CYBERSECURIT Y STRATEGIES AND A SUPERHERO CULTURE
APRIL 2020
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CONTENTS
58 The role of Big Data in healthcare
A SUPERHERO CULTURE THAT FIGHTS CYBER THREATS
12
Smart technology takes centre stage in the age of experience
68 78 How AI is transforming the automotive industry
48
88
How the industry can help overcome the technology skills gap
Global software innovators
106 EVENTS
110
Siemens AG
136
K2 Data Centres
170
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
154
Fonterra
186
Volvo Cars
202 UNRWA
218
Clariant
234
Sify Technologies
252
Telstra Purple
272
Kansas City Public Schools
302
United Asia Finance
286 SAP AG
318
PGS Software
350
Emirates National Schools
332
PCL Construction
12
R E P U S A T E R U T L U C R E B Y C APRIL 2020
WRITTEN BY
SEAN GALEA-PACE
PRODUCED BY
MIKE SADR 13
O R E H R S T H G I F T A TH S T A E R H T R w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
US AIR FORCE
IN OUR SECOND VISIT TO WASHINGTON DC, LAUREN KNAUSENBERGER, CHIEF TRANSFORMATION OFFICER AT THE US AIR FORCE, DISCUSSES CYBERSECURITY STRATEGIES AND A SUPERHERO CULTURE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
14
L
auren Knausenberger is the U.S. Air Force’s Chief Transformation Officer (CTO). Having initially joined as Director of Cyberspace
Innovation in 2017, she assumed her current position in June 2019, stepping into a newly-created role that reaches across the entire Air Force to drive digital transformation. A Wharton graduate who left her work in the entrepreneurial and investment industry to take on this new challenge in government, she is one of very few senior officials under the age of 40, and is no stranger to the digital space. Upon joining the US Air Force, Knausenberger was primed to drive change at the federal government. “Everyone fails…until they don’t!” she quips. “I think I told you that I joined the Air Force quite by accident. I became so intrigued with one of their problem sets and the next thing I knew a few persuasive generals had me signing up. The thing is – I missed the mission and didn’t realize it until these APRIL 2020
15
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
THEY PROMISED A FUTURE.
H Y P E R G I A N T . C O M / R D
PROJECT ORION
HYPERGIANT - OFFICE OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE
IT STARTED WITH A QUESTION: HOW COULD WE IMPROVE DATA DELIVERY FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION TEAMS OR COMBATANTS IN COMPLEX THEATRES?
This question is part of a much larger question about how to get military, auxiliary and humanitarian teams the information they need, exactly when they need it. A large amount of military failures happen not because of readiness or support issues but rather because of incorrect or incomplete data. The solution we developed at Hypergiant Industries is part of our Project Orien initiative to improve data delivery for people who need it to critically safeguard human lives. Our delivery is a next generation augmented reality helmet that can overlay multiple data streams to deliver cutting edge solutions exactly when and where you need them. The active display is a full closed helmet. It passes video in front of your eyes which helps to reduce previous ocular overload issues with combined natural visual processing and mission data overlays. “In times of stress and when lives are on the line, more data is not helpful. What is most helpful is decision-quality integrated information presented at the right place, at the right time. The results could mean more lives saved and the mission accomplished!” said retired four star general and Hypergiant Industries advisory board member, Lance Lord. “Hypergiant Industries’ system will match integrated situational information to a decision-maker’s cognitive framework needs. This type of leading-edge technology is what we need to continue to push safety and innovation boundaries.” The helmet features 5k resolution with 200 degree field of vision (FOV), high resolution binocular optical input, multiple spectrum sensor arrays including infrared, AR style informational overlay,
multiple display modes, hand tracking and gesture based input and automated data aggregation from mounted sensors and networked data sources. Additionally, the technology can integrate external data sources to bring in information from outside the system. This can include: GPS data Mission briefing Technical information from other teams/location of team members Ability to view and access another helms information Task updates that come from command operations Display point cloud mesh for known areas. Hypergiant Industries focuses on solving humanity’s most challenging problems and leading the way in data intelligence as humanity enters the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To accomplish this mission, we create emerging AI-driven technologies and develop world-changing commercial products and solutions for Fortune 500 and government clients. As the parent corporation over a roster of divisions, Hypergiant Industries serves verticals that include space science and exploration, satellite communications, aviation, defense, healthcare, transportation and municipal infrastructure, food and beverage, retail and more.
info@hypergiant.com 737.808.4055
LEARN MORE
CONTACT
US AIR FORCE
generals reminded me. I was so hon-
“KESSEL RUN WAS BORN OUT OF THAT PROBLEM — WE TURNED A WHITEBOARD INTO AN ALGORITHM”
ored that they saw something in me and thought my ideas could really move the needle on some big problems.” Few people know that Knausenberger began her career at NSA, being recruited as a High School student, so joining the Air Force was bringing her full circle. “It was refreshing to jump into this role, blissfully unaware of all of the ways
Lauren Knausenberger, Chief Transformation Officer, U.S. Air Force 18
that many efforts had failed in the past. I wasn’t worried about upsetting anyone, and I knew that if I could accomplish even a tenth of what I saw could be done, it would make a big difference.” As an outsider trying to drive change, Knausenberger understood the challenge of becoming part of an organization still entrenched in a traditional approach. “What the Air Force was really looking for was someone who thought differently and was passionate about the problem space, and who could convince people that we could really do it,” she explains. “At the end of the day, I simply calculate risk differently. Most people say the military is risk averse, but from my perspective, we were taking crazy risks everywhere – by not
APRIL 2020
The value of partnerships at The US Air Force CLICK TO WATCH
|
1:35
19 innovating fast enough we were pass-
“One of my favorite moments was when
ing that risk to the warfighter every day.
a general told me that she knew she had
I’ve seen that way of thinking about risk
to think differently when I was in a meet-
change dramatically over the past three
ing,” she notes. “Just six months later, that
years, but we still have some work to do.”
same general told me I didn’t need to be
From the very beginning, Knausenberger felt that her own ‘crazy’
there anymore for her to push forward and not accept the old way of thinking.”
ideas were embraced and that people
The barriers to speed in the
were open and direct if they felt that one
Department of Defense are well
of her suggestions couldn’t work.
documented and she completed her own assessment of these in her first 90 days.
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US AIR FORCE
22
“There were certainly many routes to
champions away. I was able to form part-
go down. I wanted to solve a problem
nerships with smart, passionate people
where there was clear pain and frustra-
all focused on a common goal – including
tion across a diverse group of people,”
full support from Air Force Deputy Chief
she states. “Equally important, I picked
Information Officer, Bill Marion - and
one where I felt I was uniquely poised
that allowed us to do some great work.
to help – in terms of my own strengths
Our Chief Information Security Officer,
as well as my position in the CIO
Wanda Jones-Heath, had her team roll
organization. Starting with cybersecu-
up their sleeves to help make sure the
rity accreditation just made too much
new constructs would stick, and consult-
sense. There was so much pain in the
ants like Lonye Ford at Arlo Solutions
process and I was confident we could do
helped make sure we filled in execution
better. So many people wanted to help
details in a way that traditional assessors
make this happen I almost had to turn
could relate and adopt new practices.”
APRIL 2020
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Lauren Knausenberger Lauren Knausenberger joined the U.S. Air Force to drive innovation across the Department of Defense, speed adoption of emerging technologies, and create stronger partnerships between the DoD, startups, and the venture community. In her role as Chief Transformation Officer, she has actively fought to bust traditional barriers to capability development, including shifting the risk equation for cybersecurity accreditation to incentivise the rapid adoption of modern, secure systems. In partnership with Kessel Run, Lauren generated the Continuous ATO concept, which helped set the bar for excellence in DevSecOps and enables Air Force software factories to accredit and deploy systems at commercial speed. She was also a major contributor to the recent Fast Track ATO, which emphasises pen testing and threat/vulnerability assessment over compliance. Through her work with the DevSecOps community, Lauren saw a major gap in the way of training and retaining the most technologically savvy Airmen and has become a driving force behind the Computer Language Initiative and Digital University. Lauren also acts as an champion for AFWERX and a connector across the Air Force community to enable projects, remove barriers to entry for best-inclass businesses, test innovative concepts, and bring new voices and capabilities to the table.
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23
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US AIR FORCE
26
The US Air Force has been in the
of partners such as Pivotal and others
software business for some time, but
who had already found the solution to
until the past few years was almost solely
part of that conundrum. “We were for-
leveraging legacy, waterfall software
tunate to have such great partners, who
development practices. “Even as we
had already figured out how to develop
adopted agile development, we were
safe and secure code rapidly. We joined
still stymied by a ridiculously arduous
forces to create a secure Continuous
cybersecurity accreditation process
Integration/Continuous Deployment
that was ultimately not relevant to the
(CI/CD) pipeline and adopted the best
modern technologies in use. How could
practices of the DevOps Research
we ensure the code being delivered
Assessment. Our teams worked hard
was safe and secure, but could at the
to constantly improve and we used
same time be delivered at the speed of
penetration testing to assess our code
relevance?” She credits the importance
in production as well. The premise is
APRIL 2020
that if you design secure software, use
whiteboard’. Why? ‘Because the white-
a secure process, bake security into
board is how they planned all of their
everything you do, and have a robust
refueling operations. We had pilots flying
way to test and validate your code con-
all over the Middle East, refueling in mid-
tinuously, that accreditation should be
air at 350mph, while someone hangs out
done by the time the code is complete.
the back of an airplane…and it could be
So, the continuous authority to operate
defeated by a whiteboard eraser!’”
(cATO) was born. This was revolutionary
After hearing this, Schmidt was
in the department, and really incentivized
certain there could be an algorithm cre-
people to adopt modern DevSecOps
ated to combat the problem. “And he
practices. And it all started with a group
was absolutely right,” Knausenberger
of insurgents at Kessel Run.”
confirms. “Kessel Run was born out of
Kessel Run was the first true imple-
that problem – we turned a whiteboard
mentation of agile DevSecOps in the
into an algorithm, and amongst many
Air Force, and represented a departure
other successes we’re now saving
from the standard way of doing develop-
over $250k a week in fuel. This team
ment. “We joked we had to ‘smuggle’
of incredibly motivated, and relatively
agile development and cybersecurity
junior, personnel was creating such
accreditation into the Air Force to make
innovative software, and an Air Force
it happen,” says Knausenberger. “Kessel
cultural revolution to go with it. We have
Run first got started with refueling opera-
developed such an incredible insurgency
tions in the Middle East. Eric Schmidt
and have gained support by a broad part
and the Defense Innovation Board flew
of the organization that I don’t think we
over to Qatar and Schmidt asked one
can call it an insurgency anymore. We’ve
of the commanders what kept him up
won. It’s reached irreversible momentum.
at night. The commander said ‘I’m just
And that’s incredible,” she adds. “Since
terrified someone’s going to erase my
Kessel Run got its start, the Air Force has
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
27
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ThisThis isto is identify and re andand forthcoming forthcoming software software factories factories andand and solution forthcoming solution software factories and solution particularly particularly truetrue for container for container security, security, where particularly where lessless istrue is for containe centers, centers, where where we support we support a gamut a gamut of activities centers, of activities where to to we support a gamut of activities to more more should should be the be the defining defining theme theme in building more in building should images. images. be the defining include include cybersecurity cybersecurity assessment, assessment, cloud cloud include adoption, adoption, cybersecurity assessment, cloud adoption, Know Know your your enemy enemy Know your enemy andand rapid rapid development development andand deployment. deployment. and rapid development and deployment. 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OurOur efforts efforts often specific often extend cloud extend providers. Our efforts often extend andand change change management. management. and change management. across across security security boundaries boundaries andand require require across cross-domain cross-domain security boundaries and require cross-domain strategies strategies andand approaches. approaches. We We employ employ strategies security security and and and approaches. We employ security and We We have have developed developed a high-level a high-level C-ATO C-ATO We playbook have playbook developed in in a high-le penetration penetration testing testing techniques techniques to assess to assess penetration vulnerabilities vulnerabilities testing techniques towith assess cooperation cooperation with andvulnerabilities and informed informed by Authorizing by Authorizing cooperation Officials Officials with and inform on-premise on-premise andand on cloud on cloud platforms platforms and on-premise and to include to include and on cloud platforms to include within within the the Air Force, Airand Force, DoD, DoD, andand Intelligence Intelligence within Community. the Community. Air Force, DoD, an enterprise enterprise hardware hardware as well as well as mobile as mobile and enterprise and IoT IoT devices. hardware devices. 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US AIR FORCE
The Strategic Studies Group demonstrates the super hero pose
30 stood up a number of agile development capabilities - Platform One, Kobayashi Maru, LevelUp, BESPIN, SoniKube, Tron, Ski Camp, and others who are doing amazing work and reaching across the community to share best practices. Finally, we have hired a Chief Software Officer, Nicolas Chaillan, who has been a great partner to drive forward so many of these initiatives.” “The revolution didn’t stop at just software development though, it was actually much broader. Spark Tank is an excellent example of that,” Knausenberger continues. Established in 2017, Spark APRIL 2020
Tank acts as a catalyst for agile US Air
innovators with tools and connections,
Force engagement across the industry
and the senior-level support needed to
and encourages innovation and entre-
break down policy barriers,” she com-
preneurship. A partnership between
ments. “Airmen submit hundreds of
AFWERX and Airmen Powered by
ideas and we whittle them down to just
Innovation, Spark Tank allows Airmen to
six finalists for the live show. Many of
submit their ideas in a pitch competition
these Airmen joined at 18 and don’t have
format directly to their most senior lead-
college degrees, and they are some of
ers. Airmen share their ideas and the
the smartest, hardest-working problem
roadblocks they face to making them real.
solvers around. They know their mis-
“It brings together three key elements:
sion, and have unique insight into how
a powerful network of innovators within
it can be done better. This competition
the Air Force, a group of people who
showcases their awesome ideas and
are doing everything to empower those
also gives our senior leaders a chance to really model how we should be supporting innovators. Our Secretary, Chief of Staff, and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force are inspiring leaders and never disappoint in their support and advice for these Airmen. And we have leaders like Darlene Costello and Rich Lombardi as senior advisors who really know how to get things done in the Air Force and help ensure projects can grow to appropriate scale.” Knausenberger recognizes the talent at the US Air Force’s disposal and believes her organization is doing things that you simply won’t see anywhere else. “We have incredible people that have w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
31
USAF Technology Transformation Google’s Innovation for Your Mission
Keith Hannah, Federal Account Executive 512-343-5324 | keithhannah@google.com
33
brought lots of intellectual firepower and
“THERE ARE THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO IN THE AIR FORCE THAT YOU CAN’T DO ANYWHERE ELSE”
who all work very hard,” she says. “We are doing some of the coolest things in the world, with software, airplanes, satellites, and technology that would blow your mind. There are things that you can do in the Air Force that you can’t do anywhere else. But one of the biggest lessons from Spark Tank was the value
Lauren Knausenberger, Chief Transformation Officer, U.S. Air Force
of collaborators - the new superheroes in our Air Force.” Knausenberger devised a ‘superhero chart’ to lightheartedly convey how w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
The Department of Defense trusts the cloud with the most tools, technology, and accessibility at the tactical edge.
www.BuildOn.aws
important it is to support warfighters. “The Air Force has a hero culture. People join to make a real difference and put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe,” she explains. “Captain Marvel is our superhero - she’s off saving lives and on the frontline of the mission. There are also the sidekicks (think Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox) - the unsung heroes that support the superheroes to deliver those incredible mission effects. Then there are the supervillains (Megamind) and henchmen (Wormtail)! 35
In the world of innovation, the supervillains are those that sometimes get in the way of others trying to do good things – they are undoubtedly trying to keep people safe, but can get overly diligent in enforcing rules that no longer make
of innovation and put in place the con-
sense and are often misunderstood. I
structs to support innovative Airmen.
joke that we have a supervillain-to-
He inspires me too.”
superhero conversion program. By
Knausenberger values how people
harnessing all of that policy knowledge
can ‘earn their capes’ and understands
and enabling innovative warfighters, you
the importance of collaboration to help
can be a hero too.”
make others stand out and succeed.
We asked if she had a favorite a real
“A lot of the time it isn’t because you had
life super hero. “I have to say one of my
a great idea, it’s because you found
favorite unsung heroes is Air Force Vice
someone who had an awesome idea
Chief Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson. He
and you used all of your knowledge, con-
works very hard to perpetuate a culture
nections, and abilities to help make that w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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person shine,” she explains. “That’s actu-
“ANY CHANGE I MAKE MUST BE SOMETHING THAT CAN LAST AFTER I’M GONE”
ally even more important.” Over the past few years, the US Air Force has made a concerted effort to widen its partnerships with the defense industrial base, having previously worked solely with a small stable of very large, long-standing partners. “Our Head of Acquisition, Dr. Will Roper, regularly
Lauren Knausenberger, Chief Transformation Officer, U.S. Air Force
talks about our desire to expand our defense industrial base to organizations that have never done business with the Department of Defense, and even to drive deeper partnerships with the investor community,” she says. “In the United
A superhero culture at the US Air Force CLICK TO WATCH
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1:51
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37
US AIR FORCE
38
“ THE AIR FORCE HAS A HERO CULTURE. PEOPLE JOIN TO MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE” Lauren Knausenberger, Chief Transformation Officer, U.S. Air Force
APRIL 2020
39
US Air Force: Harnessing the true value of DevSecOps CLICK TO WATCH
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2:00
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41
States, we have some of the largest,
are jumping into government to support
most well-respected tech companies
the mission for three to five years. A few
in the world, and they didn’t work with
years ago, there were very few outside
the military for a long time. Now, all of
of DDS, and now we have a growing club
the household names are working with
and even a few alumni who have done
us. For the most part, I think that people
their stint in government and have now
within the tech companies realize that
returned to the commercial world with a
we’re on the same team and all want to
new perspective to bring to the mission.
be safe. And, of course, we want to con-
One notable alum is Chris Lynch, who
tinue to partner with our large defense
founded DDS, and has now launched
contractors and appreciate their efforts
Rebellion Defense to bring together the
to transform with us. The other cool
best of the valley with super smart engi-
trend is that more tech savvy outsiders
neers who really know DOD systems w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
Top 6 Reasons DevSecOps is Now for the Federal Government Underpinning all modern technology — software and hardware — is a supply chain. The reality however, is that software is much easier to pollute than hardware. For federal agencies to better protect themselves and the American citizenry, they need to start shifting security practices left and playing better offense at the beginning of their digital supply chain.
1
Open Source is Powering Federal Software Development
3
85% of an application is comprised of free, readily available open source components.
There is a disconnect between development and security, with little transparency into the parts feeding today’s software supply chains.
2
Not All Open Source Components are Created Equal
4
Research shows that within the Java ecosystem, 1 in 10 contains a known security vulnerability.
JUN 2018 NTIA launches initiative to improve software component transparency
5
Agencies Don’t Know How Much Open Source They’re Using
Regulations Around Software Development is Coming
According to the DevSecOps Community Survey of 5,500 IT pros, 1 in 4 organizations confirmed or suspected an open source related breach last year.
AUG 2018 Deliver Uncompromised report published by Mitre Corporation
An unexpected threat comes from the contractors, inadvertently introducing vulnerabilities into the supply chain with an emphasis on cost over security.
6
Lack of Open Source Policies Lead to Breaches
MAR 2019 Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 introduced
Cost Emphasized Over Security Protocol
Savvy contractors and agencies are prioritizing security in their development process now.
DEC 2018 U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee releases its Cybersecurity Strategy Report
OCT 2018 FDA releases guidance on cybersecurity management of medical devices
Learn more at Sonatype.com/government
JAN 2020 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by U.S. Senate
The DoD releases its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)
and are passionate about delivering
solved anywhere else. The startup com-
national security capabilities. This type of
munity is often telling us ‘we want the
cross-pollination is critical to our future
coolest, most wicked problems that you
success as a military and as a country.”
could throw at us’, and we have those in
In a bid to drive innovation, the US
spades! It ultimately makes for a great,
Air Force is determined to work more
synergistic relationship. “The Air Force
closely with startups. “They innovate
also finds incredible synergies with our
at a faster pace than anyone else,”
allies,” Knausenberger explains. “Our
Knausenberger affirms. “We’re working
Air Force’s Strategic Studies Group is a
with an increasing number of businesses
key part of the brain trust for for driving
with a startup mentality that are focused
innovation across the force, and includes
on innovation. It’s hard to survive in the
our Exchange Officers from Japan,
US tech market because every entre-
Germany, the United Kingdom, and
preneur thinks that they’re going to be a
France. And through those networks we
unicorn but, in reality, very few succeed. The competition is tough.” Knausenberger states that a key reason why the US Air Force wants to adopt this approach is to not only support small businesses but also to embrace an alternative type of talent. “It’s important we bring diversity into the defense industry,” she says. “And that’s diversity on every level: mindset, abilities and all aspects of background. It’s important to recognize that we’re not going to be able to achieve what we want if we always work with the same people. It’s also a really great business line for them, and we have really cool, complex problems that can’t be w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
43
US AIR FORCE
44
tap into much richer perspectives
5,328
Number of manned aircraft as of 2018
then we may otherwise get by looking at purely American views. We also have a great time working together on big ideas.� In a bid to counter cyberattacks and increase resilience, the US Air Force has
1947
Year founded APRIL 2020
sought collaboration with another nontraditional source. In partnership with the Defense Digital Service, as well as cybersecurity firms such as BugCrowd,
HackerOne, Synack, and Dark Wolf, the
she explains. “Real world hackers don’t
organization is embracing the hacker
follow our checklist. We’d rather have
community. Each of those companies
friendly hackers who we’re paying to
has done large scale events, hacking
break systems, and that allows us to fix
the Air Force Cloud in addition to other
things as they find it. Our systems are
public facing websites for the Air Force.
stronger for it, and the hackers love the
“In the past, hackers looked at the Department of Defense and considered it a great prize to hack. But most people
chance to legally break into national security systems.” While having much success today,
didn’t try it lightly because it’s also
Knausenberger understands how
a great way to get arrested,” explains
critical it is that any cultural change
Knausenberger.“ We’ve started to
implemented is built to last. “I’m very
embrace the hacking community
aware that any change I make must be
because although we have some great
something that can last after I’m gone,”
cybersecurity frameworks in place that
she explains. “I didn’t join the Air Force
lots of people benchmark against, we
intending to make a career of it – but my
wanted new partners who approach
intent was to make a huge and lasting
problems in different ways and who
impact. Therefore, it’s very important
could explore new threat vectors in a
that the things that we do aren’t just per-
creative way. It’s been invaluable - we’ve
sonality dependent. Not all software has
learned a great deal and it’s been a won-
to be sustainable. There are some things
derful partnership.”
that we use once and we throw away;
Knausenberger sees the true value
however, it’s vital that the organizational
in encouraging hackers to cause as
structures that support an innovation
much havoc as possible and believes it
culture have staying power. It’s impor-
is mutually rewarding. “I feel much more
tant that we’re able to do the simple
comfortable if I’ve had a hacker team
things well and that we put the right pro-
come in and see what they can break
cesses in place to replicate those early
without any rules, than if someone’s just
successes at scale. We have a dream
gone through the security checklist,”
team in place right now – from senior w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
45
US AIR FORCE
46
Empowering the Airmen of the US Air Force CLICK TO WATCH
APRIL 2020
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1:57
free them to focus on mission innovation. And we’ll continue to do the awesome things that the Air Force is known for: maintaining superiority in the air, space, and cyberspace. There’s lots of cool stuff happening.” What really excites and drives Knausenberger, however, is making life easier for Airmen. “I joke that we can hit the back end of a fly from half way around the world, but when it comes to deploying new tools – Whew, that’s tough! We have a phenomenal workforce that can do incredibly difficult things with ease. I can’t wait for them to not have to work so hard on the silly things that we take for granted in the leadership to key positions throughout
commercial world. We are so close to
the Force to make this happen.”
making that a reality. What really fuels
Looking ahead, Knausenberger has a
me is seeing the innovative power of
clear vision of what the future will hold for
these Airmen and the way they come
the US Air Force. “I’m very excited and
together to accomplish anything they
I see us finalizing a lot of the big IT mod-
need to do, despite the roadblocks.
ernization and transformation efforts
Our future is in great hands, and I see
that we’re currently going through, as
an inspiring next generation of leaders
well as deploying the next generation
ready to continue our work as the world’s
of mind blowing Air and Space technol-
most powerful Air Force, and move
ogy,” she states. “I expect we’ll more
beyond to new frontiers.”
aggressively leveraging automation to liberate Airmen from repetitive tasks and w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y
48
HOW THE INDUSTRY CAN HELP OVERCOME THE TECHNOLOGY SKILLS ––––––––– GAP WRITTEN BY
APRIL 2020
WILLIA M SMITH
49
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D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y
WE SPEAK TO LEE JAMES, EMEA CTO AT RACKSPACE, ABOUT THE ROLE THE COMPANY AND THE WIDER TECH INDUSTRY CAN PLAY IN CLOSING THE SKILLS GAP
50
A
gap exists in the technological skills demanded by employers and those possessed by potential employees. According to research by the Society for Human Resource Management,
83% of HR professionals have expressed difficulty in finding suitable job candidates, with the talent
gap being most visible in roles requiring science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills such as data analysis or engineering. The gap is not purely in skills, of course, with associated gaps in both racial and gender diversity. For the latter, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report revealed that the largest gender gaps exist in the new, technological jobs driving the world’s economy. Duly, in cloud computing, men number 88% of employees, in engineering 85% and in data and AI 74%. The key to narrowing the skills gap, and perhaps also making a dent in other inequalities, is in education. But what form should this education take? APRIL 2020
“ WHAT GETS PEOPLE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT COMING TO WORK HERE IS THE OUTPUT. WHAT WE ACHIEVE FOR CUSTOMERS” — Lee James, EMEA CTO, Rackspace
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51
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Rackspace: Looking to fill your IT skills gap? CLICK TO WATCH
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0:54
53
Lee James, EMEA CTO at
lead. We’ve done work in local schools
multinational tech company
and colleges to go in and do coding
Rackspace, is of the opinion that the
for the day – to help them understand
tech industry itself has a responsibility
what coding can achieve. What is it?
to demonstrate the connection
What does it deliver? Why is it
between technological work such as
important? Why is it exciting?”
coding and the real-world output by
For Rackspace, demonstrating that
reaching out to the community. “We
importance has taken the form of a
need to do more of that. It can’t be a
number of different partnerships.
token gesture and I don’t think it is.
