Technology Magazine – July 2020

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND COLLABORATION WITH THE CLOUD

www.technologymagazine.com

JULY 2020

Combatting COVID-19 through digitalisation

DRIVING INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE WITH 5G Frank Wilde, Vice President Global Center of Excellence at SAP, reveals the power of 5G and data for digital transformation

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WELCOME

W

elcome to the July issue of

the organisation’s strategic ambitions,

Technology magazine!

digital transformation and response to COVID-19.

In this month’s cover feature, we speak to Frank Wilde, Vice President SAP

No matter the size of a company, cyber-

Global Center of Excellence. Wilde tells

security has to be a top priority in the

us all about the power of 5G and data to

age of GDPR and other such frame-

enable digital change in the organisa-

works. Our Top 10, therefore, takes a

tions it servers.

closer look at some of the world’s largest cybersecurity companies and the

Wilde is passionate about a blue sky

protection they offer customers.

approach to innovation that runs through SAP’s work with its customers. “It’s the

Don’t forget to read our other feature

centerpiece of how we’re able to insti-

interviews with WSIB, Cellcard Cambodia,

gate change,” he explains. “Whatever the

Sonae, Bentley Systems, Henkel,

size of the customer or the project, we

UiPath, MED-EL and many more.

work closely and collaboratively to drive success. I love solving problems - we all

Do you have a story to tell? If you would

do - and working together on the strat-

like to be featured in an upcoming issue

egy, the process and technology.”

of Technology magazine, get in touch at william.smith@bizclikmedia.com

We also hear from Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and

Enjoy the issue!

Digital at DuluxGroup, who discusses

William Smith

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03

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05

PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก PRODUCTION MANAGER

Owen Martin

Kristofer Palmer Jake Megeary Lewis Vaughan James Berry Craig Killingback Stuart Irving Scott George

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

William Smith EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Kieran Waite Sam Kemp

Matt High

MARKETING DIRECTOR

James White

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Leigh Manning

DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Steve Shipley

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

Jason Westgate

Shirin Sadr

PRESIDENT & CEO

CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Erin Hancox Sophia Forte Sophie-Ann Pinnell

DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

Kayleigh Shooter PROJECT DIRECTORS

Mike Sadr

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

Glen White

CONTENTS

56

Why endpoints are facing new cybersecurity threats

12 DuluxGroup’s agile digital evolution

66

The top five CRM software vendors

78

Why the cloud is vital for enterprise machine learning

40 The intelligent enterprise driven by 5G

90

Cybersecurity companies

108 WSIB

148

SMC Corporation of America

166

Bentley Systems

132

NIH STRIDES Initiative

ericsson.com/ 5g-switch

Move towards zero touch, cut down on time

Ericsson.

The 5G switch made easy.

With automated provisioning and insight-driven service assurance, Ericsson Dynamic Orchestration simplifies operations, moving you closer to the zero-touch experience.

This means greater savings and shorter time to market.

180

Cellcard

194

Sonae Fashion

212

Henkel

230 UiPath

248 MED-EL

278 Telkom

264

BH Telecom

292

Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital

304

Siemens

316

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

332 Worten

12

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Inside Australia’s iconic brand’s digital transformation WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

KRISTOFER PALMER

a n z . b u s in e s s c hie f. c o m

13

DULUXGROUP

Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital at DuluxGroup, discusses strategic ambitions, digital transformation and COVID-19

I

n much the same way that the First Industrial Revolution was defined by the adoption of mass production techniques

and the adoption of machinery and methodologies that supported that shift, the global evolution into Industry 4.0 has been defined by digital transformation. But to really allow organisations 14

to capture the benefits of the countless digital opportunities, deep shifts must be driven across business’ operating models.

“Everything seems to be a digital disruption or transformation these days” notes Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager of IT and Digital at DuluxGroup. “This tends to create confusion and unrealistic expectations.” Etiemble is a strategy and technology veteran with more than 20 years’ experience in diverse markets in over 20 countries.

“Digital transformation. The same two words can represent so many different situations. At one end of the spectrum you have companies whose core business has been disrupted by digital alternatives.

For them, digital transformation means changing their core business, their ‘raison d’être’, if they want J U LY 2 0 2 0

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w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Securing the city.

SureCity Networks limits attackers abilities to move throughout Networks and Systems. Utilising best of breed software and processes, we are the market leader in the Cyber Security and Network area.

Learn More

SureCity Networks’ role in DuluxGroup’s digital transformation The digital transformation of enterprises, driven by innovative technologies, the shift to broader and more complex networks and migration to the public cloud shows little sign of slowing. And while that transformation brings numerous benefits it also brings greater complexity and an increased threat footprint. As a result, network and cyber security plays a pivotal role in enabling such transformations.

“Digital transformation isn’t a new phenomenon,” says Tim Kirk, Founder and CEO of SureCity Networks. “But, while that transformation journey has been happening for some years, more recently there’s been a significant increase in organisations using multiple public cloud providers and increasing complexity of networks make it harder to prevent and secure networks.”

This shift, says Kirk, has brought significant change to the traditional threat landscape for organisations such as DuluxGroup. “The risk exposure now is very different,” he explains. “As a result of that push towards the public cloud, companies are realising they have a greater number of assets that are publicly facing and which, as a consequence, could be at risk. Our specialty is being able to secure those environments in an agile and creative way that doesn’t hold up their business processes and delivers a best-in-class solution.”

SureCity Networks does this for companies across several sectors, including Dulux Group. The business specialises in network

Tim Kirk @ Sure City Networks

and cyber security, delivering it across three core areas of consultancy, managed services and cyber security products. In working with partners, SureCity Networks limits attackers abilities to move throughout Networks and Systems. They are able to set themselves apart by being a true, vendor and solution agnostic partner.

The company has been working with DuluxGroup for more than two years, transitioning over that period from initial work around public cloud to a far closer relationship. “For any organisation, the crucial aspect is that digital transformation means speed and agility, of course, but the key thing is to do that while maintaining optimal security at all times,” says Kirk.

Tim Kirk Founder & CEO SureCity Networks

DULUXGROUP

“ EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE A DIGITAL DISRUPTION OR TRANSFORMATION THESE DAYS. THIS TENDS TO CREATE CONFUSION AND UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS” — Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital, DuluxGroup to survive. At the other extreme,

18

burning platform, but rather a burning ambition: that’s the space where we play at DuluxGroup,” she explains.

Etiemble joined DuluxGroup early

you have companies that modernise

2018, originally as the company’s CIO.

a few outdated building blocks of their

She recalls the role initially had a rela-

operating model. That can lead to

tively traditional remit and focus. “My

large change from an internal perspec-

initial mandate was classic: software,

tive, but it doesn’t really transform the

ERP, infrastructure, overhauling the

customer experience. And in between,

digital platforms,” she says. But the

you have companies that are able to

other reason she was engaged was

seize opportunities to significantly

to help identify opportunities enabled

enrich the customer experience.

by digital technology, and drive the

It could be new channels to market,

organisational changes required to

personalisation or new services

seize them. “The process of identifying

opened by technology. It’s not a

and implementing new technologies, is almost the easy part, and is never the end goal,” she reminds us. “To deliver value you need to evolve several elements of the operating model (funding, talent, processes, culture…) which creates risks and tensions in the organisation, if not approached constructively. Moving to a digital operating model and value proposition is the equivalent of the teenage years

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Dulux - Fast Trac Incubation Program CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:20

19 for an organisation, with the same level

help them realise their goals. It gives

of soul searching, learning from your

our innovation ambition a very specific,

mistakes, and leaning on your strong

sharp focus.”

fundamentals to iterate and thrive.”

With this customer-centricity at heart, the need for digital uplift

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC AMBITION

touches many areas of the organisa-

“I believe that, as a company, customer-

we opened in 2018 in Merrifield,

centricity is either part of your DNA

Victoria. In building this new plant,

or it is not. One of the things I love about

we applied advanced manufacturing

DuluxGroup is our consumer and

principles, and focused on the end-

customer culture,” she adds. “We’re

to-end digitalisation of all processes.

relentlessly exploring ways to enhance

This future-oriented approach has

our customers’ experience, and bet-

increased efficiency and qual-

ter understand how technology can

ity, reduced time to market, and

tion. “We are very proud of the factory

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“ I BELIEVE THAT, AS A COMPANY, CUSTOMERCENTRICITY IS EITHER PART OF YOUR DNA OR IT IS NOT. ONE OF THE THINGS I LOVE ABOUT DULUXGROUP IS OUR CONSUMER AND CUSTOMER CULTURE” — Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital, DuluxGroup

DULUXGROUP

22 introduced a level of flexibility that will

Etiemble shares one example of

help customise mass paint production.”

improvement enabled by investments

“Creating a superior experience for

in artificial intelligence (AI). “AI features

our customers often means addressing

heavily in our operational roadmaps,

key pain points and providing addi-

particularly around efficiency and cus-

tional services that complement our

tomer experience,” notes Etiemble.

great products. Our ‘Find a Painter’

“We have been leveraging it to empower

service connects you with Dulux

our sales force with real insights and

Accredited painters across Australia,

prompts of the ‘next best conversation’

whilst our live chat connects you with

with their customers.”

an interior designer who can help you

To support innovation in the digital

with what happens to be one of the

space, Etiemble set up an incubator

most difficult decisions you will ever

program providing coaching, connec-

make: “which shade of white should

tions, methodology and resources.

I pick?”

‘Fast-Track’ helps design and test

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new digital services and business

highly structured multi-years trans-

models and accelerate the adoption

formation program which can divert

of entrepreneurial methodologies.

the business’ attention from the mar-

“We are currently testing six exciting

ket and wouldn’t deliver the agility

growth projects whilst building our

shift required. We prefer transfor-

bench strengths.”

mation ambitions underpinned by a series of business-led initiatives,

HOW DULUXGROUP APPROACH THE EXECUTION OF ITS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

from cultural intervention and talent

Large top down programs are not the

clear ownership, as well as the ability

only approach, according to Etiemble.

to honestly measure impact and

“We purposefully stayed clear of a

course correct. There is currently an

acquisition to enabling technology implementation. It provides

23 E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Eglantine Etiemble Title: Executive General Manager, IT and Digital Industry: Consumer Goods Location: Australia A versatile global executive with more than 20 years’ experience running teams and leading transformations across more than 20 countries. An in-house transformer, Etiemble excels as the catalyst for radical, technology-driven business innovation and strategic reform. She has worked as a consultant for Capgemini, led projects for O-I and is the founder of Boomerang Factory. She has degrees in business from Oxford Brookes University and the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de La Rochelle. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Delivering technology excellence Cloud migration Digital transformation E-commerce platforms Robotic process automation

Visit our website Connect with us on social:

“ THE PROCESS OF IDENTIFYING AND IMPLEMENTING NEW TECHNOLOGIES, IS ALMOST THE EASY PART, AND IS NEVER THE END GOAL”

ecommerce platform,” explains Etiemble. “The group approach had been to invest in one big project at a time – usually ERP – that would be implemented across the whole organisation over multiple years. Now we’re embracing the idea of disposable technology that we can build quickly

— Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital, DuluxGroup

for a specific value test, and then

array of initiatives across the group,

is key, given our focus on customer-

constantly evolving to adjust to the

centricity and our particular

lessons we learn as

organisational structure. There’s been

we go,” she says.

a massive shift in understanding that

“Changing our architectural approach,

throw away in six months if needed.”

“This ability to create and deliver specialised software solutions at pace

one size doesn’t fit all. And that with

from monolithic long-term stack to a

the current pace of change, part of our

combination of SaaS and point solu-

technology stack is constantly evolv-

tions integrated into our ERP, was

ing or being replaced,” says Etiemble.

critical as well. DuluxGroup is really a

The DG Tech team members that

combination of medium to large busi-

Etiemble leads are clear in their roles

nesses; more like a cooperative than

as DuluxGroup business leaders.

one large organisation. So, we need

Technology isn’t the goal; enabling

solutions that are more like a Lego set,

DuluxGroup to achieve its ambitions

rather than a couple of big hammers.”

is. A deep belief in co-creation ensures

“We’re focusing on small things, as

that a collective vision is developed

well as larger scale projects. From an

in key areas such as digital marketing,

app that does one very specific job for

innovation, and data and insights.

our customers, to a large integrated

“We can’t do this in isolation,” she w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

25

DULUXGROUP

26

“ DULUXGROUP IS REALLY A COMBINATION OF MEDIUM TO LARGE BUSINESSES; MORE LIKE A COOPERATIVE THAN ONE LARGE ORGANISATION” — Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital, DuluxGroup

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DULUXGROUP

28

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1918

Year founded

$1.8bn+ Revenue in AU$ dollars (2018)

4,000+ Number of employees

says. “We need to take an adaptive approach; understand the systems in which we operate and be prepared to change if necessary.”

Introduction of Design Thinking, Product Management and Agile methodologies – where it makes sense, not because they are the latest trend – and the move to an activity-based working office set-up are key pillars of this transformation. “A key learning for me is to stay clear of “purist” methodology: it is all about what helps the organisation to move forward, and in our case how it will create value for our customers and consumers.

Top row, left to right: Brent Conner, Data and Insights Lead Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital Julie Challinor, Engagement and Innovation Lead

“Understanding the talent and experience required and addressing the talent gap through development plans and talent acquisition was one of our early focuses as well. We were

Middle row left to right: Paul Lobanov, Group Finance Manager Growth & Investment, and Finance Lead for IT The beautiful Dulux dog Sally Sharman, Head of Learning and Capability, and HR Lead for IT

very fortunate to onboard amazing

Bottom row left to right: Simon Crean, Head of Digital Services and Platforms Manni Taylor, Head of EPMO and Architecture Jonathan Treloar, Head of IT Operations

opportunities. We moved as well from

people bringing digital and complex change experience whilst equipping our long-tenured, highly engaged workforce with targeted learning a heavy reliance on a couple of large vendors to real partnerships with a variety of large, medium and small w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

29

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“ DIGITAL DOESN’T HAVE TO BE DISRUPTIVE. 100-YEAROLD ORGANISATIONS CAN HAVE THE PASSION, FOCUS, COURAGE TO KEEP EVOLVING, AND REINVENT THEMSELVES” — Eglantine Etiemble, Executive General Manager, IT and Digital, DuluxGroup

working on more than 15 medium to large projects concurrently.

This will continue in the second half of 2020 as the company is launch-

players, who bring specialised thought

ing an ambitious initiative to improve

leadership and the ability to scale.”

its IT infrastructure and operations,

As a result, a department that used

including reshaping key partner rela-

to complete between one and two

tionships and insourcing most of its

large-scale projects a year is now

offshore services back to Australia.

R E F L E CT I O NS O N CY BERSECU RI T Y

“ Like most companies globally this is a constant challenge.

Technology is changing rapidly but there are some key principles that we apply to manage the very real risks associated with this digital shift.

develop a strong security culture.

Finally, we’ve spent a lot of time building a blended team of internal staff supplemented by strong relationships with both solution providers and managed service providers.

“ At the core is people. First, it’s a strong engagement with our executive to ensure the risk is understood and monitored.

Second, it’s our security awareness and education campaign to equip our staff with sufficient knowledge and to

“ We aren’t a bank, so the team isn’t large, but it’s fit for purpose. The mix of internal staff (supported with ongoing training) and external resourcing has allowed us to focus on what’s important and bring in expertise and thought leadership as required.”

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31

DULUXGROUP

DuluxGroup Partners

32

In the modern enterprise, the capabilities provided by a key network of trusted partners and vendors are just as important as those provided by its internal teams. As everything from software platforms and server real estate to cybersecurity and warehousing solutions shifts towards the as-a-service model, organisations need to collaborate in order to drive efficiency and increase capabilities.

We asked Eglantine Etiemble to reflect on some of the partnerships driving the success of DuluxGroup.

employ a diverse range of technologies.

To meet such diverse needs, we require access to a both broad and cutting edge technical expertise, with the ability to rapidly scale up and down. Creating and maintaining such a large pool of expertise in-house would require large teams as well as investment. Our answer was to partner with NashTech who are providing us with an access to a flexible and wide ranging expertise, which has allowed us to run multiple projects at any time, and maintain over 25 digital assets, as well as 24/7 monitoring

NashTech

1Step Communications

Part of the Harvey Nash Group, Nashtech offers software development, cloud services, managed services, digital transformation and BPS from their development centres in Vietnam.

DuluxGroup provides digital services to a large variety of Business Units that

They are our trusted partner in voice and data. They support our extensive store network, have been heavily involved in redesigning our site network infrastructure and support day-to-day activities like mobile phone procurement. No job is too

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big or too small, and they truly are integral part of our voice and data service delivery.

SureCity Networks

and customers. The company’s proprietary cloud architecture offers comprehensive email security and archiving capabilities, all of which make sure that enterprises such as ours are protected and able to operate effectively in today’s fastchanging security and risk environments.

Such a versatile partner – agile, creative, highly skilled and trusted.

We have partnered with this boutique Australian based organisation closely to establish tailored services, and co-designed a strategic roadmap to significantly uplift our security and network capabilities.

33

Mimecast An absolute leader in the mitigating of risks such as security breaches, data leaks, email-based attacks and more. Mimecast doesn’t just provide innovative solutions, it lives and breathes cloud technology, and works hard to support its partners w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

DULUXGROUP

35

COVID-19

continuity plans – in the context of

The global pandemic forced closures

each business’ specific and evolving

of businesses, lockdown measures

market/industry impacts. This latter

and an adoption of remote working

imperative was largely enabled by

practices on a scale never seen before.

technology,” says Etiemble.

We asked Etiemble how the COVID-19 pandemic affected DuluxGroup.

“When the COVID-19 crisis hit we,

“DuluxGroup Tech team had introduced ambitious programs over the past two years to future proof key

as the executive team, had two key

elements of our architecture, and

priorities. First and foremost, pro-

ensure we were ready for different

tecting the safety of our people and

potential market requirements. Our

customers, whilst protecting their jobs

infrastructure is now mostly hosted in

and livelihoods by ensuring our differ-

Azure. Many of our key applications

ent businesses were ready to adapt

are SaaS. We have a strong cloud-

and safely execute their business

based collaboration suite with Office w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

DULUXGROUP

36

365. We worked with SureCity Networks

one day to the next without dropping

and Telstra to improve the flexibility

a call�.

and reliability of our network. When the

“Analytics played a big role during

Australian Government implemented

the pandemic as well. The insights they

confinement measures, the importance

provided allowed us to build a rich pic-

of that work clearly showed. The office-

ture of our business, our industry and

based workforce remained operational

the market. Analytics also helped us

without disruption. Even our Customer

better assess how to pivot existing busi-

Service teams transitioned home from

nesses, and quickly test new business

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in a constrained environment. So they are quite open, and this gives us more freedom to experiment with new digital channels to market and new digital offerings for customers. It has created an appetite for bolder projects.”

DuluxGroup is on track to weather the storm of COVID-19 and continue to deliver on its growth goals. Reflecting on DuluxGroup’s own evolution, as well as the industry’s, Etiemble says: “Digital doesn’t have to be disruptive. 100-yearold organisations can have the passion, focus, courage to keep evolving, and reinvent themselves. DuluxGroup is a beautiful Australian success story, and its drive for customer-centricity continues to fuel its ambition. As it starts to embrace the full power of digital, there has never been a more exciting time to work in DuluxGroup tech team.” ideas. In that sense they helped us unlock future opportunities, even in that difficult business context.”

Etiemble adds that the past three months have encouraged DuluxGroup to take a bolder approach to innovation.

“The pandemic has changed customer expectations. Customers saw how many organisations had to adapt quickly w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

37

Subscribe to the Technology Podcast

40

The intelligent enterprise driven by 5G WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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SAP SE

Frank Wilde, Vice President Global Center of Excellence at SAP, on the power of 5G and data to enable digital change in organisations “

W

ith 5G, our business technology platform and our IoT capabilities, we can fundamentally change how our custom-

ers operate and go to market, it’s an exciting prospect and represents a step function change for enterprises,” says Frank Wilde, Vice President 42

of the Global Center of Excellence (CoE) at SAP. Wilde is a seasoned technology leader responsible for driving innovation with SAP’s customers using the latest technologies to digitally transform, create enhanced customer experience as well as unlock new revenue streams.

Given such an approach, Wilde and his Global CoE colleagues work closely with customers to use data and technology effectively, to think outside the box and to innovate in a customer-centric fashion.

“We help them think differently about SAP, and think differently about technology,” he explains. “We take a data-driven approach, in doing so we bring a team of data scientists and platform architects, and we help the customer think about their data differently. It’s like a test-drive - we’re not simply driven by a particular technology, for example. Rather, we J U LY 2 0 2 0

43

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SAP SE

“ It’s a level of intelligence and responsiveness that we can bring to life that we haven’t been able to do before” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

show how responsive our platforms and technologies can be, how rapidly we can change their business models, and demonstrate how exciting the possibilities are. Mentally, we really change the dynamic.”

Central to this work with customers is a blue sky approach to innovation that runs through SAP, and is a particular passion for Wilde. “It’s the centerpiece of how we’re able to instigate change,” he explains.

“Whatever the size of the customer

44

or the project, we work closely and collaboratively to drive success. I love solving problems - we all do - and working together on the strategy, the process and technology. An example is work we recently launched with Duke University in North Carolina.

They asked for our help to innovate, and when we sat down together they were unaware of our offerings and had little idea we could support data science and analytics, or that we used a platform-based approach to support innovation. And that’s where open and honest conversations are crucial.

Often, we see that our customers don’t always know what they need, or J U LY 2 0 2 0

SAP 5G and Edge Services Tech CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:34

45 what is available, so that collaborative

- in its most basic form - is like Lego

approach we utilise is key.”

blocks. We can create new busi-

Change is an underlying driver of

nesses or concepts in a very short

our CoE’s work, in particular helping

period of time with predefined and

organisations to better understand

pre-built services, or microservices.

technology so as to navigate a suc-

“The acceleration of moving from

cessful digital transformation. “We

a mainframe environment to being on

now have the ability for business

the cusp of edge services and edge

models on demand to come to life,”

computing, makes it exciting when

Wilde says. “Look at an Uber or a

you can weave together the fabric of a

Lyft, and you’ll see the shift towards

company in short order,” he continues.

a platform-based approach opposed

“You just have to look at the Fortune

to relying on a dedicated application

500 as an example; a third of those

or system to influence change. We

businesses are slated to disappear

base our work around a platform that

from that list in five to seven years w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

5G

CONNECTIVITY

LeAD SPORT TECH A C C E L E R AT O R

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AUTONOMOUS SHUTTLES

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LAKE NONA I M PA C T FORUM

A N

ecosystem

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F O R

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This fast-growing, neo-urban environment was created with the building blocks for the future, and is pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a forward-thinking community. Connectivity, both physical and digital, is the main engine that powers Lake Nona’s innovation ecosystem and is inspiring businesses, institutions and individuals to thrive.

From its technologically rich and innovative infrastructure to its globally recognized clusters of excellence, Lake Nona was created with a foundational strategy that guides not what is needed today, but what is going to be required decades from now to remain a healthy, vibrant and innovative community.

