation. In a bid to promote financial inclusivity, enable simplification and boost accessibility, Namibia is increasingly embracing digital tools. In many cases, digital platforms and apps are continually favoured over traditional retail banking services.

Established in 1990 from the South Africa Reserve Bank following the country’s independence, the Bank of Namibia (BoN) remains unique in its position as the sole institution able to print currency and works with local governments in the public sector.

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With five BoN commercial banks in Namibia – Bank Windhoek, First National Bank, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Small and Medium Enterprises Bank, BoN adheres to global standards, and is investing in financial solutions which provide increased accessibility and fairness across the financial sector at large.

Providing enhanced accessibility Following on from the establishment of the e-Government project in Namibia, BoN has worked to implement new, customerfocused digital tools to remain abreast

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BANK OF NAMIBIA

Namibia is increasingly embracing digital tools, platforms and apps over traditional retail banking services

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of issues within fintech and regtech and has adapted its services in alignment with service innovations worldwide to support its citizens.

Incorporating five key areas – policies and legalities, access to information, local content, capacity and willingness, the project has enabled BoN to also implement digital tools to enhance its security backbone whilst it adopts new ways of doing business.

Namibia has a sparse population of 3mn citizens but harnesses a significant landmass for the banking sector to contend with.

Whilst many businesses remain situated in its capital city Windhoek, businesses located in nearby towns have presented a number of challenges for the bank to reach those located in rural areas.

With a vision to be a centre of excellence, its investment in new digital tools has therefore granted the bank the ability to obtain economic data and provide flexibility, accessibility, and the delivery of value-added financial services across its banking platforms.

Additionally, whilst the bank remains in the regulatory space, it will consistently learn from other central banks and work alongside the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The African Development Bank (AfDB), harnessing essential cloud technologies for increased flexibility, scalability and the reduction in risk across its operations.

However, with new digital tools and currencies entering the financial market, the bank has worked to educate its citizens on the risks surrounding virtual currencies.

New financial currencies, such as bitcoin, are presently not regulated or recognised as legal tender in Namibia due to its market volatility.

To this end, the bank has also released a paper regarding the distinction between

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cryptocurrencies and the use of e-money, which has been accepted as a form of currency in Namibia.

Community development Training and development is an area of particular focus for BoN, and a major share of its corporate social responsibilities currently sits within the education space. Since 1998, the bank has provided annual bursaries to undergraduates in areas such as IT, research, accounting and economics – all areas which the bank believes are crucial to Namibia’s development.

The bank also provides a comprehensive postgraduate bursary, where graduates can approach the bank for funding. Additionally, the bank houses a PhD programme, while federal

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doctorate-level studies are also funded by the bank.

Most importantly for the bank, its Graduate Accelerated Programme (GAP) works to support students who have finalised their studies and are looking for a role within the banking sector. Building capacity for the bank and the country, BoN

AFRICA

works to support these students by granting exposure and experience across several departments on a rotational basis. Upon completing an 18-month programme at the bank, applicants are able to apply for roles within the central bank or gain a job within the financial market in Namibia.

Further support However, the bank’s efforts within the educational space are not solely limited to the graduate sector. Partnering with a number of high learning institutions has seen BoN award prizes to the best final year students at Institute of Bankers in Namibia, the University of Namibia and the Polytechnic of Namibia within economics, finance and banking subjects.

As part of its public education programme, the bank also hosts a National High School competition bi-annually. Endorsed by the Ministry of Education, all secondary schools in Namibia are invited to participate, with Namibia harnesses a significant prizes awarded to winning teams landmass for the or schools in the Bank of Namibia banking sector National High School Competition. to contend with Namibia will continue to embrace new digital tools and services across its financial industry, one which will drive down costs further for its citizens. With a predicted growth rate set to rise from 1.4% to 2.1 % in 2018 and 2019 respectively, it is clear that the country is set to go from strength to strength.

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Reimagining the utilities sector with trailblazing technologies Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Andrew Lloyd

CADENT GAS

With a pipe network connecting 11mn homes and businesses, Cadent Gas is using technological innovation to meet its customers’ needs, today and tomorrow

H

ow would we set up the company if we were starting from scratch? If we were a startup, what would we do?

These are the wide-reaching questions that Cadent Gas asked itself when the firm decided to diverge from the National Grid last year and carved out its own path in the utilities sector.

With an invigorated startup mentality and technological ingenuity, the UK-based company has developed a strong tech strategy and is set to become a frontrunner in the competitive utilities industry.

A startup mentality With over 18 years’ experience in the energy and utilities business, the task of developing a brand

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CEO, Chris Train

new digital roadmap has fallen into the capable hands of Chief Technology Officer James Houlton, who described the company’s separation from the National Grid as a crucial catalyst for change.