“We partnered with the British Heart
It should be part of the fabric in terms
Foundation, VMware and Amazon
of what you do and what you feed
and we went into a college to teach
back. That’s where absolutely tech
students. We helped them to create
companies need to drive and take that
some Amazon Alexa skills – simple w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y
54
“ WE’VE DONE WORK IN LOCAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES TO GO IN AND DO CODING FOR THE DAY – TO HELP THEM UNDERSTAND WHAT CODING CAN ACHIEVE” — Lee James, EMEA CTO, Rackspace
APRIL 2020
things like turn on my favorite radio station, help me understand a particular recipe or just tell me whether the traffic is busy on my route this morning.” Another ongoing programme has involved working with King’s College School, where 40 year 10 students from disadvantaged backgrounds were invited to its offices as part of a drive to encourage the study of computer science. After that visit, the number of students choosing GCSE Computer Science doubled. Earlier intervention in a school setting is, in James’ view, another necessity for closing the gap. “When I look at STEM, what’s really interesting for me is where it’s failed,” says James. “Generally, it’s been very much about the IT and the technology, and that is exciting - I mean, it’s why I got into it from a young age and why my career was in it. But what’s been absolutely missing around some of the STEM pieces is that we focus very much on the input. What gets people really excited about coming to work here is the output. What we achieve for customers.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
55
D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y
56
Such achievements have traditionally
The future is positive, however,
remained obscure, but James
with the technology leaders of
believes the possibilities enabled by
tomorrow having been influenced
companies such as Rackspace need
in more passive ways. Raised on a
to be promoted. “When you go on the
technological diet, creative video
underground and you tap a card at
games such as Microsoft’s Minecraft
one of the barriers, Rackspace is
or the Sony-owned Media Molecule’s
providing the systems underneath to
Dreams have a huge part to play in
run the oyster system. When you
proving the creativity inherent to
order a pizza, two for Tuesdays from
technological work. “My children,
a popular brand, and that pizza arrives
like many children, use a game called
at your door - that whole transactional
Roblox,” James explains. “Using a
process runs on Rackspace.”
piece of software called Roblox
APRIL 2020
“IT CAN’T BE A TOKEN GESTURE AND I DON’T THINK IT IS. IT SHOULD BE PART OF THE FABRIC IN TERMS OF WHAT YOU DO” — Lee James, EMEA CTO, Rackspace 57
Studio you can create your own world.
and the way it operates,” James
They use YouTube to understand
explains. “And then, when they press
some of the coding and how it’s put
play, they can see the output of that.
together and five or six of them have
That’s now so much more creative
created a world together.”
than it ever was. And I believe that
Together in culmination, such
is what’s now driving an uptake.”
efforts stand a chance of closing the skills gap and consequently creating a fair, more equal technology scene. “There’s two girls in that group that have created that world as well, because they want to create an environment and see how it works w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N
Special report:
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THE ROLE OF BIG DATA IN HEALTHCARE WRITTEN BY
APRIL 2020
WILLIA M SMITH
59
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N
Special report:
Gigabit takes a look at the evolving use of Big Data in the healthcare industry and its enormous value in both a monetary and clinical sense
60
W
e generate data about ourselves all the time, the acquisition and interpretation of which is big business. In many cases, this data may be fairly trivial or inconsequential.
In others, this may be the most private and confidential data of all – about our health, for example. Regardless of what type it falls under, there are businesses out
there that will want it. The question of data in healthcare is timely considering the UK’s exit from the European Union, and the potential for healthcare data to be used as a bargaining chip in future trade deals with the United States and others. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is one of the oldest and most established public healthcare systems in the world. Its practice of tying data to an individual NHS number means its data provides a broader account of patients’ health, and with the NHS increasingly digitising old records, a chronologically longer one too. EY has estimated the data to be worth almost £10bn. APRIL 2020
61
“ Data is not purely useful to American tech giants, with the NHS and other health bodies themselves able to capitalise upon it�
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The potential value of that data led to
the NHS and other health bodies
raised eyebrows when, in December
themselves able to capitalise upon it.
2019, the UK government gave Amazon
One possible avenue of exploration
unfettered access to non-patient data
lies in opening up such data sets to AI.
for free, with Amazon’s Alexa voice
Matthew Gould, the CEO of NHSX,
assistant in turn providing health
the NHS’s digital transformation arm,
information via voice search. Elsewhere,
wrote in a recent blog post: “Artificial
other big tech firms are interested in
Intelligence (AI) holds enormous
acquiring medical data, with Google
potential for the NHS, if we can use it
doing a deal with Ascension, a company
right. It can reduce the burden on the
that runs 2,600 hospitals in the US,
system by taking on the tasks that can
which gave it access to patient data.
be converted into an algorithm. Many
Of course, such data is not purely useful to American tech giants, with
of these are in areas of greatest pressure, like radiography and
BBC Click: Can artificial intelligence ‘save’ the NHS? CLICK TO WATCH
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23:49
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63
D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N
pathology. It could improve patient outcomes, and increase productivity across the system, freeing up clinicians’ time so they can focus on the parts of the job where they add the most value.” Google’s aforementioned interest in health data led to its acquisition of medtech wearables firm Fitbit. Accordingly, we’ve seen a proliferation of wearable devices which give users the ability to track elements of their fitness. Whether that’s smart watches 64
that can track the distance you’ve run or portable heart monitoring devices, the data they generate is not purely useful to the end user, with the likes of Google Fit and Apple Health all sharing data by default. This mutual model of data generation and consumption is big business. Just look at the price Google paid for Fitbit: $2.1bn. One fundamental question remains with this proliferation of highly sensitive and highly valuable data: its security. Tim Brown, VP of Security at infrastructure management software firm SolarWinds, says that the healthcare industry faces additional risk owing to two factors. APRIL 2020
65
© Fitbit
“First, the information they have stored
amplified due to the industry’s
on patients is extremely valuable and
reputation. “In 2020, the healthcare
can be used for identity and insurance
sector will witness an increased number
fraud. The second is their core mission,
of sophisticated attacks,” Brown says.
and the high visibility of that mission—
“These will be targeted and well-
the health and safety of people—leads
coordinated; the bad guys will focus on
bad actors to believe the healthcare
attacking the overall environment, not
sector is more willing to pay a ransom
just individuals. The healthcare sector
when lives could be at risk.”
has shown in the past that they will pay,
The coming year will see such risks
which makes them a bigger target.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N
“ [The healthcare sector] needs to realise they are a more attractive target for attack and take precautions to not become a victim of opportunity” — Tim Brown, VP of Security, SolarWinds 66
Microsoft AI + Forus Health: Working to help eradicate preventable blindness CLICK TO WATCH
APRIL 2020
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1:00
The answer partly lies, Brown says, in a focus on ‘cyber hygiene’ across the healthcare sector. “This includes endpoint protection, access control, network segmentation and an aggressive patch program. They need to realise they are a more attractive target for attack and take precautions to not become a victim of opportunity. Once good cyber hygiene is in place, they should be proactive in testing the environment and modeling cyber outbreaks. Just like a common cold or virus, the outbreak needs to be contained and limited to the smallest number possible.” Assuming such security challenges can be overcome, medical data represents a potent force in the ongoing evolution of healthcare worldwide. While there are dangers of misuse, data, when used correctly, can demonstrably improve people’s lives, whether that’s machines learning from existing images of conditions to make diagnoses or the modelling of diseases to contain their spread.
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BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
SMART TECHNOLOGY TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN THE AGE OF EXPERIENCE 68
APRIL 2020
69
WRITTEN BY
JOHN KITCHINGM AN
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BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
70
Dassault Systèmes’ John Kitchingman on how ‘smart’ technologies represent the next step from digital transformation
A
As we enter a new decade, businesses are now thinking about what the trends of 2020 will be. With the fourth industrial revolution evolving
technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things
(IoT) and machine learning (ML), we are moving into the age of experience and developing our understanding of these technologies in order to better harness their power.
APRIL 2020
71
Previously, businesses have been
‘Smart’ technology is expected to be
very focused on digital transformation.
the buzzword of 2020, with innovations
The integration of digital technologies
premiering in areas from household
into all parts of the business has
appliances to personal mobility. Smart
helped accelerate internal works and
technologies are allowing increased
reduce the reliance on hardware, with
control over appliances and systems
an increasing number of enterprises
from managing the temperature in
moving aspects of their business to
households to accessing more
the cloud. Digital transformation has
information through a smart assistant.
enabled sustainable innovation, and
This smart technology brings with it
this has been commercialised in many
masses of data, which is currently not
forms - through personal data, digital
being used to its full potential. In 2020,
health, AI and much more.
businesses need to harness the w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
Digital Transformation. Made real every day. Find out how big advances in AI have made it easier than ever to unlock the power of data, create value, insights and a new level of intelligent security. From Individuals, to small organizations, to the Global Fortune 100, AI and machine learning are improving businesses and lives everywhere.
Learn More
Dassault Systèmes: The Only Progress is Human CLICK TO WATCH
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1:44
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“ PEOPLE REQUIRE PERSONALISED EXPERIENCES AND THEY WANT TO ASSOCIATE THEMSELVES WITH COMPANIES THAT ARE SUSTAINABLE” — John Kitchingman, Managing Director, EuroNorth, Dassault Systèmes
potential of data and technology to create innovations that improve peoples’ lives and provide them with personalised experiences, while also protecting their privacy.
MAKING DATA WORK FOR YOU The world is generating data in higher volumes than ever. This data plays a critical role in meeting consumer expectations and desires, which are centred less around owning a product and more with the experience that a product delivers. People require w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
personalised experiences and they want to associate themselves with companies that are sustainable. Companies must gather, analyse and shape data to meet demands and report on their sustainability. Some examples of this include: monitoring and optimising transportation planning for shared mobility to reduce pollution; predictive maintenance of machines to ensure efficiency; the tracking and tracing of raw materials and using 3D printing processes and recycling equipment to 74
reduce waste. All these processes have an impact on our carbon footprint and ecological handprint. Cloud based platforms are especially good for this as they can speed up product development, improve collaboration across teams, and reduce the need for multiple prototypes. With visualisation software, companies no longer need to create physical copies of their products; instead, they can design digital versions and test them in the virtual world, saving time and money in the process. Virtual prototypes can also be used to foster a more sustainable manufacturing process, reducing material waste. APRIL 2020
“ SMART TECHNOLOGY WILL BRING US INTO A NEW ERA OF INNOVATION” — John Kitchingman, Managing Director, EuroNorth, Dassault Systèmes w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
75
BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
76
A TRUSTED TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
collaborate and strategically share and
Cloud-based platforms offer a unique
access information seamlessly.
opportunity to connect ideas, data,
Bringing your supply chain to the
people and solutions to create cutting
virtual world means that all
edge-personalised experiences for
components can be sourced and
every consumer. Being able to analyse
designed within one place. Whilst this
the data collected will give businesses
is all collated, it is possible to access it
the power to innovate sustainably. With
at any time and use it to make
a trusted technology partner, you can
products smarter. Being able to share
use this data to, for example, develop
this knowledge and expertise across
your supply chain and design it virtually.
the sector provides the foundations
A virtual supply chain ensures that
for an automated supply chain which
all partners within a project can
is more responsible and less wasteful.
APRIL 2020
Cloud-based platforms are also used to make processes more sustainable. For example, manufacturers can assess the carbon emissions of each travel route, the composition of the material they use, and the productivity of their supply chains. Today’s consumer is sustainability-minded; the industry needs the right tools to help it show it is supporting this shift.
WHAT’S NEXT? Smart technology creates a mass of data which brings great responsibility for businesses, who must use it fairly and securely. Smart technology will
“ WE ARE MOVING INTO THE AGE OF EXPERIENCE”
bring us into a new era of innovation, and at Dassault Systèmes, we want to educate business leaders on how to extract this data and use it for bettering product design, development and deployment. We have the technology – now we need to find innovative ways to continuously build upon these creations.
— John Kitchingman, Managing Director, EuroNorth, Dassault Systèmes w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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AI
78
APRIL 2020
How AI is transforming the automotive industry WRITTEN BY
WILLIA M SMITH
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79
AI
IBM’s Dibbe Edwards discusses product lifecycle management, how AI can help reduce complexity and the software-based transformation of the automotive industry
80
W
ith the ever increasing complexity of the products around us, companies are finding a coherent strategy towards product
engineering has never been more necessary. Dibbe
Edwards is Vice President, Offering Management for IBM’s Engineering Lifecycle Management portfolio, a group of five products relating to the development lifecycle of systems and software. Explaining her team’s responsibilities, Edwards says: “We are responsible for everything from the strategy of the offerings that we deliver to client interaction. We really get involved in the industries and with our clients to ensure that our offerings meet their needs in the present and anticipate their needs for the future.” Lifecycle management means a consideration of a product in all phases of its development, an already complex endeavour that has only become more head scratching as technology progresses. It is this problem that IBM’s platform is targeted. “What our solution does is support traceability across that entire lifecycle. APRIL 2020
81
“How do you test and validate a system that continues to learn?” — Dibbe Edwards, Vice President, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management
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So it allows you to be able to link
Watson, it’s little wonder the company
your models with your requirements,
also turns its capabilities towards this
with all of your change management
problem too. “We’re bringing our
and source code, and then also
Watson capability to the platform and
your testing.” That’s necessary for
to all of the available engineering data
a number of reasons, as Edwards
to help the engineers, whether they
explains. “First of all, they want to make
be test engineers, systems engineers,
sure that they’re building a product that
project leaders or executives, to help
meets requirements. In many industries
them make better decisions.” IBM
it’s necessary to prove compliance,
is also using its natural language
and that means they can have a single
processing capabilities to help
source of the truth for their global
engineers conform to the International
engineering teams to work from. The
Council on Systems Engineering’s
complexity, the global nature of these
standards on writing clear, concise and
transforming industries, means they
correct requirements. “We’ve embedded
really need a digital representation of
that AI assistant right inside of the
the products that they’re working on.”
requirements tool itself and it assists
As the proprietor of one of the more famous AI systems around, IBM
the engineers and helps them to make sure that their requirements are clear.”
“What we’re seeing is just going to continue to get more complex” — Dibbe Edwards, Vice President, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management
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83
AI
“Our focus industries are those that are building complex systems. Automobiles, airplanes, medical devices – anything with that level of complexity. What we see happening in those industries is that software is really becoming much more of a differentiator.” This is perhaps most perceivable in the automotive industry, with disruptors like Tesla considered the second most valuable car company in the world despite making a tiny fraction of vehicles compared to 84
competitors. Daimler is one of IBM’s
Work Smart:: Your Workflows and Watson CLICK TO WATCH
APRIL 2020
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1:16
85
clients and is, as Edwards explains,
their vehicles had been five plus years
responding to that trend. “They
in terms of coming out with new
believe, and are seeing that, the real
versions of their cars. They can’t do that
differentiation in the products and the
anymore. They want to be able to do
cars that they deliver in the future will
that in months, not years, and so they’re
be the experience that they offer to
looking for engineering strategies that
the driver. Their view is that that
allow them to accelerate their time to
experience is driven, not as much by
market while maintaining their quality.”
the more traditional, metal parts of the
That pressure is created by trends
car like the engine, but more by the
such as autonomous vehicles, and the
software that the engineers deliver.”
competition to bring the technology
Staying afloat in a changing industry
to the market, with significant
will require responding to such trends
ramifications for product development.
by increasing the pace. “The cycles of
“Think about the complexity of being w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
AI
“Software is really becoming much more of a differentiator” — Dibbe Edwards, Vice President, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management
86
APRIL 2020
able to engineer deterministic systems like we have today, where we know how the system is supposed to behave. But as companies start to build systems that learn, how do you create requirements for that, how do you test and validate a system that continues to learn?” This trend for ever increasing complexity in products shows no signs of abating, meaning the ways they are engineered has to change to match. “What we’re seeing is just going to continue to get more complex. For many of these companies, from a DevOps perspective, Tesla has set the standard. Many of the more traditional automotive companies want to get to the point where they can be more agile.” Edwards is confident that IBM can provide the tools to make that possible. “We’ll continue to evolve the engineering process, infusing our tools with AI to help engineers to be able to work faster and smarter.”
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APRIL 2020
Global software innovators Technology magazine counts down the world’s largest software companies from outside the US, where the traditional tech giants roam, with reference to Forbes’ Global 2000 WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM SMITH
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T O P 10
10
Shopify
O T TAWA , C A N A D A [R E V E NUE : $ 1.1BN]
Ecommerce platform Shopify is one of the younger companies on this list, having been founded in 2004. Its software allows companies an ecommerce presence, with Shopify emphasising the fact that its solution is a one stop shop for getting online. Operating on a softwareas-a-service (SaaS) model, the different tiers cater to different sized organisations. Shopify says that over one million businesses in 175 countries have made more than US$155bn in sales on its platform.
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Welcome to Shopify CLICK TO WATCH
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2:34
Atlassian + ANZ Bank: How an innovative bank is changing the way 50,000 employees work and think CLICK TO WATCH
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09
Atlassian
S Y DNE Y, A US T R A L I A [$ 1.1BN]
Sydney, Australia’s Atlassian Corporation was founded by two students from the University of New South Wales. Atlassian’s success is built on two main products, both of which are intended to boost collaboration in an enterprise setting. Jira is a bug tracking and project management system first released in 2002 when the company itself was launched. Confluence, meanwhile, was launched in 2004 and provides a suite of tools such as messaging and knowledge management.
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Micro Focus: Hybrid Cloud Management with 2 levels of abstraction CLICK TO WATCH
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3:32
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08
Micro Focus International NE W B UR Y, UK [$ 3 . 2BN]
The only British firm to make the list, Micro Focus International is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. As both a consultant and a software company, Micro Focus specialises in helping customers to achieve a digital transformation. It highlights four particular areas of speciality, jumio.com
namely DevOps, IT management, security and analytics, while customers include the likes of Fiserv, Accenture and BMW. Subsidiaries include the US-based Serena Software and Houston, Texas’s NetIQ.
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T O P 10
Spotify Ad Studio: How It Work CLICK TO WATCH
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07
Spotify
L U X E MB OURG [$6 . 2BN]
Spotify or, to give it its full name, Spotify Technology, is primarily a music streaming service, though it also provides a platform for videos and podcasts. Available as both an advertisement supported, free service or via subscription, Spotify’s success led to its 2018 listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Though legally based in Luxembourg, the company is run from Stockholm, Sweden, the country in which it was founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.
APRIL 2020
360 Total Security: Introduction CLICK TO WATCH
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06
Qihoo 360
BE I JING , CHIN A [$ 1.9BN]
The only Chinese entrant on this list, internet security company Qihoo 360 is most closely associated with its antivirus software 360 Safeguard. Founded by Chinese billionaire Zhou Hongyi in 2005, it also provides an internet browser under the same 360 branding. The company is most active in the Chinese market, where it has also launched a smartphone. Qihoo 360 is also the owner of over a quarter of Norway’s Opera Software.
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05
Check Point Software T E L AV I V, IS R A E L [$ 1.9BN]
Israel’s Check Point Software has a specific focus on cybersecurity software. Since its founding in 1993 by a trio of Israeli entrepreneurs, the company has been active at the forefront of IT security developments, such as one of the first virtual private networks (VPNs). Its suite of products includes firewalls, VPNs and specialised security solutions for cloud, mobile and SaaS environments.
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Check Point Research introduces CPRadio, a new podcast channel CLICK TO WATCH
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T O P 10
04
Dassault Systèmes
VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, FRANCE [$4.1BN]
Part of the broader Dassault group which incorporates aerospace manufacturer Dassault Aviation and newspaper Le Figaro, Dassault Systèmes is best known for its 3D computer aided design (CAD) software. Its two largest products are CATIA, which it developed itself, and Solidworks, which it acquired in 1997, though it has branched out into areas such as business analytics and geologic modelling. Though founded in 1981, the group as a whole can trace its origins to the 1920s, making it the oldest company on this list. 98
Dassault Systèmes: The Only Progress is Human CLICK TO WATCH
APRIL 2020
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1:44
How Amadeus technology moves the world forward (in numbers!) CLICK TO WATCH
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03
Amadeus IT Group M A DR ID , S PA IN [$5 .8BN]
While perhaps not a household name, Amadeus IT group undoubtedly impacts a huge number of people, owing to its status as a provider of IT to the travel and tourism industry worldwide. A principal offering is its Amadeus computer reservation system, used for booking flights by the likes of Air France, British Airways, Qantas and more. Having been founded in 1987, the company today employs some 19,000 people.
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COMING SOON
FIND OUT MORE
T O P 10
02
HCL Technologies NOIDA, INDIA [$8.4BN]
Indian IT multinational HCL Technologies was founded in 1976 and provides, among other services, software development. The company’s ‘Mode 1-2-3’ strategy offers customers more or less involved assistance with digital transformation, from services to products and platforms. Originally a subsidiary of the wider HCL group, it is now the main business entity. The largest Asian company on this list, HCL employs 149,00 people across the globe.
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HCL Technologies: Ordinary Objects Defining Extraordinary Relationships CLICK TO WATCH
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3:44
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T O P 10
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APRIL 2020
SAP Fiori and adidas: A Story of User Experience Transformation CLICK TO WATCH
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01
SAP
WA L L DOR F, G E R M A N Y [$2 9.1BN]
German multinational software giant SAP specialises in enterprise software. Since its founding in 1972 by former IBM employees, the company grew on the back of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. In more recent times, the company has embraced emerging technologies, with its latest SAP S/4HANA ERP platform featuring cloud capabilities. Its data analytics solutions encompass finance, human resources, operations, sales and marketing.
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EVENTS & A S S O C I AT I O N S
We round up the biggest and best technology events and conferences from around the world‌ EDITED BY WILLIAM SMITH
Future Datacentres and Amazon Innovation Day Cloud Infrastructure and AWS Summit Sydney Summit 31 MAR-2 APR 2020
106
NEW DATE: 14-15 SEP 2020
[ SYDNEY ]
[ DUBAI, UAE ]
This year, at a three-day event held in
The Future Datacentres and Cloud
the International Convention Centre,
Infrastructure Summit is set to explore
Sydney, Amazon Web Services will be
the technologies driving the trends
hosting educational and inspirational
in the data centre and cloud space.
keynotes, breakout sessions, and
With hybrid data centres increasingly
customer stories about how cloud
becoming the norm, challenges includ-
technology can help businesses lower
ing data traffic, security and speed
costs, improve efficiency and innovate
of implementation are all emerging.
at scale. Featured topics at the event
To answer these questions, the event
include: AI and Machine Learning, Big
is assembling over 35 experts, who
Data and analytics, containers, innova-
will participate in presentations, case
tion, serverless, migration and security.
studies and panel discussions.
APRIL 2020
13-15 MAY 2020
ITB China [ SHANGHAI ]
ITB China is a three-day business to business travel trade fair that focuses exclusively on the Chinese travel indus-
NEW DATE: 9-10 SEP 2020
try. As the largest B2B-exclusive travel
MOVE Asia 2020
trade show in China, ITB China brings
[ SINGAPORE ]
together top and hand selected buyers
MOVE Asia 2020 features a tagline of
with industry professionals from all over
‘mobility re-imagined’, describing itself
the world, and provides various net-
as “Asia’s most important mobility
working events and a unique state of
event”. The occasion will focus on the
the art matchmaking system to
disruptive technologies and innova-
enhance networking and maximize
tions driving change in the mobility
business opportunities. ITB China 2020
sector, in both an Asian and worldwide
will take place from Wednesday to Fri-
context. MOVE expects 2,000 attend-
day, 13 to 15 May, at the Shanghai World
ees, 350 speakers (including
Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre
delegates from Grab, Uber Elevate,
in Hall 1. The ITB China Conference will
Aptiv and others) and the participation
take place parallel with the show.
of 150 startups in the event.
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107
EVENTS & A S S O C I AT I O N S
NEW DATE: 7-9 DEC 2020
DataCloud World Congress 108
NEW DATE: 2-10 SEP 2020
[ MONACO ]
London Tech Week
This year, Monaco will be home to the
[ LONDON ]
17th annual DataCloud World Congress,
Every year, London Tech Week brings
bringing together a variety of experts in
together nearly 70,000 attendees to
the cloud, data centre and IT infrastructure
learn, teach and network at one of the
markets. Touting itself as “the premier
biggest gatherings in the industry. Held
leadership summit for critical IT infra-
in a range of venues across the city, and
structure”, the event promises to cover
supported by the Mayor of London, the
everything from cloud challenges to
event draws the biggest names in tech
edge evolution. Speakers at last year’s
and politics – with last year’s proceed-
event included: Michel Fraisse, VP,
ings being opened by then-Prime
Europe, Huawei, Jeffrey Ferry, Director,
Minister Theresa May. This year, fea-
Goldman Sachs and Glenn Fitzgerald,
tured events will include: the Future of
Chief Technology Officer, Product
Work Summit, Leaders In Tech Summit,
Business, Fujitsu EMEIA.
the AI Summit and Createch 2020.