J U A N S A N T O S @ TAV I S T O C K D E V E L O P M E N T C O M PA N Y

SAP SE

SAP Where to Start Tech CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:49

48

- there’s a rapid escalation of new busi-

it forms a powerful proposition that

ness models coming to life enabled by

can bring new technologies and busi-

technology, and it’s really the key trend

ness models to life.” This proposition

that’s dominating right now.”

is the result of a partnership between

In terms of technology, Wilde and

SAP and Verizon that was announced

SAP drive customers to innovate

in October of 2019. The collaboration

and use technology in a customer-

sees Verizon’s network and platform

centric way. To do this, he explains,

capabilities married with SAP’s soft-

the company leverages its 49 years

ware and services.

of experience. “It lets us look at our

Through this work, customers are

customers through a unique lens,” he

able to benefit from new technologies

states. “When you marry data man-

such as 5G, software-defined net-

agement, analytics, and digital supply

working, and Verizon’s Intelligent Edge

chain services into a holistic platform,

Network capabilities. The former is an

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“ With 5G, our business technology platform and our IoT capabilities we can fundamentally change how our customers operate and go to market” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

exciting proposition for both Wilde and SAP. SAP launched its 5G Council in 2018, for example, as a cross-industry collaborative council of SAP customers to better understand the changes necessary to adopt 5G. “5G represents a step function change in terms of capability, it’s like jumping from a bicycle to a race car,” says Wilde. “You’re able to pull together various aspects - data, AI, machine learning and edge services - and build a true hub and platform for innovation. The 5G Council represents a 5G

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Frank Wilde Title: Vice President Company: SAP SE Industry: Software Location: San Francisco Bay Area Frank Wilde leads data and data science innovation focused on telecom & high tech as a Vice President for SAP’s Global Center of Excellence. In this role, Frank’s teams of data scientists and platform architects spark innovative thinking with SAP’s customers through a combination of data science and design thinking.

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

49

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No one likes them.

But problems inspire us to make things better.

Smart loves problems.

From skills gaps to blackouts, city traffic to ocean plastic.

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See current list at ibm.com/trademark. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. ŠInternational Business Machines Corp. 2019. B33820

“ We can create new businesses or concepts in a very short period of time with predefined and pre-built services, or microservices” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

on an Industry 4.0 approach for several manufacturers whereby we have created a 5G environment that can support innovations like autonomous vehicles, augmented reality technology that allows work to be digitally tracked as it flows through the shop floor, and so on.

“Similarly, there’s huge potential in the retail sector,” he continues. “For example, 5G gives us the ability to use video analytics at scale as well as mixed

ecosystem comprising our custom-

reality to scan product contents or

ers, partners and companies such as

look for drug interactions; you can also

Verizon and Ericsson, that addresses

introduce autonomous checkout and

new business models and monetisation strategies. Also, we have worked closely with Deloitte Consulting LLP to create 5G ‘playbooks’ that show what can be brought to life with the power of 5G in specific industries such as retail, manufacturing and oil & gas.”

The technology may still be in its relative early stages, but Wilde sees enormous potential to fundamentally change how businesses approach innovation. In particular, he explains, private deployment of 5G will likely gain significant traction over the next few years. “You look at manufacturing, for example,” Wilde says. “We’ve worked w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

51

SAP SE

“ Where current wireless networks enable a 2D world, 5G and edge computing coupled with SAP’s software platform enable 3D, immersive experiences for consumers and employees” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

52

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other innovations. As I said, 5G forms an entirely new platform upon which we can adopt these technologies for each customer and sector across the value chain. It really is an exciting prospect in terms of transforming business.”

Where that prospect becomes truly innovative, relates Wilde, is when 5G is coupled with edge services. “If I can have the processing occur on an IoT sensor or on a vehicle, then I can create a new experience or service,” he explains, “which means you remove any delays, any latency. It’s a level of intelligence and responsiveness that we can bring to life that we haven’t been able to do before. There are productivity changes there, too - you remove that complexity from the shop floor and change the experiences and effectiveness of workers and you immediately improve output. You’re going to see significant change over the next five to eight years as 5G rolls out, so we are bullish on our predictions in that regard.”

Of course, many of the approaches to business and digital strategies have been disrupted as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. While the impact of a shift to remote working has been felt by many w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

53

SAP SE

SAP Centre of Intelligence Tech CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:31

54

“ 5G represents a stepchange in terms of function and capability, it’s like jumping from a bicycle to a race car” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

industries worldwide, from a technology perspective there is a general sentiment that such a shift will focus many organisations on technology adoption.

For Wilde, 5G and its associated technologies could play a significant role in a post-COVID environment. “It offers a significant opportunity, particularly on the retail side to remove contact or friction from the experience. So, you could introduce technology that shows optimised routes through a store based on previous shopping trips, or mixed reality

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1972

Year founded

$28bn+ Revenue in US dollars

101,150 Number of employees

technology that lets you identify the

36 months you’re going to see a water-

contents of products with an immersive,

shed moment for 5G,” he states. “If I

3D experience. Upon that is the capabil-

look to 2021-22, when customers are

ity to build AI and chatbots, or a level of

able to visualise the proof points we

dynamic content that satisfies consumer

have put in place and the potential of

needs without requiring face to face

edge services, data management and

interaction with a store’s employees.”

5G woven together, then I see a strong

While no one is able to fully predict the ‘new normal’ we face, when it

case for why they should all have it high on their agenda ”

comes to 5G Wilde feels that SAP is well placed in rolling out the technology and working with customers to remain ahead of the curve. “In the next w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

55

CLOUD & CYBER

56

WHY ENDPOINTS ARE FACING NEW CYBERSECURITY THREATS WRITTEN BY

J U LY 2 0 2 0

WILLIA M SMITH

57

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

CLOUD & CYBER

As endpoint devices proliferate on enterprise networks, we understand how companies can manage the cybersecurity risk presented by IoT and working from home

W

hen putting in place a cybersecurity strategy, perhaps the most crucial area to pay attention to is that of the endpoint – the place

where devices such as PCs, laptops, phones, tablets and, increasingly, internet of things (IoT) devices

58

interface with a network.

In an enterprise setting, where it is vital that systems and data remain uncompromised, there are accordingly numerous solutions to ensure equal levels of security across an often very large number of endpoints.

One of the most basic is antivirus software, ensuring that if, for instance, malware infects an employee’s device, it is quarantined then and there without being able to spread.

UP TO DATE As the number of devices within a network proliferates, it becomes important to ensure endpoint devices are kept up to date with software patches or updates. The consequences of not doing so can be extreme, as we saw with the WannaCry ransomware unleashed in 2017, which is believed to have J U LY 2 0 2 0

59

“ IoT is actually [a] medium of interconnection for people” — EY

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Reimagine the impossible

Bring together people, data, and processes to transform your organization.

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Ransomware ‘WannaCry’ attack explained CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:51

61

originated in North Korea. Utilising the

cus Hutchins. Despite that, the United

EternalBlue exploit for the Microsoft

Kingdom’s National Health Service

Windows operating system, the ran-

suffered $100mn in costs caused by

somware spread worldwide over the

the ransomware, highlighting the very

course of a few days despite Micro-

real consequences of operating sys-

soft having previously issued a patch

tems not being kept up to date.

closing the vulnerability. WannaCry’s spread was consequently directly

ENDPOINT DETECTION AND RESPONSE

facilitated by unpatched and old, end-

Such calamities have led to the uptake

of-life versions of operating systems.

of more proactive endpoint protection

As it turns out, much more wide-

technologies, such as endpoint detec-

spread damage was averted by the

tion and response, which is inspired by

discovery of a killswitch by malware

the need to be constantly monitoring

researcher and reformed hacker Mar-

and responding to evolving threats. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

CLOUD & CYBER

“ Business units will increasingly buy IoT-enabled assets without policies for support, data ownership or integration into existing business applications” — Alfonso Velosa, Research Vice President, Gartner

62

Key features of such solutions in-

hunting, threat intelligence and USB

clude the presence of a central data-

device control, while Malwarebytes

base to record endpoint activity and

says its endpoint detection and re-

then analyse, detect and report on

sponse solution detects from the

potential issues such as unusual pro-

cloud and automates threat protec-

cesses or connections, as well

tion, pointing security teams in the

as the capacity to respond to multiple

right direction to fix issues. Technol-

threats at once to avoid being

ogy unicorn SentinelOne, meanwhile,

overwhelmed.

bases its entire offering on an autono-

The large cybersecurity companies

mous AI-powered endpoint protec-

all offer capabilities in this area, with

tion platform - it’s rapid funding high-

Crowdstrike’s Falcon endpoint pro-

lighting the technology industry’s

tection, for instance, including threat

interest in endpoint security.

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63

WORKING FROM HOME Just as cybersecurity professionals were getting used to the new methods, technologies and approaches to endpoint protection, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works, requiring in many cases the rapid spinning up of previously non-existent or neglected work-from-home protocols. Such a move has opened up new avenues of cyber threat exposure, including un-

Gartner’s four primary endpoint detection and response capabilities: • Detect security incidents • Contain the incident at the endpoint • Investigate security incidents • Provide remediation guidance

tested remote working technologies, w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

CLOUD & CYBER

increased activity on networks in-

and response tools as well as virtual

tended for customers and a general-

private networks have become a ne-

ised increased use of online services.

cessity for many organisations. Ac-

When working from home, employ-

cording to McKinsey, the answer for

ees might be tempted to bypass exist-

cybersecurity professionals17/06/2020, involves 10:43

ing controls on access and processes

“focusing on critical operating needs,

that may require extra effort and take

testing plans for managing security

unsecured detours, potentially making

and technology risks, monitoring for

their devices vulnerable, hence why

new cyberthreats, and balancing pro-

aforementioned endpoint detection

tection with business continuity.�

64

Š McKinsey & Company

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“ [Remote working] has opened up new avenues of cyber threat exposure”

tion, identity theft, hacking and, in general, cyber threats.”

It’s a problem that is only growing in scale. Last year, Gartner predicted there would be 5.8 billion enterprise and automotive IoT endpoints in use in 2020, up 21% from 2019, with utilities the biggest market, followed by government and building automation.

What those three segments share is their highly essential nature.

“Overall, end users will need to

IOT

prepare to address an environment

It’s not just traditional endpoints such

where the business units will increas-

as PCs, laptops, phones and tablets

ingly buy IoT-enabled assets without

that pose a threat to networks. With

policies for support, data ownership

the internet of things finding purchase

or integration into existing business

in many and varied industries, from

applications,” said Alfonso Velosa,

manufacturing to restaurants and

research vice president at Gartner.

even people’s homes, their some-

Endpoints, then, represent a highly

times unsecured nature is proving a

changeable and fast evolving part of

considerable headache for those

the cybersecurity landscape, as well

interested in cybersecurity.

as one of the most sensitive. With

According to a report from EY, “IoT

remote working and the inexorable

is actually [a] medium of interconnec-

march of IoT presenting new endpoint

tion for people – and because human

vulnerabilities, cybersecurity profes-

communication is mediated by ma-

sionals have got their hands full en-

chines and is more and more indirect,

suring that the devices we use to

there is a deeply rooted security prob-

connect to networks don’t end up

lem with the possibility of impersona-

compromising them. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

65

IT PROCUREMENT

66

THE TOP FIVE CRM SOFTWARE VENDORS WRITTEN BY

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HARRY MENE AR

67

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

IT PROCUREMENT

68

The right CRM integration can be the difference between creating value and being driven out of the market.

Here are Technology Magazine’s top five CRM choices for the enterprise

T

he phrase “customer is king” has

leads, collect and analyse customer

been a truism for decades.

data and, most importantly, meet the

Today, however, that sentiment

expectations of a customer.

is more accurate than ever before.

In a recent press release, Adam

A business’ ability to understand the

Blitzer, EVP & GM, Marketing Cloud,

needs of its customer base, cultivate

Commerce Cloud and Community

relationships and promote loyalty is

Cloud, at Salesforce noted that: “today,

increasingly the difference between

people expect companies to speak to

being profitable and going bankrupt.

them with the right message, in the right

Customer Relationship Management

tone, at the right time.” Sometimes, the

(CRM) strategies are increasingly

line between nurturing a customer

utilising cutting edge software solutions

relationship through attentive, insightful

to organise contact information, track

communication, and driving that cus-

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69

tomer away with a barrage of pushy

In this article, we consider some

emails can be a very fine one to walk.

of the leading CRM solution providers,

According to data collected by SAP,

and examine what sets their offerings

while 80% of CEOs believe they are

apart in a way that ensures better

delivering a superior customer experi-

customer retention, higher sales and

ence, only 8% of customers agree.

a successful future businesses of

In order to elevate the customer

every size and purpose. With effective

experience to a level that promotes both

CRM adoptions enabling potential

short-term sales and long-term custom-

sales increases of 37% and improve-

er loyalty, modern CRM platforms are

ments in customer satisfaction of up

harnessing everything from artificial

to 45%, the stakes have never been

intelligence (AI) and machine learning

higher for organisations that wish to

(ML) to automation and data analytics.

stay competitive. 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.

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tion options that few of its competitors can rival. Its cloud-based platform means that it’s also one of the most WIth two decades of experience as one

scalable options on the market, and

of the leading enterprise software

can handle huge datasets with its pow-

solution providers, Salesforce has one

erful, AI-driven architecture.

of the most comprehensive CRM

“Expectations around customer

offerings on the market. Its cloud-based

service have never been higher and

platform automates aspects of the lead

that’s why we are constantly innovat-

management and sales process in order

ing on the world’s number one cus-

to empower human workforces.

tomer service platform,” said Bill Pat-

As one of the oldest players in the

terson, EVP and GM, Service Cloud, at

CRM space, Salesforce has a sheer

Salesforce last year. “By doubling-

breadth of customisation and integra-

down on AI, data analytics and busi-

What is Salesforce?

CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:28

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71

IT PROCUREMENT

ness processes, we are empowering companies to build service organisations that can proactively solve customer problems – often without the customer even having to tell them something is broken. Service is transforming fast, and we’re striving to make sure our customers have the most cutting-edge tools to drive their businesses forward.”

It also gives its users access to an

“ Today, people expect companies to speak to them with the right message, in the right tone, at the right time” — Adam Blitzer, EVP & GM, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Community Cloud, Salesforce

even larger business ecosystem, with ready-made in house products that 72

seamlessly integrate into the company’s platform. These include: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud, Quip

customer relationships at scale.

This year, Salesforce was placed in

(a collaboration tool) and Salesforce

the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s

Platform. For users in search of external

2020 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel

apps, the AppExchange grants users

Marketing Hubs. Salesforce is available

access to a slew of programs like Out-

starting at $25 per user, per month for

look, Zapier and Jira, and easily inte-

the streamlined, lower tier offering and

grates them into the existing CRM.

goes up to.

Salesforce’s pricing model, scalability and applications are definitely targeted at larger businesses. While the company has begun offering stream-

A company’s understanding of its cus-

lined SME packages at a lower price

tomer base is essential to providing a

point in recent years, its full potential

stellar customer experience (CX). Ora-

lies in enabling enterprises to manage

cle’s CRM platform excels at providing

J U LY 2 0 2 0

73 deep customer insights that promote

why we are focused on providing power-

exceptional CX from end-to-end. Ora-

ful and actionable insights in context, in

cle prides itself on taking CRM beyond

motion and in real time across the entire

the world of the sales team, integrating

customer experience,” commented

its system across its clients’ compa-

Stephen Fioretti, Vice President Product

nies to automate functions in market-

Management, Oracle Service Cloud.

ing and support as well.

Its CRM On Demand Industry Edition

The platform’s latest version, Oracle CRM On Demand 40, has also intro-

package takes advantage of the com-

duced a mobile sales solution. The

pany’s broad, multi-industry experience

company also offers powerful business

in the automotive, high technology, in-

intelligence, analytics and data man-

surance, life sciences, and wealth man-

agement solutions, all of which inte-

agement sectors. “At Oracle we know

grate with its CRM on demand plat-

there is no such thing as a static and

form. Oracle CRM On Demand starts

predictable customer journey and that’s

at $75 per user, per month. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

IT PROCUREMENT

bring its users in-memory technology and Big Data insights to help drive contextual, personalised customer As one of the world’s largest SaaS

engagement in real time. Covering

providers, with more than 12,000 client

Sales, Marketing, eCommerce and

companies subscribing to its S/4HANA

Customer Service, SAP CRM easily

package worldwide, SAP touches

handles massive sets of customer data,

more areas of the modern enterprise

aggregating and integrating them into

than almost any other business.

a centralised, silo-free pool. This also

Companies that already interact with SAP’s systems and are looking for a

security and privacy for companies

CRM integration might want to consid-

and their customers.

er adopting from close to home. SAP’s 74

means that SAP CRM can boast better

Kristina Morrison, Head of Digital at

CRM offering harnesses the compa-

DC Thomson Media, presided over her

ny’s formidable software pedigree to

company’s CRM integration. “[The SAP

Introduction to HubSpot CRM CLICK TO WATCH

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|

4:48

Customer Data Cloud] was the ‘silver

flagship offering is a free CRM with a

bullet’ that resolved this issue and al-

focus on hassle-free integration.

lowed us to build out our own mini-net-

Boasting clear, concise analytics,

work, creating, in effect, a multisite envi-

unlimited users and data, and real-time

ronment of shops and web sites with a

prospect tracking, HubSpot is a great

single login and preference center.”

first choice for small businesses look-

SAP CRM starts at $58 per user, per

ing to either handle the scaling pro-

month and, unlike most CRM providers,

cess or improve their existing offer-

does not have a freemium level of sub-

ings. Its email integration not only

scription.

gathers client data and tracks interaction histories, but also gives sales and marketing team members breakdowns of their social media activity and pro-

Whereas CRM providers like Salesforce

files, allowing for even more personal-

and Oracle tailor their offerings to large-

ised interactions.

scale organisations looking to scale,

While HubSpot has supported inte-

HubSpot has aimed its own offering

gration with commonly used apps

squarely at the SME segment. For an

since its inception, the company dialed

SME, growth can be seriously hampered

up its focus on growing its platform

by the sudden creation of silos, process

and developer community in 2017. That

breakdowns and other pain points that

year, it integrated a further 65 apps into

come with the scaling process.

its package and today features almost

Early adoption of a CRM can be

400. According to Scott Brinker, VP of

crucial for a company maintaining the

platform ecosystem at Hubspot: “By

agility and personality of a small busi-

giving you the freedom to choose from

ness, even as its customer base begins

an ecosystem of hundreds of integrat-

to grow. Recognising the fact that cost-

ed apps, HubSpot lets you tailor unique

ly subscription fees and large, complex

customer experiences and business

integrations can hamper growth as

capabilities that are seamlessly con-

easily as it can enable it, HubSpot’s

nected through a common platform.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

75

IT PROCUREMENT

Zoho app ecosystem, and integrates smoothly with the company’s email marketing, invoicing, and case manWith an offering that sits somewhere between free SME solutions like HubS-

76

agement tools.

In May, Zoho launched Bigin, a pipe-

pot and premium enterprise offerings

line-centric CRM offering designed

like Salesforce, Zoho has a little some-

specifically for small and micro business

thing for every business. Its software

owners. “Small businesses are the heart

architecture certainly punches above

and soul of our communities and with

its entry-level price point, and is par-

business owners struggling more than

ticularly adept at gathering information

ever right now, our goal is to bring world-

from Linkedin and social media to find

class customer relationship manage-

prospective clients for sales teams.

ment technology to every sized business

Zoho CRM is also part of the larger

at an extremely affordable price,” said

CRM’S BIGGEST TREND: HYPER-PERSONALISATION

According to Social Media Today, and business analytics firm Forrester, 2020 will represent the year in which the marketing sector reaches a tipping point. Automation and data analytics are driving a massive transformation across the industry, as customers come to “expect engagement, tailored to their history,

J U LY 2 0 2 0

preferences, context, and intent,” according to Forrester.

To that end, companies that want to offer the kind of hyperpersonalised customer experiences that drive sales and retention need to unlock the power of the CRM in order to understand and meet their customers’ needs.

Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho.

per month, it’s targeted at individual

“We created Bigin to help small business-

freelance workers, as well as early

es achieve maximum growth with a

stage startups and micro-scale opera-

minimal learning curve. Using the prod-

tions. Zoho also offers a free version of

uct, small businesses are able to stop

its more feature-heavy flagship CRM to

relying on dozens of spreadsheets to

companies with fewer than 10 users,

manage customer activities and instead

and has a tiered pricing structure which

move to a CRM that is easy to use and

starts out at $12 per user per month,

allows them to focus on growing and

but quickly becomes more expensive

building strong customer relationships.”

than other solutions on the market

The package boasts a 30-minute

when scaling, making it the best choice

setup time, as well as built in telephony

for businesses that are starting out

and workflow automation for desktop

small, and don’t expect to grow beyond

and mobile. With a starting price of $7

a medium-sized enterprise in a hurry.

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

77

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

78

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WHY THE CLOUD IS VITAL FOR ENTERPRISE MACHINE LEARNING

WRITTEN BY

WILLIA M SMITH

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

79

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

We examine how big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google are making AI and machine learning accessible to enterprises thanks to the cloud Machine learning, the field of artificial intelligence based on self-improving algorithms, is not overly new to the business world. But with techniques such 80

as deep learning, an approach informed by the brain, increasingly coming to the fore, businesses are identifying new and potentially transformative uses for the technology.

A significant leap forward for deep learning came in 2012, leading it to become the undisputed king of machine learning approaches. These included neural networks being shown to outperform other models in images and speech, while facial recognition took a step forward as Google trained its model to recognise that ubiquitous internet genre, cat videos. Following on from this, a new generation of important machine learning tools and software arrived, including TensorFlow in 2015, while hardware costs decreased as the highly parallel nature of graphics processing units (GPUs) began to be taken advantage of..

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81

“[The cloud allows] businesses to leverage the necessary hardware without the capital expenditure and affording them stable platforms with which to work� w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

83

According to Algorithmia’s 2020

tedious manual processes such as

report, the main use cases for machine

classifying and labeling data sets – im-

learning currently being explored by

ages, for instance. Churn modelling is

businesses are in customer service (i.e.

another highly prized area of explora-

chatbots) and internal cost reduction.

tion, affording companies the ability

But there are a vast array of potential

to predict which customers are likely

applications. Dynamic pricing, for

to be lost and allowing corrective

instance, where a system learns about

measures to be undertaken.

factors like customer interest, demand

It’s clear that machine learning has

and history to adjust prices and entice

a huge amount to offer enterprise – but

purchases. Or the automation of

it’s tricky to know where to get started. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

AI for AI’s sake is a real and ever present danger, with the proliferation of AI solutions meaning some are inevitably akin to snake oil. Even when objectives are clear, there can be a long and winding road to deployment thanks to factors such as difficulty scaling, machine learning technology evolving while a project is underway and difficulties assigning correct budgets thanks to different levels of understanding across company hierarchies.

84

While open-source machine-learning systems are available, they require both significant hardware and the right kind of data science expertise (made harder by the fact the world is experiencing a deficit in people with such skills).

Enter the cloud, one possible solution to this quandary, allowing businesses to leverage the necessary hardware without the capital expenditure and affording them stable platforms with which to work.

Companies can now look forward to the benefits from machine learning without having to themselves becomes technology specialists.

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85

“It’s clear that machine learning has a huge amount to offer enterprise – but it’s tricky to know where to get started” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

GOOGLE CLOUD Google is perhaps the company most

of ecommerce marketplace Carousell

associated with machine learning,

said: “In retail, it’s important to provide

thanks to its development of the

customers with easy access to alterna-

open-source TensorFlow platform,

tive products or recommended

as well as its association with one

add-ons. We train our own machine

of the most advanced machine

learning models with TensorFlow

learning companies – DeepMind and

on AI Platform, and we automate the

its programs such as AlphaGo.

periodic retraining of these models

Intended for enterprise use, Google

86

Lucas Ngoo, co-founder and CTO

with Kubeflow Pipelines. Together

Cloud’s AI Platform combines and

with AI Hub, useful for sharing models

integrates different aspects of the

between data scientists, we can now

machine learning pipeline, from data

iterate faster on our models, and

storage and labeling, to training

automatically deploy them to staging

to deployment.

and production.”