“The biggest change I have seen is that we now have a real startup mentality,” observes Houlton.

“Separating from National Grid has allowed us to lose the shackles of such a large utility organisation. It’s allowed us to ask ourselves ‘How

would we set this up if we had a clean slate? If we were startup what would we do and how would we do it?’

“This mentality is helping our team drive performance, drive efficiency, and really care about the lives of the people that we affect on a daily basis - our customers” he adds.

Technological ingenuity Re-evaluating its industry standing has allowed Cadent to reimagine a new technology pathway.

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“The biggest change I have seen is that we now have a real startup mentality” James Houlton, CTO, Cadent Gas Understanding and adopting practices followed by major technology players such as Amazon and Microsoft is one way we see giving Cadent a competitive edge, says Houlton.

“The business can’t operate without technology and technology can’t operate without the business,” says Houlton. “There’s much less of a divide as there has ever been. When we devised the IT strategy we started by talking to our business colleagues to understand some of the challenges and the pain points they have and how we can serve our customers better.

“It’s about understanding what we are we driving for, what our goals are and what type of

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organisation we want to be.”

Technology has, by all accounts, become a fundamental element of Cadent’s operations.

It’s no longer the job of the IT department, it’s the responsibility of everyone in the organisation.

It’s no longer a supplementary function, it’s a driver of change.

In many aspects, technology is changing the operating model of the organisation, says Houlton.

Driving efficiency and excellence “In some cases where we’d traditionally turn to human resources to do things, we’re asking, ‘could technology deliver that function in an easier, consistent and more efficient way?’” Houlton says.

“Through robotics and automation, for example, we’re looking at how we can be more effective and readily available because technology can run 24/7, whereas humans can’t,” he adds.

“It’s also about improving the quality and efficiency of delivery, so where a human could make errors, automation and robotics could eliminate these.”

CADENT GAS BOASTS OVER 82,000 MILES OF PIPELINE, DELIVERING GAS TO AROUND 11MN HOMES AND BUSINESSES

CADENT GAS

“I’m a great believer in the fact that you can’t really futureproof technology because of the pace and the rate that things are changing today” James Houlton, CTO, Cadent Gas

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The origins of the firm’s digital transformation can be traced back to April 2017, when National Grid sold a majority stake in its gas distribution business and became Cadent, an independent, privately-owned organisation.

As part of this division, Cadent also has to separate all of its technologies – its networks, the data centres, applications and more – by March 2019. It is a mammoth task, but Houlton says that it’s helping the Cadent team to focus on what matters – “being as efficient and effective as we possibly can, maximising performance and productivity, and delivering a great service to our customers.”

An agile, fast-moving platform But when technology is everchanging and constantly improving, how does Cadent keep up with the pace of innovation?

“I’m a great believer in the fact that you can’t really future-proof technology because of the pace and the rate that things are changing

today,” Houlton says. “Our strategy was to create a foundation that allowed us to be agile and fast-moving so that we could respond to the changing demands of the business.”

To this end, Houlton says that the company’s move to a public cloud, specifically Amazon Web Services (AWS), was “fundamental” to give the company the scalability and flexibility it needed to deliver solutions quickly.

A competitive edge What’s more, Cadent’s strategy has also involved looking at the areas where it equaled competitors in the marketplace such as its back-office operations, HR, finance, procurement, and its ERP system, and standardising the back office to maximise efficiency and value. Keen to deliver an effective SAP transformation, Cadent is moving to SAP S/4HANA for its back-office functions. They key is simplification – removing the complexity built up over multiple years and adopting best practice driven by our technology.

“It’s been an interesting shift in culture and conversation,” Houlton

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says. “Those areas of the business are very keen to standardise the way they operate and their back-office processes around the technology.

This is driving standardisation of the business processes and is shifting the way we operate, our attitude and our mindset.”

Simultaneously, Cadent has also highlighted the core areas which differentiate the business, such as its field technology, its customer experience, and its Critical National Infrastructure, and is ramping up technological investment in these areas.

Such investments have seen Cadent explore the use of modern innovations such as virtual reality, mixed reality, sensor technology and the Internet of Things, to add value to the organisation.

“If we didn’t take a look at these technologies which offer flexibility, agility, and scalability, then we’d be left behind,” says Houlton. “These technologies are key to help us achieve our strategy, but they will also ensure that Cadent pushes to

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the top-of-the-pack. We are a new organisation, we want to do things differently. We’ve got a massive focus on efficiency and these technologies in the marketplace allow us to achieve that by reducing costs and reducing waste.