APRIL 2020
NEW DATE: 24-25 NOV 2020
2-5 NOV 2020
AI & Big Data Expo Europe
Web Summit
[ AMSTERDAM ]
Since moving to Lisbon permanently in
Boasting four co-located events, over
2016, Web Summit has gained a reputa-
300 speakers, more than 350 exhibitors
tion as one of the world’s premier
and predicted to attract in excess of
technology summits. In previous years,
10,000 visitors over two days, the 2020
speakers at the event have included
AI & Big Data Expo Europe is one of the
former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair,
year’s biggest events in the data and
Microsoft President Brad Smith and
analytics space. Topics that are going to
serial Entrepreneur Elon Musk, among
be at the heart of this year’s many talks
many other luminaries Although the
and keynote speeches include: Business
focus on internet technology sug-
Intelligence, Deep Learning, Machine
gested by its name prevails, it has
Learning, AI Algorithms, Data & Analyt-
broadened its remit as it focuses on
ics, Virtual Assistants and Chatbots.
the technologies of the future.
[ LISBON ]
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110
EMBRACING A HUMAN-CENTRIC APPROACH IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY
SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY
MANUEL NAVARRO
APRIL 2020
111
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SIEMENS AG
Gia Thi Nguyen, Head of Operational Excellence, discusses the importance of digital transformation and operating with a human-centric approach
“
M
y dear, here in Wonderland, we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere,
you must run twice as fast as that,” wrote Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. While to many, it’s simply a quotation from a children’s novel, to Gia Thi Nguyen, Head of Operational Excellence, it’s a powerful mantra 112
for technological change. Thi sees the true value of the words in Carroll’s famous book and believes it accurately defines digital transformation as a whole. “Digital transformation is about agility, speed and even more importantly, it’s just 1% digital and 99% human,” affirms Thi. “This means that the human-centric approach is key in regards to any digital transformation.” Thi has worked in five different countries including the UK, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Spain and Germany. That diversity of experience has provided him with a philosophy of operating with a human-centric approach that focuses on attributes that define humans such as: compassion, empathy, curiosity and creativity. Thi affirms that unlocking digital
APRIL 2020
113
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Unleash your spee with confidence Business applications at the speed of thought with assisted development Flowfactory assisted development platform will add speed to your digitalization capability, liberate innovation power, and help you master complexity over time.
ed
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“ IT’S ABOUT MAKING THE MOST OUT OF EVERY SITUATION LIFE THROWS AT YOU” 116
— Gia Thi Nguyen, Head of Operational Excellence
transformation means harnessing the human touch. “You need to have a human-centric approach because it’s vital to ensure you empower and are empowered by technology,” explains Thi. “That’s why it’s essential to focus on the traits that define humans which will allow creativity to be unlocked and to ensure digital transformation becomes a positive story.” Due to the speed at which technology is evolving, there is the concern from some industries that robots and artificial intelligence (AI)
E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Gia Thi Nguyen Having begun his career at Siemens 17 years ago, Gia Thi Nguyen started as a Process Analyst in the ERP environment in IT. Thi quickly progressed to become the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Siemens’ regional company in Vietnam before moving onto head up a number of financial positions, including becoming the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a Siemens subsidiary in Spain. Thi has worked in seven manufacturing environments in five different countries in total, such as the UK, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Spain and Germany. Moving into his current role as Head of Operational Excellence in January 2016, Thi has helped oversee the firm’s continued digital transformation interests. APRIL 2020
The Umbrella Analogy – when Strategy meets Execution CLICK TO WATCH
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117
could replace humans one day.
to focus on what humans do best.”
However, Thi believes the more
Although the acceleration of AI
pressing issue is ensuring that
and Big Data is primarily considered
humans don’t become robots
a positive in all sectors, Thi acknowl-
themselves. “A big concern of
edges why people might be reluctant
mine is that humans are becoming
to embrace change. “The biggest
addicted to mobile phones and
challenge digital transformation
are reliant on technology in order
faces is fear. People are afraid they
to function from day to day,” he
might lose their jobs or are unsure
explains. “When I talk about redis-
how their job might be impacted.
covering humanity by the use of
However, fear is just an emotion
technology, it is really about how
and I can work with that,” he ex-
you can make use of the transforma-
plains. “I would be much more
tive power of technology to be able
worried if I were dealing with people w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
Because making the world better is everyone’s business.
Š 2019 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
THE BEST RUN SAP. A great organization can do great things. For its shareholders. Its employees. And for the world. Together with SAP, you can transform your business and help it run better. And when businesses run better, communities, the environment, and people everywhere do too. THE BEST-RUN BUSINESSES MAKE THE WORLD RUN BETTER. Learn more at sap.com/bestrun
SAP is uniquely positioned to deliver the Intelligent Enterprise to our customers The Intelligent Enterprise is more than just automated business processes.
64764enUS (19/06) © 2019 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. Information herein subject to change without notice.
It’s a vision of how we at SAP see the future of business for our customers, the future of work for our customers’ employees, and the future of experience for our customers’ customers.
Intelligence embedded directly into core solutions as part of customers’ standard road map, so they don’t need to create a separate data lake or purchase additional tools
Integration end to end across the processes that matter most to our customers, built on common master data, domain models, and platforms Industry expertise to help make sense of customers’ data in the specific context of their businesses, using insights about their own performance to optimize algorithms
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SIEMENS AG
who are apathetic. I believe you need to be very honest and recognise that you just don’t have all the answers, but you can offer an inclusive approach that says ‘Let’s find the answers together’.” Thi believes that his success in Operational Excellence is down to a positive mentality of adapting to all situations. “There are so many things in life we can’t control. I don’t know if it’s going to rain or whether the sun is going to shine tomorrow, 120
but what I can control is whether I want to get wet or not,” he explains. “My advice would be to bring an umbrella: if I bring one but the sun is shining, at least then I have an umbrella for sun protection. It’s
APRIL 2020
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Simplify. Transform. Accelerate. Siemens teamed up with Pega, the leader in software for digital transformation, to tackle complexity with a unified architecture. Digitization poses great challenges for organizations. That’s why it’s at the top of Siemens’ strategic agenda, as part of the “Vision 2020+” program. The partnership with Pega supports Siemens on its way into the digital world. Together they have successfully realized more than 20 projects together – Global Master Data Management, Order Management for Tomorrow, Cash Collection, Generic Workflow Self-Services, Customer Service, GraphicsPool, to name a few.
SIEMENS AND PEGA: A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
20 + 50,000
projects worldwide
Siemens employees using Pega software
50%
shorter processing time
Up to
10x faster results
Learn more about Siemens´ journey to digital success. Watch our video here.
We are Pegasystems, the leader in cloud software for customer engagement and operational excellence. For the past 35 years, our technology – CRM, digital process automation, robotics, AI, and more – has empowered the world’s leading companies to achieve breakthrough results. Learn more about us at pega.com.
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SIEMENS AG
“ A HERO CAN COME FROM ANYWHERE BUT NOT EVERYONE CAN BE A HERO” — Gia Thi Nguyen, Head of Operational Excellence
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APRIL 2020
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Siemens’ End-to-End Partner for Digital Transformation
As a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation. The multicultural company has more than 200,000 employees in more than 40 countries and has been Siemens´ partner since 2003. Their numerous joint initiatives cover business innovation as well as optimizing operations and combining the expertise and know-how of the two companies.
Siemens´ partner since 2003
The information contained in this document is proprietary. ©2019 Capgemini. All rights reserved.
Capgemini developed and implemented digital strategies, new service business models, connected and integrated value chains, transformation journeys and innovation factories to generate new service revenues and to increase efficiency in operations across Siemens´ key businesses Gas and Power, Smart Infrastructure, Digital Industries, Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Gamesa.
Generating new service revenues & increasing efficiency
Joint successes: Optimizing Energy Consumption in Connected Buildings Enabling Smart Manufacturing through Smart Technologies Capgemini is a Key Partner of Mendix Low Code Software Development Platform Over the last 15 years, Capgemini helped Siemens to realize business growth and to increase operational efficiency ensuring strong alignment between business & IT, resulting in IT investments that lead to clear business benefits and pay-off in day-to-day business execution. To find out more about Capgemini, please visit
www.capgemini.com
127
Ingenuity drives us CLICK TO WATCH
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SIEMENS AG
OUR PARTNERS Thi has established several key, strategic partnerships that help him drive his digital transformation goals forward. These partnerships are with:
SAP Germany
128
“SAP Germany has been a trusted partner for many years. They are a powerhouse in the industry and a very good example of what sustainable partners really mean. I don’t just choose to work with them because we’ve done business together for such a long time. We have reinvented different use cases on how we can help each other and attain what we need to do. While the robust core of transactional systems like SAP ERP for Order to Cash and Flowfactory for Offer to Order is in place, process mining by Celonis provides the transparency and proof of how global process performance in very complex environments can be shown, is also thanks to a corporate standard implementation of SAP HANA technology. It’s really impressive to know that I have hundreds of millions activities like “Create Sales Order item” or “Change Price” from all around the world sitting in one data lake that runs on SAP HANA.”
APRIL 2020
Flowfactory “Based on Flowfactory platform, we have created a robust yet scalable transactional system for the ‘Offer to Order’ processes with a blazing speed at a fraction of cost usually budgeted and spent for such endeavors. I needed an integrated and infinitely flexible platform that could handle the processing of my agreements, as well as pricing processes to the maintenance of complex pricing structures for the global customer base. Enabling flexible workflows with approval logics that could be implemented by business users themselves is not an easy task, so I’m happy to use Flowfactory as an elastic layer on top of the legacy — where we can co-create all of these things in a much faster, leaner and fun way.”
Pega “As SAP provides the foundation where all transactional and master data are created for ‘Order to Cash’ processes, Flowfactory handles the same for ‘Offer to Order’ processes. However, since these processes also involve people — internal stakeholders as well as external customers, we have partnered with Pega, who allows us to not only digitally engage and collaborate with all the stakeholders involved, but to also automate many use cases and even address new cases we haven’t been able to think about
before. To do this on a global scale across countries and continents is not a simple task, but the Pega framework allows us to do exactly this.”
are highlighted by the Digital Fit Rate, a KPI which we have established in the Order to Cash processes that tracks the number of manual interventions in an organisation on a global scale for every single country and portfolio unit.”
Capgemini “Capgemini has saved me many hours of unnecessary work by spurring my attention to initiatives with clear business benefits, externally as well as internally, some of which I didn’t even have knowledge of. It’s really great to have Capgemini as a partner”
Celonis “When I look at the partnership with Celonis for the last three years in my realm of responsibilities, it’s been an incredible ride. Celonis has helped me find answers to questions I didn’t even dare to ask. With this ultimate transparency in processes, I could focus on solving painpoints. I believe that Celonis process mining is going to be such a normal thing to use, just as we use Excel today. It’s a toolset which I now can’t do without. I have digitalised my processes through the convergence of different kinds of technological aspects, such as process mining which provides a level of incredible transparency that allows us to formulate the necessary actions to improve processes. This could relate to increasing the level of automation or reducing the amount of manual rework, all of these improvements
GetAccept “In terms of my relationship with GetAccept, a Swedish Silicon Valley based startup, it’s a very interesting journey because the partnership is relatively new, however, is truly an example of what it means when traditional companies meet smaller companies. Not everyone can be a hero, like GetAcccept, but a hero like GetAccept can come from anywhere — we don’t need to go to only the well-known IT vendors such as the big software players. GetAccept allows me to communicate with my customers and to engage them in rich experiences. The platform provides an eSigning and document tracking capability in order to really drive sales growth, but also to understand customers much better. From time to time, there are use cases that require me to challenge myself. wwPartners such as GetAccept are really important because it’s so easy to go for an established name, but it requires foresight and courage to engage with startups requiring them to deliver on enterprise level requirements.”
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129
Welcome to the Superfluid Enterprise Celonis turns business processes into extraordinary experiences, for your customers and your employees. Get started with Process Mining today at www.Celonis.com
131
about making the most out of every
vision of the potential outcome is
situation life throws at you.” With
important to encourage perspective,
his positive analogies allowing
the ability of adapting to change
people across a variety of different
consistently is how success can
industries to relate to his messages,
ultimately be measured. “It’s impor-
Thi affirms that although a clear
tant to have a clear strategy of w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
€
SIEMENS IS USING GRAPHS TO GENERATE A 360° VIEW ON THEIR CUSTOMER DATA. What about you? It has never been more urgent than today to leverage the connections in your data to make timely operational decisions. This requires a technology to unify your master data, including customer, product, supplier and logistics information to power the next generation of applications.
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r custom othe er w s ho
Find out more on neo4j.com
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Gia Thi Nguyen on Utilising Technology CLICK TO WATCH
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where you want to be, as well as having the confidence and the
“ THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FACES IS FEAR” — Gia Thi Nguyen, Head of Operational Excellence
understanding that it’s OK not to have all the answers before beginning the journey,” explains Thi. “A key learning of making any change stick is to have people with real know-how and not just general experience or a variety of different job titles,” explains Thi. “These often unsung heroes are the agents of positive change. These are the people that you should identify and support by having the courage to w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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follow them. A hero can come from
change,” says Thi. “I only think about
anywhere but not everyone can
what I’m going to do differently today
be a hero. Recognising and adopting
and then it’s up to other people to
this mindset is real leadership.”
decide whether it’s successful or not.
With the future in mind, Thi recog-
It’s not my place to say.”
nises he must only look forward instead of dwelling on the past. “It’s easy for me to look into the past and look at what I could have done differently but there’s no point in worrying about what you can’t w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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THE MODULAR, INTELLIGENT INFRASTRUCTURE OF K2 DATA CENTRES WRITTEN BY
HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY
LEWIS VAUGHAN
APRIL 2020
137
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K 2 D ATA C E N T R E S
FRED HO, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR AT K2 CRITICAL DELIVERY AND COLIN KELLY, COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR AT K2 DATA CENTRES DISCUSS HOW THE DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY IS BUILDING FOR THE LONG TERM IN THE FAST PACED WORLD OF DATA CENTRE OPERATIONS
138
T
he future of business lies in the cloud. As the increasingly rapid progression of Industry 4.0 creates higher demand for
data and data centres, through increased cloud migration, internet of things (IoT) expansion and the explosion of business analytics, the demand for digital infrastructure is in danger of outstripping global supply. With studies predicting that 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020, and the feverish growth showing no signs of slowing, the data centre market has never held so much promise, or been so demanding. The major obstacle faced by data centre operators lies in the fact that, on average, the effective lifecycle of cloud infrastructure lasts less than two years. Every 6-18 months, server rooms need to be torn out to make way for the latest generation of APRIL 2020
139
2017
Year founded
$350mn Revenue in US dollars
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Empowering the dream-makers... Making Movie Magic
Animal Logic, the animation, and visual effects studio behind films such as The LEGO Movie, The Matrix, and The Great Gatsby, is benefiting from high-performance computing, all from quickly deployed, prefabricated data centre. Schneider installed a customised prefabricated data centre to support their high density applications and bring animated characters to life on the big screen. Find out more how Animal Logic grew their movie-making power with an Oscar-worthy Prefabricated Data Centre.
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PA R T N E R S
Vital partnerships for growth: Huawei and Schneider Electric Huawei and Schneider Electric: The prototype power pods are among several projects that K2 is working on, both in-house and in collaboration with trusted global partners like Huawei and Schneider Electric. One of the principal areas of research for the Dublin 2 facility is the deployment of lithium ion batteries. Ho has been working alongside Huawei and Schneider in order to solve the issue of lithium ion fires being difficult to extinguish. “We’re all doing the R&D to find the best way to suppress a fire in a mission critical environment,” he explains. “When we install these batteries, if there’s a fire, we’ll use the cooling system to circulate the gas, then be able to control, localize and extinguish the fire using a high pressure gas suppression system. That way, a fire won’t affect operations, or enter other parts of the data centre.”
Additionally, Huawei is working with K2 on flexible cooling solutions and Schneider is collaborating on smart box arrangement technology that allows for easier part replacement in the power pods. Kelly recognises Huawei and Schneider as long-term partners that can help K2 remain industry leaders in the short term as well. “We identified Huawei and Schneider in particular as two companies that have full stables of technologies. We feel that those companies will always remain ahead of the curve, and be able to introduce new technologies as they come along. They also both have global footprints, and can support our business no matter which territory, or geography we expand to.”
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K 2 D ATA C E N T R E S
increasingly powerful banks that draw more energy and have different cooling needs. Data centre infrastructure is, as a result, in a near constant state of flux. However, a constantly changing playing field cannot eclipse the fact that the cloud is growing by orders of magnitude each year: “The infrastructure needed to support cloud growth obviously needs to be a very long-term investment,” says Colin Kelly, Commercial Director at K2 Data Centres. 144
This inherent contradiction at the heart of the data centre infrastructure might initially seem daunting, and officiating a happy marriage between long term investment and short-term technological acceleration is no mean feat. Adaptability, agility and technical innovation need to be met with a measured approach and an eye fixed on a future 30 to 40 years down the road. K2 Data Centres, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kuok (Singapore) Limited, is embarking on a journey to apply the mature, forward thinking business values that are central to its parent company’s business philosophy, to the rapid-fire world of data centres. APRIL 2020
“ T HE CHALLENGE IS HOW TO INVEST LONG TERM IN CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN THE INDUSTRY CHANGES IN SUCH A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME” — Colin Kelly,, Commercial Director, K2 Data Centres
145 We sat down with Kelly and Fred
respected multinational conglomer-
Ho, Technical Director at K2 Critical
ates, with subsidiaries at the forefront
Delivery, to discuss how K2 Data
of the maritime, property, logistics,
Centres, against the rising tide of
hospitality and agriculture industries.
demand for cloud, harnessing the
The Chinese character for crane is also
winds of exponential technical innova-
the generational name of Kuok Group
tion, and through the coming storms of
founder Robert Kuok. Embodying the
a growing environmental crisis, aims
values of fidelity, grace and longevity,
to embody the steadfast, long-term
the crane has become the conglom-
approach exemplified by Kuok.
erate’s symbol and the virtues it represents are at the very core of how
FIDELITY, GRACE AND LONGEVITY AT THE HEART OF KUOK GROUP
it does business. From its shipping
Over the last 70 years, the Kuok Group
ments, Kuok is a company that plans to
has grown into one of Asia’s most
see its projects continue into the next
businesses to its luxury hotel develop-
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“ W E’RE NOT THE TYPE OF COMPANY TO BUILD SOMETHING AND THEN SELL IT A YEAR LATER. EVERYTHING WE BUILD, WE KEEP” — Colin Kelly,, Commercial Director, K2 Data Centres
MODULAR CONSTRUCTION: FROM POWER PODS TO MARITIME DATA CENTRES The successful coexistence of longterm data centre infrastructure and speedy delivery lies in the approach K2 is taking to the operation of its second Dublin hyperscale campus. The new 60MW development will combine with the company’s existing facilities to make K2 a 100MW data centre company – a rarity outside cloud service providers like Google and Microsoft. In order to simultaneously cater to the rapid development cycles of the companies expected to take up residence
decade, or even the next century. “We’re not the type of company to
in Dublin 2, and stay true to Kuok’s philosophy and methodology, K2 is using
build something and then sell it a year
a two-track process. The plan is to
later. Everything we build, we keep,”
operationally separate the data centre
says Kelly. Kuok has deep ties to the
hall from the rest of the facility itself;
sea, with industry-leading holdings in
K2 is constructing a facility built to
the maritime space and an extensive
stand the test of time, with a dynamic
coastal footprint. Operating busi-
data centre hall at its heart. “Over
nesses built for long-term operation
the years, the data centre hall can
on turbulent, tempestuous oceans is
develop flexibly, as it needs, to accom-
at the heart of Kuok’s identity. As K2
modate new technologies,” explains
looks to steady the ship on the chang-
Kelly. While the data centre building
ing seas of digital infrastructure, Kuok’s
and internal configuration is largely
legacy and values serve as a compass
placed within the control of tenant, K2
to keep the company on course.
“takes huge care internally over how w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
147
K 2 D ATA C E N T R E S
C OM PA N Y S TAT S
• Dublin 1 Data Centre: 18MW capacity built on a technical gross f loor area of 127,000 sqft • Dublin 2 Data Centre: 62MW hyperscale campu
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APRIL 2020
we deliver power and cooling to that space,” he continues. Appeasing the two masters of longevity and frenetic development is, Kelly admits, a difficult process. The answer lies in K2’s reimagining of the power of modular construction techniques. Traditionally, assembling parts offsite was a quicker and cheaper way to get a roof on a new McDonald’s, or install bathroom units in a boxy modern development. Not, at first glance, the sort of technique expected from a company dedicated to ensuring the perpetuity of its infrastructure projects. However, Kelly enthuses that making products faster and more cost-effectively “only scratches the surface of the advantages we see in modular construction”. K2 is exploring the benefits of modular construction through its new prototype Power Pods: modular units that combine multiple key elements of data centre power delivery: battery, UPS and transformer systems, as well as other essential power-generating technology “like an engine block,” Kelly says. The advantages of the modular blocks is that offsite assembly and a w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
149
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self-contained structure means better
The potential applications of the
quality control, which reduces risk and
modular Power Pods reach beyond
potential time lost to the project. The
K2’s Dublin project. As data demand
nature of their construction is also
rises, the need for hyperscale data
the solution to the rapidly evolving
centres that are closer to population
demands of the data centre’s tenants.
centres also increases. Ho notes that,
“We want to flex and change the den-
in addition to the new hyperscale
sity of the data centre as technology
centre in Ireland, K2 is exploring
evolves over the next 15 years,” Kelly
additional applications for modular
notes. As power demand rises, a 1MW
power generation in a way that further
solution can be replaced with a larger
embraces Kuok’s maritime identity.
capacity power supply, and densities
“We’re planning to employ our modular
can be reconfigured as halls are refit-
construction expertise to build a data
ted as the modular system makes the
centre on a floating platform, on the
whole facility more robust. “That ability
sea,” says Ho. Kuok’s strong coastal
to adjust and fine tune our infrastructure is very important to us, given that we’ve seen IT refreshes of data halls after as little as 18 months,” says Kelly. The Power Pods will also increase uptime and reduce the disruption of a refit. Rather than change out multiple systems on site, a module can simply be replaced, or additional units can be installed. Maintenance that needs to take place offsite need not impact power supply, as replacement units can be delivered and installed in a matter of
“ I N ORDER TO CAPTURE THE MARKET DEMAND, WE NEED TO BUILD A PRODUCT FOR OUR END USER, COME TO MARKET, DELIVER AND DEPLOY IT VERY QUICKLY” — Colin Kelly,, Commercial Director, K2 Data Centres
hours, while damaged components are serviced and added to reserve supplies. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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K 2 D ATA C E N T R E S
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“ W E’VE DESIGNED A SYSTEM THAT MEANS WE CAN REPLACE A POWER POD IN A MATTER OF HOURS” — Colin Kelly,, Commercial Director, K2 Data Centres
footprint – particularly in areas of Asia and Africa, where digital infrastructure is still developing – will allow the company to bring its sea-borne data centres close to population centres. The advantages range from mobility to readily-available seawater for cooling.
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE Planning for the long-term means facing tough challenges. At the core of K2’s brief is the pursuit of powering data centres more robustly, more
APRIL 2020
is looking to become more vertically integrated into the infrastructure operation process – exploring offshore wind projects and a more interactive relationship with the grid. The future is inevitably uncertain. However, there are ways in which it can be planned for, even shaped, and met with the right tools and philosophy to ensure it is a bright one. K2, embodying the values of the Kuok group, is not only planning for, but helping create a future in which the world’s ever-growing thirst for data is met by long-term, sustainable infrastructure solutions. “It’s common for data centre companies to find empty land, build a reliably and more sustainably. The
facility, flip it and make some money
company is committed to the Dublin 2
for the shareholders. It’s very transac-
facility running on a 100% renewable
tional. Because of our heritage, we’re
electricity power purchase order, as
not transactional at all,” says Kelly. Ho
well as installing significant photovol-
agrees, concluding: that “No matter
taic infrastructure to account for power
how the technology changes, we will
fluctuations in a sustainable way that
be here to support it for years to come.”
doesn’t sacrifice the quality of cooling. “There’s no sun in Ireland, as you know,” laughs Kelly. “The only time it gets hot is when there is sun, so it makes sense to try and address those peaks with solar panels.” Looking ahead, K2 w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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154
The value communi APRIL 2020
e of nication WRITTEN BY
SHANNON LEWIS PRODUCED BY
STUART IRVING
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155
FONTERRA
We speak to Piers Shore, Chief Information Officer at Fonterra, about how the company’s IT team effectively communicates its directives across the company, gaining further insight into areas of opportunity and possible creative solutions 156
B
ased out of Auckland, New Zealand, global dairy co-operative Fonterra exports products to over 140 countries, reaching one
billion people every day. It employs approximately 20,000 people around the world and is owned by 10,000 New Zealand farmers and families, many of whose roots in the industry span generations. Piers Shore has been the Chief Information Officer at Fonterra for over a year now. From life sciences, to heavy manufacturing to consumer products, he has worked across multiple marketing and IT roles that focus on international business and digital strategy and transformation. “The first thing you do as an incoming CIO is understand the state of play,” Shore explains. Effective communication across the business is at the core of Shore’s strategy for Fonterra. When he first joined, Shore and his team ran a APRIL 2020
157
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awsinsight.com.au
Fonterra Here to Everywhere CLICK TO WATCH
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0:30
159 company-wide IT survey, asking all
strategy and business strategy should
employees to give feedback on the
be complementary, not competitive.”
current IT tools and services avail-
The main problem, according to
able to them. Their answers provided
Shore, was that Fonterra’s IT capa-
Shore and his team with strategic
bilities were “an inch deep and a mile
focus areas, and a baseline against
wide.” He and his management team
which they could measure future pro-
recommended an urgent transforma-
gress. “We had good response rates
tion programme, focusing on three
that indicated they really valued the
key areas. “We need to articulate IT
IT services and tools that enable their
in non-technical terms to ensure it
jobs,” he continues, “but it also high-
is understandable to anyone, at any
lighted areas of improvement. We then
level, from any department, rebuild-
articulated a very practical IT strategy
ing our infrastructure and operations
that was aligned with the overarch-
including a significant enhancement
ing business transformation. The IT
of our business partnerships, and w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
FONTERRA
160
improving our diversity and inclusion,”
reinforce a digital foundation to sup-
explains Shore.
port their transformation initiatives.