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“In retail, it’s important to provide customers with easy access to alternative products or recommended add-ons” — Lucas Ngoo, CTO, Carousell AWS has also developed specific hardware for machine learning, with an inference chip known as Inferentia, which is intended for sophisticated applications such as search recom-

AWS

mendations, dynamic pricing and

Amazon’s cloud service, AWS offers

automated customer support, and

a wide range of machine learning

is accessible through the cloud.

solutions on the cloud, with Amazon

One prominent customer of AWS’s

claiming that more machine learning

approach to machine learning is

happens on its platform than any-

Disney, which is using machine

where else. Of particular note is

learning to tag and categorise its old

Amazon SageMaker, which is focused

content with metadata.

on simplifying the process of building, training and deploying machine

AWS machine learning customers:

learning models. It does this in part through a web-based visual interface

● Coinbase

allowing for the uploading of data,

● Capital One

the tuning of models and comparisons

● Zendesk

of performance.

● T-Mobile w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

MICROSOFT AZURE Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has built-in machine learning services for enterprises looking to bring machine learning models to bear. With a stated focus on MLOps, the subset of DevOps dealing with correct machine learning development practices, it includes both code-based and drag-and-drop environments in order to accommodate users of all skill levels.

Azure also has a focus on the potential perils of machine learning, 88

building in so-called ‘responsible machine learning’ solutions to mitigate bias in models.

Matthieu Boujonnier, Analytics Application Architect and Data Scientist, Schneider Electric, said:

“With Azure Machine Learning, we can focus our testing on the most accurate models” — Matthieu Boujonnier, Analytics Application Architect and Data Scientist, Schneider Electric J U LY 2 0 2 0

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“With Azure Machine Learning, we can

down costs and opening up possibili-

focus our testing on the most accu-

ties, expect companies of all shapes

rate models and avoid testing

and sizes to leverage the technology

a large range of less valuable models.

going forwards, opening up new

That saves months of time.�

methods of customer interaction,

With the proliferation of machine learning services on the cloud driving

as chatbots are proving, and highlighting areas in need of efficiency. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Cybersecurity companies

90

Technology magazine takes a look at 10 of the world’s most innovative cybersecurity companies and the products they offer customers.

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

J U LY 2 0 2 0

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T O P 10

10

One Identity ALISO VIEJO, CALIFORNIA

With customers including Intel, American Express, Mars, Chevron and Barclays, identity governance and administration company One Identity was recognised in Gartner’s 2019 Magic Quadrant for Identity Governance and Administration. Offering account lifecycle and privileged access management solutions, One Identity’s suite of products includes a password manager, active role directory, cloud identity governance and an identity manager, to ensure the hybrid, multi-platform environments inherent to digital transformation don’t 92

compromise cybersecurity.

One Identity: Meet the Team CLICK TO WATCH

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09

Absolute

VANCOUVER, CANADA

Absolute is a provider of endpoint security, with self-healing technology designed to keep devices, data, applications and users safe, both on and off corporate networks. Its flagship firmwareintegrated Persistence technology is said by the company to be trusted by over 12,000 customers worldwide, thanks to its ability to guarantee the persistence of applications or data, reinstalling anything that’s missing – even in the case of a swapped out hard drive.

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08

Deep Instinct NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Deep Instinct claims to be the first company to apply deep learning, the neural-network based approach to machine learning, to the problem of cybersecurity. The company’s technology can learn to detect any type of cyber threat, and thus become capable of responding to zeroday and other attacks in real-time. With new malware being constantly developed and deployed, Deep Instinct says it takes a proactive approach to cybersecurity as the threat landscape evolves.

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T O P 10

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07

Kount

BOISE, IDAHO

Fraud management and identity verification company Kount builds software intended for use by digital and ecommerce businesses.

Having raised $80mn of funding back in 2015, the company says its customers include over 6,500 companies and payment providers. Operating a real-time fraud prevention network, Kount utilises artificial intelligence to analyse signals from over 32 billion interactions a year to identify digital fraud.

J U LY 2 0 2 0

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Centrify

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA

Privileged Access Management (PAM) firm Centrify offers a new, multi-cloud based approach to an issue that often inhibits the scaling up of digital transformation. As more sensitive systems are made accessible to more employees, it is critical to control who has access - hence why Centrify centralises previously fragmented identities in order to be able to grant access based on identity, context and risk assessment. Centrify says that over half of the Fortune 100 uses its products.

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Centrify Vision CLICK TO WATCH

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We lead so you can thrive Now is not the time to wonder about your security.

In these rapidly changing times, you shouldn’t have to worry about your security program. Rapid7 is here to help you reduce risk across your entire connected environment so your company can focus on what matters most. Whether you need to easily manage vulnerabilities, monitor for malicious behavior, investigate and shut down attacks, or automate your operations — we have solutions and guidance for you.

EXPLORE OUR SOLUTIONS

CONTACT US

L EA R N MO R E www.rapid7.com | info@rapid7.com

05

Infoblox

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA

Operating on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, network security firm Infoblox utilises automation to protect enterprises from cyberattacks. With over 14 billion threat indicators taken into account, its automated approach to cybersecurity is said to be capable of reducing manual tasks by 70%, and annual costs by more than $1mn. The company boasts 8,000 customers worldwide, including GSK, Nestle, eBay, HP and 350 of the Fortune 500.

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T O P 10

04

Mimecast

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Cybersecurity firm Mimecast has a particular focus on email safety, including guarding against phishing, ransomware and impersonation, but has expanded its remit to other offerings. These include a cloud suite for web security, protecting against malware and inappropriate websites, simplified data protection to aid resilience and compliance, awareness training and uptime assurance. Operating a cybersecurity platform with open APIs, Mimecast’s offering also plays nice with existing solutions.

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BlackBerry: Intelligent Security. Everywhere.

CLICK TO WATCH

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03

BlackBerry WATERLOO, CANADA

BlackBerry has successfully reinvented itself from being a manufacturer of high-end, business-oriented mobile phones to a cybersecurity software firm. With security always a big selling point of its handsets, it has propelled that reputation forwards, with customers including all G7 governments and 15 of the G20.

The company’s network management software is aimed at ensuring the security of emerging internet of things products such as smartphones, medical devices, cars and industrial machinery.

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COMING SOON

FIND OUT MORE

T O P 10

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02

FireEye

MILPITAS, CALIFORNIA

Intelligence security firm FireEye emphasises the role of not just technology, but expertise and intelligence, in defeating cyber attacks.

It combines its real-time knowledge of the threat landscape with its technological offerings, so that its service can evolve and respond to new breaches. FireEye operates a unified security platform incorporating these different features, known as FireEye Helix.

Its investigative services have been retained in the cases of attacks against organisations such as JP Morgan Chase and Sony Pictures.

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Kevin Mandia: Who is FireEye? CLICK TO WATCH

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T O P 10

CrowdStrike: We Stop. So You Can Go. CLICK TO WATCH | 1:00

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CrowdStrike SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA

CrowdStrike focuses on endpoint protection in the cloud, utilising antivirus and endpoint detection and response technologies alongside an always-running managed hunting service delivered through one agent. It’s approach has drawn significant financial backing, with its latest Serie E round raising $200mn in 2018.

According to CrowdStrike, its customers include three of the world’s ten largest companies by revenue, as well as a number of the largest essential services in the form of financial institutions, healthcare providers and energy companies.

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Combatting COVID-19 with rapid digitalisation

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WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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WSIB

Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer at WSIB, discusses industry trends, digital transformation and the impact of COVID-19

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W

ithin the insurance industry, Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Workplace Safety and Insurance

Board (WSIB) has seen the sector mirror what the organisation itself is experiencing internally. “It’s that customer focus,” says Liscio. “Our customers want to be able to deal with us anytime, anywhere and however they want, so we need to ensure that our products and services support that. This trend is one of six key drivers for our 2020 IT strategy at WSIB, to develop new channels and a sustainable operating model that are digitally focused as well as digitalising our core services and developing our work-from-home operations. The other five elements of our IT strategy include business intelligence and analytics, cyber and digital security, modernising applications, providing digital infrastructure and modernising our operating models, all with the customer experience in mind.”

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Let’s move forward The world is adapting to dierent ways of working and collaborating.

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Rogers & Design and related brand names and logos are trademarks of All other brands and product names are the trademarks of their respective owners.

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WSIB

“ Our customers want to be able to deal with us anytime, anywhere and however they want, so we need to ensure that our products and services support that”

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— Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

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Expanding on the industry trends emerging within insurance, Liscio explains that rapid digitalisation is posing challenges for insurance companies.

“Insurance companies tend to be older companies that have been around a long time and have been built on a foundation of processes developed over decades, sometimes centuries, which can be longstanding and hard to change. These longstanding business models however do need to change to be flexible and adaptable if they are to continue to meet customer expectations.”

Accessing your WSIB data just got easier CLICK TO WATCH

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Leading through extraordinary times The last 3 decades of TCS Canada has been an epic journey partnering with Top Banks & Insurance �rms, Financial Market Infrastructure entities, Crown Corporations, Retailers, Manufacturing �rms, EnergyResource & Utility majors. We have participated in innovation with marquee academic institutions and exciting �ntechs. We have continued to evolve as a leading job creator on IT services and have made foundational impacts igniting the passion of the younger generation through STEM in 21 Canadian cities touching more than 8000 minds (including members of Canada’s indigenous community & other underrepresented groups).

The last 3 months saw a pronounced effect across societies, industries, and economies. During this moment of truth, active employee engagement & well-being globally has been top priority for TCS, while we continue to support mission critical technology backbones of organizations. Financial Services sector is a key vehicle for governments to navigate and heal. From our deep relationships with top �nancial services �rms, we have seen three speci�c thrusts amidst lockdown and an emerging new beginning that pivots on elastic model of Technology, Operations and Workforce.

#bfsi #newbeginning #covid19

Ready to Weather the Storm

PURPOSE DRIVEN

The pandemic has forced organizations to look beyond the products they make and sell to the purpose behind their existence. As they embark on this transformative journey, we will continue to enable our clients’ strategic intent and journey of end-customer purpose centric themes (prosperity for SME segment, wellness of individuals, �nancial health of portfolios) orchestrated through an ecosystem of internal & partner solutions and catalyzed by Open Banking move towards pan-industry collaboration.

RESILIENT

Our adoption of a Secure Borderless Workspaces (SBWS™) model has ensured service continuity for elevated levels of customer conversations and high consequence transactions (deferrals, payments, investments). Our contextual knowledge has enabled swift realignment of efforts on government (Canada, US) relief & cross-segment (individuals, businesses) customer care imperatives while sustaining paramount initiatives around �nance, risk, cyber and �nancial crime using cognitive solutions.

ADAPTABLE

We are actively participating in endeavors around accelerated intelligent responsive processes, digital parity across channels, insights driven decisioning, open & agile architecture, elastic infrastructure to be operationally nimble and strategically progressive addressing the changing environment.

We are privileged to be a key partner for WSIB, who has 106 years’ heritage and organizational purpose of wellness protecting and promoting healthy & safe workplaces. We enabled 100% of our team working remotely within �rst 2 weeks of lock-down. We accelerated digital journey transformation for low touch frictionless experiences for all - employees, businesses, and healthcare providers - for claims registration, administration, and return-to-work.

To pivot this change management and organizational redesign, we envisaged a strategy for enterprise quality management and operating agility.

Manmeet Chhabra

Business Head, Banking-Financial Services & Insurance, Canada Business Head, Banking-Financial Services & Insurance, Canada

As human ingenuity embarks on a new beginning, we look forward to meaningful contributions to Canadian industries for engendering resilience, driving adaptability, and enabling customer & societal purpose.

Having lived the reality of major transformations, our highly adaptable team supports all aspects of business change, including strategy development, digital and data driven process and service improvement, program execution management and the establishment of an enabling culture.

Our services www.avenai.com

Contact us

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When it comes to its own IT strategy,

needs met within the first MVP. Before,

Liscio explains that WSIB adopts an

that would have taken us more than

agile approach for rapid innovation

a year to develop a solution, by gather-

which encompases three key areas

ing requirements, working on those,

working together to develop a minimum

developing, testing, and then putting

viable product (MVP). “These key areas

into production. With our new approach

include service design with a human

we have been able to bring projects

centered design approach, followed

live within three months of starting an

by product owners identifying friction

MVP which immediately addresses the

points. Finally the DevsOp group takes

key customer pain points, and provides

a scrum based approach to developing

a base for opportunities to build addi-

MVPs to target customer pain points.

tional functionality incrementally. This

With this ‘digital factory’ approach you

approach has become our foundation

can get about 80% of those immediate

for the future.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

“ There are so many opportunities for IoT in the worker’s compensation space, especially as it relates to health and safety” — Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Many of WSIB’s new digital products are the outcome of this approach, which it has engaged with key partners for its agile-based solution development. “Within the last few months, partners such as Wipro and others have helped us develop a new service that provides secure digital access to claims information for injured workers.

TCS – Tata consulting services – is our strategic partner and have been instrumental in transforming our end-to-end quality assurance process with industry best practices and innovations in the area of Automation, AI, Cloud Testing and Test Data Management,

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Samantha Liscio As Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Samantha leads digital transformation, leveraging technology to streamline processes and modernize the business, helping the WSIB provide responsive services to customers. Samantha drives IT service excellence and directs innovation while ensuring value from technology investments. Samantha has over 20 years of experience in IT leadership roles in eHealth Ontario, Accenture, and the Ontario Public Service. Currently Samantha serves on the Ryerson University IT Business Management Program Advisory Council and the Toronto CIO Governing Body. She is a past board chair for Cornerstone Family Violence Prevention and a past board member of the CIO Association of Canada and the Institute for Citizen-Centred Services.

Samantha holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a PhD from Queen’s University in Belfast. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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WSIB

which has meant that we’ve eliminated 95% of the defects from our projects by implementing the optimized approach and methodology that TCS has helped us with. In addition to this we are also looking into opportunities to harness RPA, within our operations which is also something that we are working on with TCS.” As part of the company’s digital strategy to drive digitalisation in the heart of its operations, Liscio details the company’s adoption of cloud, internet 122

of things (IoT) and AI-enabled analytics.

CLOUD “For the WSIB, cloud is an opportunity to significantly accelerate the delivery of value, both to our internal business and to our end customers. From an IT perspective, cloud deployments can help to reduce risk. It’s complicated and expensive to host, deploy and maintain software that’s at the core of your business, and so increasingly big vendors offer those types of services better than we can ourselves. They can help us to use cloud native capabilities and drive innovations. WSIB’s cloud strategy focuses on the implementation J U LY 2 0 2 0

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How CGI helped WSIB transition to a fully remote workforce When Ontario Public Health declared a ‘Work From Home’ policy due to COVID-19, the WSIB, like many organizations, faced an unprecedented challenge: How to quickly transition to a fully remote workforce while maintaining service levels for employers, and payment continuity for injured workers.

WSIB and CGI mobilized and united the resources necessary, including senior management, technology, and expert personnel. With highly collaborative and creative thinking, WSIB and CGI were able to overcome conventional limitations and transition 4,300 WSIB workers and their IT devices into a remote workforce.

Careful planning and crisis management from the deployed CGI service teams paid off when each team readily handled the spike in call volumes and increased handling times as WSIB workers moved home. It was imperative that WSIB data remained secure outside the traditional working environment, and that end users experienced no service degradation despite the increased load on technological infrastructure.

“

Together, WSIB and CGI rapidly implemented a range of risk management approaches to preserve the customer experience of the WSIB workforce.

This included digitizing document handling, remote desktop re-configuration, creating a new toll-free helpline, and redeploying a number of support teams. WSIB and CGI were subsequently able to guide WSIB workers through the challenges of setting up their workstations from home while in parallel CGI quickly configured and issued over a 1,500 new laptops.

In just over 3 weeks, WSIB and CGI demonstrated resiliency in crisis by transitioning all WSIB workers to remote work arrangements while maintaining critical service levels and uninterrupted payments to injured workers.

CGI’s exceptional support enabled the WSIB to maintain critical services to injured people from distributed locations while transitioning from a traditional bricks and mortar operation to facilitating employees working from home. I look forward to continuing this partnership and working collaboratively together.

– Samantha Liscio, WSIB Chief Technology & Innovation Officer

ABOUT CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.

Operating across the globe, CGI delivers end-to-end capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions, helping clients achieve their goals, including becoming customer-centric digital enterprises.

“

WSIB engaged CGI to support their transition to the new working reality by providing tailored end user computing and service desk solutions.

of a hybrid cloud service model using

We’ve been thinking very carefully

both public and private cloud, with

about what our infrastructure needs

partners such as Microsoft Azure and

to look like when it comes to the cloud

IBM. As a result we have a specific

and we are now underway with our

software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution

key partners.”

approach that’s aligned to our application strategy. We also have database

INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

and integration-as-a-service offerings

“With the internet of things (IoT), it’s

and we are introducing other platform-

an interesting point on our innovation

as-a-service capabilities and providing

radar right now. There are so many

Windows and Linux virtual machines as

opportunities for IoT in the worker’s

an infrastructure-as-a-service offering.

compensation space, especially as

This is all underpinned by a restructured

it relates to health and safety. So our

network architecture and cloud man-

innovation lab is exploring things like

agement platform.

connected devices that can detect

“ When the emergency was declared in Ontario in the middle of March, the WSIB saw its remote workforce increase from about 2% to more than 99% of the workforce in the space of about 10 days” — Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

fatigue. Devices that can be connected to the wearer or the dashboard of a truck — or both – that can detect if they’re falling asleep and can alert them. We’re also looking at things like proper posture and biomechanics which are especially important in the construction industry where people are lifting and bending and moving. Having those kinds of devices that can be connected to people or the surroundings to provide real-time feedback rather than corrective action after, this is something really interesting that we are working on in the lab relating to IoT.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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AI ENABLED ANALYTICS “On the analytics side, being an insurance organisation, WSIB relies on predictive analytics for things like risk scoring, case based reserving, claims segmentation models, anomaly detection and text mining. As a result, business intelligence and analytics is a key pillar for our IT strategy and we’re investing in the capabilities, the tools and the backend infrastructure to be able to make decisions better and faster. Currently we extricate data from various data marts to create diagnostic 126

and predictive models. We’re in the progress of creating a central data store and intend to leverage in-database analytics that will allow us to execute extensive analytical workloads directly against our data. That’s going to be really important to us in increasing our decision making speed.”

CYBERSECURITY While innovations are revolutionising the insurance industry, it is important to remember that progress comes with challenges, in particular cybersecurity. “At WSIB we operate a 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year security operation center,” J U LY 2 0 2 0

“ Longstanding business models however, do need to change to be flexible and adaptable if they are to continue to meet customer expectations” — Samantha Liscio, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

incidents. So in total that 85 billion was whittled down to roughly 150 incidents requiring action.” In order to combat these potential threats, WSIB has a cybersecurity strategy and strong governance in place. “We’ve assessed our main maturity across security and we’ve taken an inventory of all of our critical data and assets, so we know where our crown jewels are and how those are protected and we’ve applied the appropriate controls to those protections. We also conduct regular testing via the likes of audits and penetration testing, as well as monthly vulnerability assessments.” In addition to harnessing technology to maintain security, WSIB comments Liscio. “We keep track of

has also established a breach response,

all of the security records we receive,

as well as awareness and training

these are essentially all of the potential

programs in place, cyber security intel-

hits on our perimeter from a security

ligence and cyber security insurance.”

perspective, and between January and September last year we had more than

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19

85 billion security records. Of those 85

“When the emergency was declared

billion we sent 19 billion to our security

in Ontario in the middle of March,

information event monitoring system

the WSIB saw its remote workforce

for a second look to determine if they

increase from about 2% to more than

are events that need to be monitored,

99% of the workforce in the space

events that are relevant, events that are

of a few weeks. With that sudden shift

possible threats or events that become

to over 4,000 employees working w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

127

from home, a host of issues can arise,

corporate collaboration tools such as

from inadequate video conferencing

Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams

capabilities due to connectivity at

and OneDrive, as well as encrypting all

the employee’s homes or additional

hard drives so that we could protect

challenges in maintaining security

and manage data remotely.”

of confidential information outside the

In addition to these changes, Liscio

office. But we’ve been able to effectively

explains that provisions have also

direct the company on how best to

been made for specific job functions

work remotely using our virtual private

such as call centers. “You can imagine

network which is robust and secure.

that within a large company like WSIB

We also have multi factor authentica-

there is a large call center and our

tion to ensure secure logins so that

service reps need to be able to answer

those working from home can con-

the phone. So even though they’re at

nect to the WSIB systems and our

home, they still need to be in that call

Your next clearance will be simple CLICK TO WATCH

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WSIB

center environment. To achieve this we turned the WSIB computers into soft phones, rolling out on-screen dial pads to place and control calls from the desktop. In addition we have deployed more than 400 mobile devices in a couple of weeks since the state of emergency, so that end users working from home could maintain critical business services.”

Without the support of its partners, Liscio emphasises, “would not have been able to get more than 4,000 peo130

ple productively working from home within a few weeks without the support of our partners, especially CGI and RCI Rogers who helped us expedite equipment provisioning across their supply

standard technology, providing that

chain and provide after-hours support

kind of flexibility for mobile work. We

for our IT and front-line staff.”

are also quickly digitising hard copy

While this has been a huge change

mail and things like access requests.

for WSIB, Liscio explains that now

When our customers ask for access

they are effectively and productively

to their file, we would typically go find

work from home, “the new normal

all of the paper, scan all of that paper

for us will be one where we probably

and then send them boxes of paper.

won’t be returning to our offices in

With digitised access requests we can

the same way as we worked before

share that information back with them

and things like phones and desktop

through encrypted email, making the

computers will be retired and lap-

need to do these kinds of paper-based

tops and cell phones will be the new

processes again obsolete. In addition

J U LY 2 0 2 0

1914

Year founded

$2,165mn Revenue in US dollars (2018)

5,000

Approximate number of employees

we are pivoting to accelerate the deliv-

changes, premium deferrals, lower

ery of online services for people with

interest rates, volatile investments.

claims, as well as identify additional

Guided by our digital strategy, the

rapid-fire digital transformations and

WSIB will respond by: Creating new

we have adopted an electronic sig-

digital channels and digitizing our core

nature solution to ensure we can still

services, fully implementing a sustain-

procure, approve and authorise things

able IT operating model to support

in a virtual way.

the new digital WSIB and continuing

“Looking ahead, I see the key driv-

to support remote and flexible work.�

ers for change in the InsurTech sector and for the WSIB being very similar.

Post COVID-19 there will be changes in the workforce resulting in revenue w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

131

132 WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

ARRON RAMPLING

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N I H S T R I D E S I N I T I AT I V E

Thomas Shaw, Senior Project Manager, NIH STRIDES Initiative, discusses the transformative ability of cloud and how the project fosters collaboration

I

t was in July 2018 that the first National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for

Discovery, Experimentation and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative was established. Partnering 134

with Google Cloud and then, two months later, with Amazon Web Services (AWS), STRIDES was conceived as a method for the NIH to fully engage with cloud computing and explore its potential for collaborative data sharing. Part of the NIH’s wider strategy for digital transformation (the Strategic Plan for Data Science), STRIDES has and will continue to play an integral role in making the organisation’s biomedical data easier to access, use and integrate, as well as deliver a more costeffective form of data management.

Joining as a Senior Project Manager in October 2018, only one month after the AWS partnership, Thomas Shaw came from a highly experienced technical background: graduating in 1986 with a BSc in Computer Science from the University of North Dakota, Shaw gained experience with the J U LY 2 0 2 0

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Nereus Systems is an integral partner to the success of the National Institute of Health’s cloud migration, inclusive of our award-winning engineering team and program managers. The National Institute of Health engaged with Nereus Systems to provide logistical support as a partner for their migration of cloud data into the Google cloud (GCP) as well as providing project plans, timelines, and timeline projections on training through both in-person and remote learning for their scientist and researcher communities.