“We’ve tried to create a culture that showcases how technology can make us fast-paced and agile,” he continues. “It doesn’t always have to be a multi-year, or multi-million-pound technology to deliver a quality service. We can

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turn things around very quickly, we can use digital technologies and it doesn’t have to be costly.”

Sustaining strong partnerships Such a root-and-branch transformation of Cadent’s digital capabilities wouldn’t be possible without its strong strategic partnerships which are helping the company on its journey to become a technology-enabled, technology-driven organisation.

“We can’t do it alone,” notes Houlton. “We need to be close to what’s happening in the technology sphere, and utilising our partners is helping us achieve that by accelerating our performance and growth. We have capability, but we can’t attract the talent or the investment that our strategic partners can. Without those partnerships, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are going to be, and we have been so far.”

Houlton says that the company’s five-year partnership with HCL Technologies will be vital for its digitisation strategy. “HCL Tech is

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“If we didn’t take a look at these technologies which offer flexibility, agility, and scalability, then we’d be left behind” James Houlton, CTO, Cadent Gas our main application support and delivery partner,” he explains. “The firm has a wide breadth of experience and a large client base which we can really make use of. In terms of the thinking that’s out there, some of the solutions that they’re delivering for us are really accelerating our route to market and helping us grow.

“SAP has also been a key partner as we’ve got a large SAP footprint,” he continues. “Changes in that space, in terms of engineering capability, are going to be key. Therefore, we’re

utilising its global experience and the breadth of its customer base to really understand what other people are doing, how they’re really being performed, and bringing that back in. It’s really accelerating our thinking and our innovation.”

On top of this, Amazon and Microsoft are key partners which Houlton describes as key accelerators for technological innovation.

“Amazon’s cloud platform AWS has been fantastic and we’re also working with the company to explore how they achieve customer excellence because they are stand-out in this area,” he says. “We’re working closely with Amazon to see how we can drive innovation across the company more than we could do if we were doing it alone.

“We’re also talking to Microsoft about our challenges and how we could better innovate,” he continues.

“We’re talking to them about analytics, so for example, how we could use the Office 365 platform to really draw out some great analytic insights which could promote employee productivity.”

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“We want to be a shining example that industry leaders and our strategic partners use as a reference point�

James Houlton, CTO, Cadent Gas

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Cadent Hinckley team

Above and beyond Cadent’s startup mentality, technological ingenuity and strong industry partnerships have culminated to create a firm which has achieved meteoric success in its brief history.

The UK firm is quickly becoming one of the top gas distributions companies in the country, but for Houlton, it’s also about setting an industry-wide standard of technological and business success.

“We would like to see Cadent standout as an industry leader and a technological leader,” he reflects. “We want to be a shining example that industry leaders and our strategic partners use as a reference point as to how companies can use technology to maximise value for their customers and derive benefit for the organisation.”

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CONSTRUCTION

AND THE UNDERWATER CONNECTIVITY REVOLUTION

The demand for connectivity is heavily impacting the subsea cable industry. Chief Executive Officer Nigel Bayliff discusses Aqua Comms’ involvement in this growing market and its aim to connect both sides of the Atlantic

Wr i t t

en b

y Ca

ugha a V s i w therine S e t u r m a n Pro d u c e d by L

n

THE TELECOMS INDUSTRY has undergone something of a subsea revolution. Whilst subsea cables built 30 years ago were both expensive and time-consuming, they were also only built for telephone calls between corresponding operators on either side of the ocean.

The partnership of US operators such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, as well as European operators British Telecom, France Télécom, Deutsche Telekom and others enabled the development of subsea cables which could handle increased volume of calls.

However, with private entities deployed across the Atlantic, it was international provider Cable & Wireless which built a private cable to America in a bid to sell capacity to smaller operators emerging in Europe.

Providing a competitive threat to the pricing of telephone calls, the space for providers to privately build infrastructures and sell them in alignment with the life of the cable was born, and filtered into the development of the internet.

Impacting the way undersea cables are designed, the internet fuelled a consumer demand for connectivity.

With an increased need to send low-speed data over a telephone call-style channel, the launch of 9.6kb dial-up modems created a crossover, where providers sought to turn a telephone-capable cable into a data cable.

Despite this, whilst the number of consortiums and telcos sought to build cables to cater to this rapid demand, the dot.com bubble burst and led to not only an oversupply, but a subsequent crash within the telecoms sector.

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Aqua Comms partners with US operators such as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, as well as European operators British Telecom, France Télécom and Deutsche Telekom

Nigel Bayliff, Aqua Comms’ CEO speak s to JSA TV

cables across the Atlantic and a market which had dwindled. Speculators came in and bought the assets, which had cost hundreds of millions to build, for just tens of millions,” explains Nigel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer at Aqua Comms.