He is a firm believer in building
With the spread of COVID-19 now a
deep, long-lasting relationships with
reality for it’s people, communities and
key suppliers and strategic partners.
way of life, Fonterra’s new strategic
To this end, he has recently overseen
partnership with HCL is more impor-
a process to review and consolidate
tant than ever. Fonterra employees are
vendors across his Infrastructure,
now increasingly reliant on technology
End User Compute, Security, and
and mobility to do their work. The pan-
Service Delivery estate into a single,
demic highlights the critical need for a
long-term strategic partnership with
rock-solid infrastructure at Fonterra.
HCL. HCL Technologies will bring
This partnership will also extend
together Co-operative’s IT infra-
HCL’s New Zealand presence to three
structure under one umbrella and will
offices within the country and will bring
APRIL 2020
around 60 new jobs to the Waikato
Salesforce, SAP and Amazon, it brings
region, as the local support services
us much needed global technical exper-
for Fonterra employees will be based at
tise, which will also help the evolution
its Hamilton Delivery centre.
of the technology ecosystem of New
Fonterra is committed to adding
Zealand as a country,” Shore explains.
value not just to customers, but to its
“It’s very important when you are
surrounding community. “By partner-
on a transformation journey that you
ing with major tech firms like Microsoft,
communicate,” says Shore. “Not just
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Piers Shore Piers is the Chief Information Officer for Fonterra. He moved to Aotearoa in 2018 to join Fonterra after numerous technology and digital roles across the globe, mainly in life sciences. During his time at Fonterra so far, he has led a comprehensive review and reset of the IT strategy, service delivery and operating model, including the following: •M anaging the IT budget and project portfolio with management remit •O ptimising infrastructure, architecture, ERP environment, data management and cybersecurity protocols to provide a robust, stable platform for future innovation •B uilding innovation capabilities to drive company-wide productivity and efficiency He has introduced three core priorities to strengthen Fonterra’s core infrastructure and operations, improve business partnerships and develop Fonterra’s people with a focus on diversity.
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Driven by humans, powered by technology, business transformation for a better working world.
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Should digital transformation be on your agenda, or running it?
“ It’s at the core of what we’re trying to do here: rebuilding our baseline infrastructure and foundation. Once you have that, it becomes something you can leverage to drive future transformation” — Piers Shore, Chief Information Officer, Fonterra
your stakeholders. It will vary based on their area and their drives,” he continues. “Just talking tech may not resonate with everyone, but application to business areas will.” It is important to Shore that he is visible across the company as the CIO. This includes visiting manufacturing and R&D sites to understand how technology is used on a day-to-day basis and hearing directly from people how IT could be leveraged further. He also visited the company IT helpdesk and listened into calls to understand
with your own team of global, highly-
what people struggle with. Additionally,
skilled IT professionals, but with
Shore runs regular CIO dialogue ses-
stakeholders across the business. You
sions, both virtual and face-to-face,
can have an elegant, highly technical
with the global IT team. The feedback
strategy but if people anywhere in the
and suggestions that come from these
business, at any level, can’t articulate
interactions directly impact Fonterra’s
simply what your plan is, I would ques-
IT strategy. “It’s important that you have
tion the possibility of success.” Shore
the integrity to reach out to employees
takes a “cascade approach”, regularly
in a transparent fashion and ask them
interacting with Fonterra’s executive
to benchmark your performance,” says
management to ensure teams across
Shore. “At the end of the day, we’re all
the company are informed on the
one company and want what’s best. It’s
state of IT strategy and are able to
vitally important we work as a team.”
seek assistance in areas pertinent to
Shore’s focus on visibility extends to
them. “It’s important to communicate
how Fonterra presents to the world;
on the basis of the value IT adds to
he maintains positive relationships w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
163
FONTERRA
Explore how Fonterra is powering end to end business efficiency through digital transformation
with senior management and CEO’s of major global tech companies to ensure Fonterra has access to world-class innovative minds. The global dairy co-operative relies on developing strong partnerships to ensure it is participating in the global tech economy. “In the life sciences industry, it is particularly important that you partner with selected strategic entities that progress your pipeline,” explains Shore. “I wanted to take the same approach with Fonterra.” By connecting with a tech giant like Microsoft,
“ You can have an elegant, highly technical strategy but if people can’t articulate simply what your plan is, I’d question the strategy’s success” — Piers Shore, Chief Information Officer, Fonterra
SAP and Amazon, Fonterra ensures its data strategy is optimised. Global brands also provide expertise around cutting-edge processes. EY has been a key partner in Fonterra’s integration of a Lean Six Sigma methodology into IT, training green belts, and assisting in framework implementation. “Having an internationally recognised standard that our IT employees can aspire to and get trained upon is phenomenal for development,” explains Shore. “We’ve achieved some significant results, not only absolute financial savings, but time savings and significant productivity enhancement.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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FONTERRA
166
C O M PA N Y FACT S
Projects pioneered through a Lean Six Sigma framework have resulted in Fonterra reducing the number of unallocated laptops in the warehouse by around 40% and reducing the average time to approve project invoices by 70%
APRIL 2020
167
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FONTERRA
168
2001
Year founded
$20.1bn Revenue in US dollars
20,000 Number of employees
APRIL 2020
Projects pioneered through a Lean Six Sigma framework have resulted in Fonterra reducing the number of unallocated laptops in the warehouse by around 40% and reducing the average time to approve project invoices by 70%. Shore hopes to dramatically increase the usage of Six Sigma in IT to drive enhanced productivity and efficiency across the business. Fonterra received a 2019 SAP Innovation Award for a joint IT-HR project called Project App. Alongside
169
SAP, it sought a way to improve the vis-
becomes something you can leverage
ibility of projects and initiatives at the
to drive future transformation.”
company so people with the right skill
In summary, Shore says “I am
sets could get involved. “The solution
extremely excited about the role IT
was to build an online tool that used
can play in helping to support the new
SAP cloud in which projects could be
Fonterra strategy. We are part of the
registered and the skill sets advertised,”
business and we wish to leverage
explains Shore. “It’s a simple idea:
technology to drive great value to our
we’re leveraging technology to match
stakeholders and Fonterra customers
opportunities with people. It’s at the
around the world”.
core of what we’re trying to do here: rebuilding our baseline infrastructure and foundation. Once you have that, it w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
170
A living laboratory for innovation and advanced tech WRITTEN BY
GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY
MICHAEL BANYARD
APRIL 2020
171
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KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Jason Roos, CIO at KAUST and Mohamed Abdel-Aal, Head of Digital Experience and Innovation at KAUST Smart, discuss the university’s living laboratory approach and research innovations
J
ason Roos has been the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at King Abdullah University of Science and
Technology (KAUST) for just under three years. 172
“Prior to coming to Saudi Arabia, I was the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President of a large cancer research centre in Southern California and the CTO and Vice President of Stanford University’s medical centre. A vast amount of my career has been within an academic medical setting.” Reflecting on when he first started at KAUST, Roos explains that he was already familiar with the Middle East having lived in the UAE before. “However, I had never lived in Saudi Arabia,” comments Roos, “it wasn’t until I was brought onsite to see KAUST that I was truly convinced of how incredible the place is. KAUST is very unique. We are currently in our tenth year of existence, with the ambition to build a world-renowned research and academic institute for Master’s, and doctoral APRIL 2020
173
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KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
“ We are a self-contained community – ‘a living laboratory’. It gives us the unique ability to develop and redefine smart cities and digital experiences”
degrees that is of the same caliber as MIT, the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Therefore, over the last 10 years we have been working to build state-ofthe-art facilities that will ultimately help to change the economic landscape of Saudi Arabia.” In addition to the research and academic institute, KAUST is surrounded
174
— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
by what Roos calls “a mini Silicon Valley”, to drive a culture of innovation and technological advancement. “As CIO I am not only responsible for the institute, but also for the entire ‘smart city’, comprising thousands of homes, as well as restaurants, shopping centres, a police department and a small hospital. Within the ‘smart city’ we have research centres from multiple Fortune 500 companies including Dow, Aramco and SABIC. Essentially, we are a self-contained community ‘a living laboratory’. That gives us the unique ability to develop and redefine smart cities and digital experiences for the people that live, work and study within KAUST.” Currently, within the world of technology, Roos highlights that, globally,
APRIL 2020
This is KAUST CLICK TO WATCH
|
1:03
175 there is a strong buzz around utilising
we have the ability to control almost
artificial intelligence, machine learning
every variable to thoroughly test these
and high-performance computing in
vehicles to develop a usable service.”
order to leverage autonomous func-
In addition to these trends Mohamed
tions and high levels of intelligence
Abdel-Aal, Head of Digital Experience
to enhance an organisation’s capa-
and Innovation at KAUST Smart, has
bilities. “At KAUST we want to utilise
also seen an increased empowerment
these trends within our ‘living labora-
of knowledge and decision making,
tory’ to drive innovation in computing,
due to the way users interact with their
personalised and precision medicine,
mobile phones has evolved. “It adds
population health, traffic control and
to the situational awareness, which
mobility, to name a few. One area that
provides a level of intelligence that we
we are looking into at the moment is
can apply to automation,” adds Roos,
the application of autonomous vehi-
“in the past you could automate, but
cles. Being an entire ecosystem city
you couldn’t predict, which is where w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
178
artificial intelligence and machine learn-
the overall experience being provided
ing has really provided a difference in
to redefine and reimagine the basic
automation to customise the individual
portfolio. At KAUST we are looking
experience. This is something we are
to create a culture where people
looking to leverage to create an intel-
are allowed to experiment, to take
ligent and unique experience.”
risks and push boundaries to see
In order to achieve this Roos
what works and what doesn’t. If you
explains that there are multiple
don’t allow people to take risks - and
components to KAUST’s digital trans-
occasionally fail - then you won’t
formation strategy. “Although there is
encourage people to get out there
your traditional IT portfolio for basic
and try to push those boundaries to
applications to deliver your core busi-
create new innovations.”
ness functions, in order to go beyond
Currently at KAUST, Roos and
that and innovate, you need to look at
Abdel-Aal are working on a number
APRIL 2020
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Jason Roos Jason Roos has more than 25 years of experience leading and managing information systems and technology organizations across the defense, healthcare, higher education, and high tech industries, including international experience in Europe and the Middle East. He is currently the Chief Information Officer for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) located just north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining KAUST in July of 2017, Jason served as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at City of Hope Cancer Research Center in Los Angeles after serving for several years as the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Stanford Health Care at the Stanford University Medical Center where he led the overall technology direction and operational delivery for all of Stanford Medicine’s Adult Hospitals and Clinics. His career highlights include working as an executive for the leading cyber security firm Symantec, where he led the application development and production support teams supporting Symantec’s global e-commerce platform and experience as the Senior Director for Technology with the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Hospital located in the United Arab Emirates. Jason began his career serving in various leadership roles for over ten years at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. His military experience includes serving as an Electronic Warfare Signals Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Corps, and later as a Medical Service Corps Officer specializing in healthcare technology and biomedical systems management. His formal education includes completing a healthcare administration postgraduate fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital, a MBA from Texas A&M University, a BA from the University of Houston, and a diploma from the Defense Language Institute’s school of Arabic in Monterey, California. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
“ If you don’t allow people to take risks – and occasionally fail – then you won’t encourage people to get out there and try to push those boundaries to create new innovations”
of innovation projects including autonomous vehicles, drone delivery, cashless pay and facial recognition. “Coming back to autonomous vehicles, we are assessing and experimenting with this technology for two different shuttles on a joint agreement that we’ve built with multiple companies,” comments Abdel-Aal who explains the complexity involved when innovating in this area. “The assessment of autonomous shuttles
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— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
APRIL 2020
includes multiple dimensions, one being the operational aspect. Can we run these shuttles? Can we charge them? Can we maintain them? Will
181
they withstand the heat? A second
Further detailing the current inno-
dimension is digital integration to
vations at KAUST, Roos explains
develop a smart experience which
the university’s development of its
poses questions such as, will users
computing and storage capabilities.
be able to look up the route on their
“When KAUST was first established,
phone? Can users book the shut-
our supercomputer “Shaheen” was
tles in advance? Can they interact
an IBM Blue Gene system which
with the experience using a smart
put KAUST on the map for high-
and interactive bus stop? The third
performance computing to support
dimension is the actual research of
our mission and research areas.
the vehicles, such as battery materi-
KAUST’s second generation super-
als and artificial intelligence sensor
computer – a Cray XC 40, which
technology. Finally the fourth dimen-
has been in place since 2015 - now
sion is optimised operational cost.”
supports the high-end research w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
182
APRIL 2020
that we do. KAUST’s supercomputing environment is managed by our Core Laboratories, ensuring that our researchers and scientists have access to high-end compute capabilities, which are commonly used for high-resolution modeling, simulations, cloud and GPUs.” Other innovations the university is
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Mohamed Abdel-Aal Mohamed Abdel-Aal is the Manager of Research and Computing Infrastructure at King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). KAUST is an international, graduate-level research institution on the shores of the Red Sea in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. In its eighth year of operations, KAUST is an ascending star of academic excellence with a mission to advance science and technology through bold and collaborative research. Mohamed oversees the University’s IT infrastructure, HPC cluster resources, cloud systems, data center facilities, and storage solutions. He also oversees strategic plans and initiatives to continuously improve computational capabilities and resources while introducing innovative solutions to the University’s faculty, researchers, and students. Mohamed holds an MBA degree and a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
183
KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
working on include drone technology and cashless pay. “Currently at KAUST we are exploring the potential of using drones beyond basic surveillance. In fact, our team is working with our facilities and community life group to look at how we could leverage drones for delivery to our smart houses. To achieve this would require KAUST to replicate the layout of the city into a digital twin in order to create drone corridors to manage the flight patterns of the drones. 184
In terms of cashless payment, we are currently piloting various forms of cashless experiences, including
“ We have worked very closely with some of our partners and they have been valuable from the very beginning”
digital gateways and facial recognition to create a unique experience for the users. We are also looking to develop cashless stores—building an environment where someone could walk into a store, grab what they need and, via something like facial recognition, biometrics or barcoding, the person
— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
is charged for what they have bought once they leave the store,” adds Roos. Reflecting on the university, Roos believes its biggest strengths are its world-class facilities for high-level
APRIL 2020
2009
Year founded
5,000 Number of employees
185
tech research and innovation, and
worked very closely with some of our
its diversity in bringing the best from
partners and they have been valu-
around the world into one place. “I
able from the very beginning to drive
believe that KAUST, being only 10
innovation and develop technologies
years old and being world-renowned
and solutions. For KAUST, our part-
is a tremendous success. To achieve
nerships are critical for our success,”
this level of recognition after just
concludes Roos.
one decade is truly remarkable,” adds Roos, who highlights that this achievement has been a collaborative effort between the entire KUAST city, as well as its partnerships it has made over the years. “We have w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
186
APRIL 2020
187
VOLVO CARS: A NEW APPROACH TO STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS WRITTEN BY
GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY
CHARLOTTE CLARKE w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
V O LV O C A R S
Michael Perkins, Director of IDP Global Procurement at Volvo Car Group, discusses the evolution of the company’s holistic approach to strategic partnerships
S
tarting his career in the procurement industry in the early 90s, Michael Perkins has roughly 30 years experience in the sector.
Currently, Perkins is a Director at Volvo Cars in charge of the EMEA region, as well as setting the structure globally for the company’s digital and IT services, 188
marketing and sales, and professional services in procurement. “In 2016, following a 26 year career in procurement I was looking for new opportunities. Whilst looking, I was contacted by a recruiter on behalf of Volvo Cars, who were looking to establish the company in South Carolina. I’d never worked in the automotive industry and saw this as an incredible opportunity - the thought of bringing a Swedish automaker owned by a Chinese holding company to the US intrigued me,” says Perkins. “Volvo Cars is an amazing company,” comments Perkins. “We are a very progressive automotive manufacturer; we are agile, creative and extremely people-driven. We also have the ability to adjust our paths faster than other premium automotive manufacturers due to our size, however we are still big enough that people are taking notice of what we are doing APRIL 2020
189
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V O LV O C A R S
“ We are a very progressive automotive manufacturer; we are agile, creative and extremely people-driven” Michael Perkins, Director of IDP Global Procurement, Volvo Car Group
and wanting to be a part of it. Ultimately at Volvo Cars we strive to provide people with the tools to move in a sustainable and responsible way.” Further discussing sustainability, Perkins emphasises that this is something which to this day is at the core of Volvo Cars’ operations dating back to its founders. In order to drive sustainability within its operations, Volvo Cars has set what Perkins believes to be one of the most ambitious climate plans in the automotive industry. “We aim to reduce our CO2 emissions by 25%
190
per car by 2025, with a long-term goal of becoming climate neutral by 2040 across the full value chain.” When it comes to sourcing and procurement trends within the automotive industry, Perkins has seen the expectation of greater margins emerging as a challenge. “With this in mind it is critical for us to create strong partnerships with our suppliers, when we work together it’s not just about cutting costs, it’s also about improving our cross collaboration between internal stakeholders and procurement,” comments Perkins. “It all starts with collaboration. For our sourcing and procurement strategy we need to establish trust between each other APRIL 2020
Volvo – Recharged
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191 and determine what is needed, in order
talking about is strategic, not favoured,
to ensure we source the right partners to
sometimes this can get blurred. I am
fulfil the requirements. We also have to
talking about someone that has our
be comfortable with the realisation that
interest in mind, but they will also chal-
we don’t know everything, and look to
lenge us and the status quo. We work
our suppliers to help improve cost opti-
jointly with our partners not only in the
misation and operational efficiency.”
successes but in the failures too,” com-
When searching for a strategic partner,
ments Perkins. When it comes to Volvo
Volvo Cars looks for companies that not
Cars’ approach to partnerships, Perkins
only have a proven track record within
describes it as holistic, “similar to what
the industry, but companies that also
I have previously discussed, when we
align with Volvo Cars’ beliefs and values.
look to source our suppliers we have a
“I think when we are looking for strategic
common target, something which we
partners - firstly they’re critical to our
are looking to achieve. Taking a holistic
success - but let me be clear what I am
approach creates a group of suppliers w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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194
that we can rely on and innovate with in
on this new approach, Perkins has
the hopes to deliver ‘best-in-class’ plans,
seen Volvo Cars’ landscape supplier
processes and products.”
landscape change. “When we started
With this approach in mind, Volvo
this project we had hundreds and
Cars established a cross functional
hundreds of suppliers covering our
team. “I would say this was the first
11 areas that we were dependent on,
time in the organisation where we
creating dependency issues, lack of
approached mega sourcing in the
efficiencies, governance and supplier
proper way by establishing a cross
management tools. With this change
functional team of decision-makers,
of approach we were able to reduce
project leaders and subject matter
the majority of our supplier base to four
experts. This allows us to be flex-
main suppliers, which are helping us
ible and adjustable to meet desired
to remove dependency, improve effi-
results,” comments Perkins. Reflecting
ciency, and implement governance and
APRIL 2020
performance management tools.
holistic approach and collaborating with
This was a huge transformation for us.”
our partners will drive ‘best-in-class’
Volvo Cars’ four strategic partners
outcomes if we utilise each of them to
include Capgemini, HCL, Cognizant and
their strengths. Capgemini was selected
Infosys. “As a whole, any one of them
for our manufacturing, logistics, finance,
could have taken on the entire transfor-
hosting, HR, facility, legal and security,
mation project. However, like I previously
while HCL is our partner for product cre-
mentioned, we believe that taking a
ation, research development, IP assets,
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Michael Perkins Michael has a wealth of experience in expense management within a multitude of industries, including Insurance, real estate, technology, Legal, human capital, and private equity, to name a few. For over 15 years, Michael was a partner with Profit Recovery Partners, a professional services firm that develops, implements, and manages cost-reduction solutions. Michael joined Volvo Car Corporation in April 2016 to help establish and launch its first manufacturing plant being built in the US. This included the overall responsibility of Machinery & Tooling, Logistics, Facilities Management, IT, Marketing & Sales, Professional Services, etc. After two years in the US, and completing the launch, Michael moved to Sweden to join the indirect procurement management team. In his current role, Michael is responsible for the EMEA region as well as driving global direction in the areas of Marketing & Sales, CED (IT), and Professional Services. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
195
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end user and collaboration environments, Cognizant is our partner for data management, analytics, monetisation and automation, and finally Infosys to support the delivery and transformation in our commercial operations.” In addition to transforming its strategic partnership strategy, Volvo Cars has been digitally transforming its business functions and operations to become more agile. “Currently within the automotive industry, I would say there is a huge
“With this change of approach we were able to reduce the majority of our supplier base to four main suppliers, this was a huge transformation for us” Michael Perkins, Director of IDP Global Procurement, Volvo Car Group
focus on electrification, autonomous 197
driving, customer relationships and
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
V O LV O C A R S
CAPGEMINI
198
Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation, at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of our clients opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organisations to realise their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. We have been working for more than 40 years with Volvo Cars, in different programs, supporting both the IT organisation as well as the Business side of Volvo Cars. Since last year we have been chosen as the main Digital transformation partner for Enterprise Digital. Our Motto for the partnership is “Guide – Enable – Deliver”. We guide Volvo Cars by leveraging our industry knowledge and expertise to provide insights to Volvo Cars on some of their strategic topics, we help enable Volvo Cars’ strategies
APRIL 2020
to make sure implementations can accelerate, and we strive to deliver current services as well help in transforming its IT landscape into a future proof and agile IT environment. As part of the new agreement, Capgemini will deliver a wide range of transformation services including product orientation, DevOps and cloud. In addition, Capgemini will be a main provider of end-to-end SAP consulting and technology services (including new SAP S/4HANA® implementation projects, application management and support, and infrastructure/ platform services). In the last few years the intensity of the relationship has started to change. Rather than just delivering IT services, our relationship with Volvo Cars has started to focus more on the business impact both parties could deliver through the IT services provided to the business. — Frank Wammes, Global Account Executive, Capgemini
HCL
HCL Technologies (HCL), is a leading next generation global technology company that helps enterprises reimagine their businesses for the digital age. Our technology products, services and engineering are built on four decades of innovation, with a world-renowned management philosophy, a strong culture of invention, risk-taking, and a relentless focus on customer relationships. HCL’s engagement with Volvo Cars is the expansion of a partnership that began in 2016 and will see HCL continue to support the global premium car company through its ongoing digital transformation initiatives. This large-scale transformation exercise includes organization-wide technology shifts that will help Volvo Cars capitalize on new opportunities to improve internal business processes and customer experiences. The relationship between the two organizations is driven by the key tenets of trust-transparency-flexibility, value centricity and is based on HCL’s philosophy of relationship beyond the
contract™. The partnership is now expanding to the next level and is moving into digital transformation, including product orientation, DevOps and application integration. As an industry-leading global engineering services provider, HCL Technologies will also help Volvo Cars strengthen their competitive advantage, through an integrated transformational strategy that facilitates continuous quality & cost improvement across the product creation value stream, while accelerating revenue growth t hrough innovation. Leveraging HCL’s combined strengths in PLM and electronics and engineering IT, we are bringing together a blend of traditional and next generation global engineering services and global engineering solutions, enabling Volvo Cars to achieve productivity targets in coming days and race ahead of the competition. — Anirban Dutta,, Client Partner, HCL Technologies, Sweden
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
199
V O LV O C A R S
vehicle communication. With these fast growing trends it is crucial for us to develop strategic partners with the expertise to develop and utilise innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and analytics in order to stay ahead of these evolving trends.” Reflecting on the company, Perkins has seen Volvo Cars since 2018 evolve from manufacturing cars in Europe and China, into an auto manufacturer with systems and governance in global 200
positions. Perkins believes that Volvo Cars’ biggest strengths are its line-up of vehicles which have been completely
“ Taking a holistic approach creates a group of suppliers that we can rely on and innovate with in the hopes to deliver ‘best-in-class’ plans, processes and products” Michael Perkins, Director of IDP Global Procurement, Volvo Car Group
APRIL 2020
201
redesigned to remain competitive and lead the premium car market, as well as its commitments to sustainability with its electrification lineup and its leadership team that isn’t afraid to cause a disruption in the industry. “I would also say our biggest success is our strong presence within the industry maintaining our ability to sell over 700,00 cars in 2019 in a declining market, which I think is pretty incredible,� concludes Perkins.