LEVERAGE YOUR GOALS

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS FOR A NEW WORLD Cloud ATO Nereus Systems is a next-generation partner and integrator that works with the nation’s most important government customers to help them realize their goals while mitigating their risks. We do this by providing insight into the threat landscape while also working to provide XAAS or anything as a service. Our customers include the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, Department of Energy, the Civilian government, and many of their Subcontractors.

As additional support to our customers, we offer Agencies the ability to fully automate their Authority to Operate within multiple cloud environments.

We are able to meet and fully automate all 6 Steps of the National Institute of Standards and Technologies Risk Management Framework (NIST RMF) while maintaining the continuous monitoring of step 6.

AI/ML As we continue to innovate with our customers and partners, Nereus Systems is investing heavily in AI/ML in real-world applications to be able to utilize the benefits of these developing technologies while being realistic around their limitations. There will never be a Silver Bullet to any problem set, but there are ways in which a holistic approach to IT and Cyber will utilize the best out of leading-edge systems. Deception, lateral spread, and time to remediation through log correlation are areas that we continue to focus on, and provide real value to our customers while being conscious of their IT budgets. Our eyes are on the horizon, and we continually look for innovative partners and solutions so that we can advise and consult as opposed to being “a partner” that bothers their clients.

Cyber Security and NIST We understand that any customer moving into a cloud environment is looking to be able to leverage a multicloud environment for both cost savings as well as the ability to utilize the technical advantages of their prospective cloud providers. But to be truly efficient in the use of cloud and next-generation tools a customer must have confidence in their security and their own compliance posture. At Nereus, we take both of these as the backbone of our mission with our customers.

We continually innovate with our vendor partner community to bring leading-edge security technology to meet the ever-changing landscape. We also overlay this with our NIST 800-171 compliance services that bring our subcontractor community up to the necessary DoD standards required to be able to continue to support their customers. We do this by

Nereus Innovative Cloud Navigation

utilizing the best and most efficient tool sets available to assist in remediation as well as supporting you with your compliance needs. Our goal here is to bring you up to speed as quickly and as painlessly as possible so that you are able to focus on your mission objective and not your compliance posture.

I own a small aerospace engineering services business, and Nereus has been invaluable for helping us get our arms around how to secure and maintain our IT environment.

Before engaging with them, I really didn’t have a clear path for how to successfully verify and maintain compliance to the NIST SP 800-171 requirements. The deep bench of experience that Nereus was able to assemble for me, between their in-house employees and the personnel at their partner network of companies, was impressive and ensured that my system was in good hands. The team members were able to provide us a solid System Security Plan (SSP) update, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) manual, and a vulnerability assessment that identified a number of areas for improvement followed by an easy-tofollow guide for shoring up these vulnerabilities. Nereus was able to provide this much-needed service for us at a price point that was far better than anything else I could find - anywhere (and I’d been very thorough in my searches in the year leading up to our engagement with Nereus).

They have taken a huge weight and worry off of my shoulders, and I’m very happy that I’ve found the to work within securing my company’s systems.

Tim Read, CEO T4 Engineering We take great pride in the clients that we service and adopt their missions as our own. Our collective backgrounds, histories, and work ethic speak for themselves and we hope we can leverage that for your goals.

N I H S T R I D E S I N I T I AT I V E

“ When it comes to healthcare in the US, I’m always curious about how we can advance” — Thomas Shaw, Senior Project Manager, STRIDES Initiative

American Red Cross, the National Center for Biotechnology Information and even NASA. His career has been an intermingling of technology and healthcare, but this is no coincidence: Shaw claims that the challenges of the former and the inherent significance of the latter made it an ideal combination. “What’s most important to me is ‘what am I doing? What’s the project in mind?’” he explains. “When it comes to healthcare in the US, I’m always curious about how we can advance.”

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Recognising the NIH as an organisation devoted to positive change and making a difference in people’s lives, Shaw became the first project manager brought onboard for the STRIDES Initiative and appreciated the team’s open workplace culture: “You can go to anybody and ask for help and people will, regardless of what the issue is,” he says. “At the same time, all of the cloud service providers we are working with display an identical attitude and commitment: It’s not ‘we can’t do this’, rather ‘how can we do this?’ and that’s a wonderful environment to be in.” This aspect has proven particularly crucial because of STRIDES’ sheer scope: J U LY 2 0 2 0

Next Generation Biomedical Research using AWS CLICK TO WATCH

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53:13

139 integrating data from across 2,700

and a variety of reports. Regarding

NIH-funded Institutes and organisa-

the latter, these can take the form of

tions comprising research on topics

monthly spend reports, supplementary

ranging from tooth decay to vaccines),

information and account monitoring

the amount of information necessary to

which will send timely alerts to possible

carry out the project is truly immense.

over-spending.

Offering support services to assist

The fundamentals of the Initiative

in the utilisation of cloud resources, the

rest on three pillars: access, collabora-

STRIDES Initiative covers consulta-

tion and innovation. However, large

tion, structured coordination between

volumes of data require a simplified,

the STRIDES team and the recipient’s

integrated, easy-to-access platform

project or programme, a flexible pro-

in order to be readily accessible and

ject billing setup regardless of how the

cloud computing was the vital ingredi-

research is NIH-funded, cloud training

ent which pulled STRIDES together.

(both in-person and online resources)

According to Shaw, the move to cloud w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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publicsector@hycu.com

was “a big step forward” in the sense

without cloud, such a monumental

that it liberated the sharing of informa-

task might have been too expensive

tion whilst simultaneously maintaining

to execute. “There have been prior

granular control over it. Making the

attempts to do what we’re achieving

information accessible to research

with STRIDES, but, at that time, some

staff without the need to download

of the technology just wasn’t there for

it mitigated the need for substantial

it.” Now that communicating between

investment in servers to house the

teams is easier than ever before, a

NIH’s collective data, thus saving costs

digital, cloud-powered NIH community

significantly. Indeed, Shaw states that,

can explore each others’ work in new

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

141

Thomas Shaw Title: Senior Project Manager

Location: Burke, Virginia

Thomas Shaw is a Senior Project Manager on the NIH STRIDES Initiative.

He received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of North Dakota and a minor in Mathematics. Along with the over 20 years at NIH, he has been the Director of Test Engineering and Configuration Management at the American Red Cross and worked in many different industry sectors including Secure Communications, Industrial Automation and Medical Devices. He brings his wealth of knowledge from these different arenas to the forefront to foster highly functioning teams and is valued for his ability to think outside the box to apply concepts and ideas to solve complex problems in unconventional ways. By seeing the big picture while being able to focus on the details helps mitigate many risks by addressing them ahead of time. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

N I H S T R I D E S I N I T I AT I V E

and interesting ways. “We have an ecosystem where people with access are collaborating which will lead to innovation. I think it’s really going to excite people,” adds Shaw.

STRIDES’ ability to remove or lower barriers to seamless collaboration and data sharing is what Shaw calls “the golden ticket” for working in cloud space. “At this time, incurring egress is the only way to move data from one CSP (cloud service provider) to another. Resolving the barriers of 142

CSP data-sharing will take research to the next level,” he says. Shaw even postulates that a future pandemic on the scale of COVID-19 could be dealt with more effectively within a mature STRIDES ecosystem. The ability to get quick access to cloud resources, NIH-funded datasets and the ability to work closely with fellow researchers would be highly advantageous in the fight against a new virus. “No longer will that vital research remain only in the domain of major universities or organisations,” he continues.

“Instead the playing field will shift to a more level place for research: large funded institutes, researchers at J U LY 2 0 2 0

underserved organisations, post-docs, doctoral candidates and even retired researchers with inspired insights could contribute towards a solution.”

Although there is no way to predict when a similar pandemic might occur again, one thing appears certain: the power of cloud as a binding agent for coordinating a response will form the basis of any effective plan.

The liberating potential of digital transformation is exemplified by NIH’s decision to pursue the STRIDES Initiative, something Shaw claims was the result of upper management’s realisation that its legacy systems would no longer be functional in the modern digital era. Whilst 10 years ago the Initiative’s aims would have been difficult to execute, modern technology has accelerated capacity beyond imagining. “You would not have been able to move 20 petabytes of data up into the cloud in less than a year previously; it would have probably taken a couple of years at best,” he explains.

Such dynamic leaps make the team’s open style of workplace culture even more valuable, as their expertise and receptiveness make them ideal for w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

143

guiding others through the change.

focus include data protection and

Taking the time and effort to organise

monitoring software for multi-cloud

training for NIH staff is something

data centres and providing STRIDES

Shaw takes pride in, particularly for

with an effective and simplified method

those who do not properly understand

for eliminating IT issues before they

the cloud. As such, he considers

become problematic. From infrastruc-

STRIDES to be merely the latest itera-

ture assessments, security reviews,

tion of a project which will continue to

access management, training and

improve over the years: “The goal is to

many other services, STRIDES needs

maintain STRIDES and allow it to con-

collaborators who are as intrepid and

tinue in one form or another.�

inspired to expand the frontiers of bio-

Navigating the future successfully

medical research as it is. Successful

will depend on partners as forward-

partners will be those companies that

thinking as NIH itself. Key areas of

are agile, free flowing and committed to

NIH STRIDES Cloud overview: Key Concepts CLICK TO WATCH

|

11:10

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N I H S T R I D E S I N I T I AT I V E

PA RT N ERSHI PS

146

The STRIDES Initiative’s first partnership was with Google Cloud in July 2018. Joe Corkery, MD, Director of Product, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Google Cloud, said, “We’re committed to working with the NIH to create the best environment possible for biomedical research to f lourish across the country and across the globe. Together, we’re eliminating barriers to accessing and making meaning from the most important datasets: the ones that have the potential to advance science and human health.”

Andrea T. Norris, CIO at NIH, added: “By launching STRIDES, we clearly show our strong commitment to putting the most advanced cloud computing tools in the hands of scientists.

Beyond our partnership with

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Google Cloud, we will seek to add more industry partners to assure that NIH continues to be well poised to support the future of biomedical research.”

Furthermore, “teaming with AWS will give NIH researchers powerful cloud-based resources to more efficiently collaborate and analyze data,” added Norris.

“AWS’s long standing leadership in the cloud space will help bolster the innovative research being conducted through NIH support.”

“We’re committed to providing those researchers participating in the STRIDES Initiative with access to high-value NIH datasets, enabling them to further their research to study, treat, and prevent the most devastating diseases,” said Teresa Carlson, VP at AWS.

“ The goal is to maintain STRIDES and allow it to continue in one form or another” — Thomas Shaw, Senior Project Manager, STRIDES Initiative

as interest has increased. I don’t see much changing as far as our cloud is concerned, apart from an increase in usage as more and more people use it.” Shaw intimates that the ‘new normal’, or the revised attitudes to work in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, could mean that STRIDES has come along at the perfect time. With remote working and a focus on the practical convenience of digital, organisations have awoken to the benefits of operating in a cloud-based system. Now that the collaborative ecosystem, of

the STRIDES Initiative’s mission, whilst

which STRIDES anticipated, is starting

also bringing cutting edge biomedi-

to become essential to the future of

cal information solutions to the cloud

research, Shaw adds that his team’s

space for NIH-funded research.

mission will be to optimise and make it

Looking ahead to the end of 2020

as affordable as possible. “I think, if we

and the short-term future of STRIDES,

develop a superior model, other univer-

Shaw is optimistic that over 100 NIH-

sities will pick up on the idea and buy

funded institutions will have signed

into the STRIDES programme. Then,

up and enrolled in the Initiative, citing

down the road at some point, maybe

a substantial uptick in the usage of

even corporations will do the same.”

cloud resources since the beginning of spring. The reason, he presumes, is the exponential growth of data being generated by facilities within the NIH ecosystem: “The amount of data has quadrupled in the past year w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

147

148

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SMC Corp of America: delivering competitivity through IT WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

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149

S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

Michael Loggins, Global VP of IT at SMC of America, discusses the strategic and technological shifts driving the pneumatics leaders’ performance

S

MC, founded in Japan as Sintered Metal Corporation in 1959, is one of the world’s foremost pneumatic technology

developers and manufacturers with operations in 81 countries. In 1972, the SMC Corporation of America subsidiary was founded on the basis of providing local delivery and strategy for the 150

American market, with that expertise yielding a considerable degree of autonomy as the business grew over the following decades. In recent years and owing to shifts in customers’ technological capabilities and expectations, that localised strategy has changed.

“Every subsidiary was focused almost solely on the customer base within their country,” says Michael Loggins, Global Vice President of IT at SMC USA. “Over the last several years, more and more companies have become unbound by geography - they work and get things done wherever they need to. We’ve created programmes to deal with the largest of those companies that have become global in nature to understand how we can be a better seller to them, to coordinate

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S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

“ We want to make sure we continue to understand our local market, but our customers are expecting us to be and act like a global company” — Michael Loggins, Global Vice President, IT, SMC Corporation of America

our efforts from a manufacturing standpoint and so on.”

These moves towards supporting global customers were only the beginning of a considerable shift in the way SMC operates. “Those major, globalised companies represent a small fraction of our customer base.

We want to make sure we continue

152

to understand our local market, but our customers are expecting us to be and act like a global company so we’ve been trying to figure out the best way to do that. With changes made over the last year, we’re ready to pivot into fully becoming a globally operating company.”

Recirculating chillers and heat exchangers are installed to provide thermal stability for applications in industrial and applied sciences from laser cutting, welding, marking and plastic injection molding. Lab science and analytical equipment applications include: mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, MRIs, CT scanners, radiation therapy machines and other medical equipment.

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SMC Corporation Overview CLICK TO WATCH

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153 Loggins joined the firm in 2006

an IT perspective will be thorough,

as Manager of IT Operations and

considered, and effective. The crux

progressed through a handful of

of his projects and strategies, he

roles within the organisation before

says, is to use IT as the differen-

becoming Global VP of IT in December

tiator that supports SMC’s strategic

2019. The newly-created position is

competitiveness.

an expansion of his recent role as

“The responsibility we’ve taken

Director of IT from 2012 to 2019 which

in IT is to build the infrastructure on

was overlapped by an additional posi-

technological, operational, staff, policy

tion as European Director of IT from

and procedural levels; whatever it

2017 to 2019. With this experience and

takes from an IT standpoint to ensure

understanding of IT that transcends

we can share data and work with each

borders and SMC’s traditional model,

other geographic boundaries in a

Loggins’ leadership is well placed

productive manner,” he explains.

to ensure the necessary shifts from

“We want to make sure that we’re not w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Engineering Led. Customer Focused, Women Owned Lucidia IT provides solutions to help their customers adopt and support advanced technologies within today’s cloud first world.

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S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

156

The CQ2 compact cylinder is the world’s bestselling pneumatic cylinder and is supported globally.

The CQ2 is available in 15 bore sizes from 12mm to 200mm. It comes standard with male or female piston rod threads. 42 standard options make it one of the most versatile cylinder series on the market.

For mounting flexibility, it is possible to mount auto switches on any of the 4 surfaces.

a global company as a facade, but that

technologies such as IoT, automation,

we actually operate as one in front of

and the data streams that tie opera-

our customers and other subsidiaries

tions together as other major triggers

whilst enabling SMC to maintain its

for the transformation. “Our custom-

status as the world leader in pneu-

ers are changing,” Loggins notes.

matic manufacturing components.”

“You’re not just solving a mechanical

Loggins highlights the infusion

problem any more, you’re also solving

of tech capabilities with sales and

a data problem, a connectivity problem,

marketing, the use of authentically

a whole range of technological vari-

produced YouTube videos showcas-

ables.” Throughout the transformation,

ing the firm’s offering, and the need to

SMC has ensured that its product

react to the growing scope of smart

delivery meets the full suite of these

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“ The cool thing, especially from an agile cultural standpoint, is that we’re not leading RPA’s implementation, the other areas of the business are guiding it” — Michael Loggins, Global Vice President, IT, SMC Corporation of America

needs, maximising value to customers by providing a single source of solutions that operate as moving parts of SMC’s product ecosystem, cutting the need for multiple vendors exerting influence on process success.

Enacting change began with assessing and understanding value at a cultural level, guided by the need from a company standpoint for IT to add value both internally and externally.

“One of the hardest questions from a cultural standpoint has been: how do you determine value without inherent,

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Michael Loggins Title: Global Vice President of Information Technology Industry: Industrial Automation Location: Indiana Michael Loggins is the Global Vice President of IT at SMC Corporation of America. Having joined in 2006 as a Manager of IT before rising to the Director of IT position in 2012. In 2017, this position was coupled with an additional role as European Director of IT, with both concluding in 2019 so he could assume his new and current position. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

157

M O S E R I T. C O M

CONCENTRATED ON TECNOLOGY

FOCUSED ON RESULTS LEARN MORE 

quantifiable indicators of this given to us for specific projects? How do you deliver against that value? We’re not picking tasks apart or doing large, epic, seemingly endless projects. We’re trying to break that down and ensure value at the point of delivery.”

Loggins says that implementing

1972

Year founded

1,160 Number of employees

KPIs to measure deliverable value is a key project and a considerable chal-

new metrics, he says, can be a point

lenge, particularly as the traditionally

of friction, but they are essential to

structured and mechanically-minded

effectively communicating the value

organisation has operated for many

that SMC delivers. “Uptime, delivery

years on the basis of metrics relative

and lead-times have always been

to those qualities. The introduction of

captured but have not previously been

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How does the SIF-400, the training system for Industry 4.0, work?

CLICK TO WATCH

|

4:18

159 viewed through the lens of what they

could only be scaled by adding more

mean to the culture or to the value

people.” The introduction of robotic

we provide.”

process automation (RPA) began in

From a technological standpoint,

Europe under Loggins’ leadership,

Loggins notes automation as one of

and is now being implemented for

the key and recent elements of the

the US operations as well. “The cool

transformation. “SMC’s bread and

thing, especially from an agile cultural

butter is making components that

standpoint, is that we’re not leading

allow other manufacturers to auto-

it, the other areas of the business

mate their processes. Despite that,

are. They’re assessing the processes

a lot of our back-end, knowledge-

they want to be automated while we

based processes are still very manual,

provide the guidance and solutions

time consuming and require large

for them to conduct their own system

systems to complete the work at

development and do what they need

scale. As we grew, those processes

to do.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

160

“ We’re not picking tasks apart or doing large, epic, seemingly endless projects.

We’re trying to break that down and ensure value at the point of delivery” — Michael Loggins, Global Vice President, IT, SMC Corporation of America

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S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

THE WORLD IS CHANGING Is your business positioned for

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“ With changes made over the last year, we’re ready to pivot into fully becoming a globally operating company” — Michael Loggins, Global Vice President, IT, SMC Corporation of America LU CI DI A I T AN D DELL

The streamlining of processes through automation offers enormous benefits both to SMC and its customers, with faster delivery and the labour saved for its workforce being crucial. The core of the transformation, Loggins says, is SMC’s people. “Aptitude is important but attitude is critical,” he says and, as drivers of the transformation on the ground, SMC’s staff have been rewarded with an increase in knowledge-based tasks in tandem with the reduction of repetitive ones, and positive shifts in work-life

“Lucidia IT and Dell have been our infrastructure partners for around 10 years, and over the last three years they’ve been integral to designing and building our next generation end user compute platforms in the US and now, of course, globally.

We’re in the process of building data centres in Europe and we’re in the architecture and design phase for Asia, and both Lucidia and Dell have done a great job of partnering with our teams to make sure they deliver exactly what we need.”

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S M C C O R P O R AT I O N O F A M E R I C A

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M O SER CO N SU LT I N G

“Moser originally came in to help SMC build security, governance and compliance frameworks around three years ago. Since then, we have been leveraging Moser Consulting to help with governance, risk and compliance maturity for our projects across

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the globe. We’re trying now to scale our US-implemented framework and programmes with additional maturity across the globe, and Moser is essential to this. Moser has a great deal of talent, and its culture is very similar to our own which helps with adaptability.�

165

balances. This focus on employees

behaviours that Loggins and his

ensures high retention, and there

team have been seeking to imbue

is considerable mobility between

across operations.

different business units that enable a breed of cohesion that is only possible through mutual understandings between departments. Not only that, but these qualities ensure the workforce is adaptable, emblematising the Agile methodologies and w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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Bentley Systems’ cloud offering drives business resilience WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE

PRODUCED BY

ARRON RAMPLING

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167

BENTLEY SYSTEMS

Jeff Richardson, CDO at Bentley Systems, discusses the state of the art cloud infrastructure that benefits internal and external stakeholders

T

he global business community has responded to the coronavirus pandemic with considerably more focus on remote

working than has ever been seen before. For every industry, from media to construction, demand 168

has rocketed for technological solutions that will enable continued operations with minimal disruption. Bentley Systems, a world-leading software solutions developer serving major infrastructural construction projects around the world, has long been a proponent of this breed of tech, and today boasts a cutting edge cloud infrastructure whose benefits are more apparent than ever. In normal times, its end-to-end suite of software solutions for such large projects ensures a seamlessness of delivery for its users while cutting-edge telemetry capabilities mean development and subscriptions are current, flexible, and fair. All of that remains true during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global crisis has revealed that Bentley’s greatest strength is perhaps in the flexibility it offers both external and internal stakeholders.

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Jeff Richardson, CDO, Bentley Systems

169

1984

Year founded

$700mn Revenue in US dollars

3,800 Number of employees

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BENTLEY SYSTEMS

“ We use the rules of compliance as foundational guidelines, and we always try to exceed those guidelines by orders of magnitude” 170

— Jeff Richardson, Chief Data Officer, Bentley Systems

Jeff Richardson, Chief Data Officer at Bentley Systems, has been with the company since 2004, rising through the ranks from an SAP developer to the head of the firm’s data lifecycle and data strategies. In Richardson’s view, ‘global mobility’ is 2020’s key trend, and it has certainly become the undercurrent for business in a world where face-to-face contact is being kept to a minimum.

“Businesses have quickly tried to adapt to global mobility now that face-toface culture is out the window, and we instead need to have a culture of ‘can you do your job globally, but remotely to where you are?’” he says.

The scope of the construction projects that Bentley facilitates means the capability required goes way beyond the collaboration tools and Zoom meetings that have come to pervade many industries. Building a 100-storey skyscraper, for example, comes with immense data requirements, with file sizes spanning gigabytes and terabytes. “A single BIM model, made of the structural elements of the building, could be many, many gigabytes of data. The question is: how do remote workers seamlessly

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Bentley Systems: ProjectWise Components Center Overview CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:26

171 access files of that size to make edits,

on integrating a robust and industry-

updates and run analyses?”

leading cloud security platform. Along

Bentley’s state-of-the-art

with instituting a security office, we

ProjectWise 365 tools provide the

have beefed up our security staff and

answer, with distributed file sharing

infrastructure by around 800% in

and caching technology that enable

the past five years, we’re constantly

workers to easily operate within the

running penetration exercises on our

cloud regardless of where and when

cloud infrastructure, and we are just

they are, all with the confidence that

now implementing mock data breach

the system is secure and continually

scenarios with our larger cloud infra-

stress-tested against potential threats.

structure compliance and data teams.