“Suddenly the private equity markets and the general banks lost a lot of money in that very strange period of history.

“Today, there remains a 20% price decline model used for the price of a particular piece of capacity in the Atlantic.

At the same time, people have managed to stay in business because the growth that was forecasted in 1999 has started to occur,” he continues. w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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“At Aqua Comms, demands are roughly doubling every two years. There is a huge data flow now, many orders of magnitude bigger than they were 20 plus years ago.”

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS) Established in 2011, Aqua Comms seeks to monetise undersea assets by taking capacity from one shore to the other side of the ocean, delivering high quality services at lower costs. With 20 employees with up to 25 years’ experience each, it presently houses up to 100 target customers, which are mostly global telecoms carriers.

“We don’t sell to banks or engineering firms. Neither do we go into the enterprise layer and break up the capacity on our layer into smaller pieces,” says Bayliff. “We sell big, high-capacity pipes between major interconnections sites either side of the Atlantic to people who go out into the metros and the communities and supply consumers and enterprises with telecoms services.

“We operate as a carrier’s carrier and sell, effectively, infrastructure as

“

Technology has changed dramatically, and our new cable can do at least 24 terabits per fibre pair, at a lower operating cost

” –N igel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Comms

a service,” he adds. “Our investors are mostly infrastructure-grade and they are looking for a long-term return on the capital deployed, which is a pretty different world to 1999, when it was mostly private equity making a play on what might happen in the high-tech market.”

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into subsea cable systems.

Whilst the number of cables built around 2001 are now coming to the end of their economic life, the growing need for capacity is enabling Aqua Comms to lead the way in the subsea fibre-optic network industry.

“Cables which I built in the early 2000s are approximately four terabits (Tb) per fibre pair. Technology has changed dramatically, and our new cable can do at least 24 Tb per fibre pair at a lower operating cost,” acknowledges Bayliff. “The challenge is to cope with the massive growth of capacity requirements, but not to grow your costs at the same rate as the capacity growth, because the price is in decline.”

Upon joining Aqua Comms in late 2016, Bayliff has worked to monetise the company’s subsea fibre-optic cable, AEConnect, in the carrier market in both Europe and the US. “We own two cables. One goes from western Ireland to New York (AEConnect), and one goes from Dublin to Holyhead in Wales, which was built about six years ago, called CeltixConnect-1,” notes Bayliff.

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“ The challenge is to cope with the massive growth of capacity requirements, but not to grow your costs at the same rate as the capacity growth,because the price is in decline

” –N igel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Comms

“We’re now in a phase where we’ve stabilised the company and paid back all the construction costs of that original cable.“

ENHANCED DESIGN In order to remain ahead of the competition, Aqua Comms has deployed significant investment in both the design of its cables, and what it can offer its customers.

Through its Spectrum Services, users are able to partake in ownership economics and technological improvements in end user equipment over the life of a particular cable.

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5,250km of cable being laid between Ireland and the USA

Aqua Comms was established to provide capacity networking solutions to content providers, cloud-based networks, data centres, IT companies and the global media. By building, acquiring or merging with subsea fibre optic networks, the company provides the systems which will cover the needs of tomorrow, today.

“We sell 100 gigabits (GB). If you keep this for 10 years, it will be 100GB. Spectrum allows you to get underneath that layer and own part of the physical transmission bandwidth across the fibre and add new parts to that technology over the course of ownership,” says Bayliff.

“At the end of 10 years, that channel might be able to deliver 400GB because of improvements in technology. You start to see the benefit of a different grade of investment in the telecoms supply.

“Below that is the fibre pair, where you get the ability to put whatever you want on the end of it. There are lots of innovative companies, like Ciena, Infinera and Xtera. They are always coming up with new generations of Spectrum management capability and improving the capacity of each fibre pair as they go. So, you’re latching into that ability when you buy Spectrum,” he continues.

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bandwidth which could be utilised.

By implementing specialist types of fibre, the use of coherent detection now provides a cleaner way of detecting the signal on arrival at the receiving station, therefore removing the need for complex management.

“High-powered amplifiers boost the light signal, and the fibre is the same all the way across,” observes Bayliff. “It’s a new design of a large effective area fibre optics, which provides increased power and bigger bandwidth.”

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security, where its two biggest threats are fishing within shallow water areas, and also where ships anchor through its strengthened design.

HAVFRUE CONSORTIUM The company’s CeltixConnect-2 cable will seek to provide an additional secure route from Ireland and the UK in its bid to cater to a growing surge in demand. It will also link to its current subsea cable across the Irish sea, named CelixConnect-1.