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TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION TO DRIVE REFUGEES’ OPPORTUNITIES WRITTEN BY
MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY
MICHAEL BANYARD
APRIL 2020
203
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U N RWA
KAAN CETINTURK, CIO AND DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY AT UNRWA, DISCUSSES HOW TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING RELIEF EFFORTS FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
204
T
he plight of Palestine refugees represents one of the most enduring human tragedies of the modern world, such that
the mere mention of the region’s name now evokes imagery of wars, refugee camps, dead-end peace negotiations and young Palestinians who long to get the same opportunities as their peers elsewhere. While the geopolitical complexities of the situation limit a full resolution of the conflict to the future, incredible work is being done to support refugees in the region through education, healthcare and job creation. Humanitarian aid for displaced Palestinians across Gaza, Jordan, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Lebanon and Syria is conducted primarily by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which currently provides vital services to over 5.6 million people registered with the organisation. APRIL 2020
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U N RWA
“ We need an IT infrastructure that matches our operations, and that’s able to function in unpredictable conditions even during emergency such as with power cuts and unstable terrestrial connectivity, all while keeping our data safe and protected”
Founded by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA has delivered primary and vocational education, primary health, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvements, microfinance, and emergency response in situations including armed conflict since it began operations on 1 May 1950. Over
— Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA
the past 70 years, the organisation has come to operate 709 elementary prep schools and nine secondary schools (together educating 540,000
206
young refugees alongside technical and vocational training for a further 8,000), and 144 health centres offering comprehensive primary care. In 2019, UNRWA’s provided health services to 3.5 million refugees through 8.5 million combined patient visits over the course of the year. Kaan Cetinturk, Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Director of Information Management and Technology at UNRWA, began his career with the UN in 2005 as a Business Process Manager for the World Health Organisation (WHO), progressing through roles in Geneva and Kuala Lumpur before joining APRIL 2020
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2:15
207 UNRWA in December 2018. In his
that matches our operations, mak-
current role, Cetinturk is the principal
ing sure that we are connected at all
advisor to the agency’s management
times. We are working together with
committee with regards to information
an experienced long-standing provider
management and technology, strate-
of reliable satellite communication
gic architectural governance policy
solutions enabling us to function in
and operational methods; thereby
unpredictable conditions and even
orchestrating the technological offer-
during emergency such as with power
ing for refugees and the continuous
cuts and unstable terrestrial con-
development of those platforms.
nectivity, all while keeping our data
“UNRWA is considered to be a huge
safe and protected. It is vital for us to
UN agency with 30,000 staff members
use satellite connectivity in addition
served by the IT department over five
to terrestrial connectivity to mitigate
field offices,” Cetinturk explains. “That
business continuity risks and to ensure
means we need an IT infrastructure
voice and video communications with w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
U N RWA
208
our field offices independent of local
says. “Due to a very difficult financial
infrastructure.” He adds that, despite
situation we experienced over the
its differences from for-profit organisa-
last few years, the digital environment
tions, UNRWA’s digital transformation
was obsolete. In order to drive digital
strives for the same goals: to remain
transformation we had to find sources
ahead of the curve, to be secure,
of funding, and so when I joined we
to provide solutions for end-users,
turned every stone for cost efficiency.”
to develop cutting-edge applications,
Having spurred bigger coffers
and to move to paperless operations.
through this approach, Cetinturk and
When he joined the organisation,
his team then turned to the six core
Cetinturk inherited a challenging digi-
strategies they sought to implement.
tal environment. “UNRWA is funded
“First was to drive engagement and
almost entirely by voluntary contribu-
value across our programmes and
tions from UN member states,” he
departments, second to improve the
APRIL 2020
strength of our cybersecurity, third
elaborates Cetinturk. “Our business
to drive process efficiency, fourth to
engagement team works to maxim-
boost cost-effectiveness, fifth to build
ise the value we deliver to UNRWA
staff capacity, and sixth to align tech-
departments and programmes by
nology and innovation.”
understanding their work and bring-
To facilitate these goals, the team
ing innovation to the table. We have
was restructured into “a flatter struc-
also significantly improved the way our
ture” to enable greater agility and
headquarters, field information man-
efficiency. “In this restructuring, we
agement and technology offices work
established individual offices under the
together towards the same objective.
CIO for information security, project
That alignment has been absolutely
management and enterprise architec-
essential for our digital strategy.”
ture, along with dedicated teams for DevOps and business engagement,”
The nature of the organisation, Cetinturk says, means that it does not
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Kaan Cetinturk Kaan Cetinturk is CIO and the Director of Information Management and Technology Department at United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) where he provides leadership to the Department and ensure that information management and technology (IMT) services across the Agency are efficient, effective and to the highest standards. Kaan has extensive leadership experience in United Nations organisations with expertise in IT, business process transformation, digital strategy, governance, organisational restructuring and people management. He is f luent in Turkish, English and French. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
209
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“ First was to drive engagement and value across our programmes and departments, second to improve the strength of our cybersecurity, third to drive process efficiency, fourth to boost cost-effectiveness, fifth to build staff capacity, and sixth to align technology and innovation” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA
UNRWA’s operations and services have all benefited exponentially from these comprehensive strategies, and this is perhaps best demonstrated by its healthcare and education platforms and the ways they have both aided millions of refugees. E-health, its proprietary healthcare management system, is connected to the organisation’s ERP platform and is thereby augmented with the medical data of all registered refugees. “Before the implementation of e-health, UNRWA’s health centres were very crowded with
have the luxury of sequential strategies
patients who had to wait a long time to
with the aim of serving each goal in
receive the services they need,” recalls
time. Instead, programmes are strate-
Cetinturk. “Contact time with doctors
gically aligned across all six objectives
was also relatively short because of
to serve them each in parallel. “These
the crowdedness.”
programmes include many cyberse-
A major factor causing these
curity initiatives, implementation of an
bottlenecks was the lack of digital
agency-wide service management
infrastructure, leaving healthcare
platform, a document management
providers to use paper-based records
system for digitalisation of our paper
whose receipt was delayed by the
records, adoption of business intel-
inherent slowness of inter-office
ligence technologies for transparency
transfers. “It was also very tedious to
and better decision-making, and mod-
extract reports about any of the func-
ernisation of our infrastructure,” he
tions in the health centres, including
says. “Along with this, we have finalised
statistics about services delivered and
the agency cloud strategy.”
the consumption of medicines, medical w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
211
U N RWA
212
APRIL 2020
supplies and other required resources. Upon the introduction of e-health, there has been serious improvement.” By conducting ongoing assessments of the system to ensure its value is maximised, some exciting statistical examples of e-health’s impact have been drawn out. “The daily medical consultations for doctors were reduced from 104 to 86 a day, the time needed to collect medication was reduced to three minutes, and the antibiotics prescription rate was decreased from an average of 27% to 24.7%,” says Cetinturk. Along with these improvements to patient care and operational efficiency, e-health also provides a remote dashboard detailing health centre status, daily operations and healthcare provided to patients, delivering a daily stream of comprehensive reports and statistics. While figures such as these can mask the real-world approval of such systems, UNRWA’s healthcare providers have been overwhelmingly positive in their feedback. “89% of physicians surveyed expressed satisfaction with the new e-health system, particularly in terms of time saved and how it allows them w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
213
Wherever human need takes you, we go Above and Beyond. Humanitarian work is global, and often in places where communications are most challenging. You need a partner who can manage your network and cloud solutions to keep you connected, no matter how weak the infrastructure, no matter how remote the operations. We’re Marlink. And we’re ready to go ABOVE AND BEYOND to help you do more when it matters most. www.marlink.com
“ Upon the introduction of e-health, there has been serious improvement” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA
system offers similar benefits for students and staff across the organisation and the people it serves. As a result of its deployment, enrolment, registration, attendance, transfers, and achievements are all handled via the app, streamlining the administrative processes whilst democratising the services’ availability. In addition,
to provide more and better attention to
students can access their unique
patients, and they believe it manages
reports, student identification
the crowds in a timely and fair way.”
details and achievement certificates
In addition to the impact made at healthcare sites, e-health provides
through the app. These efforts support one of
additional services through its inte-
UNRWA’s most ambitious projects: a
grated mobile applications such as
Gaza-based IT centre that has entered
e-MCH (maternal and child health) and
operations and seeks to capitalise on
e-NCD (non-communicable diseases).
the wealth of digital literacy among
E-MCH, Cetinturk explains, offers an
young Gazans. “The near-13 years of
Arabic language interface to enable
blockade has taken a huge toll on the
mothers to access the electronic
economy and on the prospects for
health records of both themselves and
young people to achieve their dreams,”
their children, push notifications for
says Cetinturk. “Their travel is tightly
appointments and reminders based on
restricted, business is difficult, the
either the stage of pregnancy or the
politics are very complicated, and the
ages of a mother’s children, along with
borders are nearly sealed. So what can
health education content.
a 20-year-old IT professional do under
Education forms a considerable
these circumstances? The economy’s
component of UNRWA’s services,
devastation has resulted in impover-
and its education management
ishment and retrogression of a highly w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
215
U N RWA
skilled and well-educated society. In 2018, the average unemployment rate was over 50%, one of the highest according to the World Bank, and the number of Palestine refugees relying on UNRWA for food aid has increased from fewer than 80,000 in 2000 to almost one million in 2019. With this in mind, Gaza should be turned into an opportunity.” UNRWA has thus established an IT centre in Gaza to deliver offshore IT services. Employing young 216
Gazans, the centre leverages the global connectivity of the internet to provide service desk, application
“ I would like to emphasise that any company that would like to partner with us to drive our digital transformation should contact me” — Kaan Cetinturk, CIO and Director of Information Management and Technology, UNRWA
development and business management services for enterprises around the world. “I encourage businesses worldwide to explore ways to connect with young Gazans and see how much space there is to support young people in launching and managing businesses online. The centre is fully functional and has already delivered an agency-wide in-house development information system,” enthuses Cetinturk. “My next mission, from this point onward, is to make the IT service
APRIL 2020
1949
Year founded
5.5mn+
People we provide with assistance and protection
30,000 Number of employees
centre known to other UN agencies
for their prospects. “I would like to
so they can make use of it. We’re now
emphasise that any company that
in discussions with other agencies to
would like to partner with us to drive our
use it as their application development
digital transformation should contact
competency centre.�
me. It can start as part of their social
In the age of digital transformation,
responsibility initiatives, but we are
it is deeply encouraging to find such
keen and able to quickly develop part-
humanitarian efforts being delivered
nerships that benefit both parties.
through technology by passionate and driven teams such as that headed by Cetinturk, and indeed across UNRWA as a whole. For those who would like to get involved, Cetinturk is enthusiastic w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
217
218
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN CHEMICALS WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY
KRISTOFER PALMER
APRIL 2020
219
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
CLARIANT
HOW CLARIANT MASTERBATCHES IS USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE SPEED, EFFICIENCY, AND SUSTAINABILITY “
A
t Clariant Masterbatches we believe in a colourful world! Few people outside the plastics industry know what mas-
terbatches are. We are one of those obscure industries that are everywhere and in everything, yet no one knows of us,” says Chris Hansen, Head 220
of BU Masterbatches Asia Pacific. He, along with Gustavo Haruki Kume, Global Product Owner (InstaColr), and Sanjeev Sujan, Digital Program Leader for BU Masterbatches, are at the forefront of a digital transformation at the company. “Our business develops and produces color and additive concentrates, which are used by producers of various plastic articles with the purpose of getting the right colour and functionality,” Hansen continues. Perhaps what most characterises the company is the complexity of its operations, serving over 20,000 customers across a range of industries, with products tailored to each customer’s specific requirements. Clariant Masterbatches at any point in time maintains more than 70,000 active products which are continually changing as customer’s APRIL 2020
221
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
CLARIANT
“ With InstaColr, we cut the lead time from weeks down to minutes in the best case” — Gustavo Haruki Kume, Global Product Owner (InstaColr), Clariant
update their products - from shampoo bottles to fabrics, smart phones and cars, they consequently request new colours and functionalities from Clariant. Clariant Masterbatches is very much revered for the breadth of its product portfolio and capabilities, the quality consistency, product stewardship and sustainability. However, the business has traditionally struggled to be as fast as the many small local competitors. “This need to increase our speed and make
222
it faster and easier for customers to
E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Gustavo Kume Gustavo is the Product Owner and has overall responsibility for InstaColr in Clariant since 2019. He joined Clariant in 2002 in Brazil as a chemist in the Home Care application laboratory. He was then invited to take care of the LATAM Regional Marketing in 2010, where he for the first time engaged with the digital world by developing digital campaigns and tools for new product launches. In 2013, Gustavo went to Switzerland as Global Marketing Leader for Home Care and in 2017, following his passion for the digital world, he joined the Digital4Clariant initiative, developing web-based software for the Home Care industry until his transfer to Masterbatches Singapore and InstaColr in 2019. APRIL 2020
The Beauty of Chemistry CLICK TO WATCH
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0:39
223 do business with us was the main
“InstaColr is a customer facing project,
inspiration to start our digital journey”,
where we intend to replace our exist-
reflects Hansen.
ing product development process, our
“There are two main projects con-
color matching process,” Kume says.
stituting Clariant Masterbatches’
“In our current process a salesperson
digital transformation efforts: InstaColr
goes to a customer, talks to them,
and Smart Factory”, Sujan explains.
collects some information about the
“Individually and collectively, these two
colour and performance character-
products will set us decisively apart
istics that the customer wants, then
from other players in our industry and
passes all this to our labs.” After this,
have the potential to revolutionise the
the lab starts working on matching the
way the masterbatches industry works.”
customer’s colour and other require-
InstaColr involves a completely
ments. This often takes more than a
new approach to meeting
week to be finalised, at which point
customer’s expectations.
they go via the sales person back to w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
CLARIANT
224
the customer. Not infrequently is there
the target color on the spot after which
the need to repeat the process, if the
the application engine develops up to
result is not entirely what the customer
three relevant and tailormade matches
wanted, or the requirements subse-
with associated price and specifica-
quently changed.
tions on the spot. Often, the customer
With InstaColr the company turns
just needs to know that we can do it
that process decisively upside down
and what will be the cost, so that he
and cuts the lead time from weeks
can quote his customer. This is now
down to minutes in the best case.
instantly possible. After the customer’s
“Via the InstaColr iPad app, our sales
choice, the underlying formulation
person collects all technical and
and other requirements is transferred
commercial requirements on the spot
immediately to a regional lab, which
and confirms the colour”, Kume says.
produces a corresponding sample for
“InstaColr allows the customer to adjust
the customer’s own sample production.
APRIL 2020
“ By optimising and synchronising process steps and resources via the Smart Scheduler, we will move much closer to a performance frontier and consequently reduce both lead times and cost” — Sanjeev Sujan, Digital Program Leader for BU Masterbatches, Clariant
This sample is with the customer within two to three days. The chief benefit is time saved, and time is money.” InstaColr launched in the middle of last year in Southeast Asia. To date, 25 sales colleagues have undergone training and certification to become InstaColr Consultants. This process has been important, as the role of our sales representatives changes significantly with InstaColr. As indicated by their title, they go from selling to color consulting. “This binds us closer to our customers,” emphasizes Kume.
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Sanjeev Sujan Sanjeev is global Digital Program Leader for Clariant Masterbatches. An ardent technology lover, he has been with Clariant since 2013. He started as Clariant Production System Change Leader for Asia Pacific & IMEA. He subsequently took over Operations of IMEA before taking up his current role in Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Clariant, Sanjeev worked with McKinsey & Company from 2009 to 2013, working across oil and gas, manufacturing and technology, covering lean optimisation and strategy. Sanjeev holds a Master’s degree in Finance and IT & Operations from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, in India. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
225
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CLARIANT
228
The electronic capture of customer
is to roll it out to more than 50 sites
requirements has also allowed the
globally. Smart Factory spans every-
centralization of the sample produc-
thing from the receipt of customers’
tion into one regional lab, which allows
purchase orders to the final shipment
scale advantages and yet faster sam-
of the corresponding products to
ple delivery to customers throughout
the customer. “Our aim is to make
South East Asia. Clariant is now pre-
everything along this process smart
paring the roll-out of InstaColr to other
or smarter than today – thus the title
regions, which will commence over the
Smart Factory,” Says Sujan. “We
course of 2020 and 2021.
do this by digitising, streamlining
Where InstaColr ends, Clariant’s
and automating process steps. This
Smart Factory begins. Smart Factory
includes automating previously
is currently running as a pilot project
manual SAP processes as well as
in Singapore. Subsequently the plan
digitising the shop floor’s information
APRIL 2020
“ 2019 was the year where sustainability became a real topic for our customers.” — Chris Hansen, Head of BU Masterbatches Asia Pacific, Clariant
flow by leveraging user-friendly tablet interfaces and linking up the back-end manufacturing execution system with the physical production equipment and programmable logic controllers. We thus get data into and out of equipment, control the equipment and track material flows via Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).The transparency and insights are the basis for direct process improvements and support a more effective performance follow-up and corrective actions.” 229
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Chris Hansen Chris Hansen is Vice President and Head of Clariant Masterbatches in Asia Pacific since 2015. In addition, Chris is the global executive in charge of the digital strategy programme within Clariant Masterbatches. Chris has a passion for rethinking traditional approaches and driving impactful changes throughout the business. Chris joined Clariant in 2009. His first role was to build and roll-out a standardised Clariant Production System for the business unit’s more than 50 sites globally. Prior to joining Clariant, Chris was an Associate Principal with McKinsey & Company. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Management from Aarhus University in Denmark. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
CLARIANT
ACCEN T U RE
“Accenture played a key role in the InstaColr development. As a chemical company, we had never developed an iPad app before, or any software system. That’s why we decided to go with a reliable company like Accenture. They taught us how to develop the software and how to work in an agile way using scrum methodology. “They came in with their developers, with a scrum master and with IT managers. We learned as much as possible from them before hiring our own developers, with a handover period where Accenture helped to stabilise the system.” - Gustavo Haruki Kume, Global Product Owner (InstaColr), Clariant 230 ARCST O N E
“Arcstone is a Singapore-based company that we have been working with for the last two years now. They’ve played a major role in our Smart Factory development. Arcstone comes with an ecosystem of existing MES modules that it has been tailoring for us with specific processes. They’ve ensured that it works based on our specific requirements. “Equally important is the fact that we work very closely in terms of collaboration. It’s not a vendor and a customer relationship in this case - we share our office space, as often as we can and, if not, they remain available to work remotely with us when we have any urgent issues.” - Sanjeev Sujan, Digital Program Leader for BU Masterbatches, Clariant
APRIL 2020
“The core engine of our Smart Factory is the Smart Scheduler,” Sujan says. “The minimum viable product is already on the shop floor. In the next version we will be able to dynamically schedule all tasks, equipment and manpower for a synchronised and optimised end-toend workflow both within a site and across geographies. Also, the Smart Scheduler will allow us to quantify and thus decide on the specific trade-offs between service, cost and working capital on a continuous basis.” “By optimising and synchronising process steps and resources via the Smart Scheduler, we will move much closer to a performance frontier and consequently reduce both lead times and cost,” emphasises Sujan. At the same time, the measures will further improve Clariant’s industry leading safety record by reducing firefighting and rushing stress levels amongst the staff. Alongside the focus on technology, sustainability is a very central topic for Clariant and has been so for the last seven years at least, with many specific efforts and recognitions as a result. That’s due not only to a sense of moral responsibility, but because it w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
231
CLARIANT
is good for the business. “2019 was the year where sustainability became a real topic for our customers,” says Hansen. “In the years before, it was often a final, courtesy agenda point at customer meetings. Now, it is more often than not the first and primary agenda point.” There is huge pressure on the plastics industry from governments, consumers and NGOs. “Topics like the circular economy, recycled polymers and the whole issue of ocean plastic waste are very high on everybody’s agenda,” 232
Hansen explains. “This is our opportunity. We have the capabilities and solutions to help our customers.” Clariant backs up these words with actions. Specific projects undertaken in
again allows us to help our customers
the sustainability space include looking
very specifically on how to improve the
into achieving more consistent colours
sustainability of their products.
with recycled polymers, as well as
Developing and implementing digital
building sustainability options such as
solutions in a traditional manufacturing
recyclability and compostability into its
company is not an easy journey. Clariant
InstaColr app to help customers make
Masterbatches spent considerable
informed decisions. Clariant is also pilot-
effort in building up its in-house Digital
ing a recycling plant in Italy known as
Innovation Center team. “Initially, candi-
CycleWorks, as Hansen explains: “That
dates are skeptical, as our environment
plant is, for example, doing extensive
is very different from that of, for exam-
testing on how colourants and additives
ple, an IT company. What in the end
impact the recyclability of plastics. This
attracts and continues to excite people,
APRIL 2020
1995
Year founded
CHF4,399m Revenue in Swiss francs
17,000 Number of employees
though, is that we remain a small team
and takes away past flexibility and
where everyone plays a central role in
autonomy - either real or perceived.
trailblazing game-changing new ways
Our experience is that one needs a
of working in our business. People real-
lot of positive encouragement and
ize that they are having a real impact”,
support, but in cases also the threat
explains Hansen.
of consequences if people do not line
While it is a lot of work to develop the
up behind the new way of working,”
new digital solutions, the biggest effort
explains Sujan. This is all about change
and success is to actually make the
management and that is how InstaColr
organisation at large adopt and change
and Smart Factory is driving true
their way of working around the new
impact within Clariant Masterbatches.
solutions. “Digitalisation fundamentally changes previous ways of working w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
233
234
DATA CENTRE IS THE EPICENTRE OF CLOUD AND DIGITAL TSUNAMI WRITTEN BY
DAN BRIGHTMORE
APRIL 2020
PRODUCED BY
TOM VENTURO
235
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SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
HOW SIFY TECHNOLOGIES HAS TRANSFORMED FROM BEING A STANDALONE NETWORK AND DATA CENTRE-HOSTING SERVICE PROVIDER TO A FULLY-FLEDGED DIGITAL ICT SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES COMPANY
236
S
ify Technologies (Sify) was founded in 1995, as India’s first private internet services provider (ISP). Driving the nation’s consumer
internet revolution was the main focus during the late
1990s and through the company’s fledgling years as a consumer services focused business offering hubs across the country to handle cyber traffic. At the turn of the millennium, Sify launched the country’s first commercial data centre (DC) and first MPLS network, beginning a transition towards enterprise services as India’s first commercial internet provider. The country’s emerging network requirements saw the business enter its third phase (from 2006-12), undergoing a full transformation into an enterprise services company. During this period, Sify moved out of the consumer broadband services space, focusing instead on internet-as-aservice for businesses and the launch of its cloud services offering. APRIL 2020
237
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SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
“It has been a fruitful journey across
“ WE HOST AND BUILD DATA CENTRES FOR OUR CUSTOMERS ALONG WITH THE IT, NETWORK, SECURITY AND OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE THEY NEED. WE’RE MAKING IT EASIER FOR THEM TO MANAGE THEIR IT REQUIREMENTS WITH ONE PARTNER” 238
— Kamal Nath, CEO, Sify Technologies
25 years of transformation,” confirms CEO Kamal Nath, who joined Sify in 2012. Overseeing the transformation of the company from a standalone network and data centre hosting service provider to a fully-fledged digital ICT solutions and services company, Nath’s stewardship heralded a fourth transition in 2017. The addition of further portfolios to Sify’s data centre and cloud offering set the framework for the company’s “Cloud@Core” approach, which began in 2018.
INDIAN EXPANSION Looking back at Sify’s genesis and how the company became a major force in the Indian market, Nath recalls a time when most of the data centre players were telco service providers operating data centres at their point of presence (POP). “It was a natural extension of our telco business,” he says. “However, we didn’t follow the traditional path as we thought it was important to develop data centre hubs in major cities like Mumbai, where we set up our first commercial data centre in 2000. This was the key to our APRIL 2020
Sify Hybrid Multi Cloud with Cloud Adjacency CLICK TO WATCH
|
2:55
239 expansion across India. Today, we
to diversify its suite of services is
have nine DCs across the country:
part of the Sify philosophy. “Over
four in Mumbai, and five spread
time,” he adds, “the data centre has
across Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi,
become the epicentre of Cloud and
Hyderabad and Kolkata. And we’re
Digital transformation.”
planning more in the near future.” Sify now offers a host of man-
When Nath joined in 2012 the network to non-network revenue
aged, migration, assessment and
was approximately 80:20. Today it’s
security services for DCs. “We’ve
50:50. “We’ve grown the DC and
interconnected 48 DCs across the
DC-centric IT services business
country, not only our own but third
beyond simply being an IT services
party DCs,” adds Nath. “We’re creat-
provider,” he notes. “Both areas of
ing more value by offering extended
the business have grown, with our DC
service portfolios on top of our DCs
offering triggering a range of services
as a platform.” The constant quest
including, hybrid IT and multi-cloud.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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DRIVING DATA CENTRE GROWTH
need to expand existing IT networks.
Sify’s Head of Data Centre and Cloud
Similarly, the growing use of social
Services, Sushant Purushan, notes
media and online platforms demands
that India’s DC market is currently
that the needs of high compute net-
pegged at $2bn and expected to grow
works be met to support the likes of
22% to 24% CAGR. “This includes
content providers and gaming portals.
hyperscale DC, managed colocation at
Elsewhere, the rise of elearning and
service provider location, captive DC,
the country’s growing insurance sector
DC offshoring, disaster recovery-as-a-
is increasing its investment in IT, while
service, DC managed services and DC
regulatory compliance across indus-
applications implementation,” he adds.
tries is ramping demand for the digital
Driving that demand across India is
backup and archiving of information
the rise in ecommerce and digital pay-
sensitive services. Collectively, this
ment solutions. Banking services such
drive towards digital is aligned with gov-
as ewallets and payment gateways are
ernment initiatives such as the Smart
increasing transactions, triggering the
Cities programme and Digital India with
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Kamal Nath An Electronics and Communications graduate from a premier Technology school in India, Kamal has the enviable distinction of building business from their infancy or turning the corner in others. The architect of Sify’s digital transformation journey, Kamal prefers an entrepreneurial approach to engaging with industry verticals. This disruptive, zealous methodology has seen him build a billion dollar business in his earlier organisation. Going by the reception that Sify is receiving in the market, he is on track for an encore.
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241
SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
public sector companies, especially across the energy and manufacturing verticals, aggressively adopting digital. “Under the Indian government’s National Digital Communication Policy, the three pillars – Broadband India, Secure India and Connect India – aim to connect the country’s villages and rural communities via local institutes while targeting fixed line broadband services in 50% of households, along with 10 million public WiFi hotspots,” explains Nath. India’s digital economy is expected to reach $1trn by 2025. An entire 242
ecosystem of primary and associated services is benefiting from this Tsunami of change. This applies to core DCs, DC interconnection, edge DCs and network services for both enterprise and consumers. “In the near future, technologies in their infancy in India – IoT, AI and machine learning applications, Big Data, analytics and their application ecosystems – will see an upward associated consumption,” reasons Purushan.