“Living in a cloud-focused world,

As we store more and more of our

security is huge for us. Our CIO, Claire

users’ data in the cloud, it is both our

Rutkowski, came on board in October

responsibility and desire to be as safe

2016 and has been heavily focused

and resilient as possible.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

BENTLEY SYSTEMS

172

During this period of business

‘ELS contracts’, Richardson explains:

instability and uncertainty, Bentley’s

“We were selling contracts like that as

protections for its customers have

far as back as 2006 - I’ve never heard

extended beyond its cybersecurity.

of another company that was doing

Owing to the business disruptions, the

the same that far back in time. With

company has waived the pay-what-you-

the light telemetry we had available

use subscription fees for ProjectWise

to measure usage, we were able to

through to 30 September 2020; a

do that.” Data gathered from across

measure that ties closely with Bentley’s

software suites has not only enabled

mantra that its success is measured

reactive and incisive development of

by that of its users. The firm has been

successive products, but has made

a pioneer of this payment-by-usage

the pay-for-what-you-use model the

subscription model, known internally as

norm for Bentley for over a decade.

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E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Jeff Richardson Jeff Richardson is a seasoned data and analytics executive leader with a cloud-first focus on evolving technology and trends.

Over a 17-year career, he has crafted a results-driven strategy for growth and delivered outcomes which have helped Bentley achieve a leading position in cloud technology, record revenue and user growth.

Today, the latest data measurements are even more precise and complex, making for a robust service model that is accurately proportionate to the user’s needs. Not only does each contract have an unlimited potential value ceiling for Bentley, they also ensure users are never encumbered with a subscription that they don’t need and actively use. The tech also paints a

A prolific speaker on the topics of cloud, data and analytics, Richardson can often be found at conferences and networking events in the Greater Philadelphia and mid-Atlantic area.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Providence College, where he was also a Division I swimmer, a master’s degree in Statistics from Central Connecticut State University and recently completed a business capstone program at Yale University.

picture of the usage increase that has come with vaster proportions of workforces working from home during the w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

173

BENTLEY SYSTEMS

For an open relationship with your data.

Multi-cloud Data Integration & Analytics | qlik.com

175 COVID-19 pandemic. “When the crisis hit, many companies who were using other, server-based products in offices became stuck and couldn’t access those resources. For our customers, the users of our distributed cloud products, the transition was seamless and we can actually see that in the telemetry. It shows us that our work-sharing products had no disruption in usage during the country-based shutdowns resulting from the pandemic. In fact, our collaboration tools actually saw an 8-13% increase in usage, year on year,

“ A single BIM model, made of the structural elements of the building, could be many, many gigabytes of data. The question is: how do remote workers seamlessly access files of that size to make edits, updates, and run analysis” — Jeff Richardson, Chief Data Officer, Bentley Systems

from last year.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

BENTLEY SYSTEMS

Partners enabled us to build an analytical suite in conjunction with our Microsoft Azure partnership.”

176

“Bentley tends to partner with software vendors very tightly to build solutions for things that work for us and can be fed back into the larger software development ecosystem. SAP is a great example, and we’ve been a tight partner with them since about 2005. We use SAP for all of our internal applications, such as ERP and CRM systems, to run operations internally along with its people management and success factors. We work very closely with SAP to develop products that we’re going to use, and I’m positive that development is used to enhance SAP’s only products too.”

“Over the past ten years, Qlik has been a great software vendor and partner for Bentley. We’re using the most recent release of its cloudfocused Sense technology, and it has J U LY 2 0 2 0

“I have a close relationship with a lot of the guys that started the company.

As an analytics and data storagefocused cloud developer, Thoughtspot is positioned to be the market leader in cloud-based analytics.”

“We recently partnered with Snowflake to support our cloud-first approach, and it is rapidly growing to become the leader in data warehousing and storage technology. We’re going to use Snowflake internally to store our featurelevel data, which consists of huge amounts of highly detailed telemetry data. Their pricing structure is very elastic, with a fair billing model focused on pay-what-you-use, just like Bentley.”

The sheer capability and flexibility

develop solutions in collaboration with

of Bentley’s cloud infrastructure, which

its key vendors to solidify its leadership

has in recent years been a huge invest-

in the market. Not only that, but cloud-

ment focus for the firm, has been

based operations have made Bentley

predicated on CEO Greg Bentley’s

enormously flexible in how it operates,

insistence that its operations are

meaning that, of its 3,800 staff world-

cloud-first and cloud-forward wherever

wide, Richardson says that only 73

possible. This pioneering approach

were unable to dive into the working-

to cloud, dating back to the launch

from-home scenario of the coronavirus

of Microsoft Azure and the subse-

pandemic from day one.

quent close partnership that the two

Across such global operations, this is

firms have shared since, has enabled

a great indicator of Bentley’s flexibility

Bentley to both seize the opportunities

at work. As the coronavirus pandemic

of cloud-centralised operations and

gathered pace, Senior Leadership of

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BENTLEY SYSTEMS

178

“ Living in a cloud-focused world, security is huge for us. Our CIO, Claire Rutkowski, came on board in October 2016 and has been heavily focused on integrating a robust and industry-leading cloud security platform” — Jeff Richardson, Chief Data Officer, Bentley Systems J U LY 2 0 2 0

IT meetings were held to workshop worst case scenarios, and the preparation that resulted has ensured what Richardson calls a “totally seamless” shift to the new normal. Questions of access to vital resources from home, including licences, hardware and software were answered promptly in a show of remarkable preparedness in such unprecedented times.

“We use the rules of compliance as foundational guidelines, and we always try to exceed those guidelines

179

by orders of magnitude; comply-

the next decade.” This sentiment is

ing whilst building infrastructure

reflected in Bentley’s continued ability

that supports those guidelines in a

to serve its clients and continue as nor-

best practice sense, and exceeding

mal internally, a powerful indicator that

those standards as far as possible,”

Bentley’s cloud software will retain its

Richardson enthuses, highlighting

market leadership long into the future.

the strategic focus that has ensured Bentley Systems is ready for anything.

To close, Richardson shares the ethos at the heart of Bentley’s operations: “We don’t want to build cloud software that’s reliable for today, we want to build cloud software that’s reliable for w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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Delivering Cambodia’s 5G digital transformation WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH

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PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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CELLCARD

Cellcard’s CEO, Ian Watson, discusses how the telecoms company is enabling a 5G-driven digitisation of Cambodia

D

igital technology and the greater use of data have irreversibly changed virtually every industry, and the telecoms sector

is no exception. Indeed, the advent of one specific innovation has forever changed the way that we communicate, bank, work and engage with the 182

world, as well as our expectations as consumers: the smartphone.

“The smartphone has become one of the most important tools in our lives,” shares Ian Watson, CEO of telecoms leader, Cellcard. “The smartphone is your connection to the digital world. It is the means to purchase items and pay bills, the vault which holds the data of your life via photographs and videos, an assistant which tells you where you need to be, and can act as the advisor of how to get there. It can measure your health and advise you on issues, and is the instrument which allows you to receive your correspondence and entertainment.”

Cellcard is at the forefront of telecommunications innovation and digital transformation. The business, which is fully Cambodian-owned and

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CELLCARD

“ We view Cellcard as moving away from the traditional mobile network operator model to being a full digital life service provide” — Ian Watson, CEO, Cellcard 184

operated, is committed to providing access to mobile technology and connectivity to all Cambodians, regardless of their location. In doing so, it has risen to become the preeminent telecoms company in the Kingdom - it was the first to offer nationwide coverage and prepaid services in 1998, the first to provide a 3G network with streaming services in 2005 and, in 2010, the first to launch a mobile payments platform.

More recently, Cellcard is now the operator of Cambodia’s fastest 4G

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Cellcard: Big Love $8 = $2000 = 80GB CLICK TO WATCH

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185 network, with the Kingdom experi-

its own transformational journey. “We

encing a 36% growth in mobile data

view Cellcard as moving away from

subscribers since its launch.

the traditional mobile network opera-

In short, Cellcard sets the standard

tor model to being a full digital lifestyle

for telecoms innovation in Cambodia.

service provider,” he explains. “We’ll

With Watson at the helm, however, it

make sure that your device – whether

doesn’t rest on its laurels. The busi-

a handheld or wearable device - is

ness is currently dedicated to driving

truly connected to the world. It’s all

and leading Cambodia’s ongoing

part of a wider ecosystem that we’re

digitalisation through the develop-

building that we call our ‘walled gar-

ment and launch of the Kingdom’s

den’. When you’re in our garden you’ll

first 5G network. As Watson reveals

be able to access all the services you

during the course of our conversation,

need. It will be a great place to be

despite its technology-first approach,

that’s driven by the latest technology,

this has also seen Cellcard undergo

and you won’t want to leave.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Building a Fully Connected, Intelligent World “Huawei, our key strategic partner has been working side-by-side with Cellcard on 4G projects within many key cities and provinces in 2019. With the support from Huawei’s high technology solution, we have completed the first real 5G trial test in Cambodia following the download speed that reached 1.6Gbps with lower latency rate at less than 10ms. Cellcard is confident in choosing Huawei to embrace digital life to every person, home and organization in Cambodia for an intelligent future with intelligent connections.”

Let’s Move Forward to a 5G Era

“ The smartphone connects you to the world” — Ian Watson, CEO, Cellcard The industry is changing rapidly, particularly in Cambodia. Watson explains that while this is in part driven by the evolution of technology, it is also a product of the broader change in the Kingdom. “It’s not the biggest that survive, it’s those that adapt the quickest. As we move into the digital world, it’s vital to be up to speed with those changes and all of the dynamic developments around 5G and other telecom innovations.

“The key driver of change, particularly in Cambodia, is the increasing appetite for large data,” he continues. “If you look at the history of the country, there has never been a fixed line infrastructure. Instead,

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Ian Watson Ian Watson is recognised within the telecommunications community as one of the leading figures in relation to 5G and digital transformation having built a 30-year career in the industry across global markets. His most recent industry recognition was the 5G Asia People’s Choice Award for Operator CXO of the Year.

He has also gained significant exposure in the past year as the driving force behind one of the most aggressive 4G roll-outs in the SE Asian region, achieving for three years running both the Ookla and Opensignal Awards. His focus now is firmly set on driving the digitisation of Cambodia with early adoption of pre-5G and the introduction of 5G across the key segments of Consumer, Government and Corporate.

as we’ve moved into the digital age, Cambodians have gone straight to mobile broadband, mobile data and connectivity. At the same time, we w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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CELLCARD

C E L LC A R D : U S I N G 5 G T O C O M B AT C OV I D -1 9

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In March Cellcard announced the Kingdom’s first use of 5G for a telemedicine service at four locations across Phnom Penh to help with critically ill patients.

Cellcard demonstrated 5G speeds of more than 1.6 gigabits per second, and installed the service at: • The Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital • The Chak Angre Health Center • Ministry of Health • Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications The initiative was led by Royal Group Chairman Neak Oknha Kith Meng in full cooperation with both Ministries. Watson says: “the Chairman of the company is Cambodian and his mantra is to support the digitalisation of Cambodia with the Royal Government. Cellcard will be the leading 5G digital network and will drive that vision.”

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Cellcard Chairman Kith Meng

5G live test

have a very young demographic

he explains. “It is for sure going to

– 60% of the Cambodian population

be a strong force in the global digital

is under 30 years of age. This is gen-

transformation, and a leading pro-

eration X. It’s people who want to be

ponent of the digital world. We, as a

connected, to be social, bank and shop

company, are very much part of that

through their devices, it’s an absolutely

journey culturally too.

modern lifestyle and we have to be sure we’re providing for that.”

Cambodian lifestyle and the cul-

“We pride ourselves on our Cambodian heritage; 99% of our employees are Cambodian,” Watson

ture that pervades throughout the

continues. “But you can’t be digital

Kingdom is important internally, too,

on the outside unless you’re digital

says Watson. Indeed, as the company

on the inside. As a result, and as part

navigates the rollout of 5G, he finds

of this journey to the 5G digitialsing of

the strong cultural aspect of Cellcard

Cambodia, we’re having to re-engineer

to be vital to progress. “One of the

and reprocess virtually the entire

things that attracted me to Cambodia

company from the top down. And it’s

is the culture, it’s so rich and diverse,”

not just about processes, it’s about people, having good digital change managers and a concerted effort to bring the whole company into the digital world.”

It is also, says Watson, about building and developing technology that is embedded in that Cambodian heritage. “For example, we’ve created a Cambodian Chat app called Mith Laor, which means ‘good friends’. The app includes a TV platform to host video and other content, a payment platform that sees us explore more w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

189

lifestyle-type services, and more.

completed, will see it “having built one

It’s all part of this broader end-to-end

of the best, most dynamic digital 5G

digital platform that we will deliver

platforms not only in Cambodia, but in

through the 5G rollout, and it all works

the world”, says Watson.

through a smartphone app. To ensure

Cellcard has several sites that it

this is best-in-class we’re already

has been running for some time as

looking to integrate other innovations,

part of that process. The company

such as AI, integrated voice assistants,

recently used its 5G infrastructure

chatbots and robotics”.

to provide an important service as

As to the implementation, Watson

part of Cambodia’s efforts to combat

explains that Cellcard’s network is pre-

the COVID-19 pandemic. In March it

5G enabled, with all 5G testing already

announced the Kingdom’s first use

being concluded some two years ago.

of 5G for a telemedicine service at

The company is currently working with

four locations across Phnom Penh

the government ministries on a test

to help with critically ill patients. The

and releasing spectrum that, once

service allowed doctors to use video

MONTH 2019

“ To have a dynamic 5G network it has to be accessible.

It must be fast and deliver everything that we promise” — Ian Watson, CEO, Cellcard

been helped and underpinned by our existing, superfast 4G network too, which remains the best performing in Cambodia.”

Naturally, any significant transformation journey brings challenges and a degree of change management. For example, says Watson, a company can’t digitalise if it doesn’t have the technology. Cellcard has invested significantly in its network to facilitate the rollout of 5G, but also in building a team of people with the correct mindset and ambition to drive the

conferencing technology linked to mobile phones and devices across

Kingdom’s digitalisation.

On the technologies that will enable

Cambodia to assess patients in real-

this, Watson explains that “to have

time. This extends to the provision

a dynamic 5G network it has to be

of real-time clinical care, counselling

accessible. It must be fast and deliver

and therapy, as well as education

everything that we promise. But it’s

for consultants and support for

not just about speed, it’s about under-

medical teams.

standing and incorporating all of the

“It’s part of what we are trying to do

new opportunities that can be gained

as we move into a full 5G environment,”

from a 5G world, so things like network

Watson explains. “We’re looking at

splicing, enhanced mobile capabilities

using the technology for remote diag-

and the Internet of Things. Second to

nostics in all provinces, to support

that, is ensuring you have the neces-

medical staff and for other diagnosis

sary platforms to deliver all of the

and treatment services such as rec-

products and services. This includes a

ognising cataracts and more. It’s all

robust cloud computing platform and w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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CELLCARD

192

“ 5G will underpin the true digital transformation of the Kingdom and we’re plugged in and ready to deliver on that vision” — Ian Watson, CEO, Cellcard J U LY 2 0 2 0

watertight cybersecurity practices.”

The latter, he explains, is crucial as networks and data grow. “In a true digital world, it won’t just be your handset that you should be concerned about, it’ll be every device in your home,” he states. “For organisations like us, it means the need to authenticate a large number of devices latching to the network, ensuring robust perimeter defences so that people can’t get into the network in the first instance and more. We invest huge

Looking ahead to a 5G-enabled Cambodia, Watson elaborates on the benefits that the technology will bring, not just to consumers but also the Kingdom’s enterprise economy. “The B2B market is, in my opinion, one of the biggest selling points of 5G,” he states.

“We’re already setting up a dedicated 5G digital enterprise department to focus solely on the B2B and SME sectors and we are investing heavily in data centres so that enterprises can manage and have access to the vast amounts of data that they will need.

“For Cambodia, the future is very exciting. It’s a young, dynamic county and it has huge potential that can amounts into our security protocols –

be realised by digitalisation. 5G will

we simply have to.”

underpin the true digital transforma-

For this, and other areas of technology,

tion of the Kingdom and we’re plugged

Watson states that partnerships prove

in and ready to deliver on that vision,”

important. A good technology partner,

he concludes.

he says, must fit Cellcard’s digital vision and be prepared to work towards the long-term ambitions of the company and the Kingdom. He cites a long-term partnership with Microsoft as a good example, through which Cellcard has access to the company’s video conferencing and other technologies. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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SONAE FASHION’S ROBUST AND FLEXIBLE DIGITAL ARCHITECTURE WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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195

S O N A E FA S H I O N

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Sonae Fashion, discusses the firm’s IT architecture and its huge benefits to the retailer’s flexibility and agility

I

f any one industry can be identified as the poster child of digital transformation and the factors that drive it, retail

is a leading contender. The dramatic shifts in consumer buying habits and expectations trace 196

to Amazon, whose availability, pricing strategies, and logistical capabilities have defined how successful retailers operate in the digital age.

While Amazon has primarily been focused on ecommerce, its counterpart in Asia, Alibaba, has popularised the concept of New Retail: the blending of brick-and-mortar offerings with robust online capabilities. Bridging the gap between physical and digital stores has become all but essential for traditional retailers as consumers flock to the endless aisles and easy payments of websites whilst retaining considerable interest in visiting traditional shops.

Portuguese retail giant Sonae is no exception, and its clothing arm, Sonae Fashion, emblematises both the need for and successful execution of a digital transformation that continually morphs J U LY 2 0 2 0

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S O N A E FA S H I O N

“ My first move was to completely change the digital platform to support the brands’ and markets’ business needs”

challenges into triumphs. With 400 of its own and franchised stores across Europe, South America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, India, Asia and Southeast Asia, Sonae Fashion has deployed over 5,000 points of sale as well as more than 3,000 members of staff worldwide. Its fashion

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

brand portfolio, currently consisting of Mo, Salsa, Zippy, Deeply and Losan, as well as its global operations, has necessitated the development of digital infrastructure and capabilities that

198

can tackle the challenges of diverse

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Jeans for every(body) | Find yours CLICK TO WATCH

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199 and potentially siloed operations.

and experience than we used to have.

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and

One of the challenges from buying dif-

Information Officer (CDIO) at Sonae

ferent brands over the past few years

Fashion has had a considerable hand

has been the need to consolidate

in the company’s digital revolution, join-

teams, platforms, people, to make

ing in 2015 as Head of Digital Channels

sense as a whole rather than a series

and rising to the CDIO position in 2018.

of separate parts that don’t match

“My role is to envision, deliver and sup-

together as a whole.

port a unified digital ecosystem that is

“Sonae has traditionally been a

able to fulfill business needs as quickly

brick-and-mortar retailer, starting

and efficiently as possible,” Miller says.

with groceries and food retail and later

“I work together with all the business

expanding into electronics and fashion.

teams, sales, operations, warehouse

Specifically with Sonae Fashion, we

management teams, etcetera, so that

recognise a strong change in the mar-

we’re able to deliver a better platform

ket. Online purchases have become w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Transforming retail with passion In retail there are no small mistakes Learn more

The people at Retail Consult know Sonae very well, have huge experience across different countries with many retailers, and add value to everything they touch.

They have been a very reliable partner, with great organisation, retail awareness, and agility Nuno Miller, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

About us: Retail Consult is a highly specialized group that has a big focus on technology solutions for retail. We offer our clients global perspective and experience with operations in Europe, North, South, and Central America.

“ We wanted to mix our offering with omnichannel capabilities, move faster across processes and teams, and to take advantage of our fashion ecosystem, amplify value across teams, offer relevant and seamless experiences to customers and users”

more significant and numerous over time, and the digital marketplace is growing stronger and stronger.

We wanted to mix our offering with omnichannel capabilities, we wanted to move faster across processes and teams, and we want now to take advantage of our fashion ecosystem, amplify value across teams, offer relevant and seamless experiences to customers and users, and move towards agility

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

and nimbleness across operations.”

This necessity is made clear by the 201

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2:04

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S O N A E FA S H I O N

202

changes in Sonae Fashion’s portfolio

Zippy sites for Portugal and Spain

over the years, with brands having

within five months, and we changed

been acquired, reviewed, closed, and

the digital platform to support the

sold in response to performance

sales teams in-store.”

and value against its other brands.

With external support, Sonae

Before the move to a unified system

Fashion then assessed its global

was enacted, each brand had its own

architectures to assess the capabili-

digital architecture, or even shared

ties required and where developments

architecture with Sonae’s grocery

ought to be made. Miller notes that this

functions. “My first move was to com-

strategy was predicated on a fivefold

pletely change the digital platform

plan that isolated and unified the key

to support the brands’ and markets’

requirements of its brands and their

business needs. We changed the Mo

digital channels. “Systems of records

site within five months, along with the

for ledging and master data; systems

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of enablement to make service delivery easier for employees in-store; systems of engagement that build communication with customers, users and suppliers; systems of orchestration to unify each of the systems; and systems of insight that can curate and analyse our data and feed it back to the business to improve decision making,� Miller explains. “The key components of the architecture are the ERP, digital sales platform, the ePOS, the omnichannel autofulfiment

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Nuno Miller

Title: Chief Digital and Information Officer Company: Sonae Fashion Industry: Retail During 20 years, Nuno put together a pretty unique set of experiences, from IT/IS and Management consulting to top-level management, from brick-and-

system, the business intelligence (BI)

mortar retail to electronic commerce,

platform, and the artificial intelligence

from start-ups to large companies, from

(AI) platform, along with secondary

local approaches to global initiatives,

systems such as product lifecycle

from supply procurement to business

management, the loyalty management

and marketing strategies.

system, and the warehouse management system.�

After consolidating these factors,

Very adaptable to new challenges and different companies, from fast-growing start-ups to large corporations. He has

Sonae Fashion developed a roadmap

been helping companies to

for its transformation beginning with a

grow and get stronger,

starting point for change: overhauling

in the last 12 years

its ERP systems, and moving from six

performing top-

separate ERP platforms to one. Each factor mentioned here, Miller says, ties

level management positions.

into ERP, and building a new, bespoke ERP platform presented both an enormous challenge and opportunity w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

203

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205 for streamlining and unifying Sonae

spanning beyond Sonae’s own ven-

Fashion’s digital capabilities.

tures to petrol stations, supermarkets

Not only that, but Sonae Fashion’s

and more.

long history of data-driven operations

The loyalty programme alone offers a

has been supercharged by the growth

rich data source that enables a view of

of more developed BI and AI systems

customer buying habits, trends, spend-

that offer deeper levels of insight at

ing spikes, and interests.

speed; a robust ERP system with

This, along with other relevant

these functions integrated stands to

operational data, requires a sig-

maximise the value of Sonae Fashion’s

nificant amount of computational

broad and varied and data sets. One

power and space. Cloud technology

example is the firm’s successful cus-

provides the solution, with Microsoft

tomer loyalty ecosystem, fuelled by

Azure being selected for its agil-

the Continente card shared across

ity, stability, performance, power,

multiple brands and business functions

enterprise-level capabilities, and its w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

S O N A E FA S H I O N

alignment with back-office solutions.

The cloud hosts the streamlined SAP ERP system, along with a singleinstance BI platform that can unify data from data warehouses, data lakes, customer feedback, loyalty programme data and myriad more sources. The flexibility and agility of

“ It’s very important for a retailer, in all different areas, to take advantage of all these massive sets of data points”

the cloud-based architecture ties the ecosystem together, enabling shifts in operational capabilities and behaviours that can be made incrementally and in response to the

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

PART N ERS

Retail Consult

Tlantic

“We are working with Retail Consult in very specific projects and areas because of the huge expertise it offers regarding retail and retail systems. We really recognise its advantages in that space. The people at Retail Consult know Sonae Fashion very well, have huge experience across different countries with many retailers, and add value to everything they touch. We work with them on design for solutions, data migration, integration, logistics, and ERP to PLM to warehouse management system workf lows. Retail Consult has been a very reliable partner, with great organisation, retail awareness, and agility.”

“Tlantic is one of our partners concerning store systems. We have been working with the people there for many years on ePOS, logistics, systems for receiving products, store transfers, time management, teams organisation, timescales and optimisation. Tlantic is one of our main ePOS and ePOS architecture providers, and offers different capabilities that power the omnichannel experience through service-oriented architecture for payments, checkout, catalogues, product lists, and so on.”