“There are big carriers who have a lot of business in Ireland and want dark

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fibre so that they can operate their own network. Dark fibre is sold to big carriers or content players such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc,” explains Bayliff.

“Our second cable will also connect to the Isle of Man, so we will connect Dublin with Blackpool, and we’ll also branch into the Isle of Man itself, bringing our services to the gaming and financial management companies.”

The company’s growing connection with the data centre and cloud market will accelerate business growth.

It’s decision to join the HAVFRUE consortium, a group which will bring a multitude of advantages for the business. The new cable will connect New Jersey and the US to Ireland and Denmark, with connectivity options in Norway. Once completed, Aqua Comms will own approximately a third of the cable’s capacity to market and sell capacity services.

“We are working with people who we know and who don’t compete with us, because they buy capacity for their own private use,” observes Bayliff.

“The cable will branch into the west of Ireland and join up with our existing

“

High-powered amplifiers boost light signal, providing increased power and bigger bandwidth

” –N igel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Comms

cable. Once completed, we will have fibre optic capability to deliver massive capacity. These fibres carry 20-plus Tb per fibre. We will be able to do that in a ring-based structure between Europe and Ireland, and Ireland and the US, which is a very resilient path for data-centred traffic and general telecoms traffic.

“This route is important, as it goes directly to Denmark, which means that these will be the two northern cables in the Atlantic,” he continues. “The cost to build them is prohibitive, unless you have a good market to off take that cost.” w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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“It’s also important to me as the north of Europe is cold and electricity is cheap. Those are two of the key design criteria for these mega scale data centres. Companies want low cost of electricity and as much natural cooling as possible. The third thing they need is connectivity.

“We really are aiming to connect the data centre and the cloud centres on either side of the Atlantic.”

“Ireland has the unique position because of its tax rate and its hightech workforce. It has enormous data centres for Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook already established. Connecting the three big places where data centres will develop over the next five years was a very good strategic move for us,” adds Bayliff.

“We can also enter Sweden and Finland and pull through traffic that comes up from Russia and China, which travels into Frankfurt. All of those northern European locations are where the traffic flows will come onto our cable and, obviously, help us monetise it.”

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REMAINING PRODUCTIVE Working with international companies, as well as smaller enterprises, has enabled Aqua Comms to build a strong, global network and close-knit relationships with its partners.

Working with INOC in particular has seen the company eradicate any issues within its network operation centres (NOCs), where the company has put up walls up between Aqua Comms’ data and knowledge

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processes, which is kept in house.

“Our network operations process manager, who effectively commands what the NOC does, is the ex-process lead for Deutsche Telekom’s Global Network Factory, who was one of the industry’s best deployment of electronic network management in Europe and, in fact, the world,” says Bayliff.

“Although the NOC has all the tools, they’re directed in how to do that by an internal resource. We have people in our company who can then provide second and third line technical assistance and direction to the vendor in the event of any serious or complex situation.

“It’s a good partnership because INOC have a large operation in Madison, Wisconsin in America, but they’re able to flex the resource they deploy on our account as and when we need it.”

FUTURE TRENDS The subsea cable industry will continue to grow but, interestingly, Bayliff believes that dynamic services will be the ones to watch. Whilst streaming

“

Once completed, we will have fibre optic capability to deliver massive capacity.

We will be able to do that in a ring-based structure between Europe and Ireland, and Ireland and the US, which is a resilient path for data-centred traffic and general telecoms traffic

”

–N igel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Comms

services such as Netflix will drive traffic across domestic networks, there are other areas of focus which will determine the need for data on a global scale.

“Services which will really drive connectivity will be interpersonal, dynamic, high-data services such as video calling. Video, WhatsApp, or posting a Facebook Live video uses significantly more capacity. It is a random event and there’s two billion w w w. g i g a b i t m a g a z i n e . c o m

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“

There are big carriers who have a lot of business in Ireland and want dark fibre so that they can operate their own network

”

–N igel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer, Aqua Comms

random users of Facebook who might all decide to do things at different times. The dynamism is very important and that’s where we keep an eye on the trends,” observes Bayliff.

“Certain trends we are looking out for especially is augmented virtual reality (AVR). If you take video as being a unit of one, virtual reality (VR) is about 6.7 times the data rate. So, if you then go to AVR, you’re another 10 times the data rate.”

Additionally, people’s assumptions that there remains enough capacity will need to be addressed long-term.

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Whilst in the 1990s there were constricted channels of bandwidth, and a lot of research undertaken in how to get increased richness of communication in the same bandwidth, this has since been eradicated.