EVOLUTION Sify has evolved in anticipation of this rise of digital to offer a mix of services. “We build and host data APRIL 2020
“ SIFY HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON ADAPTING TO THE CUSTOM NEEDS OF HYPERSCALE USERS, CREATING A COMPLETE ECOSYSTEM OF CLOUD PROVIDERS, INTERNET EXCHANGES, CONTENT PROVIDERS, CDN PROVIDERS, ISPS…” — Sushant Purushan, Head of Data Centre and Cloud Services, Sify Technologies centres for our customers along with the IT and network infrastructure they need,” confirms Nath. “We’re making it easier for them to manage their IT requirements with one partner. We’re replacing legacy service providers for customers who want managed services (on-site or remote) addressing all the required models with a hosted data centre plus cloud. And through our network portfolio we not only provide data services to our clients, but also transform their network landscape influenced by adoption of cloud. They don’t need to look elsewhere, we offer w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
243
GROWTH
Colocation providers see faster
with lower risk.
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#WhatsYourBoldIdea se.com/colo * Based on previous data, 2017. This is not a guarantee of future performance or performance in your particular circumstances. ©2019 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric | Life Is On and EcoStruxure are trademarks and the property of Schneider Electric SE, its subsidiaries, and affiliated companies. 998_20607840_GMA-US
Galaxy™ VX UPS EcoStruxure IT
it in a full stack – from DC hosting to
capacities were server hall floors in
custom-build and cloud services, we
buildings. Selection and deployment
can manage the whole piece. This is
criteria then changed to dedicated
how we’re evolving into a converged
buildings, POD-based design fea-
ICT ecosystem player offering hybrid
turing power substations within DC
IT and DC with integrated security ser-
premises offering multiple fiber paths
vices to meet the needs of businesses
for adaptive approaches to security
across verticals.”
and safety requirements. We now
The philosophy behind Sify’s DC business has evolved to support the
focus on creating DC campuses housing multiple towers.”
changing market. Sushant elaborates: “Sify has been focusing on adapt-
DC DESIGN-BUILD AND OPERATIONS
ing to specialised custom needs of
Sify’s Head of Project Design,
hyperscale users, creating a complete
Roopesh Kumar, explains that the
ecosystem of cloud providers, internet
company’s design philosophy is flex-
exchanges, content providers, CDN
ible and hybrid to cater to the needs
providers, ISPs etc. Our initial DC
of all requirements: “Both IT and
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Sushant Purushan A veteran IT professional, Sushant has been in the thick of the evolution of the Indian IT industry from a provider focused on application to one that evolved into infrastructure for the DC and the Cloud. He wet his feet with some of the big names in the industry donning roles across sales, operations, service lines & practice management, strategy and presales. At Sify, he puts a combination of these roles to play, architecting some of the unconventional solutions to Enterprise problems.
w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
245
SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
non-IT facilities are catered to in a way
key criteria including the availability
that enterprise and retail customers
of quality power, physical connectiv-
can partake of the same colocation
ity and telecom infrastructure. “The
facility.” Sify’s approach to design has
platform to innovate is centred around
moved on from low density retrofits
the design philosophy of our infrastruc-
in shared IT spaces to purpose-built
ture,” says Roopesh. “The modular and
facilities and now a third generation of
scalable backplane design can grow
custom designed and built greenfield
with the business and also multiply
projects following an inside out design
capacity in a single floor to meet high
where the whole building is based on
demand customer requirements. The
the server hall design to support large
design allows us to increase the power
hyperscale colocation requirements.
density in a single floor by adding com-
Physical site selection is driven by 246
APRIL 2020
ponents without disturbing the working
backplane infrastructure. The SCADA
flexibility to use this total power in multi-
based building automation system is a
ples of standard POD configuration. We
new initiative we have implemented in
have floors supporting 800KW for very
the past year.”
low density to 4800KW for high density
Roopesh highlights that Sify’s DCs
customers. These flexible PODs are
are built to accommodate scale and
defined during the initial master design
flex. “Each facility may have an overall
stage, allowing the business flexibility to
capacity limited by infrastructure space
design products accordingly.”
for transformers, generators and chilldesigned, this total capacity is defined
CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE CONNECTING THE FUTURE
and accordingly the base building infra-
Sify is responding to a maturing
structure is planned. The design allows
Indian market demanding hyperscale
ers, but when a new facility is identified/
247
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Roopesh Kumar Roopesh Kumar leads the data centre engineering and projects. Having built a number of large data centre facilities for Sify in the past, he is working on their “new generation” data centre facilities projects now. He brings over 20 years of experience in handling network and data centre infrastructure and projects. A technology enthusiast, he is keen to explore new technologies and products focusing on efficiency in energy and operations. Roopesh is a computer engineering graduate and an executive MBA in information technology management. He is well acquainted with data centre standards and technologies and certified under various industry modules like uptime institute ATS, PRINCE2 project management, ITIL v2 service delivery, CCNA network basics and more.
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SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
DCs. “Moving forward from being a service provider, India has become the offshore destination-of-choice for DCs for multiple players,” reveals Purushan, highlighting that Amazon, Walmart, Oracle, Microsoft, Alibaba and a diverse cohort of other content providers and software companies are building their cloud infrastructure in India. “The availability of disparate business segments across different seismic zones, a proactive government approach to remove the gremlins in builds, a back-office-to-the-world 248
environment, along with abundant land and power have proved to be great
“ THE PLATFORM TO INNOVATE IS CENTRED AROUND THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY OF OUR INFRASTRUCTURE” — Roopesh Kumar, Head of Project Design & Operations, Sify Technologies APRIL 2020
inducers for the largest hyperscale DC players globally.” Purushan notes that, both on the government and private enterprise side, there is a concentrated effort to build data farms within networked distance of the specific business. This has helped build a secondary market of DC and infra specialist providers around the facilities. “Prospective buyers are being driven by the urgency to adopt digital forms of doing business in order to retain their
249
customers in the face of increased
workload from enterprise to hyper-
threats from new age startups,” he
scale, Nath explains Sify is partnered
adds. “By themselves, startups at the
with AWS, Azure and Oracle, while in
top of the consumption chain for DCs
negotiations with Google to broaden
are the drivers for large scale automa-
the support it is able to offer custom-
tion and hence the increasing demand
ers who need to boost the digital
for hyperscale DCs. Sify has been
literacy of applications in sectors like
closely following these demands and
banking and eCommerce and main-
quickly ramping up the availability of
tain 100% infrastructure availability.
infra specialism across the country.”
“We are the only ISP who started
In creating services capable of
out in the 90s in India, survived the
managing hyperscale clouds, and
Dotcom bust and completely reen-
helping customers migrate their
gineered the business,” says Nath w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
SIF Y TECHNOLOGIES
250
APRIL 2020
1995
Year founded
$312mn Revenue in US dollars
2,700 Number of employees
251 proudly. “Today, with every passing quarter we are more relevant to the market than ever before. We now compete against international technology companies with a complete digital portfolio built to meet the future demands of the Indian market and beyond.�
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Shining a light on digital transformation
APRIL 2020
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WRITTEN BY
MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY
JAMES PEPPER
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TELSTRA PURPLE
Telstra Purple was set up to solve the many issues businesses face when undertaking a digital transformation project, as Matt Williams and Adrian Spink explain
T
elstra Purple is a technology services business with a team of 1,500 technology experts across the globe specialising in
network, security, cloud, collaboration, software, data and analytics, and design. Bringing together Telstra Enterprise’s business technology services capabilities and a number of recently acquired 254
companies, Telstra Purple was set up to solve the many issues businesses face when undertaking a digital transformation project. It is focused on outcome-based, transformative tech solutions. Whilst digital transformation is the strategic priority for most businesses today, there are a vast number of opportunities as well as stumbling blocks to consider at the planning stage. The proliferation of new technologies, the migration to the cloud, increasing volumes of data and the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape makes it an ever more challenging headache for business leaders. Cloud, the foundation for the agile business world, allows organisations to scale infrastructure as needed to support changing business priorities and host new digital services. Getting cloud right is a critical part of transforming a business, but it isn’t easy. APRIL 2020
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TELSTRA PURPLE
Introducing Connected Intelligence for Mobile, Web, IoT, and 5G • Accelerate development and innovation • Optimize performance and functionality • Ensure digital business success
Mobile
5G
IoT
Web
Learn More
257
“ Technology is driving massive change in business, more so now than at any point in my 24-year career” — Matt Williams Head of Telstra, EMEA Telstra’s 2019 “Disruptive Decision-
people think, most businesses are still in the early stages of digital transformation. The report also reveals that the most digitally mature companies are set apart precisely because they are more likely to focus on people and processes than technology.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE Successful transformation initiatives
Making” research report looks at the
must of course be underpinned by the
challenges IT leaders face today when
foundational technology pillars of cloud,
making the right decisions on how
security and networks, but it is never
to approach digital transformation.
solely about the technology. Technology
It reveals that despite what many
is redundant without people and w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
TELSTRA PURPLE
purpose. Any new business transfor-
roles, CIOs often face and have to deal
mation project must begin with a
with conflicting advice, resistance to
proactive and adaptive culture across
change and poor decision-making
the organisation — embraced by the
from across the business.
board, business leaders and employees. Yet, it is reported time and time again
258
“Technology is driving massive change in business, more so now than at any
that the biggest challenge with any
point in my 24-year career” says Matt
transformation project is organisational
Williams, Telstra’s Head of EMEA.
resistance to change. Apart from having
In EMEA, Williams has considerable
the technology skills and responsibility
experience of working with leading
for driving new growth, entering new
organisations through their transforma-
markets and innovating, IT leaders are
tion journeys. “We’re seeing enterprises
now expected to play a critical role
increasingly grapple with what this
in influencing mindsets and steering
level of change really means, and
new workplace behavioural practices.
how it impacts their business.”
As part of this changing nature of their
PEOPLE, PURPOSE AND TECHNOLOGY Coupled with this, as business and technology becomes even more connected, CIOs are starting to take ownership of new disciplines. According to The 2019 State of the CIO research, 77% of responding IT leaders plan to devote more time to business strategy over the next three years compared with transformational work (74%) such as implementing new systems and architectures or functional responsibilities (58%) like security management or cost control initiatives. APRIL 2020
People Bringing Purpose to Technology -Telstra Purple EMEA CLICK TO WATCH
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1:45
259 Telstra’s Disruptive Decision-Making
as a whole. Business leaders need to
report investigated how the four key
take a step back for a broader, objective
factors of people, processes, technol-
view. Only once business goals are
ogy understanding and partnerships
defined, can a coherent technology
contribute to organisations’ decision-
strategy be built.
making ability and effectiveness in
The focus on people and the broader
digital transformation. Many companies
culture, which enable any successful
that struggle digitally are those that lack
transformation, is deeply rooted
visionary executives who are clear on
in Telstra Purple’s approach. It’s also
what needs to be done for the business
a subject that resonates deeply with
“ It’s all about the people and those people bringing purpose to technology”
Adrian Spink, Head of Telstra Purple
— Adrian Spink Head of Telstra Purple, EMEA
in EMEA. “It’s all about the people and those people bringing purpose to technology,” states Spink. “Despite my background, I’m not a huge fan of the term w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
TELSTRA PURPLE
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APRIL 2020
CASE STUDY
How Telstra Purple helped London City Airport initiate a ‘Smart Airport’ experience One example of the Telstra Purple
basic elements that had to be
team’s digital transformation work
addressed first, so that initial stage
is an extensive programme with
was about ensuring everything
London City Airport to help the
was stable, robust and resilient.
airport achieve record passenger
In collaboration with the airport,
numbers. The work involved business
we carefully planned the full digital
case development, enterprise
transformation journey in order to
architecture work, operating model
roll out a truly ‘smart’ airport, which
design, business continuity and
resulted in passenger growth and
security strategy.
enhanced customer experience.
With the aim of attracting more passengers and dynamically managing traffic through the terminal, the ‘Smart Airport’ programme uses business intelligence and analytics from 190 cameras across the airport to make smarter decisions and prioritise investment. “The work goes back some seven years, so it’s been a real journey in the truest sense of the word,” explains Adrian Spink, Head of Telstra Purple in EMEA. “The airport was working with legacy technology across many of its key areas, to the
This included some really groundbreaking technologies, including check-in screen systems, sensor technologies to manage passenger flow through the terminal, work on expanding both airline partners and the physical building and, most recently, the deployment of the UK’s first digital air traffic control tower which will go live later on this year.” This wide-ranging transformation project led to an increase in passenger numbers of 25% over the past four years and helped reduce overall turnaround times.
point where there were some really
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TELSTRA PURPLE
262
Supporting your strategies to get you where you need to be ‘consulting’. It’s too broad — and dare
to come together, and Telstra Purple
I say — smacks of slick presenta-
is experienced in making it happen.”
tions and boilerplate reports. We
To support this ‘people-first’ effort,
have very strong capabilities in the
CIOs should look to create a cross-
advisory space, of course, as well as
departmental team of ‘digital natives’
in working with some of the largest enterprises in the market. “But really, we are a people-first
— individuals who exhibit traits like cooperation, openness and selfmotivation who will support the
services company. We deal in digital
culture of change and help others in
and technology transformations, but
the organisation to recognise the
you simply can’t do anything in the
benefits too. They must also con-
world of technology today without a
tinue to oversee the adoption of a
massive focus on people and culture.
measured and considered approach,
CIOs, employees and the board need
counter-balancing new technologies
APRIL 2020
“ The threat landscape is ever changing, and there are still many organisations out there that have yet to invest in a permanent security executive or leader” — Matt Williams Head of Telstra, EMEA
and ways of working with information security implications and risks.
CREATING STRONG FOUNDATIONS: CLOUD, NETWORK AND SECURITY Telstra’s Disruptive DecisionMaking Report found that the top digital transformation priorities for senior decision-makers were security and protecting digital assets, followed by optimising existing technology in order to move faster than the competition.
Matt Willams
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
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Matt Williams is Head of EMEA for Telstra, based in London. He is responsible for developing and driving the business strategy for three divisions in Enterprise, Wholesale and Professional services across EMEA, and delivering upon the company’s financial goals. Matt joined Telstra in 2009 and was most recently Director of Enterprise Accounts for the EMEA region. In this role he was accountable and responsible for retention and sales growth for the Enterprise customer base. Matt has over two decades of experience in telecommunications and technology markets, having held several senior sales leadership positions throughout his career. Matt holds a BA in Business Administration (Marketing) from the University of East London. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
#BREACH&ATTACKSIMULATION AttackIQ, a leader in the emerging market of continuous security validation, provide enterprise customers insight into the efficacy of their security and leverages the industry standard post breach framework, Mitre ATT&CK.
UNLOCK THE FULL POTENTIAL OF YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION With Telstra and Equinix on your side, you can bring to bear the industry’s most powerful cloud ecosystems, network connectivity solutions and multicloud interconnection services wherever in the world you need them. Combined, our technology, global reach and industry knowledge make us the right partners to help businesses transform their infrastructures to exploit the opportunities of the digital age in full.
For more information on how Telstra and Equinix can help enable your digital transformation, visit Equinix.co.uk/partners/telstra/
LEARN MORE
For the majority of CIOs, finding
in EMEA experiencing a security attack
the time for transformation projects is
in 2019. This was a finding in Telstra’s
not easy when their day job is managing
2019 Security Report, which is based
the essential infrastructure pillars of
on interviews with around 1,300 profes-
cloud, network and security. These ele-
sionals across 13 countries. Thus, time
ments are the foundations that allow
is sucked into reactive work rather
a business to scale, host and deliver
than proactive initiatives, meaning
new digital services and applications
businesses have to take their eye off
across the globe and are complex
the prize and transformation projects
and time-intensive to get right.
are delayed.
Just getting security, privacy and
According to a survey by the Harvard
compliance right is a full-time job, with
Business Review, one of the biggest
more than half (52%) of organisations
hurdles to digital transformation is
Adrian Spink
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
265
Adrian heads Telstra Purple across EMEA, where he is responsible for the growth of the business in the region and aligning it to Telstra’s strategy. He has over 30 years’ experience in running IT infrastructure and security services across the automotive, oil & gas and financial services sectors and in working with blue-chip CIO clients to deliver strategic change to their organisations. Prior to joining Telstra Purple, Adrian was the CEO of Company85 which was acquired by Telstra in 2017. His consulting experience includes CSC, IBM and Symantec, where he led the EMEA services organization through a management buyout to create Company85. Outside of work, Adrian enjoys skiing with his family and occasionally dreams about still making it as a creative midfielder for Leeds United. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
TELSTRA PURPLE
C O M PA N Y FACT S
• A team of 1500 technology experts across the globe specialising in network, cloud, security, collaboration, software, data and analytics and design.
266
• Built on a foundation of acquisitions we are a powerhouse of demonstrable experience and expertise. • We’re committed to collaboration. We bring the best people across our organisation together with yours to design, build and deliver outcomebased solutions. • We’ve built strong partnerships with industry leaders including Microsoft, AWS and Cisco but always deliver purpose-built solutions with people at the centre.
APRIL 2020
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In today's interconnected world, you're only as secure as your most vulnerable partner, and you can't secure your third-party network if you're using traditional Third-Party Cyber Risk Management methods like security ratings and spreadsheet assessments. Whether you're preparing for APRA CPS 234 or simply looking to protect your data from third-party breaches, join our movement for innovative TPCRM. Learn more at CyberGRX.com.
a company’s inability to experiment
driving technology change. It’s more
quickly, with more than half (53%) of
about using technology in an efficient
senior executives maintaining that
way to bring about wider changes to
it is a key barrier of success.
the way business is conducted.”
Spink agrees: “It’s never just about introduced. Pushing technology for tech-
HIRE EXPERTISE TO REDUCE THREAT AND COMPLEXITY
nology’s sake leads to failure quickly.
With deep expertise in cloud, networks
CIOs face the challenge of increasing
and security as well as technology
operational efficiencies and delivering
change planning, Telstra Purple’s point
more consistent and stable IT perfor-
of difference is its multi-faceted
mance to the business. But we have
approach to digital transformation
transitioned from a ‘tech-first’ approach
problem solving. Fundamentally,
to an environment today in which we see
the business draws on its technical
employee and consumer behaviour
knowledge and project management
the actual products or solutions being
APRIL 2020
“ Unlike many consultancies which offer ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions to very typical business-driven problems, our engagement comes in the form of close, collaborative partnerships” — Adrian Spink Head of Telstra Purple, EMEA
produces a high-risk and complex decision-making environment that requires deep expertise. Telstra’s vast global network spans nearly 400,000 kilometres and has 2,000 points of presence connecting enterprises to the world’s fastest growing markets, especially in Asia Pacific. As all CIOs and CDOs are aware, one consequence of the increasing use of technology by enterprises is the
experience in deploying a well-planned
exposure to new forms of cyber risk.
transformation strategy that delivers
According to Williams, one consequence
against organisational and operational
of the greater use of technology by
objectives such as cost saving,
enterprises is exposure to new forms
efficiencies and the ability to scale.
of cyber risk. “The threat landscape is
Based on decades of advisory and
ever changing,” he says, “and there are
delivery experience, Telstra Purple
still many organisations out there that
reduces the complexity of choice
have yet to invest in a permanent secu-
and makes cloud easier to consume.
rity executive or leader. We can deliver
Whether moving a single application or
skills and expertise at every stage of the
hundreds, Telstra Purple, helps find the
security lifecycle, working with busi-
right target operating model for each
nesses to help them set the appropriate
organisation, speeds up platform trans-
standards and build out that intrinsic cul-
formation and ensures a smooth and
ture of compliance and security that’s
secure transition with minimal impact.
necessary in their organisations.”
Matching the rise in cloud applications,
Spink adds: “Unlike many consultan-
the network becomes increasingly busi-
cies which offer ‘out-of-the-box’
ness-critical. The need to secure
solutions to very typical business-driven
application delivery to a network of dis-
problems, our engagement comes in the
tributed enterprises and mobile workers
form of close, collaborative partnerships. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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We roll our sleeves up and deliver, and that’s the big differentiator for Telstra Purple — we don’t just consult or offer a standard solution, we stand by what we promise. We consider ourselves a true partner and we work with everyone in the organisation to solve the challenge.” Williams sums up: “Transformation strategy is so important. The expertise we have across our organisation means our approach is focused more on advice, guidance and the provision of purposeful, tailored solutions. To fully realise the transformative benefits, it’s essential to partner with companies that have deep experience in both the pitfalls of transformation projects as well as the recipes for success. Our difference is our focus on the people within the business and the purpose behind the evolution — it’s the people that give the purpose to any technology.”
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272
Kansas City Public Schools: creating the classroom of now WRITTEN BY
AMBER DONOVAN-STEVENS PRODUCED BY
MIKE SADR
APRIL 2020
273
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K ANSAS CIT Y PUBLIC SCHOOLS (KCPS)
Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, shares the leapfrogging that KCPS is undertaking in order to create greater student equity
D
igital transformation takes time and a considerable amount of resources, but for Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS),
Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, asserts that his students cannot afford to wait. Few people understand the technological needs of the students more 274
than Phillips, who grew up in Missouri, knowing first hand the disparity in educational support provided to children across the state. Before he came to his current role, Phillips spent 16 years in the army as a Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Information Officer. Following an injury in Afghanistan he was medically retired in 2015. “Leadership breaks down into three components: purpose, direction and motivation,” explains Phillips, “and my time in the army really prepared me for my current position at KCPS in providing direction and leadership to our team.” Prior to his time at Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS), Phillips was the Manager of Technology Support Services at Park Hill School District, where he received the 2018 Spirit Award. Just recently he was nominated for the CoSN CTO of the year award APRIL 2020
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1867
Year founded
$100mn Revenue in US dollars
2,500 Number of employees
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K ANSAS CIT Y PUBLIC SCHOOLS (KCPS)
276
for his work at KCPS. Yet Phillips is far
Classroom of the Future’, but our kids
more occupied with the achievements
don’t have time to wait for this,” he says.
of the district. “My key responsibil-
Phillips shares that there are currently
ity in this role is to use technology to
42 technology projects underway to
improve the lives of our students, and I
improve upon the district’s infrastruc-
am particularly invested as I know how
ture, cybersecurity and classroom
our kids feel and what they face every
experience. “Our largest project is the
day. They can’t wait several years for
district-wide refresh of technology,
change, they need it now in order to be
so that our students can get the best-
equipped for the future.”
of-the-best and our teachers aren’t
The key way in which Phillips is
hindered by technological difficulties.”
doing this is via a project he calls
At the core of these edtech initiatives
‘The Classroom of Now.’ “Many other
is a clear goal: to become the go-to
districts may have projects called
strategic partner across the entire
‘The Classroom of Tomorrow’ or ‘The
organisation. “If we can help every
“ Many other districts may have projects called ‘The Classroom of Tomorrow’ or ‘The Classroom of the Future’, but our kids don’t have time to wait for this” — Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, KCPS APRIL 2020
Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS): New laptops CLICK TO WATCH
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277
department improve upon their pro-
students when they go to college, or
cesses, procedures and technologies,
enter their career. We can’t simply keep
then we can truly improve the experi-
pace with other school districts; we
ences of our students.” This assistance
need to leapfrog our technologies so
may range from the effective technology
our students can remain competitive.
training of teachers, through assist-
Outdated technology won’t equip our
ing in the selection and deployment of
students for the future.”
active shooter simulation technology
KCPS is currently in the first year of
for the security department. “All of this
a five year edtech plan which aligns
comes down to equity: identifying the
with the district’s strategic plan and
challenges faced by our students in our
goals. “Often, an issue that you see
district, and helping them to overcome
with regard to others in my position
these challenges so that they can have
is that they decide on technology
the same opportunities as higher-SES
that they believe should be in place, w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
Safe students at school, home, and everywhere in between. Learn More
Relay helps Kansas City Public Schools and 6,500 other districts protect their students and devices—in the classroom and at home. Learn more at lightspeedsystems.com/kcps
they don’t necessarily work from the
To really articulate the scope of this
needs of the educators,” he explains,
transformation, Phillips details the
“This is where our team differs. We
conditions of the classrooms when he
see what our educators would like to
first started in his role in 2019. “One of
achieve in the next five years and we
my first initiatives was to ensure the
work backwards from there to pro-
implementation of iReady, however
vide the best processes and needs in
the elementary schools in the district
order to become aligned.”
had exceptionally poor technology.
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Joe Phillips Before entering Educational Technology, Joe served as both an enlisted soldier and an Army Officer. During his tenure, Joe served in numerous positions including 10 years as a Chief Human Resources Officer and later as a Chief Information Officer. In both roles, Joe’s specialty was building new, and turning around poorly performing, organisations and departments for the Army. Joe retired from the Army in 2015 and joined the Park Hill School District in Kansas City, MO as the Manager of Technology Support Services. In 2018, Joe accepted the position of Director of Technology for the Kansas City Public Schools District and has spent the past two years completely transforming the department. Joe has numerous technology certifications, a Bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from the University of Central Missouri, a Master’s Degree in Business and Organisational Security Management from Webster University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Liberty University’s Ed.D in Educational Leadership programme. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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K ANSAS CIT Y PUBLIC SCHOOLS (KCPS)
280
APRIL 2020
The laptops couldn’t hold a charge and the students didn’t have power outlets at their desks,” he explains. On Phillips’s 90th day as Director of Technology he approached his superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell and requested US$2mn. “Dr. Bedell and our board members are very supportive of the work we are doing and the project was easily approved.” After the first winter break, all students in grades three to six received new laptops, shortly followed with iPads for Kindergarten through to grade two. “This upgrade has made a huge difference on our ability to use technology to teach our kids as well as individualising our teaching for each student. We have also focused on reducing our average ticket time for IT problems and have been able to get it from 46 days down to under 48 hours.” In addition to this, the vast number of projectors are being replaced with OneScreen interactive flat panels, which were provided by Clary Co, a company Phillips cites as pivotal in standardising teaching for staff across all schools in the district, which, when paired with strong w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
281
OneScreen It's why students stay in class even after the bell rings.