-N uno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

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S O N A E FA S H I O N

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S O N A E FA S H I O N

insights generated by the AI-enabled BI platform.

Being able to manage that data, with the aid of automated and AI-powered processing via the BI platform, enables Sonae Fashion’s stores to be as competitive in the marketplace as possible. “It’s very important for a retailer, in all different areas, to take advantage of all these massive sets of data points and address, with intelligence: pricing and promotions, range and assortment, and location 210

and replenishment,” says Miller. “We have tens of thousands of products per season, with millions of different

“ During the COVID-19 crisis, we have been receiving a number of orders 10 to 11 times over historic values”

sales tickets, and it’s impossible for a person to assess all that data and curate insights effectively.”

By unifying systems in this way, Miller and his team have developed a robust digital architecture that reaps huge value from the vast presence and unique factors of its portfolio, brick-

Nuno Miller, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Sonae Fashion

and-mortar stores, and its ecommerce capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a remarkable stress test for these systems, and Miller says the previous architecture and B2C websites

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1959

Sonae founded

€6,435mn Sonae’s total revenue in Euros

3,000

Number of employees at Sonae Fashion

would have been unable to cope with

The result is a business whose flex-

its impacts on online spending habits.

ibility, agility, capability, and resilience

“During the COVID-19 crisis, we have

are ingrained in and supported by the

been receiving a number of orders

new digital architecture developed by

10 to 11 times over historic values,” he

Miller and his team. While the world is

says. “The new sites haven’t had a

rocked by a pandemic of unprecedented

problem with supporting these volumes

scale, it is a credit to digital transforma-

of customer visits. If we didn’t have this

tions such as these that businesses

platform and these new sites and capa-

have been able to both handle and thrive

bility, we would not have been unable to

under such enormous pressures.

handle the challenges of the pandemic,” Miller says, and this has been a key success of his work as CDIO. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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HENKEL ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES: DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 212

WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

Head of Digital Operations, Dr Nick Miesen discusses digital transformation of operations and the power of data

A

passion for digital technology, and it’s power to drive business optimisation and operation excellence, underpins much

of Dr Nick Miesen’s career. Miesen, who has more than 12 years’ experience in areas as diverse as 214

aerospace, chemicals, supply chain and manufacturing, and fast-moving consumer goods, brought that experience to Henkel Adhesive Technologies at the start of this year. Since, he has been responsible for driving digital change in the organisation’s operations, supporting Smartfactory capabilities roll-out across the organisation and leading the company’s Global Digital Quality programme.

As one would expect, Miesen is well versed in the latest digital technologies. He is also a vocal proponent of the importance of perfecting the operational basics that underpin those technologies. “Looking retrospectively at the concept of digital transformation, particularly four or five years ago when I was working at AkzoNobel, there was a fair amount of hype around digital. That’s over,” he says. “Companies are realising there’s a lot of tough J U LY 2 0 2 0

215

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

work in adopting digital strategies and that there’s no silver bullet. If your

“ The foundation of any digital transformation is the people”

processes aren’t standardised and you don’t have the basics in place then worrying about the ‘sexy’ tech like AI or VR just won’t work - you’ll stay locked into the experimental phase.”

Miesen elaborates on the ‘digital

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

backbone’. This refers to the infrastructure, strategies and processes in place that enable technology adoption to be maximised and bring operational excellence. “It’s really

216

important to not be blinded by new

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Henkel Adhesives: Don’t Let A Little Fastener Become a Big Problem CLICK TO WATCH

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0:51

217 innovations,” he states. “From my perspective, the foundation of any digital transformation is the people - I’d rather have 1,000 highly capable individuals trained in the basics than a couple of master coders. That strong foundation across the organisation lets you build out the entire decision making process, to properly analyse and problem solve and achieve the low hanging fruit first. There’s a bigger picture, of course, and a full strategy but only focusing on that just isn’t a sustainable approach to building operational excellence.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

218

In January this year Miesen joined

of that digital backbone I mentioned.

Henkel Adhesive Technologies as

We have a major programme finalising

Head of Digital Operations and was

to consolidate all SAP systems and let

tasked to build on the digital work

us house all our data in a single system.

before within operations. Michael

That’s a great starting point for digital,

Merget, currently Head of Operations

and not something I’ve seen in other

and Supply Chain, started a few years

companies I’ve worked with.

ago with the digital quality program.

“But, objectively, I saw very early on

The business, which is a leading solu-

that there was the potential to do much

tions provider for adhesives, sealants

more with the data,” he continues.

and functional coatings globally, was

“For example, there was a lot of data

already in a strong position digitally, he

around introducing new platforms and

says. “I found the business to be really

systems, and some utilisation of that

advanced, and quite visionary in terms

data. That’s really where I saw my role

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E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

219

Nick Miesen Title: Head of Digital Operations Company: Henkel Industry: Adhesive Technologies Location: Amsterdam Red thread in Miesen’s career is data for business optimisation, from Operational Excellence (L6S) to Digital Transformation.

He has over 12 years’ broad industry experience in aerospace, chemical and FMCG. Miesen worked in various roles, mainly in innovation or supply chain, at the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Deloitte, AkzoNobel and Heineken. In 2016 he cofounded an Advanced Analytics startup, Jugaad.

In the beginning of 2020 he started as Head of Digital Operation at Henkel Adhesives Technologies. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, a MSc in Physics & Astronomy and is certified (Master) Black Belt. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

coming in - to take advantage of and

“ The high-level strategy is to build digital operations”

build on the great work that has already been done, to bring in those low hanging fruits and build out the basics in the best way.”

Since joining Henkel, Miesen has led the company’s Global Digital Quality programme, which aims to

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

predict and improve product quality; he has strategised, planned and deployed digital programmes and sought out opportunities to introduce new technologies to the business.

222

“The high-level strategy is to build digital operations,” he says. “But, it’s important to be very clear on what that actually means.

“First and foremost, it’s about the seamless flow of data both ways that’s the backbone,” he continues.

“But within that are several smaller objectives. You need connectivity, for example. So, data needs to be transferred and centralised and then you need visualisation of all that data. That plays into the global digital quality function I am responsible for, as if you can have a global solution whereby we can track and visualise any variations in quality of material input and finished J U LY 2 0 2 0

223

goods. Having the whole organisation

using the data collected to model

globally able to visualise all that data

processes, from the simple to the

gives the ability to make better deci-

very complex. “You start with simple

sions and work towards operational

linear regressions, then move along

excellence, and create customer value.”

the level of complexity so that you

With this step in place, Miesen

can gain greater understanding by

explains that the focus shifts first

using statistical analysis,” he says.

towards being more predictive and

“The next step is to add intelligence

then bringing greater intelligence

to those statistics, which enables you

and algorithms into the process. The

to analyse, prove, predict and under-

former, he explains, revolves around

stand anything. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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225 “Those, for me, are the key steps in the sequence of building that digital

“ We move from simple data to advanced data analytics, and as we do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and our customers”

supply chain. We move from simple data to advanced data analytics, and as we do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and our customers. It’s quite conceptual but it’s a very clear and defined process.”

While for Miesen the process is clear there are, he concedes, still challenges

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

to overcome in digitising a supply chain operation. “We still have data in different systems and formats. The biggest hurdle is getting that data into the w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

right place and in the right order. To a degree, the analytics and visualising of the data is the easy part. The big challenge is found in knowing which sets of data to address first, in trying to align the different ambitions and functions of the various stakeholders and standardising the operations process. If we do that, it’s really the biggest step to take forward.”

Henkel’s size, too, poses challenges to operational excellence.

Miesen and the team are responsible 226

for optimising operations across 140 sites. “I don’t need to explain that, to implement a digital journey across so many facilities means you have to work smart. This is why we’re adopting a Smartfactory approach, which includes a manufacturing execution system (MES), a robust ERP layer and a host of other smart tools,” he explains. “It’s a really powerful technology to have available, particularly as we have a long-term strategy to move towards different levels of automation at our sites.”

Of course, since Miesen joined the company in January, the world has seen significant disruption as a result J U LY 2 0 2 0

1876

Year founded

€20bn+ Revenue in euros

52,000 Number of employees

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

227

HENKEL ADHESIVES

of the global COVID-19 pandemic. For businesses in every sector, the impact has been enormous, forcing a shift in both how existing operations are carried out and, in a broader context, in the implementation of new technology. Naturally, Henkel prioritised the safety and wellbeing of its employees while ensuring it could continue to operate and supply its customers.

“The biggest change, like everyone else, was in facilitating a remote working environment,” says Miesen.

228 “I think, collectively, we are all very proud of Henkel’s response to the crisis, particularly across such a broad and diverse business. It’s definitely brought several new technologies

“ Data is power and to have that database in place will enable the next step”

into the picture too, as well as refocused everyone’s views on using technology. For example, things like augmented reality innovations have come into focus with us deciding to use Microsoft’s HoloLens system, which will facilitate remote work-

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

J U LY 2 0 2 0

shops, remote audits and more. More broadly, I think this will change some of the more conservative thinking around technology and business.”

229

Disruption aside, Miesen is resolute

database in place will enable the next

in his commitment to Henkel’s digital

step - to the lab, to the testing facil-

journey. His immediate focus remains

ity and intelligent modelling. That’s

on building an innovative digital sup-

where you’ll see the real benefit of

ply chain while changing the way that

this journey, it will absolutely keep us

Henkel does business to be more

ahead of the curve.”

agile and lean. “If we build our processes to be better and use our data in the most effective way, this will feed into our product development processes and our understanding of exactly what the customer wants.

Data is power and to have that w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

230

UiPath: INNOVATION IN AUTOMATION AND THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

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U i PAT H

Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director, UiPath (UK and Ireland), discusses automation trends, innovation and the impact of COVID-19

P

rior to joining UiPath, Chris Duddridge spent the past 20 years working within the HR, payroll and ERP software sales

market. Chris has previously worked for Sage and Deltek, before joining UiPath a year and a half ago as RVP for enterprise sales and is now Area Vice 232

President and Managing Director.

“What initially drew me to UiPath was its people and being a part of a new emerging technology sector which was growing faster than any other I’d ever experienced. It also helped that RPA and intelligent automation had become pervasive across every industry and at every level within the business from the board agenda to the subject matter experts. I started off leading our enterprise sales team gaining a very quick and valuable induction to what was driving the agenda for automation from some of our largest clients. I’m now very lucky to represent UiPath UK & Ireland across all business functions from our sales engagements with new clients, but also our existing account management, Pre-Sales, Customer Success, and Partner

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U i PAT H

“ Just four short years ago, it was a Romanian startup whose co-founders were driven by this vision of making work fun again. There were humble beginnings and this culture of staying humble, accepting feedback and seeking to improve, remaining obsessed with our customers’ success still permeates our present ethos” — Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director, UiPath (UK and Ireland)

channels. I’m incredibly fortunate to have an amazing team, who obsess over our customers’ projects and objectives, which makes it a great deal easier for me when we work to amplify

234

our approach across our marketing and PR channels,” says Duddridge.

“UiPath is very different to other companies,” comments Duddridge.

“Just four short years ago, it was a Romanian startup whose co-founders were driven by this vision of making work fun again. There were humble beginnings and this culture of staying humble, accepting feedback and seeking to improve, remaining obsessed with our customers’ success still permeates our present ethos. This vision of shaking up the workplace in order to free up employees from the mundane part of office work with the help of software robots and letting J U LY 2 0 2 0

The Story of Work CLICK TO WATCH

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2:25

235 them focus on value-added work like

a 500,000-member strong global

analysis, creative activities, and stra-

community of RPA developers. We

tegic tasks producing revenue impact

were the first company to offer free

made UiPath the globally successful

download of our community edition

company it is today. Dedicated to what

product – software developers, schools

we like to call accelerating human

and universities, NGOs, small compa-

achievement, we focus on the whole

nies have free access to work with

narrative not just on the commercial

our software robots. On one hand,

gains. UiPath knew it was going to be

we were able to garner valuable feed-

disruptive from the get-go, and we

back and improve on our product so

maintained a steadfast commitment

that it responds to the most diverse

to democratising access to RPA and

range of business cases, but we have

digital skills – through the free online

also been creating the essential work-

training platform UiPath Academy,

force to enable our customers to

and the continuous investment into

achieve a greater outcome with their w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

U i PAT H

236 automation journeys. And we paired

our robots to respond to increasingly

this with a focus on creating a strong

complex processes and demands,

ecosystem of partners – an essential

embedding into our platform artificial

way of taking our end-to-end automa-

intelligence and machine learning

tion platform to customers and having

algorithms, task and process mining,

it service their goal.”

advanced analytics that allow the robots to learn and execute more.

CURRENT TRENDS WITHIN ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

Little did we know we were actually priming our product for the number

“In market terms, RPA is the orches-

one trend Gartner predicted for 2020

tration capabilities of digital assistants

– hyper automation. This is now top of

– software robots that help people

mind for the entire industry, and it’s

perform their daily job on a case by

end-to-end approach. Rather than

case basis. Our focus during the

a one and done approach, organisations

last two-three years was to enable

are looking for a true transformation

J U LY 2 0 2 0

for business strategies, which can

global pandemic. With more people

be captured in four key pillars: digital

working from home than ever and

transformation, enhancing employee

unprecedented challenges in terms

experience, improving the customer

of supply and demand or customer

service, and reducing risk and increas-

grievances (think aviation or call cen-

ing compliance” says Duddridge.

tres here), relying on technology for

“All these are even more fundamental

remote on-boarding, or sorting huge

for CEOs in the current climate while

backlogs of requests, or staying compli-

business models are reshaped by the

ant takes centre stage.”

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Chris Duddridge Title: Area Vice President and Managing Director (UK and Ireland) Industry: Computer Software

Location: London, United Kingdom

Chris Duddridge is UiPath’s Area Vice President and Managing Director of UK and Ireland. He leads the UK and Irish teams in their mission to drive automation adoption in the region, helping customers achieve their automation goals using UiPath’s best-in-its-class hyperautomation platform. Chris previously held the position of RVP of Sales for UK and Ireland at UiPath, supporting UiPath during a period of hypergrowth. With more than 20 years in sales and technology, he is an experienced sales leader with a track record of helping small teams rise to market leader status. Passionate about technology, Chris is inspired by the potential of automation to transform the future of work.

Highly motivated by teamwork, his key areas of interest are incentivising collaboration, creativity, and customer focus. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

237

POWER UP YOUR DIGITAL OPERATIONS WITH INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION At Symphony, we’re the proven leaders in transforming front, middle and back office operations to boost overall efficiency, increase employee productivity and improve customer satisfaction.

“As organisations grappled with their

volumes of data. Think of the many hours

own specific challenges and disruptions

an employee spends copying and past-

whilst the pandemic unfolded, it quickly

ing data from one application to another

became clear that intelligent automation

or extracting information from one docu-

programmes facilitated faster decision-

ment and inputting it on an excel sheet

making, much needed agility and

for example. Think of the huge volumes

operational resilience to adjust to rapidly

of invoices a financial shared service

changing demands and pressures. Now,

centre needs to operate and how only a

as businesses begin to stabilise rela-

robot will pay the same attention to the

tive to the earliest days, smart business

5000th invoice as to the first. Usually the

leaders are reimagining operations with

challenges with implementing RPA are

radical agility baked in, and automation

that someone has to deliver it, a subject

at the forefront. They’ve also begun to

matter expert has got to share their intel-

realise that the decisions they take will

ligence around how that process works

shape many aspects of business and the

dealing with every nuance that comes

future workplace, not just for the remain-

with it. Which leaves you with the reality

der of the pandemic – but for years to

that robots are very clever, but they do

come.” added Jason Martindale, Vice

not replace cognitive skills. Humans still

President Sales at Symphony, a SYKES

retain the ascendancy in every automa-

company – a long-time UiPath partner

tion because they’re either the subject

specialising in IA implementation and

matter experts that need to program

managed services.

the automation, or they are the part of the loop which needs to train the robots

THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF AUTOMATION

to learn and continue to deliver value

“The benefits of automation are easy

challenges with delivering automation

to sell,” contemplates Duddridge, “eve-

revolve around firstly having enough

rything that can be automated, will be

people to dedicate to delivering that

automated as long as it’s process led,

journey, scaling up the RPA centre

rules driven and you deal with large

of excellence, the subject matter

in that process. And so the real world

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239

U i PAT H

experts and the people that will lead

real problems, not “selling potential”.

the automation journeys forward within

“Recent events have kickstarted digital

each organisation, and ensuring what

transformation journeys for many

you’re developing is actually delivering

organisations, with remote working,

a return on investment and making

increased demand, or asudden burst

sure that people invest heavily in

in volumes pushing a lot of organisa-

the delivery.”

tions to think about automation. This

Following the COVID-19 outbreak,

240

is something that UiPath is looking

Duddridge reiterates that the organi-

to help where it can, to drive innovation

sation is truly focused on helping solve

for business continuity.”

UI PAT H ’S G U I D I N G PRINCIPLES

THE BEST STRATEGY With the benefits and challenges of adopting an ‘automation first’ mindset,

• A robot for every person

Duddridge reflects on the industry and

• Pioneering an ‘automation first’ mindset liberating office employees from boring mundane tasks to focus on added-value work;

explains that the strategic approach

• The UiPath mission is to provide the best RPA technology platform to enable the ‘automation first’ enterprise; • Free access to training for all RPA roles (also the first RPA company to provide a free download version of its product).

J U LY 2 0 2 0

for an effective adoption of automation has changed in recent times.

“It used to be very varied in terms of how automation initiatives were created,” he comments. “An example of this is someone within the finance team deciding that vendor invoice management could be automated.

That finance organisation could use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to retrieve the pertinent data from a document to break the back of 80% of its document ingestion and make its operations more agile. These kinds

“ Everything that can be automated, will be automated as long as it’s process led, rules driven and you deal with large volumes of data” — Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director, UiPath (UK and Ireland)

of organisations were our entry point into the market, but what we are now seeing are top down or bottom up strategies – sometimes both. For example, you will see CEOs of large banks talking about automation being a key pillar of their commitments, but you’ll also see citizen developers – regular employees – that are finding opportunities to make their work and the customer experience better. If people adopt that top down and bottom up approach it means that organisations will meet in the middle and always think about automation first.”

UiPath partners - stronger together CLICK TO WATCH

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2:38

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241

U i PAT H

242

A robot for every person: Benefit from automation at enterprise-wide Scale - UiPath CLICK TO WATCH

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INNOVATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATIONS When it comes to innovation and technology implementations within automation, Duddridge sees the biggest benefit that has evolved being “collaboration of intra technology companies. Think about anyone in the market that is perceived as market leaders, these leaders have acquired RPA skills within their business because automation is a key component of their platform. But what we’ve seen is that with our open and free community of technology partners we haven’t had to roll out 50 different proprietary bits of technology because we can leverage our relationship with partners such as Microsoft, Service Now, SAP and Salesforce, which are open to work within a collaborative ecosystem to deliver really transformational customer outcomes.”

Duddridge adds that “while perhaps with technological advancements within the automation industry cloud technology has been a key player for us, allowing us to stand up our infrastructure within AWS or Microsoft Azure in seconds, and while the advent w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

243

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“ Recent events have kickstarted digital transformation journeys for many organisations, with remote working, increased demand, or a sudden burst in volumes pushing a lot of organisations to think about automation” — Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director, UiPath (UK and Ireland)

“across public and private sector clients in the UK and Ireland, innovation not only being an aspiration, but a necessity to find work arounds by

of cloud is not new, how we leverage

enabling technology at speed, and we

our relationships with cloud vendors is

felt compelled to help them, playing

truly transformational for businesses.

our part in mitigating the devastating

Most organisations are now looking

effects of the pandemic .” However, he

for cloud-ready technology that they

believes that while it has accelerated

can adopt quickly, knowing that you

the agenda it hasn’t changed anything,

tick every security box, compliance

and the technology remains the

box and regulatory box necessary.”

same. “The spirit of what we are trying

Other strategic additions to automa-

to achieve in getting software robots

tion Duddridge has seen in the last six

to take on the mundane rules-based

months include intelligent document

repetitive processes at speed and

understanding, some of which are AI and machine learning enabled, as well as OCR, process discovery, process mining, business process management and RPA.

POST-COVID-19 AND FIRST STEPS FOR THE INDUSTRY Reflecting on the industry since COVID-19, Duddridge has witnessed w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

245

U i PAT H

246

“ W e can leverage our relationship with partners such as Microsoft, Service Now, SAP and Salesforce, which are open to work within a collaborative ecosystem to deliver really transformational customer outcomes” — Chris Duddridge, Area Vice President and Managing Director, UiPath (UK and Ireland) J U LY 2 0 2 0

2005

Year founded

$360mn Annual recurring revenue (2019)

3,000 Number of employees

scale, and allowing the employees to

that act as a contingency, or ensure

deliver value-added impactful work

that parts of the business that are

which will ultimately be transformative

a challenge to manage with a remote

for organisations remains the same.

workforce are address in the long term.�

At the moment everyone’s still dealing with contingency planning and keeping the lights on, but post COVID-19, I think automation will remain the biggest topic for making sure that, should something like this ever to happen again, there are provisions w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

247

248

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MED-EL: digital transformation for quality of life WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

249

MED-EL

Martin Hairer, Chief Digital Officer of medical technology (medtech) firm MED-EL, on the company’s use of technology to improve customer outcomes

M

edtech company MED-EL is a leader in the field of implantable hearing systems, as the company’s Chief Digital Officer Martin

Hairer explains: “Our core competency is to develop hearing implant solutions. That’s where our expertise is – developing implants, surgical tools, stimulat250

ing nerves and adapting sound in a way that the brain can interpret it as close to the experience of natural hearing as possible.” Of course, underlying and enabling that central competency is a raft of different business functions, but Hairer is clear that the business as a whole is inspired by this mission.

“We are very research driven – that’s how the whole company works. We are pioneers. We are challenged by nature, by the human body, and what we all have in common here is the question: ‘What can we do as a company that leads to better outcomes for our customers?’. This is always the number one priority. It’s not profit. Of course, we need to make money, but it’s much more important the customer has the best outcome, which itself leads to increased profits.”

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MED-EL

“ We are very research-driven – that’s how the whole company works. We are pioneers” — Martin Hairer, Chief Digital Officer, MED-EL 252

As Chief Digital Officer (CDO), his role at the business involves overseeing the company’s internal technological progress. “I am the senior technology executive here at MED-EL, responsible for creating and implementing plans, ensuring they align and driving them. We support our critical line of business, develop customer-centric solutions and streamline business operations through the use of technology and continuous improvement processes to fulfil our customer’s needs.” Hairer’s approach involves finding new solutions, for the benefit of all stakeholders. “I try to motivate people to innovate, to think outside the box and find better solutions, not only from a technology perspective but also one that fits the needs of the customer.”

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AudioLink Hands-On: Listening to Music | MED-EL CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:59

253 As CDO, Hairer has overseen the implementation and utilisation of several technologies. Cloud is one

to concentrate more on our core competencies and processes.”