“I receive between 15-17 megabits per second (Mbps) on my BT broadband, but on mobile I get 24 Mbps on Vodafone 4G. There’s an assumption that it’s effectively limitless and we won’t need to bother, which means people will use more communications, which translates into more international bandwidth,” comments Bayliff.

Consequently, Aqua Comms will remain a specialist and focused company which will work to provide customers with access to IaaS at all levels for both carrier content and media industries.

“We are not a full-service telco, so we don’t try to sell to the same people as they sell to,” concludes Bayliff.

“We’re trying to provide the backbone and the North Atlantic bridge for data centre and cloud business growth over the next decade and beyond.”

Aqua Comms traffic is doubling every two years, with 41% approx. CAGR of data usage Aqua Comms monetises undersea assets by taking capacity from one shore to the other side of the ocean, delivering high quality at lower costs.

Bayliff has worked to monetise subsea fibreoptic AEConnect Cable with the carrier market in both Europe and the US. Through its Spectrum Services, users are able to partake in technological improvements in end user equipment over the life of a particular cable.

The company’s CeltixConnect cables will provide a secure route in Ireland and the UK in its bid to cater to a growing surge in demand.

Working with INOC in particular has eradicated any issues within its network operation centres (NOCs).

Kevin Foley, Chief Financial Officer

Nigel Bayliff, Chief Executive Officer

Andy Hudson, Chief Network Officer3 0 5

The connected data hubs for Asia Pacific Written by Niki Waldegrave Produced by Glen White

Peter Adcock, Digital Realty’s APAC vicepresident, design and construction, talks about the company’s growth plans, and why he won’t be totally relying on driverless cars anytime soon

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

D

igital Realty is the world’s largest full-scale data centre provider offering colocation, interconnection and cloud services.

It has more than 150 data centres in 11 countries, servicing more than 2,300 companies of all sizes in 33 global markets across its secure, network-rich portfolio of buildings located throughout Asia Pacific, North America and Europe. Equating to more than 26mn sq ft of Data centre space across the world.

For more than nine years, the business has delivered a portfolio of data centre solutions – including Digital Realty has announced a joint venture with Mitsubishi

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colocation, Cloud services, business ecosystems, Turn-Key Flex (TKF), and powered base buildings (PBB) – with a record of 99.999% uptime, unmatched by any other data centre provider.

In October, Digital Realty announced it has entered into a 50/50 joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation to provide data centre solutions in Japan.

The joint venture, named MC Digital Realty, will benefit from Mitsubishi’s local enterprise expertise and established data centre presence in Tokyo, as well as Digital Realty’s global client base and industry-leading track record of

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data centre operational excellence.

Digital Realty will contribute its recently completed data centre development project in Osaka, while Mitsubishi will contribute two existing data centre facilities in the western Tokyo suburb of Mitaka.

Collectively valued at approximately 40bn Japanese Yen – or approximately $350mn – the three assets will build a meaningful platform to serve the broader Japanese market, with the potential to significantly expand its scope over the next several years.

And in September, Digital Realty, which turns over $2.7bn annually,

‘FOR NINE YEARS, DIGITAL REALTY HAS DELIVERED A PORTFOLIO OF DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS WITH A RECORD OF 99.9% UPTIME, UNMATCHED BY ANY OTHER DATA CENTRE PROVIDER’

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announced the commencement of new data centre SYD11 – its fifth in Australia – which is being built in Erskine Park in Western Sydney.

The facility will be adjacent to the company’s existing SYD10 facility, and this signifies huge expansion in the AUS market, adding to the other three Australian facilities in Digital Realty’s Australian portfolio – SYD 12 in North Ryde, and the two data centres in

Melbourne, MEL10 and MEL11.

Once operational, SYD11, located across 16,360 sqm, will be a 14MW facility and the build, which will employ around 500 contractors, is expected to take 12 months.

APAC Vice-President, Design and Construction, Peter Adcock says Sydney – which has the biggest tech start-up ecosystem in Australia – is crucial to the Digital

“We’ve got the potential to pretty much double our APAC footprint in three to five years” – Peter Adcock, Digital Realty’s APAC Vice-President, Design and Construction

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D I G I TA L R E A LT Y Realty’s ambitions in Asia-Pacific.

It also has award-winning sites in Singapore, Hong Kong and Osaka.

“We’ve got the potential to pretty much double our APAC footprint in three to five years,” he says. “Australia – and Sydney particularly – is an ideal location to be a hub. There’s a lot of demand from a whole range of companies that want to establish a presence and provide a low latency service in the country in Australia.

“Sydney’s ideally placed on the Eastern Seaboard, with the fibre optic backbone that runs up through

‘THE ACQUISITION OF TELX IN OCTOBER 2015 UNIQUELY POSITIONED THE BUSINESS TO PROVIDE A COMPLETE RANGE OF DATA CENTRE SOLUTIONS ON A GLOBAL SCALE’ 312

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Brisbane and Queensland, and down to Canberra and Melbourne.