(800) 992-5279
sales@onesreensolutions.com
training in technology, has positioned
the technology, allowing for feedback
staff to be able to become more crea-
and amendments prior to the district-
tive and attentive with their classes.
wide rollout.
“Technology anxiety has the power to
As technology evolves, naturally so
undermine and destroy a whole trans-
does cybersecurity. “We have a layered
formation, so working with our Digital
approach to cybersecurity,” explains
Learning Team and making sure our
Phillips. “We have solid firewalls and
staff are trained and comfortable with
end point detection and response
these new technologies is paramount
software. We’re also following all NIST
to our greater strategy,” he says.
cybersecurity standards, CIS controls,
Phillips references Fred Davis’ 1989
CIPA, HIPPA, and FERPA where we
Technology Acceptance Model, which
modify it by grade range and the topics
was used as the framework for the
studied by students as needed.” KCPS
staff training. He adds that for every
also adheres closely to the Children’s
rollout, a school in the district will pilot
Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA),
APRIL 2020
“ CTOs need to move from the basement to the boardroom: we need to be out across the schools and departments building strategic partnerships and really trying to understand what our schools and departments need from us” — Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, KCPS
which ensures stricter security levels for children under the age of 13. “It is so crucial that educators understand cybersecurity and the threat it poses,” he says. To illustrate the gravity of the situation, Phillips shares that on the dark web, a student’s information is worth around $30 a transaction, as opposed to that of an adult, whose data is worth around 30 cents. “It’s important to understand that simple solutions can have a massive impact.” He goes on to share that KCPS has an email address for students and educators to forward
Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS): IT Department CLICK TO WATCH
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K ANSAS CIT Y PUBLIC SCHOOLS (KCPS)
suspect emails onto, as well as a warning banner that heads suspect emails external to the district. “From these solutions alone we have seen a massive decrease in phishing attempts across the district,” he remarks. A partner that has been integral to cybersecurity is Lightspeed Systems, which has assisted in a number of ways: piloting classroom management, staff monitoring and controlling what students see as well as the projection of work. Lastly, it provides a safety check that centers 284
around self-harm, bullying and anything else that may place students at risk. KCPS has already made great strides in the first year of this transfor-
education is valuable, and that they
mation and Phillips takes pride in this.
are valuable. Yet in my role, I need to
“My favorite part of this transformation
ensure that the best-of-the-best tech-
is seeing the impact. I grew up in this
nologies feel normal for our students
district and I remember how easy it is
and that they never feel that their
to succumb to feelings of inferiority
education isn’t as valuable as their
when relating to suburban districts.”
suburban counterparts.”
“Seeing our students, who have been
Looking ahead, Phillips makes his
using these depleted laptops, unbox
intentions clear: “It’s no secret that I
a new chromebook halfway through
want us to be the best K-12 technol-
the academic year was absolutely
ogy department in the world. I want
incredible. They’re durable and cut-
KCPS to be the first thing that people
ting edge and the students’ reactions
associate with K-12 EdTech, and not
were amazing; they realise that their
for personal ego, but because our
APRIL 2020
“ We can’t simply keep pace with other school districts; we need to leapfrog our technologies so our students can remain competitive” — Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, KCPS
285
students truly deserve the best.” Phillips also wants to harness VR in
building strategic partnerships and really trying to understand what our
the classrooms, to take students on
schools and departments need from
virtual field trips. He is also interested
us.” Phillips says that KCPS is in an
to see how the role of 3D printing will
excellent position to accelerate to
evolve. “3D printing has been some-
transform from what he describes as
thing of a novelty, but I believe it has
“the underdog of school districts” to
the potential to serve a greater pur-
a Missouri leader, in time a regional
pose in helping students learn.” When
leader, and eventually a global leader.
considering his position in the wider industry, Phillips comments, “CTOs need to move from the basement to the boardroom: we need to be out across the schools and departments w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
286
SAP Cloud for Utilities: an integrated industry solution WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM SMITH
APRIL 2020
PRODUCED BY
BEN MALTBY
287
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SAP
How SAP’s Cloud for Utilities solution portfolio can unlock new possibilities in a rapidly evolving market
S
AP Cloud for Utilities (C4U) is a pioneering new end-to-end portfolio of solutions from SAP, intended for use in the Lead-
to-Cash process employed by utilities companies. Three individuals from the wider SAP organisation are guiding its market introduction. Klaus Lohnert 288
is programme director and the overall lead of the project. Mateu Munar, Senior Director, Industry Business Unit Utilities and Stefan Engelhardt, Global VP Go-To-Market Strategy Industry Business Unit Utilities, are also part of the C4U leadership team and in charge of the solution management for SAP’s Utilities portfolio. “As part of that team,” Munar explains, “I have the role of the go-to-market lead for the new SAP Cloud for Utilities suite.” Engelhardt adds: “We are the solution owner for the complete business suite. In my role, I particularly support the C4U leadership board from a strategic perspective, as well as Mateu and the team with our go-to-market activities.” In terms of overall structure, Lohnert explains that “we have four streams. There is the
APRIL 2020
289
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SAP
“ What’s happening at the moment is a tremendous infrastructure program, going from a centralised to a decentralised system”
development stream, where we develop the solutions. Then we have the go-to-market stream, in which Mateu and Stefan are allocated. Operations, because this is a cloud solution which we are operating, and the final part is the transition service we offer to make implementing the solution easier for our customers.” The complexity of the behind the
Klaus Lohnert, Program Director SAP Cloud for Utilities, SAP 290
scenes structure reveals the ambition of the solution. Comprising a portfolio of solutions useful to the utilities industry, SAP C4U supports products from
E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Klaus Lohnert Klaus Lohnert is Program Director SAP Cloud for Utilities. He has over 20 years of international experience in the utilities industry and management consulting. His passions are for empowering business leaders to optimise the value of their businesses through best-in-class, forward looking processes, organisations and solutions, as well as providing customers guided access to innovations to get ahead of competition and help them to achieve the desired business outcomes of their business transformations. APRIL 2020
SAP Analytics Cloud: Embed Your Analytical Insights Into a Web Application CLICK TO WATCH
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291 modelling through to the market, as
terms of reducing costs and adoption
well as demand prediction, monitoring
time.” Engelhardt adds that the offer-
of customer behaviour, managing bill-
ing is flexible to the specific needs
ing, customer service and adherence
of customers. “The architecture is
to regulations. “It’s a suite that covers
modular,” he says, “so we leverage the
the entire end-to-end process,” says
independent cloud components that
Munar. ”We provide a software-as-a-
SAP offers. For service, for instance,
service, cloud native solution.
for sales, for marketing, for commerce,
It’s a unique service, with no competi-
for billing and revenue management.
tor offering such a complete suite in
We’re bringing them together, extend-
the cloud. It’s important to emphasise
ing them from an industry perspective
the technological approach, because
— but you still have the option to buy and
that is what facilitates key business leads that we want to address, in
run them separately.” Motivating customers to require a solution such as SAP C4U is an w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
SMART SOLUTIONS FOR SMART CUSTOMERS
PROLOGA and PROLOGA Energy are software development and consulting companies serving utilities worldwide. Customer profit from a comprehensive consulting and system competence that prepares the ground for a big variety of modern industry-specific solution extensions.
MODERN UTILITIES: LEVERAGING NEXT LEVEL APPLICATIONS ON SAP® CLOUD PLATFORM It does not take a crystal ball to predict that the days of traditional utility companies are numbered. Both in terms of changing customer behavior and in terms of social trends such as digitalization: the industry is facing huge dynamics while being under fire from new technologies, complex IT systems and inconsistent processes. However, automation will continue to significantly change people’s lives in the years to come. Robots and artificial intelligence are already part of our everyday lives: our goods are sent by drones, chatbots support our customer service and soon our cars will drive autonomously. Ideas about what the utility company of the future can look like are already becoming outdated because the future of this industry has long since begun. More importantly, utility companies should ask themselves – do we want to play an active part in shaping these changes? Digital transformation with intelligent solutions: SAP® Cloud Applications Is there a way for utilities to be both reliable and disruptive at the same time? Part of the answer might be software solutions such as SAP® Cloud for Utilities, the nextgeneration industry business solution that supports end-to-end industry processes across all business functions, at scale, in the cloud, and in real-time. But even a solution as comprehensive as SAP® Cloud for Utilities cannot cover all the detailed areas and requirements of a modern utility company. These gaps are closed by industry-specific solution extensions, such as those offered by PROLOGA. Automated planning, execution and confirmation of services, the reading of consumptions and on-site billing are only some examples. Another one is the highly
sophisticated Capacity and Nomination Management solution that provides efficient means for gas transport management companies to monitor the execution of capacity contract bookings and validating received nominations. And last but not least, PROLOGA also provides enhancements on SAP® Cloud Platform that complement the solution portfolio. PROLOGA and SAP: 15 years of experience, competence, and reliable partnership For more than 15 years, PROLOGA is serving SAP customers worldwide, delivering high-quality industry solutions and add-ons. The close collaboration with SAP ensures that solution extensions by PROLOGA are perfectly matched to SAP’s products and follow the strategic direction set by SAP. Smart solutions for smart customers is much more than a slogan; it is our daily motivation to both rethink our established solutions and adapt them to the evolving markets. Many companies have long since started the journey to an automated era, while utilities still seem to defend the market instead of attacking it. Together let’s take a clear view on the way in which your market is likely to evolve and how modern solution extensions can pave the way to it.
SAP
294 E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Stefan Engelhardt Stefan Engelhardt joined SAP in 1997 where he supported the specification and launch of SAP’s first industry solution for utilities as Global Product Management Specialist. Since then, Stefan has held various management positions within SAP’s Industry Business Unit Utilities, becoming Vice President Utilities in 2007. In that role, he is responsible for SAP’s global Go-toMarket strategy for the utilities industry and focuses in particular on the definition and execution of SAP’s bi-modal product innovation strategy based on SAP S/4HANA for Utilities and the new SAP Cloud for Utilities solution portfolio.
APRIL 2020
evolving energy market, influenced by
growth, they will have to look to new
factors such as the rise of renewables
business dimensions, which is why the
and the decentralisation of power
platform supports non-commodity and
production. “The traditional commodity
multi-service capabilities,” Engelhardt
business no longer provides the mar-
adds. “We leverage elements and
gins or the revenue that is required,”
know-how from the 26 industry solu-
Engelhardt warns. “Utilities have to
tions we have at SAP such as telco,
extend their scope. They have to go
automotive and so on, bringing them
beyond the traditional energy business
together in order to allow utilities to
in order to offer value added or even
offer new bundled business services.
completely independent service offer-
Of course we also automate the tra-
ings.” SAP C4U is uniquely equipped
ditional processes of the commodity
to enable those in the industry to
business. That is the way towards what
compete in this brave new world. “For
Klaus calls the ‘self-running enterprise’.”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Mateu Munar Mateu is currently Senior Director in the Industry Business Unit for Utilities. He’s responsible for the Go-to-Market of the new SAP Cloud for Utilities Suite. Mateu has 20 years of experience in the utilities industry — before joining the Industry Business Unit Utilities, he played several roles in the industry, first as Consultant and Solution Architect implementing the SAP for Utilities Solutions, and afterwards leading the Utilities Consulting Team in the EMEA region. He is highly experienced at working with utilities customers in different market roles, different countries and through the full cycle of the SAP for Utilities Solution.
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How SAP S/4HANA can accelerate your energy transition By David Townshend EY Global Power & Utilities SAP Leader
In an energy market defined by uncertainty, the prospect of shifting to SAP S/4HANA may seem like yet another challenge. But the right approach to upgrading can help accelerate transformation and build a more intelligent, agile organization for the future.
The cliches about 2020 being the year of vision may generate eye rolls, but for energy and resource companies, the message hits home. The disruptive forces sweeping the industry — including decarbonization, digitization, cost pressures and empowered customers — are not new but their pace is quickening. At the same time, energy and resource companies must move
forward in migrating to the new SAP S/4HANA software release. While for some, the prospect is daunting, many are reframing the challenge as a valuable opportunity. The powerful insights and connectivity delivered through S/4HANA combined with a forward-looking business view can help them reshape into intelligent, agile organizations — if they take the right approach.
Three ways to get the best from your S/4HANA migration Moving to S/4HANA will impact every part of your business. While a poor approach will create damage throughout the organization, the right one can drive the companywide transformation that is critical to create long-term value. The right approach involves three key elements:
The migration to S/4HANA provides a valuable opportunity to not only accelerate the energy transition, but reshape energy and resource companies into intelligent, agile organizations. David Townshend EY Global Power & Utilities SAP Leader
1. Purpose-led: The migration to S/4HANA is an opportunity to reshape your business more broadly. Now is the time to identify or confirm organizational purpose and align this with the implications for individual processes, systems and people. This helps guide a purposeled transformation that achieves those end goals.
2. Value-focused: The two most common questions clients ask as they contemplate their migration are: i.) how can we build a business case that stacks-up both now and in the future? And ii.) how can we do this as cheaply as possible with the least negative impact on our business? We help answer these by realigning the process to the business strategy – identifying how much value can be derived immediately and how much more can be leveraged in the future. For example, better, faster data can improve some processes now, while building a future-proof technology platform will support the agile business model and workforce needed for growth. And, all the while, the core value of the company is protected through enhanced cybersecurity and compliance.
3. Smart automation: Intelligent automation and machine learning can accelerate S/4HANA migration, reduce costs and enable value to be realized far more quickly. Automated tools also allow resources to focus on transforming those areas of the business that can help achieve big-picture goals. Post-migration, automation and analytics facilitate ongoing monitoring of people and processes to support continuous improvement. Fast-track your agile and intelligent future EY Agile Business Transformation for energy is a proven purpose-led, value-focused approach, specifically tailored to help energy and resource companies realize the potential of their migration to S/4HANA.
Leveraging the best SAP technology for energy and enhancing it with EY SAP-certified innovations can help deliver additional benefits throughout the energy value chain: customers and billing, asset management, finance, procurement, tax, HR and risk. The highly automated EY approach and suite of tools help clients accelerate their migration to S/4HANA, realizing benefits earlier, while limiting business disruption. Will 2020 be the year you accelerate your transformation? Discover how EY and SAP can help energy and resource organizations use S/4HANA to thrive in this era of extraordinary change.
Š 2020 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved. ED None.
SAP
“ Utilities are at the heart of the energy revolution that is going on globally� Stefan Engelhardt, Global VP Go-to-Market Strategy, Industry Business Unit Utilities, SAP
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APRIL 2020
Lohnert identifies three key performance indicators that SAP seeks to address with the solution, including a reduction in the cost to serve, a decrease in the time to market for both classical and new energy offerings and an increase in revenue and profitability. Leveraging the cloud is one way of achieving that, but SAP is aware that its customers will be at varying stages on the cloud journey. “A lot of our development efforts are directed towards integration,” says Munar. “We provide a cloud offering, but we have to understand and be conscious of the fact that a big part of our business is on-premise. Essentially, the scenario is evolving towards a hybrid model. Any customer can capitalise upon the investments that they have made in SAP, because we are securing that evolution with integration concepts out of the box. If they want to move into a hybrid mode, they can go there. If they want to go into a full cloud mode, they can do that as well.” It’s not just about delivering growth. C4U can also help companies achieve increased efficiency, and with efficiency comes more sustainable ways of doing business. “Utilities are at the heart of w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
299
SAP
the energy revolution that is going on globally,” says Engelhardt. “They are in the driver’s seat to optimise, manage and build value added services in order to achieve efficiency and to benefit from new business opportunities. That is a key focus for us as we shape and develop the solution portfolio.” While SAP C4U is a business suite rather than a technical system, it still has a part to play in this transition. “What’s happening at the moment is a tremendous infrastructure programme, going 300
from a centralised to a decentralised system,” says Lohnert. “The biggest challenge we have is to accelerate this process, and we offer services to access end customers that want
Having cultivated a successful rela-
to buy a solar panel or a heating sys-
tionship with professional services firm
tem or charging stations.”
Accenture, which saw SAP contribute from a product side and Accenture
“ We provide a softwareas-a-service, cloud native solution”
from a services side, C4U represents a co-development between the two organisations. “Accenture are market leaders and they know the industry well,” says Munar. “They know our solutions, having done this together in the
Mateu Munar, Senior Director, Industry Business Unit Utilities, SAP APRIL 2020
past. From a go-to-market perspective, and from a development perspective, it’s a win-win.” Engelhardt concurs,
1972
Year founded
$24.7bn+ Revenue in euros
96,000+ Number of employees
adding that “we have many equally
coming from other areas and enter-
important partners, such as rku.it,
ing the space. Maybe our customers
smartservices, Cronos, bpc, Natuvion,
of the future are not just utilities, but
E&Y, Atos or IBM.”
other service providers who start to
Going forwards, the aim for C4U
complement services with energy.
is clear, as Engelhardt articulates.
Our platform should provide both with
“There is one simple goal. We want
the necessary tools and processes
to help our customers to transform
to be successful.”
their business into the next dimension, and we’re doing the same on our side. At the same time, I think what we are seeing happening that is interesting for us is more and more players w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
301
Digital transformation in money lending WRITTEN BY
302
WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY
NATHAN HOLMES
APRIL 2020
303
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UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
Akihiro Nagahara, Managing Director and CEO of consumer finance company United Asia Finance Limited, discusses the technologies maintaining the company’s position as Hong Kong’s largest money lender
304
U
nited Asia Finance Limited (UA) is the biggest money lender in Hong Kong. Founded in 1993 by Managing Director
and CEO Akihiro Nagahara, who introduced the concept of unsecured personal loans into the Hong Kong market in 1977, earning Nagahara the nickname ‘Father of Personal Loan of Hong Kong’. UA Finance is now the biggest finance company in Hong Kong, with the largest variety of all-round personal loan products and the most comprehensive online and offline channels, including the most extensive branch network of a total 49 branches located at different locations throughout Hong Kong. Born in Taiwan, Nagahara joined a company after graduation in Tokyo in 1976. He initiated and helped to start up the consumer lending business
APRIL 2020
305
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UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
“ UA is the first finance company in the market to introduce online personal loans, namely the ‘i-Money’ internet personal loan as early as the year 2000, at a time when even many other finance companies had not yet joined the market. In 2015, our mobile app ‘One Click to Loan’ was launched, further offering convenient and hassle-free loan experiences for customers”
306
— Akihiro Nagahara, Managing Director & CEO, United Asia Finance
for his company in Japan which turned out to be very successful. Despite not speaking Cantonese at that time, in 1977, Nagahara was dispatched to venture to Hong Kong by his boss at the time, bringing the idea of the unsecured personal loan to the city. He was able to do so thanks to the deposit-taking companies ordinance instituted in 1976, allowing an overseas company with a minimum capital of HK$2.8mn to set up JCG Finance in Hong Kong. The personal loan business grew fast and successfully until being sold in 1990, at which time there were 30 branches. In 1993, with investment by Allied Group, Nagahara opened United Asia Finance Limited, with profits recorded from the very first year. In 2007, the company achieved the milestone of expanding to Mainland China, with the first branch opening at Shenzhen, thus becoming the first Hong Kong finance company to start a consumer finance business in the Mainland. Now, there are branches in 15 cities throughout Mainland China. Since 1996, ITOCHU has been a shareholder. In 2005, a majority stake in the
APRIL 2020
UA CLICK TO WATCH
|
0:32
307 company was acquired by Sun Hung
again showing its continuous promise
Kai & Co. Limited from Allied Group.
and commitment to offer the best con-
Having recently celebrated its 25th
sumer loan services for customers.
anniversary, the company is gear-
Lee’s role actually comprises two
ing up to ward off the rise of virtual
complementary halves, as he explains.
banks, as CIO Aaron Lee emphasises.
“My role is CIO at UA, yet I supervise
“Keeping the business model competi-
different responsibilities for the com-
tive with virtual banks is the reason
pany. I oversee traditional IT functions
we have to be ready to transform for
and make sure the IT operation runs
the digital generation.” A sentiment
harmoniously, while simultaneously
shared by Nagahara, the Fintech and
implementing digital strategies to
Innovation Department was officially
enhance the competitiveness of our
set up in January 2019 by UA, being
business to keep our leading position
the first and only finance company in
in the industry.”
the market to set up such department,
One of these strategies consists of w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
308
a move towards an “open consumer
requirements of respective statutory
loan platform”, which in practice means
and regulatory government institutions
providing greater transparency to
of the industry, and the representative
customers and improving the access
industry associations Licensed Money
of third party services via APIs. “We
Lenders Association. “One example of
have our API gateway to talk with our
the requirements is in customer informa-
external business partners. Our organi-
tion protection, because Hong Kong has
sation’s architecture is based around
very strong requirements regarding the
Kubernetes, and we’re setting up a new
handling of such information. Another
generation of online app, web and legacy
is in anti-money laundering. The money
applications using the Pivotal Container
lenders’ regulator has very detailed
Service as an integration platform.”
Electronic Know Your Customer
UA has to remain on top of the APRIL 2020
(EKYC) due diligence procedures.”
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Akihiro Nagahara
Mr Akihiro Nagahara is the Managing Director and CEO of United Asia Finance Limited, with over 40 years of experience in the consumer credit market in Japan and Hong Kong. Mr Nagahara introduced the idea of unsecured personal loans from Japan to Hong Kong in 1977. With his inf luence and contribution in the consumer finance industry in Hong Kong, the nickname of “Father of Personal Loans of Hong Kong” is given to Mr Nagahra. Mr Nagahara established the first personal finance company with scale in Hong Kong and is the Founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Licensed Money Lenders Association. Mr Nagahara is keen on servicing the community and very supportive of charities and has been the Director of Po Leung Kuk. Mr Nagahara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from National Taiwan University and a Master’s degree in Law from Japan Hitotsubashi University; he then completed a Doctoral degree at the same University. Mr Nagahara has been conferred Honorary Fellowship by The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016, in recognition of his remarkable contributions to the University and the community. In 2012, Mr Nagahara was awarded “Person of the Year in the Chinese Microfinance Industry” by the China Microfinance Association; and in 2013, was awarded “CAPITAL Leaders of Excellence” by the Capital Magazine in recognition of his continued and outstanding contribution to the consumer lending industry in Hong Kong. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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Simplify cloud with consistent security and operations.
Visit us at www.vmware.com/hk © 2019 VMware, Inc. VMware and Realize What’s Possible are trademarks of VMware, Inc.
“ We aim to keep our leading status as the most influential and largest money lender in Hong Kong” — Akihiro Nagahara, Managing Director & CEO, United Asia Finance
The EKYC requirement itself serves as an opportunity, as Lee explains. “In Hong Kong, we use the EKYC approval with a Hong Kong ID. As part of the licensing process, this Hong Kong ID card is associated with the likeness or image and then we can detect abnormalities or approve loans. We plan to launch the latest ‘Yes UA’ app in 2020 with the EKYC solution associated. We first launched the app in August, 2019, which was a huge success, significantly increasing our digital business volume by 20%.”
APRIL 2019
The philosophy underpinning the
app with their Hong Kong ID card,
success of the app is based around
even the newly-issued one for part
ease of use. “We would like to use
of the population, with its embed-
our online apps to enhance the ulti-
ded hologram.” says Lee. “The Hong
mate convenience of the customer
Kong ID card is the key and eases
experience, and put the structure of
the whole application process. You
loan processing purely online.” Hong
apply for the loan and then go
Kong citizens will be able to use the
through the application procedure
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Aaron Lee Aaron Lee is responsible for formulating digital transformation services strategies and deploying fintech and DX solutions, including, but not limited, to digital and online, AI, Big Data, blockchain, cognitive and machine learning and robotic process automation, to transform UA’s capabilities in finance services innovations, strengthening the company’s market leading and drive business revenue. Since 1998, he has occupied senior regional management roles in firms such as Atos, Microsoft and Sybase, in which provided enterprise advisory consulting and business services to a portfolio of sizable clients within the Asia Pacific and Greater China regions. He is an expert in digital transformation, with more than 24 years of experience in IT strategic planning, project management and strategic partnership and alliance formation with first tier IT Solution providers. He graduated from the Said Business School of Oxford University and Staffordshire University.
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UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
to approval. Once that’s done you receive the money directly through the Faster Payment System, transferred to your account. Everything is done without annoyance to you.” The approval part of the process relies on data, and Lee is overseeing the transformation in both the format of data UA collects and how it is analysed. “We are going to build up a 360-degree view of customer information.” Currently UA collects customer information for process312
ing the loan, much of it from credit reference agency TransUnion. From this information, however, only the transaction data at the respective financial institution can be gleaned. “Traditionally we only get the loanrelated information. We grab your financial data, your address, your name and so on, and then you apply for a loan. Then we’ll collect your financial information and consolidate it with the rest. We would like to know our customers more by referencing data derived from online channels, and we’re considering it a multi intelligence platform that we can use with our attribution customer data.” APRIL 2020
“We try to understand each customer that comes to us, their problems and needs, then our experienced staff will share professional advice with them regarding the options of the best loan solution plan to solve their problems” — Akihiro Nagahara, Managing Director & CEO, United Asia Finance
It’s a direction that Lee is hoping to further explore, collecting data from new and varied sources. “We would like to associate more of the social information with traditional customer information. Maybe we can understand our customer more from different aspects of their online behaviors like their online browsing. We would like to consolidate it together to build up that 360-degree view and offer the most suitable loan services for each single customer to best serve his financial needs.” The complexity of such a system has required the support of a number of expert partners. “Because we would like to acquire more data, we use an enterprise scale database as our traditional database. Our relationship with Oracle has lasted over ten years, which is why we choose them as our transactional database and data warehouse platform.” Owing to the volumes of data created, UA has also found it necessary to move to the cloud. “As we convert data into a big data platform, we’re moving it to big PaaS players. Again, the relationship is there. While Oracle is our w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
313
UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
Simplify cloud with consistent security and operations.