As a global company, operational

such area, with the organisation rely-

excellence is crucial, an area where

ing on a selection of cloud providers.

automation technology has proved a

“We are a worldwide company, so

boon to MED-EL. “Robotic process

connectivity’s always a huge topic

automation is heavily used here. New

for us, not only internally but in terms

processes are automated every day,

of connecting to our customers. With

allowing us to avoid mistakes from

the cloud, we now have the option

human errors, and so on. Of course,

to scale much faster, while also

automation is also crucial in the direction

increasing IT security tremendously,

of manufacturing – answering the ques-

all while handling this across different

tion of how we can develop and produce

continents. For us, it was the helping

more of our implants with the same

hand giving us the possibility

setup of human resources, for example. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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MED-EL

256

MED-EL is exploring a number of

feedback immediately. In the past,

new directions to empower its cus-

that’s something you could only get

tomers. One is a mobile application

specifically with professionals offering

known as ReDi App. “Artificial intel-

speech therapy. Now, we can further

ligence (AI) is now heavily used by us

support our customers to be able to do

to help and self-enable our customers.

this in addition to the speech therapy

One example is the ReDi App, a prod-

at home or on the train and so on.”

uct we’ve launched already in several

Another innovation has seen the

countries. It helps the user to train

launch of a platform known as MED-EL

language skills, meaning we analyse

& more, the capabilities of which

speech and give advice on how you

Hairer explains: “We’ve been working

can improve your language develop-

for a couple of years to onboard part-

ment, and you can get real-time, live

ners and develop service into

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a platform that would be helpful for our

audio processor, or training to hear

customers. MED-EL & more is the first

phone calls in a noisy environment,

club model we have for our custom-

for instance.”

ers, fully equipped and facilitated by

Various partners have been sup-

our myMED-EL portal. It is fascinating

porting MED-EL on its ongoing digital

how fast-growing the demand is to

journey. “We use the big players like

not only get exclusive offers in terms

Amazon Web Services, of course, as

of discounts, but get services that fit

well as Microsoft Azure. We use a lot

perfectly for someone in a specialist

of SaaS solutions. For example, we

situation, like a person who lives with

use Auth0 as our central authentica-

a cochlear implant and has additional

tion mechanism for our customers.

needs like support to maintaining the

We have a huge set of partners we’re 257

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Martin Hairer Title: Chief Digital Officer

Company: MED-EL

Industry: Medical Device

Location: Austria

I’m an incurable optimist who believes in a bright future and our ability to enable everyone through technology. I like to solve problems. Throughout my career, I have been driven by my intellectual curiosity to find answers to the most pressing questions. Whether it’s finding a use-case for new technologies or finding a unique technique for a special use-case, I’ve been able to quickly uncover a customer’s pain point and identify a strategic solution.

With my refined skill set, I bring customer-centric mindfulness that enables me to innovate and thrive. My intellectual curiosity also drives me to be a lifelong learner. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

MED-EL

258

“ There is so much more potential to improve the quality of life for our customers” — Martin Hairer, Chief Digital Officer, MED-EL

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working with – there is not one set

It’s horrible to do this on your own.

of products from one company you

You need an army of cybersecurity

can buy to become fully digital.”

specialists who keep only one tool

One crucial partnership is with

up and running safely, and that’s

secure collaboration provider Box,

exactly where Box came in. It provides

as Hairer explains. “As you can imag-

us a really nice way to collaborate

ine for us with our business partners

across the company and partners.”

and clinics, data and information,

Aside from internal evolution,

exchange and collaboration is a very

MED-EL is also witnessing a change

important topic. Everything we can

in the expectations of customers,

improve in that regard has a tremen-

which it endeavours to address. “It’s

dous impact on cost savings and

fascinating to see the patient culture

quality and outcomes for the users.

change. As far as I can recall, it was

Before our cloud transformation

always that inventors and professionals

here at MED-EL, we tried to maintain

pushed something into the med-tech

everything with data exchange tools.

industry, and patients received it.

Now, patients are more seen as

DID YO U KN OW ?

• 2,200 employees from around 75 nations with 30 locations worldwide • Enable people in 124 countries to enjoy the gift of hearing • Its systems have restored hearing to more than 200,000 individuals worldwide.

customers and can influence future products and solutions. That’s a shift you can see in a lot of other industries, of course, with customercentricity and building products based on customer feedback. “With digital-savvy customers expecting a certain level of offering, Hairer and his team are rising to meet the demand. “Customers are now saying: ‘I know that this is a great device or solution, but why does it need to be more complicated w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

259

MED-EL

AudioKey Hands-On: Creating an Account | MED-EL CLICK TO WATCH

260

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1:27

“ AI is now heavily used by us to help and self-enable our customers” — Martin Hairer, Chief Digital Officer, MED-EL

than ordering something on Amazon?’.

It’s challenging us to find better ways to make things more customisable and to engage with our customers much more deeply.”

Like all companies around the globe, MED-EL is finding it has to adapt to a changing world, but Hairer is cautious of predictions of a so-called ‘new normal’. “We often hear this from politicians and governments all around the world, but I don’t know what the ‘new normal’ is. It implies that there is an old normal. Of course, we have a roadmap, but this is not a new road we’re going

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261

MED-EL

1990

Year founded

200,000+

Systems used to restore individuals hearing

2,200 Number of employees

262

down.” Accordingly, Hairer sees the

we need to deal with a lot of different

chief outcome of the pandemic for

government regulations and laws

MED-EL as being an acceleration of

around the globe. Every country is

existing programs. “It’s reprioritised

dealing with the pandemic in their

our thinking. The stage we thought

own way, making their own rules,

we’d be at in a year is already here.

and that means we need to make

And I’m really glad to see that this

sure that we fulfil all these require-

is the pace we change things, and

ments, with social distancing being

move forwards.”

number one. “It’s like Charles Darwin

That ability to react with agility

said. It’s the most adaptable species

comes despite the company’s scale.

on this planet that survives. And this

“We operate in 124 countries, with

is something that fits perfectly with

our offices in 30 countries, meaning

MED-EL.”

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“ It’s fascinating to see the patient culture change” — Martin Hairer, Chief Digital Officer, MED-EL 263

As for the future, Hairer believes

implants and non-implantable devices

MED-EL is well equipped to thrive

and accessories, but also real digital

despite the challenges presented

services. We have seen that there

thanks to new avenues of exploration.

is so much more potential to improve

“We are a technology company, an

the quality of life for our customers

engineering, research-driven firm and

and this will play a huge part for the

it means we adapt to new challenges

company in the next couple of years.”

quickly. For that reason, I believe that this current situation is a catalyst, not only for the whole healthcare industry, but for us as a company to put digital technologies much more into our product portfolio. That’s not only w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

264

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Staying the country’s first choice WRITTEN BY

265

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

BH TELECOM

Adnan Huremovic, CTO, discusses how BH Telecom’s technological expertise, innovative culture and customer-centric focus has made it a leading provider

L

ocated in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H), BH Telecom was founded in 1992 with the vision of pro-

viding high-quality telecoms services using the most up-to-date technology available. Now, 28 266

years later, the company has risen to become the country’s leading operator and its dedication to providing the best for its customers has not wavered.

A shareholding company but 90% publicly-owned, an integral component of BH Telecom’s motivation for success is the betterment of national network infrastructure, which it facilitates through competitive fixed phone, mobile, internet and IPTV services.

With over 3,200 employees and a managerial strategy which prioritises innovation, fast R&D and comprehensive solutions, BH Telecom has indelibly left its mark on B&H’s telecommunications sector.

Part of the BH Telecom journey for over 16 years, Adnan Huremovic joined the company as an Associate for Access Networks and steadily worked his way up to his current role as Chief Technology Officer in 2018. “The J U LY 2 0 2 0

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BH TELECOM

“ From my first role when I was working in infrastructure, then later to project planning and finally as a board member, my life and career are connected to communications” — Adnan Huremovic, CTO, BH Telecom 268

telecommunications field was my primary professional interest when I started,” he explains. “From my first role when I was working in infrastructure, then later to project planning and finally as a board member, my life and career are connected to communications.” A true expert in his field, Huremovic has maintained a relationship with his alma mater – the University of Sarajevo – as an academic and teacher, which, he states, continues to shape his approach to the CTO role at BH Telecom. “On one side, I have the opportunity to share ideas and my practical and business-related knowledge with future engineers. On the other, the students of the telecoms department are potential future employees.”

It is, perhaps, this openness to change and fresh perspectives that has led to BH Telecom’s superlative workplace culture – the driving force behind its success, Huremovic claims.

Striving to create an atmosphere which encourages and rewards the collective progress made by teams, whilst still taking the time to recognise the contributions of individuals, the

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365 of the most beautiful stories BH Telecom CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:29

269 company has succeeded in fostering

BH Telecom’s status as a government-

an environment where innovation can

owned organisation. “We are a public

develop naturally. “As a result, we have

company; our values are not solely

a lot of technical service solutions that

oriented to profit. Rather, our vision is

are made solely within the company.

the prosperity of all society.”

For example, our web-based TV ser-

Despite BH Telecom’s impres-

vice, our web portal and payments,

sive status and standing as the

also – f-commerce (mobile prepaid

leading company in its market, it

recharge through fixed line, IPTV

has steadfastly refused to rest on

etc.), billing systems and mobile apps

its laurels or become complacent.

are completely developed in-house

Formulating a clear and successful

by our engineers.” Another factor

digital transformation strategy has

of its success stems from a highly

been instrumental in cementing the

customer-centric ethos, a natural

company’s position. “The most impor-

consequence, states Huremovic, of

tant thing we needed to adapt was w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

BH TELECOM

www.qssbh.com

Accelerate your success in the digital era QSS helps telcos accelerate digital transformation. Our IoT, fintech and analytics solutions enable telcos to become agile and competitive digital service providers.

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mindset,” says Huremovic, “across all levels, from workers up to managerial staff.” Providing intensive training and workshops across BH Telecom, the company was able to illustrate why tech progression was integral for business continuity and what benefits it would bring. This included enhanced efficiency through the digitalisation of paper-based processes, which streamlined myriad operations within the company, including procurement, payments and billings, sales, customer service and more.

The goal of becoming faster and better also emphasised the importance of BH Telecom’s partner ecosystem, which has been invaluable as a source of innovative new technology. BS Telecom, a manufacturer and supplier of integrated telecom systems for data processing, and one of BH Telecom’s key collaborators, has been instrumental in supporting its projects, both past and present. “BS Telecom has been one of our most valuable partners for a very long time,” says Huremovic.

“It’s already helped us achieve some

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Adnan Huremovic Title: CTO Company: BH Telecom Industry: Telecommunications Adnan Huremovic is an acting CTO at BH Telecom Sarajevo. Born in 1980, graduated and achieved MsC, and PhD in electrical engineering at University of Sarajevo until 2016. Huremovic started as interim in BH Telecom Sarajevo in 2003, and worked on a number of various positions within the company. He became a member of the board in 2015 as a Chief investment Officer, Director of core network, and currently as a CTO. In this period, Huremovic managed implementation of new IMS and packet core network, complete 4G network swap, and 5G testing. He also teaches at the University of Sarajevo, and leads Bosnian Society for Telecommunication.

great projects, such as our previous SMS platform, and our existing ADMS w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

271

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platform. Currently, we are working on

explore artificial intelligence (AI) appli-

a very difficult project for a new billing

cations as its 5G capabilities develop

system. It’s one of the most complex

further. As part of its commitment to

IT projects we’ve had for a couple of

liability and providing its customers

years, but, because of our strong past

with the best experience possible, BH

relationship, we are very confident

Telecom has also rigorously developed

that this will be another joint success –

in-house end-to-end cybersecurity,

that’s the high level of confidence that

including DDoS protection, state-of-

we have in BS Telecom as an integrator

the-art application firewalls and fraud

for this endeavour.”

detection. However, one of the primary

Already utilising hybrid cloud

challenges of the modern telecom

computing and IoT within its digital

industry is the fast-paced nature of

transformation journey for the past

tech development and its ability to

five years, the company is planning to

completely transform old paradigms

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“ We are a public company; our values are not solely oriented to profit. Rather, our vision is the prosperity of all society” — Adnan Huremovic, CTO, BH Telecom

of working. Emerging global trends, such as 5G, have the ability to reshape the customer experience and the task, states Huremovic, will be for BH Telecom to prepare the necessary infrastructure to utilise it. “The big challenges are likely to be the regulatory and legal issues,” he says. Therefore, BH Telecom has a didactic role to play, along with its partners, in introducing this revolutionary new infrastructure to the public and authorities. “At the end of the road, we expect to see a 273

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BH TELECOM

BS TELECOM

274

BS Telecom is an IT and manufacturing services company for the telecommunications sector.

Founded in 2002, its corporate vision has been to research and develop custom solutions for the latest problems experienced in the industry. A valued partner of BH Telecom for several years, Adnan Huremovic emphasises the value and importance of BS Telecom in its past and future endeavours. “BS Telecom has been one of our most valuable partners for a very long time,� he says.

J U LY 2 0 2 0

fully-covered high speed, low latency network. From that, we’ll then have the basis to build newer services.”

Trust and its standing within the community is paramount to BH Telecom. Whilst the COVID-19 pandemic has been a difficult experience for everyone, Huremovic says that the company also recognised it as an opportunity to prove its mettle.

“Interestingly, we didn’t experience many problems or delays as far as technology development was concerned. I believe that this crisis actually motivated our employees to demonstrate that BH Telecom is something people can rely on.” Throughout the pandemic so far, the company has managed to avoid data congestions and network dropouts on services which have become vital as customers live and work primarily from home.

Additionally, BH Telecom has granted access to critical services free-ofcharge to schools and students.

Through its actions, BH Telecom continues to manifest its values and mission; one of the few governmentowned telecoms in B&H, its position and prestige as the best is a reputation w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

275

BH TELECOM

276

“ I believe that this crisis actually motivated our employees to demonstrate that BH Telecom is something people can rely on” — Adnan Huremovic, CTO, BH Telecom

that it intends to keep. Foreseeing a shift in the sector, the company is diversifying to include investment in domestic fintechs and focusing on expanding its capacity to include content production. Regarding the latter, Huremovic adds, “We already have some investments in local and regional content companies that we plan to build or even acquire. I see a global orientation toward content as something that will benefit every telecom’s portfolio.” Concurrently, fintechs and

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2002

Year founded

3,242 Number of employees

277

domestic startups will be assisted by

he concludes, “it’s that the integra-

BH Telecom’s ‘Start IT Up’ initiative, a

tion of digital processes and digital

programme which the company hopes

transformation has been accelerated

will position it as a central platform in

dramatically. During this time, it’ll play

B&H’s startup market.

an important role in keeping the econ-

Reflecting on the challenges of

omy healthy and allow the company to

2020 so far and how it will shape the

flourish. I think, after this situation has

market moving forwards, Huremovic is

passed, BH Telecom and its partners

proud of what BH Telecom has man-

will be on a whole new level.”

aged to achieve and feels confident in the new direction it has selected. “If there’s any silver lining in this pandemic situation for the telecoms industry,” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

278

Driving digital transformation in South Africa WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE

J U LY 2 0 2 0

PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

279

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TELKOM

Head of Data Insights Management at Telkom, on the challenge of navigating the South African market amidst a digital transform

T

elkom is a leading communications service provider in South Africa, operating in more than 38 countries across the continent of

Africa. Founded in 1991, it has transformed from the only telecommunications provider in South Africa to the diversified organisation delivering end-to-end 280

solutions to consumers and enterprise customers that it is today.

Telkom serves a range of business and residential customers and has all the key components of true convergence, allowing the organisation to provide integrated voice, data, fixed, mobile, IT and data centre solutions. Zjaen Coetzee is Head of Data Insights Management at Telkom. He affirms his organisation has significantly changed the way it operates over the last decade. “In the last 10 years, Telkom has transformed from a fixed line operator to a mobile operator,� he says. “We own and operate several subsidiaries; we do property management through gyro as well as the traditional Yellowpages, but we now have a complete digital platform incorporated specifically called Telkom SMB. We have a retail business that does mobile J U LY 2 0 2 0

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TELKOM

and fixed line for consumers. We also

in other countries in packaging and

have BCX, which is the largest ICT

delivering solutions that don’t work in

company in South Africa, and has an

South Africa. However, this isn’t unique

international footprint specialising in

to us and is also the case for many

everything ICT-related. We really have

other telecom providers in the country.

become a fully diversified platform.”

South Africa is extremely diverse and

Coetzee believes there are sub-

it’s important that whatever you do in

stantial hurdles to overcome in the

packaging, it adds value and your ser-

South African market. “Navigating the

vice is reliable.”

market is the biggest challenge that we

282

In a bid to address a skills short-

face. There’s a big drive to cut down on

age in the country, the Explore Data

costs because people obviously want

Science Academy (EDSA) was estab-

cheaper services,” he says. “There’s

lished to increase local data science

also the cultural challenge because

skills through partnerships and spon-

there are things that typically work

sorship from large organisations to tap

“ We really have become a fully diversified platform” Zjaen Coetzee, Head of Data Insights Management, Telkom

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Telkom: Unlimited WiFi on Telkom DSL CLICK TO WATCH

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283 into this resource pool. Since its incep-

Engineer at Telkom, believes there has

tion in 2016, over 1,000 students have

been significant focus on developing

gone through the programme. “The

the role of the data scientist. “It has

EDSA has grown to become a massive

worked very well and injected lots of

learning platform that caters for data

resources into the marketplace,” he

science training in several ways, as well

says. “Telkom has benefited con-

as for individuals to use it to change

siderably as we see data scientists

career or pursue their passion in data

appointed into different divisions, as

science,” says Coetzee. “It has short

well as assisting with other types of

and long courses and ranges from

workloads that are powering Big Data.

high school programmes to executive

We’re also centred around enabling the

training. The prime aim was to invest

data engineering type of training and

back into the South African market

providing for those roles too.”

and get a running pipeline of skills to tap into each year.” CJ Smit, Lead Data

Smit understands the importance of leveraging Big Data into operations w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

TELKOM

284

and affirms harnessing value remains

People don’t always understand that

the key. “The traditional way in which

Big Data isn’t just the only technology

we produced customer insight and

that they use but is also one of the

recommendations was to simply

necessary technologies to enable

analyse transaction activity in a data

quicker time to value. It’s important to

warehouse,” he says. “However, the

deploy the right technology at the right

limitation is that only transaction

time in order to produce the quickest

activity is analysed. It doesn’t include

time to value.”

analysis of other high value data that

Thembani Phaweni, Senior Data

when pieced together offers a much

Scientist in the BCX division, believes

more complete understanding of a

Big Data has brought significant ben-

customer’s DNA. Therein, lies the

efits to countries such as South Africa

problem. We have to understand the

that have vastly different speaking

customer from a holistic perspective.

cultures. “There are many advantages.

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“ Navigating the South African market is the biggest challenge that we face” Zjaen Coetzee, Head of Data Insights Management, Telkom 285

As a retail focused business, distrib-

that while no one can successfully

uted technology personalisation and

predict the future accurately, instead

autonomous or smart technology have

you can take a view on the kinds of

all been key drivers,” says Phaweni.

technologies that seem promising.

“Personalisation is possible with deeper

“Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

insights into customer behaviour and

is one of those promising technologies

their preferences. This means more

especially in a market as diverse and

granular segmentation and user driven

culturally rich as Africa,” he says. “The

product development. Autonomous

challenge is that speech requires good

and smart technology means fibre

and large datasets many of which don’t

networks and towers that report their

exist and others are simply too small

own faults and eventually autonomous

for commercial tools. Of course, the

agents that can repair them without

ASR does not standalone, it requires a

risking human lives.” Phaweni believes

plethora of natural language tools.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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TELKOM

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“ Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is one of those promising technologies, especially in a market as diverse and culturally rich as Africa�

Thembani Phaweni, Senior Data Scientist, BCX

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When beginning its data science journey in 2016, the first partner that Telkom collaborated with was Cloudera for a formal Big Data platform and the alliance remains strong today.

“Cloudera has played an influential role and assisted in shaping the roadmap and strategy for expansion, as well as increasing capabilities in tandem with BCX. As part of that, there is a strong partnership with BCX and Cloudera from an external marketing facing perspective” explains Coetzee. “For our cloud-based solutions we use Google Cloud Platform to develop and host most of our data science and analytics cloud-based applications and proprietary tools. Paired with this and the drive to rapidly prototype and deliver solutions faster we required a strong local partner that can assist with leading technology and for this we use Slipstream to manage our Tableau and Alteryx licencing, support and training relationships.” Coetzee understands the importance of forming sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships.

“We’re typically seeking a collaboration with someone that has the capabilities to support us, because if we do run into w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

289

TELKOM

290

any issues such as licencing then they

overall digital literacy within the organi-

can be easily resolved,” says Coetzee.

sation across the business,” explains

“We must always ask ourselves: is it

Coetzee. “We’ve been pushing data

affordable and does it make sense?

literacy for some time but people aren’t

Ultimately, it must be a company that we

always aware of the true value of data.

can go on a journey with and they must

This is one of the biggest challenges

be open to offering continuous support.”

that we face in terms of Big Data

Over the next few months, Coetzee affirms that Telkom will focus on data literacy. “Data literacy is a massive

because if you forget about the value of data then the platform won’t work.”

With the future in mind, Thembani is

driver and over the next few months,

excited about the impact that speech

we will be focusing on increasing the

technology could have on the South

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“ It’s important to deploy the right technology at the right time in order to produce the quickest time to value” CJ Smit, Lead Data Engineer, Telkom

African landscape. “We’re invested in

for English does not work very well on

technologies that provide a richer user

South African accents. We’ve since

experience,” says Phaweni. “We are

realised that we need to build our own

very passionate about computer vision

ASR. We are starting by building a large

and natural language processing. The

dataset with thousands of hours of

future of autonomous technology is

transcribed audio. We’re excited about

very promising. Speech technology is

the potential that this has.”

a fascinating and important area going forward. We recently built a prototype meeting assistant for the South African market. We quickly realised that Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

291

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Leading the way: Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital drives digital health transformation in Saudi Arabia WRITTEN BY

RACHAEL DAVIS PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD

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D R . S O L I M A N F A K E E H H O S P I TA L

A visionary approach to medical technology has improved clinical results, boosted patient satisfaction and reformed healthcare at Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, Saudi Arabia. CIO Dr Nitin Verma shares his journey to success

“ 294

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eading, not following” is the reason Saudi Arabia’s Fakeeh Care is distinguished in the Middle East, according to CIO Dr. Nitin Verma.

Through refined processes and implementation of the best technologies, Fakeeh Care is paving the way for medical facilities across the region to create a more efficient, harmonious and satisfactory experience for patients, families and medical professionals alike.

Over the last six months, Dr Verma has transformed the groups’ attitudes towards high technology.

His clinical background enables a perceptive understanding of the practical applications of technology, and for the past two decades he has been helping develop technology within the medical sector – from a time when very few clinicians had a hand in IT. Now, under Dr Verma’s direction as Chief Information Officer, Fakeeh Care is “leading the healthcare digital transformation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

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1978

Year founded

3,500+ Number of employees

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D R . S O L I M A N F A K E E H H O S P I TA L

“ Our preference is always to work with vendors who can work as a partner in our digital transformation” 296

— Dr Nitin Verma, CIO, Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital

Creating a user-friendly, multifaceted mobile application for its patients, available in both English and Arabic, was a major breakthrough for Fakeeh Care. While other hospitals in Saudi Arabia have also developed apps to help their customers with their treatment journey, Fakeeh Care mobile application stands out with its awardwinning design.

The mobile app incorporates features such as a ChatBot to handle queries, a platform for patients to access lab results, radiology results, medication prescriptions, and a sophisticated online billing platform which eases queueing times and stress for patients after treatment.

As Fakeeh Care sees anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 outpatients every day, with over a quarter travelling hundreds of kilometres to the hospital, a revolutionary component of the app is an online consultation platform.

A virtual follow-up consultation for outpatients who have had tests at the healthcare facilities saves time, stress and money, as they can receive the required aftercare without having to return to the hospital.

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297 Alongside medication prescription

through an AI solution which highlights

details being available within the app,

the second section of the image,”

Fakeeh Care has also developed a fea-

Dr Verma says. “The AI enables a

ture which sets reminders for patients

deeper insight into what is wrong with

to take their medication. “This has

the image, and therefore what could

enhanced compliance with the medi-

be wrong with the patient.”

cation, resulting in an improved clinical outcome,” says Dr. Verma.