It picks up a large part of the Australian population, and is sitting on submarine fibre cables too.”

The company is currently working on its latest state-of-the-art, trademarked 4.0 Architecture POD (performance optimised data centres) design, and will install it at the new facility. Its unique trademark has been

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developed from the knowledge gleaned through the construction of more than $2.5bn worth of data centres globally, and uses a modular methodology to build-out raised floor data centre space using standard power and cooling building blocks for cost-effectiveness, design flexibility and energy efficiency.

It will boast the same cooling solution that’s being adopted at its

larger scale facilities in the US, which have a pumped refrigerate economiser cycle on it as well, ensuring excellent annualised Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) without any water usage, which can be quite excessive in large data centres.

“We’ve got the lithium ion battery technology as well that we’re adopting,” Adcock reveals, “which gives a better performance than traditional lead acid. And on the monitoring side, we’ve got the data centre information management (DCM) product, which is a digital

“Australia – and Sydney particularly – is an ideal location to be a hub” – Peter Adcock, Digital Realty’s APAC VicePresident, Design and Construction

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John Butler Managing Director, Asia Pacific john.butler@linesight.com +65 6801 4540

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proprietary. It gives the team in the “The Digital Osaka 1 Data Centre US head office global visibility of the was the big one that really got the whole portfolio around the world. attention of the guys back in the US,” “That works off the same model adds Adcock. “That was 95% sold database as the BMS system which before it was opened. It started out as is a Schneider Struxuware Building an easy stepping stone for a lot of the Operation (SBO), Power Monitoring American companies, working with Expert (PME) unit. This means we can an S&P 500 company they know, and log in and find the utilisation of all our provided a product they’re familiar properties around the world in with because it’s consistent different locations, giving around the world, barring us the information any legislative or to manage and fine code differences.” tune operation and Osaka is a melting performance.” pot of many industrial The significant fields, a broad crossNumber of investment into SYD section of businesses, employees at 11 and the Asia Pacific universities and tech Digital Realty construction plan development. Two over the last 18 months cloud social media stemmed from the Digital companies immediately Osaka 1 Data Centre in Japan – its snapped up the space, and in first facility in the country, which May, Digital Realty announced it provides 7.6MW of IT capacity. is building Digital Osaka 2 ¬Data A thriving financial and colocation Centre – which is four times the centre, Osaka is the Silicon Valley of size of Osaka 1 – alongside it.

Japan. A gateway for international It’s in the final stages of design and exchanges, it houses a population will launch next year. The two Osaka of more than 20mn people and has centres will create a Connected Data a GDP of approximately 80trn yen.

Centre Campus, which SYD 10 and

1,400+

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D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

“The Digital Osaka 1 Data Centre was the big one that really got the attention of the guys back in the US” – Peter Adcock, Digital Realty’s APAC Vice-President, Design and Construction

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SYD 11 have been modelled on.

“We always planned to expand in Sydney,” Adcock continues.

“We also originally purchased a block of land next door to SYD 10, and it’s the next iteration of design – where SYD 10 is seven or eight megawatts, SYD 11 will be up to 14.

“That’s driven by the increased density of the computer equipment that’s going on the white space, so that’s gone from a four to five kilowatt per cabinet average up to six, seven, eight – and in Japan we got some of that up to 12 to 15, so demand is driving the density increases as well, which is where we’ve had to become a lot more diligent on the airflow management.”

Earlier this year, Digital Realty CFO for APAC, Krupal Raval, revealed many of its global top-tier clients are looking to expand massively in Australia, facilitated by the Connected Campus of SYD 10 and 11.

Digital Realty Connected Campuses bring all the critical data centre, network elements, cloud and connectivity together under a single, secure environment for

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Build Here.

Digital Realty.

numerous Australian and international customers. They deliver the on-ramp to the cloud, plus Digital Internet Gateways that optimise customer value through massive network-dense connectivity.

The beauty of the Connected Campus is that even on SYD 11’s first day of operation, there’s already a connectivity-rich environment next door, and because the two data centres are side by side sharing a common boundary, the conduits at the boundary already exist and can be connected in.

“It gives a very strong ecosystem of customers through the POP and service exchange, and rather than

coming in and out of the data centre, they’re actually doing business within it,” Adcock explains.

“If you have a large mix of customers, like we have, they’re all exchanging amongst each other, and once you get the on-ramp to the Cloud, players such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft – Facebook is doing something different – once you get one or two of those companies in, the whole thing starts to multiply.”