Visit us at www.vmware.com/hk © 2019 VMware, Inc. VMware and Realize What’s Possible are trademarks of VMware, Inc.
315 traditional database platform, we’re extending it to an object database meaning we can move all of our reasoning and other 360 degree data into a single platform.” The transformation of its technology offerings is an ongoing process and is in service of retaining its prime position, as Lee emphasises. “We aim to keep our leading status as the most influential and largest money lender in Hong Kong by further enhancing our capability. This is our vision. The feedback we have received for our technology w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
UNITED ASIA FINANCE LIMITED
has been very positive so far,” reasserted by Akihiro Nagahara. Thanks to Akihiro Nagahara’s insight and understanding of the market with his rich experience, the innovative loan products UA has pioneered over the last 27 years will continue to serve it in good stead for the future, from debts consolidation loans to property owner’s loans to personal loans which can be processed entirely over the phone. In 2000, UA pioneered the “i-Money 316
Internet Personal Loan”, becoming the first money lender to introduce online loan services in the market.
“ Keeping the business model competitive with virtual banks is the reason we have to be ready to transform for the digital generation” — Aaron Lee, CIO, United Asia Finance Limited
The whole loan application, from approval to disbursement, could all be completed online without the need to show up in person. The service motto of UA is to always offer caring and personalised services for customers. “We try to understand each customer that comes to us, their problems and needs, then our experienced staff will share professional advice with them regarding the options of the
APRIL 2020
1993
Year founded
630+ Number of employees
best loan solution plan to solve their
and loyal staff and company service
problems, helping customers to let
that puts the customer first, inspiring
go of their worries and enjoy life
the slogan: “Let go of your worries.
again,” says Nagahara. “This human-
YES, UA!”
ised and caring approach, together with the pace we keep up with technology and the outside world makes UA different and outstanding, with the support and recognition of the public and customers for more than a quarter of a century in Hong Kong.” Alongside this stand experienced w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
317
318
PGS Software: enabling industry 4.0 with machine learning WRITTEN BY
WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY
LEWIS VAUGHAN
APRIL 2020
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P G S S O F T WA R E
PGS Software’s Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist and Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, discuss technology’s role in the manufacturing industry
P
GS Software is a Poland-based softwarehouse with a team of 700 experts working in R&D centers in three major
Polish cities and in additional offices in the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavia. 320
Meet the company’s two key players: Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, who leads the data science team and works on projects related to computer vision, IoT and edge computing, and Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, who has a particular interest in designing cloud solutions. Currently, one of PGS Software’s areas of expertise is providing tailor-made IT solutions for the manufacturing industry to aid the transition to the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). Mazur says: “We’re using advanced automation, Internet of Things (IoT), fast networking and AI in order to optimise production processes. What’s behind Industry 4.0 from a technical standpoint is a cyber-physical system where you collect complete data on the process and then optimise it in the digital realm. These improvements can APRIL 2020
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P G S S O F T WA R E
“ Stay tuned there are a lot of interesting things coming out this year” — Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, PGS Software
then be applied back in the physical world. The goal might be energy efficiency to have more green production or improving the production timing, or whatever is a priority.” Mazur is clear that this is not purely a technological transition, but PGS Software’s work frees up companies to focus on that other side. “Industry 4.0 is also about the people, about augmented operators and other areas where you need to change not only the technicals behind your factory but the culture
322
and the way of working”, he adds. One of the main challenges of transitioning to the latest industrial revolution is simply getting visibility of what is occurring in the factory setting. Enter the digital twin. “A digital twin is just a visual replica of a physical object or process or product, and it’s usually updated in real time in order to match reality,” says Mazur. “This is, in my opinion, the best way to connect the physical world with the digital realm. Thanks to the fact that you can have digital twins at different levels, from a single sensor to a machine, you can make the whole production line one big digital twin composed of the APRIL 2020
Introducing: Mesh Twin Learning @ Digital Twins 2019 in Frankfurt CLICK TO WATCH
|
2:55
323 smaller levels. There’s a lot of freedom
is a combination of digital twins, IoT,
to emulate and use machine learning
machine learning and the cloud, which
algorithms to improve production.”
addresses the connectivity and flex-
PGS Software goes above and
ible automation problems that you
beyond the traditional conception of
usually have in such setups. What it
the digital twin, however, with its vision
allows in reality is doing micro-step
of Mesh Twin Learning (MTL). “Mesh
optimisation. This stems from the
Twin Learning is a concept that I and
Taguchi methods from the late fifties —
Lukasz designed together,” Mazur
well known in the manufacturing world
says. “We had a customer in Germany
— where you can, by changing a pro-
who was asking us to help to improve
cess with a very slight step, observe
production efficiency. We started to
the results and see if changing a
think about how to combine what we
single parameter, like a temperature
were working on into one concept and
on a baking furnace, is moving you
implementation. Mesh Twin Learning
in the right direction or not. You can w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
P G S S O F T WA R E
see whether the trend is going in the right direction and, thanks to machine learning, you can run these distributed experiments across many devices, production lines or even factories.” PGS Software’s approach also overcomes some of the problems inherent to digital twins. “Normally, when you have a production line and digital twins you are sending the data from the machine to the cloud, but this means you have to deal with latency issues and is also a security risk. However, 324
in the MTL concept we are using something called local, small machine learning models which can then be exported from devices and imported into the cloud, meaning you are only sharing a model of the data.” Achieving such projects would be impossible without the use of the cloud, which serves as a great enabler for PGS Software’s endeavours; as Panusz emphasises: “About 98% of our projects, not only in manufacturing but overall, are done with one of the cloud providers. In the context of MTL, let’s choose one example like Amazon Web Services. We use edge devices and AWS Greengrass APRIL 2020
2005
Year founded
2,835
Successfully completed projects
650+
Professionals
325
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Maciej Mazur Chief Data Scientist - As Chief Data Scientist at PGS Software, Maciej is the technical lead of the data team and implements ML-based solutions for clients around the globe. In his 10 years of IT-experience, he’s worked for major players like Nokia and HPE, developing complex optimisation algorithms even before the term Data Science was coined. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
P G S S O F T WA R E
to build up the digital twins. We also
have the processing power to achieve
use Amazon’s SageMaker Neo, which
solutions on that scale.” Aside from
allows us to train models which are
its work with Amazon, PGS Software
optimised for edge devices. We also
is also a Microsoft Gold partner and
use the cloud to build a device shadow
a certified Google Cloud partner.
farm, which is basically a set of digital
“Besides the cloud, we also partner
twins which allows us to simulate the
with several hardware providers,” says
whole production process. We also
Mazur. “Balluff, for example, provides
use the analytics and machine learning
IoT sensors and devices, and together,
engines which are available in the cloud.
we provide an end-to-end solution.”
From my perspective, the cloud is the
Alongside the technological con-
only thing that makes what we do
cerns, PGS Software professes a
possible — otherwise you just wouldn’t
keen attention to cultural matters.
326 E X ECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Łukasz Panusz Chief Solutions Architect - Łukasz Panusz is Chief Solutions Architect at PGS Software. A passionate technical leader with over 15 years of experience from various business sectors and regions. Over the years strongly involved in numerous enterprise-grade solutions in different roles. Supporting organizations with digital transformations by evaluation of the culture, technical solutions, product design, and strategic planning. Techie focused on delivering cutting-edge solutions using Cloud, modern technologies and DevOps culture of work. Currently concentrated on emerging technologies, and ways of connecting them into bigger wider distributed solutions
APRIL 2020
Introducing: Mesh Twin Learning CLICK TO WATCH
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“ The cloud is the only thing that makes what we do possible” — Lukasz Panusz, Chief Solutions Architect, PGS Software
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P G S S O F T WA R E
O U R 3 P RI N CI P LES 1. We will understand your needs Addressing your business requirements is our top priority and we go to great lengths to better understand them. This careful preparation makes our software well-targeted, future-proof and cost-effective. For us, your project is a new, intriguing story awaiting to be written in the right programming language, regardless of whether you are a big international enterprise or an independent entrepreneur. 2. We know our job We will not pretend to know more about your industry than you do. What we will do is embrace your ideas and creativity while we tap into our experience in programming, testing, graphic design, business analysis, and effective project management. We are not here to sell you technology or infrastructure that you do not really need. We aim to enhance your business in the most efficient possible way.
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3. We build great teams We recruit passionate professionals from Poland’s best engineering institutes. Java, PHP, .NET, mobile, and beyond — there are no technologies hiding under our radar. Our diverse talents coupled with in-depth business experience, exceptional infrastructure, and three modern development centres are what makes us the winning team.. Through following the Agile software development practices and Scrum methodology, we make sure that everyone involved in bringing a project to life is on the same page, at each step of the way.
APRIL 2020
“We have a unique program we call Upscale,” Panusz says. “We motivate our employees to constantly develop themselves via the program, which means we identify specialists in our team that are authorities in a technology to become mentors. They then prepare programmes to help others to become proficient. Currently, 20% of the company is participating in one or more of those programs, developing new competencies as well as mentoring others.” The company also benefits from its location in Poland in terms of recruiting, with three famous academic facilities located nearby, such as the Wrocław University of Science
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P G S S O F T WA R E
“ Industry 4.0 is also about the people” — Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist, PGS Software 330
APRIL 2020
and Technology — first in the country to offer a Master’s in Data Science. As for the future, PGS Software is keen for its work to benefit the wider community. “We are constantly growing as a data science department,” says Panusz. “We want to make our locations a central place of knowledge and experience to educate the other people in the data science community. We also try to provide leadership content and research papers. We are trying to share what we are doing and make our research public.” In pursuit of this objective, PGS Software is active in many different channels, as Mazur explains. “We would encourage everyone to follow us on social media to find the articles we put on our blog. This year we’re also starting a podcast and we have two ebooks on the way. So stay tuned — there are a lot of interesting things coming out this year.”
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APRIL 2020
PCL Construction: transformation through people and culture WRITTEN BY
WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY
JAKE MEGEARY
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
Mark Bryant, CIO at PCL Construction, describes how the company’s vision and “innovate or die” philosophy is helping to shape the modern industry
F
ounded in 1906 in Stoughton, Saskatchewan, PCL Construction is a construction company operating primarily
in Canada, the US, Australia and the Caribbean. Now headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, the 100% employee-owned company currently 334
employs over 4,000 full-time professional and admin staff and more than 10,000 hourly tradespeople. Operating primarily on heavy industrial, civil and building construction, PCL has attained consistent results and broad geographic diversity to ensure its continued success. The company works on 700-800 projects each year, and is the largest contracting company in Canada and the seventh largest in North America overall. Mark Bryant, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at PCL, joined the company seven years ago with the aim of helping the business understand how IT-based solutions could bring benefits and drive efficiencies. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial vibe and a big interest in technology,” he explains. “I’m one of those guys that’s always bridged IT
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
“ There’s a lot of opportunity for change. If you’re open to change, it’s a pretty cool place to be right now” — Mark Bryant, CIO, PCL Construction
and business, even when I started at Toronto Dominion Bank, where I spent the first nine years of my career.” Having the fortune and talent to work for some of the largest, primarily Canadian, companies in the market — Davis & Henderson, and WSP — Bryant found that one thing consistently attracted
336
him: great work culture and great colleagues. Regarding the honour of being named the 2019 ‘Canadian CIO of the Year’ by ITAC, Bryant was clear on what he regards as the key to his success. “It’s a pinnacle award for me from a career perspective,” he says. “But if you don’t have an amazing team around you, you don’t win ‘CIO of the Year’. My team at PCL has been instrumental in executing the vision that I’ve had.” For PCL, that vision meant making a fundamental shift away from ‘legacy IT’ and towards becoming an integrated business technology group. “Initially, IT was focused on keeping the lights on,” APRIL 2020
PCL’s Digital Transformation CLICK TO WATCH
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337 says Bryant, describing the limitations
management applications, the com-
of the previous tech culture’s scope.
pany has striven to be an active
“One of the things that I’m most proud
participant in the change, rather than
of is my team’s transition to realise our
merely reacting to it. According to
new strategic vision.” More specifically,
Bryant, there is a reason for this. “The
Bryant has spearheaded a new range
construction industry historically has
of products and services for PCL to
been underserved by the software
drive productivity, efficiency and safety.
development community. As one of the
This approach has proved crucial
oldest industries in the world, a lot of
in an industry that is typically slow to
practices in construction haven’t
adopt the latest trends in digitisation.
changed.” Due to the nature of the work,
Bucking the trend, PCL has been
which requires a vast amount of manual
focused on developing this aspect of
processes to function, cvonstruction
its operations for over 30 years. From
has been among the last industries
homegrown estimating software to staff
to embrace the digital revolution. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
However, with investment capital
340
for efficiency, as was integrating its
starting to flow into the industry,
technology more intelligently to allow
a huge influx of new thinking has
innovations a quick gateway into daily
opened doors for IT and business
operations. “If something new comes
professionals. “There’s a lot of oppor-
along that’s better, faster, or makes
tunity for change. If you’re open to
more sense for our business, we can
change, it’s a pretty cool place to be
rip out the incumbent technology and
right now.” The digital transformation
plug another one in. An integration
for PCL began with what Bryant calls
framework allows us to be very agile.”
the ‘four pillars’: cloud, integration,
This shift away from a ‘waterfall
mobility, and data analytics. Shifting
development cycle’ also means that
the company’s large volumes of data
applications and services can be
from its hundreds of yearly projects
brought out in weeks or months,
to the cloud was a significant move
rather than years.
E XECU T I VE P RO FI LE
Mark Bryant As CIO, Mark is responsible for the strategic and innovative advancement of information technology (IT) within the PCL family of companies. Mark has over two decades of IT expertise, having served in the financial services, software, manufacturing, and AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) industries. Prior to joining PCL, he led the technology operations at a century-old financial services firm and was CIO at a leading planning, engineering and consulting firm. Mark received his business administration accreditation from Sheridan College in Ontario and additional credentials related to ecommerce from the Ivey School of Business. He completed his CIO MBA at Boston University.
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Mobility and the ability to collect
and utilised in fascinating new ways,
data from the field is also crucial to
such as monitoring conditions at the
PCL’s operations. With the advent of
work-face of construction. “The IoT
smartphones and tablets, the company
platform is 100% data driven, enabling
was able to find a way to gather this
real time alerts to anomalies and is
information more simply. More data
extremely extensible, allowing for the
also meant that an overhaul of the way
addition of new capabilities quickly.
the company performed data analysis
It allows us to make better decisions
was crucial. The launch of PCL’s smart
because now we’re doing something
construction platform Job Site Insights™
with data that wasn’t historically avail-
— a key Internet of Things (IoT) based platform and one of the core focal
able.” says Bryant. Another great example of data
points for the company in 2020 —
being an enabler is a hazard inspection
meant that data could be collected
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
“ PCL Construction is a juggernaut of innovation in the industry” — Mark Bryant, CIO, PCL Construction
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Taking Safety into the Digital Realm CLICK TO WATCH
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
technology to scan photographs and identify hazards. PCL has been able to reduce the time and labour spent on a crucial task — safety inspections — without sacrificing quality. His goal is nothing short of the total digitisation of the construction industry, including how it measures quality, safety, financials, work schedules, performance and more. Data is the essential element of the large-scale
“ Our people and our culture really are the difference. I am passionate and excited about what we’re doing. I couldn’t find a better company to do it at” — Mark Bryant, CIO, PCL Construction
improvement PCL is striving towards, as are close relationships with the
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Providing Project Insight CLICK TO WATCH
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345 partners and suppliers with which
a partner with a vested interest
the company works. Emphasising the
in helping us drive efficiencies.”
collaborative nature of the construc-
Microsoft will also be instrumental
tion industry, Bryant believes that
in PCL’s integration of blockchain into
PCL’s business relationships in 2020
its logistical operations, as well as
are going to be of paramount impor-
billing and receiving.
tance. “I’m really focused on continuing
Similarly, Pype has a special
to build a partner ecosystem of compa-
relationship with PCL; the company
nies that want to share our vision and
leverages Pype’s ‘AutoSpecs’ product
success as we digitise construction.”
to enhance operational efficiencies.
“We have a fantastic relationship
“They’re a great example of a startup
with Microsoft,” he explains
in the construction industry that is
(Microsoft provides PCL’s cloud-
using artificial intelligence (AI) to
based services). “They’re not
review submittals and show us areas
a supplier to us, frankly. They’re
that we should focus on.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
PCL CONSTRUCTION
346
D I D YO U KN OW ?
• The IoT platform is 100% data driven • PCL work on between 700-800 projects each year • 4,000 full-time professional and admin staff and more than 10,000 hourly tradespeople
APRIL 2020
“ I’ve always had an entrepreneurial vibe and a big interest in technology” — Mark Bryant, CIO, PCL Construction
Another partner offering exciting solutions to PCL is Australian company Willow, providing ‘digital twin technology’ to create a virtual model of assets, processes, systems, and other entities. “The concept of a digital twin has been in the airline and automotive industries for years,” says Bryant. “It has not been applied to construction, so Willow will be a significant partner for us in their smart building strategy.” Even though he has established an exciting technological vision, Bryant hasn’t forgotten that changes in the construction industry are not easy to introduce. With new technologies being introduced at breakneck speed, it’s possible that staff will reach a saturation point in their ability to adapt. However, it is by fusing the knowledge w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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PCL CONSTRUCTION
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“ Digitisation is not an option. Digitisation is an absolute necessity” — Mark Bryant, CIO, PCL Construction APRIL 2020
and experience of its field staff and technology staff, who have been working on-site for 40+ years, with the latest IT tech that PCL hopes to gain a major advantage in the market. Adopting a ‘crawl, walk, run’ philosophy of introduction, Bryant is confident that PCL will add new digital aspects at an appropriate pace. “It blows my mind how complicated our business is and how our people do such an excellent job,” he states.
1906
Year founded
$6.95bn Revenue in US dollars
4,000+ Number of employees
This represents the crux of PCL’s
difference between those companies
digital transformation for Bryant: “Our
that realise this and those that don’t.
people and our culture really are the
PCL Construction is a juggernaut of
difference. I am passionate and excited
innovation in the industry and, to me,
about what we’re doing. I couldn’t find
that’s super exciting.”
a better company to do it at.” Thinking about the journey that PCL is embarking upon, Bryant considers the upcoming change to be inevitable. “Digitisation is not an option. Digitisation is an absolute necessity. You’re going to see a big w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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Enabling the future of education with technology WRITTEN BY
WILL GIRLING
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PRODUCED BY
MICHAEL BANYARD
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E M I R AT E S N AT I O N A L S C H O O L S
Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of Information Technology (IT) at ENS, explains how the school’s digital transformation is driving its next-generation educational capabilities
I
t was in 2002 that Emirates National Schools (ENS) first began its journey to become a leader in the UAE education
sector. Based in Mohamed bin Zayed City, ENS was already the recipient of prestige early on, 352
as it had been commissioned by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s presidential decree. The organisation soon expanded to five campuses (Mohamed bin Zayed City, Al Ain City, Abu Dhabi City, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah) and currently teaches more than 12,000 students across the country. Combining elements of curricula from the UAE Ministry of Education, USA Next Generation and Colorado Academic Standards, ENS prides itself on providing its pupils with a rigorous and exceptional educational standard. However, like many organisations seeking to modernise their daily operations, ENS needed help from someone who understood how to harness digital transformation. Abdulrahman Khaiwi joined the company in 2017 after many years
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E M I R AT E S N AT I O N A L S C H O O L S
working in the telecoms industry. “Etisalat was a big chunk of my career,” he explains. “For the last nine years, I was handling the senior manager role and gaining exposure to a lot of the latest and greatest technologies.” Looking for a fresh challenge brought Khaiwi to a sector he hadn’t previously considered: education. “I was thinking to myself, ‘schools, what do they need?’ Then, when I investigated ENS further and saw the size of the school, its multiple locations, its data 354
centre, I realised the opportunity.” After becoming the Head of Information Technology (IT), Khaiwi began a thorough survey of the school’s digital infrastructure.
APRIL 2020
“ When I investigated ENS further and saw the size of the school, its multiple locations, its data centre, I realised the opportunity” — Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT, ENS
Emirates National Schools ( ENS ) — 17 Years of Achievements CLICK TO WATCH
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355 Scheduling multiple meetings with
of working so that the culture shift
school principals, campus directors
could align itself with the people.
and teachers, he started to build
The main challenge, he explains,
a holistic strategy for implementing
was changing the perception of IT
the changes he saw as necessary.
from its ‘legacy’ origins to a more
“I really like challenges; I really adapt
contemporary understanding. “It was
to changes,” he says. “I had to break
seen as only computer and printer
through barriers and shape the
support. They’d have one or two
leadership to the desired culture.”
members of staff on campus and just
Establishing understanding was a
call them for anything.” It was a reac-
critical part of Khaiwi’s plan, as was
tive operating style and one which
fostering ownership and pride in the
never quantified problems or high-
new ways of working to ensure that
lighted areas for improvement with
changes were retained. Then, it was
hard data. “We realised that we could
a case of broadcasting the new way
add value to services and become w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
E M I R AT E S N AT I O N A L S C H O O L S
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“ We listen to others’ experiences and then imagine how it could help us. The main target is keeping our focus always on education” — Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT, ENS
APRIL 2020
part of ENS’ overall mission,” he says.
build a completely modern IT team.
After this revelation, Khaiwi became
After briefing upper management
determined to deliver a smarter, more
about his findings and receiving
efficient way of delivering IT to the
approval, he was able to do just that.
classroom. Using a ‘four-pillared’
Focusing on driving efficiencies,
scheme to focus the transformation
Khaiwi implemented a centralised
(planning, people, vendor manage-
system to allow for an easier way to
ment and customer-centricity), he
manage, monitor and provide solu-
came up with a plan to shape the
tions. Designing simple applications
development. “Without planning you
which empowered teaching staff to
will never achieve any of your targets,
solve their own issues — such as a sin-
or whatever you achieve will be just
gle sign on and self-service portal for
by luck,” he states. His vision was to
changing their own passwords — has 357
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Abdulrahman Khaiwi My career started in Lebanon, working six years in IT Operations in a bank. After, I moved to UAE, Sharjah Municipality as computer operator and programmer for two and half years. From there, I joined Etisalat as Chief Supervisor IT. I spent 25 years of my illustrious employment garnishing accolades and growing my career. The last nine years at Etisalat, I held the position of Senior Manager in charge of operations for all Etisalat Data Centers across the UAE. In early 2017, I joined Emirates National Schools as the Head of IT. My métier is visualising and executing a strategic plan for digital transformation covering all aspects and layers of services. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com
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enabled ENS’ IT department to focus
Regarding the partner companies
on developing more complicated and
that are enabling ENS’ digital trans-
exciting projects: internet of things
formation, Khaiwi says that there
(IoT) integration, augmented reality,
some, like Microsoft, have an influ-
virtual reality, artificial intelligence
ence so widespread that adoption of
(AI) and more. However, of paramount
the technology is simply a necessity,
importance to Khaiwi and the school
not a choice. However, one partner
is the proper implementation of new
providing equally essential and mod-
tech. “We do not just implement
ern technology to ENS’ classrooms
‘hyped’ technology for the sake of
is BenQ, a Taiwanese consumer
it,” he remarks. “We listen to others’
electronics company. Supplying inter-
experiences and then imagine how it
active flat panels (IFPs) which allow
could help us. The main
the exchange of information, video
target is keeping our focus always
capabilities and interactive features
on education.”
not previously available, Khaiwi isn’t
APRIL 2020
“ The domain of education is a noble one and needs to be respected, as this is how we prepare the future of our communities”
hesitant in lavishing BenQ’s products with praise. “From day one, I realised they were an extremely helpful tool in the classroom for everyone,” he explains. “They enable the students to open gateways to vast educational resources, truly taking their education to the next level.” With ENS’ digital culture brought up to date and exciting technolo-
— Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT, ENS
gies being trialled for use, Khaiwi is pushing forward with creating new applications. One such development currently in the works is remote
We prepare them to be future leaders CLICK TO WATCH
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1:00
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E M I R AT E S N AT I O N A L S C H O O L S
2002
Year founded
1,000+ Number of employees
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“ I had to break through barriers and shape the leadership to the desired culture” — Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT, ENS
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E M I R AT E S N AT I O N A L S C H O O L S
362
learning or ‘proximity’ learning.
the students and adhere to cultural
“Students in a different classroom
and regulatory guidelines.
can listen, interact and work with the
Proud of ENS’ accomplishments
teacher as if they were standing in
and the work it continues to do, Khaiwi
front of them,” says Khaiwi. “This is
explained what fuels the organisa-
not simply video conferencing; this
tion’s ongoing passion for excellence.
is a complete collaboration enabled
“The domain of education is a noble
by an audio-video solution that can
one and needs to be respected,
even record the session.” However,
as this is how we prepare the future
true to ENS’ philosophy, he is cautious
of our communities.” For Khaiwi, IT
to ensure that all new projects benefit
has an essential role to play in this
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“ We realised that we could add value to services and become part of ENS’ overall mission”
mission. “This is how we shape the future, by giving the new generation an enhanced route to information; to help them improve the world and to make it better.”
— Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT, ENS
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