In a clinical setting, AI and robotics

As a result of AI assistance, the total time taken to report on a radiology image at Fakeeh Care has

are being utilised by departments

been reduced by 75%. This not only

within the hospital to improve accuracy,

improves operational efficiency in

negate human error, and enhance

radiology, but empowers radiologists

operational efficiency.

to delve deeper into the abnormal-

“Any radiology imaging which radiologists have to report on can be put

ity identified by the AI and enhance patient care. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

We enable healthcare providers to leverage their clinical and operational decision support along the patient pathway Siemens digital health solutions help healthcare providers applying Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, operationalizing the value of big data and Connecting care teams and patients

Learn More

With any digital transformation, the

“Our preference is always to work

right vendor and supply chain relation-

with vendors who can work as a part-

ships are important – but Fakeeh Care

ner in our transformation, and we are

recognises the extra responsibility

working with multiple strategic vendors

demanded of it as a medical care pro-

to realise our vision. There are very few

vider. “Fakeeh Care has a policy that

which I could call ‘strategy partners’,

we work with our strategic vendor in a

but Siemens is one such key partner

partnership, not in a client-vendor rela-

in our digital health transformation,”

tionship,” says Dr. Verma.

Dr. Verma says.

One such partner of Fakeeh Care

Leading such a vast change in a

is Siemens. Siemens’ solution is used

matter of months, Dr Verma has been

extensively in the hospital’s radiology

acutely aware of the importance of a

department, which is seeing a vast

comprehensive change management

digital transformation.

strategy. His approach is to lead a new

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Nitin Verma Title: Chief Information Officer Location: Saudi Arabia Dr. Verma is a medical graduate of the University of Delhi, India and has an MS in pharmaceutical sciences from the US. He has over 27 years of global experience across a broad range of ITES/ Healthcare Technology and Healthcare Operation Management. As the Chief Information Officer at Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital, he is redefining the healthcare strategy, roadmap and approach for the group to further strengthen its leadership in the provider landscape in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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“ The end goal is helping patients, clinicians and the hospital to bring more efficiency to medicine” — Dr Nitin Verma, CIO, Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital

culture from the top, starting with the

of making the learning curve for staff

hospital’s CEO. It is equally important

as short and accessible as possible.

to the change management strategy

At Fakeeh Care, the change man-

that change is also led from the bottom,

agement strategy combines a rational

engaging employees at every level

and emotional approach. “The leader-

early on in the process.

ship team will often make the case for

“With a committee and a well-aligned

the major change on the sole basis of

group of executives strongly supported

a strategic business objective,” says

by the top management, alongside

Dr. Verma, “but these reasonings rarely

engagement with employees at lower

reach the people in the middle and bot-

levels, you can ensure the strategy is

tom staff layers emotionally.

led cohesively,” Dr. Verma says.

“If you can combine your rational

On the ‘front line’, group staff who

approach with an emotional approach,

will be hands-on with the new tech-

you can reach every layer of the organi-

nology are given comprehensive but

sation. Human beings respond to the

concise training. This training includes

call to action that engages their heart

instructional videos to reduce the need

as well as their mind, and it makes

for manually requesting IT help for

them feel as if they are part of some-

minor issues, among other methods

thing great, something consequential.”

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D R . S O L I M A N F A K E E H H O S P I TA L

The last part of the change management strategy, Dr. Verma says, is to “engage, engage, engage.” Giving staff what they need to start using the applications, following up with them every 48-72 hours, and creating a manual or automated tool to see the practical utilisation of the technology increases uptake and satisfaction amongst all staff.

Digital transformation at DSFH is accelerated by the “visionary” leadership and “tech-savvy” CEO. The hospital’s founder and namesake, Dr 302

Soliman Fakeeh, established the hospital in 1978 with advanced solutions and technology at its core. It was the first hospital in Saudi Arabia to have a CT scanner - revolutionary even mere decades ago.

The current President and Chairman of the Board, Dr Mazen S. Fakeeh, has enabled a corporate strategy which “never shies away from an investment in technology,” Dr. Verma says.

“When I present him the digital health strategy, his curiosity means he is open to any new technology as long as it meets the end goal: helping patients, clinicians and the group to bring more efficiency to medicine.”

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Taking the group to the “next level” is at the core of Dr Verma’s digital health strategy, and IT was one of the key factors behind its journey to becoming “one of the most prestigious healthcare groups in Saudi Arabia today.”

Embracing the latest technological innovation not only from the Middle East, but from Europe, America and the rest of the world, and bringing them to the group at the earliest opportunity, means it is “not a follower in digital health transformation, but a leader in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

The company’s president concludes: “Fakeeh Care strongly believes that digital transformation-enabled healthcare delivery is the way to move forward. Digital transformation has created a bridge between us and our patients enabling them to be engaged in their own care resulting in improved compliance and a better clinical outcome”.

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Siemens Smart Infrastructure: establishing a new normal WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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SIEMENS

Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure, discusses the AI and IoT-enabled future of smart buildings and the new normal they enable

M

ultinational conglomerate Siemens is a vast business of over 300,000 employees, with history dating back

over 170 years. Among its other operations, such 306

as energy and manufacturing, Siemens operates a Smart Infrastructure division dedicated to a 21st century approach to buildings. Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor is Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure – Regional Solutions and Services, for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure’s mission of ensuring buildings remain safe and secure has taken on a new level of importance in the current COVID-19 pandemic. “We can help to ensure hospitals remain enabled to serve more patients,” says Manzoor. “Siemens is a company that provides essential services to essential services.

Therefore, there is a lot of demand right now – which we are keeping up with. We have not let our customers down even at this critical point. And I have to thank all of our Siemens employees out there J U LY 2 0 2 0

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SIEMENS

“ What we try to do is make buildings communicate with us” — Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure - Regional Solutions and Services, Siemens

who continue to go to customer sites and provide the services that ensure these utilities keep running. We still have water, power, internet and healthcare, in part because we at Siemens Smart Infrastructure are ensuring we keep that running for our customers.”

Even before the pandemic, there was an imperative to make smart what had previously been ‘dumb’.

“If you’re not making infrastructure smart, then it’s going to haunt us in the future,” Manzoor explains. “That’s

308

where Siemens Smart Infrastructure comes in. As the name indicates, we make infrastructure smart. How do we do it? We make infrastructure talk to us. Normally, if you’re feeling too hot, you just decrease the thermostat.

There, the communication is going one way – from you to the building.

What we try to do is make buildings communicate with us.”

Such feats can only be accomplished by the use of advanced technology, such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT). “When we put AI in buildings, we no longer need to tell them we’re feeling too hot. The building can sense your comfort. It can J U LY 2 0 2 0

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309 sense the outside temperature, it can

“For example,” Manzoor says, “if

sense whether there is a sand storm,

there is a fire alarm or an evacuation

as we often have in the Middle East, it

needed, instead of just sound-

can sense if there is rain coming, if the

ing a fire alarm, Siemens Smart

humidity is too high or too low and then,

Infrastructure could also send a

using those analytics and those sen-

tweet to you on your mobile phone

sors, it can adjust the environment in

specifying where the fire is and which

the building. Similarly, we have solutions

exit to take. This intelligence can be

for power resilience. Now every build-

built into those buildings using our

ing could be a power plant. In Germany,

technology, to make those buildings

there are millions of power plants in

and the users happier.”

every city, and it’s similar here in the Middle East and in the US.” Safety is another topic immeasurably improved by smart infrastructure.

Siemens is now dedicated to answering the question of how such technology can help our lives to return to the ways they were. Thanks to its w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

SIEMENS

310

extensive smart building experience,

contaminants. This can be achieved

it’s a question the company is very well

through the ionisation of contaminants

equipped to answer. “We’re coming

with Siemens non-ozone producing

up with a lot of use cases for the ‘new

ionisation technology. Ultraviolet

normal’ – they are being developed

can be used to kill bacteria, fungi

on a weekly, even a daily basis,” says

and some viruses, while new HVAC

Manzoor. “There are many, many new

maintenance strategies and advanced

ideas of what the ‘new normal’ is going

filtration can improve air quality and

to look like in an office environment. As

reduce the spread of viruses.

offices around the world start to open

The maintenance of social distanc-

up, our Siemens technology will be

ing is another area where Siemens’

integral to getting back to work.”

technology has a part to play. Office

One potential solution lies in reducing the spread of airborne and surface J U LY 2 0 2 0

occupancy can be monitored for density using IoT sensors and data

analytics, while thermal cameras can screen individuals for evidence of elevated skin temperature. Contact tracing can then be put in place for individuals who do test positive. The number of occupants within a space can also be monitored and controlled thanks either to the use of video analytics or access control readers.

“ Siemens has a deep history of innovation, of excellence and also of reliability” — Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure - Regional Solutions and Services, Siemens

Real-time updates can play their part to sustain safe and healthy working environments, for instance by utilising 24/7 remote monitoring and response, 311 E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor Title: Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure - Regional Solutions and Services Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor is Head of Smart Infrastructure, Solutions and Services at Siemens Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Manzoor is an advocate of cultural transformation leading towards teamwork, ownership and creating the leaders of tomorrow. He is passionate about digitalisation, IoT and smart city applications. Through his work, he intends to make technology simple to understand and to have it applied in a useful way, helping make infrastructure more smart, sustainable and energy efficient. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

SIEMENS

“ Siemens is a company that provides essential services to essential services” — Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure - Regional Solutions and Services, Siemens

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or leveraging analytics and fault detection to identify any issues that may occur. Emergency notifications can then be ‘pushed’ to occupants, alerting them to critical events.

It’s not only offices where Siemens technology has a crucial part to play.

Hospitals, of course, have become a focus of late, with Siemens providing the technology for isolation rooms for a number of hospitals. “In a hospital there are negative pressure rooms and positive pressure rooms,” Manzoor explains. “An isolation room needs technology to keep negative pressure in the room so that germs are not spread outside the room.

Positive pressure rooms are, for instance, operating rooms, where we want germs to leave. We provide the control and sensor technology to go into those rooms and sense factors such as air pressure, temperature and humidity, and using all of that information, we can then control the air movement.”

Siemens has a long track record of working with hospitals in epidemic situations, with its proven credentials leading to trust from hospitals. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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SIEMENS

“While we have been providing a lot of technology to hospitals in the last three months, we also did this a few years back when we had the SARS epidemic and the MERS epidemic.

Now we are providing technology on a larger scale to our customers. There are a lot of hospitals that we’re working with, as well as a lot of temporary hospitals, which are being constructed in various countries. We have been deeply involved with some of these hospitals, providing them 314

with Siemens technology in a very fast way. Our people were working around the clock to ensure that temporary

“ As offices around the world start to open up, Siemens technology will be integral to getting back to work” — Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure - Regional Solutions and Services, Siemens

hospitals were set up in record time.

They had the power distribution, sensors and devices to operate safely and at a very high intensity.”

Siemens has not lasted as many years as it has without building strong and lasting relationships with vendors and customers, says Manzoor. “There are many customers with whom we have a strategic relationship. We’re a large company, present in over 170 countries around the world, and a lot of our customers also have a

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Year founded

€86.8bn+ Revenue in Euros

300,000 Number of employees

similar global footprint. So, we have

brand anywhere in the world, you have

these deep partnerships with our

those parts. That’s why we’re one of

customers stemming from our global

the best-known brands in the world

account management organisations,

and one of the highest regarded com-

meaning we can provide the same

panies for customer service.”

standard of service in each and every country or region.”

It’s thanks to that commitment that Siemens has achieved the level of success that it has. “Siemens has a long history of innovation, of excellence and also of reliability,” says Manzoor. “If you look at the Siemens w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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A living laboratory for innovation and advanced tech WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD

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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. “Prior to coming to Saudi 318

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 degrees that is of the same caliber as MIT, the J U LY 2 0 2 0

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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”

California Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Therefore, over the last 10 years we have been working to build state-of-the-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 by what Roos calls “a mini Silicon Valley”, to drive a culture of innovation

320

— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

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.” To help advance technological innovation for digital smart cities, “Microsoft has been one of our closest and most valuable partners in

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321 this journey. When Microsoft first

Microsoft solutions portfolio as well

heard of the launch of the KAUST

as how to build upon that foundation

Smart Program they provided enthu-

to create new and innovative experi-

siastic support by hosting members

ences has been a critical component

of the KAUST team for a visit to

of our success thus far and we look

Microsoft’s executive briefing center

forward to advancing this partnership

at their headquarters in Redmond,

even further over the next year.”

Washington. This visit kicked off

Currently, within the world of tech-

numerous discussions about lever-

nology, Roos highlights that, globally,

aging KAUST as a living laboratory

there is a strong buzz around utilising

for smart city experiences and

artificial intelligence, machine learning

subsequently led to several design

and high-performance computing in

thinking sessions with an exceptional

order to leverage autonomous func-

team from Microsoft. Looking at how

tions and high levels of intelligence to

we can better leverage our existing

enhance an organisation’s capabilities. w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

324

“At KAUST we want to utilise these

and Innovation at KAUST Smart, has

trends within our ‘living laboratory’ to

also seen an increased empowerment

drive innovation in computing, per-

of knowledge and decision making,

sonalised and precision medicine,

due to the way users interact with their

population health, traffic control and

mobile phones has evolved. “It adds to

mobility, to name a few. One area that

the situational awareness, which pro-

we are looking into at the moment is

vides a level of intelligence that we can

the application of autonomous vehi-

apply to automation,” adds Roos, “in

cles. Being an entire ecosystem city

the past you could automate, but you

we have the ability to control almost

couldn’t predict, which is where artifi-

every variable to thoroughly test these

cial intelligence and machine learning

vehicles to develop a usable service.”

has really provided a difference in

In addition to these trends Mohamed

automation to customise the individual

Abdel-Aal, Head of Digital Experience

experience. This is something we are

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E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

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.

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325

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”

looking to leverage to create an intelligent and unique experience.”

In order to achieve this Roos explains that there are multiple components to KAUST’s digital transformation strategy. “Although there is your traditional IT portfolio for basic applications to deliver your core business functions, in order to go beyond that and innovate, you need to look at the overall experience being provided to redefine and reimagine

326

— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

the basic portfolio. At KAUST we are looking to create a culture where people are allowed to experiment, to take risks and push boundaries to see what works and what doesn’t. 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.”

Currently at KAUST, Roos and Abdel-Aal are working on a number 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

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shuttles on a joint agreement that

phone? Can users book the shuttles

we’ve built with multiple companies,”

in advance? Can they interact with the

comments Abdel-Aal who explains

experience using a smart and interac-

the complexity involved when innovat-

tive bus stop? The third dimension is

ing in this area. “The assessment of

the actual research of the vehicles,

autonomous shuttles includes multiple

such as battery materials and artificial

dimensions, one being the operational

intelligence sensor technology. Finally

aspect. Can we run these shuttles?

the fourth dimension is optimised

Can we charge them? Can we maintain

operational cost.”

them? Will they withstand the heat? A

Further detailing the current innova-

second dimension is digital integration

tions at KAUST, Roos explains the

to develop a smart experience which

university’s development of its comput-

poses questions such as, will users

ing and storage capabilities. “When

be able to look up the route on their

KAUST was first established, our 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

supercomputer “Shaheen” was an IBM

environment is managed by our

Blue Gene system which put KAUST

Core Laboratories, ensuring that

on the map for high-performance

our researchers and scientists have

computing to support our mission

access to high-end compute capa-

and research areas. KAUST’s second

bilities, which are commonly used for

generation supercomputer – a Cray XC

high-resolution modeling, simulations,

40, which has been in place since 2015

cloud and GPUs.”

- now supports the high-end research that we do. KAUST’s supercomputing

Other innovations the university is working on include drone technology

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Mohamed Abdel-Aal

329

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

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND 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. In terms of cashless payment, we are 330

currently piloting various forms of cashless experiences, including digital gateways and facial recognition

“ We have worked very closely with some of our partners and they have been valuable from the very beginning”

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 is charged for what they have bought

— Jason Roos, CIO, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

once they leave the store,” adds Roos.

Reflecting on the university, Roos believes its biggest strengths are its world-class facilities for high-level tech research and innovation, and

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Year founded

5,000 Number of employees

331

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 worked very closely with some of our w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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Worten: digitally transforming to boost agility WRITTEN BY

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BEN MALTBY

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WORTEN

Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation at Worten, discusses the company’s digital transformation journey to becoming more agile and customer centric

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resh out of graduating from Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto with a degree in Electrical and System

Engineering, Felipe Ferreira started his career at Siemens Group as a Process Engineer for a semiconductor plant. “I left Siemens in 2001 to take an 334

MBA,” says Ferreira. “When I finished, I started working at SONAE (the holding company that owns Worten) roughly 18 years ago. Since 2017 I have been exclusively working at Worten, first as Head of Supply Chain, and by the end of 2018 I was invited to launch the Digital Transformation area.

Describing Worten, Ferreira emphasises that the company’s vision is to be “a digital company, with physical stores and a human touch.” Worten’s objective is to expand the business, creating a distinctive value proposition, which starts with consumer electronics to serve the ever-changing consumers better and more comprehensively. “We are expanding our business into new territories of products and services and merging the best of the online and offline worlds, in the firm conviction that the near future will be omnichannel, rather than just J U LY 2 0 2 0

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digital,” he adds. “At Worten we believe that we can deliver business results around two ambitious ideas: that our brand is elastic enough to serve the consumers in more areas than just consumer electronics, sustaining their trust as we always did; and that the result of the merger of the digital world with the physical world can be much greater than the sum of its parts, especially if the human factor (emotional closeness, availability, personal attention, affinity) is maximised 336

as a differentiating factor.”

Currently, Worten is going through

1996

Year founded

$1bn+ Revenue in US dollars

a major business transformation that will last for five years. As part of this strategy, “Worten is going to continue to grow online, invest in our marketplace and reinforce our omnichannel strategy,” explains Ferreira. “Another one of our priorities is to increase our product portfolio through the marketplace business model at Worten.pt and Worten. es, along with services that continue to

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grow year after year in a clear strategy of offering our customers more and more convenience. At the same time, we are transforming the company through the digital transformation program,

Worten Portugal: Take a technological leap CLICK TO WATCH

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337 which Baringa has helped us to design.

from everyday life, to be a pleasant

In particular, Baringa has helped us in

space, and above all, to be a promoter

the discussion and conclusion of what

of collaboration, discussion and, con-

the new principles to guide us should

sequently, faster, higher quality results.

be and, mainly, in the identification and

We also created the slice and dice

guidance for the implementation of the

methodology, which divides a big prob-

first 2 key moments, or in other words,

lem into minor ones, up to the point

in the moments that have the most

of finding the actionable unit that we

impact on our customers.”

then act extremely quickly on.” Since

At the moment, Worten’s strategy

adopting this digital and agile approach

is to promote the digital culture, work-

Ferreira has seen huge benefits.

ing on the organisational aspects

“The first is that we are improving

and working methodologies of the

our customers’ experience since the

company. “We opened our digitalism

entire approach to finding the right

hub last June, to be a different space

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The second is that we are much quicker

Covid crisis. We had no setup time to

to act and deliver results with decisions

start working remotely because we’re

that are supported by data, helping us

used to collaborative tools and we could

to prioritise, act and then control imple-

launch several initiatives and services

mentation. Finally, we have created a

to adjust our offer to new market condi-

safety net for our teams so, if they fail

tions in less than three weeks.”

the “safety net” for our teams, if they

In addition to driving improved agility

fail there is no problem as they learn

within its operations, Worten is also look-

quickly from the error and try again

ing to change its operating structure.

with greater probability of success.

“It is going to be an iterative process so,

“Our efforts to kick off and promote

as we grow, we will realise what adjust-

this new mindset and way of working

ments we have to make to the model

in 2019 paid off since it is having a huge

so that more and more people are

impact on the way we reacted to the

involved, not least because we believe

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E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Felipe Ferreira

Title: Head of Digital Transformation Company: Worten Location: Portugal

it is the winning model. But we are more pragmatic than dogmatic, which means that there may be situations where this formula is not the most appropriate and there is no harm in keeping another one if that is the most effective way,” says Ferreira. Another key part of Worten’s

Felipe Ferreira is Head of Digital Transformation at Worten, a program which he has led from its inception. With more than 15 years of professional experience in the retail industry, over the last years Felipe managed the logistics operations of Sonae Specialised Retail and led many large and complex projects in the context of the Sonae Group. Felipe studied Systems and Electronics Engineering and took his MBA in 2002.

strategy is the redesign of the system architecture and the way its IT is organised and relates to the rest of the organisation. In fact, Ferreira explains that evolution at Worten “involves a lot of technology ‘entering’ the organisation and being part of the way Worten works.” w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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“We had no setup time to start working remotely because we’re used to collaborative tools and we could launch several initiatives and new services to adjust our offer to the new market conditions in less than three weeks!”

— Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten

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Currently within the organisation, Rui Cohen, Head of IT at Worten explains the company’s use of business intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology. “We strongly believe that data and analytics will become one of the most important factors for future business competitiveness and success. We envision a fully integrated and unified data platform based on an open architecture that is capable of ingesting, processing and correlating large

Digital transformation.

It’s not just about new technology or the latest in AI solutions.

It’s about completely – and strategically – rethinking your business. It means bringing a digital vision to everything you do: from transforming your operating model to deliver profitable growth, to reshaping your supply chain to meet customers’ changing needs.

At Baringa, we have helped countless businesses like Worten shape their transformation journeys, supporting them in the moments that matter, and ultimately enabling them to balance the need to deliver innovation and excellence with the cost of doing so.

Not sure where to start your digital transformation journey?

We can help.

www.baringa.com

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Rui Cohen Title: Head of Technology Company: Worten Location: Portugal

“ Undoubtedly, I believe our people are our greatest strength because, besides having great know-how, they also have a great sense of belonging to the organisation and love to overcome the challenges they face” — Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten

Rui has over 25 years of IT experience working mostly in internet, media, telco and retail industries. Back in 1995 he was one of the founders of the most successful Portuguese ISP that, in 1999, was bought by the telco branch of Sonae Group. Since then, he has been leading several IT structures within Sonae Group covering areas such as strategy, architecture design, infrastructure management, IT operations, service delivery, security and IT office. Rui graduated in computer science and information systems at the school of engineering of lisbon university (1ST) where he has also finished, in 1993, his degree in Master of Science in Computer Science and Information Systems.

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“ We are transforming the company through the digital transformation program, which Baringa has helped us to design” — Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten

volumes of structured and unstructured data sets from multiple lines of business and operational sources, both in batch and in real-time, from internal and external sources. At the core of our transformational architecture initiative seats such a platform that will help us reinforce our customer centric and omnichannel strategy and reimagine the whole store experience,” comments Cohen. “Another IT principle at the core of our transformation is to adopt a cloudfirst approach, meaning that wherever possible and economically reasonable

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we will adopt cloud and SaaS solutions

culture and systems. “Undoubtedly,

to enhance speed, agility and innova-

I believe our people are our greatest

tion. In addition to these core principles,

strength because, besides having

Worten is also trailing the use of AI,

great know-how, they also have a great

machine learning, natural language

sense of belonging to the organisation

processing and IoT and we will ensure

and love to overcome the challenges

we deploy them in an ethical and trust-

they face. That has helped us to build

worthy way,” adds Cohen.

a brand of trust that has been recog-

Reflecting on his time at the com-

nised by our customers for over 20

pany so far, Ferreira has seen Worten

years, and that will be the pillar of our

make rapid changes in three key areas:

transformation to assure the next 20.”

increased product and services offerings, increased focus on customer experience and transforming its w w w.te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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