In December 2015, Digital Realty announced a partnership with IBM to launch Direct Link Colo, a solution that connects customers its data centres directly to IBM Cloud via SoftLayer’s global Cloud infrastructure platform.

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D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

“We’re being asked more frequently to provide remote services in the data centres that we’re working in” – Peter Adcock, Digital Realty’s APAC Vice-President, Design and Construction

Latest stateof-the-art, trademarked 4.0 Architecture POD (performance optimised data centres) design

By removing third party carriers, the hybrid eco-system for organisations is easier.

“Some of the companies are so big, they acquire to catch up,” he adds. “IBM acquired SoftLayer and are buying into new digital technology. Microsoft is putting a lot of money to catch up with Amazon, who got an early adoption lead.

And Google does its own thing.

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Adcock says because the industry is growing so quickly, the biggest challenge is finding employees with the right skillset – and keeping them.

“We’re being asked more frequently to provide remote services in the data centres that we’re working in,” he reveals. “I think that’s just a case of, things are growing so quickly, some of our customers are trying to push more of that onto us,

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which is something we support.

“But everyone is struggling to find people that are trained. It’s interesting, as we’re actually finding companies that are either evolving the company itself – or groups within the company – to specifically service data centre work.

“It’s quite a unique skill set because, you actually want a highquality product built quickly to start with, which is challenging itself – but these facilities are never build out 100% day one.

“And we use a modular, POD-type system, so as you go back and do those build outs in a live data centre, you need to have tradespeople that are very aware of what environment they’re working in – you don’t want something they’re doing to bring down customers’ operations.

“These have to be very precisely planned and designed and built so that you can shut down sections of it, and use your redundancy to do your maintenance without impacting on the customer. So, you tend to build quite strong relationships with very precise people that understand the whole Permit for Work process and are very detailed.”

He reveals another challenge is that whenever anyone wants to start up a data centre, they try to entice staff away from Digital Realty, because they know they’ve been well trained, and the process and procedures in place are industry-leading.

In Australia, co-location growth is predicted at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4% until 2022, and managed hosting revenues predicted to grow at a CAGR of 14.5%.

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D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

Digital Tseung Kwan O - A virtual tour of Digital Realty’s Hong Kong Data Center

ONCE FULLY OPERATIONAL, SYD11 WILL BE A 14MW FACILITY, ACROSS A TOTAL OF 16,360 SQM But Adcock claims the future of colocation managed services is hard to define over the next few years.

“Now, with your cloud, you’ve got private, public and hybrid,” he explains. “What colocation does, and always will, is allow the smaller companies as they’re growing a stepping stone.

“But equally, with the Amazon and Microsoft, they’re almost virtualising that colocation process – and to the same extent, we are, through the service exchange. That gives you the chance to connect to a lot of different services, and electronically, where in the past you used to have

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the physical cross connects.

“They’ll still be around, but I think the business is evolving and virtualising a lot of those features.

I think the big thing is going to be ‘bots’, so rather than speaking to a person, it’s an automated service.”

He uses the analogy of driverless cars, saying a lot of those features are already currently in the background, ditto with aeroplane auto pilots, “but we still have pilots there to step in when something out of left field happens that hasn’t been programed in, and would take some time for a computer to adapt.

“There’s always going to be a future

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there for these,” he adds, “it’s just a matter to what scale they fit in to the whole stepping stone process.”

Data centres are essential utilities, as like in previous centuries, when power, electricity, water and telephone exchanges were. Because data centres and WiFi-type services are provided at the edge, people have got used to having instantaneous content-rich data, which then dictates low latency high bandwidth services – and while they’re an essential utility, the performance they need to operate is at such a high level.

“There’s a lot of talk about edge computing, and really that falls back into where you get demands for low latency,” he adds. “There’s such a data-rich environment demanded nowadays.

“We used to have main frames and desktops, then it was laptops, and now handheld devices are doing the same thing. There’s so much compute power that’s embedded everywhere now that needs to be connected

back to somewhere, and the Internet of Things is going to be an amazing opportunity for people who mine that for performance and applications.”

Adcock says he sees DNA genome as one of the major technology breakthroughs, and finds it mapping mind-blowing how you can have bespoke medicines targeted for you based on what genes you’ve got and how they react.

“It used to take years to map the DNA genome of the humans,” he says, “and now they’re offering it as a service which is done in a matter of days. Behind that is massive compute power, so we’ve seen some of the institutional companies investing a lot of money in those analytics.

“Sometimes, you dare not ask what’s happening in some of those data halls. Our POD is typically 1,000 sqm of white space and you walk in there from one end to the other and it’s just rows and rows of computers – and what they can be doing on them now is amazing.”

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